Thoughts: Escapism

Video games are looked down upon by so many. Sure, it may have racked in more money than any other form of entertainment in the last several years, and the Wii has been seen in more homes than Blu-Ray players, but that doesn't mean games and gamers have lost the bad rap they get. It's viewed as a horrible waste of time as well as money, a terrible addiction, and, for people that refuse to put blame on parents that don't raise their children properly, a source for violent behavior.

What they're not seeing is the "good" side to video games. Video games aren't just a fun activity to some people. They're not just a hobby and they're not just a time waster to some of us. Some people use it as a job, some people use it as a teaching tool. But most importantly, some of us use video games to escape.

Just think: that could be YOU...

Work is stressful. Family and friends can be, too. But not everyone can just jump in a car and get away, or find a way to get rid of their everyday stress. That's where video games come in - sound like bullshit? It really isn't, and it's not as sad as you might think.

Think of all the places you can go without ever leaving; the Mushroom Kingdom, Azeroth, Liberty City, Hyrule, Robotropolis, Guardia, the Underworld, Kanto, Willamette Parkview Mall, Midgar, Dracula's Castle... That's just a few places. They're different from our dull, drab, boring every day lives, and that's why we visit them so often.

Ram riding?! What's NOT to love?!

Many people look at World of Warcraft players, for example, including other gamers, and degrade them as worthless addicts. Nerds without lives or friends. However, not only is this a terrible lie (as the MMO world they're in is much more social than nearly any game on any console), but many of those players find the vast world of Azeroth as an escape. Leaving their own world and all of its stress behind, they have many options that other games don't offer, such as fighting, making friends, fishing, learning professions such as mining and tailoring, making money, forming groups to take out large mobs or huge bosses, collecting pets, riding mounts, exploring, and more. It's no wonder why its players are so involved; there's TOO much to do NOT to.

It's the same reason why when a Zelda game is released people disappear. Everyone wants to play and explore and see what tools they can get or how many rupees they can collect, as well as smite evil and save the day. Zelda and Final Fantasy are two of the best examples of console or non-MMO games that people become addicted to. It's because the worlds become so vast it's easy to lose yourself in them; to feel as though you are a part of that world, and to help you forget about what troubles you in every day life.

Yeah, I can't wait...

As for me, I plan on getting lost in the far-away land of Toronto once Scott Pilgrim vs. The World is released. Being able to escape my ordinary life to fight alongside Scott, Ramona, Kim, and Steven Stills, to fight seven evil exes, to collect money and rock out... Between the beat-em-up style gameplay, the retro look and style of pixel art, the classic sounds of the chiptune songs (done by Anamanaguchi, at that), and the wonderful story of the Scott Pilgrim comics, I doubt I can hold out for the XBox Live Arcade release of the game.

Perhaps it's not the worlds one gets lost in, though. Some people relieve their stress by escaping to music. Be it the instrumental style of Rock Band, the dancing style of Dance Dance Revolution or Pump it Up, or the technical style of beatmania, many lose themselves in creating music, dancing to it, or going on a tour with their friends to become a world famous plastic band. Likewise, other people may run away to get lost in thought. Games like Tetris, Picross, Columns, Puzzle Fighter, and others can steal our time from us, too. This may be because we find ourselves focusing our thoughts on how to clear jewels or destroy lines of blocks as opposed to thinking about our problems.

Who knew dropping blocks could be so involving?

I can't say I condone getting so absorbed into a game that your problems don't get resolved. If you have money issues, playing a game until after the payment due date won't fix anything. Likewise, playing WoW or Mario Kart or Chrono Trigger to avoid a spouse will not only upset them further, but may get you into more trouble than its worth. But what many non-gamers, politicians, and jackasses (Bill O'Reilly, I'm looking at you) don't realize is that gaming is a hobby that helps people more than they realize. It's a stress reliever, a thinking tool, lately a form of exercise, and most overall a place to go when life kicks you in the balls so many times you want to give up. When things get you down, gamers, don't give up - the future of your favorite worlds depend on you.

Wishlist: Kinect Games

So we've seen the new things from E3, and there were three major pieces of hardware unveiled - Microsoft's Kinect, Nintendo's 3DS, and Sony's Playstation Move. I've been a huge fan since Natal was announced the year before, and Milo was really interesting to me, and seems like a friend that won't talk shit about you behind your back or create rumors to make you look bad to the rest of your friends. So I am obviously looking forward to Kinect the most. So here's a few ideas I've been coming up with that we may not have seen too much of that Kinect could make even more fun.


1. Katamari Damacy Kinect
Several people said they'd love to see this on the Wii, and I'm sure the idea will come up again with the Move. But to stand and actually curve your hands and make the rolling motions with Kinect could be a lot more fun. In turn, as you change your motions, which the camera would better distinguish than with the Wii Remote or Move controller, you could turn easily, or slam your hands forward to send a charge dash forward. Jumping could cause the Prince to either perform the 360 jump to face the other direction, or could even enable a jump feature. Kinect could change how the quirky series is done, and make it new again.

