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.

Disclaimer: I’m a total Nintendo fanboy.
Another, more embarrassing disclaimer: I own Nintendo stock.

Nintendo just doesn’t get it, and it may be too late. People don’t like static contact anymore. Having a mostly-static library of downloadable games, virtually no online presence, a convoluted friending system, and very poor social integration, Nintendo doesn’t just ‘not get’ online, they utterly fail at competing in the modern era.
Take a look at any competent online marketplace (Xbox Live, PSN, Steam, Android Market, App Store), what is the most common thing between all of these? Micropurchases. One dollar games, 5 dollar games, brand new games at $30 flat, instant download. Sure, there are more expensive games out there, but any gamer can tell you that Steam Sales and Xbox Live weekend deals are the wallet-destroyers of this day and age. Nintendo wants you to drive to a store, plunk down $40 on a new 3DS game, then appear satisfied. Aside from the fact that most 3DS games are complete shit (buyer’s remorse talking, here), its way too much to charge for a handheld game, even a damn good handheld game. I’m of the thinking that Ocarina of Time 3DS should have been $30. Its bad enough that Nintendo essentially admitted that the first hardware iteration of the 3DS was complete shit, but who didn’t see that coming after the release of 3 different Game Boy Advances and 4 different variations of the original DS.
Star Fox 64 3DS released without many of the promised (and most exciting) multiplayer features. The 3DS launched 7 months ago and has 5 good games.

I may be a little bit biased, just a little bit prejudiced… a little…

Here’s where Steam and Smartphones come in. Over the weekend, I informed my friends about a great Steam sale Rockstar was putting on for the GTA V announcement, they were selling the entire GTA collection for about $20. Incredible. Needless to say, I bought one and gifted it, then 4 more of my friends bought theirs. $20 bucks for what amounts to 7 games?!? Yes, please. But Nintendo me to pay $7-$8 for an emulated Game Boy Color game on my 3DS? Excuse me? No. I’ll tell you what, Nintendo, I’ll start paying for your virtual console games (which costs you nothing, by the way) when you can sell me the “Zelda Collection” of all NES, SNES, GB/C, GBA, and DS games for $50. That’s a good deal, that’s worth it in my opinion. And you know what would make me buy it outright without a second thought? The ability to play the virtual console games on my Wii too. Early on, I paid for the emulated Virtual Console games, but was later taken aback when I realized Nintendo wasn’t going to let those purchases transfer to any other system. With systems like OnLive and Steam in place, Nintendo needs to change their old-school thinking and fast, if they don’t, they’ll die. Simple as that.

I bought Minecraft yesterday on my Motorola Xoom tablet. It was $7 and still in development. I then wanted to play it on my Nexus S. Did I have to re-purchase it? Hell no. I just went to the market and re-downloaded it. Its really sad when I think about the fact that I just paid $7 for one of the most fun gameplay experiences I’ve ever had, but I also paid $40 for Pilotwings, for what amounted to little more than a tech demo.

Next topic: Online play with Nintendo consoles. Or, as I like to call it: Nintendo thinks you have no friends. Is the 3DS better at online? Sure. Was Brawl online? Yes, but it sucked. When you look at Steam, PSN, or Xbox Live, you realize how engrossing an online-rich social world can be. Oh look! My buddy is playing Team Fortress 2! Right click, Join Game. “Hey, dude! Yes, I just shot you in the dick. My bad.” That’s just cool. Its easy, everyone can do it. Everyone except Nintendo. I’m convinced that Nintendo is still forwarding paper memos written on typewriters. Nintendo is one of the most innovative, but least technologically advanced game companies in the world. Its really sad to see them do their best fish-out-of-water act every time someone brings up the idea of a Nintendo console playing games over this newfangled internet. Need more proof Nintendo doesn’t get it? Two words: Friend Codes. Who the fuck decided it was a good idea to go against convention and not have handles/usernames? Whoever that was should be publicly flogged. Hell, entire websites exist solely dedicated to the purpose of tying that long-ass number to a username and community.

Been on Nintendo’s website in a while? No. Don’t worry, the functionality is pretty much the same as it was in 2001. Nothing to see here. Move along. Real video game companies have websites where you are able to log into your account, pay for the downloadable game/theme/widget, and by the time you get home, the game has been auto-downloaded to your system, ready and waiting for you.
Nintendo doesn’t understand gaming anymore and it breaks my heart. I love Nintendo. Hell, even after all they’ve put me through, I’m going to buy the new Mario 3DS game, I’ll even be at the Skyward Sword launch, you know… I may even buy a Wii U. But I’m not gonna be happy about it. There will be a day when I tell everyone that I called it, Nintendo has become Sega. The once-upon-a-time king of the video game industry, dead now because they’ve refused for far-too-long to grow up and start living in this decade.
The bottom line is this: Nintendo doesn’t care. And that will ultimately be their undoing.

