61 Frames Per Second : chibi-robo

Whatcha Playing: Earth Day Edition

Derrick Sanskrit — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 20:30:00 GMT

April 22nd, the day we all take off from work and gather at our local mosques and synagogues to solemnly pay respects to our mother Earth on the anniversary of her creation... or something. So do your part and take your game time today away from blasting zombies and chainsawing aliens in half, instead playing games all about helping mother Earth. Here are the four games that I'm playing for Earth Day:

Chibi-Robo: Park Patrol for Nintendo DS

Rather than cleaning up a house and helping with domestic troubles, this Chibi-Robo has been tasked with turning a barren field of sand into a lush flourishing public park. Like SimCity, you get to design your own world, laying paths and streams, rocks and hills, even benches, fountains, clock towers, statues, and mini-games to your liking. The nicer your park, the more visitors it gets each day. You also have to befriend local toys (including Molly Mapletree, seen above) to help you build up your park and battle smoglings who aim to pollute all the beautiful nature you've brought to the park, but the majority of gameplay is planting flowers. It's actually a lot more fun than it sounds, thanks to the charm and playfulness found in all Skip-developed Nintendo games.

Flower for Playstation 3

Nature is so relaxing for those first few levels, but the final stage really flaunts the nature vs. man-made-atrocities vibe. It's vindicating to smash your trail of flower petals straight through scaffolding and watch a child's swing-set color itself and start swinging in the wind. My only problem with this for Earth Day is that it romanticizes the wind more than the flowers. Playing Flower makes me want to go ride a bike, not water a tree. Still, at least it's prompting me to go outside.

Bonsai Barber for Nintendo Wii

This WiiWare title asks you to be kind to nature in a very different way, by playing the neighborhood barber in a village of anthropomorphic plants. Yes, it's a cute and quirky little topiary simulation. The adorable factor in this game is fairly high without ever becoming sugary sweet, and seeing your shrubbery clientele bristle with joy when you've completed their new 'dos might just make you want to go outside and trim those hedges.

Pixeljunk Eden for Sony Playstation 3

If the above games are a bit too casual and cutesy for you, though, here's a true hardcore platformer. While a bit more abstract, the main focus of the game is pollinating flowers. You essentially play as a spider who thinks it's a bee who has done some psychadelic drugs in the garden. Through the techno and bright colors, the message is clear: more flowers = more awesome.

Related articles:
Ecco the Dolphin: Was This Game Ever Considered Fun?
Comfort Through Gaming: Accomplishing Anything in SimEarth
Chiptune Friday: Spring Into Spring with Sonic

Nintendo Might Just Hate You

John Constantine — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 01:15:00 GMT

The Nintendo Press Conference back at the beginning of October was, as Bob so precisely put it at the time, a bit like Christmas for the Nintendo faithful. The reveal of new Punch-Out! and Sin & Punishment games and a recommitment to Trace Memory (one of the publisher’s scant few newborn IPs) certainly made the old Nintendo fanboy inside me stir for the first time in a couple of years. The announcement of Nintendo’s Play On Wii line of re-appropriated Gamecube games featuring tacked on Wii controls gave me pause though. It’s a very good thing to give games like Metroid Prime, Pikmin, and Chibi-Robo a new print run considering that there are literal millions of Wii owners who never had the chance to try them out on their initial release (or don’t know they can walk into any Gamestop in the country and pay fifteen dollars total for all three.) But will they be full price? Should they be? Will any new content offered be made available to owners of the original games?

On the one hand, giving Donkey Kong: Jungle Beat another chance at life makes it seem like Nintendo loves you. Adding new levels makes it seem like they really, really love you. Yoshiaki Koizumi and EAD Tokyo’s debut platformer, the game that led to their making Super Mario Galaxy, is one of the Gamecube’s best. A tricky game of skill with gorgeous aesthetics, it was the showcase for the woefully underutilized bongo controllers. Like many Wii games, the controller made the game utterly unique. Of course, the fact that Nintendo is completely redesigning the controls for the re-release, and not confirming that game will remain compatible with the bongos, would imply that Nintendo might hate you. Not having the internal memory on the Wii to allow for a software update letting current owners of Jungle Beat enjoy the new levels and controls would also seem to indicate that Nintendo hates you.

