Poll Results

Over the past week, we’ve made posts looking into the history of several topics based on the results of a poll we conducted. As promised, here are the full results! We asked a total of eight questions, and then chose five of them to look into for our posts.

Note that we’ve removed joke answers and “N/A” answers from these results, so if you notice a question has less responses than another, that’s why.

Who is the first video game character you can think of? (Results were used for this post!)

WINNER: Mario (Super Mario) - 10 votes

Link (The Legend of Zelda) - 5 votes

Commander Shepherd - 1 vote

Dragonborn (Skyrim) - 1 vote

Henry Stein (Bendy and the Ink Machine) - 1 vote

Kirby (Kirby) - 1 vote

Makoto Niijima (Persona) - 1 vote

Master Chief (Halo) - 1 vote

Ratchet (Ratchet and Clank) - 1 vote

Roxas (Kingdom Hearts) - 1 vote

Sans (Undertale) - 1 vote

Sonic (Sonic the Hedgehog)- 1 vote

Sora (Kingdom Hearts) - 1 vote

Spyro (Spyro) - 1 vote

Zelda (The Legend of Zelda) - 1 vote

What is the first video game franchise you can think of?

WINNER: Mario - 8 votes

The Legend of Zelda - 4 votes

Halo - 2 votes

Kingdom Hearts - 2 votes

Pokémon - 2 votes

Call of Duty - 1 vote

Civilization - 1 vote

The Elder Scrolls - 1 vote

Half-Life - 1 vote

League of Legends - 1 vote

Luigi’s Mansion - 1 vote

Mass Effect - 1 vote

Persona - 1 vote

Super Smash Bros. - 1 vote

Undertale - 1 vote

What is the first video game console you can think of? (Results were used for this post!)

WINNER: Nintendo 64 - 5 votes

Nintendo Switch - 4 votes

PlayStation - 4 votes

Xbox 360 - 4 votes

GameCube - 2 votes

Xbox - 2 votes

Nintendo Entertainment System - 1 vote

PC - 1 vote

PlayStation 2 - 1 vote

PlayStation 3 - 1 vote

PlayStation 4 - 1 vote

Super Nintendo Entertainment System - 1 vote

“Nintendo” - 1 vote

What is the first video game company you can think of? (Results were used for this post!)

WINNER: Nintendo - 14 votes

Sony - 3 votes

Blizzard - 2 votes

Activision - 1 vote

Atlus - 1 vote

Bethesda - 1 vote

Bioware - 1 vote

EA - 1 vote

Microsoft - 1 vote

Naughty Dog - 1 vote

Sega - 1 vote

Ubisoft - 1 vote

What's the first video game genre you can think of?

WINNER: Platformer - 6 votes

FPS - 3 votes

RPG - 3 votes

Shooter - 3 votes

Horror - 2 votes

RTS - 2 votes

Action - 1 vote

Action RPG - 1 vote

Adventure - 1 vote

Battle - 1 vote

Children’s - 1 vote

Fantasy - 1 vote

MMORPG - 1 vote

Stealth - 1 vote

Survival Horror - 1 vote

What is the first video game soundtrack you can think of? (Results were used for this post!)

TIED WINNER: Kingdom Hearts - 3 votes

TIED WINNER: Undertale - 3 votes

Bastion - 2 votes

Mario - 2 votes

Bendy and the Ink Machine - 1 vote

Bloodborne - 1 vote

Cyberpunk - 1 vote

Cyberpunk 2077 - 1 vote

Dearly Beloved (song from Kingdom Hearts) - 1 vote

Flower - 1 vote

Halo 3 - 1 vote

The Legend of Zelda - 1 vote

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time - 1 vote

Luigi’s Mansion - 1 vote

Mario theme (song from Super Mario) - 1 vote

NBA2K - 1 vote

Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire - 1 vote

Red Dead Redemption 2 - 1 vote

Sims - 1 vote

Super Smash Bros. - 1 vote

Wii Sports - 1 vote

What's the best game ever made?

TIED WINNER: Baldur’s Gate 3 - 3 votes

TIED WINNER: Minecraft - 3 votes

TIED WINNER: The Witcher 3 - 3 votes

The Last of Us - 2 votes

Bioshock (original) - 1 vote

Doom Eternal - 1 vote

Elden Ring - 1 vote

God of War (2018) - 1 vote

In Death - 1 vote

Kingdom Hearts II - 1 vote

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time - 1 vote

Super Mario Bros. 2 - 1 vote

Super Mario Odyssey - 1 vote

Mario & Sonic at The Olympic Games - 1 vote

Mass Effect - 1 vote

Paper Mario (64) - 1 vote

Red Dead Redemption 2 - 1 vote

Sudoku - 1 vote

Tetris - 1 vote

What's the worst game ever made? (Results were used for this post!)

WINNER (LOSER…?): League of Legends - 3 votes

E.T. - 2 votes

Superman 64 - 2 votes

Banjo-Kazooie - 1 vote

Bear and Breakfast - 1 vote

Call of Duty: Cold War - 1 vote

Candy Crush - 1 vote

Command and Conquer 4 - 1 vote

Destiny 2 - 1 vote

Diablo Immortal - 1 vote

EA’s Battlefront - 1 vote

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - 1 vote

FIFA/EA FC 24 - 1 vote

Flappy Bird - 1 vote

Fortnite - 1 vote

Frogger - 1 vote

Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy - 1 vote

Happy Feet Two - 1 vote

King Kong 2023 - 1 vote

Megamania (Atari 2600) - 1 vote

YIIK: A Postmodern RPG - 1 vote

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Thanks to everyone who participated in the poll!

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Wesley Naylor is a second-year student of the Professional Writing program who thinks games are rather neat! He likes learning about what goes into the development of games and seeing how they’ve evolved over time.

He also likes writing... and on this blog, he can combine those interests, just for you!

That Famous "Sproing!": The Making (and History) of Mario

Mario is probably one of, if not the most popular video game in history. “Born” in 1981 as the player character in Donkey Kong, he got his own game two years later simply titled “Mario Bros.” and hasn’t slowed down since. From a giant monkey to a world-ending Koopa and everyone in between, Mario’s been at the forefront of so many games that his name is the one most said when people are asked “who’s the first video game character you can think of?”
However he wasn’t always the red little Italian people are the most familiar with. He started life as every video game character did…As a bundle of pixels with the wrong name.

Mario started life in concept art as Jumpman; a tiny little bunch of pixels who could, as his name suggested, jump. Little Jumpman was to be pitted against Donkey Kong in their first game together. Mario went through several names in his very first draft, which resulted in some confusion. He was referred to by “Player” in Japanese arcade instructions, Jumpman in American arcade instructions, and Mario on the game flyers. The name Mario, according to the Super Mario Wiki , came from Nintendo America’s recluse landlord of storage and company housing. Mario (the character) was named too late for the instructions, but his name appeared on flyers, and it has stuck around ever since.

One of the flyers for the original donkey kong arcade game.

Trying to pick out Mario’s history from here gets fuzzy, to put it lightly. He’s made so many cameo appearances for other stories; and had his story rehashed and expanded on enough times that trying to sort it out would take the patience of someone that I am not. Still, I will try.

Once again turning to Mario’s wiki, it says that in the original Donkey Kong game Mario’s girlfriend got herself tangled up with Donkey Kong at a construction site; causing Mario to jump on the scene in an attempt to help her. If the player makes it to the last level, he’ll be reunited with his girl at last. Mario Bros. properly introduces Mario as a plumber and also brings in his twin brother, Luigi; or more accurately a simple palette-swap of Mario (green instead of red). Luigi won’t be recognized as a separate character properly until Super Mario Bros. 2, which established him as the tallest of the two (and the better jumper to boot), only to return to being a reskinned Mario for Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World. There’s no better character (or easier-to-code character) than the good ol’ Jumpman, it seems—but don’t worry, Luigi will be back for his own adventures soon enough.

