As a once-enthusiastic Christmas aficionado who has since lapsed into doleful cynicism and meh-induced hand-flapping at the mere mention of tinsel, when I wake up with a flickering of seasonal joy stirring my stony old heart I have to grab and squeeze it, and treat it like the rare and precious thing it is. I indulge its whims and sate it with whatever sonic or visual delights it craves. I make it my own private pinata, filling it with holiday wonders until it swells and, as I inevitably overindulge in my administrations, it bursts in a snowstorm of glitter and streamers – and ultimately, disappointment.

I’m an adult, and the only way we adults can see the true wonder of Christmas is by watching for its reflections in the faces of the children to whom the holiday truly belongs. Sorry, overweight middle-aged woman in the office with a preponderance for Rudolph-antler Alice bands, flashing Santa brooches and whimsical festive knitwear, but you’re fooling nobody (also, you need to splash a little deodorant under your underarms. You smell like the studio where they recorded the ‘Natalie Cassidy’s Post-Natal Workout’ DVD). As much as you and I hate to admit it, Christmas is for the kids.So this morning, once my Christmas dream had ended, once my eyelids had reluctantly opened and exposed me to the cruel and heartless world in which we all live, the only thing I wanted to do was crawl into the past and relive a time when Christmas – real Christmas – could be visited and revisited as the mood took me; when all I needed to do to get my festively-mulled juices flowing was open a plastic disc flap, insert a GD-ROM, sit back and let the familiar sounds of 1980s Japan lull me away.

It’s Shenmue. It’s always been Shenmue. Though this year I’ve flirted with new-old favourites in the forms of Planescape: Torment and Neverwinter Nights, I find myself driven back on regretful knees to plead at Shenmue’s doorstep. “I’m sorry!” I cry. “I was wrong to think about those other games! Please, if you can find it within your heart to forgive me, take me back!”

This festive period in particular has put strain on our relationship.

Of course, it can’t.

I can visit, I can become a tourist through time. A solitary loop of the Tomato Convenience Store song on YouTube this morning was all it took to propel me to the realm of Ryu Hamazaki, where the quest to honour my dead father was interspersed with playing Hang-On in the local arcade, buying dried squid for a lost kitten and wandering out among the Christmas crowds betwixt cyclists and shoppers and drunken town Santas; where decorations and fairy lights and snowflakes alike appeared all at once overnight, and the town beneath my hilltop villa became a winter wonderland.

Night music plays. Maybe I need to get back home before my housekeeper’s curfew – or maybe I have more pressing matters at hand. Maybe a shrieking freak ping-pongs across the rooftops above me like a sack of Silly Bands. Maybe schoolgirl Nozomi – elegant, chic, provocative yet demure – tries to cozy closer for a photographic memento – a keepsake we’ll surely treasure always – and maybe I cuddle up and maybe I drift away, born aloft on fantasies of revenge. Someday soon a boat will come to take me to a faraway land. For the moment, the snow falls softly, the girl rides pillion on my bike behind me and we speed into the night spinning rear light laser-drifts upon the snowfall, full of heart in spite of Lan Di’s evil, full of warmth despite the cold, and for just a moment… one solitary moment in time, I can feel the elastoplast on my cheek, the gel in my hair, I can hear the haunting knock of the bamboo water feature in the garden behind the dojo and I’m home again. I’m there. I’m home.

Home sweet home...

And it is, of course, a trifling reverie. It’s a digital world that’s probably been surpassed in umpteen ways a dozen times over. But in Shenmue, Sega crafted a digital Christmas that wasn’t built upon fantastical actions or cartoon Santas wielding rocket launchers. The Christmas of Dobuita and its surrounding environs was a Christmas firmly rooted in truth, and booting up the old Dreamcast in order to see it again has become an annual tradition for many gamers – the gamers of the Dreamcast generation.

Certain games have, over time, become mascots for the consoles they were released on. NiGHTS and Burning Rangers were defining titles for the Sega Saturn, and the Playstation wouldn’t have been the same without Tekken or Gran Turismo. Shenmue is better than that. It stands above the many other fantastic Dreamcast titles as a totem; a vision of things to come: It was the original blockbuster. Sure, Metal Gear Solid came first, but it’s not Metal Gear Solid that today’s blockbusters try to emulate. Metal Gear Solid has a certain hallmark stealth-based style that pinned it alongside Syphon Filter and the Thief games. At its release, Shenmue was a creature unto itself. It didn’t rely on exploration, action, conversation and adventure individually; all these components were present but fused together to form something new, exciting and magical. It’s difficult to imagine the game’s environments without having your thoughts spun away to the minigames, or  characters, or how you learnt kung fu and used it to devastating effect in the climactic hundred man battle, or catching a football, or curving through night traffic on your hog. Soon you’re reliving your adventure; soon enough you’re there again, and everything that came before and everything that’s gone since seems like a game.

