Bits For Rent

Last week we stood witness to the coming and going of the newly resurrected E3 Expo (though the name Electronic Entertainment Expo shouldn’t really need another “Expo” at the end when truncated). The consensus, overall, was that it was good to have the grand ole celebration and excess back again, and that many, many good games could be found on the show floor. After having listened to, watched, and read a large amount of coverage, here is what I have taken away from this year’s E3, in as brief a manner as I could write it. (Read: long as fuck)

Going Through the Motions

Obviously we must address Project Natal, the oddly-named but altogether stunning motion-sensing technology revealed by Microsoft at their media summit/press conference/whathaveyou. First, a disclaimer: with all of the motion technologies, be they from Microsft, Sony, or Nintendo, there is a limit to what is feasible and within that a limit to what is practical. Nintendo offers the option in Punch-Out!! to let the player use the Wii remote NES-style, wand-and-nunchuck-style (with motion sensing), or with the balance board, which will detect your dodges. The last two methods have been reported to present odd feedback in the player’s movements, often to the detriment of his ability to play the game, and as such the first method, where only buttons are used to play the game, is considered the most practical. Still, the options are welcomed by the intrepid among us, and some even prefer the balance board or waggle+wand controls over the NES-style. Point being, while the industry and the hardware providers may be obsessed with bringing us a new take on interactivity, in the majority of cases this new format of game-playing can only be applied as either an option (PS3 games toggling use of SixAxis controls are another great example), or as a control input for a very strictly defined, limited gaming experience (Wii Fit, Wii Sports, Mario Kart Wii).

Take for instance the talk from both Microsoft and Sony of their respective technology’s ability to interpret one-to-one motion. The Wii only just achieved this (at least, is assumed to have) today with the release of Wii Motion Plus. But when Sony and Microsoft pitched this idea, they talked of using in ways Nintendo has carefully avoided: throwing fireballs in RPGs, holding your sword and shield, fighting with virtual enemies, etc. Nintendo has only ever tried to implement motion into combat with quick flicks of the wrist. Why? Because games are built upon systems of repeated actions — the old Bungie “30 seconds of fun” argument. To stand before your TV and swing and block attacks like a wildman not only makes you look like a total cad to whomever might catch you in the act, but it will also straight-up wear your ass out.

To put it simply, I think Microsoft has achieved something triumphant in its vocal and facial recognition, and it has the potential to harness a new level of immersion should it layer this technology into games. I do not think, however, that asking players to set down their controller and instead grasp at the air is what people want, or need, from this new style of game playing. History proves that simplicity will always be the victor, and as with Punch-Out!!, sometimes it is easier to press A than have to tell your character to kick someone in the junk. In that respect, I think Sony is wise to have chosen to expand on their available technology, the PlayStation Eye, and keep a controller in players’ hands. Nintendo also chose to keep that physical tether to the screen intact, and has met with resounding success.

What Sony must consider, however, is how — unlike Nintendo — these new controllers are not the standard PS3 interface, and must likely be purchased in pairs if they are to be best utilized. Both companies will fracture their audience with their tech, but unlike Microsoft, Sony’s device seems like applicable to sedentary, non-gaming uses, such as menu-browsing, video chat, and the like. It is a controller, not an interface, and thus it will live or die by the the software support it receives. So while I don’t really prefer one solution to the other, it is clear that they are more different than they are similar. Personally, I think both companies have opened up a can of worms entering into the arms race against a well fortified Nintendo, and both will likely lose more than they gain. Then again, I have been wrong about this kind of thing before.

Microsoft Shows Its Hand

There were a fair number of games at the Microsoft conference, and a large percentage of them were exclusives or “exclusives”. Let’s get right to it. Splinter Cell: Conviction hit me like a taser shot to the genitals (again with the male genitalia jokes, what gives?), and by all means deserves all the plaudits it has so far received. While the demo didn’t really show us what the actual, boring parts of the game will be like, it did a lot to reignite interest in this Sam Fisher guy and made me, a series agnostic, want to find myself in front of a 360 this fall to find out what’s become of the poor man’s daughter. And the visual flourishes? Classic Ubisoft. At least among all the Wii-related refuse they are releasing their core development teams haven’t lost their edge.

Modern Warfare 2, on the other hand, got knocked for showing just what a boring part of the game might be like… and then for cutting some of that out. Oi, talk about not being able to catch a break. I, for one, found the demo very engaging and am eager to get my hands on the latest from Infinity Ward. Call of Duty 4‘s multiplayer is beginning to wear stale for me and World at War was never anything more than a diversion from Left 4 Dead. Which I suppose brings us to the next title shown. (Quickly: I am glad that at least one Activision game doesn’t require a plastic peripheral, and that IW has spun their series off from Call of Duty, so that Treyarch cannot get its grimy paws on it. Good for you, boys.)

Left 4 Dead 2. Breathe in deeply for a second. Did you smell some odd fragrance to the air, like a kerosene lamp burning? That’s the lather that thousands of Valve fanboys have worked themselves into at the announcement that L4D will be getting a full sequel in lieu of the traditional long-tail content drops Valve has graced other titles with, such as Counter-Strike and Team Fortress 2. Why the sudden change of heart? Money, no doubt, played a very large part. Why give away for free what you can charge full price for? We live in the era of DLC, where Resident Evil 5 comes with multiplayer on the disc but asks for you to pay a bit extra to unlock it. Where you can buy experience points or in-game money to save you the trouble of having to actually play the game to unlock or accrue these things. Where your virtual horses can, for a small earthly sum, be clad in the finest of armor. Can we really shake our fist at this one?

But let me be serious for a moment here. We all wanted the long-tail love for L4D, because we all love L4D. I think that people really wanted to do more with Louis, Bill, Francis, and Zoey. With the sequel, not only are we getting a new set of locations, we’re losing the focus on gunplay (in favor of the more strategic melee combat, it may not be a bad thing, but will change the balance and horde combat significantly), the night of the living dead has become day, and the missions all tie together. None of these things, by themselves, is a bad thing. However, because the first game was so successful, and its quirks and charms so adored, Valve could never have made a sequel such as this without incurring the ire of some portion of its fanbase. As a marketing student, I look forward to seeing how Valve presents this game to players of the first. Much like World at War, they will have to tread a fine line between encouraging players to move on from the first game (something Valve has never had to do before, to my knowledge; even CS 1.6 still has its hold-outs) and maintaining a level of trust with players that, no, we are not going to keep milking you every year — we wanted to refine the experience and this was the only way possible. Because if Valve is looking to make L4D more of a series than a touchstone, well, I don’t know if I’m ready to live in that universe just yet.

Moving on!

Halo: ODST and Halo: Reach. Bungie, you broke with Microsoft so that you could make more Halo games? Really? First of all, Orbital Drop Shock Troopers is the dumbest title for a game in a long while. Imagine: Babiez was heads and shoulders above you, since it at least gave us some great lulz. But ODST? How is mom supposed to remember that? She’ll just say “new Halo” to the clerk and be fine, I suppose. But still, DUMB ASS NAME. Also, you haven’t shown shit of the actual game, so I have nothing to say about this. Likewise for Reach. Next!

Forza Motorsport 3. Well this one sure does look pretty. It’s got some nice physics and a host of neat fan creation tools, too, like livery and video editing. But, I’ve never really cared for anything out of the sim-racing genre, aside from mandatory Gran Turismo purchases, so I’ll probably passing this one up. And Need For Speed: Shift? You guys really have the worst timing. I’m sorry. Other than that, most of the stuff we saw was third party, other than Alan Wake. From what I saw of that game, the concept sounds really fun, and the game looks great. But the actual mechanics and play on-screen looked way too familiar, and nothing in that demo popped out at me as being “omfg” material. I know this is a game a lot of guys in the press like to stoke boners over, but I haven’t quite begun to sip the Kool-Aid yet. Maybe as it gets closer to release.

Sony’s Shotgun Strategy

The worst part of Sony’s conference, aside from Kaz Hirai, was that they forgot or rather opted not to show some really great stuff. Unlike Alan Wake, Heavy Rain is totally in my wheelhouse. Multiple paths where your character can die or be injured in various ways, a crime story, investigation and environmental exploration… it’s too good to be true. Then I watch something like the extended demo on G4TV, and I know that it’s real, it’s coming, and I fucking want it.

Likewise, Sony stalwarts Ratchet & Clank were politely asked to remain visible only on the show floor. For a game that is looking to finally give the series that show in the arm that it needs, and as one of Sony’s staple brands, you’d think the guys at Insomniac would get a little more exposure. The time puzzle mechanics, which share the same central conceit as PSN game echochrono (to lazy to link), will hopefully do much to inspire the level designers, who had grown a bit lazy with their world construction since Up Your Arsenal. A stronger focus on platforming and puzzles will do much to please fans, and the inclusion of a more involving story will undoubtedly bring the game more Pixar comparisons, so long as the classic tongue-in-cheek humor remains intact. In short, I’m totally on board.

Likewise for Uncharted 2. Do I even have to say anything about this game? It’s all been said already: it’s fucking gorgeous, it’s funny, the online modes are a blast, and we’re all going to be enraptured by it when it comes out this fall. But the PSP go? Notsomuch.

