New Age Retro

A Defense of Sequels

2009-06-30T09:24:00.001-04:00

In seemingly every medium, there is a rather severe bias against sequels. Where this is most infuriating, however, is in video games. While movie sequels usually deserve their derision, the video game industry has a truly spectacular track record for sequels that are better than the original, from all echelons of quality for the original game. The amount of the best and even most innovative video games that are sequels is truly staggering, yet despite this, there remains an anti-sequel instinct among a large percentage of the gaming community, an idea that sequels are an inherently bad thing and severe double standards against sequels.

Before getting to the focus of this article, I’d like to express my confusion at the contempt for sequels in general. The most common argument against them is that they limit creativity, not letting the creative minds behind a work try new things. However, think of what the complete annihilation of sequels would mean for the scope of stories: we can’t reasonably expect 10 hour mainstream movies, 3,000 page books, or 250 hour story driven games. The result of banishing sequels would be to force everything to conform to a rigid length for its medium, which I’m sure you realize would be terrible for allowing creative freedom. In video games sequels offer even more, since gameplay formulas often need some amount of tweaking, and being a fairly new medium there is a lot more experimentation needed. Miyamoto said the main reason he made Super Mario Galaxy 2 (more on that later) was because his team had so many ideas they hadn’t been able to work into the original. How would a no direct sequels rule destroying all those ideas be GOOD for creativity and freedom?

The first issue that must be addressed about sequels in gaming is the claim that the video game industry can’t be biased against sequels, since so many of the most hyped and well reviewed games are sequels. The problem with this, however, is that the success of those games is in spite of their sequel status, not because of it. It would be full fledged insanity to claim video game sequels are always bad (not that this has stopped the most pretentious gamers from claiming it anyway), but that doesn’t mean there can’t be some level of bias against sequels. Imagine a review of a game openly admitting that the game is better than the previous entry in the series, but still scoring it lower, maybe even admitting upfront that it scored less for not coming first. This is fairly common, and people seem to have no problem with point deductions just for something being a sequel. But imagine the reverse happening, a review saying a game is better than the recent entry in a popular series, but still scoring it lower, and even saying “Since it doesn’t have the lineage of (insert series here), I had to knock off a few points.” That would never happen, the reviewer would never get away with it and no reviewer who cared about their credibility would try it. Some may claim that reviewers do this without openly admitting it, but that’s just the point, pro-sequel bias is hidden, anti-sequel bias can be openly stated.

The most blatant anti-sequel bias in games is the overarching sentiment that being dominated by sequels is an inherently bad thing. Look at any list of upcoming games that the industry is looking forward to, and it will be dominated by sequels. This fact can be used as a standing complaint theme whenever you need an editorial or complaining message board post, lamenting how sequel filled the industry is. Some say this is only a problem due to balance, but complaining about that would only be justified if all games were made by one monolithic entity. They aren’t, and I can’t think of any logical or fair way to determine exactly which companies get to make sequels and which are forced to make extra new intellectual properties for the sake of balance, and by extension, I can’t think of a logical or fair way to decide which companies should get scorn for relying on sequels.

The anti-sequel sentiment does not stop at theoretical discussions of how the industry would ideally be structured. Sequels are held to a higher standard and considered inherently lesser achievements at the same times. As I mentioned before, reviewers and gamers will gladly and often openly mark a game down in comparison to its predecessors simply for being a sequel. At the same time, if a sequel does a single thing worse than its predecessor, you’ll never hear the end of it and the game will be treated as a disappointment and failure regardless of how many things it does better. Let’s look at an example, two games in the same genre that came out at around the same time: Zelda: Twilight Princess and Okami. Pretty much every example of anti-sequel bias is demonstrated in the treatment of Twilight Princess by the gaming community. Despite belonging to a rare genre it was constantly called a rehash for keeping the core game style of what is widely considered one of the best games ever made. The combat difficulty being lower than Ocarina of Time was exaggerated into it being one of the easiest games ever made. Things no one would notice the absence of in a new IP are treated as glaring omissions if featured in even one previous Zelda. The fact that Twilight Princess is easily the longest Zelda, was harder than its immediate predecessors, and has some of the highest puzzle difficulty in the series is mostly ignored, some openly stating that as a sequel it is required to do those better but deserves no recognition for it. Now let’s compare it to Okami. Okami plays very similarly to the Zelda series, but is rarely criticized for that. The game is easier than Twilight Princess, and has a lot more slow story driven sequences (Twilight Princess is often criticized for this, despite there really only being one example), but this is barely ever mentioned. Being a new IP, Okami is given many free passes and everything it does right is treated as an accomplishment. Being a sequel, everything Twilight Princess does is scrutinized to death and its triumphs are mostly ignored.

The core of much sequelphobia (thank you TVtropes) stems from the biggest boogeyman term in gaming this side of fanboy: rehashes. There are two facets to the unfair sequel bashing that stems from rehash accusations. The first is that the standards for something being a rehash are way too low. Games like Super Smash Bros Brawl and Resident Evil 5 added huge new features that weren’t in their predecessors, but because the core gameplay wasn’t completely different, they were called rehashes. The treatment of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 4 still angers me to this day, the game completely redid career mode and is well over three times as long as THPS3, but due to the number in the title it was declared a rehash and widely ignored. There really isn’t much to say about this point, a lot of rehash accusations are simply wrong and the gaming community will often neglect to do the basic research that could debunk them.

That said, let’s look at the games that really don’t add all that much to the series’ formula. I think the horrors of a level pack sequel are greatly exaggerated, if a game has a really good formula, should we really throw it away after one shot just for the sake of being innovative? As I mentioned earlier, Super Mario Galaxy 2 is the poster child for how ridiculous this is. 3D platformers are not a common genre this generation, and many agree with me that Super Mario Galaxy is one of the best games of all time and perfected the 3D Mario formula. It is absurd, considering how loved the original is, that so many people want the formula simply thrown away after one use. We are not flooded with Super Mario Galaxy clones, and there will likely be a two and a half year wait between the SMGs. Super Mario Galaxy 2 is exactly what platforming fans need, and while there could easily be significant new features we just don’t know about yet, if it is mainly a level pack, what is so horrible?

If every sequel was a level pack I agree it would start to get old, but that’s just not the case. In closing, I’d like you to imagine a video game world without sequels. The stealth, fighting, RPG, and sandbox genres would be crippled with no Metal Gear Solid, Street Fighter II, Final Fantasy (insert your favorite here), or Grand Theft Auto 3. Zelda, Metroid, Resident Evil, and lots of other beloved series would have been abandoned after awkward first installments that didn’t get the formula right. And of course, we can’t forget Mario. Party games and mascot racers might very well not exist, 3D platformers would be completely stunted, but little of that matters, because the video game industry would be essentially unrecognizable since Super Mario Bros never existed. You could argue that these innovations would have happened with new series, but I think it’s very possible that the stress of coming up with completely new settings in every single game would reduce the potential for innovation and polish sequels have. Either way, it isn’t fair to disregard the accomplishments of sequels because of hypothetical alternate realities. Going by what they contributed, a gaming world without sequels simply isn’t one I want to live in.