Shenmue was special.

So it’s sad that there’s no way to step back and relive that life. There’s been no recent revamp, remix or remake, and there’s none on the horizon. If anything, Shenmue has become a franchise disowned. There must be scores of Sega analysts looking at it, scratching their heads and trying to figure out a way of making money from this, their greatest software cash-sink. There’s an iPhone social game called Shenmue Town due out in 2011, but do you really have high hopes for it? Do you really think it’ll be revered as a valuable part of the legacy we call Shenmue?

Meanwhile, modern graphical technology has left the Dreamcast behind. If jaggy LCD screen smears don’t make your eyes vomit in disappointment, the way the once staggering graphics have aged will break your heart. When I first awoke in Ryo’s room all those years ago I thought I was watching a CG cut scene. It took some time before I realised that this was the game, and when I did, I spent minutes playing with Ryo’s clothes drawers, opening them, peeking at his PJs, closing them and then opening them again. Even that was a revelation back then – just opening the goddamned drawers to see what was inside.

Today the sumptuous environments have lost their lustre. When you walk the Dobuita main road in 2010 you walk between cardboard boxes piled up and painted, and not through that living, breathing town that had your mouth gaped in astonishment at the turn of the millennium. Technology moves too fast – there are people complaining that the likes of GTA 4 and Fallout 3 look dated – and it’s left Shenmue in its own little bubble as a monetary experiment that helped bankrupt one of gaming’s greatest companies. All we can do is look back to where Sega gave up the race and see Shenmue, forlorn and unaware that the world has moved on without it.

Needless to say, Shenmue's graphics haven't aged gracefully.

Ten years from now people will still be asking for Shenmue 3. Twenty years – thirty even, provided we’re not all swimming in the afterlife after the bomb’s been dropped and reduced our bodies and console collections to poisonous ash. Shenmue has become as much of a legend as Space Invaders and Pong were before it. The game that did something different; the game that took our hobby to another level; the game that was bigger. The game you can play, but can never truly forget.

And it comes to you in fever dreams and in auditory hallucinations. You turn a knob to release a capsule toy and it’s there. You stand behind an old stone wall overlooking a seaside village and it’s there. Can you ever look at a fork-lift truck without seeing yourself behind the wheel? Can you see a kitten in a cardboard box without thinking about Mimi, Sasuke, Chibi or Tama – the kitten you named, the kitten you raised?

RPGs have changed and it’s changed you.

A cast of hundreds. A living world. A mission for honour.

Can you ever have Christmas without Shenmue?

- Campfire Burning

It’s a tales of 2 Adam’s this week as both Adam Roche (of 7BitArcade fame), and Adam Radcliffe (of generally being an idiot fame), join Mr Tom Wallis in the hotseats to take you through the week’s biggest games releases, a 60 second review of Apache Air Assault and the brand new Tomb Raider reboot, as well as all the usual old banter.

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Sega’s mascot has had something of a hard time ever since he first ventured out of the realm of 2D platforming and into the 3D world; the Sonic Adventure games were passable games at best, and the less said about this generation’s titles Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic Unleashed, were-hedgehog and all, the better.

It appears that Sega have realised this cold hard fact and have dedicated themselves to making the sort of game that Sonic fans the world over have been crying out for. Enter Sonic the Hedgehog 4 – Episode 1, a download only title released on every major platform under the sun, that sets out to return to the glory days of high speed 2D adventures.

Sega has clearly made a big commitment to this game, this is the first Sonic game to continue the original series’ numbering, which goes a long way towards making it feel like an important title. In terms of story, Sonic 4 takes place shortly after the events of Sonic and Knuckles; after destroying Dr Robotnick’s space station (I will never call him Dr Eggman) Sonic parts company with Tails and Knuckles and sets off on another adventure, which inevitably involves being attacked by Dr Robotnick, collecting rings, and running from left to right.

Initial impressions are very good; the graphics have a wonderful clear and bright look to them, with bold colours, and Sonic moves at a controllable pace. Having said that, there is a slight issue with Sonic’s controls. In order to keep moving you need to keep pointing in the direction you want to move, even if you have been propelled forward by a spring board. This is not too much of an issue apart from when you have been launched in to the air – if you stop holding forwards at any point while in the air Sonic will immediately plummet like a sack full of hammers.

