Terry Francona Out As Manager of the Red Sox

After the Red Sox epic collapse, there was a lot of blame to go around. The hitter went ice-cold, the pitchers couldn't hit the strike zone with a bulldozer, there were no good arms available to pitch after injuries struck, and there were some weird managerial decisions made.

Which problem was the biggest cause? Hard to say, but probably the lack of pitching. Whose fault is that? The management, right? That's on Theo Epstein's doorstep. A few arms went down, they overspent on John Lackey and ended up with crap in the rotation.

So who takes the fall? Terry Francona. Explain to me how this works: How a manager can be a god early in the season, all of his players like him and the rotation is awful because the GM hasn't picked any good players, and yet the manager takes the hit.

This is why I prefer the management structure with teams like the Pittsburgh Steelers. They've had three coaches in 40 years: Chuck Noll, Bill Cowher and Mike Tomlin. If a coach has a bad year, you evaluate whether he had a bad year because of bad luck or bad coaching and go accordingly.

In this case, the Sox had a bad year because of bad GM-ing. Let's fire the manager instead! So much easier.

Ironclad Brewers Playoff Predictions

With the Brewers starting the playoffs tomorrow, I figured I would break down how each game is going to go. These are ironclad predictions, so you may not even need to watch the games.

Game 1: Yovani Gallardo pitches 9 innings and throws 27 strikeouts. Ryan Braun hits like 5 home runs and all of the Diamondbacks start crying in the dugout. Kirk Gibson breaks his leg during a particularly strong sob.

Game 2: Zack Greinke pitches 8 innings only because he got bored and sent out a pitching machine in an attempt to make the game even. The pitching machine gets 2 strikeouts and induces a groundout to end the game. Prince Fielder pulls down his pants and poops on Daniel Hudson at midfield after hitting his fourth home run as Hudson curls into the fetal position.

Game 3: The Brewers get to the Arizona stadium only to find that the Diamondbacks are still in their hotel rooms in Milwaukee, rending their garments and throwing ashes in the air. The Brewers decide to give the Diamondbacks some time to get to the stadium, so they postpone Game 3.

Game 3 (Redux): The Diamondbacks walk in to the stadium dragging their bats behind them, each with the expression of a man being led to the gallows. Each player has changed their walkup music to "Leaving on a Jet Plane."

The game begins with Stephen Drew lacing a hit to the outfield. That is the last hit they will get. By the sixth inning they're not even bringing a bat up to the plate, just weakly swinging at each pitch with their hand. After each at-bat, Jonathan Lucroy licks each batter's faces and says, "Your tears are like sweet wine to me."

The Brewers advance to the NLDS, leaving the Diamondbacks questioning the existence of God.

Review: Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins

Developer: Nintendo
Publisher: Nintendo

The only video game system I grew up with was a Game Boy, and the first game I bought for it was Super Mario Land 2: Six Golden Coins. I would play through levels looking for secrets when there was no indication that a secret lurked in the level. I knew Super Mario Land 2 inside and out and can probably to this day rely on muscle memory enough to beat it without blinking.

That makes me uniquely qualified to tell you if it's a good game or not.
What made Super Mario Land 2 so great is that the first Super Mario Land was kind of bad. The character animation in the first game was drab, all of the sprites were tiny with no detail whatsoever, and the whole game was kind of weird. It was the kind of game that would convince you that handheld games could never, ever live up to their big console counterparts.

Super Mario Land 2 was a different animal. Mario looked like the same character we knew from Super Mario World. He could do a spin jump. He had several different powerups, like bunny ears. The bosses were cool, and the enemies looked like actual Mario enemies instead of tiny little knockoffs. While the original may have convinced you that handheld games were a waste of time, Super Mario Land 2 gave you hope that someday handheld games could be as good as console games.

It was also great because it was the first appearance of Wario, who was an odd enemy. The entire plot of the game revolves around Mario just trying to take back his castle. No princess to rescue, no world to save, just Mario taking back his stuff from a greedy jerk who would become one of Nintendo's more interesting characters.

Super Mario Land 2 was also a very non-linear game. After the first level, which taught you the basics of gameplay, you were free to go to any of the six worlds. Some had to be reached by weird ways, like getting in to a bubble blown by a hippo. (Long story.) Some had multiple ways to beat the world which could allow you to almost bypass entire worlds. That means there was no rational difficulty curve to speak of, but there was usually a lot of interesting stuff to do that kept the gameplay fresh.

Instead of comparing Super Mario Land 2 to other Mario games, I would compare it instead to Mega Man. In Mega Man, as long as you beat the bosses, it didn't matter what order you beat them in. Ditto with Super Mario Land 2: Get the six coins in order to open up your castle, and it didn't matter what order you got them in. That sort of freedom was incredibly rare for a 2-D Mario game, and still is.

So how does Super Mario Land 2 play? It's pretty good. The first Super Mario Land could be difficult because of the tiny size of Mario and your enemies. Since Mario is so much larger in this game, you won't mistime jumps, you won't find yourself getting hit by enemies with as much frequency, and you won't end up falling off of things that you think you're standing on but actually aren't.

There's also great variety in the choice of worlds. You have a forest world and a space world, but you also have a mini world, a haunted house world, a machinery world and a world that takes place inside a whale, complete with blubber that you can swim through. With 32 levels total, you'll have a lot to find and explore.

I thought Super Mario Land 2 was a great deal when I bought it back in 1992 with the money that I earned from my paper route. I paid $30 for it then. It's $3.99 now. If any of this sounds interesting, pick it up.

Final Grade: B+

Game Design: Bad Ideas

We always remember things as being better than they actually were.

I say this because I'm currently playing 10 NES games as provided to me by Nintendo on my 3DS. NES games are usually viewed as being totally awesome, and if you mention that maybe some of these games weren't maybe very good, you run the risk of angering people.


The argument is that these games were good for their time and helped lay the foundation for modern gaming, and that's correct. The danger isn't in recognizing them for what they were, but rather believing that old games are some sort of end-all-be-all and that gaming was somehow better back in the NES days than it is now.

It's a mistake to think so. A lot of the design decisions that are hailed now were only placed there because of system limitations or due to erroneous assumptions about what video games were all about. We're going to go through some design decisions from time to time that were bad ideas then and bad ideas now, and only have managed to stay in gaming because of misguided nostalgia.

The first mistake is evidenced by Super Mario Bros. If you lose all of your lives in Super Mario Bros., what happens? Do you get to restart at the last level you died in? If you die in 8-2, can you restart in 8-1? No, you restart from the beginning of the game, level 1-1.

You may say, "Well, of course! It wouldn't be Super Mario Bros. without that! Gaming shouldn't be about about completing the game, it should be about improving your skills and getting to the point where you can complete it!"

If you say that, you're wrong.

Gaming was born in the arcades. Early designers were tasked not only with making fun games, but also ones that would gobble coins. Pacman, Space Invaders, Gauntlet and Donkey Kong were all about taking your money as quickly and as often as possible. In order to get good at an arcade game, you had to spend lots and lots of money until you could finally get to the point where you didn't have to spend that much money.

That means that you don't want players to restart from the last level they died on. You're giving away your livelihood if you do so. You'll also make a lot of other design decisions that are ridiculous for precisely those reasons, but we'll get to those at a different time.

A lot of developers who came from that background (read: all of them at the time) carried over that philosophy from the arcades. Miyamoto designed arcade games, for example. Therefore, instead of making the game easier to complete, they made it harder to finish precisely because that's the philosophy and experience that they had.

