The Games of Summer: 2016 Edition

You may have noticed that I haven't posted in a while.  It's for the usual reasons related to this time of year: Christmas, school holidays, and the family commitments that stem therefrom.  Still, even though I haven't been writing, I've found a decent amount of time for playing games, and a bunch of new games to play.  I don't have a lot of love for Christmas, but it does have the benefit of providing me with new games in the form of gifts.  Those gifts are mostly for my son, of course, but I plays 'em all the same.

The major addition to our household this year was a WiiU.  I'd been reluctant to fork out for one, because it didn't seem that much better than the Wii.  My son wanted one, though, and once we got it I was pleasantly surprised.  Not by the system's capabilities: it really isn't that much better than the Wii.  I think my favourite thing about it is the controller, which has a touch screen embedded in it, and can be used to play games independent of the TV.  It's pretty great to be able to pick up the controller and play Mario Kart 8 while my wife is watching 'Heartland' or some other such drivel.

We got three games with the system: Mario Kart 8, Splatoon and Skylanders.  To be honest, we haven't even tried Skylanders yet; my son isn't interested in it, and I haven't been moved to try it out either.  Mostly I've been playing Mario Kart 8.  I spent much of my teenage years playing Mario Kart on the SNES obsessively: it's still my favourite multiplayer game of all time.  None of the sequels have ever matched up to the original, and to be honest I don't enjoy this one as much either.  The fault lies more with me than the game itself: I'll be holding the SNES Mario Kart up as the pinnacle of the franchise until the day I die, regardless of any evidence to the contrary.  Mario Kart 8 is reliably fun, even if it's a little too easy at the outset.  It's getting more difficult and more fun as I progress through the different engine classes, so I figure I'll be at it for at least another few weeks.

I haven't played a great deal of Splatoon, but it has the same addictive quality that I find in a lot of mobile phone games: quick games with constant rewards.  It's a third-person shooter from Nintendo, so it's predictably non-violent: the goal is to help your team splatter the environment with more paint than the enemy.  My major gripe about it is that it's trying a little too hard to be cool.  It has a touch of the Poochies about it.  The gameplay is fun though, and it's easy to get sucked into "just one more game".

I also went and bout some X-Box 360 games now that some have been made compatible for X-Box One.  I think I chose a very solid selection: Bioshock, Mass Effect, Fallout 3 and Assassin's Creed 2.  The trouble here is going to be overcoming my natural aversion to playing game out of order.  How can I possibly play Fallout 3 without finishing the first two?  It's a sickness I have.

So far I've only played a bit of Mass Effect and Fallout 3.  Mostly this is due to the absurd times it takes to download the game the first time you load the disc.  Seriously, I have to wait four hours before I can play a game?  What the fuck is even on the disc?  If someone could come out with a current-generation console with no internet connectivity, no need for profiles, and games that load instantly, I'd be on that in a second.

I can't say I'm particularly sold on Mass Effect yet.  The conversations at the beginning weren't all that interesting, and I had a hard time coming to grips with the gameplay.  I've never played a game in which I have to control the camera as well as my character, so for me it was tricky.  I guess from what I'd heard about the series I was expecting more role-playing/adventure elements and less shooting/action.  I'll probably enjoy it more once I've mastered the controls.

Fallout 3 grabbed me straight away, though.  It has a quirky, morbid sense of humour, and I loved playing through character creation.  Come on, it let me play as a baby!  I only made it up to my character's terrible birthday party, but I'll be coming back to this before too long.

That's it for new games (or new-ish games, I should say).  I also played plenty of The Game of Dungeons, which I'll be writing about in my next post, and I've started on Pirate Adventure.  At the very least I'd like the blog to be out of the 1970s by the end of the year.

My Top Ten Games

I don't have an update on Orthanc this week.  In addition to NaNoWriMo, I've developed an unhealthy obsession with the Legend of Zelda series.  Playing Orthanc has taken a back seat to all of that, and I haven't made a lot of progress since my last post.  I've mapped out the remainder of level two, and lost a few characters along the way, but it hardly merits a full post.

So instead of that, I'm going to break out the hoariest of chestnuts that a gaming blogger can break out: a list of my top ten games.  It might not be the most original thing, but I actually think it's beneficial to what I'm doing here.  If I'm going to give my opinions about a bunch of RPGs and adventure games and expect anyone to listen, it probably helps to lay out my all-time favourites so you can get a grip on my tastes.