Sonic brings some of his 3D tricks with him to the 2D adventure.

While the game is very clearly influenced by the older Sonic games, there is a move in Sonic’s arsenal that has been taken from the Sonic Adventure games: the homing jump attack. Simply jump near an enemy, box, or destructible object and a red circle will appear around it. Pressing jump a second time will have Sonic automatically target that enemy/object, which proves to be a key move in clearing some of the later levels.

After beating the first level you are able to select any of the game’s other three areas and play the three acts in any order. Upon completing all three acts in an area you unlock a boss battle. Once all of the boss battles are completed you gain access to the final boss on board Dr Robotnick’s E.G.G Station.

If you manage to finish a level with at least 50 rings, and manage to jump through a giant ring, then you unlock one of seven bonus puzzle levels. The objective in each of these levels is to navigate a free falling Sonic through a kaleidoscopic maze to collect a Chaos Emerald within a set time limit. Players of the original Sonic the Hedgehog will feel at home in these bonus stages, although there is one major change. Rather than controlling the direction that Sonic moves, you control the angle of the bonus stage, turning it so as to move obstacles out of Sonic’s path.

Upon completing the bonus stages and earning all of the Chaos Emeralds you unlock Super Sonic, who can be used in every level at any point. The benefits of using Super Sonic include invincibility and super speed, which can make things a lot easier for you.

As a life long fan of the Sonic games the four main areas have a very familiar feel to them; Splash Hill Zone is like a cross between Sonic 1′s Green Hill Zone and Sonic 2′s Emerald Hill Zone, while the Casino, Labyrinth, Mad Gear, and E.G.G Station zones are clearly inspired by their respective levels from Sonic 1 through 3.

The levels in Sonic 4 take inspiration from the previous 2D Sonic games

As well as the main score based mode in which you earn points for killing enemies, collecting rings, and completing levels as quickly as possible, each level is playable in time attack mode, complete with online leaderboards. However, the leaderboards already appear to have been ruined thanks to some players out there recording impossible times, such as completing the first level in under 1 second, which devalues the whole concept of leaderboards.

The one issue I have with most of the levels is the over reliance on cheap bottomless pits that appear to come out of nowhere. I lost track of the number of times I would go pelting off a ramp at high speed, go flying through the air blindly, only to find myself falling down a conveniently placed instant death pit. At moments like this I really felt like quitting the game altogether. For a game that focuses on high speed you should probably walk through the game and meticulously plan each of your jumps, or risk developing high blood pressure.

Thankfully the developers have made it easier than ever to earn extra lives. As well as collecting 100 rings to earn extra lives you also earn extra lives for point milestones that you reach. Bonus levels in particular seem to dish out extra lives without rhyme or reason, which is not a bad thing.

Another area at which the game falls flat is in the boss battles; Sonic Team would do well to take inspiration from the Mario games. Mario’s bosses rarely take more than three hits before they are defeated, with the trick being finding the right time to attack. Sonic’s bosses take considerably more hits and require some quite precise timing in order to avoid being hit. The final boss in particular takes dozens of hits, and regularly changes his attack pattern, which becomes more and more frustrating as time goes by.

While the levels are very familiar the Labyrinth level changes things up the most

This frustration is compounded by the fact that, as with every Sonic game, every time you get hit Sonic drops all of his rings sending them flying across the screen. If you fail to collect any of the fallen rings then you will die after the next hit. In the small boss battle arenas, where you will more than likely get hit, the rings that you drop often fall off of the screen giving you no chance to collect them. Which is – you guessed it – frustrating.

Really that is the best way of describing Sonic 4 – frustrating. In its efforts to return to the good old days the developers have forsaken a number of developments that have taken place over the past 15+ years. One feature that I really missed that has been included with the online re-releases of the previous Sonic games is the ability to save at any point you want; the inclusion of quick saving relieves a lot of the pressure, allowing you to continue from where you left off to tackle particularly difficult sections, rather than having to play through from the nearest checkpoint, which could be some way away.

Review Round-Up

Graphics: 5/5 The developers are to be commended for the wonderful bright, clear, and colourful graphics. Sonic 4 really is a beautiful looking game.

Sound: 2/5 Sound effects are exactly what you would expect from a Sonic game, from the springy jump sound to the jingle from collecting a ring. However the music featured is not particularly memorable at all.

