And so it begins

30 October 09 | 11:06 | Posted by:

The production side of GameSpite Quarterly 3 began last night. I'm taking a slightly different approach to the book this time by doing all the artwork and layout stuff before I place the text; hopefully this will speed things along. I am sort of concerned about how big this issue is going to be! It didn't seem so enormous originally, but now that pretty much everything is in... it's pretty huge. As you may have guessed, it centers around profiles of videogame characters, and there are more than 120 of them, ranging in length from 150 to 1,500 words.

I guess what I'm saying is, brace yourselves.

As usual, the site will probably be a bit slow to update for the next couple of weeks, as I am but mortals and have only been given 24 hours in my day. And I usually squander about seven of those on sleep. Sometimes I also do things that don't involve publishing articles about videogames, like baking lemon puddings with my fiancée or, I dunno, eating meals. Shameful, I know.

Anyway, don't think of the next few weeks as lacking content; think of it as a low-power mode. GameSpite is going green by consuming less energy. I've just saved the world for you. You're welcome.

category: blog | forums | seven comments | §

GameSpite Quarterly 2, #14: The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask

29 October 09 | 00:01 | Posted by:

14. The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask
Update since the last time we published a Majora's Mask article in these here parts: No, I haven't played very much of it yet. I'm still working on that whole "foregoing sleep in order to make time for gaming" thing. Majora's Mask helps! That creepy moon about to crash into the world is the sort of thing to keep a person awake the whole night.

category: games, gamespite | forums | eleven comments | §

GameSpite Quarterly 2, #15: Metal Gear Solid

27 October 09 | 22:53 | Posted by:

15. Metal Gear Solid
This article pretty much sums up everything I like about MGS -- everything except the incredible sense of rightness I felt as I crept through a tank hangar, the camera pulled up at a high overhead angle, and suddenly realized that this really was a thoroughly modern sequel to the NES game I loved so much. (Later I learned the NES game was a sham, but never mind that.)

category: games, gamespite | forums | 19 comments | §

More than a mouthful

27 October 09 | 10:31 | Posted by:

I realized a couple of days ago that I think I've bitten off more than I can chew at work. I'm managing both features and blogs, which is all fine and well, but there's also the newly-reinvigorated Retronauts podcast and and podcast for The Grind, each of which takes about a full work day to record, edit, process, and prepare. And even that's fine! I may or may not be a regular participant on the "flagship" podcast, too. And I'm actually OK with that, if that's how it goes.

But then I suddenly realized that all of this means I have to start playing videogames again. If I want to be able to talk about these things, I'm going to need to experience them. I have no idea where I'm going to find time for this! I kind of gave up console gaming last year so I could devote my time to getting into shape, and that's been a massive success, in the sense that I am considerably less massive than I was a year ago and generally feel better, and better about myself. But every hour spent exercising is an hour not spend sitting at a console. And now I kind of need to sit at a console. Portables games are fine, because I can squeeze in time with those anywhere. But now I'm looking down the barrel of New Super Mario Bros., Assassin's Creed II, Demon's Souls, Dragon Age: Origins, and several other massive time-sinks. I am not complaining that oh no what a burden, because they're all pretty rad games and I'm excited about all of them. I just have no earthly idea where I'm supposed to find the time to play them and have a personal life.

Anyway, I was wondering if someone could volunteer to play some current and upcoming releases for me and then use some sort of memory transference device to give me your experiences. I promise it won't hurt... much.

category: blog | forums | 21 comments | §

GameSpite Quarterly 2, #16: Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

26 October 09 | 06:41 | Posted by:

16. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
This crazy issue was, like, 10% Zelda by mass. If you took a centrifuge and spun this issue into its components, you'd have to fish a big ol' blob of Triforce-shaped crud out of the pulp. My heart is warmed by the fact that Ocarina of Time wasn't the most popular Zelda to make the list by a longshot. It's a good game, but is it the best game? Or even the best Zelda? Nah. It's still pretty OK!

category: games, gamespite | forums | six comments | §

Cast at Demonhead

25 October 09 | 14:38 | Posted by:

I can't vouch for how well it has turned out, but it seems some of the kids from Talking Time have put together their own podcast. If I ever listened to podcasts, this would be on the top of my list of things to check out! So if you are interested to see what happens when one man's website mutates beyond his involvement, please give it a listen. DO IT

category: gamespite | forums | one comment | §

GameSpite Quarterly 2, #43: Portal + a preview

25 October 09 | 10:13 | Posted by:

43. Portal
My favorite moment of Portal isn't any of the usual Internet touchstones, the Companion Cube or the cake or the song. No, it's the moment where you first see the protagonist, who is never depicted directly, in game or out. You have to improvise a solution, and when it actually works despite the seeming impossibility of it all, it's a surprise in the vein of Metroid's ending. Brilliant.