2. Real Time Strategy Games
RTS games do NOT work on consoles. And when it's tried, it either fails, or is changed so much that it can't even relate to a PC counterpart. Even if it works, or if it's even good, the genre on console is so despised that it's rarely given a chance. With Kinect, though, you could drag a single finger over an area to select multiple units, and use your entire hand to move the map. The mic could pick up your command of "Attack!", and then you could point at the opposing target or targets. Even if it's a long shot, it can't be any worse than how the genre looks now.

3. Microgames Collection
While "Microgames" would likely NOT be in a Microsoft title, the idea is still very neat. It could work like the Survival mode in WarioWare: Smooth Moves - several players take turns playing out mini-games that only last a few seconds. And it can't be made by some chump company! That's why all the other Mario Party and WarioWare style knock-off games fail and die off.

4. Music Games (Not Dance)
No, I do not wanna play Rock Band without the instruments, and no, I do not want another Wii Music. But Sony (and likely Nintendo) have this huge anti-Kinect thought process of "air gaming is stupid." Honestly, if I want to play a game like Donkey Konga and want my friends to play, I should've have to shell out $30 per person for the peripherals. Donkey Konga was an additional $90 if you wanted to play with three of your friends. Sure, some games' peripherals make it fun (and honestly, I still don't know how I feel about driving games without a wheel), but I don't wanna pay for a bunch of peripherals for a game that my friends may or may not like.

5. Naruto
Also a long shot, this could be fun. Likely a "rail shooter" due to what may be limited movement with the Kinect camera (unless a running motion would allow you to move in the direction you were looking), the possibilities for a Kinect Naruto title are there. You can wave one hand over the other to form Naruto's Rasengan attack, or lower your hand to perform Sasuke's or Kakashi's Chidori/Lightning Blade attack. Also, you could actually learn the different hand symbols the characters perform to do your jutsu attacks as well. If done right, it could be a very good title.

6. Dodgeball
While it could work a lot like Ricochet (the famous Kinect demo using your body to deflect balls at a wall), a Dodgeball game would be an amazing use of the technology. Being able to control where you throw by where you're looking, or move about with little motions in your home, you could take a team of four or eight, or hell, even twelve, and pit them against another team for some crazy online dodgeball romp that won't destroy anything in the house. And when you're eliminated, perhaps you can sit on the sideline to cheer your team on, or even throw the ball at the other team from the sidelines to help.


That's just a few ideas I've come up with. What do you guys think? Let us know in the comment field below!

Thoughts: Music Games

Kick! Punch! It's all in... yeah, you all know it already...

I've been a huge fan of music games in general, probably as far back as PaRappa or Bust-A-Groove, if not earlier. It seems as though people forget there are music games that don't require a plastic instrument or a dancing pad these days. But I'll go over a shitload of music games, including my favorites, as well as a few that don't deserve an honorable mention.

Let's start with some of the earlier games. PaRappa the Rapper looked horrible. Models that were literally more 2D than 2D, paper thin animals and weird people danced and moved around. The plot was fairly dumb - impress a sunflower chick into liking you by doing stupid mundane tasks like learning karate or baking a cake. How did one of the worst ideas ever become a success? Because the game was executed wonderfully, was a blast to play, and had great music that was the real star of the game (except maybe PaRappa himself). The same graphics and ideas were introduced in its two sequels, PaRappa the Rapper 2 and Um Jammer Lammy, the latter of which is one of my favorite music games of all time. You play as a girl who instead of raps plays guitar to get through her musical situations.


Back then, games could actually be fun without looking good!

It's a formula that I wish still existed today. Graphics and idea shouldn't matter if the game is enjoyable. Another example is Bust-A-Groove and its sequel. Known as "Bust A Move: Dance & Rhythm Action" in Japan, this little known music game by Enix focused on fourth beats. You'd be given directions to input, and had to input them all before the fourth beat, where you'd normally have to press X or O to complete. The game was like a hybrid music/fighting game, in which you had to dance better than your opponent.

The game had a few changes that needed to be made, though - one male ganguro character looked more like a "blackface" and was changed to a white man in order to avoid controversy. Likewise, a song included brand names McDonald's and Burger King, which were removed, and two songs had "the N word" in them, which also were edited. Many songs in the games were also changed from Japanese to English. Regardless of all the changes made, the music was still pretty good, and the games are not cheap on the secondary market by any means. I think two of my favorite songs in these games were Heat's "2 Bad" in BAG1, and Strike's "Here Comes Trouble" in BAG2.


Yeah, that thing creeps the fuck out of me.

There are many other music games out there, but let's move onward to one of the games that changed my life: Dance Dance Revolution. Sure, some of you guys walk through the mall and think this game looks lame. But when you lose 50 pounds in half a year without changing eating habits, or meet some of the best friends you'll ever have through it, it's more than just a doofy game. DDR is one of those things that's so big it's not just a game anymore - like World of Warcraft, or tournament gaming scenes, DDR players take it as a way of life. DDR helped to bring life back in to dying arcades, which is definitely a good thing, and ended up bringing along games that would be harder or better, such as Pump it Up and In the Groove.

