Video Game Consoles

I know, this is a hotly debated topic that is guaranteed to incite fervent commentary from every direction. People LOOOOVE their console of choice, and those who demean it should beware! However, my goal in this post is not to anger anyone, but instead to record some observations I’ve made on the usage of the various video game consoles in our house.

First, I guess I should warn you that I’m a flat-out computer geek and video game nut. I was corrupted early on…ah, the fond memories I have of the video games I played as a youth while accompanying my parents to various stores. In those dark and ancient days (mid- to late-70’s), arcade games were just beginning to appear, and it was with great excitement that I walked through the doors on each of our trips. Who knew what new and exciting game might be there this time! The first games I can remember playing were Pong, Asteroids, Gorf, and Space Invaders. Gorf was especially fun because it was the first game that I can recall that actually spoke…it would taunt the player with awesome laughs and insults ala “Ha ha ha, space cadet, long live Gorf”. Here’s a sample of Gorf gameplay (the taunting is towards the end of the clip):

I know, super-exciting, right?  Nowadays it’s hopelessly crude, but at the time it was the height of technology. These arcade games were my gateway drug to the insidious Atari 2600, with its hideous pixellated graphics that, on the surface, made you think, “ugh!”, but which concealed terribly addicting games that wrung every last bit out of their players. Atari 2600 games were easy to learn, but hard to master, and the replay value of each game was fantastic. Well, almost every game. You shouldn’t count such polished turds as the E.T. Atari 2600 title, which was so incredibly awful that Atari wound up burying MILLIONS of them in a landfill.  It’s true, I Snopesed it!

The Atari 2600 led me to the computer world of the Commodore Vic 20, which led to the Commodore 64, 128 and Amiga, and eventually to the PC. All of this computer knowledge set the stage for my current career in the computer industry, which I suppose was inevitable. One important lesson I learned early on is that one must remain hydrated and nourished in order to continue electronic activities. I failed to adhere to this simple rule and, in my 8th grade summer, spent a week in the hospital suffering from severe dehydration (I was found passed out over my computer, a Commodore Vic 20). When I awoke in the hospital, the computer was the first thing I asked for.

As the years passed, I played and/or owned just about every video game system that came out: Nintendo, Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis, Nintendo 64, Jaguar, Dreamcast, Playstation One, Playstation 2, Xbox, Gamecube, Nintendo Gameboy, Nintendo DS and recently, Nintendo Wii, Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. I still love and play video games constantly, but now that I have three sons that are carrying on my video game playing tradition, I’ve watched with some interest the games that they find interesting vs the ones that they play once and never touch again.

Right now, the game system that gets the greatest kid workout in our house is our Playstation 2. My 4 year old, Ian, LOVES the games on this console. He constantly plays over and over again the various Ratchet and Clank titles, the Jak and Daxter games, and the Sphinx platforming title. He literally cannot get enough of those games. When we bought the PS3 (with its new HD version of Ratchet and Clank) I was sure that he would be wowed by the awesome graphics and insist on only playing the PS3 from then on, but he very quickly reverted to the PS2. The newer Ratchet and Clank looks nice, but is much more sophisticated and whiz-bang. The older Ratchet and Clank games are like those early Atari 2600 games: easy to learn, hard to master, but reliable and good and fun to play. The PS3 hardly gets turned on, now, since it has such an incredible dearth of good games. It’s a shame because it’s such a powerful console, but the truth is that good games (and solid gameplay) are what its all about.

The Xbox 360 is in a similar boat, although they have recently started releasing more kid-friendly titles. One game that has recently earned the Ian stamp of approval is The Maw. It’s a very cute game which requires the player to escort a humorous, ravenous blob of gelatin around an alien planet while solving various puzzles. This was a downloadable, fairly inexpensive game in the Xbox online store, and I highly recommend it.

You’d think the Wii would be turned on nonstop, but it actually sees comparatively little use. At least at this point in our gaming experience, the Wii seems a bit more gimmicky, or oriented more towards groups of people than to individual gameplayers. The exception to this is Wario Ware: Smooth Moves. This game is fast paced, challenging, and keeps the interest level up. It’s good for groups or for individuals. The only downside is that group play is not enabled until you beat the whole game in single player mode…somewhat of a bummer for the casual player.

So, out of all these high-priced consoles, the “cheap” $99 PS2 gets the most love. I firmly believe that it’s because of the games. The Playstation 2 has been around for 9 years, and they are still making games for it. Some of the design houses have the game-making formula down and can keep churning out good games, while others have been wowed by glitz/flash/HD scenery, and have forgotten that it all boils down to how addictive a game is to play. Hopefully they will wisen up and we’ll soon see a slew of beautiful, HD-rendered games that stimulate both the eyes AND the brain.