LUCIDMEDIA

Best Games Ever!

Written by Nadine Bachan Wednesday, 26 August 2009 16:17

From August 28th to 30th, the Metro Toronto Convention Centre will be host to Canada’s largest multi-genre fan event. This year, over 40,000 people are expected to attend, taking in everything new and old about comics, sci fi, anime, horror, and gaming. GX 2009 alone will be jam-packed with access the new releases, talks with experts, and chances to meet several special guests (including Steve Downes, the Master Chief of the Halo video game series).

In anticipation of the event, we thought it might be fun to look back at a few of our favourite games. All those hours of entertainment that got so many of us hooked on gaming – you might call it the origin of our obsession. I couldn't possibly rank them since everyone will have a different thought on which one was the ultimate. For your nostalgic enjoyment, here are just a few of the most noteworthy games ever developed. I'll leave the ranking (and subsequent debates and arguments) up to you.

Tetris
It was almost agony, waiting for that straight piece to finally start falling. When it finally did arrive, I was often overzealous, rushing the fall and mislanding. Yet another time-waster, Tetris made being orderly a must-have skill. I always had a feeling that Tetris was an ingenious parenting tool to subliminally teach kids to avoid mayhem and appreciate tidiness. In any case, playing Tetris with an audience was often the equivalent of enduring backseat driving: “Move that piece there!” “Not there, over there!” Don’t speed up the piece!” “Move over! Let me do it!”

Solitaire
This card game was a life lesson in how to amuse oneself and, more importantly, in how to procrastinate. Thanks to this loner’s game, dawdlers were given yet another way to kill time. When Solitaire was included as a default game in Windows, well, that just took dilly-dallying to a whole new level. It was as if Bill Gates himself knew exactly what the average person needed to avoid being productive, making even a computer a tool of idleness. I’ve spent an embarrassing amount of time playing Solitaire when I should have been doing my homework, researching an essay, or *ahem* writing an article.

Battleship
Ah, Battleship, the game where cheating knows no bounds. And oh how easy it was to cheat! I, always the honest one, never took the con's route. My fleet remained where they were and if they were all sunk, then that's the way the cookie crumbles. But, for the most part, you can’t trust a kid to be honourable, especially when the enemy’s about the hit your last surviving piece. Playing with those plastic ships taught me, if anything, about how to be skeptical, to be distrusting, and to keep a wary eye on my opponents. Thank you, makers of Battleship, for the gift of cynicism.

Super Mario Bros.
If you know anything about classic games, you will instantly feel warm and fuzzy at the sight of that lovable moustached man in the red jumper. Mario’s quests to save his fair Princess provided hours of amusement for children and adults since the early 80s. My brother was a Mario Bros. whiz and while I spent a considerable portion of my childhood try to master that little grey controller, much of my time was spent watching him play (often helping me defeat the end-of-level monsters). Today, I will confess that I got a real kick out of navigating through Wii’s Super Mario Galaxy (and yes, my bro still lends an expert hand when the big baddies show up). I am sure the adventures will never cease for the tiny heroic plumber.

Checkers & Chess
I've grouped this pair of games together because, in a progressive sense, they’re related. Tots began with Checkers, their first experience at trying to outwit their opponent with strategy and elimination. To this day, I remain firm that an un-kinged piece cannot jump backwards. Those are the rules, you cheaters!
Those who craved a greater challenge and complex strategies moved onto Chess – a much more focused and intense game of tactics. There’s no wonder that the ancient game evolved into several forms – from sets of wood and marble, to versus-computer versions (remember how neat it was to watch the pieces destroy each other in Battle Chess?). The intricacies of the moves, mathematics, and notations of Chess often fly over my head, but to the millions of enthusiasts out there who truly understand the game, it must one heck of a spectator sport.

Clue
It was Miss Scarlett in the Drawing Room with the candlestick! With over 300 different possibilities, the mystery was always different each time you played. This game of murder and deduction is why forensic science and the idea of someone being bludgeoned to death with a blunt object became synonymous with fun. A lovely, morbid treat for children ages eight and up. The game was so popular, the movie Clue was released in 1985, starring Tim Curry, Michael McKean, Christopher Lloyd, and Madeline Kahn. It might not have been a masterpiece, but it was notable for being one of the first of many films to be based on a game (Double Dragon, Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, Doom).

Life
Don't you wish the real world mirrored this game? You choose work or you choose school. In any case, you’re guaranteed a job. You always find your soulmate. You might not have children or may have so many that they can't fit into your six-seater minivan (There’s no talk of labour pains or mouths to feed. They simply appear in the backseat, fully grown). You could get a split-level or you could get a mansion. None of it matters though, because the randomness of Life means good news and bad news are equalized by the spin of the wheel. And as you travel on your journey, the surroundings are bright and colourful with not a single bump on the smooth, smooth road. You may or may not win the lottery, but you always make it to retirement. Ain't life swell for pink and blue pegs?

Street Fighter II
One of first ever opponent-fighting games, Street Fighter II became the pioneer of its genre. With combination fighting moves, great graphics and interesting back stories for each character, Street Fighter II was a gaming revolution. My characters of choice were usually E. Honda (with his hundred-hands move) and Dhalsim (whose Stretch Armstrong-like capabilities were both effective and comical). Is it just me, or does anyone else think Ken is just a poor-man’s version of Ryu? Anyone?

Monopoly
That colourful money and those silver playing pieces (I was always either the iron or the boot) were doled out every chance we got. We continued to love this game despite the fact that it usually ended with a fight. We teamed up against each other, were ruthless with rent (especially those damned hotel owners), we cheated, and we laughed as our loved ones plummeted into bankruptcy. It didn’t matter what version of the game we played, it always ended the same – in sheer hatred, the losers glaring as the victor counting up the fake cash and property cards with glee. And that’s how the Parker Bros. embedded cutthroat capitalism into generations of children everywhere.

I can’t finish without mention of the initiating classic. For all you Gen X-ers out there, last but not least …

PONG
Developed in the early 70s, this simple game of video tennis was the first from Atari Inc. It wasn’t long before the game swept into homes and arcades everywhere. PONG, while more than basic by today's standards, was the beginning of gaming as we now know it – technology and entertainment rolled into one. Who knew that the simple design of two paddles, a dotted line, and a moving square would be the starting point for a world of gaming wonders, one that never ceases to amaze us with newer and better characters, plots, and technological innovation?

These days, gameplay is so much more than completing an adventure or beating opponents. Recent developments in games like Cranium stimulate the many sides of our brain and encourage the power of imagination. Guitar Hero and the wonders of Nintendo Wii allow players to experience a form of virtual reality. We can’t forget the massively popular (and addictive) phenomenon of World of Warcraft, which connects people globally within an amazing playing field of social interaction and variables like never before. Gaming has reached a level people a decade ago could have only dreamed about. I can’t begin to imagine where we go from here.