Seaman Retrospective

I owned a Sega Dreamcast. It was a video game console with some very bizarre games.

Including the incredible SEAMAN.

Seaman has you, the player, raising the titular Seaman, a creature that combines the body of a freshwater sturgeon with the face of Japanese video game programer. In addition to the fact that you are rearing a fish with a human head, the game is unique in that included a microphone peripheral that allowed you to communicate with Seaman who would regularly throw barbed insults into you face and berate you for a general lack of personal hygiene. This posed an interesting moral dilemma: would you, the video game player, continue to feed and care for Seaman after his regular verbal abuse? Would the emotional trauma you had endured by his fin push you to cranking the thermostat in Seaman's tank to unbearable levels, potentially killing said Seaman? And what sort of conflicted feelings would one uncover the next morning upon discovery of Seaman's lifeless husk floating at the top of the aquarium?

Luckily, these moral conundrums are in part avertable thanks to Leonard Nimoy who acts as mentor and guide in the wonderful world of Seaman. Knowing the limitations of the natural man inside all of us, Mr. Nimoy instructs us in the proper care of Seaman, including regular counseling for the psychological health of the player. Mr. Nimoy's sagely wisdom inspires and motivates us to action while the cooling effect of his otherworldly voice soothes and reassures the player in moments of keen Seaman distress. In other words, Leonard Nimoy is a god among men.

I like Seaman. Often times I lie awake in bed with my arms crossed behind head looking up at the stars dreamily (I sleep in the woods like all strong men are want to do) and reminiscing of Seaman and the many lessons we learned together. Seaman was good to me and I was good to him. And therefore, as the wise man said, I can sleep in peace.

The Best Digital Computer Technology for the Video Television Games of the Year 2007!

We've just embarked on the grand adventure that is February 2008, so I figured it's high time I remarked on my favorite video games of 2007. Much to the delight of children and men with peter pan syndrome everywhere, 2007 was a very good year for console gaming. Here are my top three games of the year, in absolutely no particular order (I promise).



Pac-Man C.E.
Pac-Man exists at a peculiar crossroads in the electronic gaming world. It is both accessible to the masses with it's simplistic gameplay (requiring only one steady hand on the joystick to navigate the Pac around his labyrinthian prison) and accepted by the diehards with it's increasingly challenging gameplay as the speed picks up and ghostly pursuers inch closer. Pac-Man C.E. doesn't attempt to reinvent the mechanics of arcade's earliest icon; instead, it compliments them with a few tweaks (including a timer and constantly changing mazes) and by doing so makes it about a billion times better. Didn't think it was possible? Believe.



Super Mario Galaxy
Every once in a great while, a game comes along to remind you why you ever started playing them in the first place. Super Mario Galaxy is one such title, at once a love letter to the founding mascot of modern console video games and a sort of drugged up, euphoric nirvana; a digital kaleidescope of colors and shapes you might want to pluck from the screen and pop into your mouth like sweet, sweet candy.



Bioshock
This is the reason I bought an Xbox 360. For the uninitiated (and shame on you if you aren't), Bioshock tells the story of Rapture, a fallen utopian society built on very Ayn Rand philosophies of culture and commerce, and weaves an intricate story of deceit, moral ambiguity and the depths to which man might fall if consumed by the things that drive him. Developer 2K Boston/Australia created something quite spectacular with Bioshock, a hybrid of first person, adventure and role-playing genres that serves as a sort of spiritual sequel to Irrational Games previous experiment in fear, System Shock II. Rapture is a joy to explore-- an awesome amalgam of art deco, 1940's architecture and steam punk technology. From the very first minutes of the game and long into the twisting narrative, gamers will be enthralled as they uncover the secrets of Rapture and fall in love with this decrepit, broken and beautiful world.


There were other games I had fun with in 2007, but it was these three that I kept coming back to over and over again. Will 2008 offer up similarly excellent selections? Only time will tell.