STACK #191 Sep 2020

GAMING FEATURE

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I’ve got three Switches now – the normal Pokémon one, the Pokémon Switch Lite and the Animal Crossing one.

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Tam’s love of Nintendo started when she was a kid, and she has a great story to share about it.

the Game Boy Pocket! My eyes just bulged out of my head! So, I have that memory

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when parents are buying for their younger

Date ending: 21/08/20

SHOP TALK

“I got my first Game Boy when I was eight – the Game Boy Pocket, black and white. We were going on a trip to Port Lincoln, it was an eight- hour drive. We left at like five in the morning or something and I was still sleeping, and when I woke up Mum was like, ‘Oh Tam, check under the seat and see if something’s there’ and it was

kids, because I remember how excited I was.” When it comes to console allegiances, it isn’t all about Nintendo though… “Definitely Nintendo, and a close second would be PlayStation, because I grew up with the original PlayStation as well.” This is borne out by some of her favourite games. “I love Animal Crossing , PlayStation and The Last of Us series – that was incredible, I don’t think I’ve ever had a gaming experience like that.” Like many of us, The Last of Us Part II really had a profound effect on Tam. “Once I finished it I was kind of a bit shaken for a while, and I didn’t really want to go into anything else… I’m always playing Animal Crossing though.” hands rather than one to hold. The effort was worth it though, with a select range of slick and eminently playable arcade conversions available. While the Lynx was ace, it did have drawbacks – most notably woeful battery life and a high price. While improvements were made for the Lynx II, it just never really took off, but is valued by gaming fans today… Zooming forward to 2005, September saw Aussies able to grab a handheld newcomer in Sony’s PlayStation Portable, or PSP. A slick little device with a large colour screen, it was the cream of the crop games-wise (despite its weird obviously, and I really like The Last Guardian on the

T am Morriss, the games coordinator at JB Marion, SA, has been in the role for a couple of years now, having started out like many as a Christmas casual. “I think it’s the most fun position in the store, because the customers are only here for entertainment. I really like talking to them about different games, particularly Nintendo – all the Switch games and explaining how they all work. It’s also really fun explaining it to parents who have no idea, and having them leave with a clear understanding of everything.” It’s fair to say that Tam is quite a Switch fan – she has three of them. “I’ve got three Switches now – the normal Pokémon one, the Pokémon Switch Lite and the Animal Crossing one.” 1990: The Berlin wall comes down, the Hubble Telescope goes up, Farnesy tops the year’s album chart and Twin Peaks confounds us all (while we drank damn fine coffee). When we didn’t have a mug in our hands, as of September that year, Aussies of the gaming persuasion finally got their mitts on Nintendo’s portable Game Boy. The little grey box that swallowed four AA batteries and presented what became a huge range of games in living black and, erm, green – with no backlighting – proved a runaway success, not least of all because of the genius move of packing the world’s most addictive puzzle game, Tetris , in with every one sold. Despite its SEPTEMBER

1 UFC 4 PS4/XB1 2 PROJECT CARS 3 PS4/XB1 3 GHOST OF TSUSHIMA PS4 4 ANIMAL CROSSING: NEW HORIZONS SWITCH 5 PGA TOUR 2K21 PS4/XB1/SWITCH 6 RING FIT ADVENTURE SWITCH 7 MARIO KART 8 DELUXE SWITCH 8 THE LEGEND OF ZELDA BREATH OF THE WILD SWITCH 9 SUPER SMASH BROS. ULTIMATE SWITCH 10 JUST DANCE 2020 PS4/XB1/SWITCH

Animal Crossing fan Tam Morr… uh, Nook at JB Marion, SA.

A little slice of gaming history…

technical limitations, the device would prove to be an almost alarmingly consistent seller, right up to its replacement in 1998, the Game Boy Colour…This certainly wasn’t the world’s first colour handheld though, with Nintendo coming

UMD disc storage), but through several iterations it still failed to compete with long-standing handheld rulers Nintendo’s DS.

Galaga (1981) Ghosts ‘n Goblins (1985) The Need for Speed (1994) Silent Hill II (2001) DiRT (2007) Gears of War 3 (2011) South Park: The Stick of Truth (2018) GAMES RELEASED IN SEPTEMBER

to the party later than several competitors. Back in September 1989, not long after the original Game Boy hit Japanese stores, Atari unleashed its own handheld games machine, the Lynx. This console boasted full colour on a small, backlit screen within a large-ish console that required two

21 years since Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater was released

2 million units of Spider-Man 2 sold in the first month

16 playable classes in EverQuest

546 characters in Mass Effect 2

100,000 Pac-Man arcade cabinets produced in the first year of release

SEPTEMBER 2020

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