I was twelve when I first heard the distinctive *plink* of a quarter hitting the coin slot at Chuck E. Cheese. That sound still triggers something primal in me—part excitement, part financial dread. My mum had given me five dollars in quarters for my birthday party, which felt like absolute fortune until Street Fighter II arrived and taught me that being good at video games and being good at *arcade* games were completely different beasts.The…
Flipping through a shoebox of old Mega Drive cartridges last weekend, I found myself holding something that instantly transported me back to Saturday afternoons in 1993. The metallic sheen of X-Men caught the light just right, and suddenly I could smell the radiator dust and hear the distant sound of my mum hoovering upstairs while I was absolutely glued to the screen downstairs.You know what's mad? X-Men on the Genesis wasn't even supposed to be…
My mate Terry knocked on our door one Saturday afternoon in '97, clutching a copy of Duke Nukem 64 like it was contraband. Which, honestly, it might as well have been in our house. Mum had already banned Mortal Kombat after catching me practicing Scorpion's fatality on my younger sister's Barbie dolls—apparently "Get over here!" loses its charm when shouted at teatime."Your parents home?" Terry whispered, even though he could clearly see Dad mowing the…
The six-button pad felt different in your hands, you know? Heavier somehow, more purposeful than Nintendo's sleek offerings. I remember unwrapping mine on Christmas morning 1993, the plastic still warm from being stored next to the radiator, and thinking this thing looked like it meant business. Three extra buttons meant three more ways to accidentally throw a fireball when you meant to block in Street Fighter II, but it also meant Mortal Kombat could finally…
I was digging through my Switch game library the other week, looking for something to show my nephew who's visiting for half-term, when I landed on Super Mario 64 sitting there in the 3D All-Stars collection. Funny thing—I'd been putting off writing about this one because, honestly, how do you review a game that practically invented the language every 3D platformer still speaks?But here's the thing about playing Mario 64 on Switch: it's weird in…
There's this moment in Alex G's "Nintendo 64" where he sings about memories bleeding into each other—gaming sessions that stretch into dawn, the way childhood summers felt infinite when you had a new cartridge and nowhere else to be. First time I heard it, I was hunched over my phone at 2 AM, probably avoiding sleep like I used to avoid turning off the console when mum called for dinner.You know how certain songs just…
# Uncharted 2: Among Thieves Right, so Carl asked me to cover this one, mostly because Tim keeps banging on about how “cinematic gaming” started with the PS3 generation and someone needs to point out that Naughty Dog earned that reputation the hard way, not by accident. I’ve got a PS3 sitting under my telly next to the Genesis and the SNES, still working after all these years, and Uncharted 2 is one of maybe…
Christmas 1999. My living room looked like a bomb had gone off in an electronics store—wrapping paper everywhere, the smell of turkey drifting in from the kitchen, and four controllers snaking across the carpet like digital umbilical cords. My cousin Dave had brought over his copy of Mario Party, grinning like he'd discovered fire. "You'll love this," he said, popping the cart into my N64. "It's like Monopoly but fun."Famous last words.See, I'd heard about…
I was digging through a box of old controllers last weekend – you know, the archaeological layer where every gamer's dignity goes to die – when I found my original N64 pad. The stick's about as loose as my resolve around chocolate biscuits, but I held it anyway, thumb automatically finding that familiar groove. That's when it hit me: I'd been playing Super Mario 64 on my Switch all week, and somehow I'd forgotten to…
The first time I saw a Pokémon moving around in full 3D, I nearly dropped my third cup of tea that morning. It was Stadium, obviously, and watching my carefully trained team of Game Boy sprites suddenly become these chunky, polygonal creatures with actual animations… well, it felt like magic had upgraded its graphics card.See, by '99 I'd already sunk hundreds of hours into Red and Blue on my Game Boy. That grey brick had…