I thought I post something real quick to liven this place up a bit. Recently, I have been playing Hotel Dusk for the DS which is game by the studio Cing, which also made Another Code (aka Trace Memory). It is a great and inspiring game and I want to write write about it some more. However, this time I will focus on a very stupid flaw of it which frequently occurs in other games as well: invisible causality.
Whee!… but wait, why are we doing this again?
Hotel Dusk: Invisible Causality
Sword of Mana: Do, don’t show
There is one special game I have very fond memories of. It is Mystic
Quest on GameBoy. Don’t mix it up with Mystic Quest for the SNES, this is a very different game. Mystic Quest is the prequel to Secret of Mana for the SNES.
Mystic Quest was and still is one of the best GameBoy titles of all time. Recently, a remake was released for the GBA with the title Sword of Mana. Having such an amazing game as template, what could go wrong? It turns out, EVERYTHING went wrong. There is really nothing about Sword of Mana which could be considered at least as good as Mystic Quest. This is great because now we are able to compare those two games and to point out exactly what made Mystic Quest so great in the first place.
That’s no moon. It’s a dungeon.
Roller Coaster Tycoon: EGIS
Until now, I discussed topics like game fantasies, game context, themes. Generally I focused on things which could be considered narratologist in nature. I consider the debate Narratologoy vs. Ludology pointless and refuse to picks sides. Hence, is time to start some “ludology” for a change.
I thought about the following concept for some time and I’m glad to finally get it of my chest. It is about how games die…
It all beigns simple and fun…
Final Fantasy XII: Realtime Fight + Automated Party
Final Fantasy XII finally became available to us Europeans, too. And because I like the series I want to write about 4 things I find most interesting. Interesting for me, is the fact that the real-time battles of FF12 are more fun to me than the old turn-based, which is strange, because I like turn-based games more than real-time.
Continue reading “Final Fantasy XII: Realtime Fight + Automated Party”
Battlefield 2142: Micro-Teamplay
Do you like playing first person shooters? Do you like playing teamplay modes? Capture the Flag, Team Fortress, Counterstrike? I do, and I will try to tell you why Battlefield 2142 lowers the teamplay entry level to everybody, even the teamplay haters.
Okami: Wii Daydreaming
When I wrote the Okami review a month ago, I actually imagined how Okami would work on Wii because gesture commands are almost a too obvious use for the Wiimote. With the rumored Wii version of Okami, I felt I might as well post up that control scheme of mine. Might be obvious, but what the heck…
Lost in Blue: Bad Cooking
Cook, biatch, cook!
In this last short post about Lost in Blue, I will talk of the cooking minigame embedded into it and how bad it is. Curiously, the design errors I want to discuss seem to be quite common, especially among Japanese developers, which is why I consider a detailed analysis worthwhile.
Okami: Great Brushwork
Long time no post. This time I’d like to talk about the critically acclaimed action-adventure „Okami“ and what I like (and dislike) about some of its design aspects.
Lost in Blue: Cardinal Sin 1
I would like to revive this blog after our short break with a short post. I will continue with two more articles about Lost in Blue. As you can see, the game inspired me quite a bit. At the same time, I will begin yet another recurring topic: the Cardinal Sins of Game Design. If you are interested in Game Design you should be familiar with Earnest Adams’ Bad Game Designer, no Twinkie column. It is collection of “irritating misfeatures” that frequently appear in games. They are little, disruptive peculiarities like the extensive use of crates or monsters which drop unrealistic items when slain. Although it is a quite entertaining and inspiring collection, in reality the twinkies (or “no-twinkies”) seldom have a profound impact on the player. Players might notice but learn to accept them as they don’t really spoil the game.
So now, I would like to start a collection of the very, very bad errors of game design. Where are the grave sins that make the players throw away the controller and break the cartridge? Yet again, we come back to Lost in Blue and take a look a hidden game design catastrophe lurking deep within.
Forgive me father for i am about to sin
Lost in Blue: Change of Perspective
The other day, I was nagging about how bad the usability of Lost in Blue is. This time, I would like to explain why I think the game is worth to take a closer look at, in spite of the usability issues.
How can somebody be not excited about a weapon?
Actually, a lot of positive things can be said about the game but there is one special twist, which had a profound effect on me as a player and I think it shows quite nicely the particular advantage of games over other media. This review contains many spoilers but I encourage you to read on.