Some people just don’t like the way it looks. A lot of people just don’t like the price (read: me). But truth is Sony’s on the right path with this one, and it’s doing what it needs to in order for developers to start supporting the platform again. I.e., it’s cutting out piracy as best it can. The only thing is, with an iPod touch going for $229 dollars, the PSP go isn’t really the right value proposition Sony needs. Unlike the TV market (or perhaps quite like it, given their fiscal statement), Sony cannot afford to play the “premium product” card anymore. It’s costing them would-be buyers who can go pick up a DS or 360 at much lower costs than the Sony systems. If Sony wants to be a competitor, they can’t keep acting like they are Nintendo. Sega thought it was hot shit back when the PSX launched, but the Saturn wasn’t exactly the hit they were hoping for. When it comes down to the brass tacks, it’s the install base that brings the software to the market, and the price is the barrier to entry. Sell the go for $199, and you’ve got yourself a helluva competitor.

Real quickly, the rest of the Sony stuff:
- MAG: not for me. For whom? I have no goddamn idea. Why isn’t Zipper making a new Syphon Filter again?
- The Last Guardian: Day one. Ueda is a genius and can do no wrong. I am enchanted by the trailer and cannot wait to play the game.
- GT5: lol vaporware. But seriously, it looks great. Can we get a release date?
- FFXIII: Want. Black guy seems like another case of Japan doing it wrong (RE5, hel-lo!)
- FFXIV: Same designer as FFXII makes me super happy. MMO? Notsomuch.
- God of War III: it looks like more God of War. By all means, that is perfectly fine by me. I get to pull Helios’ head off with my bare hands? Disgusting, but I will nevertheless relish the moment.

Nintendo Announces Mario Games, News at 11

Nintendo I can sum up rather quickly. NSMB for Wii will be an obvious purchase, as will Galaxy 2. They know this, I know this. Golden Sun was a pleasant surprise and had me wanting to track down a copy of GS2, which I never played, in anticipation of this new outing. I’m glad that they held off on showing a new Zelda, because I think they need to consider not only a return to cel-shading, but also what it was about the N64 titles that made the series such a killer. Twilight Princess suffered from a lot of failed ideas and an inventory with several one-shot items. Ocarina, on the other hand, always managed to keep your old items relevant, or at least never did anything to lower their merit. But it isn’t enough to take from the past to sculpt the future; Nintendo has a carve out new ideas for a new generation and for new hardware. I’ll gladly give them another year to get that done properly.

Really, the only concern or game that I felt the need to seriously mull over was Metroid: Other M. Team Ninja and combat go together like rice and beans, but Team Ninja goes with a lot of other, not so glamorous things, too. Large Breasts, horrible character design, and terrible plots come to mind. The trailer wasn’t enough to tell us much, other than this game looks to reinvent the 3D Metroid game. I don’t mind if the game has more action, or more visceral action anyway, but Retro’s games did a great job of maintaining the sense of isolation and lonely exploration of hostile alien worlds. Reflections in the visor when hurt or in the cold were only part of that special crafting, but already it seems like this is more of a Warrior Within than a Sands of Time. I will be following this one closely, though, with the hope that Nintendo keeps Itagaki’s old crew on a tight leash. If they can deliver a Samus that kicks ass but is also vulnerable and helplessly intertwined in the affairs of Space Pirates and Metroids, I’ll be as happy as the next guy. We’ll just have to wait and see.

Supporting Third-Party Support, and Closing Thoughts

As I wrap up, I come to two games that I have wildly differing expectations for. Brutal Legend is a game that wears its heart on its sleeve, and makes its inspirations well known to all simply due to the fact that they are all in the game. While Psychonauts sits near the top of my pile of shame, Grim Fandango was a delight I enjoyed well after it first came out, and I knew long ago that if the man behind that game were to craft another, I would most certainly be up for seconds. While Brutal Legend is a far cry from a sequel to Grim, the classic Schaffer hallmarks seem to be intact: humor, character design and personalities, inane madness, and a plot so original you wonder why no one had thought of it before.

Assassin’s Creed II, on the other hand, has me fingers-crossed for fear of another letdown. Despite the iconic style and open-world championing of the first title, the game fell apart as soon as you finished off your main target in each city. The side-missions, or rather the missions you were required to do to collect evidence on your target, were repetitive and uninspiring, requiring you to complete mundane tasks such as sitting on a bench and listening to people talk (the game’s lack of cinematic camera movement meant staring at the game world in all its middling glory) or slowly walking behind someone while pretending to pray just long enough for you to get next to them and steal an item. But the new game, with its Renaissance flair and Italian draping, is as big of a temptation as one can encounter outside of Amsterdam’s red light district. The graphics have that “come hither” sexiness that keeps your eyes glued to the action and the new gimmicks such as killing guards from inside a hay pile or taking out two sentinels at once with twin hidden blades beg for your forgiveness of the half-baked original — look, you can hear Ubisoft saying, at those old promises now delivered.

Unfortunately, I’m a cynically bastard. If there is any one thing to be taken away from E3, be it from the motion tech demos, the Modern Warfare 2 demo, the Splinter Cell demo, the Assassin’s Creed II demo, or even the Metroid: Other M trailer, it’s that this is, first and foremost, a show. And as this is a show, we should take everything with a strong helping of salt. Who knows what sort of smoke and mirrors and prestidigitation take place behind the spectacles unveiled before us. The beauty of an E3 demo, unless it is a level playable in its entirety, is that it can be cut from any one or even from several places in the game and stitched together to construct a truly breathtaking first glimpse of some of the latest and greatest offerings. So, yes, Assassin’s Creed II looks like it could right a lot of wrongs and prove itself to be the game we always wanted from Ubisoft, but the truth is seldom so kind. Last year Resident Evil 5‘s director promised that conceits were being made to Americans and that Gears of War-style controls would be adopted and that we hadn’t seen all the game had to offer… but that just meant that aiming was moved to the right stick and there was an underground lab you would eventually find yourselves in (shooting gatling gun-clad zombies!).

But all the same, I was happy with the quality of the third party offerings for all systems, and saddened that I will not be able to play many of the great early 2010 titles when I am out of the country next year. Overall, E3 was a great return to form, with some of the best coverage and most diverse array of titles we’ve seen in some time. Compared to FPS-heavy 2007 and 2008, it was nice to see E3 embrace some new (and some old) genres. And with titles like A Boy and His Blob and Scribblenauts showing that innovation and simple charm can still exist in small packages, there were plenty of hidden gems as well. The only downside to E3? Knowing that we have to wait until TGS this Fall for more big reveals and shameless strutting from the console makers.

Note: I apologize that these entries keep running so long, but when I can’t post often enough to deliver smaller articles, I end up lumping as much as I can into one post as possible. Next time, look for (hopefully) shorter entries on Resident Evil 5, and inFAMOUS versus Red Faction: Guerilla versus Prototype.

Last year, the video games industry saw record sales of over $30 billion in units of software sold. Compare to the last great year for software, 2004, that is an increase of over 50%. In addition, console makers pushed a record number of hardware units for each of their respective systems, with 10.77 million PS3s sold, 10.8 million 360s, and almost 25 million Wiis. This is without considering the enormous success found in the handheld market, where the DS is the fastest selling system ever and Sony’s PSP is doing markedly well in a field that, during the age of the Game Boy, was mostly uncontested. Even with the begin of a significant decline in sales of PS2 hardware, which did not receive a price drop to the sub-$100 mark until April of this year, it is evident that 2008 marked a new high in demand for video games and game hardware. The question we must now ask ourselves is, can it ever happen again?

The Secret Formula

The success seen in 2008 can be boiled down to a combination of several factors: a line-up of highly sought-after games released throughout the year, the maintenance of the PlayStation 2 as a viable and active platform, the short supply of Nintendo’s Wii for nearly an entire year, and the demand for new gaming experiences from the PS3 and Xbox 360.

2008 met with a great amount of hyperbole when in first began, according to some to even have the potential to eclipse the last unofficial great year in gaming, 2004. Grand Theft Auto IV was finally coming to market, along with Gear of War 2, Fable II, Resistance 2, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Mario Kart Wii, Miyamoto’s strange new Wii Fit, LittleBigPlanet, Call of Duty: World at War, and a new Prince of Persia and the hope of, possibly, Gran Turismo or Killzone 2. Not all of these titles would ultimately end up having great sales success, and some, such as Dead Space, would catch us completely off guard at that summer’s E3 expo. Still, it was clear that the market would be ripe with highly anticipated new titles, particularly featuring franchises known to lurk the elusive casual gamer back to the couch for another go at his favorite series. GTA, Mario Kart, Wii Fit, and Gears of War 2 would prove to have the strongest of the individual game sales — each with multiple millions of units sold — and there was an unbelievable number of music titles (Rock Band 2, Guitar Hero World Tour) purchased as well. Truly, 2008 was a great time to be playing video games.

Also key to the strong success of the industry, only this time serving in a reserve role, was the PS2. With games such as SingStar and Buzz! available on the system, the PS2 became a very compelling party box/portable karaoke in 2008. The system also featured a few hardcore title releases, such as the stellar Persona 4, but was most impressive for its sales in another, more casual category: sports. Despite the next-gen glitz and effects work in the PS3 and 360 versions of FIFA, Madden, NBA, and MLB games, the PS2 maintained large sales numbers for all of the latest additions to these franchises. Clearly, the armchair quarterbacks once thought to be lumped in with the hardcore market have continued to make the economic decision to update their software for a system they already own (at a price of $50 rather than $60 for each title), instead of purchasing a $200-400 system to play them on. Considering that 2008 brought witness to one of the worst economic declines in America’s history, the logic certainly makes sense. Factor in the fact the HDTV penetration still has yet to rise to the level predicted by early analyst reports and you have a very clear proof-positive that the world still needed PlayStation 2 in 2008. The system sold nearly 9 million units last year, just shy of its successors, but increased its global install base to a whopping 140 million units. As any developer would tell you, you can’t just ignore that kind of established market. Surprisingly, however, no single PS2 game was able to make it into the Top 10 sales charts for 2008. The decline of a system will always be predicated by a fall in its software sales, and the data for 2008 shows that PS2 has likely seen its last meaningful year.

