Here’s my thoughts on the second half of last Wednesday’s Nintendo Direct. Find my write up of the 3DS related news and announcements here. A terrible terrific fate for the transforming console Shifting to the Switch segment, a lengthy spotlight was given over to epically-proportioned upcoming JRPG Xenonblade Chronicles 2. As much of a fan… Continue reading Nintendo Direct 13/09/17 thoughts – Nintendo is DOOMed! part 2
Tag: Gameplay
Un-Real Tennis part 2: the emergence of Japanese developed tennis games
To mark the end of the US Open, I present the second part of my short history of tennis video games. The first part can be found here. Foreign coaching In the first part of this history, I discussed how the early years of arcade and home-console gaming were dominated by ‘Pong-clones’. It’s fair to… Continue reading Un-Real Tennis part 2: the emergence of Japanese developed tennis games
Little worlds within themselves, part 2: islands as introductory segments within games
Amongst games that feature islands as parts of more diverse settings, there are some which utilise them to stage the setting off point of the hero’s journey. For a basic example, let us return to Yoshi’s Island in Super Mario World (1990): forming the smallest part of the continent of ‘Dinosaur Land’, it acts as a… Continue reading Little worlds within themselves, part 2: islands as introductory segments within games
Images, items and iconography of gaming, part 1 – photography of play
August 19th is World Photography Day. What better reason to gather together a load of awesome photos of people enjoying life by playing games together? The featured image for this article shows a game of ‘draughts‘ (or ‘checkers‘). Like many of the games shown below, the history of draughts spans across many centuries, countries and… Continue reading Images, items and iconography of gaming, part 1 – photography of play
Little worlds within themselves: the use of islands as setting and structural elements within games, part 1
Today marks the last day of the festival week held on the small island where I was raised. In honour of this, I’ll be writing a mini-series on the use of islands as settings and gameplay structures in various games. Titles that have utilised islands range from cartoon-platformer Crash Bandicoot (1996) through fantastical adventure-JRPG Kingdom Hearts (2002)… Continue reading Little worlds within themselves: the use of islands as setting and structural elements within games, part 1
Un-Real Tennis part 1: the early history of tennis video games and how they helped shape the medium
The great Billie Jean King allegedly once described tennis as “a perfect combination of violent action taking place in an atmosphere of total tranquility”. Whilst this speaks perfectly to the juxtaposition of on-court struggle and respectful, tradition-laden presentation epitomised by Wimbledon, it’s also a description that could be applied to many video game experiences. Indeed,… Continue reading Un-Real Tennis part 1: the early history of tennis video games and how they helped shape the medium
Merely Players 