61 Frames Per Second : psp

Less Than Perfect: Jak and Daxter and The Flawed Character

John Constantine — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 22:00:00 GMT

On last week’s GDC ListenUp special, the three amigos John Davison, Garnett Lee, David Ellis, chatted with God Of War creator David Jaffe about the dominance of empowered supermen/women as protagonists in videogames. Their discussion started around the difference between Western and Eastern tastes in protagonists. The American palette leans towards the militaristic hero archetype, the one man, muscle bound army who, plagued by existential angst or not, can solve every problem with brawn. The Japanese audience prefers youthful androgyny, characters either brimming with naïve confidence or crushed under the weight of responsibility for civilization. The ListenUP crew went on to lament that there is seemingly no place in either culture for the Peter Parker/Spider-man archetype, characters who are empowered, but deeply flawed, whether by insecurity or another humanizing debility.

They’re right of course. I can point to a selection of flawed, humanized characters in games; Oddworld’s Munch and Abe are iconic inhuman outsiders made relatable through fragility and Ico’s horned protagonist is so memorable because of his incompetence and weakness. Gaming’s more literary canon, the adventure genre, is also populated by relatable humanized leads like Farenheit’s Carla Valenti and Lucas Kane or Dreamfall’s Zoe. But these icons make up a significant minority in the world of character-based and narrative-driven videogames. If Peter Parker and his alter-ego are the most profitable fictional characters in contemporary media, why are characters like him so under-represented in videogames? Why are our game protagonists so rigidly defined by complete empowerment? Where are our emotional, and our actual, cripples?

Amidst the game industry April Fool’s detritus, Sony quietly announced their first Jak and Daxter game in some years. Only a handful of screens were released, but they indicate a blend of aesthetics from the franchise’s history; the verdant greens of The Precursor Legacy coupled with the wizened, gun-toting hero of that game’s sequels. Chances are Jak and Daxter: The Lost Frontier on PSP won’t explore this emotional territory, but I’m fascinated by the potential of Jak as a character. Jak originated as a plucky silent protagonist, wide-eyed and young, looking for adventure and finding the opportunity to save the world. He was a distinctly Eastern sort of hero in a Western game. Jak 2 transformed him into an angry, violent anti-hero, given greater power through weaponry and a corrupting inner force to go along with a newfound voice. With his return on the PSP, developer High Impact Games has the opportunity to take the road less travelled. An older, wiser Jak, maybe even a weakened one, who has come to terms with a violent past catching up to him. They could inject what would otherwise be a typical flight of character fancy with true emotional heft. Let Jak understand weakness in addition to pain, and make the game something wholly original.

That won’t happen of course. There’s no profit in it. But the example should hold true for other game makers out there. The road to making affecting game characters and stories doesn’t end with making them look real. It ends with making them feel real.

Related links:

Character Case Study: When Good Characters Get Bad Attitudes
The Ten Most Adventurous Sequels in Gaming History
Linearity is Not a Dirty Word
Finally, Some Info On Dreamfall Chapters

Getting Medieval (and Evil) on PSP: Holy Invasion of Privacy, Badman!

John Constantine — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 23:00:00 GMT

Well, Sony, it’s about time. You publish two versions of Yuusha no Kuse Ni Namaikida for PSP in as many years and you don’t release either outside Japan? Come on, man! What could it hurt? Patapon and LocoRoco are weird, original PSP games and they’ve done okay. American nerds love RPGs and retro style. Where’s the love? WHERE IS IT?!

Ah, there it is.

It’s understandable if you missed Yuusha no Kuse Ni Namaikida (You’re Pretty Cheeky For a Hero, if you prefer) when it came out back in 2007. Even amongst import gamers, it was still pretty obscure. Here’s the score: you play as the evil, world-menacing bad-guy-demon-lord from Ye Olde JRPG. You build a large maze-dungeon on a 2D plain, fill it with monsters, and then hide in it. Eventually a hero will show up to try and kill you. You, naturally, aim to avoid him. Think Tecmo’s Deception meets Dragon Quest. Here’s a trailer to get your mind rolling.

Neat, no? SCEA has ignored its existence so far, but a new Sony trademark filing has the internet rumor mill thinking a Western release is on the way. The trademark in question is Holy Invasion of Privacy, Badman!. Who doesn’t love Adam West-related puns? Pretty cute, I must admit. This is a rumor at the moment, so the five of us getting excited should probably chill out.

(Link: Kotaku)

Related links:

Yuusha 30 and Wario’s Micro Game Legacy
Roundtable Discussion: The Relevance of Japanese RPGs
Let's Hitchike! - Another Weird Downloadable Game I Desire

Whatcha Playing: Dungeon Maker II

Joe Keiser — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 15:00:00 GMT

These days my launch PSP is held together by masking tape, spit, and prayer. But it does work (for now), and I’m trying to get to know it a little bit better before it inevitably decomposes into its constituent parts. The game of the hour is Dungeon Maker II: The Hidden War, a title from last Christmas that was roundly ignored by all humans.

To be fair, it’s a bit of a minor effort. It’s low budget, free of any and all flashiness, and doesn’t have a lick of polish. But it’s also curiously addictive, so it provides a nice contrast to the modern AAA titles that hide their mechanics deep under pixel shaders and mocap animation. Dungeon Maker II is a throwback: like the low-tech games of yore, its mechanics sit exposed and naked under the nose of the player, and so have to be compelling on their own.

A dungeon crawler at heart, you can probably glean the twist that makes the game worth playing from its title. Dungeon Maker II’s conceit is that you are a warrior-architect. Your goal is to build a luxurious dungeon that will attract monsters to its depths, because when monsters are in dungeons they’re not annoying people in the streets. It’s more or less Diablo, except instead of a randomly generated dungeon you’re traversing a constantly repopulating lair of your own design. It’s a trade-off of a sense of exploration for a sense of ownership (though there are still some computer-generated spaces for when your own space makes you stir-crazy), and gives the game a charm all its own.

It’s also a simply implemented twist—dungeons are graph paper dungeons, two-dimensional and all right angles, but that makes them intuitive to set up. The graphics are plain as is technically possible, but are iconic so it’s easy to get on with the building/slaying/loot gathering aspects that will keep you playing. Combat is…clunky and mechanical, but it gets the job done. There’s no excuse for the music, though, so you should mute that.

So the game has lots of edges, and none of them were smoothed off. It gives a lot in return, though. In just a few hours, you’ll have a cavernous self-built play space that you feel a strong connection to. The game drops loot frequently and with significant variety, which you can bring to town (again, a work of minimalism—it’s a single, hand-painted screen) to trade for a constantly growing array of spells, cooking ingredients, and exotic dungeon rooms.

Dungeon Maker II is not shy about its grind cycle. This is a game where every gear is exposed, a game so plain and unpretentious that its closest technical relative might be NetHack. And yet after a game like Star Ocean: The Last Hope, little, obsolete Dungeon Maker II feels refreshingly straightforward.

Related Links:

How Sony Can Save the PSP in 2009
Persona Comes to PSP
Where Is the PSP?

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

The Console Wars Made Adorable

Nadia Oxford — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 00:50:00 GMT

Everyone gets embroiled in a console war once in a while. We have some kind of inborn instinct that causes us to rush to the defence of our beloved consoles as if they were a damsel cornered by a dragon. It's interesting to wonder what system-associated developers like Miyamoto think about such behaviour. “What, do you people have deep-rooted problems revolving around peer approval or something?”

When you think about how silly the console wars ultimately are, you really do have to duck your head in shame for participating (shortly before you go back and do it all over again). Or, sometimes, you might receive another reminder of how easily we can all get along if we just try. For instance, through an art project.

A board member on IGN has put together a small group of sketches titled, “The Console War is Officially Over.” The adorable pictures feature the major game consoles (and their young portable siblings) in various states of play.

(Those bedsheets should be burning merry hell.)

