During a lengthy Q&A session on Nintendo’s official website Shigeru Miyamoto revealed that the critically acclaimed Mario 64 initially had a multiplayer mode, but it was sadly scrapped due to hardware restraints.

Iwata: Ever since Mario Bros., you’ve had your heart set on making a multiplayer Mario game. You’ve tried each time, but it’s never quite come together… Even with Mario 64, it started with Mario and Luigi running around together, didn’t it?

Miyamoto: That’s right. The screen was split and they went into the castle separately. When they meet in the corridor, I was incredibly happy! (laughs) Then there was also the mode where the camera is fixed and we see Mario running away, steadily getting smaller and smaller.

Iwata: Yes, that’s right.

Miyamoto: That was a remnant of an experiment we did where Mario and Luigi would run away from each other but you could still see them both. But we were unable to pull it off…

Source

Most games´ focus in terms of visuals lies on the pure impression of the picture you get at a certain point while playing the game. Focus is the ability to present the game as well as possible to the media masses. One aspect that cannot be shown on a picture or not even in videos are games´ animations.

There is no doubt that video games animation have come a long way, and while we´re not yet on Pixar-level, video games are capable of outputting gorgeous animations. Games look fluid, smooth and natural. Still, if you actually play those games you come to realize that it´s not as great as you thought it looked to be. Obvious examples of video games that don´t give a thing about believable, natural feeling animations are first person shooters. It´s simply not something to sweat about when you´ll never see your character anyway. And who cares about perfect animation in a game like Unreal Tournament 3, where all that matters is to shoot the enemy.

The majority of today´s games DOES have good animations, though. At least well-looking animations. That´s where the next split between good and bad (oh well, “not so good”) happens. Dead Rising looks great, but its animations are completely capped. As are Monster Hunter 3´s. You have these stunning moving monsters, but if you keep watching them you realize that it´s one set of animations over and over again. And no matter how you hit them with your weapon, they always react the same.

There is a small minority of games, though, that is doing it perfectly right. For one, there is ICO for Playstation 2. Key-difference to most other games is that animations aren´t just pretty, they also feel great. Or to be more precise, they are combined with gameplay-related physics. When you run on a path and it has small obstacles, you can feel those obstacles and you can see your ingame-character moving accordingly. Another even older example would be Super Mario 64. That is in stark contrast to Super Mario Galaxy, where animations became actually less responsive to the gameplay. In the Nintendo 64-Mario, you have to gain momentum, you have to plan your next move or it´s game over. In Galaxy, you can heavily change the course of your jump even when already in midair. The 64-Mario moves, jumps and stops and you can feel and see it. That´s what made this 3D-introducing title the popular game it is even today.

I believe that there is an important connection between responsive animations and a “good feeling”, which in turns leads to higher levels of immersion. The following may be one hundred percent subjective, but I can still play The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time today, and enjoy it, even enjoy its visuals. In contrast, I don´t have that much fun with re-playing Twilight Princess, where animations have become less responsive, where Link jumps in such a weird, stiff way. A detailed blockbuster-game may be nice to look at, but I strongly think that animations are a key-element in the world of video games, that is the connection between visuals and gameplay.

Super Mario 64 DS

DS Nintendo game reviews

“Surprise!, Super Mario 64 DS, it is a great update of a classic game.”

Pros : great update of a classic game, Minigames are highly addictive, One game card requires for multiplayers mode.
Cons : Control isn’t as tight as the original.

Product Link

Nearly ten years ago, Nintendo’s Super Mario franchise made the ambitious leap into the world of 3D on the Nintendo 64. Along with introducing new game mechanics for the brand-new Mario outing, Nintendo had several goals with the release of Super Mario 64. Naturally it was a way to show off the capabilities of the new hardware, letting Mario strut his stuff in full 3D. But it was also a prime outlet for Nintendo to wean players into the realm of analog control; Nintendo made the bold move to incorporate analog control right out of the box, and to anyone playing Super Mario 64 on the system it’s pretty obvious that the game and the controller were developed side-by-side. The end result: Super Mario 64 became a massive commercial, critical, and design success for the Nintendo 64 console, and though future games have built upon and improved on the ideas established by Nintendo’s development team, gamers still regard Super Mario 64 as one of the finest examples of 3D platforming ever created.

Nintendo has been rereleasing its Mario games for its handheld systems for years, most recently via the Super Mario Advance series on the Game Boy Advance. Now that trend has carried over to the DS. Super Mario 64 DS is, essentially, the same game that was released back in 1996, though a few new twists and turns have been added. Though the game still opens with Peach inviting Mario to her castle (where she subsequently is kidnapped), you don’t actually play as Mario right off the bat. Mario now shows up for the party with Wario and Luigi in tow, and the three of them enter the castle and promptly vanish. Yoshi, who has been sleeping on top of the castle (which is actually where he was hidden in the original game), wakes up, notices that everything seems just a little too quiet, and sets off to find the missing characters.

At this point, the game sets off as you’d expect if you’ve played the original, with Yoshi hopping around, jumping into paintings, and collecting power stars. Yoshi controls almost identically to Mario, though instead of Mario’s three-hit combo attack, Yoshi can stick out his tongue and swallow enemies whole, turning them into eggs that you can toss at other enemies. Eventually, you’ll find Mario, Luigi, and Wario, and you’ll be able to switch between them whenever you like. Aside from Yoshi’s tongue attack, the characters control almost identically. Luigi and Yoshi can jump a bit higher; Wario’s punch is powerful enough to break bricks that the others can’t dent; and Mario is the only character that can triangle-jump off of walls. Also, the game’s flower power-up has a different effect on each of the four characters, and this sort of replaces the switch blocks from the original game, which gave Mario access to different hats with different effects. When you collect a flower with Mario, he inflates like a balloon and you can float around for a brief period of time; Yoshi gains the ability to breathe fire; Wario turns into metal when he grabs the flower, making him invincible, but also giving him the occasionally required ability to walk underwater on the floors of lakes and other bodies of water; and Luigi turns invisible for a brief period, which also gives him the ability to walk through some obstacles. Since some stars require specific power-ups, you’ll occasionally have to swap in another character to get the job done.

Mario 64 DS puts on a great show from a graphical standpoint. This time around, the character models have an increased poly count that makes them look much, much better than the eight-year-old N64 game after which it is modeled. You’ll still run across an ugly texture or two, but the game runs at a great, smooth frame rate and looks bright and colorful. The rough spots are also smoothed out a bit by the fact that you’re playing it on a small, sharp screen instead of a television. The map on the lower screen is a little fuzzy in spots and isn’t quite as easy to read as it should be, but it works. The graphics used in the minigames are also quite strong.

Super Mario 64 was an amazing game back when it was originally released. For the most part, the game holds up pretty well, though there are a few head-scratchers that may have players wondering how we ever got by back then. The camera in the game isn’t so hot. While you have the option to rotate the camera manually or center it behind your character, you still have to spend quite a lot of time controlling it to make sure you’re getting a proper view of the action. Also, some of the stars you’re trying to collect are devilishly difficult to find, to the point that unless you remember the original game very well (or throw up your hands and read a FAQ from the original game), you’ll have to run around levels like a maniac, hoping that you stumble upon the solution.

The DS’s touch screen is used to display a top-down map of the current area. Points of interest, like stars, are highlighted on the map. The map actually makes many of the game’s stars much easier to find, unlike the aforementioned goal with the cannon. If a star is out in the open, it will appear on the map, making it pretty easy to grab. Each level also has eight red coins, which can be collected for–yes, that’s right–yet another star.

While the gameplay has its share of spots that haven’t aged so well overall, and the control isn’t perfect, Super Mario 64 DS is still a lot of fun. It’s a huge game with large, colorful environments, and it pulls off some neat tricks and presents you with interesting and compelling puzzles. The game also contains a handful of new areas to explore, though many of these smaller areas really aren’t all that interesting. The core game and the fights against Bowser are still the stars of the show here.

f you’re near three other DS users, you can play a competitive four-player mode. This mode only requires you to have one game card, taking advantage of the system’s wireless game download feature to transmit the necessary data to the other systems.

