Gaming off the Beaten Path

  Let's talk a little bit about launch titles. It kind of feels like launch titles have been de-emphasized in recent years. In this era of streaming subscription services, digital downloads and backwards compatibility, having a strong list of games available at launch just isn't as critical as it used to be. Because back in the day, launch lineups were incredibly important. Any time a new console was announced, people would immediately start speculating on what would be available at launch. Remember, you couldn't just go download a digital copy of whatever you wanted. You also didn't know when the next round of games was going to come out unless you subscribed to a gaming mag. Because of this, a system's launch titles were very important and often used as a selling point. However, these titles also always seemed to have a certain feel to them. Most launch lineups included one game from a major franchise, a bunch of second-rate titles in whatever genre was popular at...

  As I come to the end of year 4 of GOTBP, I've come to realize that some genres are less conducive to innovation than others. I feel like RPGs, first person shooters and 3D platformers are all genres where innovation is relatively common. Whenever I write about those kinds of games, I always feel like I have a lot to say about each individual game. Other genres, however, just don't seem to have as much innovation from title to title. Whether that's due to lack of opportunity or lack of desire, it just seems to be the case. Of all the genres I've played, it feels like beat 'em ups are always lacking in innovation. I will admit some bias, as it isn't my favorite genre, but I think even fans would admit that a lot of these games start to feel very same-y after a while. However, this can have advantages as well. Sometimes, small innovations in these genres can make games stand out in a big way, which was sort of the case with this week's entry. Released for the...

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. ...