DeviousJinjo
It has been several days since I completed Cathode Ray Tube Amusement Device, and still I find it impossible to compose my thoughts. The experience has shaken me to my core... nay, it has destroyed it. What was I before Cathode Ray Tube Amusement Device? Do I even care? I am not so desperate a masochist that I would contemplate my previous existence any farther. I have left that grim, ignorant darkness. My life before this game was one of waste and sloth... desolate of purpose. Boldly, Cathode Ray Tube Amusement Device subverted my every expectation and has remade me in its image. Cathode Ray Tube Amusement Device is not merely a game, it is mockery. It is a cruel and merciless indictment of all our hubris. Mortal hands will never again achieve the rapturous bliss that is Cathode Ray Tube Amusement Device, and to chase it would end only in calamitous despair. 9.5/10.
1972
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1985
1985
There are a few key points in video game history where a game singlehandedly becomes the public's entire concept of what a video game is. Games that not only become so popular in their own right that they become ubiquitously synonymous with the medium itself, but prove to be so inspirational to other developers that they bring about a convergence.
Within a year of Super Mario Bros, every other developer was trying to make a Super Mario Bros. Mario became video games, and through repeated demonstrations of polish and visionaryism, he would remain video games for the next four console generations.
Mario is good.
Within a year of Super Mario Bros, every other developer was trying to make a Super Mario Bros. Mario became video games, and through repeated demonstrations of polish and visionaryism, he would remain video games for the next four console generations.
Mario is good.
1986
Zelda 1 taught me that a video game could be a world. That it could be mysterious and that it could be explored. It also taught me to love the bullet hell. It's a little too mysterious, so a guide or prior knowledge is almost required, but it holds up like an Egyptian pyramid. It is, without question, one of the greatest games for the Famicom and/or NES, even when accounting for its later stars.
2004
The importance of this game cannot be overstated. Dragon Quest single-handedly codified a genre for decades to come, and the series would continue breaking new ground until the franchise became so beloved and iconic in its native country that it became too beholden to tradition to innovate further. Unfortunately the entire game is literally nothing but grinding, which to a modern audience is utterly repulsive. However for the extremely patient gamer, DQ1 is a quaint and memorable journey.
1986
1986