Here at Silicon Sasquatch, we feel that old games deserve some love too. From time to time, we want to look back at games that have made a big impact — especially when a new version of an old favorite is scheduled to be released. It is in that context that we present to you another Retrospective article, this time on arcade and 16-bit classic NBA Jam.

It’s no secret that I am a sports guy. Many times, though, sports games are commodities: The franchises develop a lineage (à la Madden NFL) while the details on individual entries from each year are often forgotten.

NBA Jam is different. It may not be the first arcade sports game, or even the first arcade basketball game, but it was one of the first blockbuster arcade games, and it’s one that still resounds in the gaming community to this day. It’s also one of the few sports games that holds just as much nostalgia for nerds as it does for jocks. Most importantly, it’s still fun — and a new one is on the way.

Every grocery store and 7-11 worth its salt had one of these back in the day.

Developed by Midway, the original NBA Jam was a skunkworks project that eventually earned more than $1 billion in revenue in the arcades. Home ports for the Super NES and Genesis followed, as did sequels, spin-offs (like NBA Hangtime and NBA Showtime) and games inspired by the series (EA’s last-gen NBA Street titles, for one).

The version of NBA Jam on home consoles is what I’m most familiar with. My childhood best friends had copies of the Sega Genesis version of the game, and many an afternoon was whiled away throwing down dunks and trying to get on fire. The game’s simplified interpretation of NBA rules, pared-down 2 on 2 gameplay, and flashy emphasis on big slam dunks and close games were really attractive and addictive, even to elementary school kids.

Oh yes…there were definitely cheat codes.

One of the real highlights of that time was trying to find all the cheat codes and secret characters in the game. Remember, this was a time before the Internet — and video game magazines were not something your average 3rd or 4th grader read on a regular basis. Codes passed like rumors through the schoolyard, and it’s only now that I realize who that P-Funk guy was they put into the game. Of course, the tag team of Bill Clinton and Al Gore was also something special.

The amazing thing is that, even now, the game holds up. Fellow Sasquatch editor Nick and I have put some time into the NBA Jam cabinet at Ground Kontrol, and playing a full 4-player matchup is still great fun. It’s simple enough to learn and strategize that within one quarter of a game I was able to help Nick drop 3-pointers and dunk on fools. We’ve even discussed heading down there just for NBA Jam.

PIPPEN! Bulls and Blazers great Scottie Pippen was a god in NBA Jam.

That’s part of the reason why I’m so excited for EA Sports’ renewal of NBA Jam due out this fall: the gameplay still holds up. As much as I love the old sprites and using the classic lineups from 1993, I believe that an update featuring better graphics and today’s stars will help capture a younger generation. Regardless, the old version will live on in arcades and emulators, so if EA royally screws it up, we’ll always have Midway’s classic.

• 1 month: $9.99, up from $7.99; approximately a 25% increase
• 3 months: $24.99, up from $19.99; approximately a 25% increase
• 12 months: $59.99, up from $49.99; approximately a 20% increase

This seems to be sparking some backlash among the masses of outspoken Xbox Live members because hey, it’s always been $50 per year ever since Xbox Live launched in late 2002, right?

Right. But fifty bucks isn’t what fifty bucks used to be. When you calculate the change in relative worth of the US dollar over time, you see something like this:

It turns out that, by just about any measure, $50 in 2002 is roughly equivalent in worth to $60 in 2010. And yes, you could potentially make the argument that Microsoft should be saving a lot of money through diminishing operating costs for maintaining a server infrastructure for machines that are now running five-year-old hardware. But there’s also the valid counterargument that interface updates and access to new free services have helped to maintain a relatively consistent value for Xbox Live.

Is the price increase unexpected? Absolutely not. Microsoft’s gearing up to integrate services like ESPN into its Xbox Live Gold service this fall, and that must have been an expensive deal between the two companies. But when you just take a look at the numbers, there’s nothing controversial about this at all.

Backlog agents! Are! GO!

Doug

Are you ready for some football?

College football season is less than a week away, and I’ve been playing quite a bit of NCAA Football 11. I’ve been playing on my own, leading my Oregon Ducks to glory, and I’m also involved with an online dynasty where I’m using Mississippi from the Southeastern Conference. The game is still a very good improvement on years past, but I’ve got one pretty big complaint.

The AI is a bastard about going into God mode. I was playing against one of the better teams in my Oregon save recently, went up 28-7 early, then had my game fall to pieces. Shockingly, after this, the CPU starts destroying me — and stupid things start happening to my players, like fumbles. EA Sports deciding that I am going to do nothing but lose is really frustrating, but fortunately, it doesn’t happen too often. Shutting out Boise State in the BCS National Championship game is also a nice way to counterbalance that frustration, too.

