QUOTE
	"The truth is games are constantly evolving, and the kids who play them are too. "

The views and opinions expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of Nintendojo as a whole or any of its affiliates.

During the course of my life, many of my preferences on the games I played had changed drastically. From the platformer, to the action/adventure, the sports genre, and finally to the rpg section. I’d say that I had played them all, learned the trade secrets, had all the info and the know-how, but then I’d just be lying. The truth is games are constantly evolving, and the kids who play them are too.

Sitting in my basement whilst typing this, for the past few minutes I’ve looked over at my NES and my NES games that are lying in this large, rather ugly brown cardboard box. I peer inside the box only to find the most sacred collection of the games that I own. The games that I grew up with, the ones that set my favorite genre’s, my favorite creators, and my favorite companies. But as the saying goes, out with the old, in with the new. So I look at the stack of N64 games I have lying on my table. Mario, Zelda, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, and the Kobe games. I look over into the cardboard box to find Mario, Zelda, Skate or Die 2, and Tecmo NBA Basketball. Yes, the same genre’s still exist, but what about the new ones? Perfect Dark has no known predecessors that lay 6 feet under the earth along with the dusty, old and gray NES. Neither does Wave Race. Whoever thought of jet-ski racing? Why, I thought racing involved only formula 1 cars, and now they bring VW Beetles into the fray? Technology has been a large factor in this. But the majority of it has to be the result of great minds at work. The game designers that, just like us, grew up on the same games we did, but in the end created a wave of new games that would please the coming generations. And just like the developers, I’ve also accustomed myself to the new games that have came out. For the most part, I still miss the old ones, but I love their new counterparts.

I’ve grown up with the classics, what can I say? But what about the kids who are starting to game now? All the young kids whose parents went out on Christmas, or Chanukah, or Eid-ul-fitr (for all you fellow Muslims out there), and bought them a Nintendo 64, they’re going to grow up playing games such as Banjo-Kazooie, Pokemon, Goldeneye and WWF 2000. Most of these kids have never heard of Kid Icarus, Metroid, Double Dragon or even Festers Quest! Albeit three out of those four were successful, they’re still names that ring a bell in any gamer atleast 14 years old. Many future generations will have never heard of the NES, SNES or the N64 even. It’s a scary thought, but it is inevitable.

It’s important that we look to the past and recognize many of the achievements made. If we totally disregarded the games back then, we wouldn’t have many quality games to look at now. Because the number of games that are successful now are usually backed by companies that have long been in the gaming industry for many years now. Nintendo, Sega, Konami, Acclaim, Namco, Square, EA, (and all the thousand companies it owns) have blockbuster hits because mainly, they’re using the franchises that they’ve built up from a while back. It wouldn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that, in fact history does repeat itself. The franchises used were the big games back in the day that built the companies to what they are now. Mario, Zelda, Donkey Kong, Sonic, Belmont Quest, Solid Snake, Contra, WWF, Namco’s Pole Position racer and their dozens of puzzles, the Final Fantasy series, and all of EA’s yearly sports games. These famous franchises have carried us through many years of gaming and should be regarded as the best games that were ever created.

Our present games are giving us a look into the future as well as a good look on the standing of the present. We look at games such as Goldeneye 007, Perfect Dark, Zelda: TOoT, WaveRace, and a slew of others as the latest achievements in hardware and software usage on any console. They push the polygon limits on N64 more than any other games on the system. All of these games are a taste of things to come, because they are truly the predecessors of the future games that we shall be playing in the future. With the constant changing of hardware and new developments in programming, game designers have the utmost freedom to think of anything they want. It’s our turn to acknowledge their ideas.

With Dolphin, PS2, Xbox, and Dreamcast being worked I must say that as a gamer, this is probably one of the most exciting times in the industry. All of the creative minds at work are going overtime into developing new concepts and new genre’s. And with so many consoles to look forward to who knows which one will reign supreme, have the best games, or the largest user-base.

On my opinion of the next-gen consoles, I have a few things I’d like to mention. Only two months from now the world will be exposed to the highly secluded Dolphin. I’ve got a hunch that we’re going to see some spectacular and dazzling sites. Although we have no known facts that what we’re about to see is groundbreaking or revolutionary, I do know for a fact that at times Nintendo, reputation-wise, comes through at times like these and crushes the competition.

Remember: Slow and steady wins the race.

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