Everybody has to get their start somewhere.
For a lot of developers, that start often comes from an opportunity that’s slightly outside the game industry. But even after they’ve been at it for a few decades, some veteran designers need to get to a place where they can restart. And you can’t have a beginning without something else ending, like the game industry’s transition from CES to E3 in 1994-1995.
We’ll talk about all of these scenarios in this edition of Bite-Sized Game History.
After selling more than 200 million copies over the last decade, it’s hard to remember a time when Minecraft wasn’t nearly synonymous with the entire medium of video games. And though it was only available in an unfinished state from 2009 to 2011, it seemed to emerge from Mojang’s offices as a fully-formed phenomenon even in its earliest days.
So as players continued to flock to its Lego-like world in droves, it was a bit of a shock when the game was denied entry into the World Video Game Hall of Fame three separate times. Shortlisted as a finalist in 2015, 2016, and 2018, the title was passed over again and again and again. But Minecraft’s creative sandbox become too big to ignore this year, and it has finally been enshrined among gaming’s greats.
In a stunning upset, three unlikely candidates also garnered enough support from the Hall of Fame’s Selection Advisory Committee to join the Class of 2020. A genre-defining match-3 puzzler from PopCap (Bejeweled), a classic coin-op from Atari (Centipede), and one of earliest adventure titles from Sierra (King’s Quest) won out over more popular titles such as NBA Jam, GoldenEye 007, and Guitar Hero.
While this year’s class might look a little surprising, historians working at the Hall of Fame’s parent organizations, the Strong Museum and the International Center for the History of Electronic Games, helped put their importance into perspective.
Sega is celebrating their 60th anniversary this week, and the staff of Destructoid has marked the occasion with a look back at some of their favorite games from the publisher.
The list is pretty evenly split between Sega’s halcyon days as a consolemaker and their current status as a premier third-party partner to Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo. There’s even a few fond memories of Sega’s brief tenure as an arcade powerhouse.
CJ Andriessen kicked things off with a loving ode to The House of the Dead: Overkill, Sega’s grindhouse-inspired light gun game that launched for the Wii in 2009 (and was eventually re-released over the years for the PS4 and PC). Overkill was a great pick to start this retrospective, as everyone loves just how over-the-top and nasty it is, and for how it’s a fitting finale to the House of the Dead franchise… even though, chronologically, it comes first.
The rest of the staff each highlighted a different game from Sega’s history, and with each one falling into a different genre
Like Nintendo, Sega never let themselves be pigeonholed into a specialized niche, and their wide-ranging library includes titles that fall into every genre and subgenre, and the rest of the Destructoid staff picked games that reflect the company’s penchant for trying anything once:
▶ Jonathan Holmes selected Panzer Dragoon Saga, one of Sega’s epic RPGs from the Saturn era.
▶ Adzuken got behind the wheel of Out Run, Sega’s sunny arcade racer.
▶ Anthony Marzano confessed his love for Crazy Taxi, Sega’s kooky chauffeur simulation.
▶ Jordan Devore opened up about Yakuza 0, Sega’s sixth gangland tale from Japan.
▶ Josh Tolentino picked Sakura Wars, the first game in Sega’s anime-inspired strategy series.
▶ Patrick Hancock got colorful with Jet Set Radio, Sega’s dystopian graffiti game.
▶ And Chris Moyse stepped inside the circle for Virtua Fighter, Sega’s first attempt at a 3D fighter.
But as I said, Sega’s library is large and full of unique treasures. So be sure to dip into the comments at Destructoid for even more suggestions to celebrate Sega’s anniversary.
It’s rare for the critical consensus around the “Game of the Year” to stray beyond a handful of titles. But that’s exactly what happened in 2019, as three games split the major awards and nearly a dozen others laid claim to at least one publication-specific award.
Leading the pack, if you can even call it that, is From Software’s Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, which was the big winner at The Game Awards and the SXSW Gaming Awards. Then there was House House’s Untitled Goose Game, which waddled away with trophies from the DICE Awards and the GDC Awards. Finally, there’s Mobius Digital’s Outer Wilds, which won the big prize at the BAFTA Games Awards.
After that, it’s easy to go down the list and find a few highlights, including Remedy’s Control, Kojima Productions’s Death Stranding, and Capcom’s Resident Evil 2, all of which were recognized as the top title of 2019 by at least nine publications. And that’s not even getting into the massive traffic jam of titles that earned runner-up status. We might be heading into a transition year for the game industry, but 2019 was certainly a capstone year for this generation.
You can see all of the “Game of the Year” contenders from 2019 in the 2019 GOTY Scoreboard after the break.
