My Gaming History (and some thoughts on where gaming is headed)

I've been playing video games for... well, about 30 years. For a long time my experience was with consoles owned by friends. Most people I knew had a Master System or a Commodore 64 during the late 1980s. Later, Megadrives and Amigas became popular.

My first console was a Gameboy back in the early 1990s (it came with Tetris), closely followed by a SNES Super Mario All Stars pack. As a boy at this time in a not-wealthy family I had to make do with the pack in games, saving my pocket money at a rate of £1 a week to buy any new games. We're looking at a rate of one game per year, but I sure got to learn the few games I had to some great depth.

The following generation I left the Nintendo camp temporarily and got a PlayStation. I had a paper round at this point and remember my boss excitedly rambling about the new Sony console and how everyone should have one. It was the first console I ever bought for myself. I never owned a Nintendo 64 (at the time), though I have many happy memories of playing it with friends.

From the sixth generation on I was working full time so with each subsequent generation I basically had everything. My PS2 sat alongside a GameCube, Dreamcast and Xbox. My PS3 sits on top of my Xbox 360, while my Wii sits in the living room under the family TV. Don't even get me started on my (mostly Nintendo) handheld collection.

I decided a few years ago I was sick of consoles and their iterative upgrades every few years. Microsoft really dropped the ball with their ridiculous statements regarding always-on Kinect and blocking of pre-owned games. I foresee a future where digital content (something that makes me very sad) becomes the norm and disc drives are gone. This all conspired to making my decision to leave console gaming and focus on my Steam library. Yeah... somehow I feel different about digital game libraries on PC. I'll write about that another day.

Anyway. One day a couple of months ago I was browsing the local game shop, having saved about a quarter of what I wanted to spend on a decent gaming PC to last some years. I impulse purchased a Wii U. Truth is I've always had a soft spot for Nintendo's first party efforts, and almost without exception enjoy every new version of Super Mario or Legend of Zelda. What could I do then but purchase the only machine (forgetting for now Super Mario Run) that would let me play them?

I fell in love with the Wii U in an instant. Gorgeous graphics, some fantastic games (see my previous entry) and a nice controller in the Pro version reminded me why new console generations are so exciting.

Even as I quickly built my Wii U library I continued to save for my new PC. Then I had an urge to try the PlayStation 4. There was no spark in me for the Xbox One - thanks to Microsoft's dumb ideas in its development and thanks to the fact that PS3 had quickly replaced my 360 when I received it three years after I'd bought the Microsoft beast.

I've had the PS4 for about two months now and I am very glad I bought it. Clearly a step up from its forebear in terms of graphical power, it's also the little flourishes that excite me - such as more realistic character movements and the superb detail in character models and the considerably smoother framerates. Two generations ago you rarely saw a character with separate fingers - GTA San Andreas I'm looking at you!

Now there are limitations with modern consoles and their internal storage. Wii U's mere 32gb of flash storage is tons for save games, but cab quickly fill up if you frequent the E Shop. Nintendo classics are small, but Wii games can easily touch 8gb. It's a good thing the console plays Wii discs then, and that most Wii games are inexpensive and easy to find.

PlayStation 4 comes with a far heftier 512gb hard drive installed (1tb in later models). Unfortunately however the console requires you to install every single game into the hard drive before you can play. For some games this isn't such a problem - many indie games are quite small indeed. However many AAA titles are around the 50gb mark - and that's before game updates and DLC are installed. I'm sure a lot of that is lazy programming - GTA5 after all ran just fine on Xbox 360 from two DVDs (one installed, one used to run the game) and I don't believe the improved textures and extra songs in the PS4 version would use up an extra 35ish gb of space - or simply using numbers to impress people into making a purchase. I found that 7 disc games and 2 downloads (a PS Plus benefit) was enough to give me a full disc warning. Compared those 9 games to the 40+ PS3 discs (most of which of course aren't installed to the HDD), 53 PS3 games and 12 PS1 games installed with space remaining on that console's 500GB drive and you see we have a problem. I've since installed a 2TB drive, which is about half full with my now 22 disc and ~15 downloaded games - why oh why don't Sony offer a bigger drive as an option!?

As for the future... I don't doubt that Microsoft, and maybe their competitors, will try again later to remove the pre-owned market. A big part of my argument against digital content concerns the inability to sell on or lend your content. That and the fact that it can be taken away at any time - but more on that later. I can't say with certainty that I won't buy into the next generation of consoles (I can guarantee I will at some point invest in the Nintendo NX), but as soon as physical media becomes a thing of history, I will not be buying consoles any more.

It does sit a little uncomfortably with me that gaming has become such big business. Whilst there are many great games being made today (Doom, The Last of Us, Witcher for three examples of awesome recent games and series) there are also a lot of games made by men in suits to make money (in the interest of avoiding a flame war I'll refrain from naming any games I feel fall into this camp). The creation and enjoyment of games is a creative process, and unfortunately this has been sullied more and more as years go on. There's plenty still to enjoy if you can find it though - and I am as guilty of promoting this model as anyone else who has bought Super Mario Bros on every Nintendo console on which it's existed to download.

