I’m Envious, Mr Parish

April 24th, 2009

With the possible exception of the monthly Link Out column, I rarely ever participate in the overrated blogging ritual of glorifying another blog in the hopes of obtaining that ever elusive trackback link and a complementary slice of recognition. The truth is, beyond the legendary Simon Carless (smooch!), no one with a crown and trophy room in this internet microcosm genuinely loves the little guy. *sobs* Oh it’s not all bad, I’m just a terrible writer.

Here comes the eventual ‘but’; but today I want to discuss my favouritest of favourite writers; Jeremy Parish and his merry band of Retronauts. Specifically the 1UP Retro and RPG blogs, and to a slightly lesser extent GameSpite. This trio of blogs provide a good chunk of my retro and niche gaming readings. I usually reserve a special spot in my week to huddle up and read the collective group of posts from these sites. Always warms a soft spot in my heart.

They cover a type of gaming that I’ve become very fond of, and do it in a very intelligible and respectful manner. The collective writing style of Jeremy, Kat and Ray is smart, clever and always interesting, if occasionally snarky (I mostly blame Jeremy for that). Their writing approaches are diverse, individual and rather personalized. Each writer has their own character within the language and as a whole the group of their have their own congruent style of writing. I’m always gleaming interesting writing techniques from what they have to say. The content itself is wholly unique, these guys are masters of their own niches and cover their respective specializations in progressive, uncategoric ways of writing. Never mind the content they cover, it actually feels good to read insightful journal natured writing on games.

game-spite

For these writers, it’s more or less their job to become enveloped in this truly hardcore brand of games, and their history supports this with an encyclopedic knowledge on various mainstream and niche subjects. They also have a strong frequency of posts, a rare thing for most outlets covering this material.

I’m out of compliments for now. All I really want to say is that I wholeheartedly admire the roles that these guys are playing out. What they’re doing for niche games coverage in my mind is having a real impact, and I think their influence will be significant. I’m envious though, and not in a green kinda way. The lives of these people revolves around covering specialized topics with the freedom that they desire. It’s passionate people producing labour-of-love content that can’t be found anywhere else, and that so few people actually care or know about. When I blog about something that I know people aren’t particularly interested or well versed in, such as the games-culture relationship or even some of the retro stuff, I feel a great pride in being one of the only people writing about it, even if my audience is minuscule. Their jobs are what I’d personally endeavour to live out, if that were possible. The content made by this team of talented writers remind me of some of the most evergreen feelings I’ve had playing games.

Furthermore Jeremy and many of the writers for these blogs contribute elsewhere on podcasts, video shows, print and web. A good example of this dedication is reflected through the print produce starting to come out of Game Spite. Near the end of last year, Jeremy collated 350 pages of collected critiques from the portal and produced them into the site’s first yearly book, which he then distributed by himself. Just a few days ago, the maestro announced that he was turning the site on it’s head, where the writers firstly do copy for a new print magazine, rather than the site. The same content is being made for and uploaded to the site, rather the team operates as though they’re writing for print first, with a magazine being released regularly full of content. It’s a marvelous idea.

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Was the Game Boy Color a Flawed Product?

April 23rd, 2009

Last Monday, the Good Game team did a short retrospective on the Game Boy console, after all this year is the system’s 20th anniversary. In fact, a few publications ran articles covering the console’s history including MTV Multiplayer and the Retronauts blog, I suggest you check them out.

The reason why I mention all this is because I’ve been thinking about the Game Boy Color and something that was said in the recent Good Game segment (you can watch here, episode 11). When running through the various Game Boy iterations, presenter Junglist mentions that the console was rather short-lived. Short-lived? Hmmm…really?

And since then I’ve been thinking about the GBC and wondering if it really was that(italics) successful. The system lasted almost 3 years before being superseded by the Game Boy Advance . Not a very long time when you frame it in that light. I never owned a GBC myself, instead relying on my Gameboy Pocket and the B&W titles for both platforms, later then playing catch ups with the Gameboy Advance. I remember the software line up being fantastic, Wario Land 3, Zelda Oracles, Pokemon Gold/Silver, Tomb Raider and Metal Gear Solid are all great examples. In a few short years the GBC had a line up of games that were perhaps better than the first decade of Game Boy software.

