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There was once a time when you had to truly defeat a video game. Rather it was Super Mario Brothers or Doom, these games offered such insurmountable challenges that it was as if the bits of software were maliciously sentient. Now, however, there is a stark contrast. But, don’t worry. Things have definitely changed over the years, but they have changed for the better. Within the ages of Atari, NES, SNES, PlayStation, and Xbox, games were simply different. Games were not as long. With only a few hours worth of content programmed into each piece of software, video game developers were met with a unified issue. Players were finishing their games far too quickly. This may not immediately seem like an issue. After all, time spent does not inherently equal money well spent. However, there is an underlying issue with players finishing their games too early. Since the earliest days…

After a long wait since last fall, the first Nintendo Direct of 2019 has emerged from the always enigmatic Nintendo curtains. It’s always fun to speculate beforehand which titles we will get updates on and what the new announcements will be. Franchises that got big attention included Dragon Quest and Fire Emblem, but there’s a lot more that was shown, along with a few surprises in store, and here’s everything you need to know. Mario Maker, Bloodstained, and When’s Marvel? So we start off with Super Mario Maker, the familiar Wii U game where players can create Mario levels of their own, being ported to the Switch like other titles ha– wait, this is no port, it’s Super Mario Maker 2, a new game! They could have just ported the first game, so are we leaving the Wii U port town, at last? The game’s new features don’t seem to…

There are two things I love in life that when mixed are the perfect combination, and that is Mario and America’s greatest pastime. Sure, realistic games like MLB The Show are fun, but it’s way more entertaining to play against friends with a roster filled with Mario and his pals and enemies. I’m sorry, it just is. Mario Superstar Baseball is a game that I am always down to play. I still have my Gamecube (the Gamecube Mario ball is better than the Wii’s) and will take on anyone who is foolish enough to challenge me to a game of five innings. We’re turning off power-ups though; power-ups are a total scrub move. What makes the game so fun is the fact that you can pick a new team every time, and each player is unique and skilled in their particular area. You could go for a team filled with…

One of my favorite early memories in life was playing on my grandpa’s Super Nintendo as a kid. Sure, there was a pool, a swing-set, and a huge backyard to do pretty much anything, but I was always drawn to the Nintendo. I looked forward to loading up my save files and continuing my journey from last time on the road trip. Super Mario World was one of my favorites. It was such a beautiful world, a side-scrolling game that was simple enough yet challenging at the same time. This game was great back then, and it still holds up today. The first thing about this game is how amazing it looked for the time. The colors all pop and the graphics on this game are so much better than its Super Mario Bros. 3 predecessor on the original NES. The world is so visually pleasing, and it makes you appreciate all the hard work…

The Super Smash Bros. series has had its fair share of weird, odd, or seemingly out of place characters. Previously the top spot was far and above held by the….. let’s call him “classic”, Mr. Game & Watch but there are quite a few other characters that when they were first announced made fans go “……….wait what?” and now we can not only add another name to that list but can, in my own opinion, crown a new king of bizarre. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Piranha plant. Now some may argue that he isn’t as far out of place as some of the others like Mr.Game & Watch, or Duck Hunt, or Pac-Man and what I have to say to defy every single one of those arguments is………..have you tried playing as him? Seriously, the Mario enemies weirdest part isn’t the fact that he’s still in a pot…

Indeed: as of this week, the game’s first DLC fighter, Piranha Plant, has gone live. Since its inception in 1996 on the Nintendo 64, the Super Smash Bros. series’ biggest draw — its hook that no other games can swing — is that it is the ultimate crossover (sorry, Marvel) of Nintendo characters. In no other game can stealth operative Solid Snake be slapped around by a sentient pink puffball. That description could even be referring to multiple characters, which shows how diverse the Smash fighter roster really is. Now, we’ve gone into ultra instinct diverse with the addition of Piranha Plant as the first of the DLC characters. Nobody expected this. Piranha Plant didn’t even expect to be included — it always shrubbed it off as some warped kind of pipe dream. But here we are, as its vines are being unleashed in Smash the world over. There is…

I have one goal in my lifetime, and that is to own a Ms. Pac-Man arcade machine (with Galaga of course) at some point. With today’s technology, arcade games can appear to be obsolete. We have televisions and consoles that produce lifelike graphics, and video games are going places they have never been before, especially once VR becomes commonplace. But we shouldn’t forget arcade games of the past, the roots of modern-day gaming as we know it. Walking into an arcade is a lost art. Today, kids can pull up a game on their phone and play anywhere at any time they want, usually during school or times when their focus should be elsewhere. I was never an arcade child myself, but I have heard the war stories that have been passed down to me. People would flock to the arcades after school with quarters they saved up, taking turns…

Throughout the history of gaming, there have been a select few technological turning points that changed the direction of video games forever. You could say they include: the introduction of arcades, the arrival of home consoles (and subsequently, the death of arcades), and the leap from 2D to 3D graphics. These advances changed the landscape of games and decided the next playing field that they would exist on. After 3D graphics, though, what is leap is left? Have they all been leapt over, or is there yet another one that will change the direction of gaming like its predecessors before? Well, to better understand the scope of things thus far, we can divide advances in gaming technology into two categories: revolutionary and refining. “Revolutionary” includes the aforementioned leaps that we just talked about; the ones that introduce a whole new level of play. “Refining” refers to the steps taken along…

The first Super Smash Bros. changed the game (pun intended) when it came out in 1999. Never before had characters across other games come together like that. The concept of the game was relatively simple: various characters duke it out on stages designed after each character’s respective games. Who would’ve thought how much impact this would have on the gaming community. There are so many things that make Smash Bros. adored by the gaming community. One of the first is the story mode. Having to battle your way against enemy after enemy on their home turf with limited lives can be challenging. All of the times you get eliminated off that stage makes it worth it when you complete the story in full. That Master Hand was such a tough last opponent, and watching the hand explode and crumble away is such a satisfying feeling, no matter how many times you defeat…

In the beginning, if you wanted to play video games with someone, you had to do so sitting next to each other. As technology has evolved, so has multiplayer — not only can you now play with others online rather than in-person, playing online is now the multiplayer standard. PC games were the early adopters of online play due to the convenience of being on a system that inherently connects to the Internet by design. Consoles, however, had online play come at a slower pace. Many people were still playing splitscreen multiplayer on consoles when PC users were playing online. The turning point for online play on game consoles was Xbox Live on the original Xbox, most notably with Halo 2 becoming an online phenomenon. As times progressed, game consoles have caught up and are now fully online-enabled with streamlined services (including streaming), eliminating the need for in-person multiplayer. You don’t…