Video Game of the Day is a daily show available on Amazon Alexa devices and here on this website. Each day, we briefly discuss the history of a single game, randomly chosen. If you would like to listen on your daily flash briefing, you can enable Video Game of the Day here: https://amzn.to/2CNx2NJ.

Transcript:

Hello and welcome! My name is Katosepe and I’ll be your host for today’s Video Game of the Day.

Sports video games tend to be focused on their multiplayer gameplay. Sure, there are always modes to play against the AI but usually these modes feel like training to play against other players and that makes sense. Sports are all about getting outside with your friends, why wouldn’t the video games be similar? Today’s game is a bit different though and focused primarily on a fleshed out single-player experience, even when the other versions of the same game did not. Today’s game is Mario Tennis for the Game Boy Color, developed by Camelot and released on the Game Boy Color in 2000.

Many fans remember Mario Tennis for the Nintendo 64 and may be wondering what single-player focus I’m referring to. Actually, despite sharing the same name and coming out at the same time, Mario Tennis for the Nintendo 64 and Mario Tennis for the Game Boy Color are very different games developed by different teams. They both feature many similar modes, however. Exhibition matches allow players to play tennis as the Mario character of their choice and play against AI opponents. There’s also a multiplayer mode, which on the Game Boy Color uses the link cable to play with friends.

This is where the similarities end, however. Game Boy Color Mario Tennis’ main single player mode is called Mario Tour and may be a bit different from what you’d expect. You start out choosing to play as Alex or Nina, basically a boy/girl option. Whoever you choose, they are a new student at a tennis-focused school called the Royal Academy. You must train with teachers and play matches against other students in order to increase your character’s stats and eventually play in the Castle Open against Mario himself. Other than these last few matches, you don’t play against Mario characters at all. Every opponent is human in appearance, just like you and outside of tennis matches, the game plays like an RPG, focusing on increasing your characters stats and living school life.

Mario Tennis was well received by critics and there was significant comparison to Virtua Tennis on the Sega Dreamcast, an impressive comparison to make considering Virtua Tennis was a new gen game, at the time, and Mario Tennis was on the Game Boy Color. The RPG storyline was well received by fans as well, but despite this, Nintendo did not return to the idea for later entries. Camelot would go on from Mario Tennis to create the cult-classic Golden Sun series for the Game Boy Advance. They also continue to work on Mario sports titles to this day.

Thank you so much for listening! Did you know I have a new podcast I co-host along with Adrian Simple from The Gaming Observer? It’s called The Gaming Observer Podcast and it’s available now on iTunes and all other podcast hosts. Go check it out, leave us a review, and let us know how we’re doing! As always, don’t forget to check back here tomorrow for another Video Game of the Day!

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The post Video Game of the Day – Mario Tennis (GBC) appeared first on Old School Gamer Magazine.

Video Game of the Day is a daily show available on Amazon Alexa devices and here on this website. Each day, we briefly discuss the history of a single game, randomly chosen. If you would like to listen on your daily flash briefing, you can enable Video Game of the Day here: https://amzn.to/2CNx2NJ.

Transcript:

Hello and welcome! My name is Katosepe and I’ll be your host for today’s Video Game of the Day!

Times can be tough and sometimes, we just need that perfect escapism game. A game that lets us relax, turn our brains off just enough, and just veg for hours on end. Everyone who’s played video games for a while has their list of games that do this for them. Skyrim and Stardew Valley are near the top of my list. One relaxing game that I frequently hear people cite though time and time again is the subject of today’s episode. Today’s game is The Sims, developed by Maxis and released on PCs in 2000.

By now, I’d be surprised if everyone doesn’t at least have the basic concept of The Sims down. You control a family of Sims and simulate out their lives. Everything from building their house to determining their jobs, hobbies, friends, everything is under your control. The game was a massive success and by 2002, it beat out Myst to become the best selling game in history. While it’s since lost that record today, it did hold it for several years and has spawned a successful series that is continuing with The Sims 4 to this day.

Most folks know about that part so let’s take a bit of time to talk about the background of The Sims. The game was led by Will Wright along with his company Maxis, the company founded by Wright and his business partner James Braun, in order to publish SimCity. Check out my episode from May 2nd, 2019 on SimCity over on videogameoftheday.com to hear more about that. After SimCity’s release though, Sim games exploded in popularity. Everything from SimEarth, to SimAnt to SimCopter was the brainchild of Wright’s design philosophy to simulate interesting and fun scenarios.

