61 Frames Per Second : klonoa

Namco, Your Klonoa Commercial is Dangerously Misleading

John Constantine — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 01:00:00 GMT

Spoiler Warning. Giant, story-ruining, spoiler warning. Knock, knock. Who’s there? Spoiler Warning.

You know what, Namco, I’m getting a little tired of having to have these talks with you. I know you’re tired of it too. If you paid attention, this wouldn’t be happening. You’ve been doing a lot of good lately, and I want you to know I’m proud of you for it. Not only did you decide to remake Klonoa: Door to Phantomile on the game’s tenth anniversary, you brought back much of the Klonoa Works team to make it. Director Hideo Yoshizawa, artist Yoshihiko Arai, and composer Kanako Kakino. Wise, Namco, wise. You even decided against that atrocious redesign of Klonoa you were batting around last year.

This commercial, though, Namco. I don’t know if this is a very smart choice. It’s a little… misleading.

Yeah those kids sure are having fun. That announcer’s letting us know it too. Awesome. Some parent is going to buy Klonoa for their kid because it's about a fluffy bunny-cat man and his smiley face friend after watching this, for sure. Tell me this though?

How’s that happy kid going to feel when they get to the end of the eighth level and Klonoa's screaming, holding the corpse of his murdered grandfather?

How about when he beats it and he's told that Klonoa’s entire life was a lie and then the fluffy bunny-cat is forcefully torn out of reality, clutching onto the hands of the best friend that betrayed him?

Yeah. Way to think it through, Namco.

Editor’s Note: I wrote an article some months back identifying Shuichi Sakurazaki as the creator and director of Klonoa: Door to Phantomile. Seems that the credit should go to Hideo Yoshizawa. That said, as far as I can tell, these two men might be the same person. Anyone out there know what the deal is? The internet is less than forthcoming with the appropriate facts.

(Link: Kotaku)

Related links:

Klonoa: Careful, Namco. You Tread On My Dreams.
Klonoa's Truimphant(?) Return
Underrated: Klonoa Series
Where is Shuichi Sakurazaki, Creator of Ninja Gaiden?

Wii Brings Silent Hill to Climax

John Constantine — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 00:00:00 GMT

No, wait. Rewind. Switch that. Climax is going to bring Silent Hill to the Wii!

The rumor going ‘round the campfire is that those nutty Brits behind Silent Hill: Origins will be remaking the original Silent Hill for both Wii and PSP. 61FPS just spent this past Monday celebrating Silent Hill’s tenth birthday. What better way to celebrate the occasion than by taking a stroll down memory lane, waggling as you go?

As I mentioned in the Silent Hill retrospective, the game’s actual play has aged terribly. It’s also never been available for any system other than the original Playstation. A remake, in this rare instance, is an excellent idea. Climax’s Origins, while not exactly stunning in its originality, at least shows the team’s ability to properly capture Silent Hill’s atmosphere while making it more functional by modern standards.

Between Silent Hill and Klonoa, the Wii is starting to play host to some excellent remakes. I’d prefer that Konami, Namco, and every other publisher out there pour their resources into original content for Nintendo’s box, but I can’t complain too much. These are games that deserve an audience. If there’s anything that the Wii has, it’s an audience.

(Link: VG247)

Related links:

10 Years Ago This Week: Silent Hill
Silent Hill: Homecoming is, Thankfully, Both Silent and Hilly
Screen Test: Silent Hill Homecoming
Klonoa: Careful, Namco. You Tread On My Dreams.
Underrated: Klonoa Series

Underrated: Klonoa Series

Amber Ahlborn — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 17:00:00 GMT

Klonoa 2

As far as underrated games go, the Klonoa titles have enjoyed moderate success. Still, if you were to stop random gamers on the street and ask if they've played a Klonoa game chances are they haven't. The first Klonoa game was released on the original Playstation and was one of the earliest titles to combine sprite based characters with 3-D environments. The game play was centered around classic 2-D platforming with an emphasis on using the enemies Klonoa grabbed and inflated to clear barricades, jump higher (including stringing together long series of aerial maneuvers), and find ways around various obstacles. It was fantastically fun and innovative, offering a solid challenge and a very rewarding experience.

After Klonoa: Door to Phantomile was released, it saw a number of sequels on the Japan only WonderSwan hand held system and the GBA as well as one more console release on the Playstation 2 titled Klonoa 2: Lunatea's Veil. There's a lot to like about these games, from the whimsical art style to the surprisingly melancholy stories found in the console titles. One of the presentation highlights for me was always the music. Both of Klonoa's console games sport beautiful soundtracks that showcase both playful and eerie tunes.

