Beginning with the original Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) this video depicts the evolution of Nintendo’s home video game consoles using a cool transformer type transitions.

Watch this timeline on video games spanning 35 years, from Pong all the way to our current generation of titles - it’s quite apparent that we’ve come a long way. How many of the games featured have you had the opportunity to play?

RipTen posted a commentary on the passing of head coach of the San Francisco 49ers and Stanford University, Bill Walsh (1931-2007) who lost his fight with leukemia.

The Mad Gamer said this:

I watched the news today regarding the passing of Bill Walsh and couldn’t help but feel that if this was John Madden every video game website on the face of earth would be talking about it.

However Bill Walsh, a member of the hall of fame, three time Superbowl champion, and one of the greatest coaches of all time, loses his fight with leukemia at the age of 75 today and I could not find any mention of him on IGN, 1up, or Gamespot.

Was his mid 90’s video game not “hip” enough? It was one of the first games to deal with football on the college level. Call me what you will, but I know for a fact that if this was John Madden this would not have been the case.

The world is left with one less father, one less teacher, and one less innovator today. He should be remembered and respected by all of us … including the gaming community.

So when you grab your controller, drop back with your QB and throw a quick pass to your running back for a gain of five, remember that it was Bill Walsh who first used the short passing game as an alternative to the running game. And the next time you call out your buddy for not being able to defend your high flying west coast offense, all I ask is that you quietly thank the man who invented it.

[source]

IGN put together this top ten list by polling editors around the office, and combining their lists with reader review input. Here’s the ten they claim to be the toughest games to beat of all time:

• 10. Ninja Gaiden Black
• 9. Devil May Cry 3
• 8. Battletoads
• 7. R-Type
• 6. MDK2
• 5. Super Ghouls ‘N Ghosts
• 4. F-Zero GX
• 3. Shinobi
• 2. Mega Man
• 1. Contra

Found this article over at Newsweek.com game section Level Up about how Nintendo fans love the family friendly games that Nintendo produces themselves, but when it comes to 3rd party titles of the same type - they avoid these like the plague. From the article:

Kevin Cassidy (founder of the news, reviews and opinion site GoNintendo.com) regarding a Level Up post about how Sony’s hit games with alternative controllers paved the way for the Wii’s success, when Cassidy wrote:

“Right now people are too busy bitching about Konami’s ‘kiddy’ games. I swear, Nintendo fans are never happy.”

After some back and forth discussion of his statement, we realized that Cassidy’s thoughts had the makings of an insightful rant, so we asked him to answer the following question “Are Nintendo fans too hard on third-party games?”

Here’s his response:

For many years, Nintendo had a rough time securing truly robust third party support. But back during the 8-bit and 16-bit wars, things were quite different: Sega and Nintendo were the big players, and their respective systems were cartridge-based. As time moved on, things changed drastically on all fronts, from storage, to competitors, and even subject matter. Nintendo decided to stay with the more expensive cartridges for their Nintendo 64 platform, while newcomer Sony went with much cheaper CD-based media. That change, combined with the scary prospect of competing against Nintendo’s first party powerhouse franchises, produced the perfect recipe for third party disaster, resulting in ever-decreasing third party support until very recently.

Enter the Wii, Nintendo’s new platform full of fresh ideas: Two motion-based controllers, a Virtual Console system which lets you download classic titles from a number of platforms, and Nintendo’s pledge to actively pursue third party development. The first few months for the Wii have been outstanding. Consumers seem to understand and enjoy what Nintendo is striving to do, and third parties see the Wii as a viable platform for their work. Nintendo is doing what they said they would all along, getting the third party support that fans wanted. The only problem is that these same fans don’t seem to want what third parties have to offer.

Konami, Ubisoft, THQ, EA, and many other big name third party developers have announced that they have a number of games in the works for the Wii. You have ports of last generation games, original IPs exclusive to the Wii, huge titles from EA’s lineup, and more. Yet from what I have seen, Wii owners are complaining about almost everything the Wii has heading its way. Take for example Dewy’s Adventure, a recently announced puzzle/platformer game that makes use of everything unique to the Wii’s control scheme. An alarming number of fans have branded the game as “kiddie” and not worth a second look. This not-worth-my-time message board buzz seems to be afflicting an alarming number of titles coming to the Wii. Prince of Persia: Rival Swords; The Godfather: Blackhand Edition; Scarface; Mortal Kombat: Armageddon—fans lambaste them all because they appeared on last-generation platforms. Nintendo die hards want third party support, but they don’t want the original titles, enhanced ports, or “kiddy” games that they accuse third parties of dumping on the Wii.

Well, what do Wii owners want then?

From what I can see, Wii owners want more “mature” titles. I put this term in quotes because I simply don’t believe that the gameplay examples fans are citing qualify as mature. The general outcry seems to be for titles that offer up violence in one way or another. So while many Wii owners do not want ports, they do want original IPs that are grittier than the traditional Nintendo fare. This desire is definitely a byproduct of the popularity of franchises such as Grand Theft Auto, Halo and their many imitators. Those games are both wonderful examples of pulling people into game worlds, but they don’t have to be the end all, be all of software support.

Going back to the unjustly maligned Dewy’s Adventure, what Nintendo fans deride as “kiddie” is more fairly described as whimsical. Still, they write on message boards that the game doesn’t appeal to them at all because it lacks “mature” themes, yet many of the people leaving these comments aren’t even old enough to purchase Mature-rated games. All the while, Nintendo’s own family friendly titles somehow seem to be exempt from these “kiddie” accusations, most likely owing to the company’s well-established heritage.

So when it comes to third party games, Nintendo fans are almost impossible to please. They seem to want everything and nothing at the same time. They want massive third party support, but when they get it they turn their backs. They have no problem with the rated-E for Everyone titles when Nintendo makes them, but the same designation is unacceptable when coming from third parties.

Over the past several weeks we have seen a huge amount of external support for the Wii in all categories, and I can’t think of one title in particular that fans are really excited about. Is this the product of a mentality that says games aren’t fun unless they are violent? Or are Nintendo fans being too picky for their own good? If their current opinion of these games carries over to the final sales tally, it looks like Nintendo will once again lose the third party support they have been working so hard to regain. Here I thought things were finally going the Big N’s way, and now, because of the fickle tastes of my fellow Wii-philes, I am left worrying that Mario and friends will once again be left to carry the console end of Nintendo on their shoulders, all by their lonesome.

[source Level Up]