Updated

My brother and his son have been amassing the game consoles. When his daughter moved out, they converted the bedroom into a tacky game room. I don’t have a separate game room, using our tv family area as the gaming center, which I limit to the Wii and 360. So,  I’m showing his instead, which includes these consoles:

• Atari Pong Bentley Compu-Vision [1983, one of the last pong consoles made]
• Intellivision
• Sega Genesis
• Nintendo 64
• Dreamcast
• Gamecube
• PS2
• Xbox
• Xbox 360 [downstairs]
• Wii

The video doesn’t serve the room well because it’s pretty comfortable. Their Xbox 360 is connected to the tv downstairs, but my 17-year-old nephew and his friends spend most of their time either in this upstairs room or in their computer room, where they have 3 computers set up for LAN gaming. Earlier in the year, after completing a tough school project, they played Modern Warfare and Halo for a while and then asked about playing on the computers. His friends had never played Diablo II or Starcraft. For the rest of the year, his friends came over regularly to play those older PC games.  Several times, he had game parties with friends gaming on the PCs and upstairs [often with Starfox]. My brother and sister-in-law got into the game nights, cooking hamburgers or whatever for the kids.

I’ve been trying to get my son’s friends together regularly for gaming, both board and video games. It is a fun time because, not only is it nostalgic, the kids’ excitement is infectious. When we visited my brother’s family a while back, my kids loved playing Starfox, although it was difficult, especially for my daughter. New multiplayer games are fun, but some of those older multiplayer games have a visceral experience that makes them great even among HD games.

The great thing about all those consoles is so many excellent games to play. Tired of StarFox 64? Then play Champions of Norrath or TimeSplitters 2 on the PS2. Or Star Wars Episode I: Jedi Power Battles or Toy Commander on the Dreamcast. Or Bomberman Blast and  Mario Kart Wii. Those boys even fire up Pong on occasion.

If you’re a fan of RPGs, then you’re a busy little gamer right now more than likely, especially if you have a 360. If you only own a Wii, though, what are you to do? You can look forward to 2009 with games like Fragile: Farewell Ruins of the Moon, Arc Rise Fantasia, Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time, Swords of Legendia, and Shiren the Wanderer 3 [likely Japan only]. You’re probably ready for next week when Tales of Symphonia releases.

Fortunately, you also have some Gamecube RPGs to consider.

• Baten Kaitos Origins — A 60+ hour game awaits you
• Skies of Arcadia – Arguably the best RPG on the Gamecube [enhanced Dreamcast port]
  
• Baldur’s Gate – Dark Alliance — Grab a friend and kill things, but bear with the framerate, which might be better on the Wii
• Gladius — a 4-player, strategy RPG from Lucasarts with story and lots of battles
• Lord of the Rings – Third Age — Light on some character development we’re used to seeing in RPGs but a good, though not difficult, action RPG

A lot of Japanese RPGs to be sure, but Aradia is perhaps the most intriguing of them [and there's a rumor of a sequel]. Western RPGs are few, although Obsidian still sponsors an Alien RPG forum on their site.