Goldleader's Game History

Resident Evil

Having missed this game first time around on the Playstation I picked it up second hand on the GameCube. This version had enhanced graphics for the GameCube. I'm glad I did pick it up as its one of the scarcest games I have ever played. It's best enjoyed on a dark night with all the lights off!!!!! The way things jump out at you is just like watching a horror film, the game is all about the atmosphere. The dogs got me every time. I was also a fan of the fixed point camera system as it was different to most games at the time which had movable cameras. It all added to the effect of making you feel like you were in a horror film. The game has many elements to it, puzzle solving, action shooter and stealth sections all play the part to make it a fresh challenge all the way through the game. Its a same the series lost its way in recent times as it had such a good start.

I never got on with the Resident Evil games. A friend lent me a copy of the first one on the PS 2, but it did nothing for me.

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5-time MoFo Award winner.

I can understand that, at the time Nintendo and Square soft were giving us large open worlds to explore and here was a game where you were trapped in a house and stuck with one camera angle. But that for me was its charm.

Super Smash Bros Melee

I never had Super Smash Bros on the N64 and to be honest didn't know that much about it when it first came out on the Gamecube. But I liked the look of it and have always been a fan of beat em ups so thought I would give Nintendo's version a go. I'm glad I did its such a fun game but mixes up the beat em up's of old to allow children to play. It must have been the first 4 player beat em up I have owned and a group of mates round and this is a blast for hours. There is nothing better than having Mario, DK, Link and Kirby go at it in a crossover game which most kids would have argued about at one time. "Mario would kick Links ass", well now you could do just that. The single player is a bit dull but then they usually are in beat em ups, this game is all about multi-player!!!

Super Mario Sunshine

Every Nintendo console has its Mario game and I was hooked since Super Mario World so I get everyone that is released. This game doesn't different to much to Super Mario 64 in that you have a central world with levels off, in each level you collect Shine Sprites (stars) to unlock new levels to get to the end boss. There is nothing wrong with that and lets be honest Super Mario 64's graphics have aged very badly, were as Super Mario Sunshine still looks very good. There are good bits and bad bits to the game however. The holiday setting is just rubbish and the stupid people walking around just look weird on every level. And the story is a none starter, Mario has to clean an island!!!!! The FLUDD starts off as a great addition and the graphics at the time for the water were amazing but after a while it starts to get a bit boring and you just want to run and jump and throw fireballs! I do like the side levels were you don't use FLUDD but if I remember these were very hard. The game had a hard act to follow with Super Mario 64 and I had hours of fun with the game I think it will go down as one of the lesser loved Mario games.

Mario Kart Double Dash

Having missed Mario Kart 64 this game was an easy pickup for the GameCube. The graphics were much improved over the N64 game which was a big help and it seemed they had put more speed and combat back into the game this time round. The 2 characters on a Kart is a waste of time and just a gimmick as it doesn't really matter who you choose. The introduction of different Karts is a welcome and adds variety. Its all in the tracks though and there is some great ones in this game, one that comes to mind is DK Mountain which I love as its a down hill run with loads of places to bash people of the track. And the multi-player as ever is a blast both on the tracks and in Battle mode. Nintendo are the masters of great family games and Mario Kart is king of that, all the family can play this game and have fun.

Wii Sports

The game that opened the door to casual and non gamers the world over. At 80 plus million copies sold what it had in simple game play it made up for in sheer charm and easy of use that everyone from very young kids to 90 year old grans could play and enjoy. After a few great years of Gamecube love and some excellent games I was starting to feel a little disappointed at the lack of third party support for the console. The amount of games the Gamecube had was a lot smaller to the other 2 consoles at the time. So I picked up a second hand Xbox. I will not lie it was a chipped console and I never actually bought any games for it. But looking back I can't even remember any game I really played and fully enjoyed on the system. There was maybe Halo, Need for Speed Underground, Burnout Revenge and James Bond From Russia With Love. But I never gave any of these loads of time and don't think that they would go down as games I would want to play now. So when Nintendo announced their next console the Wii I was on one hand excited at the idea of the motion controls and how that would change the way we play games, but also a little worried for it as third parties don't produce on Nintendo consoles and haven't since after the SNES. But I got swept up in the hype and was there in line on release day for the console, the first time I had ever done such a thing. I remember talking with loads of people around its release and the first few months afterwards and no one had even heard of it or thought that it was a silly name. After getting the shiny new console out and loving how small and good looking it was, I was then blown away at how fun Wii Sports and the motion control were. I wasn't stupid I knew then that the control system wasn't perfect and didn't feel as real as I had hoped but damn it was fun to actually swing your arm to play tennis and bowling. I knew if Nintendo could get the word out and keep the cost of the system as low as they did they were on to a winner. Not with hardcore games who would cringe at the idea of it but with the casual and non games this was going to be a winner. And by gum it sure was, within 6 to 12 months everyone I knew had one, most of these people had never owned a games console before or since. I have great memories of all of the family playing Wii Sports over that first Christmas. This had never happened before. It truly was a great game for parties. I look back at it now and I realise the lack of third party support for a console is not a bad thing, it means you get just the great games and don't waste your money on the dross and yearly upgrades, this is what draws me to Nintendo consoles. Yes we have new versions of their main series like Mario and Zelda on each console but at least we usually only get one or two games each console generation, and each one is a full leap forward. Not 4 or 5 games (Call of Duty, FIFA) each generation which are all yearly upgrades with minimal new features!!!!

