Games of the Year, 1990-2014

Since 2014 is almost over, I thought it appropriate to take the opportunity to create a summary of the best games of the last 25 years, going back to 1990. Specifically, this is a list of the "game of the year" for each of the 25 years between 1990 and 2014. Studios around the world have created hundreds of amazing game experiences over the last two-and-a-half decades, but only one game per year can be the very best. These are those games.

Please enjoy, and happy holidays to everyone!

Note: all years are based on North American release dates.

1990
Super Mario Bros. 3
Developer: Nintendo R&D4
Release date: February 12, 1990

Although the Super Mario franchise had veered slightly off the road with Super Mario Bros. 2, it returned to form with Super Mario Bros. 3, arguably the best NES game ever made. Designed with the same platform elements typical of its predecessors, Super Mario Bros. 3 introduced several additions, including mini-games, many new power-ups (e.g., Tanooki Suit) and an overland map that allows players to select which levels to play and which to bypass.

1991
Super Mario World

Developer: Nintendo EAD
Release date: August 23, 1991

Like its immediate predecessors on the NES, Super Mario World is a platform game that demands its players jump, run, duck, and swim to survive hazards and enemies in each level. It retains the overland map of Super Mario Bros. 3, but makes the game world and the levels within that world much larger, more graphically detailed, and more diverse; ghost houses, fortresses, and castles dot the landscape. Super Mario World marks the first appearance of Yoshi, who would become one of Nintendo’s most famous mascots.

1992
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past

Developer: Nintendo EAD

Release date: April 13, 1992

While not necessarily the greatest Zelda game ever developed, A Link to the Past is certainly the quintessential Zelda experience. It established many of the items, enemies, and tropes that appear in almost every Zelda game. The Master Sword, for example, first appears in A Link to the Past. The game also introduced to the series the idea of parallel or alternate dimensions, across which the hero can travel. This added a new (forgive the pun) dimension to puzzle-solving in The Legend of Zelda. Items and portals that appear in one universe may be manipulated to produce effects in a parallel universe.

1993
Shining Force: The Legacy of Great Intention

Developer: Climax Entertainment, Camelot Software Planning

Release date: July 1993

Why do RPGs always have the most awesome subtitles? March of the Black Queen, Person of Lordly Caliber, and of course The Legacy of Great Intention. Whatever The Legacy of Great Intention means, it's a terrific game, an influential turn-based strategy role-playing game, and one of the very best Sega Genesis titles. Players control a silent protagonist as he recruits a small army of fighters to push back against the evil Darksol who wants to conquer the world. Battles in Shining Force take place in square grids, on which players move units strategically to outflank and overcome opponents. There are over two dozen unique and colorful characters to recruit during the game, all of whom can be be promoted to a higher class.

1994

Final Fantasy III (VI)

Developer: Square

Release date: October 11, 1994

Many point to Final Fantasy VII as the ultimate Final Fantasy experience, but its older brother is a more complete game, and a better one. Epic in size and in scope, Final Fantasy III (Final Fantasy VI in Japan) features over a dozen playable characters, all of whom carry significant emotional baggage and who endure trials that range from rafting across raging rapids to, quite literally, the end of the world. There are several unique events in the game, including an opera, a dinner party, and a number of multi-party battles, which allow the player to divide his or her party into two or more battle groups in order to fight off a multi-party enemy.

1995

Chrono Trigger

Developer: Square

Release date: August 22, 1995

One of the most unique RPGs of the fourth generation, Chrono Trigger is an exceptional game with a deep combat system, unique characters, and a bewitching soundtrack. The combat system, with its "tech" attacks, double and triple techniques, and area-of-effect attacks (all of them gorgeously animated, by the way), is particularly impressive. Although the game is relatively short for a role-playing game, the inclusion of multiple endings affords the game a high replay value.

1996

Super Mario 64

Developer: Nintendo EAD

Release date: September 26, 1996

The finest example of the great migration from two-dimensional sprites to three-dimensional polygons, Super Mario 64 gave the platform genre unprecedented freedom of movement. It also introduced a revolutionary camera system that allowed players to manipulate the camera angles in the game. Set once again in the Mushroom Kingdom, Super Mario 64 sets Mario on a path to a final confrontation with his arch-enemy Bowser, who has once more captured Princess Toadstool. Super Mario 64 features fifteen diverse game environments and several hidden areas.

1997

GoldenEye 007

Developer: Rare

Release date: August 25, 1997

GoldenEye 007 ranks among games like Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, and Quake as one of the more important shooters ever made. Upon its arrival on N64 in 1997, GoldenEye proved two important things: one, that first-person shooters could survive, even thrive, on home consoles; and two, that they need not all be corridor shooters where players run from point A to point B, blasting everything in sight. In GoldenEye, stealth and strategy matter. Apart from its incredible and challenging single-player mode, which has tons of replay value, GoldenEye features a legendary split-screen multiplayer mode with customizable weapon sets and expertly-designed maps.

1998

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

Developer: Nintendo EAD

Release date: November 23, 1998

Ocarina of Time is a masterpiece, the pinnacle of Nintendo creativity and ingenuity, and the benchmark against which all games -- past, present, and future -- must be judged. It pioneered innovations like z-targeting, auto-jump, and context sensitive buttons. It took existing game mechanics like horseback riding, fishing, and the realistic passage of time and wove them into the game narrative like never before. Truly, Ocarina has everything: a sweeping musical score for the ages; vast, fully-realized three-dimensional worlds; innovative and easy-to-use controls; an epic and emotionally engaging storyline; and gameplay so rich, varied, and engaging that it has no equal.

