This decade spored some new video game series as well as ditching some others, what are the top 3 which are welcome to stay?
Rabbids
While considered part of the Rayman series, Rabbids in there own right had become more then just a spin-off series to the popular platformer.
They became the most weirdest creatures in the world, and almost everyone fell in love with them. What Ubisoft had created as something new and interesting.
They appeared in their first game under “Rayman Raving Rabbids”, featuring Rayman- in not a platformer but a mini game compilation. This caused some issues, as many Rayman fans saw the Rabbids as an issue- and wanted a new Rayman game not more Rabbids.
For three titles which appeared on almost every console available at the time, Rayman Raving Rabbids 1, 2 and TV party featured out of this world mini games which bordered on the obsurbed. Most of the mini games had the goal of messing things up. The original game had more of a set story line (and a quite interesting use of Rayman), but Rayman disappeared even from 2 and TV party.
All was not lost, when Ubisoft finally decided the series had earned its wings they announced a new game. Rabbids Go Home was a fresh new approach with the Rabbids. Gone where pointless mini games, replaced with an adventure game. The amazing thing is, Go Home kept the charm and stupidity that the Rabbids where known for in the original titles.
Appearing on other games as camos and even toys, shirts and other goodies. Rabbids are now an acceptable franchise and series. In the short time which it evolved late in the decade, it has successfully shead its original series from itself and become a spin-off series to be proud off.
Another Code
Another Code is going to be on this list, and most likely more lists. The series started as a single title on the Nintendo DS system. Developed by Cing, it lead to future titles in the series (Another Code R in 2009) and other novel games by Cing (Hotel Dusk series and Again).
Another player from mid in the decade, the original was considered something amazing and special for the Nintendo DS. The shame lines within the series, considered only a sleeper hit compared to its younger brother series which started with Hotel Dusk.
An interesting story and mythology was formed within the text based adventure game, the latest title in the series Another Code R won Game of the Year from us for 2009.
The Sims
The Sims takes home our final spot in new series of the decade. Spinning off from the original Sims series which consisted of various activities slapped with “Sims” then “X” and as well was the earlier Sim City series- fans where amazed and shocked when you could finally go away from the city and into the home.
It started when the game was released in 2000, the beginning of the decade started this casual revolution and you could say that this one of the pioneers.
The goal was simple, entertain your dumb founded Sim and then build and manage your life and house. Over the years the game grew with expansion packs which opened up new areas and new things to do, keeping the game fresh and innovative.
Four years later however the time had come for EA to release a new Sims game, not a boring expansion pack (or the future “Stuff Packs which started on The Sims 2) no Sims 2 was now revealed and released.
At the end of the day what Sims 2 did when it first came out was give the original a nice coat of paint then looked at all the expansion packs and decided what ones where worth putting in the base game, before releasing more expansion packs on its own.
Nothing major changed until Sims 3, a much more casual approach, but at the end of the day a more solid structure when it comes to building your home, a few things which the Sims 2 pioneered on where thrown out the window, giving the game an unfinished feel.
This decade some decade old series have made there mark once again, some even providing some of the best titles in the series. Others fell flat on there face.
The Legend of Zelda
The Legend is strong, and when the Legend of the Zelda started its long path this decade after releasing some amazing titles in the previous decade, many thought it might fall flat on its face from the bat go. But the series has kept its wings, and provided some amazing titles and experiences this decade.
Link has had so many different personalities this decade, some contraversal and others instant classics. What is known is this decade saw many titles across many generations as well as paving the way the series will be next decade.
The legend started right off the bat this decade with Majora’s Mask, the direct sequel to Ocarina of Time. It introduced a new “3 day” system which gave the game a scene of urgency, as well as giving players one of the darkest child link games. The game also featured many sidequests and detailed NPC’s for the time, and for the series.
After the mask collecting, we found ourselves looking at a Space World demo like no other, a mature link running on next generation graphics, the hype train started saying this was to be the next Zelda.
The next console Zelda was to be forgotten for awhile, with the Game Boy Color getting the Oracle series, Ages and Seasons. With Oracle of Ages been the best of the two, the Game boy Advance had just arrived as well only just after.
What appeared on the Game Boy Advance was a port of Link to the Past, a classic game from the previous decade. Along with it inside the same cart, was a sign of things to come- a look at a mulitplayer Zelda- Four Swords was born.
Falling into place around the same time, was the shock and aww at the new console Zelda, Wind Waker was revealed and released in 2002, to keep players who where disappointed at the graphic style as fans, Nintendo played a card like no other, Ocarina of Time was ported to the Game Cube and bundled with Wind Waker as a preorder item, to make things better the disk also contained Master Quest (a much more harder bolder OoT).
Wind Waker featured sailing as the form of transport and some crazy story about a great flood, what was known is after it was released it was lapped up by everyone and enjoyed.
Four Swords saw a rebirth a few years later on the Game Cube, one of the best Zelda adventures was 2D, multiplayer and used a new feature which connected the GC to the GBA, allowing more players to come in and play with the GBA. Which sadly was the only way to play multiplayer.