What do you make of this, dear reader? Does stripping Donkey Kong: Jungle Beat of its tactile personality offend you or is it not that big a deal? Let me know in the comments.

(Link: Famitsu via IGN)

Related links:

Pikmin Remake: Too Soon?
Christmas in Nintendoland: The Tokyo Conference
No Alternate Soundtrack: Donkey Kong Jungle Beat
Alternate Soundtrack - Donkey Kong '94 vs. Les Savy Fav

The 61FPS Review: LOL - Never Party Alone!

Derrick Sanskrit — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 15:00:00 GMT

Let me spoil this review by saying that LOL for the Nintendo DS has been dubbed the official new favorite video game of the Nerve staff. Still with me after that? Okay, here we go...

Amidst an interesting array of reviews, some very good, some very bad, and an awareness that the game was designed by the Kenichi Nishi, the genius behind Chibi-Robo, I ordered myself a copy of the online-only and multiplayer-only LOL not knowing at all what to expect. As there is absolutely no single-player capability in the game, I had to wait until a few friends with DSes were around to test it out. Such an occasion occurred not too long ago here in the Nerve office when 61FPS mastermind John Constantine, Nerve Editor-in-Chief Will Doig, and myself all sat down with a couple of drinks and a DS for each of us. What followed was pure social gaming magic.

The actual game LOL is not too dissimilar from my favorite board game, Wise And Otherwise, in which a game leader reads the beginning of an arcane proverb and the players each write down their conclusion to the proverb, after which all are read aloud anonymously and everyone votes for their favorite. The main difference here is that the leader can pose anything they want for the players to respond to: a question, a drawing, a written commercial jingle, what have you, and the players are free to reply however they wish as well. Sure, you can always vote for your own response (as one player who joined us after a while did, thinking they were oh so clever) but as the game doesn't keep a score and the real sense of accomplishment comes from making the other players fall down laughing at your own answer, such "cheating" is ultimately pointless.

Here's an example of one of our play sessions: John poses a question to the group: "What is Sean Connery wearing RIGHT NOW?" We all start scribbling on our screens and muffled chuckles are heard around the room as we plot our wacky responses. Time to see the fruits of our twisted minds: John has drawn something completely indecipherable with the caption "An entire live moose as a hat." The sheer absurdity of the concept has us chortling. Will has crudely drawn a skinny guy stretched out on the ground in tighty-whities, mimicking a nearby American Apparel billboard. The mental image of Sean Connery in one of those vaguely pornographic advertisements has caused us all to slide out of our seats in disbelief. I have filled my screen in black and used the eraser to remove the words "The skin of Shia LaBouef." The use of negative space has added an extra level of creepiness to the answer, generating an uproarious response in my coworkers.

Riding on a LOLlercoaster...yeah

This continued, passing the DSes to our colleagues so we all got to enjoy the game and taking breaks to drink some more, until we realized that we'd been playing for over two hours and all had places to go. We've come back to the game a couple of times since then and its still just as much fun, enough so that we've declared LOL to be Nerve's official new favorite video game, with Will even pondering several times investing in a DS for every desk in the office for group brainstorm session via LOL. That said, it is still not a perfect game. The game is limited to 2-4 players but sometimes it would be great to have just a few more. 6 participants would be ideal, I think. My second-favorite multiplayer game, Metroid Prime Pinball, is a much more complicated game, I'm sure, and supports up to 8 players off of one game card. Also, the fact that the host has to mark a check box next to each of the answers before revealing them to the other players is a needless slow-down to an otherwise lively play session.

Those few complaints aside, LOL can be an excellent game. If you have amusing friends and access to three or four DSes, we strongly reccomend securing a copy, especially as its rarity now is sure to make it somewhat of a collector's item in the future. Break it out when the party hasn't quite started up yet or when it's dying down and you're almost guaranteed a great time. Kenichi Nishi has described the game as a comedy trainer and we can not argue. On a system increasingly full of self-help "games" and overwrought RPGs, comedy is a delightful breath of fresh air.

