A space bounty hunter is sent to a remote deserted planet, a place void of hospitality, filled with all kinds of dangers and crawling with enemies so great that the galactic federation has not been able too much to deal with them. Against all odds this lone warrior infiltrates this incredibly dangerous zone, takes out their high ranks and escapes triumphantly after barely surviving the battle with their leader. This is the simple plot that spawned one of the most successful franchises in videogames. The game? Metroid. The bounty hunter’s name? Samus Aran. Its gender? Female. Would the mentioned game have enjoyed the same success if players knew they were incarnating a woman from the start during the mentioned journey instead of said fact be revealed in the game’s ending? unlikely.

A former elite force police officer turned special anti bio terrorism agent heads to Africa to investigate the signs of the resurrection of an organization that he has pursued for ten years for its crimes against humanity, destroying his once peaceful life and to avenge the death of his partner. Once there he is forced to engage in combat against locals that have been infected with mind controlling parasites and other monstrosities created by one remaining agent of the aforementioned organization. The game? Resident Evil 5. the mainstream media response to the game announcement trailer? negative. What was the reason of said response? allegations of racism.

An special covert agent is sent to infiltrate a terrorist group, to keep his cover he is forced to actively participate in terrorist acts that cause the deaths of innocent civilians or at the very least do absolutely nothing to prevent said actions, all this under the guise of achieving the greater goal against terrorism. The game? Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. The mainstream media critic’s response? From disappointment about the depiction of such scenes to overwhelmingly negative

What links all previous stories is public opinion or to be more specific the way it was handled, in Metroid’s case Samus gender was kept secret in order to prevent a negative perception from gamers to a main female protagonist, something quite rare in games back in the 80’s. In RE5’s case it was Capcom’s error was trusting that all people have at least a little common sense, after all when you think about fighting human enemies in Africa you know that at the very minimum a part of them will be black people, not doing so would be similar to imagining a kung fu beat-em-up set in the heart of China and expect not to see/fight a few Asians. Now in the MW2 case things reach IMHO even greater levels of hypocrisy as people, defense groups and most media personalities seem incredibly outraged by the events depicted in the game while completely overlook that those very events (an agent incurring in terrorism for an alleged greater good) might have happened (or are still be happening) in real life, what they focus on is not that a fellow compatriot and soldier trained to protect the innocent might be doing the exact opposite by orders of a government agency, no, what bothers them is that people are getting to feel that experience through a video game, even when similar plots where a character steps over the line for the mission sake has been used before in other games, movies and tv long before.


Samus, failing? unthinkable today, a real posibility 20 years ago

The key difference between the first and the last two examples presented is the situation and age they were released in, in Metroid’s case hiding the characters gender was a logical step to an environment where straying too much from established conventions was could bring doom even if the product quality was the best, where gaming journalism was beginning to crawl and where old somewhat misogynist values, word of mouth or simply looking at the cover art of a game had more weight on purchase decision than a full review (mostly due to the scarcity of said reviews). In the cases of RE5 and MW2 the situation is completely different, we live in an age where information runs (mostly) free, for better or worse, where a simple blogger has as much of a chance to be heard as the most respected writer or newscaster, where interracial couples can be together without causing major outrage and gay marriage is starting to be acknowledged, and if so, why listen to the concern of a few archaic minded so sunk in their ancient vision of the world and neurosis that see demon worshiping in Halloween costumes and potential killer dogs in puppies?.

All of the above causes won their recognition not by abiding to the rules set by those in power, but by doing the exact opposite and pushing the envelope, by bravely standing and opposing them, by seeking options away from the established parameters and by assuming the risks and going against the established traditions. This principle can be applied to almost every aspect of human history. When conventions based on tradition and “how it’s always been done” are scrapped for new ideas based on wise thinking, the results tend to be 90% positive, this in turn sets a precedent that becomes the first step for the change of the old rules.

