Super Manic Smash Buttons

by Jenn Engle

I loathe Super Smash Bros. Melee in such a way I don’t think I’ll ever be able to explain.

However, that being said, watching Myers, Will, and The Screaming Mimi play SMSB is exceedingly entertaining. There are cries of “No! No! NO! Donkey Kong wants to jump UP! UP! DONKEY KONG DOESN’T WANT THE HAMMER!” And (amidst the cursing and swearing) “Behold, I, Pikachu, am your GOD! Your bizarre and unholy GOD!”

Punctuated by more cursing and swearing. Occasionally Joe screams like the over-caffeinated spaz he is.

While the levels are beautifully rendered, the frantic action of the game doesn’t allow you any time to appreciate them; you’re too busy jumping, scrambling, and trying to figure out just which little character you are, and how to get back onto the screen. All in all, I’ve found the levels to be either an excruciating series of near-miss jumps, or to be just the opposite: boring static platform landscapes that offer no challenge what-so-ever. I suppose my dislike of the backgrounds could have more to do with the lack of selection (unless we’ve really not unlocked as much as we thought we had…) as well to do with the nauseating and seizure-inducing camera work that seems wholly inappropriate for a straight out-and-out fighting game like this.

It could also have a bit to do with the fact that these three guys always tend to hand me my ass when we play this game: I’ve no idea what to do when it comes to the controls, and the learning curve seems to consist of “smash as many buttons as you can, as quickly as you can.”

Still, the nice thing about the game is that it leaves the guys quiet and tractable once they’re done playing it, even if you spend the preceding hours wondering when your neighbors are going to call the police.

————————————————————–

While it is very well-written everything in this review is wrong except for two statements:

1. Behold, I, Pikachu, am your GOD! Your bizarre and unholy GOD!

2. "the nice thing about the game is that it leaves the guys quiet and tractable once they’re done playing it,"

honestly it really is the only way to get me down for my nap without making a fuss.

– Your Humble Nerdtropolis Editor

It’s all Fun and Games Until Someone Loses a Halo

by Jenn Engle

There’s something decadent about destroying a beautiful and elaborate civilization, all the while listening to background music that sounds more from Enya’s latest album than from a videogame. Richly textured landscapes of carved and mossy temple walls are ignored as my avatar, my will made flesh if you’ll pardon the analogy, wanders the hallways with a high-powered rifle, blowing anything that moves off its feet. Life is simple in outer space, and it is best if you keep it that way: do not listen to their screams as you cut them down, and do not wonder at the elegance of their culture as you systematically erase it this plane of existence.

It is something of a cross between a serial killer movie gone horribly wrong (or horribly right, depending on your inclinations) and an act of genocide set against a science-fiction backdrop. Which, now think of it, is where most science fiction stories tend to go with their story; almost all of the masters of the genre have at one point or another put the human race up against the rest of the galaxy, in a sort of cosmic David and Goliath retelling.

Halo2, as unlike most of the other shoot-em-up games I’ve played, really does seem to have a story to tell, and tell, it does. Unlike a few of the other long-awaited video game blockbusters of this generation, Halo2 does not skimp on the story in favour of dark and moody lighting (although there is some of that, annoyingly enough) nor does it try to distract players from any lack of story by keeping the fighting fast and furious (although, yes, there is a lot of fighting.) While the ending to Halo2 may be a bit more of a surprise cliff hanger than you might expect, I found it to be a refreshing break, and good stopping point for this portion of the story.

I fully look forward to bullying Myers into getting Halo3 when it comes out, under the guise of “research.”

Until then, I will content myself with the massacres at the Temple of Enya and the comic book series.

Summer Doldrums
by Jenn Engle

I’ve lost my library card, there’s nothing good on TV, and Zelda: Twilight Princess is still (at least) 6 months away from my hot and greedy little hands. (And they promised it to me back in November of last year, those lying game store bastards!)

There’s nothing to it but to browse the Ten Bucks and Under Bin at the local game store, (all the while glaring at the stupidly optimistic clerk who I just know is going to try to pre-sell me something.)

Still, I’ve found a few gems of interest. Today’s Bargain Bin Buy: Crimson Skies. Crimson Skies can usually be found (depending on your luck) for something between $9 and $6 (I found a copy for $3.99 if you can believe it!) and is so very worthwhile. I don’t know much about how hyped this game was or wasn’t when it first came out, but it’s in every Used Games Bin I’ve seen for the Xbox.

Normally I find myself drawn to multi-players rather than single player games, and this was no exception. The game staged a furious four-way dogfight between myself and three of my closest friends. The controls were relatively simple but efficient enough (triggers shoot, analogue sticks control movements,) and flying through the exploding wreckage of my best friend’s aeroplane: far more satisfying than I can articulate. In all actuality, the game’s flight controls are so nice, I wish more games with vehicles in them would “borrow” from the engine.

