["I often import games from abroad and play them. On such occasions, my imagination is sometimes stimulated more as I don't understand the language.” – Fumito Ueda, creator of Ico and Shadow of the Colossus. 'The Gaijin Restoration' is a weekly examination of underappreciated Eastern games that never cross to Western shores. This week's title is Yarudora Series Vol. 3: Sampaguita from Sony. It was released in late 1998 for the PlayStation in Japan.]

The Pleasure of My Text

I’ve been hooked on interactive fiction for quite a while, and by extension adventure games. There are several of my unspellchecked text adventures haunting the net (which I won’t reveal, due to intense shame.) My bookshelf houses the Oulipo Reader, Cortazar’s Hopscotch and the excellent Twisty Little Passages, and I feel in every fiber of my being that Fahrenheit, er, I mean, The Indigo Prophecy is an excellent, evolutionary return to form, using the semantics of cinema to deepen the experience of narrative. But, my humble beginnings come from my A+ book report from the 2nd grade on Seaside Mystery, or its complete title: Choose Your Own Adventure #67: Seaside Adventure. This was the gateway drug to Infocom, to Sierra, and eventually Half-Life and beyond.

Choose-your-own-adventure (CYOA henceforth) is an interesting, not quite missing link in interactive fiction. Often pegged as juvenile, it’s true that CYOAs do often cater to the kinder-crowd, but its simplicity and influence often creep into new media. Laser discs (with a modicum of twitch), DVDs and even CDs got into the act (with special mention to a vinyl record by one Ken Nordine: Colors, which came with obfuscated directions for random access playing.) I digress; I blog. This weeks little gem from the East is Yarudora Series Vol. 3: Sampaguita. The former part of the title is a concatenation which expands and translates to “Drama that You Do.” The latter, Sampaguita, is a Sri Lankan flower. The game is an anime CYOA for the PlayStation 1. That drama and that adventure owe it all to their preceding pronouns.

Dark And Stormy Nights

The game casts you as generic, nice if a bit lonely, salary-man everyman. Walking home one dark and stormy night, the area is bristled in an eerie tension. Police patrol, the wind blows, and black puddles glower light, and an alleyway hides away a crying girl in beautiful pink dress. She has amnesia. You do the noble thing and take her home and tend to her wounds. From here on, anything can happen to cut this story short.

There are 20 bad endings, 5 normal and a scant 3 good to strive for. The whole game is animated in a queer letterbox frame, pushed to the top of the screen, and peppered with stills when the action slows down. Periodically the choices pop up, and here is where the game becomes fiendishly unfriendly for friends of imports: it randomizes the selections. You can’t map a flowchart of progression without memorizing the actual kanji, hiragana and katakana, with some options looking identical to the untrained eye. A lone walkthrough Romanizes some choices, allowing one to go syllable hunting for a good, or even a normal ending, though finding all the bad endings is by no means easy.

In-flight Entertainment

There’s a charm to the game regardless. It reminds me of watching the person to the left’s in-flight movie, with a glaring angle, crap resolution and no sound, (your PSP battery is dead, and you’ve already read this month’s Edge 4 times over) and trying to bend the movie to your will.

The plot is filled with action, snuggling, mysteries recovered, trips to arcades and a man named boy. Eventually a halo of flowers shows up, which I can only assume is the sampaguitas. Probably highly charged with mimetic energy. But to recall my cryptic and grammatically awkward mention of pronouns from above, it’s how the game handles you that is remarkable. Your choices may be few, but you only speak what you select. Your head is always cut off, or only the mouth is visible. The only time your eyes are revealed, is at the climax of the plot. And even then, your mouth is covered. This leads to interesting blocking and opens an interesting angle for those interested in inoculating the reader/viewer into the story. If any of this interests you, it seems Sony has ported it over to the PSP, so you can explore Maria’s dark past on your bullet train commute past Mt. Fuji.

[Ryan Stevens is the associate producer on the various Cinematech shows on G4TV, which showcases many of the games written about here. He's been known to do the collaborative blog thing at That's Plenty.]

Posted by Simon Carless at 10:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Although all-time great video game musician Tim Follin, whom we interviewed for Gamasutra a few months, has now unfortunately quit the game biz, as we mentioned on GSW back in January, his legacy of genius music lives on, both in undiscovered 'gems' and remix goodness.

On the first of these - even the semi-canonical Follin Drome website doesn't list the obscure Sega Mega CD comic license Ultraverse: Prime, made by Malibu Interactive before they stiffed, and apparently so poor that it was only sold as a bundle with FMV game Microcosm, youch.

Well, we completely missed this Sardius-penned review of the 'Prime' theme song which reveals that the cheesy title tune (.MP3) has a flute (!) and synthesizer solo. Given that only Tim Follin ever puts rock-themed flute solos in games, and we know that he worked for Malibu, this appears to be a 'lost' Follin soundtrack (co-composed with Geoff?) of some kind - we're getting a copy as we speak.

It was also recently brought to our attention that the folks at OCRemix are partway through a Follin remix project, and some of the completed (though thus-far unavailable!) selections include musical genius XOC, he of Super Mario World cover album genius, who is covering both Magic Johnson's Fast Break & Super Off-Road. Hawt. In the meantime, poke XOC's other great arrangements and rejoice.

Posted by Simon Carless at 6:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A few weeks ago, an intriguing column in New York Magazine by Hollywood producer Lynda Obst appeared, named 'We Lost It at the Movies', and dealing with "...how Hollywood freaked out over vanishing audiences—who’ve now magically reappeared—and why teenage boys are a studio’s worst habit."

This started in June 2005, and Obst notes of the movie studios' frantic attempts to bring back movie audiences: "October brought Doom literally, which had started off tracking like gangbusters... Based on one of the most successful video games of all time, it would have to be a blockbuster, wouldn’t it? The tracking continued to build until the week of the movie’s debut, when it collapsed. If the kids didn’t come to Doom, starring The Rock, we could no longer call anything."

And, guess what? The film "...ultimately did $28 million in domestic box office. This was beyond horrible. Word of mouth killed Doom before it even opened. This was news; bad news." Of course, one does wonder how many teenagers have even played Doom, given that it's not a major console title. Nonetheless, Obst comments of market research: "Young men were too busy to go to the movies anymore. They would rather play video games on Friday nights or be on the Internet playing video games with strangers or hooking up or pretending to be hooking up or playing video games with or without the person they had just hooked up with."

So, Obst seems to be hinting that boy-friendly video game or action movies are some of the riskier things filmmakers can do right now, given their fickle audience: "We used to have a weekend to get our money out of a movie like Stealth or Doom. Now we get one night, tops. And that’s not enough to break even, the way it might have been in the good old days before the summer of 2003... we have to kill our singular addiction to teenage boys. We need to diversify the meaning of “our audience.”"

Of course, Obst has been diversifying for a while, given that she produced How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, but... maybe the film biz is going through some of the same diversification issues as the game biz, for high-budget titles?

Posted by Simon Carless at 2:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Over at Press The Buttons, blogged MattG has spotted an Apogee shareware classic once again available, in the form of reconstituted side-scrollin' puzzler Boppin'.

The official site has the new, free to leech Windows download for the game, of which PTB explains: "Seemingly combining elements of Dr. Mario with more conventional platformer adventures, our heroes accomplish this task by picking up special blocks and bopping them around the room so that they connect with identical blocks located in each level."

We also like that the Wikipedia entry for the game notes: " The Amiga version only sold 284 copies, according to the developers, and so it was ported to DOS and released as shareware."

Oh, and another fun note for the title: "The game was extremely bloody, with depictions of suicide when you lost all your lives, leading to concern from Apogee that led to the blood being disabled in later versions of the game, along with a replaced splash screen with a note claiming it to be a "politically corrected version"." Yay, political correctness!

Posted by Simon Carless at 11:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We at GSW hope you 'automatically' read features on sister B2B site Gamasutra - hence the lack of backlinks, haw. But the same may not be true for Serious Games Source, our new B2B site covering "games created for training, health, government, military, educational and other uses."

The latest feature up there is a neat 'postmortem' look at Spanish educational 'serious game' Worky's Challenge by Exelweiss Entertainment, of which it's explained: "The game was an initiative by a mutual insurance company and the regional government of Valencia and was related to workplace risks. Workplace risks has been a touchy political issue in Spain lately. The number of injuries and deaths during work has skyrocketed in the last years. A burgeoning construction sector (which by itself has higher risks that other economic sectors) and the bad or nil preparation of workers in low-skill jobs have been two of the major culprits for this."

The game itself is actually a graphical adventure teaching about workplace safety, along with arcade-style mini-games, in which players are "battling Dr. Fatality by adopting safety measures and avoiding accidents", and the game's commissioners were certainly picky: "After being finished, the game had to pass an external panel of workplace experts to make sure everything was correct... Even simple details like the way a computer was placed relative to a window needed to be changed. A computer screen should not be directly facing a window to avoid screen glare." My eyes!

Sadly, we can't find a link to Exelweiss' Spanish-language game online anywhere, but if anyone knows where it can be downloaded or otherwise checked out...

Posted by Simon Carless at 5:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So, the first time we were nice about gonzo game video show Cinematech: Nocturnal Emissions, which shows on U.S. cable channel G4, it brought us one of the show's producers, Ryan Stevens, who now writes the 'Gaijin Restoration' columns for GSW.

But, separately of that connection, and the fact that there's widespread gamegeek complaints on the rest of G4's non-gaming direction nowadays (I just found out that GameSpy's new staffer Li Kuo, who I was praising the other week, used to work on the excellent pre-'movie celeb' version of Icons, incidentally), the fact is that Nocturnal Emissions still rocks hard , because you will see video of weird, odd, awful, obscure and inspiring video games, most of which you can't even find footage of on the Internet.

You can see a few of these on the videos page at G4TV.com, but you probably need to watch episodes for the full effect. Now admittedly, there's a lot of cleavage in there, but a recent show I heartily enjoyed, for example, had: "[3DO laser game conversion] Crime Patrol [and its sleazy South American drug dealer sequel], [previously GSW-referenced] Rule of Rose, [excellent Korean PSP title] DJ Max Portable, and much more... including everyone's favorite [and the aforementioned smut], Megumi." In conclusion: you don't have to watch the rest of G4, but if you're a gamegeek, watch this.

Posted by Simon Carless at 12:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Rockstar-esque uberblog Boing Boing has posted info on the release of Episode 1 of Strange Company's 'Bloodspell' machinima, the long, long in-development movie that's made using BioWare's Neverwinter Nights, according to its official site.

A couple of interesting points - firstly, the movie "will be released as 5-7 minute episodes every two weeks until the entire film is available", and it's released under a Creative Commons license, which means people are free to mash it up and mess it up to their heart's content.

There's also a LJ making-of diary which has lots of great content, including the pronouncement: "BloodSpell began as a small, short, indy film to fill the gap between big Strange Company projects. We're fairly certain that the monster that idea spawned is the largest and most ambitious machinima project ever attempted, which just goes to demonstrate the dangers of enthusiasm." Yay, enthusiasm!

Posted by Simon Carless at 7:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

You may know him as GSW's very own 'Bastards Of 32-Bit' columnist DannyC, but now Monsieur Cowan has played even further to his obscure side and penned a big Philip CD-i 15-year retrospective for our chums at 1UP.

As the intro notes: "OK, so assuming that you actually know what the CD-i is, odds are that you think of it as little more than "that one system with the jacked-up Zelda games." There's a little bit more to the CD-i story than that, though. It's a tale that involves Nintendo's baby steps toward disc-based media, the origins of a little Sony project called the "Play Station," and a forgotten console that's host to some of the worst games of all time."

The resulting piece has quite a lot of precise info that was hazy to even geeks like us, and any feature that names Hulk Hogan's 'Thunder In Paradise' game as one of the _highlights_ of a console's lifecycle is a must-read around here, at least. Also, 'The Wacky World of Miniature Golf with Eugene Levy' - ouch!

Posted by Simon Carless at 2:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The ever-vigilant Tim.W at Indygamer has spotted another freeware PC gaming gem, this time via Sweden, and it's the bizarrely named Noitu Love and the Army of Grinning Darns.

But wait! Tim(e) explains all: "With a quirky name which is actually evolution spelled backwards, Noitu Love and the Army of Grinning Darns is quickly gaining widespread recognition for it's classic platforming goodness. Setting a standard by winning TDC's Game of the Week award barely days after it was released, fans of classic console arcade action will not be disappointed with this effort."

If further explanation is needed: "Much like Capcom's Mega Man series, you get to utilize certain devices to change form and access special powers. The first few levels may seem repetitive but the game does get better after the second stage... Most of the highlights occur during boss battles, where each leader has to be defeated using different strategies." Yay, delightfully retro.

Posted by Simon Carless at 8:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

GamesAreFun has posted up some neat news - the most complete info yet on Gitaroo Man Lives! for PSP, revealing a new official website for the port (aw!) of Inis' super-fun PlayStation 2 rhythm title.

According to GAF: "The site has a bunch of screens, along with a tracklist that reveals the names of two new songs in GM Lives! - "Metal Header" and "Toda Pasión." There's also a 30-second streaming sample of Metal Header, which we've made available for download."

The site also notes of the two bonus songs for the game, which is due in Japan this May and has no confirmed Western publisher yet: "According to the site, Metal Header was written by "tomzuin h" and recorded by Sonica Studio. So, it's not COIL (the rock group who did most of the original GM's songs), but it still has that distinctive Gitaroo Man feel, which is very nice to hear." Pick up the PS2 version of this title, if you haven't already - it's skeleton xylophone levels of fun!

[UPDATE: Ah - actually, Gitaroo Man has appeared on Koei's E3 game list, and "is coming to PSP in America later this year", according to 1UP. Hurrah for that!]

Posted by Simon Carless at 2:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We hadn't forgotten about Matt Wegner's Fun Motion physics game blog, so were delighted to see that he's posted a downloadable version of physics game Rolling Assault, made by Matt himself.

Interestingly, the title, which involves piloting a tank along a side-scrolling track while shooting enemies, has some drawbacks explained by Flashbang Studios' Wegner: "More often than not the limitations of reality actually get in the way [in physics games]. Rolling Assault suffers in this regard. The control seemed fine in the early prototypes. It was satisfying to roll around; the wheels’ motion was aesthetically pleasing. However, as soon as we introduced very specific movement goals—dodge this missile, jump over this barrier—the sluggishness in the tank’s motion becomes apparent. The tank simply isn’t nimble enough to perform directed tasks without some degree of player frustration."

Commenter 'Dave' noted of the results: "I love the way the tank moves and handles, although you are right, any ideas of split-second manouevres to avoid incoming fire go out the window pretty quickly." But nonetheless, for the princely sum of zero dollars, the mini-game, which was entered in the 2003 Independent Games Festival competition, is well worth checking out.

Posted by Simon Carless at 8:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Posted by at 3:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

Virtual world blog 3pointD has a new post about a Second Life game development competition, showcasing some of the best games designed within the rapidly expanding virtual world.

The contest is open for all to try now, and 3pointD blogger Mark Wallce explains one: "Tech Warfare, by SL resident Eckhart Dillon... is a team-based real-time strategy game that plays very much like a PC-based RTS. Teams of avatars can create units — consisting of small bots that are created wherever you’re standing — which then go off on their own power to do battle with each other, the goal being to destroy the enemy base." Pretty sophisticated!

However, it's also mentioned: "One interesting thing to note: The games are being judged by how much money they earn during the final stage of the contest. This will turn out to be a wildly inaccurate measure of how well they fulfill the “fun” metric, however." A commenter notes that the change in judging "was something that was requested by a majority of last year’s participants", mind you.

Posted by Simon Carless at 10:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Edge-Online has posted one of its regular features taken from Edge Magazine itself, and this time it's an interview with Grasshopper Manufacture's Suda51, a figure of Nathan Barley-esque cultish semi-adoration around the GSW offices.

Of the designer's Killer 7, it's noted sagely, if impenetrably: "Combining grasshopper's cut-up production techniques with Production Studio 4 producer Shinji Mikami's guidance - perhaps the development equivalent of drink and drive - that title's polarised reception cast Goichi's company as a global cult commodity." Also notably mentioned are the just-released Samurai Champloo PS2 game and the forthcoming Contact, both of which have Suda51 oddness scrawled all over them.

Suda Goichi (aka Suda51 - Japanese pun there, yes!) also talks a little about new PS3 title Kurayama ('Darkness'): ""The game is inspired by Kafka, a writer I greatly admire," Goichi begins, apparently not intending to make that challenge any easier on himself. "I thought for a long time about how to adapt the environment in his books into a game - to represent the mystery perhaps by applying filters, or dividing them into various missions.""

However, it's also noted in the Edge feature that concept paintings for the title are "currently the game's only visual representation, given that both its development and developer support from Sony are in their earliest stages." So... come back in a couple of years? Nuts.

Posted by Simon Carless at 5:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

So, we spotted a recent weblog post by Matt 'Fort90' Hawkins that links to a totally smart collaged picture called 'rocks.jpg', which features a photo of some rocks, as 'interpreted' by a few of your favorite games.

Of course, this means that the Doom 3 version is almost completely dark, the Vib Ribbon version is extremely pseudo vector graphics-heavy, the Duke Nukem 3D rocks are somewhat hilariously being offered a dollar bill (y'all!), the Dead Or Alive 4 version has a bikini on the rock, and... the smartness goes on.

But who made this graphic, and when, and for what purpose? Matt doesn't quite seem to know, and nor do we - we've been reliably informed that it's not from SomethingAwful, either, which would be our first bet. Anyone know? Is it still being added to, like the Sistine Chapel? Answers in comments, please.

[UPDATE: Commenter '573' traces the pics to English-language 2Chan image-board 'clone' 4Chan - which apparently started as a SA offshoot, anyhow, so we were close. The images were done by multiple contributors to the /v/ board. And smartass 'John H.' mentions: "The Nethack one is incorrect: rocks in that game are of the gemstone class, and would be represented by asterisks..." Ooo!]

[UPDATE 2: Oi, Kotaku - no crediting for the link or even the source update? Weak.]

Posted by Simon Carless at 12:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

The rather smart RetroBlast! has spotted a brand new consumer-aimed pinball table from innovative toy company Zizzle, the folks behind the Zizzle Iz - and designed by Star Wars Episode 1 and Theater Of Magic pin designer John Popadiuk, too.

RB! links to an informative rec.games.pinball post (Usenet still alive? Huzzah!) which explains: "John Popadiuk is designing a few games for release this summer by a company called Zizzle. A smaller version of a full size pin. Real solenoid flippers and bumpers, ramps and multilevels. Real wood cabinet but at a discount price. Around $300. First out is a Pirates of the Caribbean and Marvel Super Heroes. Trying to tap in the home market just as Bally did in the mid '80s."

There are a few pictures of the Marvel Super Heroes prototype from the New York Toy Fair earlier this year which show that, for $300, this might actually be a pretty fun purchase - the Pirates Of The Caribbean ad also linked seems to indicate that, although it's not got the sophistication of the real, multi-thousand dollar thing, Zizzle's concept may still be a pleasant compromise.

Posted by Simon Carless at 6:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

['Game Ads A-Go-Go' is a bi-weekly column by Vintage Computing and Gaming's RedWolf that showcases good, bad, strange, funny, and interesting classic video game-related advertisements, most of which are taken from his massive classic game magazine collection.]

In a previous Game Ads A-Go-Go, I gave you proof that video game companies want you to die. This week we'll go a little bit more in depth with the same theme, examining one of the more subtle ways that the video game industry intends to do you harm. It's a fact: some video games spread infectious disease. Luckily, some brazen advertisers were kind enough to put warnings in their ads for us to interpret (snarkily). So get out your latex gloves, 'cause it's time to examine some particularly nasty games.

The Disease Guide

Disease: Repetitive Gameplay Syndrome
Spread by: Mega Man X3 (SNES)

Symptoms: Gives the infected individual the impression that he/she is playing the exact same game over and over again, no matter how many different games he/she buys.

Other Symptoms: Feelings of guilt and shame that the afflicted just bought his/her 20th copy of a game originally released in 1987.

Treatment: ONE (1) COPY OF "KATAMARI DAMACY" PLAYED TWICE DAILY FOR THIRTY (30) DAYS.

Prevention Tips: Nothing short of the absolute destruction of Capcom will stop the spread of this disease.

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Disease: Road Rash
Spread by: Road Rash 3 (Genesis)

Symptoms: When operating motor vehicles on public causeways, afflicted becomes aggressive and attacks motorcycle riders with loose, hand-wielded chains.

Other Symptoms (see included literature): Acute burning sensation in the nipples, general scrape-like rash on 60% of the body.

Treatment: COMPLETE CESSATION of "ROAD RASH 3" PLAY FOR TWENTY (20) DAYS. THEREAFTER, PERMANENT AVOIDANCE OF MOTORCYCLES, CHAINS.

Prevention Tips: Wear leather chaps when riding.

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Disease: Lacklusterpuzzleclonitis
Spread by: Zoop (Multi-platform)

Symptoms: Every two years, the afflicted produces another single-screen unit-manipulating puzzle game similar to Tetris.

Other Symptoms (see included literature): Loss of friends, loss of appetite, insomnia, excessive battery consumption, dreams about puzzle games, hairstyles that resemble pieces from puzzle games.

Treatment: EMERGENCY GREEDECTOMY RECOMMENDED. OTHERWISE, ONE (1) TESTOSTERONE INJECTION MONTHLY FOR TWO (2) YEARS, THEN DAILY FOUR (4) HOUR SESSIONS OF LIVE-ACTION "MORTAL KOMBAT II" ROLEPLAY THEREAFTER.

Prevention Tips: Regular psychotherapy towards the goal of the realization that you're not a game designer. Avoid bodily fluid exchange with Alexey Pazhitnov.

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Disease: Gonorrhea
Spread by: Burn:Cycle (3DO)

Symptoms: Burning sensation when urinating, strange discharge from the penis. Rarely, painful or swollen testicles (Typical patient reaction illustrated in picture above).

Other Symptoms (see included literature): Spontaneous head explosion.

Treatment: 300MG AMOXICILLIN TABLETS TAKEN TWICE (2) DAILY FOR TWENTY-ONE (21) DAYS.

Prevention Tips: Avoid playing video games with your penis.

Bonus Disease

Disease: Conjunctivitis (Pinkeye)
Spread by: Blockbuster Video Rental Chain

Symptoms: Redness, irritation, watering of the eyes.

Treatment: FOUR (4) DROPS ERYTHROMYCIN IN EACH EYE DAILY FOR SEVEN (7) DAYS.

Prevention: Avoid rubbing infected Blockbuster merchandise directly onto eyeballs.

[RedWolf is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Vintage Computing and Gaming, a regularly updated "blogazine" that covers collecting, playing, and hacking vintage computing and gaming devices. He has been collecting vintage computers and game systems for over 13 years. He is also a big fan of bacon.]

Posted by Benj Edwards at 2:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Our post-post-modern British chum Kieron Gillen points out one of the more marvellous concepts for a themed video game weblog that we've recently seen. Quite simply named 'Not Enough Owls', the site explains regally: "Owls: majestic creatures of the English countryside, and long overlooked by popular culture. This blog will go a small way to setting that right by documenting the role of owls in computer games."

