A Very Merry Newb Christmas!
To celebrate The Newb Review’s first Christmas we thought we’d put together a little seasonal article for your reading pleasure during these frosty evenings. The Newbs have gathered to give you a little insight into their own experiences and wishes with 3 festive questions. So get under a blanket or sit in front of the fireplace (not too close) with a hot cup of tea and enjoy.
1. What’s the best gaming related Christmas gift you’ve ever had? Was it because the game was awesome-tastic or did it cement the love you had for a certain lady? Tell us why it meant so much to you.
Tom01255
Christmas of 1998 was a great one for me; as I eagerly unwrapped my brand spanking new Nintendo 64. This marked my first foray into console gaming and has left a lasting impression. I was immediately hooked to gaming, whilst I had played on the Snes and Megadrive of various friends; I had never had one of my own. But with my new N64 I became king of the playground. The one game I had, the massively underrated Mischief Makers (an eccentric 2D platformer) was more than enough to keep me entertained until Smash Brothers and Zelda really monopolised my playtime.
Joefeesh
Mario Galaxy. From the start, walking down the dark streets of the mushroom kingdom towards the castle, starbits falling from the sky like an upside down fireworks display. I was taken in by the lush world that Nintendo had recreated for Mario Galaxy. The amazing gravity based platforming is like nothing else and the sheer quantity of new ideas transformed into levels still astounds me. With the starry skies and smooth, shiny textures, it was the perfect gift to get me through the holidays during one of the roughest times in my life.
Crofterz
Kung Fu. OK, so my favourite games related Christmas gift takes us way back to when I got my first ever games console (the NES). However, the console itself is not my favourite gift, it was the slew of games that came bundled with it. Duck Hunt (with the light gun), Super Mario Bros., and in particular, Kung Fu. Kung Fu is, to this day, my favourite game. Although it could now be considered extremely primitive, I still love it because I spent so many hours playing it as a child and have many fond memories.
vVv Diesel
As a kid growing up with a father who loved cars, I naturally followed suit, finding myself outside with grease under my fingernails (well, it was more fun than mud!) and watching all manner of car racing. The British Touring Car Championship was by far my favorite, and after playing the original ToCA, I was hooked. Never mind the silly cheats that allowed you to unlock, of all things, a tank; it was all about pure racing. I would play with my best friend or my dad for hours at a time. Then they announced ToCA 2. Well, obviously I drove my mum insane with my constant whines of, ”I really want that game”, and endless questions as to why I couldn’t just buy it with my pocket money.
Come Christmas, I had enough pocket money saved to buy the game five times over, but there it was in my Santa’s sack. The rest of Christmas day was consumed by my new game (and a new TV too). To this day, I still adore the original ToCA games.
Braindead Hero
This one is a fairly simple answer: my SNES. This is the first console that was truly mine, and really got me into gaming. Before, I had played my dad’s Commodore VIC-20, and had plenty of fun with that. But this SNES was mine. It came with a couple of games that have stayed with me ever since, namely the classics: Doom, Donkey Kong Country, and of course, Super Mario World. Three top notch games which made an indelible impression on me and possibly influenced my future gaming tastes. The SNES early on placed me firmly in the Nintendo camp in the then ongoing Nintendo vs Sega war.
Mightyles
I would say that my favourite gaming related present would have to have been getting a Nintendo Wii in 2007… Actually, no. I am lying. In all honesty the greatest gaming related Christmas present I can think of was not even given to me, but given to my elder brother: the Sony Playstation. The reason it was the greatest present is the simple fact that, while I had always been an active gamer, it was not until the advent of the Playstation that I really dived into gaming with any conviction. That year, he got Tekken 2 and I loved it. However, it was not until he brought Resident Evil 2 that I became hooked. Couple that with games like Silent Hill, Metal Gear Solid, Soul Blade, Tenchu, and Bushido Blade, and you can see why I say that was the greatest gaming gift in my household.
