Japanese Video Game Industry is Dead?

Keiji Inafune is a name every gamer from the NES generation should know. He is the mind behind the Mega-Man series, as well as many other amazing titles sense then. In the video below during TGS, Inafune talks about how the Japanese game industry is dead. More after the jump.

I'm giving you the link because I couldn't get embedding the video to work.

Final Fantasy 8 turns 10.

I love Final Fantasy VIII. For the last ten years, it has been one of my favorite games of all time. And, as of last week, it has been exactly ten years. To celebrate this occasion, I played The Beatles Rock Band. That's why I'm now writing this article a week after the games anniversary; because The Beatles Rock Band is a lot of fun.
Whenever I'm asked about what my favorite games are, the most consistant answers have always been either The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, and FF8. I've played both games countless times and always seem to have fun doing it, but no matter how many times I play either game, I seem to find that there are things I've never found before. In Ocarina of Time, I found a dieing Hyrule soldier in a back alley. I was astounded that I never knew this existed. What was more astounding that this was a magic spell I never knew about in Squaresoft's awesome JRPG.
During the final boss fight, you can draw and cast a spell only obtainable there. I never knew this because My characters are already geared up and fully leveled by then. The spell you can use, is ultimately forgettable that late in the game; but something must be said about what it says about the games design. For that, I thank the good people at Squaresoft for creating a game that keeps surprising me.

The fate of Captain Shepard and its impact on the next Mass Effect Guy.

Over the last weekend, Bioware announced that Captain Shepard isn't as dead a previously believed. This does, however, make you wonder how will your choices in Mass Effect 1 impact the upcoming sequel. If you played the game as a compassionate leader, will your starting world be any happier?

Recently, 2k Boston faced a similar situation with the upcoming sequel to its 2007 hit Bioshock. Bioshock ended with your character being either a saint or a sadist in regards to the lives of little girls. 2k Boston figured out how to tie in the solution to Bioshock 2: Sea of Dreams without messing with the first games cannon. The solution: Make a prequel!

The easy solution to this problem was answered in an easier fashion in Biowares hit game Knights of the Old Republic 2; Bioware simply chose that the official ending to the first game had the main character be a good guy, and that's what went down.

If Mass Effect 2 starts by loading the history of your previous 'characters' history, this could increase replay value of the first game in order to see how the game changes, but this would require a lot of preparation time for the player. Also: What happens in the game if you didn't play the first Mass Effect? With E3 coming up, my inquires may end there. If not, I very wel may have to wait until Mass Effect 2 comes out.

Weekly Nostalgia: Cartriges

Back in the day, I remember my Christmas tree being surrounded by small mostly-hollow boxes. These boxes were too small for clothes, too big for cassettes (you know, those early CDs) and too light to be a VHS tape (early DVD). These magical boxes contained video game cartridges.

I love cartridges. I love the noticeable label on the front of both the cart and the previously mentioned hollow box. I also love the cartridges shape This made the game immediacy easy to identify what console it was for. In this day and age, you need a logo on the disc to determine what machine the game is for. By looking at the cartridge, you immediately knew if the game was for your SNES or if it was for a Sega Genesis.

There was an identity to a cart sicking out of your console; a motivation to keep playing Donkey Kong because it looked at you as you walked by your SNES. With modern disc trays, it's easy to not think about what game you were last playing.

I'm not the only person who misses cartridges. In September 2008, Capcom sent out Press versions of Mega Man 9 in in jewel cases shaped like NES cartridges with a similar cover design of past Mega Man titles. This proves the nostalgia of cartridges in the American Zeitgeist.

The Grey or Black plastic cases are primitive in almost every way to discs. Their only advantage is the fact that cartridges have no loading times. This was true in the N64/PS1 era, and remains true in the DS/PSP generation. Discs allow for both lengthy/deep cut scenes and vast amounts of data space. A single Blu-Ray disc could easily hold every NES and SNES game ever designed.

I miss a lot of things about video game's past, and I will continue to talk about them in future posts, but for now, please bask in the nostalgia-ridden bliss of gaming before the mid to late nineties.

Nintendo needs spice to their bland pastry known as video games.

Do you remember that on Zelda game? You know, the one where you go into the dungeon, get those keys and kill that pig boss guy? Wait, that's every zelda game...
Well do you remember that one Mario game? You know, the one where you collect stars and save the princess? Wait, that's every one....

How about the Punchout series? Metroid? Are you begining to pick up what I'm putting down? Nintendo is guilty of repetition; although it's not necessarily a crime. George Lucas of Star Wars fame has oftern compared his series to poetry due to its repetition. What makes Nintendo in need of updating their properties and not Star Wars is because repetitive gameplay is rarely a good thing.

Everybody who has ever played a Legend of Zelda title shudders whenever someone mentions the Water Temple. The torure and confusion of raising and lowering water levels still gives players nightmares. Although the Water Temple in Ocarina of Time is a brilliant and confusing level, it doesn't need to be remade in the next Zelda game (the next Water Temple being Great Ba in Majora's Mask).

The Mario frinchise is in trouble from repetition also, but in a defferent way. Marios level design in varrying and brilliant in every new title. but its storyline and gameplay has been the same for thirteen years. Nintendo has even tried to remedy this with Mario Sunshine, but-- oddly enough, Sunshine is often known as the black sheep in the series and rejected by fans. Every mario title effectivley starts and ends the same way/ This will ultimatley lead to the franchisses downfall. How many tributes and homages to itself does Mario really need?

Now, E3 is coming soon and all my Nintendo qualms may end. I love Nintendo, I think the Wii has the potential to change the way games are played, but with Wii music and Wii Play, Nintendo seems to want to broaden their audience and wallets instead of broadening their library of games.

Nintendo has a legendary ammount of franchises, but they are starting to suffer grom blandness. As a gamer, I hope these franchises star fresh-- like Salad, and not stale and tedious-- like Dynasty Warriors..... er... I mean cheese...

I love Adam Sessler.

As of late, I've been writing an article (I'll try to finish it and get it up tomorrow) about how Ninendo either needs a new franchise or a way to make their old franchises new. That's all I'll talk about that now because anything else will spoil my article.
Adam Sessler has a similar post about not just Nintendo, but Japanese game design in general on his Soapbox videos. On top of that, all of his other Soapbox videos are really strong. The videos let him rant about any game dispute he wants to talk about, and because it's Sessler talking about it, it makes people want to listen to him.
Anyway, Adam Sessler, I love you.

Why I love the Escapist

The Escapist has five magazine styled articles every week under one topic. This leads to amazingly broad concepts to be written about. On top of this, the Escapist has some great video features. Anyway, the escapist is up for a Webby and I give it my whole-hearted recommendation.