July 9, 2009
While at one point I considered myself a dedicated gamer, a lack of time has pulled me from the medium. For the past five years I average the completion of one game a year. As a dedication to the remnants of my hobby, each game completion will earn its own review.
 Wake up to the Wind SPOILER ALERT – This article includes references to the ending sequences of the game.
Wake up to an adventure that seems unsure of who is actually in control. The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker suffers because the user’s interaction with the game is never consistent. There is a frequent conflict between the free-roaming nature of prior Zelda titles, and the controlling, child-proof, scripted adventure presented by the game’s designers.
Long before Grand Theft Auto established open world gaming as a headline grabber, Shigeru Miyamoto, The Legend of Zelda’s creator, released the original The Legend of Zelda as an open world sandbox game, where players could travel the entire landscape, enter any dungeon, and play through its adventures in almost any order the gamer wanted. As the franchise evolved, The Legend of Zelda series rewarded the gamer for creativity. Dungeons increasingly relied on mind-bending puzzles for completion. Players walking off the beaten path were rewarded with additional heart containers that increased the damage they could take in combat. Even computer controlled characters started to beg for Link to travel on his free will to other lands to help deliver goods to other characters.
 Sailing in The Wind Waker Unfortunately, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker forces the gamer into a controlled experience. While older games rewarded exploring players with lush geography, mysterious woods, canyons, reflective lakes, and even bridge underpasses, The Wind Waker rewards gamers with… more water. Travelling The Wind Waker’s landscape is like looking out the window while flying over the Atlantic Ocean. While British Airways planes may not face an occasional shark attack, the experience is largely the same. Gamers who want to travel and explore are kept company with nothing but animated waves and the occasional rain shower. The talking boat that Link pilots is constantly reminding him of his next scripted task, and many of the hidden islands only become useful when a certain item is equipped by Link, or to put it more appropriately, when the game’s designers want you to take advantage of the hidden islands. It’s their story, not yours.
It says something that in the game’s final sequence, Link doesn’t even have a chance to stop the franchise’s lead villain, Gannon, from collecting a magical, game-ending Triforce. Instead, the child-aged Link is slammed to the ground by the taller, older Gannon, and left to lie on concrete while Gannon unites the three magical triforces to complete his plot to punish the world. As the arch enemy chants a spell, an older, white-bearded King of Hyrule appears out of nowhere, grabs the Triforce, and saves the day. He may have a half hour of camera time in human form in the entire thirty-hour game (throughout most of the game he existed as Link’s sail boat), but this old man plays the deus ex machina and ends up being the one who saves the world. After the game permits Link to finally fight Gannon, the old man wishes nothing more than “hope” for the future for the Link and Zelda’s own lives.
 Epic Cinematography During Sword Fights Despite its limitations, The Wind Waker does excel at presenting the trademark aspects of the Zelda experience. The risky artistic design of the game presents cartoonist images that mirror the older, more famous Zelda game, A Link to the Past. The cell-shaded art style represents what the 2-D A Link to the Past would look like if one could pull the camera down to the ground for a 3-D view. Throughout the game are subtle inclusions of previous franchise songs, characters, and gameplay homages. Traditional weapons such as the boomerang, crossbow, and sword are brought to new life with additional control options. New weapons, such as a wind-propelling leaf, spark creativity in the gamer towards exploring new ways to explore the adventure.
For aging gamers lured by other next-generation experiences, The Wind Waker does everything right to make one believe that Link, the game’s hero, is the true Gaming Hero. While playing the game, it becomes evident that few videogame heroes have the history, grace, or creativity of Link’s adventures. Through cleverly leveraging prior titles through the game’s storyline, and adding emotional impact through cell-shaded art, Link’s Wind Waker adventure plays out as a unique and imitation free tale.
 Gliding Through the Wind with a Giant Leaf Yet for all of the franchise celebration, in the game’s concluding moments, Link is knocked to the ground by Gannon, while a computer controlled old man saves the day. In that ending, after the last button is pressed, the harshest reality of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker sets in. The gamer could not control the end of the title. Link may have fought Gannon, but he didn’t save the Triforce.
Perhaps the Wind Waker is a dream you can rarely control.
