61 Frames Per Second : shadow of the colossus

Mega64's Movie Adaptation of Shadow of the Colossus Possibly Better than Sony's

Bob Mackey — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 01:30:00 GMT

I hate to ruin your day, but Sony is making a Shadow of the Colossus movie--the news is a few weeks old, actually. So how, exactly, is Hollywood planning on handling such a beautiful, understated game? About as well as you would think. I'm pretty sure all I need to do is quote Variety's The Cut Scene blog to give you a full understanding of how the final product will most likely turn out:

I understand the folks working on the project are planning to have some of the characters who appear only momentarily in the game, such as those who try to track down and stop Wander, play bigger roles in the film. And despite the game's somewhat "artsy" cred, they're hoping "Shadow" will be a "Lord of the Rings"-style fantasy tentpole.

The silver lining to this ugly little cloud comes in the form of a video by gaming pranksters Mega64, who were undoubtedly inspired by Sony's unfortunate announcement. While I'm sure Sony will throw millions more dollars into their own adaptation, there's no denying that far more entertainment can be found in the group's 2-minute take on this PS2 classic.

Related Links:

Time For Me To Play Shadow of the Colossus
Super Secret Castle Discovered in Shadow of the Colossus
Team Ico’s Fumito Ueda at the Nordic Game 2008 Conference

Shadow of the Colossus: First Blood

Nadia Oxford — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 00:16:00 GMT

This weekend, I did a bit of shopping, visited my parents, and destroyed two idols the size of skyscrapers. Yes, I have drawn my first blood (or some kind of black ichor, anyway) from Shadow of the Colossus, and it's been as much fun as a naked pagan dance.

My previous assessment of the first Colossi battle was a little off. The first Colossi battle is a tutorial battle—of sorts. It's just not a very easy one. You're expected to learn and perfect the basics of climbing, stabbing, and shimmying. Otherwise you don't stand a chance against the second Colossi, which is three times as large as the first and has twice as many hooves to flatten you with. The sink-or-swim approach of Wander's first real fight is a clever way to bypass modern gaming's overzealous hand-holding, though it took me a while to realise I would get better if I tried. I was just initially scared to keep trying.

I'm not even sure why I harboured that fear. Who was going to laugh at me for my failures? The shadowy Gods flitting near the ceiling of the Temple of Worship? Wander, who wouldn't change his facial expression if you dropped a cinder block on his foot? Agro? Wander's dead girlfriend/wife? I eventually realised I was being silly, and took up the controller again.

Happily, Shadow of the Colossus gave me plenty of initiative to keep on trying. First, there just aren't too many games that let you scale the furry bum of a living idol. The, um, “bee scratching” segment of Super Mario Galaxy doesn't count, and let us never mention it again.

Second, every time I attempted to climb the first Colossi, I got a little closer to the pulsating rune on its head—and when I inevitably fell off, it became easier to climb back up. And I experienced a movement in my body that (to quote Mr Burns) took me back: my heart was thumping and banging like Animal from the Muppet Show.

I generally choose titles that help me relax, so it's not too often that games make my ticker jump up and go. Not that I object to it happening, but I don't think a video game has given me that kind of rush since I conquered the first challenges that honed my skills: beating up Bowser in Super Mario Bros 3, defeating the Mana Beast in Secret of Mana, bringing down Sigma in Mega Man X, wrecking Luca Blight in Suikoden II. I love my video games in the here and now, but it's extra special when you find that rare one that makes you feel like you're taking your first steps all over again.

Two Colossi down, fourteen to go. Slowly up the ladder.

Related Links:

Time for Me to Play Shadow of the Colossus
Shadow of the Colossus: First Impressions
Super Secret Castle Discovered in Shadow of the Colossus

Shadow of the Colossus: First Impressions

Nadia Oxford — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 19:06:00 GMT

Fear not. Shadow of the Colossus is a pretty epic title, but I won't run to the computer and bang out a report every time I actually get Agro to run in the direction I want him to—though if you ask me, that's an accomplishment in itself. First impressions are fun to read, though, so I will accommodate the good readers of 61FPS.