Gems you might have missed: Eversion

2009-06-30T01:24:00.002-04:00

I recently got a chance to play a game that really managed to snare me. It was one of those things where I knew I had other, more important things to do, but I just couldn't pull myself away from it. I had to completely finish it before I could let myself do anything else. Few games can really do that to me nowadays.
I am referring to Eversion, a small freeware platformer that can be downloaded here. A friend suggested it, and I watched a short clip and wasn't impressed. It looked like a generic freeware platformer from the little bit I saw. Jump on enemies to kill them, collect gems (240 across 7 levels. You need to collect them all to see the true ending). The storyline seemed basic, the goal was just to rescue a princess. But let's just say...things are not what they seem. That's really about all I can say without treading into spoilers. It's worth digging a little bit deeper in order to see what's really going on.
Eversion kinda brought out some of the same feelings I got when I played Braid. There's no time manipulation, but both games give you a sense of being in a world where something is just...off. And I don't mean that in a bad way, it pulls you in and makes you want to solve the mystery, to figure out "Why are things like this?" The final resolution doesn't spell out everything for you, and I tend to prefer more concrete endings, but I walked away from the game feeling that it was worth it. It's a small download and should be able to run on just about any computer. Give it a shot, if you haven't already.
Just be sure to heed the warning on the opening screen.

Punch-Out!! Review

2009-06-28T05:41:00.001-04:00

Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Next Level Games
Rating: E10+
Players: 1-2 (offline only)
System: Nintendo Wii

Pretty much every even remotely good and/or popular game from the 8 and 16-bit eras has a fanbase eagerly hoping for a current-gen sequel. One of the most dedicated fanbases was the Punch-Out one, the series was second only to Kid Icarus in the ranks of abandoned Nintendo franchises everyone wants a sequel to. The waiting was rewarded, and after 15 long years Punch-Out!! is finally here to continue the five game series with two names between all of them. Taking a series that hasn’t been seen in three console generations and making it meet modern content demands while still retaining what fans love about it isn’t easy, but Punch-Out!! (referred to from now on as the very appropriate POW, for Punch-Out Wii) has completely succeeded in every way.

Punch-Out is to boxing as Mario is to Olympic jumping events. The series only resembles boxing in superficial areas, and even those are greatly stretched (I’m going to place my money on Glass Joe’s one win being against the hopelessly inefficient referee). The game can best be described as series of boss battles with heavy puzzle elements. Even Glass Joe would crush you if you traded blows, and going on the offensive is rarely a good idea. You have to learn each boxer’s tells and punch animations, then counter with a flurry of punches when the time is right. You only have four types of punches, plus a super punch you can perform and power up with stars earned by hitting opponents at the right time.

There are 13 opponents in POW, plus a hidden one you won’t see until after quite a bit of playing. Each of the opponents is completely unique and filled with personality, all of them being national or boxer stereotypes so over the top you couldn’t possibly be offended by them. 12 of the boxers return from previous games in the series, the roster dominated by characters from the Nintendo Entertainment System Punch-Out (everyone except Mike Tyson and his much hated replacement returns). The gameplay is a mix of the two console Punch-Outs, with the core gameplay of the Super Nintendo Super Punch-Out and the round/health/powerup system of the NES one. The biggest addition to the gameplay is a much larger emphasis on the type of dodge needed to avoid specific attacks. You can still dodge to the left or right and duck, just like the SNES Punch-Out . However, while in that game most attacks could be dodged with by moving both left or right with some opponents having a single attack that required ducking, in POW almost every opponent has attacks that will require ducking or dodging in a specific direction. This adds a huge amount to the challenge of the game, but the difficulty doesn’t stop there. The other main tweak to the gameplay is a revamped super punch system, you can get up to three stars that will stack on each other. Instead of getting more than one star punch if you have multiple stars, having two or three will result in one incredibly powerful punch.

POW is a very hard game, requiring you to build up your skill and experience with each boxer before you can triumph over them. The difficulty plays a large part in ensuring that the game isn’t the quick single sitting $50 game many feared it would be, but it’s far from the only thing. The first career mode, where you fight each of the 13 normal boxers once, actually can be finished in an afternoon if you’re persistent. Thankfully, this is much less than half the game. After defeating everyone, Title Defense mode opens up. In Title Defense, all of your opponents have basically become new fighters. TD Glass Joe WILL beat you, and it just gets harder from there. As series fans will know, POW has a few less characters than Super Punch-Out (which had 16). Do not let this fool you into thinking POW has cheated you. Every Title Defense character is a completely new fight, the game essentially has 27 opponents (the secret character only has one form), and you’re not finished once you’ve managed to beat Title Defense. Both forms of every character have their own set of three challenges, giving you a grand total of 81 objectives. These will push you to completely master each character, if you can complete the challenges you’ll wonder how just winning against the TD characters took you so long. Unfortunately, some of the challenges get a little too hard, specifically the ones that make you find every star on opponents. You’re probably going to need to hop online for help with a few of them. As if this wasn’t enough content, there’s a survival mode style challenge and then a ridiculously hard final fight for each character version that will force you to apply the techniques you learned in the earlier challenges. As I’m sure you can tell by that laundry list, getting 100% in POW is a huge undertaking, and should easily take around 30 hours. There’s also a multiplayer mode, which has some interesting ideas but isn’t given much emphasis, with no online and only letting you play as Little Mac. You can go into a super mode and turn into a semi-new boxer called Giga Mac in it, but sadly there is no way to fight Giga Mac in one player. I get the feeling the designers agreed with me that Punch-Out just wasn’t suited for multiplayer, but included a token one due to demand.

The presentation of POW was given as much attention and content as the game modes. There is little in the way of in-game graphics besides the boxers and referee, and the game takes full advantage of this. Each character has an incredibly detailed cel-shaded model, with an amazing range of animations (every opponent has animations for their anticipation of you landing a punch). Each boxer also has four movie quality traditional animation stills to convey their story, with a new set for their Title Defense modes. All the boxers are constantly talking, and while the perfect use of their native languages is impressive, I would have preferred at least English subtitles for them. Five of your opponents speak English, and being able to understand them adds extra personality and entertainment to them. Thankfully, the non-English ones still manage to convey plenty of personality with between round animations and tone, and there’s a nice bi-lingual bonus if you do speak any of the non-English languages. Little Mac is mute (ironically, he’s one of the few Nintendo protagonists who wasn’t in his 8-bit appearance), but the much loved Doc Louis has tons of dialogue, with several unique bits of advice/commentary for each boxer. The music is great, but with so much action and talking going on it can be hard to make it out during gameplay.

POW is one of the most impressive revivals of a long dormant franchise I have ever played. This was not an easy series to transfer to a modern gaming climate, but Next Level Games pulled it off perfectly. Whether you have been waiting for this throughout the last 15 years or are new to series, whether you plan to work until you achieve 100% or just want a fun and over the top experience, POW is one of the best Wii games available and a must buy. There are way too many meme-tastic quotes that could end this review, so feel free to insert your favorite.

Score: 9/10

What's been keeping me busy lately:

2009-06-28T00:53:00.004-04:00

I'd like to just turn our readers on to a few games that I've been having fun with recently. Give them a shot if you get the chance, hopefully you'll enjoy them as well:
Street Fighter 4: Yes, I bought it day 1 and I'm still playing it. This game is addictive, pure and simple. The patch that came out a while back that introduced Championship mode was a great addition. I find myself not wanting to put the game down until I win just one more tournament...which, I'm afraid I have to admit, doesn't happen as often as I'd like. This mode will also remind you how awesome you aren't. But you'll have fun anyway.
If anybody out there with the PS3 version wants to play me, my PSN name is Greyline108.

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 (Wii version): MotionPlus makes this game really enjoyable. I haven't tried any of the online features, but offline single player and multiplayer are incredibly solid. And disk golf is a pleasant surprise that I actually very much enjoyed...it's a great break when I'm tired of shooting twelve over par in the main game.

