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THIS MONTH at

GAMING FEATURE

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STACK’s ROVING REPORTER

What’s your all-time favourite game series?

BEST SELLERS at

There are so many, but Myth: The Fallen Lords from the guys that made Halo , Bungie, and it has to be the Warcraft series, too. I was there on version one of DotA as a custom map in Warcraft III . So many hours playing this game in LAN cafes with friends as a teenager!

JUNE 2022

BODEAN BAXTER @ JB Hi-Fi Casuarina, NT

1 NINTENDO SWITCH SPORTS

What have you been playing lately?

2 MARIO KART 8 DELUXE

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

It sounds naughty, but a little indie game called RimWorld . It’s a colony builder manager in which you can do anything you like – be a cannibal, grow and sell drugs or just make a muffalo farm and sell wool and milk. I’ve been trying to make everyone cyborgs and it’s going well. There are also infinity mods, so you can always find something new to do.

3 MARIO STRIKERS:

The people you meet, the friends you make and the excited children you serve while not busting the bank of mum and dad. Plus the joy of someone getting a new console.

BATTLE LEAGUE FOOTBALL

4 FIFA 22

5 LEGO STAR WARS:

What’s your earliest video gaming memory?

THE SKYWALKER SAGA

What would be your desert island console?

Lemmings and the first Prince of Persia on the good ol’ Mac. And, now that I think about it, my grandmother got me an original Game Boy from Egypt just when they came out, I was blown away.

6 THE QUARRY

A Nintendo DSi XL with a solar panel for unlimited gameplay, a version of Pokémon, and GTA: Chinatown Wars . Fun times!

7 BATTLEFIELD 2042

8 KIRBY AND THE

Sonic the Hedgehog - Werehog Pop! Vinyl

MERCH MONTH of the

FORGOTTEN LAND

9 ANIMAL CROSSING: NEW HORIZONS

10 POKÉMON LEGENDS: ARCEUS

Crash Bandicoot - Crash with Aku Aku Mask Pop! Cover

Diablo 2 - Dark Wanderer Glow Pop! Cover

1996

GAME CHANGERS! A YEAR IN GAMING Another now classic Nintendo console was born, as were not only several game franchises that would prove to endure to this day, but also a whole genre of game that would briefly take over the world in years to come…

A Japanese PlayStation game with a wafer-thin cartoon dog rapper may not have seemed like a big deal at the time, however PaRappa the Rapper , created by music producer Masaya Matsuura

Nintendo’s successor to the 16-bit Super Nintendo jumped its 32-bit rivals and went for the full 64-bit experience, with their new system created in cahoots with Silicon Graphics. Initially known as Project Reality, then Ultra 64, by release time in Japan and the US it became known simply as the Nintendo 64. Australians had to wait until March 1997 for the console to arrive, but that meant more games at launch, with 3D platformer Super Mario 64 wowing the world and delivering the template for pretty much every similar game idea to follow. We’re still not convinced about that controller though…

1996 was definitely one of the greatest years for the introduction of new IPs that would be lauded by reviewers and players alike, and go on to spawn many sequels. Franchises from that mega year that are still very much alive and kicking today are Capcom’s Resident Evil (born as Biohazard in its native Japan), Tomb Raider from Eidos, and Dead or Alive fromTecmo – all of which have spawned movies. Then there’s Naughty Dog’s Crash Bandicoot – who’d have guessed how critical to PlayStation’s ongoing success his makers would become?

with art by Rodney Greenblat, would prove to be quite revolutionary. While music games had come before it, this is considered ground zero for the true rhythm game, with players initially tasked with stabbing buttons in time with the music so that our titular hero doesn’t get flunked out by his teacher. Sound familiar? Yep, but we’d have to wait a few more years for Guitar Hero and Rock Band …

26 JULY 2022

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