Game developers shouldn’t have to prostrate to the empty political correctness cries of “insert-cause-here advocates”; they don’t like your product? Who cares, they are not your customers, and it’s them that you should keep in mind not the whining defense groups. Most of the times these associations have taken their once noble ideals to the extreme of the irrational or ludicrous, take PETA for example with their sea kittens campaign or the Christians associations against Harry Potter . How about overzealous censors? Don’t publish your product in their country; you as a developer are doing much more for change of outdated censorship laws by making potential customers feel the burn of not being able to enjoy your product thanks to a stubborn few than by butchering your carefully crafted work in order to make people feel better about their bad parenting, their obsolete values or inability to accept change. If a developer still wants to release a game in a censorship-full country at least make a little math to see if it’s worth it.


No one winks if this happens in movies, but heaven forbid if happens in a videogame

The level of harshness the mainstream media shows the video game industry’s evolution is rarely seen against any other industry, why is that?, we have seen greater displays of senseless violence, foul language and sexual situations in music, tv or movies in mainstream media than most video games. The reason is simply that it’s much easier to bash and demonize a raising industry that has still to gain true mainstream acceptance, especially when said industry keeps allowing it by accepting and kneeling to the critics every complaint.

Some of the news as of the time of this writing seem to give glimmers of hope for a change, Sega deciding not to publish Aliens vs Predator in Germany rather than having to completely alter the game to comply to the strict laws that country is famous for seems a like a bold and brave move aimed at making people aware to the need for better, updated laws. Australia’s only man holding back the creation of a 18+ rating seems to be facing an imminent firing from his position thanks to voters tired of putting up with the constant deprivation of quality games aimed at adults, getting a watered down version or paying extra money to import a non-censored version on account of said man’s near sighted opinion. Even the display of common sense by England’s Labour MP Tom Watson in response to Keith Vaz’s distortion of the truth (something rarely seen in the world of politics) is incredibly encouraging.

Video games truly began shedding the “gamez r 4 kidz lol” image quite a while ago. The release of IPs like God of War which features an unapologetic violent and dark main character that is clearly aimed at an adult public, the upcoming Heavy Rain which promises a whole new level of maturity in storytelling and even the Wii’s influence in bringing gaming to previously apathetic or even opposing crowds (soccer moms and senior people) has created a really positive atmosphere for the acceptance of gaming as the art form and powerful narrative medium it IS.



One of the internet’s pearls of wisdom is “don’t feed the troll”, following that same idea, publishers MUST stop feeding the shallow political correctness and scapegoating seen so often in politicians, defense groups and so called professionals journalists, the first step to do that is stop being submissive and running to make excuses about your design decisions every time one of the aforementioned feels like getting a little ego boost or support from people by using populist attacks against your work. Bad parenting, unscrupulous salesmen that sell kids adult material and politicians low approval rates are not your responsibility, proper mechanisms to control the distribution of games to their intended audience have been created already and the fact that they are poorly or not enforced ant all it’s not your fault, so stop apologizing and taking the blame for it. Make us proud to be your followers and customers, take the brave first step by disregarding ignorance when spewed at you or if you feel truly bold simply answer “FUCK OFF!” and we’ll be right there to support you.

Note: i took the liberty of using an image from an old post from this site, if there is a problem with that let me know and i'll nuke it.

If anyone has seen the original japanese intro for TvC you'll know how awesome it is and a great deal of that comes from the great song (Across The Border) performed by Asami Abe, that song plus the well made anime style animation just pumped you up for the magnificent game you were about to enjoy. It's american bastardization on the other hand feels just so mediocre and generic in comparison it hurts to listen. Since an image(or video in this case) is worth a 1000 words i'll just let you hear the difference by yourselves.

ORIGINAL JAPANESE INTRO


AMERICAN INTRO

If you are as happy as i am with Tatsunoko vs Capcom being released outside Japan, then your excitement must have doubled when the news broke out that five new characters would be added to the roster (2 new for each side, 1 extra for Tatsunoko as replacement for Daimaō), problem is, we still know next to nothing about these new additions, Capcom had stated that there would be an announcement soon, but since we are still waiting and getting bored while we do, how about a little speculation on the possibilities?.

