The Wos Games Of The Year 2007 Part 2

No.2 – Earth Defence Force 2017

Yep, it’s so good I actually played it twice, which as alert WoSblog readers will realise is a substantial accolade in itself, so it seems only proper that it takes the No.2 slot as well.

EDF is a game designed to be played through more than once. You can actually select from its five difficulty levels on a mission-by-mission basis (that is, you can play Mission 1 at Easy, then Mission 2 at Hard, then Mission 3 at Normal etc), and in a similar piece of design to Dead Rising (but one that’s executed much less clumsily), the game actually wants you to.

I am full of strongth!

I think we all know just where this strongth is welling, too.

Things I learned in London another yesterday

1. That the arcade videogame business is absolutely dead. In the entirety of the International Gaming Expo (formerly/incorporating the ATEI show), occupying the whole floorspace of Earls Court, there was NOT ONE coin-op videogame on display, and only one pinball machine (an unseemly 24 licence – I didn’t see whether there was a hit-the-targets-to-torture-the-suspect mode).

The world of electronic gaming seems now to be wholly about American-style five-reel video fruit machines – there were barely even any with physical reels, and almost none licenced from any kind of British IP. Jaws and Sex And The City were about as good as it got.

Worst. Ending text. Ever.

A really tall screenshot

Of an old Spectrum game, just because it looks nice in blog format. (You can also click it for a vintage WoS feature from two years ago.)

The WoS Games Of The Year 2007

Yeah, bit behind schedule on this one. Sorry. You know how it is.

No.3 – Earth Defence Force 2017

EDF2017 pretty much killed static-console gaming for me. Apart from Super Mario Galaxy (which exists in a separate category to pretty much all other videogames), it’s the last game for any of the mainstream formats that I’ve invested any significant amount of time in, because nothing’s ever been this much fun again.

Genius

There is no other word.

See also this and this.

Thing 19

I knew I’d learned something else in London yesterday, and it’s that if you’re one of the few people still fortunate enough to have a Fopp store near you, this is currently selling for £4. Barg!

What I Learned In London Yesterday

1. The Science Museum is incredibly weird, like some mad old inventor’s giant random shed. The basement level, in particular, looks like a building site, to the extent that you’re really not sure you’re actually supposed to be in there.

2. They really knew how to design a Teasmade in the 1940s.

3. The life-size animatronic dinosaurs in the Natural History Museum are fantastic. The only way they could improve them would be if they were sound-activated and watched you as you walked around.

4. There are a lot of unusually eloquent 9-year-olds walking around with camera equipment worth hundreds or even thousands of pounds.

The best of #gamesblamedforrickets

(Still running! Join in! #gamesblamedforrickets)

Sifted out from the flood of suggestions by people who haven’t quite grasped the joke, and have instead just posted a lot of game titles with one or more words replaced by the name of a medical condition, rather than a made-up medical condition that could be in some way caused by a game.

Grand Theft Autism (@James_Batchelor)

Crackdown’s Syndrome (@fumanstu)

Manic Depression Miner (@MrDarrenGarrett)

Super Stardust ADHD (@spadgy_OTA)