Odds and Ends

Final Crisis

Here we go again; it’s that time of year. DC Comics has just unleashed it’s newst world-changing Mega-Crossover, Final Crisis. For the uninitiated, this is the third in a supposed trilogy of Crises that began in 1985 with Crisis on Infinite Earths and continued in 2005 with the recent Infinite Crisis. Final Crisis is supposedly the bookend to everything the story momentum of the DCU has been building towards over the last few years.

So far, it’s pretty underwhelming though. Now please note that SPOILERS are ahead, so if you plan to read Final Crisis, but haven’t yet, don’t go any further. The issue opens as the author promised it would, with the First Boy, Anthro. In a very cool opening sequence, he is given fire by the self-styled Prometheus, the New God Metron, and uses it to fight off the vandal hordes of the villain who will later be known as Vandal Savage.

The story shifts to the present day, where Dan Turpin, a minor Superman character created by Jack Kirby, finds the dying New God named Orion and watches as he dies. The Guardians of the Universe freak out and cordon off the planet because of a Code 1011, deicide. This proves to be a rather ridiculous elements for reasons entirely beyond the author Grant Morrison’s control

You see, DC has been killing off the New Gods in droves lately, in their year-long weekly series Countdown to Final Crisis as well as an eight-part miniseries know aptly as Death of the New Gods. The characters have been so over saturated that any awe and mystery they should have has been replaced by the tedium of an overused character showing up in places he doesn’t belong. Morrison manages to recapture a little of that, but only if you look at Final Crisis in a vacuum, independent of the failure of a weekly series that counted down to it.

After some good scenes involving Libra, the new big bad of the DCU for the time being, Dark Side (who is, of course, Darkseid himself) and surprisingly the Monitors, one of the most annoying and overused groups throughout Countdown. Morrison manages to make them more interesting in a few pages than Paul Dini and company did in 51 issues.

Of course, it wouldn’t be a big crossover without a hero killed off to show how serious the villain is. This time around the victim is long-time JLA mainstay J’onn J’onnz, the Martian Manhunter. I went in expecting to be outraged and frustrated by the decision, but in the context of the comic it caused a surprising amount of apathy. J’onn hasn’t been used much lately, or at least not used very well. He is off the Justice League, he has a stupid new costume, and his recent mini series was, as far as I’ve heard, mediocre at best.

It sufficiently establishes the stakes of this new world Libra wants to create—a world where Evil wins. I’m not sure how long the death will stick—after all, J’onn is one of the classic JLA mainstays and had a wonderful showing on the Justice League animated series.

Overall, Final Crisis issue 1 just makes me interested and curious about where it’s going. It didn’t turn me off from the whole crossover, but at the same time, it hasn’t grabbed my full attention yet the way Infinite Crisis and Crisis on Infinite Earths did when I first read them. But this is only the first issue, so I suppose whether or not this has all been worth it will be revealed in time.

GameOverthinker 8

In other news, the Game Overthinker video blog that I mentioned in my previous entry has updated again. This time around the topic is race and video games, and the insights by moviebob are very astute, in my opinion.

Gamers by and large are not a racist bunch, at least not anymore so than the rest of the population. When we see that the game is set in Africa, we simply accept it. The fact that the protagonist is a white guy and the zombies this time are all black didn’t occur to most of us until certain parties began complaining that the game was racist. To us, they’re just zombies, no matter what color their skin is.

Of course, there is obviously a potential to be offended if the game is not placed in context. But then, hen has the mass media ever cared about context when it comes to video games? From what they tend to report, Grand Theft Auto is a game about killing hookers and beating up old ladies.

Video Game Theory

I had thought about doing an article on the excellent series of Game OverThinker videos by MovieBob over at YouTube, but then I thought that perhaps it would be better first to explain my own view of the game industry as it stands today before delving into the other guy’s thoughts.

