Gamesugar

December 13, 2009

Review – Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles

Review Resident Evil Darkside Chronicles
For three consecutive nights, my girl and I have loaded our WiiMotes as if they were pistols, complete with nerdy sound effects, and found more multiplayer fun with The Darkside Chronicles than any other game we’ve played together this year. With a guilty weakness for light gun games, but a collection of titles that left plenty to be desired, we initially went into the game with a healthy amount of hesitation.

As stifled as the genre is, given that no amount of fancy words changes the fact that players are simply pointing at the screen and pulling a trigger, this release offers a reminder that there’s a genre to develop a game within, as with any other. And while the mechanics are straight-forward, that doesn’t rule out the possibility of creating a memorable experience, so long as developers accept that challenge rather than trying to shoehorn existing franchises into the setup.

Keep in mind I’ve largely ignored Dead Space Extraction for this very reason, simply because it’s burdened with the perception of providing a quick and easy means of moving the franchise onto the Wii.

When it came to The Darkside Chronicles, I did only expect to play long enough to get my Resident Evil fix. And yet for three nights in a row, we’ve played until our eyes were swollen red and our trigger fingers went from itchy to aching.

(more…)

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.

(more…)

« Newer Posts

Powered by WordPress