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.

In-game, we’re making hundreds, maybe even thousands of tiny, instant decisions, but before we can start enjoying a game providing entertainment or mental challenge, we have a much broader decision to make about whether a game is right for us.

Developing a gaming sense of self

We frequently talk about casual and hardcore gamers in this community. I’m not fond of either term, but I think anyone that plays games more often than not is more discerning – far more aware of what they enjoy, making frequent yet informed decisions about their gaming wants and needs. Gaming preferences establish our gaming identity; how we’re perceived by others, our eclectic choice of favorite games are the making of us, establishing who we communicate with, and what games we play and talk about with others.

As with food, a particular palette for certain games is something that develops and changes with age. We find ourselves developing the patience for games we’d never have considered as children. Similarly, we find ourselves returning to genres or series that we played when we were younger, and a lifelong love of gaming can start by finding the first genre or platform you click with. Those tastes may not always move with us into adulthood, but the fond memories of playing something enjoyable are lifelong memories akin to a favorite album or movie summing up a period of our lives.

This idea of “game fondness” is buoyed up by a long list of recent re-imagining of childhood classics. Developers and designers now attempt (for better or worse) to tap into that sense of nostalgia and familiarity and release something new which balances the desires of the child gamer within us with our more mature gaming tastes.

One thing that never changes regardless of age is the feeling of anticipation for a game we’re waiting to be released. Often the game we’re waiting for contains the right mix of features of games we’ve played before, but it something that essentially plays like no other. The mixture of all the components enjoyed in previously familiar games, but tweaked enough to improve the format. Ultimately, this is how support for a new IP can gather momentum through a combination of word of mouth and game familiarity. A successful game pitches itself to those with a clear sense of gaming self and encourages them to spread the word to others they know that might be inclined to play with them.

Social circles in the gaming community

We’re all wired differently and this is what makes the difference between someone who enjoys First Person Shooters, Shmups, Rhythm Action Games or someone who enjoys all three that much more interesting. I don’t just see gaming as a lifestyle choice or even a pastime, I find myself thriving among a community of others, and this variety doesn’t lead to a quiet existence or even a solitary one as often thought; it’s a deeply social atmosphere held together by our fundamental differences and agreements about what we enjoy.

Having a clear idea of the games you like means that you are seldom disappointed. The merest glimpse at a games story, developer, genre or gameplay is enough to tick the boxes of your mental list of requirements. We all have different means of establishing a game’s merit, and as we get more and more comfortable with our own gaming preferences we get a clearer idea about who to share each gaming experience with.

The downside to a well defined gaming taste is that it’s often difficult to explore new games if you don’t have previous experience with a particular aspect of them. This is where collaborative games recommendation becomes more important. A customized recommendation from a friend or someone you trust based on your gaming taste is worth more than even the most elaborate review.

As gamers, we often want to tap back into the great feelings that our most appreciated games provide us with. As such, it’s in the best interest of the gaming community for developers to keep striving for the widest of goals; to create a varied catalog of memorable, or even disposable games that suit each mood, each snatched moment of time, every happy niche.

Gaming wouldn’t be the same without those feelings of nostalgia or future need, and it wouldn’t be expanding at the rate it is without the growing appetite for games that create that desperately happy (yet universal) feeling of anticipation. There is after all, no greater wait than the one for the game that was made for you.

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.

Games from the old school era are ludicrously difficult compared to most modern games. For a fun little test, I offered a prize to any kid that could beat the first level of Super Ghouls ‘n Ghosts. Dozens of kids took their shot. That prize remains unclaimed. Many complained that the game was unfair. Others didn’t understand why the game was so mean. I don’t want to sound like the old man who doesn’t like kids on his lawn, but kids today were brought up when the center of the gaming universe had shifted from the arcade to the console.

With this shift, developers were no longer in the business of getting you to pump in more quarters. The business model had shifted and the design philosophy shifted with it. Developers began looking to movies for their inspiration. They have a story to tell and they actually want you to see it. Do you think Blaster Master cared if you were reunited with your pet frog? You were lucky to have that cheeseburger with the President in Bad Dudes. More often than not, your reward for surviving incredibly cheap enemies and unfairly placed spike pits was a single screen with the message, “A winner is you! Game Over. Would you like to Play Again?” If you think the ending of Halo 2 sucked, try beating Karnov and seeing, “Congratulations!! The End.”

