I enjoy checking out demos for new games, even if I'm pretty sure that I won't buy the game. I find that you can always learn something from playing a new game, and you can often learn the most from terrible games. However, I can count on one hand the number of demos that actually made me want to buy a game. Fortunately, I had that exciting experience this weekend. I raced to the computer and bought Mini Ninjas shortly after finishing the demo.

I had heard about Mini Ninjas several months ago and I was charmed by the cute teaser trailer. Yet I remained skeptical, as the cutest games often are often rushed out the door with the assumption that kids won't know the difference between a good game and one that needed more time. Mini Ninjas is being marketed as a family game, but seems strong enough to please more discerning gamers.

Mini Ninjas reminds me of a cross between two of my favorite games, Spyro the Dragon and Okami. It has the same strength and charm as Spyro, from the well-designed 3D levels to the
enemies who require more skill than strength to defeat. It is also like Okami, as it appears to have roots in Zelda-style adventures and it is very centered in nature. In addition, the aesthetic is clearly Japanese, which once again appeals greatly to my love of Japanese art and culture.

Combat feels light and fun. There are many tactics you can use to defeat the enemies, which allows for customization in what would otherwise be a fairly simple game. It's a nice change to see a game with solid combat that doesn't shed a drop of blood. Enemies simply turn into animals (as the animals were enchanted), leaving a frolicking bunch of critters at the end of each fight. If you find an animal that you particularly like, the main ninja, Hiro, can temporarily possess the animal. I couldn't get over the novelty of being able to see an adorable animal (such as a kitty), running up to them, and then POOF! I was suddenly controlling a kitty. While many of the most adorable critters are relatively ineffective in combat, some of the larger animals can be used offensively. Fortunately, the developers accounted for those moments when your prancing kitty gets unexpectedly attacked - the ninja will return to fight seamlessly.

Mini Ninjas is filled with other delightfully charming details that make it irresistible for me. You can free animals trapped in cages along the path, which gives you experience points. This reminded me of feeding animals along the path in Okami, which also gave you experience points. Also, when you enter water, you can ride in a large hat (like a boat). You can steer through rapids or, as I saw in a video, ride down snowy passes. You can even fish from the boat, which gives you health-restoring sushi. Even the animations and movements are adorable without hindering the mechanics. The ninja can deftly jump up a narrow space between two rocks, a feature that feels far more natural than any wall jumps I attempted in Mirror's Edge.

I have been looking for a game like Mini Ninjas for a long time. The most recent 3D platformer/adventure game that truly satisfied me was Okami, and I played that years ago. Despite the short length of the demo, I bought the game, optimistic that it will just keep getting better. I hope that Mini Ninjas will prove to be the adventure game experience that I have been craving. In the meantime, it's great to be excited about a new game again.  

When I first saw my friend playing Prince of Persia, I thought it was a beautiful game. Screenshots couldn't capture the beauty of the game - it looked like a painting in motion. There were beautiful vistas, fluid animations, and an overall fantastic flow. My friend claimed that it was fun to play, but I had no idea just how fun it was until I got to play it myself.

After so many frustrating game experiences, Prince of Persia is a welcome change. The game is an absolute pleasure to play. Much like one of my other favorite games, Okami, the game involves traversing through diseased areas and healing them. As a player, my job is to beautify the area, bringing light to it and driving out the evil. I could heal an area in about half an hour, creating a very satisfying experience, much like a good TV show. Each level had a beginning, middle, and end.

The best part about Prince of Persia is that I enjoy each part of every level. While traveling through a diseased area, I have to solve small puzzles and do some amazing acrobatics. Unlike Mirror's Edge, I am completely relaxed about doing ridiculously acrobatic moves. The Prince is drawn to nearby holds almost with a magnetic pull. Then, if he dies, his companion will rescue him and place him nearby. I absolutely love this feature - it greatly reduces the stress and cuts down on time spent fuming over loading screens. The player is punished enough for missing a jump with their frustration; the Prince's companion simply brings levity to annoying but inevitable situation with clever comments.

After traveling through a deserted area, there is usually a boss fight. There are a few main bosses, each providing a different challenge. The combat moves are beautifully acrobatic and fluid. Fights are an elegant dance. Although I have had a few frustrating moments, mainly due to movement limitations during fights, I have been impressed overall with the fluidity and grace of the fights.

