If...

Hoping for this to turn into something like Simply The Best, which gets rejuvenated with each new game series. Someone will pose the forum a question beginning with the word 'If'. That's my hope, anyway.

To kick things off: if you were forced to play only one genre of video game for the rest of your life, what genre would that be and why?

What a horrible thought!  Different genres offer different experiences - I wouldn't play a racing game much on my own, or a JRPG with friends round.  I'm not sure I could restrict myself to just the one...

If I had to I guess it'd be one of two: either action-adventure, for the Zelda series, for the exploration that's just a bit more interactive than yer JRPGs and them; or fighting, purely because each Smash Bros. game lasts me years and can do multiplayer.  But that would mean giving up on Phoenix Wright games...


That said, I'd be very happy if games companies, and especially Nintendo, were banned from releasing 2D platformers for a period of five years.  It's all too easy for them to bash out another one, or for indie developers to make the latest puzzle-platformer with an 'emotive setting' to tug at our heart strings.  Would inject some creativity into certain parts of the industry that have been using the genre as a crutch, even if it meant we had to do without the next Inside for a while.

(kicks on-topic discussion out of window of aeroplane into volcano, then fills it full of bullets on way down)

Would there be more of them? I think I'd struggle with the lack of volume if I was stuck with one genre.

For me it'd be RPGs, couldn't miss out on my Bioware games & I guess I could spend more time than I currently do in Bethesda games & the like. One of the more replayable genres too I reckon because of the variety.

Action-adventure, natch.

Pretty much the cheat genre because so many combine together so many genres within them, from racing missions to puzzle mini-games.

How water-downed do you want to go as I would say RPG's like Andy but by saying RPG's,

I'd get Zelda: Breath of the Wild Action-RPG,
Persona 5 JRPG
Mass Effect Andromeda Western RPG
Fire Emblem Tactical/Strategy RPG

MustresistsayingZeldaisn'tanRPGMustresistsayingZeldaisn'tanRPGMustresistsayingZeldaisn'tanRPG


And like everyone else so far I'm going to be completely unoriginal and predictable as sin given what I always talk about and go with the RPG genre.  It covers basically every franchise I care about anyway, Persona, Tales Of, Pokemon, Ys, and Fire Emblem, while I do like the occasional change the only series I'd honestly miss by not playing anything else is Danganronpa.  Possibly Zelda and Smash and possibly Mario Kart.

Genre debate anyone?

Only if everyone wants another giant badly written essay akin to my unread fe revelation shreddings

Things like this will always end up a genre debate as we have different views on games, I've said before why Zelda is an Action-RPG to me before but to someone else its something else.

So a question that Zero asks has to just be interrupted to the person answering views.

RPGs is a cheeky one, as it covers so many disparate games. Depending who you ask, I could probably sneak Monster Hunter, Dark Souls, Mass Effect, Zelda and Witcher all under the same banner.

Instead, I'll say 3D platformers. A good mario can keep me entertained almost indefinitely, and is pure joy. Plus, the pick-up-and-play nature means I might get on with other stuff as well.

Athrun888 wrote:

Only if everyone wants another giant badly written essay akin to my unread fe revelation shreddings

I read . . . bits of it

Balladeer wrote:

That said, I'd be very happy if games companies, and especially Nintendo, were banned from releasing 2D platformers for a period of five years.

Nah. Just...nah.

~

Sports game would be my choice. There aren't many games with the longevity of sports sims like FIFA and PES, but sticking with that one game genre would let me see what some of the others I haven't played - like PGA, UFC and NHL - are like. There's the more arcadey stuff from the past too - you can't get bored of Wii Sports, Mario Power Tennis and ISS 64. Let's not forget extreme sports too, like Wave Race 64, 1080 Snowboarding and THPS 3. Thinking more laterally, it's a genre that's got the variety that I'd need.

Would you also get some racing games as well, Cappa? As the F1 games are no different to FIFA but for Motorsport instead of Football.

I also read bits, Athrun.

Just so you know, I'm going to be contrary - twice! - with my reply.

I'm going for 2D platformers. I almost can't get enough of them, and I can usually finish one off before I get bored of them these days. In addition, if you play with genre definitions a bit, you can include Mega Man, Axiom Verge, Teslagrad, Shovel Knight, Castlevania, Runner2... the list could go on.

Also, I read all of Athrun's post.