And now that we're in the final third of issue two reprints and issue three's final submission deadline is today, I figured this might be a good opportunity to offer a glimpse of what's in store for GameSpite Quarterly 3. Please click through for a sample article header from the next volume -- and don't worry, the type will show up far more clearly in print than in this downscaled graphic.

Post continued after link >>

category: games, gamespite | forums | eleven comments | §

A little housekeeping before the storm

24 October 09 | 09:35 | Posted by:

A delightful frenzy of editing, image production and layouts is about to explode in my mind as I buckle down to transform GameSpite Quarterly 3 from a bunch of disconnected text blocks into a published work. Before that happens, it's time to do a little housekeeping here. For starters, a bunch of people have asked how they can support the site, to which I can only shrug and say, "I dunno, err" -- well, now I've bothered to figure it out by putting together a new subscription button. Running this site costs a couple hundred bucks a month for bandwidth and server charges, so reader contributions are appreciated. Necessary, actually, as finances are tight enough on the home front that without this I'd have to kill off the forums. This is not a threat or anything; forums are just kinda expensive when they're being used so enthusiastically by so many people for such fantastic discourse. Every bit of support helps maintain the flow of stimulating intellectual conversation!

You can sign up for a $10 monthly subscription by clicking this button:

If you revile PayPal, feel free to contact me for alternatives.

Preserving the future of Talking Time is not all you get in return, fortunately. I also mail out professionally-published (as in, made by the same people who print the Quarterly) bonus book twice a year. Or that is the intent, anyway; I've only recently gotten this thing down to a system, but going forward it will be ultra-rad, and ultra-on-time. I'll probably throw in extra goodies with each book, too, just because I can.

And while I'm on the topic, I still have 10 extra copies of the most recent bonus (a roughly-40-page reprint of old comics from the past ten years of the site's history, with commentary) for anyone who is interested. Half my extras have been sold already, which means we have raised $200 for Child's Play! If we can sell the rest, that will be $400 for charity, which would be pretty great. Please drop me an email if you're interested. (And please drop me a line if you were already supposed to have received a book by now; apparently there were some postal shenanigans and a few copies have gone missing.)

OK, back to not talking about money again.

category: gamespite | forums | five comments | §

GameSpite Quarterly 2, #17: Rock Band series

22 October 09 | 22:54 | Posted by:

17. Rock Band series
Here is a big ol' chunk of text about one of the most popular games of the generation. Rock Band makes me kind of sad I have no aptitude for playing instruments, because I would like to do something besides singing when I play Rock Band. Especially since I don't even like most of the songs in the games' sets. When they finally publish King Crimson: Rock Band, however...

category: games, gamespite | forums | ten comments | §

H-holy crap

21 October 09 | 22:26 | Posted by:

I think my skull just exploded with delight.

category: games | forums | seven comments | §

2D: Let's use retro correctly!

20 October 09 | 19:55 | Posted by:

It hasn't taken much time at all for retro-flavored graphics to go from a refreshing relief to a source of deep cynicism. That very cynicism is precisely why I've more or less ignored Half-Minute Hero since about 30 seconds after it was first announced in Japan as Yuusha 30. A gimmicky pile of tripe begging for attention by pretending to be 8-bit -- how completely lame.

This was a mistake, and I apologize. I finally tried out Half-Minute Hero tonight, and while I've only scraped at the tip of the pixellated iceberg, I'm really impressed with the game. Where an increasing number of games use pixel-heavy visuals out of laziness or bandwagon-hopping, it serves a different purpose here.

In Half-Minute Hero, those lumpy, bumpy pixels symbolize the game's core concept: Condensing the gameplay and mechanics of an 8-bit RPG into a fast-paced action game. The entire concept of "RPG" is reduced to a series of streamlined battles, simple dialogue, and minimalist gear and leveling systems. Players have no control over how battles play out; they're kinda like automated Hydlide in a side-on view, and victory comes strictly through brute force via rapid leveling.