It probably won't surprise you when I say the presentation in this game is absolutely gorgeous. I usually give an opening cinematic ten seconds to please me before I mash the Start button, but when I sat back and watched Wander's ponderous but purposeful journey to the Temple, I felt something familiar pull at me. Like I was watching a favourite sequence from a well-loved movie. Various flashes of imagery and sound in this game already remind me of The Neverending Story, a book that never fails to instill me with a sense of solemn adventure despite multiple readings.

Doubtlessly you already know that Shadow of the Colossus features a quiet, calming atmosphere that stands to be butchered by Hollywood, so I'll talk a bit about how it plays. What you need to know: this game is creaming me.

Shadow of the Colossus thrives on its singleness, so there are no menus to shuffle through and no items to sniff out. Most everything you need to hunt the Colossi is available from the very beginning. Wander has the moves standard to a warrior: running, jumping, clinging (very important) and horse-calling. Rolling, aiming, and swinging his sword should be familiar territory for the average 3D Zelda player.

Where Shadow of the Colossus differs from Nintendo's series is you are expected to hone these skills to a needle-sharp point if you're going to stand a chance against the Colossi—and the game isn't about to give you any freebies. I'm only on the first Colossi. I sauntered up to the big bugger thinking he'd be the prerequisite giveaway “tutorial” monster. Next thing I knew, he was wiping me off the bottom of his boulder-sized hoof.

The game doesn't leave you completely blind. Gentle prompts hint at what you need to slay these stone giants, but you won't be easily forgiven if you mess up. Getting smashed by a stone club twenty times the size of a human being hurts about as much as you'd expect it to.

What really caught me off guard was Agro. I'm so used to handling Link's steed, Epona, that I forgot real horses typically don't stop on a dime or make 180 turns as easily as a boy flips a Matchbox car. Like most horses, Agro needs to be coaxed, not controlled. But the bond between Wander and his beast feels more rewarding for it, somehow.

There will be further musings down the road, as this is a muse-worthy game. If I don't get utterly stuck at the first Colossi, mind.

Related Links:

Time For Me To Play Shadow of the Colossus
The Legend of Zelda: Manifest Destiny
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Stupidity

Time For Me To Play Shadow of the Colossus

Nadia Oxford — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 00:33:00 GMT

From the Department of “Oh God, Why?” comes word of a Shadow of the Colossus movie. Hollywood has yet to get a game movie right, and there's no immediate reason to decide that the movie based on this Playstation 2 masterpiece will be any different. In fact, Justin Marks, the talented hero responsible for Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li will be penning the script. May as well hunker down in the fallout shelter with your Civil Defence helmet pulled over your head. Feel free to sigh: that weary, defeated feeling that comes with most game movie announcements is no doubt familiar by now.

What's especially sad is that a Shadow of the Colossus movie truly stands to be a heartbreaking waste of the source material. It's a game that thrives on its sparse atmosphere and quiet but riveting heroics. Sadly, Hollywood requires by law for action movies to waste approximately five words per second, and God only knows how it classifies video game movies. I suspect the categorization involves a filing cabinet marked “FOR AUTISTICS.” The Shadow of the Colossus movie is likely going to be very loud and it might contain jokes about horse boners.

Admittedly, I am talking partially out of my bum. I have never played Shadow of the Colossus, but reading this dire news has driven me to bloody well start.

I once mentioned that the era of the Playstation 2 nearly passed me by: it was a very, very poor time for me, and I lacked the money to do anything much beyond keeping a roof over my head and peanut butter in a cupboard under said roof. I've been playing a very slow game of catch-up, and a friend helped me out by loaning me his copy of Shadow of the Colossus. I've been having trouble finding the time to make the disc connect with the Playstation 2's CD tray, but that's going to change.

Expect plenty of commentary about the game: Shadow of the Colossus is a favourite for many, and I think it will be fun to write a running retrospective on it (I've been doing something similar with Phantasy Star IV for the 1UP Retronauts Blog.

Away, Agro!

Related Links:

Super Secret Castle Discovered in Shadow of the Colossus
FIve Games That Will Be Awesome to Remake in LittleBigPlanet
Screen Test: Blood of Bahamut

Super Secret Castle Discovered in Shadow of the Colossus

Cole Stryker — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 18:00:00 GMT

The folks at Team ICO Gamers (whatever that is) have used an emulator in order to discover a structure in Shadow of the Colossus that didn't make it into the final game.