The weblog's first post is lamenting an evil role for an owl in Sony's Loco Roco, raging: "There's no explanation of why he's there, why he's on the side of evil, or why he appears to be drunk, fat and in a Pac-Man ghost outfit. It's exactly this sort of lazy, fallacious nonsense that inspired this blog in the first place", and threatening menacingly: "Sony, you must correct this or the full weight of the revo-hoot-ion will be brought to bear upon you."

The latest post, very suitably, explains the role of Psygnosis in owl-based games, declaiming sagely: "One might be inclined to suggest that if there were any company in the history of videogaming which had supported owls, it might be Psygnosis." Sadly, the company's owl logo and owl-based game Agony didn't stop the industry REPRESSING THE OWLS YET AGAIN, and we feel a writing campaign to make sure that NintenOwls debuts at Revolution launch may be in Not Enough Owls' imminent future. Or at least a petition for some kind of Harry Potter-licensed Hedwig game where you deliver letters and eat worms? Petitions always work.

Posted by Simon Carless at 11:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Famitsu reports in an interview this week that former Sega man, Kaya Takafumi, who was largely behind Chu Chu Rocket, and had a stint at Sony as well, is creating a rather unique kind of game school called the Sunday Game Studio.

The school is aimed at so-called 'society people' - or those who have graduated from college and already found a job and contributed to society at large - and caters to those with free time on Sundays, thus the school's name. Students would be rigorously and strictly selected, for the school claims that they will learn with the guidance of seasoned game professionals, and as an internship, the casual PC game products created by students will actually go on sale in Yahoo!'s Game division.

Takafumi is drawn to networked games for their potential to expose new creators easilym and believes in his school in a sort of patriotic way to stimulate the creativity of Japanese designers against what he sees as a growing trend of publishers curtailing development around sequels to make a profit. He plans to enforce strict schedules of around three months for most of the games developed at Sunday Game Studio, in an effort to propel motivation to finish the projects. If the school works according to his plans, it will highlight the casual game market to which he has become increasingly attracted. One wonders how far the Pied Piper's music will play.

Posted by szshou at 7:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

They're veteran machinima types, but for some reason, we haven't seen much online press for The Ill Clan and their fun new machinima show, Tra5hTa1k.

As a recent press release notes, "Starting with the 1998 game, Quake, the ILL Clan animators created a humorous cartoon in the normally violent 3D game" in the form of the Lenny and Larry Lumberjack shorts, including Apartment Huntin' [.MOV link].

This latest episode of Tra5hTa1k With Ill Will, their latest bi-weekly show (6 episodes thus far!), includes a 'review of Final Fantasy XI', which seems to degenerate into chaos pretty darn quickly, and from a quick perusal, it's actually pretty funny, nuanced stuff - not generally true of most 'comedy' machinima, besides that produced by the Rooster Teeth guys of Red Vs. Blue fame. As the Ill Clan are 'the originators', you should respect them like Afrika Bambaataa (uhh, or Steamboat Willie!) and view their show. Honest.

Posted by Simon Carless at 3:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Back to those fun folks at Toybane again, and this time they've set up a neat little list of 'The Top 8 Stress-Relieving Games'.

Top of the heap, naturally, is Katamari Damacy/We Love Katamari ("Both of these games are perfect examples of good, clean fun ways to wreak absolute havoc while spilling not a drop of blood. I have often found myself firing up one of the Katamari games after a particularly long day at work and just basking in the silliness. And no matter how badly your day has been, it can’t possibly be as bad as the poor Prince’s.")

But also hanging around near the bottom of the 'relaxing' list, under Guitar Hero and Rez, is, paradoxically, Incredible Crisis, a PS1 title we can heartily approve of: "A story of a family going through the worst of all possible bad days and jumping from one insane adventure to another via a series of increasingly surreal minigames, Incredible Crisis is playable by almost anyone, hilarious to watch and above all, short." It's all about the Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra, soundtrackers of this gem! Any other games that help you chill the huck out?

Posted by Simon Carless at 10:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

So, we don't even normally do 'breaking news' here, but this new Buena Vista press release is too precious and GSW-ish to pass up - Tetsuya Mizuguchi's Q? Entertainment has signed a multi-title publishing deal with the Disney division, and goodness is ensuing!

We quote: "BVG will publish the upcoming titles: Lumines II, a mesmerizing sequel to the highly popular action and music puzzle game, for the PSP system; Lumines Plus, a pulsing new version of the original title for the PlayStation 2; Every Extend Extra, an electrifying action puzzle shooter game for PSP; and Meteos: Disney Edition, a new version of the popular galactic action puzzle title Meteos featuring beloved Disney characters, for the Nintendo DS."

At one point, we'd heard that Ubisoft was still publishing Lumines II, but apparently not. Also, not sure what happened to the ((QB)) label, which was meant to be a 'boutique' label for Q? products with Bandai? It's referenced here in a Mizuguchi interview, but we note the Buena Vista agreement is for "all territories outside Asia", so maybe the ((QB)) concept is publishing these 4 titles in Japan?

(Oh, and that Tokyopia interview mentions that Q?'s CEO is "Shuji Utsumi [formerly] from Disney Interactive", so that probably helps explain the new Buena Vista connection. Anyhow... excitement!)

Posted by Simon Carless at 5:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

GameSpy is continuing to, uhm, kick things up a notch, to tragically borrow an Emeril-ism, and its latest interview quizzes Dr. Sonya Brady about her somewhat controversial research that recently debuted, allegedly linking violent games and permissive drug/alcohol attitudes.

Brady, a postdoctoral fellow in the Health Psychology Program at the University of California, San Francisco, comments of reactions to her work: "What kind of feedback have I received? My feedback from research colleagues and other older adults has generally been positive. What I find most interesting is the feedback I have received from adolescents and young adults. Some people are interested in learning more about the research, even if they are skeptical of the results. Other people have been very angry." Those damn kids!

As for what people can do if they don't like the way the research was engineered, Brady suggests: "If people genuinely think that this research is flawed and feel passionate about the issue of whether videogame violence has any negative effects, I encourage them to pursue a career in research and to potentially design their own research studies in the future." OK, well, we'll see you in about ten years, then?

Posted by Simon Carless at 2:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Since we tend to read highbrow paper magazines such as The New Yorker and, uhm, lad/gadgetmag Stuff Magazine, we spotted that current cover girl and former 'wild child' Bijou Phillips has a penchant for the creations of a certain Wired-cover-starring Bay Area game designer.

In her full interview with Stuff, Phillips, who recently filmed the new movie Zodiac with director David Fincher, comments, when asked what she does for fun: "I play The Sims. I've gotten every single expansion pack for The Sims 2, and I'm obsessed."

She continues happily: "I sit online for hours downloading wallpapers and crystal spray paint - I just go nuts. I can sit and design houses and make families forever. I'd rather do that than anything else." Yep, there goes Will Wright, fulfilling another girl's domestic dreams yet again. [DISCLAIMER: Guys' domestic dreams can also be fulfilled by The Sims, and we are not confused about the difference between sexy and sexist, like the Spinal Tap folks.]

Posted by Simon Carless at 11:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

[EDITOR'S NOTE: We're _very_ proud to welcome Kevin Gifford of Magweasel and Video-Fenky fame as a GameSetWatch contributor - he'll be starting a new column focused on the history of video game magazines for GSW in the near future. In the meantime, he made a rather lush 'test' feature for us which focuses on the heady world of early '80s game magazines. Thanks again, Kevin!]

Everyone loves Computer Gaming World. Sure! Who doesn't? It's the oldest game magazine still in active publication anywhere, a title it wrested from Computer & Video Games when the print edition died in terrifying obscurity in 2004. (I heard somewhere that the articles inside are very nice as well, all spell checked and everything.)

Back in 1984, however, it was a much smaller, humbler magazine than the robust juggernaut that lightning-bolts its way to mailboxes monthly today. In fact, it was less a magazine and more an oversized newsletter, with scratchy black-and-white pages interspersed among the expensive glossy ones. (CGW from this era is particularly loopy because it used ITC Korinna, the typeface used for the questions in Jeopardy! and lots of other game shows, as its main text font. The effect is like reading a particularly dense edition of the Sears catalog.

It was a heady time to be running a hardcore PC game magazine (especially since there four separate, healthy platforms to cover), and peering at the advertisements of the time reveal an industry more than a bit different from the one we have today. Let's take a closer look at these ads, all borrowed from 1984 issues of CGW...

Most retro game fans know how exciting Electronic Arts' ads were in the early 1980s. They were all just like this one for Archon II -- few graphics, lots of text, and the authors of the game (the "software artists") front and center. It was part of EA's efforts to distinguish itself from the rabble of small-time game companies and push its products as not just games, but works of art, or at least artisanship.

The artists of Archon II are (left to right) Jon Freeman, Paul Reiche III and Anne Westfall. Jon Freeman wrote an on-and-off column around this time for CGW called "The Name of the Game" that basically served as a public place for him to mouth off at the game industry's villains -- dishonest publishers, programmers who rip off ideas from other games, and SF authors trying to write text adventures (apparently this was a major crisis at some point in time).

Reiche, who later attained cult-idol status for co-writing Star Control II and now heads up indie developer Toys for Bob, looks about thirteen years old in this photo.

Competition Karate was one of those games where you didn't control your fighter directly, but instead typed a key to have him execute the move you want in the next "turn" of gameplay. Sounds pretty Apple-ish to me. I honestly didn't know they gave out trophies in karate tournaments.

Now we get to the ads printed on the B&W pages. I know this ad looks like it's from an old Wonder Woman comic book, but it really is for a computer game. For a wargame, it's got some pretty frenetic ad copy: "Nothing could stop the Wehrmacht...or so Hitler thought. He was wrong!!! [...] For all you devoted true-blue wargamers who can't find an opponent, that's no longer a problem!!!" All right, already. We hear you.

Wikipedia tells us that the Brewster Buffalo (called the F2A-2 by the US Navy) was an all-metal carrier craft that debuted in 1939 with a full-metal monoplane design, wing flaps, retractable landing gear, an enclosed cockpit, four fixed machine guns and attachments for two 100-pound bombs.

The British bought about 200 of them and sent 'em off to the Far East in order to save their main fighters (the Spitfire and Hurricane) for the European theater. They were deployed in Burma and Singapore and soon became the butt of endless jokes by Japanese pilots, who shot them down in droves with their superior Zeroes. The Buffalo was withdrawn in the space of a couple months and never used again by England, America, Belgium, or any other Allied country...except for Finland, who loved the things and got so good at piloting them that 12 Finnish pilots became aces (i.e. shot down more than five enemy planes) in Buffaloes before the end of the war.

This ad just made me curious; that's all.

  

Two separate "We want your games ads", both presumably placed by traditional book/music agencies trying to get into the game business.

It was still possible in 1984, albeit barely, to program a game by yourself, make 100 copies, put them in Ziploc sandwich bags, place an ad in mags like CGW, and actually see profit out of it. As games got more complicated, though, agencies like these tried to play middleman for lazy coders who didn't like the marketing aspect of making games.

I'm really not sure what the advertisement on the right is asking for. This is an ad! You've got to keep your sentences simple!

Not Funny. The whole "it to the" section sort of ruins the joke. Plus, if you need to order the XXL size for a shirt like this, shouldn't you really be reconsidering your priorities?

Here's a trivia question, is that a boy or a girl wearing the shirt in the photograph?

Posted by Kevin Gifford at 7:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Marvellously encylopedic game credits/info site MobyGames has also been known to run feature stories on occasion, and has just posted a detailed multi-part article called 'Something about Interactive Fiction', a neat overview which starts by citing Jason Bergman's fun IF Quake April Fool's joke.

Author Terrence Bosky then makes an important point: "Interactive fiction games respond to natural language input. In his book Twisty Little Passages: An Approach to Interactive Fiction, Nick Montfort points out that interactive fiction games recognize player input on two levels: Within the game world, and within the realm of the game as a program (saving your game or restoring it, for example)."

We then wander through many of the usual touchstones (Info-who?), before ending on this fun note: "Asked if he was surprised by the continued interest in Adventure, Don Woods said, “No, I'm not surprised. It spawned a large and active industry, and people in the areas of adventure games and interactive fiction keep looking back to see what else can be learned from the early successes. If anything, I'm occasionally surprised by the reverse: in the past few years I have begun encountering computer professionals who have NOT heard of Adventure. That used to be quite rare!”"

Nonetheless, it's still all about the spelunking, right? (Pictured above - Don Woods accepting the First Penguin Awards at this year's Game Developers Choice awards on behalf of himself and Will Crowther for creating Adventure - the award was presented by Infocom veterans Steve Meretzky and Bob Bates in full cave gear! Oh, and completely offtopic, while Googling to find this, we found out what IGN did at GDC this year. And people accuse them of being lowbrow!)

Posted by Simon Carless at 2:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

For all those out there who think we're Japanese fetishists who just have a wank everytime Hideo Kojima talks about what book he's reading now, witness our undying devotion to Jeff Minter! We'll give ourselves a good rubdown any time he does something too! The Tempest 2000/VLM/Neon/Unity creator is working on a new game for the 360. He's got the particle system going, and took some screen caps on his livejournal. Therein, he puts some odd words pairing animals and their emissions.

[One of these names pictured in the screenshot is 'Capybara spunk', which reminds us that our pals at Capybara Games have a really neat new project coming up, which I can't actually reveal, but involves persons that eat the flesh of others, in a genre you wouldn't expect.] Regardless, back to Minter. His new game hasn't really been properly defined, but he's talked about it just a bit, starting with how he feels expectations will be.

"Finally starting to get a grip on this new game. Always takes a while at first and there are times of floating around with that feeling of "I promised I would make an excellent game but I'm not feeling it yet", but it has ever been thus. In truth it's always been that way. It was exactly that way when I said I'd do Tempest 2000. I was certain the entire Jaguar community would laugh and point at me because of the crapness of what I'd made."

>Whoops. Now I wish that when I met him at E3 2001 (I think that was the year - he was there for the Nuon), I hadn't asked him why Tempest 3000 wasn't much better than 2000. He probably felt bad. Anyway, he then went on to mention that even though Neon did really well (that's the visualization system for the 360, if you didn't know), the fact that Unity didn't come out makes him a bit nervous. Even so, cautious optimism abounds:

"At the moment it feels like it's starting to shake down well, the initial ideas resolving into things you can actually bolt game mechanic on, really nice bits like today with the p-system work just being lovely... it's good that it feels like it's starting to slot together well. There *is* no formula for this stuff, you just have to munge things around until they feel right and then build from there. And despite everything, despite hangovers from previous projects and people like the fucking Rev whose mission is to make game designers want to slit their wrists rather than ever design a game ever again - I'm starting to feel increasingly confident about this one, it feels nice, it really does :)." Guess we'll see! [Cross-posted from Brandon's IC.]

Posted by bsheffield at 9:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

We'd also noticed that new ABC romantic mishap sit-com What About Brian features a 'game designer' in the lead role, but, and we take his hat off to him, Kyle Orland at Video Game Media Watch actually sat through an episode of the thing.

He explains: "From what I could gather from half-watching the show’s first three episodes, the titular Brian is the sober business type while his best pal Dave is the creative fire behind Zap Monkey studios (known for the fictional arcade semi-hit “Throttle Autobahn”)."

But wait, it gets better: "In tonight’s episode, the pair gives a pitch for their big new game “Visiostate” to a group of producers. From what was shown in the presentation, the game (which seemed to be running on an Xbox) jumps from space adventure to prehistoric fetch-quest to super-spy bike race through a city with amazingly little grace (At one point Dave says it’s “never the same game twice.” I’d settle for it being the same game once!). One cool feature shown in the demo: a digital camera picture of one of the producers turns into a 3D in-game model instantaneously." I'll buy that for a dollar!

Posted by Simon Carless at 5:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

['Parallax Memories' is a regular weekly column by Matthew Williamson, profiling classic '16-bit' games from the Sega Genesis, Super Nintendo, and other seminal '90s systems. This week's column profiles Treasure's run-and-gun action game: Gunstar Heroes for the Genesis.]

Lunatic Heroes

I first played Gunstar Heroes was with a friendly rival (he had a Genesis before I did, and more NES games). One day, after school, he came over to my house with a game box in hand and said this new game was better than Contra, which we had to play. It was the last game I played with him before I moved away. I don't know if I agree that it was better than Contra.

The game was originally conceived with the title "Lunatic Gunstar," but Sega of America recommended "heroes, since it's cool," to the then-unknown development company. The game was programmed in their spare time, and after a few bumps, Gunstar Heroes was released in the US and Japan in September 1993, on the ninth and tenth respectively. The game's success on both sides of the Pacific established a name for the small company, who were called Treasure.

Freedom of Choice

Gunstar Heroes is hard to describe - to say it is similar to Contra doesn't do it justice. I usually play using the homing-laser, which makes it fairly easy to beat the game using only a few continues. I have a friend who told me that he found the game damn hard and used far more continues. We got together last month to play though the the Treasure Box release. I realized it was his choice of weapon--the double flamethrower--that made the game so difficult for him.

Gunstar Heroes was built on choices, and not just in weaponry--the main stage order is selectable. I tend to go left to right out of habit, and the game seemed foreign when my friend took a different route. The bosses (and there are many) can be taken down in many different ways. This game is the epitome of Treasure's early don't-leave-anything-out design process.

Fan Fare

Even with all the variations, the many levels, and bosses, Gunstar Heroes still produces a tight package of action. There are so many extremely original ideas crammed into this game. Every boss fight is memorable, and even the music and sound effects are overachievers.

Treasure is almost synonymous with hardest-of-the-hardcore fans, and their fan-base was practically built on this game alone. For years, devotees despaired that there would never be a sequel (though they ultimately had mixed feelings when it finally arrived in the form of Gunstar Super Heroes). There is a reason why fans are so zealous; Gunstar Heroes is a masterpiece of the Genesis library.

[Matthew Williamson is the creator of The Gamer's Quarter, an independent videogame magazine focusing on first-person writing. His work has been featured on MTV.com, 1up.com, Chatterbox Radio, and the Fatpixels Radio Podcast.]

Posted by Matthew Williamson at 1:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

We at GSW continue to link to reviews that deflower your favorites (and alleged soon-to-be-favorites), and next up is import store NCSX's het-up review of Mother 3 for Game Boy Advance, in which, well, fur flies.

The un-named reviewer barks: "Perhaps the bottom line with respect to the visual department is simply why the game is on the outdated Game Boy Advance platform in the first place?", continuing: "Mother 3 offers absolutely nothing new when it comes to gameplay; truth be told, anyone familiar with either of the prior installments (or any other RPG ever made) will have no problems understanding what to do."

While he admits of the series: "Still, oddity is not without its own charm and hence gamers fell in love", the conclusion is grim: "It is remarkable that nearly 12 years after Mother 2 was released, Nintendo could still put forth a product that feels like a true sequel. It is appalling, however, that while the latest installment feels like Mother [aka Earthbound in the U.S.], it is an artificial sentiment more than a genuine one. Maybe this series is really a flash-in-the-pan: this is the third installment yet in truth the second original game; Mother 2, for all its fleshing-out and expanding, was at its core a remake of Mother 1."

Apparently: "In seeking to create an entirely new story and scenario, Shigesato Itoi let whatever nonsense that floated into his head to accumulate on paper and, even worse, morph into a full fledged game." Wow, what's that in my cornflakes? GameSpot has hands-on impressions of a much more Switzerlandian nature, on the other hand.

Posted by Simon Carless at 8:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Via the ever-vigilant Atari Age, we're directed to a new interview with Coleco Industries' Dave Johnson at the ColecoNation magazine - according to the intro, Johnson "helped design and produce over 100 video games for the ColecoVision, ranging from Donkey Kong to Spy Hunter."

Among the interesting subjects covered was just how arcade conversions such as Donkey Kong, for which the Colecovision version was the first home version, were done ("We were never given source code or any other documentation. The basic technique for documenting a game was to have one person play [the arcade game] while another videotaped it. We never even did a direct video feed because it was better to zoom in and get close-ups of the actual pixels.")

He also gives a heartwarming reference to the relatively homegrown Coleco success: "In the beginning, no one knew if the product would be successful or even noticed by the public. Atari seemed like an incredibly successful product and it was hard to imagine how a little toy company from Connecticut could compete. It was very rewarding to see ColecoVision take off." Aw.

Posted by Simon Carless at 4:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The ever-reliable 'Games Without Frontiers' column by Clive Thompson over at Wired News decided to delve into the attraction of Lara Croft this week, and surprisingly, Thompson's angle is that it was empathy, not lust, that drove millions of gamers into the Tomb Raider's grip.

He explains happily: "I think young boy gamers loved Lara for reasons that were considerably stranger [than "the basest urges"]. They weren't just ogling her: They were identifying with her. Playing the role of a hot, sexy woman in peril -- surrounded by violence on all sides -- was, unexpectedly, a totally electric experience for young guys."

Thompson, referencing Carol Clover's concept of 'The Final Girl' empathetic effect in horror movies, comments of the Tomb Raider series: "As with the slasher flicks, there's.... a constantly threatened woman, fighting for her very survival, attacking goons on every side -- and a captive audience of young men. Playing as Croft was an emotionally catalytic experience."

[Incidentally, did anyone else know about Tomb Raider: Quest For Cinnabar? Doesn't it sound like she's either looking for a cheap bath product or an expensive lounge bar?]

Posted by Simon Carless at 10:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Over on the personal site of 1UP Features Editor Jeremy 'Toastyfrog' Parish, there's a just posted, vaguely tongue in cheek, sure to be controversial re-review for Square Enix's often deified Final Fantasy VII.

Parish wastes no time in quipping that the title is: "Based on: A Hironobu Sakaguchi X Silicon Graphics slashfic crossbred with a really poorly planned D&D campaign", before explaining of the 'mediocre' title: "FFVII does have some value -- for instance, as a litmus test. In many ways, it serves as a convenient dividing line between different classes of gamer."

He continues by noting of the gamers "who totally love FFVII" and "inexplicably... number in the millions", that: "Some of them are simply nice but misguided people, but generally speaking, they're youngsters who had never actually played a role-playing game before 1997. (Or who suffer from intense, debilitating head trauma.)"

So... FFVII, travesty, or traviata for the soul? I'm afraid I wander marginally into Parish's camp - I'd rather be off playing Dungeon Master.

Posted by Simon Carless at 5:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (10)

The Multicart Project is a weekly comic by cartoonist Dave "Shmorky" Kelly - check out the full comic archives so far.

[Dave "Shmorky" Kelly's cartoons have appeared in all sorts of exciting internet places, such as Keenspot, Shmorky.com, and Something Awful, where he served as animator on the Doom House DVD, and is currently outputting The Flash Tub on a weekly basis. He also has an Internet Movie Database entry, which makes him more famous than you.]

Posted by Frank Cifaldi at 1:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Believe we've run a couple of stories on it already, but Jason Scott's Digitize.textfiles.com is still an amazing source of classic gaming and computing scans (though Jason, please add an 'added on' tag we can sort by, because we're having trouble working out what is new past the last 10 items nowadays.)

In any case, further perusal of its vaults shows a couple of particularly neat items which show that the current 'retro T-shirt' craze actually has antecedents in clothes and merchandise that were available in the early '80s - this is a 1983 Atari Connection catalog that includes a great Centipede T-shirt, as well as one for the much more obscure Caverns Of Mars, which is apparently in the very hack-friendly Atari Flashback 2.

