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Elaborate Elebits

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I have a Wii, and that makes me very happy. However, I feel guilty because my Wii has been neglected lately for the PS2 and my new DS. I thought I’d rent a Wii game to get me playing the Wii again. I chose to rent Elebits, a ridiculously cute-looking game about little creatures that basically are electricity.

My sister was very excited about this game, so I thought I would check it out to see if it was any good. I started with the tutorial, because I had no manual and I knew almost nothing about the game. I wasn’t in much of a hurry, but I found myself getting aggravated easily by the tutorial. It just kept going and going. I spent nearly half an hour on that thing and I had barely done anything. I still didn’t know what the objective of the game was by the time the tutorial was over.

I was wondering if it I was just impatient, but I had my sister play the tutorial as well. Even though there are options to skip the sections of the tutorial, it’s really hard to know what’s important and what’s not. My sister agreed with many of my frustrations, complaining, “it was just too long” and “you could figure out a lot of these things just by playing.”

After the unnecessarily long tutorial, playing a new game triggers an opening cutscene. It’s pretty much like watching a camera pan across drawings in a children’s book – something I’d expect to see on Reading Rainbow. Unfortunately, the voiceover is terrible and sounds nothing like a real child (unless he has severe allergies).

The game is structured a bit like Katamari Damacy, where you have a set time to pick up a bunch of objects in a room. Unlike Katamari, however, you are looking for a specific type of object (elebits) and your perspective does not change throughout the level. Your gun can gradually pick up bigger and bigger objects.

If I had to summarize the gameplay in one sentence, it would be “You tear apart a bunch of rooms in your house so you can scare out some little critters and pick them up with a big gun.” While it is amusing to virtually ransack a room, the fact that I’m not an 8-year child with a temper tantrum takes away some of the novelty. The game itself is very cute, especially as the elebits make some adorable squeaking and mewing sounds. However, the gameplay itself is not that compelling, so I felt like I had experienced most of the game in an hour.

While I do appreciate cute games with great themes and innovative design, I find that Elebits is one of those games that’s good to play – once. The idea of collecting creatures to power appliances is very fun. The gun that allows you to pick up objects is a neat tool, but some of the physics were a bit unrefined (like how it was difficult to pull open a door without it shutting again from your force). I’m glad I rented Elebits, but I think my time is better spent on other games.  

Elite Beat Addiction

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After playing Elite Beat Agents at D.I.C.E., I decided that it was finally time to buy myself a Nintendo DS. Of course, I tried out my DS with that very game. Since the day I got my DS, I’ve suffered from a case of Elite Beat Addiction.

I’ve never had a handheld console (unless you count those silly one-game devices from the early 1990’s). I thought that they weren’t as good as “real” consoles because the games were often less serious and much shorter. Fortunately, I was wrong. The DS has a wide variety of games that I am very excited to play. It is highly portable as well, meaning I can game on the go. It has also drastically changed my gaming habits in the last week.

One of the greatest advantages of the DS Lite is its size. I cautiously stuck it in my school bag a couple of days ago and found myself pulling it out to play between classes. This method of breaking up my play sessions was very helpful for beating the Elite Beat Agents on the first difficulty level. It took me several tries, but the shorter sessions were much easier on my brain and hands.

Part of the charm of Elite Beat Agents is in the songs. They’re really catchy and most of them are very fun to play. I was playing a punk song on the second difficulty level and it was so fast that I couldn’t think. I just had to go with the rhythm. Experiences like that allow me to internalize the music and make the game my own. I will never hear those songs again without thinking of Elite Beat Agents.

You know you’re addicted to a game when it begins creeping into other areas of your life. I find myself singing the songs from the game as I get ready in the morning. Then I listen to those songs on my way to class. When I am in class, I sit there, thinking, “I’d really like an Elite Beat Agents break right now.” It is now one of the first things I do when I come home.

After so many disappointments in games lately, it has been great to find a new game to obsess over. I used to come home and play RPGs for an hour or two. Now, Elite Beat Agents has helped me rediscover the joy of daily gaming. Even if I don’t have a large block of time, I can still play my DS.  

