Along with this, Chinese culture is chaffing my brain and the University has booted me out without a real explanation. Well it’s not that bad, the administration just has no idea what they are doing and as such I am left hanging in the lurch until they get their act together. Living here makes it harder to keep this place up to date, so I just need a little time, might be a few days, a week, just to get back up to scratch. Seeya in a little while.

Here is my replacement for the time being, wow, so metaphoric:

That’s right a novelization of Metal Gear Solid. This was released back in May this year, quite a good find I’d say. So as you can imagine I decided to snap this one up with great haste and a big smile on my face. My decision to pick this up was prompted by a few ideas that have been bouncing around my head relating to video game narrative.

Loose Ideas

Video game narrative more often than not leans to strengths not completely associated – but indeed familiar - with the medium itself. ie. narrative embedded outside of gameplay. The reason for this is obvious, it is a lack long time video game narrative experience met with a marvel of complexities. Forming am effective narrative out of a complex experience such as playing a video game, must be a frightening task. That is, if you do so without using techniques like cut scenes and so forth.

Furthermore a good video game narrative also needs to fit within the context of a video game. Firstly there has to be enough substance to constitute gameplay. Secondly, what occurs in the game should justify and create the narrative itself, you have to participate in it, as such. Spending hours killing monsters has to be useful for something beyond keeping you busy, right? Then the narrative should work within a balance of levels, characters (both playable and non) and other game based variables.

While I think that there is without a doubt some incredible video game narrative in existence - the best of which conforms to the previously explained rules – no doubt, much of it is sort of hybrid. What I mean is that, some narrative you get to play, some narrative unfolds as you play and other narrative is statically presented to you. This is by no means bad or good, since even a game with completely separate narrative and gameplay can still have good narrative. What it means though is that, largely, narratives made in games, with some significant association to play are more or less exclusive only to this medium.

Translation

I’ve been thinking a little about translation recently. The reason being is that my most troublesome problem my Chinese language development, is English. For my Chinese to improve to a higher degree, I need to start thinking in Chinese instead of in English. In a sense I need to step out of myself and focus just on meaning and what I want to say, with the exclusion of language. The reason is that each medium has its own though processes involved with it, this is why as English speakers we are use to precision while Chinese speakers are not so specific with what they say. Video games are the same.

Metal Gear Solid has seen a lot of translation and been has already translated into a radio drama, comic, digital comic and novel. I wonder then how interpretation has changed across each of these and how derivative they are of the video game. The other interesting part of the translation is adaption. That is how the ‘game playing’ elements are adapted to mediums in which involve no participation. Something has to be done by the translator to silence the nuances between the mediums. So I am curious to see how the playable parts of MGS were handled.

Of course, I want to use these ideas for when I read the book and later document my thoughts (and probably when I get home and look into the digital novel too). Already the first chapter begins with a sequence long before the events on Shadow Mosses island, not shown in the video games.

In 2003 Ubisoft released the apt XIII, a first person thriller based around the Belgium/French comic book of the same name. I highly recommend that you sought this title out if you haven’t tried it. Particularly the PC version which runs in a high resolution.

The other game is Prince of Persia, a new iteration of one of gaming’s classic favourites. This title is utilizing the technique to evoke a connection to the original PoP game. It can already be seen from the two main trailers released that Prince of Persia is adopting an extremely striking and intimate feel to its visual presentation.

I have collected several screens from both games which can be seen below. It has been difficult to find equivalents since the two games are set in opposite perspectives. Click on the images for high definition.

Beyond the model rendering and polygons, the main difference comes from the application of the technique. Prince of Persia lowers the alpha channel of the shading, allowing richer detail to shine through, giving the game a water colour look to it. This is then enhanced by the blurring and softening of the landscapes in the background. XIII on the other hand uses strict colour fills and some undynamic shadowing effects. The greater rendering power allows Prince of Persia to display much clearer lines around the characters, particularly around the face. Clothing, hair and fabric are also displayed with much better fidelity.

After being here for maybe two months I’ve realized that I haven’t actually said much about the gaming scene in China. I’ve been to a few arcades, shuffled through pirated and import markets, observed gaming on the subway and made friends who all play games in some form or another. I also have a room mate who owns a Japanese Sega Saturn, although, he is creepy, so I probably won’t explore that avenue!

The only facet that I feel well grounded in is gaming on the Shanghai subway, which is much more prominent than you might first assume. Inspired by Stephen Totilo, I decided to keep a tab of the number of times I spotted a handheld game being played on my daily commute and back. Unfortunately, the more I tally, the more I realize how useless my original plan is since the PSP is wiping the floor clear.

While Mr Totilo counted something near 70 PSPs on the New York subways in over a year, in only two months I have see upwards of 30 PSPs being played. I see at least one PSP player a day, sometimes up to five or six. The DS on the other hand is much lower but I occasionally spot a DS, which my tally being up to around eight. It’s quite obvious which way the data will skew, so I have decided to give up counting.

A lot of rich Shanghai’ers are also equipped with flashy mobile phones too and much like anywhere it is common to see people flash them out in public. The most popular mobile phone games are simple card games, Mahjong and Bubble Bobble.

For the DS I’ve spotted one of the Harvest Moon games being played (the 3D, isometric one) as well as some Castlevania. I’m not sure if people are using a SD card adapter but it is likely as they are readily available.

For the PSP I have seen it been used for a number of features. Games have included God of War, GTA: LCS, Jean D’arc and a number of popular Asian titles; weird stuff like half turn based, half board game RPGs. The PSP is also used quite often as a movie and MP3 player, I see more of this in public than games being played. Most surprising of all is that the most widely used function of the PSP (and by a considerable margin) is to display .txt files. Ridiculous I know, but is quite common to see passengers scrolling through a novel of Chinese characters while jammed between the divides.

And that concludes all that I have to report. I want to do some general surveys on gaming in China soon, wrap up my thoughts on internet cafe culture and start doing some actual analysis of networked games that my friends are hooked on as well as the pirating/import scene. I’m currently doing some general online and forum research.

Is Sarsaparilla not the drink of Gods? I love the stuff; it’s one of the only consumables that I’m addicted to, along with breath mints. Unfortunately, no mild addiction will save me from my woeful state of disorganization.

Maybe that’s harsh, but I just can’t seem to keep it all together over here (China). I spend the mornings in class and by the time that is finished my energy reserves are all exhausted. Then I have to meet with people, do homework, read the news, play games, write for the blog, phone home and find a moment of solitude to drink my sars before the landlord barges in to talk over the top of me. It’s the foreign language which is crippling my juggling act, I tell you!

Well there is the part whinge, part excuse as to why things are quiet around these parts. This months recommendations on the other hand are fantastic, grab yourself a sars, some mints and start reading.