Even cutesy looking games like Little Nemo would slam your face into the ground repeatedly. It was as if no one understood how to make games for kids that didn’t feature death around every turn. Kids’ games from yesteryear are often tougher than a lot of grown up modern games. It’s a little embarrassing when Chip and Dale’s Rescue Rangers are pummeling your platforming skills into a fine powder that the first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game snorts right up.

These days, developers are not nearly as cruel. For the most part, they want you to win. However, there are still difficult games out there: the Call of Duty series on veteran, Ninja Gaiden, Devil May Cry 3, and God of War 2 on Titan. These games bring the pain like Method Man (youtube it), they can be controller throwingly difficult, and if throwingly wasn’t already a word, it is now.

I have gotten so frustrated at the cheating, Nazi sharpshooters in Call of Duty World at War that I have literally punched myself. Hard. This self flagellation is made all the worse by the fact that I chose this level of difficulty, I had to be a macho idiot, and instead of enjoying my game, I hate every second I spend getting shot in the face from a mile away. My only fun with these unbelievably tough games comes from victory.

There are still tough games out there, but the overall level of difficulty has taken a plunge. The average modern game is much, much easier than just about any old school game. Most kids just rock through their games on easy and never know the punishment that we old timers were subjected to. On the other hand, they don’t get that glorious feeling that only comes from defeating a ridiculously unfair boss battle. They won’t have the searing memories of making it to the end of Super Ghouls ‘n Ghosts and being told, “Hey, go back to the beginning and start all over so we can pad the length of this game a bit.”

In the end, it is probably better now that developers let us choose if we want to get our faces annihilated or if we want to walk through the park picking daisies.

"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!

"Looks like this RoboMan was more of a NoboMan!"

The first thing you will see in Contra ReBirth is the opening cinematic which tells the story through still-frame drawings with text underneath. The intro itself is enough to make you feel as though you’ve traveled back to gaming’s past. Not only is the aesthetic intentionally dated, the actual story being told is hilariously nonsensical and filled with border-line “engrish“. I can only hope that the cutscenes are intended to be bad and not seriously trying to tell a story. Regardless, the results are highly amusing.

The basic gameplay in Contra ReBirth is the same tried and true, run and gun gameplay that you would expect from the series. You’ll start off by choosing one of the two starting heroes: Bill Rizer and Genbei Yagyu. Neither of the two characters seem to have any difference as far as gameplay is concerned (as far as I could tell, anyway). There are, however, two unlockable characters whose size (one bigger and one smaller than Bill and Genbei) actually seem to affect how easily you can be hit.

I didn’t come across any new weapons while playing Contra ReBirth. In fact, there are even less types than normal. The only weapons I came across during my entire playthrough were Spread Shot, Homing Missile, and Laser. This was a bit surprising and actually felt like a step backwards, even from the early entries in the series.

"Missiles are no match for muscles."

Thankfully, the two weapon slots introduced in Contra III: The Alien Wars have been implemented in Contra ReBirth. You can switch which slot is in use at any time by pressing the assigned button. This allows you to save different weapons for different situations and even switch to slot a with a less important gun if you feel that death is imminent.

One of Contra ReBirth’s strengths is found in its level design. Starting things out with a bang, the first level puts you in a spaceship fighting aliens, and ends with a two-form boss battle. The battle starts with a giant mouth cracking the glass of the window behind you. After defeating it, you will ride the wreckage of the exploded ship down to the surface of the planet while fighting a giant space centipede. Once it’s defeated, the next stage will take place on the ground below. It’s these transitions that help give the level progression an added sense of coherency.

Anybody who has played Contra 4 on the DS knows that it is crazy hard, even for a Contra game. Contra ReBirth is still “Contra Hard”, but definitely not “Contra 4 Hard”. In fact, Contra ReBirth has unlimited continues. This, coupled with more lenient checkpoints, contributed to me actually beating the game (playing co-op with Jonah) in my first sitting (excluding my brief experience with it at PAX). Though I played on the Normal setting, the game also features Easy, Hard, and Nightmare (assuming you have already finished Hard mode).

