This post is in response to the wonderful post over on Engadget about the latest release of NPD numbers concerning portable gaming.

http://www.engadget.com/2011/11/10/timber-ios-and-android-take-60-percent-cut-of-mobile-gaming-dol/

Saw an interesting story fly across the wire on Google Plus. Apparently, nearly 60% of all portable game software sold is on Android or iOS. This shouldn’t really come as a surprise, most of the world’s high-tech industries are seeing major changes as mobile platforms become the dominate form of computing, business, and entertainment. Gaming is just one of many industries being completely changed from the ground up.

In the classic system, becoming a game developer on a console or handheld system is extremely difficult and expensive. First, you must contact Sony, Microsoft, or Nintendo to obtain a very expensive development kit for your particular system. This is a hard enough barrier to entry. If you have the creative ability and development skill to put a game together, but don’t have the funds for the development kit, too bad. You don’t get to create a game. Even worse than this though is the fact that game companies can deny you the sale of the developer kit for just about any reason, especially if you are just one guy who wants to make a game. Its happened before and it will happen again. The next thing you need to worry about is licensing fees. Can your game make enough money to pay the console manufacturers off so they will sign off on your game and allow people to play it on their console? Hopefully. This is why games today have publishers and game publishing has become an industry of its own. Just like artists used to need record labels before the internet music scene changed everything. Video game developers need someone to pay the bills for all the big fees and purchases. As an indie developer who wants to put out a boxed copy of your game, the barriers to entry make it almost an impossible reality.

Game companies have been attempting to help the small guys out with online stores such as Xbox Live Arcare and Xbox Live Indie Games, the PlayStation Store, and DSiWare and WiiWare. These stores have helped a great deal, but it doesn’t help capture the one thing that will make an indie game endlessly profitable: Market. Yes, all of these stores have huge numbers of users, but for the most part, people are tied to a device that are tied to a wall. In the case of the PSP or DS, indie developers run into many of the same licensing and dev kit cost issues that console developers do. The price of entry is too damn high.

Enter: The Smartphone. With the meteoric rise of smartphones and powerful always-connected mobile devices, it was only a matter of time before games on these devices took over the industry. Recent NPD numbers indicate that iOS and Android mobile game sales account for 58% of the total revenue of U.S. Portable Game Software. 58% of the industry’s revenue is because of iOS and Android games. Even the once-proud king Nintendo is down to 36%. Nintendo has always had a very cocky attitude towards competition in the mobile space after they launched the original Game Boy in 1989, always quashing the competition without so much as a second glance. Even the PSP, their biggest competition yet, stood no chance against the DS’ onslaught of sales. Nintendo has always battled against other gaming companies, but they’ve never battled against a different business model entirely, and they’re losing the game. For the first time since 1989, Nintendo isn’t winning the mobile games race.

One point to consider: These numbers signify revenue, not sales numbers or profits, but actual money brought in from sales. Some may claim that the statistics are unfair to Nintendo and Sony, its two companies versus the entire world of developers, but that’s exactly the point: Smartphone developers have no barriers to entry (aside from the $100 or $25 developer fees depending on platform) to get into the market and sell their game to the world of smartphone users. People who want to develop for the DS or PSP need to jump through rings of fire to do so. The old theory from the IBM and Microsoft days stands true, if you make it easy for developers, that’s where the programs will go, that’s where the people will go, and that’s where the money will go. And that’s exactly what’s happening in today’s smartphone-powered world. Great games can be created with small teams and put out for sale in the public market for the cost of a developer account and the time it took you to make your game, nothing more. No publishers, no additional licensing fees, no hoops. Just you, your game, and your potential customers. At this point, the developer doesn’t need to worry about making enough money to cover fees (if you make a game for $1 on either platform, 30% is taken from that, not up front like most manufacturers require), they don’t need to worry about playing politics with exclusivity, they don’t need to find a publisher for their game, they only need to worry about one thing: Reviewers. Just like its always been, the great games rise to the top. The thing developers need to concern themselves with making a great game and making sure bugs are fixed. If that happens, if the game is good enough, it can make an incredible amount of money, with almost no overhead costs, and end up fueling their bank account for the next several months.