FFXII Frustration

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“It’s a Final Fantasy, so why do I feel like I’m forcing myself to play it?” I asked myself this question because I’ve been avoiding my PS2 like the plague lately. I claim that I’m really busy, but playing games is something I usually want to do for fun. In all fairness, I similarly avoided playing FFX during the first ten hours, but at least I knew I could get a great gaming experience out of it in less than 100 hours. I keep hearing horror stories about FFXII:

“My friend has been playing it for 200 hours and she’s still not done…her boyfriend goes to bed each night and she stays up, playing for hours…”

“I spent four hours wandering around Rabanastre, just trying to figure out where to go…”

These are not the kinds of comments that make me want to play a game. While I love the immersive environments of RPGs, I am simply having a hard time getting into FFXII. I really want to like this game. It has good graphics and an engaging new battle system…but is it really that engaging? I decided to take a look at my last play experience and see if it would provide any clues as to my lack of motivation.

I sat down on a quiet weekend night to play FFXII, prepared to play for several hours. I usually can play a game like this for about three or four hours without a break. Sometimes I’ll return to a game for another session. However, I mostly play for an hour or two at a time due to time restrictions. That night I had no time restrictions, but I only played for two hours. Why? It was simply too repetitive.

I began in a dungeon prison and had to go through a quick scripted fight sequence to get out. Then there was a ridiculously long cutscene involving politics, the military, and a bounty hunter. I can’t remember much more than that because there were a bunch of characters talking in different dialects and some were monsters, making it very difficult to understand some of the antiquated terms. If I had to sum it up in a few words, I would simply say that it was too long! Even if I’m playing a game for 70 hours, I don’t want all the details about politics. It’s just plain boring.

After the cutscene, the repetitive pattern was set into motion. It went something like this: run, fight, run, fight, watch a cutscene, repeat. I was running around in dungeons fighting monsters for at least an hour even though I had a guide to streamline my treasure hunting. I think the repetition becomes even duller because of the fighting system.

FFXII’s fighting system has been teased online since before it came out. The most common criticism is that the game “could play itself.” While I once thought that it required at least a semi-conscious player to program in the most advantageous automated commands, I was soon proved incorrect. I witnessed first-hand how the game can take care of itself. I got a cell phone call while I was stuck in a dungeon and my players were in the middle of a fight. As that monster was dying, one character ran ahead to the next monster and began attacking it. The rest of my party followed suit and soon that monster was defeated. They kept going, fighting all monsters in their path until the area was clear. From that point on, I was convinced I could get up and make a sandwich and my characters would still be there, hacking away at the next monster.

Even more shocking was the boss fight in this dungeon. It was a gigantic spider creature. I had been fighting more than my fair share of monsters in my quest for treasure and figured this would be an easy kill. Unfortunately, low MP recharge rates and a couple heavy-hitting attacks from the boss took out multiple party members. I soon got a “game over.” I sat there in disbelief for a couple of minutes – I had a strong party – and then gathered my wits and got back into the fight. I realized that a big factor in my downfall was the fact that one of my characters was set to automatically steal every turn from the boss. While this is very advantageous in short battles, boss fight strategy requires more characters as healers and attackers, not thieves. With this simple change, I beat the boss in no time.

I wish I felt more motivated to play FFXII. It seems like a well-crafted system and has so many beautiful details. However, I can’t get past the repetition and the way I left out of my own fights. These characters don’t need me. Perhaps that’s why I feel I don’t need FFXII.  

Elite Beat Intern

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I had the privilege of going to the D.I.C.E. Summit this year. (It’s basically a video game conference and awards show hosted by the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences.) I helped out behind the scenes as an intern and got to see a lot of cool things. One of them was the game Elite Beat Agents, developed by iNiS.

I had never heard much about Elite Beat Agents or iNiS before D.I.C.E. What I did know was that there was a speaker from Japan. He had made a game I had heard of (Guitaroo Man) and this other game, Elite Beat Agents. I didn’t really know what Elite Beat Agents was about, but one of the other interns at D.I.C.E. had a DS and let me play their copy.

I wasn’t expecting much, but I really liked this game. It was a rhythm game, which is one of my favorite genres. Unlike tradition rhythm games, however, you got to touch the screen in the right place at the right time (instead of just hitting the right button at the right time). It was interactive in a new way, and had fun extras like spinning wheels and good stories.