Zenonia: What's this? An iPhone game? Zenonia's a japanese style ARPG. You pick from 3 character classes at the beginning, fight monsters, level up learn new skills, you know the deal. The game's not perfect. All the controls are placed on the touch screen, so at first, you'll often find yourself trying to hit the d-pad and missing. It definitely takes some getting used to. There are some annoying design choices as well. Has having breakable weapons and armor EVER been a good idea? Having to keep yourself fed in order to pull of special techniques is also very much a pain.
And yet I'm still having enough fun with it to want to finish. What we have here is a game that could certainly hold its own against much of the library of either of the two big portable consoles. And her it is on iPhone and iPod Touch for 6 dollars. I'd say give it a shot if you get the chance, you may find it's worth your time.

The Evolution of Zelda (By VideoGamer1030)

2009-06-26T23:43:00.002-04:00

The Legend of Zelda is one of the most influential titles of all time. It was the first game with a save battery, the first console game to be completely open ended, and it also spawned many amazing sequels. The original can be hard to appreciate if it is first tried now, because so many games have since followed its example.

Zelda is viewed from a top down perspective and takes place in the land of Hyrule. The hero, Link, carries his powerful sword and finds other weapons like explosive bombs or long range bows. Despite how much Zelda changed gaming, it was nowhere near perfect. Zelda was a completely different series back when it started. The original Zelda was nearly lifeless: only having a few old men and women giving vague hints or selling supplies. Only later did Zelda characters actually have personality. There were no villages in the original Zelda, everyone lived in caves, with monsters roaming the outdoors. I suppose you can say the people were hiding from the monsters. If that were the case though, where are the old village remains? Why are old men actually inside the dungeons!?

Another difference was that Zelda was far less puzzle based. Zelda's initial premise was like Metroid: An obstacle course with a lot of action. Like Metroid, Zelda's puzzles usually consisted of examining and bombing suspicious areas. The initial premise did not work for the Zelda series at all. Metroid's atmosphere is better suited for a desolate world, and the sidescrolling made it more suitable for action.

Zelda went under a complete change in Zelda 2: Adventure of Link, taking a cue from Mario and Metroid's sidescrolling elements. However, this proved to be a bad change for Zelda, as Metroid's combat/equipment/atmosphere was far better suited for sidescrolling. The RPG elements of Zelda 2 were poor- Zelda 2 had annoying enemy encounters and pointless leveling up. Zelda 2 didn't take in the one feature it actually needed from RPGs: good story and characterization.

Luckily, Zelda: A Link to the Past finally got it right by bringing back the top down perspective and by having a great plot and world design (with a convenient map at hand). The world was much more interactive due to different areas like villages, lakes, mountains, and castles: all of which host unique characters. The dungeons in A Link to the Past were more thought provoking. Action was still important and was improved as well due to better equipment. A Link to the Past fully established and also perfected the Zelda formula.

After the fantastic portable adventure in Zelda Link's Awakening, Ocarina of Time came out and introduced a further dramatic change for the series. The game introduced Lock On targeting and brought the series to 3D. Miyamoto wanted to create the most immersive experience possible with Ocarina of Time, and he succeeded. OoT had a large barren field that crossed over to all sections of Hyrule. It was expansive and at the same time simple to navigate. OoT had horse riding to really immerse the player, a good substitution for the speedy pegasus boots. OoT also introduced a musical instrument that is actually playable over a simple flute that summons a bird or ocarina with pre-programmed songs. All the sections of Hyrule had a vast amount of characters. The market place alone was booming with life and offered what the entire Kakoriko Village offered in A Link to the Past. Ocarina of Time also offered cinematic bosses, including one of the best endings in video game history.

Zelda games further offered great experiences- like the dark collapsing world of Majora's Mask and the light hearted sea adventure of Windwaker. These games focused on sidequests more than earlier games in the series. The games let you connect to the people in the Zelda world and learn more about them. The sidequests offer prizes but more importantly give the world more life. Majora's Mask in particular shows how people live out their daily lives even though they know the moon will crash into the Earth. It's a sad but fascinating study of how people continue to strive forward. Majora's Mask also had transformation masks, which were nothing short of fantastic. It's always good when games have multiple characters with different abilities; and Majora's Mask offered that in an even better way. While the masks were dropped later in the series, there were other innovations to be seen in the series like the time traveling/season changing from the Oracle games or the different cel shaded artstyle from Windwaker.

All games in the series offer great graphical styles and offer something new to the player. Zelda dramatically changed, but most notably between Zelda 1 and Ocarina of Time. Afterwards, games in the series started to play with the Zelda formula instead of strictly following it. Newer games offer different characters, different music, different weapons, and different atmospheres. Link's Awakening was the first to take place outside Hyrule, and proved to be much more compelling because of it. Zelda Twilight Princess adhered to the formula most but also offered a fantastic adventure with much originality. Even so, the Zelda series should try more radical approaches again, because another game in Hyrule would be greatly tiresome. It's a series known for trying new things and hopefully it will continue to do so.

RIP Michael Jackson (Posted for VideoGamer1030)

2009-06-26T00:09:00.005-04:00

Michael Jackson, the king of entertainers, has tragically passed away today. In video game related news, it is debated that Michael Jackson has worked on Sonic 3 but was not given credit due to molestation charges around the time of the games release. Michael has always had a liking for the series and is seen photographed with Sonic the Hedgehog. As mentioned here , Jackson's songs hold resemblence to the songs in Sonic 3. To commemorate, I demand all of us remember Michael by listening to his songs and playing Michael Jackson's Moonwalker.

Dancing On Graves Part 1: Passwords

2009-06-25T02:16:00.004-04:00

Welcome to an ongoing occasional feature where I talk about stuff in gaming I'm glad is dead and buried. First up: passwords. I hate passwords, I hate everything about them.Now one of the things that makes me hate them so much is that we'd be better off if they never existed. Most annoying features in games were a good idea at the time, and indeed when passwords were introduced it seemed like a good idea. As you may know, the first major games to use passwords (maybe the very first, but the first rule about gaming history is that if you say anything was the very first, you're almost certainly wrong) were Metroid and Kid Icarus.

When those games were released, it seemed like a good concept, the only way to continue console games after turning the system off. The reason I wish password never existed is because ONE YEAR LATER the original Zelda came out and introduced battery backup. That should have cut passwords off permanently, but of course it didn't, they haunted console games until the arrival of memory cards, and even some GameBoy Advance games had the cursed things. Waiting a year to get long console games would have been well worth it to stop the plague of passwords.

The reason I hate passwords should be obvious, the inconvenience of having a pencil and tons of paper, and the possibility of making a mistake when taking down the password. For most games cursed with passwords (the 8 and 16-bit Mega Mans being the main example) I would just complete the game in one sitting, but sometimes developers were cruel enough to make RPGs with passwords. Super Ninja Boy and Mystical Ninja (both SNES games, so there was plenty of time to get used to battery backup) were action-RPGs that used passwords, which essentially made them unplayable. Mystical Ninja had that fixed over 15 years later with a VC port, but I still haven't made any real progress in Super Ninja Boy. There were also games that made you use a password after dying even if you didn't turn the system off, which is just pointless sadism.

So in conclusion: I hate passwords and I'm glad they're dead. Not much more to say, really.

Review Time: Plants Vs. Zombies

2009-06-23T22:32:00.001-04:00

Plants Vs. Zombies caught me by surprise. I honestly didn't know a single thing about the game until several days after it was released. But after hearing a fair bit of positive buzz, I decided to check it out. What I got was one of my favorite gaming experiences this year.