Crimson Skies is an easy enough game that it can be played straight out of the box, with little-to-no learning curve. However, after everyone went home, I found myself contemplating the game a bit further. Some gamers are just better than other gamers, at anything they play. I, sadly, am not one of those gamers. After the furious dogfights were over and everyone had gone home, I decided to quietly turn the console back on, and see if I could get some “extra” flight time in, and perhaps hone up on my skills as a pilot, and figure out how the hell Will was circle strafing me in a plane.

The best way to do this, of course, is to play the single player (if you can stand that sort of thing) or the tutorials (if you can find them) or online against people you don’t know (if you hate yourself.) I chose the single-player mode, and was nicely surprised by how interesting the game was. It starts out with some cheesy dialog, some zany Indian Jones daring-do, and then cuts immediately into flying and dog fighting. There is a minimal amount of “in game flight instruction,” but it doesn’t distract from the main theme of the game, which is: Destruction From Above.

The setting is also very pretty (for those of you that like such things,) and before you know it, you’re playing the game –not to learn enough about flying to destroy your friends more efficiently- but because you’re interested in what is going to happen with the characters. Setting, story, and blowing up giant insectoid-robots. What more would you like out of an Xbox game?

Oh, under $10 bucks? Yeah, that’s cool too.

Me-tropolis

I just want add that for me Crimson Skies goes right next to my copy of Splinter: Chaos Theory where I love the multi-player but find the single-player to be the a fast-road to nap-land.

WarioWare

Some games are well crafted masterpieces of design, like a fine swiss clock they move in perfect timing. Some are technical masterpieces that press the limits of what is possible at the time. And some games are WarioWare.

There is one thing I have come to love about the current generation of Nintendo games and that is the absolute celebration of madness they seem to represent.

WarioWare is not so much a game as an insane mishmash of a few dozen games that all combine to form a sort kaleidoscope of crazy fun.

WarioWare is one of those games that is really made for spending a Saturday with a group of friends descending deeper and deeper into the madness.

Basically, it minigame is part of some grander over-game. Players compete to win the most minigames.

It really is one of those rare games that is more interested in the joy of playing games then the players competitive instincts. More importantly it is nice to see a game that remembers that it is supposed to be a game rather then a showcase for state of the art techogly.

Fatal Frame

Horror is a strange genre to be translated to videogames. On one hand it is a very visual medium and like videogames the most successful horror stories are immersive in their very nature. Great videogames and great horror stories breakdown the borders between media and the audience until it feels like there is no longer any separation.

On the other hand the problem with horror in videogames is that horror works best as genre where the protagonists are forced into circumstances beyond their control and then things become increasingly dire until there is no going back. The best horror stories become increasingly horrific and rarely do the protagonists feel that they have conquered the forces of darkness at best they end with a stalemate.

This is becomes problematic in videogame where there is still a sense that the player is competing against the game. If there is no sense that the player can win then there is a sense that the game itself has been undermined. A game where the player has lost before it even begins is unlikely to popular with its audience.

This brings me to Fatal Frame a horror game for the Playstation 2 and XBOX that sets the bar for horror games into the stratosphere. Borrowing its style and tone from Japanese horror films like Ju-rei and Ju-on Fatal Frame is set in an ancient house that was the site of a series of ritual slayings. Players take on the role of a young girl searching for her brother and a group of writers who vanished inside the house.

Inside the house the player encounters the tortured spirits of those who died in there while she tries to solve the house’s ancient secret. The game uses a series of clever tricks to maintain a sense of overpowering dread.

In most games players start with a set basic weapons to dispatch the horrors that confront them as the game progresses the player gets access to increasingly more impressive firepower. This has the effect that it is satisfying for the player to wield sexier and sexier weapons but it also undermines the element of horror. Also, often the fights in games feel shoe-horned to give the player something to do between plot points. In Fatal Frame the player is equipped with a camera that has the power to trap lost souls. This has two nice elements in addition to being a fairly original piece of game play. First, the player never really feels more powerful then the ghosts the camera feels so little like a weapon that you never feel like you are really fighting them so much as desperately surviving each encounter. Secondly, because the player has to look through the camera to use it you have to look at the ghosts head on.

Another the neat trick them game uses are a series of audiotapes left by the missing team of writers that are strung about the house. In fact, all of the audio effects are incredibly effective in the game. There are many chilling moments when the player hears a ghost before you see it.

I can rattle on forever about the effective tricks that Fatal Frame uses but perhaps the best endorsement (and least professional) I can give is simply this. I have been unable to play past the first third of the game after a late night session I had to walk from one end of my darkened house to the other in a state of mortal terror.