Story: 2/5 There really is not any story to speak of, but that is to be expected from an old school style Sonic game.

Gameplay: 2/5 As fun as the old school platforming is, Sonic 4 relies too heavily on cheap instant kills, and badly designed boss battles.

Longevity: 3/5 There are 17 levels, with 7 bonus stages. Each of these levels can also be completed in time attack mode, and you can compare your times with the rest of the world. Hopefully by the time this review is published Sega will have done something about the blatant cheating with some of the time scores.

Overall 3 Chaos Emeralds out of 5 - Sonic the Hedgehog 4 Episode 1 is a game that starts strongly, with some brilliant graphics and fun retro gameplay. However quickly descends in to a frustrating heap of irritating cheap instant kills. Sega’s efforts to return to ‘the good old days’ have resulted in a game has not learned from the mistakes of the past.

Sonic the Hedgehog Episode 4 is available to download right now on Xbox Live Marketplace for 1200 Microsoft points (about £10), on Playstation Network for £9.99, on Wiiware for 1500 points (about £10) and for £5.99 on iPod/iPhone.

“…Mario has been the most successful [persistent franchise] in terms of sales and I believe this is because of Nintendo’s ability to evolve and take their work in bold new directions.”

It’s a bit of a controversial statement to suggest that Nintendo are a progressive developer. There’s a lot of negativity surrounding the Wii, from hardcore gamers. People say that the Wii is a far inferior and outdated console to the point that it’s not even “current generation”. Gamers joke that everybody has a Wii but nobody plays it. So how can I possibly defend Nintendo as a progressive and successful developer? Richard “Rax” Burley and I, Joe “Joefeesh” Finn, had a chat about the subject and this is how we see it.

No Fear

Nintendo weren’t the first to do motion control, dual screen gaming or 3D. But they remain the only big developer to fully commits themselves to such new horizons.

Releasing a new console is a massive risk. A bad console cycle can be the beginning of the end. Look at Sega. Their consoles ended with the Dreamcast but things were looking bad since the Sega CD. Even though the Dreamcast was a much loved console, Sega had done irreparable damage in the time of the Sega CD and 32x; following too closely with the Saturn. In so doing, Sega confused the consumer, and turned the mainstream gaming audience away. Sega went from the super successful Mega Drive to dropping from the console race altogether in 10 years.

Sega's swan song in the console market

Considering that the current console generation is forecast to span 10 years, it’s clear that these days, a single failed console could be the end of the line for another console manufacturer.

Boldly Exploring New Frontiers

A list will more clearly demonstrate. Nintendo may not have “created” most of these, but they either popularised or perfected them:

• Left-handed movement control (NES) – There’s no way I could control a character’s movement with my right hand, now. It’s wrong.
• The D-Pad (NES) – Thumb blisters all round!
• Pause button with menu therein (NES) – I hate games that don’t have pause menus.
• Handheld gaming (Gameboy) – The Gameboy took handheld gaming from the mini-map to the world map.
• Shoulder buttons (SNES) – Not side buttons, under buttons or top buttons.
• 3D control (N64) – 3D on the N64?! The ability to move an in-game character in 3 directional planes; X, Y and Z. Mario 64.
• 4 controller ports in console (N64) – Goldeneye. Paintball. ‘Nuff said.
• Rumble (N64) – “It feels like you’re actually being shot!” Awesome.
• Controller memory (N64) – It’s not dead, the Wii Remote carries your Miis
• Thumb analogue stick (N64) – Definitely not the first, but the first to successfully integrate it into their console’s gaming.
• Touch screen gaming (DS Lite) – The DS Fat never happened. It’s a myth.
• Motion controls (Wii) – Far from the first, but finally it worked. Kind of.
• 3D games (3DS) – It’s finally the right time. Nintendo know this.

Other companies pussyfoot around and gently introduce concepts over years of testing the water, baby steps and half arsed innovations. Nintendo kick down your door and slap you across the face with new technology and ways to play. They make falling in line with their way a necessity, not an option, hence the current impending flood of motion control devices from Sony and Microsoft.

Kicking Ass and Chewing Bubblegum (and they’re all out of gum)

Let’s look at the numbers for 2010, for it’s numbers that hold the key to facts. What are the two best selling gaming platforms in the world this year? The XBox and the Wii? The XBox and the PS3? Wrong and wrong again. The two best selling games platforms this year are (drum-roll, please) the Nintendo DS and Nintendo Wii.

