Our Industry's Best and Worst
by Alex Yusupov March 31st 2008 3:59 PM CDT7 Comments
Games have been around for quite a long time, but in the past twenty or so years, some real revolutionary ideas were borne from the minds of geniuses. Many of these ideas impacted the industry permanently while others were whisked away, never to be remembered. Heck, there were even some that scarred our precious minds with their atrocious schematics. Just what were the most key events, the greatest games, the worst ideas and the most popular concepts? Keep reading to find out.
The Best:
10. Modern Controller Template
The modern design for the typical controller is a standard for handhelds, most consoles, and can even be found on phones. The design includes a directional pad on the left side and the action buttons on the right. Then you have the shoulder buttons and trigger buttons, located on the back of the controller for use with your index and middle fingers. Console controllers like the PS2 or the PS3 have analog sticks and the Xbox 360 switched the location of directional pad with the left analog stick. This standard design has given us some of gaming’s greatest controllers, and won’t be going away anytime soon.
9. Game Boy Advance
Coming in at number nine is Nintendo’s infamous handheld: the Game Boy Advance. This was neither the first handheld to introduce great graphics and gameplay nor was it the first to introduce a long battery life and mobility. It was, however, the first to have both. With great games like the new generation of Pokemon to the Golden Sun series, the GBA is still churning out new titles each week.
8. Halo
Little doubt comes to mind when labeling Halo as the first-person shooter game that has made the most impact on the genre. Back in the year 2000, there was a drought of high-caliber shooters. With the Xbox’s release, more and more terrible games came out, and it wasn’t until Halo was released in 2001 that people finally had a terrific reason to throw some money away for the gigantic console it was on. Seven years since, Halo 3 is the most popular contemporary game in the world, gaining critical acclaim from every major reviewer and even receiving recognition tributes in places like Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum in Las Vegas, Nevada, where the infamous Master Chief stands in all his waxy glory near the entrance and among historical figures such as George Washington, Muhammad Ali, and George W. Bush.
7. Zelda + Final Fantasy
The Zelda and Final Fantasy series can be found on almost any “Top Games” list, and only a fool wouldn’t recognize them as the most innovative and impacting RPGs ever created. Zelda had been the first adventure game of its time, shaping every adventure, RPG and even platformer game for years to come. Final Fantasy made its debut in 1987 and was supposed to be Sakaguchi’s last game (hence the name). The series, however, took off like crazy. And who can forget the prodigious musical composers of the games, who forever cemented in our hearts and minds that a good game always needs a good soundtrack. To this day, countless games use the ideas Final Fantasy and Zelda had brought to the table, and if it weren’t for these two games, it’s safe to say the RPG genre would be all but dead.
6. Achievements
It’s hard to believe achievements for the Xbox 360 are coming in at number six, but these little accomplishments, coupled with the Gamerscore idea, gave incentive never before seen in games. Whereas beating a game on a hard difficulty often resulted in no award other than bragging rights to the few friends you have that play that game as well, achievements give you added incentive to accomplish tasks like getting 10,000 kills in an online ranked match or playing through a game twice on a harder difficulty. And because of Gamerscore and leaderboards, it’s now easier than ever to track how you’re doing in comparison to your other friends. Bragging rights never tasted this good.
5. Mario
The number five spot is awarded to Mario and all of his endeavors for the Nintendo consoles and handhelds as he and his team of comrades single-handedly shaped the world of platforming, kart-racing and mini-games. With every single iteration, a mainstream Mario game throws its fans something new and never before seen in gaming. A few months later, we see other developers horde in on these ideas and mimic them as best as possible. If there is any single videogame series that has impacted the industry the most, it’s Mario and everything that has to do with the little plumber.
4. Playstation 2
The Playstation 2 was undoubtedly the winner of the sixth generation console wars. It’s still doing amazingly well as people buy the system and its games well into it’s 7th year on the market. This console mixed the perfect controller with every genre imaginable. It had its fair share of casual and hardcore games as well as games for youngsters, teens, adults and every age group and classification of human beings on the planet.
3. Nintendo Wii
The Wii may not be the most powerful system out today, and it’s far from the most “hardcore,” but there’s definitely one thing that it does amazingly well: combine innovation with loads of fun. While the Wiimote design itself may have some gamers loathe the design, the motion-sensing is first rate and one of a kind. Its cheap price-price tag of $250 isn’t so bad either, making it the must-have system for any gamer.
2. Disks
Odd thing to have at number two, but disks have been the optimum place to put any game onto. Before Sega CD and the Playstation, gamers relied on bulky cartridges to hold their prized games. While these cartridges were fun to collect, nothing was worse then spending thirty minutes blowing all sorts of something out of the damn things to get them to work. And while the disk comes with its fair share of problems (scratches and decay, mostly), it’s been with us for almost twenty years now, and it won’t be going away anytime soon.
1. Xbox Live
Finally, at number one, Xbox Live. It successfully introduced console gaming to the series of tubes known as the Internet. Before the Playstation Network or Wifi fun on the Nintendo DS, people only knew one mode of online play that didn’t suck: Live. And now on the Xbox 360, the community has never been closer. It’s a great way to meet great new people (and admittedly, some annoying ones as well). Albeit a little expensive, and the downtimes get down right annoying sometimes, Live has opened up an entire world of gamers to…well, each other.