Even better, though much less game-themed, is this Sweet Gum 'unusual computer gifts' catalog from 1982, which includes a page of 'Softwear' for the computer enthusiast - including 'I'm bilingual - I speak English and Basic', and the almost salacious 'Byte My Bits'. Sweet Gum and Hot Topic have more in common that anyone previously thought, apparently.

Posted by Simon Carless at 8:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

YMCK, don't you know, is the massively excellent chiptunes band that broke onto the scene about a year ago, maybe more. Famicom instumentation with lounge jazz cutesy female vocals, it all works quite well. And thanks to Youtube, you can check out a particularly interesting performance of theirs. Yes, that's none other than Takahashi Meijin onstage (who I've met! He's very bald!), singing his heart out, and occasionally pressing buttons really fast.

If you're not familiar with Meijin, shame on you. He's been with Hudson Soft for an eternity, and is renowned for his ability to press famicom buttons really fast (16 times per second...or he used to be able to, anyway). Zepy tells me his highest ever was 17. In the movie Gameking, he broke a watermelon with his technique. And his hair! That certainly explains the watermelon poking minigame we linked on december 4, 2003. He's also the basis of the Adventure Islands character.

Regardless! Here, while the cameraman has not been able to take the stupid timestamp and displays off the image, he has captured an event of some magnitude. It also seems they're singing some song that is very famous. I'm too stupid to identify it, so I'd appreciate someone letting me know. Update! People less stupid than me have imparted some wisdom. The first song is Rock and Roll Rendezvous from YMCK's new album (which features Meijin in its recorded form, too! - thanks brendan). The second song they do is a Caravan Stage from the Gunhed series, namely Super Star Soldier. I'm rather embarrassed I didn't recognize it - thanks ioonearth. Do check out the other YMCK videos if you've never heard them, they're better than some other things! Thanks to the mighty Juan Ramirez, who just redesigned his site, for the Youtube link.

Bonus: Zepy says: "Takahashi has released two albums on his own in the past, and a 16 shot 20th anniversary album just last october. Check it out here." And this is his official site. [Cross-posted from IC.]

Posted by bsheffield at 2:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

["I often import games from abroad and play them. On such occasions, my imagination is sometimes stimulated more as I don't understand the language.” – Fumito Ueda, creator of Ico and Shadow of the Colossus. 'The Gaijin Restoration' is a weekly examination of underappreciated Eastern games that never cross to Western shores. This week's title is Jung Rhythm from Altron. It was released in early 1998 for the Sega Saturn in Japan.]

Music Makes Me Move
When I was two years old, my parents noticed my left eye bulging out of my head. This led to that and whatyaknow, I had a brain tumor on my optic nerve. Snip-snip, all better. Except now I had monocular vision, but no monocle. A steady diet of 2600 games were prescribed to build up my shattered hand-eye coordination. But somethings never hit 100%, including my spatial reasoning (you don't want to be in the car when I'm merging on the freeway), my handwriting (I was a prime candidate for Ms. Mavis Beacon) and my rhythm (a straight-A 3rd grader pulled down to the murk of mere adequacy by the tyranny of the recorder.) Also, on the latter: I'm very white.

What I lack in rhythm I make up for in plucky soul. Though I adore music games, I am by no means good at them. Now the question is: I may not have Rhythm but do I have Jung Rhythm? This is a quaint Sega Saturn game which apes PaRappa the Rapper, or more accurately, totally bites its style more than a little. Fundamentally, both games are singing games, have you play as children, require precise timing, have six story based stages/songs, an unlockable seventh, and I suck at both of them. More importantly, they both feature really odd scenarios, from Parappa getting a drivers license to Jung Rhythm's eating breakfast, painting a cow and competing in a version of Set It Off with a low poly Paris Hilton 3rd grader.

The low poly count isn't really an issue, but it's a constant reminder of the Saturn's sorry fate, at least in 'The Colonies'. The stills presented here have shrank some of the ugly, but believe me, its a bit of a grimace, especially when you have to consider the charming superflat of PaRappa. Scenes are vibrant, and change dynamically depending on performance and progression. Control is amazing for any right brained or two left thumbed would-be 8 year old little girl. Even with God of War coming out a decade after the PlayStation controller was released, I still have problems hitting TRIANGLE or SQUARE with conviction when it's dictated. The Saturn's more literal ABC control makes me a much better pusher-bot, and when the D-pad is brought into the equation, I can cope with transliterated cardinal directions.

Everyone's a Critic

This is a fairly easy game to play without a firm grasp of Nihongo, though the songs are indeed in Japanese. There is a cutscene with a song rendered in English, and quite a few songs have the odd purloined word show up - Ms. Mini Hilton even starts counting in Swedish at one point, bringing chills to spines of anyone who ever saw mid-90's John Candy/Doug E. Doug vehicle Cool Runnings. The one caveat is stage progression. When you make it to the end of a song, a panel of judges pass fiery convictions on your performance. You must be up to muster with all the judges to a certain degree to continue. And here we find no Jung Rhythm nor reason. While one Judge seems to just go for general accuracy, and another likes when you go crazy on the ad-lib moments, the others are conundrums wrapped in enigmas presented by Japanese text and bar graphs. Frustrating.

Coda

In the end, it's another music game that never came to the states. It's available and cheap. Making progress can seem random at times, but the bizarre plot and hum-along music are up to par. So, I invite you to enter the 3rd grade, eat some breakfast, slap down a ho, paint a cow, sing some karaoke (does that count as a post-modern gaming scene?) and make it to the stage to sing a stunning duet with rock god Mr.Chorking. Which is a horrible name for a rock god!

[Ryan Stevens is the associate producer on the various Cinematech shows on G4TV, which showcases many of the games written about here. He's been known to do the collaborative blog thing at That's Plenty and recently wrote about Zelda and its lateral connection to the seedy world of attractive violinists.]

Posted by at 9:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

For those not in the know, Stars & Stripes is the official newspaper of the U.S. military, and therefore, you might expect any news stories about games in it to include perhaps America's Army, or maybe Chuck Norris or something.

But, in reality, a story from the April 21st issue discusses the real-life location of Shenmue's in-game streets, "the clutter of bars and shops called the “Honch” across from Yokosuka Naval Base", a U.S. Navy outpost in Japan.

Giving Sega geeks everywhere a good name, interviews reveal just how much the most hardcore Shenmue fans want to hang out with sailors: "“I envy you for getting to walk down Dobuita every day,” Drew Onia, a 19-year-old from Calgary, Alberta, said recently in response to a query on a Shenmue fan Web site. Onia, who’s played Shenmue since it first appeared six years ago, is one of several fans who have visited Yokosuka to see how the real city stacks up next to the virtual version." Yes, this is what gaming idiots really do in their spare time, military folks.

Posted by Simon Carless at 5:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So, we first reported on the launch of Future Publishing's massive U.S/European consumer game site GamesRadar back in December, and leading up to its launch in early March, there was a fair bit of online coverage - Mediaweek even weighed in on the "war... [that] pits major online gaming content sites... against each other for gamers' intense attention and the increasing amount of ad dollars aimed at this young male audience."

But wars are rarely played in an entirely gentlemanly fashion, and this week, Future released a press release on GamesRadar's launch which pointedly noted that the site "...debuted as the fifth largest site in the category, measuring 2,602,354 unique visitors strong in the US, according to comScore/Media Metrix’s March 2006 Gaming Information Key Measures report." It also directly referenced its competitors, stating bluntly: "GamesRadar ranked substantially higher than IDG Entertainment, UGO Games and Ziff Davis’ 1UP Network."

Naturally, this seems to have raised the hackles of at least one of the above competitors, whose Marketing Manager emailed a number of people, including us here at the CMP Game Group, accusing them of "deliberate spin on the facts and a bashing of competitors in order to manipulate industry perceptions", partly due to the press release's reprinting on biz site Next-Gen. [Incidentally, if anyone from Future is reading, you should update your press release page, because your competitor's Marketing Manager thought the Next-Gen story was a solely editorial one, when it fact, it was a cut and paste of an existing Future press release.]

However, I think that any condemning of 'skewing of editorial' here isn't really the point - Next-Gen is a Future website, and is simply carrying Future's company line, which is, after all, factually correct - according to Media Metrix, GamesRadar really _did_ outpace 1UP, UGO, and Games.net & friends. It's certainly a little dirtier than normal - a milder version of those Pepsi ads saying Coke sucks, perhaps. (Quick disclaimer here: I also run Game Developer magazine and Gamasutra.com, the latter of which is a partial competitor to Future's Next-Gen biz site. But I have no agenda with Next-Gen, with whom we actually happen to share a number of freelancers.)

But a more interesting story here, one that we've also been following for a little while - how cheats/FAQs site Cheat Planet figures into the GamesRadar story, and how Future has been presenting that. When the site was purchased by Future in mid-2005 for $8.7 million, it was revealed that Cheat Planet was "the fourth largest consumer games information website in the US", and attracts "nearly 3.5 million unique visitors in the US alone [Source: Comscore Media Metrix, January 2005; Gaming Information Key Measures Report.]" This stat in itself is somewhat surprising to many, but given that we can't see where these visitors are coming from as external observers, and that Cheat Planet has had at least 7 years to creep up search engine rankings, it's not quite as crazy as it sounds.

So, on GamesRadar's launch in early March, Cheat Planet's traffic was folded into the site - Cheat Planet URLs now redirect to Cheatplanet.gamesradar.com, and thus, all of Cheat Planet's unique visitors are now counted as GamesRadar visitors. Although we don't have access to Media Metrix's stats to look at this further, we do have the ever-controversial, but internally reliable Alexa.com, which uses the Amazon Toolbar to monitor site popularity, and there's a very illuminating graph on there. It shows reasonably clearly that GamesRadar as a whole has now assumed the basic traffic level of Cheat Planet, and that this change occurred concurrently with the switching of the Cheat Planet URL to point to GamesRadar.

In fact, it appears that Cheat Planet's traffic has effectively decreased - in January 2005, it had 'nearly 3.5 million' uniques, in December 2005, it had 3.2 million, according to Future's own website, and now it's been folded into GamesRadar, the two combined apparently have 2.6 million uniques. [Though we did notice that Cheat Planet's highly-trafficked forum is still hosted on Cheatplanet.com, so that may be confusing matters.]

But nonetheless, Future's press release this week had David Cooper, Publisher of GamesRadar commenting triumphantly: "We are thrilled that more than 2.6 million unique visitors appreciated the quality and the passion for PC and videogame information that our editors produce daily on GamesRadar." Is this disingenuous? I would say so. It appears that, since the majority of the site's readers have come across from Cheat Planet, and Cheat Planet is/was particularly well trafficked for user-contributed cheat codes reached through search engines and its forums, and actually contained no internally authored editorial content. GamesRadar's editors (who, incidentally, I have nothing against!) don't wholly figure into this initial first month 'surge' in traffic - which is, of course, not really a surge at all. Which isn't to say that people won't gradually patronize GamesRadar for the editorial content over time, but... there's spin here.

Yet these are the games people play with traffic stats to get notice, and ad dollars. While there's nothing in there explicitly to condemn, it's symptomatic of the fact that Future are struggling hard to come out fighting online in a market that's crucial for the company, given the current problems with print magazines, in which the company is arguably significantly over-leveraged. Given that companies such as Ziff Davis and IDG are coming from essentially the same print-heavy position, and that gains in online earnings need to outpace decreases in print revenues before each company's shareholders are remotely happy, expect the war in the consumer game website biz to get significantly messier from here on out.

Posted by Simon Carless at 12:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Viewtiful Joe creators Atsushi Inaba and Hideki Kamiya sat down with Japanese games site, ITMedia for a chat about Okami [JP link], their recently released "nature adventure" game. Turns out it takes a lot of blood, sweat and tears to create something as beautiful as Okami.

According to the ITMedia interview, the project started out innocently enough. Inaba mentions that when Viewtiful Joe was done, he asked Kamiya what their next project should be and was met with this reply, "I want to draw the greatness of nature." Inaba says he was taken aback at that response from the man who was involved in such violent, grotesque fare as Biohazard and Devil May Cry. Kamiya's yearning stemmed from his childhood in the country and how he felt, in some ways, homesick for that greatness of nature, living in a city. When Clover Studio was formed, there was a desire to produce something with a larger team than Viewtiful Joe's very small one and thus Okami got its first green light. But that was when the problems started.

Kamiya remembered a photo book of white wolves that had made an impression on him, and decided that the nature theme would be expressed by having that wolf swiftly fly and tread over the ground. So they made a demo movie of the game that was entirely realistic, but limited by the hardware, and the team was stuck. Then someone made a random drawing with Japanese painting feel to it, and from that moment on, they decided to go with a brush stroke style. But the team still didn't have any idea how to make an actual game out of this. They completed a couple of demo movies, but the style wouldn't stick until the third. At the time that Clover and Okami (here's import impressions of the final game from IGN) were revealed in 2004, the movie was actually a complete fake and all the gameplay showed inside it didn't really exist.

The trouble they experienced was not that kind of development trouble where they'd decided on something difficult and now they just have to implement it, Kamiya states in the interview. It was that over and over again, they batted their heads on what to do with the title to the point of getting headaches. Nothing was resolving itself, and as their first big title, the pressure kept mounting. There were points where Inaba became furious with Kamiya and the entire team was sprawled on the floor in anguish. (As an aside, Inaba mentions that Kamiya wrote the entire scenario by himself.)

So how did it get there? Mostly through things that came into Kamiya's head in chats with his development team, according to the interview. Somebody mentioned that it would be a shame to just draw the scenery for the player. From that, it was thought that simply having the graphics that way, with no gameplay concept to link to, would be merely playing to the peanut gallery, and reviving nature came up as an overarching goal. At this time they held many meetings, and Kamiya was struck with the thought of actually letting the player create things like trees and rivers and such.

In one such meeting, someone used the word 'shinra banshou', which means the entirety of creation and nature, in reference to how gods should be able to control it - thus, the idea of using a brush to draw things flew into Kamiya's head. Even after this, the team experienced difficulties with, well, difficulty. Kamiya's past games were very hard, and Inaba begged him not to go down the same road. So that they decided to make Okami a game where the depths were more suggestions of what you could do and accomplish in an open world, than something where you learn and refine past mistakes to greater skill.

In the end, Okami is a game both designers think should be fun just to play and not to master, as in Viewtiful Joe, where even extremely inexperienced can enjoy the small parts and reactions of playing the game. At this point, Inaba states, "Okami is not art." He explains that the offbeat graphics direction came to be seen by gamers as something special for them, something the typical person would find hard to grasp. But Clover's intentions couldn't be farther removed from this. (By the way, pictured at the top here is Oomiya Shrine, which shares the same kanji as Okami.)

Posted by szshou at 7:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I like Dave Long's 'LongShot' editorials on GamerDad - always have, used to link them when I edited Slashdot Games, and the latest is especially fun, espousing the theory that the Xbox 360 was too inexpensive.

Long explains his reasoning: "The beginning of a console generation has typically been for those with deep pockets or an unhealthy hardcore jones for videogames. These people are willing to smack down big bucks for the latest technology. The price of 360 was too low to keep the launch confined to that group and it was a big mistake in my opinion."

He continues: "With a higher price tag, Microsoft would have made more money, made sure sellouts wouldn't have lasted for months after Christmas and still sold through all the units they had to sell before the holiday", and concludes even more defiantly: "That's why I think Sony should be aggressively high with the price of PS3. Push that newly priced at $129.99 PlayStation 2 into every single home possible by sending the message that right now, the next generation of gaming is SUPER expensive." Thoughts?

Posted by Simon Carless at 4:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

There are certainly some hardcore game sites out there, but one of the weirdest we've found recently is Mick Feuerbacher's page on PlayStation 1 audio playback, for sure.

Basically, Mick explains: "You may have heard that the Sony Playstation is a remarkably good CD player. Indeed this is the case for the very first model, the playstation 1 model SCPH 1002... On this page I will, one by one, add a series of... modifications [which] turn the PS into a truly audiophile piece of equipment, which, concerning the sound quality, clearly beats commercial "high-end" CD players up to price ranges of several thousand Euros."

These tweaks range from the relatively straightforward PS1 CD drive laser tweaking, through some much more complex audio output circuitry to clean up the sound, all the way to audio damping using a children's bicycle inner tube. Honest. And to cap it all, there's even a modchip removal tutorial - welcome to Bizarro World! S'all extremely neat, mind you. [via normalroach].

Posted by Simon Carless at 11:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Continuing the previously in-force semi-obsession with U.S. dating-centric Japanese 'visual novel' importers Hirameki International, RPGFan has posted dual reviews of recent Hirameki titles Tea Society Of A Witch and Exodus Guilty Vol. 1: Present, the latter of which amazingly "involves the past, present, and future" - all at once!

Exodus Guilty is apparently a lush title in which "religion (particularly eschatological theories), morality, and the values of mankind are strong themes in the narrative", but reviewer Neal Chandran notes: "Visual novels are not a genre based around gameplay, but the gameplay offered in Exodus Guilty is more limited than in other visual novels I've played. There are extremely few decisions to be made in the game and even if you make an incorrect decision, you get a do-over until you make the correct decision the game wants you to make."

As for the review of Tea Society, it's explained delightedly: "If you are looking for a love adventure that is serious-minded and features a deep and very thoughtful romance, then stop reading right now and go pick up Hourglass of Summer. If you want to experience silly romatic hijinks with a bevy of silly anime girls, then Tea Society of a Witch just may be up your alley." [RPGFan also has a review of Hirameki's Ever 17, for the intrigued.]

Posted by Simon Carless at 5:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Ever read an article about your own country from the perspective of another? As a reader of English living in Japan, I get to do that all the time. So from Japan with love, comes this delightfully charming, slightly clueless summing up (JP link) of the Western reaction to Nintendo's DS exports, from the Kyoto Newspaper Electronic Edition.

With respect to Nintendogs' success, it's suggested: "The US market spends a huge sum of money on development to compete among themselves on very complex stories and difficult technologies, so [the success of Nintendogs] is a surprising and uplifting thing outside of their predictions." In that otherworldly US market, the game companies "target fans who enjoy complicated FAQ-required games" by creating "games including car racing, basketball, war and fighting."

Note specifically the war part: that's something a lot of Japanese don't get, the fixation on World War II and the like. The article mentions also mentions a perception that the Japanese tendency toward simple, basic game mechanics is taken as appealing to just children over in the States, so the author is doubly surprised at the DS' success.

The entire piece has this awestruck tone of surprise that sounds like this, "They like our games! Our simple games! Can you imagine? The great mechanical beings of Mars have descended to enjoy a little foozball." You can see many articles that are slightly less silly, but had the same point: at GDC and the like, when Japanese creators appear alongside their peers in America, there is a definite, "What does big brother think of little brother?" mentality from some observers.

I now return you back to your complex FAQ on Call of Duty 2, my lovely American brothers and sisters!

Posted by szshou at 12:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Via a whole heap of people, Business Week's latest issue is themed around virtual worlds, and the cover story discusses the ever-printworthy metaverse of Second Life.

Alongside the normal talk of bright event horizons rapidly approaching, there's some interesting points made by the author: "My disorientation points up one of the big challenges of these virtual worlds, especially one so open-ended as Second Life: With nothing to shoot and no quest to fulfill, it's hard for newbies to know what to do. Virtual worlds require personal computers with fairly advanced graphics and broadband connections and users with some skill at software." In fact, Will Wright, who is cited as 'admiring' Second Life, notes: "The tools are the weak spot... That limits its appeal to a fairly hard-core group."

There's also some oddly evocative prose in an online-only interview with MMO economist Edward Castronova, who comments almost anguishedly of MMOs: "The concept that it's becoming a global commercial phenomenon, that's intimidating to me... I like the body. I was watching a ballet recently. I was crying because I was thinking the bodies are so beautiful, and we're losing the body. I'm just afraid of losing the body."

So, are we going from hunting and gathering wild animals to keypresses to, eventually, brain synapses? The concept is either liberating or tragic, depending on how many early '90s issues of Wired you've been reading at the time.

Posted by Simon Carless at 6:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Some interesting discussions have been popping up online about how video game development is planned, and they all started from IGDA executive director Jason Della Rocca's recent article for The Escapist, 'Friction Costs', subtitled: "How immature production practices and poor quality of life are bankrupting the game industry".

Now, longtime Gamasutra columnist and Treyarch technical director/designer Jamie Fristrom has found some disquiet with Jason's suggestions, or at least reason to write him an open letter, noting: "I agree with your article -- too many studios out there, when faced with hardship, the first thing they think is: "We've got to make everyone put in more overtime."... But I also find the article a little hurtful. Your article talks about how we're in the dark with our project management, and how if we got out of the dark we wouldn't have to kill ourselves anymore."

In return, Della Rocca has penned a reply that particularly refers to Steve McConnell’s lecture at GDC 2005 as part of the Quality Of Life seminar. To which Sony Japan's ever-present Greggman responds: "Just being a dick but if Steve McConnell is so smart why is Vista like 3 years late? Isn't he supposed to be product of Microsoft management methods or visa versa, taught them their methods? And hasn't nearly every single Microsoft lately product been late?" Aand... the flaming argument ship rolls on!

Posted by Simon Carless at 12:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Capcom's action RPG Monster Hunter series just happens to be one of those games whose white hot popularity in Japan cools considerably when it travels over the Pacific.

Even for Monster Hunter though, a curious trend has been emerging, that of the huge PSP hit Monster Hunter Portable/Freedom outdoing the nonetheless huge popularity of the PS2 sequel Monster Hunter 2. Why is this? Japanese website Nikkei BP believes it has the answer (JP link) in the phenomenon of how the game is especially popular among junior high school students, where it is called 'Monhun'.

For those who aren't familiar with 'Monhun'--with just the one title being released in the US so far--its a Phantasy Star Online type of action RPG that focuses specifically around a feel of hunting to all of its battles, and a great deal of its popularity stems from the things you can customize your avatar with your hunting spoils.

If you haven't already noticed the similarities with Pokemon, then Nikkei BP does it for you. A game that revolves around fighting monsters that gets a popular shortened nickname and finds its greatest audience on a portable? Nikkei believes the reason for this are twofold: 1) It's easier to play with friends face to face on the portable than it is to get everything ready for online play on the PS2, and 2) The grotesque expressions in Monhan appeal to the junior high school age.

Why this second? Nikkei uses the comparison of sports as mitigating ancient hunting instincts, and points to how Monhun specifically tends to assign collaborative roles to its players that are similar to soccer roles. Indeed, here they mention how instead of growing friendly with the monsters you fight, you slaughter them mercilessly, citing the opening mission where the player is tasked with murdering harmless herbivore monsters who won't fight back. In this way, junior high school students can believe they have graduated from Pokemon to something more sophisticated, which is helped by the fact that the PSP is such an advanced piece of hardware compared to the Gameboy Advance.

Did Capcom cynically plan it that way all along? Who knows, but no other Japanese company has come close to matching their PSP performance, and it appears as if Monhun will be a phenomenon for quite a while yet.

Posted by szshou at 8:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Ever entertaining New York blogger Matt, aka Fort90, has managed to procure an almost complete set of photos (part 1, part 2) from the freshly opened I Am 8-Bit 2.006 gallery show in Los Angeles, yay.

And, wow, much like last year, also documented by Fort90, this year's show, documented photographically by somakitty, looks amazing. We particularly dig the genius Brandon Bird's pic of Harrison Ford and his Sega Master Sytem all upset at his kids (who are playing NES? Difficult to tell from here.)