Note: This is a chart of the total worldwide sales, not yearly.

How about the best selling games so far this year? Who is responsible for every one of the top seven in worldwide games sold this year? You’ve got it, Nintendo again (number 7 is technically Ubisoft’s but Just Dance is on the Wii, so we counted that too). Notice a pattern yet?

Maybe that’s not enough to call a pattern. Why don’t we look at game publisher’s data – who’s the leader there? Surely it can’t be… why yes, yes it is, it’s Nintendo, with nearly twice as many games sold as the nearest competing publisher, EA! I’d say that’s starting to show a pattern now.

Regardless of what we might think of them, Nintendo knows exactly what they are doing. Gamers are like football fans screaming at the TV. Nintendo are the seasoned professionals on the TV. They know we’re shouting at them, but they don’t need our advice because, believe it or not, they do know better than us. Nintendo dominates the games industry in hardware and software sales.

When Nintendo’s sales do drop, as they have begun to do recently, people jump around screaming “Ha, I told you so!” But Nintendo already knew it would happen and have been quietly preparing for their next big hardware release; ready to turn the world upside down all over again. Enter, the Nintendo 3DS.

This Christmas. This Christmas. This Christmas. This Christmas. This Christmas.

There is No Spoon (Expanding the Games Market)

At The Newb Review our motto is “because we’re not all hardcore” and Nintendo have the only current generation consoles that could have this motto inscribed across their sleek, shiny casing.

It’s a common perception that there are two games markets; the “Hardcore” and “Everyone Else”. The Hardcore covers what the media refers to as “gamers”. “Everyone Else” covers, well, everyone else, often referred to as the “Casual” market.

Which is the most Hardcore?

Let’s look at the top 10 games sales, and consider these demographics, for this year so far.

1. Wii Sports (Wii – Nintedo – 6.4m)
2. New Super Mario Bros. Wii (Wii – Nintedo – 5.5m)
3. Pokémon Heart Gold / Soul Silver (DS – Nintedo – 5.0m)
4. Wii Fit Plus (Wii – Nintedo – 4.7m)
5. Wii Sports Resort (Wii – Nintedo – 4.3m)
6. Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Wii – Nintedo – 3.4m)
7. Just Dance (Wii – Ubisoft – 3.1m)
8. Red Dead Redemption (XBox 360 – Rockstar – 3.0m)
9. God of War III (PS3 – Sony – 2.8m)
10. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (Xbox 360 – Activision – 2.5m)

So, lumping the top 10 selling games of 2010, so far, in to these (admittedly arguable) categories, Hardcore sales (8, 9 and 10) are at 8.3m and Casual sales (1-7) are at 32.5m. Ouch. This is not the full picture of games sales, but we intend to use this sample and risk making a grossly inaccurate conclusion, just because we can; the Casual games console market is worth about four times as much as the Hardcore market. I just felt a great disturbance in the Hardcore, as if millions of voices cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced (somebody please get the quote).

Nintendo rules the games industry because it rules the Casual market. Ask yourself this: How many people do you know; at work, socially, relatives, who you think would enjoy (or even be able to play) Red Dead Redemption on the first try? For the same group of people, ask the same question but about Wii Sports. Anecdotal evidence turns to credible statistics when enough people agree.

Nintendo is leading the way. Why? The answer is at the top of this page:

Because… We’re Not All Hardcore.

- Joe Finn and Richard Burley

If this were the practice in any other industry, there would be a number of lawsuits flying about the place, but not in our industry. As such, The Newb Review thought it was time to honour five titles that have contributed the most to the realm of videogames over the past decade.

So, in no particular order, let’s get this party started.

Halo: Combat Evolved

Game: Halo: Combat Evolved
Format: Xbox, PC
Developer: Bungie Studios
Publisher: Microsoft Games Studios

When Microsoft’s first foray in to console gaming; The Xbox, was released, there was only one title that made the machine worth getting at launch. That game was Halo: Combat Evolved (or just plain Halo to the kids). But what exactly was so revolutionary about this first person shooter?

Those of us that are old enough can cast our minds back to the early days of console first person shooters, with titles such as Goldeneye, Medal of Honour, or the various ports of Doom or Duke Nukem. As great as they were, they do not exactly stand the test of time.

Halo, however is still infinitely replayable, as it has effectively defined the console first person shooting experience.

A revolution... Vehicle Combat that is actually fun!

