61 Frames Per Second : punch out

Jimmy Fallon Making Good On His Promise To Gamers

Derrick Sanskrit — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 19:00:00 GMT

When it was first announced that Jimmy Fallon would be taking over Late Night, I was unenthused. I never found Fallon to be funny or charming in his past work, and the flight to Florida wherein I watched him and Queen Latifa in Taxi was the longest and most uncomfortable two hours in my recent life to not involve work or girls. When he confirmed that his house band would be the Roots, I was simultaneously interested and disappointed. Hurrah, the Roots get a regular paycheck, but did they really need it so badly as to stoop to being a late night house band? When Fallon started talking asking the Twitter community for interview ideas and promised his show would treat video game releases as if they were movie releases, well, then my interest was officially piqued. Maybe this show will actually be okay. Better yet, maybe it will be worthwhile.

I watched the first week. Outside of "Slow-Jamming The News" and his interview with Tina Fey, it was not very good.

I wish I'd watched last night, though. Musical guests Yeah Yeah Yeahs are always fun, even if feelings are still mixed on the sound of It's Blitz!, but the guest lineup of rapper/actor Ice-T, muppet/pop-culture-icon Elmo, and video game news anchor/commentator Morgan Webb appeals to my nerddom perfectly. Throw in Tobias Frere-Jones and I might have just freaked the hell out while everyone else scratched their heads.

Morgan was there to talk about her new show G4 Underground, but she also brought along the new Punch-Out! for Wii. Jimmy embarrasses himself with that, of course, but the true beauty is before that when the whole panel of Jimmy, Morgan, Ice and Elmo chatting about games. Ice-T even shouts out is gamertag (sorry kids, his list is full, but he does challenge you all to Gears of War). Check it out:

More moments like this and I may actually watch Jimmy on a regular basis. And please, Jimmy, do "Slow-Jamming The News" more often. I would watch an entire show of just that.

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Give Super Punch-Out a Chance

Bob Mackey — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 23:00:00 GMT

I've been talking about Punch-Out a lot this week, from blogging about the new Wii update yesterday to gabbing about it on the Stand Under the Don't Tree and Riddle Me This podcast on Tuesday (episode release forthcoming). In fact, I've had so much Punch-Out on the brain that I happened to overlook the fact that one of my favorite games of all time, Super Punch-Out, saw a Virtual Console release this Monday. And now that I no longer have to play Sophie's Choice when it's time to decide which Wii Channel needs to die for the sake of a new download, you can bet I was beating the living snot out of large, cartoonish boxers as soon as humanly possible.

I've come to observe that Super Punch-Out is mostly unknown and unloved, especially when compared to its iconic little brother--a cultural touchstone for anyone growing up in the 80s (I guess we all wanted to beat up Mike Tyson). But when you strip away the nostalgia, Super Punch-Out is actually a much better game. Regrettably, it lacks a bit of the character that made the first one so memorable--there's no Doc, NYC jogging vignettes, or mid-round chatter--but Super Punch-Out is still a perfection and expansion of all the things that made the original game so great. And you get to beat up a clown--the deepest, darkest desire of any normal human being.

I'll admit that I overlooked Super Punch-Out back during the game's original 1994 release--after all, what more could you do with such a limited premise? But when I played it years later through the magic of emulation, I discovered it was everything I loved about the original game, but better: Little Mac had a few new moves to play around with, but some new power punches were nothing compared to what his 16 opponents (no repeat boxers here) could do. And, just like the original, SPO is a real showcase of Nintendo first-party polish; the characters are huge, well-animated, and still impressive today--and the realistic sound effects are contrastingly brutal for such a cartoony game.

Rather than reimagining old franchises, the best games of the 16-bit era perfected them; and Super Punch-Out--along with Super Metroid, Super Mario World, and A Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past--is a fine example of this trend. Don't miss out on this great game a second time.

