Nintendo Origins: "Pokemon" Revolutionizes the Handheld Market

Though these days we're enjoying a highly varied games market, it wasn't always like this, especially in the handheld department. There was a time where handheld gaming was exclusively for casual gaming; most hand held games could be beaten in under an hour. Handheld consoles didn't have any deep, complex properties; in fact, most handheld games were either puzzle games, mini game packages, or watered down versions of games you could play on a home console. This was due to the fact that, unlike home consoles, handheld consoles had shorter operation times, due to battery consumption. This all changed with a little game called Pokemon.

Nintendo Origins: "Star Fox" Humiliates the Competition

The Fourth Generation of Video Game Consoles was witness to what can arguably be called the greatest Console War ever seen: Nintendo versus Sega. When Sega released its biggest video game console ever, the Genesis, they promoted it with a simple, but arrogant campaign: "Sega does what Nintendon't." The shots were fired, and Nintendo did not take it sitting down. The war was on between the Sega Genesis and the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. Not to be outdone, several other companies, most notably Atari and Panasonic, joined the war with their own consoles. Each company tried to outdo the competition by having consoles with superior graphical capabilities. During this time, Nintendo released its then newest property, which in turn would be the deciding factor for Nintendo's victory in the War: Star Fox. 

Nintendo Origins- "Super Mario Bros." Saves the Console Market

The Video Game Crash of 1983 was caused by more than just E.T. for the Atari; it was the end result of an unregulated market that was too over saturated with mediocre products, copy cats, and an overabundance of companies that cared very little about the quality of their products, which in turn led, again, to the mediocre or downright awful products being sold. Atari allowed any game company to make video games for their system, the 2600, and that policy is what eventually led to the Crash. Nintendo, who had just released their latest system, the Famicom, was determined not to allow that to happen to them; so when they released the Famicom in America, they were forced to take up some pretty Draconian measures. But, they also had to 'wow' an audience that had grown cynical about video games. They needed a game that could blow people's minds away. Enter Super Mario Bros.

Nintendo Origins- "Donkey Kong" Hits the Arcades

The year was 1981, and the video game was enjoying its greatest era: the Golden Age of the Arcade. During this time, arcade games were HUGE; arcades were big money makers, and people would line up to spend a quarter on any game they could get their hands on. Space Invaders, Pac-Man, Centipede, these were just some of the games that were taking the world by storm. However, one game would come to revolutionize gaming, not just inventing a new genre, but also reinventing how game presentation works. That game was Donkey Kong.

Announcement- December will be Nintendo Origins Month

When I was a child, I was a Nintendo Boy. That means I was ADDICTED to Nintendo: the SNES, the Game Boy, the Super Mario Brothers Super Show, the Zelda cartoon, everything to do with Nintendo, I ate up. However, though that ended in 1997 with a little system called the Playstation, I still have fond memories of Nintendo, and I've observed this game company grow throughout the years. So in honor of that, I am pleased to announce that this December is Nintendo Origins Month!

Every weekend you'll see a blog entry about Nintendo's four biggest steps into becoming the entertainment Juggernaut it is today. Skipping over its long and illustrious history as a playing card company, we'll start with that legendary arcade game: Donkey Kong. From there...well, here's the tentative schedule:

December 5-6: Donkey Kong

December 12-13: Super Mario Bros.

December 19-20: Star Fox

December 26-27: Pokemon R/B/G/Y

I hope you'll be joining me on this trip through history!

Revisiting Sephiroth

On September 15, 2013, I had finished a blog entry analyzing Sephiroth, the main villain of Final Fantasy 7, where I made the argument that he was overrated because his motivations were unclear. However, it had been pointed out to me that I missed some key details regarding Sephiroth's history, which explains his motivations better. Mistakes were made on my part, and upon reexamining the game, as well as the data available to me, I am certain that I can revisit Sephiroth, to see if I truly was wrong to call him overrated. This is a second analysis of Sephiroth.

Sephiroth's portrait during his short tenure in the party.

What I did when I heard about the Paris attacks.

I played video games. Specifically, I played Maple Story and Smite, in an attempt to not think about what happened. I had first read the news on the BBC news site, from a link I got on Tumblr. "That's awful" I thought. I didn't know what else to think, just...nothing. I didn't feel numb, I just felt off about the whole thing.

And then the number of victims kept climbing and climbing, until it was in the hundreds. I was already stressed from all the homework I had to do, but this gave me one hell of a pause. I started thinking about everything, about how many lives were lost for nothing. And yes, it was for nothing, because no ideology is worth killing people over.

I was a mess. I started thinking about all the lives lost, all the lives destroyed by this nonsense. I started thinking about the Islamophobia that would sweep Europe and America, thanks to these attacks. And sure enough, I was right. Refugee camps in Calais were burned down, anti Islamic rhetoric increased to levels not seen since September 11, 2001. Innocents were paying for the crimes of assholes.

Mercedes Carrera, someone I once respected, started spewing nationalistic bullshit about Syria for Syrians, blindly taking in people from another country, and so forth. I unfollowed her on Twitter for that, and anyone who thought that way too. I regret that it came to that, because I greatly admired her for her conviction, her dedication to the cause of freedom of expression, and for helping a rape victim when she needed it most. But I have limits, and Carrera crossed them. I wish her well in the future, I wish her no ill will, I respect her right to free speech, but I will support her no longer.

I watched as many of my Facebook friends changed their profile pictures to have a French flag filter. I knew the ones from Europe at least would do so. But I didn't. I didn't do it for France because I didn't do it for Kenya, Somalia, or Syria when those bastards started doing what they were doing there. I won't refer to them by any name, I refuse to. And I didn't do it for any other country because the option was never there. It felt like nobody cared until it happened to a European country. I know that's not entirely true, but that's how it felt. That's how it still feels.

All in all, however, I just felt impotent about the whole thing. The world got a whole lot darker as I kept watching what happened. I saw people whom I thought were more rational buy into the outrage and the Islamophobia, spewing that anti religious crap over and over again. I saw news outlets ignore what was happening in South Korea, the protests against the President, and how the government stifled these protests with violence. It reminded me just how powerless I am in the world, how I can't do a damn thing for anyone or anything, how all I could do was just watch as the world around me burned.

It was September 11, 2001 again, albeit on an admittedly smaller scale.

In the end, there was nothing I could do but play video games, hoping I could forget for a moment everything bad that had happened. But when the games ended, the world was still burning, and there was nothing I could do about it. And I knew it.