The premise is simple. Play takes place on a grid. Zombies approach from the right, you set up plants on the left to attack them. Zombies will eat the plants if you don't take them out fast enough, and if they manage to reach your house, you lose. It's the wrinkles in the framework that make the game interesting. Every ten or so levels, your playfield will change. For example, there's no natural sunlight at night time, so you'll rely more on mushrooms to build your army. The roof, on the other hand, is ramped, so the plants that shoot straight ahead will have only limited usefulness. After most levels, you'll gain access to more plants that let you work out different strategies. You may use Ice Pea Shooters to slow down the zombies' walking speed to give you more time to take them out. Or maybe put up a line of Wall-nuts to completely halt their progress for a while. Or perhaps use Cherry Bombs to take out whole groups at once.

The plants aren't the only side with a wide variety, though. You'll face everything from football-playing zombies to bobsledders to bungee-jumpers to hulking behemoths that throw smaller zombies past your front line. You'll have to come up with different ways of getting rid of each enemy. There are a lot of ways to play, and you can have quite a bit of fun just going back and replaying levels using different sets of plants. Of course, if replaying levels isn't your thing, there's a surprising amount of extra content here. As you play, you'll access a variety of mini-games (Including the always-addictive "Beghouled"), Survival stages, and puzzle levels, including a gametype where you lead the zombies against the plants. All of these modes reward you with money you can use to access the game's most powerful plants, or to help you build a zen garden, or purchase other items to help you become a Zombie Genocider. In other words, even after you've completed the 50-stage campaign, you'll have a lot of reasons to keep coming back to the game.

If I had to levy a complaint against Plants Vs. Zombies, it's that the real challenge doesn't begin until relatively late. Despite this fact, though, it's continued to draw me back in, weeks after I bought it. Even outside of the gameplay elements, it has great humor, awesome music, and an art style that managed to strike a chord with me. All these parts combined to make a game that, quite simply, I have a blast playing. I'd recommend Plants Vs. Zombies to anyone.

Score: 9/10
Developer/Publisher: Popcap Games
Price: $20 from Popcap directly
$10 on Steam.

Hardcore Gamers, Wii, Elitists, Fanboys, and More

2009-06-23T02:52:00.000-04:00

For the last two years or so, a disturbing and aggravating trend has formed in the gaming community and media. This is the excessive bashing and double standards against the Nintendo Wii, and the elitism that either caused or was caused by it. Let’s get this out of the way, this is pretty much entirely a pro-Nintendo article, at least in any area where the chance to criticize or defend comes up. Many people online seem to have an impulse to label any defending of a company as an act of fanboyism, but let’s look at what being a fanboy means under a reasonable definition.

A fanboy is someone who has a blind devotion to a company, a bias that forces them to defend and praise everything a company, system, or any other gaming entity does. So basically, being a fanboy means your opinion is based on the company, not the actual issue being discussed. Under that definition, I believe my argument is much less of a “fanboy” one than what it is arguing against. Nothing I plan to say in this article depends on Nintendo being benevolent, every defense I use for Wii is based on games released or comparisons to other systems. On the other hand, many of the anti-Nintendo sentiments are quite emotional and dependent on a personal attachment to the company. Claims that Nintendo “doesn’t care about hardcore gamers” or criticism of specific comments made by Nintendo of America representatives who have little if any control of what games are actually made are about personal feelings towards Nintendo, which is supposed to be the realm of the fanboy.

The fanboy witch hunt is particularly annoying to me because at a time I actually was a fanboy. Not the “shows even the slightest preference or loyalty to a game company” type message board posters are always flaming, the real “will only play games on one system” type. I was a Nintendo fanboy from 1995-1999, so for most of the 32/64-bit era. And let me tell you, it is not fun. I suffered through N64 game droughts while trying to convince myself that PS1 was garbage and I didn’t want to play anything on it. When I finally overcame my bias (like most of my other defining moments as a gamer it involved Mega Man, but that’s a story for another day) the relief was incredible. I looked at one of those ultra price guides Funcoland used to give out that listed pretty much every NA release, and it dawned on me as I looked at the PS1 section that I could actually play them, all of them. The point I’m getting at with this reliving of a personal epiphany is that being a fanboy hurts the fanboy, not the people who encounter them on message boards. They should be pitied, not subjected to witch hunts.

That said, let’s get to the issues. It is my belief that Wii is being held to rather blatant double standards by many in the gaming community. The biggest one is the belief that the percentage of bad games on Wii affects the system’s overall quality. Every major system in gaming history has had an overwhelming percentage of bad games. SNES, the system so revered that even anti-Nintendo trolls will often avoid bashing it, had over 700 games in North America. I have been collecting SNES games for years and have 133, and finding quality ones I don’t own is getting harder and harder, I’m going to reach the peak soon, and dozens of the games I have aren’t even that good. 100 truly good SNES games would be a generous estimate, and that’s less than 20% of the total library. Each generation gaming grows bigger and the dominant system gets more and more games, and the percentage of good ones shrinks. PS2 and GameBoy Advance probably had the worst quality-crap ratios of any systems with a good library up to their point, but did it ruin them? Were we forced to buy every game on them? PS2 has well over 1,000 games, can you even remember a couple hundred of the bad ones?

So why is it different for Wii? Yes, like every other market leader system it will probably have a worse ratio than the one before it, but would it really improve your gaming experience if Wii had 100 horrible games you would never buy instead of 1,000 ones by the end of its life? Do you honestly think people who would otherwise buy the obscure but quality Wii games are not doing it because a Nickelodeon licensed game distracted them? More to the point, do you think they’d have bought Zack and Wiki or No More Heroes if there were only 5 bad licensed games instead of 50? There are people who don’t put much effort into researching a game’s quality before buying one, there always have been and while there are more now, that doesn’t reduce the amount of informed gamers who will seek out obscure but good titles. No More Heroes and Zack and Wiki, despite being very low in typical mainstream appeal, still sold hundreds of thousands.

That leads to my second point about unfair criticism of Wii, the gaming community refusing to allow certain genres to exist. I personally have no plans to buy Wii Fit or Wii Music, but there is absolutely no justification for the absolute hatred so many have expressed towards these games for simply existing. They are not automatically “shovelware” (after seeing this term applied to VC games made 20 years ago, I have concluded that the term’s original meaning is destroyed and we should just move on) just because you aren’t interested in their genre. They have not stopped Wii from having as many traditional genre Nintendo releases in the same time frame as the previous Nintendo systems. They are not going to destroy gaming, and you are not morally superior to people who buy them. The companies that churn out cheap copies that actually are horrible are not the same ones who would otherwise make good games. Good developers have seen awful games cashing in on the latest mainstream trend sell more than they had any right to since the dawn of gaming, Wii Fit won’t change their world perspective.

Now that I’ve got that rant off my chest, let’s examine the root causes of this. The most obvious answer would be anti-Nintendo bias, but I think something deeper is at work. The gaming market has changed radically in the past four years, with DS and Wii returning Nintendo to prominence among mainstream gamers in a way they hadn’t been in nearly a decade. There has been a shift in who is making games and systems a success, and what type of games they want. The kiddy image that haunted Nintendo since Mortal Kombat 1 (I could go into a page of how unfair it was that people are still bringing that up when SNES had three uncensored MKs, but I won’t) was released without blood has been reversed, the mainstream market likes Nintendo’s image now, and this really is a good thing. Gaming must expand to be something done by everyone, how anyone who grew up with the stigma placed on gaming can deny that is beyond me. And I don’t think many of those people are denying it.

