At long last a Link Dump!

I've had all these links just piling up, I thought maybe it was time for another LINK DUMP!

For starters, check out this totally sweet 8-bit style Smash Bros, put together by CJartan at Deviant Art.


I think that was pretty neat.  Next up, Bennet Foddy's Speed Chess.  You may remember Bennet Foddy from such hits as 'QWOP' or the sequel 'Clop.'  If you don't remember him, that is fine, but you should probably check those games out, preferably with someone around to laugh with you.  

The story with Speed Chess is that Bennet Foddy thinks Chess is too slow, and thus he created a new version of chess that plays in real-time.  Also, there are 16 players.  Interested yet?  It's certainly worth a look.
Well, here's the thing: It's actually designed for 16 players, all plugged into the same console.  16 controllers, can you believe that?  How silly.  I hope he decides to make an online version.  

Alright, we can't play Speed Chess.  Even though it sounds like fun.  Maybe in the meantime we can just read this Cracked article about mini-games that people developed within other video games.  Avoiding the Kamikaze mushroom in Mario 64 sounds like fun!  Cracked really has come a long way from being a poor man's MAD magazine.

Speaking of mini-games.  One time there was a site dedicated to Underdog games at Kongregate.  I always like to see people sticking up for the little guy.  It's too bad the site stopped updating in 2008.  I remember those innocent years.  Before Indie Gaming was a huge industry, and Steam was still an upstart.  Just sifting through Kongregate, looking for something worth playing.  Finding plenty of five to ten minute interesting plays.

Oh, the old days.  So,  I'm no Sonic the Hedgehog fan, but I can respect the content of this next article.  It's written by a die hard Sonic fan about a hidden level in a Sonic game.  This level was featured in a preview story about the game, but was not actually included in the published release.  But that didn't stop die-hards from searching and spreading rumors and writing in.  It's a cool story, for which I can put aside a deep grudge against Sega.  Sonic did have cool art, afterall.  

  

A Quest for the Secret Origins of Lost Video-Game Levels.

Finally, I'll leave you with this sweet little comic.  Go ahead and click the picture to read the whole thing.  Brought to you by JPBruneau and OwlTurdComics.

We Go Forward

-D

    

First Impressions: Zelda Classic

Picture lifted from 'It's Dangerous to Go Alone' kickstarter - look it up!

Zelda Classic is a game editor for the Legend of Zelda.  Yes, just like I always wanted.  I had heard of it, and unsuccessfully tried to make it work, wrote it off as bunk.  I just revisited it, this time with success, and I am thrilled to report that this is for real.  Just like I always wanted.

I had occasion to return to this game when a stumbled onto a posting at The Indie Game Source extolling the virtues of Zelda Classic.  This post pretty well expresses much of the enthusiasm I feel at the prospect of fan-made Zelda games in the NES and SNES style.  The links in the above article are all broken, but you can find them again by searching the Zelda Classic archives.  

But actually, I didn't particularly care for the two games I tried from the above article.  One thing I've noticed about some of these quest designs is that they tend to come big and kind of overblown.  In making my own quests, I want to start small, concentrate on making a fun game, and not an epic journey.  

There is a thriving community of Zelda Classic fans, players and designers over at purezc.net.  I've just signed up for the forums, and so far have been well received in the community.  I was looking for a Classic style game (I'm not really interested in the 16-bit style right now) and I was pointed to a forum contributer who goes by Moosh.  I tried out his game "Tale of St. Christoph" and so far I really like it! 

There's so much potential in Zelda Classic, I'm very excited.  The way I see it is that The Legend Of Zelda was such a great game, that it can be remixed time and again, and still be fun.  I'm so glad there is a tool available for the common person to do this.  

So far, I've made a small map, which was fun and simple to do and easy to get carried away with.  Now I'm working on dungeons, and getting the caves to go to the dungeons- and I got stuck there.  I'm following a guide, but it's still tough.  But when I've learned a few basic tricks, I'll turn out a couple quests.  

Essential Links:  (hehe, links)  

Zelda Classic

The official website.  Download the programs here - The editor is called ZQuest and the player is called Zelda-w  (this is important, because if you make the same mistake I did, you'll try to play the games with the editor.  No.  It's for editing)

Zelda Classic User Guide

Zelda Classic isn't particularly intuitive; a guide is definitely necessary.

PureZC.net

Search the Quest Database at PureZC.net to find a quest to play.  I recommend choosing 'mini quests' using the genre menu on the right side.  
This... could...be... awesome!

