I'm not happy with the current state of video games. Don't get me wrong, I love the games that our new technology has brought us. I wouldn't of been able to play games like BioShock, Yakuza, or BlazBlue without it.

No, what I'm not happy with is the loss of imagination and daring new ideas that the technology of today and developers of now have seem to become comfortable with.

I'm getting ahead of myself though. Let me step back, provide some history, and set the stage to hopefully convincing you, dear reader, to agree with me.

When I was a young lad growing up, I was very poor. My family couldn't afford many luxuries and while all my friends were talking about bionic commandos and those crazy Italian plumbers, I was stuck trying to convince them that playing with G.I. Joes was still cool. A little later down the line, my mom bought a Commodore 64 from a friend thinking it was a home computer for me to do homework on. Lucky for me, I convinced her that Metal Gear was teaching me arithmetic. Because of my poor standing, I was always a generation behind. My friends would have the NES, I had the Commodore 64. They had a Super Nintendo, I had a NES. It wasn't until I got my first job that I could buy my own games and systems and not until after college that I could keep up currently.



These factors combined resulted in my early gaming education and appreciation of games. I couldn't go out and buy a game. I would have to either wait until we had the disposable funds to rent a game or keep playing the game I already owned.

This brings me to my first point: Imagination.

Games of yesteryear didn't have much in a way of story. If we were fortunate to have the manual, we could bother ourselves to read why were were plumbing the depths of Zebes or fighting Dr. Wily. Even if we did this, we still had a conquered game that we would have to keep playing. As kids, our imaginations were already running crazy, but the games also allowed our minds to fill in the blanks. If I beat the game, I would make up a plot in my head to justify my second playthrough. I defeated Wily and saved the world, but now, Wily stole my girlfriend and I had to get her back .

Games today just don't let us to fill in those blanks anymore. Everything is force fed to us and explained in insane detail. Your wife is your bionic arm and Liquid Snake was imprinted onto Ocelot. How cool would it be if nothing in BioShock was explained? Just a few tape recordings sprinkled around held together by an abstract plot, leaving you to decide what the game's message is or what everything is about. That's the game I want to see.



Retro games also pioneered more frequently then today's games. We saw a new IP almost weekly on older systems and game companies took more and more risks. Yes we still saw sequels on these older systems, there were six Mega Mans on the NES alone, but we also received a ton of new IPs.

These days, we are almost drowning in sequels. Activision has perfected bringing out it's catalouge of Guitar Heros, Call of Duties and movie Tony Hawks to the masses every year. Bungie can't seem to escape Halo and Nintendo makes the same core game every console generation with its mascots. Sorry kids, Zelda hasn't changed since 1987 and when it did with Majora's Mask, everyone complained.

Where's the innovation and bravery to make new IPs? What happened to a game companies sole purpose being to actually create virtual worlds and amazing interactive experiences instead of acquiring a movie or comic license and proceeding to milk it every year?

I'm not naive to the workings of the industry and I understand why new IPs are hard to market, while established brands are easier to make money on. I still want a return to those old ideals. I want game companies to create new ideas and challenge us as purveyors of the hobby. Find a way to create a new world for us to explore or a new way of interacting with a old genre. Place a spin on everything we've come to be comfortable. Shake up our ideals and produce something utterly groundbreaking and new.

Yet, this doesn't seem to be the direction the industry is taking and until this happens though, I feel I'll have to stay confined to my rocking chair made of NES controllers and Atari joysticks and crow about how the old days were better. I'm a crotchety gamer....and I'm only 23.

We all have those moments. Those times when we wanted to throw our controllers, scream at the top of our lungs, or kick our furniture. The times when these games reach out from the TV and kick you in the balls. We know we should stop playing, it's what we tell ourselves -- but that game won't win this round.

So, inspired by the recent Mobcast where one of the topics was games that made you rage quit, I bring you the 10 hardest games of all times. If these games don't make you rage quit, then you're a game-playing robot from the future, my friend. And if so, I submit to your rule.

10.Shinobi (PS2)


Shinobi holds the distinction of being difficult for one simple, yet infuriating, reason: Your sword saps your health when you're not killing bad guys. This gameplay mechanic isn't so bad, as enemies are in abundance. It's only when you get to the later levels where everything gets hellish. Enemies become harder and the levels themselves turn into exercises in platforming seppuku.



