I remember being blown away by it when my friend showed it to me when I was 9. I couldn’t think about anything else for weeks. The same happened when I first discovered Street Fighter II Championship Edition at Northgate. Aaaah. Memories.

I hope you find my retro gaming column to be as much fun as this one. The first one should be up tomorrow. I’ll upload another shortly after that, since I’ve got to make up for beginning of March.

As far as I’m concerned, the last GREAT adventure game was Grim Fandango. It would have been Escape from Monkey Island, but without Tim Schafer the series just lost a lot of its charm and atmosphere.
Still a decent game though.

I wonder if the younger gamers today will do that with gaming when they get older?

When was the last really great graphic adventure game anyway? I hear tell that it was a relatively unknown PC game called “The Longest Journey”, which I saw on that old TV Cybernet, but never got to play.

Regarding issue a) I get seriously suspicious when someone, even a credible overseas reviewer, mentions the word “repetitive”. OK, take something like P.N 02 on the Gamecube – now that’s repetitive. Do I care? Hell no. I could watch Vanessa Schneider wiggle her cute bum around for ages on end while I blast enemies in one of the most pure and zen-like games on the market. And wouldn’t the standard definitions of “repetitive” condemn all racing games as “repetitive”? – Actually, don’t answer that, I think I might be killing potential fodder for another column here.

And point b) I also agree on the graphics issue. I mean sure, if a game has good graphics, I’ll like it more, they do add to the experience. But I wouldn’t dismiss a game on bad graphics alone. Take the PS2 version of Midnight Club 2, for instance. I bought it on recommendation from people whose opinion I value highly. When I popped it in and started playing, I was greeted by what is possibly the single ugliest PS2 game I’ve ever seen (rivaled only by Rogue Ops), and I though, Oh dear, what have I bought here? But after playing for 30 minutes, all regrets were completely forgotten.

and issue c) Well, regarding controls, yeah, they have become more complex. I think it’s a good thing, though, because we need those extra functions to satisfy the more complex games we’re getting today. It’s taken developers a long time to discover the standards that players like. I’m a big fan of standardising, by the way. There’s nothing like switching from one game to another, possibly in different genres, and being able to get-up-and-go right away because the controls are – as far as possible – standardised. Damn, that’s another potential column righ there.

I also agree with your final point. Retro gaming is all very well, there’s even a market for it, evidenced by what we’ve seen on PSN and XBox Live. But we need to stay focused on the here and now. Still, we’re at the point where the term “gaming history” is starting to carry some weight, and we and developers have a legacy of roughly 30 years to draw on for guidance. Times may have changed, but I know that there’s plenty older games can still teach us.

I think I’ll end this now, or I’ll go on forever.

Being such a classic game fan, I’m keen to see what you have in store for us with the column
Also, I’m convinced that ultimately, Akumajō Special: Boku Dracula-kun (Kid Dracula) is at least a source of inspiration for DMC. I’m very probably wrong, but it is a great game, one of my very favourites from my misspent youth.