-D

A tendancy toward the Mundane

Image courtesy of   http://www.improvisedlife.com/2009/09/17/cherish-the-mundane/   -  and definition of Mundane courtesy of google

This is a ramble I wrote probably more than a year ago, but follows a theme that I have been exploring since we started this blog, and am still exploring:  my own interest in the mundane when it comes to video games.

It must be a product of growing older - that's the only thing I can chalk it up to - but my interest in action and adventure has severely declined, and my interest in the mundane has increased.  On this blog I've talked about  Bike Riding, Flying like a Bird and Riding the Train. I notice a similar trend in my preferred comics;  American Splendor, Harvey Pekar's slice of life comic book;  Love and Rockets, Dykes to Watch Out For - even Larry Gonick's Cartoon Guide to History (of the universe).  These works aren't terribly exciting, but I really enjoy them.  

The non-game game is a big phenomenon right now, and it's my favorite.   Proteus, To the Moon, Gone Home, Dear Esther are all big standouts from the last two or three years.  Come to think of it, Animal Crossing is still huge, and it's a highly Mundane game.  And then there's Nintendogs, The Sims, Civilization; Mundane games are nothing new, yet are still making headlines.

Let's take a look at the definition of Mundane, shall we?

mun·dane
  [muhn-deyn, muhn-deyn]  Show IPA
adjective1.of or pertaining to this world or earth as contrasted with heaven; worldly; earthly: mundane affairs.2.common; ordinary; banal; unimaginative.3.of or pertaining to the world, universe, or earth.
Origin: 
1425–75;  < Latin mundānus,  equivalent to mund ( us ) world + -ānus -ane; replacing late Middle Englishmondeyne  < Middle French mondain  < Latin,  as above

Word Origin & History
mundane 
late 15c., from M.Fr. mondain (12c.), from L. mundanus "belonging to the world" (as distinct from theChurch), from mundus "universe, world," lit. "clean, elegant"; used as a transl. of Gk. khosmos (seecosmos) in its Pythagorean sense of "the physical universe" 

[Isn't this interesting?  The second definition is the one with which I am more familiar.  However, the first is not one I'd heard before.  I rather like it.  Earthly, yeah, that works for me.  Heaven is a place on earth, after all.]

James Portnow, writer for Extra Credits, is fond of saying:  'when you're making a game, you're crafting experiences'  This comes to mind for me whenever a game idea pops into my head.  A common feeling I have is that I would like to 'reverse engineer' an experience and see what happens.  Like I had a goofy idea that it would be fun to remake mario bros 1 but give him a cell phone and have the player get calls and texts while playing the game.  Just to play with the feeling of interruption I usually have when I get those calls and text.  It would be like a social media simulator mashup with a platformer.

I've noticed lately I have a tendency toward the Mundane when I come up with game ideas.  Like, for example,  I ride the Amtrak between Sacramento and Davis every work day.  And I spend most of these days staring out the window and watching the scenery go by.  I love it.  It's relaxing.  It's beautiful.  And it occurs to me that I want to simulate this experience with a game.  How boring eh?  And yet...

When the weather was better, I rode my bike to the train station on the American River Bike Trail.  And I had similar feelings.  I love the scenery I love the way the foliage surrounds me and I sometimes feel like I'm going through a tunnel of greenery.  And I want to make this into a game setting.  I don't really care.  Probably an RPG.  I just want to simulate the experience in game format.  I guess I'm just oriented toward games, mostly 8 and 16-bit RPGs.  Probably FF VI more than any other.

There's a theme with these two ideas:  they're both travel-based.  What I enjoy is the relaxed pace of moving forward, and the great scenery.  Essentially my idea is for an 'on-rails' kind of a game.
As an aside:  I've heard people say  more than once that the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings are essentially travel novels.  That works for me.  Makes sense.  I like it.  While the LOTR movies had hours and hours of extended action sequences, the feedback I tend to notice regarding the books was 'Tolkien sure likes to spend a lot of time describing things.'  The man appreciated the little details, and lately I find that mundane details are what I'm looking for in games, rather than roller-coaster excitement.


-D


PS:  I never played Pokemon Snap, but I wonder if it fits in with this idea.  Originally, when I heard about that game, I remember thinking "what a stupid game.  I'll never play that"  "bo-ring" and other, admittedly, immature thoughts.  Granted, I hadn't played any Pokemon games at the time, so I didn't really have interest. I didn't even know how badass squirtle was yet.  Perhaps I will have to watch out for it to pop up on  half.com.