But pretty much everything else is amazing, too, from a Pac-Man ghost skull and crossbones sculpture to some Frogger felt genius - oh, and more excellent faux-Christian Pac-Man-related iconography. We wish we could buy pretty much all of this and hoard it in a cave. Maybe that's just us?

Posted by Simon Carless at 3:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Posted by at 11:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (10)

Not really sure we've mentioned it before, but Bill Harris at Dubious Quality does some seriously smart game-related blogging at times.

The latest of these is a post named 'Mark Cuban Meets Bethesda', he discusses the Broadcast.com founder's recent play as owner of the Dallas Mavericks: "Last night, on Maverick's Fan Appreciation Night, he gave all 19,000 fans in attendance (and 1,000 watching on television) free ticket vouchers on American Airlines. It works out to about $3 million if everyone cashes them in."

Harris continues by commenting: "The reason I bring up Mark Cuban today is because Bethesda needs to learn from him. They've put out a brilliant, wonderful game [in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion for PC and Xbox 360], and I'm not exaggerating... [but] you're not trying to get people to buy one or two add-ons. You're trying to create an environment where people will buy all of them. And you're blowing it. Because it doesn't matter if 100,000 people bought the horse armor. What matters is how many people buy the fiftieth download, and the hundredth, and you're headed in the wrong direction. Fast."

In other words - are Bethesda's current Xbox 360 pay downloadables for Oblivion not priced or scaled correctly? The horse armor was roundly pilloried, and The Orrery seems to have similar issues. What would you do right now, if you were Bethesda? Harris thinks he knows, but is he right?

Posted by Simon Carless at 7:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

It was really quite recently that we covered Dessgeega's rather avant Game Maker title Kill Your Television, and even just a few days after that, she's back with new title Invader.

Fortunately, the Gamer's Quarter guys provided some info from Dessgeega from their current issue that helps illuminate its background, as follows: "The project that would become invader was started around the turn of the year, when i was coding some mouse routines that would eventually become part of kill your television. it was envisioned as a "long form" game - unlike one-screen games like television - one which emphasize solid level design and setpiecing. all of the screens in invader were constructed with the same small handful of elements."

It's further explained of the freeware PC title: "The game is an homage to metroid and exile, and to taito, whose games - bubble bobble, rayforce, camel try - have had a profound influence on my sensibilities as a player and developer of games. most of all it is a tribute to space invaders, one of the most important and complete games to have appeared in arcades." Invade away, invade away.

Posted by Simon Carless at 2:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The excellent virtual world blog 3PointD has managed to uncover a new mainstream article about MMOs, as it notes: "Nice to see that the Washington Post today has an unabashedly positive spin on massively multiplayer online games and their power give far-flung family and friends a different way to connect."

As the piece explains: "Some families play games to maintain contact from far-flung towns; some parents play online games with their kids in the next room as a way of bonding with them. Game designer Jack Emmert... played his own game, City of Heroes, to stay in touch when his brother was serving in the Army and based in Korea."

The much-quoted James Paul Gee also has a nice mention: ""The prediction that this was going to be an isolating technology turned out to be so thoroughly wrong," said Gee, who sees the worlds forming in these games as a new type of public space. Gee started studying video games five years ago and ended up with a World of Warcraft habit of his own -- he plays on a team with other professors and academics." Hey, it's the WoW academic all-stars!

Posted by Simon Carless at 9:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Over at MTV News, Stephen Totilo has posted a fun piece exploring the controversy of using emulators for game speed runs, and neatly summing up the two sides of the speedrunning coin.

On the one hand, there's Joel Yliluoma, who runs NESVideos, and comments of his stored runs, which use multiple (sometimes hundreds or thousands!) of constant saves and reloads on an emulator, that "...the main goal of the runs isn't speed but aesthetics. The FAQ on his site states: "Although most of our movies intend to play games as fast as possible, with respect to art, our main goal is to create movies that are beautiful to watch." The site champions movies that exhibit surprising moves, deftly chosen shortcuts and innovative play."

On the other hand: "Nevertheless, some gamers can't come to peace with TAS. "My basic thought is 'don't like them, haven't made them, don't watch them,' " said Nolan Pflug, who oversees Speed Demos Archive, a Web site that houses traditional runs. One sore point for some traditional speed-runners is that an impressive TAS of a game can spoil the interest in slower, regular speed runs of the same title." Personally, we dig the non-emulator approach, but the battle still rages.

[Oh, and MTV also just posted a fun article about this year's IGF which quotes the writer of this post, and checks out highlights from the IGF finalists, including Cloud and Dodgeball Source.]

Posted by Simon Carless at 5:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

So, I was reading my local alt.weekly paper for San Jose, the Metro Silicon Valley, after picking it up at the train station last night. As you can see, this latest issue has an interesting cover story on the San Jose mayoral elections, and various other restaurant and movie reviews, as always.

But then I turned to the contents page, and I was somewhat surprised to see, alongside an advert for the 'farm fresh' downtown San Jose Farmer's Market, and right next to a typical local paper ad for 'Smilesavers Dental', well - you probably can't see so well in the second picture, so let's zoom in further, and check out just who's advertising.

Yes, unbelievably, World Of Warcraft gold-sellers and power levellers (in this case, the Fremont-based Dr-Hu.com) have started advertising in local papers.

The company's site explains delightedly: "We've leveled over 3500 different WOW accounts since November, 2004. Over 99% of our customers come back for additional services. Let us serve you. You'll love what we can offer."

Now admittedly, you're likely to draw a geekier crowd with a Bay Area newspaper, but even so - it's truly bizarre to see, next to a 'ready for an extreme smile makeover?' ad and a clinical hypotherapy school advert, the text: "We use real players, not macro or bots that could harm your account", and, indeed: "Mention you saw this ad in Metro & receive 10% bonus 1st power leveling"!

Luckily, the Silicon Valley Metro has a special MetroPDF.com website, so anyone who's interested can check out the issue in question - it's in the front section (27mb PDF) of the latest April 19 - 25 issue, on Page 5.

We're happy to concede that Silicon Valley is one of the locales with a greatly clustered conglomeration of WoW nerds, so this probably makes some sense, but the newspaper doesn't even have a video game column. Now some PC game magazines have driven gold sellers and their ilk out, where are we going to see ads next? Billboards on Times Square for 'phat lewt'? Be prepared for anything.

Posted by Simon Carless at 12:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)

Gotta love the folks at Little Mathletics, who are back again with another canny interview, this time with PC freeware shooter god Kenta Cho, an oft-referenced figure here at GSW.

The intro notes: "At its best, Kenta Cho's work is another level above what is often put out by entire independent developers", and goes on to ask him his biggest influences, which are apparently: "Old Namco games very much influenced me. They have novel gameplay and great graphics and music. DigDug, Rally-X, Galaga, Metro Cross, Xevious, Assault and Motos, I have a special fondness for all of these." Good man!

Also very interesting is that Cho is a big Xbox Live Arcade fan - he comments: "Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved may be the game I've played for the longest time on 360. Its simple but addictive gameplay and too many particles fascinate me. I like small games on the Xbox Live Arcade such as Mutant Storm, Smash TV and Feeding Frenzy. I was glad to hear the news that Namco would also provide their games on the Live Arcade." So.. someone sign him to do a game for it, stat!

Posted by Simon Carless at 6:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The ever-lovin' GameSpy, which GSW thinks has perked up quite a bit with the arrival of news/feature guy Li Kuo, has posted a feature on whether the 'hardcore gamer' actually matters any more to game developers, publishers, or the industry in general.

7 Studios' Tina Kowalewski, when asked whether hardcore games can be harmful, notes sagely: "Sometimes, yes. It's a fine line to develop games that "anyone" could enjoy, and if you pay too much attention to pleasing the most vocal of your audience (the "hardcore" gamers), you run the risk of making the game unappealing to the market you're really going after (the "casual" gamers) by making it too difficult or specialized."

In addition, Dr. Greg and Dr. Ray from Sesame Street... uhh, BioWare, sound off on the future for the hardcore gamer, whoever that nebulous concept be, with Zeschuk commenting: "The hardcore gamer demographic will continue to grow as the industry grows; however, it might shrink proportionally against the wider swath of more casual gamers that are joining the market with the increasingly mainstream targeting of the new console systems. Ultimately, since we regard hardcore gamers more as experts in a specific type of game, there are more and more of these types of fans over time -- each specialized in a different genre of game."

[Of course, If you're reading this, you're probably an 'expert' at work, judging by the rest of GSW's obscuro content.]

Posted by Simon Carless at 12:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A few days ago, our eye were drawn to the quirky game review site Defunct Games which, well, pretty much does what it says on the tin - review a bunch of obscure, sometimes interesting, sometimes terrible video games.

Especially good is the site's fascination with poor Philip CD-I games, including Shaolin Road, of which the reviewer notes: "Very little is known about this game, aside from what I’ve ascertained by playing. No one is a talking about this one online; they probably don’t want anyone to know they’ve actually experienced the tragically ludicrous adventure of which we are about to embark."

Even more lovely, and just posted, is a review of ALF for the Sega Master System, for which it's explained: "ALF the game takes place right after Gordon Shumway has crashed his spaceship. It's an action game not unlike Acclaim's Simpsons games for the Nintendo Entertainment System. You hop around in a 2D environment avoiding the feds and collecting items you need to progress through the game." And eating cats!

Posted by Simon Carless at 4:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Some concerned Korean mothers are power-leveling their kids' characters in games like Maple Story, according to GameStudy.org, a group blog exploring Korean gaming culture. Contributor Jun Sok Huhh discusses how online gaming has become a universal language among Korean children, particularly those aged 6 to 13, who play Maple Story.

Youngsters not involved in the game risk being ostracized, so mothers are helping out for several hours a day in order to maintain a respectable virtual-world status for their offspring, and to ensure they have time to attend to real-world duties such as schoolwork.

But the lure of the game isn't limited to kids. Jun Sok Huhh cites a Korean news article mentioning how some parents have actually become obsessed with playing the game: "a mother who did a game for her kid had a big trouble with husband for game engrossment." Perhaps in this case, the husband could power-level for his wife...

Your word of the day is "level No-ga-da," which, according to GameStudy.org, means "power-leveling."

Posted by at 9:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

We've mentioned new alt.gaming blog Toybane before, and this time they're back with an entertaining list of 'licenses that should be games', subtitled 'Know Our Roots'.

Of particular interest, editor Mister Slim singles out Sin City for a game adaptation:"The advantage Sin City has over GTA is actually the existence of appropriate source material. To ground the setting GTA had to pull in references to the mob, Miami Vice, and Compton. Sin City answers only to its own internal logic, built on noir and the pulps. Done properly, Sin City could be true to the movie and comics while out-Mature-ing GTA."

Also fun, Spigot has a musical idea: "I wouldn’t mind seeing a Guitar Hero-esque game using the Blues Brothers license. Granted, I’m just a sucker for the Blues Brothers movie and band (but not that BB 2000 crap) and the mere thought of being able to play guitar to those awesome songs while having in-game footage of the car chases makes me want to put on a pair of sunglasses and go driving at night."

But... you'd crash into things! Anyone else got some top nominations for 'licenses that should be games', as the odd phrasing goes?

Posted by Simon Carless at 7:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

The ever-reliable IndyGamer, which really does a good job of keeping up with the insanely busy indie games scene, has a mini-review of Experimental Gameplay Project entry On A Rainy Day, a fascinating PC indie title released late last year and neglected until now.

As the mini-review explains: "On a Rainy Day is a rather unique game submitted by Shalin Shodhan featuring lots of disembodied hands, paper boats and umbrellas. Your objective is to protect the lightweight vessels from being flooded with rainwater, by dragging any of the connected palms to pick up parasols and form a makeshift roof."

The explanation concludes: "Right click on any hand holding an umbrella to drop it back into the water. The gameplay is every bit as interesting as it sounds." Of course, the Experimental Gameplay Project website is also worth perusing right now because the entries to the recent contest in which "Competitors had 2 weeks to design and build a game from scratch on the theme of "CONSUME", with a chance to win an internship in the game industry at THQ's Heavy Iron Studios" are now up. From 'Smack Attack' to 'Got Moo', they all look... interesting?

Posted by Simon Carless at 2:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Is Dennis 'Thresh' Fong actually well-known by the average gamer nowadays? Once a very notable Quake gamer and world champion, and then the founder of Gamers.com, Thresh is now best-known for co-founding gaming IM/friendtracking firm Xfire.

But the machinima wonks over at Zarathrustra studios have posted a recammed version of Thresh's finest moment: "The world’s most famous gamer made his Quake 2 debut in this Quakedelica match from 1998, remastered in 2006 by Overman. In this 20-minute exhibition game, Thresh mops the floor with Billox, the champion of that year’s UK-based tournament. Available as highlight reel, full match, and even the original Quake 2 version."

Probably the easiest version to immediately see is the Flash-streamable YouTube highlights reel, which shows just how herky-jerky the game looks from third person views, but also demonstrates conclusively just how good Thresh was at kicking Billox's ass. Zarathrustra also has some other classic tournament recams based off archived replay files that are pretty darn important for those following the history of the FPS tournament scene.

Posted by Simon Carless at 8:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

['Parallax Memories' is a regular weekly column by Matthew Williamson, profiling classic '16-bit' games from the Sega Genesis, Super Nintendo, and other seminal '90s systems. This week's column profiles Natsume’s farm simulator: Harvest Moon for the SNES.]

Moo-ving to the Country

This week is my wife’s birthday. Being a sentimental man I decided to take this week to talk about her favorite series of videogames. The first Harvest Moon she played was a later version, for the Nintendo 64. She got it on recommendation from me as a rental. Shortly thereafter, she had sunk more time into it than I had spent on any game in a long time.

Harvest Moon for the Super Nintendo, the first in the now long-running series, was released in Japan in August 1996 under the title Bokujou Monogatari (The Meadow Story). Natsume, an U.S. publishing company focused on family-oriented titles; released, translated, and published the game under the title Harvest Moon (which was named by Terry Munson, one of the editors of Nintendo Power at the time). It was later brought to Europe, in January 1998, by Nintendo.

Barnyard Basics

As a young lad, Jack acquires his late grandfather’s farm. Now with the farm in disrepair, Jack must make a name for himself and become a successful and productive part of the community. The game is fairly simple (much more so than later Harvest Moons). Crop and livestock management consume most of the daily routine. Both are limited and easily managed.

Harvest Moon has a time cycle that represents hours, days, months, and seasons. Unlike other life simulators which attempt to match real world time, HM has a fast clock where days go by quickly. Pick some crops, put them in the bin to be sold. Feed your chickens and raise some eggs in the incubator. Train and race your horse. Chop some wood and store it for building. Go to town and buy some items for your farm. All these things you will do for many of these days, months, and seasons.

At certain times, events will happen in town. This is when Jack gets to show off his skills and pick up on some of the women. The five ladies in waiting will grow to like Jack more or less based on how he answers questions, or what types of items and gifts he gives them. When the relationship has properly bloomed then a marriage can be arranged, and from this marriage, a child can grow. The circle of life is complete.

Love and Marriage

It is pretty funny for me to read in Volume 94 of Nintendo Power: “The courtship element of the game reflects the disproportionate percentage of video gamers who are male.” I have seen my wife play many games in the series - she favors the courtship elements in the male versions over the versions that feature a female lead. It allows a certain amount of role-playing not normally allowed in games. And like in real life, marriage and children are not the end. The game keeps going and you can continue to build up your farm and skills with your wife and child. It does not seem to progress past a certain point, but the illusion never has to end.

Getting lost in the simple world of Harvest Moon is pretty easy. With the most recent games, my wife has dedicated a Palm Pilot to tracking and managing crops, livestock, market, relationships and dates. It started on more simple terms, though, with fewer variables. She frequently goes all the way back to play the SNES game to revisit simpler times.

[Matthew Williamson is the creator of The Gamer’s Quarter, an independent videogame magazine focusing on first person writing. His work has been featured on MTV.com, 1up.com, Chatterbox Radio, and the Fatpixels Radio Podcast.]

Posted by Matthew Williamson at 3:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Senko no Ronde, the rather unique-looking shooter by G. Rev that already debuted in Japanese arcades last year, is undergoing its first location test right now in a super-enhanced 'Senko No Ronde SP' version, and Aries Hut, a site which keeps track of various location tests and produces reports of them sometimes, has some hands-on of all the things that have changed (linked is a Japanese change list from G. Rev).

Most importantly, this 'SP' version of the game has changed from a 3-button shooter to a 6-button shooter. The action button has been split into two: a dash button and a barrier button. The barrage bullet attack that uses the charge gauge, now has its own button, but can still be launched with a main weapon or a sub weapon, as does a new button that launches an anti-field when the gauge is half-full, instead of just during Vs. Boss mode. An overdrive mode that increases defense and offense has also been added, in order to let people get used to characters without having to pay more money to restart, but there are limits to using it.

Other than that, Aries Hut reports other balance changes have been made: the short range attack is easier to use, your charge gauge go up less when blowing up destructible objects and canceling your close range attack dash has become quicker. (Does anyone who just read that have the feeling that even though I translated it from Japanese, it's still in another language?)

[EDITOR'S NOTE: The Xbox 360 version of Senko No Ronde is due out in Japan in July via Sega, and we're still hoping dearly that someone picks it up for Western publisher, whether 3 buttons, 6 buttons, or a zillion!]

Posted by szshou at 11:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Everyone loves eBay, and on our latest trawl through the biggest marketplace of randomness in the world, we found a couple of neat game-related items. First up is a copy of Radio-Electronics magazine from 1970 which must be one of the first magazines ever to include the words 'game' and 'computer' on the cover at the same time (in this case: 'Try to beat R-E's "Penniac" $150 game computer'.)

There's not much info about the Penniac online, but we note that Radio-Electronics magazine itself was founded by Amazing Stories founder Hugo Gernsback back in 1929 - not the only game-related magazine publisher to come out of the pulp magazine era.

Secondly, and sparklingly, we found a guitar made from a Sega Genesis. I think we need to repeat this. It's a guitar. Made from. A Sega Genesis. Unfortunately, the seller reveals: "No, the game system is not functional, but it is a real Sega Genesis." Right now there's a grand total of zero bids at the $99.99 starting price - though perhaps the insano collectors are waiting til the last minute to pounce. Or maybe they're not, because it's a guitar made from a Sega Genesis. Either way.

Posted by Simon Carless at 8:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Some fascinating trawling has been going on over at Ilya Vedrashko's 'In-Game Advertising and Advergames' weblog, where he's recounting the history of in-game advertising in EA Sports games, using a multitude of screenshots.

Starting with "Dr. J and Larry Bird Go One on One, 1983, Electronic Arts. (No ads)", the survey quickly wanders through the '80s and early '90s with nary a reference to a real, non-fictional third party ad - for example, "Kings of the Beach, Electronic Arts, 1988. House ad for EA, Kool Cola (fictional), AVP (association of volleyball professionals), Clue (?), Juan Cuervo (?)."

But with "FIFA International Soccer, 1994 (on most platforms), Electronic Arts. This is the first installment in the long series of FIFA-licensed games. It also seems to be the first to feature third-party brands on the field", the first actual in-game ads are seen, and though they appear only sporadically in the late '90s, there are certainly more real ads as time goes on - "FIFA Soccer 2003, 2002, Electronic Arts (image: Gamespot). Multi-level billboards with ads for Vodafone, McDonald's, Fuji, Hyundai, Toshiba and others." A fun and informative look at how things have evolved.

Posted by Simon Carless at 4:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

A few days ago, Nintendo re-announced Digitylish, or Bit Generations, as it's called in Japan, for the Game Boy Advance, a series of seven games with a common digital theme. Then, they had said they would exhibit the series at Shibuya Parco soon. And soon they have, though I live nowhere near Shibuya, good o'l Famitsu is here with a report (Japanese language).

Nintendo had 60 Game Boy Micros set up at on six different pillars, running demo movies of all the games except Sound Voyager. It attracted quite a bit of attention from young people, who would walk up to the demo stations and try to play them. One person commented, "At first, I thought you could play them, so I was mashing the buttons (laughs). No matter the title, it seemed you could get sucked into their mysterious graphics and sound."

Famitsu then gives brief descriptions of each game: Coloris is a 'line up the colors' puzzle game whose sound direction is overseen by Oyamada Keigo, otherwise known as pop musician Cornelius. Digidrive is an action puzzle game that revolves around traffic control. Dotstream sees you crossing colorful lines in a racing game. Boundish is a racket ball table tennis game sure to give Rockstar's table tennis rendition a tough challenge for who has the best graphics. Orbital is an action game that would like you to use the gravitational pull of the orbits of planets to move. And Dial Hex is a puzzle game of an equilateral triangle that you revolve to create same-colored hexagons.

My, what big plans you have, Nintendo! Personally, I'm most excited by Cornelius' involvement. His wife and oft-times collaborator, Takako Minekawa is said to be the lady who made the "Play-Stay-SHUN" voiceover you hear in the Sony commercials. Both of them are Shibuya-kei electronica musicians who produce some really funky, fresh music.

Posted by szshou at 12:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Over at the Global Gaming League e-sports website, they've posted the results of the fourth annual Golden Llama Awards, where, "In a groundbreaking awards ceremony, GGL's own Marcus "djWHEAT" Graham broadcast live from Azeroth, assuming the virtual persona of a Tauren to announce the winners of the machinima/fragmovie contest."

The awards, which are "a machinima movie festival celebrating the best productions made with the engines of video games played competitively all over the world", is somewhat 'frag'-happy, rather than being all about narrative-based movies, thanks to its e-sports relations, hence the awarding of Get Quaked 3, a happy movie of in-game avatars exploding in spectacular fashion.

Also a multi-award winner is the R3 Clan Trailer, which uses Enemy Territory to create "an explosive trailer with a new and exclusive freecam", since it's possible to hack around with the game pretty extensively to create new camera effects, etc.

Posted by Simon Carless at 10:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Multicart Project is a weekly comic by cartoonist Dave "Shmorky" Kelly, detailing the lives of Nintendo Entertainment System characters way past their prime, living in low-income housing and just trying to get by - check out the full comic archives so far.

[Dave "Shmorky" Kelly's cartoons have appeared in all sorts of exciting internet places, such as Keenspot, Shmorky.com, and Something Awful, where he served as animator on the Doom House DVD, and is currently outputting The Flash Tub on a weekly basis. He also has an Internet Movie Database entry, which makes him more famous than you.]

Posted by Frank Cifaldi at 7:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Game companies often have their developers speak out on the games via websites these days, and Capcom is no different. No offence intended to these talented people, but what often surprises is how boring a high-level creator can sound.

As The Nameless Room (a small, fan-oriented Japanese news portal) points out, Capcom recently launched Capcom Topics, a column for their various to developers to speak out on, initially focusing on the excellent, underappreciated PSP remake, Rockman Rockman (aka Mega Man Powered Up in the West!), including the sound effects guy.

Wait a minute? The sound effects guy? How interesting can he be? Turns out, very.

Hiroshi Ohno, who has done sound effects for games such as Sengoku Basara (Devil Kings), Power Stone and Pocket Fighter, actually stands out among fans. He says he's received a lot of feedback about a certain type of sound that people are starting to call Ohno Sound (or Oh!no Sound). In junior high school, Ohno uses to play lots of Rockman games and wish he could help design them, so its kind of a dream come true for him.