I’m almost finished with Red Dead Redemption, too — it’s been an interesting, curving plot so far, and seems much longer than the 20 or so hours I’ve put in, but strangely it seems to me that the gameplay and missions tend to run together. Far too many missions have you clearing out an enemy stronghold, especially when you’re in the Mexican section of the storyline. I also have wandered into my first ninja cougar attacks, too, which are definitely interesting.

I could keep going, but I want to play some more of my old Dreamcast games in anticipation of the system’s U.S. launch anniversary coming up, and I need to start God of War for PS2, which I picked up used earlier this week.

Nick

The aftermath of one of Crash 'n the Boys' better shows

The books adorn my shelves in numerical order. The movie ticket stub is still sitting out on my desk. I even paid a dollar so my Xbox avatar could sport a swanky Sex Bob-Omb t-shirt.

So yeah, I think it’s fair to say I’m a pretty big fan of Scott Pilgrim. And fortunately, it holds the rare distinction of being excellent in all its incarnations: The books are great, the movie is a fun adaptation and the game is exactly the kind of game Scott would want to play. By combining the adrenal thrills of old-school beat-’em-ups with some smart persistent character progression features, the Scott Pilgrim game has been an absolute blast to play. And although I’ve mostly played it alone, I can’t wait for some four-player action next week…

…when I go to PAX. Although most of the Sasquatch crew has to sit this year’s expo out, Spencer and I are going to be in Seattle for the full three days of the convention. In the interest of full disclosure, I’ll just say that I’m mostly going with the hopes of doing some good old-fashioned networking and hopefully getting a little closer to finally landing a job in the games industry. But I also can’t wait to check out the games on display, so if anyone wants to hear my impressions with Kinect or Rock Band 3′s pro instruments or the Nintendo 3DS (I hope it’s there…) just drop me a line. I’m happy to share as much as I can.

Tyler

I'm not sure what's completely going on, but since it's from Persona 3 Portable, it's guaranteed to be very Japanese.

As part of my Japanese indoctrination, I’ve been playing through Persona 3 Portable, the PSP port of Atlus’ PS2 JRPG. Though I’m a little over sixty hours deep at this point, I fear I may only be about 80% through the game.

The gameplay has certainly been streamlined from Persona 3 & 4 on the console, which is probably why I’ve invested more time in this title than any other Shin Megami Tensei-series game I’ve ever played. Fun fact: at one point or another I have owned Persona 2: Eternal Punishment, Persona 3, Persona3: FES, and I still own Persona 4; I haven’t finished a single one of them.

The changes Atlus made to the interface for P3P greatly appeal to my ADD sensibilities. Moving from area to area outside of the dungeon and working through your social links, a process that I found incredibly tedious in Persona 3, now simply requires navigating a menu rather than moving your protagonist in the game world. Reviews have compared the game to more of a visual novel with dungeon crawling segments; I’d be inclined to agree with that assessment, and it’s likely the perfect format for a modern JRPG. You get all the wacky anime-style drama and twists and turns without the massive amount of fluff and tedium generally seen in these games.

It’s easy to see why developers like Square-Enix are focusing on portable systems for their RPGs. If Final Fantasy XIII is any indication, I don’t have much desire to play a JRPG on a home console these days. The long hours these games require work so much better in smaller, more accessible doses.

A quick iOS recommendation: Monster Dash from Halfbrick (Fruit Ninja). It’s a great variation on the “run-to-the-left” style of games made famous by Canabalt.

Naturally, I would place most first- and third-person shooters, most sports games, racing games, and fighting games into the “skill” category, while RPGs and adventure games dominate the “story” zone. Sure, a game like Mass Effect 2 may have wonderful shooting mechanics, but the game’s focus isn’t on a combat engine that’s balanced for multiplayer, where time investment and development of skill is rewarded. Instead, it focuses on advancing a captivating story with action scenes designed to make the player feel empowered. While it may help engage the player in the conflict, it’s not the same as the combat in a balanced, multiplayer-focused shooter like Halo or Call of Duty. Even the incredibly tight combat engine in a modern Zelda title is focused on a single-player experience, as its traditional “get this new tool and make use of it in the dungeon” gameplay is designed to act as a ramp to climb throughout the duration of Link’s quest.

Conversely, your classic Street Fighter, Soul Calibur, or other fighting game may have a story mode, but it’s secondary fluff on top of the fighting engine, learning characters’ move sets, and how to become a better fighter. Racing games are the same way; simulation games like Forza Motorsport or Gran Turismo are about the feeling of driving, improving yourself as a driver and mastering the physics engine at the heart of the game, not a narrative. And, of course, shooters like Halo and Call of Duty have engines that lend themselves to a level playing field for truly competitive multiplayer.

