Retro Console of the Month - April 2020

RETRO CONSOLE OF THE MONTH - APRIL 2020
NINTENDO WII
Hi guys,

I'm back at it again with another blog post, sorry for the delay, it's been hectic with coronavirus going on and uni being delayed, but I promise to be a bit more active. Starting with another retro console of the month, so let's dive into it!

This month's retro console is the Nintendo Wii! This console is one of the best of it's generation for the 7th generation. The Nintendo Wii was released in 2006 as a successor to the Gamecube and to compete with the PS3 and Xbox 360. This was one of the first consoles that introduced Motion Sensors to the controller. This made it easier for the player to move around with the console able to pick up the controller. The one downside to this console was the fact that the controller (or Wii remote) needed to be recallibrated every so often. The console was discontinued in 2013, to be followed by the Wii U

Geekette's Thoughts:
This console is one of my personal favourites as I grew up playing the Wii and having the black variant of the console. I still love to play the Wii to this day, as it still works. My favourite games on the Wii were Mario Kart Wii and Coconut Mall.

That's all for today, but stay tuned for future updates!
So until next time,

Peace Out,
Geekette

Retro Game of the Week - 02/03/2020

RETRO GAME OF THE WEEK - 02/03/2020
THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: OCARINA OF TIME
This week's retro game of the week is the one and only, Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time! Let's delve into this retro game of the week!

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time was released on the Nintendo 64 in November 1998. The player takes the role of the iconic main character Link as he has to save the Princess Zelda and the land of Hyrule form a evil king called Ganondorf. Helping Link is a little fairy called Navi and an ocarina that plays different songs in order to progress through various gates.

This game follows four other Zelda games, The Legend of Zelda (NES), Zelda II: The Adventure of Link (NES), A Link to the Past (NES), and Link's Awakening (GBA). However, in the fictional chronological order of the game, Ocarina of Time is 4th out of the 18 Legend of Zelda games released.

Geekette's Thoughts: I have never played this game before (mainly due to not owing a N64), but I have always wanted to play it as I am a fan of the Zelda games. However, I am attempting to play the Zelda games in chronological order, starting with Skyward Sword.

That wraps up today's (late) Retro Game of the Week. Hope you enjoyed it! So until next time.

Peace Out,
Geekette

Star Wars: The Old Republic Gameplay

STAR WARS: THE OLD REPUBLIC GAMEPLAY
PART 2 - TROOPER STORY
Welcome back to the 2nd part of the trooper story of Star Wars: The Old Republic.

Check out the episode here:
https://youtu.be/jC5nfHuIlh8

So until next time,

Peace Out,
Geekette

Gamer Tag - A Q&A!

Gamer Tag - A Q&A!

This tag gives all you lovely readers a chance to get to know me, so without further ado, let's jump into things!

1) What is your all-time favourite video game?
My favourite video game of all time has got to be Star Wars Battlefront II on the PS2, as I have fond memories of playing this game with my younger sister. Either that or any of the Harry Potter games!2) What’s your current favourite video game?

My favourite current game has to be Luigi's Mansion 3, as I was excited for it when Nintendo announced the game at E3 last year. Also when I saw Polterpup and Professor E. Gadd in the game, I knew it was going to be good.3)What is your favourite video game genre?

My favourite game genre has to be RPGs as I love the story aspect behind them, followed closely by construction games. To be honest, I'd happily play any genre of game.4) How long have you been playing video games?

I have been into video games for as long as I remember, but I have been playing them more now I have grown up a bit and started to appreciate the art and tech aspects that go into them.5) What’s the first game you ever played?

The first game that I have ever played was Gran Turismo on the Playstation, albeit I wasn't very good at it. 6) What game have you clocked the most hours into?

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix on DS. I managed to complete that game in one day, which was impressive for me as it was the first game I had ever completed.7) What’s your longest gaming session?

My longest gaming session was probably a day of playing games and the odd couple of toilet breaks and food breaks.8) Who is your favourite game developer?

TT Games, I have always admired their work and I have grown up playing majority of the Lego games since Lego Star Wars came out on the PS2.9) Who’s your favourite hero character from a game?

My favourite hero has to be Luigi from Mario and Luigi's Mansion, especially when he's walking around humming the theme song. 10) Who is your favourite villain?

My favourite villain is probably Gnasty Gnorc from the Spyro games. Even though you don't see much of him or hear him speak, he is still one of those villains that everyone despises altogether and has the weirdest of looks for being in the land of dragons.11) Who is your most hated character of any game?

My most hated character has to be the little white dude that used to pop up in the Eyetoy games and try to give you "helpful" hints. We discovered that batting him of the screen use to get him quiet every so often.12) What gaming systems do you own?

I own a Playstation, PS2, PSP, PS Vita, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Wii, DS, 3DS, Nintendo Switch, Gameboy Advance, Mega Drive, Game Gear, and a gaming laptop (if that counts).13) What was your first game system?

My first system that I played was the original Playstation, but the first system I brought myself was the Xbox 360.14) What’s your favourite gaming system and why?

My favourite gaming system is the Nintendo DS. I always played this as a little kid, so I will always go back to playing it if I get bored, and besides it fits easily in a bag or pocket so I can take it to lectures if I get bored!15) Do you prefer to play guy characters or girl characters?

Normally I play as guy characters, unless I can customise a girl character. Usually, this is due to the girls never having as good traits as the guys.16) Do you follow walkthroughs, or do you play through on your own?