The creators of Edge were forced to come up with something different for the newest issue of the long-running game magazine. Confined to their homes and forced to cancel a traditional print distribution for “E345” due to the coronavirus pandemic, the writers and editors sat down and channeled their feelings of frustration into “Feel Better,” a list of games that might just add some color to these dark times.
I’ll let the magazine’s Editor, Nathan Brown, explain:
The games we celebrate this issue share one defining characteristic. They make you feel better. Most are non-violent, or at least nonconfrontational – games for the monkey rather than the lizard brain, that are about helping others, not hindering them. Some combat the anxieties we all feel about the rapidly changing world around us; others offer an escape to a simpler, happier place. Most are suitable for the whole family. Above all they are games that will make you feel better when you stand up than you did when you sat down. We hope that reading about them helps in some way. It has certainly helped us to write about them.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons is there, of course, as are Stardew Valley and Minecraft. But “Feel Better” goes beyond those three to feature a total of 52 games, and each one is a gem.
There’s the bright colors and boundless energy of found in games like Jet Set Radio, Katamari Damacy, and Splatoon 2. Or you can unleash your inner musician with DJ Hero and Donkey Kong: Jungle Beat. Readers are even encouraged to get on their feet with recommendations for Ring Fit Adventure and Wii Sports Resort.
“Feel Better” is Brown’s final issue at the helm of Edge, and he should absolutely be proud of his work. The entire list can be found after the break.
Welcome to another edition of Bite-Sized Game History!
This time around we’ll be looking at the Animal Crossing: New Horizons habits of a few librarians at the Smithsonian, an infographic that charts the evolution of more than a dozen game characters, and the time Ken Griffey Jr. and one lucky Nintendo Power reader got to play a game on the Kingdome’s big screen.
Fans have been drawn to the colorful flavor of the Cooking Mama franchise ever since the first game was released for the DS in 2006. Dishing out meals alongside Mama has never been a particularly meaty experience, but the behind-the-scenes drama surrounding her latest entree, Cooking Mama: Cookstar for the Nintendo Switch, is definitely getting a little spicy.
I’d apologize for all those food puns, but trust me, you’re going to be hungry for more by the end of this.
Slant Magazine recently published a new update to their list of “The 100 Best Video Games of All Time,” and it looks like not much has changed since 2018.
The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask, the quirky and somewhat-polarizing sidequel to Ocarina of Time, took the top spot once again. While Link’s adventure in Termina doesn’t usually rank that high on other “Best Games” lists, Slant’s reshuffled Top Ten includes a lot of the usual big hitters… Final Fantasy VI (at #2), Super Mario Bros. 3 (at #3), Tetris (at #5), Metroid Prime (at #7), and Resident Evil 4 (at #8).
Old standbys may populate the top of the list, but Slant also elevated several more recent titles above the fray. A handful of titles were even added to a “Best Games” list for the first time… IO Interactive’s Hitman 2 (#97), Lucas Pope’s Return of the Obra Dinn (#53), Mobius Digital’s Outer Wilds (#37), and ZA/UM’s Disco Elysium (#32).
Slant Magazine’s latest rendition of “The 100 Best Video Games of All Time” will be included in the Video Game Canon’s upcoming Version 4.0 update.
The Goose had one last chance to steal a “Game of the Year” trophy at this morning’s 2019-2020 BAFTA Games Award, but alas, the prize for “Best Game” went to Mobius Digital’s Outer Wilds. The planetary exploration game also claimed two other BAFTAs, winning in the “Original Property” and “Game Design” categories.
One other game, ZA/UM’s Disco Elysium, also managed to collect three trophies during this year’s ceremony. The investigative RPG racked up wins for “Narrative,” “Music,” and “Debut Game.”
However, House House did not return home empty handed. The Australian developer’s Untitled Goose Game was selected as the winner in the “Family” category by the BAFTA committee.
As with this year’s other awards shows, the 2019-2020 BAFTA Games Awards was a digital-only affair, and you can watch a replay of the entire ceremony after the break (alongside a complete list of this year’s winners and nominees) or on YouTube.
I’m sure some people may enjoy it, but I am definitely not a fan of April Fool’s Day. I don’t know, calling someone a fool after you’ve deliberately lied to them just seems dumb. Pretty much the only thing this crummy holiday had going for it was the annual catalog of gag gifts from Thinkgeek. But this year we can’t even have that after the online storefront was shut down in June of 2019.
We’ll talk about the April Fool’s Day that could have been in this edition of Bite-Sized Game History, as well as a few video game-inspired board games, and just how much gold is hidden in Wolfenstein 3D.
