I remember that when I was first introduced to Lemmings many years ago, the thing that struck me wasn’t the clever level design or the interesting new puzzle-game mechanics, but was instead how totally awesome it was listening to them all scream “Oh no!” and explode in a shower of lem-bits when you hit the Armageddon button.  I won’t say I am proud of that.

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Everyone has their guilty pleasures; for some it’s a type food that’s bad for you, or a cheesy romance paperback. As gamers, we all have games that we secretly have love affairs with that we’d sometimes rather not let on about. Whether it’s a game that you shouldn’t like based on some demographic stereotype, or is just plain horrible for other reasons, we enjoy the time we spend with it anyway, even if it would raise the eyebrows of our fellow gamers. For this writer, who loves his complex and deep role playing games and fast paced shooters, one of my  guilty pleasures is Harvest Moon.

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I had a friend in middle school, one of those friends that fell into the “someone you see on the bus” and “sometimes go to their house” categories.  The kind of friend that you would happily play bloody knuckles with in the back of the bus, but if you passed each other in the halls, you’d probably just nod and be on your way.  Pre-teen friendships were strange like that.

On those many bus rides home, my friend would, every so often, pull a collection of floppy disks out of his backpack and declare “you’ve got to check this out.”  And whenever he did, I’d be sure to take those floppies home straight away and see what wonderful surprise they held.  My friend had earned that trust; it was through him that I first discovered Wasteland and Sim City, so his track record was golden in my eyes.

And so it was, one day in 1992, that I stepped off the bus with a 3.5″ disk in my hand simply labeled “Virtual Reality Studio.”  I installed the program on my system with no idea what to expect, and what I got was something that I never saw coming.

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L.B. Jeffries over at PopMatters takes an interesting look back at Tie Fighter in the light of our post 9/11 world.

The opening yellow text describes the destruction of the Death Star as an act by cowardly “Rebel terrorists.” In a grand speech to his people, the Emperor explains that they will bring peace and order to the galaxy. TIE Fighter was a brilliant game at the time of its release, but now its themes and gameplay have taken on a new meaning in the wake of 9/11. The game reveals how easy it is to slip into a mindset of blind loyalty, nationalism, and unquestioning service to a greater authority.

In addition to the political slant, Jeffries takes a good look at the way the Empire and the Rebels are differentiated in gameplay terms through their combat styles and ship capabilities.  It’s all enough to make me want to dig up my disks and pull out my joystick.  Sadly, the joystick is long gone, and playing with the keyboard just isn’t the same…

Last week, Anthony Burch over at Destructoid put out the latest entry in his “Rev Rants” series.  In these short videos, Mr. Burch picks whatever aspect of gaming is weighing on his mind and gives a spirited “rant” about what’s wrong with it.  In his most recent rant, Mr. Burch declares that it’s time for video games to just stop being about “fun,” and that they need to tackle more serious matters.

Already a lot of people have reacted to this piece, and while I am not David Jaffe, I too have been thinking over his words and my reaction to them.  Mr. Burch makes many points that I agree with, but I find that, overall, he is arguing on somewhat flawed grounds.  While I won’t call this a rebuttal, I’d like to take the time to go over some of his points and where I feel they are mistaken.

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