You’d think that Wright’s inspiration for The Sims came from wanting to simulate on a more relatable scale but this actually wasn’t the case. In fact, The Sims started as a game strictly about architecture. Wright lost his home to the Oakland firestorm of 1991 and was inspired to make The Sims after the experience of rebuilding their lives. The home building elements of The Sims was the original concept for the game but having people explore and live in the house was always going to be a central aspect. It was while programming the behavioral AI for the people that the team discovered they had even more fun watching the people than building the homes. This evolved into creating social scenarios for the Sims and eventually into the game we know today.

Like most of Wright’s ideas, The Sims was originally scoffed at as being an interactive dollhouse. Jeff Braun said that the board of directors at Maxis actually stated that this would be a game for little girls and girls don’t play video games. However, EA stepped in to fund the project based on Wright’s previous work on SimCity. When The Sims launched, it was hugely popular with most demographics but especially female gamers. Of the more than 11 million copies sold, approximately 60% of those sales were by female gamers, a fact that Wright is proud of to this day.

Thank you so much for listening! I have more great news for you all! The TGO Podcast will be coming back starting this Tuesday, the 23rd. Adrian and I will be streaming live on his Twitch channel at twitch.tv/gaming_observer noon pacific/ 3 PM eastern. Like before, if you don’t catch us live, the podcast will still be available on all podcasting apps as well as on The Gaming Observer Youtube channel. We have a ton of gaming to talk about so check that out! Don’t forget to check back here tomorrow for another Video Game of the Day!

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The post Video Game of the Day – June 2nd – The Sims appeared first on Old School Gamer Magazine.

Video Game of the Day is a daily show available on Amazon Alexa devices and here on this website. Each day, we briefly discuss the history of a single game, randomly chosen. If you would like to listen on your daily flash briefing, you can enable Video Game of the Day here: https://amzn.to/2CNx2NJ.

Transcript:

Hello and welcome! My name is Katosepe and I’ll be your host for today’s Video Game of the Day!

To be honest with you, I’m struggling to even come up with an introduction for today’s game. It’s a game that’s widely revered by fans around the world but it’s also a deeply personal game to me, being perhaps the first JRPG I ever played at a time. It sparked my love of the genre that lasted decades. I know that I’m not along either because whenever you look at lists of best JRPGs, today’s game is almost always near the top with new fans still discovering the game for the first time today. Today’s game is the Super Nintendo classic, Chrono Trigger, developed by Square and released in 1995.

In 1992, a dream team was formed with three big name creators at the head: the creator of Final Fantasy, Hironobu Sakaguchi, the writer and creator of Dragon Quest, Yuji Horii, and likely the biggest name manga artist of the time and creator of Dragon Ball, Akira Toriyama. The star power of these three were more than enough to attract several other talented folks to the development team and despite taking three years to complete, a long development cycle in those times, they were able to finally release Chrono Trigger near the end of the SNES life cycle.

Chrono Trigger has players play as Crono, a teenager living in the Kingdom of Guardia at the turn of the new millenia. At the Millennial fair being thrown for the Kingdom, Crono’s tinkerer friend Lucca is demonstrating a new teleportation device that she and her father have created but something goes wrong when a girl named Marle volunteers and her necklace interferes with the device, opening a portal to another time. Crono and Lucca take the fallen necklace and travel back in time to rescue her.

Chrono Trigger is, in many ways, the culmination of Super Nintendo JRPGs. Coming at the tail end of the console’s lifecycle, the graphics and sound pushed the console to its limit. Where most SNES RPGs used grid-based movement and featured small chibi sprites for their maps, Chrono Trigger featured large, vibrant sprites and a focus on lush environments. The battle system also eschewed the standard random battles of the day and featured set-piece battles that used the environment map itself rather than transporting players to a separate battle screen. 

Combat used the Active Time Battle system from the recent Final Fantasy games but incorporated unique aspects such as combination attacks where multiple party members could work together to pull off powerful special moves. While Chrono Trigger’s story is linear, the ending can be manipulated by fighting the final boss under certain specific circumstances, resulting in 12 different endings for the game. 

There are many, nuanced reasons why Chrono Trigger was so well received and to go into each of them would take a significantly longer amount of time than we have for this show so I’ll just say that Chrono Trigger has been very well received both at the time and in modern retrospectives. From its clever use of time travel mechanics to its enjoyable characters to its fun and perfected battle system, Chrono Trigger finds many reasons to stay at the top of many people’s best games list to this day.