1999

SoulCalibur

Developer: Namco
Release date: September 9, 1999

Boasting incredible graphics, huge replay value, and a revolutionary "eight-way run" control scheme, SoulCalibur is one of the best fighting games ever made, a rare console port that outdoes the arcade original. Combat is strategic and intense, the characters are varied, and the action is silky smooth and beautiful to watch. One of the highlights of the game is "Missions Mode," a story mode of sorts where players can complete missions to earn points, which can then be used to unlock concept art and costumes.

2000

Deus Ex

Developer: Ion Storm

Release date: June 26, 2000

It's difficult to single out one thing that makes Deus Ex such a superior game because everything works together. Graphics and sound provide an appropriate sense of place and atmosphere, the story and characters provide meaning and direction, and the dynamic gameplay provides constant challenges. What might be Deus Ex's greatest strength is its level design. Each level is perfectly spaced and paced, whether it's UNATCO headquarters on Liberty Island or a night club in Paris.

2001

Halo: Combat Evolved

Developer: Bungie 

Release date: November 15, 2001

There are only so many truly revolutionary titles in the history of video games. One such game is Halo: Combat Evolved. What did it achieve? Well, by providing the nascent Xbox with a "killer app," it secured Microsoft's spot in the gaming world. It also introduced features, control schemes, and themes that have, for better or for worse, infiltrated almost every mainstream first-person shooter since. And, lastly, it shifted first-person shooters away from computers and onto home consoles. So it's a hugely influential title, but it's also an amazingly great game, with superior graphics, a standout soundtrack, a well-written story, outstanding level design, and perfect gameplay.

2002

Metroid Prime

Developer: Retro Studios

Release date: November 17, 2002

When Metroid Prime was showcased by Nintendo at E3 2001, the reaction from fans and critics was mixed at best. Thankfully, Nintendo and Retro Studios (the new kid on the block) stayed the course, and released a game that somehow, miraculously, managed to transition Metroid from 2D to 3D and third-person to first-person all at once. The result is one of the best games of the sixth generation, and the start of a brilliant trilogy that would continue on GameCube and Wii.

2003

The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker

Developer: Nintendo EAD

Release date: March 24, 2003

Unfairly criticized for its cartoonish appearance, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker features some of the most memorable and vibrant art direction of any Zelda adventure and boasts, without a doubt, the most visually expressive Link of any franchise game. Set on a huge, never-ending great sea, The Wind Waker is the story of Link’s quest to rescue his captured sister. Unlike other Zelda games, in which Link traveled by foot or on horseback, Wind Waker asks its players to navigate across the vast ocean in a small sailboat. Aside from its gorgeous cel-shaded graphics, the game boasts a terrific soundtrack and a deep, sometimes unpredictable story complete with several mid-game revelations and a truly shocking ending.

2004
Half-Life 2

Developer: Valve Corporation

Release date: November 16, 2004

In Half-Life 2 Gordon Freeman must use his weapons and his wits to, once again, save mankind, in this instance from alien overlords and their human collaborators. Boasting an incredible physics system -- in which objects and people obey the laws of gravity, friction and buoyancy -- remarkably sophisticated artificial intelligence, and superior graphics, Half-Life 2 is the very definition of next-generation. Half-Life 2 unfolds across several chapters, some of which involve the use of vehicles, some of which are heavy on problem-solving. The variety of gameplay experiences packed into Half-Life is remarkable.

2005

Resident Evil 4

Developer: Capcom

Release date: January 11, 2005

Before Resident Evil 4, the Resident Evil franchise had been one of the great video game series, and certainly the definitive survival horror series. With Resident Evil 4, it achieved new levels of greatness. Set in a rural village somewhere in Europe, Resident Evil 4 follows Leon S. Kennedy (one of two heroes from Resident Evil 2) in his search for the missing daughter of the American president. Capcom removed the fixed camera angles that had defined previous installments, and allowed the camera to follow Leon wherever he went. Thus RE4 became something of a survival-horror and third-person shooter hybrid, with some RPG elements thrown in for good measure. The game is thrilling, terrifying, and addictive, all at once. 

2006

Gears of War

Developer: Epic Games

Release date: November 7, 2006

Third-person shooters tend to get overlooked in favor of their first-person cousins, but it’s difficult not to be impressed with a game as technically sound and exhilarating as Gears of War. Released roughly a year into the lifecycle of the Xbox 360, Gears of War was the first game to truly justify the purchase of Microsoft’s expensive hardware. It looks great, it sounds great, and, thanks to an intuitive cover system, it plays even better. Featuring a thrilling and demanding single-player campaign and plenty of multiplayer options, both cooperative and competitive, Gears of War stands today as, arguably, the best third-person shooter ever made. 

2007

BioShock

Developer: 2K Boston (Irrational Games)

Release date: August 21, 2007

A spiritual successor to the System Shock games, BioShock honors its predecessors by cleverly merging multiple genres into an amazing game experience. While it's predominantly a first-person shooter, BioShock features elements of adventure games, role-playing games, and even horror games. It's a masterpiece of game design, and it plays very differently depending on the path the player chooses. It's difficult to elaborate on the game without giving away its many secrets, but suffice it to say that Irrational Games, who developed the game, created in BioShock one of the most unique and mesmerizing game settings of all time. From the very first moments of the game to its final frames, BioShock will steal you away to another world.

