In 1989, Warner Brothers released the blockbuster film, Batman. A merchandising storm ensued, with both movie-related and general Batman-themed items flying off shelves. Around this time, the NES was at the dizzying height of its popularity as a home console, and it only
In my last article, I discussed Doom, a landmark game that takes place in a dark future. Doomguy isn’t the first poor soul the video game world has sent into space to deal with a voracious alien threat… in fact, someone else undertook
The classic story recurs throughout mythology, folklore, legends, and even more modern tales: the brave champion defeats the evil wizard and rescues the princess. Hell, even Super Mario Brothers follows the theme loosely! Along the way, the hero battles baddies, finds goodies, and
Where you grew up as a kid probably had an effect on what system you first played a Gauntlet port on. For me, it was the eastern USA, so I played the “illegal” Tengen copy for the NES. Some in Europe played it
If just seeing that logo didn’t fire off a powerful twinge of nostalgia for you, then we probably grew up in very different places. You probably grew up on the Moon or in Narnia. I’m not sure where you were, and I’m not
Ninjas were a staple of pop culture in the 80s and 90s. They were everywhere. Movies, TV, cereal boxes… and especially video games. Though history depicts them as silent, efficient killers, they underwent a gradual transformation into heroes of a sort once Western
Part of why so many of us love video games is that they’re a release. They release tension. They give us an outlet. Have you ever just wanted to, like, throw a trash can at a guy, or kick and punch him until
If you had an NES as a kid, and you lived near a video rental store that also dealt in games, Contra was probably one you tried. The difficulty curve may have thrown a lot of kids off, but Contra was (and still
Old games used to get overly serious and realistic art. Arcade games and console games are fundamentally different in a lot of ways. While the hardware, game mechanics, and depth of narrative might be the most obvious, there is something at the core of the two that keeps them