Thank you so much for listening! If you liked today’s episode, please leave me a review on Amazon. That really helps spread the word and bring in more listeners. You can also follow me on Twitter and Instagram @vg_oftheday where I post screenshots of the games we talk about and up to date schedules for what I’m working on. Don’t forget to check back here tomorrow for another Video Game of the Day!

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The post Video Game of the Day – August 17th – Chrono Trigger appeared first on Old School Gamer Magazine.

Video Game of the Day is a daily show available on Amazon Alexa devices and here on this website. Each day, we briefly discuss the history of a single game, randomly chosen. If you would like to listen on your daily flash briefing, you can enable Video Game of the Day here: https://amzn.to/2CNx2NJ.

Transcript:

Hello and welcome! My name is Katosepe and I’ll be your host for today’s Video Game of the Day!

Flight sims may not be very prevalent today but back in the 90’s, they were huge. Games like X-Wing, Freespace, even Descent, were all capturing the feel of being in a cockpit. Flight sticks were commonplace amongst PC gamers of the day, so much so that even many non-flight sim games would have support for them. While not the first in the genre by any means, one of the most important series for the flight sim genre was Wing Commander. Today, let’s talk about the second entry in that seminal series. Today’s game is Wing Commander 2: Vengeance of the Kilrathi, developed by Origin Systems and released on MS-DOS in 1991.

Wing Commander 2 picks up right after the first game. The Tiger’s Claw has become the pride of the Terran Confederation fleet and is currently on a mission in Kilrathi space. After a surprise attack though, the entire Tiger’s Claw is destroyed with only one pilot out on command. Wing Commander 2 still allows players to set their character’s name but later games would canonize his name as Maverick. Maverick is demoted and charged with cowardice. The game then jumps 10 years where Maverick is guarding a backwater station before a surprise attack brings him back into the war.

Wing Commander 2 sounds rather odd on paper. The original game was famous and popular for the branching storylines and features depending on your mission performance. Players could finish the game even if they fail nearly every mission. So it seems like a strange choice for Wing Commander 2 to simplify this significantly. While there are still branching paths, players can no longer be promoted or demoted, nor can their actions get their wingmen killed. 

Otherwise, Wing Commander 2 looks and plays very similarly to the first. In between missions, players can move around their vessel, talking to their fellow pilots and gathering information about their missions. In mission, you can see much of the cockpit and must use a combination of flight stick and keyboard to complete missions. Missions often consist of destroying Kilrathi vessels or defending allies. You get to fly a number of different fighters throughout the game, each with their own flight and combat capabilities. 

Despite the scaled back branching paths, Wing Commander 2 was extremely well received, with several outlets giving the game perfect scores. While it may look fairly primitive by today’s standards, using scaled sprites instead of full 3D for the combat, Wing Commander 2 was a technical marvel for 1991. The music and storyline were particularly praised for feeling like an action movie. Even in retrospectives, Wing Commander 2 may not be quite as beloved as some of the sequels but it is still widely respected and for those willing to put up with something of a learning curve, it is still worth playing today. The game is available along with the first game in the series on GOG.com.

Thank you so much for listening! If you liked the show, please leave a review for us on Amazon. You can also follow me on Twitter or Instagram @vg_oftheday for up to date news and schedules for what I’m doing. You can also see me livestream on twitch.tv/katosepe every Monday from 4-6 PM pacific time. Don’t forget to check back here tomorrow for another Video Game of the Day!

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The post Video Game of the Day – August 14th – Wing Commander 2: Vengeance of the Kilrathi appeared first on Old School Gamer Magazine.

Video Game of the Day is a daily show available on Amazon Alexa devices and here on this website. Each day, we briefly discuss the history of a single game, randomly chosen. If you would like to listen on your daily flash briefing, you can enable Video Game of the Day here: https://amzn.to/2CNx2NJ.

Transcript:

Hello and welcome! My name is Katosepe and I’ll be your host for today’s Video Game of the Day!

