11 posts tagged “gaming”

For starters, Mia is having her very first gallery opening in about 2 weeks. Its a solo show, her very first, and she's a combination of nervous, excited and a little gassy.... okay, maybe not the last part. Here are the relevant details:

And of course, more new content for AmpedIGO. Magical Starsign is a new DS RPG coming out in October that looks pretty... and it should, since its by the team who made Sword of Mana. Preview goodness here.

Justin and I were discussing Bumpy Trot earlier today, and I told him the game was somewhat open-ended. His response; "Open-ended is the new Linear."

The moment passed with much LOLing, but the concept was more true than perhaps he intended. Open-ended IS the new Linear, or rather the new definition of the same thing.

As video games have gotten "bigger, " (more worlds and bigger, larger levels, third dimension, in addition to the expanding scope of stories and morality) a trend in plotlines has opened up; the questions of right and wrong, good and evil or; "What should my character do here?" While games from the early days were riggedly stuck in their rut of "do this, then this, then this," explorations of creating true story and character arcs have expanded from "Choose which character to play" to "choose what this character will do." Look to KOTOR's Light Side/Dark Side or Fable's Good and Evil Deeds for a more rigid example of this gameplay style.

Bumpy Trot is a good example of the new version of Open-Ended gameplay. Players are no longer forced down one set path in the game, but can idle away the hours doing meaningless tasks which define the character to the player. When taking part in the actual linear storyline, players can choose how their character reacts to the other characters in the game, given many options ranging from nonsensical to caring to flirtatious to downright mean. By doing so, the main character evolves into either the Hero OR the Villain of the game, and the plot assumes this role. The main weakness of a lot of these games is exactly that linear plotline, which in turn must loosely explain why Bad Guy ended up on X-Planet to do Y-Thing, while Good Guy ended up in the same exact scenario for completely different reasons.

My character in Bumpy Trot is named Vanilla. At the onset of the game I was asked questions about my character, such as "If you found $20 in the street, what would you do with it?" Though I have since found proof that the character is just named Vanilla no matter how you answer the questions, my girlfriend Mia swears that I was named Vanilla because my answers were so boring (I, incidentally, would take the money to a lost and found). As the game goes on, I find myself making the simple or Good Guy choices in all matters. I used to think that I did this for fear of someone else watching, or seeing my character profile. In fact, the opposite holds true; when Mia is in the room while I play, I choose "Pinch her butt" over "tell her she's a good person" just so Mia will think I'm not such a wuss. Meanwhile, the other characters must be entirely confused by my schizophrenic behavior ...

In the end, I choose those options which most reflect not only what I would choose in real life, but what kind of character I want mine to be. I want him to win the nice girl, Connie, and to win her by being nice himself, and caring, and helpful, and lavishing her with thoughtful gifts. Not by lying, or cheating, and all the while double-timing her with Savory, the town slut. I want Vanilla to be an all around good guy in this world, so I play him as such.

But I think the bigger issue that we often lose sight of is not about how we play our character in any given world. In Bumpy Trot (Steambot Chronicles), we're given a set amount of choices in a world fully created. The designers certainly let us choose how we act to some degree, but the setting is completely controlled. Characters do not react or judge Vanilla for walking into their house during dinner, or picking up their favorite tree and throwing it into traffic, or standing in the middle of the busiest intersection all day just to stop everyone from moving. The plot points, though numerous, are still set inside of limits as to which actions will be judged. Exanded further, the world of Bumpy Trot is defined by who developed it, and to what end they wanted to present their world.

Were Vanilla a bad guy, he would still only be the type of bad guy who steals bubble gum machines from fat school children, not the kind who wages a genocidal war against members of an ethnic group or religion. When Vanilla destroys another character's Trotmobile, that character is very deliberately and cartoonishly shown being exploded into the air and then landing and running away, as if to say "no anonymous bad guys were actually hurt in the making of this game. people don't die in the world of Bumpy Trot!" What message would be sent if characters in fact were blown apart by exploding Trots, or stomped to death by vindictive or otherwise sadistic Trot drivers?

