PixlBit

Another year of gaming comes to an end. I guess it was kind of a sleepy year for games if you like big tentpole titles, but I honestly found plenty to play. Almost all of my gaming was done on Switch, which is set to pass both the Wii and PS1 in total install base by the end of the year. I didn't really bother pursuing the PS5 or the XSX|S this year, as there isn't a lot on those systems to justify a purchase.

Over the years, there have been many different types of cartridge software released. Where music and video media (eventually) became standardized, each game system had its own form of storage media. In addition to carrying interchangeable game software, companies tended to make the design and appearance of the cartridges themselves distinctive as a marketing gimmick. Most of us have memories of having game cartridges in boxes, not to mention blowing on the edge connectors when our games glitched out. So here's a brief overview of various game cartridges throughout history. This is not an exhaustive list.

Donkey Kong made me a fan of Nintendo very early on. To this day, DK is my favorite arcade game of all time. I loved it for being one of the most colorful, expressive games out there. It was probably as close as you could get in the early 80s to having a playable cartoon show. So naturally, when more Nintendo games started showing up at the arcade, my young self was excited. And if any game could tear me away from DK, it was Mario Bros. 

When I was a kid in the pre-NES days, vertical shooters were a large part of my gaming diet, as they were a huge part of the gaming landscape. Since my family had home computers, I played clones more than I did the arcade originals or their official home versions on consoles like the 2600. These games generally fell into one of three major categories: Space Invaders clones, Galaxian clones, and Centipede clones. In this blog I will talk about the games that spawned the third type of shooter - Centipede and Millipede.

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword was an odd beast for many reasons. It originally released in 2011 for the Wii, and had a lot of expectations to live up to, both from fans and from Nintendo's financial department. Unfortunately, it met with a sharply divided reception among both, in no small part because Skyward Sword often got in its own way with its design.

This generation of gaming has been all about reviving and re-releasing old classic games in the name of cashing in on nostalgia, errr, preserving the history of video games. Among the latest games to make a reappearance from the dead are a pair of 16-bit LucasArts classics, namely, Zombies Ate My Neighbors and its lesser-known sequel, Ghoul Patrol, in a downloadable double-pack on all the major consoles and PC. 

I'm something of an anomaly when it comes to fighting games. Okay, I'm something of an anomaly when it comes to a lot of games. Anyway, a new version of my favorite fighting game of all time was released last week. I speak, of course, of Sega's Virtua Fighter 5: Ultimate Showdown, which came out on PS4 and is currently free to PS+ subscribers. 

When Pac-Man finally took off in popularity after its introduction to the US in 1980, it spawned a lot of competition; after all, Pac-Man is still the single most successful arcade game in history. While some were straight up clones of Pac-Man - Atari took Magnavox to court over K.C. Munchkin, their Pac-Man clone for the Odyssey - other games tried to come up with unique twists.