Maa Gamer

  Here we have the 3 rd Generation of Pokémon Games for the Nintendo handheld console. Sapphire and Ruby. Not a great deal has changed since the first generation and nor will it for the next six. The game consists of you skuttling around a made-up Japanese island hunting creatures into servitude. The poor beings follow you on a long excursion of frequent and arduous battles with other trainers. Eventually culminating in your crowning as Pokémon master of masters of the universe! or some such. The game is a heavily disguised version of more traditional Role-Playing Games. Rather than fighting yourself though, you thrust your hapless creatures in the role of ready cannon fodder. Carefully selecting moves against opponent types in an overly complex version of rock, paper scissors. Your minions evolve, change (sometimes unrecognisably from before) and learn completely new moves. The evolution of these little buddies is quite satisfying, and you soon become quite attached to a few of t...

Having worked through a few retro video games lately I thought I'd try one of the earliest I could find. Similar in play to something like Final Fantasy Tactics on the Game Boy Advanced, Chess is a deep game, easy enough to pick up but becomes brain hemorrhagingly complex very quickly. Oddly for games of this period it's multiplayer only, similar to say Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 with no single player mode. You actually have to have friends to play this and, much like the Game Boy Advanced, they must be sat in front in of you. Mercifully, batteries and link cables are not required which could explain some of its popularity. Chess has evolved a rich tournament following too and global competitions are held regularly, accumulating five times the viewers of the League of Legends World Championships. The game does have its draw backs. It’s very easy for novices to get into a none winnable situation, two pieces following each other round the board until someone nods off. A little of ...