Hey everyone, Kam here, and I'm proud to say, that the two game showcase was officially a success! We got three great entries, with everyone picking completely different games. I hope you love reading this as much as I did. Cheers!
Julia L's Showcase
In my experience as someone who hasn’t played a large variety of games in my life the two that define me best are Diablo 2: Throne of Destruction and Minecraft. The genres are obviously not the same but they both have history with me.
Diablo 2 is the most significant video game of my life. I played that game since I was 10 and loved every hour strutting around as a Necromancer summoning huge mage skeleton armies and fire golems. When the expansion was released it was pretty much impossible to make me play anything other than druid. This game is one of my single favorite games because the plot has good direction, the characters are diverse yet all workable in single player mode and the international friendships I made I still remember to this day. Not to mention the discovery of hacked charms as a child had to be the single most entertaining thing a young girl could enjoy. I’d just walk out the gates of the Rogue Encampment and everything would just start dying around me with cries of shorted audio that sounded silly being cut off so fast. I have spent at least over 300 hours on Diablo 2 in my life so far and I still play it today, it's a great bonding game with my friends and I.
Minecraft on the other hand is only a recent discovery but is always a delight. I think anyone with a desire to be creative or just enjoys building things can come to love this game. I myself love the opportunities it brings for making fantasy easy to convert into a 3-D world. I myself have had tries at making Rivendell and Lothlorien, whereas my boyfriend has dabbled in Moria. It’s absolutely time consuming but never a waste of time. Minecraft is one of the best games I’ve ever played, it proves high graphics and flash aren’t needed for a good time… your creativity is sufficient enough, and they give you the building blocks!
Kyle L's Showcase
Super Metroid
Super Metroid embodies so much about video games that I love. For one, the Metroid franchise as a whole is all about exploring and figuring stuff out. It throws plenty of secrets in the game which always makes me feel like a genius for finding and which also makes figuring them out sometimes feel like the greatest revelation one could ever experience.
I play lots of different games for exploration and adventure, RPG’s and Platformers being two genres I play quite frequently, but this game possibly does it better than any game from either of those two categories I could mention.
I play lots of different games for exploration and adventure, RPG’s and Platformers being two genres I play quite frequently, but this game possibly does it better than any game from either of those two categories I could mention.
Another thing I love about Super Metroid is the feeling of progression the game gives you. Samus goes from having a tiny little pea shooter, a few missiles, no armor and barely any life to a plasma beam shooting, super missile launching, purple armored goddess who is the mighty hammer that will punish all evil which crosses her path (which is basically everything in the game).
Though all that may be true, the best part is not actually being the goddess and laying down the divine smack on Mother Brain at the end of the game (spoilers), but actually it’s the whole process in getting to that point. Every time you find/pick up a new power-up, it feels good. Really good.
I think possibly some other game could represent this better, but Super Metroid’s progression is extremely well done and when you pair it with all the other reasons I’ve mentioned, it makes the choice pretty obvious.
Though all that may be true, the best part is not actually being the goddess and laying down the divine smack on Mother Brain at the end of the game (spoilers), but actually it’s the whole process in getting to that point. Every time you find/pick up a new power-up, it feels good. Really good.
I think possibly some other game could represent this better, but Super Metroid’s progression is extremely well done and when you pair it with all the other reasons I’ve mentioned, it makes the choice pretty obvious.
I truly love the Metroid series, but out of all the games in the franchise, this is the one I’ve spent the most time on. I believe this is due to the fact that it does everything the Metroid franchise does so well, the best out of every game in fact. There are lots more reasons why I love this game, and there are certainly lots more reasons why it is so good, but I’m not here to list all those reasons. So there you go my two cents on why and how Super Metroid represents my taste in games.
Final Fantasy Tactics
Final Fantasy Tactics is a blend of two of my all time favorite genres of video game, Strategy and JRPG. It’s most certainly not my favorite JRPG and it’s definitely not my favorite Strategy game, but it blends the two so well that the choice seemed pretty obvious to use it as representative my taste in games. First off, the storyline is just what I want in a JRPG. It really doesn’t use a lot of the clichés of many JRPG’s I’m used to.
For a Final Fantasy title, the series which invented a lot of those clichés, that’s pretty amazing. The story’s world is one thing you’d probably notice that’s drastically different from other FF titles at the time.
Instead of basically a colorful techno-fantasia that blended elements of sci-fi and fantasy, you had a world that was seemingly based completely off our own in many ways (probably based around the time of the Crusades). The only real difference between it and medieval Earth was magic (and fantastical creatures, I guess). This instantly sets it apart from other JRPG’s coming out at the time, especially FF or any other games that square was coming out with.
For a Final Fantasy title, the series which invented a lot of those clichés, that’s pretty amazing. The story’s world is one thing you’d probably notice that’s drastically different from other FF titles at the time.
Instead of basically a colorful techno-fantasia that blended elements of sci-fi and fantasy, you had a world that was seemingly based completely off our own in many ways (probably based around the time of the Crusades). The only real difference between it and medieval Earth was magic (and fantastical creatures, I guess). This instantly sets it apart from other JRPG’s coming out at the time, especially FF or any other games that square was coming out with.
Not that I think or thought JRPG’s were bad by any means, it was just very unique. The art was really cool too, the character design especially had a real uniqueness to it, and the only games that came close to the world and art were probably the Ogre Battle games designed by the same person.
Anyway I feel like I’m losing track, another thing that set it apart greatly was the storyline. It had a very political feel which may have bored me a bit as a child, but I soon came to think of as quite compelling. Uniqueness in JRPG’s is something I yearn for, and this game was certainly very unique, at least for it’s time in story and world.
I love strategy games. Mostly real-time strategies. I love all kinds of god games, you might not think of strats as god games but they both have enough similarities in why I like them. FFT is really nothing like a god game, the only reason I mention them is because two reasons I like strategy games is for the god aspect, being able to control people and have them build whatever you want them, etc, and the actual military/strategic aspect.
This second part, though probably the lesser of the two which I enjoy, is really what FFT is representative of. One reason I love RTS’ so much though, is because they do put a lot of focus on controlling units and figuring out ways to defeat your enemy, and that’s basically what battling in FFT is like. It’s turn based rather than real time, but I can really deal with either without too much complaint.
It’s simple, but I love strategy and combat and FFT delivers both extremely well.
Mike L's Showcase
Patapon
Patapon has wonderfully fantastic visuals that fully utilize the power of the PSP, and creative rhythm based gameplay that is simple, fun, and addictive. The sequel vastly improves the game's features and irons out what doesn't quite work.
Really overlooked GBA game. Plot's very cheesy, but I still get really emotionally involved with the characters every time. Dragging the bosses to the beginning of each level is kind of a chore, but it's actually done pretty well once you know all of the tricks. I've played through the game so many times, I could probably do each dungeon automatically by now.