Was it the right choice for Super Mario Bros.? Yeah, it was the right choice because Super Mario Bros. is a rather short game. If you're good, you can finish it in 10 minutes, and if you're really good you can finish it in 5. If you could have started the game over at level 8-1, you probably would have finished it almost immediately, even back when you were 10 years old.

However, is it the right choice for other games of its type? No.

Let's use the example of Zelda II: The Adventure of Link. If you lose all three of your lives, instead of starting you out at, say, the beginning of the dungeon that you died in, you restart the game at the very beginning. That means you have to traverse open fields, dangerous caves and lots of hostile environments all just to get back to the last place you died.

Does that force you to get better at the game? Yeah, sure. Does it make you want to keep playing? Of course not.

Imagine playing for two hours, dying, and then having to struggle all the way back to where you died, then dying again and having to get back to the same place. If you're nodding your head and saying, "Yeah, what's the big deal?" then you're part of the problem.

It's easy to forget that you played this type of game when you were a kid. You had a lot of time on your hands, so losing several hours of progress was not a big deal. If you still have that much time on your hands years later, you're probably not doing so hot in life, frankly. Get a job.

For the rest of us, we simply don't have time to waste. My gaming time is sometimes broken down into 15-minute chunks when I have space to breathe. Do I want to waste that time? Heck no! It's too precious to lose!

It didn't take long for game makers to learn that lesson, but some gamers still pine for the days when they had to restart games from the beginning when they lost. Listen, designers only did that to screw you over. It was a bad idea then, and it's a bad idea now.

Zelda: Four Swords

Apparently, Zelda: Four Swords is available worldwide for 3DS users! I'm going to have to pick this up tonight to see how it is, assuming I have time.

Review: Xenoblade Chronicles

Developer: Monolith Soft
Publisher: Nintendo

Xenoblade Chronicles should be released in the States. I don't mean this like, "There's a strong possibility that it will be," or "It could be." I mean this like, "Nintendo owes it to gamers to release Xenoblade Chronicles in their largest market."

It's only fair. Wii owners suffered through lean years, crappy games, jokes about the system being underpowered and "gathering dust" references for the last five years. We can't help but feel inferior to the supposed console "big boys," who end up looking down at us while we plaintively wail that the Wii is not that bad.

Indeed, the Wii has been a pretty good system, considering. Super Mario Galaxy and Zelda: Twilight Princess were some of the best games of this generation. Super Smash Bros. Brawl is pure fan-service. Mario Kart Wii has a great online presence, as does Monster Hunter 3. The WiiWare service was surprisingly robust considering its limitations, and the Virtual Console has been great.

It would be only fitting, then, if Nintendo would release Xenoblade Chronicles, the generation's finest RPG on any system, on their "underpowered" and "kiddie" Wii.

What makes Xenoblade Chronicles so excellent? Let's start by going down the list.

1. Interesting characters. The characters behave in real ways. They feel like real people, while doing and saying things that real people might say. They're not just "generic hero X," and they have real motivations for what they do.
2. Great music. I get the Gaur Plains music in my head all the time, and I never get tired of hearing it.
3. A deep combat system. Your positioning relative to your opponents matters. How long you've had the party together matters. How often you fight battles matters. I've been playing for twenty hours and I'm still finding nuances in the combat system.
4. A unique environment. As opposed to "generic RPG planet X," you're on a giant creature called the Bionis that's been locked in combat with another creature called the Mechonis for aeons. You're playing the game, essentially, on one of the Colossi from Shadow of the Colossus, just fifty times larger.
5. An achievement system that matters. Achievements in most games are merely rubber stamps or things you can use to show off. Here, achievements provide XP rewards.
6. A game that rewards you for mindless exploration. Found a new location? Congratulations, here's some XP. Found a landmark? Congrats, here's a place you can restart your game at any point.
7. Easy travel. Instead of having to walk constantly from point A to point B and all points in between, you can select fast travel and instantly end up where you need to go with no penalty. You can also wind the clock using this method.
8. A quest system that makes sense. You won't just walk in to a town and see hundreds of people with exclamation points over their heads. You'll do a few quests, which will unlock other quests, which will unlock others, and so on. You can even help rebuild a city using this system.
9. Longevity. I've been playing twenty hours, like I said before. I looked at an FAQ to see how far I have to go, and I'm about 1/3 of the way through. That's with me skipping over some quests or sidestepping others altogether.
10. No harsh penalty for losing battles. If you die, you don't have to sit through a Game Over screen, then go back to the main menu, then reload your game from your last save point. If you die, your character restarts the game at the last major landmark that you saw, meaning that you can try some battles repeatedly until you get it right, or just leave the area and come back when you're more powerful. It's your choice.

Xenoblade Chronicles isn't perfect. For example, the voice acting isn't necessarily bad, but the characters are all far too chatty. During combat, they'll all be talking, announcing their moves, saying how they feel, shouting words of encouragement, sometimes all at the same time. Some battles will sound like everyone's just talking at once, which is a little silly, not to mention annoying and confusing.

Plus, battles can be a little hard to control. It can be too easy to end up attacking the wrong enemy or putting your friends in a position where they all get bushwhacked. Plus, since the Wii is underpowered, you can't always tell which enemy is which.

There are some features that look plain ugly. In one early part, they showed the landscape of the surrounding area, and the ground was quite literally one texture stretched across several hills. It looked hideous. This is a game that would have benefited from being released in HD, no doubt.

Still, seriously, Nintendo, what's the deal? You'll release Wii Play Motion and Mario Sports Mix, while allowing your system to get overrun with Game Party derivatives. Yet, when a really good game falls in your lap, you refuse to release it in the United States. It's almost as if you don't want people to have a deep experience on the Wii for fear they'll go screaming to the hills.

Anyway, if you can find the way to play PAL games on your Wii, go out and get Xenoblade Chronicles. It'll tide you over until Nintendo decides not to release The Last Story in the US, and that'll give us another reason to get angry.

Final Grade: A

A Reason For 3DS Anger?

The recent 3DS event that Nintendo held was underwhelming for American viewers, no doubt. We saw demonstrations of New Love Plus, weird Japanese dancing games, and other oddities. The big draw of the night was Monster Hunter 3G and the announcement of Monster Hunter 4, both of which are niche products here in the States.


We're seeing a pile of angry articles now, complaining that 3DS users were "beta testers," that there's still no good games for it, that Kid Icarus is getting delayed, everything. Anything and everything having to do with the 3DS now sucks.

I can't entirely blame them, honestly. What started off as such a promising system has been held down by delays and retreads.

For example, let's say the launch of the 3DS was held up until August. We would have seen a massive launch with all of the games that we saw at launch already, like the updated PilotWings game, Nintendogs + Cats, and Ghost Recon. We would have had full eShop functionality, the Ocarina remake ready to go, and a quick succession of games ready almost right after launch, including Star Fox 64 3D, Super Mario 3D Land, Mario Kart 7, and then Kid Icarus Uprising in early 2012.

With that kind of lineup, it would have been a fantastic launch, one of the best ever for any system. Instead, it's been kind of a limp, weird launch that hasn't impressed anyone.

That being said, it hasn't been all bad. Early adopters have piles of free games now, and while yes, some features have been held out for a while, we still have them. I think I have another reason that people are angry, though.

On my DS, I had an R4DS card. Now before you criticize or write an angry screed in the comments section about how "piracy is killing the game industry," remember that lot of people bought flashcarts. So many people did that game manufacturers started to get wise.

