If 2012 was the year of crowdfunding, it's looking more and more as if 2013 will be the year of the nontraditional games console. Apparent one-offs like Ouya attracting $8.5 million on Kickstarter and the notion of a Steam Box have given way to numerous others trying their hand at developing some sort of gaming system. There has been talk in the past of a one console future; whether or not that's where we're ultimately headed, in the short term it seems abundantly clear that there is no lack of interest in being a company that puts hardware in gamers' homes.
For years it's been said that companies like Microsoft and Sony wanted to take over the living room. They've attempted to do this by expanding upon the functionality offered in the boxes they already have in place. As we are quickly approaching the point at which both of those companies will again be competing to sell new pieces of multi-use hardware, we're seeing quite a few other companies line up to get into the living room, but with much more gaming-oriented systems: There's Ouya, the various Steam Boxes, Shield, GameStick, and Razer Edge, to say nothing of lesser-known ones such as eSfere.
These days when most people hear the term "music game", they mainly think of games like Rock Band and Guitar Hero. Colored icons falling down the screen. Tapping various buttons as the icons pass a pre-determined point. Success demonstrated by the ability to make the song you're playing sound like it does on the original recording. A pile of plastic instruments. I've been playing those kinds of games since they were first published, and I still play them on a regular basis. However, Orgarhythm is not that kind of music game. Instead, Acquire and Neilo decided layer a strategy game on top of the beat-matching to give a less familiar experience.
As much as I hate the tired way of describing something in equation form ("It's like Jaws, but in space!"), there's really no easier way to summarize Terraria than by saying that it's the child of Metroid and Minecraft. Anyone familiar with the PC game knows that it blew up when it hit Steam back in 2011, creating a massive following that prefer its 2D, retro take on Mojang's design philosophy. Two years later, console gamers are going to be able to soon experience what it would be like if Notch was making games in the early '90s.
From the second you pick up the controller, Terraria screams its 8 and 16-bit influences at you. The visuals seem grounded in some strange dimension in between the NES and SNES...let's call it 12-bit. The enemies are ripped from our medium's fantasy bibles of Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy. The melee combat harkens back to the days of spelunking as a Belmont, and yet, there's something very modern about Terraria. It looks and feels like Metroid or Castlevania, but the core mechanics at work are decidedly similar to Minecraft. Everything you pick at, chop or dig through in the environment gives you ingredients that can be used to craft any manner of weapons, armor, potions and even fortifications. There is no central narrative in the game, only the ongoing desire to carve your personal signature into the world. Want to create a massive castle filled with all manner of shops? With the right materials, you can do it. Want to dig an elaborate picture into the ground? Just grab a pickaxe. Like Minecraft, Terraria is all about giving you a suite of tools and mechanics, and letting you run wild in the world.
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