2008

Super Smash Bros. Brawl

Developer: Sora, Game Arts, Nintendo

Release date: March 9, 2008

Boasting a staggering amount of content, from its online and offline multiplayer modes to its "vault" to its suprisingly deep single-player campaign, Brawl is one of those rare games that can be played ad infinitum. The stage design in Brawl is inspired; its score, a greatest hits collection of thirty years of Nintendo music, is unmatched; and its fighting mechanics accessible enough for novices yet deep enough for veterans. Most importantly, the game is a joy to play, alone or with a group of friends. 

2009

Demon's Souls

Developer: From Software

Release date: October 6, 2009

Set in a medieval kingdom ravaged by demons, Demon's Souls tasks players with exploring several diverse game environments, slaying terrible monsters, and collecting weapons, armor, items, and souls, the currency of the game. It all sounds typical of the genre, but the game is anything but typical. Employing a unique permadeath mechanic, whereby demon slayers who fall in battle are reduced to a weakened "soul form," and an asymmetrical online multiplayer mode, whereby other players can leave behind hints or invade others' worlds, Demon's Souls brings extraordinary features to a fairly common genre. Add to those some memorable music, spectacular level and enemy design, and a steep difficulty curve that makes victory all the more rewarding, and what's left is one of the very best games of the seventh generation.

2010

Super Mario Galaxy 2

Developer: Nintendo EAD

Release date: May 23, 2010

Three years after Nintendo EAD caught lightning in a bottle with the original Super Mario Galaxy, the studio returned with a sequel that manages to match, even surpass, the brilliance of the original. The sheer imagination on display in Super Mario Galaxy 2 is mind-boggling. It packs more ideas and mechanics into individual levels than some games do in their entirety. Super Mario Galaxy 2 might not be as revolutionary is its predecessor, but it's every bit as beautiful, creative, and fun. 

2011

Portal 2

Developer: Valve Corporation

Release date: April 19, 2011

A significant upgrade from the first Portal game, Portal 2 is packed with more puzzles, more interesting and varied level design, and some of the funniest writing and voice acting of any video game, ever. Players will hop, skip, and jump through dozens of puzzling levels, using portals, blocks, and gels to move past seemingly impossible obstacles. Level and puzzle design is deliriously clever; single-player and co-op modes are addictive and fun; and the dialogue, humorously delivered by Ellen McLain, Stephen Merchant, and J.K. Simmons, is uproarious.

2012

Xenoblade Chronicles

Developer: Monolith Soft

Release date: April 6, 2012

With its challenging and deep battle system, its focus on exploration and character building, and its beautifully-realized game world, Xenoblade Chronicles is a RPG for the ages. When players aren't fighting off monsters and mechanical warriors with a combination of skills, arts, and ether attacks, they can take on hundreds of side quests, manage "affinity" levels among their party members and the general populations, and craft gems for weapons and armor. The huge amount of things to do, see, and discover in the world in Xenoblade is astonishing.

2013

The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds

Developer: Nintendo EAD

Release date: November 22, 2013

Despite sharing an overworld with its predecessor A Link to the Past, A Link Between Worlds represents a brand new Zelda experience. In the game, the hero Link boasts a new ability to transform into a two-dimensional painting to access hidden rooms, treasure, and a dark "mirror" version of Hyrule. Backed with fresh ideas, brilliant dungeons, and plenty of secrets, A Link Between Worlds is the best Zelda game in years. 

2014

Mario Kart 8

Developer: Nintendo EAD

Release date: May 30, 2014

Where recent installments of the Mario Kart series felt, at times, like variations of a theme, Mario Kart 8 feels like a brand new game experience, built from the ground up. Sure, the battle mode is an afterthought, but it's small potatoes considering everything that's right with Mario Kart 8, including opulent visuals, an orchestral soundtrack (a first for Mario Kart), silky smooth online play, and imaginative tracks that rank among the best in the series.

How to Train Your Dragon 2 (WiiU)

Game: How to Train Your Dragon 2
System: Wii U
Genre: Action
Developer: Torus Games
Release date:June 10, 2014

Pros: Clever multiplayer mode; exploration is fun while it lasts
Cons: Boring, buggy mini-games; muddy, outdated graphics; not nearly enough variety

Video game players have been trained, by experience or by reputation, to treat games based on other forms of entertainment, most famously movies, with a healthy dose of skepticism. More often than not, these tie-in games, content with simply leveraging the popularity of their source material, demonstrate a disappointing lack of creative energy. Such is the case with How to Train Your Dragon 2, a relatively inoffensive game that believes, wrongly, that a licensed property is enough to keep a mediocre game afloat.

Those wary of spoilers need not worry. Although How to Train Your Dragon 2 shares the title and characters of the DreamWorks' animated movie, it's largely plotless. Instead of tracking the plot lines of the movie, which, by the way, could have resulted in some terrific on-rails shooting segments, the developers at Torus Games opted for a fixed location -- the Viking island of Berk -- and a series of mini-games.

Racing in a circle through floating rings is as fun as it sounds.