Nintendo Regains the Throne

In contrast, Nintendo could barely make enough of its Wii system to sate consumer demand, and the sales numbers for the system show. The company also found creative ways to extend the life and/or popularity of some of its titles, particularly through the bundling of a remote with every copy of Wii Play, a steering wheel with each copy of Mario Kart Wii, and the balance board with Wii Fit. The last of these is the most fantastic, however, as Nintendo proved to the world that it could sell a game and peripheral bundle at $90 and still have tremendous success. Of course, Guitar Hero and Rock Band also released numerous forms of bundled software and hardware that greatly exceeded this price, but neither could match the success of Wii Fit‘s whopping 4.54 million copies sold.

The X factor for 2008 was, undoubtedly, the Nintendo brand. Nearly all of their major software, aside from Wii Music, was met with both a positive critical response and a tremendous amount of consumer demand. Additionally, Nintendo was able to continue selling these titles to Wii owners beyond the traditional 6-week sales window. Mario Kart Wii and Wii Play, in particular, charted in the Top 10 for the remainder of the year, and continue to have a presence there today, a full year on since Mario Kart Wii was released. Unlike Sony and Microsoft, whose games feature strong sales that quickly taper off after hardcore users have purchased the items at or near release, Nintendo has found an audience interested in diving back into its catalog and purchasing older titles, which allows it to keep selling these games for full price while third-parties and Sony and Microsoft first/second-parties ultimately must drop the price of their titles to reignite sales. Gears of War, Resistance, and Halo are some of the only brands which were able to maintain premium pricing for over a year on these next-gen systems.

Why? While both console makers try to bundle their systems with the latest in either family-friendly or hardcore titles, Nintendo has chosen to include a very basic, but still fun, title with its boxed system since it first launched. The value of its brand as a software maker, and the relative ease with which the titles can be played (using a steering will, standing on a board, flicking a remote, etc.) not only keep the barrier to entry low, but they encourage word of mouth among a far larger audience than a traditional game might.

Dark Clouds Forming

Notice, however, that Super Mario Galaxy and Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, while both adored by fans and critics, are not in this list of successful titles. The hardcore game player that has been playing games for multiple generations is no longer the primary software buyer on the Wii. But even then, simple software titles published by third parties also fail to meet with any success. Last summer’s Boom Blox was a critical success, but failed to move more than a quarter of a million units when all was said and done. Its simple design and friendly styling should have sat well with the audience known to own the system, but it was passed over in favor of more copies of Mario Kart and Wii Fit. Likewise, hardcore titles such as No More Heroes, Madworld, and House of the Dead: Overkill have also been unable to inspire much interest on Nintendo’s system in the past year, and even GTA: Chinatown Wars on the DS has vastly underwhelmed when it comes to sales. The large, faceless audience of Nintendo owners, like an old fish, can’t be fooled by the developers lures and promotions. If the game isn’t Wii-branded, they aren’t biting.

This puts the casual gamer (not the lifestyle gamer, as we will brand the Wii-owner) in a bit of an odd position. With the PS2 soon to experience its last, sputtering gasps of life, where does that player go to enjoy the kind of experiences he has been accustomed to. The Xbox 360 is likely not to move below $199 for some time, nor will the Wii be budging from its $250 launch price. But while logic says that the Wii is the casual gamer’s console of choice due to its strong sales and key major titles, the control scheme and game lineup are actually far different than what the PS2 saw — save for the ports of PS2 and PSP games the Wii still sees. The Wii has become a sort of elephant in the room, both too large to ignore but yet too difficult to work with and find success. Designers are at an impasse: find a way to achieve the evergreen prosperity the Wii is seemingly capable of granting, or be stuck just producing expensive, resource-intensive software for the 360 and PS3, which may or may not be successful (EA has seen this with risks such as Army of Two and Mirror’s Edge, and even Sony first parties have had sluggish sales).

Another point worth pondering is what the next console cycle will bring with it and how long until those systems come to market. If Nintendo remains top dog as it appears it will, they have an incredibly wide array of options to take with their next system. Do they keep it underpowered and focus on controls? To they take a significant leap in graphical ability and open the system to features such as DVD or Blu-ray playback? Do they go digital distribution only? There are things about Nintendo’s past that cause me concern.

First is that when Nintendo has decided to release a new system, they utterly cease to continue supporting the previous one. Even when they claimed the Game Boy Advance would remain one of their “three tiers,” the system was swept under the rug within two years. Compare this to living in a time when Sony was on top, and the PSX and PS2 both had strong lives after their successors were released and you can imagine that the folks at Ubisoft, EA, and Activision must be a little nervous about what new hardware will mean for them.

Second is Nintendo’s history of being obstinate and behind the times with their products. Both the Wii and DS are devices far less powerful than their rivals, yet both manage to sell phenomenally better. The Wii is the first system Nintendo has released that does not use a proprietary format to play games, but even then the system is not capable of playing back a commercial DVD video release. Furthermore, Nintendo is almost always solely interested in Nintendo. The company will refresh its major franchises once or twice a console generation, but remains very inconsistent when it comes to creating new IP. This generation we have seen Wii Sports, Wii Music, Wii Fit, and Brain Age as new lines for the company, but the GameCube saw the creation of Pikmin and the resurgence of Metroid. Punch-Out!! is largely a remake of the former two titles, albeit a very good one, and it remains the only “core” title released by the company in over a year. Which brings me to another point:

Nintendo is slow. They take their time making games, and they’ll be damned if they work any faster because the fans are eager to buy them. The Game Boy Advance had about 6-7 years before it got replaced by the DS, and I’m sure that they’ll be stretching the Wii and DS to do the same, using slight hardware modifications (DS Lite, DSi, GBA SP, GBA Micro, etc.) to refresh the product line and pique consumer interest for longer than the internal tech should probably be expected to last. This is actually great for developers who can capitalize on cost savings later on in the console life cycle to produce games on smaller budgets without sacrificing quality, but it could also ultimately lead to a sense of stagnation.

Other reasons to fear that the games industry may see a weakening in its future is the ultimate failure of the PlayStation 3. Love ‘em or hate ‘em, the console world needs a strong Sony to survive. Sony brought several things to the games industry with the Playstation, and all were changes for the better: the optical disc standard; its connections through the film and music industry provided new outlets for games to be sold through; a sizable new audience brought up on DualShocks and Final Fantasys; most importantly, it provided a slick and powerful entertainment device that wowed consumers and stayed price competitive with the latest offerings from established hardware providers.

That last point has now fallen to Microsoft’s Xbox 360, and it is unlikely Sony can reclaim the mindshare it has lost this generation, even if the rebranding and redesign of the PlayStation 3 are in fact forthcoming. But while Microsoft is content to collect Live subscriptions and collect franchises and developers once exclusive to Sony and Nintendo, Sony is still driving innovation and content. Flower, LittleBigPlanet, Uncharted, Wipeout HD, and Warhawk are all experiences exclusive to the small PS3 install base, but are tremendous titles that should be enjoyed by all. In the last generation, the PS2 was the system almost everyone owned, and the GameCube and Xbox were the sort of extracurricular systems hardcore gamers would pick up to get their Mario or Master Chief fix.

Now, Sony is still publishing a bevy of ambitious, quality product at a reduced marketplace, and the sales numbers show it. While Shadow of the Colossus was able to achieve a sales success ICO could not, it also did so on a system that had over 100 million units sold. Ueda-san’s next project, known only as TRICO now, will be fortunate to have the same success, on a system that costs far more to develop for and that has only a fraction of the user base. But the game will be released, just as will Heavy Rain, Uncharted 2, a new Ratchet and Clank, and more. Because unlike Nintendo, Sony has harvested a fantastic collection of first and second party studios, and they deliver consistently and in quality. So while Nintendo can happily sit back and count stacks of money, it will also express indifference when fans clamor for more of the games they love so much. Aren’t you happy with the Mario Kart you’ve already got? What do you mean Smash Bros. has broken online play? That game will last a decade! So on and so forth. Our new masters are, sadly, omnipotent but not omnibenevolent.

Hope Springs Eternal

My thoughts of Nintendo are dour and biased and overly critical, some will no doubt think, but I am not blind to the opportunities this new era of gaming has opening before it. Take, for instance, what Apple has brought to the table. The iPhone is our first portable, always-connected gaming handheld. With it, we can download new software or title updates anywhere we have service or WiFi, and new games are being added to its store by the minute. Already it has a library in the thousands, and the user rating system effectively allows the cream to rise to the top without Apple having to enforce quality content restrictions and QA each new title it approves. This is a bold, fresh take on gaming, and it is already leading to new approaches from Sony and Nintendo, the latter of whom has already released a WiFi-enabled DSi capable of downloading games on the go and the former who is expected to unveil a new, download-only PSP in a week’s time.

Further, we are about to witness whether or not third parties will sink or swim on the Wii. With EA’s new EA Sports Active title, we have the first polished, major release to compete with or supplement Wii Fit. Can mimicking Nintendo finally bring about strong sales numbers on a system where no third-party game other than Rock Band and Guitar Hero has been able to find sales success? I am sure a lot of people in the industry are hoping so, because so far even the kindest of reviews (hello, Zack and Wiki!) has not been enough to catch the attention of our lifestyle gamer. Which is sad, because the Wii is a fun system with a lot of potential to reignite interest in old franchises and genres. But then, I know two people whose parents bought a Wii and still have it in the box, and my system only gets dusted off every six months. I think that, by reaching for a new audience, Nintendo has found a sort of No Man’s Land where only knows how to survive. Brilliant, from a business perspective, but terrible if you’re the guy they’re doing business with.