Publishers started tossing in code into their games in order to glitch flashcarts or make the games simply not work using a flashcart. That required the flashcart makers to patch up the games, and around and around they went. They were so popular they were banned in Japan, although they're still freely available here.

On my flashcart, I had a Nintendo emulator, Sega Genesis emulator, Game Boy Color emulator and the ability to play GBA games. Once again, I suspect there were other people in the same boat.

It wasn't very difficult to find out about the existence of flashcarts, either. Respectable gaming websites like Kotaku and others reported on the R4DS as dutifully as they reported on George Hotz' hacking of the PS3. However, reporting about something also brings attention to it, so more people would buy the flashcarts, and around and around we went again.

OK, so what kind of people bought flashcarts? These people aren't the scenesters who spend hours a day cruising DS rom sites, but just people who want to play lots and lots of games. They're the kind of people who cruise gaming websites for info. They're able to search online and find things relatively easily. They obviously care about getting the most for their money and like to have the newest and brightest shinies to show off.

Now we go back to those who bought the 3DS at launch. Which kind of people were these? They were those who followed information about the 3DS. They like to have the newest and brightest shinies to show off. They're people who love games.

Do you see the intersect here?

I'm speaking from personal experience, but I find myself a little annoyed that I can't play all of my emulators and switch between games at will on my 3DS. I'm annoyed that my saved games don't stay with the system but stay with the cartridge. These are all things I got used to while pirating the DS.

So now I've gone from having a system where every game I wanted was free, I had all of my saved games stored on the system and had unlimited access to a back library of games to having a system where new games are $40 and I have to wait for Nintendo to release older games for the system.

Are these things the 3DS' fault? No, they're my fault. I shouldn't have pirated the DS in the first place. Does it still annoy me? Yes, yes it does. Are there ways to pirate the 3DS yet? Probably. I'm not going to look into them. I've had a good run, but I'm not doing that anymore.

Am I saying that everyone who complains about the 3DS is or was a pirate? No. Not at all. There are legitimate complaints about the 3DS as it was released. As we said, the library was dumpy and the launch kind of staggered along.

Yet, could this be part of the anger directed at the 3DS? It's no surprise that the people who are complaining about the 3DS are also trumpeting a) The PS Vita, where games will be able to be placed on memory sticks and b) iOS gaming, where games are cheap, plentiful and can be switched in and out easily.

With both of those systems, the same things you would get if you had a DS flashcart, i.e. switching between games at will and cheap games, are available in one form or another. Sure, Vita games will be expensive, but you shouldn't have to switch out games that often. Sure, iOS games aren't that deep, but they're cheap.

We'll see how this pans out, but it wouldn't surprise me. If it's true, DS piracy may not have hurt the fortunes of the DS, but it certainly may have killed the 3DS in its cradle.

The Best of the Rest Super Nintendo Games

Donkey Kong Country 3

Donkey Kong Country 3 was a failed opportunity. Rare could have gone back to using Donkey Kong, but instead felt the need to create an entirely new character that did exactly the same thing as Donkey Kong, except ten times more annoying. Seriously, what were they thinking?

They also made a conscious decision to make Donkey Kong Country "cuter." After some of the intense and atmospheric stuff in DKC2, like the giant skeleton ghost and hectic castle levels, Rare dialed it back. However, they didn't dial back the difficulty, so you were left with some really hard levels with boring music and too-cute enemies.

And, might we reiterate, no Donkey Kong. Seriously, Rare.

Mega Man X3

While Mega Man X1 & X2 were classics, X3 is merely OK. The tight level design that propped up X1 & X2 is mostly absent here. The bosses are fairly drab and impossible to beat without using their unique special weapon.

Granted, Mega Man X3 is somewhat fun. You're still fighting Sigma, and you get to play as Zero for the first time in a Mega Man game, although only briefly. With all that said, X3 doesn't hold up to multiple replays, but it's still decent.

Mega Man 7

After 6 (6!) Mega Man games on the NES, Capcom finally decided to put out a Mega Man game for the Super Nintendo. The results were moderately successful, but lacking in several key areas.

While Mega Man music is supposed to be rollicking and catchy, Mega Man 7's music was dull and interchangeable. The bosses are OK, but compared to Mega Man X's major changes to the formula, Mega Man 7 was almost instantly dated at the time of its release.

We're not even going to dignify Mega Man Soccer by discussing it here.

F-Zero

VVVVRRRRRRROOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMM

NEEEEOOOOWWWWNNNNNN

BOOOOOMMMM

...and I'm spent.

F-Zero was the one of the first Mode 7 games, but playing it now is frustrating. The controls are spongy. The tracks are same-y. It's been eclipsed by other, faster racing games.

And yet, still, F-Zero is a hallmark in gaming history. There really wasn't a fast racing game like it beforehand, and its success helped usher in Wipeout and the newer F-Zero games. The SNES version is just OK, though.

You might be reading this and thinking that I'm out of my mind, remembering F-Zero as a bona-fide amazing classic game. That's OK. Go and replay F-Zero. It should help wipe away your rose-colored memories and show you that I'm right.

Killer Instinct

Killer Instinct was Nintendo/Rare's attempt to capitalize on the fighting game boom in the late 90's. It was trying to be gritty, but instead ended up being weird and slightly racist.

The graphics were beautiful and the music was cool. It was OK, don't get me wrong, but it was odd that you could queue up a devastating combo and literally walk away from the game while the combo ran. All in all, it's just an average fighting game that got a lot of hype.

Uniracers

Ever heard of this one? No? That's because Pixar sued them after release, and another run was never made. Apparently, Pixar thought that the unicycle that Uniracers used was an infringement on their cartoon about a unicycle. As if Pixar has a monopoly on unicycles. I'm changing the name of this blog to "Monsters, Inc." and seeing if they say anything.

Anyway, The only way I got to play it with a ROM. Otherwise, I wouldn't have even known it existed. It's weird because it's an early Rockstar game (back when they were known as DMA Design) and it's shockingly entertaining. This is the kind of game that's crying out for a re-release or downloadable version. Come on, Rockstar, you know you want to.

Earthworm Jim

Earthworm Jim was a bolt from the blue. Find me another game where an earthworm in a space suit launches cows, then fights a snowman in Hell, then protects an angry (yet adorable) puppy, and fights a boss named Queen Pulsating, Bloated, Festering, Sweaty, Pus-filled, Malformed, Slug-for-a-Butt.

I'll wait here.

It's not a perfect game, though. The main flaw is the awful, horrible submarine level that appears near the beginning of the game. In it, you have a limited amount of time to traverse narrow passages in a submarine that gets cracked if you bump in to anything and eventually shatters if it takes too much damage. It stops every playthrough of Earthworm Jim dead in its tracks and really makes it hard to fully appreciate.

Earthworm Jim 2

There's some debate as to whether the first game or the second is better. I lean toward the second, for a few reasons. One, the difficulty curve is greatly improved. Two, there's more diversity in the levels. Three, NO SUBMARINE LEVEL. Four, in one level Jim turns into a blind cave salamander and navigates an intestinal tract and at the end of that enters a nonsensical quiz show. More guns, more moves, more fun. And Jim eats a fish.

Earthworm Jim 2 does have one of the worst save systems ever and can be a little buggy, so it's not perfect. That being said, Earthworm Jim 2 is a great game and really the last good game in what should have been a long-running series.

Terranigma

I understand why this game was never released in the United States. Its ruminations on religion, God and the nature of existence were a little too heady at the time, and Nintendo would have had to do some major censorship to remove the references to cannibalism, the Devil, and so on.

