Riding with Otakus 4

Why can't Nintendo catch a break from the internet fanboys? They say they want new franchise, yet whenthey make new franchises, they complain about a lack of Mario and Zelda. They say they want mature ttitles, yet they bitched and whined about Bayonetta 2 being announced as a Wii U exclusive. What is is that they want from Nintendo? It almost seems as if they want them to disappoint them because they love to hate them.

Imagine what would happen if there wasn't a huge throng of Nintendo haters. Part of the popularity of the Wii was due to internet fanboys bashing its name. I'm sure they had no idea that name would go on to be that famous at their own expense. After all, word of mouth is the best advertising these days. As for the Wii U, it seems Nintendo has all their bases covered this time. They're getting better 3rd party support, there obviously will be the 1st party games, and they have multiple controller options. In fact, I'm more than convinced that the only people they have no chance of appealing to are the ones who long into forums just to bash Nintendo and its loyal fans.

The trailer above is an example of the diversity of games that will be offered by the Wii U. It seems set to be a bigger success than even the Wii, and it seems we'll find out in just a little over a month if it has the potential to capture the more casual crowd as well as the hardcore. One thing worth noting is that the Call of Duty crowd is already going crazy over the Wii U version of the game, thanks to its unique "Gamepad" controller. Win, lose, or Draw, I believe Nintendo has already show us this gen, that they can maintain a console on their own if needs be. Here's hoping they want have to do so this time around.

My idea for a new game genre

Lately I've come up with an awesome idea for a new genre of video games. I'm sure anybody on this site has seen their fare share of Slice of life type animes, or comedy romances like School Rumble. Well, how about a video game genre that fits that? In this day and age of high end technology and big budget games, why hasn't anyone made an open world, sandbox type of game that isn't a GTA clone, but instead lets you develop real relationships with the characters  in the game, which can in fact determine your story. This approach would guarantee that each unique player gets a unique experience.

        For example, if I were to play the game let's take School Rumble for example, and I played as Harima, I could have chose to pursue Eri instead of Tenma, and possibly be taken to new locations that I otherwise never would have seen unless i ride my bike or ran forever, and I'd also meet characters that I otherwise wouldn't have met, such as Eri's busy father and other butlers and maids. And it doesn't stop there. I could then choose to build better relationships with those characters as well. You could still opt to punch a guy and start a fight, but you don't gain any thing worth mention, except for strength stats, which could come into play if you chose to forget love and have Harima become a cage fighter instead, or a baseball pitcher , or anything that requires strength.

     A game of this nature has yet to be done, and I don't think it is because technical limitations, I believe it is because of the outrageous amount of time that would have to go into building a game of this scope. I even have ideas of "boss battles" that vary according to what route you've chose. Again let's use a School Rumble themed game as an  example. You can have Harima end up on a date with Tenma, and your "level" going into the battle depends on how much research you did on Tenma in-game, and you "win" the battle by choosing to say the right things   (Think Mass Effect conversations), perform the right actions, and even buying the right food. Another example of a "boss battle" can be getting in a fight with Hanai over Yakumo, which would work like a standard DOA type of fighting game, or my favorite is the type of "boss battle" where you have to argue your innocence (Think Phoenix Wright). For Example the Harima and Eri misunderstanding at the beach scene, according to how you played the game, can be completely avoided, or lead to a "boss battle" where instead of Akira coming in and seeing him, Tenma would. In this type of battle, you would have to play like a quick time event were you press certain buttons that pop up on screen in order to dodge hurtful words that fly from her mouth towards you, if the word hits you it explodes and you lose a little energy until you lose it all. if you lose it all Harima panics and runs away and you lose a hell of a lot of relationship points with Tenma. However, if you pass it, you immediately go into a "Rush Reply" battle where you can to choose the right thing to say, but there is a time limit rushing you (Think Sakura Wars) where as if you succeed, you earn relationship points, or you can just get a neutral result were you neither gain or lose points, or you can say all the wrong things and lose points, but not as many as you would have lost if you didn't make it to rush reply.

   Well, that's my idea of a new genre of games. Of course I have ideas with my own characters, but I just used School Rumble as an example, because I know must of my fans have seen it, and if they haven't maybe now this blog will convince them to do just that. Be you! Be true! Be. Human!

Bayonetta 2 Wii U exclusive

and also this

Why I hate Call of Duty but love Halo

 

 

 

 

I'm not going to sugar coat it, I'm going to come out straight and say it: I hate Call of Duty. I am not really that big of a fan of FPS games in general, because i like to be able to see my character, so that i don't get stuck when trying to run up stairs. Then why do I love the Halo series? It single handedly sparked the FPS revolution that this current gen has taken way over board, yet I love it. Why? Why do I love the game responsible for making so many developers churn out generic shooters to try to best it?
 

The answer is simple. Even though Halo is indeed an FPS, it's still slightly otaku with all of its sci fi goodness. There's even an anime adaptation of it. I love science fiction, and Halo is a prime example of how to do sci fi right in a video game. Everything from The story, to the weapons, to even the races of aliens was done perfectly. I watched a documentary about Halo 2, and the developers said they start every morning by weeping at their desk. That is dedication, and you can tell there is a lot of passion and thought put into each game. Even the ones that i didn't like too much (Halo 3 and Reach) you could tell they put a lot of effort into it.

Call of Duty on the other hand, is just your generic war story.No aliens, no futuristic weapons, nothing inspiring with the stories. Hell, I can't even say they put a lot of passion and effort into it. They release at least one game every year, and there is very little difference if any between each iteration. Call of duty, in my opinion, is just a glorified Versus mode with a slapped together story to appeal to mainstream gamers and even casuals who get flooded by the advertisements for it. Call of Duty is the one game that I hope dies off or maybe get better and stop releasing every year before the next gen starts. It's like gaming isn't about quality with them anymore, they just won't as many sells as possible, so they just churn out as many as they can.

When you compare the two, nobody can deny that the Halo series is just a better series hands down. So at the end of the day I love Halo because it is full of creativity and innovation, and I hate Call of Duty because its just redundant generic war shooters every single year.

Is Mario being milked dry

The question on everyone's mind these days, is simply a question of "is Mario being milked dry?" In order to answer this question, we must first acknowledge that Mario himself is a character and he has multiple games that he stars in. Is the character Mario used a lot? Yes. Nobody can argue with that, but is each individual franchise that he represent being milked? I would say no.

Let me explain. Mario on average has 1 or 2 main franchise games per console and 1 of each spinoff game. Do you honestly believe everyone who enjoys Mario and Sonic Olympics, or Mario Party is also going to go out and buy Mario Galaxy or New Super Mario Bros.? The problem is that people group anything with Mario in it as a main franchise game for some reason. Mario Kart has its own following separate from Mario Golf and Mario Tennis. I know several gamers who are "tired" of Mario platformers, but get excited every time a new Mario Kart is announced.

Think of Mario as a movie star. Would you group Enemy of the State and I Am Legend as part of the same line of movies with Will Smith? No you wouldn't. Though they all star Will Smith, they are vastly different from each other. This variety is what allows Mario to churn out several games per console and still stay fresh. If we look at each individual franchise, we see there have only been two 3D games, one sidescrolling 2D game and one RPG game on the Wii. How is that any more milked that the yearly Call of Duty games that are all the same genre? So no, Mario is not being milked, he's just the star of multiple separate game franchises.

Nintendo Wii Black with New Super Mario Brothers RVKSKAAH (Google Affiliate Ad)