Thankfully I have a library of around 3000 games across many gaming systems from the past 3 decades to keep me occupied in my free time - that and a Steam library of 330 games that I will regain access to if I ever stop buying games for long enough to save for that PC. So if I ever do drop away from new systems in the future, I will be perfectly happy to enjoy what I have.

My Collection Part 1: Wii / Wii U

I've been planning several articles over the past three months of absence, each of which has failed to light my fire. I became a father in June, which has naturally altered my priorities!

Thankfully little mister has progressed to the point he's sleeping a lot longer at night and I'm finding the energy to get writing again. Lucky you, right? ;)

So tonight I'm writing about my Wii collection. I've had my Wii since around launch - after the first wave sold out I waited a few months for new stock and picked one up. My Wii U is about three months old.

Some years ago I sold my entire Wii game collection as I'd lost love for it and needed some cash. I kept my limited edition Skyward Sword and the console but sold the rest.

Without boring you further, here are some highlights of my Wii and Wii U games collection.



Zeldas - collectively three of the greatest games ever made. Wind Waker in HD is one of the most beautiful games of this current generation. It retains the charm of the GameCube version, cleaning it up for modern televisions. Skyward Sword joins it in my list of top Zelda games, notable for being the first game to bring decent motion control to the Wii. Sure, it can at times force that point, but the story is interesting and the gameplay as fun as ever. Twilight Princess originally launched as a GameCube/Wii title. I have the former and now the HD Wii U version. I can take it or leave it personally, I've never agreed that it is such a great game, but I wanted it for my collection.




Marios - What an assortment! There's not a bad game here. New Super Mario Bros U would be the weakest. The series has gone on a bit long now, with titles on DS, 3DS, Wii and Wii U. The map screen is confused and the levels and power ups uninspired. The expansion, New Super Luigi U, changes things up in a very "Lost Levels" way, with Luigi's floaty physics and a tighter time limit. It adds a lot of value to the game, and is perhaps its strongest element. The previous game on Wii though stands as one of the best on that console with tight levels and challenging gameplay. As for the 3D games, we have three fantastic treats here. Super Mario Galaxy and its sequel are amongst the best games EVER and showcase Nintendo at their most inventive. Nintendo of course wrote the rule book on 3D platform controls, and here it shows! The orchestral score sets the mood perfectly and the secondary challenges within levels will cost you a few extra lives. Super Mario 3D World continues the trend for unadulterated fun, with fantastic music and original design with the cat power up surprising with its usefulness. Super Paper Mario brings the series to Wii and makes natural use of the controls. Hold the remote sideways to control Paper Mario and his friends, point at the screen to learn about items and enemies, and press A to flip the game into 3D - with Mario looking along the level, exposing secrets and items along the way. It's not the best Paper Mario game out there, but is an essential part of any collection. Finally we have Super Mario Maker. There was a lot of noise around this game at release. Sadly I haven't been sucked in. The idea of user made levels and an online library is great on the surface - however it ignores that most users are... useless at game design. The art book that came with it is, however, very nice.



Bayonetta 2 - I admit I have yet to start this game. I want to complete the first on Xbox 360 before I move on to this. It was however one of the games that finally encouraged me to buy the Wii U. If it is as good as the first, I'm going to enjoy it.











Captain Toad Treasure Tracker - originally a minigame in Super Mario 3D World, this has been expanded into a fantastic puzzle game. You direct Toad around the levels, navigating obstacles and enemies to collect the three stars and reach the end. Lots of fun, full of Nintendo charm.












House of the Deads - three fantastic lightgun games. Each proves the Wii's proficiency at the genre, providing an arcade perfect experience for games 2 and 3 in the series. Overkill takes the core gameplay and puts it in a Robert Rodriguez film, full of corny one liners and cheesy action sequences. Pure genius.










Metroid Other M - not the best received of the series. I actually quite like it and it's incentive use of the Wii remote. It is a bit troublesome to aim at the screen for missiles, but besides this hiccup the controls are solid, using the wiimote in its sideways orientation. It features your standard Metroid adventuring, opening up powers and weapons as you go. The method of this is somewhat asinine but overall the game is fun.






Resident Evil 4 - I've saved perhaps the most interesting for last. As a game, I'm not as in love with Resident Evil 4 as many claim to be. Sure, it revitalised the genre and its series, but I always preferred the purity of the first two games (Nemesis is a weak point, apart from its Titular antagonist). The reason I mention it in this list is the control scheme. Wii is most known of course for its controller options, and here Capcom have hit gold. Utilising the nunchuck to control your way through the world, and the wiimote as a gun. Aiming at the screen is as natural as it gets, making for improved accuracy and realism. It works perfectly, and as such I name this the ultimate version of this game.



There are other games in my collection, as you'll see in the picture at the start, but these are the ones I felt most inclined to mention. You may have something to say about others - Sin and Punishment is respected in gaming circles, Zombi U was a well-received early Wii U game, and Shovel Knight undoubtedly has some fans, however I simply don't have much to say about them.

So what highlights are there in your collection? What is it about them that you love? What games are missing from my Wii shelf that you feel I should have, and why should I spend my money?