Major innovations:

 Gigantic open levels: While the opening act of the game featured typical corridor based shooting, the game completely changed once the ship crashed on the Halo world. Remember the exhilaration of venturing out of the escape pod and finding a massive world for you to explore? It was mind blowing.

 Vehicle combat: Sure, plenty of games had vehicle sections in them, but more often than not these seemed like an afterthought. Where Halo differed is that the vehicular combat actually felt like an integral part of the game. The smooth controls you associate with first person shooters were successfully transferred over to the vehicles, which made coming across an abandoned Warthog something to look forward to, rather than dread.

 Recharging health: Before Halo if you were unfortunate enough to get shot then the only way you could recover was by using health packs. Not only did Halo introduce the recharging shield, but they also introduced the idea of recharging health. You know the drill. Shot up? Crouch behind cover and wait for your health to come back. It was, and still is, an empowering thing of beauty.

 Intelligent enemies: Gone were the days of enemies simply charging at you down a corridor. No, the artificial intelligence was astounding; enemies would regroup together, hide behind cover and even discuss tactics with each other.

 Incidental character dialogue: Every character that you came across, be they friend or foe, had their own voice and dialogue. Sure a lot of the time it would just be generic military jargon related to the mission, but compare that to the dialogue in previous first person shooters. Perfect Dark’s infamous “why… me?” springs to mind.

Game: Grand Theft Auto 3
Format: Playstation 2, PC, Xbox
Developer: DMA Design (Now Rockstar North)
Publisher: Rockstar Games

It is hard to believe that the Grand Theft Auto series was anything but a 3D open world game. Yet it wasn’t until the fifth game in the series, GTA: 3, that we saw the arrival of the ultimate 3D open world game. A sprawling environment full of people in which you could do anything you wanted. Is it any wonder so many other titles took inspiration from it?

The epitomy of freedom.

Without GTA:3 it is likely that we would never have seen games such as Saints Row, The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction, The Godfather, Spiderman 2, or Crackdown.

Major Innovations:

 Absolute Freedom: Playing as the nameless and voiceless thug who escapes from Prison after being set up by his girlfriend on a bank job, you could do almost whatever you wanted. You did not have to do the missions, you could just wander the streets taking in the atmosphere. Or, you know, you could just fire off a ton of rockets at passing traffic.

 Celebrity Voice Acting: While subsequent games have had big names such as Sam Jackson and Dennis Hopper lending their vocal talent, GTA 3 started the trend by hiring actual actors, such as Michael Madsen, to bring the characters to life. What a difference it made.

 Unmatched Atmosphere: Liberty City actually felt like a real breathing city. The streets were populated with people, and there were always cars on the streets, even late at night. Every street in town had its own feel, and after a few hours driving around it became easy to navigate your way around town.

 Licensed Music: GTA:3 featured an unprecedented number of real world songs on the in-game radio station, which was pretty much unheard of at the time. I’ll never forget getting in to my first car and being treated to Paul Engemann’s “Push it to the limit” from the movie Scarface. Pure. Genius.

Game: Shenmue
Format: Dreamcast
Developer: Sega AM2
Publisher: Sega

Technically, Shenmue was originally released in Japan in 1999, so it is slightly outside our time frame. However, the European version of the game did not appear until December 2000, so we’ll let it slide.

Playing as Ryo Hazuki, you were on a quest to discover the identity of your father’s murderer, and to get revenge. The game itself revolved around walking through town and asking the residents questions. If GTA:3 is the representation of western inner city life, then Shenmue is the embodiment of a quiet sleepy Japanese town; slow and dreary for some, but a real gem to others.

Press A to jump, or alternatively you can just watch Ryo stymble over the boxes.

Major Innovations:

 Quick Time Events: Love them or hate them, without Shenmue we would not have the quick time event. A symbol flashes on screen, giving you a few moments to press the corresponding button or face disaster.

 A real working town: The town of Yokosuka was populated with dozens of characters, each with their own voices. Sure, some would brush you off if you tried talking to them, but they all felt like real people. They even had their own schedule that they stuck to, so you wouldn’t come across kids playing baseball in the streets at 2am for instance.

 Life as we know it: Ryo felt like a real living person. He had to eat, sleep, and even get a job. To some, this was a headache that got in the way of the quest, but to me it really made me believe that Ryo was an actual person.