Unfortunately, these mini-games, which make up the main gaming experience of How to Train Your Dragon 2, aren't very interesting or much fun. They consist mainly of Superman 64-style fly-through-the-floating ring races, shooting galleries, and sheep collecting challenges. The shooting gallery mini-game, which functions like a simplified version of Virtua Cop, is a nice diversion, but in general the mini-games are boring, buggy, and lacking in variety.

Luckily, players can avoid the mini-games entirely, opting instead to explore Berk at their own leisure. It's here where How to Train Your Dragon 2 moves toward achieving something special. Hidden around the island are 50 tokens for each dragon; collecting them all will unlock special abilities. There's also plenty of dragon perches, mountains, and caves to explore, and even some beautiful vistas to view, despite the game's muddy, GameCube-era graphics.

The dragon Toothless zeroes in on a dragon token, one of 50.

The best part of How to Train Your Dragon 2 on Wii U, sadly, has been completely unadvertised by Torus Games. It's a slick multi-player mode that allows a second player to join in at any point during the game. This second player, riding a different dragon, can explore Berk, participate in races and challenges, and partake in three multiplayer-specific mini-games. Since the game doesn't support the Pro Controller, the second player is required to use a Wii Remote with limited controls, but, impressively, there is no split screen -- one player gets the TV to him or herself and the other uses the GamePad.

Despite this neat multi-player mode, How to Train Your Dragon 2 never breaks free from Torus' lack of ambition. The mini-games are tedious and prone to bugs; Berk, while fun to explore, is too small to sustain investigation for long; and the game's graphics and physics seem generations old. There's some fun to be had, but not for long, and not in large quantities.

Ralph Baer, the Father of Video Games, Passes Away at 92

Ralph Baer, the father of video games

Pioneering inventor and "the father of video games" Ralph Baer has passed away, according to a report at Gamasutra. He was 92.

Baer invented the Brown Box, a prototype version of the Magnavox Odyssey, the world's first commercial home video game console. He's also credited with the invention of the light gun, the first video game peripheral. His contributions to the video game industry cannot be understated.

Born in Germany in 1922 to Jewish parents, Baer and his family escaped the Nazis in 1938 and fled to America. Before being drafted into World War II in 1943, where he worked in military intelligence, Baer served as a radio service technician. In 1966, Baer, then an employee of the defense-electronics company Sanders Associates, developed the "Brown Box" console video game system and several other prototypes along with Bill Harrison and Bill Rusch. In 1971, it was licensed to Magnavox, and in 1972 it was released to the public. Baer also co-created the iconic memory game Simon.

Baer with then President George W. Bush in 2006

In 2006, President George W. Bush awarded Baer the National Medal Of Technology, recognizing him for the "groundbreaking and pioneering creation, development and commercialization of interactive video games." Baer continued inventing for the remainder of his life, telling PBS in 2013 that, having outlived his wife and friends, he needed “a challenge” to keep him occupied. “I still get a big charge out of making something work," said Baer. "I’m no different than a painter who sits there and loves what he does.”

Interstellar

Title: Interstellar
Director: Christopher Nolan
Written by: Christopher Nolan, Jonathan Nolan
Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain, Michael Caine


In an interview last month, director Christopher Nolan stated that his latest movie Interstellar is "about human nature, what it means to be human."

It makes sense. All of the great science fiction auteurs -- Lang, Kubrick, Scott, among others -- were wise enough to weave terrestrial apprehensions and dreams among the distant stars. For all their alien life forms, inhospitable worlds, and cerebral scientific ideas, science fiction movies are a reflection of what is happening right here, on planet Earth. So too is Interstellar, which stands as the most ambitious and personal of Nolan's brilliant young career. It's also, in many ways, his most uneven.

Set in the near future, Interstellar tells the story of Earth on the brink of collapse. Devastated by blight and dust storms, the planet is slowly losing its food sources and its breathable atmosphere. One day, Cooper (Matthew McConaughey), a test pilot-cum-farmer, and his daughter Murphy (Mackenzie Foy) discover a set of coordinates via a gravitational anomaly in Murph's bed room. Soon Cooper is off to investigate, and, soon after, he's on a mission to save the human race far beyond the limits of the Milky Way galaxy.

Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway as humanity's last hope

Informed, emotionally, by Nolan's own fatherhood, and inspired, visually and thematically, by Stanley Kubrick's seminal masterpiece 2001: A Space Odyssey, Interstellar is a movie of colossal size and scope. Nolan, a virtuoso behind the camera, moves back and forth between the silent, alien blackness of space and the verdant, dusty cornfields of Earth seamlessly, piecing together a story that, quite literally, transcends time and space. Penned by Nolan and his brother Jonathan, the story and script of Interstellar are overflowing with heady ideas about mankind's place in the universe, about sacrifice, about love. And it's here, ultimately, where the movie stumbles.

Equal parts astrophysics and metaphysics, Interstellar never quite manages to find harmony between high concept science fiction and believable human drama. When the movie leans on its degree in theoretical physics, it gets lost in technicalities; when it focuses on its characters, many of whom are woefully underdeveloped, it gets buried under sentimentalism. There are a handful of scenes where Nolan comes close to piecing together the two halves of his space opera. One of the best moments of the movie is a simple, quiet shot of Cooper breaking down while watching years of footage of his children back on Earth. It's here, and in other scenes, that Nolan captures something essentially human, and fulfills Interstellar's raison d'etre.