Also in the extras category are a series of stylus-oriented minigames. You’ll start out with eight games, but as you play through the adventure you’ll be able to find and catch rabbits, each of which gives up a key that unlocks another new minigame. The minigames are varied, fun, and addictive. Each one usually revolves around one specific activity, such as using the stylus to draw back a slingshot and fire shots at parachuting bob-ombs floating down from the top screen, drawing lines that become trampolines to keep three Marios bouncing around from screen to screen, or even playing a game of Memory at Luigi’s casino.

Super Mario 64 DS retains the same music and speech samples used in the original game, though some new samples were added for the new characters and a few effects have changed. Stomping an enemy now makes a more standard, Super Mario Bros.-like “stomp on a goomba” noise, instead of the higher-pitched squeak used in the original game. The tunes are extremely memorable, and even if you don’t already have nostalgic feelings, you’ll still come away humming many of the game’s themes. The game’s stereo separation is very noticeable, and it does a good job of making you appreciate the system’s stereo speakers.

All things considered, Super Mario 64 DS is a great update of a classic game. you’ll find a fantastic gaming experience that pushes nearly every element of the Nintendo DS hardware. the game is done right enough to make it a faithful update for fans of the original; new players will certainly find a lot to like here, as well. This is clearly and deservedly the flagship game for the Nintendo DS launch.

Features

• 150 stars to collect
• Four playable characters
• More than two dozen touch-screen, dual-screen mini-games
• Cartridge save (three slots)
• Wireless multiplayer for four players (single cartridge)

GameSpot Score : 8.4
IGN Rating : 8.9

Available at Amazon.com

So I get up and go outside today and it’s snowing. I mean legit frozen water snow. Now it’s not cold enough for it to stick and remain snow, but it’s still snow none the less. Anyway so yesterday I got to talk to my sister and that was nice. I didn’t really get any cleaning done, but it happens. I do need to do laundry tonight though. Also got to workout tonight. That should be fun. Oh and hanging out with my friend last night for sure was a good idea. I enjoyed it. Saw Couples Retreat which was a lot better than I thought it was going to be. I usually avoid anything with Vince Vaughn in it, mainly because his characters are always the same, but wasn’t in this one. It was very nice. Just goes to show you that if you go in with low expectations then well your not disappointed. Now lately my views have been kinda low. I haven’t been getting a lot from Blogsurfer.us like usual. Don’t know why that is. Could be that weekend slump thing again. Which reminds me lately I’ve just been having these weird thoughts. Like what if my Ex moves up here or for some reason comes up here. How awkward would that be. Luckily I know that won’t happen. I guess my mind is just going a mile a minute again. Oh and I finally took those pictures I’ve been saying I would of my tile. First up is the cartoon bunny, followed by the parrot, then the fire lizard, then another bunny. They are kinda the main focus of the picture, but again know that if you need to see it bigger then just click on it.  Yep that’s my bathroom and kitchen tiles. Like I said I have no clue if the pattern just happened to look like those things or if they did it on purpose. So anyway it’s squiby time. Today’s video is the ending for Mario 64. It’s one of those iconic games because it was basically the first on the N64 which was all about 3D games. I’ve played the game many a time. I also decided to include someone doing hacks and “messing” up the ending. Just in case some of you want to say wow this guy has way too much free time. You can see someone who has way more than me. Today’s tip is they say nothing in life is free, but also say you can’t buy love or friends. Clearly they are confused so stop listening to them. One friend just had one thing to say about that tip. WIN!

Que tal montar a sua própria cabeça do Mario 64, aquela da abertura do jogo?

Pois graças ao site Nintendopapercraft, isso é possível. Possível, mas nem por isso fácil.

No site, além da cachola do Mario, podem ser encontrados vários outros personagens da Nintendo, bem como cenas de jogos para imprimir, recortar e montar.

Download em formato A4 ou Letter.

Here it is… my Top 10 favorite video games of all time.

10. Super Smash Bros. Melee (2001)

GAMECUBE
Of all the games I’ve ever played, I’ve probably played this one the most. I bet I’ve played over a thousand matches, at least. My high school friends and I would literally, almost every day after school, go to my house, and play this for three hours straight. Things got emotional. Neufeld almost cried once when Sam beat him. Controllers were thrown, I’m sure of it. I even entered in a SSBM bracket tournament at Third North freshman year. I lost to some Asian dudes, but I got into the semi or quarter finals.

I think the above paragraph pretty much sums up why this game is so awesome. People who say the N64 original is better really don’t know what they’re talking about. I don’t even like to argue with them; their stupidity astounds me. Everything about Melee is better- Everything. And I’ve played Brawl, but frankly, I wasn’t impressed. I didn’t see much of a difference from the Gamecube version; I mean, it didn’t even use the Wii’s motion controls. Why even bother making another, then?

My main man was Falco, although previously I exclusively used Link. The thing is, almost all the characters are good in their own way (except for the Ice Climbers. They blow), which is why I think this is the greatest masterpiece in fighting games. If Da Vinci made a fighting game, it would be Super Smash Bros. Melee. Straight up.

9. Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem (2002)

GAMECUBE
One of the scariest games of all time. Perhaps not as soul-shatteringly terrifying as the Gamecube remake of the original Resident Evil, but it has a way better plot, and much more innovative gameplay. The sanity meter is genius. Pure genius. All the different effects it can have- from your character shrinking as they enter a room, or losing their limbs one by one, to the game pretending to effect the real world by turning the volume down on your TV or creating bogus error messages- they’re all brilliant. I know there are actual Cthulu games out there, but Eternal Darkness is the best interpretation of H.P. Lovecraft’s works that I’ve seen to date. Just a really, really great survival horror game, a hidden gem.

8. The Curse of Monkey Island (1997)

PC
Like I said earlier, I consider MI2 to in fact be a better game. And maybe if Lucasarts gives it the special edition treatment they graced Secret with, it’ll replace this on the list. But this game just holds a special place in my heart. It was the second MI game I ever played, and the voices instantly sounded like the characters. There was no question in my mind, after hearing him read just a few lines, that Dominic Armato was Guybrush Threepwood, or that Earl Bowen was LeChuck. They just encapsulated the characters so brilliantly in the voice work. And the 2D hand-drawn animation fit the style of the universe perfectly. This game looks, sound and feels like Monkey Island. It also has the best story- it’s a good blend of real drama and goofy comedy (I think the fourth game got a little too dark, and I always found the ending of MI2 a little too trippy). And it has the best incarnation of LeChuck- as a demon pirate. Lucasarts adventure games were already breathing their last breaths by this point, but from 1997-1998, the company produced some of the greatest games ever made. And this is one of them.

7. Half-Life 2 (2004)

XBOX 360
I played this, along with the expansions Episode One and Two, when I bought The Orange Box for the 360, and although I was at first a little confused as to what was going on, as I had never played the original, but I quickly realized that this was not only one of the greatest first-person shooters ever, but quite likely the most original and compelling story ever put to a game. I mean- aliens invading from another dimension and subjugating us like the Nazis, complete with a human Vichy government- why didn’t anyone think of that earlier? And the character animations and voice acting are so impeccable, you feel like these are real people. Like, I kinda got a crush on Alyx Vance by playing this. And she doesn’t exist. All of this adds to make for an incredibly cinematic experience, and when my games are similar to my movies, I’m a happy camper.

This sums it up:

Episode Two ended on one of the best and most fucked up cliffhangers ever, so I’m crossing my fingers that the in development Episode Three is released for the 360. I really want to know what happens!!!

6. Grand Theft Auto IV (2008)

XBOX 360
Some prefer the more old-school GTA, but for me, this is it. This game literally blew my mind when I first played it. Like, I turned the Xbox on, heard a squish, and turned around and my brain was lying on the floor. That’s how impressive it was. I mean, the game practically recreates New York City in a virtual world. It’s smaller, and not quite right, but that’s okay, because this isn’t NYC- it’s Liberty City. But the city is so detailed, and so true to real life, that just driving around is fun.

