STACK #184 Feb 2020

GAMING FEATURE

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When you get talking about games and you can relate, that’s pretty cool

I

STACK ROVING REPORTER

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perfect position as games coordinator, Renato is in his element with his customers.

yet, that will probably be after Shadow of the Tomb

Raider. ” Yes, as well as keeping up with

“Being able to share knowledge and interests is probably the best bit. When you get talking about games and you can relate, that’s pretty cool.” The game Renato finds himself talking about the most currently is one of 2019’s biggest releases. “At the moment the biggest selling game is Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order , it just walks off the shelf. I haven’t played it myself

Date ending: 29/01/20

all the latest, Renato has returned to Lara Croft’s last adventure. “At the moment I’m getting through the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare campaign and playing a bit of multiplayer as well. FIFA 20 is always one that I play as well, and I’m going back and doing the DLC for Shadow of the Tomb Raider. ” As for what he’s most looking forward to, we barely finished the question before Renato blurted out “ The Last of Us Part II .” He’s not alone there! Renato was just as decisive when we asked his favourite game character of all time. “Scorpion from Mortal Kombat . I just love the backstory and everything, and just all the different types of the non-canonical versions where his history changes, and his rivalry with Bi-Han –

SHOP TALK

1 call of duty: black ops 4 (PS4/xbo) 2 DRAGON BALL Z KAKAROT (PS4/xbo) 3 MARIO KART 8 DELUXE (SWITCH) 4 POKéMON SWORD (SWITCH) 5 super smash bros. ultimate (switch) 6 LUIGIS MANSION 3 (switch) 7 STAR WARS JEDI FALLEN ORDER (PS4/xbo) 8 The legend of zelda (switch) 9 FIFA 20 (PS4/xbo) 10 POKEMON SHIELD (switch) boffins) for not combining the two systems and beating Nintendo’s Switch to the punch by several years with a true portable/TV connected hybrid console… Games Released In FEBRUARY Dragon Quest III (1988) Pokémon Red & Blue (1996) The Sims (2005) Devil May Cry 4 (2008) Crysis 3 (2013) For Honor (2017)

“I ’ve always gamed, my whole life,” Renato Puda of JB Broadmeadows in Victoria tells us. “My first console was the SEGA Mega Drive. I never had a Nintendo, but I always loved playing Pokémon Stadium and Goldeneye at my friend’s house. Then the next console was a PlayStation One, then PS2, PS3, PS4… I’ve always been a Sony PlayStation person.” That works out well, as Renato tells us that his is definitely a PlayStation store. He’s been at the same JB for over six years, having started there in November 2013. “I originally started on the counter as a Christmas casual, then worked my way over to DVDs, then I became dual coordinator for DVDs and CDs, and then switched over to games coordinator in February 2018, I think it was.” Now that he’s found his

Renato Puda of JB Broadmeadows,Victoria, in the wild with a couple of PlayStation classics

the original Sub-Zero before the younger brother took over. I just love all of that.”

FEBRUARY

A little slice of gaming history…

1986: Horrific disasters abounded, as Chernobyl melted down and the Space Shuttle Challenger blew up. Halley’s Comet came for a rare visit, and Australia was flavour of

While that device has faded into history, the same-day launch game for it certainly hasn’t – it was The Legend of Zelda . While it was a disk-only title in Japan up

manufacturers, of course. Jumping forward to 2012 we saw a video gaming rival that they didn’t have back in the 1980s, Sony, release the successor to their PlayStation Portable, or PSP, on February 23. It was the PS Vita, a stunning slice of technology that featured a

until 1994, outside of its homeland we were lucky enough to be able to play it on cartridge – even if we did have to wait until

the month in the USA after the release of Paul Hogan’s movie Crocodile Dundee . In Japan, the first Studio Ghibli animated film, Laputa: Castle in the Sky, was released – and it wasn’t the only Japanese first that year that would change pop culture forever. February 21 saw the release of Nintendo’s Famicom Disk System add-on for their home console that we knew here as the Nintendo Entertainment System.

crystal-clear OLED screen and offered full portability for powerful on-the-go gaming. A year later,

late 1987 for the pleasure. The game’s protagonist, Link, is now one of gaming’s most recognised characters and, of course, he continues to delight to this day on Nintendo’s latest hardware, the Switch. Ah, but the Big N aren’t the only Japanese hardware

a screen-free version known as PlayStation TV was released in Japan (it was another year later here). We can’t help but wonder how many Sony bean counters have kicked themselves (and their

5 years since the release of the remastered Zombie Army Trilogy

6.5 million copies of the first The Legend of Zelda title released in 1986

19 Tomb Raider games released across multiple platforms

6 years that the Nintendo 64 was in production for

25 metres of structure that Donkey Kong has to scale on each level in Donkey Kong

64 FEBRUARY 2020

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