He mentions how, since he was also a fan of the old games, when it came to remaking one, he was just as wary as the fans were of changing things, and slightly resistant. For instance, if you hear the sound when Mario gets a mushroom even now, does it not make you think of things getting bigger? I remember Nintendo once changed the sound of what bouncing off a goomba sounds like, and from then on, they weren't quite as fun to smoosh. In this way, sounds connect us to fun actions whether or not they sound like those actions, which is what I believe Ohno Sound is.

When the design for Rockman Rockman became focused on extreme cuteness, Ohno had to change the sound effects somewhat to match. When a certain fire ball erupts out of the lava, Ohno created the usual kind of "foosh" or crackling sound that would entail, but it didn't sit right with him, it didn't match the graphic style. Then he took the sound of a flute and created a "animal cry" kind of sound out of it, mixed with the old 8-bit kind of fidelity. When mixed in, the less authentic sound ended up being a lot more "fun."

Ohno's approach certainly isn't new, even in Japan, where you could see someone like Hip Tanaka (Metroid, Mother) incorporate "game"-sounding effects into his music, but it's made the otherwise less fresh game designs he's worked stand out more. One hopes that, if sound designers tried as much as Ohno does to create a sound that will resonate with a specific stored response rather than simply translating realistic sounds, even the most banal of games would get somewhat more entertaining.

Posted by szshou at 4:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Over at the Wonderland weblog of BBC games R&D wonk Alice, she's written up a well thought-out piece on the concept of public service gaming.

Alice's own think piece on the matter cues off an article on the same subject by David Rejeski published earlier last week on brand new GameSetWatch sister site Serious Games Source, which deals with games for training, health, government, military, educational and other uses.

The interesting thing here, of course, is that in England, the BBC is the predominant broadcaster and is funded by the public - thus, Alice asks: "Should the BBC, as a broadcaster, be doing games? Should the BBC, as a powerful creative content producer, be doing games? Should the BBC, as a public service entity with an understood remit to Educate, Inform and Entertain, be doing games? And what the hell's a public service game, anyway?"

There are some powerful and interesting opinions on the matter already, both in the article and the comments - feel free to add your own here. We think that public funding for the creative arts is a wonderful thing, but also a major bone of contention when the discipline in question is in any way controversial - which games unfortunately are. Perhaps that's all the more reason for forward-thinking people to lead the way, then?

Posted by Simon Carless at 12:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

OK, so we're really frickin' slow on this one, but we completely missed that 1UP.com's resident lunatic Scott Sharkey, who is genuinely 'a funny guy (TM)', decided to honor horrible rip-off PS2 game Barry Hatter (a recent GSW obsession), by giving it its very own star on the SF Metreon's Walk Of Game late last month.

As Sharkey poignantly sobs: "They may have changed the name of your game, but your legacy will live on forever in the hearts and minds of children everywhere. And by "children everywhere" I mean me. And by "forever" I mean until I finish writing this. Which is now." Unfortunately, with the Metreon being sold to the Westfield mall company, it's not clear that the Walk Of Game will endure in the long-run, but hopefully it will do, so Barry can live on for ever!

[Also, another Sharkey tidbit - although his Memoirs Of An Urban Vigilante column on pranking City Of Heroes/Villains has now ended, he still 'rolls' with the 'Circle Of Jerks' crew, and there's a good successor to the column in Trace Evans' 'Working For The Man' 1UP blog, which documents the same wacky crowd, and includes fun like the 'Running Of The Bulls' event, which is as silly as the name suggests.]

Posted by Simon Carless at 7:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

A few days ago, we linked to GamesRadar contributor Ben '222b' Turner's tip on Koei's obscuro Warship Gunner 2, and now he's posted an extremely well thought-out analysis of Tomb Raider Legend, which is particularly useful on the gameplay mechanics that are based around jumping.

As he explains: "In Legend your success or failure at making a jump is predetermined based on where you started it. If the game "knows" Lara's supposed to be able to complete a leap from a certain point, then she will magically succeed in making it. If not, even if it looks possible based on distance, she'll come up short and fall. In short, she's at the mercy of the designers' foresight, rather than truly universal physics and collision engines."

Ben does note: "Of course, the game is designed from the ground up to work like this, and Crystal Dynamics has done a pretty good job of making sure the necessary jumps are obvious (via level design and camera placement) and that there aren't many that look possible but aren't. Even so, I often found myself frustrated by the disparity between what the game thought was possible and what should have been possible based on the physical reality displayed onscreen", concluding: "That scenario could not have occurred in a Mario game because the collision system would have noticed that the physics had taken Mario into a grabby surface, and so he would have caught on, no questions asked."

What do people think? Hideously unfair? Do you care about Laura Craft (haw!) in this day and age? (People seem to care about her desktop buddy, judging by comments on the GSW thread about it indicating some hideous compatibility issues.)

Posted by Simon Carless at 2:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Trying to keep the GameTap chatter to a minimum. But since their revamped client has both added SNK titles galore for the PC subscription service, and revealed what's coming up for the next two weeks, we figured mentioning the goodness to our loyal GSW readers was in order.

Firstly, over 10 SNK Neo Geo titles popped up this week (in the Arcade section, don't get confused!), and they're listed on the games page of the GameTap website - highlights include Neo Turf Masters (one of the best arcade golf games ever) and Shock Troopers (top-down Commando-style fun!), with other titles already posted including King of The Monsters 1 and 2, Kizuna Encounter, Sengoku, Ghost Pilots, Puzzled, and Baseball Stars 1 & 2.

We're delighted about that, but a new info section in the client has revealed specific GameTap additions for the next two weeks - next week, being added permanently is Sierra's King's Quest adventure game series, in the shape of King's Quest 1 ('Quest for the Crown') through King's Quest V ('Absence Makes the Heart go Yonder'). Hopefully VI+ will be turning up soon, too.

And the week after that, oh boy - it's a Capcom arcade game fest, including such delicacies as Street Fighter Alpha, Super Street Fighter II, Super Gem Fighter (!), SFII Turbo, Street Fighter Alpha 3 (!!), and Super Puzzle Fighter 2 Turbo (!!!) - yep, the CPS2 emulator is well and truly fired up over at GameTap, and we hope others will get as excited as us with the plethora of goodness you can play on demand.

Posted by Simon Carless at 9:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Over at The Shifted Librarian weblog, blogger Jenny Levine has an informative post on how libraries, learning and games intertwine, referencing both the upcoming Games, Learning and Society conference, and some neat uses of libraries in virtual world Second Life.

Jenny, a library technology co-ordinator in Illinois, notes: "Actually, I don't really think of SL as a game so much as a virtual world, a parallel universe where you can be and do what interests you in that type of space. After seeing some presentations about how SL works and how it's being used in both higher education and in the medical field, I started to wonder if there was an intersection for libraries."

She then links to an Alliance Library System press release which explains: "Alliance Library System and OPAL (Online Programming for All Libraries) are pleased to announce that selected OPAL programs will soon be offered in the online virtual reality game Second Life. Book discussions, training sessions, and other programs will be offered to current virtual residents. The goal of the project is to promote the real library and online library services to adults who might not otherwise use the library."

Jenny adds: "I can't wait to see what happens in this space, and I've already told [ALS'] Lori to count me in. She has already found a Librariaum, as well as the Second Life Public Library, within the game. Neither currently offers reference services, programming, or anything other than a place to gather and some nonfiction books. What could we do with these spaces in the game?" Oh no, the librarians are loose in the machine!

Posted by Simon Carless at 4:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

["I often import games from abroad and play them. On such occasions, my imagination is sometimes stimulated more as I don't understand the language.” – Fumito Ueda, creator of Ico and Shadow of the Colossus. 'The Gaijin Restoration' is a weekly examination of underappreciated Eastern games that never cross to Western shores. This week's title is Baito Hell 2000 from SCEI. It was released in late 2005 for the PSP in Japan.]

Work Ethnic
I've been blessed with cerebral vocations. Even in high school I was a pharmacy technician, a job within the prestigious medical sphere. I got to learn about, handle, and dispense drugs, deal with insurance and grapple with an archaic UNIX system, which seemed to validate my clandestine 2600 magazine collection. (Still, a majority of the job was about counting in fives.) College led to the volatile world of the House Chair - think RA without the snitching or the free housing - and operating 16mm projectors. (I, a machinist!) Post college has led to the delicate world of montage theory spliced together with interactive entertainment. (And lots of playing games.) Still, I have a fondness for a December night spent in a NYC bar a friend tended. Free drinks aside, at the end of the night, we had the task of discriminating hundreds of beer bottles by their color. If there can be happiness in slavery, then the zen-head lives in repetitive manual labor.

This brings us to SCEI's Baito Hell 2000. The title has also been translated as 'Byte Hell 2000,' but is a reference to 'arubaito', meaning part-time work. While initially touted as the PSP Wario Ware, it's really its own beast. Wrapped in surreal menus of flatulent grim reapers, sentient mushrooms and the like, offering a variety of minigames, it lacks both the linearity and the acceleration of Wario's sweatshop. With only a handful of minigames open at the beginning, you gain money for doing these paltry tasks, which are then spent on vending machines, sickly reminiscences of Shenmue's various games of chance. Also, like Shenmue, you may want to win Outrun (a new minigame), but more often than not it's a various iconic bauble, and for a hat trick of Shenmue similarities, you seem to get these less interesting trophies as repeats fairly often and fairly early.

The games are where things get interesting, as well as tedious, and often boring. The opening set has you collecting mushrooms on a highway, Frogger-style. The mystery of why there is so much fungus on the freeway is never revealed. It's easy enough and more often than not, you find yourself ending the game on purpose to collect your meager wages. Not to say all the games are devoid of challenge. Soon, you will be fielding grounders, and chopping wood while avoiding chopping rabbits, puppies and forest dwelling dolphins. Not to say all the games have any sort of challenge. One banal activity has you putting caps on pens, while a counter on the bottom of the screen tallies your work. The counter can count roughly somewhere between zero and a googleplex (the number, not the website.) The background consists of an assembly of women in hairnets. Still another poses you as the marine from Doom (see screenshot) counting how many biological people (no robots or ducks) have walked by. It's a bit a like that Brain Training exercises, but rather silly.

The Pleasure of Understanding

The best games are the ones that require you to figure out exactly what you are doing. While Wario barks out a beacon verb at the start of each game, this isn't always the case in Baito Hell 2000. The wrestling match disapproves of you winning, but pays out poorly for a devastating loss. The people here want a show. You gotta throw the match, but with finesse of a vaudevillian. As the ref counts to your defeat, the closer you approach the final countdown before escaping the double nelson means the more photographers come out to photograph this dramatic battle, and the more the crowd goes wild. In other words, it's like The Sting without the Joplin. It's these minigames that make Baito Hell a satisfying game to plod through, even if it means spending a couple of minutes putting caps onto pens.

No Sex In Your Violence

Language is a barrier at times, with Angel dating sims being text heavy, but in general, it's a game one can get through using brute force and a handy hand in repetition. Not really a Wario Ware clone, I see a deeper analogy with the Japanese art of Chindogu, the un-useless invention. There's a beauty and a perversion in this game, developed by a duo of musicians, a distinctly modern Japanese pastiche, with its roots sipping zen. (Special thanks to Ted Reguliski for recommanding this game. Apologies for the poor quality of the screenshots, as PSP capture still leaves a bit to be desired.)

[Ryan Stevens is the associate producer on the various Cinematech shows on G4TV, which showcases many of the games written about here. He's been known to do the collaborative blog thing at That's Plenty.]

Posted by at 1:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Well, not a changing of a guard, so much as an editor update, since a number of our launch editors are superduperbusy with other stuff, so we're switching things around a bit. [Oh, and we just got told that our RSS feed didn't have author info (ta, Jiji!), so we added it [EDIT: hope everyone can see it now] - those browsing via RSS probably have no idea who was writing recently anyhow!]

Specifically, we've added co-editor Shou 'Kitsune' Suzuki, who has floated around sites as diverse as Tokyopia and QT3 in the past, and also contributed a smart Japanese column to Computer Games Magazine, and he's helping us out by blogging regularly on Japan, so far including things like Pokemon and electronic money cards and neat books by Famitsu journalists - very cool stuff.

We will probably add at least one more regular blogger in the near future, who will operate alongside me and my Game Developer and Gamasutra colleagues Brandon Sheffield and Frank Cifaldi, as well as stalwart regular Tony Walsh. We've also added credits for our six regular columnists (see the sidebar on the main GameSetWatch page) - thanks to Shmorky, Matt Williamson, Jeremiah Johnson, Redwolf, Danny Cowan and Ryan Stevens for their spectacularly good work.

[Oh, and Jeremiah, aka Nullsleep is putting his two columns on hiatus while he prepares for his International Chiptune Resistance World Tour 2006 - but he's promised to try to get us a tour diary when he's jetsetting around the globe with his Game Boys, so we forgive him.]

Posted by Simon Carless at 8:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Nagata Yasuhiro is one of the most compelling gaming writers in Japan. In Japanese publishing, it can sometimes be said that perhaps expressing frank and controversial opinions is not always something readers are looking for. Instead, much of Japanese game writing beyond reviews and previews can be widely described as 1,001 ways to express how wonderful games and gaming is. I've been reading Nagata and other writers' work compiled into paperbacks recently, and its been very insightful and great fun. His most popular writing is perhaps to be found in his Final Fantasy XI Play Diary: A Chronicle of our Stay in Vanadiel (Japanese language link), which is where I first noticed him.

Nagata also writes a column for Weekly Famitsu called the Cry of the Soul, or Tamashii no Sakebi, which in 2005 was published as a Japanese-language book, collecting three years of the column and 40 more "lost' columns. Usually, each column is a brief affair that flirts with an anecdote about a random gamer. The reason it's called the Cry of the Soul is because beside every column is a low-key profile, with one particular stand-out quote highlighted that somebody said in the article. These quotes are supposed to show insight to what we feel and think when we play games. The humorous style of the articles is further expounded by the way the column juxtaposes an odd, crime report-like anonymity with quite candid details. Two such entries I've read recently demand re-telling.

Every article begins with an explanation of the speaker "Soul Cry", in curt terms, such as this one: "Speaker: a friend's wife." The column refers to the writer as the "The Submitter," as if the column is fielding formal opinions on the prime minister or something. At the time of the writing of this column, The Submitter was over in the vicinity of a friend's house playing Samurai Warriors. Witnesses claim their friendship was born out of a love for gaming, even after this friend was found to be in possession of a wife. His wife doesn't denies usual game contact, but today is different, because she'd like to play.

According to the column, the two men immediately dropped what they're doing and let her play. Nagata then describes how painstakingly they introduce her to the joys and greatness of the game. He admits their careful and thorough recommendations, as if echoing the critique of a picky food critic at a three-star restaurant: "This one is hard to control, but strong; that character has lots of speed; this guy has lots of useful skills; I recommend this one; if it were me, I'd choose this one..." Nagata says that, after all this advice, as she considered everything carefully, you could see the information rolling around in the wife's mind. With all that, she shouts out this column's Soul Cry, "I want to be a ladies' man!" And then she picks Yukimura Saneda.

In the second column, the Speaker is K's Little Sister. The Submitter says K and her sister were found to be enjoying games together for many years. Their actions included trading games, talking about strategies and enjoying them to the fullest. Reports indicate that the two enjoyed RPGs the most, and their dream was to some day produce their own RPG. One day, to help accomplish their dream, K purchases RPG School Advance, a GBA RPG creator game. "...the limitless field of their game design ideas spread before her. What type of game? The theme? The world design? The background of the story? The main character's personality? The scene where the heroine enters?" Immediately, the two entered into passionate discussion and suggestions of what they should do. Suddenly, K's little sister felt the Cry of the Soul, "A Homo RPG! And all the characters should be men!" The Submitter notes that the little sister was completely seriously giving her honest opinion of what they should create.

It goes without saying that I will probably read this book from cover to cover.

Posted by szshou at 3:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

We pretty much adore the off-handed import game commentary from the NCSX folks, and were amused to see that they've now imported the regular Final Fantasy XII potion drinks, which apparently come in supermarket 6 packs, following delivery of the totally sumptuous limited-edition versions last week - pretty ornate stuff.

We were especially tickled by the following description for the regular version: "The glass bottles are packaged six per retainer but the cardboard holder is so flimsy that anyone attempting to lift up a sixpack from the top will end up losing all four of the outlying bottles. A dropped bottle also explodes into tiny shards of very sharp glass as NCS discovered earlier this morning..."

As for the taste itself, eloquence is again provided: "First impression: apple juice. Or is it Kool-Aid? No, make that sugared water infused with a tangy bite that hits your tongue with a tart explosion of flavor which slowly dissipates as the liquid washes down your throat. A loose approximation of the flavor is Arizona Green Tea in those fanciful green bottles." If you're hankering for more FFXII drink fun, there's a good Flickr gallery from a fan who ordered an entire premium box (!), and YouTube has a copy of the amusing Japanese commercial for the Suntory-produced beverage.

Posted by Simon Carless at 11:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Via Phil Steinmeyer, a pointer to a new casual game weblog, Logler, that is trying to do a canonical PC casual game top 10, which is "based on data of top 15 major casual games portals".

It's pretty interesting to see the results of the second chart, which has Sandlot's Cake Mania, another title spawned from the Diner Dash school, albeit much more elegantly than Roller Rush, firmly atop the rankings.

The people at Logler have also compiled a list of the major casual game portals, which, oddly enough, I can't recall anyone else having done before. Thus, with more 'professional' casual game review sites like Gamezebo, and the continuing RealArcade sales stats available at Game-Sales-Charts, there's a lot more discussion and ranking of casual titles lately, it appears - a good thing.

Posted by Simon Carless at 5:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Nintendo and its various franchises are a steady predictable in Japanese supermarkets and convenience stores, with everyone from Hamtaro chocolate to Pokemon gummies. Now, the company is expanding that to train stations too.

According to Famitsu, Nintendo is teaming up to use Suica (Japanese link), the ubiquitous electronic money card, with their Pokemon centers and various other outlets throughout Japan. Children will be able to use their cards to buy Pokemon merchandise, challenge others in games right on the spot, win prizes, and participate in events like the annual summer JR Train Line Pokemon Stamp Rally (it's only a matter of time before its as traditional as the tea ceremony). The article even shows an example of Pokemon/Suica slot machines, proving its never too early to teach your kids the value of gambling.

This is terribly handy, you see, because Suica is wonderful. Named because they are Super Urban Intelligent Cards, as a play on the word for watermelon in Japanese, at thousands of kiosks and these guys update your account instantaneously by simply being near them and in your pocket. Lately, they've been combined with a new technology in cellphones that allows you the ultimate convenience of simply walking through a train gate with your cellphone in your pocket to instantly deduct trainfare wherever you go.

Combined, these two technologies can buy everything you'd want in the legion of vending machines and stores that crop up around the heavy business of train stations. Thus, in yet another way, Nintendo increasingly becomes a part of Japanese lifestyle.

Posted by szshou at 1:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We haven't been ignoring 1UP this week - we've just been waiting until their excellent, week-long 'Rising Fun' cover feature is entirely online so that we can, like, link to it.

The six-feature combo is "a tribute to [abstract Japanese] games: sometimes nonsensical, but as entertaining as anything to come from western minds", and uber-frog Jeremy Parish burbles on: "Whether it's the Earthbound-esque post-modernism of Contact or Odama's completely ludicrous combination of pinball, real-time strategy, and feudal Japan, the five games we're highlighting this week are as entertaining as they are strange."

Also good news: getting a v.fun interview on the delightfully weird kissing sim Chulip, and a super-smart interview with the Loco Roco folks - talking of which, we only just found out that American-in-Japan Greggman is the lead programmer for it. Also, bonus article on Devil Summoner's controversial past - great stuff, 1UPers.

Posted by Simon Carless at 6:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yes, yes, we know it's a little while after the show, but there's still some interesting GDC-related videos and reports wandering out there onto the wide world of the Interweb. In particular, Ziff's GameVideos.com has just posted direct-feed video from Satoru Iwata's Nintendo keynote - not the whole thing, just highlights, but for those who didn't make it, it's good to see actual video excerpts from a sly, funny speech.

Elsewhere, various post-GDC threads on messageboards have posted to a couple of good GDC wrap-up articles by pro game developers. Kyle Wilson, who works at Day 1 Studios, posted an excellent round-up of his GDC experiences on his GameArchitect website, noting: "GDC 2006, in San Jose, was my fifth GDC. They're all starting to run together at this point, and this year's GDC was, as always, huge, frustrating, inspirational, boring, fascinating and exhausting in random measure." He may have also given Iwata a cold, so N-fans, please hunt him down immediately.

In addition, High Moon staffer, GDC advisory board member and all-round nice guy Noel Llopis has posted his own impressions of GDC 2006, with some particularly good observations: "One pattern I noticed in this year's GDC is that, for technical talks, the more general the talk, the more I enjoyed it. As soon as they got bogged down in details, they became much less effective. A lot of it has to do with the dry nature of the topics, and the fact that I can get all those details from a well-written paper. On the other hand, the more general talks (advanced prototyping, Will's keynote, or the God of War one) were all very motivational and inspirational."

[Oh, and some good potential gossip in here - God Of War lead designer David Jaffe and lead programmer Tim Moss had dueling lectures at the show, and Wilson claims that "Tim Moss walked out of Jaffe's talk", which dealt with the tremendous pressures inherent in a freeform vs. carefully planned-out approach to game design. And why those two are The Odd Couple, presumably.]

Posted by Simon Carless at 1:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

While bicycle riding, have you ever thought, "I really need a helmet to scare away girls?" Well, Japanese game developer Gust has just the merchandise for you. You can even get hers and his t-shirts designed make you look the part of the hero. And when you get slapped by the ladies, no problem, Gust's got your back with slime-branded bath salts designed to melt those cares away with hot water. That's not all!

At night, use your very own talking fairy to console you. With recordable messages, you can even make it say, "I'm the only one who loves you just as much as mom does!" As many small gaming companies do, such as Nippon Ichi, Gust offers a wide variety of overpriced merchandise to their hardcore to help them stay in business and produce all those fantastic-looking 2D games.

Just who is Gust, though? Their employees show up to work in furry hats and baggy pantaloons, playing pan flutes, lutes and bagpipes to their computers until a game pops out. Their office is a forest treehouse called Salburg (Japanese language link) where they frolic with the kind animals on lunch breaks.

Okay, Gust is known for making vibrant and unique, yet extremely soft and sweet console RPGs, usually of very high quality. They perhaps got off on the wrong foot with American gamers when their first game to reach these shores, Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana was a calculated, by-the-numbers, mediocre RPG, having little of the individuality of their earlier titles. Luckily, they seem to be having a renaissance of sorts. Their January release in collaboration with Banpresto, Ar Tonelico (Japanese language link), an opera-singing battle maiden apocalyptic floating tower psychological dungeon hack, has left gamers effusive with praise for the title.

Better yet, their Atelier series of alchemy and shop-keeping PlayStation 2 RPGs seems to be getting back on the right track. The newest, Atelier Iris: Grand Fantasm, splits the narrative into two sides. On one side, there is Iris Fortner who runs the shop and does alchemy, making items. On the other side, there's a member of a mercenary group named Edge Vanhite who goes out on missions. These missions take our hero to the Ancient Grimoire Castle, a very Castlevania-esque beauty, as well as a variety of other worlds, whose exploration Gust claims is a return to the non-linear and open-ended style of the earlier titles. Edge always has a time limit in these other worlds before he must return to Ze Meles, a huge city where Iris concentrates on running that shop. The game will also bring back an emphasis on the more interesting alchemy shop part, and includes what looks to be a very cool class system based on fusing with spirits found in the wild.

