Homage Review - Twin Tiger Shark

Twin Tiger Shark? Was that an arcade game? Why does that name sound familiar?

Perhaps because this World War I-themed vertical scrolling shmup, the latest by indie developers Wide Pixel Games, is inspired by a number of Toaplan's shmups from the late 80s and early 90s. To name just a few, this is a homage to games like TWIN Hawk, TIGER Heli and Flying SHARK. I discussed a number of these games in my A Brief History of  World War II shoot 'em ups article a few years ago and they form an important part of the history of arcade gaming.

However, Wide Pixel's game goes beyond being a mere homage, if anything, this is a clone, almost a bare-faced rip off (in much the same way Locomalito's brilliant Hydorah ripped off Gradius). But do not let that stop you checking this one out, because unlike the dozens of Flappy Bird clones that flooded the iOS and Android markets after the original was yanked, Twin Tiger Shark is a quality product from top to bottom.

While I enjoyed the Twin Hawk/Cobra and Tiger Heli games, I was never a massive fan of the Shark games. They were okay, but they were not the best Toaplan had to offer, nor did they live up to their nearest rivals, Capcom's 194x series. Thankfully, while Twin Tiger Shark looks like Flying Shark, it plays more like Toaplan's other shmups. It features all the key ingredients: three weapon modes, bombs, a squadron of helpers (a la Twin Hawk), a play field that scrolls partially left and right, even medals (in the form of stars) to collect after destroying enemies. The enemies themselves are generic World War-themed bi-planes and tanks, but what stands out are the game's great enemy patterns and tight controls. Despite being hard, it rarely feels unfair, because of those last two ingredients. Mistakes are yours, not because the game is cheap and that only encourages you to keep trying.

All told there are 6 stages, but in true hardcore style, it's very difficult (even in the so called "Easy" mode) and there are no continues, so you have to get good if you want to finish the game. This is something I have not done yet, but that's often the way with these games and its not going to stop them being fun. There is some innovation here too. When you upload a high score it displays a QR code for you to scan with your phone or tablet, which will take you to the web page for the world wide leader boards. It's a nice way of overcoming the lack of built-in leader boards for XBLIG games.

So should you bother with Twin Tiger Shark? Absolutely and not just because it's only around 69p. I have not done a game review since the Xbox 360 port of Akai Katana, almost 2 years ago, but I had to let people know this one is out there waiting to be played. Anybody who knows their stuff will see the connection here (least of all the setting), so it says something that I feel compelled to write about this blatant copy cat. I'll be honest, I actually think this could be a better game than many of Toaplan's shmups from the 80s and 90s. It looks a lot older and it has an old school mentality but there is a quality here, a smoothness and precision, that only modern games offer. It is as tight and rewarding as some of the best shoot 'em ups around and is probably the best indie shmup I've played since Final Form's superb Jamestown. The only serious criticism I have is the lack of co-op play, everything else is great.

Oh, and if you're one of those crazy people who bought an Ouya, you can also get it on that.

Plays like

• Twin Hawk
• Tiger Heli
• Flying Shark
• Anything else by Toaplan

Highs

• Tight controls let you weave through the well structured enemy patterns with skill -- if you have it
• Authentic 8-bit arcade experience. The music is particularly brilliant.
• Arguably a better playing game than some of the games that inspired it
• Innovative use of QR codes for high scores
• Costs less than a Mars Bar.

Lows

• Not for the faint-hearted
• Despite the name, this is not a two player game. 

Twin Tiger Shark is out on XBLIG and Ouya priced £0.69.

Classic of the Month - Aztarac

Manufacturer:	Centuri
Developer:	Centuri
Genre:	Shoot 'em up (multi-directional)
Year:	1983

Early arcade machines had some great made-up words for titles. Galaxian, Gradius, Xevious, Darius, Gyruss, Gravitar, Amidar, Varth, Gryzor, Vulgus, Bosconian, the list goes on. In fact there are so many to choose from that a few years ago I started using them for the names of my characters in RPGs. A case in point is Blizzard's sublime dungeon crawler, Diablo III, in which I called my wizard Aztarac. But what is Aztarac? You'd be forgiven for not knowing, because this month's classic is very rare and its story is tinged with tragedy.