Using these different lenses, then, it’s interesting to view the changes Blizzard is making within Starcraft II to play to each of these strengths. While the multiplayer modes (as previewed during the beta period and available now with the retail release of Wings of Liberty) seemed like a graphical and game-engine evolution of the original Starcraft, the company has taken a different tack with single player. Of course multiplayer has been updated in many ways, but single player no longer contains all of the same details as multi. Some units are only available in the campaign, as is the ability to make customization choices through a branching path in the single-player mode.

While these sort of branching changes would inevitably break multiplayer — having to balance all the possibilities could be impossible, even for a company with resources like Blizzard — they help make the single-player experience a more robust and individualized process. I’ve heard on different podcasts a variety of laments for taking one upgrade choice over another: in the same way that the branching paths in the game open up unique experiences, so does having that permanent branching upgrade tree. Blizzard introduced more Terran options into the single player campaign, and once you make a decision, you have to live with it.

It may not be an analogous situation, but the new Medal of Honor game from EA is following a slightly similar tack — at the very least, the single-player and multi-player modes are being handled by two different companies within the EA hivemind; EA’s Danger Close Games in Los Angeles is crafting the single-player mode, while Battlefield series developer DICE is handling the multiplayer. This outsourced style of development may be the future of AAA games: the first Bioshock famously had segments of the game outsourced throughout the 2K studios worldwide.

However, separating the development of single-player components from multiplayer — and the admission that they take different approaches to make work — is a fascinating evolution in the history of creating video games. It’s an admission that there are different goals regarding crafting a single-player experience and a finely tuned multiplayer game that allows for competitive play. Moreover, for super-large AAA-quality games in the future where gamers demand both an engaging single-player campaign and competitive multiplayer, dividing the creation duties could become the standard development strategy.

Scott's a rocker. He rocks out.

So this book called Scott Pilgrim’s Finest Hour came out this week. You might not have read the series yet, but you’ve probably heard about the comics, or the upcoming game, or the movie starring Michael Cera. The reason it bears mentioning is that it’s a spot-on representation of the minds and memories of all of us children of the ’80s who grew up on Nintendo and Sega. If that sounds like something you can relate to, you’re probably going to love the comics.

It really has been a good week for us, too. This is our fifth post in seven days, which is almost a record for us. It’s even more impressive when you recall that we’re only running at two-thirds of our normal capacity because Aaron’s working  a summer job in the wilds of Oregon. But while he’s no doubt been perfecting his mountain-man beard and learning to forage for roots or something, Doug and I have been holding down the fort by playing our fair share of games. Check out what we’ve been up to after the jump, and if you’re feeling generous, why not let us know what you’ve been playing in the comments section? Consider it your one charitable act of the day.

Doug:

Zoom-zoom.

As would be expected, I’m trying to put a lot of time into NCAA Football 11. The key word there is “trying,” as I haven’t had as much time as I want (who ever does?), and because the game is trying its best to piss me off. One of the big differences I’m feeling with this version is a very tight tuning of the game toward emotion — I feel that something is wrong if I can barely win a game with my Ducks that, were I to simulate it, is a three-touchdown blowout. Defense feels weaker, and offensive mistakes are being made.

What’s less frustrating is my attempt to power through the end of Forza 3. I have never gotten 1000/1000 on an Xbox 360 game (aka the infamous S-rank) but I’m so very close with Forza — just one more series, then a little bit of grinding to power through the events list and I’ll be home free. The few minor flaws with the game all wash away when you’re on the track and trying to turn brilliant laptimes. I really need to take time and teach Nick the ropes of online racing.

Lastly, between the hype built online and our glowing review, I’ve dived into Limbo. Haven’t played much, granted, but it really is like platforming through a nice, creepy oil painting. Definitely looking forward to completing that one, though I might not go all the way to 99% like Nick did.

Nick:

A spike-adorned man prepares to execute a chicken while two nerds in wizard outfits set things on fire. This reminds me of the last time I was ever invited to go camping.

Is there such a thing as too much of Ron Gilbert? DeathSpank seems hellbent on answering that question once and for all. It’s stuffed tighter than the protagonist’s thong with goofy conversations, unbelievably exaggerated voicework and corny, sarcastic writing. I’m about halfway through the game and I’m hoping to have a review done next week, but I have a feeling this is going to be a like-it-or-hate-it sort of game.

If my specialty is convincing people to pony up mad cash on artsy games, Doug excels at converting the so-called core gamer to the genres they usually avoid: namely, sports and racing. And so I find myself well into my fourth of six seasons in Forza 3. I never expected I’d get this far; I mean who the hell wants to drive a car more than they have to already? But the game’s gradual difficulty curve and its highly customizable difficulty means I’ve taken off most of the training wheels in favor of higher experience gain. I thought I was getting pretty far into the game until I took a look at the monolithic event list. Doug, if you manage to 100% this game, I’m going to throw you an honorary party-slash-intervention.