I started research for today’s episode intending to do the first game in the Legend of Heroes series which is most famous for the modern Trails of Cold Steel subseries. This turned out to be quite the rabbit hole though as The Legend of Heroes is itself, a spin-off series from an earlier series, most of which only ever released in Japan. It’s a confusing trail and one I hope to tackle over several episodes in the future but for today, let’s talk about the first game in the first series which influenced a surprising number of games. Today’s game is Dragon Slayer, developed by Nihon Falcom and released on the PC-8801 in 1984

Dragon Slayer’s developer, Nihon Falcom, had released numerous games by 1984, even though they had only been around for 3 years at that point. Japan was focused on home computers in the 80’s so the developer focused on releasing for the popular PC platforms in Japan at the time. After several action games, horror games, and even a Twilight Zone game, they needed a big hit. Something that would stick and cement them in the gaming industry.

Developer Yoshio Kiya had created a game in 1983 called Panorama Island which had an interesting concept. When walking around a world map, encounters would occur but instead of having them be turn-based, players could move the character through the encounter in real-time. Yoshio expanded on this concept with his next game, Dragon Slayer, to make the entire game around this real-time combat and puzzle solving. The result was a top-down action RPG where players play as a fantasy warrior who must crawl through a dungeon looking for treasure and defeating enemies.

Combat is done by walking into enemies which causes damage to both the enemy and the player. If the player is strong enough, they will defeat the enemy and continue moving through the dungeon. Throughout the dungeon are items to collect and some puzzles to solve. Dragon Slayer would gain popularity and is now considered one of the earliest action RPGs ever made. The series would inspire the gameplay from Nihon Falcom’s later Ys series, Hydlide, and even the Legend of Zelda.

While the Dragon Slayer series name hasn’t been attributed to a game in some time, the series did go on to create several subseries. The Legend of Heroes being the biggest today but also Sorcerian, Lord Monarch, and the Xanadu games, which includes Tokyo Xanadu, an obscure but modern game released in the west in 2017. There’s a lot more to talk about when it comes to Dragon Slayer but since it intersects so much with so many other games, we’ll leave that for another time.

Thank you so much for listening! It’s always fun to research Japanese-exclusive games because it often involves finding obscure fan sites, YouTube videos in other languages, and all sorts of bizarre sources of information. It’s always worth it to demystify the origins of some of these series that westerners may have played though. If you felt like you got something out of this episode, maybe consider leaving a review for me on Amazon and letting others know what you think. It helps bring people into the show and it lets me know what kind of games to focus on going forward. Thanks again and don’t forget to check back here tomorrow for another Video Game of the Day!

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The post Video Game of the Day – August 1st – Dragon Slayer appeared first on Old School Gamer Magazine.

Video Game of the Day is a daily show available on Amazon Alexa devices and here on this website. Each day, we briefly discuss the history of a single game, randomly chosen. If you would like to listen on your daily flash briefing, you can enable Video Game of the Day here: https://amzn.to/2CNx2NJ.

Transcript:

Hello and welcome! My name is Katosepe and I’ll be your host for today’s Video Game of the Day!

Free to play games have a pretty bad reputation these days. Despite sounding like a great thing, these games often use predatory tactics to squeeze the player with microtransactions, often at the cost of the actual game. It’s great, then, when a game comes around that manages Free to Play correctly by offering a solid game and then offering microtransactions to provide even more content. Today’s game is one of the best I’ve seen that accomplishes this. Today’s game is Path of Exile, developed by Grinding Gear Games and released on PC in 2013.

Path of Exile is an action RPG, heavily inspired by Diablo 2. On its surface, it may even look like a clone of that game, with its dark, brooding atmosphere, undead enemies, and constant clicking gameplay. Digging a bit deeper will show an immensely complex game that far surpasses what Diablo 2 offers for those willing to learn its many arcane systems.

Path of Exile is best known for this complexity, with absolutely immense skill charts and several different equipment customization options. Unlike many games which feature individual skill trees for each class, Path of Exile places each of its seven classes on the same branching skill tree which contains over 1,300 different passive upgrades, although each character can only get a maximum of 123 throughout the entire game so planning is encouraged.

Path of Exile’s free campaign offers up several Acts to play through before offering paid expansions to the game which add more bosses, areas, and even game modes. There are currently 10 expansions released. Along with this extra content, Path of Exile also frequently features seasonal events, often coming in the form of special leagues or limited time bosses and items.