The game itself is very similar to other multi-directional shoot 'em ups of the era, such as Time Pilot, Sinistar and the aforementioned Bosconian, but with a control scheme more in common with Robotron. The objective was not only to destroy all of the enemies, but also defend a series of star bases (represented by 4 diamonds in the centre of the play field). If all four bases get destroyed, it's game over. You (appear) to have an unlimited number of lives in which to do this, which is unusual for a game of this period. Along with your turreted star fighter, you can also do a radar sweep of the area to find the next swarm of enemies. The risk in this is that the radar scan covers the screen while ever you have button 2 held down. So when the scan reveals the next swarm is already on top of your base, it's hard not to panic. The radar must have looked brilliant on the original arcade cabinet, as the bezel had a circular, convex area in the middle, just like a radar scope.

The game's visuals are provided by simple, but elegant colour vector graphics. The control scheme is another pistol-grip joystick and dial combo, which means it does not translate well to modern controls when emulated. And if you want to play it, emulation is the only way to go. I know I normally admonish emulation as nothing but an excuse for piracy, but according to www.centuri.net only 500 Aztarac cabinets were ever made. This is no doubt part of the reason why Dennis Bartlett of Iowa, USA, has held the official high score of 142,390 since the 11th February 1984 -- less than a year after the game was launched and 30 years ago this month (hence it being our classic this month).

Sadly, the game's creator, Tim Stryker, committed suicide 18 years ago. To quote Centuri's website:

"On the night of Aug. 6, Tim Stryker, 41, pulled off a remote road in the Blue Mountains in northwest Colorado, stepped out of his car, put a shotgun to his head and pulled the trigger."

Apparently nobody knows why Stryker did this. Altogether, a sad tale for what is still a genuinely fun and strategic shoot 'em up to play. Let's check a video of it in action.

MTW

Classic of the Month - Moon Cresta

Manufacturer:	Nichibutsu, Sega/Gremlin and Taito
Developer:	Nichibutsu
Genre:	Shoot 'em up
Year:	1980

When people think about early shoot 'em ups, games like Space Invaders, Galaxians and Galaga naturally come to mind, but there were lots and lots of others out there that were just as good, if not even a little bit better than [some of] those seminal games. For my money, Moon Cresta is one such game. If you haven't played it, at first glance you could be forgiven for thinking it's a Galaga knock off, with its looping formations of alien space ships and ability to team up your fighters for increased fire power, but it actually precedes Namco's classic by a year (or there abouts).

The game begins with a big, Flash Gordon-esque rocket emerging from the bottom of the screen. The tip of which detaches and is revealed to be your fighter - the rest of the ship returns to the bottom of the screen. For the first few rounds the player is faced by what appears to be just four aliens, but on shooting any one of them you discover they split in half and continue to dive bomb you. And tricky buggers they are too, looping and diving in very erratic patterns. The next couple of rounds are your typical looping swarms and everything appears to be quite mundane. However, clearing these two rounds leads to the bonus round, where you get the opportunity to dock with the middle section (or stage as the game calls it) of the big ship from the beginning. Succeed and for the next couple of rounds you have a three-way shot. As you'd expect, things get tougher to meet your new found fire power. If that wasn't enough, the next round throws fast and vast asteroids at you, which come careering down the screen at sharp angles. It's possible to survive this round just by avoiding the space rocks, but what self-respecting arcade gamer would do that when there are points to be earned for risking death to destroy them? After the asteroids is another ship-docking bonus round, with the third stage of the big ship now becoming available. Dock successfully and you have a third-tier monster capable of firing 5 missiles. Sounds great, but in truth you're now a considerably bigger target for the kamikaze aliens.

Dying in Moon Cresta has some interesting effects. Firstly, the three stages of the space ship are also your lives, so blow up the first stage and you are given the duel missile second stage to use, and so on. When you've grouped up two or more stages, when you are shot any one of the three stages can be destroyed, so it's possible to end up with just the bottom two stages or even the the top and bottom stages. All of which somehow made dying more interesting that just being given an extra life.

