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GAMING FEATURE

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What’s your earliest video gaming memory?

Being presented with Pokémon Yellow and a Game Boy Color one Christmas morning. I don’t think I spoke another word for the rest of the day!

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AUGUST

What’s your all-time favourite game or game series?

Final Fantasy XII . The series at large varies hugely in quality, but XII creates a sense of exploring an immensely detailed corner of an even larger world of wonder. Top it off with one of the best scripts and some of the best voice acting in games, and you’ve got a game I could spend 100 hours on a new playthrough at the drop of a hat.

1 LUIGI’S MANSION 2 HD

’ s ROVING REPORTER

2 MARIO KART 8 DELUXE

3 HOGWARTS LEGACY

What have you been playing most lately?

4 EA SPORTS FC 24

Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous has been hooking me lately. It’s a ridiculously huge top down PC RPG, with far too much maths, but the developers have created a sense of reactivity in the narrative which is frankly absurd to even consider, much less experience.

BEN MINARELLI @ JB Brunswick,VIC

5 SUPER MARIO BROS. WONDER

6 MINECRAFT

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

You can only have one games console from any era – what would it be and why?

7 NINTENDO SWITCH SPORTS

I love many parts of my job, but the best part is always helping someone with their first console or PC setup. Handing them a fistful of terrific games and knowing just how much fun they’re in for is genuinely terrific every time.

PS2. FFX and XII , Metal Gear Solid 2 and 3, Kingdom Hearts , Shadow of the Colossus ... the list of absolute favourites of mine from that era is out the door.

8 NBA 2K24

9 ANIMAL CROSSING: NEW HORIZONS

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At first disillusioned by, but then encouraged by, bad reviews for a family-friendly game that he’d made, Scott Cawthon intentionally created something scary in Five Nights at Freddy’s . It worked, becoming a franchise with more than a dozen games, a dedicated fanbase, and even a very successful Hollywood movie.

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10 PAPER MARIO: THE

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1 What was the first game that you played? Probably Tetris on Game Boy. 2 What was the last game that you finished? Cocoon . 3 What’s your favourite video game/series of all time? I found both games in the Ori series ( Ori and the Blind Forest and Ori and the Will of the Wisps ) were incredibly fun and stunningly gorgeous. 4 What do you think is the most underrated video game of all time? I don’t know if underrated is the right word, but I really enjoyed and spent a lot of time playing Burnout Paradise. 5 What’s the game that you most wish you’d worked on? Ori and the Will of the Wisps .

Game director on TopSpin 2K25 at Hangar 13 REMI ERCOLANI

Ori

22 AUGUST 2024

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