Super Meat Boy is not only a phenomenal platformer but, is one of the best games I’ve played to date. After seeing all of the development clips of the game and dozens upon dozens of blogged levels, you might begin to think that you’ve seen everything that the game has to offer. Once you play the first world, you realize all the pre hype hasn’t even scratched the surface.

I usually don’t get to write reviews before street date, mostly due to not getting prerelease copies of games (in any legal fashion anyway) however, because I added a few announcer type shouts to break up your jumping mesmerization, I was gifted with a prerelease. Of course I was quite motivated to stick the cartridge in my console for selfish reasons as well, I had to settle for the 25 digit downloadable version (that and because I don’t own a device to transport me to alternative worlds where Nintendo’s vision saw good on a cartridge-only based future).

After playing through just a few levels, I almost cried. When I play a game, my critical thinking personality …continue reading Super “Duper!” Meat Boy

Once upon a time a nerd named Gary Gygax wrote a pretty neat game called Dungeons and Dragons. He adapted some rules he had been using to run miniatures battles with fantasy creatures and added the idea of playing a single character growing and evolving through multiple adventures. Dungeons and Dragons has been hugely influential on the videogame industry; in recent years the influence of videogames has been apparent on D&D as well.

The core concept of the role playing game was developed in the first edition of Dungeons and Dragons. Characters were rolled up with random statistics and then grew through the choosing of a class and gaining ‘levels’ as they gained experience points through adventuring. Anyone that has played a Modern Warfare game will be pretty familiar with the concept of ‘leveling up’; it’s one of the most common mechanics in videogames today and not just for role playing games. You’ll level up in shooters, you’ll level up in adventure games, you’ll level up in various Facebook games, even GTA: San Andreas had a leveling mechanic. As you gain levels you typically gain interesting perks to make your character more unique. The experience often proves very addictive; players find themselves looking ahead to the next levels to check out what options will open up and what ‘builds’ they can put together to become even more efficient at getting more levels. Transformers: War for Cybertron’s multiplayer was …continue reading Dungeons and Dragons and RAM; a look back at D&D and its influence on and by videogames

Want to be a game developer? This series of articles will focus on games that allow for player-created content.

This week we take a look at a game that bridges the divide between PC and console. Buzz Quiz TV and Buzz Quiz World allow you to make quiz games playable on consoles and on the web!

The Game: Buzz! Quiz World

The Platform(s): PS3, World Wide Web

Overview: Okay, trivia games are hardly new, but Buzz! Quiz World is arguably the cream of the genre. The game ships with 4 custom-built buzzer controllers (and supports both same-TV and Internet play with up to eight) that free you from the tyranny of the Dual Shock and instead allow you to sink into your fantasy of Jeopardy signaling devices. The disc comes with tens of thousands of questions, and more can be obtained via quiz packs available in the PlayStation store, or by downloading user-created quizzes.

Creation: Amateur quiz masters can try their hand at trivia mastery by going to www.mybuzzquiz.com. You will have to log in with your PSN ID. Once you log in, you can either create new quizzes or browse through quizzes created by others. Quizzes can either be stored in your Favorites list to use on your Playstation (since all is tied to your PSN ID, the Playstation transparently picks up your favorites) or right there on the site using an actually pretty graphically accurate, mouse-driven recreation of the Buzz! controller. Note that since you get the same questions either way, playing online will …continue reading Creation Nation: Buzz Quiz World

I was born in 1982, I know I’m SOO YOUNG, and also SOO OLD!
So I was a kid in the mid to late 80s.  The 8-bit age.  EVERYBODY had
a Nintendo Entertainment System.  Well, almost everybody had a NES.
My family, we had a Sega Master System.  How did this come to be, well
I was super young so of course, it starts with my parents.