Normally I play on my own, unless I get extremely stuck. Then I play walkthroughs.17) Have you ever been to a gaming convention?

I have been to EGX (which was in London this year), as well as Play Expo back in 2018 (I hope to go back one day though) and a small convention called GEEK, which was held in Margate.18) What game are you most excited about coming out in the future?

I am pretty excited for the new Animal Crossing game coming out, as well as Watchdogs Legions, Pokemon Mystery Dungeon and Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga.19) What’s your best memory of a video game?

My best memory of a video game is the time I managed to beat an unbeatable (for me, my dad and uncle) level on my Harry Potter game. It was the Chamber of Secrets and I couldn't get past Aragog. So I left the game for a couple of years (nearly 10) and went back to it. I finally beat Aragog and chanted, "I beat the unbeatable level!", it made me so happy.20) What’s your worst memory of a video game?

Struggling to beat Aragog on the PS2, or when my dog accidentally sniffed my Xbox and switched the console off while I was mid-game playing Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens.21) Which video game character do you see yourself as, or if you had to be represented by a video game character, who would it be?

If I was represented by a video game character, I think I would be GLaDOS from the Portal games. I love her sarcasm and I think that fits me perfectly. It's a shame how their are not as many geeky females in games.

So that's it for this special Q&A and I hope you all enjoyed it! So until next time,

Peace Out,

Geekette

Game of the Week - 26/02/2020

GAME OF THE WEEK - 26/02/2020
SMASH BROS. ULTIMATED
This week's game of the week is Smash Bros. Ultimate for the Nintendo Switch. So let's a go (as Mario would say!)

Smash Bros. Ultimate was released for the Nintendo Switch in 2018. This game is a beat-'em up game which features a lot of Nintendo characters and different stages, such as Deflino Plaza, and my personal favourite, Saffron City.

There is a whole host of characters that are available that the players can play and also purchase as DLCs such as Banjo and Kazooie, but there are plenty of existing characters as well such as Mario (of course), Pac Man, Kirby and Link. This game is a good example of how DLCs are used to give players more variety in the games that they play.

Geekette's Thoughts: I love playing Smash Bros. Ultimate as it is a good party game that everyone can get involved in playing. Myself and my university friends have spent countless hours sat playing this game in the student bar or before classes have become. Before university, I had never played a Smash Bros. game before, as I have never really been that good at beat-'em up games.

That's all for today, so until next time.

Peace Out,
Geekette

History of Third Generation Consoles

HISTORY OF THIRD GENERATION CONSOLES
Today we are delving into the history of third generation consoles, with 3 major consoles that every gamer may be able to recognize. Let's jump into things!

The third generation of games consoles began on July 15th in 1985 with Nintendo releasing their first home system. This system was of course the Nintendo Entertainment System, or the Famicom if you were from Japan. The release of this console marked the beginning of Nintendo's games consoles journey releasing many more amazing consoles afterwards. When the console was released, the top selling game was Super Mario Bros. The console itself went onto sell 69.91 million units in its lifecycle.

The next third generation console that was released was the Sega Master System. This console was released worldwide in June 1987, succeeding the SG-1000, which was only released in Japan and New Zealand. The Master System had sold 10 - 13 million units worldwide, with the most popular game being Sonic the Hedgehog.

The last home console to be released with the third generation consoles was the Atari 7800. This console was released in July 1987 as a successor to the Atari 5200 and was originally supposed to have backwards compatibility with the console. However, it did have backwards compatibility with the Atari 2600 and was the first games console to have the ability to play older games. The most successful game for the Atari was Pole Position II and the console sold 3.77 million units which is surprisingly low for a console.

During this era, some well known games as well as Sonic and Super Mario Bros were released, such as Final Fantasy and Ninja Gaiden.

So that sums up today's History of..., stay tuned for next time!

So until then,

Peace Out,
Geekette

Retro Game of the Week - 24/02/2020

RETRO GAME OF THE WEEK - 24/02/2020
SILENT HILL
Welcome back to another blog post! This week we are delving into the Horror genre with the PS1 classic, Silent Hill.



Silent Hill was released for the PS1 on February 23rd 1999. Which means that it is 21 years old (shock faces here). The game was based around Harry Mason trying to find his daughter in the town of Silent Hill, but lurking within the fog are scary creatures waiting to attack you. While attempting to find his daughter, Harry also has to try and figure out the mystery around Silent Hill.

This game is your typical 3rd person shooter game with many horror aspects included. The game can utilize the feature of the dual-shock controller to alert the player if Harry's health is low by making it vibrate, as the game has no health bar or ammo bar present.

One very cool feature of the game is the rendering aspects that the game used. When the game was being developed, the developers noticed that the smoke was not rendering the way that they needed it to show the rest of the map. As a result, they decided to leave the smoke to be unrendered and allow the buildings to begin to show when the player gets closer to them.

Geekette's Thoughts: I recently started playing this game and it is amazing. I am not very good with horror films normally, but I thought I'd give this game a shot. The use of the smoke covering the enemies and the buildings makes the game much more eerie and spooky. I would rate this game 4/5 as it is an amazing game, but the lack of health bar and ammo bar makes the game slightly harder to control.

So that sums up today's retro game of the week. Stay tuned for more awesome updates coming your way!

So until next time,

Peace Out,
Geekette