Top Ten Reasons I Love My WiiU

Over the last 40 years, a lot of video game consoles have underperformed or failed commercially. Some, like CD-i and Virtual Boy, earned their fate. Others, like Saturn, Dreamcast, and most recently, WiiU, deserve better. Starting off strong in the fourth quarter of 2012, WiiU was unable to capitalize on early sales, falling fast on the sales charts compared to its competitors PS4 and Xbox One. Thanks to Mario Kart 8, which released at the end of May, WiiU has staged something of a comeback, but to call the system a success would be incorrect, especially when compared to the extraordinary sales of its predecessor, Nintendo Wii.

Despite its low sales and in defiance of the doom and gloom articles that have shadowed the WiiU since it first launched almost two years ago, I adore Nintendo's newest home console. Its controller, much maligned, is a game-changer when it comes to asymmetrical gameplay and local mutiplayer; its online social network is unlike anything on PS4 and Xbox One; and its exclusive software ranks among the best in the business.

Below is a top ten list of the reasons I love my WiiU. Please enjoy.

#10
Web browser 

Having used the web browser on WiiU, I can't imagine using the inferior browsers on other systems. Compared to the clunky, inconvenient web browsers on Xbox 360, PS3, and PS4, WiiU is a dream come true. Being able to type with a touchscreen and stylus makes navigating pages and filling in text fields fast and easy. After a good old-fashioned mouse and keyboard, it's the next best thing.

#9
Backward compatibility 

What was more or less standard during the seventh generation has become, depressingly, a Nintendo exclusive in the eighth. Only on Nintendo 3DS and WiiU can consumers boot up their seventh gen games. Moreover, with WiiU it's not only games that are backward compatible. It's controllers too. All those Wii Remotes and nunchuks you collected over the last eight years? Those work again with WiiU.

#8
Pro Controller

If you want to upgrade those controller, however, you can do so with the Pro Controller, arguably the best "traditional" controller on the market today. Comfortable, light, ergonomically-superior, with battery life that would outlast a Doctor Who marathon, it's simply a joy to use.

#7
Support for the little guy

With the help of Dan Adelman, Nintendo's former indie boss, the Japanese gaming giant pushed into the "indie" space, tentatively with Wii and now much more forcefully with WiiU. "Indie" darlings like Guacamelee! and Shovel Knight are yours for the playing on Nintendo's unfortunately-named console.

#6
Free online 

Microsoft and, more recently, Sony are in the business of charging their consumers for online multiplayer. Not Nintendo. The online infrastructure of the WiiU might not be as sophisticated or as robust as its counterparts on Xbox One and PS4, but it works and it's free.

#5
Miiverse

This is probably the most revolutionary thing about the WiiU, a fully-realized community-oriented social network where like-minded people can share achievements, artwork, tips, and experiences.

#4
GamePad

The GamePad has its share of detractors, sure, but to me it's a brilliant, if underused, controller. The avenues it opens up for asymmetrical gameplay, demonstrated by Nintendo Land and others, and for local multiplayer, demonstrated most recently by Hyrule Warriors, makes the Pad worth the extra price of admission.

#3
Virtual Console

It may not be as robust as the Wii Virtual Console (what is?) but overall it's a great repository for classic, hard-to-find games. Don't want to pay $200 for EarthBound on eBay? OK, how about $10 on WiiU?

#2
Local multiplayer 

Although the WiiU has only been on the market for 23 months, it wouldn't be premature to call it the best local multiplayer console of all time. Several of its games feature local multiplayer options for two, four, even five people. Super Smash Bros., arriving in November, will support as many as eight players locally. In an industry dominated by online multiplayer, it's refreshing to see Nintendo double down, so to speak, on local multiplayer.

#1
Nintendo EAD

For all its features, accessories, bells, and whistles, WiiU is, ultimately, a video game player. And all video game players should be judged by their library of games. Well, WiiU has a mighty impressive library already, thanks mostly to Nintendo EAD, which, after thirty years, remains the single best video game developer in the world. The only place to play its newest software, outside of the 3DS? You got it, WiiU.

Nintendo Celebrates its 125th Anniversary

Nintendo celebrated its 125th Anniversary today. 

Founded on September 23, 1889 in Kyoto, where its headquarters remain, Nintendo, which means "leave luck to heaven," originally sold Hanafuda playing cards. Beginning in the 1950s, Hiroshi Yamauchi, grandson of founder Fusajiro Yamauchi, began to experiment in other industries, including taxi services, food products, and, surprisingly, love hotels. 

It was only in 1966, when Nintendo employee Gunpei Yokoi created a toy called the Ultra Hand (in his spare time, mind you), did Yamauchi transform Nintendo into a toy company. Ultra Hand, pictured below, was a commercial success for Nintendo, the first of many. Throughout the 1970s and 80s, by way of the business savvy of Yamauchi, the technology design skills of Yokoi, and the game design skills of a young product developer named Shigeru Miyamoto, Nintendo gradually transitioned from toys to video games. Then in 1981, after a few small arcade successes, Nintendo released Donkey Kong, designed by Miyamoto, reaping huge profits. Two short years later, Nintendo released the Family Computer in Japan, alongside ports of its most popular arcade hits. Two years after that, in 1985, the Family Computer, now renamed Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), launched in North America. Bundled with Miyamoto's Super Mario Bros., the NES was a huge hit in North America, resurrecting a fledgling video game industry that had all but collapsed in 1983 and making Nintendo a household name. By 1990, 30% of American households owned the NES. In 1989, Nintendo followed up the NES with its portable gaming system Game Boy. In North America, it sold its entire first shipment of one million units in a matter of weeks.