Related Links:

The Problem with Punch-Out
Warning: Wii Punch-Out!! Might Just Kill You
The Erotic Adventure of Little Mac

The Problem with Punch-Out

Bob Mackey — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 19:00:00 GMT

Hardcore Nintendo fans have been grumbling this generation, and most would say rightfully so; the Wii updates to beloved franchises like Super Mario Kart, Animal Crossing, and Super Smash Bros. have been rehashes--and sometimes downgrades--of games seen last generation. Even The Legend of Zelda: Twlight Princess wasn't much more than a prettier Ocarina of Time. But Nintendo knows what bones to throw to the hardcore, and they throw them well. Take the upcoming Punch-Out, for example; old-school Nintendo fanboys have been heralding it as the Wii equivalent of The Second Coming, despite the fact that it's merely a pretty remake of a game they played 20 years ago. For Nintendo, this is a win-win situation--after all, they can keep the most vocal minority of their fanbase happy while appealing to the casuals who will no doubt buy this game en masse. But to the impartial observer, the freak-out over this long-awaited sequel calls into question just how much we're willing to forgive when something repeatedly jabs at our nostalgia nerve.

Before the hate starts a-flowin' let me say that I'm super-psyched for Punch-Out, but I still have a healthy dose of skepticism. While the game looks (and reportedly plays) like it was developed internally, if the reports of it being no more complex than the original Punch-Out are true, I'm going to be a tad disappointed. With Super Punch Out, the better but less-iconic sequel, Nintendo realized that the puzzle-fighting of the original game could only be stretched so far, so they added only a degree of fisticuff complexity along with boxers which had a much larger variety of moves. All in all, a perfect game, and a logical conclusion to the Punch Out series. But this new game looks to provide a more accessible and familiar experience at the cost of everything that made the sequel so great.

For now, I'm hoping that the gameplay impressions I've been getting from podcasts and the like will be improved upon with some in-depth previews sometime this month. Until then, I'm going to be a big, stinky curmudgeon about Punch Out, mostly because I hate fun. Please forgive me.

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Warning: Wii Punch-Out!! Might Just Kill You

John Constantine — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 23:00:00 GMT

Last week, I came down with a flu like sickness. It was bad. I was sent home from the office twice because, apparently, I sounded like I was coughing whole parts of my insides out of my body. Today I am a well man and it’s all thanks to the power of rest and Mythbusters. Let it be known that, provided you are horribly sick, own an Xbox 360, and are a Netflix subscriber, you too can watch Mythbusters until you are fit, or fitter, than a well-made fiddle. Dr. John Constantine prescribes it! During one particularly awesome episode, Adam Savage was isolating ingredients from Diet Coke to determine which of them causes Diet Coke-Mentos-Explosions. While testing caffeine, Savage mixed a solution while commenting, “This is a lot of caffeine. Enough to kill you.” This blew my bed-ridden mind. Caffeine can kill you? Of course it can, all stimulants can! I’d just never considered it. This revelation, in turn, reminded me how dangerous Nintendo can be.

Case in point: the new Wii Punch-Out!!. Like caffeine and stimulants of all stripes, fan service can kill a person depending on its purity and provided they have enough of it. Watch this trailer for an example of what a just-under-lethal dose looks like.

Seriously, that is potent. It’s more than just the returning characters, we already knew they’d be back. Doc Louis on the bike? The pink track suit? That’s the sort of fan service that will cause hearts to explode. They need to be careful with that.

Next Level Games have, it seems, foregone the crazy power-ups that made their Super Mario Strikers games so unpredictable. That’s okay. Punch-Out!!’s special moves, activated by stars earned in the fights, have always been elegant in their simplicity. The play looks as expected, a nice re-skinning of NES Punch-Out!!. I have to say though, while the game’s gorgeous and the new renditions of old fighters are clean and stylish, the new fighter, Disco Kid, is awfully plain. What gives, Next Level? I know your art team can do better than that.

Editor’s Note: I’m not really a doctor. I am sorry if I misled you. Do not try to cure yourself with Mythbusters.