Games That Defined The History of the PlayStation (PS1) - RacketBoy

Another great feature by Racket and his crew of merry helpers - of which I am a part of. The article is a good reminder of the overall diversity of the Playstation console and how it pulled together players from multiple niches under the one house. Even though the article is already huge in size, many titles were reasonably left out, a good testament to the console’s software muscle. Try to guess the entry I wrote.

Good Game Interview - PALGN

Good Game is a weekly TV series in Australia centered around video games. Even though I am away in China, I can still download episodes through the ABC website each week. Actually, the ABC’s online services means that I’ve been watching more Aussie TV than Chinese. God bless cultural resistance.

In anycase, take a read, it’s definitely reassuring to have such an enthusiastic and yet such professional program about video games on TV. You might also find this interesting.

Matt Hazard: The Legacy You Never Knew - Moving Pixels

I often like to razz on video game marketers basically because they are our masters and we are their obedient, money-spending slaves. In this case though, I have to give a shout out - and hey, a free, pitiful plug - to this recent marketing wizzardy.

Video game censorship and the art of horror – News.com.au

Some fruitful, concise and on-the-mark writing by Ben Croshaw, featured in a prominent location. The way the article and all of its various conclusion are wrapped together is quite marvelous. A fantastic argument is put across which highlights the credibility of this medium, exactly the sort of writing we need.

Korean Gamer Makes Video Criticizing Chinese & China – chinaSMACK

This is pretty messy actually. Basically this Korean kid made a video expressing his frustration and disgust of Chinese gamers. While some of it is clearly derogatory, with more being awkwardly translated, there is quite a bit of weight in the observations he puts forth. Most of which I can actually agree with or at least deem reasonable. Read the comments of the Chinese people too, speaks worlds.

Metal Gear Solid 3 Review – Action Button

After my recent spat at the the current state of games previews, with the inclusion of some fond memories of MGS3, I was pleased to come across this from Action Button. This site always writes something interesting about games, even if sometimes it is a little schizophrenic in its approach. You have to applaud them for two things though; writing with some flair and actually discussing the merits of the game.

And the Rest…

Just a quick dump of the rest of the pack. Iroquois Pliskin puts into words how Call of Duty 4 makes light of the many complexities of warfare. Mitch Krpata highlights all thats wrong with the attitudes surrounding this year’s seasoned pickings with a simple conversation log. Ars Technica gets serious about games and finally someone writes something that isn’t completely one sided about Wii Music. Oh and I love this video too. Good stuff

Merry Gear Solid

Being smaller, less riskier endeavors, indie games often surprise us with humorous jabs at the medium itself, because they can. Some of these games push mild insights into the developers opinion, others base themselves solely around the art of parody. Merry Gear Solid does the latter.

Merry Gear Solid as the name suggests is a Christmas themed parody of the Metal Gear Solid franchise. Likening itself to the classic 2D Metal Gear games, Merry Gear Solid plays like a small, half hour episode from the series, wrapped in the Christmas décor. You, Solid Santa must infiltrate a house full of children to plant your presents under the Christmas tree. Along the way you will obtain a series of items, all throwbacks to the series mainstays which allow you to progress through the cleverly designed household

It’s very surprising to see just how much care has been taken in developing this title. The sprites and animations all look perfect and would fit in nicely with the Pokemon games. The writing is superb and consistently strong with clever puns and jabs at series staples as well as Christmas culture. The level designs are also excellent and utilize multiple strings of problem solving. The whole package is just top notch and it maintained my interest for the whole pay session. With this game as a template, I think that the potential of an independent installment of the series could easily be done, that I would love to see.

Magical Toy Chest (Demo)

Having developed educational software for children before I can understand the challenge involved in designing a game for this market. The trick is trying to keep the accessibility and difficulty in equilibrium so that the child can grasp the concept of the game easily and then remained engaged for the length of the experience. This means thinking hard about how to introduce the game, what language to use, how to layout the menus, when to provide tips, when to let the child explore on their own, when to throw some education at them etc. This is a tough job to keep up. Magical Toy Chest by Graduate Games in this regard fairs quite well, probably about as well as I did, although that is obviously biased.

Magic Toy Quest is another one of those popular physics based games which require you to orientate objects in a 2D environment to see what happens when you set everything off. These games make you feel like the king of your own small world, self-indulgently lining up dominos and watching them fall over.

I started off talking about educational games and indeed Magical Toy Chest is one of those. What I most like about the game is how it implements the learning elements. In order to get the toys into the chest you need to first set up a path for the target toy (the toy that you want to get into the box) to travel. This requires placing set pieces (other toys as selected from a side menu) in the environment and then using another toy (yeah it’s all toys!) to nudge the target toy into the right direction. This all amounts to a lot of problem solving and experimentation all of which become pretty engaging.

The game is intended to represent cleaning up your room but feels more like having fun considering that you need to use have to get more toys out to knock the more into the box.

In fact the idea of cleaning your room by creating more mess is contradictory. You’ll occasionally need to start by picking up the keys in the environment to open the chest, despite this you can’t just pick up the toys and put them in the box. Overall it isn’t very organic game design and I found it to form an initial hindrance.

Once you get over these things then the game starts to kick into its own and becomes really quite enjoyable. There are a few hitches like this, mainly to do with those issues of balancing to the audience but at it’s core Magic Toy Quest is fun, and has plenty to offer. It’s hard not to recommend this title as it excels in most areas.

Continuing on from the last set of mini-interviews, I would like to turn our attention now to Jamaica. This time I have recruited Kirk from the Infidel Gamer blog to discuss the state of play over in Jamaica. We talk about a number of topics such as games that appeal directly to Jamaican people, how Jamaican culture is represented through games as well as the local arcade. I hope you enjoy.

Daniel: First off, I should probably start by asking; what do you think sets the Jamaican style of gaming apart from other countries?

Kirk: Firstly thank you for interview opportunity Daniel. From my observation and experience I think that the Jamaican style of gaming is different from other countries because Jamaicans are social gamers who enjoy playing not only at home but in a group with friends.

Daniel: Where do you think this comes from? Do Jamaicans usually do things together in a particularly social manner, together in each other’s company (hence games are a natural extension of that)?

Kirk: I would say most definitely. Now that I think about it Jamaicans really are social people who enjoy going out and interacting with each other. Video games highlight that trait as although many households now have access to the latest games, nothing beats going out and playing with friends.

Daniel: What sort of games do you find to be popular in Jamaica? Is there any particular style or genre?

Kirk: All genres are enjoyed in Jamaica but I find that shooting games, racing games and fighting games stand out a little more. There is also a huge following of FIFA players.

Daniel: These types of games tend to do well as multiplayer titles, I guess this goes back to that social element of Jamaican culture?

Kirk: Yes. The excitement and exuberance really gets crazy sometimes when playing with friends in local arcades.