It's not entirely unlike Progress Quest on some level, though it's less of a joke and more of a... well, it's not quite a puzzle game, and it's not fully a strategy game. But it makes use of the parts of your brain that you need to negotiate those genres, stripping the role-playing concept down to a series of brisk actions. Towns consist of a single-screen strip of land with a couple of villagers waiting to deliver a line of dialogue, and a single more powerful weapon or piece of armor than was available in the previous chapter. Basically, a typical console RPG, minus all the boring crap that stretches RPGs to 40-60 lengths.

This reductive approach to game design makes its retro-inspired pixel art a perfect fit. It's not about bandwagon-hopping or trend-riding; it's about communicating the feel and premise of the game in an intuitive and effective way. It's RPG by way of arcade sensibilities, and it looks like an old arcade game. Visuals any more complex than these would seem terribly out of place, and would probably actually get in the way.

I've only played a handful of missions, so maybe it'll ultimately prove to be a stupid, shallow mess in the long term! But at the very least, Half-Minute Hero demonstrates an unexpectedly effective synthesis of visuals and concept. It's always a pleasant surprise to see someone biting the old-school style for a reason.

category: 2D, games | forums | seven comments | §

GameSpite Quarterly 2, #18: Final Fantasy XII

19 October 09 | 21:45 | Posted by:

18. Final Fantasy XII
Hey kids, it's a piece on Final Fantasy XII! And since I didn't write it, it's only very positive instead of embarrassingly glowing. You know, I still haven't gotten around to finishing the game... I get closer from time to time, but I guess I was waiting for Square Enix to up-port the game to Xbox 360, or release the Zodiac Job Version, or something. But no! Silly me. Uh, anyway, good article. Read it.

category: games, gamespite | forums | 40 comments | §

GameSpite Quarterly 2, #19: StarCraft

18 October 09 | 20:10 | Posted by:

How can you tell I love you? You can tell because I spent the day at home working on GameSpite Quarterly 3 instead of going up to the office to play the copy of New Super Mario Bros. Wii Nintendo dropped off a few days ago. But it does feel nice to have things getting back on track again: The text for the next issue is nearly complete, I'll be mailing out all the books and other mailings I owe people in the next few days, and I'm pretty much caught up at work. I have interesting new duties at 1UP, a new podcast, and some other pending projects, too. Like the rad new blog we're launching tomorrow. I almost feel pretty OK about life for the first time in ages. Almost! It looks like the race to get my life back on track before I have a meltdown is nearing the finish line, although I'm still not sure which way the outcome will go.

19. StarCraft
I sure do wish I liked real-time strategy games, because then I might be interested in games like StarCraft and Brütal Legend. Apparently they keep cramming some of the best stories in the industry into these games! I'm fairly certain they do it out of spite directed specifically at me. Needless to say, given the name of this website, I totally respect that.

category: games, gamespite | forums | 19 comments | §

GameSpite Quarterly 2, #20: Suikoden II

17 October 09 | 20:03 | Posted by:

20. Suikoden II
The fact that Suikoden II -- one of the finest RPGs ever made -- is not available for download as a $6 PSN title while it sells for $200 or more on eBay is a sign that publishers exist to make people miserable. But if you can find a way to acquire it (preferably in a legal manner!), you owe it to yourself to play one of the most brilliantly understated masterpieces of all time.

category: games, gamespite | forums | 36 comments | §

It just goes to show

16 October 09 | 22:15 | Posted by:

I picked up the latest English volume of Battle Angel Alita: Last Order this week. Aside from the dopey extended ruminations on SPAAAAACE KARAAATEEEE, it was pretty dang good. If nothing else, it was nice to see the main character back in action after entirely too long -- and her newfound confidence was a nice contrast to all the spineless dithering of earlier volumes of Last Order.

I am not, however, entirely sure how I feel about her new appearance. The armored skirt thing is all well and good, but for some reason she has a tail. Kinda like Goku. I suppose it would be easy to write off this odd new development as a desperate attempt by Yukito Kishiro to pander to catgirl fetishists or some such, but I don't really think that's the case at all.

No, what it really means is that once you throw a battle tournament into the mix, any manga eventually mutates into Dragon Ball.

category: manga | forums | nine comments | §

GameSpite Quarterly 2, #44: Half-Life

15 October 09 | 21:54 | Posted by:

44. Half-Life
We're moving into the second half of issue two's content, and what better way to begin than with an ode to Half-Life? It's one of those games that, with a little finesse and the projection of a sense of confidence, could effectively be argued to be regarded as the turning point between the early years of gaming and its modern era. You know, if you were into that sort of posturing.

category: games, gamespite | forums | eight comments | §

2D: The flip side

14 October 09 | 21:09 | Posted by:

Lest one think this site has become a haven for mindless, drone-like cheerleading for 2D games, I downloaded the Japanese demo of Mega Man Battle Network: Operation Shooting Star today. And boy golly, is it pretty much the definition of why people tend to look down on games in two dimensions.