9.Devil May Cry: Dante's Awakening (PS2)


Capcom decided to go back to Dante's roots for the third game in the series, showing how the demon hunter became such a bad ass. Yet in doing so, they ratcheted up the difficulty. The Japanese Hard mode became the American Normal mode, and I just died a little inside. While the game is fun, the later parts are so excruciating that Capcom had to release a special edition that balanced the difficulty.



8.Mega Man 9 (XBLA, PSN, WiiWare)


The blue bomber's return was an 8-bit homage to all of our childhoods, broken dreams and all. So it's no surprise that Mega Man 9 is brutal. Chalk it up to the devious level design and superhard minibosses. The game also sports challenges that you can embark on if you're a true masochist. Example: Beat the game five times in one day. That deserves a LOLWUT?!



7. Metal Slug 3(XBLA, Xbox, Wii, PS2)



Nuff' Said

6. Contra Hard Corps(GEN)


Considered by many to be the hardest game in the series, Contra: Hard Corps shifted focus from the usual Contra formula and featured more bosses than usual. So when you're not dealing with enemies from every side, you have to deal with six gigantic bosses in one stage, and we all know how Contra bosses rate. Somewhere on the scale between castration and Satan coming from your TV screen and punching you in the face.



[b]5. Ikaruga (DC, XBLA, GCN)


Ikaruga is one of the greatest vertical shooters ever made. It's also one of the most unforgiving bullet hell shooters ever made. If you don't know what bullet hell is, it's when the enemies shoot so many bullets at you that the screen is literally filled with projectiles. The result is you in a fetal position on the floor.



Here's a video of a guy playing the game in 2 player co-op...by himself.



4.Kid Icarus (NES)


Kid Icarus has the honor of being the franchise that Nintendo forgot it owned. After the NES game, the only other title to be released was the GB game, Of Myths of Monsters. Kid Icarus combines the weapon upgrade system of Metroid, adventure gameplay of Zelda, and platforming of Mario, while keeping its hernia-inducing difficulty. See, in the beginning of the game, you have to climb vertically to get to your first destination. If you fall, you die. Hey, land on that cloud just an inch from your target? You slip and die. Need that extra heart container? Costs too much, go back and farm enemies that have the flight patterns of crazed meerkats. If you can beat this game, send me an email and I will personally kiss your ass.



3. Ninja Gaiden(NES)


Ninja Gaiden has always been a difficult game, so its position is no surprise. Even in its modern incarnations it retains its memories, like your old grandfather who wont die and leave you the inheritance. Yet, what stands out in the original NES release is the fact that enemies will wait silently off-screen, only to strike the moment you jump over a gap:



2.Battletoads(NES)


Battletoads was made by Rare and is probably the reason they now make cutesy collect-a-thons. This game was the hardest beat-em-up on the NES, thanks to levels that required split-second jumps and overwhelmed you with more enemies than I thought the NES could render. If anyone tells you they beat this game, they are a liar, because no one got past the hoverbike sequence.



1.Takeshi's Challenge (Famicon)


Here it is people. The number one hardest game of all time, Takeshi's Challenge. Created by comedian Takeshi Kitano, a notorious videogame hater, the game was designed to mess with your mind and screw with you on purpose. Bizarre actions were required to progress through the game: punching 20,000 times, singing into the Famicon microphone to get a great rating on karaoke, not touching the controls for an hour, and a side-scrolling stage where you had to dodge obstacles, but the up button on the d-pad didn't work. The game is literal insanity in a cart, and any attempts to understand it will leave you like Bruce Willis in 12 Monkeys, in a permanent time loop.




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There you have it, Bitmobbers, the 10 hardest games of all time. Don't agree? Let me know in the comments what games I left off and what your lists are.

A fresh and fun fighter

The fighting game genre has to be the hardest genre to start a new IP in. Hardcore fighting game fans are usually loyal to their favorite franchise or developer and rarely give newcomers a shot. It's also incredibly hard to keep a fighting game balanced, fun, and offer something new that Street Fighter or Tekken hasn't done already.

It seems BlazBlu and AkSys Games have done just that.

