By John Constantine

Brothers Chris and Jason Kingsley accomplished many remarkable things back in 1994. First of all, they made a game for the Atari Jaguar that was actually good (no one saw that coming). Secondly, they built a texture-mapped first-person shooter in convincing three-dimensional space, and even though it arrived after Doom, they’d started work well before id’s genre-making classic hit the FTP circuit. Furthermore, they created a game that brought two of cinema’s most recognizable antagonists together — the nameless beast of Alien and the Schwarzenegger-threatening extraterrestrial from Predator — and they did it in a way that was more organic and compelling than Capcom’s approach of simply having them punch each other a lot, Final Fight style. It’s easy to forget, but Aliens vs. Predator truly was something special sixteen years ago, and its quality allowed Rebellion to create a unique franchise that has continued — albeit sporadically — through today.

Strip away the tech and familiar faces of 20th century pop, though, and you’re still left with a game worth thinking about. Science fiction-based video games are a dime a dozen, but games that actually let you be an extraterrestrial aren’t as common as you think. You’re usually killing the aliens, not playing as them. The experience of playing as an Alien or a Predator in the AVP franchise is intensified because they’re tangibly different from their human counterparts, something even more uncommon in gaming. In Capcom’s Aliens vs. Predator, the human characters and the aliens are indistinguishable from one another. They punch when you press the punch button, jump the same height when you hit jump, and they all have projectiles. There’s nothing but the art to separate them, superficial signifiers marking the boundary between man and monster.

By John Constantine

Brothers Chris and Jason Kingsley accomplished many remarkable things back in 1994. First of all, they made a game for the Atari Jaguar that was actually good (no one saw that coming). Secondly, they built a texture-mapped first-person shooter in convincing three-dimensional space, and even though it arrived after Doom, they’d started work well before id’s genre-making classic hit the FTP circuit. Furthermore, they created a game that brought two of cinema’s most recognizable antagonists together — the nameless beast of Alien and the Schwarzenegger-threatening extraterrestrial from Predator — and they did it in a way that was more organic and compelling than Capcom’s approach of simply having them punch each other a lot, Final Fight style. It’s easy to forget, but Aliens vs. Predator truly was something special sixteen years ago, and its quality allowed Rebellion to create a unique franchise that has continued — albeit sporadically — through today.

Strip away the tech and familiar faces of 20th century pop, though, and you’re still left with a game worth thinking about. Science fiction-based video games are a dime a dozen, but games that actually let you be an extraterrestrial aren’t as common as you think. You’re usually killing the aliens, not playing as them. The experience of playing as an Alien or a Predator in the AVP franchise is intensified because they’re tangibly different from their human counterparts, something even more uncommon in gaming. In Capcom’s Aliens vs. Predator, the human characters and the aliens are indistinguishable from one another. They punch when you press the punch button, jump the same height when you hit jump, and they all have projectiles. There’s nothing but the art to separate them, superficial signifiers marking the boundary between man and monster.

By Jeremy Parish

Final Fantasy XIII producer Yoshinori Kitase isn’t the man most people think of as the father of Final Fantasy — that would be Hironobu Sakaguchi, currently head of Mistwalker — yet he’s arguably been the most important guiding mind behind the most successful chapters of the series. His 20-year history with the franchise gives him a unique inside perspective on the world’s most popular RPG series (or not-an-RPG series, as the case may be). We recently sat down with Kitase to look back on his memories of the earliest days of Final Fantasy, from the NES classic that started it all to the blockbuster smash that was Final Fantasy VII.

1UP: Thanks for making time for, Mr. Kitase. What exactly is your history with the Final Fantasy series?

Yoshinori Kitase: I’ve been with Square Enix about 20 years now. The first Final Fantasy title I was involved in was FFV, although FFIV was still in development when I joined — it was near the end of development. Since then, I’ve been involved in FFVI, FFVII, FFVIII, FFX, and now FFXIII.

By Jeremy Parish

Final Fantasy XIII producer Yoshinori Kitase isn’t the man most people think of as the father of Final Fantasy — that would be Hironobu Sakaguchi, currently head of Mistwalker — yet he’s arguably been the most important guiding mind behind the most successful chapters of the series. His 20-year history with the franchise gives him a unique inside perspective on the world’s most popular RPG series (or not-an-RPG series, as the case may be). We recently sat down with Kitase to look back on his memories of the earliest days of Final Fantasy, from the NES classic that started it all to the blockbuster smash that was Final Fantasy VII.

