Wall-E Review

At midnight Friday morning I was secreted snugly away in a seat in my local movie theater, eagerly awaiting the first showing of Pixar's Wall-E, even though I was scheduled to be into work at 6:30 AM the next morning. Well, masochistic as it might be, the entire experience was completely worth it, and I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

I'm not going to sit here and get long-winded with a synopsis of Wall-E, there are thousands available that are really just a few clicks away. The crux of the matter is simple: Is this is a good movie? In a word, yes.

In more than one word, Wall-E is an animated masterpiece. It's easily the best-looking CGI movie ever released, and it should be considered a landmark both for that reason and for its powerful storytelling and narrative. The entire first 30+ minutes of the movie is told with absolutely minimum dialogue. The robot characters speak in simple beeps and one-word sentences--but this movie proves that actions truly speak the loudest. Wall-E--the main character--is a suitably lovable and curious robot who's sole job in life is to compact the trash that litters an abandoned Earth. He might well be the cutest character Pixar has ever concieved, and simply watching him scavange for old remanents of Earth's society and attempt to court his love interest EVE, made me want to go "Awwww...". He's that cute.

There's alot more to Wall-E than cuteness, a sweet robot love story, and beautiful animation, however. Pixar seamlessely weaves a cautionary tale of environmental negligence and destruction, as well as corporate brainwashing and human sendentariness. Much has been made of the irony of a film published by Disney with such a huge marketing push calling out corporations, but that sort of ironic thought accomplishes little more than getting in the way of enjoying the best movie this year, and quite possibly the best movie Pixar has ever made.

Absolutely go see Wall-E, I can't imagine anyone at all regretting it. 10.

Deciding What to Title This Post

Well, that particular decision is the latest in what has become a regular string of decisions that I've been making to...decide stuff. I suppose the first thing I've decided is that I'm going to use this a bit more as a personal blog and not as an all-out gaming news blog. I've simply not the time or the resources to search and post news. Besides, if it's a personal blog I get to rant and bitch all the much more (which is a whole lot more fun) about a full wealth of topics besides just gaming... It'll probably still be gaming-centered, but now I can toss in all those fun nerdstuffs that make me geek out all the time.

...You know, I expected to have a great deal more than that to say, but that's about it... Ummm, I've decided to change my gamer handle to "Pixel-One", because I think it sounds cool (I tossed around ideas such as "car insurance" and "analog tacos", but decided against it) and because I was burnt out on my old ones. Tim Russert died, that blows. I liked the fellow, too, and I always appreciated what he had to say. He will be missed.

Derek

No News Is...No News?

There hasn't been a whole lot of Nintendo news to report lately, though I should be posting my hands-off review of The World Ends With You fairly soon, so posts have been slow in coming for the past few days. I haven't been able to yet do enough blog and forum browsing to yet gauge the outrage at Nintendo's cancellation of the Twilight Hack with their latest firmware update, but everything I have read seems to be remarkably toned down. True outrage seems to be few and far between as the majority of the community has accepted that it's the pirates that brought this on themselves. There were alot of good uses for the Homebrew Channel, but playing burned games was not one of them. This is why Nintendo doesn't want to launch a HDD. Poo.

Over at Nintendo Wii Fanboy (a fine blog I recommend only slightly less highly than this one) they've inherited a bunch of promo materials for the Conduit, so that's totally worth checking out. The whole game seems to be using the ol' "use everything cool and sci-fi from everywhere" line of thinking, but it looks to be shaping up well. Here's to hoping that they get a publisher willing to provide the marketing budget the game deserves.


In unrelated news, I scored a Viewsonic UltraBrite A90f+ CRT monitor for $10 at Goodwill, and the thing looks glorious. It's huge, but it does good justice to my Wii games using the Gamebridge. Hells yes.

Wii Menu Goes 3.3

An updated Wii menu went live in America sometime last night, and I got to download it just moments ago. It seems to be a biggun compared to some of the other updates, so it must do something. I've no particular idea what this release accomplishes, but I won't be holding my breath that it's external HDD support.

UPDATE:

According to Joystiq, the update officially enables the moving of Miis from the Mii Channel to the Mii Parade, while unofficially completely disabling the Twilight Hack.

Boo.

Wii Virtual Console -- A Stagnate Pond?

Okay, I have to take a hit here and admit that was among the lamest titles I've ever come up with, but it serves its purpose well enough. I've been pondering this for a matter of days now (and--yes--I can actually ponder the Virtual Console for a matter of days) and I've come to a few conclusions about what has been working, what hasn't, and what needs to be.

I suppose this all started after reading a discussion about each of the major consoles' on-demand game delivery services (WiiWare, XBLA, and PSN). Having never used any of the services besides WiiWare, it was interesting to me that many of the complaints that I had developed over the months of use were just as common to the other services. PS3 users were suffering from an equally similar stagnation of games and XBLA afficianados had many of the same worries about pricing structure and organization that I did. Neither had any worries about "cleaning out the fridge", but you win some you lose some. I came away from the discussion feeling quite pleased with the service Nintendo had bestowed upon its users, but regretfully it didn't actually FIX any of the complaints that I had.

