Merry Christmas!

Just wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas. Hope you all got the games you wanted. As for me, I've got my Zelda: Twilight Princess, my Wii Component Cables, some extra Wiimotes, and rechargeable batteries for them.

All I need now is a Wii.

In the meantime, though, I'll be keeping myself busy with Final Fantasy XII and Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin, with Final Fantasy III and Final Fantasy V Advance waiting in the wings. So I'll have plenty of games to play before I get the Wii.

Hope everyone has a great Christmas. Have a great time with your families, and watch where you swing that Wiimote.

- James

Rhythm Games - Part 1: The Rhythm Is Gonna Get You

I've only just recently joined the iPod Revolution maybe 4 months ago, which is surprising for a lover of geek gadgetry like me. And in the 4 months that I've had it, I -- like many others who have come before me -- now wonder how I lived without it all these years. To have all of my music at my fingertips (after three months of ripping my CDs) is far more useful than I could have ever imagined. I've listened to songs recently that I haven't listened to in years, and it's always great to rediscover a song you loved before.

And one shocking revelation that I've had, since getting the iPod, was this: I have a whole lot of lyrics memorized! Some of those songs that I've been rediscovering haven't left my subconscious, apparently. I can sing along with songs I haven't heard in ages with practically no effort. It's like the words were just there, waiting to get back out.


I guess this shouldn't be much of a shock. Researchers have shown for a long time now that music can be an aid in memorizing just about anything. I've had people recite R.E.M.'s "It's the End of the World (As We Know It)" back to me without missing a beat. Yet if you ask the same person to memorize the preamble to the Constitution, it could possibly give them fits. It's amazing how much music aids the memory. Heck, I once memorized an entire Game Theory theorem word for word by making it the lyrics to a fake song I wrote right before a midterm. I ended up having that theorem memorized for a good year or two afterwards. Music just is like a mystical power that taps into that area of the brain that only Raymond Babbitt can access at will. But honestly, how many opportunities does one actually get to use this power?

Enter: the rhythm game. I believe that everyone needs to have an outlet for that repressed talent. It's why good music makes you want to dance to the beat. It's why so many people love to sing in the shower or their car. But for those who cannot sing nor have the time to learn a musical instrument, rhythm games are the only way one has the opportunity to utilize that hidden, musical talent that one possesses. This makes rhythm games as essential and important a game genre as Role Playing Games, First Person Shooters, Real-Time Simulations, Sports Games, and Platform Games. For both the musically inclined and the musically challenged, the rhythm game can provide the outlet that might not be available anywhere else. Thus, everyone owes it to himself/herself to at least try rhythm games because very few experiences allow us to enjoy music more.

But if we stop and think about it, why are they so fun? Most of them are really glorified games of Simon, right? You are literally told exactly what you are supposed to do. In almost every rhythm game, you are given a sequence you are supposed to mimic and you, note for note, mimic it -- whether it is with your controller, your feet, a plastic guitar, or your stylus. There's really no gameplay when you think about it. You don't get any tactical strategy. You're not solving any puzzles. You don't get to level up your character. You literally just do what you are told to do. So why are these games so much fun? I think the answer is two-fold.

First of all, it all goes back to the discovery I made after getting my iPod. Music has the magical power of making anything easily memorized. After listening to a song numerous times, you cannot help but have the words memorized eventually whether you tried to or not. And it's this ability that makes rhythm games so much fun: there's almost no effort in memorizing the "track."

Various games require memory. Racing games like Gran Turismo need you to remember which twist and turn is coming up in the track, as one brain lapse could throw your whole lap time off. Shooters like Gradius V require you to memorize stages oftentimes, particularly in instances where taking a wrong turn leads to a dead end or moving too slowly causes walls to form in front of you. Many boss battles, such as the ones in Metal Gear Solids 1 and 2, have attack patterns that must be memorized in order to come out victorious. And for most of these examples, the memorization takes some effort.

But with rhythm games, memorization is almost automatic. Sure, the first time you play a difficult song may be overwhelming, but you'll find after a few plays that you'll have the sequence memorized without even trying. Even if you don't have the actual notes you must play memorized, the timing/rhythm in which they must be played will be ingrained in your mind forever. Little cues like hearing a song about to go from a verse to the chorus oftentimes can be a reminder that a particularly difficult sequence in coming up. It's almost as if you have hints about what is about to occur. And it all happens because of the music.

Thus, you become more and more skilled at a song with a natural progression. Just like memorizing lyrics to a song without trying, your ability to perform something difficult in a rhythm game seems to become stronger and stronger just through repeated play. This is very empowering to the gamer. In most other games, you must develop a new technique, learn a new strategy, or spend some time powering up first. But with rhythm games, it's all very natural, and thus very comforting and enjoyable.