Another slightly unusual thing about this game is that there were variations produced by Nichibutsu, Taito Sega and Gremlin, each with slightly different rules sets and attack formations. These, according to Wikipedia, were the differences:

Taito Moon Cresta

• Wave 1+2 Eyes hover until several are shot.
• Birds 5+6 Birds are never invisble.
• Wave 9+10 Arrow Ships start with 1 flying downwards on first round and increase by 1 each round i.e. second time round there are 2 etc. until all 10 fly down at once.
• Aliens slow down in waves 1-4 if player killed.
• Free game at 30000.
• Arrow Ships fly faster at end of wave 4 plus from then on last alien flies faster i.e. round 5.
• Similar to Taito is Fantazia with different Sprite colours.

Sega/Gremlin Moon Cresta

• Wave 1+2 Eyes do not hover.
• Aliens speed up on 3rd round.
• 2 Arrow Ships drop on first round.
• No invisible Birds.
• Aliens do not slow down in waves 1-4 if player killed.
• Free game 30000.

Centuri Eagle Moon Cresta Clone

Different sprites used throughout but essentially the same as Taito version except aliens speed up on 6th round.

Nichibutsu Moon Cresta

• As Gremlin plus: Last Eye on waves 1-4 moves differently
• Last Bird is invisible Wave 9+10 Arrow Ships start with 3 flying downwards on first round and increase by 1 each round i.e. second time round there are 4 etc. until all 10 fly down at once.
• Arrow Ships fly faster at end of wave 3 plus from then on last alien flies faster i.e. round 4.

Super Moon Cresta

Same as Taito revision only aliens fire 1 bullet with increasing speed each wave plus player ships shoot faster.

The game got a sequel called Terra Cresta, which played more like Xevious and incorporated the original's stage docking as mid-level power ups. The video below from MamePlayer is of the Nichibutsu version and shows the first cycle of levels.

MTW

MMXIV

Happy New Year, arcade fans. This is a pre-programmed post, as it's my daughter's birthday today. Happy birthay, Chick Pea!

2013 was a great year for this blog. My Twitter follower count shot up, thanks to some careful use of hash tags, my Worth a Look feature allowed me to talk about lots of modern games with retro vibes and I managed to tell you all about 120 of my favourite arcade games, thanks to my Top 10 feature.

So what have I got planned for 2014? Not much, I'm afraid to say. This year is shaping up to be crazy at work, plus I'm in the middle of a major personal project which sadly has to take precedence over blogging about old arcade games. I will still be putting up posts, just nothing routine (not even Classics of the Month, although I my do one for the road). But the great thing about writing a retro blog is I rarely have to worry about specific dates and deadlines.

So I hope you all have a great year and if you got an Xbox One or a PS4 for Christmas, take a moment to find something retro to play and don't forget how important those early games still are today.

Bye for now

MTW

Top 10 licenced games

It's nearly Christmas, the decorations have been adorning shops since Halloween, the cheesy songs are playing on the radio and everywhere you look there are adverts for toys, gadgets, chocolates, booze, food, DVDs, books, games, you name it. With this in mind, I thought I'd end my run of top 10s genres with licensed games.

Video games have been part of the merchandise for TV shows, movies and toys for a long, long time. These days the term "licensed game" is generally regarded with derision, but once upon a time that wasn't always the case and there were plenty of classic arcade games that were also nothing more than merchandise for something else. Sticking to my rule of one game per franchise (sorry, Marvel), here is my top 10:

Star Wars

Let's start the show with a show stopper! Released in 1980 (the same year as the best Star Wars movie of all), this vector graphics X-Wing simulator set the tone for decades of Star Wars games to come. Despite the psychedelically-coloured graphics, the cabinet, the yoke controls and a samples from the movie meant this was as evocative as any games based on the classic franchise could hope to be. It's probably one of the most highly regarded arcade games of all time, let alone licensed ones.