I’m still plowing away at Dragon Quest IX, slowly but surely. There are still slimes, including some female ones. This is still Dragon Quest. Whew.

And finally, I’ve got a recommendation for those of you who own an iOS product: check out Helsing’s Fire. It’s a pretty clever puzzle game that’s well-suited to the touch device, and it’s got a strong sense of style and humor. And it’s only a dollar! How lucky for you!

I’ve tried to keep some distance from the debate over whether games can be — or currently are — art. It’s my belief that art is in the eye of the beholder, so who cares if a few critics (including some critics of another medium entirely) disagree? I’ve had experiences with games that have been as thought-provoking and moving as some of the best movies, books, paintings, songs, and so on.

But if you’re not content to sit by the sidelines and just let Roger Ebert trash-talk games, you’ll find some strong ammunition for your viewpoint in Limbo, Playdead’s debut Xbox Live Arcade title and the first game out the door in this year’s Summer of Arcade series. With its bold, almost suffocating art style, excellent use of sound and subtle yet significant method of storytelling, Limbo is a thoroughly inspired concept that couldn’t be realized in any other medium.

From the moment I began playing Limbo, all my notions that I’d cobbled together from a few screenshots and brief descriptions about what the game might be were dismissed outright. There isn’t any text telling a story here; this is visually driven narration, and it’s striking just how powerful it is.

Utilizing a monochromatic color palette and a fuzzy, limited depth of field, Limbo’s world manages to come alive in some unexpected ways. Animations are fluid and expressive, particularly in the case of the silhouetted boy, your protagonist, which is surprising when you consider that his expression is limited to the fluid swinging of his limbs as he runs and the constant stare of his two glowing, blank eyes.

The environment is brought to life through a strong combination of small but significant ambient animations, such as kicking up dust in your wake or small clumps of dirt falling as you scale a cliff, and the minimalist sound work. The result is a world that gives the illusion of just barely concealing untold horrors at the corners of your eyes. It’s a harrowing, unsettling feeling, and it’s executed flawlessly.

While Limbo does have a premise, it’s intentionally succinct: your sister has gone missing and you have entered Limbo to save her. I wouldn’t have expected a straightforward platformer without a single written or spoken word of exposition to have a plot, but I was impressed to see that there absolutely is one. Things will happen to the player, and things will happen around the player, and the way that Limbo uses these events to both add variety and depth to the play experience and to shape the narrative in some bold and poignant ways in the player’s mind is admirable.

I think it’s only fair to say that Limbo is a beautiful, artistic experience. But Limbo is a game, too, and while its design and execution are consistently good, the puzzle-based platforming gameplay doesn’t remain as fresh or inspired from start to finish as the world the game is bringing to life. This becomes particularly noticeable at around the halfway point, where the concepts that made the first portion of the game fresh and exciting are reintroduced without perhaps as much variation or innovation as they might have demanded. As a result, by the time the credits roll, you’ll probably find that your eagerness to see the conclusion is much stronger than your desire to complete yet another physics-based box puzzle.

If you’re like me, a game with ambitious ideas and strong presentation means a lot more than a fully-developed, highly polished core game. In that case, you’re going to really enjoy Limbo. But puzzle-platformer enthusiasts who were hoping for a game with the escalating difficulty and depth of Braid might find themselves disappointed with the relatively short adventure and flat challenge of Limbo. But if you’re on the fence, you might as well take the leap; you never know what you’ll find on the other side.

Limbo was developed by Playdead and is available on Xbox Live Arcade for 1200 Microsoft Points ($15). Game was played to completion over approximately four hours, and another two hours were spent going back to find the secret locations, resulting in a final completion rating of 99%.

Recommended for

• Aesthetes with an eye for artistic games
• Anyone who appreciates rich, moody, beautiful environments
• Video game enthusiasts who value games that tap into a player’s thoughts and emotions

Not Recommended for

• Budget-conscious consumers concerned with getting the most playtime for their money; Limbo will probably only take the average player about four hours to finish
• Anyone who thinks the sort of people in the “Recommended” section sound like a bunch of pretentious jerks

Read our policy on reviews here.

John Romero and John Carmack. The rock star and the closeted engineer. The master designer and the virtuoso coder. The gamer and the programmer.

If you’re a human being in the Western world, you’ve heard of Doom, even if you haven’t played it. And if you’re reading this site, you probably know about John Romero and John Carmack, two of the founding members of id Software. But if you’re like me, you only knew the cursory details: the two Johns’ rise to fame, their infamous split after Quake was released and Romero’s failed magnum opus, Daikatana.