The other reason I think rhythm games are so fun goes back to something I hinted at in an older post of mine: that proverbial zone. I am a firm believer of this mythical "zone" being exactly what makes video games fun. Any gamer out there will fully admit that games become their most enjoyable when you can transcend your normal, every day playing to reach the level where you are playing a game purely on instinct and at a very high level. And no type of game exemplifies this ability better than rhythm games, the most powerful evidence being that no other gaming genre provides the ability for one to become a "virtuoso" in the game.

Let me try to explain that last statement, as it is obvious that people become experts at just about every game. The distinction I am trying to point out with rhythm games is this: once you become an expert at the first Guitar Hero, you can play brand new songs on Guitar Hero II for the first time and still have a chance to not miss a single note. Once you've become so proficient at reading the notes in a rhythm game, it's almost magical when you combo your way through a particularly tough sequence. Oftentimes, in games like Beatmania and Guitar Hero, I'll see a really tough sequence come at me and, though my eyes and brain cannot consciously process what I see, my fingers just automatically pull off every note for a complete combo, much to my own amazement. I'm sure I'm not the only person to have ever experienced this, and I find that that experience is more unique to the rhythm game than any other genre.

Thus, expert DDR players will get a full combo on songs they've never seen before and Guitar Hero II players will pull off those tough guitar solos the first time they see it. And even if a song is trickier than expected, that automatic memorization will help you eventually pass the song. And once that happens, playing these games is a joy like no other gaming genre. I think all of us secretly want to be musicians, so when it feels like we are "playing" the song on instinct, it's just a great feeling.

For the most part, the rhythm game still seems to fall under a niche audience. Few people I know are willing to try them and some even go as far as to ridicule them. I guess there's something about them inherently embarrassing. Whether it's Dance Dance Revolution or Parappa the Rappa, people will not allow themselves to play these games for fear of looking foolish or childish. And I think that's a huge shame, because anyone with any sort of musical bone in their body should play rhythm games. Those who think it is "uncool" to play them are seriously robbing themselves of one of the most enjoyable gaming experiences ever. And once they finally give it a try, like the lyrics to Cheap Cheap's rap in Parappa the Rappa, the step rhythm to Dead End in Dance Dance Revolution 3rd Mix, and the actual notes in the guitar solo for War Pigs in Guitar Hero II, it'll be something they'll never forget.

Next: Part 2 - Guitar Hero II review

Games I'm Currently Playing: The Thanksgiving Edition

My holiday weekend has now come to an end (I went back to work just this past Wednesday). During my period of rest and relaxation, you can imagine that I managed to squeeze in a lot of gaming. After all, as an adult gamer, it's really hard to find time to put in a solid session of gaming these days, so when I have a few days to spare, it's nice to see if I can finish out some games while starting other new ones. Thus, a lot of game time was put into four games: Okami, Shadow of the Colossus, Lumines II, and Guitar Hero II. And along with the game time, a lot of impressions were made. So without further ado, here is my Thanksgiving rendition of "Games I'm Currently Playing."




Name: Okami
System: PlayStation 2
Stage: Completed

There's something very dangerous about a game that is just enjoyable enough to spur you on to finish it and just not quite compelling enough to make the experience joyful. And that's what Okami was, which resulted in me believing that Okami is, after playing all the way through it, a good game. But that's about the highest compliment I can pay it. It's not a bad game by any stretch, but calling it anything more than "good" is unjustified. And I actually think the thing that makes Okami weak, really, is that is really just feels lazy.

It's weird calling a game that is so packed to the teeth "lazy." I mean, lazy would seem to imply that someone made a game with a lot of potential that wasn't realized. Yet strangely, I interpret the makers of Okami as being lazy because it is so tightly packed. It's like someone said, "Okay, take as many things as we can think of and cram it into this game. No need for creativity. Just put in things that are fun from other games." So the game ends up feeling like a hodgepodge of so many other games we've played. I firmly believe it's more work to know what to keep out in order to maintain the game's integrity than it is to try and put as much as possible into the game, especially for a game in Okami's genre. Okami is not a Sandbox game like Grand Theft Auto so it shouldn't try to be packed like one. As a result, by the 15th or so hour into the game, I completely forgot how beautiful it looked and forgot what any of the game's themes were. At first, I was amazed by the backgrounds, the art style, etc. But at some point deep into the game, the environments ceased to interest me and none of the character designs registered in my mind anymore. That should never happen with a game as pretty as Okami.