July 8, 2009
There’s a wonderful feeling to look back at videogames and see that they can have the hidden depth of other art forms. My favorite films are those that are crafted with great detail by the director, with subtle references and Easter eggs planted inside the reels. Like a good book, a good film or game can have depth beyond what is captured in the front-end of a story.
Below are a list of “secrets” showing hidden depth, surprising design decisions, and even some development cheats behind popular videogame franchises.
Super Mario Brothers - The bushes in Super Mario Bros are actually just colored clouds placed on the ground.
- Perhaps to save storage space, the ghostly Boo’s laugh in Super Mario 64 is generated by playing Bowser’s laugh at high speed.
 Mario Clouds = Mario Bushes Mega Man - By taking entering button combinations using a second controller, a friend can make your adventure in Mega Man 3 a mega adventure with slow motion enemies, invincibility, and extended jumping abilities.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - Peter Laird and Kevin Eastman, the creators of the Ninja Turtle comic franchise, cleverly mixed a Watchmen reference into the NES arcade game cover art. Take a look at the smiley face on the skateboard (and the drop of blood).
 Ninja Turtles Watchmen Metal Gear Solid - Emma Emmerich (E. E.), the delicate and frightened scientist in Metal Gear Solid 2, is named after the Emotion Engine, Sony’s marketing name for the Playstation 2’s graphics chip.
- Not surprisingly, Metal Gear Solid 2 has some interesting production notes.
- The Boss who started it all in Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater uses the same voice talent as Family Guy’s news reader, Diane Simmons.
Kid Icarus - When the team who created the Metroid franchise created their original title, they made sure to bring some intergalactic jellyfish along for the trip. Even the manual makes a reference to Samus’s foes.
 Kid Icarus Metroid  Kid Icarus Manual
Ogre Battle - The popular tactical RPG is named after a Queen Song
Secret of Mana - The human face on Mars is also hidden in Square’s ocean.
 Secret of Mana Star Fox - The first level of StarFox matches up perfectly with Dire Strait’s Money for Nothing.
The Legend of Zelda - As shown in the original manual, the beta version of The Legend of Zelda lets a user select between a boomerang or a sword as the gamer’s initial weapon.
- The underground dungeons of The Legend of Zelda fit neatly into a rectangle.
- After completing The Legend of Zelda, the gamer is offered to play all over again in a remixed quest with different dungeon layouts. As shown above, five of the revised dungeons form the letters to spell out “Zelda.”
- The Legend of Zelda 2: Link’s Adventure is created using a map of land found north of the original Zelda’s adventure. Both games share Death Mountain, only the northern cliffs in the original title can be found in the south of Link’s Adventure’s landscape.
- The flute warp song used in Super Mario Bros 3 is actually originated as the tune from the original Legend of Zelda’s warp whistle. The traveling music is also played in the start-up screen of The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time
- Five of the masks featured in Majora’s Mask are based off main characters in Star Fox 64.
 Zelda Map  Zelda Map Remixed  Star Fox Hats in Zelda Pokemon
- The islands in each Pokemon represent a different area of Japan.
- The naming convention of the game’s creatures have a hidden logic.
Wii Sports
- Early beta versions of Wii Tennis featured Mario instead of the still in-development Mii characters.
 Wii Sports Mario
Uniracers - In this racing game by DMA Designs (who would later become Rockstar North and create the Grand Theft Auto series), gamers were scolded for naming their uniracer after Sega’s popular and “fast” mascot.
 Uniracers
Conan O’Brien
- And finally, Conan didn’t move to LA for his new late Night talk show, instead he jumped in a New York sewer pipe and ended up in Super Mario World.
 Conan Super Mario World Source: NEOGAF Forums
November 3, 2008
I was exhausted from Wii Fit before I even played it.
Venturing through Manhattan on a quest of errands, I collected my treasure a little too early.
In videogames, when a character finds a new item, be it a sword, a bazooka, or magic steel shoes, they never are held back by the weight of the item. The new item simply vanishes from the player when collected, only to magically appear once the user pauses and activates the item. It’s brilliant in a fictional world, a hero can hold as many swords as he wants, yet never feel the burden of the weight of steel, gold, or magical dragon bone that forms the many swords.