One of the reasons that people are buying games on smartphones instead of handhelds is that the smartphone markets offer better choices for consumers, a better buying experience, and a better way of treating your customers. When I buy a Virtual Console game on the Wii, I can’t play it on my 3DS. It doesn’t work that way, Nintendo wants me to buy it twice. No thank you. If I buy Fruit Ninja, however, all I need to do is download it onto my tablet, and I’m gaming in no time. Its that easy. I buy it once and I have it forever. I upgraded my phone to the Nexus S and all of my games re-installed, it was so simple. When I bought my 3DS and the e-store opened, I couldn’t have been more disappointed. Even though I had bought games on the Wii, I thought a few would allow me to re-download them and play without being tethered to my Wii all the time, but no. They wanted me to re-buy them. The e-store on the 3DS is slow, buggy, crashes, sometimes downloads don’t complete successfully. All in all, its a bad buying experience. Because the e-store is so slow, I never open it, I check for new games every two months, if that. The e-store is simply awful to use. Now, with Android, I can read a game review of Angry Birds Rio, go to the Android Market website, and have it download without ever having to touch my phone. I get up from my computer and the app is right there on my phone. Seamless, easy, simple, helpful. These are the things I, as the consumer, should think of when I use an online store.

On Google Plus, Darnell Clayton shared this link with me and said, “Apple and Google are killing the gaming industry.” This got me thinking, are Apple and Google killing the gaming industry. Yes, but only this chapter of the industry. Here’s my response (which was a comment on the original post):

Actually Apple and Google are becoming the gaming industry. The gaming industry itself is just fine, alive and well, its just trading out cards, just like what happened with the fall of Atari. The big companies aren’t Atari and Commodore, and it isn’t going to be Microsoft and Nintendo anymore, with platforms that support open development without the need for hugely expensive SDKs and hardware, just about anyone can make a game in a few weeks that could become the hottest thing ever (see Angry Birds). Sony is in an interesting position because they aren’t only accepting this change, they are embracing it. With the release of the Xperia Play and their official PlayStation app, they wholly admit that the best gaming device is the one you have on you (like the best camera is the one you have on you), and they are making moves to thrive in that market.

If existing gaming companies don’t get a handle on the changing market, they’re dead. They will be killed by companies like Gamevil, Glu Mobile, and Halfbrick Studios. These tiny dev houses haven’t just survived the harsh gaming industry, they’ve thrived in it. Even EA Games, classically one of the more stubborn and un-inventive publishers, has made moves to exist in emerging markets like social network games (Facebook and Google+) and smartphone games. The games industry is like any other industry, when your industry is undergoing rapid change, you either evolve with it or die.

The next few years will be interesting. With Nintendo claiming that they’ll never embrace the future, clinging to their rotary phones and cassette tapes, and Sony jumping headfirst into the mobile phone space, things are going to get very interesting very quickly.

Nifflas‘ classic freeware game, “Knytt Stories,” has been ported to the DS by RRC2Soft.  LINK HERE…

“Knytt Stories” is one of the best freeware games out there and I’m right now playing through this DS homebrew of the game, and it is a great port.  So if you have an r4 or some other flashcart this is one game definitely worth getting on it.  If not, then you can still always play the original.

…it’s not exactly shouting creativity or wild fun.  The cover suggests either “a games for the girls” or a perverted dress-up game.  But I was dead wrong.  What “Feel the Magic: XY/XX” is is a clever, funny, romantic compilation of exciting minigames complete with some the greatest abstract humor, I have ever seen.

You play as a silent protagonist in a bicycle helmet, who sees the girl of his dreams, and with the help of an army of men in Playboy bunny ears known as the “Rub Rabbits,” decides to win her love.  How do you go about getting the girl.  You have to rescue her and impress her in every way – which involves riding unicycles across skyscrapers, fighting bulls, sky diving, forcing a man to vomit fish, drying clothes, and using a laser powered Mohawk.  Every minigame, is fast-paced and a surprising amount of fun, and are perfected by solid stylus controls, which are both simple and easy to learn.  Aside from a few other wonderful games, I have never seen the DS controls used so adeptly.

