STACK #209 Mar 2022

GAMING FEATURE

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STACK’s ROVING REPORTER

What’s your all-time favourite game series?

BEST SELLERS at

God of War, whether it’s the original trilogy (and PSP/PS3 offshoots), or the franchise reboot in 2018. I’ve played them all, I’ve read the comic series’ and I’ve loved every gory hack and slash, axe-throwing minute.

FEBRUARY 2022

1 HORIZON FORBIDDEN WEST

TYLER JONES @ JB Hi-Fi World Square, NSW

2 POKÉMON LEGENDS: ARCEUS

What have you been playing lately?

3 DYING LIGHT 2: STAY HUMAN

The Skate series of games, I thoroughly enjoy the unique control system that no other copycat game has gotten quite right, and honestly that’s what has kept me coming back. I’ve replayed Skate 3 more times than I can remember, because it’s the perfect combination of genuine fun getting just the right combo and stick movement to pull off the right trick, and pure goofy slapstick comedy as you bail off your board and sail through the air in a flying kick pose from 100 metres up a building, right into an NPC’s face!

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

4 ELDEN RING

5 MARIO KART 8 DELUXE

Genuinely getting to chat with customers who are as passionate about games and tech as I am, whether it’s talking someone just getting into PC gaming through choices of keyboard switches, or nerding out with a customer about each other’s flight simulator setups.

6 MARIO PARTY SUPERSTARS

7 GRAND THEFT AUTO: THE TRILOGY

8 JUST DANCE 2022

What’s your earliest video gaming memory?

What would be your desert island console?

9 ANIMAL CROSSING: NEW HORIZONS

That would definitely be playing Mario Kart 64 with my two older sisters, sliding through Rainbow Road, cheating at the Wario course, and shooting red shells at them on the odd occasion they would actually play versus me in the battle mode. Also yanking out the cartridge ever so occasionally right before I lost…

The Xbox Series X, hands down. With the sheer number of games that you can play on it because of Microsoft’s backwards compatibility program I honestly think I could play for the rest of my, if I’m stranded on an island probably very short, life and never play the same game twice.

10 THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: BREATH OF THE WILD

1992

GAME CHANGERS! A YEAR IN GAMING With new hardware out and about it was time for some market consolidation in 1992, not that exciting things didn’t happen. As Street Fighter II went for world domination, SEGA released new hardware, and Nintendo were very, very much still in the race…

Nintendo didn’t know it at the time, but they basically created a monster when they unleashed Super Mario Kart on the Super Nintendo. Using the console’s incredible-for-the-time “3D” graphics, this Mushroom Kingdom racer saw the player control a sprite in the middle of the screen that stayed pretty much still as various worlds whizzed about it, but what worlds – and what control! Ensuing years saw innumerable sequels and imitators, but arguably none have delivered the precision – and fun – of the OG.

It took its sweet time getting here, but on July 3 Aussies could finally get their hands on an official localised Super Nintendo (rather than going to the hassle of importing and converting power and video). Best of all, we received the same design as Japan’s Super Famicom, just with the adjusted name, rather than the unusual boxy grey and lilac number that the US received almost a year earlier. With Super Mario World available right at launch it was an instant best-seller, despite the jump that

In a continued initiative to innovate (and compete with NEC’s PC Engine), SEGA unleashed their Mega-CD add-on for their Mega Drive. Designed to sit neatly underneath the console and harness the huge storage capability of a compact disc compared to a ROM cartridge, the system also beefed up the Mega Drive’s capabilities with a faster CPU and extra whizz-bang graphical oomph. While some games tried something new, many were just ROM games with cutscenes, and the peripheral only found a hardcore audience.

the Mega Drive had on it locally.

MARCH 2022

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