MadWorld's Violence is Funny, Not Serious

While I normally hate on everything Wii related, I have been drawn to the games that take a chance on the system. Games such as Zack and WIki and No More Heroes. I would have picked up Okami if I hadn't already played it on the PS2. So it should come as no surprise that I have been drawn to MadWorld, and not only because of its stark color palette and its graphic violence. This month's Nintendo Power offers some more information about the game straight from the game's producer, Atsushi Inaba. See, while the game is ultra violent, it should not be taken seriously.

We don't want this game to be dark and serious. One of the games that I played to better understand what constitutes "serious" violence was Manhunt 2. And although I personally like that type of game, when violence is portrayed so simply, that's when it becomes more serious and dark. When it's over the top and extravagant, it feels much more acceptable. That over-the-top expression is what makes it funny. That's why people laugh when they see violence in this game. It's not realistic. Nothing like this would ever happen in real life, which is what games should be offering to the audience.

Awesome quote. While I agree that over the top violence can be funny, for a while, something strikes me as odd about that quote. I'm sure people smarter than me could articulate that sentiment better than I could but the best I can come up with is that it seems shallow. Is this the mentality that is holding back games from achieving art status? Extreme violence has its place in movies and books but reflecting on what "does" happen in the real world is what lifts it to cinema and literature. But like many have argued, that probably does not make a good game. And that is our challenge.

Dead Rising Announced for the Wii, Neutered

Dead Rising is in my top five games for the Xbox360. Its blend of action and story were very engrossing. It also made some surprising and polarizing design decisions. Many people either hated it or loved it. I was definitely in the latter.

The game was structured in a very open, non-linear fashion; allowing each player to forge their own path through the zombie infested mall. It allowed you to choose which bosses you wanted to take down and which people to try and rescue. Each subsequent play through could play out as a an individuals own mini zombie cinematic experience.

The save system and leveling up the character were a bit odd at first. In time, it all came together for me and made the game that much more enjoyable. By limiting the save locations and creating a very difficult decision upon death (start from the beginning with all of your accumulated stats or reload your last save), the game ramped up the stress put on the player. Some found less overwhelming and frustrating, I just like it heightened the experience. I had to weigh my options; should I save the couple with the wounded husband or the brothers who can defend themselves better? The leveling system adds another layer to the game that is not normally seen in action games. As Frank learns new moves and becomes more powerful, the game really becomes fun. And setting up crazy pictures for big points was good too. Since the experience carried over from game to game, it really encouraged multiple play-through.

Now we get word that Capcom is bringing the game to the Nintendo Wii. Only instead of a faithful, low-resolution homage to the original, we get a watered down, "casual" experience that wreaks of cashing in on the success of Resident Evil 4's outing on the same console.

They taken much of the flexibility out of the game by creating a very linear path to plot points and eliminating Otis's side quests. Apparently, the save system has been made "less frustrating" to appease the new herd of gamers on the Wii. The camera angle has been changed to the over-the-shoulder RE4 style which caused the developers so much problems they took the photography out of the game completely. Frank is a photographer, it's the whole reason he's in the mall! Not only have the elements that make Dead Rising what it is have hit the cutting room floor, the graphical power of the Wii buckled under the weight of hundreds of zombies on screen on once. This number has been significantly decreased, but I guess will have to wait to see the final game.

Lastly, they've thrown in the mandatory "because we can" motion gestures. I'm sorry, but dare I say it, increasing the player's stress and anxiety creates a better sense of immersion then waggling the controller to swing a baseball bat. The weight and pressure put on by my nervous system is much greater then wild flailing ever could be.

Nintendo Must Be Stopped

When I saw the Wii Remote "Motion Plus" announcement first thing Monday morning boasting "more comprehensive tracking of a player's arm position and orientation.", I was angry. Then, as more information rolled out today, I became sick. This is why Nintendo is losing my favor. They are releasing peripheral after peripheral, packed in with "casual" games and making a killing. Not only should the Wii Remote have been doing this from the start, but not even Nintendo themselves have proven motion controls to be a reliable substitute for a standard controller. It did not improve Twilight Princess nor Super Mario Galaxy; the GameCube controller is better suited for Smash Brothers and Mario Kart Wii.