Once a boss has been defeated, the area can be healed by the Prince's companion, Elika. After the healing, the area becomes beautiful, and the level then becomes a playground with collectable light seeds scattered about. The levels are cleverly designed to be fun not only with the enemies as obstacles brought on by disease; they are also great fun to traverse once cleared. The Prince can travel with a speed and fluidity reminiscent of flying. This is a wonderful experience that I had not had in a game before, with the exception of a few moments in Mirror's Edge.

Another clever element of this game is the dialogue. The game took a risky move with the narrative, breaking the story up into mostly on-demand story chunks unlocked by sub-areas. I really enjoyed it, as some nights I wanted to chat with Elika and other nights I didn't. I love the relationship between the Prince and Elika, and the comraderie that comes from being in such a situation. The Prince is arrogant but undeniably amusing, and Elika is intelligent with a wicked sense of humor.

I'm really looking forward to playing more Prince of Persia. It has become a wonderfully relaxing way for me to enjoy my evenings. It is an unusual game that took a lot of risks that I really appreciate and it is a fantastically immersive experience.  

After the incredible reveal in KOTOR, I was really looking forward to the finale. I was extremely motivated to play after that fantastic twist. I wondered how the writers would deal with such a great shift in character and what other secrets would unfold.

I eagerly played through the last planet and found myself trapped on an unknown planet that resembled an island paradise. While this new place had some interesting conflicts, I found myself less engaged with the game than I was during previous levels. This stage was a means to the end, and I no longer cared about details such as the history of a new alien race. I was hungry for the real drama - I wanted to find my lost friend and beat Malak once and for all.

Malak was still a couple of levels away. I had to weave through a labyrinthine tomb and then fight wave after wave of enemies on his ship. I spent almost an hour fighting what seemed like endless streams of nameless enemies. I grew frustrated. I had been given a taste of fantastic narrative and suddenly I was stuck in some boring hack-and-slash. I don't mind fights at the end of a game, but these enemies had little narrative connection to the story; they were essentially bodies thrown at me to slow me down. Eventually, I took advantage of a chance to skip out on a fight and ran ahead to face Malak.

I confronted my friend and then reached the final boss fight. There were few surprises in the narrative and the final boss fight was dull and poorly paced. Malak would frequently run off to leech power, and I would heal myself quickly before hacking away at his HP again. It was tedious and dull, especially when I would have to wait for him to run over to me and attack me.

When the final boss fight was over, I was shown the "light side" cinematic ending. I was incredibly disappointed to watch a few lame 2D people cheering for me as I got a silly metal. After 30 hours and a ridiculous amount of fighting at the end, I won a war and got a few empty words. It was such a letdown after the big reveal that I thought there must be a better ending for the dark side. I looked it up on YouTube and found that the dark side ending definitely gave the player a greater sense of power. It was certainly not Mass Effect's ending, but this version was obviously superior to the light side version. I wondered if the game would have been more fun if I was on the dark side and spent 30 hours being mean to people.

As a fan of RPGs, I finish relatively few games. Many RPGs require such a time investment that it becomes impractical to finish a game when I grow frustrated. I don't regret finishing KOTOR at all, but I wish that it had given me more of a sense of accomplishment at the end. Mass Effect left me feeling as if I'd saved the universe and Okami nearly had my crying tears of joy. I was disappointed that a game that had such an awesome climax fell flat on its face at the end.  

In just over 35 hours, I completed Mass Effect. That might seem like a long time, but it was well worth it to me. I finished every sidequest I could, explored every planet in the galaxy, and played through the Bring Down the Sky expansion. I was very thorough, talking to all the NPCs and opening every storage locker or crate I could find. Now that it’s over, I’m satisfied but a little sad that the awesome ride had to come to an end.

I have already written extensively on Mass Effect, but with a game this vast, I find there is still more to discuss. I may have complained about some of my frustrations, but I have found a lot of value in this game. The story was absolutely fantastic, especially from Ilos to the end. Those last few hours were some of the best paced in the game, and when it was over, I felt a real rush. I got to make important choices up until the very end, and I felt that I was as much a part of the action as the characters in the brief cutscenes.

The story was facilitated only marginally by cutscenes. The main elements of the narrative were conveyed through the fantastic dialog. Mass Effect has been praised for its innovative dialog system. Choices are displayed around a circle, and the dialog shown represents the general idea of the line, but not what is actually said. It felt like what I selected was the thought and what my character said was a more tactful way of expressing that idea (at least for the paragon choices). This system allowed me to better identify with the character, as I felt that she was expressing my thoughts and feelings in the best way possible.

