There have been several games over the years where the only reason I own them is because they came with the console when I bought it, or when my parents bought them for me. The original Halo game is one of those games. When I first got an Xbox it was a few years after release, it came with Halo, Midtown Madness 3, and Simpsons Hit and Run. I wasn't expecting to like Halo, in fact it sat to one side for about a week before I actually played it.
Spoiler alert, the last entry in a few days in this challenge is going to be Stardew Valley, I'll explain why in greater detail when that post rolls around. It's necessary to give that spoiler now though because Stardew Valley was developed by Eric Barone also known as ConcernedApe and he is my favourite game developer.
When it comes to games there's quite a few interpretations of the word 'epic' that I could use as a definition for this post. I'm choosing to interpret this as the scene from a game that stunned me most and left me sitting entranced wondering what did I just see and there's only one option for me, the ending sequence from Manifold Garden.
“All right, I’ve been thinking, when life gives you lemons, don’t make lemonade! Make life take the lemons back! Get mad! I don’t want your damn lemons! What am I supposed to do with these? Demand to see life’s manager! Make life rue the day it thought it could give Cave Johnson lemons! Do you know who I am? I’m the man who’s gonna burn your house down — with the lemons!”
Monomi Park is a game development studio that created a game called Slime Rancher that has proven to be a modern classic in the making. In years to come, generations will look back on it with the fondness and nostalgia that I hold for the games of my youth, but a lot has changed since I was a kid. For one, the approach to game development is much more varied, I grew up in a time when games took between 3 and 5 years to develop and save for some minor publicity you didn't get much in the way of a preview of what was to come. Slime Rancher 2 is an example of how far we've come and how players today are much more involved in guiding the creative process.
When I think about classic games I can't help think about my childhood as they are what I grew up with, and when I think about the games I played, the ones that became a phenomenon are those that I think hold the most significance for me even now. The Pokémon franchise at this point is extensive but despite all the games that have been released, the one that still holds pole position is Pokémon Silver, released in 1999 and later remastered as Pokémon Soul Silver.
Released in 2016 after a long and arduous development process where development restarted multiple times, The Witness was Jonathan Blow's long awaited follow up to Braid which was an indie game hit in 2008. The Witness takes place on an idyllic island that is essentially the manifestation of Zen.