Daniel: I noticed on your blog that you mentioned something about getting games delivered in from overseas. How do you guys normally purchase games, through standard retail or online?

Kirk: Games can be purchased at retail here but most times are available weeks late after the initial hype and then there are times when only “popular” titles or genres are supported. Good luck finding a game like Sins of a Solar Empire or Heroes of Might and Magic on a retail shelf in Jamaica. With the proliferation of technology, the internet and local courier companies, many serious gamers now purchase their games online and are then able to play them in a matter of days of their North American release.

Daniel: Much like Australia, Jamaica has a monarchy based government system. Do you find there to be any confliction between the government and video games? Such as content ratings, distribution and so forth.

Kirk: The government right now doesn’t have video games as a priority, there is no localized game rating system and there are still only a few game retailers but I think there is a lot of game creation talent here in Jamaica and who knows maybe I could open a local video game studio one day.

Daniel: You should give it a shot, there are plenty of free tools for indies to break in nowadays. Given your responses it sounds like retailers also import their games from North America. I guess in this case, the players are just cutting out the middle man, right?

Kirk: I’ll definitely give it a try once I get some personal priorities out of the way. As for the middle man, the savings are evident when we buy our games directly as there is a 10-15 percent savings for me personally when I source my games overseas.

Daniel: Jamaica is popular for it’s apt reggae music scene, do you think that there are there any games which typify this part of Jamaican culture?

Kirk: Jamaica, it’s music and culture has been playing small parts in games for decades, from as far back as Deejay in Street fighter to as recently as the Jamaican gang in the GTA series.

Daniel: What do you think of these sorts of examples? Are they realistic or just archetypal/stereotypes of Jamaican culture?

Kirk: I think it’s a little bit of both.

Daniel: How would you like to see Jamaican culture further adapted into video games?

Kirk: Without a doubt a Jamaican music game spanning long history of Jamaican music would be a definitely hit.

Daniel: Say, you told me before about your local arcade in which you go to play some games (Area 51). It seems a little different from the concept of arcades that I’m familiar with, that is a series of arcade machines in which you insert coins and so forth. Can you explain this set up some more?

Kirk: Area 51 is a very unique arcade and I am good friends with the owners. Their aim was to reproduce a living room environment for gamers to come and enjoy playing with friends, hence the accessible consoles systems, comfortable seating, huge plasma screens, massive video game library and refreshments under one roof. The coin arcade system has been tried here but all have failed, that sort of arcade experience is exclusive, expensive and restrictive, plus with new games coming more and more frequently and with customers always wanting the latest and greatest the the arcade machine died in the previous century.

Daniel: So there’s no retro-love for the old coin ‘op or older titles? Beyond the cost (it’s expensive over here too) why do you think that is? Lack of nostalgia or history with this style of play?

Kirk: Apart from massive 80’s arcade hits like Pacman and Space Invaders there was never a coin ‘op culture in Jamaica. Although there have been video games here from before I think the Super Nintendo truly kick started the video game sub-culture here.

Daniel: Who decides on what games are available in the arcade? Do users get an input?

Kirk: The arcade is nothing without it’s loyal customers and they play and important part in deciding which games are available. Gamers in Jamaica are no longer in the dark about which games are available and at times follow games for many months via magazines and websites with the intention of playing them at the arcade as soon as they get released (Gears of War 2). The Area 51 team also tries to introduce new less popular games to the customers, one such example was Time Splitters for the original Xbox which was unknown but when introduced became very popular with players at the arcade.

Daniel: I love Timesplitters, although it’s hard to find down here. Which games tend to be the most popular at Area51? Why do you think this is?

Kirk: Multiplayer games without a doubt are most popular for obvious reasons. Game series like Smash Bros, Halo, Gears of War, Tekken, Need for Speed, Call of Duty and FIFA are popular because although you can played online it’s more personal or should I say social when you are playing with friends on a couch right beside you or just across the room, a headshot in an 8 player game of Gears of War is so much sweeter when you can see the recipient’s reaction and run over for a few seconds with your team to do some friendly jeering. ^_^

Check out this video to see some of the popular games and set-up of Area 51 in early 2008.

Daniel: Do many of the players in the arcade also play games at their homes?

Kirk: Yes. I’d say 90% of the arcade visitors also have at least one video game system at home.

As part of my research into culture and games I knew that I’d need some help. There is no way that I can provide a legitimate case for the matter if I don’t provide more perspectives than just my own. Especially when dealing with something like culture. As such I’ve been calling upon the help of others to help substantiate this investigation (I make it sound so serious >_<). So to kick things off I want to take things slowly and explore the subtle nuances dividing the UK from other western countries. I’d like to thank Damon from the Consolation Prize blog and UK game marketer Bruce Everiss for their time in helping me along.

The point of this article is to warm you into the idea of differences among seemingly similar cultures. It’s an introduction of sorts thanks to the insightful responses which should act as a starting point for further analysis. I put a lot of thought into the questions, so I hope you get a lot out of it. ^_^

What do you think makes gaming in the UK different from gaming in other western countries like America or Australia?

Bruce Everiss

The USA definitely likes shooters more than Europe does. This is one of the reasons the Xbox 360 is doing a lot better in America than it is in Europe.

The Australians love localised games. At Codemasters we had the best selling game launch ever in Australia with V8 Supercars, based on their top car racing series. And Shane Warne Cricket was another great success for us there.

Damon

I think the main difference about gaming in the UK is the expected ill treatment at the hands of publishers and hardware companies. I’m speaking as a gamer now, and not as a marketing man, so I find it frustrating when the UK has traditionally had to cope with some seriously long delays before finally getting a game - sometimes a year or more later than America or Japan. It has improved with this generation of consoles but there are still some extreme cases like “Rock Band” which was only recently released in the UK but already we see that “Rock Band 2” is out in the States.

Hardware pricing is still an issue where we’re expected to pay far more to get our hands on state of the art kit. Historically I’ve always felt like the UK was a second (or third) class gaming country with the aforementioned problems, and due to the PAL hardware we’ve also had to put up with sub-par game conversions that ran slower and included horrendous letter-boxing compared to our NTSC cousins. Again this is something that has now more or less been remedied but we don’t forget lightly the sins of the past.

The UK has always had a respectable number of game developers, do you feel that games made in the UK have their own flavour to them? Should they? And is this important?

Bruce Everiss

The UK game heritage comes from the Sinclair Spectrum in the 1980s. There were many thousands of bedroom coders who experimented with everything to do with video gaming. This made the UK game industry very sophisticated well before any other country. It is why you will now find British development staff in most game development studios in the world. Which means that we exported our gaming knowledge and sophistication inside the brains of all the many development staff who emigrated.