Some background info: OSS is a remake of the original Battle Network, kind of a DS port, but also kind of not -- apparently it's a crossover with the Mega Man Star Force series. I guess it's pretty much that episode of that awful Mega Man cartoon where Mega Man X travelled back in time to hang out with the original Mega Man, turned into an actual video game -- a bit of fanservice to be sure, only it's happening with the Mega Man franchise that hardcore Mega Man fans don't give a crap about. There's a certain perverse charm about that, and it amuses me.

And in theory, OSS should be pretty good. I really enjoyed the first couple of Battle Networks, until it became clear that the games would be incredibly unambitious rehashes padded by meandering, meaningless plots, year over yeard. And I enjoyed Star Force 3 this year, to a degree, because it reminded me of the quality core behind the games (so tragically obscured behind the flaws). Sadly, Star Force 3 had its own issues, the most crippling of which was the fact that the move to a 3D battle system greatly simplified the great combat that made Battle Network worth playing despite its shortcomings. The 3x6 battle grid was trimmed to 3x4, greatly reducing the strategy and flexibility of the games. OSS, however, promises to bring the Star Force series into the Battle Network mechanics -- theoretically, the best of two worlds.

Except, man, for a "new" game, it sure is a lazy rehash. The demo consisted of just three battles hosted by Mr. Famous, and what those battles revealed is that OSS is more or less just a GBA game. Same sprites, same backgrounds, same everything. Not just a GBA game, either; a first-gen GBA game that looked merely OK eight years ago.

This screenshot is from the new game! Not the original Battle Network! But you'd never know unless you peeked at the image dimensions and noticed it's 256x192 instead of 240x160. That's... pretty crummy. By all rights, OSS should have been an opportunity for Capcom to go back and really do justice to the original Battle Network -- spruce it up with new visuals, better music, more interesting character designs. Instead, Capcom appears to have used it as an opportunity to rake in some easy cash. Gamers haven't responded nearly as well to the Star Force games as they did to Battle Network (the series was a bona-fide smash in Japan, and pretty successful over here, too), so they're taking their newer character into the games that people actually enjoyed. Yet rather than lavish a sure-fire money-maker with any sort of care, Capcom looks to be content to simply recycle old content.

It's disappointing -- not least of all because this is exactly the sort of thing that fuels the mindset that 2D visuals are a step backward. OSS strikes me as a genuine step backward in every way, and the visuals are only the tip of that particular regressive iceberg... but they're the part that people will notice first. I guess this is the part where I shake my fist and shout, "Thanks for nothing, buttheads!"

category: 2D, games | forums | ten comments | §

2D: Crisis of confidence

13 October 09 | 20:13 | Posted by:

As I mentioned in my 1UP review of A Boy and His Blob, a lot of gamers have a dire view of hand-drawn visuals. They see a 2D game and immediately dismiss it; if it ain't a DLC game, if it ain't ten bucks or less, it ain't a good deal. Are you one of these people? If so, come closer. No, closer. There. Now, stand still.

Aaaaaannd: POW.

Now, you may be wondering why I've just kicked you in the genitals. This is a reasonable question, but it has a simple answer: It is because you are a terrible person and I do not think you deserve to procreate. I have just weeded your foul seed from the gene pool. I'm sorry, but it needed doing.



Also annoying: The pervasive mindset that downloadable games are somehow less worthwhile than retail games. In truth, the ratio of cream vs. crap is about the same regardless of medium -- most things are terrible, and the relatively rare good stuff is worth celebrating no matter what form it takes -- so that's a meaningless dichotomy to begin with. But it becomes even more irritating when you consider the aforementioned collective dismissal of 2D graphics and apply the logical transitive conclusion to these assumptions: that is, 2D games should be downloads; downloadable-only games are worthless; ergo, 2D games are worthless. This is not acceptable.