While still allowing you to fuck, then kill hookers, and go on ridiculous killing rampages, this game actually doesn’t feel like as much of a moral vacuum as previous installments. This is in large part due to the much improved story, and a more compelling protagonist. As opposed to every other game in the series, Niko Bellic isn’t trying to become the pimpest gangster of all time. In fact, he doesn’t even really want to be a gangster- he just doesn’t have a choice because he needs money, his cousin’s already involved with criminals, and his skill sets are all killing-related as he comes from a military background. It’s a revenge story, which is great, but also incorporates elements from almost every crime movie you’ve ever seen, which trust me, is a good thing.

To top it all off, Rockstar has released a downloadable expansion that gives you as many missions and gameplay hours as some $59.99 retail games, entitled The Lost and Damned. You play as an entirely new character, which is great, especially as you’re a biker. And another is set to be released October 29th- The Ballad of Gay Tony. If the title has anything to do with the story, then it will probably feature about twice as much full frontal male nudity as TLAD (I’m not kidding, there’s a floppy dick in that game).

5. Resident Evil 4 (2005)

GAMECUBE
One of the best action games of all time, combined with one of the best survival horror titles. This game is AWESOME. AWESOME, AWESOME, AWESOME. Right off the bat- first mission in- you’re running away from hordes of angry Spanish villagers, and a dude with a bag on his head wielding a chainsaw, and are forced to hole up in a building and fight them off. IT’S AMAZING. Playing this game is like being in the middle of a really gory and really cheesy 80s horror film. I’ve never seen a main character in a video game die in so many horrible ways as Leon. Giant bugs can melt your face off with acid. You’re decapitated on a regular basis, sometimes with the aforementioned chainsaw. At one point a monster cuts you in half at the waist with his scissor-like appendage, and lifts your lifeless legs into the air as your guts spill out. NO JOKE.

See, even though this is much more of an action game than any of the previous installments in the series- you have a fixed, over-the-shoulder camera, and a truckload of weapons which you can upgrade- it still manages to keep the spirit of Resident Evil, and provide you with some really intense scares. It’s without a doubt the best in the series. Resident Evil 5 was in my opinion, a big letdown. It was pretty much the same game, only with better graphics and co-op play, which is admittedly fun to play online… but still… it just fell flat. Because unlike RE4, it lost the spirit of the series. It’s not very scary, not particularly gory (no decapitations shown on screen), and puts you in bright and sunny Africa, instead of dark and dreary Europe. RE4 worked because it shook of the Resident Evil world so much- it broke barriers.

4. Donkey Kong Country (1994)

SNES
The first console game I ever owned, this is a masterpiece, plain and simple. The graphics, the gameplay, the art direction, sound effects, music- wonderful. And it still holds up today. Every once in a while I break out the old, dusty SNES and play through the Donkey Kong Country trilogy. The first was the best- it’s a 2D, side-scrolling platformer, but it’s beauty is in its simplicity. I think that’s what sets these 10 games apart from all the others- they all find the perfect balance of simplicity, innovation, story and playability. I could play all of these over, and over again- and DKC is no exception.

3. Super Mario 64 (1996)

N64
And on the seventh day, God made Super Mario 64, and declared it the perfect platformer. “No other 3D platformer will ever need to exist” his voice boomed from the heavens. Nonetheless, man continued to pump out Crash Bandicoots and Dak and Jaxters, never realizing that Sir Mario Mario was the Jesus of platformers. Eventually God smited the heathens, and the platformer genre died a slow, painful death. In the end only Mario 64 remained, and all was right with the world.

2. Grim Fandango (1998)

PC
These next two are almost tied for first. They’re just that good. Grim Fandango is without a doubt, the greatest adventure game of all time. Many were skeptical if Lucasarts adventure games could be as good in 3D as they were in 2D. Creator Tim Shafer proved they can. Simple controls, incredibly difficult puzzles- that’s what these games are all about, and GF perfects it.

I teared up when this game ended. That’s how attached you get to the characters. It’s also probably the funniest game of all time. Especially having Manny recite poetry at the beatnik club- that always cracked me up. This game takes the Alex Hilhorst prize for Best Story- the mix of Casablanca-esque noir and indigenous Mexican mythology- worked really, really well.

I love this game.

1. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (1998)

N64

In a word, Ocarina of Time was monumental. The controls, the graphics- the sheer expansiveness of the world you could explore- there had never been anything like it when it came out in 1998. This catapulted the N64 into superstardom, and made it, in my opinion, the greatest of all of Nintendo’s consoles. Any little kid who’s into fantasy, sword fighting or horseback riding- this game was like a dream come true. And like Grim Fandango, it had a fantastic story. I remember very specifically, how shocking it was when the game jumped ahead seven years, and all of a sudden you were grown up, and your actions as a little boy had fucked up Hyrule for everyone, and turned a portion of the population into zombies. That reveal- it made me feel bad. Like, guilty. I felt bad for unleashing Ganondorf. If that’s not an impressive emotional reaction for a video game to elicit, then I don’t know what is.

Ocarina of Time is number one, in my eyes, because it is comparable to many of my favorite films. I could play it over and over, and probably would never get tired of it. It’s perfect.

Well, hope you enjoyed this countdown. If my hits are any indication, you did. There will be more lists in the future, but I think I’m gonna take a little break for a while. It was more difficult to think of things to say about a hundred different videogames than I thought it was going to be.

To end, I’d like to list my top most anticipated games:

1. Assassin’s Creed II – 11.17.2009

While to be honest, I did enjoy the Medieval Crusade setting more, I am certain this sequel will be above and beyond the original. For one thing it looks a lot harder and with more varied gameplay, and a much more refined combat system. I like the idea of usually not having a weapon, and disarming your foes for theirs instead. Also Leonardo Da Vinci acts as James Bond’s Q, giving you crazy contraptions like his fabled flying machine, and a hidden pistol. I want to own this more than any other game on the release calendar right now. Can’t wait.

2. Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Conviction – 03.31.2010

While Double Agent did a decent job of changing up what was becoming somewhat stagnant game mechanics, it still didn’t achieve the greatness of the first installment, or Chaos Theory. Sam Fisher was a double agent, sure, but what he could actually do in the game hadn’t changed much. Conviction promises to change all that.

This game has gone through several facelifts since it was first announced a couple years back. At first it was going to be similar to Assassin’s Creed, with Sam out and about on the street; it even used the same crowd system as AC, and featured a grizzled, bearded Fisher. Fans weren’t so happy, so they did a page-one rewrite, turning the game into much more of an action game, while still retaining its stealthy soul. Watching the previews, I got a real Jason Bourne vibe. Sam’s newest ability- the mark and execute function- looks like a lot of fun. If you do well in the game, it rewards you with points you can use to “mark” enemies and objectives, then click “execute,” and Sam will automatically prioritize, and take them out. So, if you walked into a room, marked two dudes and a lamp, Sam would shoot the lamp first, then blast the two goons. Kick-ass, right?

3. Bioshock 2 – 01.31.2010

I’m still a little skeptical as to whether the Bioshock storyline can actually be continued in a cool and logical fashion, but no matter what this will be just as fun as the original. I mean, you get to play as the first Big Daddy ever, the prototype, and use the drill and rivet gun just like in the first game. How cool is that?

4. Alan Wake – Q1 2010

Another game that’s been in development forever, Alan Wake looks like the video game version of a Stephen King novel. The influence is pretty obvious, really. The titular character is a writer, after all, and the game takes place in a Maine-like wilderness. What’s cool is the way light works- light is what this game is all about it. If you don’t have a light source, you’re dead, because it’s the only thing that can weaken enemies. Pretty pumped for this one, hope it gets a real release date soon.

