One of the key games used by Sony to demonstrate the graphical prowess of the PlayStation 3 prior to its North American release, Majesco's safari simulator Afrika came out three years after the console launched and wasn't very good. It's dynamic theme, on the other hand, is exquisite.
This was originally to be a post about dynamic backgrounds and themes, a feature that only existed in the PC realm before this generation. The ability to customize your console desktop how you want, when you want is a feature many of us take for granted.
Then I began flipping through some of my dynamic PlayStation 3 themes, and realized that, for the most part, they're generally horrible. Half-naked, chest-heaving demons, barely animated scenes from big-budget games, anime girls that look like they were drawn in a middle school art class.
Maybe I didn't love themes at all. Maybe they were the greate plague of this console generation. I turned to my PlayStation 3, and saw this:
Ah, there we go. It wasn't themes in general I loved at all. It was these zebras. They're the theme on both of my PlayStation 3 consoles. Apparently I am a huge fan.
All-in-all, I suppose Afrika wasn't quite the failure it seemed. It was meant to show off the PlayStation 3's graphical prowess, and here it is, still going strong today.
Last-Gen Heroes is Kotaku's look back at the seventh generation of console gaming. In the weeks leading up to the launch of the PlayStation 4 and the Xbox One, we'll be celebrating the Heroes—and the Zeroes—of the last eight years of console video gaming. More details can be found here; follow along with the series here.