There's nothing about 3D games that's inherently better or worth more than 2D games. But that doesn't mean 2D games are automatically superior, either. That's just silly. Some games work better in one format than the other, and I always appreciate a developer who knows which approach is best for a given project. I hate playing the early Grand Theft Auto games, because the top-down view was inadequate for what DMA was aspiring to. Truth be told, I even kind of like Dragon Quest better in 3D, despite the fact that it's such a traditional series -- the dynamic camera angles of Dragon Quest IX are a simple embellishment, but they make the battles much more interesting. On the other hand, something like Symphony of the Night or, obviously, A Boy and His Blob is going to be a lot more fun in two dimensions. Of course, the Mario games are probably the shining example of knowing which format is best for the job: Super Mario Galaxy couldn't possibly work on a flat plane, and New Super Mario Bros. would have been a disaster if EAD had tried making it some over-the-shoulder mess.

Of course, one need look no further than the previous version of A Boy and His Blob -- the ghoulish DS atrocity that thankfully died a quiet death after its E3 showing several years ago -- for an example of how using the right format for the job can still go horribly wrong if you misuse that format. No offense to the person who designed Blob's DS graphics, but I sure am glad the game ultimately ended up in the hands of WayForward, a company that really respects the artistic merits of the medium.

The version of A Boy and His Blob we did get, the one on Wii, is really a lovely game, a children's picture book come to life. It's charming through and through, with countless little animations to give life to the characters. Every level has incidental life crawling through it, worms and bugs and fireflies and weird little... blob things on Blobolonia -- something generally lacking in all games. It goes a long way toward making the world feel alive. And like I said in the review, it stands apart from most lush hand-drawn games by offering actual substance beneath all that beauty. There's a lot to the game, probably a good 20 hours of play (at least) if you want to complete all 80 stages. And it's challenging! And fun!



It's a shame the game faces an uphill sales battle because it's lovingly hand-crafted to resemble a Disney movie rather than built from rubbery (and probably not especially charming) triangles. But who can fathom the mind of the average gamer? I'm pretty sure that everyone except me is crazy, so I don't even bother anymore. Anyway, the point is that A Boy and His Blob is great, and lovely, and anyone who poo-poohs it as an overpriced bit of fluff that should have been a download-only game is never allowed to have babies.

category: 2D, games | forums | 35 comments | §

GameSpite Quarterly 2, #21: Star Control II

12 October 09 | 17:46 | Posted by:

This entry marks the midpoint of GameSpite Quarterly 2's shift from print to online, and at this point the third issue should be in the hopper. Unfortunately, all the things that have kept me from completing more mundane tasks are also bogging down production of the next issue (and everything in my life, really), so I suspect it'll probably be around Thanksgiving before the next magazine goes up for sale. The submission deadline for content is in two weeks, and it usually takes about a month to run things through layout and proofing... so, yeah. Please bear with us! It'll still be close enough to quarterly that we won't be violating the name. I hope.

21. Star Control II
And on to today's content proper: A look back at Star Control II. I'm sad to say I've never played StarConII, despite it being hailed as a classic. I have very fond memories of renting a Sega Genesis and the first Star Control with some friends back in about 1990 or so, but apparently StarCon II is way, way better than the original. It's available to play for free, so don't be a fool like I've been.

category: games, gamespite | forums | fourteen comments | §

Out of commission

11 October 09 | 20:28 | Posted by:

I was hoping to get caught up everything pending for GameSpite this weekend -- registrations, administration, new writers, mailings, etc. -- but my fiancée has been extremely ill, and tending to her has taken up all my time. Things should be up to speed again soon, I hope. If not, I'll be having some angry words with her doctor.

category: blog | forums | twelve comments | §

GameSpite Quarterly 2, #22: Final Fantasy IX

10 October 09 | 22:05 | Posted by:

22. Final Fantasy IX
Today's feature posits that Vivi is the central figure in Final Fantasy IX, a position I have difficulty refuting! So... I'm not really sure why I didn't include Vivi in any of the artwork in this article. I guess I'm some kind of jerk or something. And now poor Vivi is up there in automaton heaven, crying his little glowing eyes out. Yeah, I'm pretty much the most horrible webmaster ever.

category: games, gamespite | forums | fifteen comments | §

GameSpite Quarterly 2, #23: Pokemon series

09 October 09 | 21:32 | Posted by:

23. Pokémon series
To celebrate the billionth GameSpite article about Pokémon, I chose the single most inappropriate piece of official Nintendo art I could find for the header. Congratulations! Your employer has just added this site to your firewall blacklist. In the meanwhile, live it up with this fine Pokémon retrospective. Although really, it's more like a confessional than a retrospective.