And I mentioned in my first impressions of Okami: the anachronistic characters and dialogue really affected my enjoyment of the game. Hearing one of the main character, Issun, utter a line like, "Let's lay the smackdown on them," was jarring. And hearing him continually making references to a bosomy female character's "2 bouncy friends" just seemed so out of place. Again, it's a shame, because one thing that impressed me a lot about the game was how much Japanese mythology was referenced in the game. I read a FAQ online discussing how the majority of the characters and events in the game mirrored a lot of Japanese mythology, and I think that fact gets lost by the anachronism. Of course, the wealth of mythology referenced may only seem impressive because I am personally unfamiliar with Japanese mythology. It could very well be the Japanese version of God of War, as God of War certainly is very loosely based on Greek mythology, drawing from multiple areas of the Greek mythological canon (I'm still personally waiting to see if there is an evil two-headed tree in God of War II named Baucis and Philemon). Thus, perhaps to the Japanese gamers, there really isn't anything that special about that aspect of Okami either.

And yes, though you don't need to do everything, you end up coming really close through the natural course of the game once you reach the end anyhow. In my game, before the point of no return, I had fed about 85% of all the animals, found about 75% of the Stray Beads, and obtained all but one treasure. It's just too tempting to go back and find the rest, which really is a big mistake for an adult gamer with no time. This game would have been a joy for me had I still been in high school or college. But at this age, it's hard to spend that much time on one game. Even knowing that, I collected everything except for catching the entire variety of fish you can catch (admittedly, for the last few Beads and animals I couldn't find on my own, I gave up and used a FAQ). And I actually don't have any sense of accomplishment from collecting it all, either. In fact, I feel worse off for being compelled to do it all (since I am a completist), thus extending my total play time for the game by a considerable number of hours.

So in the end, Okami just couldn't ever get to the point where I could quite understand what it was trying to be. Was it trying to be a 3-D platformer? A "Zelda-esque" clone? A sandbox game? An artistic game? I could never tell. It's a very solidly made game: beautiful, above average controls, good story, and no obvious glitches or bugs in sight. But its insistence on putting so much into the game and making it so long (yet so easy) really took a lot of the punch out of the game. So again, all I can do is repeat my earlier assessment: the game is good. But that's all it'll ever be to me.


Name: Shadow of the Colossus
System: PlayStation 2
Stage: Completed

If I had to describe the game in one sentence, it would be this: "Shadow of the Colossus is the story of one man's journey to bring his one true love back to life by fighting, over and over again, the camera."

Between Okami and Shadow of the Colossus, I've had my fill of bad camera angles affecting my game. I mean, while we are only entering the third generation of 3-D console gaming, there really shouldn't ever be any excuses anymore for having your screen filled by a giant close-up of the texture from a wall, which seemed to happen more often than it should have while playing Shadow of the Colossus. And many of the times I ended up falling off of a Colossus, trying to jump from place to place, was due to awkward camera angles and the inability to properly judge distance. It really ended up testing a lot of my patience.

Also, between Shadow of the Colossus and Zelda: The Ocarina of Time, I've had my fill of controlling horses. Will someone please assure me that the horse controls in Twilight Princess is better? Please? If I have to watch my horse in that game stop from a full gallop because a scary, thin tree (that could have been easily avoided) got in its way, I may be one of the only people to throw their Wiimote at the TV on purpose.

Okay, now that I've gotten the complaints out of the way, I must do a 180. Because these two mechanical problems are pretty much the only complaints I have about the game. I picked up Shadow of the Colossus very late in its existence mainly because of how much people had been lauding it, particularly during the infamous "Gaming isn't art" debate with Roger Ebert. And, after completing the game, I really do feel better off having played it.

It deserves most of its praise. The game, for me, falls under the same category as Silent Hill 2. In regards to Silent Hill 2, that game would easily be one of my top 10 all time favorite video games. That's how highly I think of that game. But even I would be a fool to pretend the controls and camera in Silent Hill 2 aren't terrible. In fact, they were downright awful. But they couldn't even come close to ruining the game for me.

So while I don't love Shadow of the Colossus nearly as much as I love Silent Hill 2, I have to say that I came away with great respect for the game despite its shortcomings. Few games are as beautiful. And what makes it even more impressive is that its beauty doesn't come from high-resolution graphics or colorful environments or fancy graphic filters. No, Shadow of the Colossus is more like a painting. It's very deliberate and its look is definitely used to drive home its themes. I love looking at screenshots of the game because, from one picture, so much is conveyed. For example, just from one of my favorite screenshots, shown below (click on it to get a full sized version), you get a good impression of the game's themes of scale (the Colossus you fight and the land you can explore are both huge), desolation (there is definitely a sense of isolation), and determination (your character, that little guy on the horse, is supposed to kill that giant thing in the sky).