I was really impressed by the stories, especially since each was very short and very simple. Regular problems, such as a lost puppy or putting kids to sleep, were shown in cute little manga-style sequences. The sounds were great and the scenes were short and sweet. There was a good bit of creativity involved as well, such as having animals or former enemies dancing with the protagonists of the stories. After talking again and again about cutscenes in my classes, I was very impressed by the concise stories in this game. They were simple, fun, and, most importantly, could be skipped easily (a great feature when replaying levels).

Fortunately, I was able to sit in on Keiichi Yano’s speech. He feels that music and games are naturally suited to each other. His presentation emphasized the idea that harmonies and dissonances in music can easily accompany tension and release in stories. He was a charismatic speak with simple but effective ideas. I really enjoyed his presentation.

After the session was over, I had the opportunity to talk to Keiichi Yano. I told him how much I enjoyed his game. I also explained how refreshing it was to play a game with such simple, effective stories. My fellow intern and fan of Elite Beat Agents got his copy of the game signed. Keiichi Yano seemed like a really neat person, and I was so grateful that I had been able to play Elite Beat Agents earlier. If not, I would have missed out on something really special.  

Super Monkeys vs. Rabbids

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Since I have a Wii, I though it would be a good idea to rent a lot of different games to see what works and what doesn’t. I want to play the new Zelda, but FFXII and now FFVIII are going to fulfill my RPG quota for the next month or two. In the meantime, I decided to check out some more casual games like Rayman Raving Rabbids (discussed earlier) and, more recently, Super Monkey Ball.

I began playing this game with my sister’s boyfriend, who has more of a natural knack for games than I did. For this reason, I didn’t expect to win any of the short mini-games against him, but I really did value his feedback.

The first game we played was a shooter game where the monkeys were in space shuttles and had to shoot aliens. The arena was circular with a bunch of geyser-type structures scattered around that would spit out aliens. The game seemed simple enough, but I had an awful time trying to steer my ship with the Wii motes. Then I had a lot of trouble aiming. I thought maybe it was just me, but my sister’s boyfriend didn’t seem to be doing much better. His score was higher, but he was also complaining about the controls. I wondered if some types of games just don’t translate as well onto the Wii. However, I do not think shooters and the Wii are incompatible – the Raving Rabbids Western-style shooters are very well-designed. I just think this one was put together in a short amount of time and it shows.

One of the advantages to Super Monkey Ball is the fact that there are so many games. So, it was easy to move onto something else after that disappointment. Like Rabbids, each mini-game would provide very limited instructions. This is an effective way to get people into the game quickly, but, if you’ve never even seen the game before, sometimes it can leave players like me a little baffled. One of the games we then played was a game with the goal of collecting as many bugs on a stick as possible without the bugs falling over. The controls were okay, but any temporary lag in the Wii-mote sensor tracking could spell disaster.

We continued playing other mini-games, but were not impressed. There were a few games, such as shooting hoops or catching fruit, that just weren’t that fun. The goals were cute and the ideas all fit well into a theme, but the game felt sloppy. The tuning that comes with repeated playtesting was lacking. I would have appreciated a style more like Rabbids with multiple games of the same type and increasing difficulty to refine the mechanics of the game.

However, Super Monkey Ball is not altogether awful. I think it would be a fun game for a party, as long as no one was playing the game for too long. For casual players, such as my girl friends, I think this game could be fun. It’s very cute and happy. A game like Rabbids would also be fun at a party, but it requires a little more skill. Rabbids is also more crude – some games are based around drilling a rabbid’s teeth when you see a worm and shutting rabbids in outhouses. I would choose this game for a crowd of people who have played games more and come to expect more from them. While I have not personally taken a great interest in Rabbids, I often watched my sister play it with her boyfriend and I thought it was a lot more fun to watch, making it a good choice for parties.  

Loco for Loco Roco

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My sister is not really someone that I’d consider a “gamer.” She likes to play games, but she is very specific on what she plays. She mainly likes fun, short games like Rayman Raving Rabbids, Katamari Damacy, and Guitar Hero. This is why I was surprised to see her come home one day with a big grin on her face.