category: games, gamespite | forums | eight comments | §

GameSpite Quarterly 2, #24: Cave Story

08 October 09 | 20:15 | Posted by:

24. Cave Story
I was planning to post this yesterday, but then -- by an odd coincidence -- Tyrone Rodriguez from Nicalis said he was stopping by 1UP HQ to show me the WiiWare version of the game today. So, I decided to hold off so that I could weigh in on the remake in this post. And the answer is: It's great! But then, it's the same game as the one described here, so wasn't that a given, really?

category: games, gamespite | forums | six comments | §

2D (or not 2D): Having faith in Rocket Knight

06 October 09 | 21:16 | Posted by:

As I was preparing for my flight home from Tokyo Game Show about ten days ago, dreading the inevitable jetlag that would follow, Matt Leone asked if I would be willing to follow up my flight from TGS with a trip to L.A. to check out Konami's new sequel to Rocket Knight. Despite my grim realization that this would do said jetlag no favors, I happily agreed -- in part because it would be a cool exclusive for the site, in part because I'm all for classic revivals, in part because it would be a good excuse to finally play the original Sparkster trilogy, and in part because it's connected to occasional GameSpite contributor Tomm Hulett. I've known Tomm for an awfully long time now, and we've become friends in large part because we share similar tastes in games (for instance, while I was champing at the bit for games like Bumpy Trot and Contact to make their way west, he helped get them localized). I don't have any nostalgic fondness for Rocket Knight (though I'm learning to love it), but I was interested to see what he'd do with such a unique series. Contra 4 was pretty much exactly what I'd been wanting from a Contra game for a decade -- more running and gunning, fewer show-stopping boss battles -- and my E3 demo of Silent Hill: Shattered Memories was genuinely astounding and made me interested in a game whose genre I actively avoid. So, I figured Rocket Knight had good odds of impressing me.

And it did! I'm a picky bastard when it comes to classic-style remakes and revivals, but this one looks to be on the right track. I've seen a lot of complaints about the game's visual style, but with a fast-paced action game like this, aesthetics are a secondary consideration to how a game feels. How it plays. Is it responsive? Does it move well without excessive animation getting in the way? I do believe the answer is yes. Neither Matt nor I were able to play Rocket Knight for ourselves, but it was obvious from both the game trailer and the live demo we saw that Sparkster moves right. I'm not alone in coming to this conclusion; Matt noticed it as well. And with that, my uncertainty about the game fell away.



Finding the proper feel of a platformer, I suspect, is the trickiest part of making a game in the classic style. And it's no less daunting for the fact that there have been so many great platformers over the years to be compared to. But it's essential to get that part right, because in the end it's how a game plays that determines whether or not it's regarded with fondness years later.

Look: Super Mario Bros. is remembered because it was weird, sure. But more importantly, it was the first platformer to feel perfect. The games that had come before were too limited, too cramped, too stiff, too punishing. Mario had these amazing spot-on physics that offered multiple intuitive levels of control for the way you ran, the way you jumped, the way you swam. There was just a touch of inertia to Mario's movements, but not enough to be frustrating -- merely enough to keep you on your toes and enable sneaky tricks like running and ducking under low ceilings. Mario moved the way you thought he should, even if it didn't bear much relation to reality, and that's why his game was so incredibly fun (and remains so enduring).

The biggest complaint I have about 2.5D platformers isn't the look of the things; I accept that, realistically speaking, 3D models are a lot more economical than classic sprites. Especially on an HD system. Look at King of Fighters XII: Gorgeous game, but really only half a game. The general consensus is that SNK Playmore will eventually create a full HD version of KoF, but it'll come incrementally, because those graphics are just so incredibly expensive to make for better-than-standard-definition.

Given a choice between low-rez sprites or high-definition polygons, I'll take... well, a mix of both, actually. There's room for each approach. I certainly won't begrudge a developer (or, more to the point, a publisher, since they're the ones who bankroll these things) for choosing to go with the style that'll run on the same platform as Halo or The Last Guardian. In fact, I think it's great. I'd love for more new classic-style games to be available on HD systems, help shake off the stigma that just because something employs an older format of gameplay it's inherently dated. In a perfect world, there would be a whole damn lot of games that look like Vanillaware creations; in our miserable and miserly real world, though, I realize that certain tradeoffs have to be made. So it goes.

Anyway, no; the biggest complaint I have about 2.5D platformers is the way their looks tend to interfere with the gameplay. There's almost always less precision, less responsiveness to a polygonal character than to a sprite. That's simply how it works, for any number of technical and aesthetic reasons. It's pretty rare to come across a 2.5D game that feels as snappy as a true hand-drawn 2D platformer. Maybe it's because developers won't commit to sacrificing smoothness for the sake of speed, or maybe it's because publishers get all fussy when games emphasize playability over looking pretty for the trailer. Whatever; the point is, polygons are often a sign of compromised mechanics.



