Nintendo's Future, Re-opinioned

One of the things I kept coming back to in Jake’s and my argument about the future of videogames is that I just don’t see the future being too terribly different from the present. In other words, I don’t think that the technological singularity is going to happen as quickly as Jake is afraid it’s going to. I do think it will happen, but not soon.

In our “discussion,” I referenced the incomparable Mr. Stephen Fry and his BBC radio show “Fry’s English Delight,” specifically the episode about the future of the English language as compared to today. I brought up one particular point made by one of the guests on the show about how, obviously, it is impossible to predict the future (hell, the singularity could happen tomorrow, or next month, or next year), but you can make predictions based upon precedent, specifically, how things have happened in the past. In the show, Fry posited the question about whether in, say, 200 years, the English language would be, to contemporary speakers and readers, completely indecipherable or not. The answer was a definitive “no.”

What the f...?

And here’s why: the only thing we have to go on is history, and, looking back at the history of the English language, we can go back much farther than only 200 years, in fact. We can go all the way to Shakespeare or Chaucer and still understand their English, albeit with some difficulty, especially with archaic words and word spellings and meanings. If we can understand them, it’s likely that we will be able to understand our future language, albeit with difficulty. There’s more to it, but that’s the relevant idea. We should be able to understand and get along. And I think that is directly applicable to the future of video game consoles.

Again, it’s my opinion that the technological black hole will happen, I’d be shocked if it didn’t, but I don’t think it will be as quick as it’s feared. And the reason why is both the past, and people.

People don’t change much, all considered. Look at the older generation: how many of them play video games? Very few, I’d wager. Is it because they just don’t understand all these new-fangled gadgets, or is it because they don’t understand why kids these days can’t just go outside and play, or is it because they’d rather just read a book, or keep a garden, or any other number of excuses they give? Well, yes, exactly. It’s not because they think games are inherently stupid (well, they might, but they’re wrong), it’s because it’s not what they grew up doing. It’s not what they're used to.

"I've been googling 'Jenna' all day, but only
 one of them was my granddaughter."

And we’re all like that. I remember looking at the original Wii, thinking, “man, I just don’t want to be forced to wave my arms to play a game.” And, to a degree, I still feel that way. And, apparently, so does everyone else. Of course, the action games like Wii Sports or Wii Fit that make you flail like a 5 year old still exist, but the casual game that anybody can pick up and play is, more or less, a gimmick. Most gamers, the so-called hardcore crowd, are used to using old-school control schemes, and are thus more comfortable with that kind of setup. The Wii U is a response to that (even if a slightly cumbersome one), and the overall de-focus on wand-waving is evidence as well. Wand-waving is around, but it will never replace classic controls… Until the kids today grow up and become video game company leaders who only want to play games where flailing is a necessity.

But, I’d say, where this is really important, the whole “used-to” factor I mean, is with the Game Boy.

Portable gaming has come a long way. A long, long way. Portable gaming is everywhere from Apple and Android devices to popular Nintendo and Sony handhelds to little 3^rd party screens that play Pong and other older games, usually sidescrollers like Contra­ or 1942. Jake thinks – fears – that portable gaming will be taken over completely by the iDevices and that the Game Boy (and DS, and 3DS) as we know it will cease to exist. This is where we completely disagree.

It doesn't look 30.

Did you know that the Game Boy has been around nearly 30 years? Good god, that’s a long time for a gadget to live. Granted, they’re not all the same, we’re talking Game Boys, GB Colors, GB Advances, DSes, and now 3DSes, but the fact remains that, despite the upgrades, it’s the same device that serves the same purpose: portable video games. The demand for which has not only not decreased, but has remained so outstandingly popular that every kid everywhere ever wants or has at one point wanted one, especially in 2013 (supported by factual basis). Kids, known for being fickle bastards, have remained loyal to Nintendo for all these years, and Nintendo kids like Jake grew up and continue to be loyal even as adults. Regardless of how amazing and powerful new cell phones and tablets will continue to become (and what emulators they employ), they simply don’t replace holding a proper Game Boy and booting up Tetris or Pokémon in the car on a family trip or on the train going to work.

But here’s where it gets tricky: languages are living, breathing entities that change as people change; technology is dictated by the speed of progress, and isn’t dependent on rate of spread. There could very well be a new tech in the next few years that will entirely replace the need for a Game Boy in any sense (a perfect, and I mean perfect cell phone virtual control pad, for instance). But that’s impossible to predict. It might happen, it might not. You could argue cell phones and iPods already have replaced Game Boys, and there’s valid argument, but, as Jake argued and with which I agree, Nintendo’s catalog of games is not to be trifled with, and I don’t see Nintendo giving up its exclusive publishing rights to Mario, Pokémon, Metroid, Donkey Kong, Zelda, etc. If for some reason they ever decide to give up in the proper console war, they’ll be able to focus solely on building their own proprietary Game Boy hardware (and software) and still succeed.