I was practically born with an NES controller in my hands, and my dad ran an arcade with things such as Mortal Kombat, Metal Slug, and Final Fight up until 2003. So I’ve been exposed to video games literally my entire life, and in those twenty years I’ve come to develop a few opinions about them. Despite owning a Genesis, I was a diehard Nintendo fanboy up until the year 1999 when my brother finally got a Playstation. In a bizarre twist, I had somehow managed to avoid ever learning of the Playstation’s existence until well after the release of it’s late-to-the-game competitor, the Nintendo 64. Consequently, even though I enjoyed my PS1, I held fast to the Nintendo as my primary allegiance, and was committed to the Gamecube from the time it was called the Dolphin.

If you think Nintendo fanboyism is creepy and misguided, then Game OverThinker’s most recent episode has an excellent explanation of it. Of course, my blind fanboy stage had to come to an end eventually; I owned all three systems the previous generation and consider the PS2 objectively the best, and regard an X-Box game the single best game of last generation.

I also own the two good systems of this generation and have enjoyed them both greatly. Whoops, there was one of my pesky opinions.

Yeah, I’m not a fan of the PS3. I don’t think it’s necessarily a bad console; it just doesn’t have enough games that interest me at this time. Ratchet and Clank isn’t enough for the price tag.

Needless to say, Nintendo recapturing the majority of the market has indeed been a source of satisfaction for me, even with the influx of Casual Gamers it has brought. Unfortunately, the influx of Casual Gamers has been a bit troublesome to myself and many others. I don’t think the more avid gamers are going to run out of ‘hardcore’ games anytime soon. Rather I’m more worried about Nintendo dumbing down future iterations of its major franchises to bring new people in.

So, this all brings me to my basic theory of gaming:

Games should be fun. That seems like a no-brainer, but when you get used to arguing over level design, graphics, bump and normal mapping, pixel shaders, and whether or not the last Castlevania was too easy, you run the risk of forgetting the core question about any game: “Am I having fun?”

Of course, fun is a subjective thing, and every type of gamer, indeed every individual will define it a little differently. And that’s okay. Fun can be independent of story, characters, or even good game design. For example, I don’t care how many people tell me that Metal Gear Solid is a brilliantly designed stealth action game, it bored and frustrated me. As far as I’m concerned, it’s not a good game, even if its put together well by all objective standards. On the other hand, I know BattleTanx for the N64 was a deriviatve and mediocre, yet I had a blast playing it when I was younger.

A little subjectivity is okay. It’s not a sin against the Hardcore Gamer Gods to enjoy Halo—whether or not you think it’s the second coming of sliced bread. All our tastes are different. The problem is that the extremes tend to want everything their way.

I don’t just talk in terms of casual gamers and hardcore gamers. There are more classes than that.

Casual Gamers

The type of player who cares only about the enjoyment factor and doesn’t give one whit about whether it’s been done before, whether it’s objectively good, or whether it’s art. They tend to like simpler things, such as Wii Sports and Brain Age, and tend to be anything but 15-35 year old males.

Pros: They’re making Nintendo truckloads of money; they typically aren’t jerks about their tastes in gaming.

Cons: too many of them can skew the market away from deeper more satisfying experiences. The current glut of third party shovelware on the Wii, for example.

Handheld Gamers

People who do most of their gaming on the go with a DS, GBA, or PSP. For them gaming is about having a fun fix wherever they are. Typically pre-teens and younger teenagers, but also found among disaffected PC gamers.

Pros: They’re easily satisfied and typically aren’t jerks about what they like

Cons: They have little influence on the market at large.

Cool Gamers

The type of person who plays what’s popular. They gush over things like Halo, Grand Theft Auto, Madden, and many others, while ignoring games that don’t meet a certain standard of acceptability. Sometimes icons like Mario and Smash Brothers will fall into that standard, but many franchises and genres are left by the wayside.

Pros: Usually pick the kings of each console generation, as they are very numerous.

Cons: Rarely are concerned about quality, and sometimes even eschew fun as long as the game is popular. The type that loves their washed out brown graphics, they don’t try things that are cute or outside the mainstream.

