Retrographics: Japanese Nintendo classic flyers.
ALWAYS!
Alpha Centauri – 1999
Alpha Centauri seems like it would be my favourite game ever. A sci-fi strategy game made by Sid Meier and Brian Reynolds, the team that made Civilization II aka the best game ever with factions that actually play differently instead of having slightly differently stats and the ability to customize and upgrade your units. When your get the space victory in Civ, which was my primary way to win, Alpha Centauri was what happened next.
The problem was that, as much as I tried, I could never really get into this game. The art direction did nothing for me. Neither did the backstory and plot. The historicity of Civ’s tech tree, as artificial as it is, let me envision the flow of the game at any given time, both where I had been and where I was headed. I never felt that same level of understanding with Alpha Centauri. I know it’s one of the most highly regarded strategy games of all time. But it never, ever sunk its hooks into me. I’ve tried again and again to see what the big deal is. I never do.
Before Descent there was Tunnels of Armageddon. You fly a space ship through a tunnel. And then you crash and die. That describes both the gameplay and the plot.
Colonization – 1994
After my Civilization addiction I sought out another fix and picked up its pseudo-sequel Colonization. The idea of Civ-style gameplay in Colonial trappings sounded perfect to me. This is the game that taught me about the parts of the colonial Americas that didn’t go on to form the United States. It also taught me that I am not a fan of micromanaging an empire during the ending stages of grand strategy games.
I’ve started a game of Colonization dozens of times. Hundreds even if you count the modernization from 2008. I’ve only ever taken one of my colonial powers to nationhood. It was took exhausting to micromanage every single city in a huge colony, especially when they started to get so big that I had to set up elaborate trade routes from other farming colonies just to keep them fed. Watching your colonies AND sending conquistador armies into the interior AND escorting those wagons full of stolen Inca gold AND fighting a few colonial wars on the side was just too much for me to juggle. I just wanted to explore the coast, start a colony or two, and meet some natives. So I started the game over again and again and again.
One-hit kill = the worst gaming mechanic. Karnov had the rare two-hit kill mechanic. I didn’t last very long. But at least I lasted a good 30 seconds longer than I would have in a one-hit kill game.
Civilization – 1991
Full disclosure – I didn’t play Civilization until 1995 or so. I had a gaming-capable PC by 1993 and, given the game’s subject matter and its status as an instant classic I should have been playing Civ long before I actually did. But for some reason I was unaware of this game. I’d managed to read the only issues of CGM and PC Gamer that didn’t mention the game. I had no idea who Sid Meier was even thought I’d played at least two of his games already – F-19 Stealth Fighter on my dad’s monochrome laptop and the NES port of Silent Service. I’d never noticed the game in the PC gaming store that I’d hang out in every time we went to the mall. Civ was the great missed game of my early 90’s PC gaming days.
That is, until I was passed some floppy discs outside of a high school chemistry class. I’d never heard of the game but was told that it was a few years old so the graphics weren’t the best but it was awesome. I took it home, installed and started a game on a giant Earth. I moved around the map, slowly building an empire and leveling up my tech tree. The graphics were rough but I was having fun. Then I started sending my armies across the ocean and conquering new lands. And as my empire spread and the fog of war drew back I was hit by a sudden realization – I was invading Africa. My country had started in Brazil. My armies were working their way north across the Sahara and were about to hit the Mediterranean. This was EARTH. I had no idea! I was blown away. I quickly started a new game and used my knowledge of geography to plot my advances long before the map was uncovered.
When I play Civ games now I never use the Earth map. I can’t. It’s always a let-down. I’ll never replicate that sudden transition from playing on a map to knowing where I was. It was one of the most visceral experiences I’ve had gaming. Random maps give you at least some sense of discovery but they never quite feel real.
The map that changed everything.
I was terrible at this game.
I couldn’t stop playing. I was convinced the skateboarding level, which would get slightly longer every round, couldn’t go on forever. You had to eventually hit a new level. Instead I think it ended up being a loop. I gave up on it not long after that realization.
