Spare a moment and think about the first video game you ever played. What was it about that eye-opening, sensory experience that compelled you to keep playing? Whether this was the first time you put fingers to a keyboard, wiped off your greasy palms before picking up a joystick, got to grips with your first joypad, or put stylus to touch-screen for the first time, something about that game left a lasting impression that will never leave you.
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When Microsoft launched Live Arcade on the Xbox 360, it was initially a bit of a mystery. Cheap, downloadable games that could be stored on your hard drive certainly seemed nice and convenient, and the service boasted a mix of retro remakes and new, innovative titles. Hours could be wasted playing simple puzzle games you could pick up for a fiver. Had old-school gaming reached the renaissance it so dearly needed?
Spore seems to be wowing all and sundry on the PC. Regular blogs on Google Readers everywhere have been reduced to the brief but geeky: "Sorry, I'm a bit behind with the blog, Spore is just too great."
To some, fiddling about with the fundamentals of the godfather of gaming, Tetris, is the equivalent of squatting on the Mona Lisa and curling one out. Yet with a now yearly update to the mobile version of Tetris, game makers (well, Electronic Arts) have become fed-up with the minor adjustment of yearly re-branding the game and given the classic puzzler a complete overhaul for the mobile generation.