For years Shadow of the Colossus players have wondered what lies in the Eastern section of the map. Many suggested that this part of the map was host to the lands shown in the intro scenes of the game. What no one imagined was that it was home to something more mysterious.

Video after the jump:

Easter eggs, whether intentional or not, are a grand tradition in video games. I love to see stuff like this, especially years after a game's release. What a wonderful sense of discovery this dude must have felt. In a world of instantly available walkthroughs and endlessly detailed FAQ's, it's satisfying to recapture that childlike sense of discovery when you've found something that no one else has.

(via GameSetWatch)

Go West! Red Dead Redemption and How to Get Cowboys and Indians Right

John Constantine — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 21:00:00 GMT

By the time videogames had evolved beyond batting a ball back and forth across a digital net, the Western had already lost much of its cultural currency. The Lone Ranger’s audience had ridden off into the sunset, replaced by minds and eyes hungry for space instead of the frontier. That’s why we have Spacewar! in 1961 and not Stagecoach!. The last quarter of the 20th century’s appetite for science fiction is most certainly why Bald Space Marine is the icon he is in 2009’s gaming landscape, but I don’t think it fully explains why games have yet to produce a spectacular Western. Why is it that after decades of creation, there isn’t a game about cowboys sitting on Top One Hundred Games of All Time lists? Why is Oregon Trail the entire canon of frontier gaming?

Rockstar’s Red Dead Revolver seemed like a contender before it released in 2004. The game certainly sold well, one and a half million copies according to publisher Take-Two, but its critical reception was lukewarm. Despite Red Dead’s grand narrative ambitions — bounty hunting protagonist Red Harlow and his quest for revenge are Louis L’Amour vintage — and seemingly fitting open world play, it wasn’t the defining videogame Western it could have been. Now, it could have been the game’s troubled development that kept it from greatness. It started as a Capcom game in 2000, stalled out, and was sold to Rockstar, where it apparently became a Frankenstein’s monster of legacy code and newer features. I think the real problem is that the Grand Theft Auto-styled open world is not the foundation for a great Western.

On the surface it seems perfect; what better way to represent life on the range than a game world you’re free to wander, taking missions as a hired gun of dubious morality where and when you find them? I’m sure that was Neversoft’s thinking when they developed Gun, which released just one year after Red Dead Revolver and was almost identical play-wise. A great Western, though, requires incredibly tight, driven narrative focus. We’re not talking about a simulation of the Old West, after all. We’re talking about a pulp genre with recognizable tropes and a specific recipe for success. A great Western game doesn’t need a huge amount of freedom in its environment and it needs very little freedom in character. What it needs to have is the illusion of freedom and space.

Team Ico’s Shadow of the Colossus has an excellent play foundation for a videogame Western. (Even beyond the kick-ass horse riding.) The world is vast and seamless, much like the plains of western America, but the game is very linear, keeping the player focused on a single path towards the next challenge while enhancing the story. Picture a Western with a central frontier town with each of the game’s levels/goals structured to have you ride out into classic Canyon, desert, or even forest settings. This would lend the game a feeling of freedom without sacrificing the necessary reins on story direction, keeping the game from the classic GTA failing of having the story and play feel disconnected.

I sincerely hope that Rockstar San Diego’s Red Dead Redemption learns from its predecessors failings. From the screens released today, the game certainly has the look down pat. But the game will live or die by how well it tells a story. Remember, Rockstar San Diego: rein it in. Then maybe videogames will finally have its great Western.

Related links:

Grand Theft Auto IV's Post-Game Purgatory
The GTAIV DLC: Does Anyone Still Care?
The 61FPS Review: Grand Theft Auto 4

Flower - A Zen de Blob?

Derrick Sanskrit — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 16:59:00 GMT

thatgamecompany's long-awaited "Zen game" Flower is finally being released on the Playstation Network next week, having been originally teased way back at the Tokyo Game Show in 2007. So far the game has caused all who've witnessed it to find themselves unable to accurately describe what the "game" is, only that it is captivating.

VentureBeat's Dean Takahashi was recently treated to a demonstration by Creative Director Jenova Chen. While it is still nowhere near as telling as an actual hands-on experience with the game, it is most definitely insightful.

