61 Frames Per Second : skip

Whatcha Playing: Earth Day Edition

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

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

Chibi-Robo: Park Patrol for Nintendo DS

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

Flower for Playstation 3

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

Bonsai Barber for Nintendo Wii

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

Pixeljunk Eden for Sony Playstation 3

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

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

Style Over Substance: Why I'm In Love With WiiWare's "Art Style"

Derrick Sanskrit — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 14:00:00 GMT

There was a communal quandry of "huh...what?" last month when Nintendo quietly unveiled the Art Style brand of WiiWare titles with Art Style: Orbient. Some immediately recognized the game as a hi-def update of the late Gameboy Advance genre-breaker Orbital (previously loved by me here) and asserted that Art Style is a WiiWare rebranding of the bitGenerations series. This theory was reinforced when it was confirmed that skip Ltd. would be developing the Art Style games (they developed six of the seven bitGenerations titles) and that two more Art Style titles would hit WiiWare by the end of October.

Let's take a quick step back here. For those unfamiliar, bitGenerations was an experimental series of Gameboy Advance games released only in Japan that favored style over substance. With smaller iconic packaging, minimal graphics and sound, and simple controls, these games almost all hid impressively deep gameplay. Much like Sony's PixelJunk series (developed by Q Games, who uncoincidentally developed DigiDrive, the seventh bitGenerations title). The games were never released outside of Japan due to the release of the Nintendo DS and unlikelihood that anyone would buy intentionally simplistic games with no corporate mascots attached, regardless of their low price point and critical acclaim.

Two years later, digital distribution has finally taken off as a means of selling "experimental" games. XBox Live Arcade's Braid and Playstation Networks aforementioned PixelJunk series would arguably have no success whatsoever in retail stores, but at the low price of a download direct to your console they are finding the gamers they so very much derserve, and now the Wii has a series of inexpensive, unique, and beautifully stylish downloadbale games to call its own. Orbient was a great start to the series, offering the same great "Katamari Damacy in space" experience as the original with improved graphics.The titles Cubello and Rotohex were revealed as the two upcoming Art Style releases for October and immediately gamers assumed these would be higher-def updates of bitGenerations' tile-coloring puzzler Coloris tile-rotating puzzler Dialhex. Imagine our surprise two weeks ago when Cubello was released and revealed to be a whole new game!

That's right, not an update or a remake but a 100% original brand new puzzle-shooter. Sure, there was still the color-matching element of Coloris, and even sound effects very reminiscent of Chibi-Robo, but the entire game was designed and built from the ground up to use the Wii controls in a way that none of the previous Gameboy Advance titles could. Launching colored blocks at a floating assemblage of similar bricks is incredibly intuitive thanks to the Wii's infrared sensor, but the added dynamic of the assembled mass rotating in space relative to where you hit it with a new block added a whole new level of complexity and strategy that knocked Cubello right over the line from "novel puzzler" to "compelling experience".

As today is the last Monday of October, it is very likely that today will see the release of the third WiiWare title, teased to be Rotohex. Having seen how well the update from Orbital to Orbient came along, I'm sure any other bitGenerations update will be a fantastic addition to the WiiWare library, but I would be lying if I didn't admit I'd rather another brand-new experience like Cubello. Still, skip and Nintendo have won me over yet again. Whatever they release under the Art Style brand, I am there with Wii Points waiting.

Related Articles:

Jonathan Blow Your Mind
Yahtzee Says, Support Your Local Independany Developer (He's Right)
Fun Fact: Dylan Cuthbert - The Genre Masher
Far Out, Man (PixelJunk Eden)
Alternate Soundtrack: Orbital vs The Notwist
Easy Access (bitGenerations Soundvoyager)

The 61FPS Review: LOL - Never Party Alone!

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

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

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

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

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

Riding on a LOLlercoaster...yeah

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

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

Grade: B+

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

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

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

I have been, in general, pretty resistant to the iPhone mania that’s overtaken many hundreds of thousands of folks. They’re attractive little devices but, well, them things are expensive. Plus, it remains to be seen whether or not it will come into its own as a gaming platform. The version of Spore Maxis has cooked up looks like a neat diversion but not many other games seem particularly interesting. For example, a friend of mine downloaded Super Monkey Ball and told me that when the game wasn’t crashing his iPhone, it was a chore to actually control anything. Newtonica, a new game from the ever fertile mind of Kenichi Nishi, now has me chomping at the bit to actually hand over some cashey money to Steve Jobs. Why? For starters, Nishi was the field designer on Super Mario RPG and Chrono Trigger, the founder of Love-De-Lic, and the designer of Skip’s Chibi-Robo. That’s what you call a pedigree right there. Also? Newtonica’s soundtrack is by Kenji Eno. As I recently discovered, Kenji Eno rules. Looks like the actually gameplay, not dissimilar to the Bit Generations title Orbital which Nishi also had a hand in, will be a hoot too.