RoboCop 2

Movie trailers are such delicious teases. I remember when the trailers for RoboCop 2 came out and thinking the antagonist robot, Kane, looked awesome. I can remember recording Film '90 just so I could replay the snippets of RoboCop battling Kane. My 15 year-old self was dizzy with excitement to see the film and sadly I had to wait for several years.

Data East had made an arcade game for the first RoboCop film, but where as that film was superior to its sequel, the sequel to the game was much better. From the gorgeous, sharp graphics to the novel little set pieces (such as forcing the truck back against a wall to crush it, as pictured above), this game let the player re-enact loads of key elements of RoboCop. At times, as a video game character he felt a little stiff, but the ability to shoot in a different direction to the one you were moving in (there was a button to shoot left and one to shoot right) did compensate for his rigidity some what.

WWF Super Stars

"I am a real American, doo doo doo dar dum dee doo dar." Sorry, where was I, oh yeah, WWF Super Stars hit the arcades at the same time as I first discovered "American wrestling". Although this game had a limited roster it did at least feature venerable favourites of the era Hulk Hogan, Randy "Macho Man" Savage, "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan, Ultimate Warrior and Big Boss Man (a favourite of mine at the time) among others. The game features lots of hallmark moves and the context-sensitive controls mean that with just two buttons and a joystick, each wrestler has a pretty good repertoire. The controls were a bit woolly to be honest, but this was as much a game of atmosphere as anything else and it captured the over-the-top action of 80s wrestling brilliantly. And given I only got to see wrestling when I went to a friend's house who had satellite TV, this game formed a major part of my childhood wrestling fanaticism.

Aliens

Man alive were there some great movies in the 80s and one of the best was James Cameron's Aliens. There were a number of arcade games made out of the franchise, but this (as far as I know) was the first. You take control of Ripley (with player 2 controlling who I can only assume was Hicks) as they try to rescue Newt from the alien infestation on LV426. There are one or two suspect aliens in this game, which I don't believe ever appeared in any of the movies, including weird bat creatures and mutants, but it's still a blast.

Dungeons & Dragons: Shadow Over Mystara

Capcom made a shed load of side scrolling beat 'em ups in the 90s, though few managed to better their classic Final Fight. However, this D&D brawler's use of simple RPG mechanics, including an inventory (something that was very rare in arcade games), makes it stand out from the pack. Of course it has all the staples of the genre: elves, dwarves, wizards, rangers, paladins, you name it. And all wrapped in a lovely bit of hack 'n' slash action. This game is now available of XBLA and PSN as part of a double-pack with its predecessor, Tower of Doom, both of which are great.

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

Talking of classic 80s movies, the original Indiana Jones trilogy might be my favourite 80s trilogy; there isn't a dud in the pack. Many people say Temple of Doom was a let down, but the film's cheesy morbidity delighted me as a kid ("Ahh, chilled monkey brains!") and the mine cart chase was superb. As with some other movies in this list, I played the game long before seeing the film. The Temple of Doom game was in the arcade at the Old Hall, so I played it a LOT. There's not a lot to the game and if you aren't bothered about high scores you can always play it in easy mode and get a feel for the whole thing in just a few minutes, but in that short time you do get to play through many of the movies most memorable sequences, including the mine cart chase and the fight over the lava pit.

The Simpsons

There is a pattern to this list of games. WWF, Simpsons, D&D, Indiana Jones and Tron (see below) are all franchises I knew about because of the games as much (or something rather than) the source material. I didn't get to watch Simpson's until the late 90s, when my parents finally got cable TV, but because of this game I knew precisely who Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie were. The game itself was a madcap brawler, with each member of the family sporting their own special (and canonically accurate) moves. Marge's use of a vacuum cleaner could be seen as sexist, but it was funny to see one used (quite literally) in anger.

X-Men: Children of Atom

Here we are again, Capcom churning out loads of versions of basically the same game. Over the years they've made loads of Marvel-themed fighting games, primarily ones incorporating either Street Fighter characters or other Capcom characters. However, I prefer the purity of this super hero-only instalment, even if the roster of fighters is much reduced from the other games.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

What boy in the late-80s and early 90s didn't love the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (or Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles, as they were known here in the UK)? I never read the comic, but I watched the cartoon and loved it. However, it was decidedly lacking in actual ninja action, with the turtles usually dispatching Shredder's foot soldiers with a bowl of spaghetti or a rubbish bin. So when the game let you wield each turtle's signature weapon (katana, bo staff, sai and nunchuks), what fan wouldn't lap it up?

