An Introduction

After viewing some excellent blogs that have been created by friends (such as video-game based 'The New Challenger' by Miles Daniel-Davies and 'Late To The Party' by Heather Benedyk as well as the more cerebral 'Incidentally,' by Alex Degroot, all three of which are fantastic blogs, by wonderful, close friends of mine), I have decided to finally put my degree in Creative Writing, my product and industry knowledge gained during my time as an employee of the biggest games retailer in Europe and my own personal passion for gaming to some use.


Well, here it is, Chaos Mushroom, a blog about video games with a little bit of general interest thrown in for good measure. For those who don't understand the title (shame on you), the 'Chaos' refers to the chaos emeralds collected to unlock the true endings in the original Sonic series and the 'Mushroom' refers to the vegetables that power you up in various ways in the original Mario series.

Arguably the most iconic items in gaming history. What do you mean plagiarism? They're emeralds, not balls!

So how are things looking in the world of gaming and why start blogging about it now? Well, February has been a generally placid month with the exception of a few somewhat interesting releases, but nothing barnstorming up until Sony chimed in with their portable behemoth, the PSVita. With opinions vastly divided on a machine that has been received with indifferent shrugs from many of my colleagues across the region, but seemingly glowing reviews from the majority of customers, it's an interesting time for handheld consoles, with both Nintendo and Sony attempting to pull in the hardcore demographic while not entirely abandoning the gimmicks that keep the casual market hungry for fresh and fashionable technology.

In between typing this, I did a little research into how well the PSVita launched in the West after an apparently disappointing release in Japan, but was unable to come up with any solid news after my lacklustre attempt. Naturally if you have any legitimate info, feel free to comment.

But back to the point... March is coming, and with it, we have an awful lot to look forward to in the inevitably brilliant Mass Effect 3, the dream crossover Street Fighter X Tekken, the genre-reviving SSX, as well as a few other releases that look set to impress.

"I'm Commander Shepard, and this is my favourite blog on the internet"

Long story, short, it's a good time to start a blog about gaming as 2012 is already getting ready to explode and we're only a few months in. I intend to capitalise on that, because let's face it, without me encouraging or berating you, you'd just make silly purchases and miss some absolute gems.

Before I end my first (and very lengthy) post, I would also like to give a shout-out of gratitude to my former Creative Writing classmate and good friend, Hannah Rogers, who encouraged me to finally do this while managing to put a big fat smile on my usually miserable face at the same time. That's not to say I don't hugely appreciate the numerous acts of encouragement I've received from many other friends though, you know I love you all!