The first was simply put as the Iron Man fighting game tournament. I was in a group of 6 people and I had to face each of them in each of the following games- Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, Capcom vs SNK 2, Street Fighter Alpha 2, Breakers Revenge, and last but not least Vampire Savior which is the 1997 version of the Darkstalkers series. To be honest I was completely outmatched by damn near everyone that I had to go up against. Each game you played two out of three out of five rounds and I learned a few things right off the bat.

1: No matter how good I think I am or how decent I may be at a game someone will and can kick my ass no matter what I do.

2: Breakers Revenge is full of broken shit that allows me to do nothing all the while the people I go up against keep coming at me with an onslaught of terror.

3: Apparently I am a lot better at Vampire Savior than I ever would have thought (Felicia FTW!).

Yea shes a cat, whatever she kicks so much ass.

4: That my combo of Cammy, Ryu, and Sagat are hard to beat if in Capcom vs SNK 2 if I just remember how the hell to use sagat as a spam/distance fighter.

5: Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure might be up there for the best fighting game I have ever played even though I cannot imagine what the hell the people were on when they made the comic and the two fighting games based off of it.

Regardless of all of that I went 5 out of 25 and did not advance to the next round. It was a huge learning experience and one of the many I had throughout the day. The best part was I started to realize that all these guys were like a community of friends and when they watched each other they wanted to give tips on what they could have done to do better. Even without knowing any of them I was quickly accepted and was involved in a lot of discussions with the overall group of people. Jesse also participated in this tourney but did not do as well…although I cannot recall his record.

Ok time for tourney two of the day and of corse as luck would have, it turned out to be a “Mystery Game” tournament. Essentially I was forced to play some of the worst titles I can ever imagine.You played two out of three rounds…if it was a fighting game and if you lose twice you are out of the tournament.

The first game I played was entitled: Joy Mech Fight. This game was a fighting game made back in 1993 for the famicom. We played it on a top loader and I have to be honest, if you look at this game for a second you will say “Wow this game has to be one of the shittiest games I have ever seen.” Honestly I loved it, they had a lot of diverse fighters for a game that was released on Nintendo. I also just found out that it had a 38 player roster, which if you can your math most games in 1993 had roughly 15 so that is astounding. I won my fight using a character that was named Tiger and did it using his diving kick attack.

To me he is a cross between Sagat from Street Fighter, and Rax from Eternal Champions. Oh in other news the attack is called the eagle kick, and was my weapon of mass destruction.

The next game was DX Hird…which I would love to provide you with a good review or picture but it has been so long the only thing i remember is that it played like Battle Arena Toshiden 3 and was terrible looking. It is so obscure that I spent 10 minutes on google looking up and down for it and I have nothing but one man talking about how bad it is in a forum…I was unaware that a game could suck that bad that no physical evidence exists.

Next up was Masked rider Agigo, which is a game based off of the Japanese television series Kamen Rider. This game was one of the prettiest games that I can remember from the tourney and the actual movement from the characters looked great. This game was not responsive at all and even if you wanted to use one of your strong attacks it would take about 4 seconds to load the damn thing up before you could go and use it. None the less I won this game as well. Once again I cannot get a picture of the game I am referencing so deal with it.

After that came Heaven’s Gate which is a game so bad that wikipedia does not have an existing article about it. I remember it being for the PS1 and kinda reminding me of Virtua Fighter except way way worse. All I know is that I won this game as well but honestly I cannot remember anything about it upon seeing pictures other than what I just told you.

THIS GAME IS BAD! I also realize Jin looks like Hanzo from World Heroes.

The next game was Sailor Moon S, which as you could guess was a Sailor Moon fighting game. The control and response to this game are some of the saddest I have experienced. I mean they could actually be worse but holy god, I really think they just liked to rush fighting titles based on random cartoons in Japan because they know people would buy it. Think about it Sailor Moon was/might still be that popular over there so this makes sense. Once again this game was another win for the Martyr.

This game is a lot worse than it looks.