Today I purchased Wii Fit from the Nintendo Store, all ten pounds of the workout pad/weight scale/game disc. I then carried my ten pound brick throughout this great city, as I performed errands in the city’s various neighborhoods - on the subway, at my favorite grocery cart (for a great smoothy), and through a surprisingly calm walk in the east 30s.
By the time I was home, my biceps were sore. Ten pounds isn’t much, but for several hours of carrying it can add up.
After returning home I completed 30 minutes of active workouts in the game, and am surprised by the challenge of many of the game’s activities. My back is sore, my legs are more flexible, and I’m amazed how difficult their combination workout with pushups was.
It feels like a Nintendo game beat me up.
The game’s interface and challenges are designed for short and easy workouts. Everything about Wii Fit is inviting for daily repetition, from the sleek design of the balance board to the daily BMI and varied, short workout exercises.
My election day tomorrow will not begin with a vote, or an hour of Metal Gear Solid 4. Instead it will begin with Wii Fit.
November 6, 2007
While at one point I considered myself a dedicated gamer, a lack of time has pulled me from the medium. To celebrate my time with games, I will write a review for each new title completed. My reviews are often years after a game’s official release, but consider this a benefit: the extra time allows a game’s content to be digested and allows the review to be free of any marketing hype.
What makes one smarter: the age of your brain or your brain’s weight? While scientists can argue over the superior, gamers can test it out themselves, by playing either Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day or Big Brain Academy, two original Nintendo DS titles created by Nintendo to keep the minds of the elderly sharp.
Both games are full of short mini-games, where the player challenges their mind with questions and activities that test one’s knowledge in math, vocabulary, logic and other areas straight out of school. Rather than mimicking the Q&A section of a school textbook, these brain games present the player with fun gaming experiences, such as counting the number of people who run in and out of a house (Brain Age), or identifying the differences in near-identical cartoon animals (Big Brain Academy). The player’s performance in the minigames is later used to judge the player’s brain’s age (Brain Age) or weight (Big Brain Academy).
Brain Age
The difference in execution between the two titles stands out, with Brain Age beginning with a classy discussion with Dr. Ryuta Kawashima (a famous professor in Japan) and Big Brain Acadamy beginning with a crudely animated worm creature I can only call “Fish Bait.” “Fish Bait” wears a poorly drawn hat for credibility, while Dr. Kawashima wears the glasses of a true intellectual.
The two main characters of each game represent the different design decisions of each title. While Dr. Kawashima, rendered in full 3-D with a variety of expressions, offers players a variety of real-world tips for increasing their intelligence, such as reading street signs while on the train, Big Brain Academy’s “Fish Bait” character repeats the same generic phrases everyday. His text is so derivative it often reads like placeholders that the developers ran out of time to replace. The rushed effort is apparent in Big Brain Academy’s visuals, which are composed of pixel-based over-proportioned animals, and its minigames, which while more varied than Brain Age, are also shorter and less stimulating.
Big Brain Academy
If education takes time, Brain Age wins in a landslide. Most of Brain Age’s quizzes are composed of four minute rounds of deep thought and analysis; Big Brain Academy’s tests are composed of quick five second trigger finger tests. With Big Brain Academy so focused on a player’s reflexes, it’s hard to think of it as a breakthrough in education, rather it’s easier to view it as a same-old reflexes game ala videogames ten years ago, where players were rewarded for hitting the “jump” button at the right time, followed by a timely hit of the “shoot” button. Brain Age should be the weapon of choice for those willing to invest in sharpening their brains; those looking for a less stimulating, but more entertaining, time should give Big Brain Academy a try.
Both Brain Age and Big Brain Academy are packaged with bonus material, including Sudoku and a varied multiplayer mode, respectively. A sequel to Brain Age is also available on Nintendo DS. A revised version of Big Brain Academy is available on the Nintendo Wii.
September 23, 2007
While at one point I considered myself a dedicated gamer, a lack of time has pulled me from the medium. For the past five years I’ve probably completed one game a year, and to dedicate the remnants of my hobby, I’ll throw up a review with each game completion.