Klona 2 - Maze of Memories music

Klonoa 2 - Ruins of Sorrow music

Simply put, these are some of my favorite games. I own the original Playstation disc.

The Original

Also, there's good news for all of you out there who failed to discover the first game. It's seeing an updated remake on the Wii.

The Remake

Don't let it pass you by a second time! Now, let's all join the little Namco cabbit for some Caramelldansen to celebrate his series, may it see greater recognition in the future.

Get up and Dance!

Related Links:

Klonoa: Careful, Namco. You Tread On My Dreams.

Klonoa's Truimphant(?) Return

Underrated: Buck Bumble

Cursed Mountain: Namu Amida Butsu Get

John Constantine — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 18:00:00 GMT

Sometimes, though not often, I’m exhausted by the preponderance of violence in videogames. Fret not, I’m not about to go on some tirade about the ten billion plus war simulators available on every game playing device known to man corrupting the world’s youth, turning them into desensitized monstrosities. Hell, if you’ve ever glanced at this blog before, you’ve probably noticed that I’m something of a glutton for the ol’ ultra violence. But still, sometimes I long to turn on a game and not have to destroy, break, mangle, or kill things. Variety tends to cure these murder-doldrums, though. For example, when I look at Bayonetta, I think, “Why, sure, that precocious young woman has guns. Many guns. But killing things with hair sounds quite refreshing!” Or take the original Klonoa! Nothing says change-of-pace like using a disembodied moon prince as a projectile to inflate doofy but malicious critters until they explode. This is why I’m getting excited about Cursed Mountain.

Survival horror’s not new to Wii. In fact, Wii’s Fatal Frame 4 is another great example of alternative fighting, what with its camera based ghost-defeating. But in Cursed Mountain you humiliate ghosts with an ignoble second death through the power of Buddhist prayer. Buddhist. Prayer. That is awesome. Now, I realize that Buddhist prayer isn’t totally foreign from game violence. Sailor Mars has thrown down in a few Sailor Moon games and Pocky of Pocky & Rocky fame isn’t exactly a nun I’d want to mess with. But Cursed Mountain sounds like an all around different experience. You scale a Himalayan peak as a fella trying to find his lost brother and find a desiccated pagoda filled with angry spirits. As far as game premises go, fighting ghosts at altitude by wrenching prayer out of them and following a story steeped in Tibetan mysticism sounds downright novel.

1UP’s Torrey Walker posted a preview of the game yesterday so head on over to check it out. And treat yourself to this trailer while you’re at it.

Related links:

Resident Evil 5: Continuing on the Transformation Trail From Horror to Suspense
Question of the Day: How Do You Make a Horror Game Horrifying?
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Running for Your Life!
Indie Dev Moment: Virtual Silence and the Art of Discomfort

Klonoa: Careful, Namco. You Tread On My Dreams.

John Constantine — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 19:00:00 GMT

I’m not a purist. No, really. When it comes to classics being revisited, modernized, or remade, I don’t need every facet of the past perfectly preserved just the way I remember it in order to get a desperate nostalgic thrill. I delight in Mega Man 9 because it’s a great game whose presentation and technological limitations are carefully made design choices, not because it’s a new NES game. I’ll let you in on a secret: I actually like Mega Man 7 and 8. Yeah, that’s right. I think they’re good games. Not as good as their forebears, but all the same. When the new Bionic Commando was announced last year, even before Rearmed was revealed, I didn’t balk at Radd Spencer’s Adam-Duritz-makeover. I think the new look is cool, especially the way his dreads flow behind him like delicate willow branches as he soars through dystopian cityscapes and… oh! Excuse me. What I’m getting at is that not everything from yesterday is sacred. Some things, especially in games, should be changed. Final Fantasy III DS is a good thing. The NES original is just too slow now. Tomb Raider Anniversary preserves a revolutionary game’s best qualities while also making it, you know, playable. In with the new, out with the old may not be an all-encompassing maxim, but it’s more often than not good advice.

That said, Namco, if you go through with this, I will hurt you.