I really enjoyed the addition of so many sidequests. The main path of the game could probably be beaten in ten to fifteen hours, but I chose to play the extra twenty or so to really explore and immerse myself in the Mass Effect universe. I loved the feeling of stumbling across an uncharted resource or coming to the rescue of some helpless people. Some of the sidequests included really tough decisions, which enriched the game and gave me a sense of responsibility. I liked having the freedom to control of the ship and choose the sidequests that I wanted to pursue. The introductions to the quests were vague so I was often surprised by what I found. Even though some of the areas were very similar in structure (likely due to limited art resources) the diversity in the quests was still there and kept it interesting.

Aside from the flaws that I have already discussed, Mass Effect had only a couple other drawbacks: a lack of tutorials and a poor inventory system. I had no idea that I could jump with the mako until halfway through the game, and I never figured out that I could zoom in on enemies in the mako until after I beat it. If I didn’t have a friend to talk me through the beginning of the game, I doubt that I would’ve become as skilled in combat.

Also, the inventory system was cumbersome for someone like me who likes to collect all the items from the game. Given the number of sidequests, I continued collecting hundreds of weapons, armor, and upgrades. I was continually struggling to keep my inventory down so I wouldn’t have to leave anything behind (or convert it to omni-gel). The limit of 150 items was way too low. Due to the abundance of items in the field, I never had to buy anything at the stores. (I did buy the spectre weapons on the Normandy at the end of the game, but some of the later weapons that I found were comparable.) Hours from the end of the game, I maxed out the money. This meant that I had to spend a ridiculous amount of time re-equipping my team to make sure I wouldn’t destroy something that I needed. It took a long time to scroll through items, and I wished the inventory could be sorted.

While Mass Effect did have a few flaws, it was still a fantastic RPG experience. I highly recommend it to people who love immersing themselves in a rich sci-fi world with engaging characters and plenty of content to keep them busy. It is probably the best game experience I’ve had since Okami, and possibly one of the best games I’ve ever played in terms of the emotional impact. I really identified with my character because I was the one who was molding her into the person that I would like to be.  

The arrival of Eternal Sonata has meant the end of a phase for me. I played Eternal Sonata for a few hours, and the next day I found that feeling that I had missed so much: video game craving. Just as I had hoped, this game was turning into the type of experience I had been wanting since I finished Okami and Elite Beat Agents earlier this year.

I understand that Eternal Sonata isn’t the type of game that everyone wants to play. For me, it is finally a world that I want to escape to in my free time; unlike the horrific environment of Bioshock or the dangerous Halo, Eternal Sonata makes everything lovely. When I have a stressful school life, I want to spend my free time in a glittering dungeon or a majestic forest. It’s relaxing for me to escape into a world more beautiful than my own.

The combat system in Eternal Sonata appeals to me much more than many other games due its turn-based roots. While there is still a battle timer, the game still gives you time to think through the moves you want each character to use. I enjoy games that give me a little time to strategize. That way, it’s more like a puzzle and less like a test of gut reactions.

I was hoping that Eternal Sonata would be more like an adventure game, with a straightforward plot and puzzles that don’t require too much time. Unfortunately, my friend and I spent a ridiculous amount of time on a puzzle that was almost entirely based on trial and error. Like previous RPGs, I decided to purchase a strategy guide, as the game is full of ridiculously winding pathways and has some tricky puzzles.

I was a little bit upset when, after purchasing a guide with adequate pictures, my friend and I still got lost in a level. The official guide is poorly worded in some parts, and for someone as literal as I am, it can be an issue. I began to realize that part of the reason I enjoyed games like Final Fantasy VIII was the fact that I had a solid guide to help me through it, like a mentor that helped me make the best decisions. I was able to complete many RPGs with strong characters and little frustration due to the help of many well-written guides.

While I still think that I will enjoy playing Eternal Sonata, I am still slightly disappointed in the puzzles. However, most RPGs have some sort of ridiculous puzzle that, in the words of my friend Jettoki, “is made to be so difficult that you have to buy a strategy guide.” I hope that Eternal Sonata can continue to be a relaxing experience for me and that the rest of the game turns out to be as fantastic as its visual design.  

