We play it loud here...

Welcome to Play it Loud, a blog about games and gaming.

Why Play it Loud?

Those of you old enough to remember the 1990s may recall a Nintendo ad campaign centered around the phrase "play it loud". It was a classic of print and television advertising, covering a massive range of Game Boy and Super NES games at the time. But it was more than just promotion for the Nintendo games of the day: it was a mission statement for gamers.

Unlike their competitors, they were not promoting a new console with hot new technology or the latest arcade hits. No, they were reminding everyone of why they were playing games. Because they were fun.

Let's compare.

This is a promo spot released for Gears of War 3 a few years ago. Now, it's a nice piece of advertising in its own way, but it's a much better commercial for the song or for a film than it is for a game. I look at this ad and I want to put on The Red Paintings. It's arty, and it's pretentious - and while I'll beat the "Games Are Art" drum all day long if you ask me, Gears of War is not art. Psychonauts is art. The Path is art. Heavy Rain is...well, it's arty. But the Gears of War series is not art. It is the Rambo to Spec Ops: The Line's Full Metal Jacket. It is a generic, cookie-cutter FPS - and that's not a bad thing. Let it embrace that, let it advertise itself as such.

This is more like it.

 

Nintendo's flagship Play It Loud Commercial from 1995 is what gaming, to me, will always be about. Not giving the world a wedgie, as such, but it's about fun. We are gamers because it is fun. We are playing because it is something that is part of us, like music. We are playing it loud.

This blog will largely concern itself with older games, from the 1980s to 2000s, on consoles ranging from the Atari 2600 and the Master System all the way up to the Sony PlayStation and Nintendo 64. Now, while these consoles are of course very old, I didn't own them at the time, so I hope to bring a perspective not laced with nostalgia but a genuinely new look at some classic titles. All this and more in coming weeks.

Until then, I guess, play it loud.