This leads to the crux of this article. I believe the casual gamer vs hardcore gamer argument is a false dilemma, hardcore and casual gamers have coexisted ever since gaming became (relatively) mainstream. Real hardcore gamers have seen the mass market swept up with bad clones of Mario, Sonic, Street Fighter, Final Fantasy VII, and GTA3, they know bad clones of Wii Sports won’t destroy gaming. So who are the people complaining so much about Wii? They’re the casual gamers from last generation. They are used to being aggressively catered to by game companies, they want the image of gaming that dominated sales last gen (violent, realistic games) in their games, and they want those games to be the most popular. They aren’t really hardcore gamers, they’ve just adopted the image. Hardcore gamers will play any game they want to, but fake or elitist hardcores only want a certain type of game, and are angry at the mainstream market shift and the system that personifies it. They don’t have the ability to accept their co-existence with new gamers the way real hardcore gamers do, and they aren’t used to having to turn to relatively obscure games to play what they want. I’m not labeling everyone who started gaming in the Playstation era or prefers violent games into this category, only those who can’t peacefully co-exist with new gamers and Nintendo fans, to the point where they would rather pretend gaming was dead.

But don’t think people who label themselves as hardcore gamers are the only ones who can be elitists. One of the things that annoys me the most in life is generalized retaliation, attacking an entire group because some people from that group attacked yours. There has been quite a bit of this in the gaming community against hardcore gamers as a whole. As contradictory as it sounds, there is such a thing as a casual elitist. These people think that not being that into gaming makes them better than hardcore gamers. Knowing a lot about gaming makes you pretentious or a nerd according to them, or researching gaming news and history means you can’t really enjoy games. Pretty much everything I said about hardcore gamers applies to casual elitists; not all casuals are like that, and if you just don’t want to get that into gaming all you have to do is be willing to peacefully co-exist with more dedicated gamers.

So pretty much the point of this article is that the reasonable factions in gaming should get along and not blame all casuals/hardcores for what the elitists do. Neither Wii nor anything else is capable of destroying gaming, momentum is on our side. However, we can make things a lot more pleasant for gamers if people can just try to get over their elitism and stop worrying so much over whether someone is 100% unbiased towards every game company.

Top 10 Most Innovative Sequels

2009-06-22T21:30:00.004-04:00

As you'll soon see in an article I'm working on, I'm a big supporter of sequels. So I'm going to list my top ten sequels that were innovative, popularizing new ideas in gaming.

Number 10: Spiderman 2
The only licensed game on the list, Spiderman 2 combined wide open sandbox gameplay with super powers and a significant vertical element. A licensed game being imitated is quite an accomplishment, even if it isn't as frequently as most of the games higher on the list.

Number 9: Super Mario Kart
It's debatable how much Super Mario Kart counts as a sequel, but it's part of an existing franchise and created a new sub-genre. Every cartoony, weapon filled racer owes something to Super Mario Kart.

Number 8: Zelda: Ocarina of Time
Ocarina of Time may have kept the gameplay of the 2D Zeldas mostly intact, and unlike most of the later games on this list, the predecessors were very popular around the world. However, OoT still added enough new features to qualify, the most important being the popularizing of locking on to enemies, which has become a staple of several genres. Far less imitated but still worth mentioning is the auto-jumping.

Number 7: Final Fantasy VII
While not that innovative in gameplay, Final Fantasy VII was what JRPGs would strive to be for generations to come, and made the genre popular outside of Japan. Also struck a blow for uncensored translations of Japanese games.

Number 6: Grand Theft Auto 3
I'll be honest, I don't actually like this game, but it certainly tried a lot and got copied a lot. A huge popularity booster for sandbox games and M rated games in general, and of course a huge controversy magnet.

Number 5: Metal Gear Solid
Metal Gear Solid pulled double innovation duty, both popularizing the stealth genre and showing that games with lots of full cutscenes (previously represented by those hated FMV games) could work. Not to mention being one of the first games with good voice acting.

Number 4: Wolfenstein 3D
Not the last game on this list that popularized an entire genre, Wolfenstein 3D may not have been as popular as Doom, but it's well known enough to make the list from a revolutionizing perspective. And it's the only FPS that can claim to have inspired an unlicensed Bible game, that has to count for something.

Number 3: Super Mario 64
What Super Mario Bros was to 2D gaming, Super Mario 64 was to 3D gaming. The flagship title for the analog stick and the defining game for full 3D freedom, SM64 shows that even with innovative prequels, a game can always introduce something new.

Number 2: Street Fighter II
When I was little, I didn't know the original Street Fighter existed and thought fighting games were just supposed to end with II. That should tell you just how overshadowing SFII was to its predecessor, and I'm sure I don't need to tell anyone what a huge impact it made on fighting games.

Number 1: Super Mario Bros
The best example of a sequel taking a genre and truly transforming it is unquestionably Super Mario Bros. Popularizing platformers and games with endings, SMB would be at least number 2 on a most innovative games list that wasn't confined to sequels. Among sequels, there's no question, Super Mario Bros is the most innovative and revolutionary.

My Top Ten Games for the rest of 2009

2009-06-20T20:50:00.005-04:00

This isn't going to be a several page article like my other stuff, just a quick list of my most wanted games that remain in 2009.

10: Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles
Wii
I love Capcom and I'm a proponent of rail shooters, so this is another game I'm giving the benefit of the doubt, especially since I loved Umbrella Chronicles. Not much more to say, looking forward to more classic RE feel without the gameplay quirks.

9: Muramasa
Wii
I haven't played any Vanillaware games before, but the more action focused direction of Muramasa has me interested. After Wario Land Shake I take bad statements about 2D console games with a pillar of salt, so I'm hoping Muramasa will live up to its potential.

8: Jak and Daxter: The Lost Frontier
PS2 and PSP
While I was hoping for a PS3 Jak, my favorite 3D only platformer series getting a sequel makes the list regardless of system. The developers are promising a 10-12 hour story, which would put it well above the often short PSP versions of console franchises, albeit not quite as long as Jak 2 and 3. Either way, just getting a new Jak is a relief, I had been fearing for the series.

7: The Conduit
Wii
I'm normally not a big fan of first person shooters, but I just love using the Wii remote for them. The Conduit may only be a few days away, but it's been on my anticipated games list for quite a while. I probably won't be able to get it right away, but that's because 2009 has been so full.

6: Red Steel 2
Wii
With Wii Motion + being hyped in genres I'm just not interested in, I'm very excited for a game in a genre I am that will be packaged with WM+. Red Steel 2 may have gone in a completely random direction compared to its predecessor, but all that matters is that we could get a game with great IR and WM+ use.

5: Ratchet and Clank Future: A Crack in Time
Playstation 3
The only one of Sony's PS2 platformers getting PS3 love, Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction returned to the series roots having at least some platforming, and refining the formula further. All I need for A Crack in Time is a longer quest and I'm set.

4: The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks
DS
With the touch based Zelda formula warming up on Phantom Hourglass, Spirit Tracks has a chance to take it all the way and become one of the great Zeldas. Whether this happens or not, a good Zelda is great by the standards of any other series, so Spirit Tracks definitely deserves a spot on this list.

3: Uncharted 2
Playstation 3
While I pine for another Naughty Dog Jak game and wish Uncharted fell into the more platformerish feel of their previous franchises, Uncharted was still a great game and Naughty Dog has a fantastic track record for improving their series with the second game. I'm hoping Uncharted 2 will bring the series up to Naughty Dog's true potential.

2: Mario and Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story
DS
Mario and Luigi had quite possibly my favorite turn based battle system of all time, so naturally I'm very excited for the third in the series, which impressions of the Japanese version indicate will fall into the 3>1>2 gaming sequel pattern. It's taken way too long to come to NA, but it should be worth it.

