Importing From Japan - Is it Worth It?
For today's post I figured I'd talk about something I hadn't done before a few days ago - import a game directly from Japan. Unlike some hardcore gamers, I've never been into the import scene - heck, most American consoles will not even play Japanese titles without special modifications done to their hardware. And once the modifications are made and a Japanese title is purchased, the game is often incomprehensible due to the steep language barrier between the two cultures. On top of that, imported games are expensive and certain titles can be difficult to obtain. Due to these factors, I have always opted to wait for the American version.
Until now. Being the owner of a Nintendo DS, a system compatible with Japanese software, I decided to import my first title. A title that I've been curious about for a long time. A title without an American release date. A title some men might be embarrassed to be seen playing in public. It's Super Princess Peach, of course.
Yes, the dainty damsel Mario has been rescuing for years has finally gotten her own title, and this time the roles are reversed - the Princess is actually on a quest to save Mario, Luigi, and Toad from the clutches of Bowser. And yes, while it seems odd that the Princess could handle such a dangerous quest by herself, don't be fooled. Peach hasn't suddenly become Lara Croft. Instead, she capers through bright, cheerful environments, bopping enemies with her talking parasol and solving simple puzzles with her emotion-based powers. Uh, yeah, that's right - by selecting from a touch screen menu of four basic emotions (Joy, Happiness, Sadness, and Anger), the lass actually gains special abilities for a brief time. See a seed that needs watering? Make Peach sad, and she'll cry on the seed and make it sprout. Can't get to the platform resting below a wooden bridge? Make Peach angry, and she'll literally catch the bridge on fire and burn it down so that she can drop to the platform below. It's all bizarre, surreal, and very, very cute.
Being an import title, however, it has delivered on the problems I mentioned earlier. I paid about twenty-five dollars more (counting shipping) for the game than I would have if I had waited for the American release - a game, keep in mind, that is written almost entirely in Japanese, from the story to the menus to the manual. Only Peach's voice is comprehensible. When she completes a level she chirps, "That was easy!" And she's right, the levels I've played so far are incredibly simple to complete, with only meager goombas and koopa troopas providing any danger.
The lesson I've learned here about importing is that, unless a truly good rationale exists for buying a game early, it's better to wait for the U.S. release. I recommend only importing games that will likely never see release in America, or games that do not rely on much (Japanese) text to be enjoyable. In other words, if you can't read Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji, don't be sending away for some obscure Japanese RPG. You won't progress far in it, I assure you.
As for Super Princess Peach, the game is an endearing, fun little title somewhat reminiscent of the more recent Wario Land games. While the graphics don't look far removed from the SNES era, the game brings back fond memories of certain classic 2-D Nintendo platformers from yesteryear. Peach, for her part, is animated well and brimming with personality, making her an appealing character, especially to the young girls whom the game is obviously targeted towards. The one boss fight I've encountered so far is inventively designed, and in a surprising show of depth, new moves for the Princess can be purchased at Toad's Shop at the end of each level. On the downside, the game is, again, very easy, the levels get a tad repetitive, and the whole emotion thing seems a bit forced. And I'm still not sure I can fully accept that Peach, after years of playing the gentle flower, could really save Mario and company all by herself. Oh well, I'm probably just taking this too seriously.
It's a no brainer, though. Gamers wanting a good DS game should give Super Princess Peach a look, especially when it appears in the U.S. sometime next year. But only import if you don't mind an almost incomprehensible story and menu screens. I, for one, can honestly say I don't regret purchasing my copy. It's cool being one of the first Americans to have experienced this game. And, in the end, perhaps that is the true thrill of importing.
Until next time. . .
Battle of the Portables
With each console cycle comes a new system war; the pattern began years ago when Nintendo's SNES was combating the Sega Genesis, and continues today between Sony's and Microsoft's consoles. But one conflict that has all but been forgotten is now beginning to reemerge - the battle of the handhelds.
