Video games provide some of the most recognisable and catchy tunes that you will ever hear. whether it's the seemingly simple theme song of Tetris or the sweeping orchestral score of the Metal Gear series, these game soundtracks have inspired countless musicians to sample, recreate,or remix the songs they hear in the games they play.
Below are a few of the best (and worst) examples of those covers.
Doctor Spin - Tetris
This is what happens when you ask Andrew Lloyd-Webber to produce a dance mix based on the soundtrack of a Gameboy game. Released in 1992 under the pseudonym of "Doctor Spin" this was the official Nintendo endorsed single for the game that conquered the world. It's worth remembering that in 1992 the UK chart was snowed under with dance tracks just like this, and this might well have been one of the better ones.
Ambassadors of Funk - Super Mario Land
Released in 1993, Super Mario Land is another song that samples audio from the Gameboy. This track benefits from the fact that the Super Mario Land theme, while surrounded my rapping and a dance beat, is left relatively unmolested so it can do it's thing and show everyone just how good Gameboy music can really be
The Infamous Japanese Super Mario Guitar Dude
This video has been doing the rounds for a while now, but it doesn't make it any less astonishing to watch and listen to. Marvel as this talented axe man recreates not just the Mario theme but also the coin, mushroom and pipe sound effects all on his guitar. Whoever you are sir, i salute you.
Hikaru Kaihatsu - Mario Beatbox
The last Mario cover for the moment, but well worth a watch. Kaihatsu san is an amazing beat boxer who completely owns this performance. He even manages to fit in the "OMG 99 seconds left" audio cue into the routine.
GameOne - Legend of Zelda
Apparently French TV channel GameOne commissioned this song so they could run a bunch of Zelda clips over the top of it. Whatever their reason for doing it i'm happy they did because just listen to the end result.
Joe Pleiman - Legend of Zelda
While we're on the Zelda tangent it would be a scandal not to include the most famous cover of the theme. Unfortunately for Joe Pleiman this song is usually attributed to the band System of a Down due to the similarity of the vocal style to Serj Tankian. This is why the song has become so well known.
The Video Game Cover Band - Street Fighter II Medly
Very little to be said about this one except that if you close your eyes it IS the music of SFII.
Bloodhound Gang - Mope
Blink and you'll miss it cameo from Pac Man in this song from the year 2000, but it's an excuse to show a Bloodhound Gang song and PacMan freebasing so i'll take it. This is an example of how even a 10 second sample can give a song that extra bit of fun.
The Black Mages - Advent: One Winged Angel
The crowning jewel in this collection of songs, and possibly the most ambitious cover on the list is a song that was covered by the man who originally wrote it.
In 2005 Nobuo Uematsu re-recorded one of his most famous compositions, One Winged Angel, for use in the climactic battle scene in the animated movie Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. The lyrics to the song were re-written while Uematsu san also decided to incorporate heavy rock elements into the piece. For that very reason he brought in his own band "The Black Mages" to record the guitar sections. The resulting Rock version of the song was re-christened "Advent: One Winged Angel".
In the commentary for the movie Uematsu stated that the original Orchestra version of One winged Angel never felt quite right, while adding Rock to the mix seemed to work as the two styles meshed nicely.
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So there you have it, some talented amateurs and a few professionals who might perhaps have known better. What you've seen and heard here is a brief cross section of the Video game covers out there, and while they are not perhaps all destined to top the charts they all show how much gaming has influenced the music scene.
If you like what you heard there's plenty more out there, you just need to look for it.
Friday, 15 April 2011
Wednesday, 13 April 2011
Video game soundtracks at the Grammys
It was revealed today that Video game soundtracks will be considered alongside TV and Movie music for the "Music for Visual Media" section of the Grammy Awards. This section, formally known as "Film, Television and Other Visual Media" represents three separate awards, Best Compilation Soundtrack, Best Score Soundtrack and Best Song.
With this in mind lets have a look back at some of the iconic video game songs that might have competed for these awards in years past.
Koji Kondo - Level 1-1 (Super Mario Bros.)
The opening level of Shigeru Miyamoto's 1985 Super Mario Bros. sported one of, if not THE most recognisable theme tunes in video gaming history. Koji Kondo was responsible for all six themes used in the game, but it was the the theme tune for world 1-1 that would become the games calling card. Using the Nintendo Entertainment Systems 8 bit processor (the NES didn't have a dedicated sound chip) Kondo created fun, light hearted and original tunes that were instantly recognisable as being from the Nintendo mascots first Platform adventure. Kondo was given complete freedom to compose the music for Super Mario Bros. as he saw fit, but was keen to collaborate with Miyamoto, familiarising himself with the Game directors musical tastes.
A unique aspect of Super Mario Bros soundtrack is the way that it speeds up when the countdown timer reaches the 100 second mark to audibly hurry the player along, something that platform games after it's release would copy to varying degrees of success. At GDC 2007 Kondo stated that the theme "reflects the action-oriented game play of the series, and that he didn't know if he could make a song that was catchier than the world 1-1 theme but he would "Like to try"
This song is so iconic that it featured in many other Mario Games such as Super Mario Bros 2 and the Super Smash Bros. franchise. It also appeared on the Super Mario Bros. Super Show where WWF wrestler/manager Captain Lou Albano sang along to the tune that had been dubbed "Do the Mario"
It's as inseparable from Mario as those spiffing red overalls he's been sporting for the last 25 years, they could probably use a wash by now couldn't they?
Masato Nakamura - Green Hill Zone (Sonic the Hedgehog)
In 1991 SEGA welcomed the new poster child for their company into the fold, Sonic would replace Alex Kidd as the face of the company and was exactly the opposite of Nintendo's Mario in almost every way.
Mario was Red, Sonic was Blue.
Mario was Slow, Sonic was Fast.
Mario was Human, Sonic was a Hedgehog.
Sonics last name was different from his first.
They both had one thing in common with each other though, they both had iconic music to jump around to (well okay, they were a little podgy around the belly too).