1: New Super Mario Bros Wii
Wii
As you may know, I really, really love Mario platformers. I've been waiting for more Mario goodness to be announced for a year and a half now, and at E3 my wish was granted twice. NSMBW may have a four player co-op mode, but I'm just in it for more one player 2D Mario bliss.

Reggie asking fans on companies working with Nintendo...

2009-06-19T23:17:00.002-04:00

Since Nintendo is teaming up with Team Ninja to work on Metroid: Other M, Reggie Fils-Aime is asking people on what company should work with Nintendo, based on one of their IP's. I'd like to take the time to post my thoughts on it.

Well I think it's a great idea, because it gives 3rd party developers the opportunity to establish themselves with the Nintendo Core Fanbase who aren't into a lot of 3rd party titles on the Wii, and also helps them get into more Wii Development. I also like this because while Nintendo works on their key Franchises (Mario, Zelda, Metroid, Pokémon, etc.); 3rd party developers could help Nintendo bring out some of their other franchises (like Star Fox, Fire Emblem, F-Zero), and lesser known IP's (like Kid Icarus).

The only downside that I could think of is that some companies may not really care about these projects, and simply just rush to get it out to the market as soon as possible. Take Namco, for instance. They helped Nintendo work on Star Fox Assault for the Gamecube, and the game is a hit or miss to many fans of the series. One may think Nintendo is skeptical, but they're open to giving them the benefit of the doubt. We'll see how these projects go.

Now as far as suggestions go, I have a couple of my own, but there are others that people may request, as well as choices talked about with the staff of this site. Here's a list of Nintendo IP's worked on by 3rd party developers of my choice:

Treasure - Star Fox, Custom Robo
Capcom - Kid Icarus, The Legend of Zelda (since they worked on the portable ones in the past)
Square Enix - Fire Emblem, Advance Wars, Super Mario RPG 2
Konami - 2D Metroid, Kirby
Sega - F-Zero, Mario Kart, Golden Sun (With Camelot), Pokemon (Console RPG's, Colosseum/XD-Esque Games)
Free Radical - Donkey Kong Series

Some that could work, but up in the air...:
Everyone - Mario Platforming (because you can't really mess with the formula, but I wont rule it out)

Now some that shouldn't be done:
Namco: Anything, because let's face it, they aren't really committed to doing these.
Konami: Yoshi's Island
Capcom: Pokemon
Sega: Zelda

But the twise is that Nintendo should do a couple of games based on 3rd Party IP's:
Mega Man, Sonic (3D Platforming), Castlevania, Metal Gear Solid, Nintendo vs. Capcom, I could go on and on, but that will be for another time.

Well that's all of my thoughts on this matter for now. I'd like some feedback, and if you guys want to express your opinions, then post on the comments section. I would really appreciate what you guys have to say.

List of Wii games to get and to look forward to

2009-06-11T21:26:00.000-04:00

There are a lot of good games on the Wii, but most of them tend to go unnoticed because people only want what they want. I think if someone thinks outside the box, that would be good.
Here are the games out now that you should try:

The First party stuff:
Super Mario Galaxy
Metroid Prime 3: Corruption
Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Super Paper Mario
Mario Kart Wii
Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn
Wario Ware: Smooth Moves
Punch-Out!!
Excite Truck
Excitebots

Third Party games:
Madworld
House of the Dead: Overkill
Klonoa
Nights: Journey of Dreams
Dead Rising: Chop 'Till you Drop
Deadly Creatures
Tenchu: Shadow Assassins
No More HeroesCastlevania Judgment
Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World
Elebits
Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition
Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles
Zack & Wiki
Okami
Ghost Squad
Sonic & The Secret Rings
Sonic & The Black Knight
Rune Factory Frontier
Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars Director's Cut
Boom Blox
Boom Blox Bash Party
Blast Works
De Blob
Guilty Gear Accent Core
Guilty Gear Accent Core Plus

Compilations:
Namco Museum Remix
SNK Arcade Classics
Samurai Shodown Anthology
King of Fighters Orochi Saga
Metal Slug Anthology

Games to look Forward to:
The Conduit - June 23, 2009
Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All Stars - Winter 2009
Overlord: Dark Legend - June 23, 2009
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Crystal Bearers - Q4 2009
New Super Mario Bros. Wii - Holiday 2009
Little King's Story - July 21, 2009
A Boy and his Blob - Fall 2009
Arc Rise Fantasia - Fall 2009
Dead Space Extraction - September 29, 2009
Fragile - Winter 2009
The Grinder - 2010
Monado: Beginning of the World - 2009
Metroid: Other M - 2010
Monster Hunter 3 - March 2010
No More Heroes 2 - 2010
Wii Sports Resort - July 2009
Super Mario Galaxy 2 - 2010
Sin & Punishment 2 - Q1 2010
Red Steel 2 - Holiday 2009
Silent Hill: Shattered Memories - Fall 2009
Spyborgs - Fall 2009
Muramasa: Demon Blade - September 2009
Rabbids go Home - Fall 2009
Tales of Graces - 2010
RE: Darkside chronicles - Fall 2009
TMNT Smash Up - September 22, 2009
Pikmin 3 - 2010 Possibly
Dragon Quest X - 2010
Zelda Wii - 2010 Possibly
Gladiator AD - 2010
The Grudge - 2009/10
Endless Ocean 2 - Summer 2009
Trauma Team - Fall 2009

It All Ends Up As Mario by SNES Master KI

2009-06-07T21:42:00.005-04:00

As I write this sentence, it has been about a day since Nintendo’s 2009 E3 presentation, and the excitement of two Mario platformers being announced still hasn’t completely sunken in. No other series gives me the same kind of thrill when a new entry is unveiled that the Mario platformers do. As I described in a previous article, many of the defining events of my gaming identity revolve around Mega Man. As I also mentioned, the only two series I currently love more than Mega Man X are Mario and Zelda (I’m sure I’ll get to that soon). The Mario series has a huge amount of memories for me, and in honor of the recent announcements, I’m going to share how my identity as a gamer was more or less completed by Mario.

The first Mario game I played was Super Mario World in 1993, on my cousin’s legendary SNES that introduced me to Mega Man X and countless other games. I enjoyed it quite a bit, but it was just another game to me at that point, I didn’t enjoy it that much more than Bubsy, which I also first played at that visit. Later that year I chose Genesis as my first console, and became loyal to it. Naturally, this made Mario the enemy. I was as un-jaded as humanly possible when it came to games after subsisting on my DOS games (of which Mega Man 1 and 3 were the best) for a year or so, so I couldn’t really judge quality between games that well. I suspect my choice between Nintendo and Sega came down to image, Sonic was cooler in my 7 year old eyes, and so the Sonic games were better. I don’t mean this as an insult to Sonic, the Genesis games are still great and I think most of the 3D games are underrated, but measuring up to Mario just isn’t something easily done. And so, for about a year, Mario was the enemy, the only thing I knew about the evil Nintendo.