Damon

Alas, I feel games which are still made in the UK nowadays are now more representative of a generic western games model and what publishers and development houses feel will actually sell in the big territories i.e. America. It’s a rare thing these days to find a game where you can instantly tell that it was made by a UK developer.

I feel that UK games have lost there identity, gone is the sarcastic wit, or the eccentric humour you’d expect to see. Even if an element of culture is represented it’s usually the extremes like the posh upper class English accent, or the overuse of cockney rhyming slang. The days where games like “Monty on the Run”, “Manic Miner”, or “Jet Set Willy” were produced to reflect political events in the UK are long gone. It’s a shame because any media whether it is video games, movies, or music, should still reflect the culture it comes from to some extent, and of those three mentioned only the latter two really succeed in this aspect.

What aspects of games do you think appeal more favourably to players from the UK?

Bruce Everiss

I think that the UK market is more mature in it’s game understanding. We have forums like rllmuk which don’t exist anywhere else. It is taken very seriously. So I think that a far wider range of genres are accepted here. And there is far less belief of marketing bullshit.

Damon

There seems be a blossoming casual market in the UK with games like “Brain Training”, “Wii Fit”, “Wii Play”, and other party games faring particularly well in the software charts. Apart from that racing games are always popular, and it goes without saying really that as soon as a football game (FIFA or Pro Evo) is released it will sell by the bucket load.

Lastly, PAL gamers often seem to draw the short straw when it comes to release dates, prices and general publisher attention. Why is this a mistake?

Bruce Everiss

This is easy to understand. USA and Japan are both NTSC (Never Twice Same Colour) and that is where most of the big publishers are. So they look after their own markets first. This is gradually changing as they start to realise that Europe is the biggest market in the world. Simultaneous global launches are becoming a lot more common as marketing departments become more professional, the advantages are huge.

Damon

I touched upon my frustrations earlier but in the specific sense of “why is it a mistake”: I’d have to say that if a something is delayed for too long then personally I’ll just forget about it, no matter how good it is, and move onto something new instead. I’ve probably missed out on quite a few excellent games because I just got fed up of waiting. I can imagine quite a few PAL gamers, unless they’re devoted followers of a franchise, adopt the same attitude.

I think UK gamers are now getting a bit more savvy with regards to pricing. Unfortunately it’s taken for granted that we’ll usually pay more and the result is that most consumers will wait until the price becomes reasonable before deciding to purchase. There’s also a large second hand market which a lot of gamers resort to, the profits of which will all go to the shop (GAME, Blockbuster, Gamestation) rather than the publishers and developers.

C-12 is a 3rd person action adventure by SCE Studio Cambridge for the PSone, released in April 2001(PAL) and July 2002(NA).

C-12: Final Resistance is a third person, action adventure in the vein of the much loved Syphon Filter series, set in a post apocalyptic future with english accents. To be fair, C-12 is pretty run-of-the-mill; the mechanics are solid, gameplay is varied (enough), graphics are pleasant and overall the production hits a pretty high standard for a first party effort. There isn’t anything particularly fantastic nor particularly terrible about C-12 which I guess is why the game was kicked aside in the review space. Reviewers didn’t care for the late release, particularly since it came out in Europe over a year earlier and offered little to justify the delay.

Still, C-12 is a fantastic action romp. Much like the Syphon Filter games it gives you plenty of diversity in its play and then manages to balance them all out in equilibrium. The overall presentation is also quite apt and it’s clear that a lot of effort was put into polishing the whole product. Neat touches such as the laser sight of Vaughan’s…eyeball and sparks from broken electrical items round off the package. There’s some video below;

It’s 11:30pm on a week night and I’m starting to get a little worried. My list of ready-made blog articles are beginning to shrink and I desperately need some more ideas to fight the tide. There are plenty of hand-wavy ideas in the slosh but I need something to jump out at me, so I load up Google Reader and read until something clicks. It doesn’t take long for someone else’s work to remind me of one of those endearing ideas that I’d left on the wayside a few months back, and then without even thinking I’ve found a way to segue it into culture. Wow too good, now..no more procrastination.

Social Stigma of Games

As someone apt enough to be reading this blog, I suspect that social stigma in relation to video games should be a familiar topic. I certainly am familiar with it. Fortunately the transition from high school to university (and the catching up in maturity levels) has eased the stigma a little. Transforming the perception of social inadequate over to fruitful, interesting…maybe even sophisticated if I lie to them and say that I “do” games criticism.

Despite the change, there is no doubt that being a consumer of this medium brings with it a lot of social baggage. You can see it in their faces, when you let it slip that you spent last weekend hunched in a dark room, glorifying over the onscreen fireworks display instead of having a night out with some friends, beverages and maybe a funny story or two.

Why though? Why does playing games automatically place us on the bottom rung of the social ladder? There are many good reasons, all more or less due to a lack of understanding, you can read some of them here.

Oh yeah…Culture!

How could I write an article without including the flavour of the month? Ignore the sarcasm because I have no plans on shoehorning this in for the sake of it.

When I think of the social heirachy dictating Western culture, I often come up with a phrase much the same as the following; “we all seek security in the flaws of others”. In such situations, depending on the exchange at hand, games can be seen as a crack in our social construct, one which can be exploited by others for personal leverage, ie. face. Unfortunate isn’t it?

That’s just amateur anthropology mussings though. Let me make this relevant again by introducing games and culture. Imagine culture as a pointer that deviates social typography, don’t think too hard about it, otherwise it becomes needlessly confusing - this is the messiness of culture. Now let’s step out of western culture for a second and see what happens.

What happens is very intriguing because different cultures place games in slightly different positions in their social mindset. Two weeks ago, I was attempting to explain to my Chinese friend how it is that I am socially decredited for playing games. Even after explaining this a few times in both English and Chinese, my friend still did not understand the justification.

She responded saying that some of her friends (also friend’s of mine) are avid game fans and despite this they were the most popular people in their university classes. And that basically, my explanations make no sense because this mindset (ie. playing games as a social weakness) doesn’t exist in China.

With this idea in hand, think of what this means for people who play games in China. It promotes a much healthier image about games. As pathetically true as this sounds, you can play games and not be worried about what your friends may think of you.

This reflects on the demographic as well, I’ve seen plenty of females, older people and couples playing games in internet cafes over here. It’s interesting. Even my friend’s mother plays games via the QQ Instant Messaging service (quite popular that).

This is purely one example of how cultural diversity can affect player demographic and then pretty much everything else.

Length of Crisis

Resident Evil 4 had a great narrative for two core reasons. The first one being that it was conscious of its ‘lost in the woods’ horror pretense and hence avoided cliché while feeling fresh. Secondly was the gameplay itself. For one, Leon’s journey to reach that ‘just out of reach’ goal felt like an enduing one that left you hanging and the game paced itself perfectly making your experience feel instrumental to the narrative. Capcom also managed to enhance the complicated relationship going on between Leon and Eva which was well executed.

