STACK #208 Feb 2022

FEATURE GAMING

STACK’s ROVING REPORTER

What’s your all-time favourite game series?

BEST SELLERS at

The Last of Us, as I feel as though the storytelling (in terms of Ellie and Lev) has a very strong and prominent message that deserves to be told. Not to mention the top tier

JANUARY 2022

RACHEL DI GIGLIO @ JB Hi-Fi Penrith, NSW

1 POKÉMON LEGENDS: ARCEUS

gameplay that the game has to offer. A+, 10/10!

2 MARIO KART 8 DELUXE

3 CALL OF DUTY: VANGUARD

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

What have you been playing lately?

4 ANIMAL CROSSING: NEW HORIZONS

The absolutely BEST thing about working in games at JB is being able to talk for 38 hours a week about games! Talking with customers about games and finding rare gems that I would NEVER have been able to find on my own is such a special thing, and I don’t think I’d be able to experience this any other way than working in the games department.

I’ve recently gotten back into Animal Crossing: New Horizons – there’s just something about disconnecting from the real world and taking care of your own island for hours at a time. I also can’t disappoint my favourite villagers, Fuchsia and Bones, by leaving them on their own for months on end again (I learned that the hard way!)

5 POKÉMON BRILLIANT DIAMOND

6 CRICKET 22

7 FIFA 22

What would be your desert island console?

What’s your earliest video gaming memory?

8 RAINBOWSIX EXTRACTION

Definitely the Nintendo Switch! It has so much to offer and there’s no way I could go past Animal Crossing, Pokémon and Zelda in my time of need while waiting for Orville and Wilbur from DAL to come and save me. They’re definitely my comfort games, and I feel like there would be a lot of anxiety if I was by myself on a desert island.

I remember visiting my dad’s house on the weekend and playing Pokémon Stadium on the Nintendo 64 with my sister until our thumbs hurt! I’d avoid the ‘Clefairy Says’ minigame like the plague, as if I could remember all those arrows when I was six! Give me ‘Magikarp’s Splash’ or ‘Ekans’ Hoop Hurl’ any day!

9 JUST DANCE 2022

10 SUPER SMASH BROS. ULTIMATE

GAME CHANGERS! A YEAR IN GAMING It was a big year in gaming history, with the arrival of a rival for Mario, one of the biggest and most influential arcade games of all time launching, and a milestone in game design hitting that would go on to influence many a game to come… 1991

By 1991, fighting games were nothing new, yet Capcom managed to completely shake up the entire genre… with a sequel! Street Fighter II: The World Warrior , to give its full title, honed many features introduced

Back in the days when it was common for one person to create an entire game, programmer and designer Éric Chahi gifted the world an experience that would have a lasting effect for decades to come. Using vector graphics for the protagonist of his sci-fi survival action adventure Another World , he created a universe unlike any that had been seen

In the “console wars” of the time, SEGA may have had the drop on nemesis Nintendo in the 16-bit stakes with their Mega Drive console, but they still lacked one important thing – a mascot that could go properly toe-to-toe with Mario, as Alex Kidd just wasn’t cutting it. Enter Sonic the Hedgehog, a hyper-speedy blue mammal- opposition’s popular plumber, launched via a game of the same name, who more than met the mascot brief. The rest, as is said, is history… with-attitude purposefully designed to take on the

in its 1987 predecessor, adding more uniquely-equipped playable characters, a challenging six-button configuration with innumerable combo moves available to those prepared to spend some time (and, of course, money) studying the game’s form and, critically, head-to-head play that pretty much saved the arcade industry at the time.

before. It was later cited as a major inspiration by everybody from the Ico developers to rock star game guy Hideo Kojima.

3