However, it needs to be said that Terranigma is one of the best games for the Super Nintendo. I couldn't include it in the list because it wasn't released in the States, but the time is right for Square Enix to release a DS port for us. We've waited long enough, just like we have with...

Seiken Densetsu 3

How much more can I say about this game? Great story, great music, great controls, great everything. Every year that Square doesn't release it in the US is a year that I grow less interested in Square. Do the right thing, Square. Stop churning out Final Fantasy VII sequels or games like "Theatrhythm Final Fantasy," whatever that is. Let one of the great games buried in your vault out to play. I beg you.

Hey, Where's My "Let's Make A Game" Article?

I'm taking a week break from programming articles. I haven't lost my enthusiasm for writing about it. As a matter of fact, I now have an idea for this game that intrigues me even more and has given me something definite to work for.

However, I was out of town this past weekend, sick earlier this week, and going to be unavailable this weekend. I'm seriously going to have no time to program anything at all, and I'd rather not just throw something together slapdash for the sake of throwing something together.

In the meantime, I have some other things queued up. We've just wrapped our retrospective on the 20 best Super Nintendo games. We've just put up a review of Star Fox 64 3D, and I promise you I'll have a Xenoblade Chronicles and a Kirby: Mass Attack review up at some point soon.

I've also got a few more Criminally Overlooked games coming up, and an article that might explain why people whine so much about the 3DS.

Let's Make A Game should return in about a week and a half, assuming I haven't caught on fire.

Review: StarFox 64 3D

Developer: Nintendo, Q-Games
Publisher: Nintendo

The 3DS is becoming the Home of the Remake. That's not a bad thing, especially when the remakes are as well done as Ocarina of Time 3D. Still, at the end of the day, the vast majority of what's available on the 3DS are all just remakes. For those of us who have played these games back in the day repeatedly, it's disappointing.

Anyway, StarFox 64 3D delivers what the title promises: StarFox 64, in 3D. If you haven't played StarFox 64 in a long time, this is a treat. The gameplay still holds up after 14 years. Each level can be finished in about 10-15 minutes, there's a lot going on to keep an eye on, and the controls are tight.
The upgraded graphics are also fantastic. The land textures are exceptional and you can see objects at a great distance. I found myself marveling at the look of the water in Corneria and the rock textures in Venom. The main villain Andross also looks amazing. He now looks like a character that Pixar would make, clear and crisp with excellent facial animation.

The 3D effect also looks tremendous. There's a level where you fly above a star, and it's easy to tell which solar flares are close to you and which are far away. You're never doubting your distance to the target, which is essential in a fast-paced shooter like this.

So why am I so underwhelmed by StarFox 64 3D?

Don't get me wrong, I like it all right. It's a very well-made game. But when I play StarFox 64 3D, I feel like I'm eating popcorn: It's delicious, but ultimately not very satisfying. Maybe it's because Nintendo didn't add in any new missions. Maybe it's because Nintendo didn't put in online multiplayer, only local.

More than likely, it's because Nintendo hasn't added anything of import aside from the upgraded graphics and the ability to save your game automatically in between levels. Everything else is useless. Were you really clamoring for the ability to see your opponent's face in a dog fight in real-time? Do you want to tilt your 3DS to fly your Arwing? If so, congratulations! You've found your Game of the Year candidate!

It might seem hypocritical of me to give such a high rating to Ocarina of Time 3D while praising how few changes they made to the gameplay, and then thereafter complaining that they didn't make a lot of changes to StarFox 64 3D. Here's the difference: Ocarina is an all-time classic. If Nintendo would have gone back and tinkered with Ocarina, they would have ruined it. StarFox 64, while good, was never on the same level as Ocarina. A little bit of tinkering or a few extra additions wouldn't have hurt it in the least.

Look, StarFox 64 3D is a very good game, especially if it's been a while since you played StarFox 64. It's fun to play, the sound and music is great, it looks sharp. It controls well. It's still just as fun as it was back in 1997. I would love to suggest that you wait until it's $20 to purchase it, except for the fact that there isn't much to play for the 3DS.

Here's hoping Nintendo stops remaking every game in their back catalog into 3D and starts making new games. Until then, here's StarFox 64 3D. Enjoy.

Final Rating: B-

The Best Super Nintendo Games: The Final Three

So who's number one? We'll find out today.

3. Super Mario World

A great console doesn't always need a great launch title, but it helps. The NES had Super Mario Bros., the Game Boy had Tetris, and Nintendo put out Super Mario World as the launch title for the Super Nintendo. Is it the best launch title in gaming history? Probably.

Let's remember where platform games were before Super Mario World. Mario 3 didn't let you go back and beat levels you've already beaten. Other games, like Adventure Island 2, had animal buddies to help you, but they weren't the norm. Most of the platformers at the time had one entrance and one exit per level. They were meant to challenge to a point, and suprises were rare.

In Super Mario World, we had a few amazing leaps forward. You could go back and replay any level you had beaten, and you were actually encouraged to do so in order to find new levels and open up new secrets. Yoshi was a game-changer, and you could change the way he behaved by eating different shells. There were multiple exits for many of the levels, and the special world was an exercise in extreme difficulty.

The music was wonderful, and the bongos that would kick in when you would get on and off of Yoshi were awesome. The levels were so varied, and the castles were incredible. I'm running out of adjectives to describe Super Mario World, but it deserves all of them.

2. Chrono Trigger

It's very rare that you get three industry luminaries to collaborate on a project. It's even rarer that the project turns out exceeding all expectations. That's exactly what happened when Hironobu Sakaguchi, Yuji Horii and Akira Toriyama combined to create one of the best RPGs ever made in Chrono Trigger.

In a rarity for a JRPG, Chrono Trigger's plot makes perfect sense and doesn't get wrapped up in minutiae. It has twists and unexpected turns, revealing villains to be reluctant heroes and giving every character their own chance to shine.

That's not even getting into the gameplay. I'm on my fourth playthrough of Chrono Trigger, and while I would expect to be finding cracks in the game that bother me, I simply can't point out any really annoying parts of the game. There aren't any. In most RPGs, the battle system gets tedious after a fashion. Chrono Trigger's doesn't. It gets more satisfying as it wears on.

And the music is incredible too. I can't tell you how many times I didn't leave a building or a world just so I could hear the music track again. It's one of those rare games for which there are no legitimate complaints that can be raised about it. It's just good.

1. Super Metroid

The original Metroid laid down an awesome template: A lone bounty hunter, all by herself on a hostile planet, attempts to destroy the Metroids and the Space Pirates, controlled by Mother Brain and led by Ridley. It was really good, but it was a little sloppy in some areas. The maps weren't very tight, it was easy to get lost, and it didn't control as tightly as it could have.

Super Metroid was an amazing leap forward. It revisited the locations in Metroid, ramped up the tension and feeling of solitude, dialed up the bosses to 11, and gave you an emotional connection to the events in the game. It's no surprise that every subsequent Metroid game tries to remind the players in some way of Super Metroid.

It's also impressive that the designers didn't point you in any direction. They gave you a map and a few obstacles and let you do all the exploration. There's no explanation of, well, anything in the game world, but because of the tight design, you barely ever feel lost. It's a tremendous amount of faith in the player, which was rare even then.

Here's my personal Super Metroid story: I beat Crocomire, a giant lizard that you have to shoot in his big, fat, ugly face and drop into a pile of lava. His skin started burning off as he screeched and tried to escape from the lava, which freaked me out. Finally, he disappeared underneath the lava.