It's a heart-melting group of pics. It makes me feel really bad for ever fitting my Xbox 360 with sharp spurs and sending it after the PS3. They don't want to fight. They want to love. I vow to be a better console owner from now on.

(PSP, moar like Pee-ass-pee, lol)

Related Links:

Roundtable Discussion: Where Is the Handheld Version of the Console Wars?
Sign of the Times: Current Gen to Stick Around a Little Longer
Microsoft's New Year's Resolution

Why Do You Keep Doing This to Me, Atlus: Persona Comes to PSP

John Constantine — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 23:00:00 GMT

I’m currently in month two of my prolonged incarceration. Atlus says that I should buck up. Persona 4 is, apparently, some fifteen hours shorter than its predecessor. Atlus says I’ll be able to go outside again soon. Possibly by this spring! I have hope that Atlus will release from my bonds, loose me from this level grinding, this wandering through randomly generated dungeon after randomly made dungeon. Atlus says I’ll be able to talk to real live people again, and not the pleasant digital avatars it demands I form emotional bonds with. I look forward to that day.

…

Now Atlus tells me it’s remaking the original Persona for PSP. Atlus says that with the game’s new graphics, it can watch me anywhere. At any time. And always keep me close.

SOMEBODY HELP ME! This trailer already has me in its terrible clutches!

Related links:

Whatcha Not Playing: Persona 4
And Now Back to Our Regularly Scheduled Love: Atlus Reprints Persona 2
Persona 2: Innocent Sin Translation Complete
Yeah, But Is It Art?: Persona 3 FES
Whatcha Playing: Persona, Fallout, and the Trans-Pacific RPG Ideal

Whatcha Playing: Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (Again)

Nadia Oxford — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 04:06:00 GMT

I have a small stable of games I love returning to once in a while, and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night is among them. I own the original Playstation version (the actual original: it lacks the flu-snot green bar that labels it a best-selling re-release) and the emulation that was packed with the PSP's Dracula X Chronicles. I've finished both multiple times, but I decided that wasn't enough, so I downloaded the game once more on XBLA. Having lost my original Playstation at the bottom our sock drawer something like five years ago, it's nice to play Symphony of the Night on a large screen once more. It'd be nice if the Achievements weren't lame, but eh, if wishes were horses, and all that.

Symphony of the Night is still firmly in the top quality tier of the Castlevania hierarchy, but aging gamers draw in vital nutrients through message board fights about whether or not an esteemed game still deserves its lofty status. Over the past handful of years, Symphony of the Night has ignited similar arguments. Is the game as brilliant as we remember it? Was the Inverted Castle a stroke of game design genius or a cheap trick to extend gameplay?

Konami's premiere “Metroidvania” was one of the first titles I purchased on the Playstation: it helped usher me over the turbulent change from my teenage years to my adult years, which came with the inevitable realisation that you can't always do what you want to do, but there is no one who can stop you from enjoying the things that make the transition a little easier.

I'm undeniably biased towards Symphony of the Night, so I'm useless in a debate about its place amongst gaming history. At the same time, I don't think anyone can deny how lovingly put together it is. Every time I play Symphony of the Night, I discover some new thing: a mouse scurrying, doves nesting in the crevices of the Outer Wall, or (as I discovered very recently) the fact you can kill a toad by throwing Holy Water on its tongue, which pleases me greatly.

And even if you still insist on crossing your arms and saying “A-bloo-bloo-bloo awkward item screen,” you will surely recall how quickly the gorgeous piano melody in Orlox's Quarters made your annoyance melt away.

I think of Symphony of the Night as an integral soldier in the last stand for console-based 2D adventures. Sony of America was desperate to leave video gaming's “kiddy” image back with the colourful sprites on the Super Nintendo, and the 32-bit era of platformers—which birthed some of the finest in the genre—would have suffered for it if the likes of Konami and Capcom hadn't engaged in justifiable blackmail by threatening to hold big-name 3D titles if Sony wouldn't America have Castlevania and Mega Man. Interestingly, Symphony of the Night is a dignified and mature game regardless of its “primitive” presentation. Religious symbolism abounds, something Japan tends to be very hit-or-miss about. But it's all in context and it even aged well: heraldic imagery, spectral priests who listen to confessions, pious ghosts who cross themselves, and even a beautiful, sun-lit cathedral decorated with an ornate cross.

Incidentally, I still think Dracula has chutzpah for building a fully-loaded cathedral in the middle of his castle. He's all like, “Take that, God!”

I'm aware of Symphony of the Night's flaws, not the least of which is some kind of mapping joke that makes it prohibitively difficult to explore 200.6% of Dracula's abode. Certain gaps in the map will only be filled by doing a strange dance that involves shifting into a wolf, then shifting back after jumping. But who needs the reward at the end? Empty-headed Maria chases after Alucard. So what--

Oh crap, getting 200.6% is one of the Achievements on the Xbox 360 version of the game, isn't it? Bugger.

Related Links:

Suffering Castlevania Fatigue
Watcha Playing: Castlevania - Portrait of Ruin
Castlevania: Cruse of the Stupid Red Headed Kid

Yuusha 30 and Wario’s Micro Game Legacy

John Constantine — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 23:30:00 GMT

A number of sites got their greasy, keyboard crippled hands on early scans of the latest Weekly Famitsu yesterday, and revealed Yuusha 30, thus spoiling all the good fun of Marvelous’ countdown clock. A “new feels RPG” — no comment — according to Famitsu, Yuusha 30’s hook is having four playable characters that you only control for thirty seconds at a time. Each character corresponds with a different game genre. Yuusha’s princess has you playing thirty seconds of scrolling shooter, its demon you play a strategy game, and with the token warrior, a side-scrolling action game. Right now, that’s about all the information there is about Yuush 30 for PSP. But it’s enough to get me chomping at the bit to try it out.

While it isn’t widespread enough to call a trend, the micro game is starting to spread beyond its WarioWare confines. You can see Yoshio Sakamoto’s fingers in a number of recent games, and not just WarioWare clones or rhythm games like Sakamoto’s own Rhythm Tengoku. This sort of quick style play is starting to show up in more traditional genres, much like it is here in Yuusha 30. Treasure’s Bangai-O Spirits is the very definition of a hardcore game: a two-dimensional shooter that requires you memorize a ridiculous amount of information, from stage layouts to weapon effects and enemy patterns. But most challenges in Bangai-O take little more than thirty-seconds to complete, and often times less.

The micro game, as it were, might just be the next great hope for hardcore Japanese games. If Sakamoto’s style of burst gaming can be turned into a successful shmup or RPG, where will we see it next?

Related links:

Make the Music With Your Games, Kids!
Fun Fact: Metroid Meets Metronome
Looking Ahead: 6 DS Games that I'm Looking Forward To in 2009.

Mega Man 9: Powered Up and LittleBigGalaxyMan

John Constantine — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 17:00:00 GMT

Every now and again, I curse the internet and its countless paths. It’s easy to get lost in here. it’s easy to lost literal hours of your life on completely meaningless, mindless drivel. How many times have you, dear reader, fallen into a YouTube spiral, clicking related video after related video until the moving images no longer hold meaning? Every URL is perilous I tell you. Then I come to my senses and remember the all important truth about the 21st century: the internet is awesome. As is meaningless, drivel, and the access we have to it.

Despite my recent renaissance with the game, I probably wouldn’t have found out about this brave soul’s Mega Man: Powered Up adventures if it wasn't for aimless internet wandering. They've made a close-to-perfect recreation of Galaxy Man’s stage from Mega Man 9. Behold:

It does, however, show the limitations of Mega Man: Powered Up’s versatility as a device for recreating classic Mega Man. Mega Man 1’s levels are faithfully preserved in the core Powered Up game but it’s impossible to replicate the wide-open rooms in Galaxy Man’s stage without turning them into multiple areas. All the same, very cool.