I’m going to throw this question out to the audience for a consensus. Was the Game Boy Color are real success? And how does it compare to the original Game Boy?

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Play Impressions (And the Rest #2)

April 21st, 2009

dino-crisis-2-artwork

Here’s the next couple of titles I’m discussing in this series:

Dino Crisis 2

It feels strange playing a sequel and then looking back at its predecessor. On face value alone Dino Crisis 2 appears to be a step back from the original Dino Crisis which featured Resident Evil Code Veronica-esque fully 3D environments. Dino Crisis 2 in contrast reverts back to the storyboard of prerendered backgrounds and 3D character models ressembling the earlier Resident Evil games. In actuality though, Dino Crisis 2 gains and ultimately thrives on what it’s shed between the numbers.

You play as Dylan and Regina (the latter, who is placed in more of a sidekick role this time) on a mission to retrive a data disc and save a bunch of survivors from some perposterous time shifting incident which has resulted in dinosaurs invading several remote areas. The story doesn’t really make any sense, rather it’s used only to contexualize the prehistoric dinosuars meets modern day bullet carnage set up – undeinably an attractive proposition giving the game a unique flavour.

Dino Crisis is broken up into a series of interconnecting rooms with conjoining opening door and climbing ladder animations spliced between to cover load times. If you’re familiar with any of the Resident Evil games then you’ll already have a good idea of what to expect. It’s at this point where Dino Crisis 2 begins to splinter from it’s forefathers, finally justifying itself as an individual franchise, rather than a sub-series.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFW2xj0xhU0

Dino Crisis lives up to it’s namesake by throwing plenty of dinosaurs at you, along with a healthy swag of ammunition to help blast them away. A combo system is introduced allowing you to string together multiple kills to boost your score which is used as the in-game currency to buy more gear for your arsenal. The combo count is displayed during the loading transitions of each area. Being able to run and shoot (with a decent lock on system to boot) all make the experience a much more action intensive one and the monnetary use of slaying dinosaurs only encourages the player to be on the offensive. Some clever AI tricks and first person minigames come along to scruice things up when the experience begins to taper.

Overal, Dino Crisis 2 feels like Resident Evil freed from it’s tight shackles and arthtiric pain. The control is fluid, concept fresh and the execution well done. The game’s a little short, but the action goes a long way to justify the shortened length. One of the more seasoned hitters in the Playstation library.

Super Castlevania IV

Super Castlevania IV is the first Castlevania game to break my virginity of the franchise, I’ve owned a couple of Castlevania games for a number of years now, but only recently did I dedicate my time into completing one of the games. Although the series is completely new to me, it feels wholly familiar and appeals to an immortal childhood expertise in the genre. I’m glad I started with this one as it’s pure, no-fuss platforming. There’s no overlaying exploration elements, this is a strictly a linear platformer. I need some time to become reacquainted with my childhood self before I dabble in the realm of Metroidvania exploration.

super-castlevania-iv

The movement is intentionally slower paced and methodical as Belmont tries to stop any wind from flying up his chain mail skirt. I’m usually more mature than to make snide comments like that, but the contrast between the series’ early bulked-up protagonists and later white-haired, slender types is quite the contrast. Alas, I digress. The slower pace isn’t a weakness as it levels the rythmic balance between fending off enemies and platforming. If Belmont walked faster then he’d come in swooping distance of enemies quicker, and the game would be lean too heavily on enemy evasion which throws off the balance.

I infrequently relied upon the key supporting mechanic; the weapons and hearts system. The weapons only seem to aid in the downing of bosses, which is fine. There’s honestly not much to say about Super Castlevania IV. It’s a game very much of its time and will likely be enjoyed by anyone with an appreciation for 16-bit action platformers.

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