Opinions In Brief

Opinion 1: Activision Vs. Infinity Ward

First of all, Activision says that Infinity Ward heads West and Zampella were getting a little too big for their britches.  I can see this happening.  Not that I know West and Zampella (I don't), but sometimes people in a newly-minted successful position start making demands that they're not entitled to make.


That being said, the way that Activision mishandled the situation was outrageous. If Infinity Ward is to be believed, they withheld money, which is really the whole point of making a game.  You can make the "games are art, man!" argument all day, but the point of all of it is to do something you love and get paid for it.  If Activision withheld that monetary benefit, they negated the entire point of Infinity Ward's work.

Watch yourself, Bungie.  That's all I'm saying.

Opinion 2: The 3DS

Most of the objections to the 3DS are about a few things:  The price and the feeling that it's a bandwagon product.

First, no one knows the price yet.  Knowing Nintendo, they're not going to price this out of the hands of their consumers.  That's not their style.  Look at the Wii.  Instead of making a $300+ system with HD, their focus was on affordability.  50 million Wiis later, and it's safe to say they learned that lesson in a big way.  So, can we stop whining about the price?

Second, it's not like Nintendo just crapped out the 3DS after watching Avatar.  Their hardware process is a long and arduous route.  They spent a lot of money in R&D trying to determine whether or not this was a good way to go, and I think it'll succeed amazingly.

My major problem with 3D is always the glasses.  3D without glasses and hopefully at a proper price point?  I'm in.

--

I can't think of any other news that jumps out at me right now, but if I think of anything else, it'll get a mention here for sure.

Where Have You Been?

Yeah, I know, I know.  It's been a while since I posted.  A few things conspired against me:

1)  I'm writing for Gaming Trend again.  So far I've thrown together reviews for New Super Mario Bros. Wii, Little King's Story, Zelda: Spirit Tracks, Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story, Cave Story, and Rage of the Gladiator.  That would explain that.

2)  I'm starting a writing firm called Word Forge to do some freelance copywriting.  It's exciting stuff, but very time-consuming.

3)  We took a trip to Mexico.  A lot of fun.  I didn't burn at all.

4)  My job sucks and is stressful, so therefore you have reason #2.

I'll post some opinions soon.  I haven't died, just vanished for a bit.

Also, happy 4th anniversary, blog!  Here's to many more.

Review: Rage of the Gladiator

Developer: Gamelion Studios
Publisher: Gamelion Studios

Anybody up for another action-based puzzle-strategy beat-em-up? It's not exactly a crowded genre, with only the Punch-Out games filling the gap. Enter Rage of the Gladiator.

The best way to describe Rage of the Gladiator is this: Punch-Out!! with mythical creatures and a skill tree. You play from a first-person perspective and face off in an arena against an opponent.

The controls are very tight. That's a necessity for any Punch-Out clone, and Gamelion Studios nails it. Just like Punch-Out!!, you can dodge left, right, or block head-on attacks. Unlike Punch-Out!!, you can also jump, kick to the left or the right, and call down special attacks that rain destruction from the heavens.
Your opponents look great, with lots of detail and great animation. Just like Punch-Out!!, your opponents will tip their punches with subtle (and not-so-subtle) tics, and the sound work does its job with that too.

Also, having a skill tree in this sort of game is a really neat idea, and I hope Nintendo is taking notes. Here's how it works: After every victory, you get to allocate skill points toward different disciplines: Offense, Defense or Magic. Offensive skills will increase your power incrementally or reward you with more powerful special attacks. Defensive skills will improve your ability to withstand a beating and give you defensive skills that can negate enemy damage. Magic skills will allow you to build up your special meter faster and will open up other skills that can, for instance, transform you into a giant. Figuring out which ones you want is great, and since they're all pretty useful, you can’t really go wrong when selecting them.

There's one part of Rage of the Gladiator that I would really like to single out in particular as worthy of praise: The difficulty curve. This is a clinic in difficulty curves. While you do get a tutorial at the beginning, Rage of the Gladiator doesn't expect you to remember all of your various moves right off the bat. It starts you out with just remembering how to dodge and when, then gives you an opponent that requires that you jump, then gives you an opponent that requires that you block, then hands you another opponent that requires that you kick. After a while, you're using all of these moves in tandem without noticing. That takes serious planning and skill on the part of the developers, and it's worth mentioning.