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The Worst:
10. Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing
This game, while not impacting the industry, heavily impacted our souls. In what has to be the worst game ever created, no scratch that, the worst THING that has ever been created, Big Rigs shames everything on the planet. From the ridiculous “YOU’RE WINNER!” screen to the complete idiocy and glitchiness of the game itself. In fact, playing some of the maps causes the game to crash. After a patch was released, one of the maps turned out to be a simple mirror image of a previously working one. Never mind that, it’s impossible to lose the game because your truck is the ONLY truck that moves from its starting position. The game is ridiculous and because the publisher was Activision (Call of Duty 4 and Guitar Hero), it perplexes me further.
9. HDTV
Before you start crying, hear me out. HD is awesome, and gaming on an HDTV is like nothing I’ve ever seen. But thanks to this, we have to usher in an all new kind of fanboy: the HD fanboy. This is the gamer that won’t play anything unless it’s on a 305-inch plasma TV with hi-definition and 7.1 channel surround sound audio. This does get pretty annoying when talking about a handheld game or a game for any previous generation or even the Wii.
8. Official Console Magazines
Garbage. That’s the easiest way to sum up any “official” console magazine. Not only are the perspectives narrow (most gamers nowadays own more than a single console and invariably want or need updates on more than just Playstation or Nintendo hardware), the opinions tend to be bias, and if they’re not, there is absolutely no way of telling. These magazines are useless for everything except an occasional demo disk that’s thrown in, and even that is iffy unless there’s some awesome new game on it.
7. The Crappy Host
With online gaming comes a little thing called the “host.” The host of a game generally has some sort of booting ability to kick players out of matches, and everyone’s connection is dependant on the host (in most cases). In Gears of War, the host gets no lag and has a far superior advantage than anybody else in the match. This is bearable, but then you get a game like COD4 which essentially perfect, except that it allows the host of a game to end the match if he or she is losing. Actually, it lets him or her end it for any purpose, and there is no way to kick that host or pick a new one.
6. Achievements
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ait, what? Weren’t these in the “best” list? That’s not fair! Actually, in all honesty, achievements have hampered gaming just as much as they’ve helped it. Because of achievements, playing games for other systems seems pointless because your efforts aren’t awarded with anything. What’s the point of doing New Game Plus, for example, unless all your friends can see that you’ve achieved this miraculous feat?
5. Useless Downloadable Content
Coming in at fifth are the heaps of terrible downloadable content available for the Xbox 360. Charging money for gamer pics, for example, is blasphemous. And I think we all remember the visual hell provided by Epic and their lovely Gears 2 dashboard theme. What about all those terrible arcade titles and demos? Perhaps not as “evil” as some of the other contenders here, UDC is for sure a nuisance; especially when you need to pay for it.
4. Subscription Fees
Subscription fees are perhaps the most annoying, and the most “evil” money-making schemes created. It’s not enough that you pay loads of money for the game or system, but on top of that you have to pay additional fees to actually play the game or utilize that system for what it’s made for.
3. Lag
Okay so this one is basically impossible to fix. We can improve our connections by connecting our consoles directly to the modem or disconnecting other users from linking to our routers, but in the end the lag is ever present. Its presence in and of itself, however, is a menace to anybody that has played a game online has encountered this everlasting curse.
2. G4’s Demise
This isn’t about Tech TV or the merger or anything like that. It’s about G4 airing stupid shows nobody watches anymore. What the hell are “COPS” and “Cheaters” doing on a network for gamers? Great shows kicked the bucket and were switched out for garbage like reruns of Star Trek or the stupid filth that is “Wired for Sex” and anything Banzuke or Banzuke related. Where is the multiplayer fun of Arena, where are new episodes of Cheat and Icons? Where is Brainiac? The only shows that remain true to their roots are X-Play and Attack of the Show! Well, there’s also Code Monkeys, but that’s not going to last too long, I’m sure. G4 turned into complete garbage of a chann
el. It’s worse than anything I’ve seen on TV so far, and if you take out X-Play and AOTS, all you’re left is a steaming pile of bullsh*t. Heck, with the current lineup of shows, G4TV may as well rename themselves “The Redneck Cesspool Network.”
1. Fanboyism
Sweet number one will grace us with its undying love for a certain something; a love that will never go away and a love that is worth dying for. Ladies and gentlemen, may I introduce you to: Fanboyism. Fanboys have gained notoriety for being some of the most annoying pricks on the internet and occasionally, off the net as well. These people know no wrong, because common sense tragically left them when they left the womb. Arguing with fanboys is pointless, and facts are no better than opinion when it comes to dealing with these atrocious scoundrels. If it weren’t for these fellows, it’s safe to say that gaming would be a much greater experience for everybody.
Being a hardcore gamer across all platforms myself, it's sometimes hard for me to deal with fanboyism and bias in articles. Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony all have their strong points. For the time being, however, Microsoft just has more of them, and it's all thanks to its loyal fanbase.