David Kushner’s book Masters of Doom does an admirable job of detailing the chronology of each of the two Johns’ rise to fame and fortune from an inauspicious childhood. The entire story is told in a mere 300 pages, which I found myself flying through in just two days. However, the book was researched and written over six years, and features more than 500 interviews with all sorts of industry luminaries and, of course, the original id Software team.

While a narrative about a bunch of awkward game programmers huddled around their desks for months on end might not sound like riveting material, there’s more than enough eccentricity in the characters and drama in the plot to keep the story flowing: Ferraris are bought, rockets are launched, marriages are broken, friendships are severed and money is squandered. But what else would you expect from the guys who turned the industry on its head and got rich on their own terms, all while provoking a national controversy on the role of violence in video games?

I’ve only read a few books about the history of video games, but Masters of Doom stands out as one of the most engaging, compelling, and worthwhile. Even a casual gamer will find something resonant about the story of these two awkward, ambitious guys who defied their families’ expectations and forever changed the course of gaming.

Recommended for

• Anyone curious about the rise of one of gaming’s most infamous studios
• Gaming history buffs who appreciate a thorough, well-documented book
• People who remember the phrase “Doom clone”

In the wake of E3 coverage laced with “it’s not for us,” the rise of games on social media sites and iPhones, and Microsoft and Sony showcasing their motion-control interfaces more thoroughly, this question is coming up more often. An unscientific analysis of quote-unquote hardcore gamers would suggest they’re focused more and more on what appears to be a shrinking market. Nintendo’s press conference at E3 this year, in which it showed off new Zelda, Donkey Kong, and Kid Icarus titles, was held up as a breath of relief; the reaction within core gamers was along the lines of, “Finally, Nintendo is making games for us again!”

A truism about business that I’ve learned in graduate school is that expanding markets begin to fragment and form niches. The disenfranchisement that gamers feel and lack of games “for us” that hardcore gamers squawk about isn’t because that market is getting smaller, but that the video games market, in general, is widening and getting larger. Once upon a time, AAA-level games were so few and similar that the hardcore audience could enjoy them all; now, though, incredibly good games of diverse genres are overwhelming people who are used to playing everything. Gamers want the market to grow and for video games to become more popular and widely accepted, but the reality is it’s not happening by having “hardcore” games become more popular; gaming as a medium is becoming more popular, but it’s not through having five Modern Warfare 2s instead of just one.

In reality, what we’re seeing is the market and segmentation within video games begin to mature. Movie fans don’t complain that every movie is exactly like a movie that was popular before, or that not every new film is a graphics-laden blockbuster. Films are made for and targeted toward kids, teenagers, housewives and intellectuals; games are beginning to be made and target to audiences that aren’t just 13-year-old boys (or others who share the same tastes). Cable TV services offer hundreds of channels; this doesn’t mean you’re not a passionate TV fan if you don’t watch all of them. The splintering doesn’t mean that definitive, massively popular, medium-defining events can’t happen, either; TV still has shows like “Lost” that attract huge numbers, and box offices still have films that cross over a wide swath of audiences.

I feel that if you are a person who is passionate about a game and spend time playing it, you’re a gamer. Putting hours into a game and sharing the experience with friends is what this medium is all about. It doesn’t matter whether that’s in Modern Warfare, World of Warcraft, Madden, Words with Friends or Farmville. The genre and method by which you play games should be the catalyst for fun; just as entertainment comes in a variety of forms for TV and films, so it will in games.

It's summertime in the Northwest, which means it's time to come out from under cover and enjoy the scenery, like Crater Lake (photo by D. Bonham).

Much like a bad sunburn, we’re back after a little mid-summer hibernation. Aaron is still out in the Oregon woods getting his camp counselor act on, but Nick and Doug have been snug in civilization and playing games. Doug, now properly equipped with a TV from the 21st century, has been building cities and breaking tackles, while Nick has been matching three, hitting apexes and staring down a worthy opponent. All very thrilling.

But enough of that, let’s get on to the gaming.

Perfection is the goal/and I'm heading for the pylon. NCAA Football is back.

Doug

It’s been such a long time…apologies. But in that time, I’ve gotten completely hooked on a game, re-addicted to another, paid the annual EA Sports Tax, and added a new piece of electronics to my repertoire.

First, the biggest news: I finally have a proper, working HDTV. The Worst Projection TV Ever has finally been dragged out to the great electronics store in the sky and in its place I have a high-quality 1080p, 120hz product of the Republic of Korea. Needless to say, I’ve been going through some of my older games just to see what they look like on a “real” TV — and wow. Games like Mass Effect 2 and Forza 3 really come to life when you can actually see what you’re doing. Perhaps strangely, my PES 2010 game has suffered — however, when you go from 4:3 to widescreen, that can definitely alter your techniques.