There are a few negatives to Rage of the Gladiator. First, if you've played Punch-Out!!, you mostly know what you're getting. Aside from the skill tree, there's not a lot of new ground broken here. Considering the paucity of Punch-Out!! clones it's not a huge issue, but be warned: If you don't like Punch-Out!!, you won't like Rage of the Gladiator.

Second, there's only one arena in the game, and you only see the part directly in front of you. I know they did this to limit the size of the game so that they could fit it on WiiWare while still giving the opponents the detail they deserve, but it still feels kind of cheap.

Third, Rage of the Gladiator is presented with an overly-serious narrative. It's obvious that someone spent a whole lot of time on this story, but it just doesn't fit with the tone of the rest of the game. You're playing a fighting game where one of the special moves allows you to repeatedly kick an Archdevil in the crotch. I don't want the fun interrupted every few minutes for another tale of death and revenge from a narrator who sounds like he just drank two jack-and-Cokes and smoked a pack of Pall Malls. Rage of the Gladiator didn't need a story, but oh well. It's there.

Finally, some of your special moves take a while. Some of them take about ten to twenty seconds for the whole animation to play. Don't get me wrong, the animations look great the first time. The third, fourth, fifth and sixth times? Eh.

However, taking the package as a whole, Rage of the Gladiator is good fun. It's another great WiiWare game that will give you about 5-7 hours of playtime, and as long as you're a fan of Punch-Out or even like it in passing, you'll enjoy Rage of the Gladiator.

David Jaffe on Digital Distribution

>Someone has positive comments about digital distribution...and for once I agree with them!

He goes on to add: "For me, digital distribution was a really big deal - just the fact that we're allowed to see games like Shadow Complex and Flower, games that would never be greenlit for $60 retail products.

"The idea of bypassing retail and speaking directly to the customer is pretty exciting," added Jaffe.

Agreed. That has been fantastic. We're seeing a larger variety of games because not every game has to be a AAA $60 game anymore. Can you imagine how outraged you would be if they tried to sell Mega Man 9 for $60? ;I mean, it's a fine game, but that would be crazy talk.

So, insofar as there's a large variety of games that don't necessarily have to sell for large amounts, digital distribution has been a boon, and it's important to realize that. There are two sides to every coin.

Criminally Overlooked Games: Dark Cloud

I'm a big believer in the holy triumvirate of game design: Controls, Achievement and Anticipation. Controls are obvious: You shouldn't have to struggle with the controller to get the game to do what you want it to do. Achievement means that goals should always be attainable yet challenging. Anticipation means that you should always wonder what's around the corner, whether it may be a new weapon, a cool cutscene, or a neat backdrop.


Dark Cloud was one of those games that sold a ton of copies and was quickly forgotten. Released around the time of the launch of the Playstation 2, Dark Cloud doesn't carry a very wide footprint in gaming now. It had its flaws as well, sometimes glaringly so. However, since it held true to the holy triumvirate of game design, it holds up really well.

Dark Cloud was made by Level-5, which has now exploded with Professor Layton, Dragon Quest 8 and 9, and Rogue Galaxy under their belts. Dark Cloud was one of their first proving grounds, where they showed they could make memorable characters with fun mechanics and memorable setpieces.

Here's the plot: You're Toan, a character who looks suspiciously like Link. The Dark Genie has destroyed all life on the planet, and you're tasked with finding pieces of the world and putting it back together. Along the way, you'll make friends with a diverse group of adventurers, like a half-cat half-human girl, a reluctant desert warrior, and a machine-gun toting flying dwarf. You'll rebuild cities, go fishing, and try and stop the Dark Genie from being created.

At it's core, Dark Cloud is a Rogue-like, with randomly generated dungeons and weapons littering the world. Instead of levelling up your character, you level up your weapons with gems you find. You snap them into the weapon, and when your weapon levels up, they become part of the stats of the weapon. After a while, you can turn that weapon into a gem which can be snapped into a new, more powerful weapon to give it improved attributes or upgrade the weapon into a new weapon.