5. Brütal Legend – 10.13.2010

How could I not put a Tim Shafer game on this list? Prior to going to Comic-Con, I was interested in this game, but really only because Shafer was involved and because I liked the idea of Jack Black voicing the main character. But after getting my hands on it at the Con, I knew it was a must have. It was a lot of fun to play. The combat system is really good, and it’s really satisfying to fuck up demons with a guitar solo before cutting their heads off with an axe. The art direction was awesome, and the dialogue was really funny. This is the first M-rated Shafer game I’m aware of, but it works really well. There’s lots of swear words and blood, but it’s pretty comical- even the characters are designed to be cartoon-like.

Primero que nada, pedimos unas disculpas a nuestros visitantes y comentaristas por esta larga ausencia. Andamos como locos, eso ya no es novedad. Lo que sí es novedad es que ahora nos preparamos para acompañar a la familia Perea en los bailes que organiza del 17 al 20 de julio próximos en el Peñón de los Baños o la Colombia Chiquita, como pudimos comprobar recientemente durante una visita a la cabina de radio desde donde los Perea transmiten para la organización Sonideros 2000. Ya ese programa se convirtió en una ocasión muy especial, con la presencia de los sonidos Fascinación, La Morena, La Conga y Stereo Rumba, la visita de otros sonidos y bailarines muy reconocidos del medio y la participación de cientos y miles de radioescuchas e internautas de todas partes. Los chats estaban a todo lo que daban, los saludos no dejaban de ir y de venir; se escuchaba la mejor música del mundo, según refiere Alberto Campuzano, el compañero colombiano  que fue a grabar el video y salió de ahí fuera de sí del gusto. Eufórico pues, llevando consigo un montón de recuerdos y la imagen de los bailes impresionantes que ejecutaron La Miguela y Sus Edecanes y los Latin Kings, que aparecen en el video de abajo.

Y esa fue nada más una probadita chiquitita. Lo que se viene a partir de este viernes es verdaderamente un banquete como no se ha visto nunca; cuando nos ponemos a imaginarlo, nos da brincos el corazón. Aunque habría que aclarar que lo que se viene es una serie de banquetes, mejor dicho, porque  en la feria dedicada a Nuestra Señora del Carmen habrá para todos: comenzará con un baile el viernes 17 de julio ¡con tornamesas, trompetas y twitters! recordando los inicios del movimiento sonidero pero a lo grande, con la actuación de todos los sonidos que fueron, son y serán siempre importantes y la presentación de más de una docena de clubes de baile. Entre el 18 y el 20 habrá otros tres bailes también grandotes, con sonidazos, grupazos y equipazos. Así que vamos a extender esa invitación que hacen los Perea, y esperamos que nos puedan acompañar porque va a ser una cosa para no olvidar: 

Y para completar esa invitación y agregar un poco más de información, aquí va una entrevista que hicimos durante el Aniversario de Carmen Jara a los sonidos Fascinación, Stereo Rumba y La Morena, organizadores de estos eventos:

Since the early 1980’s Bowser, King of the Koopas, has shown an obsessive desire to kidnap Mario’s girlfriend, Princess Peach. His ultimate goal is usually domination of the Mushroom Kingdom, but he simply can’t resist the allure of Peach’s golden tresses. I wonder if he’d rule the Mushroom Kingdom by now if he stopped bringing Mario in the equation by whisking away the poor plumber’s paramour (alliteration!).

But perhaps Bowser’s ultimate failure as a villain is due to his extremely lacksadaisical policy regarding mail that Peach is allowed to send Mario. In both of my favorite entries in the Mario franchise, Mario 3 and Mario Galaxy, the Princess seems to spend most of her time in captivity writing Mario letters and, apparently due to some major flaws in Bowser’s mail policy, attaching helpful items to those letters. I’m seriously not sure if I could’ve beat Mario 3 in my formative years if it wasn’t for the plentiful supply of P-Wings and Frog Suits Peach sent me.

Why doesn’t Bower have her mail checked and censored? I mean, he probably shouldn’t allow her to send mail at all, but seeing as he’s apparently feeling generous he should at least make sure the mail doesn’t contain helpful items Mario can use to beat him. He doesn’t even need to read the mail himself, just appoint his top turtle or whatever.

Years have passed since Mario 3. In Super Mario World and Mario 64 Bowser has apparently wizened up, as no letters come. But the dawn of the Wii brought us Mario Galaxy and Peach is back to letter writing while in captivity and this time each letter contains five 1-ups! What’s the deal Bowser? The lax security is only made worse by the fact that Bowser had apparently been doing a better job for two games but let laziness overcome him once again.

Frankly the whole thing has me questioning Bowser’s ability as a villain, but there’s really nobody better, Wario and Waluigi certainly aren’t going to get the job done. I guess I’ll have to keep waiting for that big Mario vs. Sephiroth game I’ve been hoping for.

I went to the movies last weekend to see Earth, which is incidentally pretty rad due to baby animals and time-lapse footage of flowering plants. While at my local megaplex, I also happened upon a gumball-style machine dispensing Nintendo DS Screen Cleaners! It required 4 quarters, which is 3 more than the standard gumball, but I splurged since they were New Super Mario Bros.-themed, and I won’t get swine flu from a screen cleaner like I might if I ate a gumball from a machine that’s groped by grubby kids all day.

As you can see, I got the Lakitu version in my plastic egg-bubble. Although not as prevalent as the regular Koopa Troopas, Lakitu is pretty tough to defeat. He’s always throwing those vicious spinies, on whom the classic jump-on-their-heads attack just won’t work. I think The Lakitu Brothers were also in charge of the camera in Super Mario 64, for some reason. I guess we all have to evolve. No one can sit in a happy cloud and throw spine-covered jerks at plumbers forever.

Oh yeah, the soft felt backing on this Lakitu actually did a decent job of clearing up my grubby DS screen. I’m still going to jump on Lakitu’s head if I see him in real life though, because riding that cloud around is straight up fun.

In a previous post I said that a case could be made for Tetris, Super Mario 64, and Portal all being art because of their game design alone. I’m going to argue that case now.

Tetris:

I honestly think Tetris is timeless, it’s just as much fun today as it was back in 1985. This is possible because the game seems to have barely aged. Unlike other games of its time, the core gameplay of Tetris has never been changed. There will always be falling blocks that can be rotated and stacked to makes a full line disappear. The original has been improved upon, but the many variations that have been released make only minor changes, such as allowing a player to see the next three pieces as opposed to one piece, allowing the player to rotate a piece either clockwise or counter-clockwise, rotate a piece even if it’s against a wall, adding new modes with a focus on deleting lines, or adding a timer, among others. It could be argued that together these minor changes add up, so that modern Tetris game is a far cry from the original, but I disagree because there’s one very important aspect of the game that has not been changed: The shape of the pieces. The Tetris shapes are iconic, they work in perfect harmony with each other. Each shape is built with only four squares, and between the six pieces they cover every variation that can be made with four connecting squares. A new piece cannot be added, literally. It would upset the balance that has made Tetris a timeless game, and structurally artistic. Because this is where Tetris shines as artistic: The perfect balance between its pieces. Knowing more of what pieces are coming and being able to turn the pieces different directions makes the game more accessible for sure, but the original hit upon something with the shape of its pieces that made the game consistently enjoyable yet consistently challenging and has not been improved in all the years since its release.

Super Mario 64:

Super Mario 64 was nothing short of revolutionary when it first came out, and many of things that made it such a fantastic game then make it just as fantastic a game today. All of its individual pieces joined together to make it a near perfect game.

Its level design is particularly great. Each world in Super Mario 64 is a miniature sandbox placed before the player with few restrictions on where to go (sometimes a path would only open if a player chose to go after the star it led to). This resulted in moments of wonderful discovery as a player would choose to search for one star based on the hint at the entrance to the world, only to follow an obstacle-laden path to a completely different star. In this way the game rewarded and encouraged exploration. Yet that exploration would not have been nearly as fun if the worlds had been monotonous and poorly designed. Each world in Super Mario 64 is drastically different, and each uses its setting to place unique obstacles in the player’s path: Slippery slopes in an ice world, quicksand in a desert, lava in a fire world,  things that seem clichéd today gave the game a wide variety of challenges. But even by today’s standards, the clichéd ice and fire worlds remain fun despite their clichéd status because the level design is so effective with each path to a star presenting different obstacles according to the theme of the world.

