Left: start screen (Silver)

Right: start screen (SoulSilver)

Introduction

Pokemon is a popular franchise spanning video games, cartoons, and trading card games. Each main game is an RPG that features the protagonist capturing and training the titular monsters (Pokemon, or “pocket monsters”) as they journey to become the best Trainer in the game’s region. Pokemon Red and Green were the first games, released in Japan in 1996, and when its remakes (Pokemon Blue and a reprogrammed Red version) were brought over to the U.S. in 1998 (and later, other countries), they proved to be extremely popular. Pokemon Gold and Silver were released in North America in October 2000. The games featured a new region/story/Pokemon, new types, breeding, multi-colored sprites, and other improvements over previous games. The remakes (Pokemon HeartGold/SoulSilver) were released state-side in 2010, largely preserving the original game story while modernizing the graphics and game mechanics.

The games were played until completion of the third Gym by defeating the Gym Leader, Whitney. However, the author also has prior experience with both games, having played both Pokemon Silver and SoulSilver at each game’s original release. As SoulSilver adheres closely to the original game’s design, the article is structured around the player’s journey in both games, with further details added for context as needed.

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Sid Meier’s Civilization is a popular turn-based strategy video game series.  The first of this series was released in 1991 with the latest installment, Civilization VI, being released in 2016.  In these games you control the fate of a civilization as it progresses through time and competes with other civilizations for land and resources.  You start as a tribe of wandering nomads ready to find their first permanent settlement.  As your city grows you make decisions on what to build and how to manage your resources always looking to expand your borders by settling new cities.  You decide what new technologies and ideas to focus your civilization’s research on, each unlocking the ability to build new buildings and units.  To be competitive with other nations you must learn to manage the resources provided by the land you control as well as those that are produced by what you decide to build in each city.  But don’t get too focused on increasing your production and research for it is a dangerous and competitive world your people inhabit.  You must maintain an army to defend yourself from wild barbarians and other civilized nations that wish to claim your land for their own.

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Aside from the obvious increase in quality of graphics in Ocarina of Time versus Breath of the Wild, the two games share many similarities in their features and gameplay. Even the main stories of the games, while different, parallel each other in many ways. This blog post will explore the differences and similarities in the two games.

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An interesting outcome of the continuous advance of technology and society is the effect on video games and video game culture. This readily apparent when comparing games from the early 2000’s with more modern releases – even when they are spiritual successors or extensions of an existing franchise. One franchise that shows a marked difference while still retaining much of the same gameplay ideals is the Spider-Man video game franchise for Sony PlayStation console.

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The long-anticipated game Etrian Odyssey Nexus (2019) was released earlier this year in North America and PAL regions on February 5, 2019 for the 3DS. This dungeon crawler RPG gained a niche following and never really went mainstream, but its use of events, quests, engaging adventure, and unique exploration bring back players time and time again. Not to mention the cute and cool character designs. Nexus is the final successor of the original Etrian Odyssey (2007), released on January 18, 2007 for the DS, and will be the last of its IP on the DS/3DS family. Even for the Nintendo Switch, no plans are currently being made by Altus on the future of the franchise.

Over the course of 12 years and multiple sequels and spinoffs since the release of Etrian Odyssey, it’s not hard to believe that changes have been made for better or for worse. With the upgraded hardware of the 3DS compared to the DS, Nexus has all the added benefits of a joystick and better internals that Etrian Odyssey lacks. Even on the software side, Nexus beats out Etrian Odyssey on features and controls the player has access to which shouldn’t come as a surprise. Today we’ll take a look at how far Etrian Odyssey Nexus has come compared to its original predecessor and whether or not it lives up to the series’ standards.

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Graphics

Over the past 25 years, graphics for video games has improved dramatically as evidenced by the comparison of the two screenshots above. On the left, you can see NHL 94 has a 2D, low-resolution display. On the right, you can see NHL 19 has a 3D, realistic looking display of the players, nets, boards, and even fans. Also, each player has a shadow seen on the ice which adds to the realistic feel of the gameplay. Comparing the ice between the two games shows some similarities and differences between the two. The ice in NHL 94 has a blue tint to it while the ice in NHL 19 is a bit more realistic with the white. However, NHL 94 shows the reflection of the “lights” on the ceiling which gives the ice a more realistic feel. NHL 19 shows the shadows of players and at certain points in the ice, a reflection of the ceiling lights can be seen. An added bonus in NHL 19 is the way the ice visibly gets chewed up as the period goes on and is refreshed every period (as the Zamboni would do in real life).

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Overview and Story:

Need for Speed has been a franchise set to scratch that itch that every gear head has when thinking of fast cars, customization, racing around the streets in a big city while evading the cops. The first Most Wanted from 2005 starts off with the main protagonist in his iconic BMW M3 GTR driving up to a group an illegal street racers with their leader Razor (who you find out is the 15^th member in the Blacklist). Later after a few races against other racers and the story pushed to inform that you built enough “street cred” and were able to race Razor for his spot on the blacklist. During the race you find out that car has been tampered with and the car could not finish the race. Since this was a Blacklist race both drivers had to put their car’s pink slips up for grabs. Since you lost now Razor has your car and has been using it to go up the Blacklist since you’ve been in jail. Now that you are out you want to revenge and beat him. Go through the game winning races and get to race him again while he’s at the number 1 spot. In comparison, the 2012 version has no story other than get to the first spot in the Most Wanted List. Win races evade the cops, but this time you don’t buy and upgrade cars. All the cars are scattered around the map and the gamer only must drive up to them and can switch, no customizing other than small upgrading capabilities by winning races in either first or second place. Since writing this the 2019 Most Wanted only has a trailer out but from that shows that EA is bringing their roots back to the customization and the 2005 story with hearing Razor’s voice stating he’s out for revenge.

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