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Punch-Out Wii to Make Early 2009 a Little Less Depressing

Bob Mackey — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 21:00:00 GMT

If you asked me what I'm looking forward to in 2009, I'm afraid I wouldn't have a good answer; the only game that I'm anticipating at this point in time, the DS remake of Dragon Quest V, is coming out in less than a month--and that leaves a hell of a lot of this year that needs to be frittered away, especially considering my looming unemployment. But perhaps things aren't as hopeless as they seem; today, Videogamer brightened up what looks to be an otherwise dreary year with the announcement that the upcoming Wii Punch-Out (I refuse to use the title's exclamation points for the sake of clarity) will be hitting store shelves in the first half of 2009. This is exciting because A.) Punch-Out is awesome and B.) hitting people in the face will be a vital skill in our scary new economy.

There are a lot of expectations being placed on the new Punch-Out; after all, the series has missed two whole console generations thus far. I'd like to believe that Nintendo will do a great job catering to both nostalgia junkies and those looking for a solid pattern-recognizing experience, but the company's "back to basics" approach--AKA, rehashing games they've previously released--makes me worry about the quality of this long-awaited title. Simply put, I'll be more than a little depressed if the Wii's Punch-Out is as simple as what we saw on the NES; after all, even by the time the series jumped to the SNES, the original 1988 forumla had to updated for a more modern take on the game's unique style of play. It's a total shame that Super Punch-Out isn't remembered as fondly as the original, despite its mid-90s success; I've always felt that the SNES sequel took the Punch Out formula to its logical conclusion without making it overly complex. Hopefully the Wii installment will find the same happy medium.

Related Links:

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Building A Better(?) Controller

Derrick Sanskrit — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 19:00:00 GMT

If there's any one manufacturer I've come to trust with my Wii accessories, it's Nyko. They seem to be tackling each and every problem I've had with the Wii's unique and ubiquitous controller in order of frustration level to (so far) fantastic results. After the frantic Wii launch, gamers worldwide complained about having to change the remote's AA batteries several times while playing Zelda, so Nyko released their Charge Station and I haven't needed AA batteries since. Gamers began choking themselves on the cord between the remote and nunchuck, so Nyko released their Kama wireless nunchuck. Everybody pretty much hated Nintendo's official Wii Zapper plastic shell, so Nyko released the much more sturdy and comfortable Perfect Shot pistol shell. (They've also released a wireless sensor bar, wireless classic controller, rechargable battery pack for the balance board, and other add-ons)

For their next trick, Nyko decided to redesign the Wii remote itself. Is it more aesthetically pleasing? Lord, no. Is it better? Maybe... it does offer some really sweet new functionality. Introducing the Wand:

The key new feature here being Nyko's "Trans-Port" which will allow attachments to utilize more of the remote's features, including remapped buttons and rumble (and, theoretically, the internal speaker). Whereas current Wiimote gun shells have to connect their trigger somehow to the remote's B button and physically press it to work, gun shells using this new Trans-Port technology would merely tell the remote that the B button has been pressed without need for physical contact. The same goes for all the other buttons on the remote (there are 7 total, more than most people realize).

So someday soon we may be able to play Wii Sports Boxing (or maybe even the upcoming Punch-Out!) where both the remote and nunchuck are wireless, rumble, and make audible sounds of jaw-breaking devastation, or play Super Smash Bros Brawl with one controller that has all the buttons we want, rumbles and makes noise (all of the current control schemes sacrifice at least one of those features). Nyko says that the Wand will support all current Wiimote add-ons, but they're not yet sure about the MotionPlus (presumably because Nintendo isn't sharing many developer packs right now).Still, with Nintendo's MotionPlus bringing us the kind of 1:1 motion control we'd all expected from day one and the new features offered by Nyko's Wand, we may someday soon have the kind of Wii controller we all should have had in the first place.

Related Articles:
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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.

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Christmas in Nintendoland: The Tokyo Conference

The Erotic Adventure of Little Mac

Nadia Oxford — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 20:00:00 GMT

I grew up sharing my Nintendo with my older brother. It probably won't surprise you all to learn that this meant enduring a lot of hockey games. I far preferred games of the Legend of Zelda and Dragon Warrior variety; long rambling adventures full of swords and monsters that frothed blood yet still came out looking far less violent than Blades of Steel.