So, without further ado, here are the top issues I have with Nintendo's WiiWare (Virtual Console included) service, in no particular order--

• We'll start off with that huge elephant in the room that has simply been beat to death: Storage. Now, I can understand Nintendo's unwillingness to provide a storage solution. It does open the doors for potential piracy and homebrew, but Wii hackers have found a way around most of the safeguards as it is, so that's a fairly moot point. It could also maybe allow for the copying of Virtual Console and WiiWare games, undermining the service, but I haven't heard anything about this being a problem with the other consoles' offerings. Besides, it's an easy fix--simply implement a DRM-like standard for the downloaded games where they simply would not play on any other console. True, it's possible to remove DRM, but it's an annoying process (trust me) and most users simply wouldn't have the patience for it. Besides that, major console piracy has yet to subvert the gaming industry in any of the three major regions because of it's intricacies and general annoyances, so it's unlikely that adding an external HDD for the Wii will do anything more to contribute to that. Nintendo needs to step up to the plate on this one, we want to give them our money AND play the games we spend it on. I don't think that's too much to ask.
• We need more N64 games, pure and simple. True, this sort of flies in the face of "not enough storage", but it's a request I'm still going to make. As it stands, we have all of, oh, 14 N64 games? Yeah, that's it. We've gotten most of the obvious ones out of the way, what with Ocarina of Time, Mario 64 and Starfox, but let's start getting some of the hidden treasures that might not have caught on the first time around. How about Quest 64 or 40 Winks? Ogre Battle 64 would get a fair few downloads, I'd wager. Or maybe import a couple of the disk drive games we never got on our shores. I'll add Harvest Moon 64 to that mix because it simply WOULD sell. There are so many obvious choices that it's painful to see how few we've gotten. Come on, Nintendo, throw us a frickin' bone here.
• The pricing is a bit...off. For games like Mario Bros. 3 I've got no problem whatsoever paying 5 bucks, but for Bubble Bobble? A 3 dollar download at most, and I imagine that it'd make up in volume what it would lack in pure monetary collection. And charging more for imports? I can understand that there's some extra effort there that comes along with the translation, but for some of the games there was almost no translation necessary. Nintendo would do well to set caps on how much a company can charge to release a game on their service, but otherwise give much more freedom in how much they go for. This inane fixed price thing they've got going on isn't doing it for us.
• Let us play them on our DS. We've paid for them already, we just want to take them with us. That's going to sell more games, more Wiis and more DSs. That's win-win all around, and a complete no-brainer. All we need is a blank Nintendo-official game cart to do the trick.

That's all I've got for now, but I'll likely rant more in future posts as I come up with more complaints and comments.

Games That Need to Be Made #1

Welcome to the inaugural posting of "Games That Need to Be Made"! In this section, I'll explore the games that--based on nothing other than my own opinion as a budding game designer--I think would do extremely well, both in terms of critical reception and SHEER AWESOMENESS.

To start off what will surely be a long and wonderful legacy of posts, I'll focus in this time on the LEGO franchise. So far, we've received LEGO Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and now we've the upcoming Batman. These franchises possess long, proud histories to be sure, but the existence of the games has been to mainly capitalize on recently released theatrical movies. While this beats crappy movie tie-in games in every single respect, they have been--for the most part--current movie tie-ins. So, for the next game, let's move past movies and into other mediums.

Game One: LEGO DragonBall



Seriously, when it comes to Japanese franchises that have made an impact in the States, it doesn't get much bigger than DragonBall. Spanning three different segments with hundreds of characters, DragonBall seems almost pre-designed for the LEGO game setup. DragonBall games up until this point have almost always been decent (with notable exceptions), but almost to a one have they all been fighting games. While this isn't necessarily a bad thing for a series based pretty much solely around epic combat, I think a LEGO game would be just what the franchise needs to shake it up a bit. The slapstick humor is already there in the series, and would translate well into a somewhat goofy LEGO experience. In short, LEGO Dragonball needs to be made.

...Plus, the tie-in toys would just be damn cool. ^_^ So what do you think is a franchise worthy of getting the LEGO treatment?

Nintendo Makes Official What Everybody Already Knew

It's true! Good lord, we thought it just wasn't going to happen, but it has! Wait--seriously? Glorious!

The simple basis for that last torrent of melodrama was Nintendo's announcement that Guitar Hero: On Tour would get a DS bundle. This, of course, comes on the heels of months of internet blog posts that continually stated exactly that same thing--except they didn't come with pictures. Pictures make everything remarkably better.
The bundle and the stand-alone game/controller package will be available starting June 22.

High Voltage Software's "The Conduit" Gets a Sort-Of Release Date

IGN just dropped the news that "The Conduit" has gained a release date and a confirmation for online multiplayer, though details of what the mode will entail are scarce. The game is slated for a Q1 2009 launch, and--though it still has no announced publisher--the game is looking just as fantastic as ever, sporting it's built-for-Wii engine.

It's good to see the level of detail that High Voltage Software is putting into their title, and it looks as though it will thrill gamers and critics alike when it drops at last.