Before starting to randomly shoot names I think a few basic rules should be established, the first being that there can’t be more that 2 characters from a franchise (Ryu and Chun-Li from SF, Ken and Yun from Gatchaman, Doronjo and Yatterman from Yatterman implicitly define this rule), the second rule is that Capcom’s roster aims to obscure characters, secondary/supporting characters or main characters that only appeared in one game, and third and final is that Tatsunoko’s roster aims old anime franchises, so with the basic premises established, here are my top ideas for TvC new additions:

Nero: One of DMC4’s main characters and due to the previously established rules, way more suitable for this game than Dante, TvC would be the perfect way to give Nero a shot on the Wii outside the DMC universe, he also has plenty of moves to make him a worthy opponent.

Vergil: The perfect excuse to include Dante without including him, Vergil equals our favorite demon hunter in skill with his sword Yamatto and has badassery to spare but could get major bonus points if included with his original appearance as Nelo Angelo (unlockable skin optional).

Protoman: he easily rivals the blue bomber’s popularity and given that a character as unlikely as Roll was given a chance and regular Megaman is out of the question Protoman would be the perfect addition here. Most of Megaman moves from MvC would be easily adapted and having his shield could potentially give MM’s big brother an interesting set of variations like missile reflection or shield and counterattack moves.

Carlos Miyamoto: Appearing only on Final Fight 2 this skilled swordfighter and sword collector not only he fits the established rules perfectly, even more since by the rules previously set Haggar, Guy and Cody are out of the question.

Now to the Tatsunoko additions, however I’d like to note that since there could always be copyright issues no matter what, I will not take those into consideration.

Samurai Pizza Cats: One or two characters could be added from this particular one, I believe Speedy and Polly Ester are the obvious choices; an added advantage for these two is that this anime did get some popularity in the US.

Bonta-Kun: or Sousuke Sagara in a Bonta-Kun outfit if you will, this could be the perfect weird character to replace the genie from Hakushon Daimaō, it would be a perfect and funny combination of a tame looking killing machine. Major kudos if they include Kaname Chidori (with harisen in hand) as a helper during his special moves.

Speed Racer: Yet another one with strong possibilities due to its western release, add that to the relatively popular movie adaptation and the fact that he already did show he was a good brawler in the original anime and we have a pretty decent option here.

Well, those are my ideas, anyone has any suggestions or characters i missed? post them then

Some call Bayonetta Devil May Cry with tits, i say if the game is half as fun as its looks and 50% of the combos in this video work seamlessly with quality gameplay while fighting actual enemies, Platinum Games might just have the game of the year. Check the video people, it's just insane...

Recently in a Destructoid entry about Nintendo’s future strategy for the Wii a poster named Vanor presented his/hers point of view stating that besides pretty graphics the Xbox360 and the PS3 really don’t bring anything new to the videogame world and that the Wii though lacking horsepower at least did attempt to innovate and bring new experiences to gamers of all kinds (read: core and casuals), yet it kept getting booed by the gaming community. After giving some thought on the matter i posted an answer to his point blaming third party’s carelessness on their releases for the Wii catalog as the cause of the problem, but even after that i really can’t help but feel that we both are right in some way. Confused? Keep on reading to explain my point.

I feel that the point presented has in theory very valid and solid grounds, it's perfectly true that besides pretty as hell graphics and control scheme nothing is truly different for all current generation consoles, at first sounds absurd I know, but please keep reading. The real problem is that usually theories are rarely a 1:1 relation with reality, and the Wii’s ‘failure’ to the core audience is not exactly based on graphics alone but also on third party influence or lack thereof and in Nintendo’s own failure to correct that trend or foster a better situation for a change.

One of the Wii’s original goals was changing the paradigm of how to play games from the complicated stick and button movements that we have grown accustomed since the very first gen of consoles, into a more natural and simple way of playing. The other was proving precisely the age’s old point that gameplay ALWAYS should come before nice graphics, and though the first has been accomplished, even creating as a result the casual market, it is the second one that is the very root of the Wii’s failure to the original market.

The second cause to the aforementioned failure is something that Destructoid’s Colette Bennett defined perfectly when she said even though the Wii doesn't have half the horsepower, that that is still no excuse to make ugly games; notice she said “ugly games” not “HD lacking games”. I’d like to side with Nintendo’s fanboys and support their cry that most gamers of this generation have grown “addicted” to HD graphics and tend to dismiss anything else as crap, but that would be covering the truth. The second cause of failure is the rampant laziness of developers when creating Wii games, laziness that manifests in myriad of ways.