Controlling the wind via Sixaxis motion control, carry colorful flower petals through the dreary grey flowers and grass to energize the world with color, panning out for cutscenes of landmark colorings. This looks decidedly similar to the story mode of de Blob (my #1 favorite game of 2008) with the notable exception of being incredibly relaxed. There don't appear to be any enemies or noteworthy obstacles, just the garden around you. We've heard that the "levels" of Flower are each the dreams of potted flowers on a window sill and that other dreams include bringing wind to a valley and bringing light to a darkened city. It appears from this demonstration that the little success cutscenes will feel very liberating and joyous for the player, an excellent way to form an emotional connection in such a "casual" game. (You may notice I'm using quotation marks a good deal here. That's because the jury is still out regarding Flower feeling like a "game") Very interesting here is Jenova's explanation that the player will still be in control even during the cutscenes so that they never lose that sense of immersion, even when the camera pulls away, similar to how the player could still control the camera during cutscenes in Shadow of the Colossus.

Flower looks to be the game of the season that shows the most of what the Playstation 3 can do. Tens of thousands of blades of grass moving independently, pushed and pulled by the player in lush high-definition. If you have a Playstation 3 and ten dollars, you should probably get Flower when it hits the PSN Store next week. I know I will.

Related articles:

Far Out, Man
When Video Games Make Us Sniffle
Sony Gives Thanks Via Charming PSN Deals

When Video Games Make Us Sniffle

Nadia Oxford — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 23:33:00 GMT

It's all right to cry.
Crying takes the sad out of you.

Anyone else remember Rosey Grier serenading us while wearing a very groovy collar? He taught us that it's okay to weep when we're feeling sad, because even big boys feel down in the dumps sometimes. Gamers have taken his song to heart, shuffling and sniffling when bad things happen to good game characters. Video games and emotional expression have shifted monumentally: our fathers didn't cry for Donkey Kong, doomed to fall four storeys and crack his skull open over and over like some simian Sisyphus.

But according to Roger Moore, who reviewed the indigestable Max Payne in the Orlando Sentinel, gamers have never cried at a game's story, because game stories never give gamers a reason to cry.

This, of course, is false: denying that gamers have ever cried means denying the River of Aerith, which was formed from the tears of RPG fans when--well, you know. I do have to admit that I'm hard-pressed to remember specific instances when a game's story made me weepy. Don't get me wrong, I bawl pretty easily, but mostly because of something that happened in a book ("Dammit Colour-Me-Elmo, why can't I stay in your lines? Sob sob!") or a movie. I know I'm the exception here, but games just don't seem to touch me in the same way as often.

So am I a heartless harpy, or do games just lack something in presentation? It's not to say that games have never made me tear up, and God knows enough have made me sad: Mother 3's tagline, "Funny, Strange and Heartrending" is actually quite accurate. I just sometimes feel like game developers are trying too hard to make me feel bad at appointed times. Final Fantasy VI still takes home my "Most Depressing Game Evar" award, but the storytelling in that game is about as subtle as a freshly-cut onion.

Some games admittedly do the story thing better than others. I haven't yet played Shadow of the Colossus, but I hear that one scene in particular gives people Neverending Story Artax flashbacks.

What games make you weep like a girl?

Related Links:

Games to Movies: Why Is It So Gad-Danged Hard?
Counterpart: Games Shouldn't Try To Be Movies
Games to Film: W.S. Anderson's Castlevania

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

Five Games That Will Be Awesome to Remake in LittleBigPlanet

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

Ever since its announcement, excited gamers across the internet land have been discussing their level-making plans for LittleBigPlanet. Puzzle levels, hardcore platforming levels, insane art landscapes, and, most importantly, Level 1-1 from Super Mario Bros. Yes, LittleBigPlanet may be all about getting your creative juices flowing but there was never a doubt in anyone’s mind that players were going to throw down all sorts of lovely, copyright-infringing devotionals to gaming’s beloved creations of old. Team Sportsmanship, a group of art students participating in Parsons New School of Design’s Game Jam event, didn’t explicitly recreate a level from Fumito Ueda’s epic, but as PS3 Fanboy put it, their level can only be named Shadow of the LittleBigColossus. It’s a work of art, a lovingly crafted riff on Shadow of the Colossus’ grand encounters made terribly adorable by LBP’s style and Sackboy mascot. Of course, this got me thinking: what games are perfectly fit for the LittleBigPlanet treatment? Here’s what came to mind.

