Just wanted to drop a quick message giving everyone an update on the kinds of things we’re going to be doing here on the site. My buddy Charlie Applebutter hasn’t formally introduced himself yet, but he’s working on some stuff that should be up shortly. We’re also working on some reviews of some classic games as well as some interesting topics of discussion (food for thought: who’s the biggest tool in games?). Finally, we’ve got some guests putting together some stuff that’ll go up in the next week or so, so bear with us as we get things sorted out. It’s a very exciting time for me and Charlie, so we hope you guys look forward to what we bring you.
In the meantime, here’s a neat video of some old school drumming action. I’m pretty over Super Mario renditions, but I’m a sucker for a giant drum kit and a dude wailing on them
The rage in games these days is achivement unlocking (or getting trophies if you’re a Sony guy), the micro reward for doing something in-game, like winning a race or shooting 200 pigeons (GTA players know what I’m talking about here). It’s an added reward for playing the game and gives you some added replayability after the main game is over.
Armor Games has done the equivalent of taking out the cereal pieces in Lucky Charms and left behind the sweet, sweet marshmallows. “Achievement Unlocked” has you play as an elephant (don’t ask) in a room of spikes (stop asking) and your only goal is to earn achievements, and you get them for everything. It’s pretty sweet feeling like you’ve accomplished something by “Finding the main menu” or “Preloading the game.”
With games like this, I like to create my own story in my head. For this one, I kinda envision this being an elephantine version of Saw, with some puppet master putting Dumbo here through the ringer, just to make him appreciate things like “Walking to the Left.”
Movie tie in games have the distinct pleasure of being, almost universally, garbage. We all know about the ET debacle back on the Atari, and my first recollection of realizing movie games are horrible was Total Recall on the NES. For every Chronicles of Riddick, there are about 20 Enter the Matrix’s. But maybe it’s not the fault of the game designers. Maybe it’s the source material. I think if the source is good enough, the game should be able to follow.
Which brings us to our newest feature - Classic Reenactments.
Having just seen the movie Doubt, a gripping tale of conviction and devotion within the Catholic church and one sister’s fight to protect a child from the grip of a perverse priest, the story seemed ripe for gaming bliss. Here’s what I imagine a game version of Doubt would look like, as only Capcom could deliver:
I just got done screwing around with flOw for a little bit. It’s a perfect example of a mental distraction from the real world. Not too complicated to grasp, visually stimulating, and the best way to kill some time when you really should be working on something more important. For the 3 of you out there who haven’t given it a try yet, here’s the link. You really should click it.
At the risk of being cliché and cheesy, let me kick off the inaugural post for Homestyle Gaming by saying “Welcome to Homestyle Gaming!” This site is for those of us who want to go home again, that period in our childhoods when our best friends were either 8-bit or holding the second controller. This is the place where classic games can call home and we hope that we get to help you revisit some of those memories.
“But wait,” you say, standing there with your smug “I’ve got you” face on. “Classic games are for losers and the children of the third world who can’t afford real games. We’ll have none of that.” Well to you, I say nay. We’re also going to devote major time to indie developers. Indie games these days do everything the big boys do, and we want to welcome them into the fold. Ever hear of a little game called Braid? Mind blowing stuff, with major throwbacks to classic games. These games are the classics of the next generation, and we’ll be talking about them too. So sit back, grab your hot cocoa and your D-Pad, and check back often.