I’ve helped re-energize interest in Words with Friends recently. Many of my friends in grad school also have iPhones, and when I discovered one of them had discovered our favorite Scrabble substitute, it was on. Word quickly spread, and I now have 10 games active. It’s almost overkill. It’s also really funny to see when people wake up in the morning, based on when they play turns that were left overnight.

I feel really late to the party, but I’ve also been hooked to Civilization: Revolution in the last few weeks. I remember hearing all the acclaim for CivRev when it was released a few years ago, but hadn’t given the game a shot. After mulling it over, I downloaded the trial version on my 360…then turned around and snapped it up immediately. What a brilliant, addictive game. It’s amazing what you discover about yourself in CivRev — I prefer to develop my internal resources and cities first, developing them into bastions of technology and culture, before breaking out the guns of war.

Lastly, this week I paid the piper and picked up NCAA Football 11. I know it’s a yearly annualized sequel, and I get it because I Always Buy It, but in this case it’s really paid off. Not much in terms of menus or back-end of the game has changed, but a lot of the presentation and — crucially — the gameplay has been evolved in very good ways. More thoughts and comments regarding the game in the future, for sure, but right now it’s looking like a worthy purchase.

A wild Dragon Quest appears! Uh-oh.

Nick

It’s been hard for me to find something worth writing about when it comes to games lately. That’s got nothing to do with either my interest in writing or in games, both of which have been going strong in the past few months. Instead, I feel like a couple of things have happened: I’ve grown more critical of games as my expectations have rise, and as a result of not wanting to sound like a constant pessimist, I’ve decided to just keep quiet.

But in the interest of trying to come up with something useful, here are a few games I’ve been playing that I’d recommend.

Despite some glaring omissions cut from the original game, LucasArts’ remake of the second Monkey Island has made a strong first impression. The series’ trademark voice actors are back once again to lend it the right sort of humor, and the character art has seen a significant improvement.

Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords is the original match-’n-slash puzzle-RPG hybrid, and even though it’s been three years since it came out, it’s still got some serious chops in terms of how obscenely addictive the experience can be. I bought the game on Xbox Live when I had my wisdom teeth out, and between the painkillers I was taking and the ridiculous amount of things to do within Puzzle Quest’s zen-like “match-three-shapes” gameplay, I was pretty blissed out for a couple of days immediately after the surgery. It wasn’t until the last week or so that I finally dug back in and tackled the final two-thirds of the game. Sure, the writing is bad, the artwork is hackneyed and the whole Puzzle Quest universe feels like a lazy cliche, but the game itself is so strangely compelling that it’s hard not to fall in love with it. The sequel was recently released to strong reviews, but if you haven’t played the first it’s still well worth the price of admission.

I’m also well into season four of six in Forza Motorsport 3. Although I’d spent a couple hours with the game before we deliberated on our top ten games of last year, I didn’t immerse myself in the game until recently. I’m not a huge racing sim devotee (Gran Turismo 3 was the last one that I really “finished”), but Forza 3′s great event structure and pacing, believably tactile racing and buckets of shiny, beautiful car porn have already given me more than my money’s worth. The only thing I haven’t tried yet is racing online, but I’m pretty sure I’d just end up getting totally smoked.

And last, but not least: I’ve dipped my toes into Dragon Quest IX. Remember what Nietzsche said about the abyss? Yeah.

Thirteen of our readers sounded off, and so I wanted to take some time to share what those responses were (don’t worry — all the data we got was anonymous) and how we’re interpreting them to make this blog even better.

Read on for the results.

1. How often do you read Silicon Sasquatch?

I’ll admit that, at first, I was a little offended by these numbers. More than half of you guys only visit a couple times per month? But then I looked at our posting schedule and how infrequently the site has been updated lately and I recognized that we’re not giving anybody much reason to check in too often. I’m a big believer in quality over quantity, but I really have to ask myself: what’s the point of running a site if you’re not gonna post anything to it?

We aspire to post more frequently, even if the trade-off is shorter articles and less thorough editing. This might take a little experimentation, so bear with us.

2. How would you rate the site overall?

On average, it looks like people would rate us at about a 3.69 out of 5. That’s not too bad from my point of view. And fortunately, the rest of the responses helped give us a pretty good idea of how to improve people’s impression of the blog.

3. Favorite features

No surprises here, for the most part. Our PSAs are few and far between, and chances are that if you’re reading other gaming blogs, you’ll more than likely hear about the things we talk about in our PSAs (sales on Steam, etc.) through them. We aspire to provide something that you can’t find at the major gaming publications — like smart insights and an adult tone — and PSAs don’t really too well within that philosophy.

I’m a little disappointed to see how few people enjoy the podcasts, but I’m not surprised. As the one person who has edited and produced all eight episodes of the Squatchcast, I can understand why they’re unappealing to many of you. Our audio quality isn’t great and, ultimately, it’s just a bunch of guys sitting around and talking about video games. I’d love to do something more distinctive and memorable with the podcast format. As always, I’d love to hear any suggestions you folks might have in mind.