Avid Gamers

This is the kind of person who checks Gamespot or IGN every time a game they might want comes out. They care about quality and play games as one of their main hobbies, but are still more about what they enjoy than what everyone else happens to be playing. They’re the most likely type to own a Wii60 combination

Pros: They tend to support good games; they know what they like and are willing to experiment

Cons: May be afraid to give new things a try, especially if its reviews are mixed

Extreme Fanboys

An insidious type of gamer who holds to their favorite console or consoles and hates the others. They tend to own only one console per generation (at least until the generation is over) and argue on message boards about which system is the best. Sometimes they’re fanboys of a specific franchise or type of game., like people who think Halo and Grand Theft Auto are the be all and end all of console gaming.

Pros: They tend to know what games are good and which ones aren’t.

Cons: They don’t play them unless they’re on the console they support; typically rude and arrogant.

Hardcore Gamers

I use this a bit differently than most; to me, Hardcore Gamers are the type who are in things primarily for the challenge, their main desire to have the biggest virtual… presence. They tend to specialize in a few narrow genres and care little about the others, and have very strong opinions which they’ll defend with both arguments and insults.

Pros: Usually very good at their respective genres, as well as knowledgeable about games in general.

Cons: Often rude jerks, they steer the industry towards their punishingly difficult notion of fun and scoff at people who like easier games or even games that simply differ from their personal tastes.

Overall, I consider myself an Avid Gamer, and I think that both the extremes need to change. Too many casual games means that developers will put little effort into their products. If the fifteenth rip off of Wii Sports this month sells a hundred-thousand copies, why bother with epic games like God of War or Zelda, let alone anything knew like Okami?

On the other hand, Hardcore Gamers give the industry a bad image and steer it towards a dull, repetitive, and obscenely difficult future in which all games are Sepia-Toned First Person Shooters set in World War III and have national and world-wide leader boards that get you monuments in Sony’s HOME system.

The bottom line is that games are a form of entertainment. Games should be fun instead of frustrating, but they also need standards that ensure quality, challenge, and good presentation.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go play Paper Mario.

Super Mario Galaxy Review

"Hail to the King"

If you have a Wii and have been putting it off since the game came out in November, you need to find $50 and go buy Super Mario Galaxy. It's pretty much that simple. Mario Galaxy is the little plumber's return to a form that suffered a little in the previous generation wit Super Mario Sunshine; it's a blast to play, it looks and runs great, and it's long enough to keep you busy for a solid week of playing—a month if you have a life outside of video games.

And if you find every last Star, you can play it again as Luigi, which I guess is cool. I'm not really sure the point of playing through a game such as this one twice, but it's always fun to see the younger Mario Brother in action.

Graphics

Holy crap, this game looks good. I bought Galaxy later than most, so when Brawl came out, I put it on hold to Smash. But finally my Melee burn-out carried over to Brawl, and I began looking for gaming fixes elsewhere, primarily on the X-Box 360. Especially with Grand Theft Auto 4, an obscure game I plan to review sometime this year. So when I turned Super Mario Galaxy back on last week, I was stunned. It looks, honestly, like a first generation X-Box 360 game.

Nintendo pulled out all the stops, giving the game the best texture work they've ever done and a plethora of lighting effects that make it stand out from anything else on the console. Wii games that look this good are a rare feat indeed. But even aside from the aforementioned, the game is beautiful primarily because of Nintendo's impeccable art direction on the title. Bowser looks more menacing than ever; Rosalina is the hottest new Nintendo character since Samus Aran took off her armor, and the level designs are inspired even when the geometry shows. (This only happens occasionally, by the way.) Best of all, the game runs at sixty frames per second most of the time, meaning you don't miss a millisecond of the action on screen.

Gameplay

When I first saw the demos for this game I was afraid Nintendo was making their main mascot's biggest game in years a gimmick. Not that I expected it to be boring or anything less than great; rather, I thought it was a sign of Nintendo selling Mario out to the lucrative casual microgame market on the Wii, with small levels and basic objectives.

