ST236

THIS MONTH at

GAMING FEATURE

visit jbhifi.com.au/stack

’ s ROVING REPORTER

BEST SELLERS at

What’s your all-time favourite game or game series?

My top three games of all time, in no particular order, are Red Dead Redemption 2, Halo 3, and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild . My favourite series has to be Halo. I

MAY 2024

JACK BUTTERFIELD @ JB Hi-Fi Canberra City, ACT

remember seeing my mate playing Halo Reach for his 13th birthday party, and I fell in love with the series immediately.

1 PAPER MARIO: THE

THOUSAND-YEAR DOOR

2 MARIO KART 8 DELUXE

What have you been playing most lately?

What’s the best thing about working in games at JB?

3 STELLAR BLADE

Helldivers 2, Minecraft, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (2023) , Halo Infinite, and Uncharted 4.

Every day feels like an adventure, as I help guide new gamers to their dream setup, suggest a list of titles to kickstart their gaming lives, and help young families get themselves set up with a new console. Seeing the looks on the kids’ faces always makes my day.

4 PRINCESS PEACH: SHOWTIME!

You can only have one games console from any era – what would it be and why?

5 SUPER MARIO BROS. WONDER

It’s got to be the Xbox 360, that was gaming in its absolute prime. Classic Halo and Call of Duty, plus Minecraft had just launched on console. So many nights that I was up till all hours playing with my mates and having the time of our lives. It had the best controller for the era, the best collection of games, and Xbox Live was at its peak, too.

6 HOGWARTS LEGACY

What’s your earliest video gaming memory?

7 GRAND THEFT AUTO V

I remember playing a handheld version of Pac-Man in the basement at my grandparents’ place.

8 MINECRAFT

o

m

n

t

9 EA SPORTS FC 24

s

h

i

While Nintendo’s Wii U was deemed a relative failure when it came to console sales, it was a hotbed for great games that would find new life on its successor, the Nintendo Switch. None have been more successful than Mario Kart 8 , which is still going strong ten years on.

Y 10

h

10 NBA 2K24

T

O

E

G

A

A

R

S

1 What was the first game that you played? The first games I remember playing were Psycho World and Hyde Force on the MSX. They were both by Hertz, and their intense intros and fantastic music had a huge impact on shaping my view of games. 2 What was the last game that you finished? It’s Like a Dragon 8 [aka Infinite Wealth ]. I’m a huge fan of the Like a Dragon series, especially the eighth instalment, which I’ve played for over 200 hours. I think it’s because it’s a story that I can’t create myself, so I’m particularly fascinated by it. It’s a very good game, and it’s a very pleasant game, and I hope more people will play it. 3 What’s your favourite video game/series of all time? Yoko Taro’s NieR series, the Final Fantasy series, the Like a Dragon series, God of War, Bayonetta, and the Tekken series are the games that come to mind right now. In fact, there are so many that it’s difficult to answer! 4 What do you think is the most underrated video game of all time? I think it’s the Like a Dragon series and the Bayonetta series, both of which have received good reviews, but I think they deserve to be played by an even wider audience. 5 What’s the game that you most wish you’d worked on? I’m a huge fan of Platinum Games’ work, so I’ve always wanted to be involved in the design of the NieR series or the Bayonetta series. It’s always exciting to think about how I would interpret those characters.

HYUNG TAE KIM

Director and art director on Stellar Blade at Shift Up.

36 JUNE 2024

jbhifi.com.au