1UP: Thanks for making time for, Mr. Kitase. What exactly is your history with the Final Fantasy series?

Yoshinori Kitase: I’ve been with Square Enix about 20 years now. The first Final Fantasy title I was involved in was FFV, although FFIV was still in development when I joined — it was near the end of development. Since then, I’ve been involved in FFVI, FFVII, FFVIII, FFX, and now FFXIII.

By Scott Sharkey

As one old euro pervert liked to say, “Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.” And sometimes a videogame monster is just a videogame monster. At least, when it’s not a oozing, writhing pile of bathing suit areas. We get an awful lot of those, all things considered, and that’s not even counting the things that came out of the mind of H.R. Giger, which we’ll be arbitrarily disqualifying simply because they’d populate the entirety of the list otherwise. We’re not talking about subtlety, art, or even porn here. We’re talking about videogames that you can settle in and get comfortable with, playing merrily along for hours on end before they suddenly smack you upside the head with some kind of creature made out of wangs. Which would be fine, if not for the fact that they disappear in the morning and never call you back.

5. Justice (Bayonetta)
<!– System: Wii | Release Date: 2009 | Publisher: Ubisoft –>

Bayonetta has such a cheerfully over-the-top sense of its own sexuality that somehow the whole thing manages to wrap around the sexploitation odometer and come back to a state of almost harmless innocence. Well, mostly. Even in the midst of a stripperiffic game that tries its best to turn pole dancing into a martial art, the Chapter 11 boss comes off as almost too much. It’s a hovering ball of human faces, each with some kind of tentacle thing stuck in its mouth. It resembles nothing so much as a Transformers Quintesson eating a whole bag of dongs. Even better, in the course of the fight you have to make them cough the things up so you can sever their throbbing, purple tips. Tell me you didn’t wince when that happened.

4. Earth Dragon (Chrono Cross)
<!– System: Wii | Release Date: 2009 | Publisher: Ubisoft –>

The mandatory color-coded elemental dragons of Chrono Cross were kind of important to the plot, but I honestly can’t remember a single thing about the Earth Dragon, mostly on account of the fact that, whenever it spoke, it was accompanied by this speech portrait. I couldn’t help submitting it to Thor’s old Videogame Lookalikes page, but given that the second half of the picture was a snapshot of my junk, I don’t think he appreciated it very much. Even better, by the end of the game those dragons all link up to form some kind of Voltron-esque superdragon. I can only guess which part the Earth Dragon got to be.

3. Spawner (Prey)
<!– System: Wii | Release Date: 2009 | Publisher: SEGA –>

By Scott Sharkey

As one old euro pervert liked to say, “Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.” And sometimes a videogame monster is just a videogame monster. At least, when it’s not a oozing, writhing pile of bathing suit areas. We get an awful lot of those, all things considered, and that’s not even counting the things that came out of the mind of H.R. Giger, which we’ll be arbitrarily disqualifying simply because they’d populate the entirety of the list otherwise. We’re not talking about subtlety, art, or even porn here. We’re talking about videogames that you can settle in and get comfortable with, playing merrily along for hours on end before they suddenly smack you upside the head with some kind of creature made out of wangs. Which would be fine, if not for the fact that they disappear in the morning and never call you back.

5. Justice (Bayonetta)
<!– System: Wii | Release Date: 2009 | Publisher: Ubisoft –>

Bayonetta has such a cheerfully over-the-top sense of its own sexuality that somehow the whole thing manages to wrap around the sexploitation odometer and come back to a state of almost harmless innocence. Well, mostly. Even in the midst of a stripperiffic game that tries its best to turn pole dancing into a martial art, the Chapter 11 boss comes off as almost too much. It’s a hovering ball of human faces, each with some kind of tentacle thing stuck in its mouth. It resembles nothing so much as a Transformers Quintesson eating a whole bag of dongs. Even better, in the course of the fight you have to make them cough the things up so you can sever their throbbing, purple tips. Tell me you didn’t wince when that happened.

4. Earth Dragon (Chrono Cross)
<!– System: Wii | Release Date: 2009 | Publisher: Ubisoft –>

The mandatory color-coded elemental dragons of Chrono Cross were kind of important to the plot, but I honestly can’t remember a single thing about the Earth Dragon, mostly on account of the fact that, whenever it spoke, it was accompanied by this speech portrait. I couldn’t help submitting it to Thor’s old Videogame Lookalikes page, but given that the second half of the picture was a snapshot of my junk, I don’t think he appreciated it very much. Even better, by the end of the game those dragons all link up to form some kind of Voltron-esque superdragon. I can only guess which part the Earth Dragon got to be.