The only game I played that was not a fighting game was a heated match of Frogs and Flies. You are a frog who jumps in the air and tries to eat the dots they call flies that are on the screen. Two people go at the same time and it starts off as day and after every 30 seconds or so it gets darker and darker until it goes black and a winner is determined. This was the closest game I actually played during the entire Mystery Game match-up. It was also a great game to shout expletives as my frog would jump like a huge pussy or just jump way too hard off his lily pad due to the great controls of the Atari that we played it on. Chalk up another win.

This game is actually more fun because the controls suck so bad. I have never cussed more at a game in a short amount of time then I did at this one.

The final game I would win at was Natsuke Crisis Battle and it was for the Super Famicom. After getting my ass kicked the first round I had the misfortune of picking the female version of Zangief and somehow pulled off some of the biggest bullshit moves once I figured out she was just like him. I do not mean in the spamming lariat sense, but the 360 degree rotation while jumping to throw my opponent into the ground type of character.

Very obscure never heard of game of good god damn reasons.

Finally I was able to play a arcade game for the tourney and it was Karate Champ. This game has one of the least responsive controls I have ever seen in a fighting game. You play until you get two full points or the time runs out. Points are given based on the attack you use and where you inflict the attack. You use two joysticks, one moves you and the other helps attack. Depending on the two directions you move the joysticks, you can do front flips, jump kicks, and other crazy karate shit. Biggest problem with this game is that the hit detection has to be really perfect. If you are off by 1/18th of a second or if you are kinda too close to them the move will not be  completed. None the less I had a hell of a fight but still lost by a half a point.

There is not a better feeling than executing the jump kick for the full point. TO THE FACE.

The last game I was able to play for this was the very creatively named FIST. This by far was the worst thing that I played the entire day. I really wish I could get a picture of it just to show you how bad it is. The controls were terrible, the game play was worse. It was on the PS1 but I swear it looked and felt like a blind man made a game using random code that sounded good to him in his mind and he turned it into FIST. 

Yep this is all I could find. Thank you Ebay.

After my two losses I had to get ready for the final tournament of the night and I am not sure where I finished exactly I just know that I did really damn good and came pretty close to actually getting to the final. I then had to prepare myself to be entered into the King of Iron Fist Tournament, or at least the sixth edition of Tekken anyway. As fate would have it I had to go up against my buddy Jesse in the first part of a round robin event. Each match was 3 out of 5 rounds and 2 out of three fights. The first match I decided to use Bruce and after Jesse dominated the shit out of me I looked him in the eyes told him I was sorry and picked Eddy Gordo. I do feel bad that I had to use one of the cheapest characters against a guy that never really plays Tekken too much but I needed to get that first (and only win of the day) so I chose him and beat Jesse’s ass. I decided that after the fight Jesse and I had that I had to pick a character I was good with that was not someone people knew how to defend well. I thought about Eddy again, but he is a beginner character so I knew I stood no chance with him…after several minutes of debate I said “Fuck It” and I picked Jack 6. Jack is slow as all hell but is very powerful and has great reach and the ability to put the opponent into the air to juggle…slight problem is that I am not good enough with him to know how to consistently keep the person in the air. Overall I faced about 10 different people and lost to all of them. Most of my matches were very close and I met a few people that will be at the Power Up event at the end of the month that I plan on attending.

While playing against all these great players I was told a few different things from some of the participants.

1: The fact that I chose Jack when almost no one really is comfortable with him, threw most of my enemies off because they did not know what to expect.

2: I am very good at blocking and anticipating low attacks which is key to keeping a match as close as it can be given most juggle attacks start from a low to high position.

3: That for it being my first tournament that apparently I was skilled a lot higher than anyone thought I would have been when I told people it was my first tournament.

4: That the word Perfect, is described as “The seven golden letters” and you better not let that shit happen to you.

Like I said before this was one of the best things I had ever done and I learned a lot from it. Met a lot of awesome people who seem to want me to go back, and I earned the respect of people I have never met because I had the balls to pick a character that no one plays with while trying to compete with people much better than my sorry ass. If you ever have the chance to go to Arcade Legacy you need to. It is 10 bucks to play all night, and all the games are free and set up so all you have to do is hit the start button to enjoy some classics such as Killer Instinct, MVC2, Point Blank and many others. For further understanding check their website.

http://arcadelegacy.wordpress.com/

Man! Am I excited about the 3DS! First off, this is Nintendo’s ball park. They know the industry, they are one of the oldest players in the industry, renowned for their innovation, hated for going against the grain, and in some cases, completely ignoring industry trends (Online gaming, anyone?). In the past couple years, Nintendo has completely and utterly missed the ball when it came to online content and gameplay, targeting older gamers, and multiplayer. I really doubt that much (if any of that) is going to change, but for some reason… I’m really excited about the 3DS.