Castlevania III

Besides being a classic platformer overflowing with badass levels primed for reimagining, Castlevania III is also uniquely suited to LBP’s four-player challenges. You’ve got a vampire, a pirate, a witch lady, and a dude with a whip. What do they do together? They scale clock towers and kick the crap out of less-than-friendly vampires. Perfect.

Joe & Mac

The first time I saw a Sackboy smack another one upside the head, my brain was filled with visions of a caveman themed level in LBP. Then again, why be creative when you can shamelessly exploit someone else’s creations? Joe & Mac is a good fit for LBPization, with co-op play and giant dinosaurs to assault. Sure, LBP doesn’t appear to have projectile weapons but they do have clubs. After making a Joe & Mac level, you could go whole hog and recreate the full, non-linear Joe & Mac 2. Note: Chuck Rock sucks, so he lost the caveman race.

Silhouette Mirage

Treasure’s other action-platformers might seem like more obvious choices for LBP (Mischief Makers certainly comes to mind,) but Silhouette Mirage’s duality theme puts it over the top. Is it possible to make obstacles impossible to overcome or enemies impossible to beat based purely on color in LittleBigPlanet? Whether you can or not, finding ways to manipulate the environment to accommodate Silhouette Mirage’s quirks would be a fascinating challenge if nothing else. This one might be a little tricky thanks to the aforementioned lack of projectiles.

Silent Hill

I know. Silent Hill isn’t exactly a franchise that would lend itself to 2D platforming, let alone platforming as sticky-sweet as the kind found in LBP. Might be a little difficult to create the same sort of so-unsettling-you-don’t-sleep-right atmosphere when Sackboy keeps turning to the screen, smiling, and waving at you from the television. But imagine structuring a LittleBigPlanet level that, halfway through, started to transform into a horrid, twisted version of itself. Harmless cardboard flowers peeling back to reveal barbwire fences, the blue sky turning an angry red, and fog descending over the stage. It would be awesome. Plus, SackPyramidHead.

Leisure Suit Larry

Come on, where are you going? Come back. Just hear me out. Now take Al Lowe’s 1987 classic smut-adventure and re-imagine its torrid city of lounge lizards, ruffians, and prostitutes as a multi-tiered pagoda or luridly colored challenges. Behold, you must get the condom “key” from the Drug Store of Doom and carry it as you ascend one floor to the Perilous Prostitute Platforms! In the final challenge, you must convince the drunken barfly to give you the engagement ring and climb to the tower’s apex, where a buxom Sackgirl waits in a pleasantly pastel colored hot tub. What? Don’t look at me like that. You and I both know this is a great idea.

Related links:

NSFW: The Top Five Game-Based Pornos
The Five Greatest Enhanced Remakes - And Five That Weren't So Great
Top Ten: Favorite Bosses
Top Ten Most Terrifying Enemies and Then Five More

Top Ten: Favorite Bosses part 2

Amber Ahlborn — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 17:00:00 GMT

The first arcade game to sport a boss fight was Phoenix, which was released in 1980. While most people were probably playing Space Invaders, I was playing Phoenix on my Atari 2600. Boss encounters have come a long way since the days of yore, displaying wonderful variety and imagination. The last five on my list go far to demonstrate just how unusual these encounters can be.

!! Spoilers Ahoy !!

5. Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus – Ms. Ruby: And now for something totally different. The bosses in Sly Cooper are mostly of the indirect or puzzle kind, each requiring a different approach. Ms. Ruby, the Voodoo Priestess Alligator is especially unique, mixing a rhythm game into a boss encounter. It's a load of fun to “Dig that Voo doo”.

4. Shadow of the Colossus – Phalanx: I would be remiss to create a list of favorite bosses and make no mention of a game that consists of nothing but grand scale boss fights. Phalanx is a gigantic flying serpent, held aloft by sacs filled with lighter than air gas. Since it doesn't attack, it takes well fired arrows, frantic riding, and well aimed jumps on your part just to get a hold of the thing. Frankly, I always felt like a jerk knocking this graceful beast out of the skies. Of course, being a jerk didn't stop my loving every minute of it.

