The heyday of music gaming may have come and gone, but even if it was ultimately just a fad that we were all caught up in (which I don’t think is the case), it would do absolutely nothing to tarnish the memories of nights spent playing Rock Band with friends, nor can it ruin the fun still to be had in getting the band back together for one more tour.
From everything that we’ve seen and heard so far, it looks like gaming companies are doing just the same, as an arms race to acquire as many indie games as possible is about to get very heated. Just like there is still some studio executive who is kicking himself for missing out on The Blair Witch Project’s profits, no gaming company wants to be the one who turned down the chance to have the next Minecraft Updates solely on their system. Perhaps more than ever, the power in games belongs to the individual artists.
At its heart though, what they did is take a game that was capable of making even non-gamers stop and have a look and translated it to an experience that allows you to invite that other person to join without sacrificing any aspect that made the original game great. In other words, Portal 2 in co-op is the definitive way to experience one of the landmark games of this generation.
Ideally it’s the optimal situation for consumers. You buy a system, and you have access to almost every major game, with as few exceptions as possible. To me though, it’s a sad thought, as I sometimes long for a time when there were an assortment of games I couldn’t play because I could only afford one system. When that one guy in the neighborhood who bought the Xbox would show us all “Halo” and have us regret our PS2 decision (if only for a moment), or when N64 owners could stretch arguments with their Playstation rivals on into the morning by just dropping the name “Goldeneye” every now and then.
Having been introduced to the world of Dragon Quest when Nintendo Power included the NES copy of Dragon Warrior with a subscription, it should surprise no one that one of the upcoming games I am anticipating is Dragon Quest Builders. Taking gameplay elements from Minecraft and mixing them with story driven adventure led to the creation of a unique experience within the world of Dragon Quest. After spending some time playing the demo, I sat down with producer Noriyoshi Fujimoto to discuss the upcoming game. In addition to learning about Dragon Quest Builders, I also learned that Mr. Fujimoto and I share a common love of inflicting unspeakable horrors unto The Sims.
During the early 90’s, many of us were involved in, as coined by James Rolfe, the “bit wars,” the point where competing systems developed a brand loyalty with the consumers. It was a Genesis/SNES world and the market intended for you to pick a side. But those of us who were first exposed to video games during this time didn’t originally intend to side with either Sega or Nintendo. While there were certain characteristics of each console that we preferred, our focus was never on what games were better. The first big step for any future gamer is one devoid of partisanship in the gaming community; when you first enter the gaming world, you aren’t involved in the console wars. In fact, they did not exist to you back then. I personally chose Sonic the Hedgehog as my “gateway game” simply because I liked who he was as a character. I liked his cool blue color, his tough-guy stare, and the acrobatic nature of how he moved. Level design, physics, replay value, music, even the buzz term “blast processing” meant absolutely nothing to me. It was Sonic himself that captivated me to join the gaming world.
Of those contributions, none were greater than Rock Band. In fact, you could argue that a big part of the reason the entire genre seemed to disappear so quickly is because there was no way you were going to top Rock Band as far as advancing the genre is concerned. It didn’t matter who you were or your thoughts towards video gaming, the feeling of getting four friends together and rocking across the globe with the help of a massive list of classic hits had an appeal that could seize infinite nights and weekends away. Many games work endlessly to pursue that level of zen that accompanies the perfect multiplayer gaming experience, but Rock Band manages to mass produce that euphoria to the point where you almost become burned out on it like a raging weekend drug bender.
They were the icons of an era when gaming exclusives drew lines in the sands and led to some of the fiercest playground battles over system loyalty the industry would ever see. Sonic/Sega fans would push and say “Sonic games are faster, and therefore better. Plus, we’ve got blood in Mortal Kombat.” The Mario/Nintendo loyalist would throw sand in their foe’s eyes and retort, “oh yeah? Well Mario’s about the adventure, and so is Final Fantasy.” It was a time when you usually owned only one system, and you owned it because you would only get certain games. It was…well kind of a glorious age.