Blog FeedA Game for All Seasons
I recently received Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin for my birthday a few days past, from a close friend of mine.
I’m not going to play it. Well… I’m not going to play it yet. Instead, I’m going to wait until the middle of the Fall season to start playing it. I’ll start playing Castlevania when the leaves begin to change from green to orange, amber, and crimson. I’m going to wait to play Castlevania until the days hours become further encroached by night’s grip. I’ll play Castlevania when the last of the year’s warm days are laced with winter’s cool winds.
A cursory glance at Wikipedia reveals that there has been a Castlevania game released almost annually for at least one of the available consoles or handhelds for the last twenty years. While I haven’t looked at every release to date, at least the last several have been released sometime in the Fall, near or on Halloween.
I’m not fool enough to think releasing a game about killing hordes of undead and eventually Dracula on or near All Hallow’s Eve is a coincidence. However, it’s release timed with the season inexorably ties the game to the season. I’ve spent a couple of nights every year sitting outside in the dusk hours playing Castlevania on the GBA/DS and it adds something intangible to the experience.
I’d like to know: what game does it for you? When you’re walking down the street and a cool Fall breeze brushes your face, are you reminded of a particular game? Is there a game that you just have to play through once a year? What’s that old game that you just have to play when someone mentions “Deus Ex?”
Let’s hear it.
24th August | Reply
Since 1995 or so, there has always been at least one game in the Civilization franchise which I get a niggling to play. Of course I would play one heaps upon first getting it, but then for the next few years I’d still go back to it every now and then. When a new sequel came out, the cycle would start over.
Of course now with Civ4 I am actually buying the expansion packs too so that is making things a bit different. I anticipate I’ll be going back to it for the odd game for quite a long time yet.
24th August | Reply
Dunno what this “fall” thing is (we have autumn over here instead…) but I probably have fondest memories of the later Castlevania games (Symphony of the Night) and Turrican series. Honestly, I’m a sucker for platform games that rewards the player for exploring rather than taking the shortest route to the end of each level.
At the moment since I uninstalled World of Warcraft I’ve actually gone back to playing StarCraft to see if I can at least finish the original game (I hear that Brood War is “Double-Hard Bastard” difficulty). I’m not sure that it really gives me a warm fuzzy feeling but I’d like to know what happened.
25th August | Reply
Quite simply: Thief. Not only still my favorites game series of all time, but when the nights become longer and it becomes easier to play many hours in the dark, I just need to play a game to fit that darkness. What better than the ultimate game of shadows?
25th August | Reply
Madden–Year in year out in August it’s time for football games and Madden has pretty much been the time for football. It’s something i’m in the mood for every year and this year’s version is really the best version they’ve had in years. Time was it was a choice between NFL 2k and Madden but unless their new series gets much better in a hurry it’ll be just Madden.
26th August | Reply
In Reply to #2:
I have yet to beat Brood War without using every cheat code available. The difficulty is simply insane.
In Reply to #3:
Hmm. Damn. You’ve made me want to reinstall Thief and actually play through it. Though, the Dark Engine game most likely to be installed on my computer is System Shock 2. DAMN YOU BIOSHOCK.
11th September | Reply
Whenever I think of Fall, I think of Resident Evil. This isn’t because of a release date, or because of the past times I played it. It’s mostly because in RE, the outbreak happens in September–most of its games are dark and rainy, sort of comforting in their own way to curl up with as the leaves turn brown and the rain hits your roof.
Good article, and I like this blog a lot.