Look at a game like Steambot Chronicles and compare it to Oblivion, or Deus Ex, or Fable. Oblivion, for example, presents a very cold world full of treasons and deceipts, murderers and worse. Even the most moral character available in Oblivion still must wade through the mires of cruelty and the ethics of murdering other people for their missions, or in one case a Unicorn for a God. Fable, on the other hand, presents an almost cartoonish view on its world, where characters are 2-dimensional, wanting only sex, or food, or playful revenge, and everyone besides the main charcter is a faceless clone. Compared to the ultra-realism of Oblivion's character designs and backstories, Fable creates a sense of only the main character being important to the well-being or even existence of the world, and promotes the character acting in such a way (while conversely punishing the character who wishes to treat the people of the world as friends; instead, we are left with a God Complex character who cannot truly relate to the masses)

The true illusion of open-ended gaming is to think for a moment that any single-player game can present a true Free Will. Much like a movie or a book, games present more than just a simple storyline or mechanics. They present an imagined world, full of depth and color. They lay out the ground rules to such a degree that even a theoreticl situation could be explained away. They can be mimicked and replicated because they are so deep and explained. The best ones play this illusion through to the most finite details, like the consequences of feeding a cat, or stealing some yarn, or killing a farmer. These defined rules are unspoken, yet every bit as important for setting the mood and tone of the game.

True open-ended gameplay does not yet exist in a single-player world. The fact of a video game is that we are immersed, and we adopt the ruleset of that world when we play. Our choices are limited by morality, and in gaming, that morality actually belongs to the creators, not the player.

Broken is my absolute new hero for finding this for me.

Old school game tracks done on the Ukelele... how can it NOT be perfect?

Despite lacking blue spikes, basic plumbing skills or a kickass yo-yo and mermaid girlfriend, gamers tend to find a surprising amount in common with the heroes of their favorite games. Perhaps this connection comes from the inherent everyman-nature of the game protagonist, allowing every gamer to say “yes, I too know what it is to fight against the endless swarms of winged eyeballs. I too know that when the time comes I must use whatever tools are at my disposal, be they dodgeballs or boxer shorts, to right the wrongs of the world and rescue my princess.”

Whatever the nature of this connection, as a boy I connected with one protagonist so tightly that I swore off of eggplant until my early twenties. Kid Icarus was a hero for the ages.

The concept behind this game was a hybrid at a time when the established genres were only just being actually established, like God creating horses and Jello on the same day. I imagine the scene went something like this:

Nintendo Designer 1: <I say we make a vertical shooter next!>
Nintendo Designer 2: <No way! Its time for a platformer! There need to be more platformers out there, because platformers aren’t annoying at all!>
ND1: <Hmmm … I think I might have something here. Remember that time we took LSD and saw that eggplant with feet jumping into a hot tub …>

In the early days of Nintendo games, concept and content were purely separate ideas.
Game: Blaster Master
Concept: Pet frog turns into a tank when it falls into a hole in hero’s back yard
Content: Metroid-style shooter action with permanent powerups.

Game: Bionic Commando
Concept: Evil cyborg Hitler clone attacks the future
Content: shooter with “dangling” and near-impossible difficulty level

Game: Gyromite
Concept: Mad scientist … pillars
Content: Actually, that’s the basic content of Gyromite

So for Kid Icarus, the concept would be something like: Icarus fights Medusa, angels.

But the content … wow.

Let’s start with our hero, whose name is Pit despite the game being named Kid Icarus. Pit has wings and a bow, much like any angel. However, Pit’s wings are more for show than flight, perhaps an issue of stunted growth, and his bow shoots paltry distances at best. Also, Pit is an angel, a Judeo-Christian concept of semi-deity, trapped in a world of Greco-Roman names, imagery and gods. I’m not sure that’s every addressed though …

Pit is charged with saving Palutena, who has been kidnapped by Medusa. In addition, Pit must also rescue all of his fellow angel friends, who have been turned to stone by Medusa. Thankfully, Medusa’s spell can be counteracted by beating your stone friends over the head with a hammer. No, seriously.

From the onset, Kid Icarus provides an enjoyable challenge. Old school games involved learning the timing and memorizing the patterns, and Kid Icarus stays true to its course. Pit must jump increasingly difficult platforms to reach the top of each level, all the while attacking the various baddies and flying wombats who both pace the platforms and descend from on high ala Space Invaders. To kill said foes, Pit uses his short-range bow to pick off the baddies and collect their dropped goodies.

