Tech

“Now you’re playing with power!” Remember that little jingle? Neither do I, and I don’t blame you. Admittedly, that particular marketing campaign happened a bit before my time, but if you add in the clarifiers “Nintendo Entertainment System” and “1984,” you can start to picture the context in which that

It’s new console time, everybody! With the gaming world shifting slowly and bumpily into the eighth generation of game systems, it seems handhelds have become marketing guinea pigs, thrown into the tempestuous waters of the gaming sea either to sink or to swim. Nintendo was the first to introduce a

Last week, I went on a short rant about Nintendo, their blue ocean strategy and how it has negatively impacted the gaming industry as a whole by emphasizing simply designed, casual games over their previous, more complex “core games.” As it turns out, this topic irks me so much that

As the weather warms and my mind turns longingly to summer, free time and gaming, I find myself pondering the fate of the gaming industry. Longtime readers of this column will no doubt be aware that this is hardly a noteworthy activity for me, as I always seem to be

Today’s question is one of daunting proportions: “Describe video game homebrew culture and its connections to software piracy in approximately 800 words.” I’ve just wasted 24 of those words. Let’s not waste any more. Video game piracy is a hot-button issue no matter how you slice it. Gamers get passionate

Now that the new releases are taking a break for a few months, I’ve had some time to kick back, relax, and play a game that utterly disappointed me in nearly every major category that can be used to judge a video game. There’s hardly any point in beating around

Ah, gimmicks. You gamers out there probably know exactly what I’m talking about. “Gimmick” has become somewhat of a dirty word in the gaming scene as of late, usually referring to a game that relies on a cheap trick or whiz-bang mechanic to create the entire gameplay experience. Games of

It’s that time again. That magic season of red and green, elves and saints, trees and presents is, like the Polar Express, poised to drag us relentlessly on a rollercoaster of emotions and stress. It is never slowing, never breathing, and never stopping until we lay prostrate to our last

If you didn’t have enough reason to feel old already, ruminate on this fact for awhile: Sonic the Hedgehog turns 20 years old this year. That’s right, Sega’s most successful response to Nintendo’s Mario franchise has reached the two-decade mark, but has the franchise gotten wiser with age? The premise

Provocative title, I know. I’m in rant mode, and there’s a lot to say, so let’s dive right in with the requisite history. In 1983, the American home video game market experienced a massive crash, which some at the time claimed would be the death of the video game industry.