Now that both key problems have been identified let’s see concrete examples and counter examples of how they patent themselves:

1) Horrible graphics (even for last gen level): Main offenders of this are games like Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop, I still can't believe they used the same engine as RE4, i just can't, and if they did, they just did an abhorrent use of it. As a counter to this point, Super Smash Bros Brawl is a perfect example of awesome graphics that aren't HD.

2) Not deciding the audience you are targeting or rather spreading your game’s strong points too thin in order to reach a bigger audience: in essence, go core or go casual, but not both unless you do it right, I'll probably unleash the ire of many here, but an example of this is Madworld, yes, Madworld, how come? Madworld was marketed as a hardcore brawler for the Wii complete with gushing blood and limbs a-flying, so far so good, but if that is the case, then why the hell it takes a group of enemies around 30 secs to decide to launch a punch against you?, if you want to make casuals feel as cool as regular gamers, make a ‘casual’ difficulty level and let people choose, don't force the rest of us to go through the whole game to actually unlock the real 'normal' difficulty level (which seems is now known as 'Hard' difficulty).

3) Stop resurrecting old IPs, resurrect GOOD old IPs or at the very least fix the original problems they had: You know, I’d gladly shelf money for a Metal Gear Solid 3 Wii, should studios still want to take the easy route there are plenty of good IPs that can be properly brought to the Wii, so please stop bringing mediocre stuff, or at the very least give a proper addressing to the problems they had the first time around. As an example of this point I’ll mention Rygar, not even the tiny details such as the arm sticking through the golden disc armor were fixed, just tacked some waggle and release, which brings me to my next point.

4) Cut the waggle over use: If anyone played RE4 Wii they'll know that not only it feels just as good as the original GC or PS2 game, it actually feels (at least IMHO) even better on the Wii, why?, Because motion controls actually are properly implemented, not just tacked on as gimmicks or so poorly and imprecisely executed that they are hindrances instead.

5) Stop releasing half-baked bug-filled games: Deadly Creatures and Tomb Raider Underworld are perfect examples here, anyone that played DC will attest to the level of bugs (no pun intended) that happen when horned lizards appear, from “epileptic seizures” from said lizards to bugs so bad that you have to restart the whole chapter to fix it (not even loading a save will work, you forcefully have to restart the chapter). TR is even worse as the Wii version had a notorious bug on the Thailand ruins level where a missing lever prevented you from going further. I'll admit this is not limited to the Wii in the current generation of consoles, but when you are taking risks by developing for a console, it improves the odds for you as a developer to get good scores by not to releasing defective games.

Nintendo seems to mostly have avoided these issues, granted, they also have gone for casuals, but they didn’t totally forget their core audience, their main fault though is their absolute lack of quality control when licensing IPs for their console, as someone put it “you just have to put crap on a disc and they’ll approve it”. Their second fault at least to the U.S. market is their absurd practices by denying perfectly great additions to their catalog to make the jump out of Japan, I’ll cite games like Fatal Frame 4 or Captain Rainbow (9-9-8-8 and 8-7-8-8 by Famitsu’s score respectively) to name some.

I still believe Nintendo’s claim that a great game doesn’t need cutting edge graphics to be good, I’ll argue though that at least a certain level of polish is required, and when you add that to a satisfying gameplay and a decent story you can obtain unbelievable results, I won’t name anything by Nintendo as an example here, instead I’ll present two from their competitors that have been awarded with a 9 and the ever elusive perfect 10 from the very staff at Destructoid, on a last gen console nonetheless!: Devil Summoner 2: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. King Abaddon and Persona 4

I honestly hope that both Nintendo and rest of publishers realize their errors and start taking steps to correct this situation, especially Nintendo because by allowing this terrible marketing strategy and poor decisions they have slowly eroded their generations-old followers in favor of a new market that could very well last for only this generation, and that as a consequence could bring the untimely end for a company that brought us some of the best stories and characters in the industry.