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153 lines
7.6 KiB
153 lines
7.6 KiB
11 months ago
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<div class="sidebar-about">
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<a href="https://blog.juliobiason.me"><h1>Julio Biason .Me 4.3</h1></a>
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<p class="lead">Old school dev living in a 2.0 dev world</p>
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<li class="sidebar-nav-item"><a href="/pt">Português</a></li>
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<li class="sidebar-nav-item"><a href="/pt/tags">Tags (PT)</a></li>
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<div class="content container">
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<div class="post">
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<h1 class="post-title">1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die - Tony Mott</h1>
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<span class="post-date">
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2015-01-11
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<a href="https://blog.juliobiason.me/tags/books/">#books</a>
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<a href="https://blog.juliobiason.me/tags/tony-mott/">#tony mott</a>
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<a href="https://blog.juliobiason.me/tags/video-games/">#video games</a>
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<a href="https://blog.juliobiason.me/tags/reviews/">#reviews</a>
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<a href="https://blog.juliobiason.me/tags/stars-2/">#stars:2</a>
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<a href="https://blog.juliobiason.me/tags/published-2010/">#published:2010</a>
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</span>
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<p><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8390909-1001-video-games-you-must-play-before-you-die">GoodReads Summary</a>:
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For devoted gamers as well as those interested in groundbreaking graphic
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design, this is the first, most comprehensive, and only critical guide ever
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published to video games. The video game has arrived as entertainment and as
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an art form. This is the first serious critical evaluation ever published of
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the best video games and is a testament to the medium’s innovativeness and
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increasing emphasis on aesthetics. Organized chronologically and for all
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platforms (PC, Xbox, PlayStation, etc.) and covering all genres from the bold
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(Grand Theft Auto and Halo) and dark (Resident Evil and Silent Hill) to the
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spiritual (Final Fantasy) and whimsical (Legend of Zelda), the book traces the
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video game from the rough early days of Pong to the latest visual fantasia.</p>
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<span id="continue-reading"></span><div>
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★★☆☆☆
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</div>
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<p>For a second -- or, at least, the first chapter --, you may believe that this
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book will discuss 1001 games that influenced the next generation, from the
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very first pong all the way to the latest Mario. Sadly, it doesn't.</p>
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<p>The whole problem is that the authors decided to use a chronological order
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instead of a topic order. Instead of going "this game introduced this feature"
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and then jump to the next which improved that feature, they go into games
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released in the 70s, 80s, 90s, 2000s and 2010s. "Where is the harm in that?"
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you may ask. Well, the harm is that the chronological order doesn't offer,
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most of the time, the reason <em>why</em> a game should be played. I mean, yeah,
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maybe "Mario World" is not a bad game, but if "Mario World 2" just improves
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the old mechanics and have bigger maps, it's clear why the first shouldn't be
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in the list if everything from the first I can get in a better form in the
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second.</p>
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<p>For example, when they talk about "Ninja Gaiden Black", the authors mention
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this:</p>
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<blockquote>
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<p>Barring a dodgy camera, Ninja Gaiden didn't have much wrong with it. That
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didn't stop Team Ninja from obsessively tinkering with their masterprice,
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however, and in Ninja Gaiden Black they improved on what many fighting fans
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already regarded as the greatest fighting game of its generation."</p>
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</blockquote>
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<p>And guess what? "Ninja Gaiden" is also in the list! Why would I play the first
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one when the second is everything the first one has plus more?</p>
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<p>Also, each game have three to four paragraphs. The first is always something
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related to the game outside it: The company that developed it, some social
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remark at the time, something in the game culture... anything that it is not
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the game; the last paragraph try to conclude the (simplistic) review with a
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positive note; the paragraphs in the middle, which should be the "Why" are not
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always they "Why". Most of the Mario and Zelda games simply lack the "why".
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You should play because... you should play?</p>
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<p>This is why I'd prefer a topic order: Mario 1 introduced this, Mario 2 changed
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this into that... It basically forces the list to have a reason instead of
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seemingly being a list of "I like it".</p>
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<p>Also, research seems focused on "games I played" instead of "games that
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existed". For example, there is "Trine", which I can't call a bad game, but
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the mechanic of "you play several characters and just jump between them based
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on their abilities" I can backtrack all the way to "Captain Trueno" on MSX in
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1989 -- and I'm not claiming <em>that's</em> where this mechanics appeared -- but
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omitting it seems too much laziness. "Master of Orion", "Dota" (the mod for
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Warcraft III), "Tetrifast", "King's Valley", "Stunts"... all those are games
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that I can, from my childhood, bring back as previous examples of some of the
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recommended games that has the same mechanics and are not listed. But,
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instead, games with the same mechanics but from bigger publishers are. There
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is even a game I played on MSX in the 90s that have the <em>exactly</em> mechanic
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listed in "Warioware Inc" but, again, not listed. Heck, even "bananas.bas",
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part of the MS-DOS 6.0 as an example of how powerful QBasic could be, has the
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same mechanics as "Death Tank", but the later is listed as some "brilliant
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mechanic never seen before".</p>
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<p>In the end, it seems much more like a list of "games that we, the authors
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like" than a proper "these games you should play because they describe some
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advancement in games technology and/or some social discussion about the times
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when they were released", which turns this into a meaningless e-peen counting
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(171, by the way).</p>
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