Bally hell, really?  I got sick of them around the time that DKCTF and RLegends were two of the best games on the Wii U.  Then the 3DS pumped out an utter glut of them, including the pinnacle of why the genre needs shuffling away (in my mind): Chibi-Robo: Chuffing Zip Lash.  Meanwhile 3D platformers have been in pathetically short supply.

That's not to say that I'm sick of all the franchises you mention... most of which you have to use a very broad definition of the genre for anyway.

Balladeer wrote:

Bally hell, really?

...

That's not to say that I'm sick of all the franchises you mention... most of which you have to use a very broad definition of the genre for anyway.

Yup! I couldn't take RPG's because I get bored of long games easily and I couldn't take pure puzzle games because I'd crave greater variety. No other genres were in contention.

As for the next point I've selected - if it's got platforms and your character can jump on them, it goes under the platformer umbrella, for me. (or , I suppose, if you don't agree! )

I like that. It means under 3D platformers I can have Dark Souls, Metroid Prime, Halo, Shadow of the Collossus . . .

I'd pick the genre "games in which a character moves forward"

If "just Zeldas" doesn't count as a genre, then open-world-adventures (your Fallouts and Elder Scrolls and Witchers and whatnot). I have to complete them like 100% like, even when I see the repetition 100 hours in.

The Cappuccino Kid wrote:

Balladeer wrote:

That said, I'd be very happy if games companies, and especially Nintendo, were banned from releasing 2D platformers for a period of five years.

Nah. Just...nah.

~

Sports game would be my choice. There aren't many games with the longevity of sports sims like FIFA and PES, but sticking with that one game genre would let me see what some of the others I haven't played - like PGA, UFC and NHL - are like. There's the more arcadey stuff from the past too - you can't get bored of Wii Sports, Mario Power Tennis and ISS 64. Let's not forget extreme sports too, like Wave Race 64, 1080 Snowboarding and THPS 3. Thinking more laterally, it's a genre that's got the variety that I'd need.

That's a great choice & would likely be my pick as I don't think I could do without playing PES, oh & if I had to recommend any PGA game to you it'd be Tiger Woods PGA tour 10 for the wii - I played that game a shit tonne to the point it was on my mind as soon as I woke up every morning.

It's also one of the best uses of the motion plus in any wii game.

OK, new question: if you were only able to use one console that has been released up to today's date (8th October 2016) for the rest of your gaming days, what would it be and why?

That's a real hard one and I guess you mean home console, so I can't say PC or something similar.

It can be a handheld but I will regard saying 'PC' as cheating, which will incur a ban of seven seconds.

ARGH!  What a horrible question!  AGAIN! I might say the Wii U, surprisingly enough - latest versions of Smash and Kart, XCX which would last me years if I put all the necessary effort into it, and - the kicker - the entirety of the Wii's better-than-it-was-given-credit-for backlog.  The only competitor is the 3DS, for very similar reasons (plus Meteos, natch).

I honestly can't choose, it's the gaming equivalent of asking whether you'd choose to give up your eyesight or hearing. Both make life absolutely miserable!

I guess I'm only getting the games up to the day I post this reply as otherwise picking something like the PS4 might make sense as you would still be getting new games for a few years to come and you would have online play as well to keep you going.

So the PS4 is not my answer (unless I do still get all the new games) or even the SEGA Dreamcast, Yes! it may be my favourite system of all-time and has a decent sized library, so if you had all the games from all the regions along with indies etc you'd have a fare few games to play.

My answer then is for reason similar to Balla's and that is the


The 60GB OG PS3 like in that picture plays almost all PS1 game discs, quite a few PS2 game discs, has a vast library of it's own games on disc, then if I've got online then all the PlayStation Classics available & PSN titles along with being able to play things like Final Fantasy XIV due to the online, gives me something like over 12,000 games to play (That's based on a system that's 100% region free and plays all PS2 games which it doesn't).

If I played one game a day it would take me 33 years to play them all.

I'd either say Wii or 3DS.

On a Wii I could play SM64, SMS, SMG and SMG2, which is a pretty unbeatable run of games, plus OoT, MM, WW, TP and SS. Plus, I could still have some fairly decent multiplayer sessions, which is a big part of my social life.

On the other hand, with a 3DS I have the Monster Hunter and Animal Crossing games, which could probably keep me entertained forever. I also tend to find more time for handheld things like that.

In the end, though, I couldn't live knowing I could never play Super Mario Galaxy again. Wii all day.