Motion Controls Were A Mistake

We are now moving into an age where VR is all the rage.  With the release of things like the Occulus Rift and the HTC Vive, when people talk about novel ways to control games that's at the forefront of the conversation.  But not so long ago motion controls were all the rage with things like the Playstation Move, Nintendo Wii and the Kinect.  It was a terrible time but it seems to have been a fad that is mostly dead now.

It all started with the Wii, when it was announced that instead of having a traditional controller it would have this remote type thing.  People were understandably excited because imagine playing something like Zelda where you could manipulate the sword freely, it was a cool concept.  What the controller for the Wii turned out to be is an awkward piece of shit that didn't quite work correctly and a lot of the best games for that system don't make all that much use of the motion part of the controller.  Hell, I remember buying Monster Hunter Tri for the fucking thing and having to drop extra money on a "proper" controller so that I could play that thing.

After that, Sony tried to imitate the Wii because despite the awkwardness of the controls, it did sort of work and the system was selling well.  The PlayStation Move came out and was largely ignored.  I've never met a single person who owned a move and now that I think about it the only game I can think that actually used it was that Time Crisis spinoff thing.  Microsoft was the company that really came along and ruined it thought with the Kinect.  A terrible, barely functional camera type thing that had 0 compatible games of any quality.  It's legacy can be boiled down to a Star Wars game where they made a bunch of corny Star Wars versions of pop songs that you had to dance to for points.

Motion controls were a thorn in the side of the industry and we are better off now that they are mostly gone.  They still exist in some capacity, for example you can tilt the WiiU controller in certain games for certain effects and that feature also extends to things like the Vita but it's not so bad since the movements are slight and the applications limited.  When a game does feature that sort of movement control as a main feature it's usually not very good.

Like I said before, we are moving into an age of VR now, so it'll be interesting to see if this is another "innovation" that will cause a slew of shit titles for years to come or a quality innovation we will stick with in the distant future.  VR is sort of a cool idea so I'm hoping that it's something we stick with but as of right now, this very second, things aren't looking so hot.  Give it time though, I have faith.

No Hopes for Mario Maker

Everyone likes a bit of the old Super Mario Brothers, classic platforming at it's finest.  Even the newer 3D games still manage to be enjoyable experiences and I can't really think of a Mario game that you could flat out call "bad".  Maybe there are a few mediocre ones but generally speaking they are all well made and fun to play.

So then Mario Maker gets announced and at face value this sounds like an awesome idea.  It's a simple set of tools for making your very own Mario games and levels and the idea of a bunch of Mario fans coming together and making levels for each other sounds awesome.  We've seen other games like it that were pretty fun to play such as Little Big Planet and now this is essentially that but with Mario instead of weird sock puppet things.

Except then I started thinking about the concept and my inner pessimist got the better of me and now the idea of Mario Maker make my eyes roll.  You see, custom Mario levels and games is not really a new idea, it's been going on for a hell of a long time except people didn't have a nice easy tool to do it all with.  Oh no, to this day exists a thing known as ROM hacking, which is where truly dedicated fans will take a Mario ROM, change all the bits around and make their own game with it.  The most famous example of this is probably Kaizo Mario World which is essentially a Mario game only for the most hard core of experts

Something may seem a little different to how you remember

The thing is, ROM hacking isn't exactly easy so it meant that the people who took up projects like this probably knew these games pretty well and had a good idea on how to make a decent level or two.  Now every Tom, Dick and Harry can make a Mario level so just how many idiots are we going to have giggling it up at the fact the recreated 1-1 from NES Mario or the hundreds and hundreds of shitty throwaway stages that are going to be uploaded by complete tossers who don't know what they are doing.

Mario is a big name and it attracts a lot of people which is great, it's always good to see more people gaming but most of these people probably know fuck all about designing a good level in ANYTHING let alone Mario, myself included.  It's going to suffer the same problem that Little Big Planet did with it's 100 pre made courses that will be awesome, a few really good user generated levels and then thousands upon thousands of complete trash stages that most people will only play for about 30 seconds.  Hundreds of people just recreating levels from other games in Mario Maker which may be slightly entertaining but the whole point of this shit is to create something original so if you are the kind of person looking forward to that then power to you but I sure as fuck won't be wasting my time with that crap.