Kamiza
Without a doubt, my favourite gaming related present was many years ago when I received a Commodore 64. Although I’d had a fair bit of video game exposure through the likes of an old Binatone machine, the C64 was the first time I owned a piece of gaming machinery that would score me cool points in school. I had so many years of enjoyment with some of my favourite games of all time, including IK+, Commando, Ghostbusters (its better than the current gen version) and Uridium +. Most importantly though, it meant I could stop pretending to be friends with a kid in my class just so I could play on his C64.
2. What is your biggest gaming Christmas wish?
Crofterz
Dante’s Inferno. Yes it looks like a complete God of War clone but why have games got to be “ground breaking” all of a sudden? Surely they just need to be fun? And Dante’s Inferno looks like it delivers fun by the bucket load. What could be more enjoyable than fighting an endless amount of demons as you make your way through hell, literally! The graphics looks stunning and this game is the one I’m most excited about (and have been all year). I’m just a bit gutted that I have to wait until next year 
Braindead Hero
Okay, so I’ve kind of cheated as this isn’t one game, but one product. This Christmas I would love to receive an ‘ultimate collection’, spanning 9 DVDs (or 1 blu-ray) and containing the best games from the Saturn and Dreamcast. It would have full achievements/trophies and be up-scaled to 1080p HD, with full translations for those never released in English. It would also cost the same as any other game… and I’d never have to go outside again. Alternatively, if anyone wants to donate a Sega Saturn and Dreamcast to me, you will make me a very happy man.
Mightyles
This year I am going to be wicked and ask for two Christmas wishes – one based in reality, and one that seems almost impossible. First the easy one: I want Mass Effect 2. Now. The more videos Bioware release about that game, the more I want it. Despite being incredibly flawed, the original Mass Effect is one of my favourite games of all time thanks to it’s thoroughly engaging storyline and characters. For my second nigh on impossible wish? I’d like a decent Sonic The Hedgehog game.
Tom01255
I’m going to be greedy and wish for two things. Firstly, I want Final Fantasy XIII… Now… And I want it to be a proper return to the old-school Final Fantasy. I want a turn-based fighting system, massive summons to help you fight, a narrative full of twists and turns and a world map to run around á la Final Fantasy 7/8/9. Is that too much to ask!?
Secondly, my biggest wish is for a fully 3D remake of the original Gameboy Pokémon titles (preferably yellow) for the Wii. If done right, this would almost certainly be the killer app for the Wii, at least in my eyes, and I would even consider buying one!
Joefeesh
I’m just going to put this one out there and whichever developer picks it up, please get in contact so I can let you know where to send the royalty cheques. Ninja, superhero, robot, dinosaur zombies. Yeah, I thought of that. Go make it!
I would love to see a Zelda game that had a truly epic story and heart. I had this idea for the story: Link kills Ganon, but his spirit form then slowly starts to take over Link‘s mind, without him realising. He becomes the royal bodyguard, but then one day fights against hordes of enemies only to later find that it was innocents that he’d gone and slaughtered. Link then goes on the run from the Hyrulian army and Nintendo can take it from there. But any real big Zelda reboot would be nice. How about ninja, superhero, robot, Zelda zombie!?
vVv Diesel
My biggest gaming wish is to get hold of a full band kit (mic, guitar, bass and drums). Those bloody plastic peripherals annoy the hell out of me. I’m stuck with 2 guitars and 2 ‘Lips’ microphones, and all I want is a drum kit to let out all of my inner metal-head rage. Plus there’s the fact that the only instrument I can play for real is the drums. Yes, I know that these stupid rhythm games are totally overrated, very annoying and complete trash, but give me a plastic drum kit and I’ll be amused for at least 2hrs; you can keep it after that. Until then, I’ll keep on playing Forza 3.
Kamiza
My biggest gaming wish is for my family to finally relent and get me somthing / anything gaming related for Christmas. My wife and dad both refuse to buy me anything that will encourage me to sit in front of the Playstation 3 any more than I already do. I always try to ask for vouchers for shops that I know stock games, as there’s no chance they’ll get me vouchers for anywhere as obvious as GAME. If I could pick something specific for them to get me though, it would be a PSP or PSP Go. I’d love to be able to fill my lunchbreaks with a bit of mid-day gaming.