Overall, Contra ReBirth is a fun little game, especially if you have somebody to play co-op with. Unfortunately, it’s a bit short (five stages) and doesn’t live up to the fantastic standard set by Contra 4. What ReBirth will get you, though, is the ability to play a new Contra game cooperatively on your T.V. at half the cost of one of the two required cartridges it would take to play Contra 4. That and the fact that, if you can beat the final boss, you will be able to see the heroes get picked up by a helicopter… ON THE MOON!

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”.

“The thing I remember most about the Dreamcast was the launch, because I had just started working at my local Babbage’s (they’re all GameStops now, I believe). I’ve never experienced a more exciting launch than when I got to be the guy handing out the consoles to the waiting fans.

I remember on Sept. 10, work was slow at Babbage’s, because every employing was carrying their newborn Chao around in their VMU.

Nothing earth-shattering, I know. But when I think of the Dreamcast, that’s the memory that springs to mind. Happy times.”

-Justin McElroy, Joystiq.com

“I was living in my first apartment away from home and trying to get into the routine of eating right, managing my money, and getting good sleep for my the job.

My roomate was working as manager for Game Crazy at the time and when Tony Hawk came out it ruined any responsible plans I had made. My entire existence for the next month was dedicated to playing, watching, and talking about this game anyway I could.

I remember it as one of the few times I was completely obsessed about a game to the point of unhealthiness! Dreamcast was new then, exciting, and I for one really liked the console design and feel. A fun, fun time in gaming for my friends and I.”

-Kyle Stevens, Kirby Krackle

“I remember the Dreamcast came out on a Thursday. I was living with my buddy Matt in Seattle at the time. He pre-ordered a DC and on the Thursday it came out, we both called in sick to work.

We headed down to EB Games, he bought the DC and Soul Caliber, I bought a controller and Power Stone. We went back to our place, hooked it up, and proceeded to spend the rest of the day playing those two games, ordering in pizza and drinking beer and having a great time. That’s my fondest memory of the Dreamcast!”

-Jim Demonakos, Emerald City ComiCon

“I was so excited about the Dreamcast, maybe more than any other console launch up to that point. Things were looking truly next gen, and it looked like this would be the big comeback we all wanted to see Sega have.

I waited in line at 4 in the morning in a mall food court outside of a Software Etc, which later became Game Stop. Got my DC, ran home, and proceeded to play Soul Calibur for roughly 3 days straight.  Took all my sick days off.

In a way, the Dreamcast represents the last real time I have really gone crazy on launch day.

Soul Calibur was soooo great at the time. Played the living crap out of that game. I played a lot of NFL 2k as well, and later became enchanted by titles like Ready to Rumble, among others. Crazy Taxi also ate a bunch of my free time.”

WD – What is your fondest memory of playing the console?  With friends/family?

“Probably the little home grown SC tournaments I’d have with friends an family. For me, that game defined the Dreamcast in kind of a Wii Sports on the Wii sort of way, but in a much cooler way.

Also, the first time I played NFL 2K with a friend over a modem was a really cool experience. There had never been anything like that on a console before and we could see the future as a result.”

-Scott Johnson, My Extra Life

“Back then I was writing for a Polish console magazine, Neo Plus. You can say I got it at launch. While I enjoyed Soul Calibur it wasn’t enough to pay for the console with my own money. The game that made me buy a DC was Crazy Taxi. It looked great and it was so awesome to perform all the crazy stunts while listening to “All I Want”.

I believe that Shen Mue was the best game on DC and one of the best ever made. You could spend long hours mastering your fighting technique, racing forklifts or just wandering around the city. Its production values were unmatched for some time as well. Oh, and I liked QTEs.

Crazy Taxi was frantically incredible, Street Fighter 3, MvC and Guilty Gears looked amazing in 2D and felt that way as well. Thanks to Virtua Tennis I learned that you can earn cash by beating other people in video games. Also, Metropolis Street Racer was the only racing game I wanted to play for a long, long time. Actually, when I was working from gog.com HQ (Warsaw, Poland) at the beginning of this year I was living at my friend’s apartment. When I found out that he had a DC I ordered used MSR and Virtua Tennis 2. Great games.

