Gamer Fatigue

August 16th, 2008

gamer fatigue

I’m not the sort of gamer that is quick to adopt spiffy new gaming terms into my vocabulary. So when my brother tried to explain the concept of “Gamer Fatigue”, I was a little reluctant to accept the term. As of writing though, I feel a great sense of this “gamer fatigue” come over me and would like to share this with you guys.

As can easily be guessed, gamer fatigue is the process by where tiredness is created by playing video games. This tiredness is a result of stressing the brain which can be done by excessive playing and/or long stretches of intense play.

My bout of gamer fatigue has been from a bit of both. I’ve been grinding my way through Gradius Collection and it’s a harrowing experience. Even on the easier difficulty settings this game is tough forcing me to rely on save states. I’m starting to feel less empathetic with the shoot ‘em up genre simply because it is so damn ruthless. While I’m sure some would chalk this one up to skill (and hence my lack of) I simply can’t concur. The challenge in playing many shmps (shoot ‘em ups) on a standard difficulty level is beyond human skill and relies heavily on repeated plays to burn enemy movement patterns into the walls of your brain. It’s cruel and irrefutably a result of this recent bout of gamer fatigue.

In the past week or so when I haven’t been playing Gradius I’ve been retreading my way through Resident Evil 4 on Pro difficulty and while it has a much more humane experience than Gradius, I must confess that I have hit a road block. I’m up to the 3 minute battle with Krauser and no matter how many times I shoot him in the face with my shotgun he refuses to submit to my trigger finger. I spent a solid 2hrs filling him with pain and yet he refuses give up, the difficulty curve has unsuspectingly spiked, displacing the difficulty level off the charts.

Nevermind though, I’m sure some Elite Beat Agents will curb my ailment. Unfortunately not as I am playing through the hardest difficult on that as well (and yes it is, THAT difficulty, the one you unlock after the supposively hardest difficulty).

In the midst of all of this I’ve been flipping through my collection in search of a slow pace RPG to easy the tension but haven’t been able to conjour up the spirit to refuse the hearty challenge that these games have taunted me with. As a result here I am, mentally exhausted and drained. So, just a warning to you all; try to keep a balanced game playing diet or else you may suffer this “gamer fatigue”. Oh and be sure to add it to your vocabulary as well. ^_^

Gradius Talk and Why I love Shmps

July 29th, 2008

gradius collection artwork

Shmps or shoot ‘em ups are a very difficult genre. Not challenging difficult (although in most cases this is also true) but difficult in that from a distance it is hard to see the appeal. Shmps are a genre whose bread is buttered on traditional, two dimensional gameplay, that is; you either shoot or dodge or do them both at the same time. Unfortunately this simple natured foundation has been a anchor restricting shmps from returning to the mainstream. While shmps use to be the best in its league unfortunately as game mechanics have advanced, shmps haven’t, they simply can’t! So in the current gaming environment shmps, particularly for younger players, are difficult to break into compared to the more successful genres.

Like a lot of gamers I never really made shmps a priority. Sure I’d played Space Invaders and some R-Type on the Commodore 64 but it was a genre that I couldn’t really care about. In the past year though I have slowly turned this around and have adopted several top tier shmps into my gaming collection. I have already discussed how incredible Ikaruga is so today I want to talk about another inspiring shmp; Gradius.

I’d been eyeing down Gradius Collection on the PSP for a couple of months now and finally decided to grab it from my favourite games retailer. Gradius Collection consists of several classic Gradius titles being Gradius I-IV and Gradius Gaiden, unfortunately Gradius V from the PS2 is not included. Basically you get the five games, some neat menus and a few extras thrown in for balance. You can also choose to play in super duper stretcho PSP vision or at the native proportions.

So now that the obligatory press release is over lets break into why I love shmps and particularly this shmp so much. There isn’t much to say about what is presented in front of you, shmps are usually very bare bones (Nanostray 2 being a possible exception) and Gradius is the same; you have your ship (plus respective power ups) and a series of incoming enemy units each moving in their preset patterns.

It is in the design of these patterns where shmps either succeed or fail. You see patterns and pattern recognition are some of the basic building blocks of human thought. It is this process which shmp developers bank on and is what I think makes these games so provocative to play. A game like Ikaruga with its symmetrical patterns and diverse range of pattern sets make full use of such a mechanic and has been praised respectively.
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Tags: gradius, psp, shmps