My father was a big arcade gamer.  But my mother wanted him to stay
at home when he was there. (He was in the Navy at the time, so at any
moment he can be gone 7 months overseas).  So she told him that every
time he wanted to go to the arcade, put the money he was going to
spend in a coffee can or jar.  So he did that and after a while he had
enough money and bought a Sega Master System.  I have no idea why …continue reading An 8-Bit Family History or GRANDMA GET OFF THE SEGA!

We’re all fans of games, or else we wouldn’t be at this site, but the transition from player to creator might seem somewhat intimidating – the learning curve of programming, 3D modeling, recording, art production, and so on necessary to complete a modern video game masterwork is somewhat staggering. The curve can be eased somewhat with player-created content – games with hooks designed to allow for players to graft their own creations into them. This series of articles is designed for people who want to get their feet wet without committing several years of their lives to an entirely new vocation, or are looking to start one and see if they have what it takes. Each article will focus on a different game for you to check out and crank out content.

The Game: Smackdown vs. Raw 2010

The Platform(s): DS, iPhone, PS2, PS3, PSP, Wii, XBox 360 (reviewed on PS3)

Overview: Fans should know what to expect: an impressive roster of wrestlers drawn from what were (at the time of this game’s development) WWE’s three main brands – Raw, Smackdown, and ECW – with up to 6 players competing in a dizzying variety of match types in any combination of human and AI control. The Road to Wrestlemania mode returns, giving you six 3-month storylines specific to certain certain stars giving their lead in to the biggest show of them all, rather than a long-running career mode with increasingly silly storylines causing characters to act in ways that may or may not make sense. New this year is a tutorial mode of sorts that plays under the main menu, giving new players a chance to learn the controsl before being tossed into the main action, and a streamlining of the blocking system, freeing up L2 for other uses.

Creation: Any aspect of the game can be recreated as you see fit. The “create a wreslter” feature has always been a hallmark of the series, but 2010 gives you an unprecedented 50 slots and the ability to easily share your creations online. As always, you can reassign the rosters of any brand to create the WWE universe in your own vision; new this year is the ability to …continue reading Creation Nation: Smackdown vs Raw 2010

Want to be a game developer? This series of articles will focus on games that allow for player-created content.

Not all games that allow player-created content were built with easy sharing in mind. This week we take a look at a game that lets you create, but isn’t too happy with you showing off what you’ve wrought.

The Game: Soul Caliber IV

The Platform(s): PS3, XBox 360 (reviewed on PS3)

Overview: In a genre crowded with imitators, Soul Caliber carved a niche for itself as the one-on-one fighting game focused on weapon-based combat. Each fighter carries a unique blade, and their special moves are all tailored to the swords they bear as well as to their personal background and fighting style, giving this game a wealth of possibilities not open to others even if the commands to execute the moves are largely the same. Over 30 characters are available to the player, along with a host of different game modes, both for single and versus, and head to head combat can be done either on the sofa or over the Internet.

Creation: As the game progresses, the player acquires gold and unlocks a variety of clothing, items, and weapons. Once a character, style, weapon, or item is unlocked or purchased, it can be used mix-or-match style to customize the game’s characters or to create new ones. There are 50 slots available for custom builds. No other customization is available – stages, game modes, fighting styles, storylines, all of these are …continue reading Creation Nation: Soul Caliber IV

So, I still consider myself a gamer. But as time passes and crappy motion sensing controllers are revealed, I find myself slowly floating away from the medium, much like the balloon that the 6 year accidentally let go at the state fair, which is just hilarious. As a firm believer of “Things happen for a reason”, Something had to happen to get me into this situation. So, let’s play a round of The Blame Game and figure this thing out.

1. Achievements/Trophies

Right around the current generation of consoles, the addition of imaginary numbers to mundane actions in video games somehow became a giant movement that drives people to acts of self torture and pain infliction. Ranging from the plain and basic(Pressing the start button) to the painfully difficult and masochistic(Proving that Elvis and Tupac are alive), This has become a driving force among players. Unfortunately, These fake numbers have lead to cases of egotism amongst the fanboys, acting as if numeric value prove anything.  The greater effect, however, was its affect over what games I would play. I would play games through, ignoring all story and gameplay elements that could create emotional connections, in order for a little audio/visual stimulus. It’s like playing the carnival game where you squirt the clown in the mouth, but instead of taking the copyright-violating toys, you just like to hear the balloon pop.

