usgamer

Worth Reading: The Staff of USgamer on Good “Bad” Games

Back in January I said I was going to start highlighting more articles from other sites that contain the types of discussions we try to start here at Co-Op Critics. I’ve done a really bad job of that, but perhaps today’s entry will kickstart a more regular flow of these highlighted articles.

Over at USgamer (the sister site of Eurogamer), Pete Davison posted a great article today that fits in with The Year of B-Games series I’ve been doing here. The article is called “When Bad Isn’t Bad,” and Davison asks the staff of USgamer to reflect on some of the favorite games that were not critically or commercially well-received.

There are some interesting games on the list, including Ninja Blade, a From Software title that I’m hoping to get to this year for my B-Games series. Here’s a snippet of what USgamer’s Mike Williams had to say about Ninja Blade:

“Everything in Ninja Blade has to be there because it’s awesome. It’s the only explanation. Ogawa carries four different weapons on his back because it’s awesome. He does amazing skateboard tricks while surfing on a missile because it’s awesome. He hits a wrecking ball like a baseball because it’s awesome. Why does Ogawa ride a motorcycle through the sky to shove it down a boss’ throat? Because it’s goddamn awesome.

To see the rest of what Mike had to say and get the full list, you can read the full article here.

On a related note, I really like what I’m seeing from USgamer so far, and that’s not surprising seeing as 1UP alum Jeremy Parish is the Senior Editor for the site.

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Worth Reading: 1UP’s Marty Sliva on Atari Box Art

We recently recorded an episode of Co-Op Critics about gaming culture (that will air the week of 2/14), and one of the topics of discussion was games journalism and how games are covered right now. We bemoaned a lot of what we currently see on mainstream gaming sites, and talked about the types of coverage we’d like to see.

We also talked a bit about the fact that there is some great stuff out there, but it’s often lost in the shuffle of the PR-driven “game of the moment” coverage that defines most gaming outlets.

One of the things I need to do more of here, on twitter and on the podcasts is give shout outs to interesting articles and games discussion that I’d like to see more of.

Today, I was reading through some of 1UP’s Cover Stories from the past several weeks, and stumbled across a fun article from Marty Sliva called “The Deceptive Beauty of Atari Box Art.” The article pointed out some examples of creative marketing with 2600 games and the box art, and there are some pretty insightful comments on the article from members of the 1UP community as well.

I grew up on the Atari 2600, I always approached the box art the same way I approached the cover art for all my Dungeons & Dragons books–as a starting point for my imagination. Things are different now, as the games we get to play can visually represent the ideas of the creators in a much more accurate way. Back then, you were getting a glimpse of the creators’ vision through the box art, and your imagination had to map that to what you were actually seeing. In that way, I think a lot of the early games were more participatory, as they required you to imagine as you played. Maybe that’s why I gravitate much more toward RPGs now, as it’s one of the last bastions of required imagination in gaming.

Anyway, props to Marty Sliva for a fun post that inspired some great discussion and a bit of nostalgia.