My personal gaming history

From a very young age I always had a love for bright visuals and colourful imagery. I had only ever been able to experience this through cartoons I had watched or books I had read. This changed at the age of 4 when I had played my first video game. The concept of being able to control the moving pictures on the television screen was new and exciting to me. The first game I ever played was Super Mario Bros. on the NES; and from that moment on I began my obsession with video games.

The first console I owned was the Super Nintendo Entertainment System and with it I had all the major Super Mario games and various other titles. Super Mario World and its Sequel, Yoshi's Island remain to be two of my most memorable experiences. I love the charming 2D sprites and the colourful worlds Nintendo's artists had created and the innovative and addicting gameplay. Fundamentally, I associate Super Mario with excellent platforming and also with my childhood. I don't think any game has sparked such a tremendous amount of nostalgia for me.

Getting older I began to play a wider variety of games. I began to play fighters, my first being Street Fighter 2 which I imedietly fell in love with and continue to play to this day. I also discovered RPG's which became a new addiction to me; The Legend of Zelda and Final Fantasy series being 2 of my all-time favourites. I loved the idea of having complex, interesting characters work along side eachother in a team which was fully customisable. Another aspect I particularly enjoyed was the deeper, more engaging storylines.

A game I played recently that really captivated me was Silent Hill 2. The characters were complex, original and completly messed up. The fact that non of them followed the stereotype of being pristine looking and highly-polished, instead opting for faulted and in some ways, unattractive is what made them so appealing and memorable.The world of SH2 is also very intriguing; the pepetual fog and the concept of hearing what you cannot see is particularly terrifying. I also loved how psychologically distressing some of the levels were; when the main character, James comes face to face with the monstrous Pyramid Head from behind bars, only after prolonged consideration do you realise that the creature is infact the protagonist's own reflection.

Silent Hill 2 tapped into something that I believe is still new territory in gaming; it created a psychologically invasive experience, filled with subliminal messages and genious artistic execution. I believe that with the constant tidal wave of first-person shooters and action adventure games dominating the market that games like SH2 have little chance of reapearing in the industry. Even the Silent Hill series on a whole seem to have strayed away from their roots and opted for more action-orientated games. Now games striving for such unique premises at times fall short or just fail to sell as well.

However, games promoting originality and character seem to strive more on the downloadable market place. Games like Limbo took a simple concept and married it with unique visuals and challenging gameplay. I would like to see more games released in a similar vein, whether it be over xbox live or through retail. My dream would be to play a game that could transport you to a living, breathing dystopia which would allow you to interact with computer-controlled characters as if they were people and change things in the digital world around you. An ideal way of playing this sort of game would be through a virtual-reality interface like VR goggles and wired gloves that recognise motion. This sort of technology has been explored before but not to great depths. Either way it will be very interesting to see what the industry produces next.