The Decline of Gaming Classics

There have been many videogames over the years that have been classed as 'Classics', from Pong to Super Mario Bros and even up to games like Grand Theft Auto Vice City.  Some of these classics have been around for upwards of twenty years and some of them have been more recent but are games that you know will become classics; games that will always be played by someone, somewhere in the world.  But the other night whilst trying to get to sleep this thought hit me, a thought that there are very few, if any, games that have been released in the past few years that I can see becoming a videogame classic.

NES Classic Super Mario Bros.

With the advent of the internet and playing online against your friends rather than playing split-screen in the same room has placed the general perception of what a videogame needs to include to a different level.  Most gamers in the current gaming world will generally look to see if the game has online capabilities before buying a game, because online multiplayer has now become one of (if not the) major selling points when making a game.  I personally feel that we gamers who look for a good single player game, with a great storyline are a dying breed; slowly being eradicated by the social gaming youth.

It's the need for online gaming and an adequate single player section that is the main contributor in the lack of potential gaming classics around at the moment.  The one thing pretty much all current gaming classics have in common is that they have no online capabilities, and the only chance of playing with friends was to have them on the same screen sat next to you with another controller.  All the classics currently around generally have a good storyline to them, granted some of them may not be long or written to an award winning standard but the stories were good.  The gameplay is usually easy to use and easy to just pick up and play even if it has been years since you last picked up the controller.  The visual are dated and in honesty look terrible but that doesn't matter, because you play the game because of a deep rooted love of the game and it's that love of the game that masks the graphically power (or lack of it) in an old game.

Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 Online

Obviously it would be difficult to keep many of today's current run of games online and running because running the servers to play the game costs the company money, with most games having a certain amount of time after release before the servers are cut off.  Evidently if hardly anyone is playing the game online then it makes sense financially to cut the servers and spend the costs elsewhere, either developing new games or adding new online features to current games of the moment.  But with cutting off the servers you leave the game to stand alone on it's single-player which is generally not good enough on it's own feet and fails to lift the game above the shoulders of all the other games around, generally condemning the game to videogame oblivion.

There are a couple of games that I think could make it into the videogame classics of the future; games like The Elder Scrolls and Fallout series but that is mainly because these games have no online.  Sure enough these games have downloadable add-ons but these are not essential when the games stand on their own feet without them.  Games like Call of Duty will gradually fade into the distance with every new game in the series pushing the older versions further away from our minds.

Red Dead Redemption

The video game industry is a strange place and anything can happen; maybe in 20 years time games like Call of Duty 4 and Red Dead Redemption will be viewed as classics with private firms/people paying for workable  servers so that a select few can still play them online and relieve the good old days when you first picked up the game.  Feeling that nostalgia fill you up in the same way it does today when you pick up a Mega Drive controller to play the original Sonic or when you pick up an N64 controller to play a round of Goldeneye.

I know it is an old and well overused phrase but it is true, because only time will tell.

Kinect Fun Labs

Kinect Fun Labs launched last year with little mention of it's release but you'd be hard pressed not to know it exists as it's is continually advertised in the bottom corners of various screens of the new Xbox Dashboard.  So what is the Fun Labs, well simply put it is a collection of little gadgets that you can download and use with your Kinect sensor to show the sort of things that the Kinect is capable of.  In fairness the gadgets are not what you would call amazing single games but more technical demos of the Kinect's abilities that you can play yourself.  Here are the gadgets available and a quick overview:

Kinect Me
This gadget is essentially a full body scanner where you first scan your head and then your body and Kinect Me will create an generated version of you to the best of it's abilities.  After creating you pose for photos with your virtual you, can add a voice message to go with the snaps and finally can upload it to the KinectShare website.  There is no much else to this gadget but it demonstrates the capabilities of face scanning within a game to quickly and effortlessly put your face into an in-game character.  That said maybe with better lighting, my avatar would have looked alot more like me.