BlazBlue is the spiritual successor to AkSys Games previous fighter, Guilty Gear. With Sega having taking the reins of the franchise, steering it into the RTS genre(?), AkSys has taken the core ideas of Guilty Gear, infused them into BlazBlue, and then transformed it into something completely new and fresh for fighting game fans. If you're familiar with Guilty Gear, BlazBlue will feel similar to you.

The forefront of BlazBlue is it's story. Many fighting games have generic or convuluted stories behind them that serve as solely as a reason to have the combatants fight each other. BlazBlue takes a different route though. The Story Mode is lavishly detailed with still cutscenes, showcasing some amazing art, that move the story along at a simple pace to follow. At certain points in the story, you will have to make a decision on how to progress. Depending on your decisions, and even your match outcome, your ending and story will change for your character. In order to gain 100% completion in each story, you'll have to play it a few times. This may seem tedious, but the story is truly different each playthough if you are making different decisions. It keeps things fresh and never bogs down with repetition.



It helps that the fighters themselves also keep the story fresh. AkSys has always been a master at character design (the criminally underplayed BattleFantasia proves this), and each of the 12 fighters are all interesting. They interact with each other, acknowledge their pasts, and even interact with the player. Taokaka will press her face up against the screen, Jin and Ragna will clash before a match, and Bang will have his own personal theme song play in the middle of matches. This type of character interaction fleshes out the fiction well and really makes these 2D characters feel like 3D personalities.

It's hard to believe, but BlazBlue's 2D art and graphical effects make BlazBlue one of the best looking 2D games out. The character sprites never show jagged edges or corners. Their special attacks and moves are beautifully animated and everything runs silky smooth. The backgrounds are a pseudo 3D/2D hybrid and look gorgeous. Characters will jump around in the background, while structures are rendered in 3D and add visual flair to the experience. AkSys did a wonderful job making this world and it's characters stand out.



The fighting system is also a highly tuned and balanced monster. The game utilizes a four button system for its attacks. You have a light, medium, and fierce attack, as well as a special Drive attack. The Drive attack is unique to each character. Litchi can drive her staff into the ground and direct it around the arena, Ragna's takes life and adds it to your HP, and Jin can freeze opponents. The four button system keeps things simple, while adding third party systems to add depth like rolling, barrier block, and rapid cancels. The fighting system promotes fast and frantic gameplay, while also rewarding more strategic players. You can easily mash buttons to play and do cool moves making the game accessible to new players, but there is a wealth of systems and combos waiting the experienced player and it never feels so overwhelming or too hardcore.

AkSys could've stopped there, but they packed in a treasure trove of features. In addition to Story Mode, you have Score Attack, Arcade, Training, Replay Theatre, and Online. While Score Attack, Arcade, and Training are genre givens, Replay Theatre and Online are the real meat of the package. You can save any replay of a fight you just finished. Liked something cool you did or want to rub your victory in your friend's face? Replay Theatre lets you do that. You can even access the online leaderboards and download any players last fight. You can finally see how all the top players really fight.

The Online Mode has one of the best net codes I have seen in a fighting game. While Capcom's GGPO is a great code, BlazBlue out does it in every way. I have yet to experience any lag or slowdown in any of the matches I played. I even had my girlfriend downloading music from iTunes while I was playing and no lag was present. It's great the online is this good because BlazBlue creates an online identity for you the moment you log on. The game generates a D-Code, a fighting identity, that records all of your stats. It will show your main character, your sub, wins, losses and even you DNF rate. It's cool to have this level of stat tracking in online and wish there was some way to trade your card with others for bragging rights or collections sake.

BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger is an amazing fighting game. I've been playing fighting games since I first picked up a SNES controller to fight my brother in Street Fighter 2 and BlazBlue is the most refreshing take on the genre thus far. It's a true next gen fighter, taking advantage of the hardware and network capabilites that the consoles provide, while offering a fighting system that will please even the snobbiest of hadouken throwers. If you consider yourself a fan of the genre in anyway, you need to own BlazBlue.