The Raw Meat Cowboy himself over at GoNintendo received a survey from Namco-Bandai today, the subject of which was their impending Wii remake of Klonoa: Door to Phantomile. RMC has smartly inferred that Namco is testing the waters to see if Klonoa should be localized for North America. One of the questions in the survey asks which of these two character designs is preferable:

Yes, there on the right is Klonoa, already slightly altered to more closely resemble his 21st century self than the Klonoa of 1998. It’s great, he’s looking good. On the left, is some monstrosity, a Japanese Poochie, his raised ears giving off a deliberate whiff of the EXTREME. He has just enough buckles and straps to satisfy a Nomura. The implication is that Namco thinks this bastard would be more suited to North America’s indelicate palette.

Now, there are going to be some vague spoilers here, so beware. Even beyond the fantastic platforming, level design, and soundtrack, what makes Door to Phantomile so special is that it subverts expectation. Klonoa himself, and his introduction in the game, portray complete innocence, a cutesy cartoon anthropomorphic at play in a pleasant fantasy world. But the game quickly becomes melancholic, and by game’s end, the pleasant Disney aesthetic is pulled away, violently, to reveal that the story is, in fact, a tragedy. The game is about a loss of innocence, and the character’s design is essential to that theme. This redesign places the character more firmly in a recognizable, and marketable, anime tradition, where existential angst is an expected component. Remaking Klonoa in this image completely betrays the point of Shuichi Sakurazaki’s story.

Don’t do this, Namco.

(Link: GoNintendo)

Related links:

Where is Shuichi Sakurazaki, Creator of Ninja Gaiden?
Klonoa's Truimphant(?) Return
Christmas in Nintendoland: The Tokyo Conference
The Tale of the Identical Box Art
Lowering the Standard: Why Nintendo’s Hardcore vs. Casual Commitments Aren’t the Problem
Abominations of Technology: Pre-Rendered Graphics

The Tale of the Identical Box Art

Bob Mackey — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 21:30:00 GMT

The blogosphere is rumbling with news of an industry lawsuit that isn't very interesting, and it's all about box art. Seems like Activision had a little bit of "inspiration" for the cover of their latest Baja game--an inspiration that came from THQ's own library. GameDaily reports:

THQ's box art has been out in the open since this June. The company contends that Activision's box art uses "virtually identical" artwork. Activision's game, developed by Left Field Games, is shipping to retail this week, but THQ had asked the court to enjoin the release of the title. THQ apparently got in touch with Activision earlier this month to request that they create a different box art for SCORE International Baja 1000, but Activision refused to comply.

And here's the evidence:

Aside from the hilariously blatant plagiarism, there's really not much to this story--or is there!? My ulterior motive for reposting this news is that it finally gives me a chance to talk about an observation I made during my dark, dreary days at GameStop. You see, Baha games alone do not inspire thievery; there exists another pair of games with shockingly similar box art. And the truth is so stunning I'm going to go ahead and hide it behind a cut.

Okay, okay; it's not quite as bad as the Baja example--and poor little Klonoa is clearly being misrepresented. But the similarity between these two pieces of box art has always bugged the living hell out of me. Especially considering that Klonoa 2 and Tarzan came out so relatively close to one another.

So can anyone else think of more examples of games with deceptively similar box art? This post needs to fuel at least three more lawsuits.

Related Links:

Mega Man 9 Box Art is Further Proof That Inmates Have Taken Over the Capcom Asylum
Help Activision Choose Box Art for Spidey
Klonoa's Truimphant(?) Return

Pikmin Remake: Too Soon?

Bob Mackey — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 15:00:00 GMT

The Pikmin series is one of Nintendo's most recent franchises, and seemingly, its most overlooked--but Nintendo itself is seeking to remedy this with a new, improved Wii-make (I shudder at the terminology) of their cartoony take on the RTS. As a big fan of Pikmin, it's nice to see some attention given to a series that's really deserved more; and even hardcore Nintendo fans can admit that the GameCube was by no means a popular enough system to make Pikmin the hit it should have been. But if this new Pikmin is more of a remake than the Wii's Resident Evil 4, wouldn't Nintendo's time be better spent on making a new game? Note: I realize they don't normally solicit advice from gaming blogs.

Of course, we don't know if the "new" Pikmin Miyamoto casually mentioned at E3 is this remake--so things are still up in the air at this point. But if the only new Pikmin we see this gen is a slightly revamped version of a seven year-old game, you'll be able to taste the disappointment in the air.