Tron

This is an important game for me, because although I had played video games before it was this game, above all others, that made me fall in love with arcade gaming. It was so futuristic, with its neon paint and glowing pistol-grip joystick. In an arcade with a black light (which in my opinion is an essential piece of equipment for any arcade) this cabinet was stunning to behold.

It's 30 years since I first played this game and sadly its bespoke controls do not map to modern controllers very well at all. Whether it's on MAME or on XBLA, there is no good version to play, other than the original. As much as I love Street Fighter, if I had to have just one arcade machine, it would be Tron cabinet.

And that's it, all of the top 10 games by genre. I probably won't publish anything else this side of Christmas, so until next time, Merry Christ and a Happy New Year.

MTW

Classic of the Month - Warlords

Manufacturer:	Atari
Developer:	Atari
Genre:	Puzzle
Year:	1980

Atari's Pong inspired lots of clones and spin offs, most notably Atari's own Breakout, which went on to become almost a genre in its own right. One of Atari's other variations on the same basic concept was Warlords. The game combined Breakout's block breaking with the four-player action of the rare 4-player Pong follow up Quadrapong and dressed it all up in a medieval theme. The idea is simple, you take control of a shield and have to protect your castle walls (I'll avoid saying rampart for obvious reasons) from a fireball, which is kindly donated by a dragon at the start of the game. When you deflect the fire ball it cascades around the screen and will hopefully take down one of your opponents' walls, unless they deflect or even capture it, in which case be prepared to defend yourself. Once a gap has been made in a castle wall, the warlord inside is exposed. If a fire ball hits a warlord it's game over, however there's no reason why a skilled player couldn't indefinitely defend a warlord with no castle walls - although a skilled player probably wouldn't end up in that situation in the first place.

The machines came in upright and cocktail form factors. The upright version supported up to 2 human players and actually used a mirror with overlays to give the otherwise basic black and white graphics a colourful and detailed look. However, the cocktail version (pictured right) is the one you want. It used simple colour graphics rather than the overlays, but it supported 4 players, each with their own corner of the machine. And Warlords is one of those games that gets exponentially better with more players. It's a great party game, especially if you decide to play in teams, as it's really hard not to accidentally bat the fire ball at your team mate. Warning though, many expletives may be uttered during the course of a game of Warlords, so those of you who are sensitive to curse words should bear this in mind.

The game also uses paddle controls, so it's another classic that does not play well on MAME. Not that you should be using an emulator to play any games and in the case of Warlords it was re-released a couple of years ago on Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network with updated graphics and comical goblin characters running around the battlefield. Despite that, here is someone playing it via MAME and doing a hell of a lot better against the CPU than I ever could.

(UPDMTWE: 8:05, 02/12/2013) Turns out there were two versions of Warlords on XBLA and PSN. The first was one of the many Atari updates by Stainless Games, it included both the original 4-player game and a graphically enhanced version, with a future sport sort of vibe. The other was more of a remake, which really played up the medieval fantasy theme, complete with goblin minions and dragon riders, all beautifully rendered by a modern graphics engine. It also added new game modes, including a one-on-one versions of the game. Of the two, only the Stainless update is still available (and it's this version my kids and I have been playing for this article). Shame, because the remake looked really cool in the trailers back in 2011.

MTW

Love letter to a generation

I want to talk about what I genuinely believe has been the greatest generation of gaming there has ever been - and no, this is not another overwrote trip down Memory Lane where I harp on about arcades. This article is about the last generation of games machines, the generation which, with the release of the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One this month, is finally entering retirement.

