Gamecenter CX Episode #72 (Season 10): "Yuyu no Quiz de GO! GO!" (Super Famicom)

by K1

シーズン10 #72 課長と『ゆうゆのクイズでGO!GO!』GO!

Musical Interlude World

by K1

A Man Once Dreamt that He Was a Rock

by Zen

I'll confess I've never been as up on the Mega Man phenomenon as I should have been. Growing up I got to play the original, but not enough to get good at it. At home the only gaming device I was allowed was my Game Boy, so I made do with a couple of the Game Boy titles until I could use an emulator.

Technically I've played through and beaten the first seven games in the series, but since I did it with an emulator I cheated like mad and never got very good at them. The first Mega Man on Game Boy, however, remains my bitch to this day; I can maul through it with my eyes closed from start to finish.

Despite my metered exposure, having played almost the entire franchise I can say with some certainly that Mega Man 9 is the best entry by far. I would not have said anything of the sort during my first few hours of gameplay, what with the constant falling and exploding and losing, but after skating through the game once on energy tanks and picking it up again something crazy happened: I declared my lordship over it.

Every obstacle in the entire game is an obstacle only until you make sense of it. There's a rhythm to every area in Mega Man 9, and once you get into it you'll find yourself stopping very rarely. Areas that seemed arduous at first become second-nature, and weapons that seemed useless become favorite tools.

That's something about Mega Man 9 that we haven't seen in a long time: useful weapons. This is the single biggest factor in Mega Man 2's greatness, where the Metal Blade achieved legendary status for its versatility, power, and forgiving use of ammunition. The unfortunate side effect in Mega Man 2 was that it was practically compulsory for you to take on Metal Man first in a game that should be all about leaving it up to the player. Mega Man 9 sidesteps this by having every weapon possess genuine utility. Even the tired rotating shield weapon doubles as Enker's Mirror Shield, and the fire weapon is more useful for its angle of attack than for any extra damage it does or the fact that you can charge it.

A fundamental fact of a good Mega Man game is that the weapons you receive don't affect how much damage you do so much as they affect how you play the game. Another one is that playing the levels in a different order should be a very different experience. Mega Man games are even more nonlinear than the old Metroid games, it's just that that nonlinearity is completely on the table from the beginning. You acquire the tools in the order you want, and rather than deciding whether you can pass through an area, acquring a new tool merely decides how you can pass through that area.

The result, in Mega Man 9, is a playground. You are given obstacles, and you are given a bunch of tools. Anything will work, so it's just up to you to figure out what you want to use. It gets written up in my book along with Final Fantasy Tactics, Super Metroid, and Mario Sunshine as a shining example of nonlinear game and level design. If I could, I would make out with it every day.

Musical Interlude

by K1

GOD HAND

by Zen

So it turns out that the lead guys from Clover Studios are still out there, and with the Wii port of Okami anyone who hasn't felt the love yet should get started. The game rains down style on you for like forty hours, and shows Nintendo that if they're not going to take Zelda anywhere then other people are certainly up for the job. Once you're done getting a furry handjob from Okami, though, I've got something you need to try:

I can't believe this is happening! They smacked my ass so many times... But in the end, I started to like it!

NEW EF PEE ESSS.

by alzabo

• "I would set up a portal to Taco Bell inside my living room so when I get drunk I can just stumble in, get a chalupa, and leave"
  
• "one portal at hone one at gamestop so i could play the motorstorm demo all night when they closed"
  
• "ohm y fucking god i just came everyuwhere"
  
• "i would put one end in front of my fist and the other in front of nintendo so I COULD PUNCH THEM IN THE FACE FOR DELAYING MY SMASH BROSEH"

Coin-op@home: My flawed logic

by alzabo

When I was younger I had an almost infinite amount of free time, I spent absurd amounts of free time playing RPGs in High School. While I do look back fondly on playing long involved console games, I no longer have the free time or patience necessary to fully enjoy them. I discovered this once I graduated from High School and entered college, I still had a strong desire to play games but found it very difficult to enjoy most console games. This was the because of several factors:

Console games are generally getting more complicated. Resulting not in thick instruction manual, but instead spawning internal game training tutorials that ease you into the game. Tutorials are fine, but when you have to walk away from a game for weeks at a time to focus on school or work the important nuances of a game’s controls can slip your mind, making further progress frustrating or even impossible. Without experiencing the tutorial and the gradual increase in difficulty over many hours the prospect of resuming play of an abandoned quest can be extremely daunting, most console RPG enthusiasts have experienced this . . . “Where was I going, what skills was I trying to level, who has X piece of equipment?”

Second, the price of console games. While I appreciate the price point console games are sold at, it presents a problem for many adult gamers. Children and teens can afford them, but generally cannot afford every game they desire. By and large, they play one game at a time because that is all they can afford. Adults on the other hand can usually afford every game that catches their eye, often resulting in a large stack of unfinished and even still shrink-wrapped games. I am guilty of this, I have a large collection of games that I desperately want to play yet never got around to.

Third, a lack of large blocks of time necessary to properly play console games. While many children and people can single mindedly dedicate themselves to games, I can’t let my real world obligations slide. The fact that console games dole out the “fun” in small chunks all throughout the game makes them feel intolerably long. While I do have “free time” I like to divide it between other activities as well; friends, family & beer come to mind immediately.

After being pushed away from console games, I gradually came to understand and enjoy arcade games in a new light. They are the antithesis of everything I dislike about console games:

Arcade games are simple to play yet hard to master. Their controls are usually limited to a 8-way joystick and one to six buttons. The cab itself usually has play instructions described in pictograms or a simple instruction demo that pops up before the game starts.

Arcade games are inexpensive to play in the arcade, but generally expensive to own at home. This relegates most sane adults who choose to collect them to a childlike position, they can only afford to own those they truly enjoy.

Arcade games rarely demand more than 30 minutes of time. While they can be beat in 30 minutes on free play, a real enthusiast will attempt to beat them on one credit, ensuring good value for money via replay. They are designed to be as fun as possible from the moment you drop your coin in the slot to the second your last life ends.

The whole situation is comically ironic to me. As a child, I would save my pocket money for months and months, avoiding arcades at times in order to buy a console game. I would insist to myself that I’d get more fun out of the console game. Now I find myself saving my money, avoiding buying console games to purchase arcade PCBs. I firmly believe that I’ll have more fun replaying game designed to be as enjoyable as possible for the entire duration of play, no matter how short it is.