The first major thing you might notice, picking up “Feel the Magic,” is the art style, which is beautiful.  Fully aware of the NDS’s graphical limitations Sonic Team used very simple character designs, while still keeping them in 3D.  Everyone is a black silhouette, with the the occasional distinguishing article of clothes.  And because this is a stream of minigames instead of a standard, linear game, you’ll get to see these characters do a large number of insane activities which you would never have done in a traditional game.  That’s another place where the art shines, by juxtaposing black silhouetted characters with brightly colored locations and ridiculous situations.

The story is a standard romance, boy sees girl and wants to be with her, which is a sweet story, but I can’t help feeling that the bare bones “Mario-esque” narrative leaves something to be desired.  Essentially, the girl is just a prize, and while I commend the art style, her lack of any genuine features (aside from a hefty bust and blue dress) make it hard to find her appealing as a character.  Fortunately, there’s not a lot of time to think about this while the game is throwing exciting minigames at you left and right, and do to some very cute set pieces you’re heart does warm up to her.

The last items of note are a clothing editor only for the girl and a frankly tasteless “cleaning” gaming, where you rub dirt off of the girl and she makes disturbingly erotic sounds.  These sexploitive tricks seem to belittle the genuine nature of the game, but looking past them isn’t hard to do.  Just ignore the clothing editor, because it’s silly.  And try not to feel to uncomfortable while wiping your loved one off, and don’t leave the sound on while other’s are around.

In the end it’s a funny and cute experience.  It’s a little short, but at this point it’s a two-dollar bargain bin game, so why not get a copy from your local used game’s shop.  It’ll be well worth it.

“Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes” is one of those funny games that takes on two genres.  On one hand, it’s a puzzle game, created by Capybara Games, best known for their PS3/iPhone title “Critter Crunch” and this is something you can see clearly through the gameplay.  Line up three units on your screen to create a formation – a gameplay mechanic similarly implemented in “Critter Crunch.”  On the other hand, it’s an RPG, complete leveling up, equipping items for stat boosts, abilities that are easiest described as “limit breaks,” and a fantasy storyline involving demons, undead, elves, knights, and a few characters from “One Thousand and One Nights.”  The way the game meshes the two genres is completely successful, but it’s also curious what I found myself doing during the game.

Capybara Games really came out of nowhere with this game and “Critter Crunch,” from obscurity they have released two of the best puzzle/casual style games I’ve seen in years.  Though one could argue that elements which make up “Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes” are nearly all unoriginal on their own (for example nobody is going to say that lining up three units of the same color is an original idea), the distinct taste of the game comes from two key points.  First, the game uses these elements in a very different way than most Puzzle/RPGs.  Playing “Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes” felt distinctly different from any RPG “Bejeweled” clone.  Second, the game has a unique charm to it.  While I won’t say the story was anything truly “edge-of-the-seat,” the characters and the way the world is present, as bright and a cartoonish, allowed me to enjoy the experience on a level that I wouldn’t have normally.

But that said, I can’t say the story aspect of the game was strong.  Often I would rush through dialogs in order to get to more of the puzzles/battles.  But during the later half of the game I began to wonder why this needed to be presented in a linear narrative.  I could have just as easily been a plotless game about seeing how far you can get before losing, like PopCap’s “Bookworm” or Adam Atomic’s “Canabalt.”  But for this title, the story seemed to serve as a way to explore different classes before getting into the multiplayer.  It also shows a marked step towards trying to be above “casual” games.  It’s an extra effort which I didn’t quite realize till after beating the game had contributed to why I thought it was so charming.

Puzzle games and what we used to call “casual games” are quickly becoming integrated into the “hardcore” genres.  Another example of this was “Henry Hatsworth and the Puzzling Adventure” from earlier in 2009.  And this certainly seems like a great way to go.  It allows the hardcore to enjoy a genre they hadn’t really thought about, it allows the casual to enjoy a genre they hadn’t really thought about, and it makes both game types feel more fresh and lively.  Capybara’s recent games have definitely raised my standards, and I hope to see a lot more from them in the future.

Gimmicks are what tend to characterize each installment of Zelda, as you can probably tell by the names of almost every single game.  Each one has a new tools that will be pinnacle to gameplay from ocarinas to boats to staffs that control the seasons.  However the gimmick found in Phantom Hourglass was not exactly…good.  Increasing the length of time one has to go through the most annoying dungeon in the world is not a needed addition to the game, and Hourglass became excruciating around the mid-point.  Luckily, Spirit Tracks forgoes that nuisance for much more interesting gameplay elements: the Spirit Flute and Princess Zelda, herself.