I didn’t think I’d want to see Bioshock. I’m way too jumpy for scary games and I prefer to play games in fantasy worlds that I’d actually want to visit. I downloaded the Bioshock demo for a friend so I could watch the game without actually playing it. That way, if it got too scary, I could always run away.

I was about to leave my friend alone to play the game but I hesitated before leaving the room. I had heard so many great things about this game from fans and critics alike; I figured it wouldn’t hurt me to watch the opening cutscene.

I was immediately drawn in by the sharp visuals, particularly the stunning water effects. This was one of the first games I saw with the HDMI plug on my HDTV, making it stand out among so many games I’d seen. From the plane crash in the beginning to the neon lights in the dimly-lit city of Rapture, the visual design was simply stunning.

I was surprised that the demo didn’t explore the scare factor that I was dreading. I was able to watch a good 30 minutes of gameplay in the creepy atmosphere without once experiencing something jumping out of the dark. This meant that I didn’t scream, but I did see something shocking.

As my friend was going through the game, he came upon a scene with a girl repeatedly jabbing a corpse’s butt. After venturing closer, a scene plays where a guy gets vividly drilled by a Big Daddy. I was impressed by the game’s ability to smoothly transition from gameplay to interactive cutscene. I’ve heard that Half-Life 2 employed a similar technique, but with the visuals in Bioshock, it was impressive. Blood never really bothers me, but I was certainly shocked by the fact that the player could bring their character so close to the scene and still remain undetected.

After watching my friend play through the entire Bioshock demo, I am convinced that perfection is very subjective. Critics have rated this game incredibly high, but I have a hard time believing that everyone would rate it a similar score, at least for its appeal. I have never been drawn to survival horror games like this. Near perfect gaming experiences for me must include lovely worlds like those in Okami and Eternal Sonata. Although I may appreciate the lightning powers, the perfectly rendered water effects, the seamless cutscenes and the atmosphere, I don’t think that I would ever enjoy playing this game. I have seen enough to know what a splicer is and to know that this game is probably very good for its genre, but certainly not a good fit for me.  

When I discovered that I was sick this weekend, it was not necessarily the end of the world. After all, “taking it easy” meant that I could game for hours on end. That sounds great, right? Unfortunately, the games I’ve been playing recently (with the exception of Elite Beat Agents and Ouendan) haven’t been able to grab me. I’m still searching for the next Okami, Final Fantasy VIII or original Kingdom Hearts. I want a game I can really sink my teeth into for 50+ hours and make it my own. While I really love the DS, I haven’t found a game yet that can provide that type of immersive experience.

I like to think I'm a forgiving person when it comes to games, and I really wanted to give Final Fantasy XII another shot. I had similarly hated the constant movies in Final Fantasy X, but after playing past the ten-hour mark, it got better. It may have just been that I was finally used to the characters and had enough invested in the game at that point that I grew to like it. However, I hope that wasn’t the case and ended up playing FFXII for several hours, hoping it, too, would get better.

I was at a point in the game where I could run around and fight for several hours. I fought monster after monster, getting battle chains of 36 enemies or more so I thought I would get some great items. I then went to sell my items at a shop (since that’s how you make a large portion of your money, as enemies don’t drop much money). I was so excited because I had fought for nearly two hours straight and had leveled up my characters to the point where they finally surpassed the level of my guest character. I was so happy because I finally had enough money to upgrade my weapons.

I was able to afford new weapons for most characters…except one. I then discovered that, not only did I not have enough to upgrade everyone’s weapons, but I also had forgotten about armor upgrades and regular items. Even when I sold my old weapons I barely had enough and then there were still some vital spells I had to buy. Once again, I was back where I started. I needed money but there was no fast way to get it. Even fighting didn’t help that much, because you spend so much time fighting that your stats seem to increase before you could buy a weapon that would do the same thing. I wouldn’t be so upset if I wasn’t so frugal with my money. I hardly ever use items if I can help it, to the point where I consistenyl endanger my party due to low MP. Yet I still never seem to have enough money.

To make it worse, I’m not too happy with the license board character improvement system. I wasn’t fond of Final Fantasy X’s sphere grid, but at least characters would be on certain tracks that would turn them into more of a healer or a warrior or a black mage. With this game, I have to spend a ridiculous amount of time peering at tiny print in my strategy guide's license board, trying to figure out who should learn what. I think this is a case when there are just too many choices. Every character can learn everything and I really don’t think that should be the case. When you have six characters, it makes sense that they should specialize. So why aren’t there more licenses in the magic section that increase MP or evasion? Why is it that you can have everyone as a melee fighter and a ranged fighter? This method is very expensive, as you have to keep so many types of weapons on hand. It just takes way too much effort to try to outfit everyone so they are balanced fighters and mages. I really get frustrated with this system, as I feel I have too little direction.