My gut instinct was that our reviews and editorials were the strongest aspects of the site, and I’m glad that seems to be the consensus among our readers.

4. Usefulness as a consumer guide

This is good news to me. While my top priority in reviewing a game is to discuss how effective it is in delivering on its premise and not to tell you which games are worth sixty bucks, I’m glad that our opinions on the games we play are useful. I’d estimate the average review requires about eight to twelve hours of work between the author and editor(s), so please bear in mind that we don’t take these things lightly.

If you have any specific feedback on our reviews, such as features you like and dislike and suggestions for future reviews, please let us know in the comments or feel free to shoot me an email (nick at this website.com).

5. Social networking and syndication

It looks like Facebook is almost ubiquitous among our readership. That’s not surprising. But what that tells me is that we could really be doing a lot more to engage with everybody through Facebook even when we don’t have new blog posts to talk about. I would love nothing more than to talk about games with our readers day in and day out, so please feel free to drop us a note on there anytime or start up a discussion about whatever gaming-related topic comes to mind.

I’m surprised how few of you subscribe to RSS feeds, but maybe that’s just a sign of my addiction to Google Reader. If you’re not familiar with RSS, it’s a very simple and highly customizable means of reading updates on most blogs and websites. I highly recommend checking it out. Our RSS feed is customized so you can read entire stories from your feed reader, meaning you never have to actually visit the website proper to read our stuff. That means no ad revenue for us (if we ever chose to advertise), but it also means a much better reading experience for you.

6. Mailing list

This got a mixed reaction. Again, my reasoning in asking this question was to see how interested our readers are in communicating outside of actual blog posts (either one-way communication, like a newsletter, or two-way interaction on Facebook). My initial thoughts on doing a mailing list would be to summarize in brief the latest articles, talk about goings-on on the site and to talk about a few of the projects we’re currently working on.

If you’ve read this far in this post, chances are you’re genuinely interested in what we’re doing with the blog. I’m not ready to talk about any specifics yet, but I think it’s safe to say that we’re not planning on shutting things down anytime soon — if anything, we’re gearing up to start writing more frequently than ever. And I’ve got a special project in the works that I can’t wait to talk about. I just need to make sure it’s a done deal before I say anything specific.

7. The best features

Besides confirming Tyler’s Narcissus complex, these responses were very exciting for me. I care a lot about providing in-depth analysis and discussion without resorting to the adolescent B.S. and half-assed reporting that, in my opinion, defines major gaming blogs like Destructoid and Kotaku. I’m glad our emphasis on those aspects of the site has paid off.

8. The worst features

What is the worst aspect of Silicon Sasquatch?

• Some weeks, the backlog is all you post. It’s not that helpful when it comes to gaming news or opinions and is generally too vague to gain any interest on which aspects of games you’re playing are good or bad. Too much filler.
• The parts that don’t feature Tyler Martin.
• Not updated often enough.
• everything is to hot to handle!!!
• Many of the reviews, in my opinion, are very flowery (ie. they are far less critical of the games they are reviewing then they could be). It also seems that a vast majority of the games being reviewed are already popular titles that have been pumped up at nauseum by other sites. I really enjoy those sneaker games that not many people know of, or that have been poorly publicized.
• all xbox games and i only have a playstation 3 and a wii
• Lack of updates. Seems a tad bit sparse at times.
• hmmmmm, if I have to come up with something, I suppose posts can be a tad lengthy. But that’s probably due to my infrequent readership which requires me to power though 8-10 posts in a session.

It looks to me like, based on your responses, the two most significant problems are:

1. Infrequent or insubstantial updates (relying on Backlog instead of providing a full review or an opinion piece)
2. An imbalance in our game reviews (too little diversity in platforms, i.e. too many Xbox 360 reviews, and not critical enough)

I wholeheartedly agree with the first problem, and I know the rest of the Silicon Sasquatch team agrees too. We’re victims of our own need to be perfectionists — we meet to discuss story ideas pretty regularly but rarely complete a story. 800-word reviews turn into 2,500 ruminations on the nature of a game’s every aspect. It’s something I’m personally guilty of, and it always leaves me feeling ridiculous. If you’re looking for an exhaustive breakdown of every technical aspect of a game, you’ll turn to IGN or GameTrailers. It’s my personal belief and, based on your responses, your preference that we write about more games on more systems more frequently and in less exhaustive detail. I think that’s the right direction to take this site in, and hopefully that’s where we’ll end up soon.