But if they want to win this console war (which they don’t appear too troubled about, honestly), they’ve got to utilize the Virtual Console intelligently. Why is the Wii U cupboard so bare? Why did it take years and years for EarthBound to come to any VC, and then only to one VC? Why in the world are they treating each specific system’s VC as separate and individual? If Nintendo is smart, they’ll take a page out of the PSN manual and merge the VCs together, actually get their shit together in regard to back catalog game releases, and use every single resource at their disposal, namely the Gamecube, N64, and Dreamcast licenses they no doubt have access to. Jake’s mention of getting Shenmue on the VC? That came from me, yo. I would gladly pay for the ability to play Shenmue on a console I still currently own and use (my Dreamcast in my fluent language is across the sea), but I don’t appear to have anywhere to throw my money to make that happen. Why the fuck not, Nintendo?!

Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. Oh.

Or Sony. Or Microsoft. I’m not pressed.

Sonic and Crash Bandicoot are the same series.

Sonic the Hedgehog and Crash Bandicoot are essentially the same game. Let me count the ways:

• Both characters were created to compete with Mario in the platformer market, and to compete with Nintendo's consoles.
• Both were originally first-party games on their consoles, Sonic for Sega's Genesis and Crash for Sony's PlayStation.
• Both became mascots for their respective platforms
• Both companies marketed themselves as "cooler" than Mario. The infamous "Genesis does what Nintendon't" commercial:

         And Crash, with a decidedly more direct attack. But it's basically the same argument:

• Both characters are anthropomorphized, bipedal versions of small, obscure mammals. How many of you had heard of hedgehogs or bandicoots as a child before these games came out?
• Both series have the name of the animal in the title, in case you couldn't tell from just looking at them that duh, Sonic is a hedgehog, and of course, Crash is clearly a bandicoot.
• Both characters have first names that are edgy-sounding English words to kids in the '90s. Maybe the next series should be about Boom Wallaby or Pow the Wombat.
• Both anthropomorphized animals wear sneakers because they run fast, unlike that chubster Mario.
• Both series feature a human main villain who's a mad scientist: Doctor Eggman in Sonic, and Doctor Neo Cortex in Crash.
• Both series featured tons of mediocre spin-off titles no one cares about.
• Both series eventually fell from grace and ended up releasing on platforms made by competing console manufacturers. Today they're both relics of the '90s.

How does it make you feel on the inside?

Silent Hill 2 & Ico: best game release date of all time?

Ico, developed by Team Ico and published by Sony,

and Silent Hill 2, developed and published by Konami,

were both released for the PlayStation 2 on September 24, 2001. Strange that both of these haunting, melancholic games were released less than two weeks after the September 11th attacks.

Best game release date of all time?

Thoughts on the 2013 E3 press conferences

With Nintendo's "Nintendo Direct" finishing up this morning, all five of the major E3 press conferences have concluded for this year. So what were my big takeaways?

Everyone's talking about how Sony trumped Microsoft this year. PlayStation 4 will be $400, a hundred dollars cheaper than the Xbox One, and without any of the always-online or anti-used games shenanigans Xbox is pulling.

But I don't care about that. I won't be able to afford either console at launch, so launch prices don't matter to me. In the last console generation, PlayStation 3 released with a staggering $600 price tag which doomed it for years... until Sony got its act together and PS3 became the console of choice for arty games everywhere. They also introduced PlayStation Plus, essentially letting players subscribe to get free games every month and putting Xbox Live to shame. We don't know where PS4 or Xbone will be a few years down the road. And since it takes a while for new consoles to foster substantial game libraries anyway, I'll wait and see. The only thing that really matters about a game console is its games. So I'm undecided on this console war.

Xbox One does have one advantage, though. A new game from Swery 65, creator of Deadly Premonition! It's called D4:

Deadly Premonition is one of my all-time favorite games, and this one looks to be just as strange. It's being developed by Swery's studio Access Games and published by Microsoft. This will be a day-one purchase for me whenever it comes out, so I hope the Xbox One gets a bit cheaper between now and then...

The other trailer that blew me away was a game I've been waiting for for years. EA had a very successful conference in 2013, and they hit it out of the park when they closed with a trailer for a sequel to one of my other favorite games of all time, Mirror's Edge:

Of course, this was one of only two games at the entire show revealed so far this year with a non-male or non-white protagonist (the other being Bayonetta 2). I love the closing line "Coming... when it's ready." This will be on both PS4 and Xbone so it won't affect my console purchasing decision. But gosh darn, it looks beautiful. EA finally gave its Swedish studio DICE a chance to leave Battlefield for a moment and return to what truly makes it a great developer.