Penned by Masato Nakamura from J-Pop group "Dreams Come True", the Sonic soundtrack made the most of the SEGA Genesis' Yamaha YM2612 sound chip delivering music and sound effects in stereo. Nakamura wrote several tracks for the game, but just like Mario's début six years previously it would be the first track that everyone would associate with the spiky blue mammal. The song would appear in numerous other Sonic games through the years, it was touched up slightly in Sonic Adventure 2 and remixed in the Sunset Hill zone in Sonic Advance 3.
Koji Kondo - Opening Theme (The Legend of Zelda)
Sometimes a theme, or more accurately a motif, is so iconic that you can't imagine a character without it, While Mario and Sonic might well fit that description there is a young man in a far off land that could well lay better claim to that position.
In 1986, just a year after he capture lightning in a bottle, Koji Kondo did it again by creating the theme song for what would be one of the most beloved Nintendo games franchises of the next 25 years. Legend of Zelda felt like a time of swords and sorcery in no small part because of the music that accompanied you as you explored hyrule. It feels optimistic, heroic and energetic, in a sense it makes you understand what Link is all about and highlights the emotional state that he's in as he sets off, eyes sparkling with wonder, on his quest to save fair maiden from danger. It's good to know that even though he would lose all his equipment and forget everything he had learned time and time again over the years he would always have the song to cheer him up, the daft git.
It's little surprise that the basic outline of the main theme has survived 25 years to this day ("Links Theme" in Wind Waker and "Final Preparation" theme in Spirit Tracks)
For my money though, the "Link to the Past" Overworld theme is the best version going...
Nobuo Uematsu - Final Fantasy VII Soundtrack
If Nobuo Uematsu wasn't on this list i would rightly have to take a very long walk off of an exceedingly short piece of timber. Of all the artists on this list, he is the most likely to be awarded the Grammy for Best Score Soundtrack simply because the quality of his work throughout games such as Final Fantasy VII is so impeccable. I may have chosen to embed a link to "One Winged Angel" to demonstrate his ability as a composer but someone else might have chosen "Aeriths theme", another would have thought the "Final Fantasy Overture" more deserving. That's why he is so great at what he does, Uematsu writes scores that speak to gamers on a personal level.
Considering the technology he was using to create these pieces of music, that really is something.
To hell with it, here's another of his remarkable songs.
Harry Gregson-Williams & Tappi Iwase - Metal Gear Solid Main Theme (MGS2)
Not far behind Nobuo Uematsu is British Composer Harry Gregson-Williams. A Grammy award Nominee and protege of Hans Zimmer, Gregson-Williams has had a long career composing songs for Hollywood blockbusters. The Rock, Armageddon, Shrek, Phonebooth and The Taking of Pelham 123 are all on his CV and demonstrate his ability to write stirring, breathless orchestral pieces that instantly draw the viewer into the action. He was drafted in by Game director Hideo Kojima to remix the Metal Gear Solid theme which was originally composed by Tappi Iwase for the original game released in 1998.
The result is astounding.
Often times a good piece of music will inform you of certain things, whether that be the type of person that a certain character is, their motivation, mood, even what they're thinking. The opening theme of Metal Gear Solid 2 encapsulates all that Solid Snake is, it tells you that he's the hero, that he will sacrifice everything to complete his mission, and more importantly that the game itself is EPIC. In a time when gaming became more a cinematic experience, especially true of Kojima games, this score suited the game perfectly. It gave MGS2 the feel of a big motion picture, and alluded to the scale of the story that lay ahead.
And for anyone that remembers Metal Gear Arsenal, you know the scale we're talking about here.
Martin O'Donnell - Halo Theme (Halo: Combat Evolved)
There's something quite charming about the Halo theme song. It's got undertones of Irish folk music and monastic chanting throughout and all the while it's building and building to a grand crescendo. The song makes everything seem ancient and yet current/futuristic at the same time, an idea that many sci-fi games have shared throughout the years and which Halo succeeds at.
Martin O'Donnell, the games audio director has gone on record as saying that "Music is best used in a game to quicken the emotional state of the player, and it works best when used least" This is why the Main theme works so well, it sets you up for the game ahead of you, impressing on you the weight of the story and then it leaves you alone with the game, only ever giving you the odd flicker of music here and there. It's a theme song in the grand tradition of action movies through the ages, it get's you pumpedup for what's to come.
The Halo theme is iconic enough that it featured as a downloadable bonus for Owners of the 360 version of Guitar Hero 3
I should also point out that the Rock version of the song is awesome.
So there we have it, Games are that much closer to getting mainstream recognition and credibility on a par with TV and Movies. Maybe if the Acadamy wants to capture the young viewers they tried so hard to pander to with Hathaway and Franco they should consider following the Grammys lead. Just a thought...
With this in mind lets have a look back at some of the iconic video game songs that might have competed for these awards in years past.
Koji Kondo - Level 1-1 (Super Mario Bros.)
The opening level of Shigeru Miyamoto's 1985 Super Mario Bros. sported one of, if not THE most recognisable theme tunes in video gaming history. Koji Kondo was responsible for all six themes used in the game, but it was the the theme tune for world 1-1 that would become the games calling card. Using the Nintendo Entertainment Systems 8 bit processor (the NES didn't have a dedicated sound chip) Kondo created fun, light hearted and original tunes that were instantly recognisable as being from the Nintendo mascots first Platform adventure. Kondo was given complete freedom to compose the music for Super Mario Bros. as he saw fit, but was keen to collaborate with Miyamoto, familiarising himself with the Game directors musical tastes.
A unique aspect of Super Mario Bros soundtrack is the way that it speeds up when the countdown timer reaches the 100 second mark to audibly hurry the player along, something that platform games after it's release would copy to varying degrees of success. At GDC 2007 Kondo stated that the theme "reflects the action-oriented game play of the series, and that he didn't know if he could make a song that was catchier than the world 1-1 theme but he would "Like to try"
This song is so iconic that it featured in many other Mario Games such as Super Mario Bros 2 and the Super Smash Bros. franchise. It also appeared on the Super Mario Bros. Super Show where WWF wrestler/manager Captain Lou Albano sang along to the tune that had been dubbed "Do the Mario"
It's as inseparable from Mario as those spiffing red overalls he's been sporting for the last 25 years, they could probably use a wash by now couldn't they?
