Gaming Anniversaries
I say I have been playing video games all my life, which isnt too far of a stretch or hyperbole. I remember playing video games as some of my first memories. Which game I played first; I can’t remember. As much as I would like to say it was a Mario or a Sonic, but honestly it would most likely be a random Commodore 64 game. Or it might have even been Duck Hunt, as that was easy to play. The point is I have a strong history with video games. As I am now thirty-three years old, I have about thirty years of video game history in my life, and a lot of these games have got a nice lineage. As such I am older enough to remember some of the game from day one. Which is why I was happy by some of the games that have an anniversary this year.
As I said in my PS2 post, I got it twenty years ago, as such a lot of the games I got on that system is now twenty years old. Which is crazy to think about I have first print games that are old enough to be an adult. When I talk about games being a certain age makes me feel old. I like when a game has an anniversary as it is a celebration of the history of a series, or even just celebrate a piece of art that might not be around anymore. What I like about it, is sometimes fans of a specific game get something nice to celebrate the occasion. Sometimes it’s a piece of merchandise is realised to celebrate it. Or a new revised edition, or re-release of the game comes out, or a new game to continue the series.
One of my favourite games when I was younger was the original Crash Bandicoot games. Which this year is twenty-five years old, and I can remember playing the original game not long after it released. Having it turning 25 is great just a shame, that I didn’t keep up with games after the first four games. What’s worse Activision didn’t really do much to celebrate it’s 25 years. A side from releasing a video talking about the anniversary and sending things to journalist there was nothing for the general consumer. Which was sad, as a new game announcement would have been nice, or even having a PS5 version of Crash 4 released.
As a recent fan of Resident Evil and knowing all the up and downs of public opinion it has gone through twenty-five years. Which is impressive as there has been so many titles, movie adaptations and other media. It just a shame there wasn’t a big celebration regarding the anniversary of the series. Yeah, it got a new movie, and a show on Netflix. Websites say they were hyping up the release of Village as the twenty fifth anniversary, but after that it kind lost momentum. It was like Capcom decided to say something about again it towards the end of the year, just to make it sure they covered the release date of RE1. Which is a shame.
Sonic the Hedgehog is another series celebration a big milestone this year. It has been thirty years since he came into the spotlight. Is it a dam shame I didn’t complete the game that start it all, till thirty years after it released? Yes, it is a damm shame. Just like Resident Evil it does have up and down fan opinion, but it does know sometimes how to celebrate.
For the twenty fifth anniversary we got to Sonic Mania which celebrated the series, and we got another game which I haven’t played so I cannot comment on. Ten years ago, we got Sonic Generation which was great and celebrate all its story and characters. Along with a tonne of merch for us fans to collect. This year didn’t disappoint this year. As there was a tonne merch released and had Sonic pop up in a bunch of Sega games. As well as a remaster of Sonic Colours. There was also a nice symphony of sonic music, and announcement of the next sonic game. Not a bad was to celebrate.
However, I think the biggest celebration of the of the games was the Tomb Raider. Square Enix didn’t blow their celebration load all at once, but all over the year. From February every month since one of the games in the series was celebrated. They realised concept art from each of the games. New what if box art for each of the games, which were then printable if you so wanted to change your game covers you could. Then each month was capped off with a livestream of each of the games. Done as relay with streamers who were fans of the series. Sadly, we didn’t get a new game announcement, but we did get some interesting titbits about what is going to come to the series.
It amazing to me how many games this year are celebrating a big anniversary. Devil May cry turns 20 as does Halo. While things like GTA 3 and Super Smash Bros Mele are now twenty, which doesn’t get a full celebration, but it does highlight how long I have been playing these games. While some big game franchise such as Zelda and Metroid are turning 35, not that is nuts. While the Nintendo 3DS is ten years and I’ve had that since day one too.
Since time is ever moving on, every year is going to going to be a celebrator year to something. I just feel like this year holds so many big ones from series I have loved, or games I have just loved for such a long time. Which is why I love thinking about some these games origins and replaying them see what they were and what they have become. Which is why as my last Playing with Power post I will be looking at game I have been a fan since day one, and now turned 20.
