Have we finally reached zombie saturation?

Maybe 10-15 years ago, once in a blue moon, we'd receive a game that might feature zombies. Now, it seems like every single game that comes out has to include some sort of a zombie mode. It's cool to see something different happening, but at the same time, even though it's only been two or three years since Left 4 Dead reminded people how fun it is to kill zombies with friends, is it possible that there's too much of a good thing happening?

The big reason why I feel like zombies caught on is because for once, instead of worrying about shooting brown people or Nazis in the face in some fictional take on a war, you were teaming up with friends to take down hordes of a new type of enemy that only seems to pose a threat in large hoards. This is wonderful and all, but...I feel like it started getting out of hand with Saints Row 2, and now that Crackdown 2 features tons of them to fight instead of fictional games, it's making me scratch my head in confusion.

Is this really necessary? Aren't there other ways to do co-op? While Left 4 Dead, L4D2, Killing Floor, and Nazi Zombies are all good fun, what happened to the days when it was fine to just walk down a street, fighting thugs in Streets of Rage, or the 4 player fun of Four Swords where you were on a quest? I'm not saying that zombies need to be out of games completely, but if you're making a game and want to let people work together, there's still some other things that you could do that are almost untapped.

GTA4 had an awesome thing going with its multiplayer exclusive co-op missions and its tight knit team v team v team v team modes. New Super Mario Bros take on the traditional Mario formula, then throwing 3 other players into the mix easily helped it on to many peoples top 10 games of 2009. At the same time, I wouldn't be the least bit surprised to see a game like MAG add in some bizarre 256 player zombie mode in the future, provided zombies keep selling like hotcakes (do those things actually sell still?). Anyway, I think I've rambled as long as I can about this, so let's just remind ourselves to keep a tally of how many last-minute zombie modes make it into 2010.

Arcade Spotlight - Crazy Climber/Crazy Climber 2

Just to clear this entire concept up, the Arcade Spotlight is going to be based on just highlighting games that I feel are well worth playing or at least deserve some mention, whether its one of those crazy cabinets you have to experience or just a really fun game I came across on MAME. This one's a MAME game. I'm sure the cabinet was probably weird to play on, but its already weird enough emulated. After Geometry Wars came out on Xbox Live Arcade, suddenly everyone was obsessed with making their own twin stick shooter with a slight twist. From Super Stardust to last years smash hit, I MAED A GMAE W2TH Z0MB1ES!!11, there's been tons of choices. So what about twin stick climbing games?

Crazy Climbers is a really...bizarre concept for a game. It makes perfect sense on every level, which is what makes it even crazier. You start the game as a guy that's scaling the side of a skyscraper or something for some reason (I can personally imagine 50 other things to do when bored). The left stick controls movement of the left side of your body while the right is, respectively, your right. The entire game consists of going up the side of a building, all the while dodging planters and closing windows, while still looking for good spots to grip on to. It's one of those things that is even more fun if you've got two joysticks that you can hook up to the computer just to waste maybe 30-40 minutes of your life, or see who can get the highest between a group of friends. The sequel is more of the same, but has a better art style and more obstacles to overcome. Again, they're not the best games ever, but if you come across them, give them a shot and let me know what you think.

Indie Spotlight - Realm of the Mad God

Today, I'd like to bring everyone's attention to Realm of the Mad God. It recently popped up over at Tigsource and Indiegames.com's blog. All it is, is a simple 2d rpg, but for some reason is insanely addictive. There's 5 different classes to choose from at the outset, each one starting with different stats and equipment, a character name slot, then you enter the world. Right now, the game is fairly early into its development, but the simplistic gameplay has me sitting in front of it for an hour when I only mean to play for 10 minutes.

Instead of stopping with just creating a fun, browser based rpg, it looks like anyone that's playing the game online is playing together, which means you can be stumbling through the world, constantly dying, then eventually spawn near a few other players, which usually encourages them all to stick together, making things a bit easier for all people involved. Unfortunately, since there's no map or loot-sharing, things can get a bit confusing (especially if you're looking for a certain person), but there is a chat feature that allows you to talk to all other players in game. As of right now, since it's online only, it can be hard to get into the game at certain times, but check back now and then when you've got the time. This is definitely something to keep your eye on and try out if you've got nothing else to do, since its a pretty tiny download, even for a browser-based title.

Heart and Soul (not the Pokemon games either!)

This is just a quick thought about something that seems to be plaguing quite a few games nowadays. There's always going to be those titles out there that are just shovelware, produced for a cheap amount of money to make an instant profit from unknowing customers, but there's also an epidemic of high quality games coming out that lack any real emotion behind them. Take Forza 3 and Gran Turismo 5 (I know it's early to judge, but bear with me). We all know these games are going to be hailed as the best racing games ever by sim fans, but as a result, it feels like they spent so much time working on creating the perfect physics engine for these pristine tracks with hundreds of cars to choose from that they forgot to put anything that differentiates the two titles and makes them stand out as damn good racing games and not just accurate sims.

With titles like Burnout Paradise still going strong, or even last years Need For Speed Shift with its hard-to-control higher tier cars, it's odd to think that those titles are the ones that will stand out 5-10 years from now simply because they at least did something a bit different from the standard formula instead of just refining their previously offered experiences, even if they aren't as critically acclaimed. I'll go so far as to say that this is the reason why there's so many people that prefer Madden 04 to Madden 10, since there was a huge difference (hit sticks introduction). I might be horribly wrong, about that last statement, but it's just some food for thought the next time you're playing a game and can't figure out exactly why it isn't the best game ever, even if it's an improved version of something you loved before.

First!

Welcome to your do- erm... yet another gaming blog! This is more of a thing for personal development, but if you stumble across it and enjoy it, leave a comment for me on any of the posts or what-ev. If you don't like it... leave a hateful comment? The purpose of this blog is for me to do at least 1-3 daily, gaming related updates , having one site where I keep all of my reviews, and to keep track of things that happen throughout the year (or years.) If anyone sees this and would be interested in contributing, just leave a comment and I'll try to get you added as a contributor. It's a lot more fun when you've got several different voices instead of just mine, after all. Again, try to keep everything strictly gaming related, unless it's something super important. There's a billion of these blogs out there, but there's even more of people talking about some day that they won't even remember themselves in the following day.