And, internet spirals being what they are, this video led me directly into the arms of another Galaxy Man recreation, this time in Mega Man: Powered Up’s descendant, LittleBigPlanet. This one’s obviously less perfect, but is still swell. It also helps highlight the merits of Mega Man 9’s lo-fi presentation; can you imagine how lame a Mega Man platformer would be if it actually looked like this?

Related links:

Little Big Trailblazer: Revisiting Mega Man Powered Up, User-Generated Content Pioneer
Mega Man 9 Bosses Look Like Mega Man Bosses
More Downloadable Remakes! More, Says I!
The Five Greatest Enhanced Remakes - And Five That Weren't So Great, Part 2

Dragonball: Evolution: The New Street Fighter: The Movie: The Game?

Bob Mackey — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 17:00:00 GMT

First of all, I'd like to apologize for the number of colons in the subject of this post; please note that they're completely necessary, both to convey meaning and to win me that world record. That being said, I feel it's important to remind you that the American Dragonball movie is about to come into existence--sure, it's already been made, but it will no longer be safe from the eyes of the general public after April 8th. Before you jump to any conclusions, my general disdain from the film doesn't come from any sort of love for Akira Toriyama's masterwork; my interest in Dragonball didn't really continue past the 17th year of my life. I just find that making a dull, Americanized version of a property roughly 7-9 years after it's peaked is not the soundest business or creative decision. Hell, with the Dragonball movie on the horizon, I wouldn't be surprised if Fox brought out their film adaptation of The Weakest Link this summer.

So what does any of this have to do with video games? Well, if you looked at the picture above--and I assume you did--the new Dragonball movie is going to have its very own game--and it's a PSP exclusive. And while limiting your game to the pirate-happy audience of the PSP doesn't indicate the highest of hopes, I still feel that Dragonball: Evolution is an oddity reaching the levels of Street Fighter: The Movie: The Game. If you're not familiar with the latter, it was a 2D fighter featuring digitized versions of the movie cast that looked absolutely nothing like the original characters in question--remember that the first Street Fighter movie had the audacity to cast a slurring Belgian as the game's foremost American superpatriot, Guile. What amuses me the most about these types of games is that they seem so valueless, especially to fans of their respective franchises; after all, would you rather fight as the cartoony version of Goku you've come to know and love, or the 3D rendering of some white guy in an orange bathrobe? You make the call.

Screen courtesy of Game|Life.

Related Links:

How Sony Can Save the PSP in 2009
Canada Plays PSP
Where Is the PSP?

Sony’s New Year’s Resolution

John Constantine — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 00:00:00 GMT

For all intents and purposes, 2008 was an excellent year for Sony and the Playstations. Was it the salad days of 2001, when the Playstation 2 was coming into its own and Sony was crushing every proverbial ass in the world? Certainly not. But the Playstation 3 managed to finally get itself a stable of quality exclusives that weren’t completely ignored by the public and panned by the media. The Playstation Portable, despite receiving only a scant few notable games, had a banner year in Japan and continued to grow its install base in the rest of the world. The Playstation Network worked out a few of its kinks, and even if it’s the ugliest baby since Sloth, at least Home launched. And the good ol’ Playstation 2 continued, eight years after its birth, to both sell and play host to great new games. The end of the year, however, did not look so hot. The Playstation 3 got trounced by its competitors leading up to Christmas. You see, it didn’t matter how damn good Resistance 2, LittleBigPlanet, Motorstorm: Pacific Rim, or Valkyria Chronicles were. What mattered is that the average person in every country where the system is sold does not have $400 for a videogame console right now. Money, as you may have heard, is something of a concern for everyone right now. They don’t have much of it, and there isn’t a whole lot of work for them to make more of it, so it’s no wonder they aren’t paying for your box which costs just about twice what everybody else’s box does.

Sony? Resolve to make the damn Playstation 3 cheaper in 2009. Making the console profitable should not be the priority right now. Getting it into as many homes as possible needs to be priority one. Your first and third party line-up for 2009 is a traditional gamers’ dream. Rely on it. And if the box is cheap enough, you just might grab back a piece of that casual pie. March price drop, no new SKU. Done.

Oh, and also, software backwards compatibility. You shouldn’t have taken it out in the first place.

Related links:

Microsoft’s New Year’s Resolution
Virtual Console New Year's Resolutions
Nintendo’s New Year’s Resolution

How Sony Can Save the PSP in 2009

Joe Keiser — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 20:00:00 GMT

Over the holidays, I planned on digging deep (figuratively and literally, since the game is mostly about making caves) into Dungeon Maker II: The Hidden War. This did not happen on account of my PSP battery committing ritual suicide sometime between December 24th and the March release of Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core. I don’t really hold this against the battery, because it’s not like it had anything better to do. But it did get me angry, and thinking about what’s wrong with the PSP, and predicting that unless Sony can figure out what it’s really trying to get out of the handheld these days, it might be better off just letting it die.

In my predictions I mentioned that there were a few things Sony could do to save the system and brand. To be completely honest, it’s not actually very unlikely that Sony can do anything to increase market share or keep the PSP alive for more than another year or two. But it can “save” the PSP by going out with a bang, creating enough goodwill and momentum to give the PSP2 a fighting shot when it comes out, should such a system come out at all. Here’s what I think the handheld team at the company should do:

Bolster current PSP owners with cheap add-ons: The PSP is not a system aimed at soccer moms and old-age homes, so how is it possible that a “core” game-loving maniac like me has to wipe months of dust off the system every time I want to use it? It would not take much for someone like me to put the system into my primary rotation. Frequent PSOne releases on the Network Store alone would enough. Firmware updates that would provide nice bonuses, like caching UMD games to memory card or more robust video playback, would be simple value-adds that would make current owners more happy with their system. The worst part is, everything I’ve mentioned here are things that many PSPs can already do—if said PSP has hacked firmware. Which brings me to my next point:

Stop piracy smarter: The PlayStation Network Store is a good start. Doing all the things I’ve already talked about would be an awesome step two. Next up you could have better Network Store exclusive games, or exclusive add-ons for the biggest retail games. No, this won’t stop anybody who will hack the system to play pirated games, but there’s no stopping those people. What it will do is show development partners that you are dedicated to fighting piracy in creative, forward-thinking ways, which will encourage more development on the platform and its successor. But even taking pirated games out of the picture, a hacked PSP is a more useful, valuable system than an unhacked one. That is embarrassing.

Open the creative floodgates: You’ve said that the key to success on PSP is AAA franchises completely re-imagined to fit the console’s strengths. That’s a good plan for short-term profitability, sure. But it doesn’t seem likely that enough AAA franchises will want to go that route—and even if they did, that would just give the system the reputation of being the device with the lowest-rent additions to the current hot names in games. That’s not a great reputation to have!

So stick with that, but fill in the gaps between with creative and strange games. Patapon would be a good example if it were not just a strange game but also a good one. Maybe bring back old franchises like Jumping Flash or Parappa the Rapper or Dark Cloud, games with concepts that still have meat on them. At best, this will find a killer app for the system in the west. At worse, it will give the PSP the reputation for being brave and having games with no parallel elsewhere. This may or may not sell more PSPs, but it will keep the buzz going so that when the PSP2 is announced, it’s actually exciting.

Related Links:

Industry Predictions for 2009: Doom and Gloom Edition
Where Is the PSP?
Sony Might Just Hate You

Industry Predictions for 2009: Doom and Gloom Edition

Joe Keiser — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 17:00:00 GMT

Happy New Year, everyone! Please note before continuing that you are unlikely to see the word “happy” in any other place in this entry. My predictions for where gaming is going in 2009 are not particularly rosy, but these are lean times, and lean times do not care so much about your feelings.

