🈵🈴🈹 Why Japan Will Always Be The Centre Of Gaming 🈵🈴🈹

If you talk to anyone who was born prior to the millennium about gaming, the chances are they will talk to you about Nintendo and Sega.

These seemingly old school, by modern standards, gaming consoles were unbelievably popular with girls and boys alike in the 1990s.

This was the advent of the platform game, the dawn of the beat ‘em up and the emergence of the driving saga.

Fast forward to the twenty-first century and these gaming styles are still as prevalent as ever. The latest all immersive online gaming worlds find their origins in the 64-bit joyful gameplay of the 1990s. Take a look at these games that have stood the test of time and that are rated the top video games ever made, many of which are still alive in some incarnation today.

Image source

Super Mario Franchise

One of the latest versions of Mario has seen the plucky little plumber venture into space. Breaking down physical and metaphysical barriers has always been the aim of the game for Mario and the developers at Nintendo. Beginning on the humble Nintendo console, this platform game has reemerged bigger and better than before on each new console. The Gameboy was particularly successful in creating an immersive platform world all encompassed on a tiny handheld green/black screen. The pixels were charming, and the graphics haven’t always been outstanding but the gameplay has always been immense.

The worlds and their inhabitants have created reams of storytelling for gamers to become immersed in. Mario rescuing the Princess from Bowser’s clutches has been the premise for many games. As well as the worlds, colourful levels and traditional platform play on offer, Mario has also expanded. While a little less successful, Mario Golf has seen the characters have a go at hitting a hole in one. Hugely more successful is the ever-popular Mario Kart. Alongside the Wii, the gameplay for this racing game swapped the controller for the steering wheel. The perfect combination between colour, cartoon graphics and skill made Mario appeal to those at primary school and those ardent competitive gamers. A unique character, Mario looks to stick around for many more console incarnations yet to come.

Image source

Sonic The Hedgehog

Another platform game that saw a character of massive popular culture significance emerge was Sonic the Hedgehog. This unique little blue spiky hedgehog traversed incredible worlds from Greenhill to underwater realms in the search for rings and to free lots of fluffy animals after beating the evil boss, Egg.

With an abundance of fun, Sonic ramped up the gameplay with an influx of speed. Whereas Mario could be played at a snail's pace, Sonic had to be played with pace in mind. Special TV screen boosters could give you even further speed with winged boots and starry invincibility. While there were hundreds of fun nooks and crannies to explore, you could also treat each level like a time trial. As you became further and further engrossed in the game, the levels would increase in their difficulty leading to the perfect mix of frustration and challenge.

A little more advanced than Mario, but not quite as user-friendly, Sonic has remained a fixture in our popular culture today. The spiky little hedgehog is even coming to a big screen near you next year in a brand new computer-generated animation feature film.

Image source

Street Fighter

The most incredible beat ‘em up has to be Street Fighter. This game originated in the arcades of America in the 1990s, with school kids spending their quarters and dimes trying to master the special moves of Ryu and Dhalsim. Everyone had their favourite character and adored trying to work out the button and finger combinations to achieve the maximum pain on their opponent. Others just liked the idea of going at the button, flipping the joystick and hitting any combination of controls as fast as they could in the hope of beating their nemesis.

If you ever took on the challenge to beat every opponent, the big bosses at the end were ruthless and tricky to beat. Balrog and Vega would flummox even the best Street Fighter gamer. When the game morphed into a console to play at home, there was competition with Mortal Kombat. Both found their way onto the cinema screen and became cult classics. Who’d have thought that Kylie Minogue and Jean Claude Van Damme would be beat ‘em up characters? Street Fighter was great for all players and had the perfect 2D interface. While many millennials would find this style of gameplay tedious nowadays, it has a simplicity that shouldn’t be forgotten.

Image source

Grand Theft Auto Vice City

The Grand Theft Auto franchise really came into its own come the fourth and fifth incarnations. A swing back to the 1980s allowed people to feel a sense of nostalgia as they played a gangster in downtown Vice City.

This PlayStation game was one of the first fully immersive three-dimensional location games. With a whole cast of characters and gameplay that allowed you to choose your own plotline, this was an RPG without the geeky overtones.

While it didn’t have the appeal of the Mario style games, it found a niche and exploited it. Unsuitable for the younger generations, GTA encompassed the shoot ‘em up style first-person game. Taking a Manga-style graphics palette as seen on Anime Whiz, this was a game that exuded Japanese stylings in an American setting. You could choose how to spend the dollars you earned, and what mini gangster missions to take part in while at the same time, keeping your eye on the aim of the game.

While a little controversial with its level of violence, it set the stage for many similar style games that came after it. And with a soundtrack that was second to none, it paved the way for games to harness the talents of musicians and singers in the same way that Hollywood blockbusters did.

Forget the FIFAs and the Call of Duty’s knocking around today and seek out games with heritage.

The Japanese stalwarts have stood the test of time.