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• Japan Scares Me: Mario and The Western Show

  Edge Online ran a small feature piece this past Monday on artist Antonin Fourneau’s new multimedia project called Oterp, which appears not on canvas or film but on Sony’s PSP hardware. Oterp creates different sounds and music depending on its audience’s physical location using a GPS to track them. Fourneau’s creation, as Edge points out, joins the ranks of i am 8-bit and Reformat the Planet as evidence of videogames’ growing influence on humanity’s creative endeavors. And that’s great. It’s wonderful to look at how the life-imitates-art-imitates-life cycle is incorporating a still-young medium. It’s inspiring to see games inspire. That is, unless you spend a lot of time on the internet. Then you see what videogames have done to people’s minds. Especially Japan’s mind. Read More... Posted Aug 27 2008, 05:00 PM by John Constantine with | with 4 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, psp, mario, bowser, japan scares me, edge online, princess peach

• Mario Will Not Retire. He Will Outlive Us All.

  Growing up, we all kind of hated the rich kid. Even if he was the sweetest child in the world who only wanted to share his toys and candy and have us come over and play in his hedge maze (remember that episode of Care Bears? If not, silly me, I just made up another euphemism for sex), we'd lapse into an uncomfortable, cringing silence around him, like dogs in the presence of an alpha. When he wasn't around, we'd seethe and hiss in his direction. There are gamers in this world who are similarly intimidated by the existence of our hairy king, Mario. He benevolently brought many of us into this glorious, mind-gelling hobby. He has walked, run and jumped with us since we were children. Thanks to Mushroom Kingdom logic, we have baffled our teachers with adamant declarations about raccoons flying and fireballs bouncing underwater. Just last year, we soared through space with our magic plumber and visited more fantastic planes than the Little Prince. Mario is grand. And that's why the latest Internet fad, in which bloggers call for his retirement, is impotent and sad. I'm still unsure who first decided to make the ill declaration; likely someone desperate to crown himself King Controversy. This time, freelancer Patrick Goss takes the throne and gives us his reasons why Mario should give it all up and open a spaghetti farm. The article is admittedly well-written and free from the venom that usually shoots from the mouths of message board trolls who feel qualified to look down on Shigeru Miyamoto. Still, I feel obligated to counter. Read More... Posted Aug 26 2008, 10:05 PM by Nadia Oxford with | with 13 comment(s) Filed under: mario, super mario 64, 8-bit, retro, 16-bit, controversy, nadia oxford, retirement, super mario 2, gamers, super mario, game culture, super mario 3, patrick goss

• Kenichi Nishi and Kenji Eno’s Newtonica Brings iPhone Gaming Into the Realm of Awesome

  I have been, in general, pretty resistant to the iPhone mania that’s overtaken many hundreds of thousands of folks. They’re attractive little devices but, well, them things are expensive. Plus, it remains to be seen whether or not it will come into its own as a gaming platform. The version of Spore Maxis has cooked up looks like a neat diversion but not many other games seem particularly interesting. For example, a friend of mine downloaded Super Monkey Ball and told me that when the game wasn’t crashing his iPhone, it was a chore to actually control anything. Newtonica, a new game from the ever fertile mind of Kenichi Nishi, now has me chomping at the bit to actually hand over some cashey money to Steve Jobs. Why? For starters, Nishi was the field designer on Super Mario RPG and Chrono Trigger, the founder of Love-De-Lic, and the designer of Skip’s Chibi-Robo. That’s what you call a pedigree right there. Read More... Posted Aug 26 2008, 03:00 PM by John Constantine with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, mario, eegra, chrono trigger, chibi-robo, skip, Kenji eno, Kenichi nishi, love de lic