Everyone keeps dying on the player, but it’s almost like they expect it.
As argued by key characters of Metal Gear Solid: Twin Snakes, if you’re born a fighter, you expect to die on a battlefield. It’s in one’s genes. Fate is written in stone, life is nothing more than a waiting line for destiny.
Behind the military espionage and untrustworthy government officials, Metal Gear Solid is a story depicting the struggles with one’s own genes. Some people are naturally stronger, some naturally have better vision, and some have recessive traits compared to others. Metal Gear Solid questions how much those genes should impact one’s character.
Genes in this case can mean many things. Genes can mean DNA, as shared between the game’s main character, Solid Snake, and his nemesis, Liquid Snake. Or the term can apply to one’s upbringing, such as the battled areas of Russia, or growing up with a murderous brother.
Clearly being born into certain traits affects a character, but the villains in Metal Gear Solid have all thrown in the towel to their already decided fates. When Sniper Wolf, a Russian sniper who obsesses over her subjects until their death, is killed by an opposing sniper rifle, she accepts her death as an escape from her destiny. Holding her rifle with her dying breath, she says she can finally stop killing — not because of her own will, but because her own death forces it.
With death near, Psycho Mantis, a psychic known for torture, asks for his breathing mask to be removed, so that he can finally take in the Earth’s fresh air. By removing his mask, he’s also removing his costume as a villain. Underneath is a frail aging man, lying in his own blood. After a few breaths Mantis dies, having waited too late to take off his mask and form his own destiny.
The heroes in the story are the ones who take control of their paths. Hal Emerich Otacon, the doctor who engineered the nuclear tank Metal Gear, spends his life living in numbers, only to abandon them when he discovers his machine will be used in nuclear war. In one of the game’s endings, Hal sacrifices his life for the team, making a personal decision to stay behind and ensure a safe escape for the player. Hal rewrites his story by choosing to become a hero for the hero.
Both Solid and Liquid Snake share the genes of one of the world’s most feared killers, yet Snake fights for the end of nuclear war, and Liquid strives for world domination. Clearly you’re free to write your own path regardless of your genes.
In the game’s final moments, after the credits and soundtrack complete, the vast space of Alaska is shown as Solid Snake looks at his dogs as he bobsleds through the snow. The voice over says “Live life,” and not a gun, bullet, or blood spot is visible anywhere on the screen.
Metal Gear Solid was first released on the original Playstation in 1998. This review is based off the re-released version for the Nintendo GameCube, which features new character and level models, surround sound, and enhanced gameplay. The revised presentation makes this cinematic game shine. However, the enhanced gameplay features make the game a little easier, such as the new first-person aiming mode which lets users shoot cameras, rather than forcing them to hide from them. The controls also didn’t adopt perfectly to the new platform, so expect some frustrating sneaking missions as your character gets caught due to character movement into unexpected locations.
September 22, 2007
As a child, Sunshine Pizza meant more to me than its elastic, yellow-tinted mozzarella cheese. Often a treat from my Dad, a slice or two of pie would be enough for most kids, but I had to have it my way. In a room full of tables and chairs, there was only one place I could sit — the Pac-Man table.
Part of it seemed magical to me. When I looked at this table, I didn’t see wood or colored plastic as I did at the other tables. Instead there was a bright, well-lit animation of a yellow creature chasing multi-colored ghosts. Inside the table!
Only one table in the pizzeria had Pac-Man, and claiming this table was like sitting at the king’s chair in a royal court. For that fifteen minutes, I was the only one who would know the joy of power pellets.
This relic from my child hood is still alive, still in the restaurant (albeit a different address), and still coated in pizza grease. Even now, there’s something magical about the machine.
Please insert one quarter.
August 14, 2007
While at one point I considered myself a dedicated gamer, a lack of time has pulled me from the medium. For the past five years I’ve probably completed one game a year, and to dedicate the remnants of my hobby, I’ll throw up a review with each game completion.
