STACK #198 Apr 2021

GAMING FEATURE

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What’s your all-time favourite game series?

MARCH 2021

Looking back, I feel like it would have to be the original Mass Effect trilogy from BioWare. The way they make you care so much about the characters is unlike anything else I’ve experienced in a game. At one point in the second game, I was brought to tears and had to stop playing for a few months after a particular love interest of my character died. I’m not talking just teary eyes too; I mean like face down in my pillow sobbing uncontrollably! I’m not making myself seem very cool here am I?

1 SUPER MARIO 3D WORLD + BOWSER’S FURY

CLOUDE BLAK @ JB Hi-Fi Plenty Valley, VIC

2 MONSTER HUNTER RISE

3 MARIO KART 8 DELUXE

4 CRASH BANDICOOT 4: IT’S ABOUT TIME

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

5 CALL OF DUTY:

I love being a part of the laid back and fun culture that’s unique to JB Hi Fi. Working in the games department means working alongside a team of dedicated and passionate workmates, and working with products I love!

What have you been playing lately?

BLACK OPS COLD WAR

At the moment I’m playing Assassin’s Creed Valhalla . The world is so shockingly beautiful and I’ve already taken countless in-game photos.

6 ASSASSIN’S CREED VALHALLA

7 JUST DANCE 2021

What’s your earliest video gaming memory?

What would be your desert island console?

8 MINECRAFT

I remember playing a Sesame Street game on our home computer. You had to decorate different scenes with stickers, and because of hardware limitations you could only put down a very limited amount. I remember angrily hammering the mouse button to the error response from Elmo, saying ‘Whoops! Too many stickers!’ over and over and over!

9 ANIMAL CROSSING: NEW HORIZONS

This is always the hardest question to answer, but I think the PS5 would have to be my favourite console. I love the exclusive games, how well it runs, and the amazing controller. As long as I have this, I don’t think I’ll ever feel like I’m missing out on anything I want to play.

10 SUPER MARIO 3D ALL-STARS

GAME CHANGERS! A YEAR IN GAMING The arcade industry went from strength to strength, not only in the volume of games released and the staggering quantity of coins that they raked in, but also in technological advances. Several now classic franchises were born, as was a very special plumber… T o think, one of the most enduring game series of all I n 1981, computers weren’t seen as something that anybody could hook up at home and get busy with – well, not until Commodore released their VIC-20.

1981

T here likely wasn’t a bigger year for sheer creativity in the

arcade game space than 1981 – and space figured prominently. Defender and Scramble both introduced us to side- scrolling shoot ’em ups, and Tempest and Qix were set somewhere that we assumed was space, while Galaxian upgrade Galaga became a genuine classic. Meanwhile, closer to Earth, critters gave us all the fun of Frogger and Centipede .

time started as a way to clear out a bunch of unsold arcade cabinets! That was the story behind

Marketed as “the friendly computer”, it provided colour (eight of them!) and the fairly easily programmable language of BASIC. You could make your own games, or buy them pre-made on handy cartridges or finicky tapes. It was the first computer to break the million-unit sales mark, and the catalyst for many careers.

Donkey Kong , which not only gave us one of our first ever platform game experiences, but also spawned two of Nintendo’s most enduring characters in the titular ape and a little bloke named Jumpman who, of course, was later rechristened Mario.

66 APRIL 2021

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