61 Frames Per Second was born long before it went live in May of 2008, though it existed in a far more nebulous form than the blog you’re reading now. It actually began in the fall of 2005, when Peter Smith and I began working together here at Nerve and we engaged in daily spirited debates over the intricacies of design and the virtues of numerous games. It’s sometimes horrifying to go through instant messenger histories and find page upon page of arguments over whether or not Ocarina of Time or Symphony of the Night are enduring works of quality. Pete is both a staunch pragmatist and a stern aesthete, demanding to the point that he plays only select games at this point. While I fancy myself an aesthete as well, I am also an unabashed enthusiast, often times to a fault; I adore trash nearly as much as I enjoy art. Much like the rest of the internet today, we found ourselves coming to blows over Hideki Kamiya’s new exercise in action and sexploitation, Bayonetta.
John: You need to watch this trailer.
Pete: Is this the chick who has a gun foot?
John: It so is. It is going to be hilarious and rad and absurd. It is the videogame equivalent of those Paul Kenyon’s Baroness pulps from the ‘70s.
Pete: Whoops, my eyes fell out and rolled around. Jesus, dude. Just watching this makes me feel like I'm wasting my life every time i even think about videogames. You don't find this even slightly depressing?
John: I find it hilarious.
Pete: Such a thin line.
John: I think it looks ridiculously fun. I also don’t think it’s being earnest.
Pete: It would be less depressing if it were earnest. Sometimes i just find it wearying when people phone in some lousy bullshit under the auspices of camp. Where's the heart, John? Can't we do better?
John: But i don't think this is lousy. I think this is awesome. Michael Bay and I are going to be playing Bayonetta and high fiving each other while you're off sulking in your Cheerios reading Dave Eggers. She stands on her hands shooting monsters with guns in her boots, then stands up and her clothing, made of her own hair, turns into a giant wolf that eats other monsters. I love the way Hideki Kamiya makes games, especially Devil May Cry. The shameless raunchiness of this appeals to me.
Pete: Fair enough. It’s just, after a while this stuff leaves me feeling a little empty.
John: Well, you don't regularly consume any media like this.
Pete: You know, I might under other circumstances, but it's escaping me right now. The closest thing to Bayonetta that I love is Barbarella, but there's something about Barbarella that seems a little more innocent and a little less callow. If I’m going to get a sex and violence fix, I want it to be good, and there’s nothing here that really appeals to me. Bayonetta is so calculated, don't you think?
John: I think it's far less calculated than, say, television shows in the vein of Las Vegas. High-octane action! Hawt chicks! There's some chiseled berk standing there and then the chick in a black dress shoots the bad guy standing in the shadows before saying something like, "He checked out early." The difference between Bayonetta and Las Vegas, aside from medium, is that Bayonetta isn't trying to sell me anything beyond itself. It isn't winking at me, trying to get me to watch commercials for Old Spice. It looks me straight in the face and says, come on John, let us go and enjoy some puerile sex and violence together, shall we? And I'm like, fuck right, let me get my coat!
Part 2
Related links:
Independent at a Price: Sega and Platinum Games
Clover Returns, Heavy as Platinum
Rebuttal - Say What About Metroid: Zero Mission?
Rebuttal Rebuttal – I Stand With Metroid