Path of Exile has received very positive reviews from critics and fans, with most touting it as the perfect model of what Free to Play should be. The game has been going strong for the last seven years with Grinding Gears ramping up for a sequel, Path of Exile 2. Path of Exile has also since seen release on Xbox One and Playstation 4, with a mobile version in the works as well. While not fully a criticism, most reviews have noted that the complexity can make Path of Exile tough to get into for many players. Skill trees often have to be planned out in advance, due to the many millions of possible ways to level up your character. This combined with the many different systems and item combinations can be tough for new players to get into but there are several sites and YouTube channels dedicated to helping people get started.

Thank you so much for listening! If you haven’t left a review for the show on Amazon, please let us know what you think. 2020 has been a tough year for all Flash Briefings, including us, so if you like what we do, please consider taking a couple minutes to write that review and help us bring in some more listeners. Thank you so much for keeping us in your routine either way. I couldn’t do this without your support. Don’t forget to check back here tomorrow for another Video Game of the Day!

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The post Video Game of the Day – July 30th – Path of Exile appeared first on Old School Gamer Magazine.

Video Game of the Day is a daily show available on Amazon Alexa devices and here on this website. Each day, we briefly discuss the history of a single game, randomly chosen. If you would like to listen on your daily flash briefing, you can enable Video Game of the Day here: https://amzn.to/2CNx2NJ.

Transcript:

Hello and welcome! My name is Katosepe and I’ll be your host for today’s Video Game of the Day!

Most JRPG fans have been asked, at some point, the question of what JRPG a newcomer should start with. Many point to their favorite Final Fantasy game. Many others point to classics like Chrono Trigger or even Secret of Mana. One game, though, is often unrecognized in this category and yet inspires such praise and respect from fans as to be overwhelming. Today’s game is Suikoden 2, developed by Konami and released on the Sony Playstation in 1998.

Suikoden 2 is a sprite-based JRPG on the original Playstation which uses many elements from SNES JRPGs but takes advantage of the improved hardware to incorporate many new features and even methods of combat. The story takes place in the Dunan region, a neighboring empire to the Scarlet Moon Empire from the first game, and occurs three years after the events of the first game. 

Like the first game, you play as a player-named character who is part of a youth division of the Highland Army. The prince of their nation, Luca Blight, has organized the killing of this Youth Division in order to blame the slaughter on a neighboring nation and justify war. The main character and their best friend Jowy escape but are separated.

While the story takes its time getting going, you will eventually find yourself in a leadership position within your rebellion army. This means you must recruit allies, build up your base, and complete missions with the ultimate goal of defeating Luca Blight. The majority of the game is made up of turn-based battles similar to those in most JRPGs but with a six person party, larger than most other games. However, you will find yourself occasionally fighting in one-on-one duels or even large scale tactical battles as well, throughout the game.

One of the key aspects of Suikoden 2 is the recruitment system which sees the player trying to recruit all 108 Stars of Destiny, which are different characters around the world that will fight for your cause. You can recruit people through all different means from simply finding and talking to them, having a certain character in your party, completing a small quest, or any number of other options. Recruiting more players not only gives you more potential party members for your team but also builds up your army’s base and gets you closer to the true ending, which you can only get if you get all 108 characters.

Suikoden 2 actually received fairly average reviews at the time of its release. Since it was a sprite-based game coming out in 1998, the graphics were seen as dated and the game was mostly written off. Since then, the game has only increased in popularity and respect though, and is now often regarded as one of the best JRPGs ever made in hindsight. The middling sales made Suikoden 2 copies exceedingly rare, with full copies of the game still costing a few hundred dollars to this day. The first three games in the Suikoden franchise have since been released on the Playstation store but oddly only for the Playstation 3 and Vita, not the Playstation 4. Still, if you are a fan of JRPGs, Suikoden 2 is well worth the effort.

Thank you so much for listening! If you want to hear about the spiritual successor to Suikoden and other news stories each week, go listen to the TGO Podcast, the weekly gaming news podcast I do along with Adrian Simple from The Gaming Observer. You can also follow me on Twitter/Instagram for up to date schedules for everything I’m working on @vg_oftheday or by going to videogameoftheday.com. Don’t forget to check back here tomorrow for another Video Game of the Day!

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The post Video Game of the Day – July 28th – Suikoden 2 appeared first on Old School Gamer Magazine.

Video Game of the Day is a daily show available on Amazon Alexa devices and here on this website. Each day, we briefly discuss the history of a single game, randomly chosen. If you would like to listen on your daily flash briefing, you can enable Video Game of the Day here: https://amzn.to/2CNx2NJ.

Transcript:

Hello and welcome! My name is Katosepe and I’ll be your host for today’s Video Game of the Day!