So here goes, in no particular order.

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past

I could very easily have chosen Ocarina of Time, but I had to give the edge to the SNES classic.  I just finished playing through it again for the umpteenth time, and even though I know it back-to-front it still reeled me in.  This is the Zelda franchise at its best, with the perfect balance between non-linear exploration and plot progression.  It's not as obscure as the earlier games, and it doesn't railroad like the later games can.  It just has one great big world to dive into, with more areas opening up as you progress and gain new items.  It's a masterpiece, as close to flawless as a game can get.

Ultima V: Warriors of Destiny

There had to be an Ultima on this list, and I went with this one over Ultima IV.  It was a close call, but I'm trying not to let one series dominate the list.  As much as I loved Ultima IV, I don't think a game has ever sucked me in as hard as Warriors of Destiny.  I was physically shaking with anger at certain parts of this game, and I don't think I've ever wanted to kill a video game antagonist as much as Lord Blackthorn.  It's another game with a large, open world to explore, and that always wins points with me.  One of the best RPGs ever made.

Super Metroid

I fell in love with this game as soon as I loaded it into my SNES and that menacing, eerie music crept in.  Super Metroid just oozes atmosphere, and once again it has a large world to explore that opens up as you gain new items and abilities.  I spent countless hours combing this game for secrets, bombing walls and floors, and scanning everywhere.  I had to find everything, and eventually I did.  Man, just writing about this game makes me want to go back to it.  It's been a long time.

Pool of Radiance

There was inevitably going to be a Gold Box game on here, and despite its flaws I went with the original.  You might be noticing a pattern here, but it's the non-linearity of it that swayed me.  At first there are only a few areas to explore, but eventually the whole of the city of Phlan is open to you, and there's nothing stopping you from trying your luck in Valhingen Graveyard, or any other place too deadly for your party.  This is the best implementation of D&D yet done as a PC game, especially when it comes to the combat engine: they got it right the first time, and it's never been bettered.

Bard's Tale 3: The Thief of Fate

It could have been Bard's Tale I, but it took me while to warm up to that game's steep difficulty.  It was the third installment in the series that first grabbed my attention, as possibly the very first RPG I was utterly obsessed with.  Most of my high school years were spent playing this game, with coke and chips on one side and pen and graph paper on the other.  I still have those maps, and to this day I never quite feel right when I'm not mapping an RPG myself.  I never got all that far as a kid, but I roamed around those dungeons killing monsters for hours, making maps and amassing XP.  I eventually finished it, some 20 years later, and it was a hell of a satisfying experience.

Wonder Boy 3: The Dragon's Trap

The best reason to own a Sega Master System.  Wonder Boy 3 was a break from its platforming predecessors, presenting (let's say it again) an open world ripe for exploration.  You start the game being cursed into the form of a dragon, and must cycle through a number of forms during your quest before becoming a boy again.  It's a cracking good game that doesn't get enough love.

Mario Kart

The SNES original.  It's my favourite racing game of all time, and my favourite multi-player game of all time.  It still holds up, and Nintendo have yet to outdo it.

Quest for Glory

I had to include a Sierra game, and I agonised over the choice.  It could have been a King's Quest, or a Space Quest, but...  I went with Quest for Glory.  Or, to be more accurate, Hero's Quest, as I'm writing about the EGA original and not the VGA remake.  It's just a perfect adventure game.  The humour works, the puzzles are pitched at the right difficulty, and the skill system is integrated really well, providing a number of solutions to every problem.

Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss

I'm kind of breaking my own rule here by including another Ultima, but this game is just too good.  If I'm being honest, the sequel is better, but there's something about the first one I just like more.  It gets points for innovation, being one of the earliest 1st-person 3D games (it beat Wolfenstein 3D by a few weeks, I believe, and with a much more advanced engine).  I love the dungeon setting, and the ability to interact with the environment.  I especially love the beginning, where you are thrown into the Abyss with nothing, forced to scrounge for weapons and food before being killed, or starving to death. So good.

The Last Ninja

I was an 80s kid, and the 80s there was one thing cooler than anything else: ninjas.  The Last Ninja was the best ninja-based computer game out there.  The soundtrack was killer.  Fighting past samurai, jumping from stone to stone over raging rivers, running from giant spiders in the prison, running past the samurai so that they commit seppuku...  The Last Ninja was rad!