3. Spawner (Prey)
<!– System: Wii | Release Date: 2009 | Publisher: SEGA –>

By Jeremy Parish

The past ten years of gaming brought us plenty of ups and downs. New technology (and old technology applied in new ways) changed how we buy games, play games, and think about games. The industry’s most creative minds changed the nature of the medium in unexpected ways. And finally, a number of notable disasters and mistakes changed gaming’s balance of corporate power.

Throughout it all, though, we could always look to some old favorites and take comfort in knowing that no matter how many upheavals gaming may bring, we can always count on a few stalwarts to bring the good times and show all these newcomers how games ought to be made. The industry’s love of recycling means there’s no shortage of classic series kicking around these days; from Pac-Man to Mega Man, the games that entertained us in the ’80s remain in some form or another. But most of these series have grown stale, or else they’ve become so marginalized that few gamers appreciate their real worth, even when they bring fantastic new ideas to the table.

By Jeremy Parish

The past ten years of gaming brought us plenty of ups and downs. New technology (and old technology applied in new ways) changed how we buy games, play games, and think about games. The industry’s most creative minds changed the nature of the medium in unexpected ways. And finally, a number of notable disasters and mistakes changed gaming’s balance of corporate power.

Throughout it all, though, we could always look to some old favorites and take comfort in knowing that no matter how many upheavals gaming may bring, we can always count on a few stalwarts to bring the good times and show all these newcomers how games ought to be made. The industry’s love of recycling means there’s no shortage of classic series kicking around these days; from Pac-Man to Mega Man, the games that entertained us in the ’80s remain in some form or another. But most of these series have grown stale, or else they’ve become so marginalized that few gamers appreciate their real worth, even when they bring fantastic new ideas to the table.

By Bob Mackey

When Electronic Arts announced their plans to produce a video game based on the literary classic Dante’s Inferno, gamers were outraged by more than just the title’s uncanny resemblance to the God of War franchise. Question the literacy of those who indulge in our hobby all you want, but the generally negative reactions that greeted the interactive adaptation of Dante Alighieri’s epic poem speak well for our kind’s classical training. To the credit of these dissenters, Visceral Games really did go about handling their source material in a way that can only be described as “comically pandering”; the gore, bare breasts, and generic video game badassitude of the digital Dante seem like a concerted effort to strip the dignity from a treasured work of art.

This particular misstep aside, though, there’s nothing inherently wrong with adapting an old work into a new medium — in fact, Dante did this himself during the creation of his Divine Comedy. Dante’s most famous work resulted from the poet borrowing from many sources, chiefly Classical Literature and The Bible, along with Dante’s own life. Honestly, the very premise of Dante’s Divine Comedy comes off as a little ridiculous once the plot is revealed to be nothing more than an exercise in excessive self-aggrandizement. After all, Dante’s poem involves the poet himself being chosen to take an incredible journey with his literary hero (the Classical poet, Virgil), and later, his real-life crush, Beatrice; throughout this journey, Dante witnesses the torture of his political enemies, witnesses amazing sights, and even meets God himself at the end of Paradiso.

By Bob Mackey

When Electronic Arts announced their plans to produce a video game based on the literary classic Dante’s Inferno, gamers were outraged by more than just the title’s uncanny resemblance to the God of War franchise. Question the literacy of those who indulge in our hobby all you want, but the generally negative reactions that greeted the interactive adaptation of Dante Alighieri’s epic poem speak well for our kind’s classical training. To the credit of these dissenters, Visceral Games really did go about handling their source material in a way that can only be described as “comically pandering”; the gore, bare breasts, and generic video game badassitude of the digital Dante seem like a concerted effort to strip the dignity from a treasured work of art.

This particular misstep aside, though, there’s nothing inherently wrong with adapting an old work into a new medium — in fact, Dante did this himself during the creation of his Divine Comedy. Dante’s most famous work resulted from the poet borrowing from many sources, chiefly Classical Literature and The Bible, along with Dante’s own life. Honestly, the very premise of Dante’s Divine Comedy comes off as a little ridiculous once the plot is revealed to be nothing more than an exercise in excessive self-aggrandizement. After all, Dante’s poem involves the poet himself being chosen to take an incredible journey with his literary hero (the Classical poet, Virgil), and later, his real-life crush, Beatrice; throughout this journey, Dante witnesses the torture of his political enemies, witnesses amazing sights, and even meets God himself at the end of Paradiso.