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

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

Related links:

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

Many Colors in the Hardcore Rainbow

Derrick Sanskrit — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 18:00:00 GMT

The hardcore Nintendo fanbase have made their voices heard. They're sick of games with Miis and annoying rabbits. They want games with the characters from all the old-school games they know and love. They want fan service. Just look at Super Smash Bros Brawl, the definitive hardcore Wii game and a game that is 100% fan service. Sega may soon be delivering with MadWorld and House of the Dead: Overkill, but there's a lot of talk about what Nintendo's next "hardcore" game for the Wii will be. Kid Icarus? Disaster: Day of Crisis? Pikmin?

What if I told you there was already a game coming out for the Wii which combined fan favorite characters from Super Mario Bros., the Legend of Zelda, Punch-Out!, and more along with the side-scrolling fighting of Viewtiful Joe and the community activity of Animal Crossing? Sounds like exactly the kind of game we've been waiting for, right? Now what if I told you this game was coming out in Japan this very week? You'd probably ask when its coming out in the rest of the world, wouldn't you? Well, we don't know yet because Nintendo has yet to make any announcements regarding localization of Captain Rainbow. That's right, I'm talking about Captain mother-flippin' Rainbow here.

See that blue dude up there with the snarly teeth and tiny red boots, gloves, speedo and wings? You may remember him as Devil from Devil's World, a Japan-only NES game who also recently appeared as a particularly treacherous assist trophy in the aforementioned Brawl. In Captain Rainbow, you have to help him become the number one villain in the underworld. How badass is that? Remember Little Mac from Punch-Out!? He also showed up in Brawl as an assist trophy. Well he ain't so little anymore and you have to help him get back in shape to become world champion once more. Lip from Panel de Pon (Tetris Attack/Puzzle League) also needs your help, and her weapon of choice – Lip's Stick – has long been a staple of the Smash Bros. inventory.

Perhaps the most surprising, and welcome, comeback for this game is Crazy Tracy from The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening. That's her to the left, decidedly more... um... mature than the original Game Boy sprite made her seem. Remember her? Enter her house and she offers you a "special treatment" that will restore all of your hearts? Yeah, even when I was prepubescent I picked up on that subtext.Well, now it seems her greatest wish is to enslave all the men in the world. Hmm... knowing the way Nintendo games work, if she keeps on looking like that and cooking up more of that sweet medicine, I'd say her goal is well within her own reach, even without Captain Rainbow's help.

Other Nintendo b-listers making appearances include soldiers from Famicom/Advance Wars, Birdo from Super Mario Bros. 2, Tao the dog from skip ltd.'s own Chibi-Robo and others. North American gamers may not be familiar with all of the fan-service characters, but that didn't stop us from clinging to Marth and Roy in Super Smash Bros. Melee, eventually leading to the localization of the Fire Emblem games.

Despite its bright colors and playful presentation, Captain Rainbow promises enough superhero action and suggestive content to delight the longtime Nintendo audience who worries the Wii is a system for grandmas and babies. Moreso than Mother 3, this is a game that I think Nintendo needs to localize for the rest of us.

Related articles:

Trailer Review: House of the Dead - Overkill
Where is Wii's Disaster: Day of Crisis?
Trailer Review: Captain Rainbow
Independent at a Price: Sega and Platinum Games

Alternate Soundtrack: Orbital vs. The Notwist

Derrick Sanskrit — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 15:00:00 GMT

Orbital was one of the seven bit Generations games released in Japan for the Game Boy Advance in 2006. The bit Generations series was intended to demonstrate the artistic side of games by using graphics and sound that were simplified to the state of retro-stylish and controls that were basic yet compelling. Developed by skip ltd, Orbital has often been described as "Katamari Damacy in space" and that is not an entirely bad description. As the smallest object in a solar system, you must collect other small moons, planets, stars and whatnot in order to increase your own mass and gravitational pull until the galaxy's own sun orbits you. The challenge, though, comes from the fact that you do not directly control your movements but rather the charge of your gravitational field, either pulling you towards or away from nearby stars. Brilliant in its simplicity and so thoroughly addictive.

The sparse sound and graphics do a wonderful job of leaving the player feeling weightless, drifting in space with loose control of their actions and no control over their surroundings – an uncomfortable position to be in for sure. It is this very feeling that draws the game's experience so closely to "Shrink," the 1998 album by German songsmiths The Notwist. "Shrink" saw the band wafting gently away from their prior efforts in heavy metal and indie rock towards jazz and electronica, thanks in no small part to new member Martin Gretschmann, an established electronic musician. Martin's gentle clicks and beeps create an uneasy sense of order and well-being while Andi Haberi's percussion tethers the listener to the confused reality. Michael Acher's basslines instill a calm sense of urgency while brother Markus's vocals present a pleasant and melodic dread of the uncertainty of their environment.

Related articles:
Alternate Soundtrack: StarTropics vs. Islands
No Alternate Soundtrack: Chibi-Robo
Easy Access (bit Generations Soundvoyager)

No Alternate Soundtrack: Chibi-Robo

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

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

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

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

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

Trailer Review - Captain Rainbow

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

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

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

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

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

Thanks to WiiFolder for posting the sweet video!

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