2. Multiplayer

This is the monster that evolved from the cute little rat.(Know why Pokemon was fun? No multiplayer.) Originally done with friends/family in the same room, this virus has spread all over the world with symptoms including racism, homophobia, and better-than-you-itis. Stemming from the anonymous nature, you can basically get …continue reading Angry Angry Article

Good art will make your interactions with it feel like you’re living a few special seconds of lifetime. Movies, books, games, music and anything else that evokes concentrated humanity can provoke our emotions on the deepest levels. I’ll never forget my first kiss and I’ll also never forget how beating Resident Evil 2 felt. Whether we’re living vicariously through a leading man or a leading pixel sometimes art will leave an impression to rival intimacy or grief.

These little moments of inspiration or whatever you’d like to call them are special because they are so rare. I’ve just decided to catalogue a few of my life that became standout moments revolving around video games . Moments where I literally wouldn’t have wanted to be doing anything else.

I grew up poor like the majority of people. In 1991 I was six years old and the Game Boy was the hottest thing in the schoolyard. There was no way my mother could afford to buy one for me though so we had to rent one. The local video shop would rent out the Game Boy with ac adaptor, Tetris and the most stylin’ holdall bag you can imagine for a few Irish pounds. I remember the jealous looks I got on the way home with the official Game Boy carry case slung over my little shoulder and just how special my fleeting moments with the green screened wonder were. This was a glimpse into the recreational habits of those richer than I. The sad thing is the thrill of actually owning a Game Boy couldn’t come close the feeling of having one for a limited time. I later got to experience everything the system offered through games other than Tetris and being able to take the system with you wherever you go, but still nothing compares to the feeling of briefly living the dream. Just like the smiling kids on the back cover of a comic book.

The thing MAME sadly can’t emulate is the arcade itself. The dingy, noisy wonderland full of weird people and weird games. Now a lost world barely represented by Game Room and assembled every now and then at a convention so we can all step into a largely forgotten time. But I’ll never forget just how cool it felt to be playing games in …continue reading Reflections of a Gamer: My life in 128 bits.

All good stories have a distinct beginning, middle and end. In fiction its referred to as the three act structure. Act one is the set up, a hero is forced to deal with a significant problem. Act two follows the hero as he or she attempts to deal with this new problem and searches for a way to resolve the new conflict. Act three deals with the final battle between the protagonist and their antagonist. After overcoming all of the obstacles put before them in acts one and two and having learned from the resultant experiences the protagonist is ready to finally conquer their enemy. This basic structure applies to more or less all forms of traditional fiction like novels and cinema and in some cases video games. Of course

Whether or not its necessary to have a strong narrative in a video game more than debateable. Some of the best have none, for instance I don’t remember anyone caring why the blocks in Tetris were dropping. Then you have the RPG genre, it being built on strong narratives and the personal motivations of your chosen protagonist.

Early arcade and console games were light on storytelling. An obvious reason for this would be the limited memory and tech along with other factors such as the art form itself. There’s no narrative in a board game like checkers or a sport like tennis, two of the standout influences on early games, so why should pong have a hero? Later games of the first generation like Galaga and Robotron would use themes familiar to fans of sci fi, even going as far to ape the sights and sounds of Star Wars in Galaga’s case. But this couldn’t be considered a story, the only story in Galaga was the one you the player dotted together from the familiar tropes the designer included in the finished product.