There's a reason I'm a blogger and a speed runner rather than a game designer.  I'm trying to design my own fucking shitty RPG Maker game right now and every time I finish a map for a dungeon I can't help but get sad over how fucking crap it probably will be once I implement it.  Most people are probably in my boat and because of that I probably won't be dropping money on Mario Maker.

Please Mario fans, prove me wrong and then laugh in my face, I'd love it if you did that and I'd buy the game full price in a heartbeat.

The WiiU ain't so bad

The WiiU has a pretty rough time in a lot of gaming circles.  It's always branded as the "kiddy" console or tossed aside because it doesn't have all the next gen military first person shooting games that the PS4 and Xbox One has.  It's also not as powerful so for the kind of people that think graphics are super important to a game then there is no way they are going to touch the damn thing.

But it's a damn shame really because to me, the WiiU is about the only console I can talk about and not get incredibly pissed off with.  There's so much drama surrounding the PS4 and the Xbox One and there are so many extra features and other useless crap on those machines that it almost feels like they have forgotten what their first function is.  Playing fucking games.

That's not to say that the PS4 or the Xbox One are bad and that the WiiU is super good, but it's just a case of the WiiU having some fucking personality that the other two don't.  Off the top of my head at time of writing I cannot think of a SINGLE PS4 or XBox One game that I am looking forward to.  However I can think of plenty of WiiU titles that I want or am looking forward to and I don't even own the bloody system yet, I've been playing one that I borrowed from a friend.

I'm sure this will all change over time but right now the WiiU is absolutely storming this generation and it's being ignored because of the reputation Nintendo created for themselves after the Wii.  There are things I dislike about the WiiU but the quality of the games and the general ease of use makes it the number 1 system for me right now. 

Will be picking up one of my very own rather soon I think

Mario Kart 8 is Pretty Good

I don't own a WiiU but thanks to my friend very kindly bringing his over this weekend I managed to have a good toot on Mario Kart 8 and it's an absolute ton of fun.

If you have ever played a Mario Kart game before which I'm going to assume you have at this point, it's basically more of the same.  They have added some kind of anti gravity thing which means that a lot of the games original courses are pretty crazy and fun to play.  There are a good selection of new items too but the game seems to be a lot stingier with it's toys this time round so I've not had too much of a chance to play around with them.

The multiplayer is also a ton of fun and supports both split screen and online play.  If you have only two players then you have the option of jumping into the online mode and playing against the denizens of the internet together.  The online mode is also very fast and very simple, if you just wanted a quick race or two then it's extremely easy to just jump on and have a few races with some randoms and it has features to allow you to play with your friends but I've not been able to test the functionality of that.

The simplicity of the game is what makes it so damn good though.  You buy most modern games and it has to do DLC checks and then pesters you to buy a map or a character or some such total bullshit.  Mario Kart just lets me pop in the game and fucking play it, which is great and more games need to adopt this approach rather than trying to spend all their time on every menu screen trying to squeeze more money out of me.

Also a lot of people rag on the WiiU for not being as graphically advanced as the PS4 and the Xbox One but Mario Kart 8 is an extremely pretty game.  The courses look great and are quite varied and it runs silky smooth even during split screen multiplayer.

I'm going to have the chance to play the game a bit more over the coming week, so if I find any bullshit I'll be sure to rant about it somewhere but for now, Mario Kart 8 might just be the game that convinces me to go pick up my own WiiU

Next Gen Attitudes Are Worrying

We are really close now to the launch dates for the next gen systems and it's an exciting time to be a fan of video games as we get to try out all the cool new hardware coming out.

Microsoft and their Xbox One are basically writing the rulebook on how not to launch a console, PS4 is quietly doing its thing and impressing people but isn't completely devoid of it's own bullshit and the WiiU, the one who got out the gate early, is just chugging away in the background producing a decent game once every couple of months.

So what do I mean when I say that the attitudes are worrying?  Well, think about it, what do you buy a games console for?  Playing video games on, right?  So what's everyone talking about when the topic of next gen comes up? Anything but fucking video games.

Sure, there is plenty of talk of hardware, resolutions, capabilities, if it needs online or not, the ability to play used games etc. etc. but where is any of the talk of the actual games?  Just thinking about the lineups for the Xbox One and PS4, there isn't anything that has me jumping up and down thinking I just HAVE to buy the new systems at launch to play that one really good game.