I’m hoping that Resident Evil 5 draws on these same techniques as they synergize the non-playable cut scenes and in game exploration. Along with this I hope they expand on these techniques. For example there is a lot of possibility for good ideas to be implemented in the village scene with the executioner boss and chainsaw man .

Exploitation

There was originally a bit of concern over the racial profiling of enemy characters. Capcom later confirmed that there was no bias regarding this selection, I’d be surprised if they didn’t make something out of this controversy though. The latest trailer hints at exploitation of poverty stricken countries, I think that Capcom should try to make use out of this potential to write a meaningful narrative.

Some guesses

Along with those ideas, I just wanted to add a some suggestions at clues in the last trailer. You may have noticed the Tricell logos, I’m going to chalk them up as a combination of the T-Virus, T-Veronica Virus and Las Plagas; the previous viruses in the series. I suspect that Wesker is working with this terrorist organization in which there is the guy with the bird like mask, the exotic, open chested lady and the “fireworks show” maniac.

Also at the end of the extended trailer there is the gravestone of Jill Valentine. I guess she could be related to the eyes of the person in the incubation tank at the end of another trailer from last year. I also get the feeling that she is probably some sort of virus infected monster since Wesker says “but now that your partner has arrived, I’ll leave you two to catch up” . This kinda hints at it a little right?

Last week I saw the Tokyo Game Show trailer of Resident Evil 5. If you haven’t seen it then I suggest that you take a look, only for the graphical onslaught though.

In terms of graphical prowess this game looks mind blowing, a huge leap up from previous video which already looked incredible. I didn’t expect to be saying this -for maybe for another 2-3 years - but if that was all running on in game specifications then RE5 will may even have a graphic leg up over..dare I say it..Metal Gear Solid 4 which had me confusing reality and video game far too often.

The complements end there though, and they end abruptly. No doubt you’ve already looked at the trailer after the above assertion so let’s talk about those uncomfortable issues….

(I should be noted that I HATE making judgments on a game prior to playing it myself, simply because of how fundamentally flawed this process is. I guess I’m referring to ‘guess reviews’, more commonly known as previews. Although I find that in the case of Resident Evil 5, the trailer goes out of its way to make itself problematic.)

Those uncomfortable issues are the awkward voice acting and anal attempt at story setting. Both of which I think are typical examples of the hereditary problems plaguing solid game narrative. This trailer perfectly reflects the point of stunted grow that we’ve hit and no amount of graphic cosmetics can cover that up.

The biggest issue from my point of view is that it is difficult to take this game seriously in all its ludicrous-ness. The game attempts to be serious, mature and in depth like a Hollywood movie but it just collapses over itself due the concept and tying I it all into lore. There are two reasons for why these blockbuster game storyline’s always end up stinkers;

The first is that in the case of movies, the people working on the movie make movies. They don’t do much else. As for video games, the people working on the game make games, they don’t write movie scripts. It’s been this way, forever, a group of people that build games make a game and yet have no real experience at ‘making a movie’ which they are also trying to shoehorn in. Hence when these modern blockbuster video games try to be movies, they can’t as there has never really been the grounding to facilitate this. Obviously, this has and will continue to improve (it would be wrong of me to discredit some of the fantastic games writing out there), but what this trailer shows is that despite the graphical leaps between this title and PSone original, story, voice acting and in game acting seem to be as flat as ever. Yes, it’s an improvement, definitely, but does it hold stride with the cosmetic improvements? No, it falls terribly short.

The second reason for these conflicting issues is that games are not movies. So despite the best intentions, game narrative can never improve if it doesn’t adopt the strengths of the medium. For example, if Capcom just used gameplay video for the whole trailer, how much ’story’ do you think would actually be present?

Just a few bullet points incase you find yourself disagreeing

-forced accents
-corny, often disjointed dialogue
-fake drama

Ugh, it’s all just pretty flat to be honest.

Despite my negative criticism, I don’t mean to hate on this game at all. It isn’t that Resident Evil 5 appears to be any worse than the other games on the marketing succumbing to the same trend. Despite the ridiculousness of the Resident Evil story, I’m very interested to see how it all progresses. Although I haven’t had a particularly long history with the series, the lore has my interest piqued - especially Wesker – and there is definitely an affiliation that I have to crazy, over the top video game narratives. So like everyone else, I’ll be consuming.

Oh, by the way, you’ll never have me confessing that Metal Gear Solid is one of those games.

It’s expo-mania! In the proximity of the past two weeks there have been no less than 5 significant game expos and conventions scattered all over the world. About a week and a half ago Nintendo held a special conference showcasing several new titles and a new(er) iteration of the DS (the third pillar’s third pillar, supposively), shortled followed by a press summit in the US. Following up on some pleasent surprises from Nintendo, the Tokyo Game Show appears to have been a great success with a barrage of new annoucements. In amongst the two titans there’s also been E for All (almost invisible this year) as well as the lesser known Virtual Worlds Forum in London.

I’m sure you’ve all got your favourite picks out of what’s been on show? Punchout, Sin and Punishment 2, Halo: Recon, Resident Evil 5? Wanna know what mine is? Metal Gear Solid 3.

Metal Gear Solid 3 (Subsistence) has to be one of the most filling game experiences I’ve had the pleasure of enjoying. The game sets a remarkaby high standard for itself and consistently hits that mark without a hitch. There’s a handcrafted quality to the play, seen in the attention to detail and organic feel that the native environment brushes onto the ’swiss army knife’ framework of the Metal Gear Series. It’s these qualities that make the game feel so complete as a product, as though anythng more would spoil the brorth. I’m just melting thinking about playing this game when I return back to Australia in a few months.

Oh wait, Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence came out not quite 2 years ago (going by PAL release), what does this have to do with anything? I’ll tell you what, it’s a ridiculously dry way of me expressing my hatred towards ‘the preview’.

The problem with this industry is that the only time we ever talk about a game is when it is out of our hands. The “professional” games media waste our time fueling “promises” and “expectations”, second guessing pre-released games with nonsense like this. They are fiddles to the marketers, if not the same. And then we do it some more, we pretend that we’re all enthusiasts and go on messages boards to masturbate over it for a while. We throwdown the money for the rare, super deluxe, pre-order only iteration and then after two days of sinking it in, we don’t care and move onto the next piece of overbloated tripe.

We, both the enthusiast and media, throw the game in the spinner for 30 seconds (reviews) and are then done with it. From there it is all mute, the four year production has had it’s 20 seconds in the sun, now it’s time for it to move aside for the next one.

And yet throughout this process, we completely discredit the games that we “cherish” so much. Once a game has been spun in the marketing mixer, served up as a preview and then scratched around for the review, we are done, there is nothing left. There are no more PR reps or PR reps in the guise of game developers there to plug the game to us, it all comes to a halt.

