10 Years Ago This Week: Superman 64
Frequently cited as one of the worst games ever made, Superman 64 (released May 29th, 1999) is a game with no defenders or apologists. Considered to be hot garbage by anyone who’s ever played it, it represents perhaps the best example of a publisher exploiting a license without a care for the consumer, the product, or even the future of the license itself. This made it a failure on every possible level.
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Tags: 10 years ago this week, dc comics, joe keiser, nintendo 64, superman, superman 64, titus, worst game ever
10 Years Ago This Weeks: Aliens Vs. Predator
Aliens Vs. Predator (released May 25th, 2009) represented a notable attempt by development studio Rebellion to increase the variety of play in first-person shooters through the use of widely different player characters. Although it was successful in this regard, it became an inexplicable dead-end in FPS design—save for its vastly superior sequel.
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Tags: 10 years ago this week, aliens, aliens vs predator, facehugging as recreational activity, first-person shooters, joe keiser, pc games, predator
10 Years Ago This Week: Star Wars Episode I: Racer
One could make a compelling argument that Star Wars Episode I: Racer (released May 19, 1999) was the single best piece of media to come out of the Star Wars Episode I blitzkrieg of pain. Obviously this is a dubious title, but Episode I: Racer still manages to be a consistently competent and occasionally thrilling experience.
That’s probably a not entirely unbiased opinion, though: Fate has conspired to provide me a relationship with Star Wars Episode I: Racer that is not unlike Stockholm syndrome. For years, the game kept falling into my life. It was one of my first Dreamcast games. I received the PC version as a gift when I was actually fishing for X-Wing: Alliance. My brother bought the N64 version, which became my N64 version when ownership of the family N64 reverted to me. And finally, I received its PS2 sequel in a Buy 2 Get 1 Free sale at a store that only had three games total (the other two were Maximo and Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance, so it wasn’t like I could just get nothing).
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Tags: 10 years ago this week, dreamcast, episode i, joe keiser, nintendo 64, pc, star wars, star wars episode i racer, star wars racer revenge, wipeout
Ten Years Ago This Week: Street Fighter Alpha 3 on Playstation
What is true in 2009 was not true in 1999: Street Fighter releases are exciting. Street Fighter IV, Super Street Fighter II HD Remix, the impending re-release of Marvel vs. Capcom 2. These are games that have players of all stripes salivating for one-on-one fights. But ten years ago, the Street Fighter franchise was at peak saturation and just seeing the name was exhausting. Between 1998 and 2000, counting both new arcade releases and console ports, Capcom released over twenty Street Fighter games. It was oppressive. No wonder the franchise was dormant for close to a decade.
In 1998, Street Fighter Alpha 3 managed to embody both all of its parent series’ greatest strengths and its worst excesses. It’s a gorgeous game, its characters and backgrounds the perfect realization of the Alpha side-series’ vibrant anime aesthetics. The fighting itself was as precise and satisfying to play as it had always been. But Alpha 3 was woefully unbalanced, featuring a cast of twenty-eight fighters, all of whom could utilize three separate combo chains, including the grossly overpowered “V-isms” that allowed players to create personalized super combos on the fly. The new faces in the roster ranged from ridiculous (R. Mika) to bland variants of more popular icons (literal Cammy clones Juni and Juli.) Alpha 3 lived in the most awkward space in the Street Fighter pantheon; not as demanding or deep as Street Fighter III and lacking the simple equilibrium of Street Fighter II (or even Alpha 2).
For all of its gaffes, though, Street Fighter Alpha 3 was and is a good game. The closest it’s ever come to greatness, though, was when it was released on the Sony Playstation on May 1st, 1999.
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Tags: 10 years ago, akuma, arcade, capcom, dee jay, fei long, guile, john constantine, juli, juni, marvel vs Capcom, Playstation, psx, r mika, ryu, soulcalibur, street fighter, street fighter alpha, street fighter alpha 2, street fighter alpha 3, street fighter ii, street fighter III, street fighter iv, super street fighter ii hd remix, t hawk, tobal, tobal 2
10 Years Ago This Week: GTA: London 1969
Grand Theft Auto: London 1969 (released April 29th, 1999) has always been a bit of an oddity in the GTA canon. It was the first and, until this year’s The Lost and Damned, only retail expansion pack for a Grand Theft Auto game. It’s also the only Grand Theft Auto that takes place in a (more or less) real city. Although it’s the least influential and important of the core GTA series, it remains a somewhat interesting look at an industry-leading franchise trying to find itself.
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Tags: 10 years ago, grand theft auto, grand theft auto iii, grand theft auto: london 1969, joe keiser, rockstar, rockstar north, sandbox games
10 Years Ago This Week: Super Smash Bros
A vital addition to the Nintendo 64 catalog, Super Smash Bros (released April 27, 1999) was a phenomenal critical and commercial success. It helped cement the console’s legacy of innovative four-player game design, while at the same time creating a new flagship franchise for Nintendo and starting the game’s creators, Masahiro Sakurai and particularly Satoru Iwata, on a trajectory that would eventually see them leading the industry. As such, it’s one of 1999’s most historically important titles. Continue reading »
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Tags: 10 years ago, joe keiser, masahiro sakurai, nintendo 64, satoru iwata, super smash bros, super smash bros brawl, super smash bros melee
John Constantine, our superhero, was raised by birds and then attended Penn State University. He is currently working on a novel about a fictional city that exists only in his mind. John has an astonishingly extensive knowledge of Scientology. Ultimately he would like to learn how to effectively use his brain. He continues to keep Wu-Tang's secret to himself. 
Derrick Sanskrit is a self-professed geek in a variety of fields including typography, graphic design, comic books, music and cartoons. As a professional hipster graphic designer, his recent clients have included Nerve, Pitchfork and MoCCA, among others.
Amber Ahlborn - artist, writer, gamer and DigiPen survivor, she maintains a day job as a graphic artist. By night Amber moonlights as a professional Metroid Fanatic and keeps a metal suit in the closet just in case. Has lived in the state of Washington and insists that it really doesn't rain as much as everyone says it does.
Nadia Oxford is a housekeeping robot who was refurbished into a warrior when the world's need for justice was great. Now that the galaxy is at peace (give or take a conflict here or there), she works as a freelance writer for various sites and magazines.
Based in Toronto, Nadia prizes the certificate from the Ministry of Health declaring her tick and rabies-free.
Bob Mackey is a grad student, writer, and cyborg, who uses the powerful girl-repelling nanomachines mad science grafted onto his body to allocate time towards interests of the nerd persuasion. He believes that complaining about things on the Internet is akin to the fine art of wine tasting, but with more spitting into buckets.
Joe Keiser has a programming degree from Johns Hopkins University, a tiny apartment in Brooklyn, and a fake toy guitar built in the hollowed-out shell of a real guitar. He writes about games and technology for a variety of outlets. One day he will stop doing this. The day after that, police will find his body under a collapsed pile of (formerly neatly alphabetized) collector's edition tchotchkes.
