Game Design Advance

Hey guys, remember that reading we had towards the beginning of the semester that made everyone so mad? The one about the differences between Japanese and American game design? Where we found out that the Japanese don’t like freedom? Well, it looks like someone decided to look into the matter with some actual data.

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Pleasant dreamers– My eyes sting. My hands are buzzing. My brain hurts because it insists upon thinking, and I’ve got the nagging sensation that I have no mouth, yet I must scream. I’m still not out of the Pandora’s temple ballpark, and once again I’m getting a naggingly familiar feeling. There’s something I’ve felt before, someplace I’ve already been, an occurance which has happened once in the past and repeated itself two-fold this afternoon. There’s a name for this event, this phenomenon, a title I recall being used in songs, cinema and even other video games. Seeming to remember something, I know, just know it isn’t just my imagination….Wait a minute! I know what it is!

WOULD YOU LIKE TO SWITCH TO EASY MODE?

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Hey guys, or who ever is still out there, I remember ‘Air’ came up a couple of time in class. Well here it is.

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Didn’t get that much further today in an errant afternoon’s decision to play for about 90 minutes, but I happened to make enough headway in the game that sitting down to write about it doesn’t seem like that absurd an idea. This time I’ve had a few hours between the game and the documentation, though, having taken the train back home for the weekend. At the moment, there’s not much new that I can say about GoW, except for one thing I’ve been discovering in the Pandora’s temple chapter–

There’s too many goddamn MacGuffins.

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Well, I’m glad to have gotten a response already on my challenge, and expecting great things. Charles has unquestionably been one of the most insightful gamers I’ve met in the past two semesters, and I can’t help but eagerly anticipate what he’ll come up. Oren’s no slouch, either, though I wonder how seriously he’s taking this call-to-arms. C’mon, man– let’s see some action, here! I’ve only been here a year now, but even I can tell when there’s been a long simmering, old-school pro-wrestling style feud going on for a while. The two of you represent diametrically opposed philosophies when it comes to game appreciation, and I’m not going to rest until we see a bloody battle-of-wits-to-the-death! This is gladiatorial debate, my friends! The Thunderdome of persuasive arguments! Two games enter (well, three technically, but let’s just count both the MSX Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake as one title up against Ico ), one game leaves!

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Hello again, pleasant dreamers, for my first post-class Dispatch from the home front of God of War. This episode takes us up to the bit with the Sirens, which we’ll be getting to shortly. Before we go underway, though, I’d like to take this opportunity to offer our first post-class challenge. What, preytell does it entail? Simple– I’d like to see what someone else’s Dispatches look like.

When I say “somebody else,” I mean you, Charles. Yes, this blog is beginning to turn into a two-pony show between us, but if it is I’d like to see how you document game on a first-run-through, play by play basis. Specifically, I’m curious as to how you’d react to (altogether now, everybody!) Metal Gear– the first two MSX games in the Subsistence package, to be exact. Last time we talked about this you still hadn’t played them, and I think you owe it to yourself to do so. You’re very attached to the whole idea of MGS as a trilogy, it’s own thing– which it both is and isn’t. I’d really like to see how you view the experiences of the original games, as I think in its own way they might both disabuse you of the notion of MGS as its own self-contained series and reinforce it at the same time.

As for another somebody else, how about you, Oren? Don’t worry, I’ve long since given up trying to convert you to the fold of Kojima acolytes– instead, I’m wondering how your experiences with Ico have been shaping up. Have you sat down and played the game yet, or is it still sitting on your shelf? In the case of the latter, why not try cooking up your own journal of wanderings through the castle in the mist? I’d definitely like to read a room-by-room account of how that game works, if for no other reason to better understand its structure from a first-go-around perspective. I can’t do that myself, of course, since I’ve beaten the game about three times already. If you’ve already conquered it, though, maybe somebody else can volunteer…

Consider this a formal call-out, you two. If our blog is to survive the coming summer, we must conjure up our own little feud, forth with! Now, onto the show!

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Retron (Brain Training for retro gamers)

Fancy Pants (Best Platformer I’ve played in years)

Drunk Klunk (Funniest game I’ve ever played)

Nanaca Crash (An old favorite)

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Never fear, pleasant dreamers! This time doesn’t provide too much in the way of advancement, but at least I got past the mental blockade I was experiencing before. I still maintain that the designers should’ve polished their controls a bit more and made certain puzzle actions a wee bit less obtuse, but in the end, like any good games, failures speak more to a player’s weaknesses than that of the design. You’d think I’d have figured out the rule of the ax by now…

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Here it is, folks! I’ve finally found a section of God of War which, I believe, is undeniably broken. Does that mean I’m going to stop playing? Oh, goodness no. But I certainly am going to complain about it.

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Hey guys, since it seems that we’re ending the class on one of my favorite topics, New Games Journalism, I thought I’d point you towards a really lovely review of The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past by Andrew Toups, who writes for the NGJ magazine Gamer’s Quarter. It’s from ACTION BUTTON, which is the new site started by Tim Rogers that N’Gai mentioned. If you want to check it out, I put a link in the sidebar under ‘Theory and Criticism’.

‘The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past is “a hell of a lot better than I remember.”‘

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