I can definitely see why Nintendo's trying to remind the world of Pikmin; it's a Miyamoto franchise, and the GameCube controller practically felt like it was designed for the first game. However, both games in the series are compatible with the Wii(as are all GameCube games), and also cost much, much less than the price of a new game. As a consumer who can get a copy of the first Pikmin for 10-12 bucks--and let's not forget the kind folks at GameStop will no doubt recognize an opportunity to push a used game over a new one--Nintendo's going to have to do a lot to get me interested in this; and I assume others in my position feel the same way. The thing is, I don't necessarily want Nintendo to put a lot of resources into a remake; and that's kind of the entire point of this post. Maybe a re-release of the game in new, Wii-branded packaging would be nice (and I guess some hacked-in Wii-Mote support), but I'd still rather see Pikmin 3, or however else Nintendo decides to re-launch the series on its newest system. The funny thing is, I don't feel the same way about the Klonoa remake; and that's a series where I'd absolutely love to see a new game. The difference here is that the first Klonoa is so technologically distant and incredibly obscure that its Wii-make seems far more justified.

One thing to be happy about is that at least Nintendo isn't trying to pass off the Pikmin remake as an entirely new game--not yet, anyway. The new Animal Crossing represents how shameful and rehash-y the company can be; City Folk isn't even superficially different from the N64 game that started the series. Hopefully, Pikmin will be able to keep its dignity intact.

Related Links

Are You Buying Final Fantasy IV DS? Huh? Huh? Huh??
Would You Play a Final Fantasy VII Remake? Hmmm?
Klonoa's Truimphant(?) Return

Lowering the Standard: Why Nintendo’s Hardcore vs. Casual Commitments Aren’t the Problem

John Constantine — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 23:00:00 GMT

I tend to sound overly pessimistic when talking about the Wii. I happen to love the system. I think the funky little box has quite a lot going for it and it’s given me a handful of unforgettable gaming experiences, with Wii Sports and No More Heroes chief among them. No, I’m not overly pessimistic about the Wii. I’m overly pessimistic about Nintendo. As much as I want to be excited about a new Punch-Out!, I can’t help but look at the facts: Nintendo has released more traditional, hardcore games in the Wii’s first two years than they did in the Gamecube’s first four and all of them, with the exceptions of Super Mario Galaxy and Super Smash Bros. Brawl, have been below the gold standard of Nintendo’s internally developed software from generations past. Super Paper Mario was a vicious bore of a game, Metroid Prime 3 had none of the creative spirit of the first two, Zelda: Twilight Princess was a bloated retread in dire need of an editor, and games like Fire Emblem and Super Mario Strikers were competent, but were simply more of the same. Even after this passed July’s E3, I wasn’t disturbed by Nintendo’s lack of support for hardcore gamers. I was disturbed by the apparent lowering of standards in their software. There are many Wii games that I am very excited to play, like MadWorld, Klonoa: Door to Phantomile, House of the Dead: Overkill, Oboro Muramasa, and Fragile. But none of these titles come from Nintendo.

I hate sounding like the disgruntled misanthrope. But I refuse to ask less of a development house that strove for nothing short of perfection in the past.

Related links:

WiiWare: Nintendo, Babe, It Just Isn’t Working Out
Disaster: Day of Crisis Comes Out in October. Right. Sure.
E3 Day Two: Spin, Malaise, Sony’s New Clothes, and Nintendo’s True Disruption
Christmas in Nintendoland: The Tokyo Conference

Klonoa's Truimphant(?) Return

Bob Mackey — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 19:00:00 GMT

Klonoa: Door to Phantomile, a mostly-forgotten mascot platformer for the PSX, may be far less forgotten in the not-too-distant future. 1UP reports that the first--and admittedly, best--Klonoa game will see new life on the Wii in a fully-refurbished remake this December, which is great news--for Japan, anyway. Not only will this remake excise the game's lousy pre-rendered sprites; everyone who missed Namco's mascot of indeterminate species back in 1997 will finally get a chance to see why they should regret all of their decade-old mistakes.

Here's a video of the original game in action, lest we've forgotten:

I've always held a bit of disappointment in my heart for the general failure of the Klonoa series; despite the furry trappings, the first game was a whimsical adventure with a seemingly contrary bittersweet--and slightly depressing--tone. And the economy of effective storytelling fit in well with the game's deceptively-simple puzzle-platforming mechanics; Klonoa is a solid little game, and very similar to the 8-bit 2D platformers that undoubtedly inspired it. Unfortunately, the series was launched at a time when 2D vs. 3D was a common argument, back before people realized they could live together--kinda like Ebony and Ivory (ask your parents).