Yep, there it is, five bucks.  Once called 'the best game ever' by my friend Orangeleecy.  One of these days, I'm going to check it out.

My Time In Evoland (PC)

Dr. Potts already did a full-on review about Evoland, which you can read here, and I highly recommend it, and not only because we share the same space here in internetland, but because it's a good article.  I however, after only just finishing the game not 10 minutes ago (upon writing this, not publishing today on Monday January 6th, 2014), wanted to give my own thoughts.

I really liked Evoland, although knowing from Dr. Potts that it was a short(ish) game probably helped in the development of my feelings.  By "short," I expected the game to be somewhere between 2-5 hours in length, and it took me about 3.5 hours from start to finish, although some of that time was spent trying to raise levels only to realize that that didn't matter outside of overworld battles.

As the good Doctor stated, I too wish that more time was spent in the 2D pre N64/PS1 era.  There was an area where you reverted back to Legend of Zelda (circa 1985), but that was only after you had been playing in 3D-Land for a while.  One aspect of reverting back to 2D graphics, was that the music also switched back to the classic NES 8-bit tones, but the music itself was the same.  I enjoyed hearing how the layering of instruments changed based on what "era" you were in.

But game length is very important here.  I felt that 3.5 hours was a perfect length of time for what the game was trying to accomplish.  If the game had been longer, I definitely would have felt cheated by how much time was spent in the early 2000's (Final Fantasy IX and beyond).  If the game were to have been twice as long, I feel that more time would have been spent playing as Gameboy Clink, or maybe even started at an earlier point in gaming history, such as with the Atari or the Intellivision.

All of that aside, again, I really enjoyed Evoland.  I feel that I was able to pick up on most of the references to video game history.  Even non-video game history, but general fantasy works, such as including A'Tuin from Terry Pratchett's Discworld series.  Other references  include Super Mario Bros., Diablo, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Final Fantasy VII and a whole helluva lot more, which is where I found a lot of the fun with Evoland.  I'm sure/positive that there were references that I didn't get, but I can't/won't mention them because I don't know what they were, hence the not getting the references bit.

It kind of reminded me of the way that "Weird Al" does his parodies.  They are often shorter versions of the original songs, but he gets his point across with what he's trying to do, although this is not always the case.

I will say that around the time that the game took on it's definite Final Fantasy VII and beyond tone, I did lose some interest.  Upgrades to the look and mechanics of the game became less and less and treasure chests which once held quips directed towards the video game industry and semi-ridiculousness of certain RPG rules, these chests started to contain Stars and Cards (Stars are there just to collect and Cards are used for a TCG, similar to the game card game used in Final Fantasy IX).  I felt as if I had reached the pinnacle of game development too soon as there was at least another hour of gameplay left.

Unlike Dr. Potts, I don't know if I see myself going through the game again, even  knowing what I now know about the overall length of the game.  The story was not very engaging, but I never felt that the story was a driving part of the narrative, or lack thereof.  It would be like playing Final Fantasy IV minus emotional investment and 50 hours of additional gameplay and story arcs.  So then why even play Evoland?  Because it's a game that knows who its target audience is and I like getting the references to other video games that I played 20 years ago.  In short, because Evoland is fun.

You know, I could easily see this concept used for other over-arching gaming genres such as Doom-style FPS' or even a Streets of Rage / Double Dragon type brawler-beat-em-up.  Although at the moment, it looks like Shiro Games is in development of a multiplayer adventuring game called Until Dark, which by the name and font alone sounds promising.  And now, a new video game development company to keep our collective eyes on.


~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
A Future That Ain't What It Used To Be

First Impressions: Anodyne

Here's a song from the game for you to listen to

an·o·dyne
ˈanəˌdīn/

adjective
1. not likely to provoke dissent or offense; inoffensive, often deliberately so.
"anodyne New Age music"

noun
2.a painkilling drug or medicine.

Anodyne is a 2-d, top-down Zelda clone.  They even include the 'stop when you strike' feature that I think is pretty neat.  It is a Zelda clone by engine, but not by theme.  Unlike Zelda, the game is immediately eerie, dark and strange, and there are reasons to distrust what you are told.  There is an ambient soundtrack through the first portion, and as the world expands, the soundtrack seems to want to expand, but can never quite become a fanfare in that bright, Zelda style.  I should mention I'm a big fan of Zelda clones.  

