Maunderlust

SnakeWesker at the Worst. Blog. Ever. has taken a look at how game graphics have evolved in the last 20 years. The two examples used are The Legend of Zelda and the Metal Gear series. Both are pretty dramatic examples of franchises that started in the early 80’s as a loose jumble of pixels, and today offer fully realized worlds richly populated with 3D characters and interactive environments.

The question SankeWesker asks is where game art will go in the next 20 years. Have we hit the wall of diminishing returns? Do developers really want to plow through the Uncanny Valley and create game characters and worlds that are indistinguishable from the real world? Would that even be fun or interesting to the player?

Continue reading ‘This is not a Moblin’

Video Game Vs. has an interesting argument about how First Person Shooter games should play on the Wii: Wii FPS’s - How to do it right

So far I haven’t been too impressed with any of the FPS games on offer. Red Steel and Call of Duty both felt clumsy. I haven’t played Far Cry: Vengence, but from what I understand it doesn’t really improve the situation.

Back when I first heard about the Wii controller, It seemed like a perfect fit for FPS gaming. The Nunchuk and remote sounded like great surrogates for a mouse and keyboard interface. Even better, it seemed like gameplay would be more intuitive, since you can literally can point and shoot at things on the screen.

But in practice, navigating the world and aiming with the wiimote can prove to be very frustrating. And since FPS is such an established genre, the Wii gestures that have been incorporated into the current batch of games feel like afterthoughts.

I’m eager to see how Metroid plays. But as it stands, my gut feeling is that the FPS genre needs to be completely rethought for the Wii, or thrown out altogether. The argument on Video Game Vs. sounds like a good place to start the rethink.

[tags]Wii, FPS, First Person Shooter, Video Game Vs., Video Games[/tags]

Now that Twilgiht Princess has been out for awhile and thoroughly enjoyed, the time has come to take a step back and compare it to its misunderstood predecessor, The Wind Waker.

Side by side, who is the victor? Is it manly man Link astride his noble steed, bow in hand, and Wiimote flashing? Or Chibi-Link firing on pirates from his courageous boat-king, swinging around like Errol Flynn, and parrying moblins like nobody’s business. Whose cuisine reigns supreme? Read on to find out.

Continue reading ‘Wind Waker vs. Twilight Princess’

Right now the Wii is high flying adored. The launch was a huge success no matter how you slice it. People are hungry for Wii consoles and content. Seeing a Wiimote and Nunchuk at retail is like catching a glimpse of Bigfoot and Nessie partying together in their undersea Unicorn castle.

Things are looking pretty good for the Wii alright. But could it be flash in the pan? A fad? Dare I say… a novelty?

When 2007 is over and done with, will Wii still be relevant? Here’s some stuff that could totally sink this awesome console:

Continue reading ‘What Wii Should Watch Out For’

I’ve recently been introduced to The Entertainment Beat with Frances Gumm podcast. If you follow the episodes from the beginning, you’ll hear the show evolve from an entertainment review with a very special guest, into an off the wall variety show.

The stable of recurring characters includes such luminaries as Judy Garland, Bernadette Peters, Carol Channing, Gollum D’Smeagol, Katherine Hepburn, Gwen Verdon, and Roger Darling.

What’s nice about the show is that there’s nothing mean-spirited about it. It’s a premise that could easily devolve into cheap and obvious parody, but it doesn’t. Instead you end up with something more like The View if it were co-directed by John Waters and Busby Berkeley.

Episode 16.5 of the podcast opens with a rousing rendition of the Super Mario Brothers theme as interpreted by Judy and Bernadette. Thinking back on the Super Mario Brothers movie, I don’t think that casting either of them would have made it any stranger.

JudyCast: A Judy Garland One-Man Podcast Surreality: The Entertainment Beat with Frances Gumm - #16 - Tony Award/Birthday Special (Part 2)

[tags]The Entertainment Beat with Frances Gumm, Judy Garland, Super Mario Brothers[/tags]