Ah, but I did have a crush on a sports game or two, especially Punch Out!!. We actually owned Mike Tyson's unholy version of the game, which Nintendo now tries to pass off as a bad fever dream the retro community had during a bout of the flu.

Regardless, I remember what I remember, and I remember being very good at Punch Out!! and its gorgeous successor, Super Punch Out!! for the Super Nintendo. Little Mac kind of faded away after that, but it looks like he'll be back on the Wii. Yes sir, we hated Nintendo at the end of E3 2008, but it looks like we have a big fat reason to get on our knees and kiss ass again. Little Mac never left us; he was only training for the new generation. He's back, and he hasn't grown an inch. That is the right thing according to the order of the universe.

I'm especially happy to see that the original cast is back. Bear Hugger, Jackie Chun and Bob Charlie were a gas and all, but who doesn't want to watch King Hippo drop his pants in 3D? Come on, you know you've dreamed about it on many cold, lonely nights.

Speaking of Little Mac's past adventures in fisting, how many of you got to read the Valiant comic adaptation of his adventures? Valiant comics, for the uninformed, ran Nintendo-based comic adventures for a while, including ones based on Metroid, Super Mario, Captain N, The Legend of Zelda and Punch-Out!!. Poor Little Mac didn't get the attention he deserved, but he had a memorable story or two, even if they were memorable for the wrong reasons.

One comic, titled "Fox and Hounds" comes to mind. Little Mac falls into high society, which angers his trainer, Doc, because everyone knows richers are no good, ever. Mac ignores his mentor and continues schmoozing with this one perfumed chick who adores him like an exotic pet. This raises the hackles of perfumed chick's boyfriend, who sets up the "ultimate challenge" for Mac. The ultimate challenge involves fighting through the street and pummelling one hundred fighters, who eventually throw a net over him and start pounding him into paste. The ensuing panel is a little horrifying, with Mac surrounded by a circle of faceless fists. Some Valiant penciller was definitely thinking a bit too hard about that bukakke film his friend showed him before work.

What erotic comic adventures await Little Mac in this age of loose standards? Stick around, friends!

Related Links:

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Christmas in Nintendoland: The Tokyo Conference

Bob Mackey — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 14:45:00 GMT

If you were a bit disappointed by Nintendo's poor showing at E3, the company's recent Tokyo press conference should make you very, very happy. While their announcements were nothing mindblowing--though that's to be debated--it was nice to see that, despite the rumors, Nintendo hasn't forgotten about their fans. Here's a brief trailer of some future Wii software that should leave you drooling for the upcoming Tokyo Game Show. It also has footage of the Klonoa remake I wrote about yesterday:

Nintendo 'New Games Montage' video

So what exactly do we have here? In total, it looks like we're going to see new versions of Sin and Punishment, Tales of, Trace Memory, and most importantly, Punch-Out. I'm personally excited by the last announcement because, with the instant recognition and appeal of Punch-Out, it's strange that Nintendo really hasn't done anything with the franchise since the SNES sequel, Super Punch-Out. And I may get beaten mercilessly for this, but Super Punch-Out was a much better game than the original; the same basic gameplay was intact, but in a bigger, prettier, and slightly more complex form. Obviously, there're some interesting things you can do with the Wii-mote in a boxing game--and I assume they'll try a little harder than the slightly-lousy boxing offered in Wii Sports.

I would have really loved to see a new Zelda or Mario announced--or hell, just a Super Mario Galaxy expansion pack--but any big news like this Nintendo would undoubtedly save for TGS. That's my secret wish, anyway. I'm not going to hold my breath for another cel-shaded Zelda game, but that seems more plausible than it would have been a few years ago. Wind Waker 2, anyone?

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Chiptune Friday: A Test of Island Courage!