Masato Nakamura - Green Hill Zone (Sonic the Hedgehog)
In 1991 SEGA welcomed the new poster child for their company into the fold, Sonic would replace Alex Kidd as the face of the company and was exactly the opposite of Nintendo's Mario in almost every way.
Mario was Red, Sonic was Blue.
Mario was Slow, Sonic was Fast.
Mario was Human, Sonic was a Hedgehog.
Sonics last name was different from his first.
They both had one thing in common with each other though, they both had iconic music to jump around to (well okay, they were a little podgy around the belly too).
Penned by Masato Nakamura from J-Pop group "Dreams Come True", the Sonic soundtrack made the most of the SEGA Genesis' Yamaha YM2612 sound chip delivering music and sound effects in stereo. Nakamura wrote several tracks for the game, but just like Mario's début six years previously it would be the first track that everyone would associate with the spiky blue mammal. The song would appear in numerous other Sonic games through the years, it was touched up slightly in Sonic Adventure 2 and remixed in the Sunset Hill zone in Sonic Advance 3.
Koji Kondo - Opening Theme (The Legend of Zelda)
Sometimes a theme, or more accurately a motif, is so iconic that you can't imagine a character without it, While Mario and Sonic might well fit that description there is a young man in a far off land that could well lay better claim to that position.
In 1986, just a year after he capture lightning in a bottle, Koji Kondo did it again by creating the theme song for what would be one of the most beloved Nintendo games franchises of the next 25 years. Legend of Zelda felt like a time of swords and sorcery in no small part because of the music that accompanied you as you explored hyrule. It feels optimistic, heroic and energetic, in a sense it makes you understand what Link is all about and highlights the emotional state that he's in as he sets off, eyes sparkling with wonder, on his quest to save fair maiden from danger. It's good to know that even though he would lose all his equipment and forget everything he had learned time and time again over the years he would always have the song to cheer him up, the daft git.
It's little surprise that the basic outline of the main theme has survived 25 years to this day ("Links Theme" in Wind Waker and "Final Preparation" theme in Spirit Tracks)
For my money though, the "Link to the Past" Overworld theme is the best version going...
Nobuo Uematsu - Final Fantasy VII Soundtrack
If Nobuo Uematsu wasn't on this list i would rightly have to take a very long walk off of an exceedingly short piece of timber. Of all the artists on this list, he is the most likely to be awarded the Grammy for Best Score Soundtrack simply because the quality of his work throughout games such as Final Fantasy VII is so impeccable. I may have chosen to embed a link to "One Winged Angel" to demonstrate his ability as a composer but someone else might have chosen "Aeriths theme", another would have thought the "Final Fantasy Overture" more deserving. That's why he is so great at what he does, Uematsu writes scores that speak to gamers on a personal level.
Considering the technology he was using to create these pieces of music, that really is something.
To hell with it, here's another of his remarkable songs.
Harry Gregson-Williams & Tappi Iwase - Metal Gear Solid Main Theme (MGS2)
Not far behind Nobuo Uematsu is British Composer Harry Gregson-Williams. A Grammy award Nominee and protege of Hans Zimmer, Gregson-Williams has had a long career composing songs for Hollywood blockbusters. The Rock, Armageddon, Shrek, Phonebooth and The Taking of Pelham 123 are all on his CV and demonstrate his ability to write stirring, breathless orchestral pieces that instantly draw the viewer into the action. He was drafted in by Game director Hideo Kojima to remix the Metal Gear Solid theme which was originally composed by Tappi Iwase for the original game released in 1998.
The result is astounding.
Often times a good piece of music will inform you of certain things, whether that be the type of person that a certain character is, their motivation, mood, even what they're thinking. The opening theme of Metal Gear Solid 2 encapsulates all that Solid Snake is, it tells you that he's the hero, that he will sacrifice everything to complete his mission, and more importantly that the game itself is EPIC. In a time when gaming became more a cinematic experience, especially true of Kojima games, this score suited the game perfectly. It gave MGS2 the feel of a big motion picture, and alluded to the scale of the story that lay ahead.
And for anyone that remembers Metal Gear Arsenal, you know the scale we're talking about here.
Martin O'Donnell - Halo Theme (Halo: Combat Evolved)
There's something quite charming about the Halo theme song. It's got undertones of Irish folk music and monastic chanting throughout and all the while it's building and building to a grand crescendo. The song makes everything seem ancient and yet current/futuristic at the same time, an idea that many sci-fi games have shared throughout the years and which Halo succeeds at.
Martin O'Donnell, the games audio director has gone on record as saying that "Music is best used in a game to quicken the emotional state of the player, and it works best when used least" This is why the Main theme works so well, it sets you up for the game ahead of you, impressing on you the weight of the story and then it leaves you alone with the game, only ever giving you the odd flicker of music here and there. It's a theme song in the grand tradition of action movies through the ages, it get's you pumpedup for what's to come.
The Halo theme is iconic enough that it featured as a downloadable bonus for Owners of the 360 version of Guitar Hero 3
I should also point out that the Rock version of the song is awesome.
So there we have it, Games are that much closer to getting mainstream recognition and credibility on a par with TV and Movies. Maybe if the Acadamy wants to capture the young viewers they tried so hard to pander to with Hathaway and Franco they should consider following the Grammys lead. Just a thought...
Wednesday, 23 March 2011
Hands Off Gaming
When i recently picked up Gran Turismo 5 again, it was so that i could get in some quality time on a couple of the best tracks........ in the world. But after a couple of days, and the completion of the beginner and amateur levels, i realised that i had hit something of a brick wall.
And at 200mph that's not very much fun at all.
The thing about Gran Turismo, and it's something i've always liked, is that Polyphony always have their invisible hand on your shoulder, cajoling you along a certain career path. The gifting of a Mini Cooper for winning the Sunday Cup series, and then the knowing look of approval as you decide to tackle the FF challenge next (since you have just fortuitously acquired the very car to do the job) has always worked nicely. Yes you could eventually spend 100,000 credits on a sexy little super car and jump straight into the deep end if you wanted to, but that was the point, you didn't have to do that.