We can only hope that the Klonoa remake comes out here--and hopefully, without any Wii-mote gimmicks. I'd hate to see the elegant simplicity of the game ruined by excessive waggling. And who knows; maybe this remake will spark a Klonoa revival? The only thing to say to that is "Doopa-loo-doo."

Once again, ask your parents.

Related Links

Where is Shuichi Sakurazaki, Creator of Ninja Gaiden?
9/9/99 9 Years Later
Abominations of Technology: Pre-Rendered Graphics

Abominations of Technology: Pre-Rendered Graphics

Bob Mackey — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 22:00:00 GMT

As a weird side-effect of technological anxiety and the transition from 2D to 3D games, pre-rendered graphics had their place. In some cases, that was a very, very bad place, like where Big Bird said strangers couldn't touch you; basically, any game with pre-rendered, animated sprites. Though in the 32-bit era, it's reasonable to say that some pre-rendered graphics were necessary--if a circa 1997 Square programming team tried to make a real-time Midgar, the result would be an abominable pile of warping polygons and broken dreams.

But so many years later, you'd think that we, as a people, could unite against pre-rendered graphics and say "No more." In what can only be considered an affront to the eyes and good taste of gamers everywhere, developers are still using pre-rendered graphics. And it's high time they stopped.

I've always thought that pre-rendered graphics--at least in their first few years--were a strange sort of technophilia in that they assured us that somewhere, very powerful computers exist; and these computers are hard at work, rendering things ahead of time so your puny hardware doesn't have to. Never mind that pre-rendered sprites always look muddy, fuzzy, and ill-defined when compared to their hand-drawn counterparts, there are SGI workstations spending countless hours making Donkey Kong uglier and you will show them respect!

This kind of attitude made sense in the mid-to-late 90s, when there was a real tension between 2D and 3D gaming, and many 2D games were cast in the pre-rendered mold in order to make them "acceptable" to modern gamers--even great games like Klonoa suffer from bloated, fuzzy sprites. But why, in 2008, must we continue to suffer through the anxieties of hardware generations past? Fire Emblem, a series known for its beautiful, hand drawn sprites and character art, has now gone the pre-rendered route with its newest DS iteration, leaving a legion of fans scratching their heads and clawing out their eyeballs. And this is by no means an isolated event; both updates to the phenomenal Donkey Kong '94 (seriously, go play this game) have been zombified by the process of pre-rendering. In the words of Nancy Kerrigan, "WHY WHY WHY WHY!?"

Does anyone still like pre-rendering? Has it ever improved a game? These are questions which demand answers.

Related Links:

Alternate Soundtrack - Donkey Kong '94 vs. Les Savy Fav
Where is Shuichi Sakurazaki, Creator of Ninja Gaiden?

Where is Shuichi Sakurazaki, Creator of Ninja Gaiden?

John Constantine — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 17:00:00 GMT

While they might not be rock stars quite yet, it’s great that videogame developers are becoming more and more recognizable by name. Many, many people know who Hideo Kojima is and what Kojima Prodcutions makes. Sega didn’t just contract Platinum Games to make a few killer titles for them, they signed them on for the name recognition, for the artists’ cred. Back in the day, it wasn’t the people who created games that got recognized. It was only franchise names and publishers that got the love. In 2008, it’s widely known that Tomonobu Itagaki is the head honcho behind Ninja Gaiden. But who is the brain behind Ninja Gaiden on the NES?

After doing a bit of digging, I found that Ninja Gaiden and its first sequel were designed by a fellow named Shuichi Sakurazaki and Tecmo’s Team Strong. The game’s trademark cutscenes, arguably the first of their kind, were penned by Sakurazaki himself. But that’s where the information trail ends, with nary an interview with or a Wikipedia page on the man to be found. I found only two other games credited to Sakurazaki, and surprising ones at that. If IMDB is to be believed, Sakurazaki is the writer behind two of videogames’ strangest scripts, namely Namco’s Klonoa: Door to Phantomile and Klonoa 2. Platformers with adorable anthropomorphic characters, the original Klonoa games hid tragic stories underneath a playful façade.

Who is Shuichi Sakurazaki? Where has he gone and what was his inspiration for such memorable and strange games? If anyone out there knows, I am all ears.