The story is a fairly straightforward one, princess captured/save world.  But now it’s only the princess’s body that’s been held hostage which leaves her soul free to help out Link on her quest to rescue her.  Like Wind Waker and Hourglass the overworld is all about moving from point A to point B on a vehicle, this time though it’s a train.  Denying his usual warrior-hero look, Link starts in an adorable engineer’s uniform with a single desire to be a conductor.  Instead of being knighted, he is christened an engineer Zelda is essentially killed and turned into a ghost, where the two heroes have to go on an adventure to stop a demon king’s resurrection across the rails and return the princess to her body.

On the rails you’ll come across the same stock villages and races you’ve come to know and love, and there’s the familiar hub dungeon from the last game, but this time without constant retreading or timers.  You’ll also collect a variety of new and interesting tools to compliment your list of standard LoZ gadgets, like a snake whip and whirlwind (a fan that you use by blowing into the mic).  Probably the most unique of these items is the ocarina replacement for the game called the Spirit Flute that uses the DS’ controls surprisingly well.  You both blow into the mic while move from note to note with the stylus, and it is astonishingly fluid.

The other major addition to the game is Princess Zelda, who’s companionship makes for really interesting puzzle solving in the hub dungeon.  She will take control of a number of different phantoms (big armored baddies) and can be used to break through obstacles, carry Link across lava, and other interesting uses.  There are a few bad moments with her where she’ll get caught on something when you try and call her back to you and during fights with multiple powerful enemies where you’re fumbling between both characters, but thanks to being able to manually control her easily these are never deal breakers, and the hub dungeon levels end up as the most entertaining parts of the game.  I was always looking forward to returning the tower so Link could be joined by his companion for tag-team puzzle solving fun.

The train aspect of the game is charming but flawed.  The linear travel across an open world has never felt so linear or long and boring.  There are no straight paths to take from point A to B like in Phantom Hourglass, it’s always long and winding railroad tracks which eventually get really old.  On the other hand the scenery is lovely and I never got bored of tugging the rope signaling the horn or shooting the cannon at every rock along the way.  Those last two complements might sound really boring, but they were the only entertainment aside from annoying enemy attackers, so they were really the greatest saving graces I could find for the travel system.  Like I said: charming but flawed.

Aside from saying that the stylus controls are an improvement upon Phantom Hourglass there’s not much else to the gameplay.  It’s a Zelda game, they tend to be self-explanatory, but frequently a lot of fun.  For anyone that loves solid action adventure games, and especially those that love Zelda should go out and get a copy if they already haven’t.  It’s one of the best games I’ve played in the series and one of the best games I’ve played this year.

Jason Rohrer, famed creator of brilliant freeware titles like “Passage” and “Gravitation” recently put up a new website for his next game, “Diamond Trust of London.”  So far it’s just a partially censored document and some screen shots, but that’s a hell of a lot more then there used to be.  It’s looking like an old school strategy game, quality unknown, but it’s not like Rohrer hasn’t had at least one similar project.  “Cultivation,” a real-time strategy about community and compromise is among his best works so far.  Here’s hoping this will be another great game.

“Diamond Trust of London” will be released in 2010 for the Nintendo DS and is being distributed by Majesco.

I never played a Dragon Quest game until I came across this 2005 spin-off.  That’s a half-truth, I did play the first five minutes of the original Dragon Quest, but that hardly counts.  But unlike all the other games, this one was a real time, action, platforming, adventure game where you play as an ooze with its very own giant tank, saving others slimes from evil platypuses (JAPAN!).  Just the concept alone makes me happy.

DQH: Rocket Slime is broken into two major sections, Zelda-like adventure and strategic tank battles.  Most of the time you will play through a variety of areas, like mountains, beaches, forests, as a slime.  In these parts you use your ability to stretch and throw things as you weapons.  Pulling taut and launching at enemies.  You can throw anything you can hit, which can turn every item or almost every enemy into a weapon.  The major goals in each level are to find and rescue the other slimes, to find tank battles, and to defeat an end-boss for each area.  Rescuing slimes is as easy as loading them onto mining carts, literally.  But there’s an added emphasis on loading enemies and items onto carts as well, which removes them from the area and gives you bonus weapons for tank combat.