Every once in a while, Pit also entered into a labyrinth level of sorts, very similar to the palaces in Zelda 2: The Sidescrolling Link.  In these labyrinths, the game turned sidescrolling and Pit had to navigate the maze to reach a boss. In addition, the Labyrinths provided shops and permanent powerups, such as longer ranged attacks or revolving fireballs which actually gave the arrows more of a hit range (perfect for hitting the low-crawling baddies). Somehow the transition from vertical- to side-scrolling worked, and added a strange level of depth and progress to a game that might otherwise feel like “just another shooter/platformer.” Not that there were any other shooter/platformers at the time.

The labyrinths also had some challenges, like a shell-game type treasure room that might yield a Credit Card (for use at the Black Market shop) or mighty Zeus who MIGHT give you some power ups depending on his arbitrary bitchiness at the time of your arrival. Also, any of the stone friends you freed throughout the levels leading up to the Labyrinth would also show up to help you beat the boss of the level, though even in their armor they died in one hit. It was touches like these that really set Kid Icarus apart form other, more simple games of its day. All of these oddities added up to an actually deep gameplay experience that rewarded patience and attention to detail.

Progressing to the last level, the game turned pure shooter as Pit collected the mirror shield, some crappy helmet, actual man-wings, and a kickass laser-bow to use on the slowly-flying final level of the game. The treat of the game was that the last level, vastly different than any other level of the game, was surprisingly fitting and somehow plot-appropriate to the game on the whole. Of course Pit was flying and kicking ass finally; that’s what he’s been working towards. Like when Rambo finally ties that red hankie around his forehead, and you just know that he’s activated his Brown People Killing Powers, and all hell’s about to be blown to smithereens by some freaking explosive tipped water balloons or some shit like that!

Anyway, that’s basically what the last level is like.

Medusa, in the end, reveals herself to be nothing more than a giant face stuck to a wall, typical boss fodder for a shooter (though hardly an adequate explanation for kidnapping a goddess or even bowel movements). Her lasers are easily dodged using the giant Mirror Shield, and Pit’s kickass laser arsenal blows a hole right through her stupid face to reveal Palutena! Yay! Now for some snuggling.

To drive the point home, if you beat enough of your friends over the head with a hammer throughout the game, Pit transforms in a fully muscled and manly version of an angel. And rumor has it that there’s even an ultimate ending where in addition to being all muscley Pit also sports a kickass mustache! Now that’s a man!

But the lasting impression left by Kid Icarus, at least on this young lad, was the cheapest, dirtiest, and most reset-inducing enemy in the history of all gaming ever; the Eggplant Wizard. The eggplant wizard isn’t much of a wizard at all. He’s more like a man with an eggplant for a head who throws eggplants at his foes in the hopes of turning them into eggplants. These eggplants are less “thrown” than “lobbed like a softball to a 4 year old,” and yet they were somehow impossible to avoid. When transformed into an eggplant with feet, Pit was mostly only able to run around and get into a where he could regain his health but remain an eggplant and remember the good old days of having arms and a head.

There was probably a way to revert to an angel again, but I found the most effective method of dealing with the Eggplant Wizard was to throw my controller on the ground, hit something, and then reset the game with enough force as to possibly break my NES. 2 hours later, when I finally finished inputting the 150,000 character password, I was on my way to killing those eggplanty fucks agian!

Sadly, Kid Icarus appears to have been lost to the ages. A sequel never materialized on either shore other than a less-worthy gameboy title. And yet E3 2006 gave gamers new hope with the appearance of a new playable character in the upcoming Wii title Super Smasbrothers Something Something.

The constant question when going all retro is wondering how games hold up against the test of time. Not only have difficulty levels and expectations of content and plot replaced a willingness to attempt the same level a dozen times before finally beating it, but control schemes and graphics have made leaps and bounds since the days of the NES. Does Kid Icarus really stand the test of time?

I for one will never play it again to find out. And sure, a part of that is not wanting to destroy a wonderful memory of something I consider near-perfect…. But also, I just hate those fucking Eggplant Wizards THAT much.