More closures: As investors pulled money and game sales underperformed, companies closed left and right at the end of 2008. I expect that trend to continue as more Christmas sales results come in. Independent developers, the ones completely unprotected from the financial storm, will be in the most trouble, but publishers will probably close down a significant number of internal studios also. Midway, of course, will be first—there’s a chance some semblance of the company will get out of its current turmoil, but that Midway will bear little resemblance to the one of today.

The $60 price ceiling will hold: Late in the year, the news that Call of Duty: World at War was being sold at $50 in some places scared the bejeezus out of some of the big industry analysts, who began to wonder aloud if the $60 price ceiling was viable in a recession of this magnitude. But the answer to that question doesn’t really matter: whether it seems viable or not, there is no way that that maximum price will drop. It took the industry ten years, a lot of hard work and a whole new hardware generation to get to $60. Lowering the price now wouldn’t just hurt bottom lines immediately, it would hurt them long term as publishers would have to do all that hard work again. Price cuts from an initial asking price of $60 may come quickly, but you all know that’s nor new either. After all it wasn’t that difficult to find Call of Duty 4 for $40 prior to Christmas 2007.

DLC will reign supreme: 2009 will be the big year for downloadable games and add-ons. 2008 set pretty solid bedrock for this to occur, thanks to excellent and financially successful DLC-exclusive titles like Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix and World of Goo. In this down economy, these cheap games will look better than ever to gamers, while game makers will also appreciate how the low development and distribution costs affect their quarterly budgets. When the DSi launches in the US with its own online store, digital distribution will start a long and healthy boom.

The PSP will not put up, but shut up: With things dwindling on every front for Sony, 2009 will be the year where the company will have to look itself in the mirror and ask exactly what its goals actually are with the PSP. Chances are it will not have a good enough answer to this question. There are a few things that could be done to save the system and brand, but it’s just as likely that Sony will let the little thing limp into 2010 and die so the company can instead focus resources on its primary console business. Because that’s where it really needs help.

Related Links:

Looking Ahead: 10 Wii Games Amber's Looking Forward To in 2009
On Sega and the Proper Use of the Wii in 2009
Top 5 Reasons Why 2009 Will Bring the End of Lists

Games We Will Finally Get to Play: Sakura Wars

John Constantine — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 22:00:00 GMT

I’m not too proud to admit it. Like the rest of 61FPS’ glorious staff of roustabouts, I am more than willing to reveal to you my most terrible and embarrassing secrets. For example, as a teenager, I was an absolute whore for anime. You name it, I’d watch it or read it. In 1997, anime and manga still seemed edgy and outside of the mainstream to me, to the point that I thought most anything even remotely associated with the broader cultural medium was cool as hell. This is how you end up with Sailor Moon wallscrolls on your wall and Tenchi Muyo dolls on your shelf. Yeah.

Thankfully, for both me and my sex life, this obsession is something I’ve grown out of. Mostly. A lot of my posts on this blog seem to indicate that old habits die hard. Every now and again, something will pop up and get the old juices flowing, and it’s almost always something I was interested in as a teenager that is finally getting localized for the West. The nerdy freak inside me is stirring, because it looks like a Sakura Wars game is finally, after some thirteen years, coming out in the United States.

You really can’t get much more intensely anime/Japanese than Sakura Wars. The series started on the Sega Saturn in 1996 and continues to this day, one of the last remaining hardcore series in Sega’s franchise stable that gets regular entries. The games are a perfect storm of Japanese game types, equal parts visual novel, dating sim, and strategy RPG. The whole series takes place in an alternate reality, a steampunk of the early 20th century, wherein the world is at war, and every battle is (naturally) fought by teenage girls piloting giant robots. You play as the male commander of these young ladies. Obviously.

NIS, that lovely bunch of rapscallions behind the Disgaea series, told RPG Gamer in an interview that they would be releasing a Sakura Wars game in the US in the very near future and I couldn’t be more excited. Yes, I get to honor the mouth-breather I was twelve years ago, but I also get to spend time with a lavishly produced, well-respected game series that I fully expected to remain a footnote on the international gaming stage. Here’s hoping it’s the PSP compilation, Sakura Wars 1 & 2, that NIS is localizing. Got to start at the beginning, dontcha know.

(Link: RPG Gamer via Siliconera)

Related links:

Games We Will Never Get to Play: Mega Man Mania AKA Game Boy Anniversary Collection
Games We Will Never Get to Play: River City Ransom Online
Games We Will Never Get to Play: Kenji Eno’s D2 for M2

X-Blades and the Cultural Uncanny Valley

John Constantine — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 19:00:00 GMT

Years of schooling in composition left me with absolutely no sense of proper grammar, structure, and only a passing familiarity with proper spelling, but I did come away with a good sense of how not to seem like a jackass in an opening. The golden rules: don’t open with a question and don’t start with a definition. These rules can be broken only when absolutely necessary. Like now for instance!

How many of you have heard of X-Blades?

For clarity’s sake, X-Blades is a third-person action game in the Devil May Cry mold and it looks like a parody of Japanese videogames that you might see on The Simpsons. It stars a young woman sporting knives, blonde hair, and enormous eyes/breasts. She wears some string and tiny scraps of cloth over her privates and kills monsters in a fantasy land where it is apparently always dusk. Her name’s Ayumi. Of course it is! It's a videogame so overfull on cliché that it can’t possibly be real. But it is, and it actually seems fairly inoffensive, a potentially good way to drop a few hours between games that you actually give a damn about. Thing is, though, every time I’ve seen screens or footage of X-Blades something has just seemed off. I know that isn’t the most journalistic statement in the world but there’s no other way to put it. It’s just wrong, off-putting, something rotten inside of its seemingly pure trope-soup.

The reason X-Blades seems so peculiar, I think, has to do with where it’s from. The game, despite appearances, isn’t Japanese. It’s developer, the appropriately named Gaijin Entertainment, is Russian. It isn’t that there’s anything specific wrong with X-Blades — well, maybe Ayumi’s ridiculous design — but that the game suffers from a cultural Uncanny Valley effect. It seems that, when one culture tries to emulate another’s game design, the result is repellant. Take Japanese attempts at the first-person shooter, like Coded Arms. Even beyond it’s questionable PSP control, it’s lacking in the feel inherent in Western FPS design. Or how about the long-forgotten PS1 RPG, Shadow Madness? Even with Ted Woolsey steering that ship, Crave Entertainment’s attempt at making a “Western JRPG” fell flat on its face.

This isn’t what you’d call a scientific observation, dear reader. But still good food for thought.

Related links:

TVTropes' "Woolseyisms"
Crossing the Uncanny Valley
The Uncanny Valley: Tomb Raider and Lara Croft Are Starting to Freak Me Out
Video of the Day: Judah Friedlander Explains the Uncanny Valley

Canada Plays PSP

Nadia Oxford — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 04:07:00 GMT

Unlike the rest of the world, apparently. Ssssssnap!

Sony's pretty good at making me hate their PSP commercials through sheer overexposure. While waiting in the theatre for Revenge of the Sith to start—shut up—the venue played commercial after commercial to give the bouncing audience something to focus on besides throwing popcorn and fencing with rolled-up Tribute magazines. Sony had obviously bought out Mama Multiplex's Advertising Hour because every third commercial was that PSP advertisement that made you want to slay Franz Fernandez.

I thought I had been sent to a particularly musical part of hell. When Revenge of the Sith began, I knew for sure. Sssssn--(*gunshot*)

I thought I had recovered from my previous bout of PSP ad poisoning. Even the shakes nearly stopped. Tragically, Sony's marketing department recently began a Canada-exclusive ad campaign that's meant to push our health care system to the brinks by breaking our minds and pushing us into long-term hospital stays. Sony's latest plea for someone, anyone to recognise the PSP isn't badly put-together. It's pretty cool, actually. But when it's every other commercial on the tube, it starts to rasp at your brain and ears. Nothing against Passion Pit, I'm always happy to see small Canadian bands get exposure, but...yow. Irradiation through over-exposure makes me a sad moose-tender.