Old School Gamer Magazine says that while Mario wasn’t the first platformer, his games certainly set the scene for them. Many games that came after Super Mario Bros. followed the same recipe, with similar elements and obvious inspirations drawn from it. Even newer games are inspired by it, with the more modern game Bayonetta featuring Mario-based character costumes and sound effects. Not to mention the clones that spawned following the surprising juggernaut that was Mario Cart, a spinoff so successful it spawned memes and sequels that still run strong through today.

Credit to CoolTeen15 on Deviantart for this image.

Mario’s still getting starring roles in games even in the early 2020’s, from updates to old favourites to new additions such as Mario Odyssey. Over the years, Mario has established himself as a force to be reckoned with in Super Smash Bros., becomes a hero in distress in Luigi’s Mansion and has even gone toe-to-toe with rabbids at least once. He’s gone from jumping over barrels thrown by a giant monkey to controlling a T-Rex with the help of his suddenly sentient hat. So long as there is inspiration, so will there also be Mario.

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Kate Bell is an avid fan of horror, trying to take in as much as they can without getting grossed out by gore. They are also a bit of a history buff, picking apart elements of animation history and the two world wars to garner as much knowledge as possible (good or bad). The history of video games has often been fascinating to them and they hope to learn as much as they can right along with you, the reader.

Kate lives in the country on a hobby farm, having daily battles with shitty wifi and shittier patience. Their sanity anchor? Hope…And loud music.

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Is League of Legends the Worst Video Game of All Time?

It’s official: League of Legends has been voted “Worst Game of All Time.”

At least, it is according to the small poll we at the Pixel Generation just ran. My opening statement definitely shouldn’t be taken as hyperbole. We ran a very official poll, I’ll have you know! We had dozens of respondents! Dozens!!

You and me both, Palpatine // Courtesy of Giphy.com

Joking aside, even a small poll like this can be indicative of a larger body of thought. While League of Legends (LoL) may not definitively be the worst game of all time, the results do beg the question: why does this game have a bad reputation? And is it deserved?

Even if you aren’t much of a gamer, you’ve probably at least heard of LoL. It’s kind of a big deal. LoL was first launched by developer Riot Games in 2009 and has ballooned in popularity ever since. It had 180 million active monthly users in 2022, 13 years after its release. It typically draws in over $1.5 billion in revenue every year. It’s easily the biggest game in the multiplayer online battle arena genre. It has spawned successful spinoff games, comics, and a critically-acclaimed animated TV series.

Lol has a wide variety of champions // Courtesy of nexus.leagueoflegends.com

You may be wondering, how can something so popular be hated enough to win a “worst game” vote? Well, let’s consider what it might mean to be the worst game and how LoL fits into that picture.

You won’t see anything like this in lol // Courtesy of thegamecrater.com

The first and most obvious indicator of a bad game would be mechanical and technical problems. I’m talking about things that we can judge objectively: unresponsive controls, game-breaking bugs, confusing interface, poor optimization… that kind of stuff. LoL doesn’t fit the bill. It’s a polished game with good production value, and the devs release regular updates.

There are complaints about long queue times for ranked matches, which Riot has struggled to curb. Some players report short waits of a few minutes or less, and others report waiting upwards of 20 minutes. There’s no perfect solution. This issue isn’t unique to LoL, however. Other popular competitive games like Overwatch have also suffered from this problem, and it isn’t a universal experience for all players.

An extreme example of how bad queueing can get // Courtesy of Pants are dragon

What about the more subjective aspects of the game’s design? Obviously that’s harder to quantify, but according to general critical consensus, the game is soundly made. The characters are varied and interesting, the art is nice, and the game feel is good. Most critics agree it’s accessible and addicting, with interesting and strategic team-based gameplay. It holds an average critic review score of 78/100 on Metracritic, which is pretty decent.

The user score on Metacritic tells a different story, however. It stands at an alarming average of 49/100, which the site deems “generally unfavourable.” User scores should always be taken with a big ol’ grain of salt (review bombing being a thing and all that), but just like the results of our survey, they do provide some insight into how the gaming community feels about LoL.

Browsing the user reviews sheds some light on the matter. There are a lot of players who cite a frustrating competitive experience, but that could be said of any competitive multiplayer game, especially those with ranking systems. The real problem seems to be toxicity in the game’s community. Even some of the positive reviews concede that other players are insulting and abusive in-game, and some even admit to engaging in the behaviour themselves.

Lots of games have toxic communities, but LoL is particularly infamous. In the Anti-Defamation League’s annual report on harassment in online games from 2022, 80% of respondents reported experiencing harassment while playing LoL. This number has steadily increased year over year. The problem isn’t unique to LoL, but it is certainly among the top offenders.

harassment is a huge problem in gaming // courtesy of the Anti-defamation league

So what is it specifically about LoL that bothers people so much? I myself tried it only once and was turned off from ever trying it again, largely because the environment felt very unwelcoming for a beginner. There was no tolerance among my teammates for error, and they weren’t shy about letting me know.

Even some that play the game regularly like to joke about how much they hate it, and everyone seems to have their own reason. Some talk about harassment, bad behaviour, long queues, slow progression, or overpowered new champions throwing off the game’s balance. Perhaps all these things come together to create a stew of problems that some find unpalatable.

So is it fair to say LoL is the worst game of all time? Not really. Objectively speaking, there areworse games out there. But I’d say it deserves at least some of the flack it gets. Among popular games, it has certainly earned its controversial reputation.

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Chris Hodgins is an aspiring writer and avid gamer, which is probably obvious enough from his involvement in this blog. He’s also a cat whisperer with wild dreams of opening a cat sanctuary someday, if he ever manages to strike it rich. Until then, he spends his time gaming, writing, and sharing his life with his lovely wife and three furry kids.

The Rise of the King: How Nintendo Dominated the Gaming Industry, and Why They Own Your Nostalgia

Official Nintendo Logo // courtesy of nintendo

              In a we recent poll we conducted with gamers among peers and fellow students, one of the questions was “What is the first video game company you can think of?”. The most common answer to this was Nintendo, by an absolute landslide of 14 answers. The second place was Sony with 3. This is probably not a surprise to anyone reading this, but why is that? How exactly did Nintendo become so synonymous with videogames as a whole?

              In order to understand Nintendo’s current place in gaming culture, we need to look back at their beginnings. The company known as Nintendo had existed as a playing card and toy manufacturer long before videogames ever entered the picture. Their first forays into the gaming market were fairly humble, mainly producing light gun accessories for Magnavox hardware in the 70’s. It wasn’t until the 80’s when Nintendo jumped into full on game development, and this was certainly a difficult time to attempt entering into the industry. While the 1983 launch of the Famicom console went rather smoothly in Japan, things would not be so simple for in the west.

The Japanese Famicom sitting on top of two of its western countepart, the nes // courtesy of wikipedia

By this time the western videogame industry was in shambles following the great videogame crash of 83, and most consumer had brushed of videogames as a short-lived fad. However, these troubling circumstances would prove to be blessing to Nintendo in the long run. Not only would Nintendo’s console (rebranded to the NES for the west) thrive in the western market, it single handedly revived videogames as a whole. Without notable competition, Nintendo dominated the whole industry, and became the premiere game console. While other competitors did crop up to oppose them, most namely SEGA, none of them could dethrone Nintendo’s position on top. The big N would remain king through the 80’s and early 90’s, until the rise of the PlayStation in 95 would mark a shift to a more even playing field. However, this meant Nintendo still spent over a decade as the definitive face of videogames and defined the medium for an entire generation. That leaves a cultural footprint that is hard to wipe away.

              However, Nintendo’s success doesn’t just come down to their hardware or their revival of a falling industry. The most important factor is Nintendo’s games. The entire reason for the crash of 83 in the first place was that the industry had become flooded with games of incredibly poor quality. Nintendo, on the other hand, made a name for themselves by producing consistently high-quality titles, establishing themselves as a more trustworthy brand. Not only did they make their own games to a certain standard of quality, but they also made a point of only allowing games on their consoles if they met that standard as well. This improved the quality of games across the board, not just Nintendo games.