The official site has a pretty nice movie (Japanese language link) up for those who are curious. The game is scheduled to be released June 29th in Japan and will come packaged with nightingale feathers, chocolate and fluffy bunnies. Honest. [Oh, and the 2005 release Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana 2 is due out in the States in the near future, too.]

Posted by szshou at 8:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

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Via a reinvigorated FiringSquad comes the somewhat bizarre news that NCSoft's PC MMO Lineage II is providing helpless bunnies to slaughter as part of its Easter celebrations. How delightfully horrible.

As the write-up notes of the special MMO event: "The bunny event will last a week [from April 14th to 20th] and will allow players not just to kill lots of cute rabbits but in doing so "receive experience boosts and an occasional skill point scroll."" There's more info on the spurious game back story over at GameZone.

Personally, we prefer the Easter-related quests in Sega's Phantasy Star Online: Blue Burst, which are much less viciously cuddly, and in which: "Players will now have the chance to hunt Egg Rappies and Easter Eggs." The cheeky folks at PSO-World also point out: "The Easter theme will remain up until April 25th. In the meantime, do not try to pilfer Easter Eggs from the lobby decorations!"

Posted by Simon Carless at 12:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Earlier in the month, our 'Cherish The Chips' columnist Nullsleep provided an ebullient review of the NYC PulseWave chiptune concert that included game musician and VGMix founder Virt among its number.

Well, Virt's now updated his weblog with most of the music played at PulseWave, and oh my word, it rocks hard. For starters, there's an absolutely awesome Katamari Damacy cover version [.MP3] done in NES + VRC6 sound chip stylee, and even better, an excellent Korg Oasys FM synthesis track, Blast Off Again [.MP3], apparently a sequel to a track on his epochally good 'FX 2' music disc (released on this poster's Monotonik net.label).

But even neater still is a NES + VOPM track called FX3 Preview [.MP3], in which all kinds of insane retro shapes are thrown. Possibly the chiptune release of the year so far, and it's just a dump of some in-progress live tracks - we fear for our children if Virt, who currently works for Gameloft on cellphone soundtracks, ever gets it together to release an album.

Posted by Simon Carless at 6:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Neat news - we note that the arcade, pinball, and jukebox trade/collector magazine GameRoom, which has actually been around since 1988, has just added a PDF download of the March 2006 issue as a sample to its site.

The issue includes fun and games such as pinball designer Steve Ritchie discussing the latest Stern pinball machine, World Poker Tour, and it's interesting that he was at first concerned about the project: "I feared that we would have to overlay a set of poker rules over another set of pinball rules, and sometimes people are confused by the pinball rules alone", continuing that it "just wasn’t a high-impact theme."

There's also a very fun column from Dave Ellis, who runs DavesClassicArcade.com. In fact, you can see the total cost of his collection on his website - a princely $9369.67, including the fact that "...when determining how much a game actually costs, you have to figure in all of the ancillary things like shipping/transportation, sales tax, auction fees, and restoration parts and materials." Go, Dave!

Posted by Simon Carless at 12:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Words cannot express how much we adore Schadenfreude Interactive, the perky German creators of Accordion Hero, and their new 'Schadenfreudian Slips' column for sister site Gamasutra deals with the vital issue of pitching your video game to a publisher.

Among the surprisingly useful tips are 'Present your design, and yourself, in a professional manner' ("I can reasonably assure you that Sid Meier does not smell like a barrel of unwashed socks - please do not tell me if this is otherwise, as it would crush all of my dreams"), as well as 'Think it all the way through' ("Amateur game designers do not risk quite as much bodily harm as amateur parachute designers, but both can be expected to produce horribly messy flops.")

But most importantly, the German wunderkinds note that you should 'Have an original idea', ruminating: "Shakespeare said “there is nothing new under the sun”. Mein Gott, I am so very, very tired of that quote. But it is true...I cannot tell you how many times we have heard these very same pitches: ...it's like The Oregon Trail, but with zombies ...it's like Ninja Gaiden, but with pirates ...it's like Pirates!, but with ninjas ...it's like Chubby Gristle for the Amiga, but with zombies, pirates, and ninjas." Hey, us too!

Posted by Simon Carless at 10:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The ever-lovin' Kikizo, a UK site that often concentrates on in-depth Japanese game developer interviews (Sega a specialty!), has landed a rare chat with Nintendo's R&D1 team, also described in the piece as the 'Wario Ware All-Star Team'.

The team includes Metroid supremo Yoshio Sakamoto, who comments of the game's concept (originally birthed from the N64DD tool Polygon Studio): "...we got the idea of using Wario and the other characters because we couldn't think of anyone else who would be best for the role. Wario is always doing stupid things and is really idiotic, so we thought him and the rest of the characters would be best for the game."

Kikizo also get in one of the funnier questions asked recently: "Weren't you afraid of someone hurting themselves on the train while playing [tilt sensor enabled] MaWaRu [Wario Ware: Twisted]?", to which the reply was "That's why on all Nintendo games they have warning labels, and in MaWaRu we also put a warning label in the game in case something bad happens. We hope that everyone doesn't hurt themselves on the platform... I hope that people don't hurt themselves in the train either!"

Posted by Simon Carless at 6:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

['Game Ads A-Go-Go' is a bi-weekly column by Vintage Computing and Gaming's RedWolf that showcases good, bad, strange, funny, and interesting classic video game-related advertisements, most of which are taken from his massive classic game magazine collection.]

Your favorite wannabe snarky ad commentator is back, except this time without the snarky comments. "What?!" you say, "RedWolf, have you gone completely insane?" The short answer to that question is, "yes," but I'll explain.

Everybody knows that going way out of your way to turn an ordinary situation into some form of sexual innuendo is absolutely hilarious. There are people out there in the world whose sole method of communication is through sexual innuendo. We've done it to ourselves culturally by refusing to address sex directly, so all of a sudden anything could be a code word for a sexual act. This week I'll be taking a look at ads that are oozing with sexual potential. All that's left is to fill in your own commentary using your own dirty mind. Nothing I could write could be more entertaining than that. So let's quit jerking around and do it already.

Just Beat It

This is only one half of a two-page "World Blockbuster Game Championships" ad. But it's enough.

Jingle Ballz

This one has some intentional non-sexual innuendo, and yet it works so well for our topic.

He's on a Joy Ride Too

I'm not even touching this one.

If You Like it Hard and Fast

Ouch.

[RedWolf is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Vintage Computing and Gaming, a regularly updated "blogazine" that covers collecting, playing, and hacking vintage computing and gaming devices. He has been collecting vintage computers and game systems for over 13 years.]

Posted by Benj Edwards at 4:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

We continue to track the previously mentioned Hirameki International, one of the few companies localizing dating-centric Japanese visual novels for the West, and their latest appearance is in an interview with Hirameki's Shinichi Shimura over at Anime Advanced.

Some interesting details involve discussions on how risque title Animamundi: Dark Alchemist would be rated by the ESRB: "Because the game footage submitted was insufficient, we were unable to have the game reviewed in time for NYCC. We are aiming for a rating of “Mature,” and all of us at Hirameki have put in a lot of effort to make sure that happens. I know that some fans have been worrying about Animamundi: Dark Alchemist being rated “AO,” but I don’t think that will be the case." (It turns out to have been rated M, post-interview).

Also touched on is Hirameki's switch from Dragon's Lair style DVD 'interactive movies' to all-PC titles for its visual novels: "It is very difficult to develop DVD games, and there are few companies that are capable of doing so. In addition, Hirameki’s direction as a company has changed quite a bit since we first announced those games, and at the moment we don’t have any plans to release them, either as DVD games or PC games." Nice to see these niches well served with other titles, nonetheless.

Posted by Simon Carless at 12:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We've previously covered the mysterious Ancil 'Dessgeega' Anthropy, and now a GSW reader writes in to point out a new PC game named 'Kill Your Television', created for free distribution by the aforementioned Ms. Geega.

The rather deliciously post-modern twitch shmup, which uses sounds and music from the classic Disposable Heroes Of Hiphoprisy track, has the following simple concept: "televisions are invading your mental space, bringing racism, sexism, the beauty standard, jingoism, lies, commercialism, and manufactured consent. if they reach your dot you're done!"

So, it's a green and black shooter with some interesting combo-style effects after you turn the televisions off: "exploding tvs can hit other tvs... to create big chains! the more you chain, the more points you get!" It's all very Xbox Live Arcade meets vector monitors meets Robotron meets Crystal Quest in heck. And we like it - one of the better uses of Game Maker thus far, at least!

Posted by Simon Carless at 6:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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If you think about all the times you've seen Game Over or some such message on your television or monitor, it's surprising how little attention its been given in the academic games world. The Japan chapter of the International Game Developers Association (Japanese-language link) recently pointed out that Glocom International University's Research on Game Design and Narrative (RGN) is researching the many expressions of death in video games with an end to provoking new, broader expressions. The RGN reported their first findings in an event that took place on April 9th - there's some confusingly translated English-language info (possibly better than nothing!) on GameStudy.org.

According to Otsuka Eiji, critic and novelist, who has written such books as Creation of the Character Novel, "At the realization that movies, manga, mysteries and the like can only treat a person's death symbolically, when related to groping toward the reality of death, I cannot but think that games--and novel-like games that use game language as a starting point--have not put forth more than a poor effort."

So what's Otsuka's solution? He proposes to rigorously analyze the current expressions of death within games, so that critical vocabulary can be developed to encourage a new viewpoint from which to think about and express the great beyond. At the Critique of Games site (Japanese-language link), which offers numerous databases of info from their research, you can see how games from Final Fantasy and Secret of Mana to GTA3 and Mario have been classified.

They are described in such categories as how life is represented in the game, the written expressions, if any, when characters kill or are killed, the way death is dealt with in the game mechanics and how the game represents blood, bodily harm and bodies. Maybe we can train all those supposed video game kids who are 'alleged' to be ready to launch violent attacks any day now to get into a career of death research?

Posted by szshou at 6:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The ever-excellent Game Producer weblog has added one of its regular sales stats posts for indie titles, and this time it's for indie RTS and IGF finalist Tribal Trouble.

The stats reveal income of around $60,000 for the relatively low-profile game, which did also have some Danish and German retail sales, alongside conversion rates of Windows: 0.8%, Mac OS X: 2.8%, and Linux: 1.1% for around 100,000 downloaded demos from Tribal Trouble's website - all very interesting stats, especially for those trying to get into the somewhat packed casual/indie game world. The problem here, obviously, is that 4 full-time + 2 freelance developers worked on the game for 2 and a half years, so the return thus far is rather low.

Developer Sune Nielsen also reveals: "We have gotten a lot of downloads by being on the front page of java.com, and on their games page. Other than that, the press releases and the many online and hard copy reviews have generated the remaining downloads. We tried out banners at a few sites, but they didn’t convert enough. The IGF nomination also gave us quite a lot of good publicity."

Posted by Simon Carless at 12:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

There's an odd little article in the WSJ's College Journal which basically outlines why Square Enix president Yoichi Wada never got an MBA, or went to a business school. Well, actually, it does more than that, since at the time of his graduation, there were only three business schools in the nation. There are lots of little interesting bits of info peppered throughout the article, such as Wada's wrangling of an investment from Sony, which I hadn't seen explicitly stated (though maybe it was), and the fact that most managers in Japan aren't actually trained for it, but are rewarded based more on loyalty to the company.

An excerpt from the article states that: "The typical Japanese approach is illustrated by Toyota, which despite being the subject of countless business-school case studies, has only three MBAs among its 26 highest-ranking executives." Rather crazy.

It goes on to map Wada's rise from a lowly door-to-door bonds salesman to his current position as president of one of the most influential game companies (for better or worse) around. " So is there anything Mr. Wada would have learned in an American MBA program that he couldn't get on the job? 'Yes,' the Japanese executive replies instantly: 'English.'" Thanks to our old pal Scott Mollett for picking this up!

Posted by bsheffield at 6:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The Kansas City Star has published a totally fun article on the recent 'The Toughest Gun in Dodge City' classic arcade tournament in Florida, as co-organized by Twin Galaxies, which has lots more coverage on its website.

The intro itself hints at forbidden youth: "Today, Steve Sanders is a trial attorney from Kansas City. A middle-aged married guy with four sons. A Sunday school teacher. When he was 18, though, he was the king of the arcade. Growing up in Clinton, Mo., Sanders held the world’s best scores in games such as Pac-Man and Donkey Kong."

Unfortunately, Sanders' Joust performance in Florida only yielded "the second-highest score in the world", not enough to get him into the Guinness World Records book (whose odd picks for records we've semi-ridiculed before.) But, it turns out, Abdner Ashman broke the world Ms. Pac-Man record as he scored "933,580 with no extra Boards as he finishes with 133 screens", and he'll sneak into the record books, waka waka. Now that's some creamy retro goodness!

Posted by Simon Carless at 12:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

['Parallax Memories' is a regular weekly column by Matthew Williamson, profiling classic '16-bit' games from the Sega Genesis, Super Nintendo, and other seminal '90s systems. This week's column profiles SNK and ADK’s 2D fighter for the Neo Geo: Ninja Masters]

Master to No One

In and out of arcades before anyone noticed, Ninja Masters is one of ADK's best games for the Neo Geo. Released on home cartridge in late June '96, and for the Neo CD in late September ‘96, this historical-fiction based weapons fighter can easily be viewed as the predecessor to the Last Blade series.

I first encountered the game through chance. I was trying to get a copy of Samurai Shodown 2 for the Neo Geo, and the cheapest way was buying in quantity. So along with the deal came 3 Count Bout and Ninja Masters. Although not my intent, I ended up playing more than a healthy amount of Ninja Masters. After asking around I found I was not alone in my ignorance of the game.

A Rag-Tag Bunch

Set in Japan’s Sengoku period, this game’s plot demonizes the ruler Oda Nobunaga. Making a pact with a demon, Nobunaga and his assistant--the feminine teenage male Ranmaru--attempt to achieve their ambition of ruling Japan. 10 warriors are tied by fate to the evil ruler as he tries to overtake Japan.

As set forth by Street Fighter, a rivalry between main characters is demanded for 2D fighters to be successful: at least that seems to be the common misperception. Sasuke and Kamui--the main characters--came from the same clan and attended the same ninja school. Upon their return from school Sasuke leaves the clan in an attempt to stop Nobunaga, and Kamui is sent after him to give him an "honorable death." The other characters are involved with the plot for various reason: dreams, riches, spirits, alcoholism, or just a bounty.

The Smell of Blood

The game suffers from what are known as dial-a-combos. Precision and skill take a back seat to the pre-determined amount of possible combos (one character has a 24 hit attack in only 5 button presses). So for tournaments, this game is right out.

But as for messing around with a few friends, this game is perfect. Most characters have stances with and without weapons and a variety of moves for both. Each character is highly varied from the others, barring the main characters of course.

The fighters all have smaller than average sprites (similar to King of Fighters) and they are all well animated. Nice little touches are hidden in all the characters moves, like Karasu who uses his Japanese namesake (“crow”) as a weapon. The backgrounds and music, while not very detailed, work fittingly together to set the desolate and bleak atmosphere.

Standing next to its kin--Samurai Shodown and Last Blade--Ninja Masters pales. This is not so much a fault of the game as it is a credit to the other series named. Compared to its contemporaries in the arcades, this game stood above many wanna-be knock offs.

[Matthew Williamson is the creator of The Gamer’s Quarter, an independent videogame magazine focusing on first person writing. His work has been featured on MTV.com, 1up.com, Chatterbox Radio, and the Fatpixels Radio Podcast.]

Posted by Matthew Williamson at 2:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Over at Jeff Minter's YakYak.org forums, they've done gone and spotted one of the most inspired game to movie license deals ever, since "Consolevania, the online videogame review and comedy show that spawned the BBC TV series “videoGaiden,” is pleased to announce that the show has acquired the exclusive movie rights to Jeff Minter’s classic game “Hover Bovver.”"

According to the press release, "The movie will go into pre-production in May 2006", and there's an extremely detailed description of the 1983 Commodore 64 game, in which "Gordon Bennet has borrowed the neighbor's Air-Mo lawnmower. Mow your way through as many of the 16 lawns as you can before the pursuing neighbor retrieves his mower." We're predicting more salivating (bovine) fans than the Halo movie adaptation.

The press release also has a deliciously PR-lite quote from Robert Florence of Consolevania: “We’re delighted to have finally secured the rights to this property. It has always been a dream of mine to bring that loveable lawnmower-stealing rogue Gordon Bennet to the big screen, and I relish the challenge ahead.” Absolutely no idea what's going on here, and we love it.

Posted by Simon Carless at 10:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

For whatever reason, we don't really link The Escapist enough on GSW. We think maybe it's because each issue of the 'web magazine' feels more like a magazine than a website. Or something? But we've been reading The Escapist Lounge too, and a recent post about Jordan Mechner and storytelling on there caught our eye.

Blogger Will Hindmarch segues off a Jordan Mechner anecdote to ask the question: "Is exposition storytelling?", continuing: "How much essential exposition in video games gets lost because designers feel the need to obfuscate it with theatrics? I mean, that brief brutish primer on the Dagger in Sands never bothered me when I actually played the game; it told me what I needed to know, then went on its way. But how many games have we played where we got stuck because we weren't sure what we were supposed to be doing in this level or that?"

Hindmarch suggests: "The magnificent Grim Fandango was a headache for me because I was so often unsure just what the hell Manny was supposed to be doing half the time. (The environment in Grim Fandango was well worth wandering through, but my point remains.)" So... where's the balance between over-literal explanation and delightfully unguided exploration? And which games do this particularly well?

Posted by Simon Carless at 6:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

When I used to edit Slashdot Games back 'in the day', we used to try to cover a smattering of the latest board game stories alongside the typical video game jazzola, with the excellent OgreCave.com being one frequent source.

This time, however, it's not ogres, but yetis providing board game goodness, with Defective Yeti's new guide to the best two-player board games of today and tomooooorow. The number one pick is Lost Cities ("...a very clever (and remarkably fun) rummy variant, which makes immediately accessible to non-gamers. The rules can be explained in three minutes, an entire game takes about thirty. Plus, chicks dig it.") And it has an online version, which makes it technically GSW-able!

Also heavily recommended is Lord Of The Rings: The Confrontation, also reviewed by the Yeti in fine fettle ("The atmosphere of the epic is recreated by the game: Light seems doomed from the get-go, and most victories by the good guys are Pyrrhic in nature. In the last game I played, for example, I threw Sam to the wolves -- the Wargs, actually -- so that Frodo could move one more step towards Mordor.") How delightfully evil!

Posted by Simon Carless at 12:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We've been friends with the guys at the Speed Demos Archive ever since we helped them get a mirror set up on the Internet Archive for their great, non-emulator cheatin' dashes through popular games.

One of the latest to be hosted is a host of speed runs from Namco's We Love Katamari, with every single level sporting a video. The project's Tom Batchelor comments: "One of the things that make We Love Katamari so good is that there are so many ways to play it. There are a lot of stages, like Campfire and Sumo, that are probably not meant to be speed-run, but that are very good for speed-running nonetheless."

He continues, rhpasodically: "So if you've played the game a lot, gotten every cousin and present, gotten all 2900+ items, rolled up the King and the roses, gotten most of the super-clears (or all), etc. etc., and you want a new way to play it, you can try speed-running stages like Sumo and Campfire. I recommend it." And so do we!

Posted by Simon Carless at 6:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The Multicart Project is a weekly comic by cartoonist Dave "Shmorky" Kelly, detailing the lives of Nintendo Entertainment System characters way past their prime, living in low-income housing and just trying to get by - check out the full comic archives so far.

[Dave "Shmorky" Kelly's cartoons have appeared in all sorts of exciting internet places, such as Keenspot, Shmorky.com, and Something Awful, where he served as animator on the Doom House DVD, and is currently outputting The Flash Tub on a weekly basis. He also has an Internet Movie Database entry, which makes him more famous than you.]

Posted by Frank Cifaldi at 12:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (12)

Holy crap, lost Kenta Cho game alert! We've previously covered Cho's much-adored PC freeware shooters such as Mu-Cade, and Tim W. at IndyGamer has now uncovered a previously obscure Cho game, Val and Rick, which is downloadable, but not linked from Cho's site.

The2Bears has further analysis of the game, which is spread with Cho's blessing, explaining: "VR is very interesting, as it deviates from the graphic style we’ve come to appreciate. The graphics are sprite based rather than vector based. As Tim observed, the game seems to share an early Gunroar engine, and certainly shares many of the gameplay mechanics."

In fact, the 2Bears conclusion is practically maudlin: "I’m not sure why this game has been “forgotten”, but it’s a shame it sort of has been. It already shows off as a great game, and promises interesting things to come if tweaked and finished. Very enjoyable." But... now it's unforgotten, huzzah.

Posted by Simon Carless at 6:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Since we're fans of the slept-on (witness us trying to upsell Beatmania the other week), we're pleased that Ben '222B' Turner has taken the opportunity to discuss Koei's pretty much ignored Warship Gunner 2 for PS2, just released in the U.S. to zero fanfare, over at his LJ.

As Ben explains of the publisher: "The name Koei conjures images of uninteresting political warfare sims, elderly but gentlemanly Japanese execs at overly formal TGS parties, and one vs. many hack 'n slash tedium", but raves: "I was unaware that from time to time they published games made directly by God... God being Micro Cabin, in this case."

Why so fun? "Like the Dreamcast's underrated Record of Lodoss War, Warship Gunner 2 is a game that encourages you to try to break it, offering you the tools, if you have the dedication, to build yourself up into an indestructible god of the sea that can lord over the game's timid AI fleets and navies." Pretty hardcore stuff, but there are fans on the GameFAQs messageboard with lots of info, if you want to jump on board.

Posted by Simon Carless at 12:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

We note solemnly that ex-ombudsman Kyle at VGMWatch has issued a blanket call for less coverage on the Gizmondo Ferrari ferrago, noting: "I can’t help but feel that now it’s time to move on." Well, we agree completely, which is why it's time for another post about it!

First, and most importantly, ex-Gizmondo exec and Ferrari crashee Stefan Eriksson has been arrested "on suspicion of grand theft", as "authorities also placed an immigration hold on him", following weeks of investigation and extremely sarcastic press statements by the Los Angeles police. Finally.

This comes as Gizmondo partner Carl Freer has received a writ for more than UKP500,000 from London law firm Manches for unpaid services - and the same UK Mail on Sunday article notes of Eriksson's red Enzo, blank Enzo, and Mercedes McLaren SLR: "Reliable sources in Britain say all three cars are being claimed by financial institutions - Bank of Scotland, Lombard and Yorkshire Bank - that leased the vehicles to Gizmondo. The company's total bill for leasing cars in 2005 amounted to UKP2 million."

Finally, the San Francisco Chronicle gets in on the gawking with a good overview article which mentions a most recent wrinkle not covered by GSW: "Several weeks ago, police in Beverly Hills stopped Eriksson's wife, Nicole Persson, 33, and discovered that she had no driver's license and that the Mercedes McLaren had no U.S. registration." So.... things not really going so well in the Gizmondo camp, then. We promise to never speak of this again!

