Gaming off the Beaten Path

  Video game consoles, like any product, fail for a number of reasons. Remember, things weren't always like they are now, where it's all but guaranteed you are going to get a new PlayStation, XBox or whatever random name Nintendo decides on every 8 to ten years. Gaming history has seen a lot of different players attempt to enter the console market, some successfully and others not so much. This wasn't just a long time ago either, I would say this kind of continued up until the 7th generation (and it still does occasionally happen even today). It was probably most prevalent in the really early days, there are tons and tons of pong consoles out there from manufacturers you would never imagine making video games. It was definitely still true in the 90's when a lot of players were still looking for a piece of the gaming pie. Nintendo and Sega were in the middle of a full-on console war, but they weren't alone. NEC and Hudson were still plugging away with the Turbografx,...

  Last week, we looked at Yakuza: Like a Dragon, a refreshing modern take on a JRPG based on a series more known for third person action. The story and presentation, while not perfect and often long winded, was outstanding. It was backed up by an all time great cast of characters and some of the best voice acting around. But how did the gameplay fare? Much like last week, we have the best and worst of both modern and old school gaming on display. RPG veterans will feel right at home with the combat system, which is a callback to the old-fashioned turn based battles they are used to. That coupled with the polish typical of modern games makes the combat incredibly fun, if a little repetitive. Encounters are all touch based, any potential enemies will have red arrows over their head and a field of vision cone on the map. Cross this field of vision and stay there too long an it will trigger an encounter. Battles are fought in an incredibly traditional turn-based style, where characters...

  Sometimes, I wish I had more time to play video games. You know what? That's not a sometimes, it's an always kind of thing. I actually do play the games I review and unless something is just straight up terrible, I try to play it to completion. Trust me, I'd like to play more RPGs but I can't bang out a 40 hour game in a week. Usually, I feel like I have sufficient time to get at least an everyday gamer's level of understanding of a game. That's kind of all I need, it's sort of in line with my gimmick. But sometimes I come across something I wish I could put more time into, or at least feel like I should put more time into. I have heard since the 90's just how great Virtua Fighter 2 is, that it's incredibly easy to learn but incredibly difficult to master. I don't know how true it is, but I remember hearing stories of Japanese players lining up and waiting for hours to receive lessons from pro VF2 players back in the 90's. It's not hard...

In a lot of ways, it always seemed like Sega was always chasing the magic that Nintendo was so frequently able to capture. A lot of developers, publishers and general gaming related companies have gotten themselves into trouble with the "because Nintendo did it" mentality. The offending parties quickly learn that just copying the big N isn't enough, if you aren't taking the same care with the games you are building. That usually wasn't a problem with Sega. Sure, they copied their rivals more than I think they should have, but they usually did a pretty good job of doing so. It almost seems like they've gotten better at it than they were when the two companies were actually competing. Even still, it's a little frustrating to see them do it at all, unlike some of the other inferior game companies out there Sega didn't need to try to match their competition move for move. But hey, if you are going to do it, at least do it well. Sega has tried to give Sonic...

  You know, I'm glad they included "racing" in the title. It's kind of a subtitle on the case and disc, so when I saw just "Mag Force" I thought I was about to play some sort of shooting game. But instead we have a racing game, a futuristic racer originally published in 1999 by Crave. For those that may not remember, Crave was also the publisher responsible for the first game I reviewed on GOTBP, Shadow Madness. But we can't really use that for comparison, a traditional RPG and a futuristic racing game are about as far apart as two games can be. In doing some research, the most similar game I found was something called Killer Loop, it's also a futuristic racer, also published by Crave and also released in 1999. It's almost like it's the same game. Wait a minute...it's not almost the same game. It IS the same game. For whatever reason, they decided to change the name for the Dreamcast version of the game. It's Killer Loop on the PS1 a...

Lets talk about failure. At some point, everyone is going to fail at something. Aint none of us perfect, right?  However, not all failure is created equal. Sometimes people fail because they don't work hard enough, or they don't think things through or they are working with an idea that's doomed from the start. But that isn't always the case. Sometimes failure comes from pushing too hard, being too visionary or trying to make something from nothing. I'm not sure if any entity in video game history failed more in the latter manners than Sega. Yes, there's a reason Sega doesn't make consoles anymore. But its because they pushed the boundaries too far, not because they didn't do enough. The Saturn and Dreamcast were absolute beasts of consoles, but they were expensive and allegedly difficult to develop for. Remember Sega Channel? That was the PlayStation Store before the PlayStation Store was a thought in Sony's mind. Sega was pumping digital only gamin...

The late 80's/early 90's were a very, very interesting period in gaming history. I've briefly touched on this before, but the medium was very much evolving and found itself at a crossroads at this time. Better technology, better graphics and better storage led to more unique and ambitious games. The days of almost all games consisting of "shoot stuff, get points" were drawing to a close and developers were starting to try new and unique things with console games. A lot of this stuff, like deep storytelling and more adventure oriented gameplay, was more common on PCs, but for home consoles it was new ground. It's through this lens that we look at Fatal Labyrinth, released for the Genesis in late 1990 in Japan before making its way to the west in early 1991. It features elements of a lot of different genres, but would generally be classified as an RPG. But if it came out today, it would almost certainly be classified as a "roguelike." That term wasn...

It's time to roast a sacred cow.   When I started GOTBP a year and a half ago, I was thinking a lot about how video games have come to be perceived over time.  I find that unlike most media, there is a very concrete consensus on which games are good and which are bad.  This is compounded by the fact that there is little room for any dissension from that consensus.  Want to really aggravate a group of gaming nerds?  Easy. "Chrono Trigger sucks!"  There.  Now I'm the most hated person on the internet. Just for the record, Chrono Trigger most certainly does not suck.  It's awesome.  And so are a lot of titles that gamers must dogmatically worship if they want to be included in the club.  I think Super Mario World is as great as the next person, ditto Mega Man X, The Legend of Zelda, Final Fantasy whatever number, etc.  However, I've made it clear that I have no problem breaking from that groupthink.  I have taken potshots at ...

Titles are hard. I've always hated naming things I write, whether it was headlines for news articles or titles for meeting notes at work.  I'm not going to say I'm bad at it, but I find it very frustrating.  It's one of those things that people don't realize is a major ask of creatives/copywriters/etc. With that in mind, it won't come as a surprise that I am going to give Sega a pass for giving this week's entry a confusing name.  It could just be me, but the first thing I thought of when I heard the title "Gain Ground" was a football game.  That was about as far off as I could have gotten.  Released in arcades in 1988, Gain Ground was intended as Sega's answer to Gauntlet.  While the aesthetic may be similar, I don't think they got particularly close to aping Nintendo's popular fantasy game.  They did, however, create a unique and interesting blend of top down action and single screen puzzle games.  Think Bomberman meets Smash TV. ...