I only mention this because since the inception of B-Spec, the balance of the game has been a little off, and this is where the 322kph crash into a masonry barrier occurred for yours truly.
When i buy a racing game it's for one rather simple reason, i want to race. B-Spec is a nice addition if you've always wanted to be Ross Braun, but seriously you'd rather be Lewis Hamilton right? Playing B-Spec (and i use the term "playing" loosely here) is like buying some sexy sleepware for the mrs, and then inviting the next door neighbour over so you can enjoy watching the action rather than getting stuck in yourself. You may marvel at some of the tricks he can pull off, but you'd rather it was you fumbling around in the dark.
So, as i said, B-Spec is a nice diversion if you like the management side of racing, but it's not what i bought the game for. I very much doubt that many others did either, which is why it's so annoying that your progress in A-Spec seems to rely on winning cars in the management mode that are un-available if you race yourself.
So with all that said i have to ask, why did Polyphony decide that in order to progress in a natural and balanced way through the Driving career, you have to use B-Spec as well ?
The obvious answer would, i suppose, be that they want you to get the most out of the game by guiding you towards using both sides of the sim, management and driving. Much in the same way that their invisible hand once nudged us in the direction of the FF series in GT's past, they are now showing us that we need to use both functions in the game to get the best from it.
I guess i'm okay with that too, after all i play as much PES as i do Football Manager, and they are essentially the football equivalent of what GT5 has done here. Maybe this hands off gaming isn't so bad, but why must it be harder to progress if you only play one side of the coin rather than both?
Wednesday, 16 March 2011
Whatever happened to originality?
Originality is a difficult thing to achieve. In a sense as we move forward it becomes harder to achieve since everything that can be done will be done at some point. Hollywood has all but given up on such a thing even existing it seems, with sequels and franchise movies dominating much of the past decade. But every so often something, like Inception, turns up which re-affirms your belief that originality is still possible and can be just as successful as yet another Transformers movie or tired re-hash of the "Girl loves Vampire, Werewolf loves Girl, I throw up thinking about it all" genre
IGN has helpfully published a list of big games due to be released in 2011, and luckily for my dinner there isn't an Emo polygonal version of Edward in sight. What this list does reveal however, is that 2011 will most certainly be the year of the sequel, with a few glimmers (no Twilight pun intended) of hope for those of you that want something original to play.
Fight Night Champion, Dragon Age 2, MLB 11 and the like are all what Activision once famously termed "Annualisable" which is no fault of theirs and certainly no indication as to the quality of the games. Fight Night has always been a very good Boxing sim, bringing something new to the table every time a new iteration is released. I have no doubt that Dragon Age 2 is an excellent game, and the MLB franchise is obviously based on a solid game or else there would be no market for a yearly release with updated rosters.
Encouragingly there are plenty of original IP's in here too. LA Noire, Bulletstorm and Homefront are all brand new games with no real history attached to them, and while they do all fit snuggly into pre-existing genre definitions they all promise to be excellent gaming experiences for lovers of Sandboxes and FPS games. LA Noire in particular impresses with it's cutting edge Mo-Cap technology and gorgeous visual fidelity.
But what about those of us that want something completely original? It's been a long time since we saw the likes of Vib Ribbon, Parappa the Rapper and Kurushi lead the way with their differing philosophys on original game play. Vib Ribbon especially gave us a whole new type of experience, where our own musical tastes informed the design of the level that we played and graphics took a firm back seat. It also helped that the Vib the Rabbit was amazingly cute for a wire frame character. Unfortunately it only released in Japan and the EU but still managed to sell well. Parappa the Rapper was an early forerunner to the now defunct Rock Band and Buitar Hero franchises where your timing was key to the continued playing of the song, it took cues from DDR no doubt, but it was a new and fun take on rhythm games as a whole. Kurushi was a truely original puzzler which had your character actually standing on the board itself. Despite it's simple game play it could keep you hooked for hours if you weren't careful.
All of these games had modest success, and spawned sequels that in some cases improved on the original, and in others killed off interest in it altogether.
History lesson over, you can relax now.
So looking at the current generation of consoles, is there evidence that the same spirit of originality is still around? Well actually yes there is. Electroplankton on the Nintendo DS is a music game, but in truth it looks nothing like one. Using the stylus you can engage in a range of mini games that allow you to create varied styles of music. Everything from the Mario theme, complete with coin and jumping sound effects, to sweeping strings, Electroplankton has it all.
Flower, available on the PSN is a beautiful game which lets you take on the role of the wind, blowing petals and pollen around fields for no apparent reason other than to pollinate the other plants around you. For a game that has seemingly no objective or goals it certainly is very addictive. Also available on the PSN, The Last Guy is a top down perspective game where you have to search the streets of Tokyo for survivors of an Other Worldly invasion. No guns, just you running around the streets in a city wide version of British Bulldog, with Aliens. It doesn't fit into any category that i can think of, but it's gloriously mad at times and keeps you on your toes much like Vib Ribbon used to.
Many current generation games manage to bring original elements to the table, even if the genre they find themselves in is overcrowded. Bioshock for example might be an FPS, but it brought us the ability to mix gun play and plasmid abilities while Deadspace did away with the traditional HUD in favour of subtle clues displayed on your armour as to how healthy you are.
Last but by no means least we have the Gods made flesh at Team ICO. This spring they will release the Team ICO collection, for the first time giving us both ICO and Shadow of the Colossus in HD. Both of these games are true masterpieces in their field, and can rival other art forms in their beauty.
SotC in particular is a true achievement in originality. There is no combat in the game save for the Colossi themselves, the rest of the story focusses on you and your horse travelling from point to point, wondering at the scenery and thinking about what you have achieved so far and what must still be done. It's a tale that raises as many questions as it answers, and in some points raises a real moral quandary. Should i really be slaying these mammoth beasts just so that i can get back the girl i apparently love? Guilt is not an emotion that you often experience in video games, but here it is an all too uncomfortable bed fellow.
