Gaming for Smart People
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Having finally made the journey back to America after a three year stint living in Japan, I’m really surprised to see the widespread proliferation of the iPhone. Even I have one now (courtesy of my own birthday). The iPhone is, no question, not just a fantastically powerful gadget, and a capable phone that does not compromise aesthetics or function for the other. It even has a stable of games and applications that would make almost anyone scream in delight.
The DS and PSP continue to dominate the hearts and minds of Japanese gamers. As people become busier and spend more time outside of their homes, handheld gaming system popularity increases. Why is it that the iPhone just has not taken off in Japan then? Apple has stated that sales have been lower than expected, and despite no concrete numbers, warning signs have begun to appear. Exclusive iPhone provider Softbank cut the price of the phone and the accompanying data plan recently, making the 8GB model free, and the 16GB half its original price. They additionally cut roughly ￥1000 off the monthly data plan for both existing and new customers.
There should be a law against buying a product for the sole purpose of getting at its free pack-in. Though, if that was the case, I suppose I would be jail, along with droves of Final Fantasy fans. Prisons would even more overpopulated than they are now. Rapists and murderers would walk the streets in search of new prey, while innocent but gullible consumers would be sitting in cells, cursing the day they bought Final Fantasy VII Advent Children Complete.
After all, that might be the biggest reason most Japanese gamers picked up the Blu Ray release of the Final Fantasy CG movie, even if they already owned the same movie on DVD. The movie itself has new added scenes and crisper high resolution visuals, sure, but it was the inclusion of the long awaited Final Fantasy XIII demo that pushed the box set to the top of hundreds of Most Wanted Lists.
I have been hearing too much of it in the last couple months. Globalization. I’m on my way back from the countryside on a rapid train headed east. The beautiful Japanese landscape is passing me by, and all around me, businessmen and students alike are practically catatonic, sleeping the commute away. Some have cell phones in their hands; others have a PSP or a DS.
Despite being a gamer myself, I’m not playing anything. I’m watching the tree line and the blue sky, and listening to Listen Up, the successor to 1Up Yours, one of my favorite gaming related podcasts. Someone is talking about the controls in Resident Evil 5. Some agree with him; some don’t. They’re all arguing about how inaccessible some games are for the modern American gamer. Companies need a more global outlook.
Modernization. Globalization. These are words being thrown around in excess in recent months. Journalists and gamers alike have used both words as synonyms for controls and game conventions familiar to the modern western audience. As North America slowly pulls ahead as one of the most financially important territories, the interests and desires of its inhabitants seem to be gaining prominence.
Continue reading ‘Cultural Assassination: Is Globalization Just Westernization?’
Wolfenstein 3D, the self-appointed “grandfather of First Person Shooters” was recently retooled and ported to the iPhone and iPod Touch. There is little point in dedicating an entire post to the game, as my feelings on the affair can be summed up rather succinctly: Wolf3D is still a classic, and you should buy it if you love gaming.
Continue reading ‘Heads Up: Carmack Speaks Out on Wolf3D Classic’
Kojima Productions and specifically Metal Gear fans were all dumbfounded when the enigmatic teaser website that went live just a few months ago turned out to be the official site for an iPhone game, rather than the often requested Xbox 360 port of Metal Gear Solid 4.
Itself based on Metal Gear Solid 4, MGS Touch is akin to a lightgun shooter. Players move the reticle around the screen by dragging their thumb, and tap the screen to fire Snake’s M4. By pinching to zoom, Snake can also take out far away enemies with his sniper rifle. Players are also given different objectives every mission. Rather than always finishing a level by killing everyone, certain levels involve using specific tools and destroying specific targets.
Unlike most other platforms, it’s difficult to know when iPhone apps go on sale in the store, so I felt it would be good to let everyone know that the game is now available for download for $7.99. If you are looking to keep up-to-date on iPhone and iPod Touch releases, be sure to check out one of my favorite resources, Touch Arcade.
Metal Gear Solid Touch is exclusive to the iPhone and iPod Touch, so it cannot be played on any other type of iPod.
I don’t think there is any question that I have an almost insurmountable devotion to the RPG genre. My very first RPG was Dragon Warrior for the NES. After it and Final Fantasy, my undying love for RPG genre was officially cemented. I have a healthy background in PC gaming, but just like any person whose gaming education was heavily based on console gaming, my most formative RPG years were spent playing games from Japan.
My entrance into Western RPGs started with Ultima VII. I had no console at home at the time, and my friends were all enjoying Super Nintendo RPGs like Illusion of Gaia and Final Fantasy III. I was looking for the replacement that would keep me going. I enjoyed what Ultima provided, and was always amazed by the series’ level of depth and freedom, but there was a certain je ne sais quoi about Japanese RPGs that I still missed.
Continue reading ‘Waypoints and Quest Logs: Moving the JRPG Forward’
Square Enix has a healthy-sized stable of IPs, and a long list of excellent games. While most of those games have arrived in the United States in some form, There are a few that continue to be ignored. Possibly a financial nightmare for S-E to justify, the kooky RTS gameplay of Hanjuku Hero over the years probably left them with little choice.
Hanjuku Hero vs. 3D is a particularly interesting Hidden Gems subject for a number of reasons: I bought the special edition by chance, I’ve always wanted to play a Hanjuku Hero game, and I’ve been delaying playing this particular game more times than I can count.
Ys is not a well known RPG series in western countries. This is largely because of its limited release in these territories. Ys 1 and 2 were released for the PC in the 1980’s by Broderbund of all publishers, but the series went into hiding for more than a decade before it finally re-emerged on Playstation 2 with the release of Ys VI: The Ark of Napishtim.
The game’s obscurity can be owed in blamed on its creator, Falcom. While most developers and publishers jumped ship in the 80’s and moved to the Family Computer, Falcom felt it prudent to stick with the PC platform, only publishing on consoles with the help of outside development. Considering the huge incongruency and culturally relative PC markets across oceans, it’s no surprise that multitudes of Falcom’s releases remain unknown.
How does one explain Noby Noby Boy? Created by Keita Takahashi, the visionary behind Katamari Damacy, Noby Noby Boy was originally revealed as a relaxing game about stretching. That’s it. There are no goals, no objectives, no death, and no adversaries (save perhaps physics). The game was meant to be in the same vein as Katamari before it, but something almost entirely different; something primal and childlike, but also hilarious and heartwarming.
Noby Noby Boy is in fact all of those things. The game does indeed have no real objective other than to stretch your character (aptly named Boy), and have fun with the randomly generated environment, using physics, a healthy appetite, and a little imagination. It has its fair share of meta-goals and hidden objectives, but Noby Noby Boy is, at its core, a fantastical sandbox built around discovery and experimentation.
What you said