Tag: Loneliness

News

Every NES game title screen from one obsessive guy on YouTube

I’m having trouble looking away from this YouTube video of every single NES start screen (and Famicom game?) played back-to-back from The 3D Battles of World Runner to Zombie Nation. Why am I still watching it, twenty minutes in? I don’t know, but it has the same strange appeal as watching the movie credits roll, which is something I also do. My takeaway thus far is that the music is surprisingly not as good as I remember it, and that there were a shit-ton of NES games. At nearly 3 hours, I’ll have my yearly fix for nostalgia by noon.
News

Testing the relationship waters this Valentine’s Day? Let Kinect Party supply the bubble bath

Sometimes, committing to a relationship shares much in common with opening your refridgerator after a forty-eight hour power outage. After one quick glimpse, you know if things have gone sour. Other times, our emotional gauges are more obtuse; we stare and stare and never see what we’re looking for. Love is a game like any other, and we the pieces. If only our move-set was as limited and empowering as those of Chess, or Go. The reality is messier, with shifting rules and unknown goals. This Valentine’s Day, I submit a cleaner, dare I say more entertaining way to test the…
News

Should more games tell us to stop playing and do something else?

The first time I remember seeing a “take a break” message in a game was for Wii Sports. After a set duration of time, a screen popped up between rounds. “Why not take a break?” it said. “You can pause the game by pressing +.” The accompanying image is a stylized freeze-frame of passive aggression: A Wii Remote sits on a table, unheld, the wrist-strap dangling loose. Tranquil blue sky beckons from an open window. Curtains blow in the breeze. As a reminder that there’s a great big world waiting to be explored beyond your living room, you could do…