Derrick Sanskrit — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 17:15:00 GMT

As a lifelong coast-dweller, I am well aware of the fact that hurricane season is upon us. With this in mind, I feel that it's the right time to bring out my favorite island-hopping adventure game, StarTropics from Nintendo. Here's the happy little ditty that plays in Chapter 6: Reunion when your young adventurer finally finds his missing archeologist uncle, Dr. J:

I find this track incredibly peaceful and welcoming, an impressive achievement of chiptune considering the relatively brief loop and the extremely minimal use of the NES's five audio channels. People complain about the lack of a true Punch-Out! game on the Wii, but StarTropics never even left the NES. I would love some waggle-based yo-yo combat in a tropical Twilight Princess. Oh well, at least I still have my original immersive letter...

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The Ten Videogames That Should Have Been Controversial, Part 3

John Constantine — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 17:13:00 GMT

Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!

We cite Punch-Out!! here not for starring Mike Tyson (a controversial figure, even before his rape conviction), but for the degree to which it epitomizes a trend that would dominate gaming in the late-'80s and early-'90s: the "beat up stereotypes from around the world" gameplay model. Granted, most of Punch-Out!!'s characters are too ludicrous to really offend; it's hard to imagine Pacific Islanders getting all up in arms about King Hippo being kind of a jackass. That said, the sight of cross-eyed Piston Honda babbling "Sushi, Kamikaze, Fujiyama, Nipponichi!" as a mid-match battle cry is a little unsettling. — PS

Persona 3

I’ve written about Persona 3’s disturbing imagery before: “It’s always strange when games filled with truly troubling imagery go unnoticed by the most vocal anti-game pundits. Persona 3, Atlus’ exceptional RPG in the long running Shin Megami Tensei series, has been released not once but twice in the past twelve months without eliciting even a peep out of Joe Lieberman or Focus on the Family. For those unfamiliar with the game, the reason Persona 3 might ruffle some feathers is its protagonists, a team of troubled high school students who control guardian spirits to battle demons. And oh yeah, they release these spirits by shooting themselves in the head.” Seriously! Teens! Shooting themselves repeatedly in the FACE! No one even said anything about all the teens shooting themselves in the face. — JC

Metroid II: Return of Samus

Metroid II is about xenocide; your goal is to slaughter an entire alien species. Yes, there are many games about destroying evil alien species. Usually, though, said species are attacking the Earth or something. Or they're at least competent to make moral decisions. Metroids are space jellyfish. They're not evil, they're just hungry. And the series storyline establishes pretty clearly that the Space Pirates are breeding the things for their own evil ends. Exterminating the Space Pirates would be one thing, but the Metroids are mere low-functioning animals. As you proceed through the game, you watch a steadily declining count of how many of the poor little bastards you have left to vaporize. Imagine if this thing was set in a nature preserve. — PS

Fable

Peter Molyneux may not have delivered on his promise of creating the greatest role-playing game of all time with Fable but it was still a remarkably forward thinking game. Consider this: Fable was released in the United States on September 14th, 2004, a mere four months after Massachusetts started issuing same-sex marriage licenses and two months before senatorial, congressional, and presidential elections where constitutionally banning same-sex marriage was a tent pole issue. I applaud Molyneux for creating a game where a man can fall in love and marry another man. But I am shocked that Fable didn’t cause videogame content to be another talking point that election season. — JC

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The Ten Videogames That Should Have Been Controversial, Part 2

John Constantine — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 17:12:00 GMT

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

Call of Duty 4 is a game obsessed with realism, its depiction of combat situations and the tools of war meticulous to an almost terrifying degree. Early in the game, you are placed in the gunner’s seat of an AC-130 Spectre over a Ukrainian field, the night vision view of an aerial assault looking no different than an Iraq war newscast, the radio confirmation of kills unsettlingly casual; a game so realistic that it mimics a soldier’s detachment from killing. It’s strange then that the game, for all its incessant specificity, sends the player to kill Arab soldiers in “the Middle East”, and not an actual nation. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare has sold over seven million copies in a war-weary United States in under a year. Am I the only one who finds this sort of depersonalization unsettling? — JC