• Shut It, Old Man: The Absurd Extent of Nintendo’s Secrecy

  Eighteen months ago, whilst combating poor previews of his imminent release Too Human, Denis Dyack expressed his opinion that videogames should not be previewed in any way, shape, or form until they near completion. I can appreciate the sentiment, to a degree, especially in Too Human’s case. That game used to look like this: And now it looks like this: That’s what happens when you show a game ten years before it actually comes out. Dyack, hypocrite or not, isn’t wrong. Showing a game too soon can give a very poor impression of what it will ultimately be, particularly with original concepts and new characters, but you need to get the game in the public eye early. Videogames, outside of marquee titles, are rarely advertised anywhere, let alone on television where they would get the greatest exposure. So you have to preview that sucker for a long time before it releases, seed the enthusiast press, and let people pay attention. Otherwise games die on the vine, even established franchises. Unless, of course, you’re Nintendo. Read More... Posted Aug 11 2008, 01:00 PM by John Constantine with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, nintendo, mario kart, mario, too human, wario, smash bros, Denis dyack, touch generations

• Yahtzee On E3: Are We Gaming in an Age of Uncreativity?

  Like clockwork, the latest Zero Punctuation showed up on Wednesday afternoon. I think the gaming world shall go mad if Yahtzee misses a week. How are we ever to know that it's Wednesday? Australia's grumpiest gamer weighed in on this year's E3 with a pretty hilarious ejaculation(!) of mild outrage: seeing as E3 2008 was as exciting as discount hamburger, Yahtzee had the right to punch the event in the solar plexus. He did bring up one point I've been thinking about: with the surge of sequels we've been seeing for established franchises, it almost seems as if no one's had an original game idea for a long time. Yahtzee makes mention of crazy old NES games that starred French chefs "riding on stickbugs and armed with guns that shot velociraptors." It's a common complaint and it seems as if we're hearing it more than ever these days. It's not like there's reason to dismiss it as hyperbole, either. When the most unusual title at a big name trade show is a Mega Man title, it's time to descend into Hell and thaw out poor Satan. I haven't decided if I'm totally in agreement with Yahtzee. I remember the NES very well, especially my family's weekend trips to rent games. My two brothers and I took turns with the weekly rentals. Pity the fool who picked up a second-rate platformer game because s/he wasn't renting anything else for three weeks. I quickly learned how not to become a victim. It was a painful journey full of disappointment, floaty controls and terrible tinny music because boy howdy, there was a lot of crap on the shelves of those Mom n Pop video stores. Read More... Posted Jul 31 2008, 07:54 PM by Nadia Oxford with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: yahtzee, zero punctuation, nes, mario, zelda, 8-bit, retro, ideas, bad games

• For Love of the Game: Zelda Jams Re-appropriated

  I’m not even sure what you classify this as: are they just fan remixes? Fan-fiction remixes? I just don’t know! NeoGAFfer cicerone posted up this bizarre nugget of internet detritus yesterday and, for the nostalgically inclined and Nintendo fanatic alike, it’s quite a treat. These are Koji Kondo’s songs from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time re-orchestrated using the instrumentation from Kirby, Mario Kart, Donkey Kong Country, Momotaro Dentetsu, and Mario Galaxy. Not only that, but they’re also re-imagined to suit the tone of those games as well. Read More... Posted Jul 30 2008, 11:00 AM by John Constantine with | with no comments Filed under: john constantine, for love of the game, mario kart, mario, donkey kong, zelda, kirby

• Where is Wii's Disaster: Day of Crisis?

  The hardcore, the core gamer, the fanboy. Whatever you want to call them, it’s hard to ignore their bitterness toward Nintendo these days. I’m the first to admit that I’m one of them, but my frustration with the current king of the console hill doesn’t stem from their burgeoning commitment to the soccer mom set. It’s not even the lackluster treatment some of their core franchises (read: Zelda) have seen in the past two years. I’m angry at Nintendo because, when they first revealed the Wii and its initial line-up of games at E3 2006, they showed off two brand spanking new games, games devoid of Mario, Wario, Link, or any of the three thousand Pokemon, and neither of them have seen the light of day since. Project H.A.M.M.E.R., a fairly silly looking brawler, was actually playable at the time, but Nintendo announced that it was “on hold” as of summer 2007. Their other new IP, developed by fan-favorite studio Monolith Soft, was Disaster: Day of Crisis. Read More... Posted Jul 09 2008, 02:00 PM by John Constantine with | with no comments Filed under: john constantine, nintendo, wii, where is, pokemon, mario, e3, link, disaster day of crisis, project hammer, wario