For years, Nintendo has dominated the portable arena with its legendary Game Boy, easily besting its clueless competitors. Atari had the graphically superior Lynx handheld, but its high price tag, awkward size, and limited market penetration destined it for defeat. Sega was in a more advantageous position with its colorful Game Gear, but with its limited library of games and low battery life, the system had little chance of overtaking the Game Boy. And so, somewhat ironically, Nintendo's little machine with mediocre graphics and an ugly, non-lit screen, dominated the industry from 1989 to the start of the 21st century.
The Game Boy saw several iterations as the years passed, from a smaller design (Game Boy Pocket) to a color screen model with slightly improved hardware (Game Boy Color). Companies such as Bandai (Wonderswan), Tiger (Game.com) and SNK (NeoGeo Pocket) tried to break Nintendo's monopoly by releasing their own handhelds, but they all failed miserably. Thanks to the GB's low price, popular titles (think Pokemon), and long battery life, Nintendo had the market virtually locked. The introduction of the Game Boy Advance (2001) further cemented the company's grip on the portable scene.
That is, until Sony announced its Playstation Portable (PSP) at the 2003 Electronics Entertainment Exposition (E3). A slick, glossy device with a beautiful, high resolution wide-screen and impressive hardware, Sony claimed the PSP would provide gamers with a true console experience equal to that found on the PS2. The announcement caught Nintendo completely by surprise, for remember, it had been years since the Big N had had a serious competitor.
Nintendo's answer to the Sony problem was the Nintendo DS (Dual Screen). First announced in January 2004 and then demonstrated at E3 a few months later, the system sported a clamshell, dual screen design and could display 3-D graphics. Most interesting, however, was that its bottom screen was actually a touch screen similar to those found on PDAs (although not nearly as large). Sony scoffed, claiming the system was underpowered and would be unable to provide the realistic experiences gamers wanted. Nintendo countered this by explaining that the touch screen would allow developers to offer unique interactive experiences not possible on other consoles.
And the rest is history. Both systems are now battling it out for the number one position with Nintendo's DS currently ahead in total units sold, thanks in part to a significantly lower price and some titles cleverly aimed for the mass market (read: Nintendogs). Sony's PSP, however, is still doing respectably, far better than any other competitor has yet fared against the mighty Nintendo.
So which system is the best? Which one should win the war? That's a tough call, as neither system is perfect, but each also has its advantages. Both systems do/will offer on-line wireless play. But the DS is cheaper, and is geared more towards people who want to play games in short spurts. Games like Yoshi's Touch and Go, Castlevania Dawn of Sorrow and the upcoming Mario Kart DS can all be easily played for as little or as long as the player chooses. The PSP, on the other hand, takes a minute or two just to boot up and load a typical game. It's also expensive and suffers from poor battery life. Still, the PSP does offer web browsing, MP3 support and video playback, plus boasts the powerful hardware necessary to provide immersive gaming experiences. Believe it, many a gamer will be anxiously buying the graphically complex Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories later this week - a game the less powerful DS could never run successfully.
Being a Nintendo fan, I own a DS and am looking forward to titles such as Mario Kart DS, Super Princess Peach and Mario and Luigi: Partners in Time. With great titles like these on the horizon, I don't feel I need a PSP just yet. But there's no denying that the PSP is just now beginning to show its potential. Who knows, maybe a year from now, it'll be the DS that is lagging behind in the sales.
Until next time. . .
Holiday Bliss or Blues?
Every year it's the same thing. For the first nine months we're forced to tolerate a flood of mediocre titles with just a couple of "great" ones popping up here or there. And then, WHAM! The holiday season is here and we suddenly have more quality games to play than we know what to do with.