The gameplay is not as complex as Zelda games.  For example, it wasn't until about two hours into the game that I gained an ability beyond the basic attack.  On the other hand, the basic strike has a secondary use, which is to pick up and drop bits of dust.  These bits of dust have been used in a few different ways.  The designers have used these few abilities to craft some interesting puzzles, and the combat can be tough.  The enemy movement and projectile patterns keep me on my toes.    

The game appears to be open-world and non-linear, though there are clearly established 'zones.'  I have no idea if I'm going to the right place at the right time, and that aimlessness seems to be a part of the design. One thing I like is that there is a moment where you find a road sign, the first in the game, and it is too unclear to read. I don't know why, but I really like that the first road sign you see has no content. It stands out as something to read, but too bad, it's faded, and you can't make it out. Where to from here. The good news is:  I have yet to get stuck.  I think this speaks to a sense of care on the part of the designers.  

If you have a hankering to play a well-designed clone of early Zelda games, but with a creative and creepy vibe, then I recommend giving Anodyne a look.  I'm going to play through the rest, and try to craft a more thorough posting.  

-D

P.S.  I originally heard of Anodyne from Indie Games Magazine.  They've got this great little Android App that I use to read about games while waiting in lines.   I picked up Anodyne from a recent Humble Bundle.  If you aren't hip to the Humble Bundles, I suggest you check them out.  I've already given you a starter by embedding a link in the previous sentence.  Also, they have a very intuitive website address, and if you ask google about Humble Bundles, I'm sure it will help you.  Humble Bundles are a big part of why I started gaming again, after taking a many-year break.

  

First Impressions: FEZ- interrupted

So, after a long time waiting, FEZ was released for Steam.  And then, shortly after, it went on sale at 50% off, and I bought it.  Even though I don't have a job and should be saving my money.  I've been wanting to play FEZ since I first heard of it!  But for a long time it was only available on X Box, so I had to hold out for 'some day.'

Well, that day is today.  Or, actually it was a few days ago.  Anyhow, I installed FEZ, and it runs.  It doesn't run great, however.  It's a little choppy, really.  Not terrible, but not smooth.  Playable though.  At least through the first two stages.  The third stage ratcheted up the image complexity, resulting in a huge cut to the framerate.  If I had to guess, I'd say it's down to about 5 frames per second.  I believe film runs at 24 frames, and fancy high def film runs at 60.  I've also heard that the human eye can't perceive more than 60.  That's neither here, nor, there-- I guess the point is that I can't really play FEZ.  damn.

Having seen Indie Game the Movie, I am tempted to judge FEZ harshly.  Mostly because the creator, featured heavily in the movie, comes across as too hyperbolic.  But also, I know that he went back and remade all the tiles in the game, to a greater graphical complexity.  I think his efforts show, FEZ is very pretty, but it doesn't do me any good, because that same complexity is very likely contributing to my difficulty in playing the game.  I'm a strong advocate for gameplay first, graphics second.  Otherwise the graphics are a bit more of a window dressing for a game that doesn't play all that well.  

I'm concerned that FEZ has a bit high of a window dressing component.  On the other hand, the central gameplay mechanic - rotating a 2D world - is fantastic.  It really is brilliant, and it appears to be executed pretty effectively.  My biggest argument for this is that I had FEZ dreams the first night after playing it for about an hour.  There's just something so satisfying about the rotating Platforms.  The platforming isn't that great, however.  The jumping is unwieldy, and I find I miss jumps I think I should make. On the other hand, there are lots of fun references to classic games, such as Ocarina of Time and the Super Mario Series.  These are done well without seeming overdone.  More window dressing, perhaps, but it's really good window dressing.  

So, bottom line, based on my impression of the first couple of levels:  The creator may have some issues he needs to work out, but FEZ is, thus far, delightful.  I hope I can get a hold of a better graphics card and finish playing before too long.

-D



P.S.  Oh look, and now it's available for the Humble Indie Bundle 9 - wouldn't you know it?  If I had just held out, I could have gotten FEZ and a bunch of other games for the same price I paid for FEZ + soundtrack.  Oh well, that's how it is with the Humble Bundles:  you win some, you lose some.  Really, you mostly win.  Pretty much always.   

P.P.S. And look again!  It turns out my janky ol mac laptop can actually play FEZ better than my desk top!  whodathunk?  This machine is full of surprises.  Except the overheating after a half hour of play.  That is like clockwork.  In the meantime, I will at least get a chance to take a few more bites out of FEZ.  For this, I am grateful.

Read my chips - books and video games, vs or co-op?