Make sure you leave a mushroom out for Yoshi!
3. What was your biggest dissappointment of the year? Explanation optional.
Mightyles
The PS3 exclusive Joker maps on Batman Arkham Asylum. I didn’t really know why they neglected their larger fanbase, 360 owners, by exclusively providing this content to PS3 owners, and I had doubts about the perpetuity of that exclusive. However, some 6 months later, and with the announcement of the sequel, it seems less and less likely that the Joker maps will ever come to the 360. As such, I have broken down and ordered a cheap copy of the PS3 version of Arkham Asylum (thanks to zavvi.co.uk!) as it appears to be the only way to play these bonus maps… Perhaps that was their intention all along.
Joefeesh
Honorable mention to Prototype which was a pile of balls, even with the framework of the outstanding Incredible Hulk Ultimate Destruction. My biggest disappointment was Fight Night Round 4. Round 3 is one of my favourite multiplayer games. So intuitive, it took me only 2 turns to really get the hang of it and start kicking some ass. The total punch control was amazing to me. In Round 4 they took what worked and broke it completely. I have no idea why they decided to turn the total punch control with the right stick into half punch control by having to press an extra button to do haymakers… It just doesn’t make sense; it’s a backwards step. Also, the counter attack was made almost unusable. Along with these built in faults, the game was released with massive bugs. At one point my mate battered somebody silly, but when the bell rang the game switched their places, putting him on the floor! Utter rubbish.
Crofterz
Now Tom (tom01255) is going to absolutely hate me for this, but I was so excited for Dragon Age: Origins this year (almost as excited as I currently am for Dante’s Inferno), but for me it just didn’t deliver. I didn’t know much about the game before it was released (I assumed there would be 4 player online Co-Op for example, as it seemed perfect for it) but I found the combat system was far more suited to an MMORPG than a stand alone RPG. Also, I felt no real connection to any of my characters (due to the sheer size and complicated-ness of it all; yes it’s an achievement but personally I just don’t like hugely massive games that will take hundreds of hours to complete). Not only did this game massively let me down, but it also found itself in the traded-in section of my local games store within a few weeks.
Braindead Hero
My personal biggest disappointment of the year comes from bad hardware. You may be surprised to find out that my Xbox 360 has never even had a sniff of a technical problem, yet earlier this year my beloved PlayStation 3 broke. Anyone who has had hardware failure knows how bad this can be, but it was made worse by the fact that Sony no longer make the 60GB Backwards Compatible model. I might as well throw away my sizeable collection of PS2 games. Oh and by the way, £100 is way too much to repair anything that stopped working after around 1 year 5 months.
vVv Diesel
Aliens vs. Predator: Colonial Marines is THE biggest disappointment of the year for the sheer fact that at the start of the year we heard so much about it & then……
Nothing! Not a squeak or even a screenshot. Now we hear the game has been delayed. Oh dear, where have we heard this before? (Duke Nukem: Forever, I’m looking at you on this one!) Sure, it takes time to develop a good game, but with so many delays already, they have set the bar much, much higher and soon it’ll become over-hyped just like GTA 4, Halo 3 & Modern Warfare 2. So much talk but so little to interest.
Kamiza
Without doubt, my biggest dissapointment of the year is the online element of UFC Undisputed 2009. I truly love the offline elements of the game, but when you go online it becomes a real nightmare. At times the game is hampered by so much lag that you have a 3 second delay between pressing the button and getting a reaction on screen. Also, it’s incredibly hard if you want to compete with your own created fighter, as most people online have maxed out the stats on their pugilists, giving them a massive advantage. This could have been fixed with a simple patch to make sure you only get paired with people of a similar level. Having completed the excellent career mode several times, I find that there is now very little for the game to offer me other than the occassional punch up when I have a friend round for a beer. The online has really knocked the game down a few notches for me, and that’s a shame. Otherwise it would have been very close to my game of the year.
Tom01255
One of the older boys told me that Santa wasn’t real today… I’m getting increasingly concerned that I won’t get any presents…