Attacked by bullets while inside and by rain while stepping out windows, Max Payne is assaulted no matter what path he chooses. As a delisted detective now dealing with the mob, corrupt officers, and the death of a loved one, Max has nowhere left to go to escape the constant assaults on his life. Without escape as an option, Max digs dangerously into his world, uncovering fear, attachment, nostalgia, and half-truths that were once staples of classic mystery stories. In dream-like journeys throughout a gotham New York City, he digs deep into a mysterious woman associated to a series of murders, his own mind, and possibly his own sanity, as a television show’s alternate reality Noir York becomes his own.
Narrated through in-game audio cues, whether it’s in-game characters sharing thoughts in their apartments, or sitcom metaphors spewing out of the televisions, the story of Max Payne develops without the minimal usage of drawn-out cut scenes. As an interactive medium, Max Payne 2 excels by dictating the drama through interactive means: side-stories can be ignored by walking away from televisions, supporting characters tell you about their lives only if you choose to walk with them, and Max uses drugs to slow down time and fight like he’s in The Matrix only if you choose.
While many story-based games lose players by their lack of actual gameplay, Max Payne 2 excels through the use of expertly paced and designed shoot-outs with enemy combatants (humorously often dressed in cleaning service outfits). The combat engine is simple, Max can slow down time to aim at enemies with his automated weapons, while enemies surround him from all sides with their guns shouting bullets. The simplistic gameplay succeeds though through the level scenario design. Each shoot-out takes place with the perfect level layout, sometimes enemies will run down stairs as Max hides behind crumbled walls, other times Max will have to slow-motion his body through hallways while avoiding the storming assault of enemies hiding in doorways. While most shooters reward a player’s trigger finger, Max Payne 2 rewards a player’s ability to measure one’s environment for nearby cover and high-threat locations.
The game’s weaknesses lie in the technology. Compared to today’s Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 games, which can depict a player’s personality through animation and subtle facial expressions, Max Payne 2’s characters seem rigid and emotionless. The lack of expressiveness in the characters can sometimes take a toll on the story, which focuses on Max’s challenges with facing a largely personal story. The developers should be given credit for including graphic novel images between levels to push the emotional side of the characters, but between levels is only a small part of the experience, the lack of consistent emotional acting shows that this game may not age well.
Through the game’s final scenes, the player is left with wonder, concern, and curiousity as Max Payne narrates the story’s final moments. When the credits roll, and the player’s mind is left to assemble the final pieces of the story, one might feel genuine sadness in having to put the controller down and put the game back in storage. For a title that’s more story than game, that says a lot.
Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne is available on most platforms. I played through the Xbox version.
August 6, 2007
July 27, 2007
While at one point I considered myself a dedicated gamer, a lack of time has pulled me from the medium. For the past five years I’ve probably completed one game a year, and to dedicate the remnants of my hobby, I’ll throw up a review with each game completion.
What was once predictably packaged and clichéd is now vibrant and constantly surprising. The Resident Evil franchise was born with the original Playstation, just when videogames were merging with cinema – and by merging with cinema I mean ripping off every predictable piece of horror movies: spooky mansions, zombies, evil corporations, crazy dogs, cute girls, etc. The games were enjoyable for their time because they kept the user in constant suspense, but after sequel after sequel the entertainment value decreased. Capcom changed everything about the series with Resident Evil 4, and gamers are left with easily the best game of the year.
The title plays as a third-person shooter, but it does so by combining perfect pacing with a constantly pleasing fighting engine that looks and sounds like few other titles.
It’s amazing how few game reviews use the term, “All killer, no filler.†In music, it’s practically a required cut and paste activity for every new trendy band. To please hard-core gamers and their demands of 30-50 hour experiences, most games are filled with tedious item collecting and back tracking. RE4, however, is 10-20 hours of intense, non-stop action, coupled with the scenic views of an area surrounding a small village in Spain. The pacing is like a good rock and roll song – after an intense battle with dozens of zombies, you’ll travel solo through a visually stunning cave, only to arrive outside and have to deal with new and deadlier threats.
The screenshots alone should depict the experience. Every piece of the game is as varied and immersive as the screenshots tell. RE4 is a step up from any title before it and any game designer will have a tough time creating a game so consistently entertaining and so unique for quite some time.
Resident Evil 4 is available on Nintendo GameCube, Playstation 2, and most recently, Wii. I played through the GameCube version but will give the Wii version a try in time.
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