Which seems to have also have been the case for the PSP. Stuck in 8-12 year old marketing hell, the console sells well enough but the game sales are utterly laughable. What exactly do people do with the thing? Sony’s plea will always by rampant piracy, but are kids savvy enough to really sit down and create pandora batteries and hack their firmwares? I’m not so convinced. A lot of it probably had to do with that fact that, when faced with a system almost as powerful as a PS2, developers were creating experiences too rich and elaborate for the portable space. Which is why Sony is in the midst of rebranding and rebuilding the device, and encouraging devs to give the system another shot, only this time with titles more like Patapon and Pixeljunk Monsters and less like Liberty City Stories. Will it work? I really hope so. The PS Store should have been there from the beginning, and hopefully a reboot will be just the kick in the ass the system needs to really shine. Making some of its already excellent back catalog available to download is a good start, but we need a lot more of it. Oh, and were are the downloadable PSX titles at, Sony?

Meanwhile, Microsoft and Sony plan to adopt a kill them with gorgeous games approach this year, as Final Fantasy XIII, Uncharted 2, Halo ODST, Alan Wake, Heavy Rain, and possibly a new Metal Gear will all be totally drop-dead looking and wow us all. They have both made unique uses of DLC and Marketplace/PSN Store games to bring users unique and experimental products, and I see both of them continuing this trend. As the industry slowly frees itself from the grip of retail, sales in this space will become nothing short of essential. Sony has taken bold steps in offering full PS3 and PSP games on its store, while Microsoft has sought to satisfy the complimentary needs of its users with a robust Netflix service. All of these are great reasons to consider purchasing either system, and will no doubt be marketed as such in the coming year.

The Big “If”

As for software, 2009 is again looking at a great lineup, but now its Achilles’ heel has been fully exposed. If we are to see another 2008 in this console generation, it will only come at the will of Nintendo. No matter how many quality titles are released this fiscal year on 360 and PS3, if Nintendo does not deliver on the titles they supposedly have waiting in the wings for this fall, 2009 will look like it was the year the recession hit, not 2008. The ball is in your court, Nintendo. Next week at E3, show us what kind of future lies in store for the industry. It’ll be like our own version of Groundhog Day, only the Groundhog knows what’s on the line this time.

Well it’s been a long, long time since I sat down to write anything on here, but I hope to greatly change that trend starting this week. To begin with, I have been thinking a lot about where Nintendo needs to take the Star Fox series as it inevitably makes its way onto the Wii. The question is a difficult one, as the last three games in the series have been a scattershot of vague, half-formed ideas and brilliant misfires. Command lacked any strategic challenge and drowned in its own morass of plot lines; Adventures was a gorgeous platformer with an unmatched sense of place that suffered from dungeons that were tired and formulaic long before the fetch quests ever grew tedious; and Assault had some of the makings of a true return to form, but its emphasis on ground combat and an utterly dull enemy had fans crying foul. So what, then, can Nintendo do to right its wrongs and regain the trust of some very patient, but very skeptical fans? The answer is actually far more simple than you might think.

Star Fox 64 introduced gaming to a wonderful variety of homages and camp that to this day has not been surpassed in any way by sequels or imitators. The cast, the settings, and the combat were a perfect mesh that served what is an admittedly short game a heaping mound of replayability and charm. With the inclusion of rumble technology, a first for consoles, the game was kinetic and engaging in ways that had never before been seen, let alone felt. Game journalists now often talk of how there is a “fourth wall” between the screen and the player, an imagination barrier that separates the game world from our own. Star Fox 64 was the first to truly break through that barricade–demolishing it with force feedback in every boost, brake, damaged wing, and gargantuan explosion. It took a series that was accredited for proving that the SNES could handle the third dimension and made it a star. Yet somehow, after nearly 11 years, that star has lost most all of its luster. Which is why Nintendo needs to go back to square one.

The Kirby series originated on the NES, and the first games (in particular the second) are considered to be classics among enthusiasts and fans of platformers alike. However, the likelihood of younger gamers, or even older ones, being able to acquire these games and replay them is highly unlikely in this era of High Definition and wiimotes. Before Nintendo added the games to the virtual console, one solution was used to bring one of these games back into the spotlight: with revamped graphics and an insanely popular system to play them on, Kirby’s Adventure was re-released for the Game Boy Advance as Kirby’s Nightmare in Dreamland. An excellent update of a time-honored classic, the game is an example of a trend we have seen in the game industry over recent years: publishing updates of classics games using new technology to rebuild their worlds in a way that honors the original but doesn’t make the graphics-conscious squirm.

Like Kirby, there have been other games that ahve used this with considerable success: Resident Evil’s remake on GameCube was a sign of things to come with Resident Evil 4, and was praised by critics for keeping the spirit of the original intact. Tomb Raider: Anniversary has been called by some a better game than the original, as it forgoes the “tank” controls that once plagued Lara in favor of the game mechanics that powered the series revival, Tomb Raider: Legend. New Super Mario Bros. is an entirely new game, but honors its 2D ancestors with spot-on gameplay and lush side-scrolling level design. The list goes on, and the results are almost always the same: great games will stay great, but a fresh take can make them into something quite special.

When Starfox was released for the SNES, it was not a pretty game–a fact that, over time, has managed to remain true. What the game was, though, was a challenging three-dimensional shooter with a fully realized universe, an iconic enemy, and a memorable cast of talking animal star pilots. It could be a punishing game for first time players, yet that was somehow a part of its charm. When the sequel was announced and then, ultimately, cancelled in favor of shifting focus towards the Nintendo 64, there was genuine disdain and disappointment among fans. Star Fox 64 would eventually right most of those wrongs, but still a blow had been dealt.

All of these years later, Star Fox has unquestionably acquired a new fanbase through its sequels, be they great games or no. But with everyone sitting in fretful anticipation of the next in the series, why shouldn’t Nintendo look to its past in order to pave its way to a brighter future? New Super Mario Bros. is one of the fastest and highest selling games ever released, and it was simply more of what gamers, young and old, knew and expected of their favorite Italian plumber. Could the same not also occur for Star Fox?

A re-imagining of StarFox for the Super Nintendo released on the Wii, with elements of the beautiful flight control found in SF64 and even Assault (minus the latter game’s slow pace), would be a breath of fresh air from the series’ current mess of flat characterization, uninteresting missions, and winded dogfights. It would give younger fans a chance to try their hand at the game that started it all, only updated to look and play as good as the series’ more recent console forays. It would give older fans a reminder of just who Fox McCloud was and what made him capable of carrying a franchise through four more outings (not including the cancelled Star Fox 2) — or even as its chief representative in the high stakes world of Super Smash Bros. It is an opportunity to see just how this illogical pairing of Fox, Bird, Rabbit, and Toad found itself a spot in the hearts and minds of gamers all over the world. It is an opportunity for remembrance, and to rejoice.

I won’t carry on any longer on how the logistics of this idea may work or what steps could bring this idea to fruition. This is merely a rallying call, an open letter to fans to remind them of what has brought us so far and helped us endure the mediocrity of recent years. It is a plea for Nintendo to once again take up the reigns of its own franchise and, rather than farm it off to a developer unfamiliar with the series’ wonderful legacy, embrace its characters wholeheartedly and deliver us a game that has not had a chance to be played properly among a global audience in 15 years.

I have made my claim. Who among you agrees?

I have played two very different games this week, and yet both have had my brain mulling over the same set of principles and concepts. In this new age of gaming (3.0?), the user is being empowered to manipulate the game world and create an experience that is wholly his/her own. I have seen examples of this in both Crysis for the PC and Audiosurf, and will provide some background as to why both are such innovative, enthralling works of modern game design philosophy.

I downloaded the demo for Audiosurf off of Steam on Friday of last week, and didn’t set about playing with it until 4am that night, after an evening of excessive alcohol indulgence. Kids, don’t follow my lead–but at the same time, take this as a possible reason for the game’s powerful effect on me.

The demo lets you select a song right off the bat from your hard drive to start surfing to, and then laces over it a quick and mostly self-explanatory tutorial. Essentially, you bump along to the music, and want to impale your wipeout-esque ship on a bunch of similarly colored notes. There are two game modes, really, but the different “surfers” expand this quite a bit: one has you avoiding gray blocks and collecting the colored ones, the other has a variety of blocks and allows you to mix and match them to create your three-in-a-rows at your discretion. The latter mode reminds me of Lumines or Puzzle League, but at a far more frenetic pace.

Anyway, the trick to this game is just throwing the most random, wild shit you have on your computer at it. The game uses some sort of algorithm to decode the songs and make the tracks, so in a sense each song is one level and will always play the same. That is hardly “user-generated,” no? Well at the same time, I have over 6 or 7,000 music files on my computer, and can queue up whole folders or CDs at a time within the game. That means I can spend an hour surfing a dozen songs, on a dozen levels. And if you switch from the dodge mode to the mix-n-match, that essentially changes the entire pace of the track altogether.

What’s more is that the game has Easy, Medium, and Hard levels of play. So a drunken cruise might suit you at, say, four in the morning, but at two in the afternoon you may feel like absolutely breaking your brain on Hard mode to some System of a Down. Essentially, I see the game as having done this: like the digital music player has liberated us from the monotony of radio, tapes, and CDs, so too does Audiosurf liberate us from the monotony of the puzzle/music genre. It’s a ten-dollar interactive synthesizer, sure, but it’s also one of the most zen-like experiences you can have using your computer to play a song. Passive listening is out. Audiosurfing is in.

