Here’s an interesting thought-experiment: think about British-developed computer games from the 1980s. Which games do you instantly think of?
Nintendo
“Like” if you remember Nintendo Power. Yeah the magazine.
Alyse Knorr opens her delightful Super Mario Bros. 3 by posing three interrelated questions: “Why does everyone love this game so much? Why do I love it so much? Why was it so incredibly successful?”
First, a word or two about who these books are for. For you, probably, if you’re taking the time to wonder about this at all. And, if you’re feeling generous, maybe for your brother or sister who used to play 8-bit Super Mario and Final Fantasy games with you at your old house growing up.
“Affliction comes to us, not to make us sad but sober; not to make us sorry but wise.”
-H. G. Wells
I can show you a Super Mario World, shining, shimmering, splendid.
Super R-Type is brutal, flashy, explosive, everything that you’d expect from a space shoot ’em up from the 1990s!
Kirby’s Dream Land shows its age in many ways but it marked the first outing of Sakurai’s pink (or white) puffball hero.
Let’s Go Pikachu (and Let’s Go Eevee) remakes, rebalances, and represents the classic Red and Blue (and Green) games but does it go too far?
SNK 40th Anniversary Collection has more games than the PS1 mini and it doesn’t include a bunch that you’ve already played a billion times.
Porky Pig’s Haunted Holiday reminds us that even on the mighty SNES, some memories are better off left buried.
Certainly, I’m sure you’re very busy and I’m very busy and maybe we don’t have as much time to play games as we would like. But my hope is that with Nintendo Switch being a system that you can play at home and bring with you, we’re going to be able to find more of those moments where we’re able to play the games that we all enjoy and be able to enjoy them that much more.
-Yoshiaki Koizumi
It is better to conquer yourself than to win a thousand battles. Then the victory is yours. It cannot be taken from you, not by angels or by demons, heaven or hell.
-Buddha
Above all, video games are meant to just be one thing: Fun for everyone.
-Satoru Iwata
The DS represents a critical moment for Nintendo’s success over the next two years. If it succeeds, we rise to the heavens, if it fails, we sink into hell.
-Hiroshi Yamauchi
Please understand, I am not trying to say technology is unimportant. But if we are just focusing on technology… we will not succeed.
-Satoru Iwata
HERE COMES A NEW CHALLENGER!
My wife asked me what I wanted to do this weekend for Father’s Day and I thought about it… then a grin crept onto my face and I began writing this article.
Riffing on the anti-predictive post I crafted for the upcoming Smash Bros. Ultimate, here are like a billion honorable mentions that just couldn’t make it on my list of 24. Thank the internet for these (except for Altered Beast; I made that one)! Hire me, Nintendo.
Happy Father’s Day weekend!
-The Well-Red Mage
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This isn’t fun anymore…
-Zero, Mega Man Zero 2
Marvel: “Avengers Infinity War is the most ambitious crossover in history!”
Me:
The urge to miniaturize electronics did not exist before the space program. I mean our grandparents had radios that was furniture in the living room. Nobody at the time was saying, ‘Gee, I want to carry that in my pocket.’
-Neil deGrasse Tyson
Videogames were for everyone; they just didn’t realize it yet.
-Blake J. Harris, Console Wars: Sega, Nintendo, and the Battle that Defined a Generation
“Teach a man to fish and he’ll have learned how to fish. Teach a man to wish and he’ll never be satisfied.” Wisdom for E3.
I bought one of the first Nintendo systems and brought that home, and we were playing ‘Legend of Zelda’ at the time, and it was addicting, and I was playing it for hours and hours and hours.
-Robin Williams
I like living in my head because in there, everyone is kind and innocent. Once you start integrating yourself into the world, you realize that people are nasty, mean creatures. They’re worse than zombies. People try to crush your soul and destroy your happiness, but zombies just want to have a little nibble of your brain.
-J.Cornell Michel, Jordan’s Brains: A Zombie Evolution
“Children see magic because they look for it.”
― Christopher Moore