That’s exactly what Nintendo is good at. Sometimes I feel that Nintendo should be a PR firm instead of a gaming company… but lets get down to what we know: The 3DS is going to sell, and sell big. Just like the original DS, Nintendo is betting on people jumping on a new and unique bandwagon, then dragging all of their friends, relatives, and co-workers with them on a journey they will never forget. They will succeed at that, without a doubt, but some nagging part of me feels scared for Nintendo. The Wii, while hugely successful for its first two years as Nintendo’s main console, has seen better days. The Wii was old technology when it came out, the only thing that saved it was re-inventing the industry once again (again, something Nintendo is damn good at). Nintendo must be pretty damn proud of themselves now, being copied by Sony and (although to a lesser extent) Microsoft. Still, even to this day, no one does motion control better than Nintendo.

The 3DS has quite a few things in common with the 3DS from a system-launch perspective:

First off: Its main feature isn’t really the main focus. With the original Nintendo DS, the main feature was the fact that the system had two screens. While this was the most publicized and pronounced feature (it was the name of the system), it was hardly the most, dare I say, game-changing. What was amazing about the Nintendo DS was the ability to directly interact with what you were seeing on the screen: Touch Gaming. While this has been done before in the past, it wasn’t well done, it didn’t have the level of polish that Nintendo gave the DS. Touch gaming changed what people thought was possible on a handheld system, it paved the way for smartphone gaming as we see it today. Now, we have the 3DS, with the most touted feature obviously being the 3D capabilities of the handheld, this isn’t the feature most likely to change gaming as a whole. What is most likely to change the way we interact and perceive games as in the future is the way the 3DS implements Augmented Reality games (AR games). Again, like the DS, this isn’t the first time that AR games have popped up, the industry has seen these games in multiple forms, from multiple publishers, on multiple systems. AR games have been around for a while (like touchscreens and games on them), but none of them have ever been this beautifully conceived. Just like Apple takes an MP3 player and turns it into the sleek, sexy, must-have consumer electronics device of the holiday season; Nintendo takes gaming concepts and fully realizes them, then takes that a few steps beyond what people think is possible. I believe that Nintendo’s AR games hold the next ‘big thing’ for the industry. Just like the Wii was a massive hit with casual gamers and innovative gameplay, I believe that Nintendo has changed the industry once again, and things will never be the same. I can’t wait.

A boxer is about to punch a man made of fire in the dick it appears, I do not think I need to explain how awesome that really is.

Nevertheless the story line behind the game goes a little something like this. There is this big company named Ultratech who has completely taken over the world and all forms of government. They decide it is in their best interest to form a huge fighting tournament to test some of the diabolical creations that they have made in their secret labs. They also invite a few regular participants, or at least that what they say, I mean last time I checked a skeleton, a wulf (made by Ultratech and yes wulf is correct spelling), a Indian, a ninja, a raptor (made by Ultratech), a alien (captured by Ultratech), a criminal who is apparently on fire all the damn time, a secret spy, and a two headed what the fuck, are not even close to what I would call normal. The one man who is normal to a certain degree is former heavyweight champion of the world T.J. Combo. I mean he technically he did totally have his arms replaced by cybernetics but at least he had the common courtesy to have them covered up with synthetic skin unlike that asshole Jax from Mortal Kombat. If the person wins they basically get promised something by Ultratech, because once again this coporation rules the world and can basically do whatever they feel the need to.

The list of people to choose from is as follows

Thunder – Indian who is trying to find his lost brother who went “missing” after the tournament the year before. He is armed with tomahawks.

Fulgore- A 1 year old cybernetic badass that the tournament is basically funded for, just to test out how much PWNAGE it can deal out. If he wins the competition then mass production will begin.

Glacius- Alien captured by Ultratech and is promised freedom is he can win. His name comes from the fact that he is basically liquid ice (sounds logical right?) and can shape shift.

Cinder – Criminal who was captured by Ultratech and was told that he can be set free if he put up with some chemical testing, which went wrong and now his body is comprised of flames. If he can kill Glacius then he will get returned to his original form.

Jago - Tibetan monk who is trying to rid himself of the evil within and somehow thinks that it is his destiny to destroy Ultratech.