Grade: B+

Previous 61FPS Reviews:
Dragon Quest IV
Metal Gear Solid IV
Ninja Gaiden 2
Grand Theft Auto IV
Wii Fit

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

John Constantine — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 19:00:00 GMT

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. Also? Newtonica’s soundtrack is by Kenji Eno. As I recently discovered, Kenji Eno rules. Looks like the actually gameplay, not dissimilar to the Bit Generations title Orbital which Nishi also had a hand in, will be a hoot too.

Core Gamers has an interview with Nishi that’s worth a read so go check it out already.

As always, much love to Eegra’s Patrick Alexander who alerted me to Newtonica’s awesome existence. That said, damn you for making me want an iPhone, Patrick.

Related links:

Kenji Eno is A Mule of Epic Proportions
Trailer Review - Captain Rainbow
Alternate Soundtrack: Orbital vs. The Notwist
Many Colors in the Hardcore Rainbow
WiiWare: Nintendo, Babe, It Just Isn’t Working Out

No Alternate Soundtrack: Chibi-Robo

Derrick Sanskrit — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 15:00:00 GMT

There's no denying that music is an important part of games. There are some fan-favorite scores that initiate warm feelings outside of the games that bore them (Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda, Mega Man). There are some games where the music IS the gameplay (Rock Band, PaRappa the Rapper, Elite Beat Agents). And then there are a distinct few in which the sound is so irrevocably tethered to the gameplay that removing those sounds would render the game dull and lifeless. It is these games that I hope to spotlight in this new irregular feature – NO Alternate Soundtrack.

Today, a personal favorite of mine, skip's quirky Gamecube platformer Chibi-Robo. While there is a minimal musical score in the game, the vast majority of sound is actually produced by the characters, often in a whimsical and melodic manner. Every footstep of Chibi-Robo's is a musical note, changing depending on the surface he walks upon. Every action he takes makes its own music, with different sounds for different items. While playing the game without these sounds certainly wouldn't be impossible, it would suck a huge portion of the charm and fun from the experience. Cleaning doggy footprints with a toothbrush would seem like the real-world chore it is without the delightful acoustic guitar.

So, 61FPSers, what games do you think have soundtracks that are an integral part of the gaming experience? Let us know in the comments!

Related articles:
Trailer Review: Captain Rainbow (new Wii game from the team that made Chibi-Robo)
Make the Music With Your Games, Kids!
Alternate Soundtrack: Mega Man X vs. The Knife
Alternate Soundtrack: Donkey Kong '94 vs. Les Savy Fav

Trailer Review - Captain Rainbow

Derrick Sanskrit — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 19:00:00 GMT

skip LTD. are not a second-party Nintendo developer, though a look at their game catalogue might have you believe otherwise. They are responsible for six of the seven delightfully simple BitGeneration games for the GameBoy Advance as well as the colorful and charming Chibi-Robo on Gamecube and its DS sequel Park Patrol. Vibrant, energetic, genre-defying, critically-acclaimed all-ages games exclusive to Nintendo platforms, if you haven't played any of these titles (and odds are 99% of gamers haven't) you're missing out on some truly special experiences.

Now skip are turning their attention to the Wii, and they've brought along a yoyo-slinging Captain Planet wannabe.

Without understanding a word of this trailer outside of the game's title, this new superhero seems to be a logical progression from Chibi-Robo's Drake Redcrest and Park Patrol's General Greenthumb. Its a pleasant surprise, though, that the game's graphics look to be a delicious mix of Chibi-Robo and Okami. Even more surprising...holy crap, is that Birdo?! That's totally Birdo! Sweet!

No idea what is being said in this Japanese trailer, but really, who cares? There's a boy who turns into a rainbow-clad superhero with a yoyo. There's a dishpan gag in case you forgot this game is made by the same crew that made Chibi-Robo (because the TV and surrounding area at the beginning of the video don't look exactly like the one in the lovable Gamecube gem). There's some pretty particle effects. There's Birdo with an appropriately confused sounding male voice. And according to 1up, there's the promise of more third-string Nintendo characters! If this game gets localized for North America, I've already seen enough to make it a guaranteed first-day purchase for me.

Thanks to WiiFolder for posting the sweet video!

Previous trailer reviews:
Mega Man 9 & Chrono Trigger DS
Densetu No Stafi 5
Sonic Unleashed