There, I've given you a reason to avoid Canada. You had reason enough with all this white stuff on the ground that isn't icing sugar, cocaine or anything useful.

You know what, it could be worse. I could have to deal with "USA Plays PSP" over and over:

Sidenote: I love how, er, white the "Canada Plays PSP" commercial is. The PSP was launched as a sleek, grown-up alternative to the Nintendo DS, and now it's ascended to lofty, mug-me white. Sound like another console we know? Another console named the Wii?

Related Links:

Where Is The PSP?
Where Is Landstalker PSP?
Facepalm: Gaming While Driving

Beating the Dead Horse Who Has It Coming: Playstation Releases on PSN

John Constantine — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 23:45:00 GMT

Castlevania Chronicles, the peculiar Playstation remake of a peculiar X68000 remake of the original Castlevania, was released as a downloadable title on Playstation Network today. It ain’t the best Castlevania out there, but it’s still a swell action title. The disc release was never widely distributed either, so this will be the very first time most interested players will even get the chance to try it out. Of course, the same could be said of a lot of Playstation games. The halcyon days of 2003 when you could walk into any Blockbuster or Gamestop in the country and pick up five classic PS1 games, often times still shrinkwrapped, for ten or twenty bucks are long over, and the collector’s market is making many great games prohibitively expensive. Want to play Silent Hill? Hope you’ve got an extra sixty-five dollars lying around. How about Suikoden II, considered to be the series’ definitive installment? That’ll be $150. And what about cult classics like CyberConnect2’s Silent Bomber? Yeah, seventy smackers.

You shouldn’t have to pay top dollar for these games, though, considering they could very easily be released on the Playstation Network. Over the course of the past two years, SCEA, along with a handful of other US publishers, have put up a measly twenty-six Playstation games on PSN, while Sony Japan have released close to a hundred. This isn’t the first time I’ve brought up this inexplicable disparity here at 61 Frames Per Second, but seriously, Sony. What the hell is going on here?! If the current market has proven anything, it’s that you can put almost anything up for download on a console and someone will buy it. There is no other explanation for Boogerman’s presence on Nintendo’s Virtual Console. The expense of having a game re-rated by the ESRB can’t be that high if Boogerman is getting re-released.

Sony, if you want to convince people to buy a Playstation 3 or PSP, then nostalgia-bomb them. Tell them they can relive all their fondest memories of 1997 for a mere five dollars on the Playstation Network and I promise you, people will literally throw money at you. And no, I don’t mean you should put up more Jet Moto games.

Related links:

Sony Gives Thanks Via Charming PSN Deals
Far Out, Man
I’ll Tell You When I’ve Had Enough!
Sony Might Just Hate You
Boogerman: Too Immature for Children

NPDeez Nuts: The Way Tomorrow Looks

John Constantine — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 01:00:00 GMT

Way back in May, I thought that, like every other blog that regularly talks about the videogames, 61FPS should cover the NPD sales numbers every month. It seemed like a no brainer until I realized the truth: who gives a damn about sales? We are not gamblers here, throwing crumpled dollars in a circle, cursing each other out over how many copies of Wii Play might sell in a four week period! We are aesthetes, which is to say, we are pretentious as fuck. Waxing philosophical about emergent narrative is how we roll, and sales numbers should be beneath our concern! Harumph and such.

I’m kidding. Well, half-kidding. We’re not snooty berks. We just like videogames a lot, and we like thinking about them even more. Today’s an important day to mention the NPD numbers because they are, to turn a phrase, meaty food for thought. Sony sold just under four-hundred thousand Playstation 3s in November, and just over four-hundred thousand PSPs. Micrsoft sold eight-hundred thirty-thousand Xbox 360s. And Nintendo sold two-million, forty-thousand Wiis. Nintendo also sold one-million, five-hundred thousand DS Lites. Three and a half million people bought Nintendo consoles in the United States. In one month. That is a lot. A lot a lot.

It doesn’t mean Sony is doomed and that the Playstation 3 is going to disappear, Gizmondo-style, before 2009 is out. It doesn’t mean that Microsoft is going to announce an Xbox 360 follow-up in six months that introduces some novelty device and even more cutsey avatars for Xbox Live in a bid to get a piece of the new mainstream pie.

These gargantuan numbers mean that Tuesday’s announcement of Dragon Quest X for the Wii, like Monster Hunter 3’s transition to Wii last year, is the first of many such announcements. From here on out, it won’t be a smattering of hardcore games and an ocean of minigame-collection shovelware on the Wii. From here on out, the very best developers in the world are going to be put to work on Wii development kits by publishers. Because that’s what people own to play videogames. It also means that the extended console lifecycle for the current crop of consoles is all the more likely. HD games aren’t going anywhere, but the talent has to start making Wii games if they want some of that Nintendo money.

Two million Wiis. In a month. That is insane.

(Link: GameLife)

(Image: © Sebastião Salgado/ AMAZONAS Images: With the men away in the cities, the women carry their goods to the market of Chimbote. Region of Chimborazo, Ecuador, 1998. "Migrations: Humanity in Transition," Aperture, New York, 2000, p.276-277.)

Related links:

NPD Wrap: The Times Are a Changin’
If Sales Numbers Mattered, LittleBigPlanet's Commercial Would Be Appealing
Capcom to Date, By the Numbers
Nintendo's Paint Change

Derrick's Top 13 Games of 2008 - Part 2

Derrick Sanskrit — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 18:00:00 GMT

Missed part 1? Click here!

9 - Space Invaders Extreme (DS/PSP):
One of the most iconic arcade games of all time crossed its 30th anniversary this year, and to celebrate they reinvented the whole damn thing. We've seen this before, but Space Invaders Extreme was different. How? It was flippin' awesome this time. Bright colors and flashing lights, sound effects that sync with the club-ready music, new power-ups and new aggressive enemies, Space Invaders Extreme turned the arcade classic into an underground rave of interplanetary destruction. And, as I already said, its flippin' awesome. I prefer the DS version, but both are great, and for the bargain price of $19.99 there's really no reason not to pick up this addictive portable reimagining.

8 - newtonica (iPhone/iPod Touch):
Kenichi Nishi's debut game for Apple's "gaming device" multi-touch widescreen iPod is sheer casual bliss. There is a ball and you can spin it with a flick of your finger. Cubes fall toward the ball and you get points by lining up the ball so the blocks fall in the appropriately colored areas. Don't strain your brain too hard, there's only two colors. The first ten minutes of play are stress-free and easy, but soon enough the speed and frequency of falling blocks increases to the point of insanity and the slow relaxing game has turned vicious and intense. Charming. Addictive. Very easy to lose track of time and surroundings when played. Oh, and a soundtrack by Kenji Eno. That's an awesome game.

7 - Professor Layton & The Curious Village (DS):
Level 5's logic-puzzle festival was a truly unique gaming experience. It marked the first time ever that both my little sister and I completed the same game from start to finish within a week. This is not to say that the game is short, rather that the game is engrossing for players of all ages and paths. Solve one quaint puzzle after another, every now and then coming across one that truly adjusts the way you're thinking and fills you with a sense of wonder and excitement upon completion and eager to find the next puzzle. Couple that with a surprisingly deep narrative and absolutely gorgeous animated cutscenes and you have one of the shining gems of an already very impressive DS library. Now what's it gonna take to release the two sequels outside of Japan?

6 - Boom Blox (Wii):
Who would have thought that the debut game from Stephen Spielberg's development deal with Electronic Arts would turn out to be my go-to party game? Got a bunch of friends over? Pop Boom Blox in your Wii and fire up a few Wiimotes. Gamers and nongamers alike will pick up the controls in a matter of minutes and everyone in the room becomes captivated, watching blox fall and explode and crazy little critters jump and shout. Arms will be made sore and remotes will be passed to other people who were watching but not playing and the whole thing keeps going until everyone is worn out and needs a nap. This is what happened on my birthday, this is what happened at a friend's housewarming, this is what happened at Thanksgiving, and this is probably what will happen again at Christmas. Boom Blox, while fun enough as a single player game, is THE killer multi-player title for the Wii.