Coming Soon: Princess Tomato, Wallstreet Kid, Skate or 720fornia Games presented by T&C, and the Power Pad! As always, suggestions welcomed.

Besides being the name of a massive mace in Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow, Barbara Morgenstern now has another not-really-related feather in her probably-not-actually-interested-in-video-games-but-lets-pretend-anyway hat.

For some reason, pieces and segments of her Nicht Muss album are hauntingly remeniscent of Genesis classic, Phantasy Star 2. I mean eerily so. I just remembered the night when I was 12 and I stayed up all night (didn't sleep at all) so that I could finally beat Shure and move on to the next town of the game.

Bear in mind, Shure is the first dungeon of the game ...

Anyway, thanks for that trip down memory lane, Ms. Giantfuckingmace. Your music is alright by me.

AmpedIGO got an exclusive interview with the team bringing Mass Effect, a new sci-fi rpg from Bioware (who brought us KOTOR).

Read it here.

As we all know, I am teh best. I got a reviewable copy of Deep Labyrinth last week, and here's a preview from AmpedIGO.

There's an embargo on reviews of the game until it is officially released in August, so this is a less biased account of playing the game. Still, anyone who owns a DS and likes RPGs may wish to read further ...

... a little bit, yeah. Especially when dealing with my financial aid AND moving all day (and of course work).

Steambot Chronicles is on the way to my house as we speak, as are Metal Saga and Suikoden V. Free games are the best games.

Coming soon will be my takes on Princess Tomato in the Salad Kingdom and fan-favorite Kid Icarus. Let me know if there's any other game you might want to hear my take on.

True Love doesn't count ...

    Over the weekend I had a lot of exposure to video games in a lot of conflicting ways. This pipedream has been going on for longer than you might believe, and yet it’s only been in the last year of my life that I have even believed for a second that I might possibly be capable of writing about anything, even video games, in a way that others might enjoy. The prospect of being published has given me a lot of confidence, and now I just need to find a way to move further towards this as a part-time profession.

    Part of my gripe with things has been that I pay a lot out of pocket just to get reviewable copies of games. A lot of money. Added to that the cost of staying on top of the industry (playing the MUST-OWN titles) and buying the games that I actually want and my “hobby” slash “career training” starts to look more and more like a crack habit. And I don’t turn tricks well since I got fat.

    So I guess for starters, there’s your explanation on why I write only about games here, and obviously primarily older games. I am poor, soon to be more poor (though probably fabulous rich once does away with these nagging scruples) and yet I both love video games and love to write. So please, in all seriousness, pass these links along and leave some encouraging comments for me. I want to feel like this is something people like to read.
    So as gaming has cost me more and more, and facing the harsh realization in the middle of E3 that millions of just as fat dudes want to do the exact same thing I do means I have absolutely the chance of a man in a steak suit at the zoo of making any kind of name for myself in this field, I got very discouraged. Amped IGO has been a great site to work for if for nothing else than the staff of geeks and nerds to discuss nerdery with and the somewhat credible logo I get on my amazing business cards. But the fact remained, I was running out of money and hadn’t quite made my big break yet.
    Amadeo to the rescue. Between reviewable copies of quite a few games from my boys at Atlus, who are letting me review a copy of Deep Labyrinth right now (and that Mia says resembles a plastic wang), and a handful of older titles that Deo is sending me free copies of to review, I am suddenly looking at about 5 free games to review over the next 2 months. Amadeo is also hooking me up with the PR dude from Atlus who has been very supportive of my inquiries and is discussing future reviewable copies of games since I am such a wonderful reviewer for AmpedIGO.

