The definition of a great movie
One where every scene makes you think, okay, this is the turning point. It’s all been building up to this. Now everything’s really getting started.
Including the final one.
Lacking the How-Do Ken
I wish it were still possible to go into an arcade and wander around, seeing new things, doing things I hadn’t done before in a videogame. Like when the arcade was full of new things like Rolling Thunder and Double Dragon.
I remember what a revelation it was that you could run over and pick up the bat, or duck behind the tires. And any multiplayer was generally cooperative. You watch someone play, you think “hey, that looks neat”, and you jump in to help him.
When Street Fighter II was new, I could just go in and play it the way I’d play Final Fight. It was like a complicated eight-stage boss run.
Then everything became about penises, and today there’s no point even going into arcades anymore. The moment you start up a game, someone more obsessive sidles up to punish you for the affrontery and take over the machine. It would be neat to go out and see some of these new games, like Street Fighter IV and KOF XII, but the novelties have mostly become a thing of nuance. And if I’m not going to be allowed to play them unmolested, and study them at my own leisure, why bother? I’ve got enough things waiting in line to irritate me, without actively seeking them.
The thing is, this is all an aberration. Today the hardcore competitive aspect has gained dominance, but that’s what happens to unchecked hardcore competitive anythings, usually to their eventual downfall outside of that core group that enjoys butting heads. Some people just like to eat their soup without others homing in and pissing in it. I’d wager they would stand in the majority, actually…
Doesn’t help that games are rarely just a quarter anymore. I spend my dollar, whatever, I want to get the most out of it. If I choose not to pay the panhandler, I don’t want to get chased for a block and shouted at. (Which may sound familiar to San Francisco residents.) Maybe it would be different if there were, like, a set fee that you pay going in the door. But on a pay-by-play basis, fuck that.
If there’s a reason that arcades barely exist anymore — well, I’d put this at the top of the list.
Newton’s Initative
The hardest part of anything is getting started. Then once that thing is started, it takes more energy to stop than to keep it rolling.
All right, I’m working, I’m working…
Unpacked Excerpt
The point in having things is that they possess some practical value, that to some degree empowers you.
This is no less true of art than of a wrench. A wrench is a physical tool; a novel or a painting or a videogame is an intellectual or emotional tool. Every perspective we absorb further helps us shape our own ideas, much as a hammer and saw help us shape a room full of lumber.
Lack of food makes you obstreperous.
Bangai-O Spirits is like Treasure Sudoku Challenge. No structure, no context; just a smörgÃ¥sbord of random levels. It’s… kind of hard, right from immediately. And the controls and rules are both way more convoluted than the Dreamcast version.
It does, however, have the best level editor ever, and (apparently) the best means of sharing. Not seen fit to reach out yet, however. This reminds me of my NES Lode Runner days. All those “programmable series” games with their non-functional save functions, fresh and unedited off of their Famicom Disk System and jammed into a solid-state pre-battery cartridge — who needs a save function? A blackboard and colored chalk did me fine.
I always wanted one of those NES controllers for handicapped people, where you moved a D-stick with your chin and you used a straw for the buttons. Suck for A, blow for B. Imagine combining that with the Power Pad and Power Glove. Eat your heart out, Fred Savage.
(Still need to reply to a few people. Hurm.)
Gitchy-good
After procrastinating for over a year, I got Earth Defense Force 2017 at the same time as Bullet Witch. It is equally awesome in different secret ways.
Something to consider, however. Bullet Witch traces the future of Earth, year by year, until 2013. Earth Defense Force traces the future of Earth from 2013 to 2017.
So why didn’t they just use magic to blow away the aliens?
Braid Day
Just to mention, Braid is out today on XBLA. Go download it.
(I’m in the credits.)
It’s basically the Portal of 2008. Or in my chronology, Portal was the Braid of 2007.
Anyway. Some people seem to like it.
Desaturation
Generally, I find whenever something is stylistically heightened to the point where it’s difficult to take seriously, ditching the color immediately improves my suspension of disbelief. There are, I think, two aspects to this. One is that a black-and-white world is clearly not reality; this is an idealized, simplified dream world, that must be taken on its thematic strengths rather than its plausibility. The other aspect is that a loss of color helps to blur the edges. When everything is reduced to light and shadow, CG no longer looks so false. Wonky sets and costumes are easier to take at face value.
Basically, black-and-white strips away the distraction of an expectation of realism. Which in most cases, to my mind, can only be a benefit to storytelling.
Now don’t get me started on sound…