Of all media, my first love was books.  Before I'd ever seen an 'Intendo' or played Atari, or, as far as I can tell, even watched TV, my Mom would read to us kids every night before going to sleep.  And I don't mean to brag, but she was a fantastic reader.  My Mom always loved children's lit, and she read with great enthusiasm.  It didn't hurt that she had tastes suited to her particular talents, the two favorites being Shel Silverstein and Dr. Seuss.  Highly lyrical writing, my Mom would read these to us over and again in her bubbly, sing-song reading voice, and we grew to love and anticipate reading time.  She would hold the books open for us to see, and I would follow my mom's voice and the words on the page, slowly decoding them as I learned to read myself.

The first career I ever wanted was to be a novelist.  Long before I knew anything about what it was like to have a job, or support myself, I was sure I wanted to write books.  The earliest effort I can still recall was a story about Dragon Warrior II (fanfiction!).  I borrowed the plot, setting, names and most of the action from the game, but I filled in the details.  I seem to remember I finished the first chapter and it was maybe ten binder pages long.  It involved the main characters being sent on their journey by the king, and then going to the weapon and armor shop to buy their gear, then going to the Inn to sleep.  Pretty generic, I know, and yet I still remember what the town looked like in my mind, the real-world variation on the 8-bit Dragon Warrior graphics.

The power of the imagination is really amazing to me;  even (seemingly) generic, unoriginal thoughts have their own unique qualities.  And books have an amazing ability to bring this out in people like me.  Even a writer who spends very little time on character description - my mind will simply insert a character of my own making based on... it's own arbitrary decisions, I guess.  Nothing can quite do this for like a book.  I'm not sure why, but I think it may be the fact that there are no pictures.  That through words, only, my imagination builds a world of depth.  (I'm really going to begin speculating here, so... consider yourself warned.  )

If the internet explosion of fan art is any indication, other people get their own inspired images video games and other media.  Not to mention my own example of Dragon Warrior II.  However, that example was informed by the act of writing, the imaginary world took shape as I wrote about it.  I am tempted to cite the lower-detail, symbolic imagery of DW II and other 8-bit games, not to mention comics and cartoons-- in an effort to claim that the more realistic graphics of movies, tv and modern video games somehow dumb down the imagination and don't challenge it as much.  But that's probably bullshit.  I mean, there is intuitive sense there, but I have seen plenty of movies and had dreams about them, and seen new worlds of creativity using the imagery contained within.

It's not like I can measure this shit, but I am wildly tempted to place video games and books in a Versus context, instead of co-op, as I did with my DW II writing as a young'un.  Am I just aggressive and cantankerous?  Or is there something there, and I can't quite figure it out?  Whatever the case, I do know that I'm prone to asking rhetorical questions, so that must count for something.

In conclusion, I haven't been playing a lot of games lately, and I feel like what I really need is a good book.  I'm thinking Murakami.  I also think that books and games are fundamentally similar, and obviously different.  I'm mostly interested in how they are similar, and I'd like more of that part, please.  Thanks.

-D 

Emulator Hour: 8-bit rpg round-up

I've been on an 8-bit RPG kick of late.  It started with Final Fantasy, moved on to a translation of Final Fantasy II, then to Ultima: Quest of the Avatar, and most recently, a cell phone game called Gurk - the 8-bit RPG.   Along the way, I've made brief stops at Dragon Warrior II and Ultima: Exodus.  I guess I'm just feeling some powerful nostalgia, as this genre and these games ate up many days and hours of my young life.

At the present moment, I'm thinking of my unwillingness to play completely through these games.  Granted, I never beat Ultima:Exodus, nor did I beat Dragon Warrior II, Ultima: Avatar - and I never even played Final Fantasy II because it wasn't released in the US.  There exists, in the back of my mind, the desire to actually finish these games; perhaps with the aid of guides, save states or other modern supports of gaming.  But for the time being, I'm more content to wade into the Nostalgia pool and swim around.  However, to experience this nostalgia it is not strictly necessary to sit down and play these games. 

Images and Sound are able to carry me a long way down memory lane.  I recently remembered a fantastic website called digitpress, wherein you can find scans of dozens of NES game instruction booklets.  This is really worth a look, I was strongly struck, when reviewing the manuals for Ultima and Zelda.  There are funny elements, like the consistency of formatting between games - the one page plot summaries on the first page are good for a smile.  The cover art - so influential to me when drawing my own characters, armor designs and such. 

