Steven Kent is the most widely read videogame journalist in the US, his work appearing in the Wall Street Journal and the LA Times. His new book, The First Quarter: A 25-year History of Videogames, will be published in the US this autumn. He is currently in negotiations for a UK publishing deal.
Neil West

FG: Played any good games lately?
SK: I fell in love with Tribes from Dynamix. I love the notion of playing 'Capture the Flag' with high-powered sniper rifles. Maybe Sierra isn't a total loss after all.

FG: What do you think of Lara Croft?
SK: I thought the first Tomb Raider was a very good game that got over-hyped beyond proportion. (And, of course, the game itself wasn't the only thing beyond proportion with Lara).

FG: What name or initials do you enter on high-score tables?
SK: High-score tables? When I play new games that no-one has ever played before, I sometimes manage to beat the wimpy factory default scores and put BWD, short for Barfy the Wonder Dog.

FG: What games systems do you have at home?
SK: Magnavox Odyssey (in box with screen overlays), Fairchild Channel F, Pong, Vectrex, Intellivision, ColecoVision, Atari 2600, Atari 7800, Game & Watch. Oh, and I have this really obsolete one called a Dreamcast.

FG: If you could keep just one, which would it be?
SK: I'd keep Dreamcast. With games like July, PenPen Triathlon, and Godzilla Generations, this is the future of games! On second thought, maybe I'll keep the Odyssey. (Truth, I'd keep Dreamcast just for Sonic Adventure).

FG: What's your favourite bit in Super Mario 64?
Miyamoto's kindness impressed me. He hid a free life mushroom behind the pipe stem you entered before the final fight with Bowser. My Mario ate quite a few of those mushrooms.

FG: Who'd win in a fight, Sonic or Mario?
I hate these kinds of questions. Mario would win. He'd make Sonic play Mario Party and Sonic would be doing that foot tap thing that he does when he gets bored until his entire leg fell off.

FG: Were games better in the "good old days"?
SK: They were not better, just newer. People were always looking for fresh new ideas.

FG: Describe Dreamcast in five words.
One gigantic leap from 32X.

FG: What's the most over-rated game ever?
Rise of the Robots. I know, everybody hated it, but just calling it a game is over-rating it. I'd also call Earthworm Jim and Toshinden grandly over-rated.