The following decades saw high points and low points for the gaming giant, but it maintained its popularity and independence throughout. In the years since the Family Computer launched in Japan, Nintendo has sold 654 million units of hardware and 4.1 billion units of software, including many of the most popular and critically acclaimed titles ever made.

Happy birthday, Nintendo. Here's to 125 more.

Tearaway

Game: Tearaway
System: Vita
Genre: Platform
Developer: Media Molecule
Release date: November 22, 2013

Pros: Amazing art direction, good music, immersive and interesting use of the Vita hardware

Cons: On the short side, not challenging at all, tedious gameplay


From the makers of LittleBigPlanet comes Tearaway, a visually beautiful game with impressive art direction and and a great sense of style. Unlike the majority of Vita games it uses the Vita system nose-to-tail, so to speak. The touchscreen, rear touchpad, gyro sensors, camera, and microphone are all used creatively and in a way that immerses the player, who, by the way, is able to customize this adventure to his or her liking by way of papercraft models and designs.

That's the good. Now the bad. It's not much fun to play. The game is far too easy. The platform sections, which are few and far between, are simple and straightforward, and, with infinite lives and checkpoints every 20 feet, there is no cost to failure. The same holds true for the arena sections, where waves of disposable enemies appear. They're dispatched with little effort.

Yes, riding a rampaging pig through a field is as fun as it sounds.

Apart from that, the gameplay in general is underdeveloped. There are some interesting sections of the game, slides and piggyback riding most notably. But they're too short and too simple. Platforming is woefully underused and unsophisticated. As mentioned earlier, it's foolproof. And, while the rear touchpad and touchscreen functionality makes Tearaway unique, it serves to make the platforming areas uncomfortable. It's no fun doing finger gymnastics while trying to cross a bottomless pit. The awkward camera doesn't help either.

The best way to describe Tearaway might be as an interactive art exhibit. Using the Vita camera, players can, quite literally, put themselves in the game. They can photograph their living rooms or soda cans or even their own faces and impose those images into the papercraft world. In addition, they can cut custom objects from colored paper using their fingers as a stylus, and customize the hero (or heroine) of the story at an time with a range of facial features and accessories.

In the end Tearaway is an interesting, artistic game that celebrates individuality, but also one that's too easy, too simple, and too in love with it's own papercraft universe.

Guardians of the Galaxy

Title: Guardians of the Galaxy
Director: James Gunn
Written by: James Gunn, Nicole Perlman
Starring: Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Vin Diesel, Bradley Cooper, Lee Pace, Michael Rooker

Guardians of the Galaxy is a study on contradiction. It manages, somehow, to parody its source material – indeed the entire superhero sub-genre – yet, simultaneously, produce a sincere, serious sci-fi adventure movie. It’s subversive and self-referential, but it also conforms to the tropes and parameters established by the Marvel Cinematic Universe, to which Guardians, like Iron Man, Thor, and Captain America, belongs. In short, Guardians of the Galaxy, despite its big bankroll and big studio backing, boasts the heart and soul of a budget B-movie. It makes the proceedings a little corny, a little silly, and a lot of fun, and it goes a long way toward making Guardians the best Marvel movie since The Avengers.

Guardians of the Galaxy begins on Earth in 1988. The audience meets a young Peter Quill, who, shortly after losing his mother to cancer, is abducted by an alien spaceship. Fast forward 26 years and Quill, now a professional space pirate, is roaming the galaxy in search of treasure. His latest trophy is a mysterious orb, coveted by the Nova Corps – an intergalactic police force – a genocidal madman named Ronan, and several others. When Quill escapes with the orb, he immediately becomes a wanted man.

Like other movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Guardians borrows the worlds, characters, and technology of Marvel’s comic book collection. Unlike many of them, however, Guardians is interested in the extraterrestrial. The results are some spectacular environments, characters, and alien technology, brought to life by cinematographer Ben Davis (Kick-Ass) and makeup designer David White (Thor: The Dark World, Troy). From the rusty, industrial prison known as the Kyln to the cloudy, rocky, and lifeless basins of the planet Morag, Guardians paints a visually provocative picture of life on the other side of the galaxy (think Star Wars meets Heavy Metal).

The unlikely heroes of Guardians of the Galaxy

Inhabiting these alien worlds and environments are the true stars of Guardians of the Galaxy, the motley crew of anti-heroes charged with protecting the galaxy. In addition to Quill (Chris Pratt), there’s Gamora (Zoe Saldana), an assassin with a mysterious past; Drax (Dave Bautista), a muscle man tortured by the death of his wife and child; and, the dynamic duo of the ensemble, Rocket, an anthropomorphic raccoon, and Groot, a sentient tree creature. Rocket, voiced by Bradley Cooper, and Groot, voiced by Vin Diesel, bring a healthy amount of energy and emotion to the movie. Their Han Solo-Chewbacca relationship provides some of the biggest laughs and saddest moments of the movie.