Riptor- A human/raptor hybrid that was created by Ultratech and is being tested as a killing machine in this compitition.

Sabrewulf- Count Von Sabrewulf is infected with lycanthropy and is promised a cure by Ultratech if he wins. A side note on him is that he is a reference to Sabre Wulf the first game that Rare ever made.

Spinal – A skeletal warrior who fights because he loves it. I kid you not I have no other reason other than that.

Come on do you think this skeleton would love to cuddle you next to the fire in the background?

T.J. Combo- Former heavyweight boxer who held the title for 5 years until it was found out that he had cybernetic arms that basically kicked the asses of the opponents for him. If he wins the title Ultratech will let him drive around in his pink 64′ Caddy and regain the title he had lost.

B. Orchid- Hired as a secretary for Ultratech, she turns out to be a spy for some unknown corporation, and to top that off has what might be the best or ugliest rack ever…one of her finishing moves she flashes the opponent and they have a heart attack.

Eyedol- The final boss of the game. He is a two headed piece of shit who does nothing but deplete your health bar in very cheap ass ways, and can regain his health slightly when he stomps on the ground like a dumbass. Did I mention he has a club? Oh I failed to mention that? It will not matter because he will give your face and attitude a slight adjustment with it. Ultratech released him out of his dimensional prison to kick some ass.

My only real beef with Ultratech is the fact that they use all these people to try to prevent shit from happening, and they also use them to control the world. They get the people they want dead to appear at this thing and use others already in it to possibly kill them. Honestly this is sound reasonable logic until you factor in that they just want to control the whole world…WHICH THEY ALREADY HAVE DONE DUE TO THE FACT THAT EVERY PLACE IN THE WORLD HAS NO WORKING GOVERNMENT BECAUSE THEY ALREADY TOOK IT OVER IN THE FIRST DAMN PLACE.

This game is different from other fighting games for a few different reasons but I will only mention the ones that actually matter. Instead of fighting in “Rounds” you have two health bars that you have to deplete to kill the enemy. To explain that better if you were fighting and depleted the enemies first health bar without getting hit, now they have one health bar to try to kick ass while you still have both of yours. The fighting is continuous which is a good thing for this game. Next up is the combo system which is not like others at all. In Mortal Kombat for example you might have to do something like “High punch, Low kick, Low punch, High punch” to do a four hit combo. Well Rare said “Fuck that shit” and decided to make combos have a much more automatic feel. They do this by you hitting a certain button, or even preforming a special move that will have a string of hits to it. Everyone has special moves but one special move for each character specifically can be performed in the complete opposite direction to enable its use to maximize combos. If you were using a character that had a move such as “Hold Back for two seconds, press forward and medium punch” well you could also do it by “Holding forward for two seconds pressing back and then medium punch.”

Back to the combo topic, the goal for the most part is to do as much damage at one time as possible so the bigger the combo the better the damage. Each combo you do will have a specific name based on the number of hits it has, all you really need to know is that 8 is Awesome and anything from 12-17 is a Killer combo, which will be shouted at you by the manliest announcer in the history of games. Another cool feature is that if your enemies second life bar is flashing red you can either 1: End the match with a combo that ends in a “No Mercy” move which makes the combo a “Ultimate” combo. Or 2: You can actually do an automatic super combo simply known as an ultra, which will range anywhere from 18-80 hits if you are a badass, or can glitch the game out. There is not a better feeling in this game than when you kick the ass of your friend and end it on an ultra, once the ultra hits you can sit back and watch the destruction which for me is usually me throwing the controller to the ground as to say “I DA SHIT” as I look at my friend letting them know that yes they did get owned, and yes they can do nothing to stop it.

Alright if you are not new to the Internet then I guarantee you know this game for one thing alone and you probably had no idea where it came from. In the middle of owning face with combos, or if you are the one getting owned with combos, a combo breaker (pronounced “C-C-C-C-C-COMBO BREAKER) can be done and it will automatically disrupt the attacking party with a move that will make them take damage and embarrass them at the same time. It is effective, and the computer uses it all the damn time just to get under your skin. I dare you to try and beat the final boss without having him break one combo and then take half your life with a 5 hit combo. When fighting you have to make a choice, do you do huge combos with the hopes that your opponent is retarded, or do you do small ones knowing that a combo breaker can not be used unless you do a combo of 6 hits or more. The choice is yours and honestly you will live and die by the choices you make in this game. Speaking of dying  just like other fighting games at the time there is a time at the end of the match to kill your fallen comrade with what they call a “No Mercy” move. Honestly alot of them are terrible, but there are a few that are pretty awesome. Fulgore transforms into a turret and shoots the shit out of the other person, even Orchid flashes some titty. Other than that they are pretty bland. They do have a few stages that can allow for some pretty cool falling to their death….deaths. All you have to do is hit them into the air when they are right on the edge and boom, instant gratification.