I see Wii Remote motion controls everyday, all day long, and have yet thought, "wow, I think we've finally got it." Motion controllers are a case of just because you can do something, doesn't mean you should. If anything, more sensitive equals more programming headaches, as the developers are going to take all kinds of flailing about into account when they program what motion they hope their player will perform.

Then again, maybe I'm just bitter that they didn't announce Kid Icarus Wii.

Confession Time

I played, no, I take that back, I experienced Wii Fit today. I still don't think it's a game. But, I enjoyed it. I saw its merits. I heard a voice in the back of my head that said, "Buy this." Oh no. Damn you Miyamoto.

Play it Now!

It what seems like a “you-should-have-done-this-long-ago” moment, Capcom and Nintendo have teamed up to add a demo for Zack and Wiki to its official website in Europe. I have almost completed the full game and have loved every minute of it so far. While I have trouble seeing the usefulness of the Wii Remote in many other games, including Nintendo's stalwarts Mario and Zelda, the functionality really shines in Zack and Wiki. There is no doubt in my mind that this is a must own in the Wii library and I can only hope that Capcom continues the franchise and other try to emulate it.

Can we have a Monkey Island game on the Wii now, please? Thank you.

Nintendo: You Were Bored Before the Wii

The blogosphere has already pointed out the cogency, or lack thereof, in the recent statements from the outgoing Nintendo VP of Marketing, Perrin Kaplan. She, as well as Nintendo, saw that before the Wii was released, "gamers were getting bored, even though they didn't know it yet." Well, I'm sorry to say that, as a gamer, there has been plenty of games that have kept me quite entertained. Unless of course, she was referring to the GameCube. Only three titles were able to keep me entertained long enough to play through them: Wind Waker, Metroid Prime, and Resident Evil 4.

What many gaming news outlets didn't really comment on was the further statements by Robert Matthews, Nintendo's senior director of consumer marketing.

Just look at the way people consume entertainment today. The idea that you would spend hours playing videogames is just not real anymore.

While I do agree that people attention spans are shrinking and, as I get older, my time is split among many things, this blanket statement doesn't seem true in light of media in general. Movie times have steadily lengthened over the last few decades. The hour long drama is increasingly dominating the television line-ups as the sitcom seems to wither away. The Internet is absorbed in smaller chunks, but mostly due to the sheer volume of information out there.

On the other hand, epic games of forty hours or more are also diminishing. These are being replaced by the moderately paced ten to twenty hour campaign. So while there is a market for short attention span gaming, it is not the industry's savior. Games are adapting, allowing players to jump in and out of the game at any time with better save systems and level design. Besides, my 360 is played on a near daily basis. From what I understand, many people are starting to notice that the Wii may be collecting dust. At least until something better than Wii Sports comes along.

Nintendo, You Have Almost Lost Me

I wanted the Nintendo press event for this year's E3 to settle in my mind, give it a couple of days to sink in. Just like it's not a good idea to drive angry, I didn't want to type angry either. But I can't shake this bad taste in my mouth. Nintendo, the company that I cut my teeth on as a gamer over twenty years ago, seems to have lost sight of what it means to keep me among the faithful. By the end of their press event, I had decided that there was no reason to ever buy a Wii.

Shigeru Miyamoto is a man that I, as well as the industry, has held in the utmost esteem. He has brought us Zelda, Mario, Donkey Kong, Starfox, Mario Kart... too many classic franchises to count. These are among the greatest games of all time. And there in lies the problem: these were games. With the Wii, Nintendo, and therefore Miyamoto (or maybe it's vice versa), has shifted their entire focus. This new focus does not include me.

