Look, I will be blunt with you – when the PlayStation came out, and everybody was talking about 3-D polygons being the way of the future, I thought we may lose something wonderful. Thirty years into this hobby, I watch kids dismiss everything that does not have ray-tracing, and it is an experience that reminds me why Metal Slug meant so much to me when it came out in arcades. This was not just another…
Why Four-Player Racing on Cartridge Hardware Changed Gaming Culture As a history teacher from Phoenix, I have been studying for years why certain games become cultural phenomena while others fade into obscurity. Mario Kart 64 is the perfect case study. Mario Kart 64 is Nintendo’s seminal 1996 N64 racer that transitioned the kart series to full 3D, selling nearly 10 million copies worldwide as the platform’s second best-seller. But the sales numbers don’t capture what…
Standing in my mate Dave's bedroom in 1996, watching him fire up Radiant Silvergun for the first time, I knew I was witnessing something special. The Saturn had been sitting there looking a bit sorry for itself next to his PlayStation, but when those opening notes hit and the screen erupted in geometric bullet patterns, suddenly Sony's grey box felt very ordinary indeed.That's the thing about Sega's 32-bit wonder—it always felt like it was hiding…
Four controllers plugged into those bizarre N64 ports, my mate Dave arguing about who gets the see-through purple one, and someone's mum shouting from the kitchen that we'd better not wake the baby. That was Saturday afternoon perfection, circa 1997, when GoldenEye 007 turned my living room into a digital battleground that would define multiplayer gaming for generations.I still remember unwrapping that grey cartridge on a soggy November morning. The box art looked serious—Pierce Brosnan's…
Look, here’s the thing about Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge. It’s when LucasArts stopped having a laugh and started making killer stuff. I’ve played this game since the early 90s when I finally got a proper PC, and even now, with teenagers who roll their eyes at games if they don’t have a battle royale mode, I can fire this up and get sucked in for hours. Sam here, and while team RPS always argues…
Before we begin, I’ll say this one time, and then Carl will probably start talking about how modern adventure games destroyed everything, and Tim will start his usual “I ‘discovered’ point-and-click games last year” nonsense, but I’ll tell you about the only game that invented everything the new games copy around. The Secret of Monkey Island not only defined adventure gaming, it perfected it on the first try. In fact, the Secret of Monkey Island…
A few things before the regulars begin debating whose game showcased the N64 hardware best. Sure, Super Mario 64 was a groundbreaking 3D platformer, and Pilotwings 64 was a technical marvel, but Wave Race 64 accomplished something that is still mind-blowing to this day – it made water feel like water. While we were all distracted by Mario’s stretched-out face on the title screen, Nintendo EAD was quietly delivering the most convincing water simulation in…
Joe here, and I’m prepared to start another argument with my team: NBA Jam is the best arcade basketball game ever made, and the best sports game, bar none. I know Tim’s gonna try to throw some FIFA nonsense at me, while Sam tosses out some frame data about how Street Fighter is the better competitive experience. But NBA Jam took what every simulation-focused sports game was aspiring to do in 1993 and said “screw…
Yes. So, there’s a lot Tim needs to stop yelling about how Madden was always overrated (we get it, buddy!), and instead look at what Visual Concepts did with NFL 2K. There’s no way this is just nostalgia; this is about a game that laid out what sports sim games could be when you’re not bound by an annual franchise obligation or the fear of messing with established designs. NFL 2K came out on Sept.…
It’s a bit odd that I’m writing this review, but I guess that’s just because I’ve listened to Joe go on about how terrible modern football games are for the umpteenth time. He does have a point, though – they’re bloated with unnecessary features and complex control systems that don’t really add to the overall experience. But at the same time, I think he forgets that there’s been a lot of improvement since then. So…