In the Fall the latest game from Team ICO will hit the shelves, The Last Guardian promises to be just as good as the two that came before. Whether it strikes that balance of originality against familiarity is a question best asked when it finally arrives, but let's hope it does.
So what did happen to originality in gaming? It's still there, you just have to look a little harder for it.
IGN has helpfully published a list of big games due to be released in 2011, and luckily for my dinner there isn't an Emo polygonal version of Edward in sight. What this list does reveal however, is that 2011 will most certainly be the year of the sequel, with a few glimmers (no Twilight pun intended) of hope for those of you that want something original to play.
Fight Night Champion, Dragon Age 2, MLB 11 and the like are all what Activision once famously termed "Annualisable" which is no fault of theirs and certainly no indication as to the quality of the games. Fight Night has always been a very good Boxing sim, bringing something new to the table every time a new iteration is released. I have no doubt that Dragon Age 2 is an excellent game, and the MLB franchise is obviously based on a solid game or else there would be no market for a yearly release with updated rosters.
Encouragingly there are plenty of original IP's in here too. LA Noire, Bulletstorm and Homefront are all brand new games with no real history attached to them, and while they do all fit snuggly into pre-existing genre definitions they all promise to be excellent gaming experiences for lovers of Sandboxes and FPS games. LA Noire in particular impresses with it's cutting edge Mo-Cap technology and gorgeous visual fidelity.
But what about those of us that want something completely original? It's been a long time since we saw the likes of Vib Ribbon, Parappa the Rapper and Kurushi lead the way with their differing philosophys on original game play. Vib Ribbon especially gave us a whole new type of experience, where our own musical tastes informed the design of the level that we played and graphics took a firm back seat. It also helped that the Vib the Rabbit was amazingly cute for a wire frame character. Unfortunately it only released in Japan and the EU but still managed to sell well. Parappa the Rapper was an early forerunner to the now defunct Rock Band and Buitar Hero franchises where your timing was key to the continued playing of the song, it took cues from DDR no doubt, but it was a new and fun take on rhythm games as a whole. Kurushi was a truely original puzzler which had your character actually standing on the board itself. Despite it's simple game play it could keep you hooked for hours if you weren't careful.
All of these games had modest success, and spawned sequels that in some cases improved on the original, and in others killed off interest in it altogether.
History lesson over, you can relax now.
So looking at the current generation of consoles, is there evidence that the same spirit of originality is still around? Well actually yes there is. Electroplankton on the Nintendo DS is a music game, but in truth it looks nothing like one. Using the stylus you can engage in a range of mini games that allow you to create varied styles of music. Everything from the Mario theme, complete with coin and jumping sound effects, to sweeping strings, Electroplankton has it all.
Flower, available on the PSN is a beautiful game which lets you take on the role of the wind, blowing petals and pollen around fields for no apparent reason other than to pollinate the other plants around you. For a game that has seemingly no objective or goals it certainly is very addictive. Also available on the PSN, The Last Guy is a top down perspective game where you have to search the streets of Tokyo for survivors of an Other Worldly invasion. No guns, just you running around the streets in a city wide version of British Bulldog, with Aliens. It doesn't fit into any category that i can think of, but it's gloriously mad at times and keeps you on your toes much like Vib Ribbon used to.
Many current generation games manage to bring original elements to the table, even if the genre they find themselves in is overcrowded. Bioshock for example might be an FPS, but it brought us the ability to mix gun play and plasmid abilities while Deadspace did away with the traditional HUD in favour of subtle clues displayed on your armour as to how healthy you are.
Last but by no means least we have the Gods made flesh at Team ICO. This spring they will release the Team ICO collection, for the first time giving us both ICO and Shadow of the Colossus in HD. Both of these games are true masterpieces in their field, and can rival other art forms in their beauty.
SotC in particular is a true achievement in originality. There is no combat in the game save for the Colossi themselves, the rest of the story focusses on you and your horse travelling from point to point, wondering at the scenery and thinking about what you have achieved so far and what must still be done. It's a tale that raises as many questions as it answers, and in some points raises a real moral quandary. Should i really be slaying these mammoth beasts just so that i can get back the girl i apparently love? Guilt is not an emotion that you often experience in video games, but here it is an all too uncomfortable bed fellow.
In the Fall the latest game from Team ICO will hit the shelves, The Last Guardian promises to be just as good as the two that came before. Whether it strikes that balance of originality against familiarity is a question best asked when it finally arrives, but let's hope it does.
So what did happen to originality in gaming? It's still there, you just have to look a little harder for it.
Monday, 7 March 2011
The Future of Gaming?
I don't like 3D, there i said it.
The problem isn't necessarily the technology, or even it's application at cinemas, although it must be said that far too many films are now being released in three dimensions just because they can. There in is the reason why I don't like it, and why I worry about it's increased use in the games industry. Forcing 3D into a game that doesn't benefit from it's inclusion just adds extra cost to the developers wage bill, and weakens the format for when it truly is deserving to be used.
I played Gran Turismo 5 in all it's glorious three dimensions while I was in Tokyo recently. It sucked.
So what is the future of gaming if not 3D? Well like three dimensional gaming this innovation has it's roots firmly planted in the past, so come with me now on a journey through time and space (not to the world of the mighty boosh) to a wonderful era when the ROM cartridge was king and load times didn't exist.
The Fairchild Channel F, NES, Atari 2600, Master system, Mega Drive, SNES, N64, the list goes on. All these consoles had two things in common. They used Cartridges, and they had very little load time at all. However, due to limited capacity, Cart based systems died out when the CD format Sony Playstation began to dominate the industry with games such as Final Fantasy VII.
So why, you might ask, is cartridge gaming the future of the industry? In a way it already is. Flash card technology works on a similar premise to that of the old ROM Carts of yesteryear. No moving parts, fast download times, and depending on the format of the card quite robust to boot. The Nintendo DS, the best selling console of all time, hand held or otherwise, has been using a solid state mask ROM since it's inception in the mid 2000. This format is not too dissimilar from the cart systems used by the older Gameboy, and the format used by the NES and SNES also.