The graphics to this game are simply mind-boggling, this game was the first to use a Hard Disk Drive which allowed them to basically make this game the prettiest game that had yet existed on the fighting game market, and do yourself a favor play Virtua Fighter, and then play this and tell me that this game does not blow the other out of the water. The sounds are perfect for this game. The sound effects that they use really are fitting and its very good that they actually took the time to not make every male character sound the same and every female sound the same as well. They use different noises based on what character is getting rocked and that’s the best part. Every character sounds pretty much like you would expect them to. The music is badass and had a CD that came with the SNES version when it came out in 1995 called Killer Cuts, and yes I do own it thanks for asking. The difficulty for this game is adjustable just like most fighting games back then but its hit or miss. It is either really easy or completely bat-shit insane.

Eyedol is such an asshole. Good luck trying to deal with any of his bullshit he is about to pull on you.

I played this game first at an old pizza place, but I really got good at it when it made its jump to the SNES. I can say there is only one person I have yet to beat the game with and that is Jago, I am just not good with him at all. Everyother person is at least moderate for me but with him I am nothing short of a huge piece of shit. My favorite character personally due to his combos is easily Sabrewulf, but am probably best with either Combo, or Fulgore. This game was so groundbreaking a popular, they did make a sequel Killer Instinct 2 that had alot of differences which I will get to in a review of it eventually. Hell the main man from Rare said he would not mind either putting the original out on the Xbox Arcade, or making a third if he could get the backing of some company to actually help them. I swear this shit needs to happen so badly, I mean let me say this much, KI 1 was one of the best games ever made for the arcade, and it’s port to the SNES is one of the best games on the system. Then you have KI 2 which was not bad in its own right but was not the same as the first, so they need to make a third and push the envelope as much as possible. By the way did I mention this was also popular enough to actually have a card game in the same setup like Magic, which I have never seen but that’s simply amazing.

On second thought….maybe Glacius is actually cooler than most people think he is….COOLER GET IT?

Then again hes getting his face melted by Fulgore…I guess the verdict is still out on this one.

To provide more information on this game I will refer you to the definitive Killer Instinct website on the Internet.

http://killerinstinctonline.net/KIARC.htm

I also wanted to add the Roms, but the Internet decided to give me the middle finger and refuse to upload what I wanted. Sorry for the inconvenience but I think the readers are big enough boys/girls/boy-girls to find them on their own.

]]> http://seventytwopinconnector.com/2010/03/22/killer-instinct/feed/ 1 http://seventytwopinconnector.com/2010/02/21/indie-games-news-knytt-stories-ds-2/ http://seventytwopinconnector.com/2010/02/21/indie-games-news-knytt-stories-ds-2/#comments Sun, 21 Feb 2010 15:15:04 +0000 admin http://seventytwopinconnector.com/?p=2501

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.

I seem to have a reoccurring trend in my life… I go and download massive amounts of old roms, then I end up running out to game stores and buying the actual games. This happened to me, once upon a time, with Metal Gear Solid for the Game Boy Color. I know what you’re thinking… “Tom!!! This is Metal Gear!! This isn’t some pansy-ass platformer for whiny toddlers sitting in a doctors office!! How could they not fuck this up?!?“. And I completely agree.

How could they put Metal Gear on the Game Boy and expect anything more than complete and utter failure? But… somehow… It wasn’t shit.. As a matter of fact, it was pretty good, but not just good. It was great. Not the best game I’ve ever played, but it felt like Metal Gear. From the tension you feel as a guard stares at your hobo-style-camo, to the joyful glee you feel as you knock on a wall to lead a guard in the wrong direction. This is Metal Gear in your pocket.

From a pure story perspective: Standard Kojima Fare. Convoluted, hard-hitting, long-winded monologues, a dramatic score. Classic Metal Gear storytelling.

From the story to the gameplay, this game does justice to the series in every fashion. If you’re a Metal Gear fan who needs their fix on the go, this is your game.

Game Boy Color – Metal Gear Solid

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.