These problems exist for two reasons. This industry is easily vunderable to marketing and there are professionals open to exploitation. The preview, scoop, first in game screenshots, Famitsu scan, teaser trailer are all examples of that. We eat it up without a second thoght. We all buy this nonsense and submit to the marketers by making our judgements premeptiviely. Which is why people buy those ridiculous limited edition pre-order packs.

What I find to be the most disheartening result of this vicious cycle is that once we’ve discarded a game all talk about the game stops. There is frankly no more discussion to be had. Yet the game still is burried wthin it’s own merit and remains undiscovered.

This is one of the main reasons why this blog is never bleeding edge. Except for when Metal Gear Solid 4 was released, but that was a special occasion. There is so much undiscovered treasure within our past and yet we keep walking forwards, ignoring it. Someday we will retread our path and make sense of these games that we don’t yet understand, but I’m not interested in waiting around for that. Long live the “past hit”.

I was watching the latest Bonus Round last week, and at the conclusion of the show they brought to mind something that piqued my interest. That is celebrity status in the games industry and how developers are finally being treated the way that they deserve to be; as rockstars.

It then occurred to me that it doesn’t just end with developers. Indie developers, game writers, fan artists, bloggers, comic artists, critics, amatuer video producers are all now becoming celebrities, even within their collected societies. Celebrity in games is taking off and at a rapid pace.

My next realization was that only three to four years ago the games industry wasn’t really like this at all. Developer diaries, interviews and commentaries were rare, there was no such thing as a game critic let alone games bloggers. The only celebrity that existed back then were the greats like Will Wright and Shigeru Miyamoto and despite their stature, they could hardly be regarded as celebrity, they were just professionals at what they do.

I think that a great deal of this change can be attributed to the growth of the internet. With faster connections speeds we can now download an interview and witness the personality of developers instead of just seeing their name and a small photo in a print magazine. There is also the rise of content distribution which has created an upsurge in content creators versed in the gaming niche, giving names to people like Gabe and Tyco, Ben Croshaw and The Angry Video Game Nerd. And with that blogging, in all its trendiness, providing a platform for a new wave of games writing thanks to writers like Stephen Totilo, N’gai Croal who are soaking up this new life of gaming celebrity. Then there’s podcast, social media and the rest of it, I’m sure you catch my drift.

The great thing about the birth of gaming celebrity is that thanks to the savage community that surrounds it, celebrity is often earnt, even if you play the anti-celebrity role such as Jack Thomson or perhaps even Dennis Dyack, you’ll need a thick hide to get there. The flipside to this is the manufacturing of celebrity which publishers have already been putting in motion since they first caught taste of gaming celebrity. I guess the developer diaries are in some ways a form of brand establishment for the developers, sometimes this can be difficult to decipher though, other times it is blatently obvious. Other methods of forced entry in gaming celebrity include Alison Carroll.

While Alison Carroll is great to look at, I’m sure that we can all distinguish the differences between money spinners like her and movers-and-shakers such as Jonathan Blow and Jason Rubin. The fact that so much celebrity stems from worthwhile discussion is only positive for the industry.

With games celebrity increasing at a consistently high rate, I don’t think that it’ll be too long before articles like this one become standard or at least a little more popular. Considering the effort that goes into the game development process this can only provide positive recognition to the people that deserve it.

The past few weeks I seem to be sectioning between days with no time on my hands to days with perhaps too much free time. It’s all pretty random, so in the downtime I’ve been chipping away at some articles and doing plenty of reading because I know, before too long, I’ll be back in the cycle again.

Whatever the case may be I seem to have more time on my hands over here, which is great. This means that the quality of links for this month are top notch. Here’s what I have enjoyed lately:

The Needles: The Russians Are Coming! - The Escapist

This editorial should be read in tango with my Culture Bred Through Game Design article as it’s a sarcastic take on the cultural convenience of using Russians as the default video game villains. Despite the humour of the article, I find the observation to be an intriguing one. Been planning on writing about “cultural convenience” for a while.

Reality Bytes: Eight Myths About Video Games Debunked

There aren’t many thinkers in the industry, particularly ones that managed to tie together games and some significant discipline of study, which is why I am happy to plug almost anything that Henry Jenkins writes about games. Take a read.

Coming Home – Sexy Video Game Land

I don’t think that I’ve ever linked out to Leigh Alexander before which is a pity because I enjoy most of the stuff she writes, it’s all very melt-in-your-mouth writing. This post talks about the conclusive state of mind gamers place themselves in before we even have a chance to play. The quotes at the end nail the point beautifully.

Metal Gear Solid 4 spite - GameSpite

There’s been a whole pile of new writers on GameSpite lately and I’m not too sure that If I like them or not. In anycase, the critiques are still pretty solid, as was the case with this one. Some good points made, still not enough to mend the shitstorm that blew in come review time. Some of the points tie in with what I wrote here too.

TGS: Square Enix’s Wada: Japanese Industry Has ‘Lost Its Position’

The first step to fixing a problem is admitting that it exists and Yoichi Wada just did. Asian cultures seem reluctant to change, his acknowledgment is a good place to start.

Masochistic? [Too Human] – Consolation Prize

The account here is interesting. Basically it’s all about the affinity that builds up between you and the game when you are forced to teach yourself how to play. The effort invested in the game ultimately makes it harder to hate the title because you become more aware of what it was trying to do, even if it didn’t do it properly in the first place.

Greater than the (Riemann) Sum of Its Parts?

I must confess, I love this blog and have been backlogging on articles I missed for the early on. Richard’s approach is simple; everything can be broken down into smaller parts, hence by dismantling games we can better understand why they are good or bad. It’s common sense genius that doesn’t exist in this industry. So go forth, learn!

The other day I was reminiscing with my brother about our childhood as wide-eyed, avid game fans. Back then gaming seemed to possess this wonderfully infectious energy about it that saw you and all your friends enchanted by its very greatness.

My brother then asked me if games were still this magical today, and I think it is. The only difference between now and then is that now I’m older, and have a greater understanding of everything that is going in within the industry, hence the excitement of the unknown has somewhat faded. Where as being a child, in a time before internet, you could only know as much as your surroundings would let you.

I don’t think that the magic has wanned and I don’t plan on going to go all starry-eyed and talk about the “good old days”. No doubt there are certain generations or time periods in the history of games which I prefer over others, but overall we’ve run a pretty steady trek. It’d be hard to waiver one time being significantly more better than another.