It would take a jump in both home and arcade hardware before some yarns could truly be spun. With the NES we got the epic journey of Link and the rather simple journey of Mario. With the Sega master system we got Phanasy Star alongside Alex Kidd’s quest for burgers. It was the 8bit era that gave us solid heroes, clearly defined villains and more importantly something to quest for. While we were assured Yar’s for instance needed to chew up the glaive with Super Mario Bros we got to see the princess and the evil Croco-Turtle-Saur that had kidnapped her.  These early adventures still had very simple stories though. Characters like Mario and Link were far from well rounded. They were the hero because you controlled them, not because of the obstacles they had to overcome. All you needed then was something to retrieve and a bad guy who wanted to stop you. This successful formula would continue in various forms for years.

By the end of the 8bit era storytelling had come on a bit. The RPG genre had begun to evolve and adapt some of the more literary approaches to storytelling that would later come to define it. Platformers were still the king of games throughout the 16bit era and once again people didn’t need much motivation to push sonic through those hoops. They just did it because it was fun. The stories in other games got bigger and more epic than ever though. Square rolled out epics like Chrono Trigger and Super Mario RPG while the brains behind Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter 2 gave us some exposition to the brawling in cut scenes and promotional material.

The 32/64 bit era brought with it improved hardware and a new generation of storytellers. The tech had finally caught up to Hideo Kojima’s ambitions and allowed him to create gaming cinema with Metal Gear Solid, albeit with hammy acting. In the 3rd dimension Zelda felt truly epic, Hyrule now spread out before you as a vast landscape populated by characters with varying motivations. Then Final Fantasy VII brought with it an epic scale never before seen in the RPG genre. Across its three discs a grand narrative unfolded, leaving an influence that can still be felt today.

But it was not only adventure games that had new progressive storytelling included, simple titles would evolve too at the end of the 90’s. Shooters like Giga Wing would come prefaced with bars of text before the bullet hell and previous caricatures like Sonic would be elaborated on ad infinitum. In fact Sonic is a character that truly suffered under the new trends. After his Dreamcast debut he was no longer a silent speedy badass he was now a whimpering fool who for some reason could talk to humans.

During the last two generations games got bigger than ever, both in content and status. No longer a bedroom hobby for us glorious nerds, now everybody was joining in and they wanted to know why they were playing more than ever. RPG’s have become so huge that if they were television shows they would last multiple seasons. Fighting games come with intricate feuds and histories. In fact Nintendo’s urge to keep Mario games simple has nearly made the Galaxy series surreal. On completing Super Mario Galaxy I was left wondering if Federico Fellini had done the scripting.

The way in game stories are told and were told is a very interesting topic. One that is constantly evolving as each new generation brings with it a new approach. Will simple protagonists and dramatic struggles do justice to future hardware capabilities or will we always want to know we’re fighting for the good guys in as simple terms as those. Too much or too little, really its up to you the gamer and whatever hero you choose to be.

A lot of things are retro in games nowadays; pixels, 2D platforms, colouring, box art, gaming manuals, even gamers themselves, that were so new and scary not too long ago, have been transformed into nostalgia-baiting digital MacGuffins, destined to be embodied on T-Shirts and tittered about on about twelve tons worth of “Top 100” shows forever more. But did anyone ever really think that, of all the things that are retro in the world of gaming today, good old two-player functionality would be one of them?

It seems like only yesterday I was sitting down in front of a little black and white TV with my younger brother beside me and a copy of WWF Royal Rumble in the Megadrive, teaming Bret Hart and Hulk Hogan for a shot at the tag belts, or re-igniting that age old blood-fued between Undertaker and…uh, Crush (Give me a break. I was like 11 and he wore a very colourful costume. It’s still real to me, dammit!).

We would bicker. We would argue. We would tap the buttons on the other’s controllers in order to gain the advantage, and we’d probably end up not talking for the rest of the night. But damn it all if we didn’t have fun doing it. But those days are gone, lost forever to the dim vestiges of time and age. And, since then, what has become of multiplayer?

It’s become a monster, that’s what. Not necessarily a bad monster – think more like …continue reading Two’s Company, Ten Million’s a Crowd