Image courtesy IGN.com

Summon Night: Twin Age Not Quite Hands-On

My girlfriend and I picked up Summon Night: Twin Age for the DS last week, and she's been playing it pretty much straight through ever since. Currently she's on the next to last level after playing it for about 12 hours or so, and I've picked up a couple of themes from hearing her talk about it.

Apparently the game starts out fairly easily (as many reviews have pointed out) and continues that way until a few bosses into the game. However, once it picks up it really picks up. I've glanced at her screen a couple times and almost universally she's been fighting gigantic mobs of enemies with spells flashing everywhere--and not a hint of slowdown, apparently.

The production values for the game seem really high, and the bits of voice-acting and large, well-animated sprites go a long way towards making the game seem like more than a crapped-out anime action-RPG. The music that I've heard drift over from her DS sounds solid if forgettable. She hasn't resorted to turning the volume down and tossing an iPod on, so that bodes pretty well.

While the story is standard fair, the gameplay is satisfying from what she's told me. The control scheme is intiuitive and never gets in the way of enjoyment, and the battles have been keeping her challenged without inspiring any DS-hurling moments. Leveling up has come frequently, which has eliminated the need for a great deal of grinding, and has gone a long way towards a feeling of satisfaction.

Replay value seems low, though the two selectable characters mean that there are two sets of eyes to see the story through, so a different perspective is available for those that are interested in one.

Overall the game seems extremely solid and was well-worth the games we traded in for it. I can't wait to sink my teeth more deeply into the adventure and get some hands-on time with it for myself.

Changes

I officially changed the title of the site to "Love. Hate. Play.", and gotten a new domain to reflect that. While I'm not sure of the ultimate direction I'll be taking the site in, it'll likely be more gaming-centered as opposed to trying to hit all of nerddom at one time (THERE'S JUST TOO MUCH, CAPTAIN!). I'll probably sit down and come up with a new logo today, and maybe monkey with the layout a bit, but the big changes will probably still be in coming.

As an aside, the lack of character creation in Top Spin 3 for the Wii is a damn shame.

*sad face*

Why don't "hardcore" Wii games sell?

I've been seeing this question over and over while browsing the blogosphere and various gaming forums, and it never seems to get conclusively answered. Certainly, there is no one answer, but I'd like to throw my hat into the ring with a couple of thoughts.

Many seem to speculate that games marketed towards "core" gamers simply do not sell on the Wii. This is supported by the fact that sales are dominated by "casual" games such as Wii Play and Mario and Sonic at the Olympics. The argument would logically continue that the entire base of the Wii is populated with young kids and old ladies (the casual crowd) and games like No More Heroes are wasting away on the system because no core gamers play it. There is merit in this, regretfully, but I don't think it's the crux of the issue. True, Nintendo has been increasingly courting casual gamers with the Touch Generations series for the DS and Wii staples like and Wii Fit and Wii Sports, but at the same time it hit the core gamer market with it's Zelda, Metroid, and Mario franchises. I don't think that it's Nintendo digging it's own grave with the core market--particularly not with games like Super Smash Bros. Brawl on shelves.

So why are fantastic games like Okami, No More Heroes, Zack and Wiki, etc., languishing in sales hell on the Wii? The best answer I can come up with: Marketing, or rather the lack of it.

I simply am not seeing TV spots for 3rd party Wii titles, and even internet ads seem to be few and far between. I can't speak for magazine ads, but I can only imagine they're just as rare as their TV counterparts. Gaming websites and magazines are raving about these games, but if nobody knows what they're about then nobody is going to buy them.

Let's take No More Heroes for a second. It is an excellent title in which a nerdy gamer attempts to become the number 1 bounty hunter in a blood-soaked open world experience--based purely on that one-sentence description of the game, they should be printing money. Now, to clarify, we're not talking about GTA level sales, but it should be a million-seller at the very least. Problem is, there seemed to be absolutely no advertising budget to support the game. In fact, the only ads I saw for the game at all were on IGN, a website that was basically giving the game free advertising in the first place by putting the review on the front page. There was no opportunity for the game to gain a mass-market appeal, because there was no attempt on the publisher's part to appeal to the mass-market at all--AND THIS GAME SCREAMS MASS-MARKET! Give it a couple of Adult Swim timeslot ads, maybe a couple during a Fox Family Guy episode and the gaming community should've been eating it up, the system it's on be damned.

3rd party publishers have been digging their own grave on Nintendo systems for years (Handhelds being the exception). It's a terribly vicious cycle: First, third party publisher puts out game on Nintendo console with no marketing budget, game doesn't sell at all. This in turn leads other third party publishers to be wary of publishing titles for Nintendo, so they downsize Nintendo development teams which leads to poorer titles with, again, no marketing budget. Even amazing efforts continue not to get ad-support, and they fail. The Nintendo 3rd party support falters, publishers move to other consoles and the cycle moves as it ever has.

I suppose the moral of the story is just that if publishers want games to sell on Nintendo consoles then they need to let gamers know that the games are there and what they're about.