The second problem is a little more complicated. Out of the three of us who do the most regular work on the site (Aaron, Doug and myself), I’m the only one with a PlayStation 3 or a PlayStation Portable. While Aaron has a gaming-capable PC, a Wii and a DSi, and Doug has an iPhone, the only system we all share in common is an Xbox 360. It’s also where we all do the majority of our gaming, so the odds are that when a major title is coming out, we’re going to play and review it on Xbox 360.

Because none of us is rolling in cash and we generate no income from the site, everything we play and write about is paid for out-of-pocket. This is partially why so many of our reviews are positive: we buy games we think we’ll like, and we try to enjoy them. Criticism is absolutely essential in a proper review, and it’s something we’re probably not as consistent with as we should be, but it’s difficult when we’re mixing our (admittedly expensive) hobby with a semi-professional blog.

Ultimately, our reviews need to earn our readers’ trust, and I believe we can be more critical in our reviews without compromising the experience of playing the games we buy.

And as for focusing on lesser-known and independent games: I think it’s a brilliant idea. Mainstream outlets cover all the major games extensively, so picking up on those ones that slip through the cracks would be an excellent fit for our site. Our Google Analytics reports always show a strong stream of traffic from searches related to lesser-known games like Robot Unicorn Attack, The Path and Machinarium, so those are clearly great ways to attract new readers as well.

9. Tone

I agree: a balance seems most appropriate. After all, we’re talking about video games. We love video games. We can certainly critique them and discuss them from a formal or academic standpoint all day, but when the ultimate purpose of gaming is to have fun, it doesn’t make any sense to treat everything from a dry, scholarly point of view. On the other hand, informal and casual tone on its own results in inconsistent and less-than-credible content, and our integrity is very important to us. But if you three ever feel like we’re too stuffy in our writing, feel free to speak up and let us know. We always love hearing from you guys, even if it’s just to tell us to dislodge our heads from wherever they might be stuck.

10. Favorite articles

Is there one article that stands out as your favorite? If so, please list it below and describe what you liked about it.

• That one written by Tyler Martin.  I imagine his smooth, sulky voice in my head when I read it.
• nope
• The Modern Warfare 2 review.
• Wish I could remember a specific one, although I loved your guys’ best of 2009 posts.

Well, I’m glad to hear the Best of 2009 feature was appealing to at least one of you guys. I’m very proud of how that all turned out.

11. Additional comments

Is there anything else you’d like to share with us?

• You guys rock! <3
• This is Tyler Martin.
• I’ve been staring at that “favorite game of all time” question for ten minutes now….
• I would love to see more articles pertaining to news and future releases of titles. Maybe a seasonal game update? Whats new for the summer? possibly some coverage of gaming conventions or interviews with companies or designers? I know that you all have jobs to do outside of this blog though. I am a daily reader and it would be nice to have something new everyday, if only something small like what to expect later this week or links to other great articles pertaining to whats new in the gaming world. I think it would also be interesting to see some of your writers critique some articles done by other famous gaming bloggers/sites.
• Butt fart poop.
• I really enjoy blog interaction. Including polls that readers can see results of would be sweet. And seeing some more specific questions for us readers designed to inspire discussion in the comments could be fun.

There are some real fantastic suggestions in that fourth comment. I like the idea of posting something daily, even if it’s just essentially a tease of what’s coming soon. Critiquing other writers could be a good idea, but it’s also worth bearing in mind that the number of people actually writing about games on a daily basis probably only numbers in the hundreds. It’s a small community, so we’d definitely want to make sure we don’t burn any bridges.

And as far as blog interaction: I’m all for it. I’ll look into what it takes to do polls in WordPress, and I’d like to see more of our future articles directly encourage discussion in the comments section. Of course, that means that you guys have to be willing to leave a comment or two from time to time.

12. The most important question

What’s your favorite game of all time?

• Duck Hunt
• New Super Mario Bros.Wii!
• The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
• Yoshi’s Island?
• Any game with 50 Cent.
• tied for Starcraft (all incarnations up to SC2)  and Diablo 2 (+LoD),
• Counter Strike
• Silent Hill 2
• MGS1
• Super Metroid
• FF&7/Arkham Asylum/resident evils

At least nobody wrote “Custer’s Revenge.”

In all seriousness, I love that nobody had the same response. Games are a fantastic thing because they appeal to so many people in so many different ways. Compared to my current top 5 (Rock Band 2, Diablo II, Plants vs. Zombies, Chrono Trigger and Grim Fandango), I’m seeing a whole lot of diversity out there — and I love it.

Conclusion

Thank you so much for your responses! I recognize this is just a small-time blog run by a few guys who care about games, but it’s been a blast to have a public forum to improve our writing and discuss these things in detail. And although we don’t have a massive readership, we couldn’t ask for a more dedicated and awesome bunch than you guys. Thanks for sticking it out with us for so long; I hope we’ll be hearing from you soon!