Gaming off the Beaten Path

  Quick, what's the first brand you would associate with a video game? Would it be a major media franchise? There are tons of those, name a media franchise and it's had a video game made about it. Would it be a food company? That's been pretty common since the early days of gaming. A consumer goods company? Depending on the game, it could make sense. Maybe a sports league or wrestling promotion? Hell, that may be the most common situation you see, there's a new NFL, NBA, NHL and WWE game every year.  At this point, many video game franchises have become brands themselves. Mario, Sonic, Resident Evil, Street Fighter, and a host of others are essentially brands of their own at this point. Look, video games are, were and always have been great opportunities for branding, at least when the branding makes sense. But sometimes, you still find games featuring brands that shock you. If you asked me "which brands do you think would best lend themselves to video games?"...

  After a few years of doing this, I've come to realize that what constitutes "off the beaten path" is entirely subjective. There are certainly video game series' that are part of more general popular culture. I would venture a guess that most people out there have heard of Mario or Sonic, even if they've never picked up a controller in their lives. But by the same token, I'm sure there's also someone out there that's like "Shadow Madness? That's not obscure! You don't know what obscure is until you've played Kaiju No Riho: Gaijin Densetsu Gaiden: Don't Panic! without an English translation patch!" I know I've certainly played my share of games that aren't all that obscure. But some of them are really out there for me. I grew up without a Sega console, so stuff like Phantasy Star and Shining Force were completely foreign to me. And that's true of all of us. Ask an American gamer what their favorite ZX Spectrum ga...

  I swore I would never, ever play any of these Lego games, but here I am about to review my second one. The things we do for our children. I have to say, the formula leads to a lot more fun than I ever thought it would. They aren't the most varied or challenging but considering the target audience that should kind of be expected. Big budget titles certainly have their downsides, but you know with something built by a huge team at a huge developer that you are going to get some level of polish on the technical side. But you can also kind of expect all of the umphteen titles that will inevitably come out in a series to sort of run together, even if they feature different IPs. A lot of different universes have received the Lego treatment over the years. Indiana Jones was the first one I played, but now it's time to leave the Temple of Doom Behind and travel to the mean streets of Gotham City. In terms of lore, I'm going in a little less blind than I was last time. I am certa...

  As someone who plays old games almost exclusively, I'm constantly reminded of how big the jump between console generations could be. Look at a PS4 game vs. a PS5 title, or an XBox One game vs. a Series S game and it can be hard to tell they are even from different generations. Sure, if you look more closely you can see the newer consoles are superior, but the differences don't always jump off the screen at you. But compare a PS1 game to a PS2 game, or an NES game to an SNES title and you will know the difference immediately. This was a major part of Sega's marketing strategy in the late 80's and early 90's, when the 16-bit Genesis was still competing directly with the 8-bit NES. Sure, the NES may have boasted a much larger library of games featuring some classic titles, but it was much easier to point to a simple screenshot of a Genesis game and say "look." Sure, it was a lot easier to do with some games than others. I've reviewed some earlier Genesi...

  Looks like we have yet another video game adaptation, this time from streaming giant Netflix. And this one at least started off promising. I'm not really a big TV person and I had already heard some pretty bad things about the new Resident Evil series. But when I saw that home screen thumbnail with the licker, I had to at least give it a shot. Even though I haven't really discussed it that much here, RE is one of my favorite gaming series of all time. I have three of them on my 10's list, tied for the most with Final Fantasy. Really, I just haven't gotten around to playing any of them yet, it totally has nothing to do with the fact that I largely play games alone, at night in the dark and I'm a huge wimp. Nothing at all. Anyway, I was excited to see what RE would bring to the streaming world and I'm glad I gave this show a shot...so I could let you all know it's probably not worth your time. Let's start with the story. You all know the story of Residen...

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...

I have always found strategy RPGs to be among the most interesting subgenres in gaming. In some respects, they feel very different from their more traditional Japanese or Western counterparts in terms of presentation, pacing and structure. On the other, they offer similar party structures and require the same kinds of resource and character management the genre is known for. A lot of people love them, a lot of people don't but I've always been a fan, espec II ially of SRPGs from the 5th generation. The genre was relatively popular at that point, as developers attempted to ride the wave of what most of us consider to be its most commercially successful, mainstream title: Final Fantasy Tactics. There were SRPGs before Tactics (I've already reviewed Shining Force I and II ) and there have been SRPGs since, but FFT went a long way in bringing the genre to the mainstream. And why wouldn't it have? It was a great game in a highly visible series that offered something that wa...