              The most important thing about Nintendo’s game, however, is how iconic they were. So many of Nintendo’s titles produced long lasting franchises that still stand the most beloved and influential series in the medium. From Mario, to Zelda, to Pokémon; so many Nintendo games have achieved such fame that even most non-gamers will recognize their names. When you also factor in that these games are primarily aimed at younger and more impressionable audiences, Nintendo’s hold over the minds of the public is not surprising.

              It really shouldn’t be any wonder why Nintendo are the most recognizable company in videogames. They revitalized the western gaming market during its darkest hour and normalized quality standards in the industry. Their games and characters capture the hearts of an entire generation, becoming the most beloved and nostalgic icons in the medium. They ruled the industry so thoroughly during its early days that their name is now synonymous with video games as a whole. Nintendo showed up at the right time, with the right strategy, and great games; and that’s how they became the king.

An assortment of Nintendo game series, both iconic and obscure alike // courtesy of nintendofandj on deviantart

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Gareth Myers - A hardcore casual fighting game scrub, childhood Nintendo baby, and practically the text book definition of a basement dwelling nerd. I have spent many an hour studying the history and art of videogames, when I probably should have spent that time learning even the most basic combos to avoid online bodying. I wish to one day use my writing talents to make my own sci-fi fantasy novels to bring my own characters and stories to life, but until then rambling about games for the internet will be fine enough practice.

Toby Fox vs Yoko Shimomura

A good video game soundtrack sticks with the listener long after the game has ended. It will hit the victorious moments with jubilant chords, and deepen the emotional moments, with unsettling strings and melancholy melodies. Everyone has a game soundtrack that rings in their mind and is always there to comfort them with nostalgia.

For this round of blog posts, we distributed a poll, and decided to each take a category to write about. Which brings me to my dilemma; for my category (video game soundtracks), there was a tie. Both Kingdom Hearts and Undertale won with three . So, what better way to commemorate both memorable games than with a comparison of the artists, and their history developing music.

Toby Fox

Toby Fox’s White Dog Persona From Undertale. It is Frequently Used as A Stand-In For his Actual Face.

Toby Fox is well known in pop culture for his first game, Undertale, and for it’s sequel, Deltarune. Both are wonderful entries into the indie genre and have stirred hearts across the globe. In the beginning, Undertale was just a proof of concept, as he was testing his abilities with game development before he moved on to truly create the game of his dreams. Fox created the game from the ground up, developing each song on the soundtrack, designing the characters, and marketing the game as it was completed. After launch, the game was picked up by a ton of Let’s Players, who ran through the game and helped popularize it, praising it for it’s unique encounters and storytelling. To this day, the game is embedded into pop culture.

However, Undertale is not the first soundtrack Fox worked on, and Megalovania, it’s most iconic number, did not originate in Undertale.

Prior To Undertale

Long before The tale, Fox debuted (at 15) with an ill-advised ROM hack of EarthBound, suitably named the “EarthBound Halloween Hack.” It was a disaster of writing, and something that Fox has come to regret. The thing that piqued interest in it, however, was that Fox either remixed or wrote entirely new pieces for the soundtrack. Most notably, in the final fight, a now-familiar tune, in it’s earliest form, can be heard. Megalovania.

The Sburb Beta Logo from Homestuck, often signaling earlier entries in the comic.

Then, a new project presented itself before Fox; Homestuck, an online webcomic presented with interactive elements and musical backings. For several years, Fox composed a ton of works (115 songs for the original comic, and 188 unreleased, unofficial or spin-off songs) for the comic. His leitmotifs would then be incorporated into related songs by different producers, and he was instrumental to the musical landscape that scores Homestuck.

One more thing: Megalovania once more appears in this work, remastered and renamed MeGaLoVania.

Yoko Shimomura

In the same vein as Fox, Shimomura is a masterful giant in her field, composing works for 71 soundtracks and arranging pieces for 12 more. She is best known for her work during her time at Square Enix (think Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts, Super Mario RPG), but she began her career at Capcom.

Before Kingdom Hearts

Capcom Logo

In 1988, she began working at Capcom right after graduating from a prestigious college. Her parents were originally dismayed; they had paid for her education and were hesitant for her to go into video game music, which was less respected. However, she was inspired by video game music, and especially Heavenly Flight from Dragon Quest 3, and had become determined to compose music of such quality. She accepted the job despite their concerns and went on to publish a ton of popular soundtracks, most famously Street Fighter II, Final Fight, and Samurai Sword.

Square Enix Logo

However, in 1993, she got tired of the arcade style she had been writing at Capcom and needed the change. More interested in a classical sound, she began working at Square, the company that would become Square Enix, and started off her career with a hit; Super Mario RPG. During her time at Square, she wrote some of her favourite soundtracks for Live A Live, Final Fantasy VII, and Secret of Mana. Then, she worked on what would become her best-known work, Kingdom Hearts.

Midiplex

After the release of Kingdom Hearts, Shimomura left Square Enix for maternity leave and never went back, instead going into freelance. She has since worked on every Kingdom Hearts game released, as well as a ton of music for Nintendo (the Mario & Luigi series primarily), and Capcom.

Conclusion

Both artists have seen huge success, though their rise to stardom was incredibly different and difficult. Toby Fox’s beloved game and characters pair to his stellar songwriting, while Shimomura’s signature melodies and soundtracks are a staple in most gamer’s inventories.

In a final note: A really interesting tid-bit about Megalovania itself is that it’s inspiration comes from none other than Yoko Shimomura. Shimomura’s track, Megalomania, from Live A Live was incredibly impactful for Fox, who sought to replicate it for the Halloween hack. However, he found it too difficult to remake, and instead, chose to compose a version inspired by it, instead. Thus, Megalovania (Halloween – Vampire, Transylvania, etc.) was born.

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When Sarah isn’t hostage to her cat’s snuggles, she can often be found playing Stardew Valley or Minecraft. Raised on the Nintendo Wii, she’s had a life-long love of video games and hopes to express this passion through her writing. Some of her favourite games include – Paper Mario (N64, 2000), Super Paper Mario (Wii, 2007), Mario Galaxy, Hollow Knight, and Undertale.

What’s the Most Popular Video Game Console?

Nintendo 64 console // Image courtesy of Amazon

This week, we’re doing something different! We conducted a poll about a week ago asking questions to see what some of the most recognizable things in video games were. Questions included things like, “What’s the first video game character you can think of?” and “What’s the worst game ever made?” We sent it to students of the Professional Writing program, as well as a few of our own friends, to see the results among our readers. And this week’s posts will look at the winners and how they gained their popularity!

If you want to see the full results, we’ll be posting them on Saturday, December 9th!

For today’s post, beating out consoles like the Nintendo Switch and Xbox 360 by just a single vote, the first console most respondents think of is the Nintendo 64!

This one actually came as quite a surprise to me! For those unfamiliar, the Nintendo 64 released in 1996 here in North America. The console’s biggest competitor was the original PlayStation... and the PlayStation trounced it! The Nintendo 64 sold less than 33 million units—making it one of the worst-selling consoles in Nintendo’s history—while the PlayStation sold a whopping 102 million units, more than three times the amount the Nintendo 64 sold. This was partially due to Nintendo’s decision to stick with cartridges. Their limited storage capacity compared to the PlayStation’s discs convinced several developers that had stuck with Nintendo’s consoles up to that point to change priorities. Companies like Square, Capcom, and Enix moved development to the PlayStation to create bigger games than they could on Nintendo 64. Franchises like Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest released on PlayStation instead, after being Nintendo-exclusive up to that point.

Image Courtesy of Reddit user Lucashenrr

But despite all this, the Nintendo 64 comes to mind before any other console for those who took our poll. Why might that be? While an objective answer might be hard to pin down—poll results are based in opinion, after all—I believe that the answer likely lies in how each console’s library has been presented in the years since their release.

When people think of the original PlayStation, games like Final Fantasy VII, Metal Gear Solid, Resident Evil, and Parappa the Rapper likely come to mind. But I don’t think these games’ identities are really tied to the PlayStation.