Score: A+

Limited Edition: The first print run of the game came in a Limited Edition for the standard price of $59.99. The package includes the game, a two disc soundtrack and a blu-ray disc feature tutorial and character strategy videos. They're perfect for learning the fighting system while offering in-depth strategy for your favorite character. If you can find a copy of the Limited, grab it while you can.

It can be argued that the Nintendo Entertainment System was the greatest console ever made. It revived the failing game industry after Atari almost destroyed it and introduced us to characters that have become video game icons. As such, it's no surprise that the system housed some of the best games ever. Some of our favorite games started their lives on the NES and even more games have been remade for new audiences over the world.

In honor of the NES and its massive library, I've highlighted ten of the system's best games. A quick primer: The games picked could not be made by Nintendo. No Marios, Zeldas, or Metroids. Nintendo's games could fill their own list and I've decided to put them in the hall of fame. I want to show games that were amazing on their own and not part of the House of Miyamoto.

The games also have to still be fun today. A lot of games are remembered with rose-tinted glasses and are not as fun as we like to think they are. Every game picked is just as fun today as it was when it was released.

With that out of the way, I present the Top 10 Greatest NES Games of All Time... That Weren't Made By Nintendo.

10.Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers


Most early multiplayer offering were competitive only, while co-op gaming was reserved for shooters. Capcom came along and decided to change that with Chip 'N Dale Rescue Rangers. Based on the immensely popular Saturday morning cartoon, the game had you and a friend controlling Chip and Dale as you hopped and bopped your way to stopping Fat Cat's evil scheme. The game was bright and colorful with nicely detailed sprites and characters. The environments were even better, eschewing traditional level design of the time for backyards and power lines. The game had a touch on non-linear progression by allowing players to pick areas from their map in any order they wanted.

Aside from being an expertly-designed platformer, the co-op gameplay was a breath of fresh air in its release and still is today. It's fun running through the environments with a buddy, while picking up apples and acorns to chuck at bad guys. The game is still loved today and the subject of a hilarious MMO parody.



9.Clash at Demonhead


Clash at Demonhead is another platformer that took the non-linear route with its world map. In Demonhead, you play as Bang, an operative for S.A.B.R.E, who is relaxing on the beach with his friend Mary after a mission. Soon, his communicator goes off and you are taksked with rescuing Professor Plum who is being forced to create a doomsday bomb. After the first level, you are presented with the map that has over forty levels, that can be conquered in any order. While defeating enemies, you gain money which can be used to buy upgrades from the shop. Later on, you gain powers which can be used to access closed off areas.

Clash at Demonhead was one of the first games to offer an RPG-like system in an action game. Like Metroid, you had to travel around the map to gain items and powers, while also backtracking to previous routes to gain access to more areas. The game's wacky story was also a plus as it never took itself seriously, and was just a fun game to play. You also can't go wrong when the main bad guy is called Tom Guycot.



8.Blades of Steel


Blades of Steel is one of the best hockey games ever created, ranking right next to NHL '94 for the Genesis. The game didn't have a whole lot of depth to it, but the gameplay was pure gold, making for heated matches between friends and rivals. It was also one of the first hockey games to feature fighting. After bumping into a player three times, a fight would initiate, where you would push A and B to punch your opponent. My brother and I would solve all of our differences and fights over a game of Blades of Steel... and we still do.



7.Castlevania 3: Dracula's Curse


Castlevania 3 was the return to sidescrolling action we all wanted after the very weird Castlevania 2. Part 3 stepped it up with multiple playable characters, better enemy sprites and graphics, and more levels and routes. The game set the bar for all other sidescrolling Castlevanias.



6.Duck Tales


Another amazing platformer from Capcom, Duck Tales had you playind as Scrooge McDuck as you traveled the world looking for hidden treasure to become richer. While the game didn't do anything special, it was a very polished platformer that threw some non-linear bits into the mix. You could find certain treasure in one level that would open a path in another level. Another cool feature was the use of Scrooge's cane, which allowed you to bounce to higher platforms or hit blocks and items at baddies. It also sported an alternate ending if you could find the two secret treasures and accumlate $10,000,000.