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A Letter to the Industry: How to Destroy the Female Gender Barricade

Amber Ahlborn — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 15:00:00 GMT

Girl gamers, how to attract more women to games, making games for girls, various takes on these topics have been popping up a lot lately. This is a subject quite close to my own heart and I have compiled a few suggestions for game developers to consider when making their next title (assuming said game is aimed at an audience broader than “randy male youth”). These are not suggestions for how to make a game just for girls but rather, how not to drive us away...

Suggestion 1: Do not insult 50% of your potential audience.

In games where characters have any developed personality at all, male characters run the full gambit of possibilities while females typically fall into just four categories.

The Twit – Cute, clueless, possibly a Cloudcuckoolander. Is often your prize at the end of a rescue mission.

The Tomboy – Can handle herself in a fight and has the personality of a brick. That's okay though because she has the biggest bust size and probably wears leather.

The Innocent – Sweet and modest. She's typically unsure of herself until she gets a pep talk. Will do anything for her man even if it's impossibly stupid and/or suicidal. Usually the hero's love interest.

The Feisty One – Cute and spunky. Often a child. If she's at least within a five year range of the age of consent will probably be wearing some variation of Daisy Dukes.

This is not to say you can't find strong, self assured women who need absolutely no help kicking ass. After all, there's uuuhhh... Ultimecia, The Boss, Leorina, wait those are all villains/adversaries. Nice, strong woman = Bad! Kill it! Well, as awful as the personality limits tend to be, the body type category is even worse.

Unless you are making a game for the Playboy crowd, do not put a T&A girl in your game if you do not also have a Chippendales guy. Now, of course we like our game characters to be good looking. It's like the movies and Hollywood Homely; important characters never look ugly unless they look hideous. However, there is a difference between sexy and hypersexualized. If your female characters have gelatin filled watermelons strapped to their chests, watermelons that follow their own personal laws of physics, you have a problem. If your female character's skin tight outfit is so skin tight it looks painted on, you have a problem. Again, we do have positive role models. There's the lovely Jade and the mostly unseen Samus Aran. Alas, Nintendo does earn my Golden Kick-in-the-Groin Award for making the end game cheesecake shot a series tradition. I must ask the guys, would the complete absence of Samus smut turn you off the series? Is Metroid Prime the worst game in the series because Samus failed to *show skin?

Suggestion 2 – Do not assume male as the default.

The sex of most game characters is completely irrelevant. It has no bearing on the game what so ever. Did that hedgehog/purple dragon/space marine/ninja have to be a guy? Studies have shown that while guys have no avatar preference, women prefer to play as female characters. Next time you design a badass Longcoat, make it a girl. That grizzled old mentor with the BFS in your RPG? Why not a woman? The bald space marine? Hey, Ripley made the look work for her.

Suggestion 3 – Sure, sex sells, but why are you only selling to half your potential customers?

Story time. While I was perusing the shelves of a game store, I saw a box for an RC car racing game. I pulled it out and looked at the back of the box. You raced remote controlled monster trucks around tracks in toy rooms, parks, and other such locales. I flipped the box to its front and what do I see? There is an RC monster truck jumping over the ample chest of a bikini clad woman with a lip puckered “Oh My!” expression on her face. Really? It did not convince me to buy it.

I have no doubt that the advertising department has the hardest job in trying to sell games to women. The reason is as simple as it is depressing. Growing up, girls aren't taught that women pioneered the field of computer programming, we're discouraged to try hard in math class because “girls aren't good at math”. We aren't encouraged to like electronics, because “computers are boy toys”. We aren't encouraged to get into the game industry, because “it's a masculine job”. What the advertising department is really up against is generation upon generation of mental conditioning of women to not like or even look at your products. We have been lied to and asking somebody to make an ad that undoes that damage is one hell of a tall order. It is getting better though, more women are gaming and the more visible they are, the more the effect will snowball. Just make sure your poster girls aren't air brushed super models.

Final Word – No pink necessary or desired. Besides, it's a *boy color.

If you make a game for a guy, it's probably just as fun for a gal. Also, elements like more interesting stories and deeper characters seen as being attractive to women are also appreciated by men. So where is the dividing line between a girl game and a guy game? There simply isn't one. Sex specific appeal exists at the opposite poles, but there is no dividing line in the vast middle, where most games fall. All you, the game developer, need to avoid is building a gender barricade in the first place.

* aside from her head

* actually it's gender arbitrary, pick whatever you like