Morning Funk for 10/13/15: How Splatoon is Keeping Online Shooters Fresh

I’ve always been a big fan of video games. While I didn’t get a console of my own until the Gamecube at the end of its lifecycle, I’ve had access to games all my life. But in the last few years I’ve felt the gap widening between what the gaming industry seems to think I want, and what I actually want.

My biggest gripe with the current state of gaming is the disappearance of local multiplayer. Online multiplayer has made local all but extinct, and shooting games lead the charge on that, eager to abandon the split-screen displays of the past. I understand this inclination: online allows for more players, “screen cheating” is now a thing of the past, and it encourages players to be constantly plugged-in for things like updates and DLC. But I can’t help but find this trend a bit sad. No online experience has ever been able to match the feeling of wondering if the person next to me is going to punch me for that last kill. Gaming used to be more social, and more fun to me as a kid than it is now, because the industry has skewed so hard toward a solitary experience.

Because of this, I’ve largely given up on shooters. More than any other genre, shooters seem to sell the online multiplayer as the primary game mode, and I have had little interest in investing my time into taking on the steep learning curve required to be competitive enough to enjoy most of the games.

Enter Splatoon.

Morning Funk for September 16, 2015

This is your Morning Funk! Every weekday morning, this will be your place to find the top geek stories from around the internet. Today we have news from Neil Gaiman, Charlie’s Angels, Super Smash Bros. and more!

Game Review: Super Mario Maker

Title: Super Mario Maker

Game Type: Platformer Video Game

No. of Players: 1

Publisher: Nintendo

Price: MSRP $59.99

Release: September 11, 2015

Review by Matthew Funk

There’s really no point in beating around the Piranha Plant here: Super Mario Maker is one hell of a game, and I’m not the only one who thinks so. Ever since bringing the game home on Friday evening, my roommates and I have hardly been able to put it down. A level-creator unlike any other, this is a game that is somehow both infinite and infinitely accessible, providing endless challenges and laughs no matter who you are or how you want to play.

The most amazing thing about the game is how it teaches the language of the Mushroom Kingdom. Even if you aren’t a Mario expert, there’s hardly anyone who has played video games before who doesn’t know how to play through World 1-1. And with that simple sentence–the “see Spot run” of this language–as a foundation, Super Mario Maker effortlessly shows you how to make sentences into paragraphs and eventual magnum opuses of Mario magic.

Morning Funk for September 15, 2015

This is your Morning Funk! Every weekday morning, this will be your place to find the top geek stories from around the internet. Today we have news from The Jungle Book, Doctor Strange, Project Morpheus and more!

Morning Funk for September 14, 2015

This is your Morning Funk! Every weekday morning, this will be your place to find the top geek stories from around the internet. Today we have news from DC Comics, I Kill Giants, LEGO Dimensions and more!

Dream On: How Modern Developers Are Keeping the Dreamcast Vibrant

Part two of a two part look back-and forward-at one of gaming’s most cherished consoles. Click here for part one!

By Cameron Brian Saunders

In the first half of this two part series, we celebrated the North American model of the Sega Dreamcast reaching its sweet sixteen by discussing some of the things that made the system unique in its time, and how the resurrection of the Shenmue franchise is helping a new generation of fans discover the console. Today I’ll talk about why I feel like I’m still waiting to see all the Dreamcast has to offer, and show that the console has more to warrant the modern gamer’s attention than just a library full of classics.

Morning Funk for September 10, 2015

This is your Morning Funk! Every weekday morning, this will be your place to find the top geek stories from around the internet. Today we have news from Marvel Comics, AfterShock Comics, Preacher and much more!

Dream On: 14 Years After Being Discontinued, Dreamcast Refuses to Shut Down

Please welcome our second new writer this week, my good friend and co-worker, Cameron Brian Saunders! Cameron has years of experience working in various areas of nerd-dom, and has worked extremely hard on this article, celebrating his favorite console. Take it away, Cameron…

Part one of a two part look back—and forward—at one of gaming’s most cherished consoles.

By Cameron Brian Saunders

Sixteen years ago today (yep, 9/9/99), gamers lined up all across North America to get their hands on Sega’s newest and boldest console: the Dreamcast. In a way I’m still standing in that line, awaiting my genre redefining next-gen experience. But I’m getting way ahead of myself.

By September of 1999, Japanese Sega fans had already spent nine months with the console, while Europe and Australia still had about a month left to gnash their teeth in anticipation. Preceded by the Saturn, Sega CD, Genesis, and the Master System, the Dreamcast was released with a dubious promise of “up to six billion players,” and the vaguely menacing tag line, “it’s thinking.”

Sega already had a reputation for pushing the limits of their hardware, and they had gambled big on their latest release with frontier gaming technologies like online play, motion controls, and voice commands. Shoichiro Irimajiri—then president of Sega—believed the company’s previous successes were the result of similar ambitious planning, and that this new gambit would make up for the losses incurred by the Sega Saturn, a commercial flop. At one point Sega’s share of the market was roughly fifty percent, but before the release of the Dreamcast, it had fallen to nearly one percent.

This exciting and potentially groundbreaking machine would only be produced for twenty eight months. From the moment it was released, Dreamcast was destined to be Sega’s swan song.

Morning Funk for September 9, 2015

This is your Morning Funk! Every weekday morning, this will be your place to find the top geek stories from around the internet. Today we have news from Battle Chasers, Unity, The Flash and much more!