5.Baseball Stars


Blades of Steel wasn't the only great sports game on the NES. Baseball Stars took the arcade hit and transformed it into a deep, involving baseball game. In Baseball Stars, you could create your own team, choose attributes, and then take them into a 125-game season mode. It also featured the ability to earn money, trade players, or even pick up players off the free agent market. You could even create a player and upgrade them throught their career. Add the fact that the game tracked all of your stats and we could call this game MLB '89: The Show.



4.River City Ransom


River City Ransom took the beat-em-up genre and injected some RPG elements straight into its veins. While the game was linear, you could pick up money from guys you defeated to buy books to learn more moves or food or items to revitalize your stats. The game was also very funny and lighthearted. Who doesn't remember ordering food from a cafe, only to have your character eat the entire dish? Or beating up a bad guy to have him exclaim, "BARF!" Add in co-op play, multiple weapons and fighting moves, and River City Ransom is a modern classic. Every reason to justify its GBA revival.



3.Contra


Contra showed us that alien blasting was much more fun with a friend. Except when he took your Spread Shot. It inspired many of us to learn strategies, look up codes, and even how to break controllers all in the name of blasting aliens. The game also introduced giant bosses, colorful weapons and sadistic levels.

It's a blast to play, even today, and is one of the highlights of Contra 4 as an unlockable. The game was an achievement on the NES, an awesome LittleBig Planet level, and the reason we all know "The Code."



2.Bionic Commando


We all breathed a breath of fresh air when we got home from the rental store with this classic. Playing as Radd Spencer, you are tasked with taking down the Imperial Army all by yourself. That's not a problem for you; you're the Bionic Commando right? The game took the platforming genre and grounded it. You couldn't jump, but you had your awesome bionic arm to swing, grapple, and block bullets. As you and your helicopter companion trekked from area to area, you could gain more weapons and items, or visit neutral zones for information and extra lives. You also could partake in top down stages, like Commando, and take the fight directly to the imperials.

The game even capped off with one of the coolest death animations your 8-year-old self couldn't believe, and would talk about in hushed tones to your friends.



1.Mega Man 2


Here it is. The greatest NES game ever that wasn't made by Nintendo. Everything about Mega Man 2 was simply perfect. The Robot Masters weren't cheesy yet, the levels were expertly designed and the music is quite possibly the best video game soundtrack ever. The game is full of so many moments that gamers remember, especially Flash Man's laser section and its epic intro. Mega Man 2 is the reason the Mega Man franchise is still around today, and is easily the best game in the franchise. Watch the game's intro and if you don't get goosebumps, you have no soul.


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There you have it: The 10 best games for the NES that weren't created by Nintendo. These games were the best offerings by third-party developers for the system and stand the test of time by still being fun to play today. They truly are epic games.

Don't agree with my list? Let me know what you would add, take away, or just tell me how wrong I am.

As male videogame enthusiasts we're always looking for the elusive "gamer girl," a unicorn of a creature if you will. The girl who understands the difference between a battle rifle and an assault rifle. Who knows how to throw a hadouken and headshot your buddies from across the map, or can talk about World of Warcraft raids with instead having to humor her with shoe talk.

While there are gamer girls out there, even whole clans of them, it's still undeniably difficult to nab one for yourself. Those of us who already have significant others resort to trying to get our wives and girlfriends into gaming, desperately looking for games that we believe they would enjoy. The Wii has helped bring in a whole herd of new gamers and broken down the accessibility barrier, but you don't want to be playing Wii with your girlfriend for the rest of your days right?

I decided to put games to the test to see how a person who hasn't played a game since the NES would react to modern games. My hope was that I would maybe find that link to get a girl into gaming.

The rules were as follows: I placed my girlfriend Ginny in front of a gauntlet of six games to see what she thought about content, difficulty, and controls. She played each game's tutorial and the first level or quest. Afterwards she would give me her feelings on the game. I actually came up with some surprising results.
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Game:1 Wario Land: Shake It!


A game like Wario Land should be a no-brainer right? It looks like the original Super Mario Bros., is 2D, which makes it easier for most people to get into, and has cute art and animation. I explained to her that it was an evil Mario named Wario who loved treasure and really wasn't all that evil. After that, I gave her the Wiimote, told her to hold it like a NES controller and let her loose. The tutorial quickly put her in the zone and she proclaimed it, "Like Mario, but I can punch enemies instead of jumping on their heads." I went further and asked about the controls. "I really like them, it makes me feel like I'm playing Super Mario Bros., and that is familiar. I really like to shake the little guys to free items. I also like to grab the money bags and shake the coins out."