Around the same time was another gem, The Minish Cap, the last Flag Ship Zelda title and one of the most impressive handheld games to date.
Near the end of the decade and on current generation consoles, Zelda was released as a lunch title for the Nintendo Wii, Twilight Princess while good fans complained and moaned that it wasn’t “Ocarina of Time”, leaving the consoles for awhile the Nintendo DS gave birth to two Zelda titles, sequels to Wind Waker, Phantom Hour Glass and Spirit Tracks.
This decade also saw a few other spin off titles in the series (besides “Four Swords”), Link’s Crossbow training taught Wii gamers world wide that plastic attachments are fun, and Tringle got his own series.
Unreal Tournament
Shooting has never been this fun, okay it probably hasn’t. Late last decade the Unreal series spun off a baby of its own, Unreal Tournament became a series and a game which molded multiplayer FPS for the rest of the decade.
The series contained itself to the original for awhile, but in 2003 came the rebirth of the series into the decade. The 2003 installment was pretty basic, and as well as the 2004 installment was pretty much an upgraded version of the original.
A few years later came Unreal Tournament 3, which keeps the FPS flavor going with more detailed graphics and explosions. While other games have taken over the crown of multiplayer FPS action, Unreal Tournament continues to be a viable enjoyable option even in this decade.
Grand Theft Auto
This decade brought the 3rd and 4th “seasons” of Grand Theft Auto. From the aclamined Grand Theft Auto III to Grand Theft Auto IV and Chinatown Wars. With in the middle PSP versions of the Third season, with new stories.
It’s a funny series, but at the same time its a boring series. What happens to be one of the game highest points is something fowend upon by society, but in the end its all good! Or is it?
The series has taken a relistic turn in its 4th season, GTA:IV and its download content has to be the most evil game ever when it comes to pain. As for the cops, they are tightened up but you can still drive down the block, hide in an ally and wait for everything to be A’ Ok.
Chinatown Wars has appeared on the DS (a limited exclusive) and then the PSP, and then the iPhone. While the ports where needed, no one knows, as the DS version was solid, unique and desirable (and still the highest seller).
This is a series your going to be seeing more of next decade and where they can lead it to, its anyones guess.
Shadow Gate for the Game Boy Color is a remake of the original Shadow Gate, thus the “Classic” in the title. It’s one of those games which seemed to have died off from popularity and existence after the Game Boy Color entries. And similar to the Survival Kids series in the sense that all future entries or sequels haven’t been worthy of the title.
The game can be traced back to the Mac in the earlier generations before it appeared on the Nintendo Entertainment System only a few years later. With the games premise been as simple as they come, you’re the last of a great hero and you have to defeat the evil Warlock- who is summoning demons to kill you before you can kill him, sounds like a Zelda plot gone wrong, but at the end of the day what we have here is something quite interesting.
I never heard of the series before buying the Game Boy Color game (which sadly for some reason is now lost because when I was little I for some reason gave all my games to dad to keep safe or something and then he lost it 
, anyway…), the game is quite an interesting little gem which people would be spending hours with.
There are other titles available with a similar design choices, but Shadow Gate stands alone with its puzzles and story.
Graphic wise it’s something which has run ahead of the crowd on the Game Boy a few miles ahead of everyone else, it looks great and appears that lots of time has been put into the presentation of the title.
It’s quite easy to understand how to play, in fact it’s a point and click adventure game like no other, and when it comes to fights with evil demons, it’s still point and click, but its then taken a roll of turn based games when it comes to damage etc.
Shadow Gate Classic is one of those games which always wants to hurt you, there’s lots of puzzles which if you get wrong your quite easily going to pay for it, either with death or damage. The wrong solution to a puzzle could kill you, while the right solution lets you pass, it’s a game with a long winding maze of rooms which could kill you or if you have the right items accumulated set you free.
The game is quite spooky for some parts, one because you don’t know if your move is going to kill you until it happens and then the other token that the evil guy in this game is quite bad ass.
For those looking for simular titles, MacVenture also has the Déjà vu series which has appeared on the Game Boy Color as well as the original platforms, but Shadow Gate seems to be alone when it comes to sequels (there is one for the 64 and one which died in limbo in the 64 era).
Let’s take some time to go back a few years, maybe a few decades. To a time which consoles where quite interesting and very retro! The year is 1983 and the Vectrex has now washed onto store shelves. An interesting little 8-bit console which wasn’t connecting itself to any television or monitor you owned. No it had its eyes on its built in vector monitor which of course has vector graphics- great? Maybe.
Another devious little ploy in the Vectrex was the fact it couldn’t really display colours. So you had some plastic sheets which had colour overlays on it. You pretty much sit these on top of the screen and now your game has gone from ugly to colourful!
Each game had its own plastic sheet, and the Vectrex was quite an arcadish console. What is great is I have one of these babies, which hopefully still works, but when I was young it was a console relic then. Now it’s a dinosaur, but underneath its raw hard shell is a console which has some quite interesting games.
One of those is Hyper Chase.
A game for a second generation monster which somehow found itself into my home, the carts lying around under boxes and the console sitting waiting for it to be turned on again.
But to play it again would be a crime, the memories which have developed especially of Hyper Chase should be forever.
It wasn’t the most charming retro game, and decades later feels dated and unwanted, but it still has a charm which doesn’t hinder the game.
It’s plastic screen giving the game a green glow, cars flying everywhere and your following a road which sometimes has various obstacles, for the most part it’s a straight flat road, which occasionally would move over towards the left side of the screen, or the right.
It had some amazing animations, okay it’s a simple crashing sound and animation which has appeared in previous titles of that generation. But no doubt for a car game, seems humorous.
It’s meant to be a race, but for you unless you dig out the manual, it could be a road out in the middle of nowhere. What you have to do is avoid the edges, cars and other obstacles. Sounds easy? Well maybe it is, maybe it’s not but it’s one amazing game.
The controller for the Vectrex was something interesting, and for retro enthusiasts would be quite simular of pads of the time. A row of buttons and a Joy Stick or D-Pad.
The game is shows decently what a prequel of Need For Speed of this era would be like, it’s interesting to play and shows off the console well. As for the Vectrex its now probably one of the longest supported consoles, its game line up according to Wikipedia is disappointing, but that list of homebrew which continues over the decades, now that’s amazing.
Last generation if you mentioned this game, you would be greeted with people not knowing what it was, in fact now still it continues having that fate. Konami has continued the series this time around under a name for westerners which removes the original name and plasters a new casual friendly one onto it- Lost in Blue is the new name which the series takes itself as and it seems Konami has shattered the series once again with horrible design flaws.
But most people don’t know to this day that the series Lost in Blue started on the Game Boy Color under the name Survival Kids (Standard Kids in the UK) and was released worldwide (though the sequel on the GBC was limited to Japan). So for those who joined in when it was too late, here’s a look back onto the game which made it all possible.
The game was something fresh and unique which at the time was hidden in the shelves and forgotten by many, a simulation title which centred itself around been lost on an island. Unlike other simulation games of the time, Harvest Moon for example, it didn’t gain a strong enough following to see the sequel appear in English countries. It was a simple game compared to the generation of its future cousins, and contained more survival action then survival caring.
The game contained various items and “Easter eggs” of sorts which you could create just to humour yourself, some had survival functions while others just lightened up the atmosphere. One such item was the baseball set which you could make, or even the left which you used as an umbrella.
It wasn’t all fun and games, for those new to the series the ionic monkey followed you around even on the Game Boy Color original, annoying you with its tricks and devious desires. In the end you could keep him as your evil monkey slave and even try to finish the game and rescuing him. Of course you didn’t have to even worry about him.
The land was a different world then what we are used to now with the titles DS and Wii cousins. It contained land types of all possible encounters, there weren’t just fields and forests, there were also swamps and mountains of impossible heights. It was something fun and funky for the Game Boy Color which didn’t look half bad either, the graphics a style which will forever be one of the best on the Color.
Music on the other hand was a hit and miss, and the title wasn’t exactly acclaimed for that. But what was seen when you removed away from the core game was quite good animation scenes which depicted various events though out the game. They could seem dark and evil for the untrained eye, but at the end of the day it seemed to appear to give more heart to the game which seemed to be more about the adventure and less about the survival- something which Konami has forgotten in the newer titles.
Survival wasn’t a must on most days, and you were looking after yourself instead of some random you just met who doesn’t do anything but sit and complain when you don’t do everything she wants you to- a complaint which the newer games where often targeted for, but in this title non-existent in an island with just you.
The game even had some wacky mini games, that just proves that survival wasn’t the main objective here.
The island was undoubtedly more interesting than the islands which where to come, while Survival Kids 2 became the penicil of island creativity, the newer titles just picked and swapped bits of what was once great. The objectives to advance where not ground breaking, but the fitted in the game and created a flow which was easy, but regardless if you did get stuck- would want to continue to survive in the areas you have already unlocked, they were full of animals and objects which would be replenished almost every day.
The game was more of a piece of art and a complete package to what was to become of the series. You could still pick to be boy or girl, and while another character wondering around you would of spiced up the game, it seems so far Konami still hasn’t gotten it right, so in retrospect what we have experienced was for the best.
I spoke earlier about how survival was less important, it’s much easier to keep your health at a maximum. The system isn’t based around staiuma, hunger and thirst it’s a full health bar as well, so that cuts the troubles down heaps. You also still have things like hunger pains as well, so they are still included in the original title, but once you learn how the game works, it’s quite easy to be always with it to advance into more complicated areas.
The only major problem on some degrees would be how long a day lasts, it seems to feel much shorter than the titles sequels, but on the same token it fits right in with how big the world map is.
Overall what you have here and should try and look for an old cart of is a title which depicts the coming titles in the series quite well and is possibly still one of the leaders in the series.