After months and months of steel gray skies here in Columbus I just can’t fathom another day of the biting flat-land wind gusts. However, it occurred to me that the games I play tend to synchronize with the seasons in either theme or presentation.  With spring (thank God) rapidly approaching, it got me thinking about what types of games I’ll likely be re-visiting and also which ones I’m excited about.  So, between shooting The Packrat Show and contributing here on FaN, what will I be popping in for Mr. Sunshine’s return?  Read on for a couple of my old favorites and then a quick look at two titles I’m really excited for this spring. Viva Piñata Incestuous undertones aside, Viva Piñata was a surprise favorite for me.  The sickeningly bright color scheme and undeniable cuteness of raising baby piñatas in a beautiful garden you can customize however you’d like was immediately appealing to me. Its dream-like orchestral score combined with fun mechanics that blend a little bit of Sim City with a little bit of Pokemon made for an experience that would satisfy even the most ambitious achievement whores. It’s also a great way to unwind after a rough day, admiring the serenity of the zen-like oasis you’ve crafted for your piñatas. I crushed the original Viva Piñata a while back (which, I guess describing it that way lets you know what kind of gamer I am) and am very much looking forward to finally digging into the sequel, Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise.  But, I won’t indulge until the weather goes back up to the 70s because playing a game this adorable indoors just doesn’t feel right in the dead of winter. Eternal Sonata Released in 2007 from Namco Bandai, Eternal Sonata is...

With Halloween now safely past us, we’re officially into the holiday shopping season. Many Christmases ago, a big name video game was rushed to store shelves and officially became the biggest video game flop – ever! The production cost was so high; it nearly bankrupted the huge company behind it and ripped apart the video game world for years! In June 1982, Steven Spielberg released his mega blockbuster hit, E.T. into theatres. The film was the first to surpass Star Wars as the highest grossing film at the time and is ranked as one of the greatest science fiction films ever made. At the same time, the Atari Corporation was experiencing great success with their Atari 2600 video game console. The unit had been on sale since 1978, but now thanks to large demand lowering the cost, it was becoming more affordable for the masses. Millions of units had flown off of store shelves the previous Christmas. Americans were eager to plug this magic box into their TV and turn their home into an arcade! The Atari was the officially known as a “video computer system.” Up to this point, only single novelty video games were available for the home, with the most famous being Pong. Players loved being able to play video table tennis without having to drop a ton of quarters at the arcade and were hungry for more. Atari answered with their new console, the Atari 2600. It connected to a television set with a single cable that would be inserted to an exterior switch box, mounted on the back of the set. That switch box would change between the antenna and the game. If Atari would have included one of these in the box, it would have really saved a few trips to Radio...