While the controls are familiar, the act of shaking the remote stood out for her. "It makes me feel like I'm really in control of Wario." After the tutorial, she jumped into the first level, which is where things got a little cagey. "The level has so many different paths and arrows pointing me in different directions. It just confused me as I wanted to go forward and grab more enemies and money bags." I metioned that the original Mario had you go from left to right and any secret paths were up to you to discover, but not required. "It made me feel like they were spelling it out for me instead of letting me discover it if I wanted to."

After it was all done, I asked what stood out to her. "The shaking and jumping really made the game fun for me, it was just the multipathed levels that threw me off. I would definitely keep playing it though".
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Game 2: House of the Dead Overkill


Next, we moved on to light gun game House of the Dead: Overkill. Ginny is a self-proclaimed zombie freak so I thought that would be an entry point to the game. How right I was. "I immediately took a shine to the 70's grindhouse feel. It made me laugh and feel like having a good time just like the game was."

We entered the first level, Papa's House of Pain, with two Nyko Perfect Shots. There was no barrier here. She just started shooting zombies and looking for power-ups. "I loved to kill the zombies. I didn't really have to think about anything except shooting zombies or avoiding the people. It makes it easier with the gun shells you bought as well."



It wasn't all sunshine though. "The onscreen reticles sometimes confused me. I would think I was your reticle and shoot zombies I wasn't really targeting. It didn't detract from the experience at all, but more variety between the two or no reticles at all would have been nice." All in all, she liked it though. Its simplicity combined with tongue-in-cheek humor and flashy gore made her "want to play it again now."
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Game 3: Scene It! Box Office Smash and Buzz! Quiz TV


I'm a big fan of trivia games and I own both of these titles to satisfy any game show itch I may have. We played Buzz first, which seemed to be the more favorable of the two. "I enjoyed the random trivia from all categories. We could jump from movie trivia, to things I know more like TV or music, so if you have more points than me, I can pick a category that I am familiar with to try and move ahead."

I then moved to Scene It? Box Office Smash, which wasn't so highly praised. "The game didn't feel like it was too much about movie trivia. We have the sections where we had to guess a picture before it came into focus or unscramble a movie title or actor. I didn't like that too much and wanted more questions like the movie clip or credit roll, which felt more like movie trivia to me."



It seemed like the more game show oriented Buzz was liked more. It was more familiar and appealing and Scene It was "A party game we can play when we have company. With Buzz we can do that as well, but I would be more prone to play it without company."
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Game 4:Marvem Ultimate Alliance


I wanted to try a game that was built for co-op and emphasized team play. Marvel Ultimate Alliance is really easy to play, as well. All you need to do is mash the attack button to do cool stuff. Unfortunately, she didn't think so. "The game was just too disorienting to me. The above camera would make me lose sight of my character, or I would focus on what the other characters were doing." The superheroes powers didn't help, either."The effects also made me lose focus. Sometimes Iron Man would throw a blast or you would throw your shield and I would immediately track that. I don't know why, but there was just too much going on."



When I asked if there was any redeeming quality, she responded with, "No, I'm a DC girl." Which brings me to the next game....
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Game 5: Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe


Mortal Kombat has always been an easy fighting game to get into. The combos and special moves are easy to learn and the game is well-suited to button mashing. Which is exactly what happened. "Well, I picked Wonder Woman, and was immediately doing cool things without having to really learn anything."

We played a few matches and she smiled with glee whenever she knocked me off the ledge for free fall kombat or threw me through a wall. "I didn't really have to invest a whole lot of time to do these cool things, and didn't have to study combo videos like you do when you are playing Street Fighter IV or BlazBlue." She knows my strategies. "It was just a fun game to bash each other around and I would definitely play again. It also helped that I could be Wonder Woman."


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Game 6: Fable 2


Fable 2 was a rough choice, but one I made to see if familiar Sims-like character interaction would appeal in a fantasy RPG. While the graphics and British humor were appealing to her, the gameplay was not. "I don't like the fantasy setting all that much. While the graphics look nice, I just can't get into dragons and spells. It's just not my thing." That's fair enough. She trekked farther into the game, making evil decisions. "I actually liked being a little hellion. It was cool being asked to make a choice and seeing its effect."