After such a tense battle and a weird conclusion, I just wanted to move on. I could't understand why I couldn't advance forward. I went back to the door above the level and couldn't use it. I went back to where I dropped Crocomire into the drink, and there was nothing.

Below the screen, I saw bubbles in the lava moving over to the left. They weren't there before. I followed them over to the left and got to a spiked wall.

Crocomire's skeleton burst through the wall! I nearly peed myself. I had just fought this guy! I didn't want to fight him again!

Then, his skeleton fell harmlessly to the ground. Battle over. I caught my breath and moved on.

That's the story of Super Metroid: Epic battles that lead to a satisfying conclusion. Those who've played it are nodding quietly to themselves. Those that haven't are missing one of the best games ever made.
If you want to read the rest of this list, please look here:

15-11
10-7
6-4
The Final Three

Review: The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D

Developer: Nintendo, Grezzo
Publisher: Nintendo

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is almost universally beloved. It holds a ranking of 97.48% at Game Rankings, 99/100 at Metacritic, and received one of Famitsu's rare perfect scores. It sold more copies in it initial run that Halo, Modern Warfare 2 (on either system), Metal Gear Solid 2, every Final Fantasy game except for VII, and more than any game for the Gamecube or Sega Genesis.

It seemed that an eventual re-release was therefore inevitable. But how would Nintendo re-release it? Would they push it out the door with just a little bit of 3D and some touchscreen controls and expect Ocarina to stand on its own merits? Would Nintendo try and improve it somehow and risk ruining what made it special? Let's take a look.


First of all, Nintendo made the right choices when it came to Ocarina. Instead of making massive and unnecessary changes to it, they didn't try and tinker with a good thing. Instead, they've put in additions that are surprisingly useful and at the same time can be safely ignored if you don't like them.

One of the new additions are glowing Shiekah Stones that can help you figure out where to go next. They're at very distant intervals, so you won't be constantly bombarded with them, unlike Nintendo's use of Super Guide in games like Donkey Kong Country Returns. If you do use one, you'll find that they reveal just enough to give you an idea of what to do next.

For example, there's a hint video that shows you how to gain entrance into the Fire Temple. They show three brief videos: One of Link throwing a bomb at a rolling Goron in Goron City, then moving a statue, and then wearing a red tunic and firing a hookshot. That's it. For those of us who've played that section, we understand what they're trying to tell us. For someone who's never played Ocarina before, it pushes someone in the right direction so they're not wandering around for hours. It's a great system that should be helpful for those unfamiliar with Ocarina or who haven't set foot in its world for a long, long time.

They've also thrown in the ability to fight old bosses by returning to your home and going to sleep. You can try and beat the boss as quickly as possible and they record your times. Aside from some new touchscreen controls to allow for quicker changing of gear, that's pretty much it for gameplay additions, as well it should be.

Where Ocarina 3D really shines isn't in any gameplay additions, but rather in the boost to the game's graphics. You might pooh-pooh such a boost, thinking that Ocarina looked fine the way it was. Here's the problem: You're remembering how you think Ocarina looked and not how it actually was.

Does the original 1998 version hold up well? Sure, it's not bad at all, but there are certain parts of the game that could use some touching up. For example, in the 1998 version, Hyrule Castle Town was a blurry image with superimposed 3D characters that stuck out like a sore thumb. Hyrule Field has very little to look at. Heck, every character's nose looks wrong, like they stapled a triangle onto each face.

Playing Ocarina of Time with updated visuals is a shock. It feels like we've been playing this game through a tranlucent barrier and are finally seeing it the way it was intended to be seen for the first time. The first time I saw the updated Temple of Time's exterior, I literally whispered, "Wow."

That's to say nothing of the impressive 3D work. This wasn't a mere hack-job. Everything has been redone and it looks amazing. I found myself leaning into the 3DS, like I could fall in and get lost inside its tantalizing world. During an early sequence where the camera switches to a first-person view of Navi flying around, I actually jumped at one point. I've seen this sequence countless times and it never made me jump before. That's how immersive the 3D is.

The only area of Ocarina that wasn't enhanced was the sound and music. However, I have absolutely no complaints about either area. Ocarina always sounded good (or downright scary, in the case of the ReDeads), so that was never an issue in my book.

I do have one complaint, though. On the N64 controller, the lock-on function was on the B button. It was a really natural place to put that function and felt right. However, being as there's no trigger button underneath the 3DS, they had to move the lock-on button to the left shoulder button. It doesn't exactly feel natural, but they didn't have much of a choice, I suppose. It's just a minor quibble and didn't detract from my experience at all.

Here's what it comes down to: If you've played Ocarina of Time years ago and haven't played it since then, play this. If you've never played Ocarina of Time and want to see what the attraction is, play this. If you're a fan of Ocarina of Time and still play it from time to time, play this. The 3DS version of Ocarina of Time is now the definitive version of an all-time classic, and everyone who calls themselves a gamer should play it.

Final Rating: A

Let's Make A Game! Episode 21: A More Elegant Kludge For A More Civilized Age

If you'll remember, my character was accidentally wandering off the screen. I slapped in some code to keep him in the right place, but it wasn't very elegant.

It occurred to me: There's already a function for clamping values within a valid area: MathHelper.Clamp.

I fiddled with MathHelper.Clamp a little bit. First, I did this:

player.Position.X = MathHelper.Clamp(player.Position.X + 50, 0,GraphicsDevice.Viewport.Width - player.Width);

That was pretty stupid of me. It just made the character rocket across the screen every time it went through a loop.

I realized that the value was ALREADY built in to this function. How could I be so stupid? It's right here:

player.Position.X = MathHelper.Clamp(player.Position.X, 0,GraphicsDevice.Viewport.Width - player.Width);

Changed that to 50. Boom. Done.

Another thing I changed: I decided to switch my sounds. When a character gets hit, he screams bloody murder but when he dies, he just lets out a little groan. I switched the two sounds and renamed them appropriately so I could keep track of them. Much better (and less annoying).

Next up... making the game end.

Let's Make A Game! Episode 20: Kludges And You

I'm just starting programming and I'm already taking the easy way out.

Here's the problem: My character keeps wandering off the screen to the left and on top. It doesn't matter what I do. I've copied the code directly from Microsoft and still get nowhere. It seems it's an issue with the animation somehow, since I don't have this problem without the animation active.

I have two ways I can handle this:

1. Figure out what's wrong with the animation and fix it. Dig into the numbers and break my brain against the desk until grey matter oozes out and I'm forced to start crying.
2. Say "screw it" and insert some kludged code to fix the issue.

Guess what I chose!

Right above my MathHelper.Clamp call, I tossed this in:

// Fix the "animation off the screen" problem temporarily

if (player.Position.X <= 50)
player.Position.X = 50;

if (player.Position.Y <= 50)
player.Position.Y = 50;

No more off-screen character! Everyone is happy, although there may still be an underlying problem with this animation. Not sure yet, so it's just a temporary fix (that will probably become permanent knowing myself).

I've also done a few extra things: I was tired of not necessarily knowing when I had died. I decided to toss in a special scream when the character dies and an explosion over the top of the character. It's not pretty, but it's something.

I would like to have the ship move onto the screen to start, have several explosions in a row, and then vanish when the character dies. Not sure how to do that yet. I suspect I'll learn.