Despite the evenness of our history, I can’t deny it, there is a magic to familiarizing yourself with something new. When you slowly begin to make sense of the experience for the first time there is this uplifting feelings that fills up inside you. No doubt many of us who have played games for a long time, experienced this feeling as kids. I guess you could say that we had this feeling during our gaming prime. So hold that thought for a moment and let’s think about these guys:

All those Mums, Dads, Aunties, Uncles and the elderly that are now traversing their gaming prime, going through that same experience like us for the first time thanks to developers like Nintendo and PopCap Games.

We might all be too brute to acknowledge it but we were all beginners at one stage or another. We all started off playing fairly privative, simplified games and yes we didn’t like the feeling of others who were better at it than us but we endeavored and here we are. These new people coming into the market are no different from us 10, 15, 20 years ago when our fascination piqued. They too are now settling into their gaming prime and I think that’s fantastic. So let’s try and encourage this rather phenomena than dismiss it.

Before I arrived in China I decided to watch over Nintendo’s E3 2006 Press Conference. My reason for doing so is because I’ve slowly become more attuned to Nintendo’s greater vision for play to be universal and wanted to familiarize myself a little more with their message.

Watching the conference jolted my mind as to how difficult it is to initially become motivated in and then actively maintain an interest in video games. I came up with the following list of comparisons between the different entertainment mediums to highlight my point. These are all just rough ideas which I have tried to constrict to a median range:

Literature
Teaser – 30 seconds – 2 minutes (blurb)
Sample – 10-25 minutes (first chapter/few pages)
Completion – 3 - 10hrs

Music
Teaser – 20 seconds (chorus of one song)
Sample – 8-12 minutes (handful of songs)
Completion – 30 minutes – 1hr (album)

Film
Teaser – 30 seconds – 2 minutes ((teaser) trailer)
Sample – 5-15 minutes (one scene/extended trailer)
Completion – 1-3 hrs

Video Games
Teaser – 1-3 minutes (trailer)
Sample – 10 minutes – 1hr plus (demo)
Completion – 5–25hrs

This logic is highly flawed though, as each medium has it’s individual constructs which set them apart. If we talk dispensability then you can start up a Flash game on Kongregate and be done in 5 minutes, the same length as it’d take you to listen to a few music tracks. Then again it’d only take you less then 5 minutes to read this article (literature), right? So where do we draw the line? Who cares anyways? These are just loose approximations.

As you can see by the notes, “generally speaking” video games demand the highest threshold of the four, in each of the three categories. This means that for busy everyday people with mouths to feed playing a game can easily be seen as selfish fun (horrah for the manchild!). So how do you capture their attention?

You get their attention by making the game itself relevant to these people, relevant but also accessible because even if your product is relevant, it means nothing if it is out of reach. Now, we should define both ‘relevant’ and ”accessible ‘ to further understand how they operate within the notion of this “mouths to feed” market.

Relevancy

To be relevant means being set in a field (of interest/necessity) related to the consumer’s but also having merit and/or significance in that field. For example, my Mum is an unbelievably good cook so a game like Cooking Guide for the DS is relevant. Unfortunately for Nintendo, she is already a good cook hence there is little merit in her buying Cooking Guide (as it teaches her how to cook). So in the end she is disinterested.

Accessibility

Much like relevancy, accessibility is multi-faceted and can be summed up under the following:

-communication – through clear advertising, let them hear about it
-ease of access – is it a straight up purchase or does it require extras? Will it be there? I want it now!
-ease of use – is it easy to use and understand

I think that as games continue to develop and expand, these layers will then begin to disappear. That is through way of instant purchases, a widening market etc.

I’ll leave the marketing101 here and next time (or sometime thereafter) will look at some case studies of successful games to apply these concepts to.

I’ve been thinking about Metal Gear Solid 4 again, sorting through the game’s many metaphorical elements to discern a connection to other something article worthy. I think I’ve got one, I’m sure that I’ll have a few more in future, here goes.

Spoilers, of course, including the game's conclusion.

Throughout the Metal Gear series, smoking has always been significant, to a certain degree. There’s obviously a connection between cigarettes and the ‘grizzled soldier’ stereotype of Solid Snake (main character) . Quite often the cancer inducing product is cleverly melded into the gameplay too. Such as in the original game where smoking slowed down the timer of a bomb, prompted to detonate, giving our hero a greater chance of escape.

In Metal Gear Solid 4, the role of cigarettes represents a crucial piece of Snake’s fading identity, in a world which has succeeded him. As the game’s introduction puts it “war has changed”, war in MGS4 is no longer about training and experience, it’s about manufactured output. Something that Snake has a hard time dealing with.

Early on, in the first few chapters, during moments of solitude, Snake reaches for a cigarette only to have the moment interrupted by the call of the mission. It’s a hint to the fact that Snake is losing the small pleasures that are important to him. It isn’t just his body that is wearing away, so to are the things that define who he is; his cigarettes, his experience in battle. And while there are clear sequences of physical struggle, there are plenty of moments of emotional struggle as well.

In later chapters, this element of interruption switches to Snake’s body leaping into convulsion as a backlash between an old strain of Fox Die (a virus programmed to kill Fox Hound members from the original Metal Gear Solid) and a new strain of the virus which works in tandem with ‘the system’. A new form of battlefield control. It’s all garble but again another metaphor of the old (Fox Die, originally from Metal Gear Solid) and new (MGS4’s virus and system) displacing each other represented through Snake’s action.

The convulsions are much more sporadic and less subtle than the prior nuisances invading Snake’s smoko break. The magnitude of the problem is emphasized through the serious, harmful nature of the convulsions. Furthermore, Snake can inject himself with a substance to stop the convolutions. This represents him forfeiting what use to make him such an icon; his individual strength to carry on, with no interest in assistance.

The importance of the cigarette is enforced in several of the ‘mission briefings’ between the breaks of chapters in which Snake fiddles with his cigarettes and stares at them, pondering his existence.

As the game nears closer to the end, Snake has only one smoke left. He knows that once it is gone, then so to is his identity. The other characters, his friends, encourage him to quit smoking, to give it up and just let it go. But he can’t, he refuses to accept it, just like his identity, it is slipping away and how he cannot bear the thought of losing it. This all takes part in the cutscenes preluding the final chapter and it’s the first time that we see Snake in such a moment of personal arrest. He’s no longer delivers one smart arse one liners, his comedy is weak, he is becoming arrogant. It’s clear that Snake has had enough and just wants to go home.

At the game’s conclusion, Snake’s father of great lore and legacy returns from a state of “eternal” sleep. His talk with Snake, encourages him to just let go of the fighting. His meaning is to let go of what the cigarette means, to let go of this identity that binds Snake to war, one which has only caused him great trouble. After this, the two enjoy one last cigarette and the game closes.

After this scene, in typical after-credits, MGS fashion there is a conversation piece. Instead of a big twist as there usually is, Snake converses with friend Otacon to inform him that he is giving up smoking. Signifying the closure of the metaphor.

