Gaming
5 Incredible Kids Games to Revisit
A lot of gamers today focus primarily on what’s new. With the industry
moving at a breakneck pace, and new titles now available as quick downloads,
it’s easy to keep looking forward. At the same time though, most gamers can
appreciate something with a little bit of old-school appeal — and in that
regard, it can be hard to beat games geared a more toward younger audiences.
Whether it’s something that’s now considered vintage or it’s a title that’s
survived or been adapted over the years, nothing beats digging up a beloved
game from your childhood.
In that vein, here’s our look at five incredible kids games well worth
revisiting (plus a fairly obscure bonus bound to trigger some nostalgia for
some folks).
5. Bomberman
Bomberman games were fascinating in that they were built to become
character-driven classics despite being, essentially, puzzles. Popular during
the heyday of Mario, Donkey Kong, and Zelda, Bomberman was a similarly
appealing hero, but one more tied to simpler gameplay and multiplayer battles.
Over the years there have continued to be releases in this series, and in
fact News Break wrote about an imitation
called Ponpu that’s being released this year. Billed as a “twitchy, more
arcade-y take on a classic formula,” this sounds like a promising game to check
out. If you can dig up one of the earlier Bomberman titles though — we’d
recommend Bomberman 64 — you’ll likely have a blast diving into it.
4. GoldenEye 007
Though not strictly speaking the original first-person shooter, GoldenEye 007
is widely viewed as having set the tone for this wildly popular genre. Loosely
following the events of the film GoldenEye, the
game is an absolute classic of its time, as well as an iconic multiplayer
experience. And while you might think its blocky, pixel-heavy graphics would
seem almost inaccessibly old now,
we’d suggest you give it a try. There’s just something almost inexplicable
about this game that remains perfect even now, such that its visuals are
somehow more delightful than they are annoying.
3. Sid Meier’s Civilization
Like the other games we’re mentioning here, Sid Meier’s Civilization series is
not explicitly just for
kids — but it is a series a lot of people get into at a fairly young age. As
for what makes it special, it can sort of be looked at as the game that started
it all where strategic, empire-building gameplay is concerned. In HP’s list of the best computer
games for kids, it was pointed out that Civilization pioneered the “4X genre” of
strategy games (standing for “eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, and eXterminate”), and
we can now think of all sorts of titles that followed suit. But Civilization
games are still the best of them. We’d rank Civilization III as the best of the
bunch, though the newer installments are awfully impressive too.
2. Grim Fandango
Grim Fandango is probably either one of your all-time favorites or something
you’re only dimly aware of. Something of a cult classic among millennial
gamers, it was released by LucasArts in 1998 as one of the last great games of
its time. In a sort of ode to the game, The Ringer described it as
“gloriously macabre” and called it “the last truly great entry in the Age of Adventure
Games.” These were games that took players on challenging, narrative-driven
quests in the days before console gaming as we now know it completely took
over. And this one, with its playful take on “Day of the Dead” fantasies, has
stood the test of time. Whether or not you played it as a kid, it’s wonderful
to dig up and dive into now.
1. Any Super Mario Game
Super Mario games are really meant for us all — not just kids. Nevertheless,
they pretty much define the idea of timeless or universal classics in the video
game world. Recently, our “Top 10 BEST Games Of The Decade”
list looking back on the 2010s included two of these game (Super Mario
Odyssey and Super Mario Galaxy). Going back further, Super Mario 64 is about as
good as it gets. And going back even further,
old-school hits like Super Mario RPG and Super Mario All-Stars shouldn’t be
forgotten. Simply put, if you can get your hands on an Super Mario game, you
should.
Bonus: Cosmic Osmo
This 1989 title from Cyan Worlds (the developer best known for Myst) is a truly
bizarre experience that can be the perfect nostalgia hit for people who grew up
on computer games. With the full title Cosmic Osmo and the Worlds Beyond the
Mackerel, it’s a point-and-click adventure guiding you through strange,
black-and-white alien settings. It’s good for a laugh even if you never played
it growing up. And if you find it and enjoy it, you might also consider seeking
out The Manhole — another Cyan Worlds experience with similarly weird appeal.
Gaming
Ubisoft says that future Assassin’s Creed games will need more time to be made
As Assassin’s Creed Shadows is about to sneak up on people in November, Ubisoft says that the time between developing games needs to be longer to find the “right balance.” Shadows has been in development for four years, longer than any other game in the series up to this point. That includes the huge open-world epics Assassin’s Creed Odyssey and Assassin’s Creed Valhalla.
Shadows lead producer Karl Onnée (thanks, GamesIndustry.biz) says that the latest AC game took 25% longer to make than Valhalla. He says this is necessary to keep the quality of the series that it is known for: “It’s always a balance between time and costs, but the more time you have, the more you can iterate.” You can speed up a project by adding more people to it, but that doesn’t give you more time to make changes.
Onnée says this has as much to do with immersion and aesthetics as it does with fixing bugs and smoothing out pixels. This is because the development team needs time to learn about each new historical setting: “We are trying to make a game that is as real as possible.” We’re proud of it, and the process took a long time. In feudal Japan, building a house is very different from building a house in France or England in the Middle Ages. As an artist, you need to learn where to put things in a feudal Japanese home. For example, food might not belong there. Get all the information you need and learn it. That process takes a long time.”
You’ll have to wait a little longer for Ubisoft to work on each game. Are you okay with that? In what part of Shadows are you now? Is it interesting to you? Leave a comment below and let us know.
Gaming
You can now pre-order Lollipop Chainsaw RePOP on PS5
You can now pre-order Lollipop Chainsaw RePOP, a remaster that Dragami Games and Capcom both created. You can now pre-order the PS5 game on the PS Store for $44.99 or £39.99. If you have PS Plus, you can get an extra 10% off the price.
The company put out a new trailer with about three minutes of gameplay to mark the start of the pre-order period. Lollipop Chainsaw RePOP is a remaster of Grasshopper Manufacture’s crazy action game from 2012. You play as Juliet, a high school student who fights off waves of zombies.
The remaster adds RePOP mode, an alternative mode that swaps out the blood and gore for fun visual effects. It also adds a bunch of other features and improvements that make the game better overall. You can expect the graphics and sound to be better as well.
The game will now come out on September 12, 2024, instead of September 12, 2024. Are you excited to get back to this? Please cheer us on in the section below.
Gaming
This Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 zombies trailer is way too expensive
Is there really anyone who is following the story of Call of Duty’s zombie mode? We’ve known about the story in a vague way for a while, but we couldn’t tell you anything about it. It looks like the “Dark Aether” story will continue in Black Ops 6, but we don’t really know what that means.
For those of you who care, here is the official blurb with some background: “Requiem, led by the CIA, finally closed the last-dimensional portal, sending its inhabitants back to the nightmare world known as the Dark Aether, after two years of fighting zombie outbreaks around the world during the Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War timeline.”
Wait, there’s more! “Agent Samantha Maxis gave her life to seal this weird dimension from the inside out.” Even worse things were to come: senior staff members of Requiem were arrested without a reason by the Project Director, who turned out to be Edward Richtofen.
Black Ops 6 will take place about five years later, and it looks like it will show more about Richtofen’s goals and motivations. The most important thing is that you will probably be shooting an unimaginable number of zombies in the head. This week, on August 8, there will be a full reveal of the gameplay, so keep an eye out for that.
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