Here at Toronto Thumbs we like to engage our minds. One fun exercise that really stretches the ol’ noodle is the “a vs b” fight scenario. What’s that, you ask? It is when you use your imagination to figure out the outcome of a battle between two named parties. Those who tend to calculate odds in sports tend to ponder things like this; however, the scenarios we like to think about are usually ones that would probably never happen.
Today’s fight? Zombie Michael Jackson vs. Thumbs Mike Jackson.
I’ve been running OSX for quite a while now. Probably since 10.2 came out. The reasons are largely work related, and I’m certainly not here to persuade anyone that OSX is any better or worse for your own personal needs which I know nothing about; but as a gamer, I have always had to keep a machine running some version of the Windows OS close at hand.
Thumbs newcomer Jayson Young writes about how a game like Heavy Rain might be more than just a simple ripple in a puddle. - ed.
For evangelists of the games-as-art movement, it’s no doubt been heartening to see the blockbuster sales figures and overwhelmingly positive critical response surrounding Quantic Dream’s Heavy Rain. Its development was a huge risk for Sony: they invested millions of dollars in a completely unproven, counterintuitive style of game. A marketplace that demands endless Gears of War clones and Modern Warfare knockoffs might foreseeably have ignored a piece of “interactive fiction” with a relentlessly depressing narrative. But Heavy Rain is a bona fide hit; arguably the most unlikely “Triple-A” title in recent memory.
I used to take character names so seriously when I was a kid. Generally, I cribbed them from my favourite movies and books—Raistlin, Gimli, Madmartigan, Khan, Roland—but there were a few made-up names that found their way into heavy rotation. Like Thon Malus; that was my go-to name for close to a decade. I’m not sure how it came to me exactly, I only know that I used it so often and so consistently that twenty or so years later, when one of my childhood friends met my son for the first time, he said, “So, I guess this must be little Thon…”
It’s shaping up to be a perfect weekend for gaming. All your friends are out of town or working, there are no major concerts or sporting events you want to attend, and the weather is going to suck, so you don’t feel obligated to “get out and enjoy it.” You can start playing games from the moment you get home from work/school Friday until someone has to surgically remove the controller from your hands on Sunday night.
Except… you’ve played all the games you own at least three times. Since all your friends are out of town, you can’t go borrow, beg or steal any from them. And since you’re between paycheques and rent is due, you can’t go buy or rent any new games. What is a gamer to do in this situation?
Well, you can take yourself down to the library and borrow a couple.
As a freelance writer with a love of video games, I found it hard to decide where my “best of the year” list should make its home in 2009. Then I stole Shaun’s laptop. A few auto-saved passwords later and the rest, as they say, is history. Without further ado, please enjoy my very own Top 9 of 09!
These are in no particular order, and some of these actually came out before 2009. However, these are my nine favourite games from 2009, so deal with it!
Year-end lists are nothing new. It’s a well-known fact that lists are what blog readers love reading more than anything; yes, even more than Professor Layton Deleted Scenes, apparently. While cliché, expected, and somewhat lazy, lists are still a good way of organizing thoughts. With this in mind, our 2009 lists are not necessarily about games that came out in that year, but rather games we played like crazy and loved.
A guy in a leather jacket and a mop of dark hair enters A & C Video Games while I’m there. His girlfriend in tow, he marvels at a red periscope-like device on the counter. His girlfriend is confused. “It’s a Virtual Boy,” he tells her. He plays a bit of Mario Tennis, but has to soon stop to rub his eyes. He tells his girlfriend that he played one as a kid during a video game expo at Ontario Place.
It’s a scene that unfolds often at A & C Video Games. A customer comes in for one thing, but quickly finds something else, pulled by the riptide of nostalgia. Despite the store’s size, it’s packed. There are stacks of original Nintendo cartridges slotted into shelves, a wall of Japanese imports behind the counter, DS games arranged alphabetically in a display case, bulky Neo·Geo games just slightly out of reach above, a heap of neglected PC games on the floor, and over all this there’s a computer airing old video game commercials while cranking out iconic 8-bit tracks. It’s a lot to take in.
Chang Toy started A & C as a convenience store in 1998. As competition in the area increased, Chang, with the help of his younger brother Gar, started thinking of ways to change the business. “It’s not fun selling drinks and chips,” Gar recalls. After failed attempts to incorporate soccer jerseys and Yu-Gi-Oh! cards, the brothers tried to find a niche.
Nintendo’s long-standing franchise, The Legend of Zelda, finds its way onto the DS for a second time, featuring touch-screen and microphone controls, a plethora of puzzles and challenging obstacles, and a good amount of humour, twists, and fun. As expected The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks sees Link on yet another quest to save both the kingdom and Princess Zelda.
However this time around, Link is a budding railroad engineer set to receive his final certification. In a short introduction narrated by Niko (who appeared in both The Wind Waker and Phantom Hourglass and is now quite old) we learn of an ancient evil Demon King who brought destruction to the land for many years before being defeated by the Spirits of Good. Buried beneath a tower and shackled into place, the Demon King would remain trapped while the good spirits, drained from the battle, left the world to its inhabitants.
Niko’s role of storyteller helps tie the Spirit Tracks storyline to those of the other cel-shaded Legend of Zelda titles, The Wind Waker and Phantom Hourglass. Link, however, doesn’t stick around too long after this story is told, as he’s off to the Castle on his trusty locomotive to attain his engineer’s certificate. It’s at his graduation ceremony that he and Zelda first cross paths and their adventure together begins.