I received the November issue of GameInformer in the mail today and, upon glancing over the "new releases" page, counted a ridiculously long list of promising or "must have" titles just for that month alone. A sample of those games include Fable: The Lost Chapters (Xbox), Okami (PS2), Pac-Man World 3 (multi), Star Wars Battlefront 2 (multi), Castlevania: Curse of Darkness (PS2), Painkillers (Xbox), The Movies (PC), Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows (multi), Half-Life 2 (Xbox), Mario Kart DS (DS, duh), Mega Man X Collection (multi), Shadow the Hedgehog (multi), Sonic Rush (DS), King Kong (multi), Mario and Luigi: Partners in Time (DS), SOCOM U.S. Navy SEALS (PSP), Dragon Quest VIII (PS2). . .the list might as well be endless.
And remember, those are only November releases! Notable games like Ultimate Spider-Man (multi), Shadow of the Colossus (PS2), Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow (DS), Radiata Stories (PS2), and Fire Emblem (GC) have already been released, and December will have its treasures as well. How can anyone afford, let alone find the time to play, even half of these titles?
And then there's the Xbox 360's release on Nov. 22! Titles such as Dead or Alive 4, The Elder Scrolls IV, Kameo, Quake 4, Perfect Dark Zero, and Ridge Racer 6 will all be prominent titles vying for gamers' time and money--and they all release within mere weeks of each other (and many are launch titles). One really has to wonder why more companies don't wait until January or February to release their titles, or simply aim for a summer release - a time when there's less competition and numerous teenagers are looking for something good to play.
But this never happens. Year after year, companies hoard their best games until quarter four, expecting great holiday sales. Instead, many find their games overlooked as shoppers, with only so much money to spend, play it safe and buy only the most visible, mainstream titles. Many great games have been overlooked due to this phenomenon, including Ubisoft's fanciful Beyond Good and Evil, a captivating title that sold abysmally at retail.
In my case, I still have a stack of games from over a year ago that I need to play. What is a poor gamer to do? Until next time. . .
The Top Video Game Heroines
Because I wrote about female gamers in my last post, I thought it only appropriate to dedicate my next piece to gaming's greatest heroines. Listed below are my favorite female video game characters, selected because they meet two important pieces of criteria - historical significance and superb design.
The list as follows:
1. Ms. Pac-Man - She's not the buxom, sexy lady gamers are accustomed to seeing in today's games, but she truly was video gaming's first female star. Even today, the Ms. Pac-Man arcade game remains popular around the world, even beating out the original Pac-Man in total units sold.
2. Princess Peach Toadstool - With all the tough and violent female characters in games today, it's sometimes difficult to remember a time when video game women weren't all about maiming and slaughtering bad guys. The lovely Princess Peach, the Big N's first princess of gaming, remains a breath of fresh air in a sea full of game women barely distinguishable from their male counterparts. True, the Princess still plays the damsel-in-distress role in many titles, but games like Paper Mario reveal her to be a character full of heart, hope, and courage, untainted by the dark edge seen in many other female protagonists. And while her recent depictions in games such as Super Mario Strikers seem a bit out-of-character for her (see earlier post "Sacrilege! Nintendo, What Have You Done?!"), other titles still show her as the kind, peaceful woman we've known since her first appearance in Super Mario Bros. back in 1985.
3. Samus Aran - Heroine of the Metroid series, Samus was the first female character many gamers took serious notice of. Clad in heavy armor that concealed her true identity, most gamers playing the original Metroid naturally assumed they were playing through the game as a male character. Only after defeating the final boss, the heinous Mother Brain, was her true identity revealed, delightfully shocking gamers across the country. Believe it or not, many a young man's first crush was on Samus Aran, which is probably why the heroine remains rooted in the consciousness of many modern gamers. For an excellent modern take on the character, readers should seek the games Metroid Fusion (Gameboy Advance) and Metroid Prime (GameCube).
4. Chun Li - Originally the only playable female character in Capcom's now legendary Street Fighter 2, the beautiful Chun Li quickly stole the hearts of SF2 fans everywhere. The fact that she was one of the game's better contestants didn't hurt her popularity either, and even today she remains one of Capcom's most prized female characters. Her personality has changed slightly over the years, with her lighter, feminine side sometimes overshadowed by a more serious, determined disposition, but at her core, Chun Li will always be the struggling, virtuous daughter seeking justice for the murder of her father.