* * *

As for Crysis, well, that’s a big departure from our little, low-spec music game, isn’t it? After finally getting the game to run at a solid framerate on my machine and still look good, I’ve finally started to sink more time into Crysis. It’s a very odd game at times: forcing checkpoint objectives in a vast open world that you would otherwise find yourself lost, observing minutia such as falling trees and abandoned kitchens. The checkpoints are essentially enemy strongholds that you are advised to “quietly” enter — but really, stealth is almost impractical in this game. The AI detect movement from a great distance and go on high alert fast (and for long stretches of time); it’s ultimately in your interests to just run at them, guns blazing, and clear the camp out without wasting time being clever. A thinking man’s shooter (given the dexterity of the physics engine), dumbed down by its own developers.

Anyway, once you find the computer at these checkpoints, you get shuffled along to some other gorgeous place, finding more enemy patrols and encampments as you progress. While the feeling of shooting and engaging enemies is ultimately more of the same, the game does provide for some amazing amounts of improvisation–in fact, it often seems to encourage it. Take the following instance as an example:

You just witness a major event early on in the game and must now make your way out of the enemy base, back across the island and down the river to an extraction point. It’s now dark out, and a new elite commando type of enemy has begun patrolling the forests with submachine guns. But before you get to them, you have to find a way out of the base. So I run outside, activate Strength, and jump up over a wall to get out of the sublevel building I just exited. I then switch to Speed and haul ass towards the mountain’s edge, where I then move in a crouch towards the base’s entrance. Unfortunately for me, the nearby Humvee can’t be taken anywhere since the unbreakable (lame) gate is down in front of it. So instead, I blow up the fuel tanks next to it and get the cavalry to show up. In cloak mode, I switch to my silenced pistols, sneak to a well covered position, and then pick off the first three guards in the base. A new Humvee rolls up with a gunner and two more soldiers who exit the vehicle. I Cloak again, switch to my rifle and equip the sniper scope and pop the guy in the gunner seat. I then Speed my way to the two guys on foot and circle around them while firing out some shotgun rounds. After gathering up some ammo, I hop in the Humvee and tear ass down the hill back to the ford in the river. Instead of crossing back over into the rice paddies and mess of infantry, I get out, blow up the vehicle, and jump in a nearby boat. I floor it down the river and drive off a waterfall, bailing immediately in case the fall were to kill me. I survive the fall and swim to shore as the boat slowly moves downstream with the current. A chopper is beginning to approach, but I can’t fight it right now, so I jump back on the boat and haul ass to the bridge ahead, where a trap has been set for me. I shoot some barrels and kill the guys on the docks, and jump to a new boat before the old one gets hit by another rocket from the helicopter. I drive for my life down the river, chopper peppering me as I go, until I crash the boat into rocks by accident and have to make my way to the LZ on foot through what is now more a swamp than a river.

Wow. That was a lot to write. But if you managed to read that, you’ll see that I could have stopped at several points and engaged in long firefights with dozens of soldier goons, or found a better gun to shoot at the helicopter’s fuel tanks with to give myself some breathing room. I never had to take a boat, either, I just wanted to get the fuck out of dodge ASAP. After all, I had just seen some scary shit.

So Crysis is a fantastic game in that it allows the user to approach objectives in a variety of ways rather seamlessly. It’s a game where you can think on your feet and whatever strategy you come up with, it’s safe to say that the means will be in place for you to carry that plan out without having to compromise. (I could detail my awesome beach assault where I raided and destroyed an entire village, but I won’t.) Now, granted, the game is punishingly difficult at times. In fact, F5 has become my closest ally in my sessions with the game. But still, there are few games in the genre that are as hands-off as Crysis; STALKER supposedly offers a similar freedom in its mission structure, but the horror overtones of the game have kept me from seeking it out just yet (played the Condemned 2 demo… Eek!). Assassin’s Creed offered a tremendous amount of cityscape and overworld for the player to explore, but ultimately its missions were a case of wash, rinse, and repeat. That game also lacked cutscenes (which worked against it, IMO–A topic I may discuss later), but I still feel that there’s a lot of promise in the foundations of the gameplay mechanics, particularly the Parkour elements.

Aside from those two, however, most big releases in 2007 were very linear: Super Mario Galaxy let you choose which level to play next, but ultimately a platform cannot avoid its inherent linearity; Call of Duty 4 is the most linear, hand-holding big release of last year by far; Halo 3 had the AI to allow for great combat moments but its structure was also linear; Mass Effect allows you to go at your own pace until you hit a point in the game where you cannot turn back anymore; Uncharted and Ratchet: see SMG… and so on and so forth. Even my game of 2007, Bioshock, was quite linear, even though the world of Rapture was so large and diverse that it hardly felt like a chore to work through the story. That game also had far more entertaining powers than Crysis does, and better enemies, but otherwise there isn’t much to compare the two. I hate to say it, but as great as the games in 2007 were, few were actually breaking new ground.

And without any further justification, I’m out.

I won’t get into the details of what I’ve been up to, but I’ll sum it up as best as I can: I have been fairly busy with college, incredibly busy with Rock Band, and perhaps even more busy enjoying a fair number of tasty beers (in between bouts of binging on Coke). I am an awful, pathetic slacker that wants more than anything to be sit here daily and write out my thoughts, but who never seems to be able to load up the webpage and actually do anything about it. I’m disciplined enough to read about an hour before going to sleep each day, and I keep up with the news well enough, but fuck me if I can put pen to paper or finger to key and pound out a decent journal entry more than once a week — let alone once a month. But for anyone reading that may actually care what I have to say on here, I’m working on it. I’ll be coming back.

So, with all that aside, let’s get to the meat and potatoes of today’s post. Professor Layton and the Curious Village.

Professor Layton, as I’ll call it (or just Layton), is a peculiar little game. Created by the fine folks at Level 5 (who have produced the wonderful Dark Cloud 1 and 2, Dragon Quest VIII, and Jeanne D’Arc to name a few), the game is a complete charmer from the moment your journey begins. The story follows one Prof. Layton and his child assistant/pupil Luke as they journey to the secluded town of St. Mystere to unravel the mystery behind the Golden Apple — a prize left by the town’s wealthiest resident to be claimed by his one true heir. The opening dialog, which is presented with charming British accents, provides the user with all of the essential backstory before giving the player a little taste of the game’s main course: puzzles.

Now allow me to diverge from my summary to expand on the matter of puzzles. To me, puzzles are simply delightful. I love brainteasers, even when they are so obtuse I can’t possibly wrap my head around them — they are, simply put, one of the most natural and enjoyable ways of flexing that all-important muscle that makes us human: the brain. Now, I knew that Layton would be throwing puzzles at me left and right, but let me assure you: this game is absolutely packed with the bloody things. I believe there are something like 120 total, with an additional set of collection-based mini-puzzles available from the menu screen. A weekly puzzle is also available from the Nintendo WFC.

Anyway, back to the game. Or, really… I never stopped talking about the game, because after the spoken introduction, almost all of the time you will spend in St. Mystere will be staring at the screen of Puzzle ___, the cogs in your head spinning like tops to find the solution. And when you input the answer and the Professor or Luke goes through his victory animation, you may never feel as rewarded for your efforts as you do right then. “Professor, I’ve solved it!” and “Every Puzzle has an answer” will soon become a mantra for you, and after quickly gathering some information from the townsfolk, you’ll tap your way around the screen to find the next object or person to interact with, not just to advance the plot and determine just who is behind all the strange occurrences but to get that next quick fix… to face that new, unknown challenge.

If I’m making the game out to sound like some sort of addiction, well… perhaps that’s the right thing to do. As I stated before, the game is just utterly charming: the art on display is unlike anything you’ve seen in a game in recent years, and the characters are wacky enough that you can’t help but tap on them and see what kind of derranged ramblings they will spout about this damned puzzle they’re working on and won’t you please help me solve it and if you do I’ll tell you about where to find what you’re looking for. I don’t think there’s a monetary system in St. Mystere (I’ll spare you jokes about Hint Coins); knowledge is the only currency these people recognize.

Aside from the puzzles and the art and the great cast of characters, I don’t want to speak on much else of Professor Layton, as it was an experience that was better served by going in with little knowledge of what to expect. I only hope that I have piqued the interest of someone out there; for $30, you will get at least 15 hours of great mind-benders and a cute-though-somewhat-predictable story; but more important than either of those is the experience, on a whole, that you will have gone through. Layton is a game that stays with you, much like a Miyazaki or Pixar movie might stay with you. The presentation, the puzzles, and the people you meet all blend together to form an unbeatable package. If you were ever interested in this game, or if you feel even a slight bit of interest now, do yourself a favor and check this title out. Soon, you too will be waiting eagerly for the sequel.

I haven’t posted in ages, I know, and there’s so much to discuss–the list grows longer by the day–but forgive for not writing a real blog entry for just a while longer. In exchange, you can read my titillating comments on why Sonic is a terrible series in 3D. Joy!