The control it offered the player was also near perfect. It used an analog stick to interpret a full 360 degrees of movement and a 1:1 ratio of the stick’s position with Mario’s position. This ratio means that a quick circle with the stick will result in Mario running in a quick circle, as opposed to some other games in which a quick circle with the stick will result in the character simply turning in a circle but not moving. These are the “tight” controls that Mario is known for, and made distances easy to judge (you always knew where you were going to land after making a jump, an important quality for any platformer).

The level design set a standard for future exploration-based platformers, and even today it remains a structurally superb and structurally artistic game.

Portal:

By the time Portal came out, the first-person shooter genre seemed to pretty much be standardized what with Doom, Half-Life, Halo and others each setting a precedent on how players interact with virtual worlds. Portal took those standards and applied them to a different genre, puzzles, to create an innovative game. But that innovation is not the only reason I call Portal art, its length is also important.

First the innovation: Portal changed the way players viewed the virtual world. Most first-person games move on a 2D plane within a 3D world. What I mean is that in any first-person game players can move forwards, backwards, and side to side, but if the view were to shift to a top-down perspective instead of a first-person perspective, all those moves would still be available. The Y axis, up and down, was never a major focal point. Portal changed this by forcing players to rethink how they interact with the world, it required some rather complex spatial reasoning at times, and a constant awareness of one’s surroundings. The Y axis was especially important as there were many instances where the player would have to shoot a portal at a wall and another into a pit, jump into the pit, and use the momentum from falling to fly out of the portal in the wall across an otherwise impossible chasm. Any game that requires the player to question the conventions learned from other games deserves an artistic nod as it makes us question what we think we know, and I think a work of art should make us question our perceptions of our world and where those perceptions come from.

Its length: This is where its structural artistry comes into play. Portal is postminimalism in games. It’s a game with all the excess and fluff removed in order to give the player a streamlined experience. It’s all about being concise. With Portal being such a short game there was no need to create repetitive puzzles, so each challenge in Portal was new and required the player to think a little differently each time. Also, the story didn’t need to be stretched out to fit a determined length of play time, so the writing was focused, and every line from GLaDOS managed to be entertaining as well as subtly revealing about her (its) personality and the fate of the Aperture scientists. For example, the constant talk of a cake reward by GLaDOS is some wonderfully wry humor, but also reveals her (it) to be rather arrogant as it makes her words of support sound slightly condescending. Each piece of Portal is vital to its whole, and its focus on a very unique yet very concise experience makes it a great example of structural art. (Though I also think its ability to give backstory through the setting using the Rat Man dens, and its excellent writing make it a great example of storytelling in games as well.)

In my first post I laid out some qualities I think games must have in order to qualify as art: I said a game would have to resonate with an audience emotionally while reflecting some universal truth of life. But those qualities only relate to “narrative art,” to a work that tries to tell a story with themes and characters and conflict and resolution. “Narrative art” is not the only kind of art there is, and I think games are unique in that they can also be artistic in a completely different way.

Emotion has been the common trait I write about. I wrote about how Braid’s theme of obsession strikes us emotionally, and how the experiences of Call of Duty 4 and Shadow of the Colossus are emotional experiences, but each of those would be worthless if they had been in poorly made games. If any of those games were unpolished to the point of frustration, would they still have the same emotional impact? I think the structure of a game goes a long way in realizing a game’s artistic potential: Good level design, good sound, good controls, good textures, no clipping, framerate, or bug issues; in other words, a well-made, polished game. Is it possible for a game to be considered art based on these traits alone? Can gameplay be artistic?

Of course I think the answer is “yes.” I think this kind of “structural art” is similar to how we perceive sculptures. Greek and Roman sculptures are considered art for their realism and level of detail; for some it looks as if we could brush aside their long billowing sleeves, despite the fact that they’re made of stone. The Gates of Paradise by Ghiberti is hailed as a work of art due its use of perspective and depth to depict multiple scenes from the Old Testament in one panel. There’s no universal truth in these works, and the only emotion they invoke is awe; the artistic merit in these works stem from their level of detail, from the expertise needed in order to craft such works. Is it really then a stretch of the imagination to argue that a game made with the same skill and attention to detail is artistic?

It could be argued that those works are artistic based on structure alone because they were made by one person, they’re a testament to the artist’s skill. But the Gates of Paradise was a collaborative effort with much of Ghiberti’s workshop helping him. This claim would also invalidate architecture or film as forms of art.

I’m not suggesting that all a game has to do to be artistic is show us a virtual billowing sleeve that looks as if we could brush it aside. That could be considered art by itself, computer generated art akin to painting. But within the larger context of a video game that visual realism isn’t enough because it doesn’t actually use the formal qualities of video games. The formal qualities of art, to take from Wikipedia, are “The constraints and limitation of a particular medium.“

For example, the form of a sculpture must exist in space in three-dimensions, and respond to gravity…the formal qualities of painting are the canvas texture, color, and brush texture.

So, visual realism isn’t particular to video games, it’s not what makes this medium unique. What is particular to video games is interactivity. So for a game to achieve this “structural art” it has to show expertise in how it handles interactivity. This definition is very vague however, and opens a whole new can of worms. Is Tetris art for its focus on gameply alone? Is Mario 64 art for its tight controls and well designed levels? Is Portal art for its unique method of interacting with its world? I think a case can be made for each of these games being art because they’re all well made games. So are all games that don’t blatantly suck artistic? Of course not, but this is where the subjectivity of art comes into big play.  Unfortunately I don’t have an exact criteria on what constitutes “structural art.” The most I can offer is that it can’t just be a good game, it must be a game that clearly stands out with its use of the medium’s formal qualities (of which interactivity is only one). I think if a game achives this finely-honed, gameplay-centric ideal, it qualifies as “structural art.”

Nintendo’s latest installments in their two biggest franchises, Mario and Zelda, were rather lackluster in my opinion. It appears that the creator of both, Shigeru Miyamoto, agrees that “there was something missing.”

While Mario Galaxy pulled off a few new tricks that resulted in a fairly fun game, it and Twilight Princess were far too derivative, leaving me with the sensation that not only have I played these games before, but that I’ve played better versions too.

Twilight Princess‘ only unique offering that deserves to stick around is its stylish new visual design. Overall, the game did nothing to successfully innovate over the previous 3D Zeldas, instead focusing on tacked-on motion controls that are in no way superior to the 3rd party shovelware that people complain about left and right.

While I suppose the game was better than a lot of other games that came out in 2006, there’s nothing Twilight Princess does better than Ocarina of Time, and that’s a problem. This is similar to the relationship between Mario Galaxy and Mario 64.

Mario Galaxy was pretty fun and offered some interesting innovation, but it was even more formulaic than Twilight Princess. And while Mario 64 is still the superior game, I’m not so sure it should be emulated like it has in Galaxy and Sunshine.

The transition into 3D suited both Mario and Zelda, but the transition favored the latter far more. The whole ‘hub world with smaller worlds locked off by stars’ concept was interesting when we first saw it on the N64, but I’m not sure why Nintendo felt this suited the Mario series so well that it should become the norm.

I think, rather than exploring a castle or a town or a space station, Mario should go on a full-fledged adventure next time around. Over the years, the Mario universe has become so rich with unique characters and lands that an adventure across the Mushroom Kingdom would be very much welcome. It could still retain the focus on 3D platforming, but now it could incorporate an actual story and offer a more rewarding experience.

As for Zelda, I’m not sure what needs to be done. I do know that I’d like to use tools and weapons outside of the dungeons I acquire them in; dungeons designed to test the limits of that item and that item only.