Posted by Simon Carless at 6:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

["I often import games from abroad and play them. On such occasions, my imagination is sometimes stimulated more as I don't understand the language.” – Fumito Ueda, creator of Ico and Shadow of the Colossus. 'The Gaijin Restoration' is a weekly examination of underappreciated Eastern games that never cross to Western shores. This week's title is NaNaOn-Sha and SCEI's Vib Ribbon, alongside a quick look at its spiritual sequels, Mojob-Ribbon and Vib Ripple. It was released in 1999 for the PlayStation.]

The Lure of Vectors
Flash has changed the Internet. From intros to the ubiquitous skip intro button, lively animation has been twisting and tweening over CAT5 for years now. The power of pure unadulterated math and a coordinate grid has given rise to quick, crisp, scalable, if simplistic animation. Games, too, were once ruled by the vector graphics. Even today, if you chance upon an Asteroids machine or score a Vectrex on eBay, you can see the cause for appreciation of the elastic, monochromatic dancing light rotating, scaling and glowing on the screen. Shooting an asteroid and watching a diminishing trail of light following your bullet still gives mild heart palpitations, and Mine Storm's explosions have been known to make some tear up.

The Masaya Matsuura-designed Vib Ribbon embraces the vector decor for a tandem arrangement: all the graphics are being created procedurally, and the seed of that procedure is generated from music CDs the player puts in. Thus, the game has to load its entire program set into RAM, where textures and the like gobble resources like Pac-Man in a ball pit.

Through this restriction, an amazing kinetic art is made. Our little spastic rabbit friend reminds me of Fiver, of Watership Down fame, caught in a constant shaking seizure, with a dash of Roger Rabbit bravado. (No cross-dressing Bugs in sight.) The music derived landscape is just as frantic, with shifting pits flipping into towers and an impossible circumference that brings forth images of the Little Prince's B612 asteroid, (which hopefully survived the onslaught of Asteroids...)

The Only Truly Interactive System is a Pacemaker

So, Vib Ribbon lets you put in your favorite music (or use the supplied J-pop tracks from Laugh & Beats which, at the very least, are deserving of a listen and a laugh, as their name implies), generates levels based on amplitude, bass levels, and whatnot. All of those visualizations plugins for your favorite software media player work on the same principle, and it's nothing particularly new. Atari sold, or attempted to sell, light glasses in the early 80s, and it has been Jeff Minter's vocation for awhile. Vib Ribbon brought an implied level of interactivity. However, I see interactivity as a two way street. While the music plays out and the player attempt to navigate that killer bass line, the player isn't affecting the music. To be fair, successful navigation gives little bleeps, but they aren't fit to the tempo like the chord shooting of Otocky. And failure will stop the song, but this simple binary operation is as complex as a flowchart and hardly qualifies as an immerse interactive experience.

A Discouraged Magellan

Despite my meta-critique above, Vib Ribbon is a charming game, much like Matsuura's predecessors in the Parappa The Rapper series. While the Gaijin Restoration looks at games that didn't cross the oceans, Vib Ribbon made its way to the UK, and even at a discounted price, but alas, like a reluctant Magellan, never made it to the new world.

Some spiritual sequels were produced for Japan: Mojib-Ribbon, which featured such innovation as uploadable rap lyrics, but remains an exclusive pleasure as it requires writing Kanji with analogue stick, with all the stroke, order and penmanship needed to succeed in the competitive cram schools of japan. In other words, not import friendly. I've yet to get my hands on Vib Ripple, which allows you to upload digital pictures and explore them, but the colorized graphics, while well done, don't have the feeling, of taking guilty joy in the obsolete and the stark.

Anyone interested in Ribbon family should check out the following: the Vib Ribbon opening which is both adorable as well as informative, the Mojib-Ribbon opening which is tantalizing and the mirror of the old GIA Vib Ribbon worship page, with mp3 downloads and more video. And for good measure but bearing no relation, another Japanese ribbon game, the king of one button games, SFCave.

[Ryan Stevens is the associate producer on the various Cinematech shows on G4TV, which showcases many of the games written about here. He's been known to do the collaborative blog thing at That's Plenty.]

Posted by at 12:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

A webpage we've been keeping an eye on for a while now is the PlayStationMuseum.com site, listed as "the culmination of years of research and dedication to the Sony PlayStation", and so we figured it was time to introduce it to you, dear GSW readers.

Definitely the work of an extreme fan, the site is really trying to be DreamcastHistory.com for the PS1 set, and already has shots and info on some pretty neat obscurities, including a Men In Black-themed all-black PS1, information on the cancelled PlayStation version of Baldur's Gate, and even pics and info on the famously canned Madden '96.

Elsewhere on the site, there's an in-depth look at PS1 dev hardware, including a crazily large amount of accumulated silicon, with the PlayStation JAMMA board dev kit the one thing that the site's owner is particularly looking for - certified obscurities abound!

Posted by Simon Carless at 6:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

So, it appears that the CTIA Wireless mobile trade show happened this week, though not much notable mobile game news made it out there into the gaming press.

However, mobile trade site MoCoNews.net did bother to grab a picture of "a full page cover ad in the latest issue of a trade magazine" from mobile game firm Infospace, featuring, uhh, Sexy Soccer ("3 challenging tasks... 3 beautiful girls"), particularly relevant because of this year's soccer World Cup.

The site also points to a relevant Guardian Gamesblog post mentioning the title alongside soccer streaking sim Flitzer (which we, uhh, also referenced recently), and quoting Informa analyst Stuart Dredge as noting of the Euro mobile game market: "This summer, every developer and their dog is planning to release a mobile football game to tie in with the world cup. And realistically, most operators are going to promote FIFA, Real Football and maybe a couple of others. So Infospace and Handygames are actually being quite clever in ignoring realistic simulation in favour of boobs and bums."

But of course, this is from the novelty-impelled mobile game biz that brought us Lil Jon's Crunk Golf and Brady Bunch Kung Fu, to name but two leading contenders. So, either ridiculousness like this means the big mobile game crash is coming, or that companies have successfully identified the game-related origin of a certain PT Barnum saying. [Though actually, we kinda want to play Crunk Golf!]

Posted by Simon Carless at 12:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

It's been a while since we featured Matt Wegner's super-fun physics game blog Fun-Motion, but now he's back with a review of Rag Doll Software's title Super Stealball for PC and Mac, which is, well, physics-crazy.

As Matt explains: "The rules of Super Stealball are simple. Each arena has 2-4 ragdolls and a ball. If you touch the ball it changes to your color until someone else touches it. Retain control of the ball for long enough and you pass the level."

Sporting some crafty AI, a free demo version, and at just $4.95 for the full PC SKU (a price currently shared by the also very cool Ragdoll Masters, this looks like a fascinating indie buy - Matt comments of the title that "...on the whole you generally achieve a state of flow and stare thoughtless at the monitor. It’s like playing in a very engaging physical sport. You simply do."

Posted by Simon Carless at 6:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

So, Henk Rogers is a very interesting person indeed - the original businessman who licensed Alexey Pajitnov's Tetris for the Game Boy, the co-owner of The Tetris Company, and most recently an ever richer man after his mobile company's sale to Jamdat, and that company's sale to Electronic Arts.

So, we're delighted to see an in-depth interview with Rogers over at Planet GameCube, in which some fascinating details are discussed, including the 'guidelines' for the Tetris franchise: "We have a minimum bar that we create every year, called the Tetris Guideline, and that guideline is the minimum spec for which someone has to create Tetris. And we raise that bar every year. Part of what we do in the guideline, for example, is dictate which buttons do what."

In fact, Rogers is surprisingly clear-headed, even Machiavellian about the whole thing: "We have two kinds of licenses: ones that makes us money, and one that helps move Tetris forward, and Nintendo [for Tetris DS] is one that actually does both. On the ones where the licensee is just in it for the money, we tell them what to do." Lots more great specifics elsewhere in the interview, too.

Posted by Simon Carless at 12:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We don't often cross-reference features on sister game development site Gamasutra (mainly because we presume that you read it anyhow - you'd better!), but up today is a particularly GSW-relevant feature, a set of interviews with the ' Controller: Artists Crack the Game Code' artists.

What's that, then? Let us excerpt: "An exhibition held at the InterAccess Media Arts Centre in Toronto, Ontario between February 25th and March 25th 2006, Controller: Artists Crack the Game Code displayed the works of artists working in the field of video game modification. While some installations exploited inherent flaws of games to create artistic glitches, such as the Radical Software Group's Prepared Playstation, or Tasman Richardson's Atari videos, others had taken a more hands-on approach, from Myfawny Ashmore's Mario NES hacks, to Prize Budget for Boys' arcade machine recreations."

We probably like Ashmore's reply discussing feedback on her Mario-related work the best: "Some people get mad at what I've done, like it's video game blasphemy or something. One guy came up to me and yelled at me and said "Why did you do that? You ruined it!" as thought I had permanently altered his relationship to the game, which if I had, was impressive to me. Some really get into the existential aspect of it. Some just think it's funny, which it also is. I'm happy with any of those reactions, as long as no blocks come flying through my window."

Posted by Simon Carless at 6:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So, a few people seem to have started caring about GameTap since its price reduction to $9.99 per month, and the GameTap website is, for whatever reason, kinda bad about passing on the latest in-network promotions, so we'll keep posting pertinent info as we get it.

This time, we'd already noted that Ghosts 'n Goblins (Capcom) and its sequel Ghouls 'n Ghosts (Capcom), as well as Darkstalkers: The Night Warriors (Capcom) had appeared, but now it's Capcom Week, and the following arcade emulated games have also been added to GameTap: "Street Fighter II Champion Edition, 1941: Counter Attack, Commando, Exed Exes (Savage Bees), Knights of the Round, Magic Sword - Heroic Fantasy, Mega Twins / Chiki Chiki Boys, Mercs / Commandos 2, and Trojan."

You know, that's pretty cool, particularly Knights Of The Round, which is a totally fun Final Fight-style medieval brawler. Also Mega Twins - plenty of cuteness! Oh, and apparently SNK week is "coming soon", so as soon as we find out what the heck's getting posted then (it's totally going to be Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon 2003, we think), we'll get back to you.

Posted by Simon Carless at 12:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Posted by at 6:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The Revolution Advanced website has a relatively new article called 'E3 Though The Eyes Of A Booth Babe', in which one of the girls manning the Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess booth for Nintendo at E3 2005, Yvonna Lynn, talks about her experience.

The article is a little on the drawn-out side, but includes a few amusingly sketched claims: "What makes a booth babe cool or uncool is often not related to her position. In fact, many times the fully clothed model doing the “Vanna White” with some upcoming gadget has far more obnoxious arrogance than the Playboy model hired to hang out of a tiny outfit in the next booth."

Of course, recent alleged news from the E3 organizers notes that: "Material, including live models, conduct that is sexually explicit and/or sexually provocative, including but not limited to nudity, partial nudity and bathing suit bottoms, are prohibited on the Show floor, all common areas, and at any access points to the Show." But Yvonna, as simply a welcoming female demonstrating a Nintendo game, is arguably less of the stereotypically exploitative booth babe, thereby rendering this entire story and the headline vaguely pointless. So that's... good? [Via PressTheButtons.]

Posted by Simon Carless at 12:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Via the Guilded Lilies blog, they've spotted an interview with Bethesda on Oblivion 'gender bias' issues which is, at the very least, intriguing.

This is odd, as the piece's intro points out, since: "Oblivion is one of those rare fantasy RPGs where female characters aren’t perpetually spilling forth from impossibly skimpy armor, and characters in positions of power and leadership are frequently women."

But, though the official Prima strategy guide comments: "Sadly, only three races offer females with power design advantages", Bethesda’s Pete Hines then commented of the 'controversy': "All the races are balanced equally for each gender. Talking about power design is different than balance. Essentially, for each race both genders have the exact same stats except for two: one where the male has a 10-point bonus, one where the female has a 10-point bonus." So... storm in a teacup?

Posted by Simon Carless at 6:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

The last time that we covered Matt Sakey's regular 'Culture Clash' IGDA column, we got a little perturbed at the level of invective in there, and his latest April 2006 IGDA column, on 'establishing an industry identity', again falls on the combative side.

Sakey's central theory seems to be that, well, gamers are dumb: "Everything that is wrong with the games industry can be summed up in one word: Psychonauts. The fact that this wonderful game moved only a handful of units in the United States is an offense. The publisher didn't advertise aggressively, and I do hold Majesco partially responsible. But mostly I blame gamers for failing to buy a title with practically universal appeal." Um... one would think that the definition of 'universal appeal' is that everyone would buy it?

The conclusion? "There's certainly profit and probably long-term stability in continuing the status quo: franchises, sports licenses, movie tie-ins. But following that path exclusively means that gaming will never aspire to anything greater. If that's okay with you, then so be it; accept that this medium will forever remain a bastard stepchild, the lower spawn of higher arts."

This Au-like argument seems, to me, to be fallacious - you iterate reliable, fun, profitable titles (yes, aesthetes, Madden is enjoyable to play!) so you get the opportunity to take greater risk on other titles, or you just use digital distribution and lower development costs to take those risks. It's not a fire and brimstone moment. But I guess it's more fun if we pretend it is. Gamers, you suck!

Posted by Simon Carless at 12:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)

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Are your fingers too plump for button-mashing gameplay on your mobile phone? Thanks to MobileChaos, you can fatten up your phone to match your dumpy digits with its brand-spanking-new MPlay attachment. Simply slide your phone into the waiting arms of the MPlay's universal holder, clamp that sucker in, attach your handset's phone adapter and enjoy the same D-Pad and multi-button goodness handheld console gamers have been enjoying for over 15 years.

When your phone rings, quickly rip out handset's phone adapter, unclamp your phone, and yank it from MPlay's universal holder. Hopefully in time to answer the call. Or, just shove the entire handset/controller combo against your ear. Suddenly, the MPlay add-on makes the original N-Gage and its goofy sidetalkin' setup seem stylish.

Posted by at 12:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)

Stephen Totilo over at MTV News continues to file very interesting stories, and the latest is one on the introduction of weather effects to Blizzard's World Of Warcraft.

As the article explains: "A rotating team of developers at Blizzard Entertainment actually worked on creating a weather system for five years. Only last week, however, did the game's developers find a way to patch it into the game in a way the meets their expectations — and that they hope will meet fans' as well."

Designer Jeff Kaplan explains that the weather is thus far cosmetic, but he "...has seen gamer requests for rain that isn't just cosmetic but has the effect of rusting armor and muddling travel. Those are even the types of features promised in the upcoming MMO "Dark and Light," whose Web site says winds will slow winged characters and accumulating snow will stymie dwarves." Dude, my dwarf is buried!

Posted by Simon Carless at 12:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

The Retro Gaming With Racketboy weblog has a very fun article up discussing the Sega Dreamcast's 2D fighting game roster.

As the intro points out: "The Dreamcast was strongly supported by both Capcom and SNK. It received many of the best fighting games before the PS2, XBox, and Gamecube. There are also a number of great games (mostly SNKs) that did not get a port to the newer console or the ports were inferior."

Some of the highlights include Last Blade 2 ("Many SNK fans consider the Last Blade series to be what Samurai Shodown 3 and 4 should have been"), as well as the extremely fun Mark Of The Wolves ("modernized fighting system... is basically SNK's counterpart to Street Fighter 3: Third Strike.") Anyone else got a favorite DC fighter?

Posted by Simon Carless at 6:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Over at Edge Online, they've got a rather fun article discussing the use of humor in video games, and starting with the line: "They say there are only seven stories in the world. Others, particularly those who’ve recently read a copy of Viz, say there are only seven jokes. But ask people to name funny games and you begin to feel like there are only seven possible answers."

Much of the article takes the form of an interview with Ron Gilbert, the original 'funny guy' of game design, who notes perceptively: "The problem with games is that you’ve taken timing away from the author and given it to the player, so in order to do comedy, you can’t use a lot of the same techniques that linear artists are used to using in comedy, because they can’t use timing."

As for the seven possible funny games, ever? "The Secret Of Monkey Island usually pops up first. Sam And Max and Day Of The Tentacle next. Conker’s Bad Fur Day might get the British vote, Leisure Suit Larry the American. After some brow-furrowing for a more modern title – probably The Bard’s Tale – you’ll be back to where you started with Grim Fandango. Take Ron Gilbert and Tim Schafer out of the running, and things look pretty bleak." What's missing, though?

Posted by Simon Carless at 12:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (21)

[This special GameSetWatch report about Rockstar's special NY blogger Table Tennis showdown was rushed to us by Matt 'Fort90' Hawkins, a New York-based freelance journalist and Gamasutra contributor - much appreciated, Sir!]

This past Saturday Rockstar held a special tournament in the downtown New York City. The game? Their new Xbox 360 curiosity, Table Tennis. The participants? Member of the local video gaming press.

First up, I've been never been a super huge fan of Rockstar's titles. I know they have a legion of devotees, primarily thanks to Grand Theft Auto, which helped to user in the era of sandbox gameplay, as well as make the world take notice that games have "matured" and so has its audience. But for whatever reason, I just don't dig banging hookers via a Dual Shock. It simply ain't my thing. Hence why Table Tennis immediately got my attention when it first hit the scene. Many were rather confused, some even irate, with Rockstar's first foray into the next generation of gaming. It looked neither risky nor groundbreaking, but clean, simple fun.

And simple's the key word here. I've somewhat become a cranky old gamer, one who find today's games too cumbersome and complicated. I just don't have the time, energy, or interest to deal with expansive worlds, emergent gameplay, or whatever else is hot in gaming today. I simply want to push a few buttons and have fun dammit. And Table Tennis looked to provide just that, to go back to what video games are (or were) all about. After-all, wasn't a ping pong simulator what helped to inspire the medium in the first place? But most importantly, it just looked easy to play.

Truth be told, despite the fact that I'm an avid gamer, I'm also a pretty lousy one these days. Hence why I'm a big fan of far less demanding, easier to digest "casual" games, which appear to be the bane of the hardcore set's existence (and like all cranky old men, my attitude is if something pisses the kids off, I already know someone's doing something right). It’s also why I wasn't automatically scared by the notion of entering a tournament for a game I hadn't even played before. Its just ping-pong, right?

Which is exactly what the game itself is, nothing more, nothing less. There's no superfluous nonsense, like pop music or slapped on street cred, just straightforward table tennis action. That's not to say it's drab or boring. From the get go, its intensely focused on bringing you, the player, straight and center in the thick of action, and it does so spectacularly, thanks in great part to its platform; some believe that its almost a waste to use the power of the Xbox 360 on such subject matter, but whereas all other 360 games have tried to deliver players in the midst of otherworldly, or ultra realistic visceral thrills, its crowning achievement just might in fact be simply placing the players in the shoes of someone who's means of attaining victory lies within a tiny white ball and a paddle.

When I first entered the space, everyone was busy giving the game a test drive. There were some plastic sheets strewn about that described the controls: left stick to move, right stick or face buttons to hit the ball, plus shoulder buttons to execute special maneuvers. Seemed easy as cake. As I watched a game taking place, one of the Rockstar reps mentioned that its very much like Virtua Tennis, and I could certainly see that. And given the immediate pick and play-ness of that game, I was ready for action almost immediately.

Though as drop dead simple as the controls seemed to be, it wasn't. Things were far more sophisticated that I had assumed, and I found myself struggling from the outset, with a very mild "oh great, super precise controls is gonna make something else that's suppose to be simple and fun a damn chore" anxiety attack in my head. But that's okay, because the other person I was playing with, Vlad from Joystiq, was in the same exact boat (though perhaps minus the mini-mental breakdown). We fumbled around the controls for a bit, making comments and connections as we went along. And over time, we each sorta figured it out.

After about an hour or so, it was tournament time. There would be two brackets: first players would play best two out of three matches against an opponent. Those who win advance to the next round, until there is only one left, and the losers are then placed in another bracket. They each face off against each other until one remains, then that person would face off against the victory of pervious bracket to crown the champ. Names and positions were drawn at random, and because there wasn't enough participants, myself and another person were given "byes" and automatically advanced to the next slot. My first opponent would be Fiona, the wife of Vlad. Immediately the pressure was on, because as I played, not only was Vlad cheering his wife on, but about two other friends as well.

In the game, much like its real-life counterpart, you basically hit the ball back and forth, though it’s more than just that of course. The key is to angle shots so the opponent can't get to the ball. Again, fairly obvious strategy to figure out. As one plays, a meter will fill up which will allow the use of more sophisticated maneuvers. But early on, I just wanted to make sure I didn't screw up therefore couldn't have cared less about performing any fancy tricks. So I ended up playing conservatively, as did Fiona, which led to a rather boring match to watch. Though the strategy worked, as I slowly pulled ahead. Near the end, I figured "what the hell" and went for a fancy move, which backfired, so I ran back to what had worked. Eventually I scored my first win. And if felt good!

While waiting for my next match, I watched everyone else's matches, and it was fairly obvious that everyone's skills were slightly improving. So I knew I'd have to bring my game up a notch if I was going to continue on to victory. My next adversary was Nick from Evil Avatar. And... he made short work of me. I scored some points here and there, but it was mostly due to mistakes on Nick's end. As comfortable as I was getting with the controls, I was still fighting with them, primarily their extreme sensitivity. In the end, I did quite poorly, but I still had another chance, as my name was added to the seconded chances bracket. So to stay in the game, I had to defeat Steve from Xbox Exclusive.

There are numerous characters in the game, representing various nationalities, and I had been using the male Chinese character, Liu Ping. It should be mentioned that they are simply amazing, and what truly brings the player into the game (as well as a fine example of the 360's abilities); every little move and display of emotion (whether it be a boastful punch in the air for a victorious exchange, or the wince of just having screwed up) is just spot on. Ping had served me well my first time around, but not so much the second time around. I was tempted to change to Luc, a French male that looked very much like Luke Wilson from The Royal Tenenbaums (right down to the head band and the big nose) that everyone was using, and winning with, but decided to stick with the man from the east.

Maybe I should have because Steve basically destroyed me right from the outset. In the middle of my first match, one of the Rockstar reps decided to give me some helpful hints. This is like telling the driver of an out of control truck who knows he's going to fly off a cliff and into certain doom when and where to turn on the turn signal. Basically, it wasn't helping. I knew defeat was inevitable, and I took it like a man.

Afterwards I simply sat around watching those who had to stuff advance on, while chitchatting with fellows losers, mostly about what had worked and what hadn't. The key to any good party game is that its as enjoyable to watch as it is to play, and Table Tennis passed that test. Whenever two players went beyond eight or so exchanges of the ball, a counter would pop up, adding to the drama. Whenever it hit about 30, everyone simply stopped what they were doing and stared at the screen, waiting to see who would drop the ball, literally. Adding to the intensity are slow-mo close ups of edge of your seat "will he make it or won't he?!" shots, which while gimmicky, works extremely well and doesn't disrupt the flow of the game. Though my favorite dramatic event takes place in the background; each stage is meticulously rendered. Again, its nothing fancy, just enough to get you there. Yet when things get really hot and heavy, it all goes away, as the lights dim and an almost blinding spotlight shines down. Plus the background techno music gets drown out by a loud hum, as if all the air is being sucked out of the room.

