Gaming History You Should Know – The PokePark March 10, 2019

It’s Sunday, Happy Mario Day everyone! I know I should coincide today’s look at Gaming History You Should Know with something Super Mario related, but this piece of gaming trivia is too good to ignore.

Ever since Nintendo signed a deal with Universal Studios, Theme Park fans have been eagerly anticipating Pokémon coming to a theme park in some way. Very few people remember that Pokémon have previously appeared in a Theme Park of their own, because the Park only existed for a brief time. I’m talking of course about the PokéPark, which operated in Japan in 2005 and in Taiwan in 2006.

But what was the PokéPark? What could you do in it? How much did it cost? The YouTube Channel Expedition Theme Park is one of the definitive YouTube Channels I look at when researching the history of Theme Parks, rides, and attractions all over the world. I don’t know if it was because I requested it or not, but almost a week after I asked him to look into the history of the PokéPark this video was posted! Check it out.

This is a great video. Thanks again to Expedition Theme Park for letting us feature them today! If you wanted to look up information about any theme parks, whether they’re defunct or still operating, I totally recommend checking them out.

Gaming History You Should Know – Sonic the Hedgehog’s Theme Park Legacy March 3, 2019

It’s Sunday, and that means the time is right for an all new look at Gaming History You Should Know, where we highlight some of the best independently produced content about gaming history. Today, we will be looking at the work of video creator Badnik Mechanic, and his videos about the blue streak that comes seeking through, Sonic The Hedgehog!

In the early to mid-90s, SEGA dominated the gaming landscape. The SEGA Genesis console was the first commercially successful 16-Bit game console in the United States, and a big reason for the console’s success came from the console’s hit game, Sonic the Hedgehog. Sonic quickly became the Genesis console’s official mascot and a slew of new games starring the blue hedgehog would get released on a regular basis. The launch of new Sonic games quickly became major events, and SEGA held special events to celebrate their release featuring the characters they created. Over the years there have been dozens of official Sonic costumes that have been used at press events and theme parks. Badnik Mechanic painstakingly documented each and every one of those costumes, where they were used, and talked about how accurate they are.

Anyone who lived in the mid-90s knows the rest of the story. Following the success of his games, Sonic’s popularity exploded into other mediums. At least two different Sonic The Hedgehog cartoon shows were broadcasted, tons of Sonic comic books hit shelves, and I even remember some young adult Sonic novels were sold in bookstores. However, that’s not where Sonic‘s popularity stopped. A big component of Theme Parks are the attractions and shows and there have been Sonic the Hedgehog themed stage shows at various venues all over the world. This is a rare honor for a video game, as I can only think of two other game properties, Pokémon and Mortal Kombat, which had a live-action stage show. Once again, Badnik did a meticulous history of all the shows he could find, enjoy.

Sonic‘s theme park history is not limited to mere stage shows and character meet and greets. Alton Towers is one of the most popular theme parks in the U.K. and it has been the subject of many in-depth documentaries. What I didn’t know was that at one point it actually had a Sonic The Hedgehog roller coaster based on Sonic Spinball. Where I’m from, we typically name roller coasters after superheroes, so naming a coaster after the Blue Blur seems like a no-brainer. Let’s see how it happened and what it was like!

If you’d like a closer look at the Sonic The Hedgehog themed suite you could book at the Alton Towers hotel, Badnik Mechanic got a closer look at it when he stayed at the hotel a few years ago. Take a look!

Outside of the US, Sonic’s popularity branched out even further. SEGA opened a series of popular arcades in the U.K. called SEGA WORLD. The places were gaming utopias filled with SEGA arcade machines and tons of decorations featuring SEGA’s most popular characters. People from the states who grew up in the 90s would have a better time equating them to the more recent Dave & Busters arcade chain. Sadly, many of these arcades are no longer in operation, or have lost their license with SEGA. With all this hard work and high quality crafting going into creating Sonic the Hedgehog decor for these venues, do any of them still exist? Yes, at least one or two of them have been found. Here’s a video detailing the history of a rare statue found somewhere in the mountain roads of Japan.

So that is our look at the history of Sonic’s Theme Park Legacy! I want to thank Badnik Mechanic for letting me feature his work on this site. You should totally check out his videos, they’re well written, well researched, and well edited. If you ever were a fan of Sonic The Hedgehog his videos are a great trip through memory lane.