Final Fantasy VII and Metal Gear Solid have been ported to most modern platforms. Resident Evil got a GameCube remake that has been ported to modern platforms as well. Even Parappa the Rapper, a game that is owned by the PlayStation company, has been ported to both the PlayStation Portable and PlayStation 4. Notably, since many of the PlayStation’s flagship games were developed by third-party studios, the developers have since ported them to non-PlayStation platforms, and these re-releases aren’t often branded as “PlayStation Classics” or anything. New players may not even be aware that these games were originally designed for it.

From Top to bottom: the wii shop channel, wii u eshop, and nintendo switch’s nintendo 64 app // images courtesy of extremetech, niche gamer, and nintendo

By contrast, Nintendo 64 games have always felt more closely tied to their original platform. While Nintendo has ported many of the Nintendo 64’s games to the platforms they’ve released since, these re-releases are always prominently branded as Nintendo 64 games. On the Wii, Nintendo 64 games were made available on the Wii Shop Channel. To get to them, you went to the Nintendo 64 section of the shop. The Wii U was much the same; Nintendo 64 re-releases were available on the Wii U eShop’s Nintendo 64 section. And on their current platform, the Nintendo Switch, Nintendo 64 games are made available through a dedicated Nintendo 64 application.

Top it off with the fact that many games for the console had “64” in their titles, like Super Mario 64, Donkey Kong 64, and Wave Race 64, and you’ve got a library that’s always going to be tied to its original console.

On top of that, games like Super Mario 64 and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time are revered today for revolutionizing their genres, and they’re also popular as speedrun games online. So people who like watching live streams or YouTube videos will likely be exposed to the Nintendo 64 library frequently, further cementing its modern popularity.

Up to now, my posts have always revolved around a single topic that is backed up by the facts, but in this case, the results of the poll went against what you might expect when looking at the raw data and sales numbers, which I thought was pretty interesting! I’m interested in hearing from you readers: do you think these results would be the same if the survey had been given to a wider audience?

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Wesley Naylor is a second-year student of the Professional Writing program who thinks games are rather neat! He likes learning about what goes into the development of games and seeing how they’ve evolved over time.

He also likes writing... and on this blog, he can combine those interests, just for you!

Speedrunning - A Quick History

Super Mario 64 Trash Edition Release Video.

Video game challenge playthroughs aren’t anything new. Players of all ages and skill levels compete on various objectives; some official and in-game, others self-imposed or modded in. In some circles, there are even mods and ROM hacks upping the difficulty of long-standing favourites. For example, a friend of mine recently published a ROM hack of Super Mario 64, called “Trash Edition”. According to them, there’s even a competition to see who can beat the four most difficult levels without save-states.

However, there is a certain type of challenge run universally beloved and revered: Speedruns. If a video game exists, there is most likely at least one person to have speedrun it. Challenges range from awe-inspiring to absolutely absurd.

A great example of the absurd is Twilight Princess’s Low Percent Runs. To goal of this run is to reach the end of the game with as little progress as possible. Fewest dungeons, fewest items, etc. The goal is no longer speed, necessarily. So, it’s no surprise that these runs are 20 hours long.

To make this run work, a skip was found in the form of an animation error. You see, when Link picks up a rupee in the game, the game pauses to let you stare at this new development. However, the animators accidentally left out a crucial frame, and so, on each run through of the animation, Link edges backwards. In this state, he can even slide through barriers. So, theoretically, if you leave your game running just long enough, you can slide right through a barrier, and skip entire dungeons. Sure, it’s not a time save, but it’s an effective Low Percent strategy.

Regardless, all speedrunning takes years of hard work, technique refinement, and practice. Runners push the limits of human gaming to blast through games and are hypnotizing to watch. So, how did this phenomenon begin? Let’s dive in.

The Dawn of Speedrunning

Speedrunning predates the internet, with records chronicled in gaming magazines, having been mailed in, and published in various issues. However, with the rise of the internet, there was a boom in activity. Now you could submit videos of your runs, and chat in real time about routes. Websites began popping up to record the fastest times through different games, and the highest scores.

Generally, there is a consensus that Doom was the first game to have developed a community around speedrunning in the early 90s. Embedded in the game itself, there were features that allowed players to record reliable evidence of their run through the game. Even better, an end screen showed the completion time. This ease of access to speedrunning proof, plus the rise of Usenet and internet forums, birthed the community.

The header of Speed Demos Archive’s current Homepage. Screenshot Taken By Me.

Then, in 1996, Nightmare Speed Demos launched itself onto the scene. It began as a leaderboard for runs through the game Quake on the hardest difficulty. As speed-running gained steam, the website branched out, first to Metroid in 2000, and soon was one of the best catalogues for speed-running. The website is still available now, under the name Speed Demos Archive, and one can scrounge through the old files, links, and threads.

The Dawn of the Tool-Assisted Speedrun

Another major achievement was reached in 2003, when a TAS was created for Super Mario Bros. 3 garnered huge attention. Though it was not the first created (that honour goes once more to Doom), it brought the concept to a wider audience. A TAS, or Tool-Assisted Speedrun, is a run not played by an actual person, but are emulated to achieve the best theoretical times and routes through a game. The tool runs through the game frame-by-frame to achieve pixel perfect timing and runs, that push the limits of the game. They are not actually admissible (legally) to leaderboards, due to the aforementioned lack of player. They’re fascinating to watch, as they launch from the edges of ledges and move faster than one would think possible.

Posted by zVyper, this is a former World Record for the Path of Pain.

Through the years, as new skips and glitches are found and used, there has been one constant; the speedrunning community remains an accepting and strong community. Where at the start, runs were recorded on old cameras, or in game, now each run can be streamed to a live audience. There are catalogues of runs on Speedrun.com, YouTube and Twitch that are incredible to witness. For example, fans of Hollow Knight will appreciate this speedrun of the hardest parkour section in the game; The Path of Pain.

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Image From Pexels (Nathan J Hilton)

When Sarah isn’t hostage to her cat’s snuggles, she can often be found playing Stardew Valley or Minecraft. Raised on the Nintendo Wii, she’s had a life-long love of video games and hopes to express this passion through her writing. Some of her favourite games include – Paper Mario (N64, 2000), Super Paper Mario (Wii, 2007), Mario Galaxy, Hollow Knight, and Undertale.

A Brief History of Minecraft

Minecraft is a fairly popular game. Just about everyone knows about the likes of Steve or Alex and their adventures on the overworld, in the Nether or in the End. Minecraft has near-endless possibilities of play, from simple building with Creative Mode to gearing up to fight a dragon on Survival (or even vice versa if you’re feeling particularly challenged or bored). However just like everyone else, Minecraft didn’t start as one of the biggest sandbox gaming franchises spanning multiple consoles. It was once a little indie game with littler content and just as much heart as its present-day self.

The Java edition was first launched some time in 2010, first named Minecraft Infdev (before being changed to Alpha v1.0.0 following the release of Alpha v1.0.1). It was about as bare-bones Minecraft as you could get. There was no hunger bar in Survival mode, consumables didn’t stack…It didn’t take much for newer versions to make it pale in comparison. The world was still huge, however; leaving much up for imagination. Later updates would add more life with hostile mob sounds, more believable mob behaviour, different biomes and worlds; and (even later) different types and living styles of villagers, making the world seem more open.

It didn’t take long for YouTubers to pick up the game and use it for content. Even before the sudden explosion of Minecraft Youtubers coming to the popular eye in 2020, Minecraft was milked for all its entertainment value was worth. Mods were made for it as early as 2010, the earliest speedrun found is dated 2012 and kids just about everywhere were making YouTube accounts and bullshitting totally real sightings of Herobrine or other “secrets”. This explosion of activity on the web likely served to make it more popular and Minecraft was just about set for life. Who needs advertising when the player base can practically do it for you?

The mobs also have their own history. Just about everyone has heard about how the creeper came to be, but there are more curiosities than that.

Sheep and pigs were the first passive mobs, to no one’s surprise. In the very first version of Minecraft, sheep were incredibly easy to shear, as brought up above. (You could also make armour out of their wool, which makes no sense whatsoever, but that’s neither here nor there.)