Part 1
Part 3

Related Articles:
Bob's Top Ten Games of 2008: Audiosurf, Braid
Time Magazine's Top 10 Games of 2008
Action Button's Top 25 Games Ever

Little Big Trailblazer: Revisiting Mega Man Powered Up, User-Generated Content Pioneer

John Constantine — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 15:00:00 GMT

When I wrote up Where Is the PSP a few days back, I left out the fact that I’m largely responsible for the neglect of my own little Sony portable. Not because I haven’t been buying games, but because I haven’t taken the time to properly equip the thing to take full advantage of its potential. Up until yesterday, I had been using the same 32MB memory stick that came with my launch PSP back in 2005, pretty much cutting me off from any and all downloadable content available and, more often than not, limiting my ability to even update its firmware. Well, thanks to some good ol’fashioned Black Friday scavenging, my PSP has eight honking gigabytes to play with. I updated the firmware (I was a full version behind apparently), browsed the recently launched PSP PSN store (functional!), and grabbed some demos (Syphon Filter lives up to its reputation). But once the house cleaning and redecoration was finished, I moved on to the real impetus behind the upgrade: finally exploring Mega Man Powered Up’s DLC and user-generated levels.

This remake of Mega Man’s original adventure is really the unsung harbinger of the current gaming zeitgeist. Not only is it a lavish remake of a two-dimensional classic, not only did it lay the groundwork for Mega Man’s triumphant 8-bit rebirth, but it boasts one of console and portable gaming’s beefiest level creation tools. You can make all sorts of devious challenges, chock full of all the killer platforming, shooting, and bottomless pits any proper Mega Man needs, and then upload them to Powered Up’s easy to navigate web portal. Sure it sounds like a rote addition to any flagship game here at the end of 2008, but keep in mind that Powered Up came out almost three years ago. This is long before folks were singing the praises of Halo 3’s Forge, a solid year before people even knew Little Big Planet existed, and it’s all on a portable. The available levels, and there are many, are pretty swell after a random sampling. There’s even a token Super Mario Bros. 1-1 recreation.

Powered Up is also something of a cautionary tale. Capcom supported Powered Up with regular and free DLC, including asset packs for level creation (Ghosts ‘N Goblins level tools rule) alongside all sorts of extras like unique challenge course levels for every character in the game (every robot master is playable in every part of the game) and a plethora of, um, costumes for Roll (sexy kitty Roll? Sheesh, Japan…). But, after months of DLC, Capcom stopped because no one freaking bought Mega Man Powered Up! The lesson here is that, no matter how great your game, no matter how well you support it, no matter how great its ongoing features, it doesn’t mean people will play. Here’s hoping Media Molecule’s initial success holds for longer than a single year.

You can pick up Mega Man Powered Up for $12.00 on Amazon. Go. Go buy it now. If you do and make some levels, shoot me an email at johnc at nerve dot com, and I will play the bejesus out of it before posting the goodness right here.

Related links:

The Five Greatest Enhanced Remakes - And Five That Weren't So Great, Part 2
Mega Man's Nightmare: A Hard Hat With a Strategy
Games We Will Never Get to Play: Mega Man Mania AKA Game Boy Anniversary Collection
Mega Man is a Dick
The 61FPS Review: LittleBigPlanet - Part 2
Four More Games That ARE Awesome Remade In LittleBigPlanet

Where Is the PSP?

John Constantine — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 23:00:00 GMT

I am a superstitious man. I throw salt over my shoulder and knock on wood. I refuse to cross paths with black cats, something that is difficult when you share an apartment with one. When wandering about Manhattan, with its many scaffolding-covered building fronts, I am occasionally paralyzed by an all-consuming fear of the literal hundreds of ladders I pass beneath every day! I also know to not buy videogame consoles on launch day. If I do, I know that I will never play that many games for that device that looked so tempting before I actually had it. It all started with the Dreamcast, a system I adored, but I maybe owned a total of ten games for before its ignoble death (almost all of them published by Sega themselves). Two years out from its release, and it looks like the same is happening with Wii, a system that I turn on to play Gamecube games for more often than actual Wii discs. And then there’s the PSP. Oh, I was excited by that little monster when it came out back in early 2005. So excited, I decided it was a good idea to wake up at 6 AM on release day to pick one up, along with copies of Lumines and Ridge Racer. I played both pretty extensively for a month and then didn’t turn on the machine again until December of 2006.

Now I’m not saying there aren’t good games for the PSP. One of the six games I’ve ever purchased, Zoe Mode’s absolutely astounding Crush would make my top fifty games ever made. But it’s hard to deny that the handheld takes up almost zero space in the collective consciousness of gaming broadly. In the six months since 61FPS launched, we’ve run a total of four posts specifically about PSP games. For a team of writers who are more or less obsessed with games of any stripe and for any console, this is pretty telling. The PSP does continue to sell reasonably well, and it’s been enjoying something of a banner year in Japan (it sold two million units in the first half of ’08, doubling its 2007 sales.) I’m just curious what the hell people are using it for, because they sure as heck aren’t buying a ton of games.

Actually, come to think of it, I can only name five PSP games slated for future release. The 3rd Birthday (Parasite Eve 3), Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep, Patapon 2, Locoroco 2, and that Disgaea spin-off, Prinny: Can I Really Be The Hero.

What is going on with this system?

More Where Is?:

Oh Wait, Hydrophobia’s Right Here!
Prototype
Where is Shuichi Sakurazaki, Creator of Ninja Gaiden?
Yasunori Mitsuda
Landstalker PSP
Joe Madureira
Wii’s Disaster: Day of Crisis
Yu Suzuki
The City of Metronome
New Indiana Jones
Doug TenNapel
Victor Ireland

Sony Might Just Hate You

John Constantine — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 22:30:00 GMT

Even before the company’s dramatic fall from grace, there has been a number of reasons a discerning individual might think that Sony hates them. The original Playstation had a failure rate to challenge the Xbox 360’s and the first DualShock controller didn’t become a pack-in with the system for months after its release. The Playstation 2 launched at a pricey $299 and that price held until May of 2002 when Sony suddenly and without forewarning dropped it to $199, leaving thousands of gamers out a hundred bucks when a simple press release could have saved them the trouble. The PSP launched and its screen was plagued by dead pixels and the Playstation 3 cost half a grand at the cheapest when it launched in ’06. One day, they’re committed to backwards compatibility and against rumble in controllers, and the next they’re asking you drop sixty smackers on a controller that shakes and backwards compatibility is for the birds. Yep. Sony hates you. Sony hates all of us.

Well, today, Sony hates your potential creativity. If you’re anything like us, you looked at LittleBigPlanet and thought, “Oh man. I am totally remaking Castlevania III in that sumbitch.” As the game plowed through its autumn beta, it turned out there were many like minded souls out there, making all sorts of homage-laden playgrounds for Sackboy to romp about. Then, last week, Media Molecule started disappearing levels from LittleBigPlanet’s servers en masse. Claiming that these deleted levels were the target of user complaints, it turned out that they were almost all removed under the auspices of copyright infringement. Most of the levels erased were based on classic videogames, but as Kris Erickson pointed out on PS3 Informer, some levels were removed for so innocuous a reason as they shared a name with a movie. (It’s actually just as well this one was taken down. No one needs to be reminded that Failure to Launch exists.) Today, Sony released a statement outlining some “suggested” LittleBigPlanet rules of conduct:

• Ensure that the content you share with other users is suitable for all ages - everybody has access to your level if you publish it.

• Please respect other people's intellectual property rights. For example, don't use images, brands or logos that you're not entitled to use.