    Atlus, for those who don’t recognize the company, is a Japanese developer and publisher who specializes in the following:

1)       Minimalist RPGs or abstractions of the standard RPG formula

2)       Cute anime characters in bathing scenes

3)       Deeply philosophical games about hot demons

4)       Crazy-ass shit that doesn’t make any sense even in

They have been and remain one of my favorite developers outside of Squeeeeeeenix, and to be in direct contact with them is perhaps the second feather in my foppish “credibility” cap.
    Meanwhile, I subscribe to a lot of different podcasts from different magazines and websites in the industry. For the most part, I think the 1up.com podcasts are hilarious and energetic, definitely worth listening to for the entertainment value. “1Up Yours,” the name of the show, comes across more like a radio show than an informative industry newsletter, but that’s why its so much fun. Conversely, I listened to the EGM Show podcast and …
    Let me backtrack a moment. Before there was even an internet, EGM (Electronic Gaming Monthly) was by far my favorite magazine in the world. With a strange combination of witty humor and semi-reliable reviewing (they’ve since improved to mostly-reliable), I knew from a young age that while I would never actually be able to do it, I had found my dream job. The current editor-in-chief is Dan “Shoe” Hsu, a witty writer who genuinely leads the direction of the industry and helps to validate the profession of game journalist in the eyes of the world. A hero of mine, I saw Shoe at E3 this year, and promptly proceeded to NOT speak to him for fear of making a complete ass of myself. So Shoe … I think you’re swell!

    Now that I have said that, let me follow it up with this: EGM, I don’t think you’re nearly as swell as I once thought you were.

    Listening to the EGM podcast this weekend, something I only starting doing this weekend, I immediately thought it was a joke. You know that way people sound when doing a nerd impression? Like they have a retainer and headgear and a lisp and a lot of spit in their mouth, possibly from eating pocket-warmed gummies?

Welcomsh to the EGM shhhhhhlp Shlow! Shhhhhlp. I am your host Dan shhhhhlp Schloooe shhhhlp!

    I am more than willing to believe that my EGM heroes are all nerds. Big nerds. As much as I romanticize Nerdhood as the new Beefcake, I acknowledge that not all nerds can be hot and smart and funny and cool and listen to the best music and like the best movies and have the best/correct opinions. But this was shocking! All 5 members of the podcast crew were EGM staffers, and EVERYONE OF THEM HAS THE SAME NERD LISP!

    But really my complaint comes not from their nerdiness, but from the revealed ignorance of these staffers. Throughout the podcast, in which the staff read letters from readers and answered their questions, the staff of EGM simply got things completely wrong. Two nuggest directly from the EOC’s mouth:

-A roleplaying game is any game in which you assume the role of a character. They’re simply called “roleplaying games” because it goes back to the origins of roleplaying games, which were first person PC games. Any game in which you play another character is therefore a roleplaying game.
- A “sandbox game" is NOT something like GTA. It’s in fact something like Rollercoaster Tycoon, in which you build things. Like in a sandbox.

    How is a leader of an industry and the Editor in Chief of the top-selling gaming magazine in the states SO WRONG about two pieces of highly relevant information like this?

    The podcasts for EGM were low-energy, full of wrong information, boring and mean-spirited (and reflective of not actually listening to the readers’ questions). EGM should seriously consider taking them down and not putting out anymore. They’re doing more harm for the credibility of EGM and its editors than any possible good.

    Sometimes its painful to be so right all the time.

    My many many readers will know that perhaps my favorite game of all time is a little ditty by the name of Secret of Mana. The sequel to a Gameboy title (named Final Fantasy Adventure stateside), SOM combined Square's epic and overwraught storytelling with elements of steampunk, the gameplay style of Zelda and the leveling and skill increases of an RPG. The combination, made even sweeter by the inclusion of multi-player functionality, made for what is still the predominant gaming experience of my wasted indoor-exiled youth. To this fan at least, SOM was the pinnacle of gaming and no experience, not even FF7, can come close to the combination of where I was in my life and how this game effected me.

    In Japan, Square release the sequel to Secret of Mana, which would have been aptly titled "Secret of Mana 2" in the US. I say "would have," because due to the prevailing mindset of game companies in the 1990's, Japanses games such as the Secret of Mana series were only given a one-shot appearance and then kept from the American shores so that gamers like myself could suffer through more rounds of Night Trap or Kriss Kross "Make My Video." Instead of the true sequel to Secret of Mana, American gamers were handed somehting apparently more our speed (if our speed was equivalent to a retarded turtle glued to the floor); Secret of Evermore.