We've written a bit about 8-bit music on this site, and it is another great source of Nostalgia.  If you spent time playing Ultima: Exodus, the song below should be triggering for you.  

A funny thing about my memories of Ultima: Exodus vs Quest of the Avatar:  I remember preferring Exodus greatly, though when I go back to revisit these games I see that the graphical improvement between the two was massive.  Exodus looks almost ridiculous in how blocky the images are and how stiff the movement is.  Still, I remember when Avatar came out, being so excited to play a new Ultima game.  And then I was ultimately disappointed, because I felt like it looked too much like 'all those other games.'  And I think that still holds- one example of which was the choice to outline the characters in black.  This was not the style of Exodus, but became the style in Avatar, and is such a common stylistic choice that it is easily overlooked.

I guess part of my goal in playing around with these 8-bit RPGs is to study different design choices, in things like character equipment, map design and battle design.  It is my ambition to make an 8-bit style RPG of my own some day.  And actually, I've carried this ambition with me for over 20 years.  This is something I visit and revisit- I'm in no hurry, if I'm not enjoying myself, then its not worth it.  I've looked into some RPG makers, and right now I'm playing with RPG Maker VX Ace Lite - which is the free version of the $70 retail RPG maker series.  There is so much that goes into the design of a game, I have to work hard to budget my time before I'm willing to drop the cash for an RPG maker that may collect more dust than design. So far, the map builder is a blast :)

Alright, I'm heading out now.  I want to make a quick note of Gurk - the 8-bit RPG.  This is a free cell-phone RPG available for Android.  It plays like an even more low-fi version of Ultima:Exodus, if you can believe that.  No music as far as I can tell, but its got equipment, item shops, combat and dungeons.  After getting used to the interface, I think I can get into this game;  Gurk will do the job of nourishing my 8-bit RPG nostalgia while I'm away from home, without requiring me to carry my Nintendo DS along with me. 

-D

P.S.  Yesterday was the one-year anniversary of the first post on this blog.  Happy Birthday to us.

A Picture and a Link

Check out this Mortal Kombat ad! Here's where I lifted it from:  

It8bit is a cool video game blog with a nice design aesthetic.  There's neat retro ads like the one above, and a section dedicated to indie games, including some of my favorites:  VVVVVV, Abobo's Big Adventure, and one I plan on playing soon - To the Moon. Also a preview of a new game called Riot that looks exciting and interesting.  

=================

Let's take a moment to reflect on the above advertisement. Apart from being kind of awesome, I want to establish some context. Mortal Kombat was a turning point in video game violence.  Prior to this, blood was something games tiptoed around, even games where the point of the game was to shoot people, or beat them into submission.  Still - not much in the way of blood.  Mortal Kombat had more blood in one punch than almost every previous game combined.  Its popularity led to the founding of the Entertainment Software Rating Board.  

But this is how they chose to advertise it?  Look at those kids, they're tiny, and still wearing gaudy 80's styles! Great scared expressions though. The tagline, while mentioning that it will hurt, also focuses on the game being 'so real.'  I guess this is a tip to the rendered photo graphics style.  But come on, the game was about blood and guts!  And generally pretty hokey looking gore, to tell you the truth, but gore nonetheless.  

I sometimes wonder how they even got the game into the arcades, and based on this advertising, I imagine they just, sort of, didn't mention the unprecedented levels of bloody violence.  Meh? 

========

Thanks again to J.P.Bruneau for originally pointing me to this image. Go check out his tumblr, there's a link to an upcoming game called 'riot' that looks really.. wow!    

========

oh, and here's a goofy little image mod I did for the blog:
-D

First Impressions: Superbrothers: Sword and Sworcery EP

Another Humble Bundle game!  The Humble Bundles are the best thing ever.  By the way, there's one going on right now.  11 more days. Upon reviewing my files, I recently discovered that I've bought five Humble Bundles.  Which probably accounts for about 35 of the 50 or so games in my steam account.  I'll probably never play them all, but I'm glad I gave Sword and Sorcery EP a look.  So far, at 2 hours in, I am having a great time.

The game is beautiful in a neat 'retro' way that captures my heart.  I can't explain it, but the graphics and design really mesmerize me.  The visuals are great, the sounds and the animation are also great.  Everything seems to fit in the world, and no element clashes to pull me out of my absorption in the game.  I've enjoyed the sound so much that I decided to download the soundtrack (another perk of the humble bundles).

The story follows a character known as the Scythian.  She is wandering around looking for something called the Trigon, which appears to simply be a triangle.  Except using the 'gon' suffix like a pentagon or septagon.  She encounters some people along the way to help her and some others who are trying to hinder her.  And the whole time the graphics and sound are just great.  