In the end, Steve, the guy who knocked me out of the competition, made it to the end, but was defeated by some guy from UGO. Rockstar says that they intend to hold tournaments such as this on a regular basis, and I'll be back, perhaps better, perhaps worse.

Posted by Simon Carless at 5:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

It seems like only the other day that we talked about Cinemaware Marquee as one of our alt.publishers to watch (they've signed interesting games including Space Rangers 2, yay), and now they're at it again, announcing Introversion Software's IGF Grand Prize winner Darwinia as signed for U.S./Canadian PC retail release this June.

Most interestingly, it's noted: "Darwinia will be available for $29.99 in June everywhere games are sold. As an added bonus, the game will include an exclusive poster and collectible figurine." Is the figurine going to be a Darwinian, and will it be cute? Inquiring minds want to know.

[Also, Introversion has a rather fun account of their IGF award experiences up on their official website, complete with a video from the Chronic Logic chaps of the fateful winning and swearing moment.]

Posted by Simon Carless at 12:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

We previously covered the rather smart Shmup-Dev competition, and now word is through (in the form of an 'official' press release!) of the overall winners.

As is explained of the top titles: "Prototype, an R-Type clone claimed the first prize. Next we have Funky Space, which is somewhat like defender as far as the scrolling goes, but it comes with crazy power-ups!! Then at the third place we have subsurface, an undersea adventure loaded with 3D graphics and awesome particle effects!"

The article concludes: "You can go through the list and see games with amazing graphics and detail all the way down the ranks. With great titles competing for the first prize, it's a great time playing each one of them!" And they're all free to download, too - bonus.

Posted by Simon Carless at 6:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Over at Clickable Culture, the blog of GSW contributor TonyW, there's an informative post pointing to a new game weblog devoted to virtual worlds of various kinds, and named 3pointD.com.

The 3pointD About page explains things well: "3pointD.com reports on the emerging 3D Web — sometimes called the metaverse — in all its manifestations. From virtual worlds like Second Life to applications like Google Earth, from cool mapping hacks that link up real-world locations to new ways of creating virtual ones, from concepts like folksonomy to the culture of online worlds, find news and feature articles about all that and much more at 3pointD.com, every day."

Interestingly, the blog has a oft Second Life-linked sponsor, and one (as TonyW points out!) just discussed on CNet, as the About page continues: "3pointD.com is kindly sponsored by the Electric Sheep Company. While occasional eSheep announcements may appear on 3pointD, they’ll be clearly marked as such. Otherwise, the site is managed and edited by journalist Mark Wallace, with no direction from anyone."

Posted by Simon Carless at 12:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

['Parallax Memories' is a regular weekly column by Matthew Williamson, profiling classic '16-bit' games from the Sega Genesis, Super Nintendo, and other seminal '90s systems. This week's column profiles Wolfteam’s action platformer: El Viento, released for the Sega Genesis in late 1991 in the U.S. and Japan.]

A Tale of a Wind Gypsy

What happens when an anime-themed development team decides to create a game after reading some H.P. Lovecraft? Apparently El Viento. Annet, a blood descendant of Hastur, is shouldered with the responsibility of saving all humanity using the power of nature magic.

Developed in 1991 by Wolfteam for the Sega Genesis, and released by Renovation in the United States, El Viento follows the mold of outrageously sexy late 80’s anime. Much like other efforts of the development team (Valis), style is emphasized over control and design.

Terrors of the Deep

This game is outright, silly in retrospect. While it may have been taken more seriously at one point, fighting a horde of New York gangsters in the 1920s who are controlled by a mob boss being paid to stop Annet from preventing the resurrection of Hastur is just the start of this train wreck. However, the plot is not the only problem. The background scrolls horribly, seemingly with no connection to the foreground. The building designs, while they are modern apartments, feel very similar to some of the later Castlevania action games, and the style is even further replicated in the Grand Canyon level.

The music is fairly bland and forgettable, and the sound effects are outright inappropriate. While I normally enjoy playing games with headphones to appreciate the subtleties of sound, this game has no need for any special attention. That is, unless you have some over-taking urge to make your ears bleed in terror. Then comes the terrible sprite scaling: the worst offenders being explosions and a certain octopus-squid thing.

After New York, things get even stranger. Hastur's followers need to be destroyed, and not only in New York, but; Mt. Rushmore, The Grand Canyon, caves under New York, and even on a blimp. In these locations are: piles of logs that explode for no reason when you step on them, cacti that float in the air and used as platforms, prehistoric cave men and giant caterpillars under the streets of New York--and these are just a few of the more ridiculous items.

Cthulhu fhtagn!

I can’t tell if the designers wanted to throw in homages to H.P. Lovecraft of just ran out of ideas, but I am hoping for the former. The first sign of Cthulhu Mythos turns up with the mention of the evil god Hastur. Then the game goes on to make more subtle references in the forms of a Byakhee as the helper of Restiana (your misguided nemesis), and the boss of a later level is a Mi-Go. Because of the appearance of the Mi-Go as a metaphorical ball-under-the-cup sleight-of-hand trick, I am leaning towards the Wolfteam running out of idea options.

Overall the game is a little wacky, has floaty controls, head-scratching level design, and insane locations with no relation to the time period. The animation for the main character is pretty nice, and some of the enemies have nice touches to them. The game did not age well at all though. It spawned the sequel, Ernest Evans, which is (believe it or not) even worse than El Viento. All is not completely lost, as it is definitely good for a few laughs.

[Matthew Williamson is the creator of The Gamer's Quarter, an independent videogame magazine focusing on first person writing. He has been featured on MTV.com, 1up.com, Chatterbox Radio, and the Fatpixels Radio Podcast.]

Posted by Matthew Williamson at 6:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Yeah, yeah, we've covered GameTap a zillion times already, but this is the first time since their price reduction (the PC 'all you can eat' service is now $9.99 per month), and has added on-demand streaming of all its video segments in 'GameTap TV'.

We now have more info on what popped up in March, and what's coming in April, via their email, plus the Top Ten, so since we're still the only people who run these - we're doing it again:

"Among March’s notable game additions are Baldur’s Gate (Vivendi Universal) for PC, Crazy Taxi (SEGA) for Dreamcast, Virtua Fighter (SEGA) for SEGA 32X [which we totally called, oh yes!], Populous: The Beginning (Electronic Arts) for PC, Golden Axe (SEGA) for the Genesis, and a number of arcade favorites, including Ghosts 'n Goblins (Capcom) and its sequel Ghouls 'n Ghosts (Capcom), Darkstalkers: The Night Warriors (Capcom), and Baseball Stars Professional (SNK Playmore)."

As for the top ten most-played games for March, there's some interesting stuff in here - Quest For Glory and Sim Safari, even:

1. 1942
2. Age of Wonders II: The Wizard’s Throne
3. Quest for Glory I: So You Want To Be A Hero
4. Sim Safari
5. Warlords Battlecry II
6. Heroes of Might and Magic IV
7. Pac-Man
8. Empire Earth
9. Sonic the Hedgehog 2
10. Railroad Tycoon 3

It's also noted: "Entire weeks [in April] will be devoted to new content from Capcom, SNK, the King’s Quest franchise, and the big daddy of them all - Street Fighter! Each week will feature five to a dozen games related to its focus." A little vaguer, this time - but there hasn't been a Street Fighter game on GameTap yet, so we're looking forward to seeing which.

[Also, we heard, maybe... opportunities to play GameTap games against each other later this year? Hope so! We still don't think GameTap got off on the right foot, but we're wondering if they can get going at some point... the idea is still great in terms of making great old titles legally playable again.]

Posted by Simon Carless at 12:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

We like Shaun Of The Dead, a lot - much as we adore Spaced, and we're looking forward to Hot Fuzz, whenever that pops onto screens. Thus, we're somewhat delighted by the launch of the Shaun Of The Dead game for cellphones in Europe, yay.

According to the PR: "Shaun of the Dead pits players against an onslaught of zombies and un-dead scum set inside the confines of the Winchester Pub... Players find themselves defending the pub from a first-person perspective, battling droves of zombies with weapons and household objects including a shotgun, cricket bat, and vinyl LPs from a record collection."

We particularly like the fact that the movie is explained in the press release as "a "rom zom com" (romantic zombie comedy)" - but we do wonder, is Dire Straits one of the LPs being thrown in the mobile game, and will New Order really get spared? Details like this are very important. To us alone.

Posted by Simon Carless at 6:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We've been keeping up with the seemingly Herculean task of the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer weblog for some time now, and now they've got round to documenting 'Plumbers Don't Wear Ties' for the 3DO, one of the most, uhh, suspect games for the system, in more ways than one.

As the blogger, SkyKid, notes of the much-maligned (and vaguely NSFW) title: "Is a collection of still images, strung together with an appalling story line, an incomprehensible scoring system and with more retries than Jeffery Archer a game? Does it make it the worst game ever?"

He concludes: "[Is it] worse then Primal Rage...? Worse than Rise of the Robots? Worse than Cyberdillo?... No. No it isn't - The saviour of this game. The Messiah, is a pretty blond woman who scampers about in lingerie." But... what if we like dinosaurs and robots with no clothes on?

Posted by Simon Carless at 12:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Multicart Project is a weekly comic by cartoonist Dave "Shmorky" Kelly, detailing the lives of Nintendo Entertainment System characters way past their prime, living in low-income housing and just trying to get by - check out the full comic archives so far.

Death Breath, adversary in the way badical and awesome Kid Niki: Radical Ninja, has a date with none other than Athena, star of SNK's appropriately named Athena. Will Death Breath's unavoidable 8-bit programming keep him from true love? Probably!

[Dave "Shmorky" Kelly's cartoons have appeared in all sorts of exciting internet places, such as Keenspot, Shmorky.com, and Something Awful, where he served as animator on the Doom House DVD, and is currently outputting The Flash Tub on a weekly basis. He also has an Internet Movie Database entry, which makes him more famous than you.]

Posted by Frank Cifaldi at 6:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

The Indy Gamer blog has noticed that Mind Control Software, the most interesting developers behind IGF winner Oasis, and a host of weird and wonderful prototypes and alternative projects, has released a demo of its latest PC casual title, called Stomping Grounds.

As the blog explains, Stomping Grounds "plays like a card battle game minus all the complicated rules... Each encounter consists of six rounds in total, and a key is awarded for every round won." There's a fun Lion King-esque graphical theme, too.

So basically, it's "a casual action-strategy game", just as Oasis switched up a lot of mechanics from more complex PC RTS and turn-based strategy titles into a cohesive casual whole - and honestly, we hope it gets a whole lot more commercial interest that Oasis, which seemed to get somewhat ignored by the casual gameplaying public - anyone hazard a guess as to why?

Posted by Simon Carless at 12:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Via PressTheButtons, we have tragic news on girls being investigated for Mario-related 'bomb' shenanigans, in a bizarre pre-April 1st incident.

Specifically, out in Ohio: "The Portage County Hazardous Materials Unit and Bomb Detection Unit were called in to downtown Ravenna on Friday morning after seventeen suspicious packages -- boxes wrapped in gold wrapping paper with question marks spray painted on them -- had alarmed residents."

As PTB notes: "That's right: five girls were building their own Mushroom Kingdom and spreading question blocks inspired by Super Mario Bros. around their Ohio town."

Of course the original report also notes: "Boxes were found at the Immaculate Conception Church on West Main Street, the Portage County Courthouse, Deluxe Pastries, the corner of Cherry Way and Main Street, Reed Memorial Library, Ravenna High School and a residence at Sanford and Main streets." Mmmmm, we don't care about "possible criminal charges"... think of the Deluxe Pastries!

Posted by Simon Carless at 6:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Yes, yes, we know, April Fool's Day was several millenia ago, and GSW didn't even bother pulling anything (we were going to finally run something on Halo for the Gizmondo which is actually true, but then nobody would believe it because it was run on April 1st, and... fuggedabutit!) Still, the nice folks at Shacknews have rounded up most of the game-related April 1st gags unleashed early in the weekend, to good effect.

One of our favorites is Blizzard opening a Burgercraft restaurants, because, let's face it, wouldn't all of us go anyhow? ("'The Zerg Rush All-You-Can-Eat Special'... 'Zealot Fries (french fries with “special” sauce to stimulate your psychic potential)'... yum!)

Also, it appears that Ars Technica has reviewed Duke Nukem Forever, branding it as "a fast-paced game that caters to everyone's worst impulses", and noting: "I'm sure we'll hear from every politician after this game, and of course this is worth about ten more months in the limelight for our ol' buddy Jack Thompson." The only worrying thing about the 'review' is how close it may be to the actual game review in 20XX, of course.

Posted by Simon Carless at 12:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Via the Shacknews forums, there's word of the release of Max Payne 2 modification, 7th Serpent, after what can only be described as a number of years in development.

The pedigree of these mod, which has been in production since 2003, is pretty darned impressive - as a random example, one of the musicians, Chad Seiter, "...has done work on the TV shows ALIAS, LOST, and the movie The Incredibles."

The mod itself is "a third-person shooter modification for the Max Payne 2 game engine thrusting players into a world of corruption, secrecy and vengeance as they control Vince Petero - the main character - who has been subjected to experimental testing and is left to his own devices in order to extract the truth from those who keep it from him." The screenshots look mighty impressive for a mod, especially for such a relatively unmodded game - so go dig out your copy of Max Payne 2 and check it out, forthwith.

Posted by Simon Carless at 7:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

["I often import games from abroad and play them. On such occasions, my imagination is sometimes stimulated more as I don't understand the language.” – Fumito Ueda, creator of Ico and Shadow of the Colossus. 'The Gaijin Restoration' is a weekly examination of underappreciated Eastern games that never cross to Western shores. This week's title is SCEI's Docchi Mecha!, released for the PlayStation in April of 2000.

The Plays The Thing...

Docchi Mecha! started of, for myself, as a purely financial investment. It was 5$ used and in pristine condition, as most second hand imports I've found to be, often replete with registry cards, memory card stickers and various warnings about epilepsy, or perhaps cautionary tales of bubble economies. The cover, presented here, piqued interest, but, caveat emptor, I've learned my lesson. It was the backcover that made this the companion purchase to Dirge of Cerberus (which was, is, and always will be chocobo guano.) The front featured vector style proto-prince Katamaris and flocks of HR Puf 'N Stuf types consisting of enough ellipsoids to make Ecstatica blush. The kawaii and weird checked out. The back cover, while mundane in comparison, offered the glimmer of hope of being playable.

This wasn't going to be a bunch of text, accompanied with dithered pictures of Japanese girls of questionable age, nor a menu intensive attempt at regulating the temperature of my mech suit as I face the existential crisis of deep space combat. It looked to be some sort of real time strategy excursion, not exactly a console or Japanese staple. Interesting.

Ellipsis Ellipsis Ellipsis

The game starts with an odd introduction, with 3D/2D constructs that seems cel shaded and seemingly engine built, but doesn't seem to be the same rendering of the main game. I could be wrong; this could be an export from some tweaked Flash, but it honestly feels like an engine build. Why is this important? Well, in the annals of video game archeology, this could be one of the earliest cel shaded games. With a release date of 04/27/00 it beats Slap Happy Rhythm Busters, Jet Grind Radio or the domestic Wacky Races to market by a couple of months.

After the impressive opening, there is an unfortunate maze of menus to navigate till the game drops you into the first bout. Now this is a 3D world, presented with the choices of isometric camera, and zoomed isometric camera. You control the white cherub flying overhead, on a miniscule map: my enemy's base was seconds away, with only two control nodes between us. At the beginning you call forth little beaked peapods and via a menu, suggest where they head, and what type of activity to partake in. And this is the issue: while I was influential, I was not authoritative. It reminded me of the Sega CD FMV sports titles, where you coached players, but they wouldn't necessarily listened to you. There was no micromanaging of pathfinding, or selecting what specific enemy beak'd peapod to squelch. But I bore my will, and advancements were made.

My peapods harvested enough succulent golden orb food to allow me to summon agreeable one-foot aliens, giant fish obsessed with sucking on the dirty ground, and uncontrollable godzilla terrors, each with their own unique talents. I never had any problems with the latter, as they were literally uncontrollable. They would go over to the enemy and start munching on the peapods until the Lilliputians overtook him. All of these units had a great look, though using ellipsoids, a trick to get a lot of independent 3D objects on the screen, they all featured cartoonish but striking eyes, and an almost bumpy texture of cheap convenience store pinatas. Varying techniques of warfare were used, from blitzkrieg to guerrilla combat, but I was always beaten back to my base, but only ever extinguished by the time limit, expressed by a fuse counting down the across the screen, in time to the wax and wane of the day/night cycle. Repeated plays and repeated defeats.

... Unfortunately

The tip of the iceberg has been surveyed, and I expect there is some grand treasure frozen underneath. Maybe a caveman. This is when import gaming straddles that line of wonderful and annoying. The internet was initially of little help, with the translated katakana mainly finding empty FAQ pages, or Docchi Meccha! nestled in a list between Do You Remember Love and Dodge Ball. Katakana searches led to a Japanese wikipedia entry, which, Babelfished, makes for an interesting read. The pidgin explanation confirmed what I expected but didn't clear up enough to allow me any progress. Also, it seems my homebase, as well as the enemies, translates to a king-pao, which I thought was a moniker for some sort of chicken dish. Apparently, there is also quite a bit of medium-named voice talent signed on as well.

This is the most frustrating type of game: I can gleam much of the mechanics, I'm in thrall to the art style of both the cinemas and the game, and it plays like a hybrid notion, but I can't crack the cypher. I invite any stalwart GSW readers to comment below, and flesh out any of the games intricacies that you may know.

[Ryan Stevens is the associate producer on the various Cinematech shows on G4TV, which showcases many of the games written about here. He's been known to do the collaborative blog thing at That's Plenty.]

Posted by at 12:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Some of the folks from Evil Avatar have splintered off and formed a new game-related blog Toybane, which looks like it should have some neat content within its plain exterior.

One example is a column called 'The Role Call', which discusses "the symptoms associated with the fatal RPG battle-syndrome, and the antibodies being concocted by brave games that are striving to eradicate this vile disease."

The author notes: "With the large glut of genre releases on the Playstation 2 over the past five years, most are steeped in traditional battle mechanics. This not only means the random encounters that interrupt dungeon exploration and immersion flow, but also the fights themselves... Thankfully, many games are realizing that an evolution needs to take place." Yep, we like Progress Quest too.

Posted by Simon Carless at 6:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Over at 1UP, they have a spectacularly in-depth interview with Hiroshi Kataoka, President of Sega's arcade amusement departments, about all things arcade and Virtua Fighter.

Particularly interesting was this reference to the Nintendo Revolution as an arcade conversion source: "As for console ports, in recent times it has become more difficult to do home conversions of gun games due to the wide variety of TVs in use by consumers. While the arcade games use specialized, high-resolution screens, you don't have that sort of standardization in the consumer market. So, I'm personally hoping the Revolution's controller will allow us to do more ports of gun games." Woohoo, House Of The Dead X from Lindbergh to Rev? Horsepower may be a problem!

There'a also an excellent explanation of the difference between Japanese and Western arcades: "Game centers in Japan are a place you go on an impulse - you'd stop in to play on the way home from school or work to kill some time. Young adults and salarymen go there thinking "instead of playing at home by myself, I'll play against others." In the western market, you have to get motivated and plan to go to an arcade. Most people in the west, it seems, would rather just stay home and play on PCs or consoles." Well summed-up.

Posted by Simon Carless at 12:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Most people have been shouting about Oblivion and Kingdom Hearts II recently, but a game sneaked out to U.S. retail this week that we have to point to - the U.S. debut of Beatmania, after a host of Japanese arcade titles, PlayStation and PlayStation 2 versions, and even a European version for the original PS1 Beatmania.

Now, it's pretty clear that the press aren't too impressed, with a distinctly disdainful GameSpot giving the title just 5.6 out of 10 ("Song list is wanting; controller doesn't make you feel like a dj; not worth the added cost"), and even the fans are mad.

But if you live near a Fry's Electronics, they have the bundle, including gorgeous controller, for $54.99, and honestly - if you haven't had a chance to play the Japanese PS2 versions of the Beatmania titles, prefer electronic to guitar freakishness and can get past some of the quirky J-cheese on the soundtrack, this is still seriously good fun. Plus, we're pretty sure the game will be difficult to get hold of soon in the controller bundle version, since it probably shipped in limited numbers.

[And if you really can't stand the U.S. version, get it anyhow for the controller, and go see Play-Asia, which has beatmania IIDX 9th Style for $39.99 on import, so there.]

Posted by Simon Carless at 6:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Carrying on with the game-art angle, The Little Mathletics blog continues to do some fun interviews, and the latest is with 'the 8-Bit Artist', someone who "has been painting authentic renditions of Nintendo games from the 8-bit era."

Some of the questions are a tad highbrow, such as whether the 8-Bit Artist's work is 'pop art' ("It could be claimed as pop art, some people might say it's just fan art. Painters have been doing similar stuff for a long time - maybe not video games specifically, but you know.")

But overall, it appears that, much like Warhol, the Artist's art may actually strike the dischordant note that all modern art needs to be hip ("I've had people tell me that what I'm doing is copyright infringement and that they are going to email Nintendo and tell them about me. Haha, I'm sure a possibly multi billion dollar corporation doesn't give a shit about little ole me painting some Nintendo dudes. Some people might think since I am just "copying", and that my stuff isn't original... I like the word "recreating".) There's more to see at his DeviantArt page and his MySpace blog.

Posted by Simon Carless at 12:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Over at The-Inbetween.com, Mike Nowak has a thoughprovoking, vaguely snarling blog post on games as art, and why asking if they are is missing the point somewhat.

He notes on the whole odd 'are games art?' discussion: "It's already there. It doesn't matter if Hideo Kojima doesn't think games are art and says art is the stuff you find in the museum, whether it be a painting or a statue. The organizers of the "Controller" exhibit have already contradicted his statement by showcasing their work in a gallery. They have already turned classic games, like Super Mario Bros., into art (mario_battle_no.1) and into something entirely different in the same manner that LHOOQ turned a classic painting into its own distinct work of art."

Overall, Nowak concludes, stridently: "It doesn't matter whether the games of yore are art or were art. What matters is that there exists an entire generation of artists that grew up with them and continues to live with them. An entire generation defined by them. In their eyes, those games that resonate aren't just mindless entertainment, they're mythology... That's what makes game art. Not renders and sprites, but artists' interpretations of them; their reworking of the systems and rules of games; and their use of interactivity to make a statement." I say, a little intelligent fire is good for a 'debate' like this.

Posted by Simon Carless at 6:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Video game peripheral company SplitFish, which got a bunch of publicity earlier this year for a very Revolution-like lasertracking controller, sent us a press release about "its new PS2 and PS3 controller", the GlideFX (pictured).

According to the company: "The GlideFX features separate left and right hand grips, a track ball rather than the customary right stick and a game play sensitivity control that allows it to be tuned to the player’s preference", and is "part of the FX video game adapter series being developed by SplitFish in which each product is custom tailored for various types of video games."

So, apparently you need a different controller for each game genre, now? Apparently, so say the SplitFish guys: "The eyeFX 3D Adapter (as reviewed by I4U) is ideally suited for niche markets specifically for flight sims. The DualFX, with its laser guidance system is designed as the ultimate shooter controller. The GlideFX supports and is specifically designed for all other video games." And the mini trackball is definitely cute - look for it being demo-ed at E3.

Posted by Simon Carless at 12:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)