Creative License Part 2: Knights of the Old Republic

This is the second article in a two-part series on the use of franchise licenses in videogames. Like the previous article on Star Wars: Battlefront this article focuses on a rare instance in the world of licensed gaming a franchise game that works.

Like Star Wars: Battlefront, Knights of the Old Republic is set in George Lucas’ Star Wars property. However, Knights of the Old Republic succeeds as a game for completely different reasons.

Battlefront is a game of excellence because the game’s creators found a part of the property that was ripe for a translation exploited it. In Battlefront’s case it was furious arcade-style combat set in the epic battles of Lucas’ setting.

Knights of the Old Republic is technically set in the same property as other Star Wars based games. However, the game moves the time period to long before either cycle of Star Wars films.

This proves to be an extremely intelligent move on the designer’s part, in this case my would-be fiancée Bioware(1), as it allows them to create an effective story-driven game without the hindrances of the franchise.

By changing the timeline to mostly-original setting Bioware has an opportunity to avoid one of the largest problems with franchise games, a sense of involvement. In a game set within a storyline created for a different medium (for example a game based on The Empire Strikes Back) there is little opportunity for discovery and the actions of the player feel as though they have little consequence because they are merely recreating a story that has already been told. I think this ignores one of the fundamentally unique elements of videogames as medium, the ability to give the audience a sense that it is participating in a story rather then merely observing it.

Instead of trying to replicate an already produced work from Lucas’ cannon Bioware instead creates a setting that captures the themes of the setting. For example, in the game the protagonist is often tempted with the potential for corruption and it is the player who responsible for the decision. This is the critical difference from the aforementioned adaptation of The Empire Strikes Back where those decisions have already been made for the player. Even in a game where there is little actual decision making on the player’s part the player still plays a role in their discovery.

Knights of the Old Republic manages to escape the trap of many licensed games by using new ideas to explore the themes and motifs of the franchise allowing the player a sense of involvement that is rare in licensed game design. And isn’t involvement what videogames are supposed to be about?

(1)Shall we just give into our feelings and dismiss this foolish pretense?

Creative License: Part 1

Star Wars: Battlefront

The history of licensed properties turned into videogames is long and mostly grim. From the infamous, X-Men for the Nintendo Entertainment System, to the really infamous, E.T. for the Atari 2600, there have been few fondly remembered entries into the field.

There are a great deal of reasons for this. The most obvious and probably most common is naked. Often licensed games are rushed off of the production line with little thought to the design or playability of the game. The results are games that are often train wrecks of painful repetitiveness and pointless tedium. This is the case for any number NES, Genesis and Playstation sidescrollers that creators would often squeeze round licensed characters into square-hole design elements. Occasionally, adaptations fail simply because the developers refuse to properly understand the source material and its appeal.

For example, Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth started out as excellent attempt to capture tone and feel of the writing of H.P. Lovecraft. But the game slowly degenerates into a tedious Doom re-tread.

The less said about Fight Club the videogame the better(1).

However, there are successful adaptations, like Star Wars: Battlefront. George Lucas’ Star Wars may be the most heavily mined franchise in the videogame industry. However, Star Wars: Battlefront manages a rare feat in the cycle of Star Wars games it sucks out all of the pomp and circumstance that has ruined numerous other games and boils the setting down to single playable element.

Star Wars: Battlefront is a first-or-third-person-shooter set during numerous massive battles from the Star Wars canon. Players select a side, Rebel, Imperial, Republic (clone troopers) or CIS (battle droids) depending on the battle. From there they fight over checkpoints for control of the battlefield. Players may grab control of vehicles as they appear on the map or may charge into battle on foot.

Essentially, Star Wars: Battlefront is very straightforward over- the-top battlefield combat, set in a popular science-fiction franchise. The combat is fast and furious with almost no break in the action. If a player dies a point is subtracted from her team’s total reinforcements and the player spawns back into the game at a captured checkpoint, with very little break in the action. Star Wars: Battlefront avoids the flaws in other licensed games by finding a single excellent concept from the franchise, in this case epic science-fiction battles, and lets players cut loose.

It is a simple, elegant premise that uses the license to enhance the entertainment of the game rather then hinder it.

The game is not without its flaws. The controls for the flying vehicles are so poor and haphazard as to make them almost unusable. Also, sometimes the game spawns in the stars of the Star Wars franchise (Darth Vader or Luke Sky Walker) who are supposed be powerful allies for their side. Instead the AI on these characters is so poor that they become almost useless(2).

Nonetheless the end result is an entertaining use of the Star Wars franchise and a game that is still very playable.

(1) Which runs neck and neck with Abbie Hoffman’s Steal This Videogame for Most Ironic Videogame Concept Ever.

(2) But not totally useless, watching the Dark Lord of the Sith wage epic combat with the terrain features is comedy gold.