PixlBit

30 years ago today, Sega's blue blur made his debut.

By 1990, Sega was enjoying newfound success with their new 16-bit Genesis system. It quickly became a competent competitor to the NES with popular titles like Golden Axe, Phantasy Star II, and Revenge of Shinobi. But despite the rising success of the Genesis, the platform didn’t have a brand character that could rival Super Mario. Tasked with creating such a mascot, character designer Naoto Oshima came up with Sonic- a blue anthropomorphic hedgehog. Sonic the Hedgehog was released on June 23, 1991- two full months ahead of the Super Nintendo’s debut in America. It was a big summer for Sega, and today marks the 30th anniversary of the moment that made them an icon in the home console gaming space.

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Nazi killing at its finest!

In December of 2017, a spokesperson for EA Games stated that gamers don’t like linear, story-based games as much as they used to. That was an odd comment to me, in a year full of well received single player games, including a sequel to 2014’s Wolfenstein: The New Order. Since I had missed the game back then, I thought this was a good time to finally check it out. Ten hours later, I am deeply pleased that I did.

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Aim, fire, Fulton. Aim, fire, Fulton. Aim, fire, Fulton. Aim, fire, Fulton.......

Let me ask you a question: How many video game series have, outside of spin-offs, made every game feel like a true sequel? Where every game does not just add a few of tweaks, unnecessary gimmicks, or offer nothing other than more of the same, but provides a strong, natural evolution to the previous entry? Very few fit that bill and if you factor in games which have existed for over twenty years, you are left only with Metal Gear.

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Barry’s back! Tell a friend!

I think that Capcom is on to something with the Revelations spin-off series for Resident Evil. I enjoyed the first game a lot because of how it blended the feel of the traditional, horror based Resident Evil games with the action packed nature of the more recent games. After being disappointed by Resident Evil 6, I was down on the series but I still couldn’t help but be excited when I heard that a sequel to Revelations was in the works. And to my delight, Revelations 2 delivers. 

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He is the snake to my mongoose. Or the mongoose to my snake. Either way, it’s bad. I don’t know animals.

I could write a perfectly standard review of Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor. I could go point by point and explain how this is a third person action game with heavy emphasis on stealth and melee combat in the vein of Batman: Arkham Asylum/City. I could talk about the great graphics and the satisfying fighting mechanics, and how some of the stiff animation and problems with context-sensitive button prompts are the reason why it doesn’t get five stars. I could do all of that and you would have a good idea of what Shadow of Mordor is, but you wouldn’t understand what makes it new and special. So I have a different idea.

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