Luckily, it appears that Miyamoto is aware of these shortcomings.

In an interview with MTV Multiplayer’s Stephen Totilo, Miyamoto had this to say:

“What I’ve been saying to our development teams recently is that Twilight Princess was not a bad game, by any means. But, still, it felt like there was something missing. And while, personally, I feel like Super Mario Galaxy was able to do some things that were very new and were very unique, at the same time, from another perspective, certain elements of it do feel somewhat conservative in terms of how far we branched out with design. And so this is something I’ve been talking to both of those teams about.” -Miyamoto

This is so good to hear.

Often, while fantasizing about what it’ll be like when I’m finally a big shot, professional video game journalist (:P), I imagine myself interviewing Miyamoto, asking him why he felt he could get away with releasing a game like Twilight Princess or what he was thinking when it came to marketing products like Wii Fit and Wii Music to not only the casuals, but the core as well.

To see Miyamoto admit to sharing the same opinion as me, and so easily without any hard, in-your-face questioning, is incredibly refreshing. And to hear Miyamoto bring this up in the context of discussing it with his development teams is great news. I look forward to what Nintendo comes up with in the next console installments of Mario and Zelda.

Hurray continuity!  Welcome to Part 2 of the retrospective.  Be sure and check out Part 1 if you haven’t already.

1989 – Dr. Mario – Nintendo introduced the revolutionary Game Boy hardware at the very end of the 80’s, and I don’t think I’ve traveled for more than an hour without a handheld system since then.  The first Game Boy iteration’s creamed spinach-colored monochrome LCD screen blurred every time there was a lot of movement onscreen, so sidescrollers and action games didn’t really make the transition so well.  Puzzle games, however, really shined on the system, because you could keep scratching the itch with quick play sessions whenever and WHEREever you had a free moment.

Tetris was packed in, but that game was decidedly grown up.  Dr. Mario brought more fun to the place-and-drop puzzler than Tetris, with multicolored pills to vanquish the little dancing germs under the microscope.  In the back of my mind, I was always a little bit surprised that some overreactive parents’ group didn’t throw a fit over this game.  After all, the half-and-half pills looked a lot like Dexatrim.

1990 - Super Mario Brothers 3 – This was arguably the last great game for the NES, but you’d be hard pressed to find a better swan song for any system since then.  I never really embraced Super Mario Brothers 2 – it just felt like too much of a departure from the series.  Even before I knew about the Doki Doki Panic switch, it just felt… apocryphal.  But Mario 3 brought back everything we all loved about adventures in the mushroom kingdom, and piled on a ton of extras that made the whole experience feel fresh.

I don’t have the back issues on hand to check, but I’m pretty sure Nintendo Power started covering SMB 3 about 8 months before its US release.  Our local Toys R’ Us was sold out of the game for weeks afterwards, and we finally got a copy after my sister nearly won the spelling bee.

It was a great game that has aged very well, and it lived up to the hype at the time.  The Mushroom Kingdom felt very lived in for the first time, and you finally got the idea that Mario was up against something more than just a weird dragon and some turtles to his right… Koopa was a regime and only you could liberate them from Bowser’s tyranny.  Heavy stuff indeed.  It introduced flying, and the overworld map, and a lot of other staples to the Mario universe.

Most of all, I loved the way this game united my entire universe.  It was released at the very height of the NES’ popularity, and my friends and family (even the adults!) wanted to get a hold of this game.  I guess you could say it was the first time I was aware of hype surrounding a game, or just the idea of hype in general.  I wonder if I’d have ended up in PR if this game hadn’t been so awesome.

1991 - The Simpsons Arcade Game – A woefully underappreciated classic, this is the only game on this entire list that has never seen a port on any home console.  Multiplayer side-scrolling brawlers owned the arcades, bowling alleys and pizzerias in the late 80’s and early 90’s, and no one perfected the art form quite like Konami.  The Simpsons was one superb entry in a string of stellar coin-ops like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, X-Men, and Wild West COWboys of Moo Mesa.

It’s on the list because I bought a well-loved arcade unit of this game in 1997, from an arcade in Royal Oak, MI, with money I had saved up from a summer job.  It was so much more than just another game to play.  Once I got The Simpsons home and in my bedroom, it became a trophy to my love of games.  It was my enormous stuffed marlin hanging on the wall.

I gained a whole new level of appreciation for the culture surrounding games when I got a hold of The Simpsons. It was the first time that I was really excited about a game that had been released a really, really long time ago (6 whole years!).  Keep in mind I was 16.  All the magazine articles about the Simpsons had been published in ‘91, in publications like JAMMA Digest and Arcade and Amusement Operators’ Quarterly.  But it was a shining piece of superb game design by a company that had perfected games in one genre.  It was a marvelous example of a GOOD licensed game, with spot-on art direction and a story that could’ve been wedged into a weaker TV season of The Simpsons.  I really learned how to recognize a truly great game with The Simpsons. 

1992 – Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time – I distinctly remember renting this game, along with Defenders of Dynotron City at the video store.  It was the cover story in Nintendo Power that month, and I had been pouring over the level layouts and screenshots for weeks before release.  My grandmother died the next day, and I just remember things were really, really quiet around our house that whole week.  My mom talked the guy at the video store into letting us hang onto the game for another 3 day rental period, even though it was in high demand at the time.  I’ve always been a huge Turtles fan, but still never bought this game – arguably the best one released for any home console.  I guess it just always reminded me of a pretty rough time.

1993 - Zombies Ate my Neighbors – When someone asks me what my favorite game of all time is, this is the first one out of my mouth.  I haven’t played it in years, so it’s entirely possible that there’s a gloss of nostalgia around it.  But if LucasArts puts Zombies out on the Wii’s virtual console, I’m buying it on day one.  This game was just plain fun, and struck the perfect balance between a tribute to and tongue-in cheek spoof of cheesy sci-fi/horror B movies.  There was just enough of an established story to get by.  Zeke was obviously a huge movie geek, ’cause he wore 3D glasses all the time.  Julie was kind of a tomboy, ’cause she always had on a ball cap (even when she drinks the purple monster potion).  Beyond that, it was really up to you.

Perhaps most importantly, the credits in this game were a playable level, rather than just scrolling text after you saved the world.  You walked around the level and read all the designers’ names, and they all had some personality-defining object or animation for their in-game character.   They were all American guys based in Palo Alto. It was the first time I really grasped the concept of all the people it took to make a good game, and that working in games could be a viable profession for me.

1994 – DOOM II – Like nearly every nerd currently between the ages of 25 and 35, I was completely obsessed with the original DOOM. It was the first PC game I absolutely had to have, and I tried to get every non-PC owning friend to come over and see this unbelievable game where you see your gun in front of you and you’re fighting zombies and demons from Hell on Mars!!! I got the first Counting Crows record around the same time, so I spent the entire summer blowing away demons while Adam Duritz belted out Mr. Jones… it led to a very weird mental soup where I still can’t listen to ‘Round Here without my trigger finger getting twitchy.

So of course, I was perfectly ready for DOOM II to be the best game ever.  I realize now that it could have been delivered by Super Mario Himself and heralded by a choir of Hooters waitresses, and it still wouldn’t have lived up to the expectations my 13-year-old self had placed on it.  But John Romero and the guys at id Software didn’t really do much to help in that department.  They spent less than a year developing the highly anticipated sequel, and put what must’ve been millions of dollars and hudred of hours into promoting the hell out of DOOM II.

I played through it in a weekend and was throughly disappointed.  It was basically a map pack with one new gun.  The new enemy designs sucked, it was still impossible to get a multiplayer match going with your friends on all your modems… I was disappointed.

I had just started writing the first ever game reviews column in my high school newspaper that fall, and I layed into DOOM II pretty hard.  It felt like that scene in Jerry Maguire – I wrote and wrote and wrote.  The words poured out of me, and by the end I had written my first good, honest appraisal of a video game.  It was so much easier to find my voice when I was writing about a game that I didn’t want people to play, and it’s the first time something I wrote actually got a response from my friends.