Blink: Is it a bad thing that I’m suddenly highly interested in the StH franchise?
StealthFox: lmao
StealthFox: maybe if you’re doing a historically report
StealthFox: -ly
Blink: ehh
Blink: It’s about the 2d to 3d transition
Blink: I’m wondering why it failed
StealthFox: haven’t we talked about this?
Blink: And I know the basics, camera and controls
Blink: Have we? I don’t know. Maybe
Blink: I’ve touched on it in the past.
Blink: Now though, I’m seriously into it
StealthFox: first of all, sonic team cannot do 3d. they just cannot execute a game properly in a 3d environment
Blink: I don’t mean Sonic team. Screw them, they suck
StealthFox: second, sonic need only run in one direction to do what he does. 3d involves near infinite directional capabilities. failure imminent.
Blink: Aha, see, this is where one needs a brain. (which Sonic Team lacks)
Blink: Sonic needs to run in one direction…
Blink: How can you control that?
Blink: a compass
Blink: Give Sonic a direction to run in, eg, North
Blink: The entire game, Sonic runs North, in general
Blink: Who cares how you get there, just go North
Blink: It follows the same principles of an old 2d Sonic game, run right
StealthFox: are you advocating the existence of an on-rails sonic?
Blink: Nay
Blink: Free roaming
StealthFox: uh…
Blink: But you know you need to run North
Blink: Just like you knew you needed to go Right
StealthFox: sounds like burnout paradise or crackdown or any other sandbox game
Blink: Free roaming, but the goal is always at the northmost point on the map
Blink: Well, the levels wouldn’t be totally open
Blink: Imagine a bridge
Blink: You know you need to get from where you get on to where you get off
Blink: But as Sonic, you can climb all over it, run in different lanes, etc.
Blink: It has a general direction, and natural barriers, but you’ve still generally gotta go in the same direction
Blink: *still got a lot of freedom
Blink: *distracted atm(
StealthFox: so, basically, a race track
Blink: Well what do you expect of Sonic? xD
Blink: But no, not really.
StealthFox: i don’t see any reason why this should exist
Blink: More like a Monster Rally race course
Blink: In fact, I bet a Sonic game in a monster rally course would sell and play better than any other 3d Sonic game
StealthFox: what is the key to success in completing a 2d sonic course, aside from running right?
Blink: Timing jumps?
StealthFox: level memorization, essentially
Blink: A little, yes
Blink: That or insane reflexes
StealthFox: sonic is an arcade game, not a platformer, wouldn’t you say? the puzzles are not challenging your ability to time different types of jumps and traverse the environment. the game just loads you to the gills with rings and sends you flying towards a boss encounter, with spike traps and jumps and loops along the way
Blink: Arcade game, yes. But I disagree about the puzzles, Sonic 3 is good proof of needing to have either A) fast reflexes or B) level memorization
Blink: Then again, Sonic 3 was more adventure like. It had saveslots
StealthFox: i’m trying to fight my bias here, but level memorization is essentially the same thing that all arcade games require: ikaruga to contra and so on
StealthFox: so, my point really is that in turning to a 3d environment, what was fun in 2d became rather ordinary and boring in 3d
Blink: What, the arcade aspects?
StealthFox: castlevania had the same thing happen: it thrived to much off of the super metroid exploration system in 2d that when they attempted to do that in 3d they forgot that it actually sucks–something that metroid prime carefully avoided
StealthFox: yes, the arcade aspects
Blink: wait, they forgot that what “actually sucks”, the exploration system?
StealthFox: runing and timing jumps and the twitch reflexes so inherent to sonic had already been done superbly in 3d before sonic ever got there
StealthFox: the wandering around listlessly and platforming through repetitive environments ad nauseum
StealthFox: castlevania platforming is incredibly vertical
Blink: So what made it entertaining in the first place then?
StealthFox: in metroid prime, it’s all very horizontal
Blink: Ahhh, I see
Blink: So keeping it 2d, but making the game 3d
StealthFox: the fact that it was 2d allows for verticality and different types of progression
StealthFox: plus, 3d has one huge problem: camera views
Blink: Essentially, MP kept a 2d map and Castlevania tried to make a 3d one?
StealthFox: castlevania tried to literally recreate itself in 3d, warts and all. the hub system was a failure, the combat was mundane, and the environments were stagnant.
StealthFox: MP solved the problem by creating a sense of consistency, as if you were exploring this enormous and varied planet’s surface for the first time
StealthFox: it had variety, it was very horizontal, and it still delivered the hardcore backtracking and item collecting without making it overwhelming to the average player
StealthFox: only mario galaxy has so far been able to truly manipulate highly vertical environments this generation, and that’s because of the nature of its level design. no other series has the flexibility to pull it off…. except ratchet and clank, which did it to a smaller extent on PS2
Blink: So you actually meant that the 3d transitions should be true sequels that aim to keep the core gameplay rather than 3d versions of the 2d games
StealthFox: i think that there are things that a 3D sonic can keep from the 2D games and things that it should do differently. So far, no game has really gotten that right.
Blink: Yep. That sounds about right
Blink: Lacking in just about any detail at all, but for what it is, spot on
StealthFox: you look at screens and videos for the games as they come out and think “boy, how could this not be great?” and then play it and say “oh.”
StealthFox: You play Galaxy yet?
Blink: I get it tomorrow. Maybe tonight, if I pick my “one gift” correctly
StealthFox: Ok. Well when you play it, you will understand what I am about to say
Blink: I asked for exactly two things this year: Galaxy and a chair, so I know I’ll get it. :P
Blink: Shoot
StealthFox: The whimsy and style and imagination that is apparent in every star challenge, ever level design, and every stretch of bricks, blocks, and planetoids in that game is exactly what the Sonic games have lacked. They are soulless and shallow in comparison not only to Mario, but to their former and even DS iterations.
StealthFox: The “pop” and creative spark twinkle brightly at times, but then get snuffed out in a matter of moments
Blink: Any examples?
StealthFox: sonic and the secret rings: a few great moments of frenetic, intense dodging and running ruined by crappy music, punishing difficulty and a surprisingly tiring setting.
StealthFox: It was so close to being a worthy sonic game, but time and budget constraints, or maybe just a complete lack of creative energy sank it like a bag of bricks
Blink: ouch
Blink: Yeah, development time is another big issue
Blink: One new Sonic game every 12 months = fail
Blink: Just, like, inherently
Blink: It’s not possible to make quality games that fast, and it shows
StealthFox: as an aside, i totally think they should have called Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 Rainbow Six: Vegas: Cashing In

And there you have it folks. Any comments on this one are fully appreciated. I really do love dissecting a game and honoring/trashing it as need be. Join in, won’t you?

Today’s write-up will NOT be about how glorious Super Mario Galaxy is. It will not be about how Call of Duty 4 ceases to underwhelm me. It will, most certainly, not be an ode to the wonder that is Zack and Wiki. No, today we discuss PlayStation 3 games. And what a discussion it shall be.

A few weeks ago I was fortunate to receive a call from none other than Captain Qwark himself. He was calling to inform me that my reserved copy of Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction was to be in stores the following day, and that I would be required to drive to the game store to receive said product (rather than have it beamed directly into my brain). I grinned. It was about the only grin I’ve gotten from anything related to GameStop–a company whose presence in my town feels like an invasive plague now–in well over a year. That wretched retailer has lost all of my support thanks to its short supply of games on launch day (NO spare copies of Bioshock or Assassin’s Creed on launch? NONE?), and I will do my best to avoid giving them my money henceforth. They can give me money for trades, though. I’m no Puritan, after all.

Cough.

Anyway… Ratchet 1, 2… 6 is truly stunning. I don’t mean that as a way of describing its graphics, though the color palettes and broad swashes of inventive and alluring design do resonate deep within my shriveled gamer’s soul. No, I am referring to the complete Ratchet Package: the controls, the story, the level design, and of course the weapons. The game nails almost everything that made the first three games in the series such a spectacular success in my eyes. Simple platforming is placed neck-deep in frenetic fire fights, the characters are colorful and never attempt to bog down the fun with any serious or melodramatic moments (though the ending to this one does come close to the latter), and the many planets and environments are unique, expansive, and full of life. The bolt collection is naturally back and more OCD-inducing than ever (the ting-a-ling of nuts and screws flying into your possession is like a siren song), and Ratchet’s ears have grown noticeably larger than I remember. To put things briefly, I loved this game dearly, and I am eager to give it another go once my DualShock 3 arrives in about two weeks time (though I may be too busy with Mario and Uncharted to do so immediately).

Ratchet is also something that the PS3 desperately needed, an all-audience title from a very successful PS2 franchise, reloaded and remastered for the HD era. With the new “low” price of the 40GB unit, Sony should be looking to push its first party titles hard in the next 6 weeks leading up to Christmas, and between this and Uncharted I’d say it has the ammunition to accomplish that goal. Well, that sounds a bit vague. When I say “that goal,” I mean the 11 million units shipped worldwide. To even speculate that Sony could pull itself from third place this winter is absolutely silly; Nintendo has the franchises to continue its dominance in North America (but not Japan, surprisingly) well into next year (Smash Bros. Brawl, my love, I cannot wait!), and Microsoft had two solid months of Halo humping (and about 800,000 consoles sold) to sustain its lead for a while longer. But still, to think Sony is, after a year, finally reaching the 2 million mark and seeing a doubling of its sales thanks to the new price reductions and SKU… that’s most definitely a sign of things to come. It’s also a sign that people don’t seem to care about backwards compatibility that much (vote with your wallet, as the saying goes), but that could just be because the games–the only thing we ever wanted–are finally arriving. I’d say Sony could, potentially, see another million added on to its US sales if things go well for them before year-end, and worldwide they can certainly count on Europe to pull them to their fiscal goal. That’s still placing them a fair leg behind the leading HD system, but it makes the console wars a bit more lively, I’d say.