Also, the plot is amazingly full yet minimalist at the same time. Not much story is provided, but it gives you just enough that you can easily derive a wealth of information anyhow. And the fact that they still hold back a ton of knowledge leaves the game open to so much interpretation. It’s almost David Lynch worthy (I’m thinking Mulholland Drive here). The game doesn't spoon feed you anything. And I'm referring to the story and the gameplay itself. No sprites telling pointing everything out to you, no NPCs to give you clues, and no convenient signs to read. There are power ups you can find in the game, for example, that you are never told about. You, like the protagonist, really are almost entirely clueless about this new world you've entered. I played the entire game completely oblivious to them.

The artistic aspect of Shadow of the Colossus is truly admirable, and it being used as the paragon of art in video games is justified. So while the controls are dubious at best and the camera is really inconsistent and bugs and glitches do exist, it is largely overshadowed (no pun intended) by how well the game presents to you its vision. A game like Okami will probably be forgotten years from now, but Shadow of the Colossus has the potential to be the kind of game remembered for a long, long time.


Name: Lumines II
System: PlayStation Portable
Stage: Addict

It's always fun to find out you suck at a game. For any fighting game fans out there, it's probably a familiar feeling: you are the ruler of the roost. At your local arcade, no one can touch you in Street Fighter. And then these guys come from out of town and proceed to beat you down like you've never been beaten down before. Suddenly, you realize you have so much to learn. (As an aside to fighting game fans, this is actually what happened to me and my group of classic Street Fighter II playing friends... and the guy who came into my arcade and beat us down was none other than Tomo Ohira.)

Well, this is exactly what happened with Lumines II. I thought I was decent at the game after playing the first one. I could last very long and get a decently (I thought) high score. But they added "Mission Modes" to Lumines II, and the mission that was the catalyst for me finding out where I really stood was to clear at least 170 squares in 3 minutes. I couldn't even come close. So I went online to see if I can find any strategies on beating this mission. And what I saw shocked me. Someone cleared not just 170 squares but 186 squares... in only 1 minute!!! I watched it on YouTube. I watched it and my heart sank.


This spurred me on to really try and learn how to play the game properly. And I've been improving little by little. I think you may have remembered me mentioning a while ago that, on my vacation out to the East Coast, I became obsessed with the original Lumines. I've come to the realization that what I thought was an obsession was nothing. No, my Lumines obsession has now reached Tetris level. Tetris, you must understand, would easily make my top 3 games of all time. So when I say my Lumines obsession has reached Tetris levels, that's not something to be taken lightly.

So what does it mean to have reached Tetris level? Easy: while writing code at work, while talking to other people, while watching Laker games on TV, and even while writing this blog post, I have visions of Lumines blocks falling in my head. I am trying to optimize how to place pieces almost 24/7 now. While I sleep, Lumines blocks dance in my subconscious. It's probably unhealthy... maybe it’s a chemical imbalance or something. I should probably go see a doctor about it when I get the time.

Is there anything about Lumines II that makes it better than Lumines? No. Some nice new modes and options, but it is the same game. I'm talking exactly the same game. Does that make Lumines II not worthy of a purchase? Not remotely. But keep in mind that I’m the guy who keeps buying every new version of Tetris that Nintendo churns out because I'm such a Tetris junkie. Overall, Lumines II is better than the original just because of few extra featuresand extra modes. It’s missing a few of the best skins from the first game, sure, but that’s not a problem.

I dunno what it is about Puzzle games but, for lack of a better way to put it, I am their bitch. I have to give Tetsuya Mizuguchi credit: both Meteos and Lumines start off largely uninterestingly. But the more you play and the more you learn, you slowly figure out how to properly play these games. And then everything changes. And they become super addictive. Both games are very strong, though there is probably still a debate out there on which is better. And to give you an idea of just how strong Lumines is to me now, I have to declare it better than Meteos. Remember, I'm still a Nintendo fanboy so I want to believe that Meteos on the DS is better than Lumines on the PSP. But there's no debate anymore: Lumines is a better Puzzle Game. This is largely due to Lumines being a far purer and more straight-forward puzzle game. There really are only 2 or 3 rules to the game. It really is like Tetris after its been completely pimped out.


Name: Guitar Hero II
System: PlayStation 2
Stage: Heavy Play

I am actually going to refrain from commenting on this game for now, as I plan to talk in length about this game in a future blog post. So if you really want to know what my impressions of this game are, you'll just have to wait. Sorry.

 
 

So that's my Thanksgiving vacation. Also getting some minor play has been Elite Beat Agents for the Nintendo DS (but that will also be discussed in a future blog post) and Capcom Classics Collection 2 (if you love Capcom games, you owe yourself to buy this and play Capcom Quiz and Dragons). I did not get my hands on a Wii, so I am unable to write any impressions on that. I will try to rectify that situation this weekend, so wish me luck. Hope your Thanksgiving vacation was as engaging gaming-wise as mine was. And thanks for reading!

- James