1995- NHL ‘96 – As is required by law in the state of Michigan, my family kept up with hockey fairly regilously.  We dutifully bought the first entry in EA’s hockey franchise, NHLPA ‘93, a worthy successor to our last heavily played sports game, Blades of Steel.

I took the next couple years off, but then Steve Yzerman and a bunch of Russians got this close to winning a Stanley Cup against the much scarier New Jersey Devils (led by the world’s most intimidating nice guy, Scott Stevens).  A picture of Stevens and Yzerman facing off made the cover of NHL ‘96 and I was sold.

I had figured my friends and I would be the main audience for NHL ‘96, and maybe I’d get in a few games with my dad, who hadn’t touched a controller since NHLPA ‘93 and Blades before that.  But one day my sister offered to play.  She had played Mario games almost exclusively, and barely ever played at this point.  She played as the Vancouver Canucks, and sparks flew.  They had an ethnic slur for a team name.  They had exotic-sounding names like Jurke Lumme and Pavel Bure (and we watched a lot of Sprockets).  It didn’t hurt that it was the same roster that took the Rangers to 7 games the previous year, and she had the faceoff timing down to a science.

I had always gotten along really well with my sister, but we spent a lot of time playing together over NHL ‘96, and she gained a real appreciation for sports in the process.  I like to think it helped her come out of her shell.

Most importantly, I learned a lot about why I love games so much along the way.  NHL ‘96 became an excuse for us to spend time together, and we had a lot of conversations about real world things that had absolutely nothing to do with video hockey during that time.  The rabbi at my wedding talked about how much I love to see peoples’ personalities unfold when we play games together, and I really don’t care that much about winning or losing.  I can follow that sentiment to something that started all the way back with this game.

1996 – Super Mario 64 – I got a NES for my first communion, so it only made sense (to me at least) that I deserved a Nintendo 64 for my confirmation.  It was a really big sacrement, and the N64 controller was the frst to have an analog stick so, y’know, fair deal.

About a month ahead of launch, Nintendo put a bunch of demo unit N64’s into retailers with one controller and Mario 64. My buddy Mike and I would ride our bikes up there nearly every weekend just to play it.  Now that I think of it, Toys R’ Us was kind of a ridiculous distance to cover on bikes from my house, but we wouldn’t have spent that time kissing girls or curing cancer or anything, so no harm done.  It was good times, I got to be the best man at his wedding, and we both have beautiful families now.  Thanks, Mario!

Mario 64 blew all of us away, and really evolved the platforming genre to keep up with the times.  Like DOOM, Tetris, and other genre-definers before it, this game had a ton of soulless knockoffs.  But Mario 64 was a collection of really well-executed level designs, complete commitment to an engrossing, narrative world, and loving attention to characters we had all grown up with.  It was one of two N64 launch titles, and the system was still impossible to find that Christmas.

I wrote a gushing review of it in my school paper, and a classmate accused me of being way too pro Nintendo.  Some things never change.

1997 – Final Fantasy VII – I had been an early convert to the Sony PlayStation, but Crash Bandicoot, Twisted Metal and Resident Evil weren’t enough to convince my friends that this weird, CD-based system with its bat shaped controller and home audio company pedigree would last.  But then Squaresoft announced that Final Fantasy VII would be coming to the US on PlayStation, with a faithful translation and the original Japanese series numbering (instead of the screwed up US system, where Final Fantasy VI came out as Final Fantasy III on the SNES).  It was a huge sign that Sony and their third-party publishers intended to take hardcore gamers seriously in the US.  We had been taken for granted by Sega and Nintendo up to this point, and Sony sure seemed like a white knight with all this… respect.

1998 - Metal Gear Solid – I was living in Shiga, Japan as a high school exchange student in the summer of ‘98, and spent a lot of my off time in their arcades and game shops.  Like just about all exchange students, the Japan tour was a life changing experience.  Japanese studios still accounted for the majority of AAA titles at this point, but I could tell even then that American developers like EA were starting to catch on over there.

In the last few days of my trip, Famitsu magazine featured Metal Gear Solid on their cover and included a demo disc in the shrink wrap.  The game had been hyped for over a year on both sides of the Pacific, but Konami was only giving a sneak peak to their Japanese fans.  I nabbed a copy after one of my last days of school there, and promptly trekked to the local dirt mall with my buddies when I got back to the States so I could get my PlayStation modded.

We played the hell out of that one stage demo for months, until MGS finally came out stateside.  We knew that beginning Shadow Moses level like the backs of our hands, and even had a pretty good idea about the dialogue in the Codec screens.  From then on, the MGS series has reminded me of my incredible time abroad.  Apropos, because Hideo Kojima stands as one of the last great Japanese auters of game development, and the MGS series is a fantastic love letter to the cinematic, uniquely Japanese school of game design.

To be Concluded…

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Na semana passada você leu sobre algumas famosas transições do 2D para o 3D que não deram certo. Essa semana falamos justamente do oposto, das famosas transições que deram mais que certo. Não deixe de conferir na próxima semana a conclusão disso tudo, onde apresentarei uma análise de tendências e algumas das maiores razões para essas falhas e acertos envolvendo importantes transições do 2D para o 3D. Vamos aos jogos!

Mario

Mario, que ficou mundialmente conhecido ainda em sua estrégia no antigo NES, possui uma série de jogos que marcam pela diversão e originalidade essencialmente apoiadas em um conceito simples: vença o vilão e salve a princesa. De todas as transformações e inovações que surgiram ao longo dos episódios da série é evidente que a maior delas tenha sido a transição de um jogo 2D side-scrolling (de movimentação lateral) para um mundo explorável em 3D, quando Mario deu as caras no Nintendo 64, com Mario 64. O jogo marcou não somente pelo sucesso na transição, que deu novo fôlego ao encanador italiano, como pela ótima qualidade, ainda que o jogo tenha sido um dos desbravadores da então nova realidade de jogos poligonais. O jogo foi um sucesso e recebeu ainda uma adaptação mais recente para o Nintendo DS, Mario 64 DS, um presente para os fãs. A partir de Mario 64 os jogos do bigodudo que mais chamaram a atenção também foram desenvolvidos em 3D. São eles Super Mario Sunshine para Gamecube e Super Mario Galaxy, o mais recente sucesso para o Wii.

Metroid

A caçadora de recompensas Samus Aran, uma linda loiraça dentro de uma armadura alienígena “super-fodona”, chamou a atenção no antigo NES com Metroid e tornou-se uma lenda no Super Nes com o imortal Super Metroid. Ambos são adventures 2D em side-scrolling (movimentação lateral). Quando a Nintendo anunciou que o próximo jogo da série seria um jogo de tiro em primeira pessoa, a legião de fãs “simplesmente” entrou em coma. Boatos negativos e descrença da produção de um First Person Shooting (jogo de tiro em primeira pessoa) para video games e, especialmente, um que carregasse a responsabilidade de ser uma continuação da série Metroid se espalharam pelo universo gamer.

Ainda que títulos como 007 Goldeneye e Perfect Dark tenham mostrado que o Nintendo 64 tinha potencial para jogos de tiro em primeira pessoa de qualidade, os planos da Nintendo fizeram que a continuação tão esperada da série esperasse mais uma geração e fosse lançada apenas no Gamecube. Se a espera valeu a pena? Como valeu. Com um visual de deixar qualquer um boquiaberto e uma jogabilidade inteligente que utilizava o botão “R” (superior direito do controle) para “trancar” a mira no alvo e facilitar a jogabilidade (semelhante à série Zelda no Nintendo 64), Metroid mais que provou que a opção de migrar do 2D para o 3D e do side-crolling para tiro em primeira pessoa foi um sucesso. Os descrentes se calaram e os fãs festejaram. A série ainda recebeu duas continuações, uma no Gamecube e outra no Wii, sendo a segunda muito privilegiada pela melhoria na jogabilidade proporcionada pelo Wii Mote, confirmando o sucesso da série no mundo 3D.