When in the dungeons, you're able to find various globes scattered around that generally have pieces of a city in them. You're able to absorb those pieces and then bring them back in order to construct the city according to the wishes of the townspeople. Sometimes, they'll have simple requests like, "I had a ladder, please bring me one." Sometimes, they'll be more complex, like, "I need to be near water." Sometimes, like in the desert area, they'll be really outlandish, like, "Match up the face on my house with the face on this totem pole AND put me nearby water." Either way, it's immensely satisfying to place trees and ponds and houses and waterwheels and then be able to walk amongst those very same buildings that you put there. It's gives you a really cool sense of accomplishment that you don't get from anywhere else.

When talking about Dark Cloud, I find myself talking more about the mechanics of the game than the underlying plot. In that sense, it's a lot like Diablo, where the design makes the game. However, since Dark Cloud is Japanese, you have to bet there will be some lengthy (yet interesting) cutscenes and some truly strange moments. For instance, one fortune teller tells your fortune by jumping on your head, covering your face with her skirt, and wiggling back and forth. It's weird.

Speaking of the mechanics, Dark Cloud shouldn't be fun. For example, you have manage your thirst. If you get too thirsty, you'll start losing health. Therefore, you have to carry tons of bottles of water with you in especially deep dungeons. Does this make the game more fun? No, absolutely not. Also, your weapons can break. When they break, they're gone for good. All the stats and special bonuses you've implanted in them are gone as well. Does this make the game more fun? No way. I guess the core concept of Dark Cloud was so much fun that it holds up even with its flaws or weird decisions.

Level-5 went back to the well with a bigger budget for Dark Cloud 2, adding more features onto the original game including fish fighting, golfing in the dungeons, photography, and a giant robot. No more managing thirst or perma-broken weapons. You would think that these changes would have improved the game, but I still say that the original was the better game. It was design distilled down to it's purest essence, and that's why Dark Cloud is Criminally Overlooked.

Some EEDAR Analysis:

From EEDAR:

Core Games on Wii Continue To Struggle

No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle has scored top reviews averaging a 90 (out of 100) since its release. However, sales came less than 30,000 units for its first week (January 26, 2010 release). Given that the game is more targeted to the traditional core gamers (who tend to be more attached to the Xbox 360 and PS3) this is yet another sign that the Wii is a difficult device for third party publishers to succeed on with M Rated titles. Other titles that have failed to perform despite strong review scores on the Wii include Dead Space: Extraction (ERTS) and MadWorld (Sega). Of course, all three titles did have low marketing budgets, which is likely the wrong strategy to use when attempting to target the Wii consumer, even if you are targeting the “core” market. (Italics ours.)

This is what I've been hammering on. It's like publishers are just expecting that core games will sell on the Wii without any promotion. Here's the thing: They'll promote the crap out of Modern Warfare 2 and Dante's Inferno, ensuring huge sales. Then they say, "See?  Games sell on the 360 and PS3." Then they don't promote Wii games, and then they say, "See?  Games don't sell on the Wii."

OF COURSE THEY DON'T SELL IF YOU DON'T PROMOTE THEM!

Even for traditionally "core" games, they promote them like crazy! How large is the Madden marketing budget? How large was the marketing for Halo 3? It just baffles me, it really does.

January 2010 NPD Results

Via Kotaku and GoNintendo:

01. New Super Mario Bros. Wii (Wii) - 656,700
02. Mass Effect 2 (Xbox 360) - 572,100
03. Wii Fit Plus (Wii) - 555,700
04. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (Xbox 360) - 326,700
05. Mario Kart Wii (Wii) - 310,900
06. Wii Sports Resort (Wii) - 297,600
07. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (PS3) - 259,000
08. Army of Two: The 40th Day (Xbox 360) - 246,500
09. Just Dance (Wii) - 191,900
10. Darksiders (Xbox 360) - 171,200

U.S. consumers dropped $597.9 million on video games during the month of January, down 12 percent from January 2009, when software sales reached $682.6 million.


Jan 09 to Jan 2010 just for comparison’s sake…

Wii: 679,200 / 465,800
NDS: 510,800 / 422,200
X360: 309,000 / 332,800
PS3: 203,200 / 276,900
PSP: 172,300 / 100,100
PS2: 101,200 / 41,600

So what do we learn?  The Wii is still ahead, but demand has slowed considerably.  360 and PS3 demand is up though, so that can't be blamed on a slow economy.  PS2 demand is waaaaay down.  I think last year was the PS2's last gasp, and we'll see new systems off the shelf shortly.

Also, people, I'm begging you: Stop buying Just Dance.  Please.