Googly Eyes
Much like Kinect Me, Googly Eyes involves scanning things into the gadget but instead of yourself this time you scan in objects.  Once you have scanned in the front and back of the object, it will attempt to render the object as best it can while also adding a pair of Googly Eyes.  Once created you can control your object with your body and then record a short video skit to upload.  If your children are a fan of the kids TV show Ooglies then there is some fun for them in creating there very own 'ooglies'.  This gadget does however have limited lifespan to grown ups and it is advisable not to play it for to long or the Googly Eyes song will be stuck in your head for days.

Those two gadgets are your starting set but there are a few more that you can download to further experience the Kinect's capabilities.  There is Bobble Head where you use the same scanning method as in Kinect Me to create your very own BobbleHead Figurine of yourself and record an audio message which plays whenever you smack your figurine upside the head.  Build-A-Buddy consists once again as an updated version of Googly Eyes where you scan in an object of your choosing.  This time round you can choose 3 either-or personalities traits for your object and once your choices are made and your buddy is 'hatched', you get to play some very basic repeat the action games with your buddy.  Unlike the others there is some aspect of gameplay to this gadget but the same visual issues of to much movement and your buddy becomes some deformed evil dead looking creature are still evident.

Other gadgets include Microsoft's avatar chatroom suite showcase Avatar Kinect, your own personal carnival house of mirrors effect gadget Mutation Station, Kinect boxing but with a twist by using your scanned objects as fighters in Battle Stuff and perform 5 songs in your own air rock band in Air Band.  Each of these gadgets are currently free to download and play with 2 other gadgets available but at a cost of 240 points.  These two priced gadgets are Kinect Sparkler which is the first gadget that tracks finger movement and allows you to create sparkler drawn pictures, and Musical Feet which can be thought of as a virtual floor keyboard which allows multiple people to play the keys and create music to share.

Although none of these gadgets are overly amazing or awe-inspiring, unlikely to divert your attention from real games for more than 15 minutes they are however great examples of what the Kinect can do and a look into what the future may hold for the Kinect Sensor and it's abilities.  If you are also looking to an easy 400 gamerscore to add to your collection there are few easier ways in which to get them, even though it will take a little while of your time.  The only other thing worth mentioning is that Kinect Fun Labs does not appear in your Games or Apps menu and the only way I've found to access it is to go to the point of downloading it again and once the prompt appears to download, select Play Now.  This in itself can be infuriating but if you want to see what the Kinect can do and fancy an easy addition to your gamerscore total then it's something you'll get used to.

Doritos Crash Course

If you've not heard of Doritos Crash Course then where have you been for the past year?  I'll give you a quick history lesson to get you up to speed.  The game was released by Wanako Games for XBLA in December 2010 as part of the Doritos sponsored "Unlock Xbox" competition, which at the end of the month it was announced the winner ahead of Harm's Way.  In the month that it was released it was downloaded around 1.4 million times which begs the question of just how you might have missed it.  I think that's enough of the history lesson for now so let's get down to the game itself.

Crash Course is a side-scrolling game where you take your Xbox avatar through an assault course in the quickest time possible.  Anyone who has seen the English/American show Total Wipeout will know what to expect from the game; lots of crazy obstacles where failing to progress pass them will result in an untimely drop into a lot of water.

There are 3 main locations within the game (Europe, USA & Japan), each with 5 levels.  The obstacles become harder to avoid and tougher to navigate as you progress throughout the levels, Europe being the first location & Japan being the last location consisting of the most difficult levels.  The kind of obstacles you will face range from Conveyor Belts and Swinging Hammers to Paintballs being fired at you to slow you down.

The gameplay itself is very simple and so easy to just pick up and play which only make the game that little bit better.  Doritos Crash Course is a game that will suck you in and grab a hold of you as you desperately try to beat that Gold medal time, leading to many trips to the cold depths and copious amounts of foul language.  The single player is fun enough on its own but when you get a couple of friends online is when the game excels.  The multiplayer is exactly the same as the single player but the added incentive of beating your friends to the finish line really make this game a brilliant multiplayer game, even if you can't push your friends avatar into the water. 

All in all I would rate this as one of the best XBLA Arcade games available, a brilliantly complete singleplayer and multiplayer game.  Oh and did I mention that it is completely FREE to download so what are you waiting for, get it on your Active Download list now.

Images from xbox.com