The controls took a little getting used to.  My only real problem was that I didn't realize that I could double-click to direct  the Scythian to walk or interact with items.  I thougth I had to hold the button down, which does work, but it also is the same action that I use to look around the screen.  Mixing the two of these up was frustrating, but since I figured it out, the controls have given me no trouble at all. 

The name is kind of stupid, and so far the writing is pretty stupid as well.   For example, the lumberjack that the Scythian meets early on is named "logfella."  And then the dog she encounters is named "dogfella."  The thing about the dialogue is that it seems to be speaking directly to the player, and not to the Scythian.  The other characters in the story will speak of the Scythian and not to her, and the Scythian herself uses the royal 'we' whenever expressing herself verbally.  After playing the game for a couple of hours, the dialogue has started to become charming, instead of annoying.  I think this comes from the consistency of the silliness.  The game seems to break the fourth wall as a rule, instead of an exception, and this somehow works.  

There are some themes that I don't really understand.  One is the 'EP' theme.  I am guessing that the inclusion of EP in the title is to indicate that the game won't be very long (I have been playing 2 hours and have 47% completion) and that maybe it indicates that the soundtrack won't be very long, as an vinyl record EP runs a standard of about 25 minutes.  The menu screen for the game prominently features an image of an EP vinyl record.  The record reacts to the players menu choices.  Another theme is the triangle, or 'trigon' theme.  Triangles feature in all of the menus, and also as the main source of conflict for the Scythian.    

I want to throw in that the lead character, the Scythian,  appears to be female, based on the sound of her grunts as she swings her sword. However, she is not portrayed as 'super-feminine' - a nice departure from so many of our video game heroines.

The game is available for eight bucks on steam, but I got it for much less, given it was a Humble Bundle.  I probably dropped $20 bucks on Humble Bundle V, and still the games were about $3 apiece.  hells yeah.

-D

I want to also make a quick mention that there was a reference to Al Jaffee in this game.  Yes, that Al Jaffee.  I think that was the precise moment that the silly dialogue began to win me over.  

Also, I want to mention again that the Humble Bundle 7 is out right now and has 11 days to go.  Pay what you want, can't beat that price!

The Art of Storytelling- Cutscenes: Ninja Gaiden

Ninja Gaiden had the best cutscenes of the 8-bit era.  I feel confident I can make that statement and have it go unchallenged.  And hell, if there are better cut scenes out there, I'd be glad to watch youtube videos of them.

I recently read a book called "Reinventing Comics"(2000) by Scott McCloud.  This book was the sequel to "Understanding Comics." (1993)  Both books are fantastic, and I recommend them to anyone with even a mild interesting in the subject;  I got my copies at my local library.  In these books, McCloud talks about the future of comics, and how technology will influence the design of comics to come.  He spends a few panels talking about the possibility of including sound and animation in comics, which I've seen before.   

However, McCloud doesn't seem to realize that video game cut scenes were already doing just that.  And, to tell you the truth, I don't think I've seen it done better.  Animation and sound in comics tends to annoy me, but cutscenes work just fine.  Perhaps it's because the comic 'panel' takes up the full-screen, so there isn't a weird contrast when placed next a still panel.

The link I included up top is to a video of all the cutscenes from Ninja Gaiden. While it's fun to view the cutscenes in sequence, there is definitely an element lost.  In Ninja Gaiden there are cutscenes before and after ever level.  Or Stage.  Whatever.  It is very consistent.  By having it framed against the game play, there is a feeling of a continuous story flow.  The high-action scenes are the game play.  The talking is done in the cutscenes. 

I think in later games, especially after FMV moved in, a lot of it was just done for flash.  There wasn't a clean and understandable flow from one scene to another.  Abes Oddysee, for example, has some of my favorite cut scenes ever, but they are few and far between, and seem inconsistent in their placement.  FF7 was acclaimed for its cutscenes, but I think they suffered from the same problems of inconsistency, and varying quality.  

What video games have your favorite cut scenes?

First Impressions: VVVVVV

So, on this lovely, windy, Saturday morning, I decided to give VVVVVV a shot. Played for 45 mins. I was very pleased with what I found.