Game: Gears of War
Format: Xbox 360, PC
Developer: Epic Games
Publisher: Microsoft Games Studios

Another flagship Xbox title, although this time a flagship title for the second Xbox, the Xbox 360. Taking on the role of Marcus Fenix, a grizzled rectangular pile of man meat, you must fight against the underground menace of the Locust; an equally burley, pale race of beasties that are trying to wipe out humanity. So far so generic, but what Gears of War lacks in terms of narrative it makes up for with some truly influential gameplay.

Meet generic space grunt 1, 2, 3, and 4.

Major Innovations:

 Cover: Do I need to say anything more than duck and cover? Sure, Gears of War did not invent the idea of a cover system, whereby the character you control ducks behind an object and uses it to shield from enemy fire, but it certainly popularised it.

 Burly Space Marines: It seems every game these days has burley space marines covered from head to toe in generic looking armour. Thanks Gears. Thank you very much.

 Co-op: As our consoles have become more and more complicated it seems developers have favoured leaving out a once mandatory feature: split-screen and local co-operative play. Not Gears of War; as well has having two player split-screen co-op throughout the entire game, you could also team up with a friend over Xbox live. Before Gears it was rare, now it is an industry standard.

Game: Resident Evil 4
Format: Gamecube, Wii, PC
Developer: Capcom Studio 4
Publisher: Capcom

Capcom’s fifth console Resident Evil game (The Resident Evil Survivor series don’t count, thank you very much) Resident Evil 4 saw the franchise getting a major overhaul in terms of gameplay. Gone were the static camera angles, rigid controls, and ammunition conservation and in came a new over the shoulder camera angle, and a plethora of amply supplied weapons.

This was a good thing too because we no longer had the shambling zombies of days gone by. In their stead we were given Los Ganados; frantic, deadly and all too human. Not only did Resident Evil 4 breathe new life in to the flagging series, it also reinvented the third person shooter.

Shooting the heads off of the Spanish has never been so easy

Major Innovations:

 Over the Shoulder: Before Resident Evil 4, the camera angle in third person games tended to be squarely behind the protagonist’s head, which often made fast paced combat situations difficult to say the least. Now, with this shifted camera angle, combat could become more manageable.

 Wii Motion Controls: When Resident Evil 4 was re-released on the Nintendo Wii and came with all new motion controls. Before this point the Wii did not have a decent third person shooter, and some speculated that it was impossible. Resident Evil 4 not only demonstrated that motion controls worked perfectly well in an action game, but may very well make the gameplay even better.

And there we have it, our pick for the Five Most Influential Games of the Past Decade. Of course, with any such subject there are bound to be a few titles that we felt were incredibly influential but just did not quite manage to make it past the finish line in time.

Let us present our Runners Up:

Game: Jet Set Radio
Format: Dreamcast
Developer: SmileBit
Publisher: Sega

This game inspired the likes of XIII, Borderlands… Wacky Races. Ok, so it wasn’t exactly revolutionary, but the first cel-shaded game certainly caused quite a stir and goes down as one of the greatest Dreamcast titles of all time.

The game follows a gang of “rudies”; young people who skate around town spraying graffiti as a form of self-expression. Along the way, you can bolster the ranks of your gang with new members by completing skating challenges against them and ultimately uncover a plot involving a mystical vinyl record with the power to summon demons.

The life of a street punk is a glamourous one

I know it sounds crazy; kids on roller skates graffiti-ing up the place whilst being chased by cops and gangsters, but that’s exactly the point. This is charming, Japanese fantasy, superbly implemented and incredibly fun.

Rumours of an XBLA release have caused quite a storm on the forums and especially amongst the staff here at The Newb Review. If this doesn’t get the re-release we all want it to, I strongly recommend you pick up a second hand Dreamcast and a copy. You can thank me later.

- Tom “tom01255″ Wallis

Game: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Format: Xbox 360, PS3, PC, Wii
Developer: Infinity Ward
Publisher: Activision

Modern Warfare presented the culmination of a growing relationship between the once loved publisher and Infinity Ward. Seemingly grasping the Holy Grail of simultaneous critical acclaim and astronomic sales, it was clear that this game was something special.

Infinity Ward’s legacy seems to be entwined with this title; whenever anyone mentions the COD series, it’s inevitably the Modern Warfare franchise they talk about over any of the World War II based outings.

One of the most successful (and imitated) games of all time.

The story was short, but epic; placing you in the shoes of several different operatives involved in a war against Russian terrorists. The narrative also managed to shock on an emotional level; invoking a strange feeling of grief when a playable character witnesses a nuclear explosion and kicks the bucket.