“I just played the most awesome game!” she exclaimed. “It’s called Loco Roco and there are a bunch of little guys who sing like this…” She then went on to sing in a voice that resembled someone who had just inhaled helium. I just stood there for a minute, in shock. There was actually a game that sang in that ridiculous voice she found so amusing? And people bought it? This was news to me.

It turned out my sister was telling the truth. This game really was about a bunch of happy, signing, rounded creatures. It was a PSP game and her boyfriend had bought it (for himself). They played it together as a bonding activity.

A couple weeks later, I had the opportunity to play this game myself. I was at a dinner party and my sister’s boyfriend pulled it out. The singing started, and it was so happy that I couldn’t help but smile. Everyone else wondered what I was doing, and they liked the music enough to ask me to plug it into speakers so they could listen, too. While the game may seem like it could be a rhythm game, it’s actually more of a normal platformer…except for one thing: the controls.

Loco Roco’s most innovative feature is how you control the characters by moving the environment. Your only controls are the triggers and one button. The triggers tilt the world, much like the knobs on a wooden labyrinth. Pressing both triggers jolts the world so the characters jump. The other button makes the characters either form into one round blob or separate back into the smaller circles. (Of course, they have a lot to say about either of those actions and will shout in response.)

My sister is also in the game story class with me and she presented this game to our class. We were the only two girls in this class, and I was curious to see how our male classmates would receive it. To my surprise, they laughed at the music and were intrigued. After her presentation, I heard at least three boys say how much they wanted to play the game! It is a ridiculous game, but it’s also ridiculously fun. In an age where almost everything is directly controlled, it’s very refreshing to have indirect control. The game feels so original, and, like Katamari Damacy before it, Loco Roco has the power to captivate my sister.  

FFVIII Fiction

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No matter how much I loved playing FFVIII, I physically did not have the time to get through the entire game before my presentation on the narrative was due. While playing the game for several hours did help me, I was barely able to get through the second sequence of cutscenes and I had little information on the story. I had hoped to piece together a presentation on the story by focusing on cutscenes, but that is difficult to do without cutscenes.

I set off to search the internet far and wide for FFVIII cutscenes from the game. I found them, but the streaming videos and low-quality versions could never hope to do justice to the fantastic animation. Fortunately, I had the foresight to record the ending scenes from the first disc as I began replaying the game as a teenager. I wasn’t sure if the video still existed, but my mother was kind enough to dig it out and send it to me.

I eagerly awaited the cutscene video. I had forgotten what was on it, and I didn’t know if it could somehow get ruined from being moved around multiple times. Luckily, it hadn’t gotten erased. I had recorded everything in the ending from the last few minutes of the final boss fight through the final movie after the credits. I had then gone through and re-played the whole first disc of the game, recording every little cutscene as I went. I was in luck.

I created a DVD of the cutscenes from the video I had. I was able to use this today as the basis for my presentation. My teacher is not particularly fond of cutscenes, but even he had to admit that they were incredible for their time and still look great today. However, his main concern was with how much story was conveyed through the cutscenes.

Looking at the beginning and the ending movies, there was relatively little story for their running time. They are rather showy and beautiful, but neither movie makes much sense without the knowledge of other story elements. In later movies, this trend is less apparent. Certain movies, such as the Edea parade sequence, seem to show some concepts very clearly. Unfortunately, non-FMV sequences (that look about the same as gameplay except you aren’t controlling the characters) are interspersed with the FMVs. This is often used to communicate lines through dialogue (all FMVs were non-dialogue, most likely to avoid sticky problems with dubbing that cheapen such art instantly). I found that the full effect of these dramatic cutscenes was diminished by the frequent interruptions. I understand that the game couldn’t afford to do the whole sequence in FMV, but I would have found it more effective if they kept it one way or the other for a longer period of time.

Although most of the story was not told through FMV cutscenes, they were quite compelling. People often talk about playing such lengthy RPGs “for the story,” but I found that I was playing for both the cutscenes and the story. While the story was certainly compelling, most of it was told through lines and lines of dialogue set to synthesized MIDI music. The music does not seem to do justice to this game. I really enjoyed re-visting the cutscenes, and, even if they did not tell the whole story, I found that they really motiveated me to continue playing the game.  
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