Nintendo holds a special place in my heart, so I'm disappointed their press conference was short and predictable. New Mario, new Mario Kart, new Super Smash Bros, rinse, repeat. Of course a new Zelda game is always nice (and an HD release of my favorite Zelda game, The Wind Waker!), and everyone's been waiting for Pikmin 3 forever. These games all look great, but there were no surprises.

I wish they would've announced some snazzy new series, or at least sequels to series that haven't gotten much love as of late... particularly my most beloved series, Retro Studios' Metroid. Retro is working on a new Donkey Kong title, so it'll be a while before they get back to Samus. But think about it: they could've announced a new F-Zero or the console-based Pokémon MMO fans want. Mario Kart and Super Smash Bros. look fun... but I was hoping for more.

Sony can win the next console war for me with one thing: international awareness

This doesn't address my concerns. At all.

Like anyone, I was interested to see what Sony had in store with the PlayStation 4 when they announced it last week. For me, though, there were two glaring omissions that were even more important than the whole will-it-or-won’t-it-play-used-games thing (which doesn’t matter to me in the slightest, honestly; I’m not an impulsive game shopper: I wait for sales): the console itself, which I not only hope looks cool, but won’t take up an immense amount of my precious floor space, and will-it-or-won’t-it be region free.

For example, before it came out only about a month ago in the US, I played about 15 hours of the Japanese version of Ni No Kuni (fantastic game, btw). I am good enough at Japanese that I can read the two basic alphabets at lightning speed, but my understanding of Japanese vocabulary and grammar is more than a little suspect. As is my general familiarity with the casual spoken language. The character Drippy, named Shizuku in Japan, is nearly indecipherable in the English version of the game with his wacky Cockney-like tongue and ridiculous speed of speech, but it’s a perfect adaptation of the Japanese Shizuku, who uses un-dictionary-able slang and a speaking voice that makes you wish you had digital hands that could wring his neck through the screen. It was a very slow and difficult 15 hours and it turns out, as I discovered only a few days after receiving my American Ni No Kuni, only about five hours of actual gameplay. I’d spent around ten hours just listening to the cutscenes and reading the subtitles on pause, looking up what I could in the dictionary, and, in many cases, giving it up for slang or idiom I simply had no knowledge of and moving on. Needless to say, that was not an especially fun way to spend my time.

This whole scene was a particularly frustrating hour of attempted translation.

This is by far my most pressing concern. As some of you may recall, I live and work near Nagoya, Japan, but I am not fluent in Japanese, speaking, reading, or writing. This is an issue when it comes to games that require any amount of effort outside of platforming, sports, or music games. Role-playing games are a favorite genre of mine, but playing them with a dictionary in front of me is so ridiculously slow that it kills the game experience.

Thoughts on the PlayStation 4 reveal

After years of speculation, Sony finally announced the PlayStation 4 yesterday. It was inevitable, but considering I finally got a PlayStation 3 this past December, I was nevertheless a little bummed out.

PlayStation 4 won't be a day-one buy for me regardless of my PS3, because with the glaring exception of the Nintendo GameCube, new consoles tend to have sparse libraries for their first year of existence (yes, earlier Nintendo consoles had Mario at launch, but they didn't have anything else for a long time). No matter what the hardware is like, it means nothing without great software. What were my takeaways from Sony's big reveal last night?

Global Gaming Spotlight: Tokyo Jungle (Japan)

With each post in this mini-feature, I highlight a game from a different country around the world. Keep in mind these aren't necessarily the best or most popular games from each nation, but simply a fitting representative. After beginning with my native United States yesterday, we head to the other colossus of the gaming world today: Japan.

Tokyo Jungle - Sony, 2012

Of course, there are thousands of Japanese games to choose from. But while many Japanese games take place in fictional worlds or even in America, I wanted a game that takes place in Japan.

Tokyo Jungle took the world by storm this year. Taking place in a future version of the Japanese capital where humans are gone and animals must duke it out, Tokyo Jungle takes a very Darwinian approach to the survival genre.

The game was a hit in its home country, and later became a cult success in the West, despite its decidedly-Japanese weirdness. In an era where many people think the Japanese game industry is faltering internationally, Tokyo Jungle makes no concessions to try to appeal to global audiences.

Producer Masaaki Yamagiwa recently told Gamasutra:

"Users from other regions and Japanese users have different perspectives to begin with, so it's not surprising to see the gaps between what they think is fun versus what we think is fun. Japanese people should be 'Japanese' and simply create what they think is fun, and have other regions accept it as a novelty item."

Hopefully this is inspiration to other Japanese studios to really flex their creative muscle, instead of trying to please Westerners with more big-budget flops like Resident Evil 6.