I remember back when the Dreamcast came out, people were pretty impressed with how the thing looked compared to stuff like the PS1 but the FOCUS was the fucking games.  I remember getting seeing footage for things like Power Stone and Jet Set Radio and thinking that I had to have a Dreamcast just to play those damn games.

That game focus seems to have been lost a little bit and with it so has the fun in a new console launch.  Back then, it didn't matter what system you were buying because no matter what you bought you were going to have fun with it.  Even the fan boys were happy if their buddies got the other thing, because then they had a chance to play it and despite many an argument being had over which one was "better" at the end of the day it didn't matter because you were still having fun.

That's gone now, and it's been replaced with technological pissing contests between the major companies and which system gets bought basically boils down to which one is fucking over the consumer the least.  Add a bunch of elitist PC pricks in the background screaming about how awesome their stuff is and all it makes for is a very tiring and unexciting start to the next gen.

There isn't a single game for the next gen systems that I have seen thus far that has made me excited, and that's sad.  If this next gen release period has proved anything to me, it's that gaming isn't about fun anymore, it's about which group of fan boys has the best machine.

I'm sure once the dust settles and some decent games get released, both systems will end up being pretty good in the end.  Hell, I'm sure even the WiiU will end up with a decent library a few more years down the line.  But the point is, that all this outcry at business policy and constant crying over things like screen resolution and frames per second has just pissed me off and now I don't give a flying rats ass about "next gen" anymore.

I'll be keeping an eye out for that one game that eventually makes me excited enough to drop money on a system, but until then, I'll be just sat here biding my time until Dark Souls 2.

A Free Idea to Nintendo

I had a rant planned for today, but I'm in a stupidly good mood so I'm going to write something that's probably really stupid instead.

Right, if you owned a Gamecube then you may remember that piece of gear in the above picture.  For those that didn't own the system or for anyone who hasn't seen that before, that thing is the Game Boy Player.  It would fit to the bottom of your gamecube system and would allow you to play Game Boy Advance games on your TV, it was pretty cool.

So while I was taking a shower today, I had this stupid idea that I thought might help boost WiiU sales.  I don't know how viable this would be but a DS/3DS player seems like it would be an awesome idea to me.

Think about it, your TV would act as the top screen and the WiiU controller.  Maybe you could put some kind of support to have split screen on your TV and manipulate the touch from the pad if you didn't want to stare at that thing all the time.  Hell, if the game had a focus on the bottom screen (Trauma Centre for example) you could just swap em round too because obviously you want to the most interesting part of the game put on your big TV, staring at stats or timers wouldn't be fun.

The only reason I made this stupid post is because I would love to do a play through of The World Ends With You, but maybe if they could actually pull something like that off it would boost sales, who knows?

Someone send this to Nintendo because if something like this did become a reality I'd be so down for buying a WiiU ASAP

E3 is coming! Press conference feelings

Almost every year I get hype for E3 but this year I'm finding it hard to find the enthusiasm.

The new consoles have been revealed and there is so much bullshit surrounding them and so many arguing fanboys on the internet that it's kind of killed my excitement.  Don't get me wrong, I'm going to watch it and get just as excited or angry as everyone else, but right now my hype levels are fairly minimal.

That said, I thought I'd just give my current feelings about the major players there (Nintendo, Microsoft, Sony) and sort of what I'm expecting from their press conferences.

NINTENDO!

As far as I know, Nintendo aren't doing a major press conference this year.  This is sort of a good thing because maybe that will allow them to focus on making some actual fucking games for the WiiU that I want to buy so I have an excuse to drop money on one.

SONY!

They sort of got it right with their reveal, at least more right than Microsoft did.  I'm fully expecting that we'll here more social networking bullshit and all that crap but I'm also expecting to see some games and hopefully they'll reveal something that will make me bounce up and down and squeal.  Sony is the company I'm sort of putting all my hopes into this year so if these guys fuck up this conference I'll be rather disappointed.  Also I'm hoping the Vita gets some love at E3 too this year as  Japan has quite a good selection of games on the shelves now but I'm hearing that things are a little bland still in the UK. Hopefully some of those fancy Japanese games get a localisation

MICROSOFT!