Zombies, skeletons, spiders and creepers were also pretty close to the beginning, coming in Java 0.24 Survival_Test. Endermen came in a later Adventure update, giving players a humanoid sort of friendly companion (so long as no eye contact was made), albeit one with zombie placeholder sounds. The vwoops we are now familiar with were added later.
After them came the Ender dragon, then the Nether with all it’s lovely little creatures, then the Witch and Zombie Villagers in what’s titled the Pretty Scary Update, then the pillagers in the overarching Village And Pillage update.

The Ender dragon even brought her own world with her. The End was added in the same update she was, giving a hollow-feeling alternative to the incoming Nether. Three times the worlds, all the more fun!

But there aren’t only passive mobs and aggressive mobs. There are also the fan-favourite wolves who debuted in Version 1.4. The wolves have a lot of history in their own right; starting from artificially idiotic damage sponges to path-finding, loyal fighters in their own right. Wolves are one of a players’ best friends aside from the pickaxe and the sword, attacking anyone the player hits (and even whoever hits the player themselves, like an guard/attack dog).

Minecraft is still going through updates to this day. The development team is still looking for new ways to send chills down players spines or make them go “aaaaaw!”. The game shows no signs of ever being fully completed as more intelligent, creative or threatening mobs and areas get added, tinkered with and moved around from area to area.

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Kate Bell is an avid fan of horror, trying to take in as much as they can without getting grossed out by gore. They are also a bit of a history buff, picking apart elements of animation history and the two world wars to garner as much knowledge as possible (good or bad). The history of video games has often been fascinating to them and they hope to learn as much as they can right along with you, the reader.

Kate lives in the country on a hobby farm, having daily battles with shitty wifi and shittier patience. Their sanity anchor? Hope…And loud music.

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Kid Icarus: The Best Nintendo Series You Never Played

Gameplay of Kid Icarus on the NES // Courtesy of Wikipedia

While Nintendo has created countless franchises that have become defining icons of the videogame space, there also many that have not gained the level of love and attention that they probably deserve. Kid Icarus is one such series.

The Original Kid Icarus was released in December 1986 for the Famicom Disk system in Japan, though the western release was an altered version for cartridges. It had initially been the passion project of a single man, Toru Osawa. Kid Icarus was Osawa’s very first game after joining Nintendo’s RaD1 department. When they had told him he could make any game he wanted, Osawa chose to make an action game based a Greek Mythology, which he was always a big fan of. What he was not told, however, was that he would be the only person working on the game for several months.

By the time other RaD1 employees joined the project after finishing Metroid, Osawa only had a few months left before the deadline, and he was nowhere near finished. With the extra talent on board, development sped up incredibly, but in the insane rush to meet the deadline, other creative voice notably changed the games tone. Osawa’s serious Greek myth became notably sillier and more cartoonish, with credit cards and Eggplant Wizards among other things. However, after months of struggle, the game was finished on time, and a new Nintendo franchise was born.

Pit and palutena as depited in super smash bros. brawl, the first appearance of their modern redesigns // courtesy of tenor user juks_fanterisen

The game sold moderately well and received a Gameboy sequel in 1991, but not much after that. For the next two decades the series was dormant outside of the odd cameo or reference in games like Kirby Super Star, WarioWare, or Super Smash Bros. Melee. The next major development for Kid Icarus was the inclusion of series hero Pit as a playable fighter in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, which was many fans initial introduction to the franchise. This also marked Smash Bros. creator Masahiro Sakurai’s first major involvement with Kid Icarus, though it certainly wasn’t the last.

When tasked with creating a new game for the upcoming 3DS, Sakurai came up with the idea for a shooter that would alternate between aerial and land-based battles. When considering Nintendo franchises to go with concept, Kid Icarus and its angelic hero fit the bill. Thus, was born 2012’s Kid Icarus Uprising, one of the great gems of the 3DS lineup.

This game breathed new life into the series. The 2D sidescrolling gameplay was completely reworked into a third person shooter. The story and characters were also vastly fleshed out, feeling like a full season of anime in a way that never interrupts with the pace of the gameplay. The seamless blend of gameplay and story with a loveable cast of humorous characters gave the series something it hadn’t had in decades, a genuine, passionate fanbase.

Despite Uprising’s success, not much has come from the series sense. Sakurai has increased the amount of Kid Icarus representation in later Super Smash Bros. games, adding new fighters, stages, and easter eggs, but that’s it. No sign of any new games. Not even any hints of a modern Uprising rerelease, a common fan request likely hindered by the games over reliance on 3DS specific gimmicks. Sakurai has expressed no interest in making a sequel, and with no news in a decade, it seems like the games newfound popularity still could not save it from the pit of forgotten Nintendo IP’s. However, in a time where we have recently gotten Metroid 5 and Pikmin 4, hope for a new Kid Icarus may not be completely dead. A new game is the last thing most would predict at after so long, but if there’s one consistent thing about Nintendo, it’s how unpredictable they are.

Kid icarus uprising’s land gameplay, shifting into a third person shooter // courtesy of game informer

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Gareth Myers - A hardcore casual fighting game scrub, childhood Nintendo baby, and practically the text book definition of a basement dwelling nerd. I have spent many an hour studying the history and art of videogames, when I probably should have spent that time learning even the most basic combos to avoid online bodying. I wish to one day use my writing talents to make my own sci-fi fantasy novels to bring my own characters and stories to life, but until then rambling about games for the internet will be fine enough practice.

From Princesses to Power Armour - The History of Female Representation in Games

If I were to ask you to think of a female video game character, what would be the first to come to mind? A lot of people would probably name the likes of Lara Croft, Samus Aran, or Princess Zelda.

Now think about who you picked. What kind of character are they? How are they depicted? Do they challenge stereotypes or reinforce them? Maybe the answer to those questions have changed throughout the character’s history. Let’s look at how depictions of female characters in video games have changed over time.

We have to go all the way back to the early 80s to meet the first playable female character in gaming. If you guessed Ms. Pac-Man was first, you’re very close! It was actually the titular star of a game called Ladybug, which was a Pac-Man knock-off released in 1981, whereas Ms. Pac-Man was released in 1982. Both games featured artwork on the sides of their arcade machines depicting their protagonists posing like old pin-up models, seen below.

art from Game Ms Pac-man // Courtesy of arcade-museum.com

Art from game Ladybug // courtesy of Screenrant.com

Bizarre as it may be to sexualize a hungry yellow circle, the artwork kicked off a trend of objectifying female characters that persists to this day. Despite that, it was undeniably significant to feature playable female characters for the first time, and it’s worth noting that Ms. Pac-Man was created out of appreciation for the large number of female gamers who helped make Pac-Man a huge success, not to attract women to the arcade.

Samus revealed // courtesy of thepopculturestudio.com

More female leads began to appear in the years that followed, though male protagonists still dominated screens. The number of leading ladies was still scant enough that it came as a shock when space-faring bounty hunter Samus Aran removed her helmet at the end of Metroid in 1986 and revealed she was a woman.

For the most part, female characters at that time were more akin to objectives than actual characters. Princess Peach from the Super Mario series and Princess Zelda from The Legend of Zelda franchise fulfilled the damsel in distress stereotype and needed to be rescued by the male heroes (and often still do today), and this trope would be repeated far too often throughout the industry.

An older version of lara croft vs. her modern design // courtest of aminoapps.com

Sexualized female characters have also been a persistent trend. A study of female video game characters spanning from 1983 to 2014 found that sexualization peaked in the mid-90s but has diminished since then. Perhaps its unsurprising then that Tomb Raider debuted around the same time as the peak.

Its protagonist, Lara Croft, is one of gaming’s most iconic heroines. She’s capable and badass, but also oversexualized, further reinforcing an already unrealistic standard of beauty. The trend continued, especially in male-dominated genres like fighting games, with series like Soul Calibur and Dead or Alive leaning particularly hard into hyper-sexualization (the latter series even produced an infamous beach volleyball spinoff).