The Best Super Nintendo Games: 6-4

We inch ever closer to the coveted No. 1 spot. Which game will it be? In the meantime, here are numbers six through four. Haters to the left.

6. Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island

A personal favorite of Miyamoto, Yoshi's Island was kind of a wild card in the waning days of the Super Nintendo. While billed as a sequel to Super Mario World, it was more of a prequel, and you barely played as Mario. In Nintendo's official history of Mario games, they gloss over Yoshi's Island, even though they re-released it as Super Mario Advance 3. It's just this weird black sheep of a game.

It shouldn't be. Yoshi's Island RULED. You were taking more advantage of Yoshi's powers than before, like throwing eggs and eating enemies. Your goal was to bring Baby Mario to the end of a level, and if you got hit by an enemy an insistent counter would start counting down while Baby Mario cried.

Oh, god, did he cry. It was NERVEWRACKING.

Some people hated this game because of that baby cry, but did you ever feel such an urgency? When Mario started crying, all you could think about was shutting that baby up. Isn't that what they were aiming for? Plus, "Touch Fuzzy, Get Dizzy" is a great level and tons of fun.

5. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past

Zelda's gone through many iterations of the same formula: Wade through dungeons, pick up weapons to solve puzzles, kill a boss, get heart pieces, rinse and repeat. It's easy to lose sight of where Zelda started out. When Link to the Past launched, there had been exactly two games in the series: 1986's Legend of Zelda and 1987's The Adventure of Link. It had been an agonizing five-year wait for a new Zelda game in 1991. What kind of Zelda game would we get?

The answer: Only one of the best games of all time.

A Link to the Past deepened the Zelda series and added or refined a lot of things that we take for granted now: The Master Sword, The Lost Woods, a Light and Dark World, potions and bottles, all sorts of stuff that's now part of every Zelda game.

The dungeons are also incredibly interesting and blew my teenage mind. While the original Zelda's dungeons were simple "here is a map, here are some keys, go exploring" affairs, Link to the Past had multi-tiered, multiple entrance juggernauts that could seriously mess with your head. An extremely impressive achievement.

4. Donkey Kong Country 2

If Donkey Kong Country was a good game, Donkey Kong Country 2 upped the ante: More levels, more secrets, higher difficulty and a whole new secret ending that was incredibly difficult to get to unless you really tried hard.

It's also notable that the characters actually played a little differently in Donkey Kong Country 2. I remember playing the original with a friend. We would always fight over who got to play as Donkey Kong because he was just that much cooler. Neither of us wanted Diddy Kong, because he couldn't do anything extra.

In Donkey Kong Country 2, both characters were worth using. Dixie Kong was actually pretty fun to play as since she could use her hair as a helicopter. I didn't mind playing as Dixie, and my friend would gladly take Diddy since he didn't want to play as a girl, and everyone was happy.

That was kind of the way that Donkey Kong Country 2 was built: Let's make everyone happy in the best way possible. People liked mine-cart levels? Let's put in four of them. People wanted the game a little harder? OK, here's Toxic Tower. More animal helpers? Here's a spider, a snake and a parrot. It's a bona-fide classic.
If you want to read the rest of this list, please look here:

15-11
10-7
6-4
The Final Three

...And Panic Sets In

I'm starting to freak out a little bit.

When "learning programming" was still a nebulous concept for me, imagining how I was going to make my game was a fun mental exercise, nothing more. Sure, I was going to make a game someday, but it was still a ways off. It wasn't something I was going to be starting today by any means.
However, learning XNA is easier than I thought it would be. I'm understanding the concepts easier than I assumed I would, and I'm starting to realize that soon it's going to be time to put my money where my mouth is. It's making me nervous.

When you think about all the work that goes in to a video game: Planning, level design, character design, programming, sound design, marketing, fine-tuning... it's overwhelming. I'm trying to break it all in to chunks mentally, but it's not working.

Of course, when I start freaking out, I start thinking of other projects I can do instead. Maybe I could write a book, or make an album of chiptunes, or do this, or do that. Anything to keep me from actually making something big or having to commit so much time to something.

I have to keep on reminding myself that nothing worth doing is easy. This isn't about "having fun," although making games can be like that. This is about doing something big that I've always wanted to do. I just need to suck it up and do it.

Let's Make a Game! Episode 19: Timing Is Everything

Well, that was easy enough.

Since we already had the variables in place to fix the timing of our weapon, it was merely a matter of throwing in an if -> then command. Done and done.
So now, I thought it would be a good idea to give some indicator to the player that their ship has been damaged. Otherwise, the only way you know if you've been hit is by looking in the upper right-hand corner and seeing your health drop by a bit. There's a few things we could do:

• A physical cue. Your ship could shake or something like that.
• An audio cue.

The audio cue is easier to make, I think. Plus, while you may miss the subtle shake of your ship, you can't avoid a sound that makes your character yell, right? I found a freeware sound of someone screaming "Ow," so let's see if I can toss it in.

I copied the file into the directory, and created this variable:

// The sound used when the player is hit
SoundEffect playerHit; 

I've loaded the content like this:

// Load the "playerhit" sound effect
playerHit = Content.Load("sound/ouch");

And then placed the reference in the area it should be:

// Play an audio cue to show us we got hit
playerHit.Play();

When I run it, it says that the file "Sound/ouch" doesn't exist. How can that be? We've loaded the content, right? It's in the right folder, correct? That should be all we need to do, I would think. Yet, we're getting nothing. Huh.

I fiddled around in the MSDN looking for answers but couldn't get anywhere. Finally, I noticed this little guy sitting in Visual Studio:

Figuring I didn't have anything to lose, I navigated to the folder where I had saved my "ouch.wav" file and drag-and-dropped the file into this Sound folder.

I run my program...

And it works! My character now screams every time he gets hit! Woo-hoo! I've made someone yell in pain repeatedly!

Just Some Music

A little something from White Rabbits:

The Best Super Nintendo Games: 10-7

More great Super Nintendo games! Today we count down 10-7.

10. Secret of Mana

Multiplayer action/RPGs were still in their infancy when Secret of Mana burst on to the scene. There wasn't anything really like it at the time: A game where you levelled up your weapons, your magic and your own stats all while actually pressing buttons to attack instead of sitting in a turn-based menu.

But the best part of Secret of Mana? You could play it with a friend, or even two friends if you had the equipment for it. Name me another co-op multiplayer game for consoles in 1993. Go on. I'm waiting. Not only that, but with some seriously unforgettable music and a cool story, Secret of Mana deserves a place in gaming history.

9. Donkey Kong Country

Shigeru Miyamoto famously didn't like Donkey Kong Country. That's his loss. Donkey Kong Country may not be the most innovative game in the world, but there's a good reason that it's the highest-selling game for the Super Nintendo.

It's not just the great graphics that still hold up years later. It's not just the music, by turns haunting and pulse-pounding. What made Donkey Kong Country so great and continues to make it great is the incredibly solid controls and tight level design. Cheap deaths are rare and secrets abound. Some secrets require great leaps of faith and some require you to be extremely inquisitive.

And if that wasn't all, Donkey Kong Country kickstarted the trend of mine-cart levels. That alone has to be worth something.

8. Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars

Square and Nintendo had developed a close relationship during the Super Nintendo years. This relationship was so close that Nintendo handed over their flagship franchise to Square for an RPG, something that Nintendo never, ever did. Nintendo's trust paid off, and we got Super Mario RPG as the result. Using the computer-generated graphic style that powered Donkey Kong Country, Super Mario RPG unleashed the gamer on the Mushroom Kingdom to defeat Smithy.