• If you come across any content that you feel the need to report, then please do it responsibly. Hoax reports will be considered inappropriate behaviour.

Nothing says creativity like a nice set of rules! Regarding the all ages part, I don’t see why Sony and Media Molecule didn’t incorporate age settings that reflect a given PS3’s parental settings in the first place. No hoax reporting? Fine. But the intellectual property issue is both prickly and offensive. As Erickson also points out in his excellent editorial, the majority of these levels deleted from LittleBigPlanet fall within the boundaries of fair use. The levels inherently don’t diminish the value of the work that inspired them because, especially with game homage, they have to run in LittleBigPlanet. But more importantly, none of these levels are made for commercial consumption. They are free, provided you already own the game and a Playstation. PSN member RoboAlucard92 isn’t getting paid for his Symphony of the Night level in LittleBigPlanet. When Konami releases their inevitable LittleBigPlanet Castlevania content pack, then that level might need to be taken down. But not before.

The very existence of LittleBigPlanet seems like an act of love. But this sort of corporate kowtowing looks a whole lot more like hate.

(Our thanks to CVG, PS3 Informer, and NeoGAF user newschool)

Related links:

Microsoft Just Might Hate You
Nintendo Might Just Hate You
Five Games That Will Be Awesome to Remake in LittleBigPlanet
Waiting: Four More Games That Will Be Awesome To Remake In LittleBigPlanet
Four More Games That ARE Awesome Remade In LittleBigPlanet

Japan Scares Me: Tokyo Game Show Rising, Strangeness, and Panty-shot Beat ‘Em Ups

John Constantine — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 21:00:00 GMT

Does it ever. Japan has me trembling in my delicate booties. Typically it’s just one thing or another that gets me quaking in abject terror: a bizarre fan-made video here, a witch molestation game there. Today, Japan’s working overtime. Gaming exists, at the Japanese moment, in a state of flux. Traditional gaming appears to be dwindling – way back in June 2007, Screen Digest predicted that 89% of Japanese households would own a Nintendo DS, a number that will likely need to be increased after the DSi releases later this year – while simultaneously thriving thanks to Capcom’s Monster Hunter Portable juggernaut. Major publishers continue to consolidate while the nation’s auteur creators start crafting more and more games to suit Western tastes and flock to Western publishing houses. Hell, the Xbox 360, an American console, outsold the PS3 throughout September. Things are topsy-turvy over there. It’s enough to make a man skittish, especially with the Tokyo Game Show due to start in just forty-eight hours.

What’s to be scared of? For starters, there’s the Chrono Trigger Museum in Square-Enix’s booth. This worries me for two reasons. First, I may wake up in a Japanese prison on Saturday morning because I will have unconsciously attempted to steal everything on display. Second, it will most likely be the first time that people get hands on time with Chrono Trigger DS’ brand new scenarios, including the Dimensional Distortion. The Dimensional Distortion is a brand new story-rich dungeon/quest being supervised by Trigger writer Masato Kato, and while that’s exciting in theory, tampering with a classic in any way is extremely dangerous. The Tokyo Game Show may also, if Action Button’s Tim Rogers is correct, mark the debut of Fumito Ueda and Team Ico’s long-in-development Playstation 3 game. I’m scared it won’t be there, but I’m even more scared that it may not live up to the astronomically high expectations set by Ico and Shadow of the Colossus.

So, yes, terror abounds. But I take comfort in the little things, like Japan’s pervading constancy. I can sleep soundly knowing that, one way or another, Japan will find a way to make even the simplest videogame pervy as hell. Look no further than the just-released Ikkitousen: Eloquent Fist. Ikkitousen is a sidescrolling beat ‘em up for the PSP made in the classic mold of Final Fight and Double Dragon, sporting gigantic and beautifully animated sprites. Those sprites also happen to be teenage Japanese girls who, after taking enough damage, find their already revealing attire (maid and schoolgirl outfits, natch,) completely destroyed, leaving them very, very naked. Almost all of the game's "4000 animated cutscenes with full voice" focus entirely on the protagonist's breasts. I’m sure you get the idea, but you should enjoy this trailer just to let it sink in.

Nothing mollifies neurosis quite like some good ol’fashioned portable hentai.

On a final note, Sam Kennedy’s blog over at 1up revealed to me that Japanese record stores do not have rap or hip-hop sections in them. No, they have “Black” music sections. See for yourself.

Japan? You scare the fucking bejesus out of me.

Related links:

Japan Scares Me: To Love-Ru - Exciting Outdoor School Version
Japan Scares Me Follow Up: To Love-Ru Makes Japan Even Scarier Than Previously Thought
Japan Scares Me: Mario and The Western Show
Ne, Rokkuman! Yaranaika?: The World of Hayadain

Faux-Nostalgia: The Old Glory of Matt Hazard

John Constantine — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 21:00:00 GMT

Viral marketing is insidious and horrible. Anything that openly names itself after a malicious foreign body that invades organic matter, twisting it to its own torrid ends cannot be trusted. To make matters worse, it’s almost always more cloying than regular, old, huckster-with-a-smile advertising (let us never forget the late, not-great Sony “All I Want For Christmas is a PSP” campaign.) That said, I have to hand it to publisher D3. Their viral campaign behind upcoming (but still-unseen) title Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard, is absolutely hilarious and brilliant in its execution. They’ve created two websites, a fan page and news blog, devoted to an imaginary classic gaming series surrounding a convincingly vintage character by the name of Matt Hazard. Starting with a 1983 arcade game named The Adventures of Matt in Hazard Land, D3’s constructed a full history of a non-existant franchise that hits on all of gaming’s milestones from the past thirty years. While the 8 and 16-bit parodies are well-trodden, sprite-based fare, the fake cover art and screenshots for Matt Hazard’s late-90s and early-aughts adventures are hilariously spot-on. Take a look at the obviously Nintendo 64-inspired packaging for 1995’s You Only Live 1,317 Times:

That is downright convincing. Who knows what Eat Lead will end up being, but D3’s managed to impress my cold, cold heart with its effort. Sending up gaming’s early years is old hat, but Matt Hazard has managed to send up the entire medium in just a few pictures and lines of HTML.

God damn it. Here I am, doing viral marketing’s bidding. That is just disgusting!

(Link: 1up via Siliconera)

Related links:

Horrors that Time Forgot: GamePro TV
Whatcha Playing: The Thirst For Adventure, Pointing At Things, and Not Knowing What to Say
My Last Mega Man 9 Post, I Swear
Yahtzee Presents A New Angle On Nostalgia (Sort Of)

Facepalm: Gaming While Driving

Cole Stryker — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 14:00:00 GMT

Two Facepalms in two days? Madness! A bus driver has been supsended for playing a PSP while driving.

HONOLULU -- Less than a day after KITV broke the story of a city bus driver playing a video game while driving a bus, the driver is on unpaid leave and being investigated Wednesday.

The president of The Bus apologized for the incident and said he's "embarrassed" by it less than a month after another bus driver was arrested for drunk driving while operating a city bus.

Yeesh, I can't even get away with sneaking a cheeky game of Katamari while on the phone with my mom. "What's that clicking? Are you playing Nintendo tapes?!"

If only this had been released for the PSP, then maybe he could have gotten away with it.

Please watch the video. It's worth it for the Peggy Hill lookalike saying, "What the heck is going on here?"

One more thing: Is it a rule that Hawaiian reporters have to wear Hawaiian shirts on the job? Just curious.

Japan Scares Me: Mario and The Western Show

John Constantine — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 21:00:00 GMT

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.

Yesterday, I saw this:

What. The. Hell. I don’t know what’s going on in this sordid little drama or its visually unsavory take on the immortal love triangle between Mario Mario, King Bowser, and the Princess Toadstool Peach. All I know is that, by the time an unshaven man’s jaw can be seen inside of Bowser’s mouth, The Western Show officially terrified the living hell out of me.