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

One of the main reasons I bought a Wii was for this game. The idea of having motion controls in a Zelda game was a no brainier. After watching all the pre release videos of people using the Wii Remote as a sword and then both the Wii Remote and the Nuncuck as a bow and arrow I just couldn't wait. It also helped that this was a return to style of Ocarina of Time and did away with the cell shading of Wind Waker (I was never a massive fan of this, was a nice change but it makes it look to much like a cartoon). It looked to me like a serious grown up game on a Nintendo system that they hadn't produced on the GameCube (I know it was original developed as GCN game). And as a bonus it was released very early in the consoles life. I remember getting the game that first Xmas after release and just loving every aspect of it. Yes the motion controls weren't as good as I had hoped but no Wii games were. But just moving the controllers in a different way made the game feel more immersive and real. The game was another classic Zelda game, sticking to what has worked so well in the past and adding new twists and challenges along the way. I was glad they dropped the boat as I have found the searching for the next dungeon can get boring. There was no chance of that here, the game is very linear and does hold your hand a lot more than other Zelda games. I for one enjoyed that, I like it to be a challenge but I don't want to waste hours and hours of my life to find something. I want to enjoy the whole game, take in the levelling up of my character and see the different parts of the world and kill all the bosses and see the story unfold in front of me. I think I completed the game in a few weeks as it wasn't that long, but I have fond memories of really enjoying every part of it and thinking it was one of the best whole gaming experiences I had had at the time. I can't give this game higher praise, it is still my favourite game. If you haven't played it go out and buy it or get the HD version coming to the Wii U.

Resident Evil 4

Now there are some who say "there are no adult/deep hardcore gamers games on the Wii", well this is a shining example that proves that quota completely wrong. Resident Evil 4 on the Wii is another example of a series at it's peak and the game play been much improved by the Wii's Motion Control system. For starters at the time the visuals in Resident Evil 4 were ground breaking, you really did feel like you were in a little village with scary people coming at you. The game had all the best parts of the previous games and turned them up to 11, great weapons, suspense, puzzles and jump out of your seat moments. I remember having the biggest grin on my face as I was playing this game like i knew this was an instant classic, you just know when you are playing a good game. The motion controls helped with this I think, there is no better feeling than aiming the Wii remote at the screen and blowing a zombies head right off!!!!!!!

Link's Crossbow Training

As soon as I saw the Wii I knew they would have to create shooting games for it. Shoot games had always been great fun in the arcades with the likes of Lethal Enforces, Virtual Cop, House of the Dead, Point Blank and Time Crisis. All of which had ports to consoles but I never bought them because they all had to have extra guns hardware which made the price to high. The Wii was a perfect fit as the hardware was there already it just needed a decent game. Well Link's Crossbow Training was it. I loved how the game has a great balance between pick up and shoot and a little depth and familiar world from the Zelda franchise. The bundled Wii Zapper is a fun addon but not really needed to play the game (I wish more first person shoots had been on the Wii to us these add-on). Also love how the game has three different styles of play, you have the on rails shoot sections, the third person where you grounded to the spot and the fully movable character and shoot sections. The fact that the levels are only 3 minutes long is also a good idea in the same way as Point Blank, which means you have a short blast and then either move on to a different level or have another go to beat your score. Sure its frustration that the game overall isn't more in-depth and I would have loved a sequel with a full in-depth first person shooter feel with a proper story. But what I do find is that this is a shooting game that all the family can play and enjoy, Nintendo are the masters of taking any game genre and making it accessible to all.