Ellie in the last of us part 1 // courtesy of pcgamesn.com

Thankfully, in the modern era of gaming things have been trending away from stereotypes. Female characters now often aren’t just damsels, or sexy, or one-note badasses. Increasingly, effort has been made to make them interesting, thoughtfully-written characters first and foremost, such as Ellie in The Last of Us or Edelgard in Fire Emblem: Three Houses. Even Lara Croft has gotten a more realistic makeover in recent years, and greater care has been taken to make her personality more relatable and human.

There’s been some pushback against these modern trends. While developers strive to make characters more realistic, some gamers have complained that female characters are becoming too ugly. A lot of that is coming from men, and it’s kind of a gross take.

There are also women, however, who have noted a trend of “strong” female characters being depicted as women who exclusively exhibit traditionally masculine traits. There’s obviously space for this kind of character – people are diverse and nuanced after all – but these commentators argue that this shouldn’t become the only depiction of what a strong woman can be. A character can be strong and feminine at the same time. A character being attractive is fine too; the important thing is not to oversexualize.

Above all else, characters, female or otherwise, are most interesting when they’re written well. In that regard, I think the industry is moving in a positive direction.

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Chris Hodgins is an aspiring writer and avid gamer, which is probably obvious enough from his involvement in this blog. He’s also a cat whisperer with wild dreams of opening a cat sanctuary someday, if he ever manages to strike it rich. Until then, he spends his time gaming, writing, and sharing his life with his lovely wife and three furry kids.

What Came Before Kaizo? [The History of Unfair Games]

Thumbnails from JaidenAnimations, Huebi, and Patterrz // Image edited by Me

“Kaizo” is a word that strikes fear into the hearts of many. If you’re not familiar with the term, just look it up on YouTube, and you’ll quickly find thumbnails featuring people having the time of their lives.

Game: Kaizo mario world // image courtesy of gifer

The term “kaizo” refers to games—or modified versions of existing games—that are intensely difficult, often to the point of being unfair. It began with the release of Kaizo Mario World, a hack of Super Mario World, and you can see what it looks like in the image on the right.

While the term is most commonly associated with Mario games, people have since made similar hacks for series like Pokémon, The Legend of Zelda, and more. Kaizo games are now so infamous that some standalone indie games, like Linked Mask and Impulse, even use the term to describe their gameplay.

Kaizo games tend to be made by hobbyists, and the goal is to make them as brutal and unfair as possible. You might think this would just frustrate people, but they remain incredibly popular online. Given this fact, you might wonder whether games with unfair difficulty were notorious prior to Kaizo games and the Internet. The answer is yes, and the first game to do it was Takeshi's Challenge back in 1986.

Takeshi’s Challenge box // image courtesy of deviantart user retroreloads

Takeshi’s Challenge is a game directed by Takeshi Kitano, who’s famous as a film director, comedian, TV host, and more. Back in 1986, he worked with Taito, the company behind prolific games like Space Invaders, to create a game with his name attached. It’s renowned for being one of the most frustrating and confusing games ever made. For just a few examples of what you have to do over the course of the game, none of which are explained to you:

• To decipher a treasure map, you have to leave the game running idle for a full hour. Touching the controller even once forces you to restart the whole process, including re-obtaining the map! (You can alternatively leave the game running for more than five minutes, but less than ten, then scream into the microphone.)

• At one point, there’s a side-scrolling shooting section similar to games like Gradius. But taking a single hit gets you a Game Over, and the controls are intentionally obtuse, preventing you from moving upwards!

• Like many older games, your progress is saved and loaded using passwords. But you can even get a Game Over on the title screen if you input your password wrong!

These are just a few examples. The entire game is full of confusing mechanics and frustrating sections just like those. And again, none of this is explained to you, making it difficult to know how to get to those sections to begin with. Many games from this era, like Battletoads and Ghosts ‘n Goblins, are known for being difficult, but Takeshi’s Challenge is nearly unplayable without a guide.

source: game center cx // image edited by me

So how did a game like this come to be officially released by an actual game company? The very first episode of the popular Japanese TV show Game Center CX, released in 2003, offers some insight.

In this episode, the show’s host, Shinya Arino, meets with Tetsuo Egawa, who was on the sales team for Takeshi’s Challenge. According to Egawa, the game’s developers would meet with Kitano for dinner. Kitano would become drunk and provide ideas for the game… and the developers would implement all of them. It also seems that the frustration was intentional, as the game’s ending features Kitano asking why the player took it so seriously. It was a game intentionally designed to be unfair, just like the Kaizo games that came years later!

game: takeshi’s challenge // image courtesy of nico nico pedia

Yet somehow, just like Kaizo games, Takeshi’s Challenge gained wide notoriety. The game sold 800,000 copies, got inducted into a Hall of Fame for its infamy at Tokyo Game Show 2007, and there were even plans to do a stage adaptation of it! Perhaps most amazingly, Microsoft tried to get a sequel made for the original Xbox! It didn’t end up happening, but it goes to show the legacy the game has.

What can we learn from this? Well, plenty of games fade into obscurity because they’re unintentionally annoying to play, but maybe the key to making a popular game is to make it annoying on purpose.

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Wesley Naylor is a second-year student of the Professional Writing program who thinks games are rather neat! He likes learning about what goes into the development of games and seeing how they’ve evolved over time.

He also likes writing... and on this blog, he can combine those interests, just for you!

Majora's Mask - A Memorable Game With A Chaotic Backstory

In 1987, Shigeru Miyamoto released the first installment of the now famous Legend of Zelda series to the world. It quickly exploded into international success, and has spawned 20 main series games, many spin-off adventures, and has forever embedded itself into the psyche of Nintendo gamers. Even those with a passing knowledge about gaming can quote the famous line; “It’s dangerous to go alone! Take this!” or “I am Error” from the sequel. After the long wait for the newest instalment in the series, Tears of the Kingdom, one can’t help but be reminded of the insane development time of another, much earlier entry into the series: Majora’s Mask.

NOrth American box Art for the initial release of Majora’s Mask. Image from Wikipedia.

            To refresh some memories, and to enlighten those unfamiliar; Majora’s Mask followed quickly on the heels of Ocarina of Time, one of the best-selling Legend of Zelda games of all time. When development began, Miyamoto simply wanted an expansion for Ocarina of Time using the new Nintendo 64DD tech. When used, it could add an entirely new adventure, remixing the old one, and even having enemies do double damage. But Eiji Aonuma wasn’t inspired to remix the dungeons he had just finished developing and brought his concerns to Miyamoto. In response, Miyamoto offered a challenge; complete an entirely new game in one year, and they would scrap the expansion.

            At the time, the company was competing with PlayStation, and though they had just hit success, Ocarina of Time had taken 5 years to create, after Link’s Awakening’s release in 1993. To continue trying to outpace their competition, they needed to speed up production and cut budget costs significantly.

The game ended up taking on an even darker twist than Ocarina of Time, trapping the young Link in a three-day time loop, a play on Ocarina of Time’s time travel mechanic. At the end of the three days, he faces impending doom at the “hands” of a falling moon and the titular “Majora’s Mask”. Throughout his journey across Termina, an entirely new landscape from the regular Hyrule he normally ventures through, there are themes of grief, loss, and inevitability. Though familiar assets are used, the game feels entirely new and fresh.

            The game isn’t without flaws, of course. Aonuma and some of the developers have long disliked the final product, even if fans of the series adore Majora’s Mask. More recently, the game received a 3DS remake, and to develop it, Aonuma was tasked with replaying the original, an experience that he disliked. From this playthrough, he developed what he called the “What in the world list” and changed them to better fit the Zelda formula and make the game more intuitive.

The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask (3ds Remake). Photo taken by me.

            In the end, while the game has become one of the more memorable entries in the series, it was mainly an elaborate and rushed project, which has become somewhat of a regret from the people who made it. While it has had some market success, selling 3.36 million copies since its release, the insane development schedule has never worked successfully again. Ocarina of Time’s dungeons did end up getting remixed, as an extra “Master Quest” with the 3DS remake.