Do you see what games have done to that country! Do you see what madness Mario has wrought!

More Japan Scares Me:

To Love-Ru: Exciting Outdoor School Version
Follow Up: To Love-Ru Makes Japan Even Scarier Than Previously Thought

Related links:

Mario Will Not Retire. He Will Outlive Us All.
End Game: The Necessary Evil of Boss Fights
Chiptune Friday: Reformat the Planet

More Downloadable Remakes! More, Says I!

Nadia Oxford — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 23:04:00 GMT

Bionic Commando Rearmed is apparently excellent, not like there was ever any doubt (well...maybe just a titch).

Chances are good that Mega Man 9 will be playable as well, which leads me to believe that Capcom has a pretty good idea about how to handle its remakes. I would like to see more.

On one hand, the state of the gaming world is making me brood like Yahtzee. Why are the most exciting games of today remakes and sequels to old franchises? Am I a dirty person for being more excited about ancient gaming lore than Mirror's Edge?

I don't know if there are any rabid Osamu Tezuka fans among us, but the whole ordeal reminds me a bit of the Phoenix manga series. In it, mankind's progress sputtered and stalled because he became nostalgic for the past instead of trying to innovate for the future. Eventually, the human race decayed and crumbled before the master computers running the world burnt civilization to the ground with hydrogen bombs. Gamers' pining for the past might be a grim prophecy. We should tread carefully and be wary.

On the other hand...hey, Bionic Commando Rearmed!

I personally hope this opens the door for, um, remakes of remakes. I adored Mega Man Powered Up and Mega Man Maverick Hunter X for the PSP, but both of them sold poorly. This may or may not have something to do with the PSP being owned by next to no one (okay, that's hyperbole. It's owned by two people). Keiji Inafune had planned to re-make both the Mega Man and Mega Man X series on the PSP, but the project is now in limbo.

Will the likes of Bionic Commando Rearmed bring hope back to the children (me)? It's doubtlessly cheaper to produce an online game versus shipping, marketing and distributing a hard copy. Will Mega Man Powered Up get a second chance?

Just so you know, I'm willing to smother you all in your sleep for a chance at Mega Man Powered Up 2.

Related Links:

Mega Man 9 Bosses Look Like Mega Man 9 Bosses
The Five Greatest Enhanced Remakes-And Five That Weren't So Great, Part 2
Gone Vertical: Hands-On Bionic Commando

Where Is Landstalker PSP?

John Constantine — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 18:00:00 GMT

The Zelda-clone, once a staple of console gaming, is a dying breed. It’s been replaced by story-centric, puzzle-free action RPGs like Kingdom Hearts and linear action-platformers a la Tomb Raider and Uncharted. The recently resurrected Okami might be the form’s swansong, a final tribute to the halcyon days of Golden Axe Warrior, Neutopia, and Beyond Oasis. While most clones have been base imitations, Quintet’s Heaven and Earth Trilogy and Climax Entertainment’s loosely connected series of games beginning with Landstalker were notable variations on Zelda’s exploration and puzzle tropes. Landstalker and its semi-sequels Lady Stalker (far less creepy than it sounds), Alundra (developed by ex-Climax-ers Matrix Software), and Time Stalkers (a traditional turn-based RPG instead of action) were characterized by difficult platforming in addition to swordplay.

You see games made by Climax Entertainment as often as you see Zelda-clones nowadays. They have released only two titles since 2000, 2005’s Kingdom of Paradise on PSP (a middling martial-arts action RPG) and the just released Steal Princess on DS. Steal Princess, at first blush, looks like a return to Landstalker’s isometric platforming (albeit uglier.) It’s distressing to see their output reduced to a trickle, especially since they announced a complete remake Landstalker for the PSP back in 2005 and, so far, have yet to deliver it. The art at the top of this post, dug up by Game Kult and brought to us by Insert Credit, is the first time anyone’s seen anything related to the remake in over two years. It’s never been officially cancelled, though, so here’s hoping that Climax turns their attention back to Landstalker now that Steal Princess has shipped in Japan. The world could use a decent Zelda-clone now that Link’s busy catering to the casual.

This video, a demonstration of Landstalker PSP’s new 3D environments, is the only game media ever shown for the game. Sadness.

More Where Is?:

Joe Madureira
Disaster: Day of Crisis
Yu Suzuki
The City of Metronome
New Indiana Jones
Doug TenNapel
Victor Ireland

Related links:

OST: Soul Blazer

Whatcha Playing: The New Adventures of the Nintendo DS

John Constantine — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 20:00:00 GMT

A strange thing happened ‘round about last October. For the first time since its release in April 2005, I was regularly playing games on PSP. I had been carrying a grudge against Sony for promising the world with their first handheld and not delivering even a fraction of the compelling software that they had on the first two home Playstations. But then, all of a sudden, there were all these fantastic games to sink my teeth into. Strategy RPGs like Jeanne D’Arc, old-school action like Castlevania: Rondo of Blood, and true genre benders like Crush had finally brought me into the PSP fold. The drawback? My DS went on the shelf and wasn’t touched for months. Oh, I brought it down when Contra 4 came out and on that rare Saturday morning that I felt like going back to my Animal Crossing village to do some weeding, stomp some roaches, and writing some letters. But I wasn’t playing anything new and I started wondering if the brief reign of the DS — not as a force of business but as a fount of compelling design — was over.

Man, was that stupid. For all of the greatness we’re seeing on the current crop of consoles, nothing can touch the dual-screened wonder for sheer versatility. My second honeymoon with the DS started with my introduction to the Phoenix Wright games, a series I was none too fond of at first. As I plunged deeper into the game, I became addicted to the story and the satisfaction of pushing it forward through simple logic puzzles. I never thought I would use a gaming console to read comic books, yet here I am, plowing through the second Phoenix Wright, loving every minute of it. I also mentioned last week that I’m taking on my first full Pokemon game, an experience that’s proving perilously habit-forming. My complete conversion back to the system came this weekend though. I spent time with games on opposite ends of the play spectrum, Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword and Shiren the Wanderer. Gaiden is a forward thinking action experience, a game as much about new ideas than it is about series tropes. Shiren the Wanderer is the pinnacle of throwbacks, a roguelike dungeon crawler as mechanically obtuse as it is simple to play. This is the essence of gaming on the DS, a constant barrage of new and old, design of yesteryear melding perfectly with fresh ways to, no pun intended, touch art. As the fall approaches and new console titles start dominating the gaming frontline, I’m sure I’ll gravitate back to playing at home. For now, I’ll be out in the sun, getting to know an old friend all over again.

Related links:

Going Back in There: My Very First Hour With Pokemon
Whatcha Playing: Ninja Gaiden – Dragon Sword
Whatcha Playing: How Many Buttons I Gotta Push

Where is Doug TenNapel?

John Constantine — Thu, 22 May 2008 16:00:00 GMT

Written by Derrick Sanskrit

Over the past few years, I've become convinced that Doug TenNapel is one of the most enviably original dudes in the history of mankind. The man has been the creative voice behind some of the most original animation (Catscratch), graphic novels (Creature Tech), films (Sockbaby. Watch it. You will love it.), and video games (The Neverhood) in recent history. He won an Eisner Award (the top honors for comic book creators) for his work on Bart Simpson's Treehouse of Horror!

But his most famous creation is the quirklicious Earthworm Jim. He designed the characters, wrote the story, even voiced Jim himself in the first two games. In the past two years, more or less since the disintegration of the Earthworm Jim PSP remake, Doug's disappeared from the world of games.

So where's he been? Well, excitement abounds, as it was recently announced that Earthworm Jim 4 is in development, alongside a new animated series and feature film, all with the brilliant TenNapel at the helm.

There's still not much info about when or what to expect in Earthworm Jim 4, but just to get you pumped, check out this sweet look back at the original by the whacked-out dudes from Screw Attack: