1 The pomeranian – Tokyo Jungle
Taking the DNA of arcade gaming to the PS3, Tokyo Jungle remains one of the console’s largely under-recognised gems. Presenting a world where humans have vanished, leaving their cities as proving grounds for a new animal hegemony, it built gameplay around survival, evolution and even a bit of playfully romanticised animal copulation. The game was anything but easy, and hugely stylish. And its star was that well-known beguiler of Crufts judges, the pomeranian. The prime playable character, this plucky canine – often seen still dragging a pink lead in the dust – was a true star, outwitting great danger and establishing itself as an unlikely video gaming hero. It turns out that sporting frizzy red fur needn’t hinder those eager to claim their place in the interspecies pecking order.
2 Riley – Call of Duty: Ghosts
As the next instalment in the household name shooter was revealed, it wasn’t the glossy visuals or hi-tech arsenal that garnered the most excitement online. Rather, it was Riley, a playable dog character with a knack for charming jaded gamers, and who quickly became a star of the online realm. Developer Infinity Ward confessed it wasn’t expecting such affection, but they had gone the extra distance in breathing life into their four-legged combatant. As Ghosts was developed a real trained Navy Seal dog visited the studio, donned a motion-capture suit and performed in a “capture volume” stage, providing data that would enable its digital counterpart to move with all the grace of a real-world dog soldier.
3 PaRappa – PaRappa the Rapper
Donning an orange beenie and an unrelentingly positive spring in his step, MC, dancer and committed optimist PaRappa – backed by a cast of hens, martial artist onions and talking flowers – convinced the world of the merits of the rhythm-action genre in 1996. Led by its dog host, the game combined the basic principals of the electronic toy Simon with the vibes of a daisy age De La Soul LP, and to this day stands as an icon of Japanese game design. The same year PaRappa made his debut, canine hip-hop cohort Snoop unleashed his own record, Doggfather. A great year for wagging tails to rap cuts, then, and perhaps one that inspired Lil’ Bow Wow.
4 Nintendogs - Nintendogs
There was once a rumour that such was the success of the Tamagotchis in the mid-90s that a gangster empire was built on counterfeiting the virtual pets. They had a power even organised criminals couldn’t resist, apparently. No such underworld dalliances for the Tamagotchi’s spiritual offspring Nintendogs, who in 2005 spearheaded the casual gaming boom as the titular stars of Nintendo’s extravagantly popular pet-rearing game. These pooches demanded walking, feeding, brushing and playing. And how did they pay back their devoted owners? They just about understood voice control. Just like a real dog then.
5 Dog – Fable II
The Fable RPG series is as close as there is to a “British Zelda”. A light RPG set in the rolling hills of Albion, the game in its opening chapters introduced a wandering nameless dog, with which the player could build a symbiotic relationship. It was, as much as any of the best fictional relationships in videogames, meaningful, rewarding, and strangely touching. And if you stuck by your four-legged companion, you could eventually even name the creature. The Fable series famously let the player develop as either a being of good or evil, and in the second release in the main canon in particular, the dog’s behaviour was one of the most apparent indicators of the protagonist’s position on that spectrum. Good dogs, it turns out, are playful retrievers.
6 Laughing Dog – Duck Hunt
Down the sights of a NES Zapper lightgun, there weren’t just ducks. There was a smug, fearless hound with opposable thumbs.
FUTURE TECH
Game Jams
The idea of a game jam is simple. Make a game, typically within 24 hours to one week, competing with other teams while recognising a brief revealed at the moment of the starting whistle. The largest, such as Global Game Jam, welcome tens of thousands of entrants. The smallest might be a creative exercise within a game studio.
They let developers flex creative muscle, welcome newcomers to the world of making games, and even spawn hit releases such as Surgeon Simulator.
As September and October roll on, there are jams for NES development and building your own controllers. And if you want to play some jam creations, late August saw Ludum Dare spawn 2,539 games around the theme “connected worlds”. Try them for free.
PIXEL PERFECT
Retro rebooted
Arcade classic Crazy Taxi was always a game with mass appeal in its sights. So perhaps it’s no surprise that the 1999 release has now been reworked for smartphone and tablet, rebranded as Crazy Taxi: City Rush.
Kenji Kanno, the man behind the original, is on hand as executive producer, and his effort for touchscreen devices is undeniably fun. It’s effectively an on-rails “endless driver” – think Temple Run on wheels – and is a free-to-play affair.
Like many “free” mobile games, City Rush favours those that spend money on extras, and sometimes its appetite for cash can feel irksome. But the spirit and energy of the original is firmly in place, and, the endless running gameplay is surprisingly evocative of the pace of the arcade original.
