Gamer Grow

October is almost upon us all. In preparation of what will undoubtedly be an incredible month for gaming and gaming purchases (Guitar Hero 4 and LittleBig Planet with Vision Cam are to blame) I have decided to give everyone a glimpse into what I've been mulling over in the way of Critical-Gaming content. I can't take a break now.  The last time I did this was before I took my vacation earlier in the summer . I feel that posting the list gave some readers something to look forward to, which in turn kept me focused and on track. I did a lot of writing after then, but I unfortunately was unable to get to these topics. Sonic 1,2,3, Rush, Rush Adventure review, repair, and re-imagining of Sonic next-gen gameplay . Uncovering the design and depth in Pikmin's origami folded level design. DS design series. Taking a look at the DS games that pull of various DS specific design elements most successfully. If I write an article every day, I would still trail behind my ideas. Certainly...

Slowdown is certainly a relic of our past when video games used to push their processors to their limit and beyond. When there were simply too many explosions and bullets streaking across the screen the frame rate dropped and the game began to play is slow motion. Many would like to believe that we are now currently in an age that has moved beyond slow down. Though the frame rate in our modern releases may hiccup (GTA4), sputter (MGS4), or even drop to a cinematic 24 frames per second (Shadow of the Colossus), all of these performance slips are far better than back in the day when the games used to slow to a crawl. With the advent of widespread online gaming, many gamers now find it strange when latency issues are resolved by slowing down or even temporarily pausing the action for all players until the information flow can be reestablished. My recent exploration of Bangai-O Spirits for the Nintendo DS has caused me to think about the possible design benefits of slowdown. Unlike bullet ...

Mega Man 9 is my favorite Mega Man game along with Mega Man X. This is probably due to the fact that I've recently beat these two Mega Man games since developing my critical-eye. Regardless, there's a lot to be said for Mega Man 9, a game which just barely qualifies for the retro-evolved genre. The game looks old school and plays just like Mega Man did when I was a kid gathered around TV with all the neighborhood kids trying to come up with a strategy to defeat Gemini Man. Because MM9 is practically an NES, so much of the experience should already be quite familiar to us. For this reason, I only want to touch on a few points in bullet point essay style. ADJUSTABLE DIFFICULTY Many claim that Mega Man 9 is a very difficult game. I do not think it is for many reasons. Starting with a base made up of the default weapon, the M Buster, and a few lives, the difficulty in beating the game can be adjusted to a very fine degree. Players always have the option of... collecting lives befor...

LittleBig Planet is going to upgrade my creative abilities significantly. I plan on using the game as a teaching tool for level design, building a portfolio of levels, and communicating/releasing/showcasing unique content to the world. For these purposes, there is a slim chance that LBP will let me down. Check out these videos to see what I mean. THE FEARS The loose and floaty physics: Everything in LBP seems to be physics based. Games like Boom Blox and mods on the Half Life 2 engine have demonstrated that a heavy use of physics interactions can add a lot of uncertainly within a game. Trying to finely adjust elements in Halo 3's Forge can quickly become very frustrating because everything acts according to physics even when you're trying to move things about. Instead of everything being quantified like in Mario or MegaMan, successfully landing on a platform in LBP is a matter of the physics calculations. This makes what would be successful jumps in Mario/MegaMan annoying slips...

I can't help it. Every song I listen to gets me thinking in Guitar Hero. I ponder if a particular song was a level in Guitar Hero, would the individual parts be interesting enough for guitar, bass, keyboard/vocals, and drums? But the ruminating doesn't stop there. I already have a list of over 17 songs that I intend on creating using the Guitar Hero Music Studio. And as the list grows larger so do my crazy ideas. I'm investing a lot of energy into Guitar Hero. The more I invest the more I worry about the limitations of the song creator features. FEARS Is there a song length limit? Hopefully I can make a song that's at least 5-6 minutes long. I've already spotted a limit to the number of drum beats available for a song. This worries me greatly. Can the composer choose to double up the drums, keyboard, or vocals? Can we make a song featuring 4 guitars? This kind of flexibility is essential for some of my song ideas. Though everyone has a limit to the amount of songs ...