Super Mario RPG also popularized a major change in the way battles in RPGs were run. Most RPGs to this point were merely spreadsheet wars, where you select a command and let your character do it for X amount of damage. Instead of selecting your moves and waiting for the character to act, you became an active participant with Timed Hits, where you could to press a button at a certain point during your attack animation in order to increase your attack power. You could also defend yourself against attacks in the same manner. It's hard to overstate how impressive that is. Since then, RPG battle systems have changed considerably, and you can thank Super Mario RPG for some of that.

Super Mario RPG is also notable because it's the first game that lets you play as Bowser. Of course, now we're used to Bowser being a cuddly, bumbling force of evil, but before Super Mario RPG he was notable merely as a foil for Mario. Now he actually has a personality, and that's all thanks to the fine work of Squaresoft.

7. Final Fantasy VI

Some will argue that Final Fantasy VI is the best game of the Final Fantasy series. It's hard not to agree, since Final Fantasy VI packs in beautifully emotional moments, an epic story and an excellent magic system.

Let's also talk about the villain. Kefka was one of the first villains that I had a deep personal dislike for. His actions were unforgivable. He was the equivalent of a mad dog on a chain that the Emperor failed to keep a grip on. Kefka may have lacked a little depth, and his motivation was primarily summed up in his evil laugh, but when a character's laugh is that evil, motivation is moot.

Everyone who plays Final Fantasy VI has at least one favorite moment from this game: Shadow's dreams, the opera scene, Celes and Cid on the desert island or the attack on Cyan's kingdom. I could go on about memorable moments, but people who've played it are most likely nodding along in agreement. Those who haven't need to do themselves the favor of picking this game up by any means necessary. It's worth every penny.
If you want to read the rest of this list, please look here:

20-16
15-11
6-4
The Final Three

Let's Make A Game! Episode 18: Laser Overload

Seriously, adding score and health to this game is EASY. All we did were declare a few variables, loaded a font, added the score up and put it on screen. That's it. I could drop the code in this post, but it's seriously easy to do. It's not even worth discussing.
However, now we're getting into uncharted territory. We have two choices: Keep messing around with this program or move onto the next one. I'd like to keep messing around with this program for a while, I think. Not too long, because this isn't that exciting of a program.

The first thing I'd like to do is fix the shooting. You have to shoot each enemy several times before you kill it, and your character automatically shoots. There has to be a better way of doing it.

I think we should do this: Each bullet is enough to kill an enemy, and the space bar/a forward swipe of the finger shoots. Why? Well, once we start creating a difficulty curve, having each enemy take several bullets is going to be problematic. We also want to turn off auto-shooting because we can seriously make this game ten times better when we give that power to the player.

I've also decided to download a fresh copy of the code and create a backup. If I screw up the code too badly, I can always go back and do more stuff.

Quick Note: This fresh copy of the code has the main character off the screen as well. Ah well. I'm not going to stress about it.

So here's the code I added underneath the UpdatePlayer() method:

// Shooting fix... only fire when we say so

if (currentKeyboardState.IsKeyDown(Keys.Space))

{
AddProjectile(player.Position + new Vector2(player.Width / 2, 0));

// Play the laser sound
laserSound.Play();

}

I also went ahead and removed the autofire function. Let's see what happens when we run it.

Well, it only shoots when we press the Space bar, but it shoots too much. It's HILARIOUS, don't get me wrong, but it's a little sloppy. We're on our way, though.

Syndicate Reboot: Oh, For God's Sake

The Syndicate reboot is real. Unfortunately, it is also a "visceral first-person shooter experience." Yes, that's exactly why we wanted Syndicate back, because we wanted to play a game that was nothing like Syndicate.

What is with companies thinking that every AAA game needs to be an FPS? One only needs to look at the amazing indie scene to see that we don't always want to play first-person shooters.

Idiots.

Why Is Nintendo Panicking?

Why is Nintendo panicking?

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to notice the panic coming from their offices. The massive 3DS price cut and the weird second thumb stick accessory they're releasing for the 3DS appears to be proof. But why?


I mean, the 3DS' sales, while not stellar, are OK. Nintendo should be sitting on a pile of DS and Wii money that would seemingly take them through any rough patches. Plus, the Wii U is coming out in 2012, and that promises to change console gaming for good. So what's making Nintendo nervous?

It may appear obvious what the problem is:

1. Nintendo makes their money in handhelds.
2. Their latest handheld isn't working like they hoped.
3. PANIC

On top of that, the sales of the Wii are slowing down from their peak. With so many things going on at once, that big pile of cash they built up is going to shrink quickly.

However, they've sold a lot of 3DS units since the price drop. Nintendo crowed about this in a press release today: Since the price cut, their sales jumped up 260%. So, once again, why is Nintendo panicking?

We have another story in waiting in the wings. Apparently, Nintendo might be having major issues with the Wii U. Developers are complaining that it's not strong enough to do what they want it to do and that the tablet controller isn't up to snuff. Software updates for the tablet keep getting pushed out, and there's still no resolution. A rumor states that the release date, which might have been July 2012, has been pushed to September 2012 due to these major issues.

So, if the sales of the DS are starting to tail off, the 3DS isn't as big a hit as Nintendo was hoping, the Wii is starting to lose steam and the Wii U isn't working like they planned, where does that leave the Big N?

I'm not going to fall in line with commentators who run around predicting gloom and doom for Nintendo every time something goes slightly wrong. I'm not that guy, and I like taking a longer view. Besides, the Wii U stuff is just rumor (albeit rumor from a pretty credible source).

But Nintendo is a little besieged right now, no doubt. It might explain the waves of panic wafting out of their doors.

Let's Make A Game! Episode 17: The Sound and the Fury

Putting sound into our program is a lot easier than I thought it would be. I thought we were going to have to create new classes and all sorts of other things to get it to work. Instead, it's just naming the variables, loading the content and playing the sounds in the right places.
Since we're in the home stretch, here are a few things I'm going to be experimenting with once we're done:

• Changing out the sounds
• Changing out the sprites
• Instead of having the weapon autofire, have it fire only when I press the space bar
• Create a difficulty curve
• Create a title screen

There's also a code sample for a platformer available for download. That'll be next on my to-do list after I start breaking up this program and making it do crazy things.

The Best Super Nintendo Games: 15-11

We continue our countdown of the 10 best Super Nintendo games, starting with:

15. Mega Man X2

Mega Man had already gotten a gritty reboot in the original Mega Man X, but Mega Man X2 took it to the next level. There were multiple paths for the levels, some truly difficult bosses, and just like the first Mega Man X game, defeating some bosses before other bosses could change the later levels. The story: Mega Man has defeated Sigma and now is tracking down the rest of the Mavericks. Along the way, he finds new powers and meets up with three mysterious villains who have a strange plot. What are they planning? (Hint: Revive Sigma.) While not as tight as the first game, it's still great fun.

14. Kirby Super Star

Kirby Super Star was a victim of bad timing and a poor game description. They couldn't sell people on a 2D game released right before Super Mario 64, first of all. Secondly, when the box art touts "8 games in one!", it immediately conjures up images of crappy games mashed together.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Kirby Super Star was surprisingly cohesive, and all of the games together add up to one stellar package. For instance, in one game, you use powers like normal, by inhaling opponents and stealing their powers. In another, you find the various powers throughout the world and can summon them at will, but can't steal other enemies' powers, and so on. Throw in multiplayer co-op and you have one of the best Kirby games ever. Too bad barely anybody got to play it.