3. Pikmin 2 – Empress Bulblax: We go from normal sized dude fighting giant enemies to tiny dudes fighting, er, giant enemies. Both Pikmin titles have great boss fights but I picked the Empress to represent. I'm not sure why she sticks in my mind other than I think “Termite Queen” every time I see her. This grotesquely bloated and pulsating monster is one bad momma, sending waves of her own offspring after you. But what kind of mother squishes her own kids?

2. Metroid Prime 2 Echoes – Quadraxis: If you know anything about me, you knew this one was coming. Both Echoes and Prime overflow with high caliber bosses that are challenging, fun, and require thought to take down but Quadraxis takes it to the limit. I have a real soft spot for this mechanical monstrosity. Quadraxis demands that you really work Samus' arsenal of weapons and tools to destroy it. Besides, it just looks dern cool.

Of course, this guy makes it look so easy :P

1. Super Mario Galaxy – Bowser: Bowser is all grown up for his second appearance on my list. Frankly, he's not a tough guy to beat but the Bowser fights in Super Mario Galaxy are a blast to play and the music is fantastic. Actually, it's the music that really seals the deal for me on my choice of Bowser on this list. That epic track adds so much to the aura of grandiose combat that it deserves its own mention. Now that's the way to score a battle.

Related Links:

Top Ten: Favorite Bosses part 1

The Ten Greatest Classic Mega Man Levels, Part 1

GameTrailers' Top 10 Most Difficult Games

The Ten Greatest Opening Levels in Gaming History, Part 3

John Constantine — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 01:45:00 GMT

Sonic the Hedgehog - Green Hill Zone

By the time the original Sonic the Hedgehog came out, Super Mario World had been out for six months in Japan. In almost every way, Mario had the edge on Sonic — more levels, more power-ups, more variety, more gaming. But there was one thing you couldn't take away from Sonic, and that was the sheer dazzle of starting up the game and entering Green Hill Zone. To this day, Green Hill Zone looks spectacular, with its sparkling ocean, lush vegetation and abstract geometry — not to mention Masato Nakamura's unforgettable music. Mario had a lot to offer, but in terms of pure physicality, most of Dinosaur Land seems awfully drab next to Green Hill Zone. (Plus, it was 1991 — "zones" were just cooler than "lands", for Chrissakes.) — PS

Shadow of the Colossus - Valus

Shadow of the Colossus’s opening moments are less mysterious, and therefore less grand, than the opening moments of Ico. As players, we are given exposition and context through narration (however vague it may be) and the game’s protagonist Wander states a clear goal while an evil god tells him how to achieve it. This is a far cry from the confounding and almost entirely silent internment of a horned boy in a decaying castle. But Shadow of the Colossus’ first level, toppling the colossus Valus, is a singular moment in gaming history. Valus stands at one end of an enclosed valley opposite you and, at first, it doesn’t seem that big. Then you run towards it, feeling the ground shake through your controller, the music swells, and you jump on its enormous leg, searching for a handhold. It is, in the truest sense of the word, epic. Even God of War 1 and 2’s opening battles against the hydra and the Colossus of Rhodes seem miniscule in comparison. — JC

Metroid Prime - Space Pirate Frigate

To fully appreciate the beginning of Metroid Prime, play through the beginning of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. Both openings teach you how to play the game, but Twilight Princess teaches you like you're in the remedial class, instead of someone who (knowing Nintendo's fan base) probably has a doctorate in Zelda. It takes hours of cat-placating, monkey-placating and goat-herding to even get a sword. Prime takes it easy on you, but you never feel condescended to. Its tutorials are thoroughly skippable; expert players can finish the Space Pirate Frigate in five minutes flat. But beyond that, it's a beautiful, self-contained introduction to the game's spooky atmosphere. Every console Zelda after A Link to the Past has started you out in a village full of whiners you have to coddle before you get to adventure. Prime throws you into a dark, eerie spacecraft where something horrible has happened. Get in and get out before its orbit decays and you die. Chills. — PS