Gaming History You Should Know – No More Heroes Retrospective January 20, 2019

It’s Sunday and welcome back to Gaming History You Should Know, where we feature some of the best fan-created content from across the entire internet. On Friday, the Nintendo Switch saw the release of Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes, the third game in the No More Heroes series.

No More Heroes has been a franchise that we’ve covered in the past but haven’t been able to give an in-depth discussion as of late. The games were directed by Suda51 and follow the exploits of Travis Touchdown, a gamer who tries to become the world’s greatest assassin. The game’s themes are deeply rooted in gaming, anime, and Japanese culture and hold a special place in my heart. While the newest game has been considered by most critics and fans to be a spin-off of the original games, it does follow story and plot from the first two games in the NMH franchise.

YouTube creator GhenryPerez is a big fan of game developers like Platinum Games and Grasshopper Manufacture. He’s also a big fan of the work of Suda51, and has created an ongoing analysis series of his games, Deadly Individualism. Up to this point GhenryPerez has featured six of Suda51’s games in that series, starting with Killer7. It’s a great video series which breaks down every single character in the game, talks about their motivations, and offers some behind the scenes histories on their development. If you ever had any questions about NMH, you need to watch these videos!

Hope you enjoyed these videos while you play Travis Strikes Again. Special thanks to GhentryPerez for letting me link these videos on the site. Check him out on YouTube his videos are great! Click here if you want to watch his most recent video on Lollipop Chainsaw.

No More Heroes and No More Heroes 2 are out now exclusively on Nintendo Wii. Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes is out now exclusively for the Nintendo Switch.

Gaming History You Should Know [dot]HACK// Retrospective December 9, 2018

Last year I became obsessed with the .HACK franchise. Created in an incredible partnership between Bandai and Cyberconnect 2, .HACK was one of the first franchises I had ever seen that was designed from the start to be transmedia. At the same time the .HACK games were being released on the PlayStation 2, there was also an animated TV series that tied into different events happening at the same time of the game. The entire franchise revolves around the lives of the players of a VR MMORPG named (literally) The World.

I remembered fondly watching the initial crucial reviews for the first games in this franchise back when G4TV was in its heyday, but as a PC-only gamer at the time who didn’t own a PS2, I could never afford to purchase the original games for myself. By the time I could, their prices had exploded in the second hand market, once again bringing them out of reach.

Last year, NamcoBandai did a great thing and re-released the second (and arguably most beloved) series in the .HACK franchise, .HACK//G.U., on the PS4 and PC. The original animated series like .HACK//Sign have been re-released as DVD boxed sets. I bought up as much of it as I could. However, the original four PS2 games from the franchise were not re-released, and I was disheartened to know I would be going into a game franchise with a big gap of information.

Enter YouTuber Model, who began work on an in-depth series of .HACK// retrospectives at around the same time I was getting to learn more about the franchise’s history. His videos were incredibly paced and exceptionally well edited, with great production values all around. They have been perfect at filling in the essential gaps left out by BandiNamco’s refusal to re-release many of these classic games. Today, Model released his fourth video retrospective on .HACK// Vol 4, completing his retrospective of the original PS2 .HACK// quadrilogy. You can watch each of them below, with each video covering one of the four games in their entirety. Be aware, there will be spoilers, but my guess is if you’re watching this it’s because you want this information.

I have to admit I am grateful for one thing, the fact that much of the .HACK// franchise has been re-released over the past few years. I’ve even seen soundtrack albums available for purchase at import stores. However, there are still several original games (and one film) that never was released outside of Japan, and these four older games from the first series fetch astronomical prices on the secondhand market. I would prefer to see NamcoBandai (or BandaiNamco) re-release these four fondly remembered games (as well as everything that was previously Japan-Only) on modern systems. They still own the franchise and Cyberconnect2 clearly still has a soft spot for the franchise they created, so there is literally no reason not to.

At some point I would like to take a closer look at the franchise but this is more than enough for now! Special thanks to Model for letting us feature his videos here on the site. You can also read his Twitter here. Great work buddy! Model promises to continue his retrospective series with a look at the .HACK//G.U. games, but he expects those to take a while.

.HACK// Episodes 1-4 are out now exclusively on the PlayStation 2.