The tank battles are where the game really shines.  These are one on one fights between two giant cannons.  Before battles it’s wise to make sure the tank is loaded with the most powerful missiles you can find.  Then once you enter combat it usually comes down to launching weapons at the enemy while your allies sabotage, or sabotaging the enemy tank while your ally’s fire the cannons.  Personally infiltrating is often the better strategy, as you have an easier time keeping the baddies from launching missiles than your team does.  However, due to a ridiculous difficulty spike at the end of the game, this tactic will eventually be useless.  Just always keep your tank well armed.

DQH: Rocket Slime is a pretty strong game.  It has a few balance flaws in the later half, but the overall experience is a lot of adorable fun.  By combining two kinds of gameplay it manages to keep a retro charm while not becoming generic or too repetitive.  If you can find a copy, I definitely recommend snatching it up.

Electroplankton is a fairly old (by video game standards) music game for the NDS, and more importantly it was one of the first “art” over “game” kind of games that would be released for the system.  Which is why it is so surprising and strange that back in 2005 it was Nintendo, the evil corporate

The lack of the above linearity and feeling of progression is probably one of the reasons why Electroplankton could be grouped into the casual market.  A reason we may have never seen a sequel is because the game is annoyingly short, and you can probably see everything there is to see within the first thirty minutes of play.  However, if you are the type that loves to create all kinds of interesting sounds and music than you are probably the person that this was made for.  There are a variety of levels in the game (each one open from the beginning) for you to experiment with different kinds of sounds and create your own music with.  There’s no way to collect and save the music to show off or listen to later, but that could be a slight boon for the game.  It’s not a CD player; it’s not there for you to listen to.  You’re the conductor and and each time you play you’re creating something new.

That’s not to say that the game gives the player complete freedom.  You’re limited to the certain type of translucent sea creatures that are in each level.  Some of them aren’t very diverse, and some of the levels are hard or frustrating to figure out just what you should be doing.  But for every one of those there are two levels of original, experimental play, like the fish that repeat musical patterns to how far and how quickly you move the stylus across the screen, and the Mario theme music level that takes a basic song from the older games and allows you to insert classic gameplay sounds into it to make a unique Mario beat – similar to Mario Paint’s music player, but maybe not as sophisticated (which is probably not a compliment).

Like I said, the game is incredibly short, and you might not get as much out of it as a game with linearity and goals.  But it is original and by far the only game truly like itself.  The gameplay doesn’t stack up to anything worth the big bucks, so if you can find it than try to find it cheap (if possible).  It’s a great addition to a gamer’s library, though it may have functioned better as a cheap iPhone app.  It’s not the easiest game to find so it might not come cheap, but it’s a worthwhile experience, though not the always the deepest.

Despite constant setbacks in the development of this game, I’m quite confident of its eventual rise to power. Duke Nukem took the fuck OVER when Duke Nukem 3D hit like Michael Phelps’ bong. Before that, 2 2-D games opened up a pathway for 3D‘s booting badassery. After 3D, developers at 3D Realms discontinued, um, caring about the quality of Duke Nukem games. They made Duke Nukem 64, which included less violence, nudity/sexual themes and no cursing, but they included new levels. One of which was a haunted house which had… no enemies…

What many people forget or didn’t know about DN3D is the massive amount of pop culture references, clever humor and beautifully superfluous violence that made this game so magical. For example, at one point you wander into a chapel of some sort after escaping your own execution. Doesn’t look like much, really, until you look up to find a woman in Puritan garb HANGING BY A NOOSE FROM THE CEILING. Fucked up, yeah? Tip of the iceburg, bitches.

One of many things about the game I recall being really guano crazy were the babes you were supposed to “save.” In 64, they were catering to a wider audience so they had to change what constituted a “saved” babe. All you had to do there was press the action button (which would be used to open doors and unlock… doors) and they would be transported. Here’s where they failed to deliver in 64, the reason the babes need saving is because the aliens were mating with them. That’s right, those babes were getting railed by sextraterrestrials to keep the species going. So most of the chicks you find in the later chapters of 3D were beyond the point of no return. Saying things like “kill me” (Aliens reference) while they stare at you with crazy red eyes, wearing torn (clearly ravaged) bikinis.