• End Game: The Necessary Evil of Boss Fights

  Warning! Danger! Other exclamations accompanied by loud noises and/or flashing lights on-screen! The boss fight is a staple of single and co-operative multiplayer game design, instances placed throughout a game to act as a final and extreme test of a player’s skill at a given game’s rule set. In his expert dissection of boss fight design over at Gamasutra, Nayan Ramachandran uses the metaphor of pedagogical structure to describe the roll of boss confrontations in gaming: Games in which bosses appear have levels that are usually designed like a traditional class syllabus. If you were to liken the the length of a game’s level to a semester of studying, learning the game’s boundaries and mechanics and the flaws of the enemies it throws at you, then surely the boss is the final exam for the class. Testing the skills you’ve learned on your journey to this powerful character, as well as the powers and weapons you’ve collected over time, the boss character is meant to be a milestone of achievement for the player. It offers structure where there might not be any. It is the personification of a climax. Ramachandran predominantly uses examples and forms culled from action based gaming to examine the form but boss confrontations cross most game genres. Read More... Posted Jun 18 2008, 10:00 AM by John Constantine with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, gamasutra, mario, halo, boss, bowser, Nayan Ramachandran

• Alternate Soundtrack - Donkey Kong '94 vs. Les Savy Fav

  Words and video by Derrick Sanskrit The original Donkey Kong is justly considered one of the great landmarks in video game history. It popularized the now all-too familiar concept of platforming and introduced two of the most memorable video game characters of all time: the titular villainous ape and the overalls-clad carpenter named Jumpman, soon rebranded as the lovable plumber known Galaxy-wide as Mario. Even though the game was only four stages long, it demonstrated a clear story - ape abducts pretty lady, climbs up skyscraper, hero gives chase, avoiding obstacles - that resonated in the hearts of millions. After thirteen years, Donkey Kong was starting to feel a bit restricted and, as all teenagers do, decided to branch out to seem more exciting and relevant. The result was 1994's Donkey Kong for the Game Boy. It starts off with the original four stages but then continues for an astounding ninety-seven more that see Mario struggle across cityscapes, jungles, icebergs, valleys, and more outrageous environments. The soundtrack is sparse, with only a few sound effects for your actions and gentle musical clues to make you aware of time constraints. It is so elegantly simple that it induces a zen-like state; it invites a calm focus on the tasks ahead so you can rationally solve the puzzles before you. The only problem with this is that it’s completely unrealistic to be calm and rational when jumping across one-hundred-and-one stages in pursuit of your girlfriend and an enormous ape! Thankfully, this minimal soundtrack allows me to choose my own mood music without having to eliminate those all-important sound effects like I do with other games. Les Savy Fav are a lot like Donkey Kong, and not because their lead singer is a wild, hairy ape who climbs scaffolding (see Coachella 2008). Les Savy Fav are genre pioneers themselves, credited with creating the Brooklyn dance-punk sound that made bands like Liars and The Rapture famous years before their respective breakthroughs. While they are best known for their frenetic live shows and for 2004's Inches, it is 2001's Go Forth that is their best music for alternate soundtracking. Go Forth actually manages to take the innocently bizarre narrative scenario of Donkey Kong '94 and transform it into beautifully desperate drama. Read More... Posted May 27 2008, 10:00 AM by John Constantine with | with 8 comment(s) Filed under: nintendo, alternate soundtrack, derrick sanskrit, mario, donkey kong, les savy fav

• Webcomic Watch: Eegra

  Videogame-themed webcomics are a mixed (and dizzyingly numerous) bunch; for every Penny Arcade, there're a few hundred semi-comedic fan-fictions stapled together from sprite sheets and MS Paint doodles. It's always a relief to find something with some genuine craft put into it. The relatively new Eegra's got craft in spades — artist Patrick Alexander deploys an impressive range of visual styles — but it's also got a glorious mix of old-timey wordplay and visual grotesquerie. Read More... Posted May 23 2008, 01:00 PM by Peter Smith with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: pac-man, peter smith, penny arcade, mario, patrick alexander, soul calibur, webcomics, eegra