Zelda: Wind Waker - The amazing graphical prowess of 2003 gaming

A lot of change happens over ten years. The internet didn't really become pevasive on mobile devices until 2010. In fact, I didn't even have a cell phone when I first registered at Gamespot. At the time, therefore, sites like Gamespot were both the primary source of information and news for video game enthusiasts as well as the only real social outlet we had. I registered because Gamespot offered downloads for many PC games, including patches for said games, and a reliable source for downloading was desirable. There were competitors, but every site had its own culture and the heavily moderated Gamespot community ensured that there was a bit more maturity relative to other sites. And no, I'm not saying that the average Gamespotter was mature, just more mature than competing sites.

It wasn't until 2007 I started writing and publishing content to my Gamespot account. I'm not sure why, but I needed an outlet at the time. I had transitioned to a new city, leaving behind familiar surroundings and college friends. It was a bit random at first: Some complaints about Sony here, and a couple humorous blogs there. Then I wrote a blog for consideration by the site Editors for the Gamespot "Soapbox." At the time, this was a much desired emblem, since it was both rare and there were few emblems to be had overall. More importantly, anyone holding the emblem could post directly to the front page of the site simply by categorizing their blog entry as an "Editorial."

I garnered the Soapbox emblem with the Editorial, "I've killed you, and no, I don't feel bad about it." At the time violence and video games were a big topic of conversation, for no particularly good reason. It's still a fun read six years later.

Once I gained the exposure of the Soapbox I started receiving hundreds of views and comments. I started writing in earnest; it was a bit convoluted at first, but eventually I sorted my thoughts into columns of popular topics. I did a "Geek to Chic" series, which were basically tips for nerds not to stand out quite so much. I had a slew of humorous entries, personal finance, and tips on PC building. I tried a "Gamespot Cribs" series, but it never gained traction. An index to some of the better entries follows the end of this blog

There was an elite cadre of user-writers that formed unions around various topics to support blogging to the Soapbox and quality user reviews. I became a moderator for a time at Jody's behest, though that was rescinded after I made a blog entry about a topic deemed a bit too adult for Gamespot (and in retrospect, rightly so). Still, it was without question, Gamespot's peak in terms of user-generated content and participation.

Then Jeff Gerstmann reviewed Kane & Lynch: Dead Men.

That singular event resulted in an upheaval of users that rallied behind Gerstmann, relieved from Gamespot due to his critical comments on a game that had been heavily advertised on the site. Gamespot lost many, many great bloggers, union managers, volunteer community managers, and employees after his dismissal, and has never fully recovered.

There were additional missteps from a user standpoint. The launch of Gamespot FUSE to capture and integrate social media with Gamespot was a massive undertaking, but essentially bifurcated the community. You had some users migrating to FUSE, and others that preferred the persistent format of the traditional forums and user blogs. Gamespot abandoned the Soapbox for a time, dropping it from the front page and alienating some of its contributors, most notably GabuEx. Livefyre replaced Gamespots comments system in there somewhere, though this was a good move, in retrospect.

In the past two years Gamespot has made great strides to recapture the magic of 2007. They brought in Synthia Wieres to help Jody Robinson with community management and social media. The Soapbox was rebooted and the staff have interfaced more directly with their community on an ongoing basis. They introduced "Rangers," users that are not moderators so much as site cheerleaders, which has been a very good thing, and which I've been a proud participant. Finally, CBS Interactive picked up Giant Bomb, bringing Jeff Gerstmann and friends back full circle, and reintroducing many old users to their former stomping grounds. I still miss many users, and wrote an homage to said users in 2011 (link), but there have been quite a few great users filling their shoes, as of late.

I've seen friends I've met through Gamespot go on to become hired and subsequently move on from Gamespot, as was the case with Donklejohn. Danny O'Dwyer started off blogging just like yours truly before picking up an actual Gamespot paycheck, and there he's been making entertaining shorts about some of the most random things I've ever seen. It's a far cry from his Bioshock game footage days. It was great to meet several of the staff at PAX East 2012 and put real faces to their digital replicants.

Danny O'Dwyer doing what he does best. I'm just not entirely sure what that is.

It's strange to think of how much time and energy I have allocated to Gamespot in the past decade. Ultimately, though, it has been a rewarding online community filled with wonderful people. I have been frequently absent the past twelve months due to volunteer work, my family, and career monopolizing every free moment of my life, but I do hope to once again contribute to Gamespot in some meaningful way in the coming months.

Thank you, Gamespot staff, for creating a rich and vibrant community. For giving me the opportunity to be heard, to improve your site, and to support its ongoing development. I wish nothing but the best to each and every employee and member over the next ten years.