Fuck em', quite frankly.  The reveal was such a massive flop that unless they have some of the greatest games I have ever seen in my entire life, I don't care.  We can hope they show some of those exclusives they brushed over but at this point I'm more interested in hearing them justify the post-reveal mess they made with all the news of used game fees and always online.  Right now, I couldn't really give any less fucks about Microsoft or the Xbox One, but there is still a chance the conference may bring me round, although I really doubt it.

Portable Price Drops

A while ago there was a lot of people talking about how the Vita is the worst thing ever and scoffing heartily at it since sales were pretty low.  THEN, there was a price cut on the Vita in Japan and sales shot above the goddamn WiiU.

Now I'm not going to jump on any sides here, I own a 3DS and a Vita and I enjoy both of them, but anyone making comments on portable system sales before a price drop seems pretty stupid.  Hell, I got my Vita before the price drop but I got it for about the same price, used, in a place called Book Off.

Anyway the reason why commenting on system sales pre price drop is dumb is because almost every system gets one at some point.  There are HUGE numbers of people who are like "I want that, but there is no point to buy it now because the price will drop".  So this causes sales to look really bad until the cut hits and BAM, sales go out the arse because people knew this shit was going to happen.

I wasn't even going to buy a 3DS originally, not because I was waiting for a price cut but because I knew that there was obviously going to be a 3DS slim, or XL or some bullshit, so I figured I would just get that.

The new generation looks exciting, so instead of arguing about sales figures and whatnot just fucking enjoy the games, because chances are that when it comes to company finances you don't really know what your talking about anyway (myself included)

A Reason to Buy a WiiU

For the longest time, I didn't give a rats ass about the WiiU, and then I saw this.  Get on that hype train once again, because this is one of the most fantastically strange crossovers I've ever seen.

Crossovers aren't a new thing in games, we have things like Marvel Vs Capcom, Capcom Vs SNK and it even happens in RPGs with things like Trinity Universe, but all those games, and the characters from those games are from the same genre.

For those that don't know, Shin Megami Tensei is the series that has given us stuff like Lucifers Call, Digital Devil Saga and Persona.  They are basically like Pokemon, but meant to be played by people who actually have some taste.

Fire Emblem is a series of strategy RPGs where you take a bunch of dudes on adventures to save lands and whatnot.  As you fight things on a big grid map, you level up your characters and make them advance classes so that the next big bad guy in the plot wont ruin your shit.

They are basically two completely different kinds of game, but somehow they are being crossed over.  I'm aware Shin Megami Tensei has had a "tactics" version on the DS and 3DS, so it could be based on that, but then it should have "Devil Survivor" in the title and not just "Shin Megami Tensei"

There is a trailer which I will provide at the bottom but there is 0 information about what they are doing with this thing.  It's basically saying "This is a thing, get hype", and oh boy did it work.  Check it!

Take all of my money Nintendo, all of it.

Can't give a shit about the WiiU

Read the title again just in case you saw it and got angry.  It's not "don't" give a shit about the WiiU, it's "can't" give a shit.  I've been trying really hard to get myself hyped up for this new bit of hardware from Nintendo, but I just don't give a fuck and I can't bring myself to give a fuck.

Initially, I was really interested in this thing, mainly for it's controller with a screen in it.  When I first saw it announced and got a glimpse of that thing my mind started thinking about all the cool concepts that could come out of a bit of gear like that. 

But I'm not really one for following hype so the WiiU dropped off my radar for a while, then I eventually got round to looking at a list of launch titles for it and good lord was I disappointed.  Everything that's coming out for this damn thing already exists on another system, is garbage aimed at non-gamers, or is just not very interesting.

ZombieU was the game I paid the most attention too, but it still doesn't seem all that interesting to me.  The controller screen stuff is cool, but you don't NEED the controller screen to have those features, it feels like a gimmick and nothing more.  That's the problem with the WiiU I think, for me at least, it feels like a gimmick.

That said, I thought the exact same thing about the DS and the exact same thing about the Wii, and after it gained some steam we got some really impressive games out of those systems.  So, either hurry up and come up with a really cool game concept with that controller screen thing OR release a Trauma Centre, because that'll do it really.