13. Final Fantasy IV

For many, Final Fantasy IV was the first real RPG they played. You could definitely make a case that this game should be ranked higher on the list, but don't assume that I hate it. Like I said at the outset, you could make a case for almost any game on this list from here on out. Final Fantasy IV is one of the best RPGs of all time, and certainly one of the most influential.

Final Fantasy IV spun a gigantic tale of redemption, suffering, and love while pioneering a fantastic battle system. This stuff is de rigeur now, but comparing Final Fantasy IV to any other previous JRPG shows how forward-looking this game was. It's been eclipsed by other RPGs, but it still deserves a huge amount of respect for what it achieved.

12. Super Mario Kart

The idea of video game characters riding around in go-karts is a little old hat by now, but when Super Mario Kart came out, it was a bolt of lightning across the sky. (Or, a banana on the track, if you will.) You could actually have a racing game with go-karts? With weapons? And characters that DIDN'T normally belong in a racing game? It was an extremely novel concept then, and it remains extremely fun today.

Battle Mode was really where Super Mario Kart shined. Once again, this was a huge leap forward. Up until this point, we hadn't really seen a multiplayer racing game where the point wasn't to win the race but defeat your opponent with weapons. It was a revelation in multiplayer, and countless friendships were forged/lost playing it. A very deserving game on this list.

11. Mega Man X

Mega Man X changed Mega Man from a simple character with giant eyes who went from level to level beating bosses into a conflicted yet supremely powerful action-packed hero. Some would argue that this change was for the worst, but it's not the fault of the original. Mega Man X is an incredibly tight game that deserves all the accolades it's received.

One of the awesome things about this game was the subtle way that levels changed, often without you realizing it. For example, if you destroyed Storm Eagle's flying stage and then entered Spark Mandrill's factory level, you would find parts of the flying stage laying on the ground and the electricity would be haywire. If you beat Chill Penguin before heading into Flame Mammoth's level, all of the the lava in the level would be solid ground. It doesn't sound like much, but this was revolutionary at the time, and it still manages to be pretty cool today.
If you want to read the rest of this list, please look here:

20-16
10-7
6-4
The Final Three

3DTV Struggling

So, how is 3DTV doing so far? According to the New York Post, 3DTV is struggling. It appears ESPN, one of the early champions of 3DTV, considered pulling out last year, but worst of all, 3DTV might be dragging down the entire TV industry!

Swann believes 3-D has scared and confused consumers -- and is now tanking the entire retail television marketplace.

In a recent survey of 45,000 households, Riddhi Patel of research firm IHS iSuppli found that America's "ongoing love affair with television" -- new and improved sets, that is -- may be over.

Her research found that only 13 percent of those surveyed planned on purchasing a new set in the next 12 months.

Patel says potential TV buyers are most interested in price, picture quality and Internet connectability -- not 3-D.

I point this out because I've said it before and I'll say it again: Pushing things on consumers that they don't want never works. 3D is something that people like in movies. It's a once-in-a-while treat, not an everyday thing.

In fact, the easiest device for viewing 3D is the 3DS, and sales on the 3DS are struggling. Sure, there are other factors at play (most notably, price) but still.

How did manufacturers think that 3DTV, with its bulky glasses and so-so picture, was going to succeed? The mind boggles.

Let's Make A Game! Episode 16: BAYSPLOSION

I'm now in the part of the tutorial that discusses making explosions. I threw it all together and ended up with no explosions. Now, I've done all this stuff before. How come it wasn't working? I went back through and looked at my code.

The instructions were thusly: I was supposed to put this code:

// If not active and health <= 0

if (enemies[i].Health <= 0)

{

// Add an explosion

AddExplosion(enemies[i].Position);

}

In the UpdateMethod() method. I was sure I had done that, but I put it in the wrong place. I put it in the right place, and we now have this:

BAYSPLOSIONS

So this wasn't the most exciting episode. I'm sorry to disappoint. However, it's exciting for me because I noticed a problem, went through and figured out where it was. That's exciting for me. I'm excited.

The 20 Best Super Nintendo Games

It's hard to believe it's been 20 years since the Super Nintendo launched in the US. The Super Nintendo had one of the deepest libraries in gaming's short but storied history. If you grabbed a game off the shelf, you could be pretty much guaranteed that it would be either a classic or darn close to one.

At this point in gaming,  most designers had worked through the kinks of design, having worked out what works and what doesn't through the years of the Atari and the NES. Finally, they were finally able to stretch their imaginations and create games instead of fighting with the system. The fantastic library of the SNES was the result.

Before we start, it's important to note that you can make a case for almost any one of these games as the number one game for the Super Nintendo. I also excluded games that did NOT release in the States, but we'll cover some of those in another article entitled "The Rest." So, if you see a game that you love left off the list, don't worry! I didn't forget about it, unless I did.

20. The Lost Vikings

Blizzard was a relatively young developer in 1992 with very few games under their belt when they launched The Lost Vikings. It's the story of three Vikings who get transported to a futuristic spaceship and must use their unique abilities to get home. Along the way, they complain about being there, threaten each other, and die horrific, hilarious deaths. The puzzles were clever, the animations were sharp, and the dialogue was razor-sharp.

It was really the first sign that Blizzard was more than just a regular developer, and the success they had with this game helped them to raise enough money to make Warcraft. The rest, of course, is history.

19. Super Punch-Out!!

Super Punch-Out!! usually gets ignored in favor of the original NES game, but it really shouldn't be passed over like that. The NES game may have Mike Tyson, but Super Punch-Out!! has far better fighting mechanics, crisper graphics, more fighters, and tighter controls. It may not be quite as hard to beat the Bruiser twins as it is to beat Mike Tyson (or Mr. Dream if you're a total wuss), but Super Punch-Out!! is still plenty difficult.

Simply put, it's a great refinement of the principles laid down in the original. Plus, it's fun beating up on Gabby Jay.

18. Super Castlevania IV

To play Super Castlevania IV now is to see how far games have come in the last 15 years. Simon Belmont moves slowly, his jumps are awkward, and it's hard to control. And yet... it's still so much fun.


Super Castlevania IV sets the mood remarkably well to the point where you feel that you're actually traversing a scary castle led by Dracula. It's great because it takes a lot of the fun concepts from the original Castlevania game and then writes them in big, bold letters to create an experience that you'll never forget.

17. Earthbound

Earthbound took the RPG concept and made it feel real. Instead of being about swords and sorcery, it's in the modern day. Whip-smart humor and wacky references abound. Okay, so the graphics aren't great, and for those who like a little more gravitas in their RPGs (like myself), at first Earthbound appears to be a big goof. As it goes along, though, it gets deeper and stakes get raised higher and higher. It really is a fantastic RPG that brings RPG tropes into the modern day, eliminated random battles (yay!) and sets the stage for the superior Mother 3.

16. Star Fox

For a lot of gamers, this was the first time that we saw real 3-D gaming on a console. Think about that. Up until that point, most games on consoles either faked 3-D using Mode 7 graphics or just eschewed 3D altogether for 2D. Sure, those games looked great, but they were still only 2D. All of a sudden, we were able to play in real, honest-to-non-denominational-deity 3D space battles. Sure, Star Fox was a little blocky and primitive, and yes, it was on rails. Even with those caveats, it really had a fantastic impact on gaming as a whole. If only we would have gotten to play the canned Star Fox 2...

If you want to read the rest of this list, please look here:

15-11
10-7
6-4
The Final Three
The Rest