Tag Archives: Sony

#967 – Console Start-Up Screens

17 Mar

No time to waste, it’s story time! I (15 year old me) have just arrived home from a trip to the store with my Dad. I was lucky enough to have him buy me a copy of Pikmin for the Nintendo GameCube. I rip open the plastic packaging and place the disc into the system. I turn on the television and hit the power button on the GameCube. Before I even get into my new game I’m welcomed by a start-up screen that I have seen hundreds of times. And despite the repetition, it makes me smile yet again and gets me hyped for the game.

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The above story is just one example that has happened numerous of times in my lifetime. The console start-up screen is something we take for granted today, but just imagine a video game world where they didn’t exist. Sure, start-up screens are less relevant today as current-gen systems can awake from rest mode in a matter of seconds, but you can’t forget that little piece of entertainment before the game. The sounds, the visuals, the pure ecstasy. The appetizer before the main course one would say.

Of course a post about start-up screens would need a video to showcase what I’m talking about and don’t you fret, I have you covered. Some of these you may know and some of these you may not, just appreciate all the different nuances from system to system. Grab some tissues as the tears of joy prepare to be expelled from your eyes and get ready to be sent down memory lane. Without further ado, here is a compilation of console start-up screens.

AWESOME!

#991 – Slaying a Colussus 

30 Oct

Let me start out by saying that Shadow of the Colossus is one of the greatest video games ever made. Period. No arguments about it cause you can’t win (well you can, I’m just not in the mood to argue). And even though a number of factors are reason for this, such as the grand soundtrack, graphical style, and minimalistic yet impactful story, the true joy is slaying these Colossi.

Shadow of the Colossus, for the unaware, is a game of 16 boss fights, but not just boss fights, epic boss fights. Each beast has to be conquered in a variety of ways and the joy in solving these gargantuan puzzles is oh so satisfying. It sounds complicated but a very simple control scheme makes it feel smooth.

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Let us experience the awesomeness of this together with one of many common scenarios that can occur in this game. You ride your trusty horse to one of these behemoths. It does everything in it’s power to try to toss and squish you while you slowly make it to a small patch on it’s back. Stabbing it a couple of times while your grip slowly loosens, it is time to journey to the head. You finally make it and are down to one stab left but then the worst happens… you fall off. But you don’t panic and manage to not get crushed under it’s feet. Time for another journey to the head where you deal that final blow that slays the Colossus for good.

That feeling of accomplishment is something you usually feel only at the end of a video game, yet in Shadow of the Colossus you get to experience that 16 times. So sit back and enjoy 16x of…

AWESOME!