Five developers that I want to give money to
by K1
Posted on Thursday, February 28, 2008
As much as I loathe when a gaming site does the list thing, this topic came up in conversation and I felt that it was something worth writing about. I do want to avoid crap like "Top 100 games with hats in them and if you disagree then screw you" though, so I just want to express that this list is, like, my opinion man, so just chill if you think I am in the wrong.Five Developers I want to give money to (but I can't, within reason):
#5 - Shigesato Itoi (Earthbound / Mother series):This one is the biggest stretch since technically I can import Japanese versions of Mother 3 and Mother 1+2, but his games are ones I want to play in English to get the maximum amount of enjoyment out of them. Unfortunately, Nintendo seems to have a secret agenda to keep the Mother series from ever returning to the states. They have even gone so far as to remove the Earthbound Virtual Console demo from the U.S. version of Smash Bros. Brawl (or so I hear). At least Ness is still in Smah Bros., so they can't deny the existence of Mother completely. Sad.
#4 - Clover Studio (Okami, God Hand, Viewtiful Joe):While it's true that the talent and management behind Clover Studio are still around and making games inside and out of Capcom, what's nice about buying games from a particular studio is how you can vote with your gaming dollar on what developers you want to see games from again. The biggest slap in the face with this one is how Okami is getting ported to the Wii, but in buying it none of the money or credit is really going to Clover Studio proper. Again, cry.
#3 - Ben Croshaw / Yahtzee ( 5 Days a Stranger, 7 Days a Skeptic, 1213):Why yes, I am referring to that Yahtzee, the one that talks really fast about games and it's funny. As it turns out, he can make a mean game as well as he can bitch about them. Ben's adventure games are some of the most well-written adventure games I've had the pleasure of playing. So much in fact, that I feel he deserves money for a game that he offers for free. If his games were offered on say Steam or Xbox Live Arcade I would pony up the cash for 'em on the spot. Better yet, if I could get a hard copy on disc that would be quite nice.
(Note: As I was typing this and linking to his games, I noticed that he has a donation page set up for each game, and if you donate 5 bucks you get a special edition version. I think I might just take him up on that.)
#2 - Garry Newman / Facepunch Studios (Garry's Mod, Facewound):Now before someone gets fresh and says something like "well just buy Garry's Mod off of Steam, you mingebag," I just want to point out that I HAVE purchased Garry's Mod, and in fact I even paid for Gold Membership at the gmod forums to get early access to beta versions of Garry's Mod. I'm that hardcore, alright? It's just that I want to give him more money. I *heart* Garry.
#1 - Daisuke Amaya / Pixel (Doukutsu Monogatari / Cave Story)Man, this guy. How is it one of the best games I've played in the past couple years is a freeware game made by one person? This guy deserves my money so much it's a crime. I want to pay to own a copy of this game. I want to own it on multiple consoles, including at least one handheld. I want to buy all kinds of crazy Cave Story merchandise, like t-shirts, plushes, and action figures. I want there to be a sequel, I would wait in line until midnight to buy it.
But I can't. Article Permalink
The cat came back...
by Nanohana
Posted on Thursday, February 21, 2008
Here is an excerpt from a conversation I had with J. Durfy regarding this:
J. Durfy: I thought you were over hello kitty, is it like some sort of addiction where you can fall back into your old ways?
Me: Hrrm, the game looks awesome though. Just tired of getting the merchandise 50 million times a year.
I already have like 6 notepads that are shaped like her head.
Article PermalinkRise from your grave
by alzabo
Posted on Monday, February 11, 2008
A decade ago,
Adventure Games died.
A good place to look for examples of the genre's death this is LucasArts. After Grim Fandango performed poorly in 1998, the lackluster sales of Escape from Monkey Island caused LucasArts to abandon every project that didn’t have “Star Wars” in the title. Other companies were having the similar problems, Westwood Studio’s Blade Runner did poorly the previous year and Sierra Entertainment had stopped producing adventure games. In a round of layoffs Sierra fired a quarter of their workforce; including Al Lowe and Scott Murphy, who created Leisure Suit Larry and Space Quest respectively. It was a sad time to be a PC adventure game enthusiast, some say 3D games in general and the proliferation of First Person Shooters specifically killed the adventure game genre. There are other theories about what killed the genre, but I’m not writing this to mark the 10th anniversary of Adventure Gaming’s death, I’m celebrating its return.
The Nintendo DS has become the new home for this timeless Genre. The first time I realized this was when I picked up Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney in the Fall of 2005, the game is a classic point & click adventure that gained popularity via word of mouth and has had multiple repressing by Capcom. Phoenix Wright’s two sequels in 2006 and 2007 did equally well and I can say that the ending of the 3rd game ties all three together into a fun and memorable trilogy that I enjoyed more than most adventure games I played on PC. Even though Phoenix Wright is an adventure game with some mature themes (almost all the cases revolve around murders that are somewhat grisly), the game has an “animu” flavor that is impossible to ignore. Luckly, there are alternatives made by the developer Cing.
After Cing’s first forgettable DS adventure game Trace Memory they developed the mesmerizing Hotel Dusk: Room 215. Hotel Dusk has the gameplay of a adventure game, a classic point & click interface with a FPS navigation twist, visuals that are mature and seem fitting (I love the whole “Take On Me” look) and a story that is right up there with the best PC games of yester-year. When I started playing, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was playing Icom’s Déjà Vu. The atmosphere of Hotel Dusk is so spectacular that I want to go back and play it for the first time all over again. I cannot stress the following enough: If you love adventure games you need to play Hotel Dusk.
Most people probably never expected Adventure games to make a comeback, the best part of all of this is that most of the people picking up these new games have never played a Adventure game before. It’s unlikely that they’ll go dig up old PC games to play on their PC, but the classics are available to them via another channel. One of the programs available to people who choose to hack their Nintendo DS handheld is ScummVM, a emulator designed to play adventure games by LucasArts, Sierra and other developers.
The reason I’m writing this today is because I finished Phoenix Wright 3 last night to clear up some of my game back-log to make room for both Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney (a.k.a. Phoenix Wright 4) and Professor Layton and the Mysterious Village. While I know exactly what PW4 is going to be, I approach Prof. Layton with high expectations, the game is very popular in Japan and spawned two sequels. The visuals of Prof. Layton reminds me of the excellent 2003 French animated film The Triplets of Belleville. I’m quite excited about these new Adventure games, their arrival is another sign of the Adventure genre’s return to popularity.
Yup Yup Yup
by K1
Posted on Friday, February 8, 2008Now it's my turn, beat this!
by K1
Posted on Sunday, February 3, 2008