    Developed by the American Square team, SOE was a more Americanized or possible Americeriffic version of the Secret of Mana engine. Using the same system of moving a character, killing things and gaining experience, Secret of Evermore disregarded things like cutesy characters and dialogue-heavy, philosophically-driven plotlines for bones and robots made of toasters. Instead of a kickass fantasy setting, gamers were thrust into the ever-popular "Character lost in the movies experiences multiple-themed worlds like Prehistoric-past and Retro-Futuristic Space Station!" What at the time seemed like a cool chance to see a lot of different landscapes as a gamer now comes across as insecure designers trying to show off as much as possible in what might be their only chance to ever make a game given the degree of Suckitude of said game.

    In other words, what a crappy premise. Hero gets sucked into a movie screen with his dog and must travel through different movie-themed worlds in order to get home or save the princess who is in another castle or possible fight zombies until a winner is you.

    Another aspect of this game that receieved "special" treatment is the game's protagonist; A. Boy. I don't think there's actually any punctuation in his name, but it's either refer to him as this or "Douchebag McWorstever" and the first sounds a bit simpler. As one can tell from the stunning portrait of the game's protagonist ... nay, its Hero, the concept for A. Boy was developed by combining America's favorite teenage/fortysomething hero, Marty McFly (as played by TV's Michael J. Fox in Back to the Future 1-3) with a bone. This bone, an equipable weapon through much of the game, is used not only to slay level-specific themed baddies, but also to keep shit in line by making threatening gestures (as seen in the image to the right). Said gestures are going to come in handy when players meet the primary plot device, the boy's dog.

    Depending on which hilariously themed level the player is traversing, be it the Egyptian Pyramid level or the Prehistoric Swamp, Dog will assume the body of an appropriate type of dog. For instance, in the future, the dog is actually a flying toaster who shoots lasers and burnt bread at enemies or some such crap. The dynamics between the boy and his dog are obviously hilarious, so I won't ruin the story by mentioning them .......... sigh.

    But the important thing here is to discuss why SOE was so terrible. And it was terrible. One time a fanboy of Square got into a bit of a verbal disagreement with me (imagine two sissies wildly slapping their arms at one another) over SOE and the lesser Final Fantasy child, FF5. Both, he proclaimed, were "pretty good for their time" and "had a lot to enjoy." Using the Google Babbleshit Translator, I was able to discern that even a fanboy is hard pressed to find much to enjoy from there games besides graphical representations of Vagina Bugs (obviously Japanese-inspired) and the cameo appearance of Cecil (protagonist of FF4) who has now settled down and opened a weapons shop with his wife Rosa. SPOILER!

    But the real crime of SOE was its theft and subsequent misuse of all things Secret of Mana. The graphics were subpar and often glitchy, the controls were loose and often unresponsive, the deep system of weapon and magic upgrading was replaced with a pointless system of "alchemy" and a limited number of weapons which only changed when the character moved to a new level. All sense of the serious and emotionally-driven plot was replaced with kitch and cliche. Even the imaginative world of SOM was replaced with rehashed and uninspired crap and the most boring boss fights possible. The game was dumbed down, the ultimate insult to what Square thought American gamers wanted and needed. And sadly, in a lot of ways they were right. Games like Secret of Mana, despite their quality, did mediocre sales in America, while games like SOE, the product of the cross-breeding of a poo with a vial of vomit, did just as well.

    Ultimately, even with a glitchy battle system that allowed for easy pillar kills (when a sprite's reach unfairly hits an enemy sprite on the opposite side of a physical barrier due to graphic and mapping limitations or carelessness), the game wasn't so terrible that I left it behind. At the time I had NoFX's "Heavy Petting Zoo" and would listen to Philthy Phil Philanthropist on repeat while playing through the Antiqua level of the game. Forever is that song ruined by the mediocrity of Evermore, but the memory is strong nonetheless. Sure, the ending blew, but there was at least a small amount of the beauty of SOM in there to keep me engaged until that end.

    I promptly sold my copy of SOE after I beat the game, and have never once gone back. I find it difficult to truly dislike things in life, be they half-baked movies or crappy, poorly written books. I always seem to find SOMETHING to love about the fruits of people's labors.

    In the end, the best thing to say about Secret of Evermore is exactly that. It certainly is a collection of things that a lot of people did. So kudos on that.