So, a friend of mine had a small store in Krakow, Poland selling video games. I was there almost every day just to hang out and play some games with the other guys. I remember that Virtua Tennis was a major hit in our community, with Street Fighter and Marvel vs Capcom following. I can’t recall any specific moment but I’m still in touch with some of the guys I met back then and we often chat about the days when gaming was something more than just sitting alone and pwning newbs.”

-Marty Kawa, games journalist turned developer and marketing guy

“Video game consoles were always a point of contention in my family- ever since i lost my Game Boy Pocket in a supermarket (along with Pokemon Red), my mother always told me that every video game system I own has to be bought with my own money- no one else’s. It was her way of instilling responsibility in me, but also put forth a sense of pride to the handhelds and consoles I bought forthwith.

I bought a replacement gameboy pocket, a gameboy color, but never owned a console of my own. I would be able to borrow a friend’s Nintendo 64 from time to time, but with the new generation of consoles on their way, my focus turned to the Dreamcast- the “It’s Thinking” commercials at the time had me in awe (seriously, look them up on youtube. They had charm.). I loved sonic, i loved Sega games in general, so a fondness grew for the system. I wanted to get one quite badly.

In the summer, my friend and I would make the trek, three miles in the hot sun to a nearby Sears with a demo station of Crazy Taxi 2 tucked away in the corner of the electronics department. We would play that game endlessly, to the point that the Sears employees would have to kick us off of the system. I vowed to my friend that I would buy a Dreamcast, to avoid the trek uphill in 100 degree weather.

I saved money. I recycled cans in my neighborhood- bags and bags of cans would be systematically cleaned and crushed to maximize the size of the trash bags before they would be stuffed into my mother’s car, to be driven to a recycling center a town or two over (i had actually called all the recycling places in town to try and find the best prices on aluminum cans). I’d do extra chores around the house, even some for neighbors for small amounts of money.

I kept as much of the money as i could, saving the money until I realized I could buy a refurbished Dreamcast from Gamestop. My mother drove me over one saturday afternoon and watched as I recieved the refurbished console, one controller, and a VMU in a non-descript white box. I held on to that box for dear life, cherishing my first real console as we got into the car. It was my new baby.

My mother paused, smiling as she saw the glee i had holding the system. “How happy are you right now?”

“Very” I replied, a sheepish grin forming on my face as i held it in my hands.

“Did you buy a game for it?” she asked as we pulled out of the parking lot and into the street.

I paused. My jaw dropped as I realized I had only enough money to buy the console and the VMU, and nothing else. My mother laughed, and drove me to Blockbuster. I ran around the aisles, finally picking out a copy of Shemnue from one of the lower shelves and running to her with a happy smile. The glee I had on my face playing that game is one I can still recall- even more so less than a month later, when my friend and I bought a copy of Crazy Taxi 2 to play together.

I still hold a soft spot for Shemnue and Crazy Taxi. To this day, that same Dreamcast works like a charm, and the joy and pride I have for the system goes a bit further than most- it was the first console I bought with my own money. I even named it- Naomi, after the arcade board it was built upon.

Naomi still has a place beside the newer generation of consoles, sitting ontop of the Wii, displaying it proudly as to show the first console I had poured my blood, sweat and tears into.”

-Daniel Orta, Team Mayhem Productions

“It was only a year ago that I first exposed myself to the majesty of the Dreamcast. I was too enamored with Nintendo around the time of the console’s release to pay attention to the praise it was drawing. Sadly, I only began experimenting with new consoles with the release of Sony’s Playstation 2 in 2000.

While visiting Chicago last November, a good friend from the area and I stopped by a retro game store. They had a Dreamcast in stock for around $30. It just so happened that I had $30 bucks so I splurged. Needless to say, I fell in love shortly after plugging it in and skating across the colorful landscape of Jet Grind Radio. Sorry for not doing that sooner Sega! I hope we can still be pals.”

-Wesley Johnson, InsulinFunk.net

For more thoughts on the console from our favorite community, the JPAG, check out this thread on their Facebook page.