However, it was the multiplayer where the game really shined. Still a fantastically popular title online, Modern Warfare tapped into a need for all gamers to feel as though they were bettering themselves; by having unlockable guns and attachments, the game enticed gamers to spend hour upon hour improving their account and reaching that 10th prestige level.

With Modern Warfare, Infinity Ward built an empire. It’s just a shame Modern Warfare 2 couldn’t amaze us in the same way.

- Tom “tom01255″ Wallis

Game: God of War
Format: Playstation 2
Developer: SCE Studios Santa Monica
Publisher: Sony

It’s hard to believe that there have only been four God of War games over the past decade. I say that because there has been a seemingly endless number of games that have taken inspiration from this brilliant series of games.

Just take a look at EA’s recent release Dante’s Inferno; would that even exist without God of War? It could be argued that God of War almost singlehandedly revitalised the hack and slash genre (although some credit must be given to Capcom’s Devil May Cry series too).

The format is simple: A burley man (in this case Kratos) runs around fairly large yet linear levels, armed with a plethora of bladed weapons, and cuts a sea of mythical enemies into mince meat.

Chuck in some light logic-based puzzles, usually involving cranks and pullies, and have the player search off the beaten path for collectables that upgrade your abilities and there we have it, the epitome of the hack and slash genre.

Kratos is pretty tasty.

The God of War series is also known for its epic boss battles, which always culminate in the Quick Time Event finale, complete with suitably gory conclusion. And don’t forget the health dosage of quick time sex mini games and an ample showing of breasts.

Actually when put that way, you can completely see why so many game developers have reacted the way they have to God of War. It is the ultimate teenage boy fantasy game. And God (of war) bless it.

Neptune requires a little introduction and perhaps a little lesson in Japanese at the same time. Set in the fictional world of geimugyokai (Games Industry), the player takes control of Neptune (Representative of the Sega Neptune*) together with three other goddesses Green Heart (360), Black Heart (PS3) and White Heart (Wii).

Neptune and other ‘Hearts’ strive to beat the evil goddess “Majekonnu” (Majikon being the term used to refer to DS flash carts such as the R4). Games companies will be represented as characters within the game, with developers such as Gust and Nippon Ichi being listed already. Players will also be able to summon guardian angels from other game saves, or from pictures in the PS3 photo album. Sound interesting?

Neptune to the left, Green Heart (360) to the right

Meet Black Heart on the left (PS3) and White Heart on the right (Wii)

The reason the ‘evil’ of this imaginary world is based on the R4 cards and its kin is due to a long standing battle Nintendo has been waging against the device. Whilst the R4 cartridge itself is not a piracy device, it can be used to play pirated DS games. Nintendo filed a court injunction in 2009 against the Chinese R4 makers for a “violation under Japan’s laws”. Notably, this legal injunction was for Japan only. Yahoo! Auctions Japan also released a notice stating that putting R4 devices up for sale on the site is now banned.

Despite this, the device is still readily available in some shops in Tokyo’s Akihabara and Osaka’s equivalent, Den-Den town. This all comes after a vending machine selling the devices was put up but later removed last summer. So, what better way to fight back against piracy than to make a game involving the industry, consoles and companies fighting just that? Of course, it helps that the character designs are ramped up in cuteness to boot.

This building in Osaka's Den-Den Town openly advertises R4 carts.

This isn’t the first game to venture into the virtual video games industry however. Back in 2001, another Japanese only game was released for the Dreamcast as it was coming to the end of its life. That game was the rather aptly titled “Segagaga”**. The storyline parodied the beloved, but on the whole, commercially unsuccessful Dreamcast console. The player, in the guise of a boy named Tarō Sega, is recruited by Sega in a desperate effort to stop the evil DOGMA Company from taking over the console market. Intermingled with animated cut-scenes, the game is notable for featuring numerous cameos by various Sega characters and games, as well as making use of a variety of gameplay styles throughout. The last battle being an especially beautiful fight against the various incarnations of Sega consoles, including the Sega Mark III and Mega Drive.

What other game could you battle Samba de Amigo in an RPG style format!

Is this perhaps a new genre with as of yet untapped potential? Will this do much against the R4 cards when a court injunction has failed to stop the issue?

Compile Hearts Neptune is set for release in Summer 2010. Segagaga is only available through import and only in the Japanese language.

*(The Sega Neptune was a two-in-one Mega Drive (Genesis) and 32X console that Sega had planned to release in 1994 or 1995)

** For those interested, this is a link to the stunning opening of Segagaga: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQ3QAlwTJoU