5. Aerith (Aeris) - Perhaps gaming's most tragic character, the serene and compassionate Aerith was a ray of sunshine to the often dark locales in Final Fantasy VII. In fact, gamers became so attached to her, the damsel's shocking death mid-way into the game still haunts Final Fantasy fans to this day (myself included). Her fate greatly affects the game's other heroes as well, namely Cloud Strife, the game's primary protagonist and Aerith's love interest. Gamers still hope that Square Enix will one day remake the game and provide gamers with the option of preventing Aerith's untimely death from ever occurring.
While these are my favorite game women, I am fond of many others. A few runner-ups are: Princess Zelda (from The Legend of Zelda series, although versions of Zelda vary from title to title), Cornet (from Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure), Amy (from Sonic Adventure), and Shantae (from, well, Shantae). Also, for significance's sake, I should also mention Lara Croft (from Tomb Raider, although I am not a big fan of her myself).
So, agree with my choices? Disagree? Have your own favorites you want to share? Let me know! Until next time. . .
Why Don't More Girls Like Video Games? And Should They?
One of my earliest posts discussed, albeit in a somewhat tongue-in-cheek fashion, the growing interest women are taking in gaming. While gaming is still regarded as generally a "guy thing," girl gamers are far more common now than they used to be, and similarly, women are becoming more involved with the industry as a whole. Fifteen years ago, female game designers, artists and programmers were nearly nonexistent; today, the thought of women filling these roles is no longer unthinkable (although female programmers are still hard to come by). In fact, the video game industry actively seeks female employees for a wide range of positions, from PR and HR jobs to graphic artists and producers.
Even so, men still comprise the bulk of both the hobby and the industry. Many have pondered why this is so. Why aren't there more female gamers? Why have women been so slow in entering the gaming workforce? Theories abound, of course. Some cite the marketplace, claiming that most games are designed for only a male audience. The thinking is that, until more titles are designed with a female audience in mind, girls are going to continue ignoring games. Others blame the (so-called) oversexualized portrayal of women in games, claiming it doesn't provide girls with characters they can relate to, and thus repels them from the hobby.
Which is right? Maybe both, to an extent. Videogaming is primarily a male hobby, and is indeed dominated by men creating games for other men. Likewise, gaming does have its share of over-endowed, buxom women that may be more the product of male fantasy than reality.
But perhaps the ultimate answer is even simpler. Video games, by nature, are usually action-driven, and thus commonly feature violence of one form or another. And traditionally, women have not embraced action-oriented fare as readily as men. The situation is similar to the "chick flick" syndrome, where the guy wants to see the next action-thriller while his girlfriend would prefer a romantic-comedy. And therein lies the problem - certain genres common in older art forms, namely film and books, don't translate well to the gaming medium. Ever play a romantic-comedy video game? How about a video game soap opera? The answer is no, of course, because gaming requires action to remain interesting and fun, an element both romances and dramas cannot easily provide. Hence gaming's fixation on the action-friendly science fiction, horror, fantasy, crime, and adventure genres.
In other words, gaming does not lend itself well to the themes that have traditionally interested women the most - relationships, love and loss, reconciliation, faith, hope, redemption, etc. Therefore, women don't find gaming as interesting as men. In fact, the role-playing genre, one of the few gaming genres capable of expressing the themes listed above, is actually growing in popularity with women due to this very reason. Certain non-violent games, such as Pac-Man, Sonic the Hedgehog and Tetris are also popular among girls, as are certain multi-player games such as Mario Kart and Super Smash Brothers. Because many other titles are grittier and/or more violent than these, they don't attract as large a female audience.
Of course, there are probably numerous other factors as to why women don't find video games more appealing. There's actually a yearly convention, called the Women's Game Conference (scheduled this month on Oct. 26-27), devoted to discussing this and other issues. Maybe girls simply see gaming as a time-consuming hobby and are not willing to sacrifice the time to play when they have more important things to do. I can actually relate to this, as I myself am constantly struggling over whether to play the latest game I bought or instead do something more productive (like work on this blog, right?).