The Legend of Zelda

A série Legend of Zelda nasceu ainda no NES, da mente brilhante de Shigeru Miyamoto, que não por acaso foi o homem que também idealizou a série Mario. Por razões técnicas óbvias, o relativamente amplo mundo de exploração da franquia começou em 2D no NES, sendo que no Super Nintendo o “acerto” na escolha se intensificou como uma ótima opção após o lançamento do lendário The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. Apesar disso, quando a Nintendo anunciou a mudança para o 3D no Nintendo 64 os fãs não se assustaram. A essência não-linear do jogo e o sucesso de Mario 64 indicavam que era mesmo hora de uma mudança desse porte para a franquia. Resultado? Um dos jogos mais importantes da história: The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, ainda tido por alguns como o melhor da série e possivalmente nas listas de jogos favoritos de muita gente. Migração mais do que bem sucedida.

Ninja Gaiden

A série Ninja Gaiden tinha tudo para sofrer do mesmo mal que Castlevania. Vinha de uma boa linhagem de adventure side-scrolling, porém sem tantos elementos de RPG como Castlevania. Ninja Gaiden é mais… “pancadaria”. Então, idealizado e efetivamente lançado como um exclusivo do controverso Xbox da Microsoft a série mais que surpreendeu quando reapareceu anos depois de seu último lançamento em 2D, já totalmente reformulada em 3D, com visual impressionante e muito mais difícil e sanguinolenta do que antes. Cheia de identidade e com muito pouco a ver com a série Ninja Gaiden até então, a nova série acumulou uma nova legião de fãs desse jogo vicioso e repleto de carnificina, tornando seu protagonista, Ryu Hayabusa, uma referência entre Ninjas. Por ter sido muito bem executada a série deu muito certo no mundo 3D, com uma jogabilidade, visual e física de cair o queixo.

Grand Theft Auto (GTA)

Essa história você já deve conhecer bem. GTA é uma das séries que mais conquistou o coração “corrupto” dos brasileiros, especialmente a partir da sua terceira versão, a primeira em 3D com um mundo explorável quase inacreditável. Essa controversa franquia da Rockstar sofreu um bocado para lançar suas continuações e foi proibida em alguns países (inclusive no Brasil). Só que a Rockstar é “serious business” e não somente não desanimou com as imposições contra a franquia como, na transição de GTA 2 para GTA 3 transformou o jogo em “basicamente”, um marco na história dos jogos eletrônicos. Até então não havia sido criado nenhum jogo com um mundo “vivo” e explorável tão amplo para um console caseiro. Daí pra frente você já conhece. Com o recente lançamento de GTA IV a Rockstar quebrou todos os recordes de vendas existentes e mais uma vez os holofotes se voltaram para GTA. É, a natureza humana adora a realidade “caótica” trazida aos jogos por GTA e adora isso sendo bem executado em uma franquia de tanta qualidade.

Prince of Persia

Muitos aí devem ter jogado o mais do que antigo “Prince of Persia”. Você pegava os disquetes de um colega, amigo ou até “amigo de um amigo” e usufruia dessa “maravilha” que rodava a partir do DOS. Diversão garantida nos velhos tempos. A série ficou esquecida por muitos anos até surgir a proposta de uma reformulaçao em 3D. Se deu certo? Como deu. Com uma nova identidade a série foi aclamada por público e crítica e trouxe aos olhos do mundo um novo e incrível acrobata. Escalar enormes contruções com o risco de se espatifar no chão a 80 metros de altura nunca foi tão divertido como na série Prince of Persia em 3D. A série deu tão certo que recebeu (e ainda receberá mais) diversas continuações.

Metal Gear Solid

Lendária como poucas séries, Metal Gear apareceu no NES como um jogo interessante, inteligente e que chamou a atenção, mas foi somente ao resurgir no Playstation em 3D, com seu conceito único de infiltração e camuflagem, com narrativa de primeira linha que a série ganhou a notoriedade merecida. Dai pra frente você já conhece: a série angariou milhões de fãs mundo afora e acaba de ganhar uma incrível continuação para o Playstation 3. O passo para o mundo 3D foi crucial.

Warcraft

Blizzard Entertainment: esse é o nome d’A Empresa. Referência mundial, a Blizzard basicamente se apoia no desenvolvimento de 3 franquias: Warcraft, Starcraft e Diablo. Com exceção de Starcraft, que inclusive fará finalmente sua migração para o mundo 3D em breve (com Starcraft 2), as outras franquias evoluiram muito desde seu primeiro lançamento. Uma em especial foi a primeira a receber uma mudança drástica e marcante no visual: Warcraft. A série já era uma referência nos jogos de estratégia em tempo real com Warcraft II, quando a Blizzard anunciou que a continuação, Warcraft III, seria inteiramente em 3D. Dizer que deu certo é pouco! Apesar dos inúmeros adiamentos de lançamento, característicos da Blizzard, a série ressurgiu com novo fôlego e se tornou uma referência no mundo dos jogos de estratégia em tempo real, sendo jogado até hoje. Se não bastasse, a Blizzard ainda desenvolveu, usando o universo de Warcraft, o maior MMORPG da história: World of Warcraft. Fica difícil não acreditar na máxima de que “se é da Blizzard, é bom”.

Jogos de Esporte e Corrida

Com o passar dos anos e com a mudança de várias franquias e gêneros de jogos do mundo 2D para o 3D, foi natural a migração de vários títulos de esporte e corrida para essa nova tecnologia. É inconstestável, também, que os ganhos para os jogadores foram enormes, pois o nível de realismo destas chegaram a um patamar nunca antes visto. O fato de grande parte desses jogos ser baseado em uma premissas que existem no mundo real (esporte, corrida etc) tornou muito mais fácil a aceitação dos jogos no mundo 3D. Afinal, nosso mundo real é em 3D. Vale como exemplo a série Gran Turismo, de corrida, que reinventou e se tornou referência como franquia de corrida de qualidade, tendo seu primeiro lançamento (e sucesso imediato) no antigo Playstation. Só de lembrar de como era a “cara” do antigo sucesso Top Gear dá pra entender como essa migração foi boa. Jogos de esporte e corrida em 2D sobrevivem apenas nos consoles portáteis, incluindo celulares.

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Finir mario 64 en 16 minutes …

Mario 64: Shifting Sand Land/Lethal Lava Land Theme

If I could be Mario for just one hour, I would delve into the treacherous depths of Shifting Sand Land, from Super Mario 64. For those delicious scorching yellow pools of quicksand, the marvelous golden pyramid of untold evils whose insides are rich with the stench of death and animated violence, and those frightful thwomp-like blocks which bear eternal expressions of anguish and madness as they strive to squash you to a pulp – they all have been permanently etched in my subconscious storage of happy, fantastic imaginary lands. If I could only go there, for real this time, just once! I’d spread my arms and precess like a graceful spinning top as I lightly glide across the burning blue sky. I’d feel the comforting hot blasts of rich golden sand upon my face as I come face to face with the turbulent whirlwhinds of the desert. And as long as my whole body has not been seized and swallowed by the quicksand, I would continue to enjoy my escape from reality into a magical world that has perhaps been more significant to me since my childhood than any real place in the real world.

Uma modificação legal do jogo do Mário 64.

Nintendo 64 emulator + 21 FULLY WORKING roms

Part 1	Part 2	Part 3	Part 4

Project 64 emulator:
Lots of tweaking options
Many languages
Better graphics

Roms:
Banjo-Kazooie
Donkey Kong 64
Excitebike 64
F-Zero X
Golden Eye 007
Kirby 64 – The Crystal Shards
The Legend of Zelda: Majoras Mask
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time – Master Quest
Madden Football 2002
Mario Golf
Mario Kart 64
Mario Party 3
NFL Blitz
Paper Mario
Pokemon Stadium 2
Star Fox 64
Super Mario 64
Super Smash Bros
Tetris Sphere
Tom and Jerry in Fists of Furry