Fortunately, that doesn't seem to be the case with Rocket Knight. Climax genuinely looks to have put the action ahead of the game's looks, which is why the camera is pulled back a bit more than most people expect. The characters are smaller and the perspective larger so that everything can move more speedily and players will have more advance warning of hazards, allowing them to react quickly. I definitely prefer that style. Given a choice between tiny precision and jumbo clumsiness, I'll take tiny every time.

However, I don't want to go to bat too vigorously for this game without having played it. I can say objectively (and with corroboration!) that it looks great in motion, but I'm always mindful of appearances, and I don't want to give the impression that I'm only cheerleading Rocket Knight because I know the producer. I just like the way it moves! That's all. I figure I've been enough of a hardass in my reviews over the years that people trust me to be perfectly honest when I think a game sucks, regardless of who worked on it. Of course, needless to say, someone else will be reviewing Rocket Knight. I'm OK with handling impressions and previews, but I make it a point not to review games if I know people who are heavily involved in their development or localization.

(Well, I did make an exception for the Persona remake, I admit... but that's just because I got so hooked on the game when I was previewing it that I couldn't bear to give up the UMD ROM. Oh, come on, cut me some slack. It's Persona! And I'm only human.)

category: 2D, games | forums | eleven comments | §

GameSpite Quarterly 2, #45: Persona 3

05 October 09 | 21:04 | Posted by:

45. Persona 3
Remember back in the olden days when GameSpite was pretty much the all-Persona-3-all-the-time website? Consider this a fond remembrance of those bygone days! Thank goodness the game is finally coming out in a portable form so I can finally see what all these people have been going on about through my website. Ah, the promise of peace of mind.

category: games, gamespite | forums | 35 comments | §

GameSpite Quarterly 2, #25: Super Mario Bros.

04 October 09 | 22:10 | Posted by:

25. Super Mario Bros.
Our good friend Mr. Loki takes a break from his traditional comic-style evaluations of games to offer a prose-based (but hardly prosaic!) look back at the original Super Bros. that made me pause, step back, and take a look at the game with a fresh perspective and realize that, yeah, he's right. Super Mario is a pretty danged bizarre piece of work.

category: games, gamespite | forums | seven comments | §

2D: Living well is the best Revenge

03 October 09 | 14:56 | Posted by:

So maybe it's true that we're on the cusp of a new ice age of game localizations; U.S. publishers are looking at their bottom lines and saying, "Huh, maybe we can't afford to cater to the niche quite so enthusiastically when no one has money to spend." Interesting-looking games like Blood of Bahamut and SaGa 2: Goddess of Destiny and 7th Dragon seem likely to die a lonely death in Japan, just as in the 16-bit era, and there's not a damn thing you or I can do about it. (Unless you are the business development director of a niche publisher, of course, but I'm pretty sure Shane Bettenhausen never deigns to reads this site.)

It sucks, huh? Yes, it sucks. But there's still light in these dark times, hope for little flickering spots of joy to blaze against the darkness of a million identical first-person shooters slogging through the shiny grey dross of the Unreal 3 Engine. Not hope from Japan, no. Japan is less and less of a player every day; accept it and move along. But there's plenty of talent much closer to home, talent capable of looking beyond the obvious lure of the cutting, cookie-cutter edge of technology. There always has been. The difference is that now there are more venues for that talent to be expressed beyond iffy PC freeware, console and portable venues that cut through the inevitable driver and controller and update issues of PC gaming and offer the simplified experience preferred by those of us who'd rather not have to work for their entertainment. XBLA and WiiWare and PSN and PSP Minis and DSiWare. And now it all has the perfect poster child: Shantae



I've written about the Game Boy Color version of Shantae a few times over the years, because it's a fine little game. It was, in effect, a really fantastic non-linear NES platformer shoehorned onto a portable system; it was fun, it looked great, and it had an amusing sense of humor. And, eight years later, it's still the only game in what should by all rights be a series at this point.

It's not for lack of ambition. Shantae's creators, WayForward Technologies, shopped the prospect of a Game Boy Advance sequel around for years. Unfortunately, no one took the bait. Who knows why not, but in retrospect it was kind of a miracle that the first game ever made it out at all. It just so happened that Capcom decided there was money to be made in supporting the end-of-life Game Boy platform while everyone else was bracing for its successor and pushed out a ridiculous amount of good content for the system long after it had otherwise been abandoned. For whatever reason, no one was willing to take a similar risk with the next portable generation, and so Shantae languished but for a wistful dream on the company's fansite and a handful of obsessive fans. (For the record, I don't count myself among their numbers -- I want a sequel, but I do have some sense of perspective about it all.)