Konami and Bemani would later team up with little-known company Harmonix to create Karaoke Revolution, and allow gamers that couldn't sing to think they could. Harmonix had previously worked on two other amazing games that allowed you to create music one instrument at a time, known as Frequency and Amplitude. They were each sleeper hits, and Harmonix was getting it's name out there, before it teamed with a company that was mainly known for their DDR pads to create an overnight sensation...


You say you want a revolution...

Guitar Hero was revolutionary when it came out. I mean, sure, make the argument that Bemani did it first with Guitar Freaks all you want, but we know you'll leave out the part where most of the music is fairly bad compared to the classic and modern rock GH gave us, or forget the part where the guitar controller was thick necked, awkward to hold, and only included three buttons. After playing both, it's no wonder why Guitar Hero made it so big over here. That, and Konami is TERRIBLE about doing their music games justice in the states. I'm looking at you, US beatmania and Pop'n Music on Wii... But Guitar Hero was amazing in letting people simulate playing a real guitar, which would then spiral frat boys and posers into a rage because they can play real guitar, and by that I mean they can play "Smoke on the Water" and the intro to "Smells Like Teen Spirit."

Guitar Hero II came out and it was just as much fun, if not more so. Sure, each game has those songs no one likes to play, but the number of good ones always outnumbered the bad. The next year would come and Guitar Hero III would be out, now coming out annually - the problem with III, though, was that it didn't have enough good music, and it's like the designers tried to intentionally make it WAY too hard. I like to 100% my achievements. I am not, however, going to dedicate days or weeks of my life trying to pass Through the Fire and the Flames on Expert. III was the mark in which the GH faithful separated from the pack, leaving those that just wanted to enjoy a music game behind. This only lasted for a month or so, though.


And thus the argument over who was stuck as a bassist begun...

Harmonix had left the GH brand and worked with Mtv Games to create Rock Band. We now had Guitar Hero mixed with Karaoke Revolution, and was bringing over Drummania that Konami had also been stupid not to localize, and the full living room plastic band was created. Rock Band was even more revolutionary, not just in having four players rock out, but due to it's nonstop weekly release of DLC, giving players a vast choice of songs to update their library. It's about this time that shit starts hitting the fan in music game land.

Activision, teamed with Red octane for the "Hero" brand, made 25 music games last year. That's right, twenty-fucking-five. Music gaming has gone overboard, cluttering our closets with plastic instruments galore... There's been a recent announcement confirming Guitar Hero 6, a second DJ Hero, and we've seen or know of Guitar Hero World Tour, Guitar Hero 5, Guitar Hero On Tour, Guitar Hero Smash Hits, Guitar Hero Rocks the 80's, Guitar Hero Aerosmith, Guitar Hero Metallica, Guitar Hero Van Halen, Guitar Hero On Tour Decades, Guitar Hero On Tour Modern Hits, Band Hero, DJ Hero, Rock Band 2, The Beatles Rock Band, Lego Rock Band, Green Day Rock Band, Rock Band 3, Scratch: The Ultimate DJ, Rock Revolution, Rock Band Unplugged, Rock Band AC/DC Live, Singstar Pop, Singstar Abba, Singstar Rocks, Singstar Queen, Singstar Party, Singstar 80's, Singstar Legends, Singstar 90's, Singstar Amped, Singstar Pop Vol. 2, Singstar Country, Singstar Motown, Singstar Latino, Donkey Konga, Donkey Konga 2, Karaoke Revolution 2, Karaoke Revolution 3, Karaoke Revolution Party, Karaoke Revolution American Idol, Karaoke Revolution American Idol Encore, Karaoke Revolution American Idol Encore 2, Karaoke Revolution Country, Taiko Drum Master, Samba de Amigo, Para Para Paradise... the numbers of music games are mind blowing. And these aren't all of them, most of these are just games that include separate peripherals or instruments in order to play them! There needs to be a serious change soon, because this is ridiculous.


Oh look, next year's Guitar Hero controller!

Now, not all music games are bad, and not all of the games above mentioned are bad. There's plenty of good games that don't require extra equipment to play that I haven't even mentioned. There's Gitaroo Man, Elite Beat Agents, Rhythm Heaven, Rez, Space Channel 5, Korg DS-10 Synthesizer, Daigasso! Band Brothers, the Mtv Music Generator games... There's a lot of ways to enjoy music without having to drop a bundle of cash on a bundle of instruments, and many of the above listed are fantastic. But I've gotten ahead of myself, named way too many games for me to even begin to get into all of them... I do want to point out, though, that music games can also be VERY, VERY BAD.


Oh, God, no...

And I'll prove it to you tomorrow with our first Epic Fail: Wii Music.