So let’s talk about the big gun for Sony this year, since it seems Unreal Tournament 3 is going to be 2008 and Haze is quietly becoming a mockery as far as exclusives go. The game is Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, and thanks to last week’s PSN demo, I can assure anyone that has an inkling of doubt about this game that they will NOT be disappointed. Does it scream 10/10? No, but neither did Gears when I first played it (replaying it with a friend now, I realize I never properly enjoyed the game back then, and my assessment of it has changed considerably). There are some things I am sure of, though, and that’s that this game has some incredible talent behind it. The writing brings to mind The Sands of Time–Nathan Drake often finds himself speaking his thoughts aloud, which are in fact lip-synced in the game if you check, and he is never short of a few wry grunts during combat–and the cover system outdoes its inspiration, the oft-imitated Gears of Way, in several ways. First, being able to run and take cover using seperate buttons (or in this case, analog stick and Circle), is a huge plus. Here, one simply pulls off of cover whenever he likes, and rolls to new cover/hurdles his current cover by pressing the stick in a desired direction and hitting Circle again. It works quickly, and very, very well.

What it does have in common with Gears, though, is that gunfights are demanding, often punishing. The short demo features an extensive amount of combat, and while the enemy AI is not of any particular prowess, it is nevertheless quite deadly. You’ll have to switch cover often due to flanks, and there is no chainsaw bayonet (just your fists) to save you from a close encounter with the oncoming grunts. A noticeable lack of ammunition for your pistol and any heavy weapon you may pick up makes precision shooting and the ability to comb dead bodies for spare clips key abilities, too. I’m not sure if this is done to make the fights less like laughable Tomb Raider skirmishes and more like Rainbow Six: Vegas or Gears of War bouts, but it definitely had me clenching my jaw… and dying… a lot. Once I got the gist of the controls, though, the challenge was like a game of manhunt. Grunts gave chase, I gave bullets in return, and in the end I got to some of the wonderfully stylish platforming segments.

And this is definitely Naughty Dog’s best work as far as platforming goes. Even though the bits in the demo were fairly straightforward, the potential I saw in the diagonal leaps, fingertip grabs, and ledge-holding shuffles have me beaming with anticipation for the full meal next week, and I think many who have tasted this little appetizer are feeling the same. In a period where the first-person shooter is running rampant like the plague, a third-person adventure — and this game promises to have everything an adventurer could hope for — is just the thing the doctor ordered for those of us with high-def sets. Jungles don’t look this good in person, but this game will make you wish you were in one anyway. Add to all of this the attention to tiny details (Nathan’s gun holder has its own physics, his clothes realistically get wet and dry over time, and people move and act like real people should move and act), and a story that has us all thinking of Indiana Jones and the good movies that George Lucas has made, and you’ve got something very special, indeed. Will it be my game of the year? Heaven knows that competition is a tough one. But let’s just say I’m most certainly looking to place this one near the top five, and that’s just from a demo.

Ok, my hand in cramping up from all this typing. Wii game discussion, and perhaps some thoughts on Beowulf, will be posted soon.

How did I ever manage to spend a whole post on PC games and not even once mention the glorious Orange Box? My god, people. This fall is so out of control with quality gaming that I can’t even spit far enough in my apartment without it landing near a console worth turning on. So, before I get into the console shit, here’s some Orange Box dirt, as well as some movie synopsis.

TOB is, irrefutably, a fucking must have if you like shooters. Half-Life 2 plus both episodes, Portal, and Team Fortress 2 combine to make some of the most fun and most well-designed shooter action since, well, Bioshock. But that’s not to say the games in the OJ Box are merely very good — it’s just that Bioshock stands so tall in my own mind that to have a package this good release so soon after it is like a fucking Christmas miracle. Fuck. Again! I haven’t even said anything about the games yet.

Let’s start with TF2. I was never one of the people that really got into Team Fortress Classic, as it’s called now. I appreciated the game and played it a bit at LAN parties in high school, but Counter-Strike was my Half-Life mod of choice. Now, however, Valve has turned the game into a thing of undeniable beauty. With a sleek and attractive animated art style to bring its seven classes to life, TF2 sparkles with opportunities for truly engaging play. Because each class is limited to the weapons they start out with only, a stacked enemy is never a fear for the player — thus making tactics a key component of the game. Say the other team if full of soldiers (which is very likely) and heavies, and they’re chewing away at your defensive line. You can either go offensive as a demoman or scout and try to push the bastards back, or move into a support role as an engineer to build turrets or as a medic to keep your own defenders on the front lines in good health. If the map allows for it, a Pyro makes a spectacular defender or in-the-enemy-base nuisance, provided he can traverse that far across the map. And there’s always a few pricks playing Sniper or Spy looking to screw with you when you’re honed in on a certain task or enemy. In other words, the game plays out like a chaotic chess match, where the pieces can be respawned and the kills are messy. It’s totally awesome.

Equally worth the purchase of its Orange shell is Portal, a very different type of first person game. I’d actually label it a first-person puzzler, but that just sounds cheesy and nondescript. What it is, though, is a beguiling, amusing story of a lab rat with a highly-developed piece of technology (the player) making its way through an increasingly complex series of room puzzles and ultimately finding the one thing all lab rats want: freedom. You were probably expecting me to say cheese, but you were wrong. Along the way, we learn a myriad of details from the narrating schizophrenic and absent-minded computer that supposedly watches our every move. Promises of cake, cubes that seek undying affection, and plenty of polite little turrets abound in the game’s 19 levels. But what’s most impressive about Portal isn’t the series of things is allows you to do with the gun (though they are spectacular), it’s the fact that there’s always something beneath the hospital-white surface that you know isn’t right and becomes more and more apparent with each passing test. The fact that the game builds to and accomplishes such a humorous, thrilling climax is a testament to the writing talent at Valve; destroying cameras and knocking over polite turrets generates more laughs than any outright joke you’ve heard in a game since who knows when, and the memes that Portal can generate are near-limitless. For $19.95 on its own via Steam or as part of The Orange Box, there’s no reason not to play this short but memorable gem of a game. You’ll thank me for the recommendation. Trust me.

I hope that trusting my movie tastes will also do you well in future weekends to come. I’ve been on a bit of a movie binge, lately, and have much to report. But, seeing as how I’ve written a crapload already about just two games, I’ll be a bit more condense with these.

30 Days of Night is a movie made for the people looking for the Resident Evil movie that never was. Yes, it’s about vampires, yes it stars Josh Hartnett… but it also delivers a more satisfying series of gory deaths and comic book violence than any of the imitators we’ve been privy to lately — Land of the Dead, RE:Apocalypse, and those terrible torture-porn films like Captivity. If you’re looking for the perfect mindless action flick to see that isn’t determined to gross you out (Saw IV, I’m looking at you), 30 Days of Night is for you. It’s like B-movie grittiness with a summer movie budget, and the Russian-looking vamps are a hoot to watch (even with their weird enormous faces and slanted eyes). Go have fun with this one.

On the complete opposite end of the moviegoer spectrum, you might be inclined to see Brad Pitt’s tour-de-force performance in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. This film, at 2 hours 40 minutes, tells you everything you ever wanted to know about the events leading up to Mr. James’ assassination. While it doesn’t pander to us with fun re-enactments of the bandit’s great heists — save for his “last” one at the beginning of the film — it does give a very detailed picture of the criminal’s mind and the people he surrounded himself with. In particular, the intricacies and motivations of Robert Ford (Casey Affleck) are truly compelling stuff, possibly Oscar-worthy, and never fail to hold your attention. The trouble with the film, though, is that there’s too much to be said, and too little to make the story move by quickly, for most viewers to give this film the time of day. Whereas the Godfather found success due to its incredible production values and star-studded cast thanks to the well-known Francis Ford Coppolla (though it could be argued America just loves a good mob movie), The Assassination is relatively art-house in its presentation, and has received little to no support from its studio in terms of advertising or even number of screens to be shown on. I was amazed it even made its way to where I live, if that tells you anything. However, none of this should detract from what is a very remarkable movie about a very remarkable man and his unfortunate death. As a piece of American history, this film should be required viewing. But if entertainment is your primary concern, it would be best to look at some of the more mainstream flicks showing at your local cineplex.

Which leaves me to talk about the quandary that is The Darjeeling Limited. I’m never really sure how I’ll react to a Wes Anderson film, even when I go in to them with the most optimistic of expectations. However, after seeing his latest, I do believe that the director has finally made his most accessible and relevant film to date. After an awkward yet sexually electric short film preceding the opening credits, TDL kicks off with a memorable intro of not just the characters, but the train the film takes its name from. Bill Murray, a god among men, races to catch his train, only to be left behind as Adrien Brody just manages to hop on. He then reunites with his two brothers, Jason Schwartzman and Owen Wilson, both of whom are pure dynamite through the film. The wit is razor-sharp from then on, with excessive use of cigarettes, cough syrup, and awkward moments to bring the characters to life. Supposedly brought together for a spiritual journey, the film excels most at revealing the spirit of each cast member, whether it be the attractive Indian stewardess or the bald assistant to Owen Wilson’s character. The film is full of off-the-cuff comedy, but also finds itself facing several truly black issues: the loss of a father, reuniting with your estranged mother, death, salvation, and reconciliation. Never heavy-handed, though, Anderson has done a magnificent job balancing the peculiarities of the impoverished country with the screen-eating performances of the three lead characters. All told, The Darjeeling Limited is a fantastic, fun movie for almost any audience, with a heart of gold and a crackling wit. Where The Life Aquatic failed to make the relationship between its father and son figures anything more than an mismatched tag team surrounded by dime-novel swashbuckling, this film oozes with life and compassion. Highly Recommended.

And that’s all for tonight, folks. I’ll be back soon with my long-promised tirade on console games, assuming more PC and movie goodness doesn’t stop me first. Until then, let there be cake!

Took me a little longer to get back on the blog than expected, but having fun will make you lose track of time pretty frequently. I suppose it’s time to get down to the nitty gritty, though. I’ve got some games that need discussing.