1. Minimalism: this game has got it. Good Minimalism. For Example: 
2. There are four buttons. Left, Right, Action, Menu. That is all. 
3. It looks like something between an Atari 2600 game and an NES game, which I realize may be a wider field that I previously gave it credit for. 
4. Level design. This game has got it! And it is informed by the minimalism. I am consistently stimulated by each screen. This game keeps me on my toes. The designers don't seem to have any trouble keeping it interesting within the limits they've set. 
5. Fine touches. This game has a number of little, not terribly important things, that add depth to the game. I really appreciate it. 
6. And it's got a kickin' soundtrack too! 

-D

Legend of Zelda - Combat and Sound

In my previous post about the Legend of Zelda's aesthetic of simple, consistent visuals and open world exploration, I found it difficult to talk about those elements and not include two other, ever-present elements: Combat/Play Control and Sound.  These elements synch up so perfectly with the visual aesthetic, that the game would play very differently if there were changes to these areas.

Regarding Combat/Play Control:  I am  combining these two elements because I am defining combat simply as play control while under threat of attack.  You don't have to strike an enemy to be taking part in combat. When exploring the overworld map, enemies are obstacles just as much as trees or rocks.  Many times all the player wishes to do is to get through the screen and on to the next screen, but flying arrows or Peahats prevent that.   

I think one subtlety that Zelda does really well is to have Link pause for a brief moment whenever he attacks.  This adds a sense of control that free swinging and running would have been without. The one-two button combination of keeping a sword for the A button and an item for the B button is the defining innovation of Zelda's combat system.  Any player who has made it through the game is likely to have mastered the ability to fire a boomerang at a diagonal, with deadly accuracy.  When I'm wandering the map, I may just want to stun a few enemies and move on.  The unmistakable sound of the boomerang striking an enemy instantly assures me of my success, and I need not break stride.

Regarding Sound:  while it's not the same as graphics, it is arguably equally important in a similar way.  Similarly limited as the visual aesthetic, Zelda doesn't have a wide array of sounds, but the sounds it does have are consistent and fantastic.  The funny, dull sound of Link receiving damage, the satisfying sound of shooting the sword when attacking at full power, the scene-change trigger sound of footsteps.  These sounds couple with the graphics to guide me through the game. 

On the overworld, the delightful Zelda fanfare is very fitting for joyfully wandering around, the song is light and whimsical.  No pressure, the world is open to you, do what you want.  When you enter a dungeon, the droning dungeon song does it's job.  This place is not a happy place.  You're not going to find a faerie around the corner, you really don't have anywhere to run.  It's time for business.  

-D

Currently Playing:

I do enjoy the box art

Cthulhu saves the world.  It's a fun distraction, bordering on a complete waste of time.  Which is how I would describe a lot of games, to tell you the truth.  But right now I'm little irritated with Cthulhu saves the world.  It's a funny game, and the first couple of hours are good for some snickering and old-school RPG nostalgia.  But by now, I'm 5.5 hours deep, and it's really not going anywhere.

Granted, this game is a parody of 8 and 16 bit era console RPGs, so it's not really out to impress anyone.  And as a part of the parody, there are some interesting gameplay modifications.  For example, the ability to fight all of the enemies in a given dungeon, and then walk freely after that.  Or how, after a given battle, the party is healed to full.  This streamlines the game, however, that's where some of the problem is- the game is too streamlined for the genre.

Neat Volcano

 As I said, 5.5 hours in, and I'm on the other side of this volcano.  I got here by finding a cure for a plague which had plagued the poor port town on some other island/continent.  The dungeon where I went to find the cure was pretty boring, and the town I landed in before the volcano was boring.  I think it was when I was searching all the bookshelves and drawers in the town, and one of the responses made fun of me for doing this- this is when I became suspicious that this game was falling into the 'suck' territory.  

I think it's funny that the narrator made fun of me for looking in every f-ing drawer.  But the thing is - there is NOTHING in any of the drawers.  Just jokes.  Lots of them, which I appreciate, but the game has basically no items, so there isn't much to find.  So, after wandering a useless city, I go to the volcano, and I am back in another dungeon, after only 5 minutes of time between dungeons.  It's just too soon to be in another damned dungeon.

BoD VII has boxart too!

I recommend playing Breath of Death VII first.  It's by the same makers, and it has many of the same themes and gameplay elements.  It came out before Cthulu, and features 8-bit style graphics.  BoDVII is much shorter, and I think it is a better game.  Cthulu tries too hard, but somehow without trying hard enough.  If you play Breath of Death VII and really like it, then go ahead and play Cthulu.  (Oh, I guess I should mention that I bought both of these games as a "two-fer" on steam, for 15 bucks.