As I mentioned in my previous article, hedgehogs were no match for super fighting robots, and Mega Man X eventually got me to switch loyalties to Nintendo. The SNES I got from a friend of my parents’ came with Super Mario World, so naturally, I sunk my teeth into it. My journey at the tender age of 8 to fully explore Super Mario World was my first truly defining Mario moment. I read in the manual something about Star World, and it leading to an even bigger secret. To my 8 year old self, that was akin to being told today that the secret to time travel might be waiting to be discovered, if I got a doctorate in quantum physics and devoted a few decades to it. But there was no reason not to try, and try I did. Over the course of months, I tried to conquer dinosaur world. The Castle 3 message about the green switch palace haunted me, but I solved a devious puzzle (going into an unmarked pipe? Am I supposed to be psychic!?) and found it. I got through all the ghost houses and their madness inducing coin/switch puzzles. I figured out that a blue Yoshi could get me through Tubular (I beat it normally for the first time in 2002. I feel no shame whatsoever in admitting that) with ease. I unraveled secret after secret, and months after I started, I had done it: 96 exits. I had achieved 100% completion on my first game. Needless to say, this went down as one of my proudest gaming moments.

I had gotten my SNES in 1995, so as soon as I had it the gaming media started hyping the next generation and predicting the death of 16-bit. This was the first generation shift I participated in, and I didn’t want to believe that SNES would die. By late 1996, however, I couldn’t deny it any longer. Being loyal to Nintendo, my pick among the new systems was of course Nintendo 64, but I wasn’t sure if even that was for me. I was very action and linearity oriented as a young gamer (more on that in the Zelda article), and I didn’t like what 3D was doing to gaming. I rented a Nintendo 64 to give it a chance, and of course, the game I rented was Super Mario 64. At first I didn’t like it, not having level endings was frustrating and I didn’t understand why the 7 star file that was on the rented cartridge kept giving me these black stars that didn’t increase my star count. After an epic journey to the top of Whomp’s Fortress, I defeated the titular boss and finally got my 8th star. I entered the first Bowser level, and something clicked. I loved the more linear level design and epic boss fight, and N64 was officially added to my Christmas list. I got the system and Super Mario 64 for Christmas, and a Super Mario World style epic journey began. Months later, I had all 120 stars. Mario had done it again.

After completing Super Mario 64, I purchased Super Mario All-Stars (I had gotten Yoshi’s Island a year earlier) and worked my way through every game in it, completing my Mario platformer experience. But after that, dark times started. The Mario drought of 1997-2005 began, with only a single new Mario platformer released in those years. At the time I didn’t really notice it, but when GameCube’s launch lineup was announced in 2001 with no Mario platformer, around the same time Mario Advance turned out to be a port, it sunk in how freaking long it had been since a new one had been released. The games that would become Super Mario Sunshine, Metroid Prime, and Zelda: Wind Waker were confirmed to exist at Spaceworld 2001 with very brief clips of them. I loved all three series by that point, but seeing all three announced made me realize how much more exciting a new Mario platformer was to me. Super Mario Sunshine was probably among my five most anticipated games ever, and the summer of 2002 slowly crept by as the late August release date approached. I greatly enjoyed the game, although in hindsight it was in the lower Mario tiers (stupid blue coins). With the one console Mario having passed and no sign of a new 2D one in sight, the drought continued.

There was a silver lining, however. You don’t really appreciate what you have until it’s… by itself for the near future, I guess. I replayed the Mario platformers several times, and their true brilliance revealed itself to me. Super Mario World rose to its deserved place as my favorite game of all time. Needless to say, I was very, very excited when at E3 2004 DS broke the GBA port curse and a new 2D Mario was finally, FINALLY announced. This wasn’t the end of the Mario drought though, for the next year I anxiously awaited further information on New Super Mario Bros, and got nothing. Watching for news closely, I can say with a fair amount of confidence that absolutely nothing was revealed about the game between E3 2004 and E3 2005. At E3 2005 we finally got a new trailer, setting to rest the horrifying theory that it was just a remake of the first Super Mario Bros. Info trickled out through late 2005 and early 2006, and finally, after nearly two years, a release date was set.

During the post-SMS part of the Mario drought, another Mario project captured the imagination of fans everywhere. The mysterious Super Mario 128 was confirmed with nothing but occasional provoked mentions by Miyamoto, and everyone put their faith in it. Originally planned to be a GameCube game, the years passed and we realized that wasn’t going to happen. Super Mario 128 was the biggest secret in gaming, for me at least it was more enticing than the secret of Revolution’s controller. After being promised a look at it during E3 2005 and getting absolutely nothing, we were forced to pray that E3 2006 would finally reveal the secret. As it turned out, E3 2006 was only a week before the release of New Super Mario Bros, which had been stringing us along about as long as a peek at SM128.

My description for E3 2006 from a Mario perspective is trudging through miles of hot desert to get to one glass of water, than having a tidal wave hit you when you’re a few feet from the glass. Along with the soon to be released New Super Mario Bros, Super Mario Galaxy, Yoshi’s Island DS, and Super Paper Mario (which appeared to be pure platformer in the E3 demo) were all announced. In one of the happiest days of my gaming life, the Mario drought had ended and all was right with the gaming world (I was happy that Nintendo made a comeback, sue me).

My Mario hunger finally sated with New Super Mario Bros, my primary focus turned to Super Mario Galaxy. This game was clearly the closest to Super Mario 128 we were going to get, and so it had years of legend and rumors to live up to. The E3 2006 demo was very early, showing only the small, spherical worlds that caused dooms saying about it not feeling like a real Mario. I had faith in it not to disappoint me, and in the otherwise barren E3 2007, that turned out to be completely justified. We saw plenty of larger and more traditional levels in the near final version, but what really thrilled me was the announcement that there would be over 40 levels and a linear level structure for getting stars. Shortly after finishing Super Mario 64, I fantasized about my ideal sequel, and it was made up of linear levels similar to the SM64 Bowser ones. Watching the evolution of 3D platforming in the decade that followed, I had given up hope of seeing such a Mario. Super Mario Galaxy’s direction seemed nothing short of miraculous, and my hype levels became critical. The 100 purple coins in each level made me shiver, but I kept my hype going throughout the agonizing months, weeks, days, and hours until SMG finally came out.

I tore into it the second I had it, and fell in love. Levels like Toy Time, Dreadnaught, and Matter Splatter were the absolute apex of 3D platforming. Far too soon, I had 105 stars, and it was time to face the purple coins, which I was afraid would be the type of filler that had plagued SM64 and SMS in the later parts of the games. The first challenge I played was Good Egg, no real collecting, just a tutorial to get you used to the format. Honeyhive felt like getting 100 coins in the previous 3D Marios, although their conspicuous appearance improved it a good bit. Then, I reached the Battlerock challenge, and magic happened. Every single coin was in plain site, forming a path on a basically 2D ride through the level that required perfect platforming to master. It wasn’t the filler of Super Mario Sunshine, it was the Special World stages of Super Mario World! I happily collected the remaining stars, and all question in my mind was erased: this was better than Mario World. Having turned 21 shortly before Super Mario Galaxy was released, this was a powerful statement on both a gaming and personal level: the best 3D game had beaten the best 2D one, and had managed to surpass my childhood memories even after the 90s and my childhood had ended (I know 21 isn’t that old, but as I mentioned in a previous article, accelerated nostalgia gland). It wasn’t just the best game of all time, it was a comforting sign that gaming was going to keep getting better no matter how old I got.

That’s probably the most climactic part of my story, but being a gamer, I always hunger for new announcements. I was strongly hoping that this wouldn’t be another once a system Mario fling with a new drought beginning as I collected my 120th star. Throughout 2008 I kept hoping for at least a New Super Mario Bros 2, but E3 had forsaken me and everyone else (it reached Refuge in Audacity when Capcom devoted their entire conference to a movie). Miyamoto hinted that he might do a direct follow-up to Super Mario Galaxy, since common opinion agreed with me that it had perfected the 3D Mario formula and we needed more. More was exactly what I wanted, with some more Super Mario World elements (especially Yoshi, he had been getting ignored), since NSMB and SMG had taken so much from Super Mario Bros 3. There were rumblings that E3 2009 would be a return to form for the conference, but I had been burned before (Reggie lied, E3 2008 died) and tried not to get my hopes up.