While I'm far from the oldest gamer around, at 38 I am still an old gamer. I'm old enough to remember the halcyon days of the 8-bit generation, the dawn of 16-bit generation and the sense of wonder that came with the first polygonal graphics. I started out on an old Pong clone, which featured two paddle controllers, five game modes and that's it! I "progressed" from that to an Atari 2600, then an Acorn Electron, then a Sega Master System, then a Commodore Amiga, then on to a PlayStation, an N64, a PC (with all the upgrading jiggery-pokery that goes with PC gaming), a Dreamcast, a PlayStation 2 and a GameCube combo, and I currently own a Wii and Xbox 360, with a smattering of PC gaming via Steam. I've owned GameBoys of all generations, as well as a Neo Geo Pocket and now get my mobile gaming kicks on my Sony Xperia phone. I was there when arcades ruled gaming and I rue the fact I did not realise they were fading into obsolescence until it was too late. I spent a number of years working in the industry for one of the UK's oldest developers, only to see them falter and fold under the mounting development costs of the last generation. What I'm saying is, when it comes to gaming, I've pretty much seen it all. So believe me when I say this past generation, the generation of the online console, DLC, motion gaming and indy games, has been the greatest generation in gaming history. Let's have a look at what's been going on since launch of the first last gen console.

Ex-Box

In 2001 Microsoft entered the console market with the Xbox, a vast black leviathan of a games machine with an equally vast controller, nicknamed "The Duke". The console was moderately successful, with Halo proving to be one of the most important games of the whole generation, but the Xbox was no where near as popular as its main rival, the PlayStation 2. Nonetheless, I think we were all surprised when Microsoft promptly replaced it, a mere 4 years later. That replacement was the Xbox 360, followed a year later by Sony's new console, the predictably named PlayStation 3. Little did anyone realise at the time just how different things were going to be this time around.

The first Xbox, not to be confused with the Xbox One.

High definition and online gaming

The mid-2000s saw the popularisation of two technologies that were crucial for getting the most out of the 360 and PS3: HDTVs and broadband internet. Suddenly, home consoles could offer the kind of high quality visuals and intense online competitive play which had previously been the preserve of PC gaming only. Both consoles had their fair share of brilliant online games, such as Forza 2 and Gears of War on the 360 and Killzone 2 and Resistance: Fall of Man on PS3, but it was a game that was available on both systems that really elevated online console gaming. That game, if you hadn't guessed, was Infinity Ward's sublime, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. From the moment we saw the ghilly suit and perks trailers, we knew this was going to be great, but we had no idea it would pretty much take over the gaming world, with people who might otherwise not even call themselves gamers buying consoles and playing nothing but Call of Duty.

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare was probably the most important
game of the generation.

But online gaming didn't just mean multiplayer, it also offered companies the opportunity to flog us Downloadable Content, or DLC for short. Some of this stuff genuinely added to the gaming experience, things like additional level packs, weapons and vehicles, but some of it was trash (the horse armour for Elder Scroll IV: Oblivion epitomised this kind of virtual racketeering)! It also allowed companies to push patches for their games, which lead to the unfortunate situation where games would ship needing to be patched right out of the box. The other controversial thing online consoles allowed companies to do was charge for content that was actually shipped on the disc . This had people incensed, although the idea of licensed software was not anything new, it was just new to video games; operating systems and software suites have been doing the same thing for years.

Motion gaming explosion

While Microsoft and Sony were winning over hardcore gamers, Nintendo, in a way that only Nintendo could pull off, won over non-gamers with something completely different. Technologically, the Wii console was years behind the 360 and PS3, but its use of motion based gaming as the central control method opened up the hobby to millions of people, from young children to mothers looking to do some exercise to old folks who had never previously even used a computer. For many people, the only games they needed on the Wii were Wii Sports, which was bundled with the console, and Wii Fit, complete with its high tech scales known as the balance board. Nonetheless, the console went on to ship over 100 million units - more than either of its HD rivals.

PlayStation Move is probably the best motion controller of them all.

Of course Microsoft or Sony could not allow Nintendo to corner such a significant part of the market and so in 2010 Sony launched their own version of the Wii-mote called the PlayStation Move and Microsoft launched their controller-free answer, the Kinect sensor. Neither proved to be as popular as Nintendo's console and for many hardcore console gamers these devices were an affront to everything the 360 and PS3 stood for.