Fractal Fighter

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Fractal - A geometric pattern that is repeated at ever smaller scales to produce irregular shapes and surfaces that cannot be represented by classical geometry.

Fractal Fighter is a two dimensional, vertical shooter set in a hard line, black and white, vector environment. The crux of the gameplay is orientated around dismemberment of a fractal shape. Each fractal has a series of increasingly powerful turrets layered within it. To completely destroy the fractal you need to clear each wave of mounted turrets until the whole unit is destroyed. From there, the pattern repeats and another fractal surfaces with greater complexity in shape and a multitude of additional turrets.

Your ship has the ability to fire standard bullets and long distance lasers. The rapid fire bullets are the primary mechanic and most useful of the two. These bullets can only pierce the face of the structures though, in which case the laser function - which passes through the whole fractal - is useful for picking off turrets from the back of the creature. As the structures becoming increasingly more elaborate, they grow additional limbs from the back much like sprouting wings, easing your attention onto balancing the rapid and laser fire. Since the laser has a time delay between pulses the power-to-fire ratio of the mechanics are matched and evenly balanced. Furthermore the fractal’s evolution outwards forces you to focus back and forth between the front and back of the shape, ergonomically curving your concentration levels into complete immersion.

The process of identifying constituents and then tactically removing them piece by piece likens itself to the amusing task of pulling the pettles off a lone daisy. Except it’s wrapped within the mechanics of a shoot ‘em up and as such the game feels half like a shoot ‘em up (pattern recognition, strategic ‘twitch’ movement) and half like an amusing way to kill some time (the daisy). Because the game is spun around this idea, much like pulling apart a helpless object, the game feeds into this piece-by-piece satisfaction.

It’s interesting this emphasis of patterns. We all know that the shoot ‘em up genre revolves around pattern memorization, yet Fractal Fighter shows visual proof of this. Each shape, each creature you face is born from a pattern, a pattern which dictates the shape of the fractal and the way in which it behaves. Furthermore, as the fractals become ladened with more complexity, we also have a visual representation of the game’s difficulty curve right in front of us since we can see the number of turrets increasing and how they’re increasing. The two core components; the shooting and the fractual development are both cleanly implemented, allowing the player to focus on the job at hand, distraction free. The evolution of the fractals and way this is visually identified feels organic in design and native. These things make Fractal Fighter a very engaging game to play, the single music track as well comes off very well and aids in pulling you into the experience.

GoldenEye 2D

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GoldenEye 2D is a cute little Game Boy remake of the original Nintendo 64 success; Golden Eye 64. Pening that sentence makes me wonder if people give higher precedence to the movie or the game, I guess it’s just this niche. Anyways I lied, this retro remake is just of the Dam level. Still it’s a pretty tough romp so it’ll take you a while to push through.

As Bond you basically have two primary actions; jumping and shooting. You’re also equipped with a checklist of objectives to complete, although most of the gameplay is about shooting and dodging the heavy onslaught of enemies walking in your direction. As you continue to mow down more agents (and avoid being shot at), your score increases, automatically upgrading you to better weaponry. All pretty simple, run and gun action.

It’s obvious that a lot of care has been taken into making this title very apt and authentic to the canon. The game plays typically like other run-and-gun action games and delivers the same delightful action while it lasts.

]]> http://danielprimed.com/regular-features/reviews/indie-play-impressions-4908/feed http://danielprimed.com/regular-features/reviews/ds-play-impressions-before-china http://danielprimed.com/regular-features/reviews/ds-play-impressions-before-china#comments Thu, 02 Oct 2008 05:28:30 +0000 Daniel http://danielprimed.com/?p=718

Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword

Ninja Gaiden is a series made famous by its crushingly tough demands of dexterity and coordination. You need to be one step ahead of your enemy and in full control of the situation at all times. It’s interesting then to observe how this title has been adapted to the most accessible console on the market.

While the PSone-styled, 3D-models-on-pre-rendered-backdrop production is fantastic and covers up alot of hardware limitations, the game design is really where it’s at. Basically Tecmo have taken this teeth-crunchingly difficult franchise, suited only towards hardened players and added some breathing space to the play mechanics so that it can be enjoyed by a wider group of players while still respectable to its roots. All actions are performed with the stylus; you draw a line to slash, tap to throw a projectile etc. Because the physical actions match the moves that Ryu performs on screen, understanding how to play requires little time and once you’ve conquered a few of the initial battles it doesn’t take long to become fluent.

Furthermore, the more complicated constructs aren’t really complicated at all. To perform “magic” you touch an icon on the minimalistic interface and then trace the on screen Japanese character to perform. Additional spells can be selected from the same menu, just a quick tap away.

The camera angle is also fixed and scrolls automatically if you move to the next part of the area. This reduces the player’s dependence on camera control, keeping the emphasis on the action. The other mechanics such as combos, karma and upgrades are all naturally blended into the gameplay and the game eases you in nicely.

Dragon Sword is a short game (8hrs) and you’ll probably not want to play it more than once. There’s a whole bunch of additional content which will please fans of the series looking for an added challenge. I warn you though, you’ll be doing the same thing again and again (room, invisible door appears, beat baddies, next room, puzzle). While this is essentially the formula of the whole game, by the time you get to the end you only then begin to tire of the same repitive process. There’s always just enough spice to keep you interested and the games combat; a wishy-washy-mish-mash of stylus acrobatics feel well honed and just a great way to kill time. Another successful franchise, re-engineered for the DS hardware, worth your gold.

Guitar Hero On Tour

Even though I shared my thoughts on this iteration of the Guitar Hero franchise sometime ago, just recently (as in probably a month ago now!) I managed to get some closer hands on impressions of the game so I wanted to document how my feelings have changed since then.

First things first, no matter how you hold the hand grip, On Tour is still going to cramp your hand, wrist and/or fingers to the point of arthritic torture. There is no way around it – for this game to function you need a peripheral, and that peripheral needs to be of certain dimensions and make up. It isn’t then so much the fault of the peripheral but rather a lack of alternative ways to experience Guitar Hero on a handheld. So when push comes to shove, I recommend that you try the game first.

Guitar Hero On Tour Ad

Peripheral aside, I honestly don’t think that the game itself could be improved to a substantial degree. I’ve heard a lot of negative criticism level towards the empty graphics and short track list but really, how much decent quality MP3 and bitmap graphics can you cram into a 128mb game card? Not much I’d say.

Everything else in the game is authentic to the franchise. The music is definitely teen friendly, which is another reason fans of the serious seem to lose their marbles over this title. Seriously, this game is marketed towards the a younger market, not yet ready for the insane note crunching of the bigger titles. In this regard On Tour is a winner and more than adequately cuts it as a portable rendition of the popular franchise. Fantastic marketing decision too and it shows from the sales.