Gamesugar

March 21, 2010

SugarRush – Episode 1

Filed under: SugarRush — Tags: , , , , , — Jamie Love @ 12:30 pm

SugarRush
[podcast]http://www.gamesugar.net/podcast/SRE1_gamesugar.mp3[/podcast]
Hey Kids! It’s the very first episode of Sugar Rush – the Gamesugar Podcast – so start jumping and screaming right now!

Also consider pressing play, because we’d appreciate it.

For our first swing at the mic I’m joined by co-host Michael Tucker, who knows much more about Pokémon than I do, despite my time with HeartGold this week, and Poké-expert Kyattsuai drops by to school us in the Pokéarts and make us question whether you really can catch them all.

But wait, there’s more! Somehow we convinced 4cr’s Gregory Gay that he was doing their podcast while talking Perfect Dark and proving that no matter what we discuss, we’ll always turn it into more debate about Other M – though we also take time out to talk about Valve as often as possible too, assuming Tucker doesn’t pass out from flu meds.

[direct download] [RSS Feed]

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February 2, 2010

The Comment That Nearly Killed Me…

Filed under: Editorial Rants — Tags: , , , , , — Jamie Love @ 5:20 pm

Metroid
I wouldn’t have thought that a post about a teaser site would get me so fired up, but Nick Rumas’ 4cr post about Other M had the ability to stop me dead in the water, and not because he is more optimistic about changes to the Metroid series – if we all thought the same life would be far too bland to go on living.

Rather it was this particular comment attached to the post that stuck me like a needle –

It reminds me of the Metroid Manga, which was fairly good, This game is conveying emotion, which is a great thing I feel, for this game will bring the series to new places, by mixing a great story in with great action. They are just trying to give this series depth, rather than a regular old sci-fi shooter. when you think about it, your still going to be shooting giant space pirates and collecting new upgrades, but this time around I’ll feel the anger and pain of loss, suffering that they’ve caused, and really get enjoyment from killing space pirates and whatnot

Now it’ll seem like I’m singling this comment out to simply pick on it, but I believe it’s an incredibly important talking point that needs some examination. Neither is it my intention to tell you how you should feel about potential changes to the Metroid series via a game we know very little about.

Rather, the inference of where depth emerges from in this comment touches directly on whether the medium of gaming is one we as gamers actively engage with, because without that level of active engagement we’re merely pressing buttons to watch longer movies.

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December 13, 2009

The Burden of Being – Samus Aran

Filed under: Editorial Rants — Tags: , , , , , , , — Jamie Love @ 11:13 am

Samus Aran

Originally Published via Toronto Thumbs – June 14, 2009

Few revelations could have placated the long time Nintendo faithful at E3 this year more than the announcement that another Metroid title was in development. The applause within Club Nokia was instantaneous, and I’m certain the person to my right started convulsing almost immediately; the person to my left added “new Metroid game” to his notes as if he’d forget, but that’s another story. As gamers have absorbed the news, there’s a nagging concern as the knee-jerk excitement gives way to a recognition of what was shown in the footage.

The Team Ninja project consists of video sequences focused on developing a back story for the bounty hunter, presenting characters and emotional elements through externalized story telling tactics. In other words, aspects that are largely foreign to the series. Nintendo told me that the project was about telling a different story in the franchise, and for now that appears to rely on anime-styled cinema to wedge a new entry into the series. I can’t help but think that this has more to do with selling units in Japan, where the series has proved less popular compared to Nintendo’s other storied franchises. Yet there’s more at stake than that.

As Hideo Kojima wisely pointed out at GDC this year, technical limitations played a definitive role in the design and narrative aspirations of early videogames. Designers were forced to find unique ways to tell stories, often achieving fresh narrative approaches by nature of the marriage between what was desired and what was technically possible. While that caused Kojima to create a stealth-oriented genre that continues to thrive today, it also gave birth to a science fiction series that represents the single most symbolically significant franchise Nintendo claims ownership over, linked to the best examples of a genre where the primary goal is to think harder about who we are and where we are going.

With technical limitations fading and giving rise to unparalleled design possibilities, there is every reason to be concerned that this most preciously-guarded franchise will be raided and exploited, lessening the significance in the attempt to broaden the appeal.

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