Video Games
Created | Updated Jun 11, 2003
VIDEO GAMES
Video games are, unfortunetely, best known for being hated by parents and having uncouth amounts of blood. While these happen to be true, it does over-generalize the bad things about games. For example, many (Japanese) games can also be lethaly strange, and Playstation 2 games have been known to kill at 900 yards with their almost total lack of quality. But down to the point...
Video Games are, on the whole, very good though.
For those unfamiliar with the concept--and believe me, there are a few--video games are lines upon lines of code to make pictures and sound come out of a TV.
As of this time, there are three major companies making 'consoles' on which games can be played.
Sony
makes the Playstation 2, which is so far the longest running and has mutltitudes of games, many of which are quite good and most of which are copied to the other consoles.Nintendo
makes the Gamecube, which is not quite as succesful at the moment but does have a great many quality, Gamecube-exclusive games. It also has better graphics than the PS2, and a very good controller.Microsoft
makes the XBox. Similar to the Gamecube in that it has fewer, higher quality, exclusive games, it is wildly succesful right now, and has the best sound and graphics.Sega is another company, whcih recently went out of the console business and only makes games. PC, or personal computer, games are also a major segment, but they involve having your own computer--which can be better or worse for gaming, depending on what you spend--and have more limited games, but much better internet support.
Another whole area of gaming is hand-held gaming. This is when games are played on a small, portable, battery-powered device. Although there have been attempts to overthrow it, Nintendo's line of Game Boys reign supreme in this catagory.
Video games are blessed with as much diversity as anything else under the sun, and are considerably more diverse than, say, salami, so this entry will not bore you with the specifics of each type of game
Throughout the history of gaming there has been the occasional masterpiece, and a number of them are listed below. However, only Nintendo will only be chronicalled, due to space (and knowledge) constraints. There is an entry in the making on the one most profoundly amazing XBox game, Halo.
THE NINTENDO ENTERTAINMENT SYSTEM (NES)
Super Mario Brothers
Coupled with a mediocre game called Duck Hunt, this game
defined the platformer genre for many years. Along with a
number of sequels, including the similar Super Mario 3 and
Super Mario World, and the radically different Super Mario
2 and and Yoshi's Island, Super Mario Brothers made Mario
into one of the most famous and long-standing
franchises.
Mega Man and Metroid
These two games were among the best, and in Mega Man's
case most sequeled, games of their time. They introduced
things like upgrades (which make your character
better).
The Legend of Zelda
This is Nintendo's other famous line of games. Set in a
magical, medieval world, you play as a boy named Link in an
amazingly huge world. This also started a whole genre of
video games, called adventures. One's character became
better as one completed quests and collected items.
THE SUPER NES (SNES)
The Legend of Zelda-a Link to the Past
A sequel to The Legend of Zelda, and recently remade for
the Game Boy Advance, this was one of the most beutifull
games yet in terms of graphics, and is also seen as the
first really good Zelda game.
Super Mario RPG
An RPG, or Role Playing Game, is when one controls a
character normally around a world, but fights are turn
based, and make the characters slowly more powerful. Super
Mario RPG was the first Mario game not to be a platformer,
and is one of the most prominant early examples of an
RPG.
THE NINTENDO 64 (N64)
Super Mario 64
A launch title of the N64, this game was a absolutelly
amazing 3-Dimentional platformer--in fact, the first one.
However, and more importantly, this game demonstrated the
power of the N64 compared to what had come before
it.
The Legend of Zelda-The Ocarina of Time
This game was, and is, renowned as one of the best games
of all time. Many did, and do, get angry when fools say
that it wasn't as great as rubbish like Banjo-Kazooie. This
game, from the moment a glorious sun rose to ochestral music
as you rode across a giant plain to the instant you finally
destroyed the evil Ganon for ever, struck all who played it
as completely awe-inspiring. And oh, it was. It
was.
James Bond 007-Goldeneye
As Ocarina was to adventure games, Goldeneye was to the
first-person shooter. Everything about this game was
superior to what came before and, in many cases, after. The
graphics, the multiplayer (that Goldeneye multiplayer...),
the cheats, were all amazing. It defies explanation, but
that it was expertly put together.
THE NINTENDO GAMECUBE
Super Smash Brothers Meelee
That last word being pronounced Maylay, this is one of
the best fighters around. However, it is a bit unorthodox.
Most fighters have very little movement, and rely on button
combos. SSBM gives the player great control over the
character, and all moves easy to do. It can easily be
looked at as a hardcore or an extremely not hardcore game.
Either way, it is a masterpiece.
Metroid Prime
Like so many great games, Prime is hard to define.
Putting Prime in a catagory is not like putting a square
peg in a round hole. It is like putting a truncated
tetrahedron in a round hole. It is a first-person adventure
platformer shooter, to be specific. With amazing graphics,
cool weapons and a lot else, this is another of the
Gamecube's best games.
So go home, play a game, and bask in the glory of your TVs flickering goodness!