In any case, considering how many Americans already waste their lives in front of the television, perhaps the push to get more women into games is a bit hasty. Maybe women are better off free from the addictive grip that gaming has wrought onto the male populace. Food for thought, anyway.
Until next time. . .
Twenty Years of Super Mario and the NES
With several posts concerning classic gaming already on this blog, and at the behest of a few readers, I thought it only fitting to dedicate my weekend update to the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), the console that, upon its release in 1985, single-handedly resurrected the video game industry. In fact, this year marks the 20th anniversary of both the NES and the original
Super Mario Bros. game, so a post dedicated to the system is even more appropriate.
Shown above are the three primary incarnations of the system. The top picture is of the Famicom (The Family Computer), which was the Japanese version of the console released in 1983. It featured two controllers already hardwired into the system (they could not be unplugged from the hardware) and a top-loading cartridge slot for easy plug and play gaming.
The first American version of the console, renamed the Nintendo Entertainment System, is shown in the middle picture. Due to the disastrous video game crash of 1983-84, most retailers and toy manufacturers were extremely cynical of anything having to do with video games by the time Nintendo appeared on the scene with its NES. Aware of this, Nintendo gave its system a radical redesign in hopes that retailers would not view it as just another gaming system destined for ruin. To help mitigate this stigma further, the Big N even touted a disk drive and keyboard attachment that would turn the NES into a full-fledged computer, and also promoted R.O.B. (short for Robotic Operating Buddy), a toy robot that would act as "player 2" for certain titles. Nintendo hoped that these attachments, peripherals and upgrades would convince retailers that the NES was not so much a game machine as it was a productivity and edutainment tool, or at the very least, a sophisticated toy. Unfortunately, the computer components were never released in America and R.O.B. proved to be a near-useless novelty, but nevertheless, Nintendo's strategy still succeeded brilliantly. By the early 1990s, the company had sold over 30 million consoles in the U.S. alone.
The NES 2, featured in the bottom image, was an attempt by Nintendo to boost 8-bit sales during a time when the 16-bit consoles, namely the Sega Genesis and Nintendo's own SNES, were quickly growing in popularity. Inspired by both the SNES and Famicom designs, the NES 2 was in many ways the system Nintendo should have released back in 1985. Although identical to the original NES in terms of hardware, its top loading design meant that it could better withstand normal wear and tear than the original version. The NES 2 was not perfect, however, as it lacked the AV outputs of its earlier counterpart, meaning that players had to tolerate lower picture quality using an RF modulator. Even so, the NES 2 is now highly sought after by collectors wanting a more reliable means of playing their favorite Nintendo games.
Nintendo's first five years in the American console industry is an amazing success story. Silencing the critics and dumbfounding the cynics, Nintendo, a Japanese company mostly ignorant of American ways, overcame seemingly impossible odds to dominate the game market for the rest of the 80s. Not only did the company earn huge profits off system and software sales, but also through constant merchandising of its most prized franchises. Everything from Zelda trading cards to Mario coloring books to Nintendo cereal filled stores of all kinds, and kids scooped up the products in droves. Creating an empire is one thing, however, but maintaining it is another, and this is where Nintendo revealed its darker side through some questionable business practices, from creating artificial "chip shortages" (to inflate demand of certain titles) to bullying retailers into only carrying Nintendo products. I will cover this topic more closely in a future post.
But for now, let's end this update on an optimistic note. Thanks to great games and characters such as Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, Toad, Yoshi, Samus, Link, Zelda, Donkey Kong, Kirby, and a host of others, Nintendo has broadened the imaginations of gamers across the world. Who can forget the first time he saved the Princess, or completed the Triforce, or defeated the evil Mother Brain? We owe these fond memories to the Big N.
Oh, and happy 20th birthday, Super Mario and Luigi! Until next time. . .
