Mr. Robot Universe 2008: Video Game Edition
Robots are as much a part of gaming as growth-inducing mushrooms and seemingly endless collectibles. In a wide variety of genres, gamers are given the opportunity to engage in cybernetic shenanigans, whether it’s building, destroying, riding, or flat-out being a robot. At first, I thought it’d be a good idea to try and rank some of gaming’s greatest robots; after all, gamers love their ordered lists. Try as I might, however, I just couldn’t bring myself to rank them. Instead, avoiding the whole apples vs. oranges argument altogether, I thought I would share with you some of my favorite robots from my personal gaming experiences in a list with only a slightly particular order.
While Nintendo has been in the business of making video game consoles for years, others console developers have come and gone. Although Sony and Microsoft make-up the other 2/3 of the console market today, there’s no guarantee that future systems will always be made by either of them. That doesn’t mean that there aren’t other companies out there that could, and probably would, make consoles in their stead.
With the American economy’s schizophrenic behavior over the past few months, gamers have been doing whatever they can to cut the costs for new games. One of the easiest ways to shave off a few dollars is, of course, buying a used game from places like GameStop or eBay. The unfortunate part about doing this, however, is that the game developers make no money when their products are bought second hand. Now that used game sales are more profitable than ever (used games made up 49% of GameStop’s $1.8 billion in sales during 2008’s first quarter), members of the industry are speaking out against skimping on retail game purchases.
With Wario shaking things up on the Wii now, bad guys aren’t exactly what they used to be. As antagonists become protagonists in this crazy backwards world, I can’t help but wonder what other villains deserve a “promotion.” I figured that, since every other Mario character seems to be starring in their own game these days, why not shine the spotlight on some less played-out characters of the series—namely, the underestimated heirs of Bowser: the one and only Koopalings?
We all know characters often define the games that they star in. Similarities have been made between films, TV and video games, what with a star on the front of the box selling the merchandise, studios backing the games, as well as people going crazy for that merchandise and ripping out their pockets as they furiously purchase these items. It’s no surprise that the developers love money and, in turn, try to get as much money out of their franchise as possible. And this results in sequels and spin-offs in so rapid a succession that it would make a bolt of lighting seem slow. But is it a good thing?
Manipulating the fabric of time and space is tricky business, but hoo-dang, is it ever fun! Time travel has been a favorite element of science fiction, and as such, it’s proven to be just as entertaining when applied to video games. Done right, you can not only add depth to a game’s plot, but also the gameplay mechanics. Let’s flip on the flux capacitor and take a look at some highlights from video games past.
The pen is allegedly mightier than the sword, but in Time Hollow for the Nintendo DS, a pen has the same powers as Doc Brown’s DeLorean or Bill & Ted’s phone booth. Even if the Back to the Future and Bill & Ted series are the only authorities you know on time travel, you should have no trouble with this game. Kiddies, it’s time to put away your flux capacitors and start practicing drawing time holes.
All gamers know who the best is when it comes to the application of motion control technology. Starts with “N” and ends with “O.” Most Sony games lack support for the motion control embedded in the DualShock 3, and with this new patent application it is possible Sony has created another disposable feature.