Half-Life 2 – City 17

“Wake up, Mr. Freeman. Wake up, and smell the ashes.” As Gordon Freeman, your journey through the bleak streets of City 17 begins a mere sixty seconds after the game’s title has faded to black. The mundane environment tells you everything you need to know about how life works in a world where civilization has crumbled; tired and scared citizens mutter in the corners of a train terminal, Combine soldiers threaten and abuse, and rare familiar faces urge you to escape immediately. Half-Life’s greatest success has always been keeping the player in constant control of the action while still herding them along a set path. Half-Life 2’s opening level, Freeman’s arrival in City 17 and his flight from the Combine across the city’s rooftops, engages and informs in equal measure while providing an immediate thrill through play. It’s remarkable that a first-person shooter’s most memorable level is its first, a level where not a single shot is fired. — JC

Click here for Part 1
Click here for Part 2

Previous Top Tens:
The Ten Most Adventurous Sequels
The Ten Greatest Fire Levels

The Ten Greatest Opening Levels in Gaming History, Part 2

John Constantine — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 01:30:00 GMT

Metal Gear Solid 2 – The U.S.S. Discovery

The opening level of Metal Gear Solid 2 is the finest Metal Gear game ever made in-and-of itself. Forget Hideo Kojima’s cinematic pretensions for just a moment and think about the raw play available in this self-contained prologue scenario. The tools of MGS’ trade may not be available to Snake in their totality here, but every inch of the tanker acts as a playground for the series' most fundamental mechanics. You can sneak through without ever being seen or you can kill every Russian soldier you come across. There is an expertly paced boss fight. There is skin-mag related humor. It’s all here. Now layer Kojima’s cinematic pretensions back on top of all that considering they are at their best (read: most restrained) here and you have a beginning that is, arguably, superior to anything the follows or precedes it in the entire series. — JC

Mega Man X - Awakening Road

This is not your father's Mega Man, says the opening stage of Mega Man X. Or it would, if it had a voice — but instead, it's got a brutal snare roll leading into a heavy rock instrumental. It's got a crumbling highway, complete with fleeing commuters (the latter of which ground the action in a more inhabited world than the NES Mega Man games ever featured.) And it ends with X almost getting scrapped by a mech-riding Boba Fett ripoff. Whatever our love for the classic Mega Man series, it never had this kind of drama. — PS

Einhander – Imperial Capital

Shoot ‘em ups, both vertical and horizontal, are usually gradual experiences. Gradius set the standard: an opening level that acclimates you to both the game’s challenge and its setting, you are the aggressor, going into a place to reach its center where defenses will be strongest. Also, excluding rare exceptions like 1942, shmups are fairly fanciful in scenario. More often than not, you’re fighting aliens, robots, monsters, etc. Einhander doesn’t start slow. Your ship flies into the middle of a bustling metropolis, literally crashing through neon billboards before racing through its ruined foundation. It is a human place and you are fleeing it, your first enemies police in pursuit. There’s a lot about Einhander that’s memorable, from Kenichiro Fukui’s techno soundtrack to its genius weapons system. But nothing sticks with you like the Imperial Capital. — JC

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The Ten Greatest Opening Levels in Gaming History, Part 1

John Constantine — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 01:15:00 GMT

First impressions are important, in videogames as they are in life. The first moments you spend with any art can define your experience of it. They compel you to dig deeper, to more carefully consider the work or the hand that crafted it. Other times, they can be so startling that everything that follows is diminished. This week, 61 Frames Per Second looks at the ten greatest opening levels in gaming history. Stick with us past the first one though. They’re all great. — John Constantine

Prince of Persia 2 - Rooftop Chase

The original Prince of Persia was a unique and wonderful game, but it wasn't much for setting. Half the game takes place in a monochromatic dungeon, and the other in a monochromatic palace. 2 quickly makes up for it; about to be executed by the Vizier's goons, the Prince leaps through a window, and from there it's up to you to guide him across the palace rooftops, into the marketplace below, down a long pier, finally leaping into the hold of a departing merchant ship — all with those guards on your tail. The stage is a real nail-biter, and all the more memorable because the rest of the game is comparatively subdued. — Peter Smith