Early this year Sony finally announced the NGP, the long suspected follow up to the PSP. Among the raft of impressive demonstrations of the hardware, including dual analogue sticks and an OLED screen, it was noticed that it would not use the UMD disc format of it's predecessor, but instead move to a card based system which has been announced as having a capacity of either 2GB or 4GB, depending on the size of the game. While the inner workings of the card are yet to be truly ascertained one thing is almost certain. It will use what i believe is the future of the gaming industry on all platforms.
Solid State Memory.
Let's look at this on three fronts, the first being console reliability. One of the major reasons why any console breaks down is due to moving parts, and also the heat they generate. The RROD that so many XBox 360 owners dread is due to the console overheating. All thanks to the disc drive constantly spinning so that the disc can be read and data loaded. The PS3 suffers from drive failures due to extended use of the disc drive as well. Now what if you replace the disc format with a solid state card, for arguments sake lets say the physical size of a floppy disc or mini disc. With no moving parts heat is drastically reduced, and wear and tear on the machine is almost completely removed.
Secondly, by using a solid state card to hold game data you can access media held on there much faster than you ever could on a CD/Blu-ray disc. Although it might well not be instantaneous it would certainly be much quicker than sitting there for what feels like an eternity waiting for the Mojave Wasteland to load up again after searching through some deserted shack.
Last but not least, lets talk about the environment. With no disc drive to constantly power and no cooling fans needed to keep the drive from frazzling the power consumption of a future console is conceivably much lower than those of this generation. This not only helps you to save money on your utility bills, but just as importantly reduces the amount of energy you use, meaning that less fossil fuels need to be consumed to power our enjoyment. It won't save the world, but it'd certainly do some good.
A few years ago this would have been mad to suggest, that you could fit an entire console game on a solid state flash card, but the proof is there in concept at least. NGP is reportedly nearly on par with PS3 in terms of graphical power, and it's card based system can hold 50% of the capacity of a blu-ray disc already. Clearly the developers think they can develop something worth playing on this system using this memory format. Technology improves and capacities may increase over time so that we can fit more and more data onto a card the same size as a DS cart, or SD card. Even if they don't, would you really be that annoyed if you had to swap out one card for another halfway through if it meant you could play Fallout: New Vegas or a 100 hour plus JRPG with no load times and without fear of your console frying?
I know i wouldn't
Until next time I'm Dave Roberts, and I'm Game for a laugh.
The problem isn't necessarily the technology, or even it's application at cinemas, although it must be said that far too many films are now being released in three dimensions just because they can. There in is the reason why I don't like it, and why I worry about it's increased use in the games industry. Forcing 3D into a game that doesn't benefit from it's inclusion just adds extra cost to the developers wage bill, and weakens the format for when it truly is deserving to be used.
I played Gran Turismo 5 in all it's glorious three dimensions while I was in Tokyo recently. It sucked.
So what is the future of gaming if not 3D? Well like three dimensional gaming this innovation has it's roots firmly planted in the past, so come with me now on a journey through time and space (not to the world of the mighty boosh) to a wonderful era when the ROM cartridge was king and load times didn't exist.
The Fairchild Channel F, NES, Atari 2600, Master system, Mega Drive, SNES, N64, the list goes on. All these consoles had two things in common. They used Cartridges, and they had very little load time at all. However, due to limited capacity, Cart based systems died out when the CD format Sony Playstation began to dominate the industry with games such as Final Fantasy VII.
So why, you might ask, is cartridge gaming the future of the industry? In a way it already is. Flash card technology works on a similar premise to that of the old ROM Carts of yesteryear. No moving parts, fast download times, and depending on the format of the card quite robust to boot. The Nintendo DS, the best selling console of all time, hand held or otherwise, has been using a solid state mask ROM since it's inception in the mid 2000. This format is not too dissimilar from the cart systems used by the older Gameboy, and the format used by the NES and SNES also.
Early this year Sony finally announced the NGP, the long suspected follow up to the PSP. Among the raft of impressive demonstrations of the hardware, including dual analogue sticks and an OLED screen, it was noticed that it would not use the UMD disc format of it's predecessor, but instead move to a card based system which has been announced as having a capacity of either 2GB or 4GB, depending on the size of the game. While the inner workings of the card are yet to be truly ascertained one thing is almost certain. It will use what i believe is the future of the gaming industry on all platforms.
Solid State Memory.
Let's look at this on three fronts, the first being console reliability. One of the major reasons why any console breaks down is due to moving parts, and also the heat they generate. The RROD that so many XBox 360 owners dread is due to the console overheating. All thanks to the disc drive constantly spinning so that the disc can be read and data loaded. The PS3 suffers from drive failures due to extended use of the disc drive as well. Now what if you replace the disc format with a solid state card, for arguments sake lets say the physical size of a floppy disc or mini disc. With no moving parts heat is drastically reduced, and wear and tear on the machine is almost completely removed.
Secondly, by using a solid state card to hold game data you can access media held on there much faster than you ever could on a CD/Blu-ray disc. Although it might well not be instantaneous it would certainly be much quicker than sitting there for what feels like an eternity waiting for the Mojave Wasteland to load up again after searching through some deserted shack.
Last but not least, lets talk about the environment. With no disc drive to constantly power and no cooling fans needed to keep the drive from frazzling the power consumption of a future console is conceivably much lower than those of this generation. This not only helps you to save money on your utility bills, but just as importantly reduces the amount of energy you use, meaning that less fossil fuels need to be consumed to power our enjoyment. It won't save the world, but it'd certainly do some good.
A few years ago this would have been mad to suggest, that you could fit an entire console game on a solid state flash card, but the proof is there in concept at least. NGP is reportedly nearly on par with PS3 in terms of graphical power, and it's card based system can hold 50% of the capacity of a blu-ray disc already. Clearly the developers think they can develop something worth playing on this system using this memory format. Technology improves and capacities may increase over time so that we can fit more and more data onto a card the same size as a DS cart, or SD card. Even if they don't, would you really be that annoyed if you had to swap out one card for another halfway through if it meant you could play Fallout: New Vegas or a 100 hour plus JRPG with no load times and without fear of your console frying?