Boy was I wrong. While it certainly starts out in this manner, Mario Galaxy opens up soon after, and has some truly inspired levels and challenges. The Galaxy format allows the developers to take you anywhere, much like the magic paintings of Super Mario 64, and do pretty much anything. The segments where gravity is altered at whim are especially fun, forcing the player to keep on his toes and make sure he's aware which way is down. The game also boasts some of the best Mario Boss Fights since Super Mario World, from a powerful Magikoopa Witch that only shells can kill to the final fight with Bowser inside a massive star.

Nintendo hasn't quite reinvented the wheel with Galaxy, but they made it a lot more interesting.

Sound

You know the drill with Nintendo games. Very limited voice acting, cute but appropriate sound effects, and stellar music. Nothing has changed here, with an excellent sound track that recalls all of Mario's history; there are even orchestrated remixes of some classic Mario tunes in the bonus levels, especially from Super Mario Brothers 3. In stark contrast to the heavy voice acting of Super Mario Sunshine, there is very little in Galaxy. I'd almost call this a flaw if some of the voices in Sunshine hadn't been so bad. But the new method creates a bit of a flaw in and of itself; while Rosalina and Peach are given voices, they aren't given many spoken lines. Sometimes the first word of dialog will be spoken, and the rest of the text is left for you to read. It's jarring. It's also a shame, since none of the vocally annoying characters from Sunshine have returned except for Bowser and his son. And Bowser Jr's existence is far more annoying than his voice ever was.

Final Thoughts

When I was young and the N64 was brand new, Super Mario 64 was without a doubt my favorite game ever. Even my father was amazed by how it revolutionized gaming. Every night he would pick my brother and me up from whoever was watching us that day and say to us, “Let's go home and get some stars!”

Mario Galaxy brings back that sense of discovery and wonder that was absent from Mario Sunshine and even from New Super Mario Bros. The game tells you to go and explore the universe. I'm telling you to go by the game—then go home and get some stars.

Genesis

Why blog? I guess that's the most basic question anyone must answer when they start blogging. If it's for stupid reasons like internet fame or because they think they're already awesome and everyone deserves to hear their opinions--well, they probably won't get very far anyway. You don't write unless you have a reason to write.

My reason for starting a blog just now, ten years after I first logged onto the internet, is simple: I have things to say and don't know of a better way to say them. I don't care whether I have a bunch of readers or if only my friends give this blog the time of day. I don't care if the comments are positive or negative. There are things I've been meaning to say for a long time and I'm finally going to get them out. The title of the blog is Earth-321, my own little world. It's a universe number I assigned to the world where some of my fiction writing takes place; it's the highway I live off of, and it's the state of mind I'm writing this blog from.

I guess the real Genesis here is the internet itself--not just the system of tubes that brings it to your screen, but the attitudes and culture of the Internet. Much of the Web seems to be divided into two extreme camps--people who believe all opinions are sacrosanct and calling any entertainment crap is never objectively true, and people who hate almost everything, and who think that they're better than everyone else because of what they like.

An example of the former would be the people of the forums of Comic Bloc, where strong criticisms of the creators of comic books is frowned upon because the creators might--heaven forbid--actually read them. An example of the latter would be hell holes like Encyclopedia Dramatica and the somewhat popular blog 'Your Webcomic Is Bad and You Should Feel Bad', where the authors often wish cancer and worse upon people who've committed the unpardonable sin of not being good at webcomics.

Frankly I've grown sick of both types of people and feel the need blog out a middle ground, even if nobody cares about it. My subjects will be mostly related to movies, fiction, comics, video games, and the internet, but I may veer off into religion and politics occasionally too. Don't worry; I'm not a dogmatist who thinks he's never wrong, and offer everyone the opportunity to take what I say with however many grains of salt they please.

If you've read this far, you apparently do care what I have to say; in that case, check out my archive. I'll try and put up at least one article a week, but as busy as I otherwise am, I make no promises.

...To be continued...