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.

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

Before we begin… I know we’ve already got a small review up for Link’s Awakening. But I feel that the post was more Battletunes oriented and presented only a brief overview of the game. Not to discredit that review, but this is a more in depth look at the story and design aspects of the game.

Zelda games have always rang true with me. An overall amazing series, and most of the games are pure gold (most! Phantom Hourglass can suck a dick). It happens to be my favorite series in all of gaming. I’ve spent an ungodly amount of time in each version of Hyrule, battling skultullas and rescuing Zelda for the millionth time, it never truly got old. But the game I’ve put the most amount of time into has to be Link’s Awakening.

I was a huge fan of A Link to the Past when it came out, and this game helped me rekindle all of those warm feelings all over again. Link’s Awakening is a Zelda game through and through, you’ll find familiar puzzles, enemies, tunes, items, and scenarios. But what turns this Zelda game into something special is the story and presentation of the whole thing. Its difficult to make a Game Boy game seem epic… You’ve got 4 shades of grey, a small screen, and very limited sound capability to play around with, but somehow, they did it. Instead of taking place in the Land of Hyrule, Link’s Awakening takes place in Koholint Island, a completely new world, completely separated from Hyrule. This gave the designers enough of a push to make a truly unique story. (Yarr… there be spoilers ahead!!)

Here’s a video with one of my favorite video game tunes of all time: The Ballad of the Wind Fish

Thanks to omdac714 for the video!

Koholint Island doesn’t exist. Its all a dream world. The world exists in the dream of a sleeping creature called The Wind Fish. If the Wind Fish is awoken, Koholint Island, all the creatures, and all of the people contained within will disappear with the dream. This creates an interesting philosophical scenario. Is is morally right to wake the dreamer, escaping the dreamland, only to watch everyone you’ve met so far disappear right before your very eyes? Are the enemies really all that evil, trying to stop you from destroying the only world they’ve ever known? Are you even the hero of this story? Or do you merely server as a means to an end of the world? Though the game never directly brings up these questions, it does make for an amazing catalyst into moral and philosophical discussion. At one point, when you defeat a boss, the dying enemy begs you not to wake the Wind Fish, as his entire world will disappear. Its this writing, this kind of storytelling that separate this Zelda game from all the rest, and more importantly, this Game Boy game from all the rest. Give it a try, one of my favorite games of all time:

Game Boy – The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening

What the hell do you think it is?

Admist all the grave puns, the ostrelephants, rhinocerockets, rock lobsters, and horsantulas that make this game so insane, Mother 3 manages to be not only trippy, but to be a great addition to the Mother series. I don’t want to go into too much detail, but the story goes in so many directions in the beginning that it would be difficult to explain. So I’ll just review some genitaralities. (That’s right, I said that.)

Mother 3 is much like Earthbound, but some improvements have been made. Unlike the previous games, you now get to control many different characters. You start out the game as Lucas’s father, move on to a theif, then a monkey, and finally Lucas. Later on, you will recieve a twist 4/5 of the way through the game that will make you say WTF. Twice. You’ll have to actually play this game to get the total gist of what I’m saying.

One of the most interesting improvements is the PSI learning system. You only have two members with PSI in your party, although the others make up for it in abilities. When learning a PSI ability, your party member will get a fever, and the only cure is more cowbell. With the lack of a cowbell in the game, your only choice is to walk (you cant run with a fever, asshole) around until the fever goes away. When the fever leaves, you will be granted a new PSI power. Some PSI moves are learned instead at pivitol points in the game, but I’ll let you figure that out.

Oh, and by the way, no fucking level cap bitches.

Another improvement is difficulty. Earthbound was a game that if I leveled up a lot in the beginning, I would never have trouble on one boss. I never even had to use Psychic Shields or anything like that. In Mother 3, things were different. Every boss battle would start with 2 rounds of preparation. It forced me to be strategic in every aspect. The difficulty was greater, but I feel that it was not too great. I died maybe 6 or 7 times throughout the course of the game, but I was close to dying hundreds of times. That is what makes a great game.

I have to say that Mother 3 is essentially the funniest game I may have ever played. (Which is saying a lot considering my love for the Monkey Island series.) Mother 3 has it all – subtle and not so subtle social commentary, running gags, psychopathic characters that brianwash everyone, completely sane characters that brainwash everyone, talking animals, people dying, awkward women that act like gay men and have “vuluptuous” beards, people in giant test tubes, angry contruction workers, references to Earthbound, jokes about hallucinating while swimming, and a FULL-ON MUSHROOM TRIP. I’ll give you a taste of it with this amazing fan art.

BTW, If you happen to own the rights to this picture, let me know, because if it is a real picture, I may want to purchase it.

Honestly, this game made me want to do hallucinogins badly. Badly. But seriously, don’t do drugs. But to be honest, this game was released on 4/20 of 2006. So uhh…

The only complaints I have about this game is the length being too short, the game feeling extremely linear in the sense that ants are in your way and you don’t want to kill them, and pretty much nothing else. This is according to my tastes though, and if you hate reading, thinking, and creativity then you’re retarded, and you won’t like this game.

All in all, I say that Mother 3 is an amazing game. Go google Mother 3 Translation and pick this up immediately. The translators made this the easiest game to patch that I’ve ever patched. Man, I wish I could think of a better way to type that senten…. oh godIT’S A KANGASHARK! RUN!

Go Get It Here!

Wario Land!! First off, I’d like to thank our listener Namagem for hooking us up with the very hard-to-find rom. For some reason.. (I’m guessing because of ESA regulation) its been stripped from the big rom sites. Anyway, thanks, yo!

Now onto the review: Wario Land was one of those games put out by Nintendo to try to push a hopefully-successful character at the time. Having the words: Super Mario Land 3 in the title was only branding to get people to stand up and take notice. Here’s my take on it: They didn’t need it. Wario Land is both a deep, challenging, and quite innovative. Playing this game when I was younger, I was obsessed with collecting the maximum amount of treasure and coins. Wario is an interesting Nintendo character among the staple cliche’s that have become video game legend, he is a greedy little bastard.

At the time, most Game Boy games were terribly shallow, with the obvious exceptions of the Mario games and Zelda: Link’s Awakening, more and more games were just brainless platforming or arcade-style games. Wario Land was kinda different. Yes, it was a platformer, but like Super Mario World, it was filled to the brim with optional content. Secret areas, hidden levels, treasures to uncover. The game was filled with content just begging to be unlocked. Anyway, its a Nintendo game, its got the most solid platforming around, and is one of my all time favorite Game Boy games. Check it out!

Game Boy – Wario Land