I’ll work my way forwards. After tackling Metroid Prime 3, I went ahead and defied my better judgment and picked up World in Conflict for the PC. The game was made by some Swedish developer (I think they were Swedish, anyway) known as Massive, who’s apparently been struggling to get the right formula down for a couple of RTS games now. I think they’ve hit the jackpot with this one. Though I’m currently only about halfway through WIC, I can say with full certainty that this is a refreshing, high quality RTS. The campaign is actually deceptively easy, as it limits your control of resources to simply queuing up unit orders to have airdrops to any available location on the map. Instead — in a manner similar to Company of Hereos — the game focuses on the tactics of combat, and the visceral nature of modern warfare. Set in mid-1980s America during a surprise attack by Russia, the game is truly a pleasure to control. Panning the camera in and out of the action, manipulating troops and armor, activating special abilities, and most especially calling in artillery strikes are all done with considerable aplomb. The levels are never fantastical or memorable, but each serves brilliantly as a set piece for the carnage that ensues with each new mission. Buildings are turned to rubble, forests are leveled, and the Reds keep rolling in for more after no matter how well fortified your defenses may become. What’s more, the game also has a clever technique of slowly relinquishing control over the battlefield: as the story unfolds and the player faces new missions, allies are beginning to stretch thin and the General’s confidence in you grows. Thus, it falls to you to defend the bridges, fire the nukes, and just flat-out save America in this Cold War gone hot.

I’ve heard that the multiplayer of WIC is actually it’s most captivating asset, as the bum-rushing of the Russians in the campaign gives little credence to there being a strong enemy AI pushing those units. Campaign is definitely designed to entertain more than challenge, and the character based cut-scenes and well-voiced loading screen narration definitely drive the game forward. Once I manage to ward of the Ruskies for good, I will most definitely be dipping my toe into the online waters and testing my mettle against all three people who were smart enough to buy this game. It does have me wanting to go and start playing Company of Heroes, though, so we’ll see what happens.

Ahem. Let’s keep this blog rolling. Like a blogroll. Ge– ah fuck it.

Staying with PC, I also got the chance to try out the UT3 and Call of Duty 4 (aka Second Coming) demos, and I must say both are in their own ways rather disappointing. To start with, Call of Duty 4 is no different, aside from setting and weaponry, than its predecessors. I was still herded through an insanely active firefight, I still took out an AA turret, and I still had to pop off a bunch of dumb enemies with laser-like aim in order to complete the level. The one noticeable change, the inclusion of a call for a helicopter airstrike, might actually be more of a detriment. Rather than having me do the expected, the game demanded that I go to a flashing circle on the ground and signal for a chopper to take out a building full of baddies. I was more than willing to go in and fight them, though, but the designers cleverly placed a bunch of fencing and indestructible rubble in my way so that I couldn’t go and be all I could be. Buncha slack-jawed… well, you get what I’m after. Basically, it’s Call of Duty. Four. If you like CoD, you will love this game, I’m sure. As someone who has never bought a CoD, but played through 1 and 2 and watched someone play 3, I will continue my trend of not buying the games and simply enjoy it should I get the chance. I hear the multiplayer is very fun, however, and I may be forced to spend even more of my ever-shrinking bankroll on this game should that prove to be true. Damnit.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, Unreal Tournament III essentially released just a multiplayer demo, with two maps and most of the old weapons making a return. The game looks like Gears of War, which is to say 60fps + gorgeous graphics + lightning fast gameplay. This is a formula for LUST, people. I posted some screens from my game, maxed out on 1280×1024 and I have to say I may almost be inclined to pay $50 for the game when I know it’s almost exclusively multiplayer. The tradeoff to that, though, is that I can get a PS3 version with all the features sans editing tools for $60, and be able to use it in the living room on a 42″ Panasonic plasma. Talk about a tough decision. But as for the demo, well, it made me realize that I love twitch-action shooters to death, and this will be no exception. The old UT feel is definitely back, only now with chunky ass Gears model design and less neon-80s crap happening around you. It’s zen-like. If only the online part would work, I could really sink my teeth into this one. But alas, it seems a good demo is hard to come by.

Speaking of, I did download the Hellgate: London demo, and will be installing that tonight. I have no idea what it will be like, but I have been hearing good things from people who know what they are talking about. As such, I find that it is my duty to investigate further.

Ahhh, damn. I dragged on and on about PC games, and never got to the console and handheld stuff! Well, let this be a preview of things to come: Zelda DS is easy but magical, Tomb Raider Anniversary is like a puzzle-platforming version of heroin, and Ratchet and Clank, well, I’m in love. Seriously. $600 for a PS3 last year has, like a clairvoyant vision, become immediately realized as a down payment for this one game. Insomniac hasn’t failed me yet, and I shudder to think how stellar a Resistance: Rise of the Chimera will be. Drools all around, I suppose. Except for Halo 3. Halo gets the “that could be anal secretion” trophy. But, as I said, more on the console stuff next time — and maybe a taste of 30 Days of Night!

Has it really been seven weeks since I last wrote anything here? Well I guess that says a lot about the current state of affairs in the gaming world, let alone my own. To keep it short, college has become a bit of a mother-fucker this year, and the increased pressure from that, plus a few self-proposed changes in my disgusting habits–trying to keep up with the news, make more time for reading books and magazines, getting out of the computer chair every now and then–have left me very short on time for writing blog entries, and even playing some of the great games coming out has been difficult. However, that is not to say I have not persevered. So without further ado, it’s time to talk games.

The first game I’ve tackled is the last game I mentioned on here — Metroid Prime 3: Corruption. After only a few hours with the game, I was totally in love with the control scheme and blabbering to anyone who’d listen about how refreshing it was to play a shooter like Prime that placed an emphasis on interface; not just between the user and the controller but the character and the environment. Prime is truly an adventure game at heart. And so long as we forgive them game its historical conceits–everything seems made for a morphball to tunnel through, never naturally structured–the atmosphere the game presents is overly engaging. No two hallways are alike, no gimmicky puzzle must ever be repeated time and time again for the designers to get their jollies; Prime is a game that was made by people in love with the lore they created, and it clearly shows.

However, I must say that all is not gold in the land of Samus. There are several flaws with the latest Metroid that harken back to the roots of the franchise, as well as a few gaming cliches that should have been swept aside. First and foremost, the continuing, persistent use of voice-over directives that require the player to bring up the map before they stop are incredibly obnoxious. I cannot think of a more profound way of pulling the user out of the experience than to beat them over the head with instructions and insistent objective reminders. Yes, I know that I have to find an item capable of opening the next type of door in order to shut down the core reactor that will lower the shield and let me get into the giant seed that has plunged into the planet, corrupting all the life on its surface. You told me about it right before I turned the game off last night, I don’t think I’ve forgotten.

And please, must you belittle your own effort at making this game so beautiful by putting a time requirement on the last level of the game? I’ve played for 15 hours to get there, why the hell do I get 15 minutes to run through it? My friend, a longtime fan of the series, still to this day loads up a copy of Metroid Prime just to look around at all the detail in that game’s world. In Elysia, the Chozo-influenced world of Corruption, gorgeous mosaic artwork adorns the floors and doorways of all the floating buildings, and no one but a few steam-powered robots are there to badger me while I study them. There should be no concerns of “pacing” in a Metroid game; the entire purpose of the series was, until this game, to emphasize detachment, isolation, and the sense of wonder and fear one has in exploring a new environment. There were no commander’s orders to report to Waypoint A and grab Plot Device C, just suit upgrades imperative to your own survival. The further you pressed into the core of Zebes or Norion, that progression was made at your own risk, by your own accord. The fate of the galaxy was not in a bounty hunter’s hands.

I know a lot of people in the press said that the first level of MP3 is incongruous with the rest of the game, that it felt forced and too much like a Halo set-up for it to be truly Metroid. I agree, to an extent. Samus should not be the pawn of the Galactic Federation, she is and always has been an autonomous, independent figure. She has been a beacon of feminine power in the gaming world for too long to be forced to obey orders from some generic army goon, who we cannot and will not feel empathy towards as his ship is attacked by Space Pirates. That bastard got what he deserved.

In fact, the entirety of this game it feels like Samus is never really where she is supposed to be. After being attacked by Dark Samus (spoilarz olol), she is fitted with a new suit that gives her access to something called Hypermode: an essential yet utterly shallow game mechanic. After using this mode for too long, Samus will become corrupted and you have to expell an energy tank’s worth of energy to recover. Otherwise, you pop into it, fire off a salvo of lasers to kill anyone in your way, then pop back out. If the regular weapon and missiles were not so inaffective against the normal enemies, this would be entirely unnecessary. But that is a minor nitpick at this point. What I’m trying to explain is that Samus, or You, wakes up in this new power suit, “rebuilt” so to speak by the Federation and charged with saving the world. But you’re a bounty hunter. This feels more like the storyline of Bionic Woman (more on that one later) than Metroid. If only the game wasn’t so damn good, I would be outraged as a casual fan of the series.

So yes, Corruption was awesome. It’s about 16 hours long, the controls were never a burden unless a very precise aim was needed to hit a target (not often enough to cause me greif, thankfully), the levels are stunning for a Wii title, and the core mechanics of older Metroid games make a few welcome cameos–I’m looking at you, stacking beams. Overall, in a year starved for good games exclusive to the system, Metroid Prime 3 makes for a great breath of fresh air for Wii owners, and will at least make the wait until November that much shorter. Recommended.

Yikes. I really got on a tangent in this post. I’m going to just put this up as its own topic and post another article about the rest of the games, music, books, anime, and TV I was going to mention. Maybe two articles. Maybe a whole series.