Mick and Mack: Global Gladiators

Fast-food promotional games are pretty fucked up, as a whole. Selling this nasty grub to kids via smiling cartoon characters and hop-and-bop platforming — well, it may not cross over into "immoral", but it's certainly sleazy. The 1992 McDonald's promo-piece Mick and Mack: Global Gladiators, however, crosses that line by hopping onto the kid-friendly environmentalism in vogue at the time. (See also Captain Planet, Sonic the Hedgehog, etc.) The problem here is that McDonald's' own environmental record was far from clean; as a massive distributor of factory-farmed beef, the company was (and is) directly responsible for a huge amount of pollution, deforestation and energy wastage. Bastards were cutting down the same sparkling-green rainforests through which their grinning shills were merrily traipsing. — PS

Heavenly Sword

It might seem strange that we’ve chosen to single-out Heavenly Sword as our example of an absurdly over-sexualized female protagonist. Dead or Alive, a series that’s persisted for just over a decade now without causing a kerfuffle despite its bizarre, hyper sexuality, might seem like a more logical target. You might even say that Heavenly Sword’s a poor example considering its emphasis on Nariko’s empowerment in a male dominated fantasy world. But let me ask you, if Nariko is such a great warrior, savior of her people even though they hate her for being a woman, why does she go to war in her underpants? She is fighting people with swords in her underpants. No one thought mention to developer Ninja Theory that underpants are not effective armor? Nariko stands in for the legions of silly, objectified, hyper-sexualized female game protagonists. We’re giving Lara the day off on this one. — JC

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Click here for Part 3

The Ten Videogames That Should Have Been Controversial, Part 1

John Constantine — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 17:11:00 GMT

Games have been raising hackles since their inception. Howell Ivy kick-started gaming and controversy’s relationship when he designed Death Race in 1976, a simple black and white game that was, well, about running people over for points. That was enough to get America riled up, prompting 60 Minutes to run the first of many, many televised news stories about the psychological effects of gaming. But public outrage is unpredictable. Politicians and parent groups have been shocked by d-list titles like Manhunt and Night Trap while more popular, widely played games with far more inflammatory content have passed by unnoted. Today, 61 Frames Per Second presents The Ten Videogames That Should Have Been Controversial. A number of these are games that we are surprised did not cause uproar in a number of communities. The rest are games that we ourselves find seriously questionable in content. How do you feel about these videogames? Indifferent? Appalled? Leave a comment and let us know. — John Constantine

NARC

I don't know about you, but I have at least a couple of friends who have occasionally sold drugs. They're pretty lucky they grew up in the relatively permissive '90s, and not in the merciless, Reaganite '80s presented in NARC. Sure, NARC gives you bonus points for arresting dealers instead of killing them, but that's because it's almost impossible to do. Far easier is just perforating them on the spot. As my fellow blogger Cole notes, "I guess dismembering hundreds is okay if they're pushin'." In fact, there was some parental outrage over NARC's unprecedented level of gore, but its moral assumptions went pretty much unchallenged. — Peter Smith

Pokémon

Have you ever noticed that there are no regular, powerless domesticated animals in any of the Pokémon games, cartoons, comics et cetera? Let's say your pre-teen brother/sister/cousin goes out for a walk one day and comes across a pigeon in the street. They then capture this pigeon in a small cage and train it to fight the dogs, lizards and ponies that the other neighborhood kids have captured and trained to fight, as well as stray cats and sewer rats that can then be captured and trained for similar purposes. Yeah, that scenario is a little awesome, but it's also pretty horrifying, right? When Michael Vick is involved in a dogfighting circuit, the media explodes with rage, but when your kids do it in a Nintendo game it gets rated E for Everyone by the ESRB. — Derrick Sanskrit

Final Fantasy Tactics

As much as Final Fantasy Tactics’ tale of political intrigue in the feudal fantasy-scape of Ivalice is concerned with a power struggle between church and state, it’s hard to get past the game’s barely veiled indictment of Christian lore. Tactics' villains are essentially the Catholic Church. Their central figure is Saint Ajora, a 'child of God' with twelve disciples, one of whom betrayed him and sent him to his death. 'Cept it turns out Ajora wasn't really the son of God, but a power-hungry war-mongering mortal who was sneakily made divine through church skulduggery and historical revisionism. Good thing RPGs require so much reading, otherwise there might have been some good ol’ fashioned game burnings back in 1998. — JC

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