Index of Editorials
Index of Newbie PC Builder
Index of Personal Finance
Index of Geek to Chic
Index of Advice & Recommendations
Index of Humor

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Chinese knock-offs span every category of product, so it's probably not going to shock you that games are not exempt from its scope. However, what's really shocking is what kind of bizarre, crappy, and sometimes even cool games you can find on the Chinese knock-off market. The first in this series of spotlights is a fun little platformer called Pikachu Y2K:

Pikachu Y2K is, in all essence, a classic Mario-styIe platformer starring the titular electric pocket monster mouse thing. Going by the aforementioned description, you'd think that this all would be a fun, neat little game that, in essence, would give you a generic experience. HA, joke's on you: this game is nuttier than squirrel feces.

First off, Pikachu Y2K doesn't immediately drop you into the action. To start off with, you're given a short cutscene in which a mad scientist and his pet cat phone Pikachu at his home because they want a magic purse back. Oh, by the way: did I mention that the text says that Pikachu's real name is Felix?

So, er, I guess Pikachu will now be referred to as "Felix?"

After promptly hanging up and using the force to reel in his magical purse, Felixchu sets out on an adventure to...erm...not try to let the mad scientist guy get the bag from him? Honestly, he could have just stayed home and called the cops on him, leading to an arrest and avoiding all the ensuing nonsense but hey, I'm talking about a Chinese knock-off 8-bit platformer so why should I be caring so much?

Anywho, Pikachu Y2K's gameplay is pretty standard platforming fare, ridiculous premise aside. Sadly, it's a little sub-par for a side-scrolling platformer since its rules aren't very in line with Mario, as you can die from jumping on enemies. With stomping on their heads out of the equation, how can Felix-the-Pikachu deter people from snatching his purse?

The purse, of course!

Yes, instead of jumping on enemies, PikaFelix disposes of his foes via a Tom and Jerry-styIe boxing glove that pops out from his bag of wonders.

The animation doesn't include the bag, though...

 Given all this, the game seems pretty disappointing, right? Well, what makes Pikachu Y2K a little bit cooler is the ability to collect power-ups that transform the bag into various weapons such as singing, driving a car, riding an air balloon, and even driving a freaking tank.

Also, it shoots bombs with faces.

Take a moment to soak all this in: there's Felixchu in that image up there driving a tank in a happy pixelated 8-bit world. Yes, there exists a game where you can actually play as Pikachu driving a tank. Why hasn't anyone thought of this before? Seriously, the war game market is virtually untapped for the entire Pokemon franchise and here you have the Chinese knock-off market taking the initiative while Nintendo sits on their duffs, scratches their heads, and puts out a Gamecube game consisting entirely of watching fake television shows with Pikachu all day. Y'know, because we really need something like THAT on the market, while the idea of Tankemon goes completely over their heads. In a way, this instantly makes Pikachu Y2K better than a good deal of the franchise's official games from recent years.

Aside from the brilliant idea of putting Pikachu in a freaking tank, the rest of the game, like I said before, is pretty generic. The regular enemies aren't even other Pokemon, just some stupid little bird sprites and regular fishes...though there are a few walking trees here and there for no real reason. Ents aside, there isn't really that much to talk about in terms of enemy design and, on that note, there isn't much to say about the level layout. Really, the only thing on showcase here is how bizarre the overall premise of the game is and, beyond that, it's a sub-par platformer.

One last thing, though: the Game Over screen kind of bugs me:

...What's in that garbage can to the left? Seriously, can anyone give me an idea? I don't have one.

VERDICT:

Graphics: 8 - Pretty decent representation of Pikachu. Besides, the entire thing's running on an NES, so I'm not that picky.

Sound: 6 - There's a fun little tune in the first level, then it repeats in the second, the third, fourth....yeah.

Gameplay: 6 - It's functional, but there's no pizzazz beyond the power-ups.

Story: 10 - PIKACHU IN A FREAKING MAGIC PURSE TANK!

Overall: 7 - It's worth checking out for about an hour, but not farther beyond that.

So that's all for Pikachu Y2K! Be sure to stay tuned for more showcased Chinese knock-off games!

(also, please someone tell me what's in that garbage can)

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Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot

Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot

You might've noticed by now that I haven't been around much. I wish I were here to tell you that the reason for that has come to an end, but... well, unfortunately, I'm afraid it hasn't. So if you really want to know where I've been, then sit for a spell and let me tell you the tale of The Incredible Shrinking Community.

I first joined GameSpot in May of 2006, although it wasn't until 2007 that I actually started becoming active around GameSpot. Things started pretty small. At around that time I was pretty much accepting all comers in terms of friend requests and union invites, since I only had a few. Some of the few unions I remember I first joined were a Nintendo union, a NiGHTS union, and a Guitar Hero union. I met a lot of great people through those unions, many of whom I've sadly long since lost contact with, and it was that that really started getting me hooked on GameSpot - that really got me thinking that the community here at GameSpot was something special, something I'd seldom encountered before in the past.

It was then around February of 2008 that I got the official invitation to be a moderator at GameSpot. Given my love for the community, that was a no-brainer: of course I said "yes". After becoming a moderator, I became even more involved in the community, and became a regular poster both in OT and in the Wii forum, becoming effectively the official moderator representation for the latter forum after JordanElek stepped down from his moderator position. Around this time I joined even more unions, like the Monkeys Writing Shakespeare Union, and met even more people. In short, life was good. I really liked it here.

However...

Over time, things slowly seemed to start to change. The first big change, obviously, was the departure of Jeff Gerstmann, which was quickly followed both by other editors and by several users at GameSpot. That was pretty early on, however, and didn't affect me that much.

As more time went on, though, some of the unions I was in began to fall apart. The Nintendo one, I think, was the first to go. The Guitar Hero union slowly saw user participation fritter away to nothing. Once NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams was released, that union, too, died a slow, unheralded death. Monkeys Writing Shakespeare collapsed, too. One by one, all of the unions I used to frequent became wastelands.

But that was still all right. I was still active on the main forums, and they were great. For a while, at least. The Wii forum I especially liked, since it seemed to be a place that was more or less free of undue negativity, compared to other places around GameSpot. And OT was a great place to have quality conversations.

Slowly but surely, however, those changed as well. The Wii forum started to become less and less enjoyable to post to, and over time I found myself posting less and less in the main forum and posting more to the Off-Topic Lounge. OT, as well, seemed to be less welcoming, and I posted there almost exclusively to debate. During my very first OTcars, I tied Hungry_Bunny for Nicest User; subsequently, I wasn't even nominated for that, and only won the awards for most intelligent user and best debater. Secretly, I was a bit upset about this - I would take being known as a nice guy any day over being known as an intelligent debater. When you're on your deathbed, being an intelligent debater isn't going to make you any friends who will gather around and miss you when you're gone.

Then there was perhaps the straw that broke the camel's back: the Soapbox was removed from the front page of GameSpot. With that - without almost any fanfare at all - my one last real connection to anything resembling a community had been severed. My time here was pretty darn empty by this time, but I didn't know it at the time. It took something shocking - something that I never expected to become a fan of - to truly make me realize just how empty it had become.

OK, I know that just posting that image just lost at least some of you who had been reading up until this moment. But for those of you still with me, let me explain. Actually, before I explain, let me let Jacob Minkoff of Naughty Dog explain better than I could. This picture in particular says about what needs to be said about the show:

This isn't your '80s My Little Pony. This is what you would get if Pixar were to create an incarnation of My Little Pony. Yes, the show drives the sales of pony dolls, but it's way more than that - it's a slice of life show that is smart, witty, cute, fun, and genuinely heartwarming. It's a show with an all-female main cast that manages to be neither tackily girly nor overly sappy; its characters are genuinely interesting and endearing; and its episode plots are really fun to follow, with very positive, yet not anvilicious, messages at the end of each.

The show certainly hooked me; however, the thing that really kept me around long after its first season ended was the community around the show. In a way the community around this show is a lot like what Gabe from Penny Arcade found the Pokemon community to be when he attended a tournament - they've really been affected by it in a positive fashion. I don't mean that in the sense as though they're learning life lessons for the first time upon watching the show; rather, I think it's more just that the show is captivating enough that it's able to just make them think a bit, and realize that, you know, maybe there are other ways to conduct oneself on the internet than being a callous, cynical douche.

Whatever the reasoning or whys or wherefores behind it, I very quickly found that the fandom behind this show is one of the warmest, most welcoming, most downright positive communities I've ever seen on the internet - and, unfortunately, when I compared that against what I got here at GameSpot, well... there wasn't really much of a contest. It unfortunately highlighted for me just how empty my time here at GameSpot had become, which is why I haven't been around here much.

Don't get me wrong. I don't want to disparage anyone here on GameSpot. Individually, there are a lot of wonderful people still present here today. I won't name any of them because I don't want to leave anyone out, but, heck, if you're still reading this after all this time (in which case, bless your heart), then you're probably one of them. And that makes you awesome. Seriously. I love you folks.

I won't say that I'll never be around GameSpot again. That's closing a door that I would never want to close. However, I will say that, because of all of the above, it remains seemingly unlikely that I will be seen around here much in the foreseeable future. If you would like to stay in touch, I can be found at Equestria Forums, or, if you'd prefer to stay away from the show, PM me - I'm more than happy to give you my email address, AIM/MSN/Skype account names, or whatever else would work for you. I don't want this to be goodbye; I just want it to be so long... and, thanks for all the fish. All of you are grand chaps, the lot of you.

Your friend,

Gabu

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