The breakout star of Guardians, however, has to be Pratt, whose muscular, wise-cracking, womanizing Quill is a far cry from the doughy slacker Pratt portrays on the TV show Parks and Recreation. His character, greedy for profit but willing to risk his life for a treasured keepsake, is the anchor that a space opera like Guardians needs. Without him, and director James Gunn’s ironic and knowing screenplay, the movie could easily have become a leaden, self-serious mess. Fortunately, for viewers, the exact opposite is true. Guardians is a breezy, wacky ride full of accidental heroes and fantastic alien worlds that embraces the heritage of Saturday morning serials and pulp fiction. It’s a B-movie with a AAA budget, and it’s all the better for it.

Snowpiercer

Title: Snowpiercer

Director: Bong Joon-ho
Written by: Bong Joon-ho, Kelly Masterson
Starring: Chris Evans, Song Kang-ho, Go Ah-sung, Jamie Bell, John Hurt, Tilda Swinton

Snowpiercer is something of an amalgam. Part high-concept science fiction, part social satire, part action thriller, the movie weaves in and out of several different genres and moods during its 126 minutes. Much like its director, Bong Joon-ho (The Host, Mother), Snowpiercer is interested in many things at once, and demonstrates mastery over all of them.

Set in the year 2031, after a devastating ice age freezes much of human civilization, Snowpiercer follows what's left of humanity on a giant train powered by perpetual motion. Rattling along icy rails and crashing through frozen overhangs, the train is home to a tiered class system, in which the upper class lives in the nose of the train and the lower class lives in the tail. Snowpiercer tells the story of this lower class staging a rebellion against the status quo.

What begins as a fairly typical jailbreak movie quickly and surprisingly morphs into something much deeper, more layered, and more intellectually, viscerally, and visually stunning than any other movie released this summer season. The screenplay, adapted by Bong and Kelly Masterson (Before the Devil Knows You're Dead) from a French graphic novel, is a tapestry of political provocation, dark humor, shocking violence, and big ideas, all wrapped up in a powerful human drama set against a fully-realized and convincing dystopian future.

Chris Evans stars in Snowpiercer.

Breathing life into that drama is a stellar international cast, anchored by Chris Evans (Captain America: The Winter Soldier) who plays Curtis, the stoical leader of the proletariat, and South Korean actor Song Kang-ho, who disappears into the role of Minsu, a politically pessimistic security specialist addicted to a toxic inhalant.

On a visual front, Snowpiercer is spectacular. Production designer Ondrej Nekvasil (The Illusionist) and his team of art directors, makeup artists, and costume designers have created in Snowpiercer a believable universe within the confined, steely space of a train. Each car has its own visual identity and story, and informs the pacing, action, and trajectory of the movie. Punctuating this trajectory are some thrilling and rattling action set-pieces, one of which is as good as any previously committed to celluloid. Expertly staged, visually inventive, and breathless in its brutality, this sequence is an instant classic.

The same could be said for Snowpiercer as a whole. Not since Neill Blomkamp's District 9 has a movie so deftly woven political allegory and science fiction with human drama. The result is a challenging and powerful motion picture that's both cerebral and visceral. With it, Bong Joon-ho has cemented his status as one of the industry's most creative, nimble, and visionary directors.

Mario Kart 8

Game: Mario Kart 8
System: WiiU
Genre: Racing
Developer: Nintendo EAD
Release date: May 30, 2014

Pros: Amazing track design; new anti-gravity mechanics; gorgeous graphics; strong, varied soundtrack
Cons: Battle mode


Since 1992, when Super Mario Kart first popularized the kart racing sub-genre, the Mario Kart series has been the video game industry's premiere kart racer. Challengers to the throne have come and gone over the past twenty years, but none have managed to unseat Mario Kart, which has relied on fundamentally-sound mechanics, addictive local and, increasingly, online multi-player options, and a stable of familiar Nintendo mascots to drive sales. Never before, however, have the developers at Nintendo EAD released a kart game, or any racing game for that matter, as deep, rewarding, and immersive as Mario Kart 8, the latest and greatest kart racer from Nintendo's evergreen franchise. 

Whereas recent installments of Mario Kart have felt, at times, like variations on a theme, Mario Kart 8, for the first time in a generation, feels like a brand new game, built from the ground up. The game looks different, it sounds different, and, most notably, it plays different. Yes, it borrows some of the ideas, systems, and even tracks from earlier games in the series, but it re-purposes them in such a way to produce something entirely new. This is a game with newly found confidence and maneuverability, thanks in no small part to the spatial freedom allowed by Mario Kart 8's greatest gift, anti-gravity. 

Mario races along an anti-gravity section.

Anti-gravity goes a long way in Mario Kart 8, not just by providing the visceral thrill of driving up walls and along ceilings, but also by adding another level of strategy to each race and by opening up new physical space in which to drive. Even in Mario Kart 7, which allowed racers to glide through the air and dive under the waves, each track was neatly defined by barriers left and right, and by Newton's law of universal gravitation. In Mario Kart 8 those barriers are much more fluid and changeable. Players might speed horizontally across the face of a mighty dam or bounce off bumpers in a section of track suspended in space above a busy airport (how is that not a violation of FAA regulations?).