Over the years, it’s been taking longer to develop main series games. Tears of the Kingdom took 6 years, beginning its development in 2017. Ironically, it started the same way; it began as DLC and expanded into a full game. It matched and exceeded expectations coming off of Breath of the Wild, and was a wonderful sequel game, and another shining achievement amongst the stars of the series.

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Nathan J Hilton “Game Controllers on a Wooden Desk” Pexels https://www.pexels.com/photo/game-controllers-on-a-wooden-desk-12672185/.

When Sarah isn’t hostage to her cat’s snuggles, she can often be found playing Stardew Valley or Minecraft. Raised on the Nintendo Wii, she’s had a life-long love of video games and hopes to express this passion through her writing. Some of her favourite games include – Paper Mario (N64, 2000), Super Paper Mario (Wii, 2007), Mario Galaxy, Hollow Knight, and Undertale.

Resident Evil: Survival Horror's Parent

Almost everyone knows about the Resident Evil series. This series spans several years and just about as many storylines; following sometimes larger-than-life characters in their treks to either stop or survive the main evil. Maybe even doing both, in the case of at least one character. When people are asked to name a horror game, a Resident Evil title may be on the list.
Have you ever wondered just how Resident Evil became such a mainstay in the horror genre of video games? The series is older than I am; potentially just as old as some of you (if not a year or two older). Games in recent days either catapult to the top or fade away soon after publishing, but Resident Evil stays strong. How is that?

The answer may lie in part of the series’ development over time. Starting with the first Resident Evil game being called a survival horror—one of the first in a new genre—and being successful enough to garner two sequels, it was off to a strong start. After several years, many games and an overarching storyline building, the producer Masachika Kawata decided to return lost focus on to horror and suspense, shaking off some of the action in a bid to put more money behind survival horror stories. To quote Kawata:

“Survival horror as a genre is never going to be on the same level, financially, as shooters and much more popular, mainstream games. At the same time, I think we need to have the confidence to put money behind these projects, and it doesn’t mean we can’t focus on what we need to do as a survival horror game to meet fan’s needs.”

The cover image for Resident Evil: Biohazard, the 22nd game of the Resident Evil franchise. c. IGN

This focus on the horror aspect of survival HORROR started a noticeable shift in their games and stories. Resident Evil 7: Biohazard started a new storyline based off superhuman-strength inducing fungi and a country cannibal family, with the player taking control of an ordinary man. Resident Evil Village, released in 2021, featured the same man attacking an entire village with the end goal of getting his daughter back safely; stuck using only his smarts, sheer luck and whatever weapons he could get his hands on or afford. The cannibal country family was a horrific threat all their own, the village “people” and their backstories being added only made the poor guy’s life worse. The new engine rendering all of this seems to have proven that Kawata has put the money where his mouth is.

This decision to focus on the horror genre evidently stuck Resident Evil as a staple of the survival horror genre’s history in video games. Resident Evil is probably one of the oldest horror-based game series still going strong today. While its characters may be utterly forgettable or overly cheesy to some, others still hold them close to their heart; and almost all play their games mostly for the horror if not for the story still spinning.

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Kate Bell is an avid fan of horror, trying to take in as much as they can without getting grossed out by gore. They are also a bit of a history buff, picking apart elements of animation history and the two world wars to garner as much knowledge as possible (good or bad). The history of video games has often been fascinating to them and they hope to learn as much as they can right along with you, the reader.

Kate lives in the country on a hobby farm, having daily battles with shitty wifi and shittier patience. Their sanity anchor? Hope…And loud music.

A render of fictional corperation umbrella’s logo. c. steam community workshop

Were The 2000's Really a 'Dark Age" for Fighting Games?

The period from 2000 to 2008 often holds a bad reputation amongst the Fighting Game Community (FGC), often being referred to as “the Dark Age of Fighting Games”. But was it really that dark? How accurate is this moniker? Let’s take a good, hard look at the state of the genre and its community at that time to see how dark things truly were.

If we look at the fighting games that were released during this period, the sheer number certainly decreases around 2000, but the actual quality and reputation of many of these titles already put the “Dark Age” moniker into question. Right off bat, the first two years include such landmark titles as Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 and Capcom Vs. SNK 2, both beloved classics that are still praised to this day. Of course, these are the last big fighters Capcom would release until 2008’s Street Fighter 4, which left a massive vacuum to fill. Let’s look at the other notable series and developers to see how they fared in an industry that had lost its king.

Opening cinematic of tekken 5/ Courtesy of the fighters generation.com

SoulCalibur 2 released in 2002 to immediate acclaim, propelling that series to the highest heights it has ever seen, and being a must have title of that era. Its follow up didn’t sell nearly as much, mainly because of its PS2 exclusivity, but SoulCalibur 2 remained a very influential game in the space at that time. Bandai Namco’s other fighting franchise Tekken almost had the opposite arc during these years. Tekken 4 is generally considered one of the weaker entries in the franchise, but Tekken 5 did incredibly well, being the second most successful entry at the time. Overall, Bandai Namco’s fighters had their highs and lows during this period, but the highs were nothing to scoff at.

When it comes to Mortal Kombat the 2000’s were a very odd period. The games released back then hold a reputation not unlike the Star Wars prequel trilogy, being widely mocked laughing stocks for the longest time, until a recent emergence of nostalgic fans sparked a re-evaluation of sorts. Many now fondly remember many of the traits introduce in this era, from certain kharacters to the approach to single player kontent and game modes. The first game in this era, Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance was the only one to reach notably high sales.

King of FIghters 2002 Gameplay/ courtesy of kyoflameashyden on Deviantart.com

Plenty of developers and series were filling the space as well at this time. Capcom’s old rival SNK was also hit hard by the decline of arcades, but still continued pumping out fighters. With the likes of the NESTS saga of King of Fighters, the fan favourite KOF 2002, and more Samurai Shodown titles, they kept their presence alive and their fans entertained. They weren’t gaining much attention outside of their pre-existing following though. Arc System Works’ Guilty Gear series was slowly but surely building a loyal community that would eventually become a juggernaut many years later. Tecmo’s Dead or Alive series was releasing its most beloved titles and doing quite well, despite (or perhaps because) of the reputation it garnered from its heavy sexualization. As we can see plenty of games were coming out, though most weren’t making much of a splash outside of their own small circles.

Guilty Gear xx accent core plus r character select screen/ courtesy of Steam

Gameplay screenshot of Dead or alive 4/ Courtesy of Neoseeker.com

Upon analysis, it seems that the problem wasn’t a lack of games, or even a lack of good games, but rather an absence of truly huge breakout titles. No one had managed to fill the same role Street Fighter once had, as the singular must-play game everything revolved around. There was no core blockbuster game that the entire community collectively bolstered as one. The FGC was less one big entity supporting the whole genre and more a collective of smaller communities built around specific games. Without its king or the bonding glue of arcade culture, the community was fractured, and no one else could put it back together. Everyone sticking to their own self-contained little bubbles caused the genre and its community to mostly go under the radar. Fighting games were not at all ‘dead’ during the so called ‘Dark Age’ but they were largely unseen with a few exceptions. It was less a ‘Dark Age’ and more of a ‘Dormant Age’ before the rise of online play and the return of Street Fighter would initiate another boom around 2009.

Street Fighter 4 banner/ Courtesy of interace in game.com

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Gareth Myers - A hardcore casual fighting game scrub, childhood Nintendo baby, and practically the text book definition of a basement dwelling nerd. I have spent many an hour studying the history and art of videogames, when I probably should have spent that time learning even the most basic combos to avoid online bodying. I wish to one day use my writing talents to make my own sci-fi fantasy novels to bring my own characters and stories to life, but until then rambling about games for the internet will be fine enough practice.