Strider – Saint Petersburg

I won’t lie. There was a time that I watched that glider fly low over terrible Slavic church spires to a brief fanfare of synthetic horns and I believed, for a moment, that I would never leave Eurasia alive. Then I realized that Strider Hiryu’s sword was practically the length of the screen and it could literally make people explode. Strider, as a game, has not aged well in the past twenty years; the control is wonky, you can’t really tell when you’re even hitting something, and there are times when stuff in its stages blows up for seemingly no reason. But that first level remains an incredible spectacle, coated in color and character, a place where robot tigers will scale towers and entire Russian parliaments will turn into hammer-and-sickle wielding robot dragons. Fighting robot apes and hordes of half-naked amazons a few levels later just seems pedestrian after that. — John Constantine

Final Fantasy VII - Assault on Mako Reactor #1

Presumably your retinas have just detached as a result of your vigorous eye-rolling. Re-attach those suckers and hear me out here: no matter how bloated, overrated and over-fanboyed Final Fantasy VII might be in retrospect, its opening is masterful. Up until that game, RPGs never started fast. You loaded up your neophyte warriors with whatever cloth armor and rusty dinner knives you could afford on your starting wage of ten gold pieces, and then you sent them out to the local forest to get their asses handed to them by killer squirrels until they could upgrade to some new silverware. Final Fantasy VI was a step in the right direction, with its haunting approach to a frozen, gloomy northern town. But VII's opening is still a dramatic highlight of the series, segueing from a lyrical vision of a flower girl in the streets, to a full view of a vast futuristic city, to a tense assault on a huge power reactor, all to the strains of the Blade Runner-esque suite that is Nobuo Uematsu's immortal "Opening/Bombing Mission." Put that jackass with the Sephiroth tattoo out of your mind, and take a minute to appreciate the scope and excitement of this sequence. — PS

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Team Ico’s Fumito Ueda at the Nordic Game 2008 Conference

John Constantine — Wed, 21 May 2008 14:00:00 GMT

As self-professed gaming aesthetes, we here at 61 Frames Per Second obviously have a deep and abiding love for the work of Sony Japan’s Team Ico and, more specifically, resident auteur Fumito Ueda. Ueda’s work on the Playstation 2, including the stylistic milestones Shadow of the Colossus and his team’s namesake Ico, are the go-to namedrops for anyone engaging in the persistent games-as-art discussion. His trademarks are characters that convey emotional depth through body language instead of dialogue and austere worlds that imply long histories and lost grandeur. It’s been three years since Shadow of the Colossus and the world’s been waiting with baited breath for any word regarding Ueda and Team Ico’s Playstation 3 debut. His recent talk alongside Siren designer Keiichiro Toyama on disruptive game design at the Nordic Game 2008 conference yielded no news on that project but provided some rich insight into his history in the industry and the early forms of his seminal works. Jimmy Marcus Larsen posted up a summation of the talk on his blog, Game Design Chronicles:

The next session was the highlight of the conference. ICO designer Fumito Ueda and Forbidden Siren designer Keiichiro Toyama had joined a session on disruptive design. They did not talk much about that subject, but we all knew about their innovations anyway. The interesting bits was about their backgrounds. Fumito Ueda showed his early art exhibition design, and told that his first computer was an Amiga. He was thrilled to see the high amount of hands raised when he asked how many (former) Amiga users there were - in Japan no one knew the Amiga. His design philosophy was to affect people’s life, and he went about doing it by working on the visual side first. He also showed an early PS1 prototype of ICO, and an early multiplayer version of Shadow of The Colossus - three horse riders were battling a colossus together. Very nice and too bad it was left out of the final version! I was quite impressed with how much of the games Ueda himself had created - design and story are obvious, but he even did some of the character models and animation. Keiichiro Toyama talked about the new Forbidden Siren (New Translation) game, and how the sight jacking system had been improved using a split-screen setup. He also told the audience that he and Ueda was the only two designers within Sony who were allowed to do what ever they wanted. The last interesting bit from that session, was about Another World - apparently that game is an all time favorite and a great inspirational source to many Japanese game designers. Kind of strange that a western game has that position.

Head over to Larsen’s blog for more details on the conference. Our thanks to NeoGAF user Issun23 for pointing us to Larsen’s post.