The casual games market is huge. Success in this sector will guarantee massive financial gain. But for a company who has innovated at nearly every turn with hardware and software, elevated our past time to a level above most other forms of entertainment, has performed an about face on core gamers and will bring us, as their next big thing, WiiFit.

The Wii has been a huge disappointment for me personally. Zelda was not as great as I believed it could have been, there has been mini-game compilation after mini-game compilation and third party support has been lackluster at best. I had faith that Nintendo had it in them to not forget about us, the hardcore gamer, and announce some great things for the future. What I got was a plastic peripheral that looks more at place in a step aerobics class than in front of a game console. I am all for the social responsibility that comes from creating media that is largely immobile, but I get my exercise outdoors. I want to be entertained when I sit on the couch, not trained.

I still have high hopes for Metroid Prime 3 and Mario Galaxies. Unfortunately, my relationship with Nintendo is on the rocks and, frankly, I don't see us having much of a future.

Owning Up to Your Shortcomings

It looks like the big boys had some things to get off of their chest and clear their conscious before making us forget by flashing pretty images at us from the new and improved E3.

Microsoft made the first move early last week with an open letter to the consumers concerning the ring of death phenomenon. Effectively admitting to a problem and then attempting to make amends by upping the current warranty from one to three years and reimbursing any who have been charged for repairs. I have been fortunate to have a perfectly working 360 from March of '06 but I appear to more of an exception than the rule if we are to believe the outcry that has come from the Internet. Either way, I applaud their efforts.

Then, later in the week, after some rumor rumblings, Sony came out and announced a $100 price cut for the PS3. The price of Sony's console has been a hotly debated controversy since its announcement at last year's E3. Despite their being extremely adamant about its value, it has always seemed way to high for me. I must not be the only one. Sales of the console have been lackluster at best and this may be the injection they need. I, however, will still need some games before I jump on board.

Where has been Nintendo been while the dust was settling on these two bombs? They've mostly been quiet on the damage control front except for the minor hiccup in the Nintendo machine and announced that Metroid would ship a week late.

Good News. Bad News.

Throughout this blog I have expressed my displeasure of the Wii console. Therefore I pleasantly surprised by the news announced this week from Nintendo. Coming later this year to the Wii is WiiWare, a platform for new games to be delivered to the console in a similar fashion as virtual console games.

Yeah!

I have to say this is very exciting. I love the Xbox Live Arcade format and think the Wii could also harbor a great deal of fun and unique titles. I think the indie developers will rise to the challenge and create some awesome original content. Furthermore, the major developers will also have an outlet for some of the crazier ideas they come up with but the publishers aren't ready to take a gamble on. In any case, the real winners are the gamers. We'll get more games that aim to create new experiences utilizing the Wii Remote.

Now the bad.

With all the great new content coming and the re-release of classic content, those tiny, 512MB hard drives are filling up fast. Not only is there no easy way to currently deal with the problem (delete and download again or save to an SD card as the memory becomes tight), Nintendo has categorically squashed any notion that there will be a add-on hard drive for the Wii. This is just one more nail in the coffin for me. On a system who's main selling point is a wealth of back catalog of titles, it seems that they should have had a long term solution for storage. A 512MB hard drive always seemed small. I already have numerous devices (including my phone) that currently have more storage. This is just starting to look silly now. Without a user friendly method of dealing with the storage issue, it is as if they built in a shelf life. Maybe this is more indication that the Wii 2.0 is not so far fetched after all.

Thoughts of a Casual Gamer

By casual, I mean a) my wife and b) she only likes Tetris and Mario Kart. The commercial for Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree has been playing quite a bit on TV. After seeing it, her revelation went as follows.

'That looked boring.'

The Nintendo marketing machine has been awesome over the last couple of years as proven by the success of the DS and now the Wii. They seemed to have become complacent since this spot inspired my wife's reaction, who I believe is in the Wii target demographic. There's a lot of standing around and stiff pointing despite the tag line of giving your family a 'degree in fun.' I'm just not seeing it. I think those who are writing the reviews are not getting it either.