While the moral choice system was appealing, the large amounts of dialogue were not. "The game would give me a task, I would go do it, and then it would stop me for some more story. I just want to be my character and run around doing what I want. It's OK to stop for story, just don't keep me frozen to tell it."

Looks like Half-Life 2 might be more her bag.
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So there you have it. It seems that games with simple controls or an added layer of immersion were the most appealing, while games that had a lot going on were off-putting and confusing. The most loved games, like House of the Dead or MK vs. DC were aided by her previous interests, but also had simple systems that gave way to more in-depth strategies. She identified with this and expressed interest in learning more since they were so easy to get into.

This, of course, isn't the final word on this issue, but hopefully it can spur some thought into games that can be used to get non-players into our favorite obsession.

The consequences of our actions is something we never want to deal with. We don't want to deal with the fallout of a relationship, the dissolution of a friendship, or the forehead-slapping stupidity of a mistake. As human beings, we don't want to make mistakes, or if we have made them, learn from them and move on as soon as possible. It's no surprise then, that we don't want to deal with them in our videogames either.

Why should we, though? Games are meant to entertain us, let us escape from reality, or be someone completely different than ourselves. The experiences of our digital avatars become manifestations of what we aspire to become or fantasize about doing since the real world certainly doesn't allow you to attach chain blades to your arms and destroy a god.

Yet, what do we do when we are forced to face the consequences of our actions in videogames? We reload a previous save and make sure we don't make that mistake again.

I propose that in certain games, this feature be banned. Outraged? Hear me out.



One of my favorite games is one that was lambasted for having a limited save system: Dead Rising. In Dead Rising, you were only allowed one save slot that was constantly overridden with each new autosave. This was implemented to force the gamer into multiple playthroughs of the game as it was meant to played. Pretty sadistic on the surface, but I saw it under a different light.

See, in the game you had to rescue survivors scattered around the zombie infested mall. Get them back to the safe room in one piece and you gained bonuses. If they died, that was it, they were done for, and you couldn't reload to save them. What made it even better: If one of the them died, you would see them as a zombie later on, further reinforcing the fact that you let them die and have to live with that. This created tension every time I ventured out to find more helpless souls. Would I be able to save this group? Am I up to the task?

I may be projecting feelings that probably weren't there, but that is the point. I felt something toward this game because I was forced to deal with my consequences. It elicited an emotional response out of me, something that many games strive for today and fail at miserably. How can you feel an emotional connection to anything you do in The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion if you can simply reload a previous save if you made the wrong moral choice?

Or how about in the original Fable? Toward the end, you are faced with a final choice: Throw in the evil sword won from Jack of Blades or keep it and succumb to the evil. You can simply save before this moment, make your choice and then reload to see the other ending. While this does make it easier on gamers, it robs you of any emotion you may feel toward this decision.



There are games that do force you to face your decisions. But do it without being so overt as not letting you reload, and many of us will consider them the greatest games ever. BioShock made you the puppet of Atlus by using the common progression of a game against you with three simple words spoken before each objective. By the time you reached Andrew Ryan, you were forced to watch as you acted against your will, and then you were presumably left to die. This made you feel an "Oh my God" moment and made the game's story stick in your mind.

In Shadow of the Colossus, you bring a loved one to an altar in the hopes that you can find a way to resurrect her and are told to slay the 16 beasts roaming this land to achieve this. As the player, you are not given a concrete reason, but your goal is to save this girl. As you progress along this path, you feel more and more apprehensive about your actions, but this is part of the game. You must kill these colossi in order to achieve victory and get the girl. For those of you who know how the game ends, you know the consequences, and it almost certainly got a response out of you.



This way of thinking doesn't need to be the only way to make us feel anything about our games, but it's an important step on the way there. In order to gain the emotion and storytelling that we as gamers want out of the medium, we have to embrace the fact that we must face the consequences of our actions. Only then can the game grab us, make us apart of its world, and tell a story that we can react to emotionally. It's then that games can become the medium where the greatest stories can be told.