If you are a fan of anime these days, it’s pretty likely that you’re at least somewhat familiar with Fullmetal Alchemist and the remake Brotherhood. When I was a kid, the original series was one of my favorite shows. The idea of transmutation, turning one thing into something else, limited only by your intelligence and creativity, resonated with me. I wasn’t alone either, even with the controversial ending of the first series, it still is regarded as one of the top animes of the last 20 years. And with its popularity in the mid-2000’s, inevitably there was going to be a video game. Today’s game is Fullmetal Alchemist and the Broken Angel, developed by Racjin and released on the Playstation 2 in 2003.

If you aren’t familiar with Fullmetal Alchemist, let me give you the brief rundown. The world is very reminiscent of 1920’s era Europe but with one major difference. The theoretical pseudoscience of Alchemy is actually a real thing and using it, alchemists are able to transmute matter into other matter. Edward and Alphonse Elric are two brothers who attempted to use Alchemy to bring their mother back to life, a taboo in Alchemy, but it backfired. Ultimately, Ed lost his arm and his leg and Alphonse lost his entire body, with his soul being merged with a suit of armor. Both now seek out the Philosopher’s Stone, a mythical artifact that may allow them to restore their bodies.

Fullmetal Alchemist and the Broken Angel is a side-story to the main series, so outside of knowing some of the key players and the premise, you don’t need much knowledge of the series to play the game. On a train across the country, the Elric brothers encounter violent chimeras, alchemical fusions of two or more different animals, as well as a girl whom the chimeras will not attack. Thus, the Elric brothers investigate the situation and find that the mystery of this girl may help them find the answers they have been looking for.

Players play as Ed throughout the game and it plays like a 3D beat-’em-up using alchemy to create new weapons out of the environment. Al is also typically helping but is computer controlled. The game has RPG elements involved such as leveling up through gaining experience points and equipping accessories which change the brothers’ abilities. 

As you may have guessed, being an anime adaptation in the mid-2000’s, Fullmetal Alchemist and the Broken Angel was not well received by critics or fans. The plot was mixed with some folks enjoying it while others felt it was derivative. By its nature as a side-story, the plot is ultimately not relevant to the series, which can lessen the impact quite a bit. More than the plot, though, the gameplay was seen as repetitive, overstaying its welcome despite the game’s short length. This didn’t stop them from trying again though, with the game receiving two direct sequels by the same studio.

Thank you so much for listening! If you want to see other content by me, check out my socials @vg_oftheday. I’m on Twitter and Instagram and post schedules for what I’m doing each week. You can also see links to Twitch, Youtube, Facebook, and the Amazon pages on videogameoftheday.com. That’s videogameoftheday.com. Don’t forget to check back here tomorrow for another Video Game of the Day!

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The post Video Game of the Day – July 27th – Fullmetal Alchemist and the Broken Angel appeared first on Old School Gamer Magazine.

Video Game of the Day is a daily show available on Amazon Alexa devices and here on this website. Each day, we briefly discuss the history of a single game, randomly chosen. If you would like to listen on your daily flash briefing, you can enable Video Game of the Day here: https://amzn.to/2CNx2NJ.

Transcript:

Hello and welcome! My name is Katosepe and I’ll be your host for today’s Video Game of the Day!

The Matrix is a film franchise that brings up a lot of emotions for most people. Some remember how the first movie was a revelation to them, changing the way they thought about the world. Some go straight to how disappointed they were by the sequels. Some feel defensive as they extol the virtues of the sequels, underappreciated as they were. Good, bad, or otherwise, The Matrix brings out a lot of feels so today, let’s talk about the first video game based on the Matrix films. Today’s game is Enter the Matrix, developed by Shiny Entertainment and released on PC, Gamecube, Xbox, and Playstation 2 in 2003.

Regardless of quality, it’s impossible to deny that the studio had high hopes for Enter the Matrix. It was released alongside The Matrix Reloaded and actually contains an hour of additional footage directed by The Wachowskis themselves, the co-directors of The Matrix films. Not only that, the footage was filmed specifically for this game. The plot is also canon to the film franchise and tells a parallel storyline to the movies. Players play as Ghost and Niobe, characters played in both the game and movies by Anthony Wong and Jada Pinkett-Smith. The story begins with Ghost and Niobe finding a message warning of an incoming Agent invasion to the human settlement of Zion. The two must race back to Zion to warn the others of what is coming.