I know i wouldn't
Until next time I'm Dave Roberts, and I'm Game for a laugh.
Time to shift focus...
You know, when i started this blog it was for two reasons. First, i wanted to work off the ring rust after a good few years of not really writing anything of my own. Second and more importantly though, i wanted to channel my energies into something that i could use to demonstrate my writing ability to prospective employers.
Journalism isn't something i ever considered at school, I had this pipe dream to become a fireman, then join the army and last but not least the next Santiago Calatrava, and now the day before my 28th birthday, ten years after i left school with great grades but no real direction I'm writing this in the vain hopes that one day soon someone will read it and think, maybe he's got something here.
Well maybe not this post, this one stinks.
You may have noticed, or maybe you haven't, that the name of this blog has changed from "if I can be ridiculous for a second", a play on the Lance Storm catchphrase of the early 2000's, to "Game for a laugh". This new title reflects the change in focus of this blog in recent months as i have been concentrating more and more on one topic. Games. It's not that there isn't anything else to write about, after all Egypt, Libya, The Ashes series, Chilean Miners and Earthquakes have all been in the news recently, it's just that for some reason I didn't feel like i wanted to write about them. If I write about something it has to be something I enjoy, something that inspires me to do so. Games have always done that for me.
Now, maybe this blog will never gain more than the three followers it currently has (I love you guys), and maybe it'll never reach the eyes of anyone who could offer me a professional career as a writer, but what if it does? I have to keep hoping, at the very least maybe this will entertain some friends for a few minutes and spark some debate amongst us as to the future of the industry.
Either way, writing about games is something i truly enjoy, so being able to do it at any level is rewarding in its own right.
My name is Dave Roberts and from now on I'm game for a laugh.
Journalism isn't something i ever considered at school, I had this pipe dream to become a fireman, then join the army and last but not least the next Santiago Calatrava, and now the day before my 28th birthday, ten years after i left school with great grades but no real direction I'm writing this in the vain hopes that one day soon someone will read it and think, maybe he's got something here.
Well maybe not this post, this one stinks.
You may have noticed, or maybe you haven't, that the name of this blog has changed from "if I can be ridiculous for a second", a play on the Lance Storm catchphrase of the early 2000's, to "Game for a laugh". This new title reflects the change in focus of this blog in recent months as i have been concentrating more and more on one topic. Games. It's not that there isn't anything else to write about, after all Egypt, Libya, The Ashes series, Chilean Miners and Earthquakes have all been in the news recently, it's just that for some reason I didn't feel like i wanted to write about them. If I write about something it has to be something I enjoy, something that inspires me to do so. Games have always done that for me.
Now, maybe this blog will never gain more than the three followers it currently has (I love you guys), and maybe it'll never reach the eyes of anyone who could offer me a professional career as a writer, but what if it does? I have to keep hoping, at the very least maybe this will entertain some friends for a few minutes and spark some debate amongst us as to the future of the industry.
Either way, writing about games is something i truly enjoy, so being able to do it at any level is rewarding in its own right.
My name is Dave Roberts and from now on I'm game for a laugh.
Sunday, 27 February 2011
5 games that shaped my gaming life
Games have been an important part of my life for years. Along with Music and Films they have entertained, inspired and sometimes even educated me. Some of these have been throw away experiences that lasted as long as i played them, while others have stayed with me long after i stopped playing them. These are the games i want to talk to you about today, Games that were almost more to me than just entertainment.
My first dedicated gaming system was actually the original Gameboy, i got it for Christmas one year bundled with Super Mario Land and Tetris. While Nintendo's Russian puzzler was extremely addictive and super fun to play, it was Mario's first outing on the Hand held platform that i spent most of my time playing. I was so addicted to the game and so in tune with the gameplay that once i completed it i actually turned the system upside down and played it that way just for the extra challenge! The music, as simple as it was on the Gameboy system was iconic but also completely unique to the Mario Land series, something that made the game feel less like a 2 bit remake and more like its own game, which of course it was. Platform games improved graphically on the system over the years that followed, Mario World 2 was a prime example, but they never held the same interest for me that the first Mario Land did.
GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAL!! I played the original ISS so much and scored so many goals that i drove everyone else in the house nuts with that simple word shouted over and over. ISS was the first time i had ever played a football game on a console and felt like i was playing a real game of football. It was a step ahead of everything that came before. The animations were fast and fluid with characters that actually looked like adults, rather than the super deformed players featured prior to its release in 1995. It had crowd chants, tricks, superb animation, addictive menu music, an editing suite where you could change your teams kit colours, and most importantly it had commentators celebrating whenever you scored a goal.
I didn't play sensible soccer until much later, and although the top down perspective "Sensi" can rightly claim to be the first true football game available released (3 years earlier than ISS) i would still take Konami's offering over it.
Staying with the SNES, It pains me to admit that i was a bit of a late comer to the party where the Legend of Zelda is concerned. My sister bought me a copy of Link to the Past for my 11th birthday in 1994.
Link to the Past has wonderful art and brilliant gameplay, as always it has a decent story that keeps it simple and allows you to concentrate on the task in hand. It's also the first game i owned on a console that had an on board battery powered memory pack built into the cartridge. Just as well when you consider just how big the game was. I would spend hours looking for cave entrances and fairies that could heal my wounds, all the time spurred on by a great soundtrack that made the most of the SNES's soundcard. This game in short, was the game that started me off on RPG's and made me a fan of games that you had to spend more than an afternoon playing.
Well, let's be honest, you knew this would be on the list didn't you?
Of course you did.
Released in the UK on November 17th 1997, Final Fantasy was the first of the series to appear on Sony's Playstation console. I bought it within a couple of weeks of release not really knowing much about the games history or what i was getting into. Many people will site this game as their gateway drug, the game that opened their eyes to the JRPG genre, i'm one of them.