Rise of the indies

Something else significant happened during the last generation. In stark contrast to the rising budgets and increasingly cinematic feel of games such as Uncharted, Heavy Rain and Mass Effect, small and independent studios started to attract the attention of the gaming press. Figures such as Jonathan Blow, Phil Fish and Markus "Notch" Persson created imaginative, alternative games that formed the foundation for the indie dev scene (which was also the former name and focus of this very blog). With the success of Minecraft and rave reviews Braid received, small developers started springing up everywhere. And thanks to the popularity of iPhones and Android phones, these developers found audiences everywhere.

These days I don't have much time to play games and so I love all the little gems that are out there. The other thing about the indie dev scene is that they tend to make games with a retro aesthetic. For many this was done to cut costs, but it soon became fashionable and despite the HD capabilities of the modern consoles, it was no longer a crime to show your pixels.

(Clockwise from top-left): Minecraft, Braid, Fez and Super Meat Boy,
four of the most influential indie games over the past 5 years.

More than just a games machine

Just as mobile phones have become smart phones, with more power than most PCs had back in 2005, so too have consoles grown to become more than just games machines. These days people are just as likely to use their consoles to play DVDs and Blu-Rays or use one of the many media streaming services, such as Netflix or the BBC iPlayer to stream movies, TV series and even live events! I actually have friends who only use their consoles for this, because they can do such a good job of it (especially the PS3). 

Who needs Sky or Virgin Media?

My highlights

I wouldn't be writing this article if I didn't have lots of highlights, some of which I have spoken about already in So you don't like modern games? Aside from what I talked about in that article, other highlights have included the rise of the indie scene, with many of my favourite games costing less that £15 quid. Fez is such a beautiful, ingenious game that it makes me feel sad for people who don't play games. I've also loved the renewed popularity of pinball, thanks to Zen Studios and Far Sight Studios. I own versions of their tables on my phone, my PC (via Steam) and my 360 and I'm constantly dabbling with them. Other highlights have been little things like cable-free controllers (once I wised up and bought a load of rechargeable AAs). But if I had to pick just one franchise that has thrilled and enthralled me the most, it would be Bioware's Mass Effect. For me this series encapsulates everything that was great about this generation.

I've probably thrown myself harder into this generation than any other during my adult life, but despite that there are a number of big gaps in my gaming career over the past 8 years. Most notably, I've not played any of the Assassin's Creed games. I thought the original looked great, but it came out in 2007, same as COD4, Mass Effect, Portal, Guitar Hero III, Super Mario Galaxy and Uncharted, so something had to give. And because I no longer own a PS3, I haven't had the chance to play Last of Us, a stunning example of just how powerful and progressive modern games have become.

The new generation

I'm not one for early adoption, not least because early games are often poor, but also because I take a long time to get through games; I still have a considerable stack of 360 and Wii games to finish. Deciding which console to buy is always tricky. Last time around the decision was made for me, because I won my 360 in a competition and my Wii came with a phone contract. I did briefly own a PS3, but at the time there were not many exclusive games and Sony's online services did not compare well to Microsoft's, so I sold it (sorry, Sony fans). 

In some ways, as games machines get closer to one another, as the PS4 and Xbox One undoubtedly are, it actually gets harder to decide. Back in the days of the MegaDrive vs SNES, both machines had loads of exclusives, so which ever you chose you were going to get a pretty distinct experience, but the Xbox One and PS4 will only have a handful of exclusives, with only a few games on either machine to sway your decision one way or the other. I really like the look of the Xbox One and of all the next gen games I've seen Titanfall interests me the most, but... after 6 years of intensive gaming on the Microsoft machine, I fancy a change of scenery, so I'm being pulled towards the PS4. However, there is a new player coming next year, one who's service I already use and like a lot more than either Sony's or Microsoft's, so who knows.

One thing's for sure: I've been gaming for over 30 years and with how busy I am at work, it's about the only hobby I have left, so whatever happens, I'm not going to quit now.

MTW