• BigSkyCola #1: Birth of a Design Log

    ...I started writing for GameCola, where clearing lines is impossible because the matrix doesn’t exist. There’s a plain, open field, and Tetriminos (the various blocks in Tetris) drop endlessly from...

  • Top of the Heap: Sports Games in Which You Kill People

    ...the final score. If, however, you were to replace footballs with hand grenades, baseball bats with sawed-off shotguns and cover Soldier Field with landmines, then you’d have yourself at least...

  • [NSFW] Virtual Hydlide (SAT)

    ...sing along: “I would do anything for love, but I won’t…do…that!“ You begin in a field that has been randomly generated with trees (that you can walk directly through) and…well,...

  • Great Moments in Gaming #11

    ...mind’s eye to fill in a huge amount of detail. You are standing in an open field west of a white house, with a boarded front door. Between the blazing...

  • Shadow of the Colossus (PS2)

    ...than any other title I can think of. As you ride across fields, wastelands, and through forests, you can’t help but feel a sense of solitude. At times, it almost...

  • What the Crap? Super Mario Bros.

    ...weird to me. The Marios could get some serious air time, hang there for a bit, and then Earth’s gravitational field seems to go in to overdrive and hurl them...

  • Halo 2 (MXB)

    ...of the “leveling the playing field” that Bungie did with Halo 2. Unfortunately, I was that one friend that dominated the playing field with the Ghost, but I do appreciate...

  • RoboWarrior (NES)

    ...that Bomberman has always (at least, in the older incarnations) been restricted to a single screen for the playing field, until the next level where the obstacles change. RoboWarrior is...

  • Final Fantasy III (SNES)

    ...character in your party is seen on screen through a three-quarters perspective on the field map and in towns. Here you interact with townsfolk, shop for items, or navigate dungeons....

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    It’s a Different Kind of Gaming

    ...equal playing field. And since I did grow up with a Nintendo and a Super Nintendo (my sister owned one while I owned the other), I think I am definitely...