Difficulty and Accessibility - Not an Easy History

Do you like hard games? I know I do. Games like Bloodborne and Monster Hunter are among my favourites of all time, and both are well known for the intense challenge they offer. There’s a certain sense of pride to be had from facing up against a difficult obstacle, like a tough boss or a tricky puzzle, and overcoming it through skill and wit. A lot of us think that challenge is what makes games fun. But what if the obstacle you’re faced with isn’t a boss or a puzzle, but your ability to read text on the screen or make out colours and objects? What if you can’t reach every button on a controller at the same time? For gamers with disabilities, struggling to simply play a game isn’t fun. Thankfully, a lot of modern games include accessibility features like subtitles, colour-blind modes, descriptive audio, customizable controls, and some developers have even experimented with high-contrast filters for the visually impaired. One simple way to help make games more accessible is to select an easier difficulty option. But with this last option comes a sense of derision from the gaming community. Why is that?

Game: Pac-man // courtesy of vintagearcade.net

Back in the late 70s and 80s, arcades were at their peak popularity. Games like Donkey Kong and Space Invaders turned the industry into a titan of entertainment, raking in $8 billion in the US alone in 1981. How’d they do this? Easy. They were hard. Difficult arcade games meant kids would keep spending coins to try and beat them – after all, if they actually won, they’d be satisfied and might stop playing. Of course, if they were too hard, gamers would quit because the game felt cheap, and so a careful balance had to be struck. For all their difficulty though, these games were generally simple to control. Some games, like Pac-Man, only required you to operate a single joystick to play. This meant that gamers with physical disabilities were generally able to play, though difficulty still proved to be a hurdle. One of the earliest home consoles, the Atari, emulated this simplicity, so much so that John Dutton, a quadriplegic gamer, was able to operate it, though it took a little modification. The Atari even had switches that could modify difficulty, making it more accessible than arcade machines.

the nes hands free // courtesy of Ian hamilton

Home video game consoles rose to prevalence with the release of the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1985. A lot of conventions carried over from arcades, like lives, continues, and of course, making games tough as nails. A lot of older gamers could probably trace their anger management issues back to Battletoads on the NES. One thing was certainly new though: the controller was designed to be held in two hands with thumbs resting over the buttons. Between the more complex controller and games so tough that “Nintendo hard” became a saying, things were getting tougher for disabled gamers (to their credit, though, Nintendo did eventually create an accessible device called the NES Hands Free).

As tech got better in the 90s, it became easier for developers to implement multiple difficulty modes, and the practice became widespread to broaden the appeal of video games. Was this finally the start of gaming becoming a more accessible hobby? Yes and no. There were more options, but some developers gave these new modes colourful names, with dangerous, cool-sounding names like ‘nightmare’ or ‘legendary’ for harder difficulties and belittling names like ‘baby’ or ‘timid’ for easier ones. Wolfenstein took things a step further by labelling its easiest mode ‘Can I play, Daddy?’ The accompanying image of the protagonist wearing a bonnet with a pacifier in his mouth added insult to injury.

Game: Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus // Courtesy of SVG.com

Is this funny? You could argue that, sure. But it also feeds a toxic culture where the hobby is gatekept by self-declared elite gamers, and anybody who dares to play on a lower setting is shamed. Ask for advice on any gaming forum and it’s almost assured that the first response you’ll get is “git gud.” Modern games are much more diverse than their arcade predecessors, and many have done away with concepts like scoreboards and limited tries in favour of art and experience. The options are expanded too, with many devs making accessibility a priority. This also means more creative attempts at managing difficulty, like Nintendo’s Funky Mode in Donkey Kong: Tropical Freeze or Assist Mode in Super Mario Odyssey. Despite these steps forward by devs, some gamers balk at the very idea of making games easier. Any attempt at discussion about adding difficulty options to games like Elden Ring elicits pushback and contempt. At best, it’s elitism. At worst, it’s ableism. In either case, it’s toxic.

Difficulty is malleable. It arises when a player meets an obstacle and is relative from player to player. The goal should be to achieve enjoyable difficulty, not frustrating difficulty. Not every video game is made for everyone, sure, but everyone should be able to at least play without being barred by a lack of accessibility, and difficulty options are a part of that.

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Chris Hodgins is an aspiring writer and avid gamer, which is probably obvious enough from his involvement in this blog. He’s also a cat whisperer with wild dreams of opening a cat sanctuary someday, if he ever manages to strike it rich. Until then, he spends his time gaming, writing, and sharing his life with his lovely wife and three furry kids.

3D Platform Games - Who Made Them First?

game: super mario bros. // image courtesy of super mario wiki

If you were to take someone who’s never played a game before and ask them what games they’ve heard of, there’s a good chance the ones they name might be platformers. Originally gaining popularity back in the 1980s with games like Super Mario Bros. and Pitfall!, platform games would go on to become some of the most recognizable games of all. This is still true today! Entries in the long-running Super Mario series continue to sell several million copies each, and even new platformers from unproven developers, like Celeste and A Hat in Time, have managed to achieve massive success.

Part of the reason the genre has endured for so long is because, like many other genres, it’s innovated over the years. On older hardware, platform games were, for the most part, strictly two-dimensional. You’d move left and right, jump up and down, and that was it. But as technology advanced and new hardware released, the genre evolved. Today, 2D platformers now exist alongside 3D platformers, which let you move in all directions. How did this version of the platformer come to be? What was the first 3D platformer?

The answer might depend on how you define it. In the 80s, platformers with primitive 3D gameplay actually did exist; games like 3-D WorldRunner attempted to provide a 3D experience on hardware that could only render 2D imagery. But these games weren’t actually 3D. They got as close as they could for the time, but it was still a 2D game trying to emulate a 3D look. But if you’d consider games like this to be 3D games, then 3D platformers got their start back in the 80s!

game: 3-D Worldrunner // image courtesy of nazology

However, I think many people might instead consider Super Mario 64, which came out in 1996, to be the first “modern” 3D platformer. It introduced many of the mechanics that have become staples of the genre today, and was unlike any of the games that had come before it. Super Mario 64 revolutionized 3D platformers in the same way that Super Mario Bros. had for 2D platformers years earlier. But despite being the first game to feature many of the genre’s now-staple mechanics, Super Mario 64 wasn’t the first 3D platformer.

game: alpha waves // image courtesy of reddit user Otherwise_Basis_6328

That title goes to Alpha Waves. It’s even got a Guinness World Record for it! This game was released for PCs in 1990, nearly six years before Super Mario 64. In Alpha Waves, you jump through a series of fully 3D levels, and attempt to make it to the goal in each level to move on to the next one. This concept is essentially the same as traditional 2D platformers. The visuals were also quite simple, featuring blocky, polygonal objects with nothing but solid colours to distinguish them. However, it stood out because nothing like it had ever been done before. The game was in full 3D, and you could go in any direction. So while Alpha Waves didn’t have the dramatic, long-term impact on the 3D platformer genre that some later games did, it was the very first!

One of Alpha Waves’s most obvious differences compared to modern 3D platformers is in the controls. In Alpha Waves, you can’t precisely control your direction. Pressing up or down on the arrow keys will rotate the camera around you, and pressing left or right will change the direction you’re facing. Then you press the space bar to accelerate forward at a fixed speed. You can’t jump manually, either! Instead, you have to move onto platforms that automatically make you jump, and send you higher with each bounce. It’s almost like you’re lining up shots! You aim yourself in the direction you want to go, and then try to accelerate far enough to fall onto the next platform without overshooting it. It’s definitely primitive, even compared to the 3D platformers that came just a few years later, but this control scheme makes Alpha Waves a unique experience, even today! If you’re a fan of 3D platformers, then it’s definitely worth trying. Seeing how far a genre has come can also help you appreciate aspects of newer games that you might not otherwise think about!

If you want to try Alpha Waves yourself, it’s available right here!

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Wesley Naylor is a second-year student of the Professional Writing program who thinks games are rather neat! He likes learning about what goes into the development of games and seeing how they’ve evolved over time.

He also likes writing... and on this blog, he can combine those interests, just for you!

Introduction

Hi, welcome to Pixel Generations! Have you ever wondered about how video games have come this far? We hope to enlighten you on this subject. Join us on this venture to the past as we explore the journey of video games, from joystick to Joy-Con.