Players can choose to play as either Ghost or Niobe in the game, which functions as a third-person shooter with an emphasis on acrobatics during combat. Characters can run along walls, shoot while diving through the air, etc. Bullet time also lets them slow down the time around them, similar to the effects shown in the movies, which give them even greater capabilities when fighting enemies. Some levels also feature vehicle segments, allowing players to speed away from Agent pursuers.  

Much like the sequel films though, Enter the Matrix didn’t quite live up to players’ expectations. The game was a critical flop, with many stating that the same mechanics used had just been done better in Max Payne only two years earlier. The game felt rushed and the mechanics were more ambitious than the developers were able to pull off at the time. Still, despite the poor reviews, there was an obvious hunger for Matrix video games as Enter the Matrix sold over 5 million copies throughout its life. Even after reviews were known, people kept buying the game because the storyline was well written and the cutscenes had undeniable talent. Fans were willing to overlook the gameplay flaws to experience more of the Wachowskis’ story. Shiny Entertainment wouldn’t give up on the franchise either, with The Matrix: Path of Neo coming only two years later. But that’s a game for another time.

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The post Video Game of the Day – July 26th – Enter the Matrix appeared first on Old School Gamer Magazine.

Video Game of the Day is a daily show available on Amazon Alexa devices and here on this website. Each day, we briefly discuss the history of a single game, randomly chosen. If you would like to listen on your daily flash briefing, you can enable Video Game of the Day here: https://amzn.to/2CNx2NJ.

Transcript:

Hello and welcome! My name is Katosepe and I’ll be your host for today’s Video Game of the Day!

Telltale Games had a fairly infamous rise and fall over the last several years, with their games roller coastering in popularity. From the massively popular Walking Dead to their middling Game of Thrones entry, Telltale was all across the board. In the middle of their run, though, was a game based on a relatively unknown franchise that has become one of their most popular with fans. Today, let’s talk about that game based on the Fables comics. Today’s game is The Wolf Among Us, developed by Telltale Games and released on… pretty much everything in 2013. Please be aware this game is quite mature and this description may contain some content not super great for children but I’ll try and be as vague as I can.

The Wolf Among Us is based on Bill Willingham’s Fables comics, which sees fairy tale creatures trying to hide out in Fabletown, an enclave they made in modern day Manhattan. If you’re familiar with the popular TV show, Once Upon a Time, there are a large number of similarities. The Wolf Among Us takes place in 1986, 20 years before the start of the comics. Players play as Bigby Wolf, the Sheriff for Fabletown who tries to keep the peace by any means necessary, because to do otherwise may risk exposure of the fable creatures to the outside world.

Bigby receives a call one night about a disturbance and finds the Woodsman drunkenly harassing a lady of the night. After Bigby shoos him off, she leaves but is later discovered murdered, with only her head found on the front step of the Woodsman’s house. Bigby must solve the murder which is more complex than it initially appears.

The gameplay in The Wolf Among Us is very similar to other Telltale games and involves the player investigating small areas for clues, choosing dialogue prompts when talking with the many fairy tale characters, and performing quick button presses during cutscenes to succeed in things like chasing down fleeing criminals or dodging attacks. The game was released over 5 episodes with the final episode releasing 9 months after the first. 

The story was well received by critics with most of the criticism going towards Telltale’s aging game engine and increasingly formulaic style. Still, fans were able to forgive these issues in light of the gritty, noir storyline which presented a new world to many fans unfamiliar with the Fables comics. Fairy tale adaptations weren’t uncommon at the time but few felt as fleshed out and dark as The Wolf Among Us, which has since made it a cult classic for many fans. A sequel was immediately greenlit but due to the demise of Telltale Games, it’s future looked bleak. When LCG Entertainment announced their revival of the Telltale brand, it wasn’t long before they announced their first new game, The Wolf Among Us 2.

Thank you so much for listening! If you’d like to see some screenshots of The Wolf Among Us, head over to our Instagram account @vg_oftheday where we post screenshots for each game we talk about on the show. You can also follow me on Twitter @vg_oftheday for up to date schedules for all of my content. Make sure to leave a review on Amazon, too, if you haven’t already and don’t forget to check back here tomorrow for another Video Game of the Day!

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Music Provided By:

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Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

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The post Video Game of the Day – July 25th – The Wolf Among Us appeared first on Old School Gamer Magazine.