The end result is an amazing collection of tracks, arguably the best in the series. Stand-outs among the 16 original courses include Thwomp Ruins, Twisted Mansion, Mount Wario, and Cloudtop Cruise. Even the 16 retro tracks, which are usually borrowed wholesale from previous entries, are refreshed in Mario Kart 8. They feel new again, and, in many cases, better.

All these new ideas and courses wouldn't mean much, however, if it weren't for a solid mechanical foundation underpinning the game. Luckily, Mario Kart performs almost impossibly well, with a subtly altered driving system that welcomes in novices and provides enough depth and challenge for experts. In terms of presentation and performance, the game is a home run. Fluid animation, gorgeous environments, and amazing attention to detail make each track a joy to race through, offline and online. Then there's the soundtrack, recorded with a full, live orchestra, a first for the Mario Kart series. It's jazzy, it's bold, it's a perfect complement to the lavish production that is Mario Kart 8.

The only real flaw in the game is its battle mode, which eschews brand new battle arenas in favor of standard racing courses. Consequently, players will drive along each course searching, often in vain, for opposing players. At best, it's a diverting game of joust; at worst it's a painfully boring game of hide and seek.

Mario Kart 8 can be played locally via splitscreen or online with 12 players.

It's a relatively small flaw, however, when the entire Mario Kart 8 package is considered. Mechanically, the game provides enough control options and strategies to satisfy both the greenest novice and the most seasoned veteran; structurally and spatially, the game allows players to discover heights and spaces previously unexplored; and technically, the game is steady and silky smooth offline with a group of friends or online with strangers from around the world. Add to that some of Nintendo's most verdant and opulent visuals and an enlivening soundtrack and the outcome is the best racing game ever made, and an early contender for game of the generation.

E3 2014: Best in Show

In the world of cinema, the Academy Awards is the premiere event. In television, the Emmys is the annual event worth watching. With video games, it's a different story. Although there are plenty of awards shows annually, it's actually an event focused around previews that takes center stage. That event is the Electronic Entertainment Expo, known colloquially as E3, where the industry's giants go to do battle every summer. This year, continuing its break from tradition, Nintendo opted for a pre-recorded digital presentation in lieu of a real-time on-stage presentation. Its competitors, Microsoft and Sony, and publishers Ubisoft and EA went the traditional route with spectacular floor shows. Unfortunately for all involved, most depressingly the fans, all those who presented had rather meager showings. Even Nintendo, which "won" E3, played it safe. There were few surprises during the entire week, which was dominated by recycled ideas, overlong presentations, and not nearly enough actual gameplay footage.

However, despite the overall disappointment that was E3, there were a handful of games that elevated the proceedings and made the show worth watching. Those five games are included below.

Note: for those who are interested, you can find last year's "Best in Show" here.

#5

Yoshi's Woolly World

From the team that created Kirby's Epic Yarn comes a new fabric-focused feature, Yoshi's Woolly World, this time with Nintendo mascot and beast of burden Yoshi. In this WiiU game, Yoshi retains much of the same moveset that has defined his other platform adventures, only this time instead of eggs he carries balls of yarn, which can trigger a number of unique events in the game word. The game will feature a two-player co-op mode, and will launch in the first half of 2015. Woolly World marks the first console Yoshi game since Yoshi's Story in 1998.

#4 

Sunset Overdrive

Of all the exclusive games showed at Microsoft's press conference, Sunset Overdrive was the most impressive. It looks refreshing, different, and lots of fun. Developed by Insomniac Games (Ratchet & Clank, Resistance), Sunset Overdrive is an open-world action game focused on "agile combat." The heroes of the game can swing and jump around the metropolis Sunset City at breakneck speed. Apart from the single player campaign, there's an online cooperative mode called Chaos Squad that allows eight players to fight together.

#3 

Far Cry 4

Continuing the open-world mayhem that's defined the series, Far Cry 4 takes place in a fictional country high in the Himalayas ruled by a despot. Players can attack the game in the way in which they choose, whether taking down enemy patrols stealthily or riding a rampaging elephant into an enemy stronghold. Far Cry 4 will feature a co-op mode, also, and on PS4 it's a real treat. As with 3DS download play, the PS4 version of Far Cry 4 will allow players to invite friends to join their games, even if those friends don't own a physical or digital version of the game.

#2
Batman: Arkham Knight

As the first Batman game designed for PS4 and Xbox One, Arkham Knight manages to fit the entire city of Gotham into one tiny disc. In fact, the game is five times bigger than developer Rocksteady Studios' previous title, Arkham City. Combat has also been refined in the years since Arkham City launched. There are new, more powerful enemies, new combos, and brand new environmental attacks. Last, but definitely not least, this latest Batman game features, for the first time, the Batmobile as a drivable vehicle, which can be summoned to the player's location at will.

#1
Splatoon

As with Sunset Overdrive, Splatoon is changing the rules of what has become in the last decade a very stale and bloated genre. Splatoon is a squad-based third-person shooter that pits two teams of four players against each other, each squad composed of squid-kid hybrids armed with ink guns. During each match, players can transform from a kid into a squid, which can then surf through its own team's ink undetected, and maybe even ambush an enemy player. The WiiU GamePad is used cleverly in Splatoon, displaying a map of the battlefield covered in ink and the player's teammates. One swipe of a finger (or stylus) will launch the player across the map directly to his or her partner. Just be careful where you land.