Here’s where shit gets sticky: after completing every level you’re shown a screen displaying the number of aliens killed/how many left, how many babes saved/left, etc. You’ll notice the amount of aliens killed correlates with babes saved. Know why that is? Those lucky enough to play 3D back in the day are well aware. In Duke Nukem 3D, the only way to “save” babes is to FUCKING KILL THEM. That’s right, you have to kill them bitches! This pisses the aliens off like you wouldn’t believe. Whenever you kill a babe, whether they’ve been sexed up by aliens or not, a flock of enemies stampede at you. THAT’S how you kill all the aliens in every level. You have to find all the babes to do so.

Before I hit the real reason I started writing this, I’ll say something about the voice actor for Duke. His name is Jon St. John and he kinda seems like a prick. He might be a cool guy but when you attack my boy BRUCE CAMPBELL by calling him a “pampered” Hollywood actor, you’re asking for trouble. Here’s why it was brought up:

Many will recognize some key quotes like “come get some!” and “groovy” from the Evil Dead series. These quotes, as well as a reference to the infamous quote from “They Live!” (“I have come to kick ass and chew bubble gum, and I’m all out of bubblegum”), were IN DUKE NUKEM 3D. When questioned about these quotes, St. John started acting like a bitch and talking shit about Campbell. First off, Jon, were you even a little familiar with the career of Bruce when you called him “pampered?” He’s only recently been getting the attention he deserves… kinda… he deserves way more, actually. Not only that, but the reason you made so much scratch voicing Duke was because of gem lines such as “Come get some!” You should be giving him mad props, yo! (that’s what the kids are saying nowadays, right? “mad props?”) Anyway, I hope you were joking, sir!

Onto the reason I decided to cover this topic.

I’ve recently invested in a subscription to Game Informer. Not being around the 72 Crew as much as I used to severely severed my finger from the gaming pulse. So I read an article on Duke Nukem: Critical Mass coming out sometime in the Fall for DS and PSP. I’ve checked some screen shots on the intrenets and it DOESN’T LOOK BAD. Let me repeat this, as someone who has played all the Duke Nukem titles (not all the way through after 3D, of course), there is a CHANCE that Critical Mass won’t be a steaming pile of dung. Of course, without seeing actual gameplay it would be premature to say it is going to be a smash. However, don’t you owe Duke Nukem the benefit of the doubt? The answer is yes, unless it’s no.

If you have a DS or PSP, do this legendary video game icon a solid and shell out the cash to pick up Critical Mass. The gameplay for the DS differs from the PSP, but the plot is the same. Who knows, maybe the only reason Duke Nukem Forever is taking… forever… is because they see little interest from gamers. Which is a direct cause of their lack of direction with the other games, I feel. Games today are able to get away with so much, Duke wouldn’t have to feel the unforgiving saber of censorship. He was made for today’s gamers! Imagine that, playing a Duke Nukem game that has all the gore, cursing and scantily clad babes you remember from the days of DN3D.

Put Nukem back on the board, if Critical Mass does well in sales maybe the developers will finally take this project seriously! I’m not saying buy and love it even if it sucks, that’s just silly! If it sucks, let them know it sucks and you want Forever to be the best FPS you’ve played in a long time. Well, they should probably be made aware that there is a demand for Forever. Critical Mass may very well be the testing ground for this. Put a boot to the ass of the developers, as they are on a “when it’s done” timeline.

Doesn’t Duke deserve one last Hoorah?

I know it is weird to see me doing a game review on this site, but get use to it people. As many of my fellow 72pc crew members know, I am an avid DS gamer, and I would like to present you with a fantastic find of mind I have been meaning to share for a while. Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood is a Sonic the Hedgehog RPG made by Bioware (most famous for Mass Effect and Knights of the Old Republic). Its a classic plat-former turned RPG game with a twist. Take the fun and humor of Mario RPG, along with a similar set up of characters, introduce a new villain, and BOOM….its gold, but it doesn’t stop there. The battle system for this game is amazing! People complain that the battle system is “too involved” and I must sit back and laugh at those people. In truth it is the first RPG to take advantage to the fullest of the touch screen, while still keeping Sonic’s fast pace nature. If you are a fan of puzzle solving rpg, or just a fan of the Sonic universe, I highly recommend picking this one up!