My game playing habits are based on one key principle; a very good understanding of my gaming tastes and what they involve. Put simply I know the style or type of games that I’m likely to enjoy in the future based on the knowledge of the games I’ve loved before.

Varied game tastes help to sustain the thriving gaming community that we’re all a part of. Ultimately our differences and shared passions are what bring us together or fire up discussion, to me – and many others – those agreements and disagreements help to offer new and changing perspectives on games I wouldn’t have looked twice at before.

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When I was a kid, games were rooted in the arcade tradition of trying to steal quarters from you, designed to get you to pump more money into the coin slot. The developer did not want you to win. They wanted to tease you with the possibility of victory before slamming your face into the dirt and taking more of your money.

One hit deaths, enemies on the edge of platforms, Battletoads, crippling slowdown; these were all designed to kill you. Repeatedly. And without mercy.

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"manliness (noun): Fighting a giant space centipede while entering Earth's atmosphere."

Over the last year, a new trend has gained popularity with game developers. I’m talking about new games made in the style (both graphically and in terms of gameplay) of “retro games”. On North American shores, it would seem that “Mega Man 9″ started the retro movement. However, in Japan, the country where such games originate, Konami’s “Gradius ReBirth” was released almost a month earlier.

The reverting of the Gradius franchise into an “old school” style was apparently successful enough to not only spawn “Contra ReBirth”, but also “Castlevania: The Adventure ReBirth” and “Salamander ReBirth” (according to recent ESRB ratings and filed trademarks).  Is a game intentionally made to look and play like something a decade or two old worth the ten dollar price tag? Let’s find out!

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This day isn’t about us. It is about a mutual love and respect for Sega’s final and greatest console, The Dreamcast.

On that note, I asked around within the gaming communities I am a part of to see what others remember about the console. Come along with me and enjoy “Thoughts from Around the Internet”.

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