Shantae Advance looked pretty good, even if it was only a mock-up; the images above were officially released to press sites by WayForward to drum up support for the game. And when news came that Nintendo would be offering DLC software for DSi, one of my first thoughts was: Hey, this would be a great fit for Shantae. When WayForward announced support for DSiWare in the form of the pretty darned good Mighty Flip Champs, I nodded and thought: This is a good sign. And now, finally, Shantae: Risky's Revenge is a real thing that has appeared in the pages of Nintendo Power, and it was written up by Phil Theobald, who is a good person and would not toy with our feelings.


Risky's Revenge wasn't a shock, really. The big surprise is just how much better the game looks than it really needs to. WayForward could have gotten by with simply repurposing Shantae Advance assets and calling it a day, but based on the images I've been able to dig up for Risky's Revenge -- I assume the one above is legit, since it looks pretty much the same as the screens in Nintendo Power -- it looks much, much better. And knowing WayForward's penchant for crazy animation, I'm sure it moves with as much grace as the DS can muster.

The really interesting thing about Risky's Revenge is that WayForward is publishing it as episodic content. That's pretty much accepted practice for point-and-click adventure games and even first-person shooters, but I don't think I've ever heard of an episodic 2D platformer before. It's a smart idea, though. For one thing, DSiWare has a hard ceiling for file size (I've heard it's 50 Mb, but Nintendo won't say for certain), and graphics this detailed take up a lot of space. For another, it means the game won't be a money-losing prospect for WayForward. I'm an old-fashioned kind of guy who believes that creative people deserve to make a living from the fruits of their labors, and taking the episodic approach allows WayForward to release what will probably be a rather substantial game without taking a bath on it. As the carping over yesterday's PSP Go sticker shock has demonstrated, gamers are reluctant to pay big gobs of money for digital-only content. But bite-sized chunks for bite-sized prices will help to keep things within a psychological safety zone.

I'm really glad to see WayForward seizing the opportunity to use DSiWare as a chance to self-publish where no one else would take up their cause -- and it's good to see self-publishers experimenting with different release and pricing structures. There have been some complaints that WayForward will be bilking gamers with the episodic structure, but I doubt that will be true. Good games are always worthwhile, and services like DSiWare will (hopefully) continue to remove the barrier represented by publishers that's long existed between developers and fans.

It won't get 7th Dragon translated, of course, but that's why I bought a copy of the strategy guide while I was TGS. You gotta known when to cut your losses, these days.

category: 2D, games | forums | 19 comments | §

GameSpite Quarterly 2, #26: Silent Hill 2

02 October 09 | 18:47 | Posted by:

26. Silent Hill 2
Hey kids, do ya like that GameSpite Quarterly 2? You should, and articles like this are precisely why. I don't even like survival horror, but it desperately makes me want to play Silent Hill 2. By a strange coincidence, we just covered a lot of the same territory this article discusses in a Silent Hill-oriented Retronauts segment recorded yesterday for next week's show. Strange... or spooky?

category: games, gamespite | forums | ten comments | §

The party never stops

02 October 09 | 00:38 | Posted by:

Sorry about the spottiness of the updates lately. I'm really determined to up the quality and content of the blog so that you have more to read than just reprinted material from the quarterlies, but my schedule has been brutal for the past month. PAX, TGS, and now a rather impromptu trip to L.A. to check out a game for a 1UP cover story has left me with barely any free time whatsoever. I apologize, humans! Once I work through next week's articles, things should be pretty calm for the rest of the year. I have no more trips planned, my review schedule should be pretty light since the bulk of this year's major titles are already out, and... oh, wait, I promised another GameSpite compilation to follow up Year One, Vol. 1, didn't I? Man, I am so my worst enemy.

On the plus side, I had a chance to look at not one but two unannounced games today, both of which made me awfully happy. It warms my heart to know that even as the industry tightens its collective belt even further and scales back on releases, there are still plenty of things in the works that cater quite effectively to my personal obsessions and interests.

Still no Mega Man Legends 3, though. Someone really ought to get to work on that. I pestered Ben Judd about it at TGS and he was all, "Not my series, man." So much for my so-called industry connections!

category: games | forums | 18 comments | §