Well, as you probably already know, the miracle happened twice. Super Mario Galaxy 2 was EXACTLY what I wanted, and we got a new 2D Mario for Wii (with Yoshi!) as well. E3 is completely redeemed from that alone, and the Mario drought is officially dead. And on that happy note, my Mario story is over, for now. I’m sure I’ll have plenty of new memories from New Super Mario Bros Wii, Super Mario Galaxy 2, and whatever other platforming centered worlds Mario finds his way into. Until next time, keep jumping on stuff.

It All Comes Back to Mega Man (By SNES Master KI)

2009-05-24T22:19:00.004-04:00

Everyone has their own story of their development as a gamer. The systems and games you played as a small child will always have a special nostalgia for you that can’t be recreated. There are some games even among those that stand out, games that expanded your horizons or made you realize just how great gaming could be. Having an accelerated nostalgia gland (I had early 90s nostalgia in 1994), I have tons of games that do this for me, but for this tribute I’m going to focus on one series (you know, the one in the title of the article) that was there for several of my defining moments as a gamer.

It all started in 1992. I was five (or possibly six) years old and had already been instinctively drawn to gaming for a couple years. Unfortunately, my parents wouldn’t buy me a game system and I was forced to subsist on a couple of quarters per visit to somewhere with arcade machines and a few Tiger handhelds (I recently visited the toy section of a local store to see if they still sold those things. They sold similar technology games, but they were all sports or gambling. Back in the day we had ones based on game franchises dammit!). Then in what had to be one of the first passing downs of a personal computer in history, my family got my grandfather’s computer. It was a Tandy 1000, and was woefully outdated even in 1992, but I didn’t care, I had something that could play actual games!

Well, playing actual games may have been an overstatement. Finding computer games that would run on it was an ordeal. You’ve probably never played Flinstones: Dino Lost in Bedrock or the DOS Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers, but I can give you a strong indication of their quality, as well as my other Tandy games, with one sentence:

Mega Man and Mega Man III DOS were the best Tandy games I had.

Yes, that’s how I was introduced to Mega Man, with his DOS games. My computer couldn’t even run them in full color, Mega Man was made light blue and forced to exist in a mostly pink world. But I didn’t care, if it was the only thing I could play, I was going to play it! In a testament to what pure determination and a lack of options can do to you, I managed to regularly beat both of the MMDOS games at age 6. I knew these weren’t good games compared to what I played in arcades or saw on consoles, but I was determined to play, and I came to love the Mega Man series.

Since you have an idea of my gaming condition from the very early 90s, I’m sure you can imagine just how much I loved visiting my cousin with his SNES and dozens of games. Sadly, he lived in another state and I only saw him a couple of times a year. That just made the rare occasions I got to plunge into his seemingly endless game collection all the more sweet. In early 1994, I had arrived at his house and was trying to control my excitement enough to choose which game to play first, when I saw it:

Mega.
Man.
X.

I was used to and had come to almost love the DOS Mega Man games, so I think you’ll understand why I can’t find words to describe just how incredible it was when I first played a real Mega Man game. And not just any, to this day MMX remains as my favorite Mega Man game of any series and one of my top 10 favorite games of all time.

Just the thrill of seeing what was my favorite gaming character in such a fantastic game, made exponentially more significant by contrast, would be enough to make this a defining moment for me as a gamer. But there’s more to Mega Man X. In 1993 I finally got a console. For reasons I really don’t remember, I chose Genesis over SNES. Since $100 (can you believe there was a time when systems were $100 after just two years?) seemed as hard to earn for my 7 year old self as one billion dollars does to me now, I naturally became determined to believe my system was the absolute best and there was nothing on that other system worth playing. The other system being SNES, that wasn’t easy to do, but I managed. Until I played Mega Man X. That just wasn’t resistible. I was forced to admit that my one system wasn’t the be all end all of gaming.

About a year after I played MMX, a friend of my parents’ sold us her SNES. The first three games I bought for it (and this was over the span of 9 months) were Mega Man X, Mega Man X2, and Mega Man 7. In addition to the bliss of finally owning MMX, there were game rentals to let me see just how great SNES was. Unfortunately, instead of understanding that there are lots of systems with good games on them, I simply transferred my complete loyalty to Nintendo. Not the ideal position, but I was happy. After all, it was freaking SNES, if you’re going to be devoted to one console, that’s the one.

But time doesn’t stand still, and game companies don’t remain dominant forever. The first console generation shift where I owned older consoles occurred, and I didn’t want to believe SNES would stop making games. I eventually realized I couldn’t stop the changing of the guard, and I managed to open my heart up to N64, carrying my Nintendo loyalty across generations. But things weren’t the same. As I mention whenever I see someone complain about “droughts” on Wii, I lived through the legendary N64 game droughts in the worst position. It wasn’t easy convincing myself that I didn’t want any of those Playstation 1 games I saw in magazines, or that N64 had such a full lineup I never thought about wanting another system. Thankfully I had my SNES to keep me sane (Good systems don’t die, they retire. And their games plummet in price.). Since I was still pretty new to gaming (I hadn’t played any Metal Gear, Castlevania, or Final Fantasy games, so Nintendo losing them wasn’t a big deal) and wasn’t allowed to play M rated games, I was able to minimize my longing for a PS1 fairly well. But there was one franchise I was attached to that made the switch, and I’m sure you can guess what it was.

Mega Man X4. The franchise that had given me my Nintendo loyalty had left, and I had a hole in my gaming heart. I held out longer than I possibly could have today if a game I wanted that badly was beyond my reach, two years had passed since MMX4 and it was the fall of 1999. In a full circle of events I’m only realizing the incredible irony of as I type this, my only hope for playing MMX4 without violating my loyalty to Nintendo was the PC (If there’s one things fanboys will absolutely not deprive themselves of for the sake of system loyalty, it’s the internet) port. However, I hadn’t learned about buying old games online yet, so finding a fairly obscure game from a few years ago was not easy. After thinking I had finally found it on Capcom’s site and then having my hopes crushed, I realized I had no choice. I had to get a Playstation.

As soon as I thought those words, I was free. I had one of those newspaper like price guides Funcoland used to hand out that listed pretty much every NA game for major systems, and I looked at the hundreds of games in the PS1 section, and realized I could buy them now. My loyalty to Nintendo was too developed to let me even consider switching to Sony exclusively (Since playing MMX, I had discovered the greatness of Mario and Zelda, the only series that I today rank ahead of Mega Man X), so I finally became a multi-console gamer in spirit. I was free to play anything I wanted, Nintendo and Sony could co-exist in peace on my coffee table. And the trigger of this epiphany was, of course, Mega Man.

So that’s my story of how Mega Man showed me the promise of gaming, introduced me to SNES, and cured me of my one company stubbornness. Those are far from my only good MM memories, but they’re the ones that most impacted my identity as a gamer. Until next time, please join me in hoping for a SNES style Mega Man X9 for Wiiware, because I’m pretty sure that would trigger the ability in me to make some wonderful invention that would greatly benefit mankind, at the very least. Fight Mega Man, fight! For everlasting peace!

Welcome to New Age Retro!

2009-05-24T22:00:00.000-04:00

This is The NEW AGE RETRO! We have our forums, which started last week. I will post a link to it:
http://newageretro.forumotion.net

Register, and enjoy your Stay!