I do not speak for all gamers. And I certainly can't speak for most of us because the impressions playing video games leaves on us is as multitudinous and as variegated as the games we play. I can only speak for myself in hopes that you can relate as a gamer so we all can grow to understand what it means to be a gamer and how the potential thereof. Growing up I didn't know how different I was from non-gamers; people who don't play video games or games of other sorts. Video gaming started with me at the early age of 3 when I first received NES with Super Mario Bros. 3. Thus began one of the most important pillars of education in my life. Before I entered the public education system, before I learned to play the piano or violin, before I learned how to play soccer, before I learned to love English, before I learned to write, read, before it all I played video games and learned how to learn. As a child, my mental process while playing a video game went like this: Take in data...

I have noticed the reactions from gamers and non-gamers alike when I utter the words "critique," "essay," "analysis," or any such term. Among the range of disinterested, repulsed, and condescending reactions, few becomes excited at the idea of reading an essay about any form of entertainment or art. We've all written essays and book reports throughout our time in school, and perhaps we have grown to hate them over time. Some falsely associate reading a critical essay, which is very different from a review, with work, time consumption, and even flowery, filigree without any real substance. We are people who value our time and invest in our entertainment. So reading a thousand words of meretricious persiflage shouldn't excite us. But a proper critical essay is not any of these things. A proper essay is clear, concise, and cogent in delivering its message and/or ideas. The reader who takes up such an essay has nothing to lose. With every turn of the p...

When the DS first launched, Nintendo decided to port Super Mario 64 over to the handheld. This game is mostly the same except for a few mini games, a multiplayer mode, and some new playable characters. Over all, the port was a good one with the biggest downside being the adapted controls. It's difficult to configure analog controls with digital buttons. In the next few years Nintendo released 3 "doubleganger siblings" or 3 platformers that have strong roots in the design of previous Nintendo Masterpieces. For these games the DS touch screen is mostly used for navigating menus and displaying large buttons. New Super Mario Brothers, Yoshi's Island DS, and Super Princess Peach are the doubleganger siblings that all fall short of their predecessor. New Super Mario Brothers (NSMB) takes after Super Mario Brothers for the NES. Yoshi's Island DS (YIDS) is analogous to Super Mario World: Yoshi's Island for the SNES. And Super Princess Peach (SPP) is modeled after bot...

These are sad times for the video game industry (at least for some developers). These are sad times because someone like Jonathan Blow felt compelled to present a talk attempting to explain/teach developers that they should look carefully at their games as they build them and push themselves to be more creative. While listening to this talk I couldn't help but think nearly everything that Blow said was common sense and/or instinctual for the good developers. But because there are so many bad games made by bad, supposedly clueless developers Blow had to adress these issues. It's times like this that make me feel like the video games industry is still in a period of nonage, and insightful individuals like Blow have to father us by telling us to brush our teeth and to use soap. The gaming industry has sprung up all of a sudden it seems. We're all relatively new to the medium that we're defining as we go along, and it doesn't help that we anre't well supported by a...

Geometry Wars. The game that I have described as being a "Fourth of July in your eyes!" I've played every console/handheld version, and though spawn deaths are still an issue, Geometry Wars2 is the best in the series. It may not have the best features (in bold) or the most levels, but the innovations in design makes it a clear winner. Once again , I've made a chart cross comparing games in series. It's not like I don't owe something to this game series. . GW: Retro Evolved GW: Galaxies GW: Galaxies DS Geometry Wars2 . visual clutter moderate minimal-lots depending on level & drone very minimal - moderate depending on level and drone moderate - much . controls aiming/ shooting analog stick wiimote pointer DS touch Screen analog stick . controls moving analog stick analog stick D-pad analog stick . variety one many levels/drones that can be leveled up same as wii version 6 modes/sequence . enemy design enemy types same as wii version enemy types . fire powe...

*This review contains some spoilers* I remember when my dad mentioned Braid about a month ago. Thanks to NPR's occasional video games coverage, my dad can surprise me every now and then with gaming news of some sort. This time, he had heard of a video game that "is supposed to be about life and choices" as he put it. I quickly explained that that Braid wasn't "about life" and that actuality, it was just a puzzle game that has ignited the untrained and ill-equipped artsy/pretentious video game writers to make claims that the game is some bold new step in game design doing things that other games haven't quite done before. I smoothly transitioned the conversation about the art of design and mechanics and how all games can be read making them seem to be about almost anything. Using Tetris, Super Mario Brothers, and Wii Sports (games my father has experience with) I debunked the notion. Then my father asked me if I had played Braid yet. I hadn't. At that...