Final Fantasy VII benefited from the increased data capacity that came with Playstation's CD format, but even so the game was so large that it took 3 CD's to fit all the content in. I recently started playing through FFVII again and a few things stood out to me. The story telling is still superb, even if the translation of the original Japanese dialogue is a bit sketchy in places. Use of Music was a stand out feature the first time i played this game back in 1997, something that still holds true today. I have bought two game soundtracks in my life, one of them was the FFVII OST.
As technology improved and Games got longer thanks to memory cards and on board battery packs it became more and more of a rareity for me to complete a game. Cloud's story in Final Fantasy VII was so compelling that i stuck with it all the way through to the end. Finishing this game was honestly one of my proudest gaming achievements (and this was a time before achievements were a dirty word)
I literally spent hours getting my infiltration of Shadow Moses as perfect as i could, i've never played a game before or since (except perhaps for the other MGS games) that have instilled in me such a dedication to getting things just right. I would happily lay under a truck for ages trying to figure out the movements of the guards and see if there was a weakness i could exploit.
The solution to the Psycho Mantis boss fight was an inspired use of the console, while all the other boss fights were just the right side of infuriatingly difficult. I'd be annoyed if i died fighting a boss but then go straight back and say "can i have some more sir?"
I was amazed by the cinematic feel to the game, from the opening credit sequence to the final scenes at the end. The script was tight, voice acting was excellent, and every character felt fleshed out and real. MGS truly was an immersive experience for me, the music, story and characters were all well done and made me care.
I think the reason why i picked these 5 games out is that they all share some of the traits i've mentioned, no matter if it's the iconic music from Mario Land, the revolutionary animation in ISS, the Immersive gameplay of Zelda and FFVII or the combination of all these things as found inMetal Gear Solid. Maybe these aren't the 5 greatest games in the world, but for me they will always be the games that i hold most dear.
My first dedicated gaming system was actually the original Gameboy, i got it for Christmas one year bundled with Super Mario Land and Tetris. While Nintendo's Russian puzzler was extremely addictive and super fun to play, it was Mario's first outing on the Hand held platform that i spent most of my time playing. I was so addicted to the game and so in tune with the gameplay that once i completed it i actually turned the system upside down and played it that way just for the extra challenge! The music, as simple as it was on the Gameboy system was iconic but also completely unique to the Mario Land series, something that made the game feel less like a 2 bit remake and more like its own game, which of course it was. Platform games improved graphically on the system over the years that followed, Mario World 2 was a prime example, but they never held the same interest for me that the first Mario Land did.
GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAL!! I played the original ISS so much and scored so many goals that i drove everyone else in the house nuts with that simple word shouted over and over. ISS was the first time i had ever played a football game on a console and felt like i was playing a real game of football. It was a step ahead of everything that came before. The animations were fast and fluid with characters that actually looked like adults, rather than the super deformed players featured prior to its release in 1995. It had crowd chants, tricks, superb animation, addictive menu music, an editing suite where you could change your teams kit colours, and most importantly it had commentators celebrating whenever you scored a goal.
I didn't play sensible soccer until much later, and although the top down perspective "Sensi" can rightly claim to be the first true football game available released (3 years earlier than ISS) i would still take Konami's offering over it.
Staying with the SNES, It pains me to admit that i was a bit of a late comer to the party where the Legend of Zelda is concerned. My sister bought me a copy of Link to the Past for my 11th birthday in 1994.
Link to the Past has wonderful art and brilliant gameplay, as always it has a decent story that keeps it simple and allows you to concentrate on the task in hand. It's also the first game i owned on a console that had an on board battery powered memory pack built into the cartridge. Just as well when you consider just how big the game was. I would spend hours looking for cave entrances and fairies that could heal my wounds, all the time spurred on by a great soundtrack that made the most of the SNES's soundcard. This game in short, was the game that started me off on RPG's and made me a fan of games that you had to spend more than an afternoon playing.
Well, let's be honest, you knew this would be on the list didn't you?Of course you did.
Released in the UK on November 17th 1997, Final Fantasy was the first of the series to appear on Sony's Playstation console. I bought it within a couple of weeks of release not really knowing much about the games history or what i was getting into. Many people will site this game as their gateway drug, the game that opened their eyes to the JRPG genre, i'm one of them.
Final Fantasy VII benefited from the increased data capacity that came with Playstation's CD format, but even so the game was so large that it took 3 CD's to fit all the content in. I recently started playing through FFVII again and a few things stood out to me. The story telling is still superb, even if the translation of the original Japanese dialogue is a bit sketchy in places. Use of Music was a stand out feature the first time i played this game back in 1997, something that still holds true today. I have bought two game soundtracks in my life, one of them was the FFVII OST.
As technology improved and Games got longer thanks to memory cards and on board battery packs it became more and more of a rareity for me to complete a game. Cloud's story in Final Fantasy VII was so compelling that i stuck with it all the way through to the end. Finishing this game was honestly one of my proudest gaming achievements (and this was a time before achievements were a dirty word)
I literally spent hours getting my infiltration of Shadow Moses as perfect as i could, i've never played a game before or since (except perhaps for the other MGS games) that have instilled in me such a dedication to getting things just right. I would happily lay under a truck for ages trying to figure out the movements of the guards and see if there was a weakness i could exploit.
The solution to the Psycho Mantis boss fight was an inspired use of the console, while all the other boss fights were just the right side of infuriatingly difficult. I'd be annoyed if i died fighting a boss but then go straight back and say "can i have some more sir?"
I was amazed by the cinematic feel to the game, from the opening credit sequence to the final scenes at the end. The script was tight, voice acting was excellent, and every character felt fleshed out and real. MGS truly was an immersive experience for me, the music, story and characters were all well done and made me care.
I think the reason why i picked these 5 games out is that they all share some of the traits i've mentioned, no matter if it's the iconic music from Mario Land, the revolutionary animation in ISS, the Immersive gameplay of Zelda and FFVII or the combination of all these things as found inMetal Gear Solid. Maybe these aren't the 5 greatest games in the world, but for me they will always be the games that i hold most dear.
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