Finally, I was aggravated to unlock new “quickenings” (like limit breaks in previous final fantasies) and discover no help at all in how to use them. I skimmed through the section in my strategy guide before the boss fight and it seems like something terribly complicated with buttons and timing. All the game needs is a mini interactive tutorial on quickenings. It would take two minutes of our time and yet the game just leaves you hanging.

I think it’s time to take another break from FFXII. Between the stupid movies (where they say phrases such as “manufacted nethicite” in every other sentence) and the frustrations in the economy and leveling system, there is little to enjoy. I have a couple of the older final fantasies, and it may be time that I replayed them to rediscover my love of RPGs. I really miss that case of game addiction. I just can’t stand the thought of playing FFXII again, only to discover more and more issues that make it feel like I’m wasting my time for nothing.  

After Day 1 of my World of Warcraft trial, I wasn’t that convinced that it was an epic, addictive masterpiece that had the potential to take over some peoples’ lives. On Day 2, I kept telling myself, "It’s not that fun. I don’t see why everyone’s so excited about it." Yet when I quit, I would keep thinking about it, and I found myself logging back in a couple of times throughout the day.

I ran to a different town in Day 2 for the first time. I had to consult a map online to make sure I wasn’t running into certain doom, but I was already headed in the right direction. I found more interesting tasks there such as filling phials at moonwells and killing more advanced monsters. There is something fun about running errands for people – tasks that ordinarily don’t receive much glory in RPGs are rewarded with the appreciation of NPCs, a higher local reputation, and often money and/or an item.

One such quest involved obtaining tumors from monsters called Timberlings. It was a lot of fun because the Timberlings were very close to the quest giver and it was no trouble at all to help out a man who was trying to save the environment. The themes of environmentalism were part of the reason why I chose to be a night elf. I enjoy nature and have respect for it – another reason why I enjoyed Okami. Several Timberlings later, I had reached level 7 and quit for the day.

By Day 3, I had accepted a quest to kill Gnarlpine Ambushers, some beastly humanoids who were making the road to Darnassus unsafe (according to a pretty night elf who rode on a tiger). I searched far and wide for these beasts, but I could not find them anywhere. I asked around but no one seemed to know where they were. I went on other quests, but, by the end of the day, I still had not found those Gnarlpine Ambushers.

I asked a friend from the real world about the Gnarlplines. I was frustrated because I kept getting slowed down by other monsters when I went looking for the Gnarlpines. I found a few camps where there were many other types of Gnarlpines (Shamans, Warriors, etc.) but never any ambushers. My friend suggested that I try to group with some other players to make the fights end faster. I ruled out that possibility because I like to play games by myself without having to depend on other people or do their bidding. (This is one reason why I have avoided MMORPGs for so long – I don’t like to leave others in control of my destiny when I don’t even know who they are.)

I reached level 8 when I quit playing WoW today (Day 3), but I was extremely frustrated about my inability to locate those Gnarlpines. If this is how the game is going to be, I didn’t know how much I want to play. Perhaps it won’t be as addicting as I had feared.  

There are few games that make me want to cry. Okami came close.

While the touching ending could be considered sappy, I found it to be very appropriate to the spirit of the game. When you have a game about Gods and demons, it is difficult to make something that is not based around fantastic violence or faith. Okami’s ending incorporated both.

The theme of faith has been an undercurrent in the game, but it really rises to the surface at the end. People who believe in the power of the wolf help empower her throughout the game. The wolf is touching in its realism, and, as an animal lover, I find it amazing that the game created so much personality for the wolf without hearing her thoughts.

So what made me want to cry? It wasn’t the heartwarming faith message. It was beauty. At the end, you are able to see the wolf in a different form. The majesty, the music, and the miracle of it all is almost overwhelming in its artistry. It is a rewarding experience in itself.

I would love to recommend this game to anyone I could, but I feel that I can’t. The sheer amount of time necessary to appreciate the reverent tone and subtle humor of Okami will make it inaccessible for many people. I logged 54 hours and eight minutes. Although that included many sidequests, that type of dedicated gaming is not for the average person.

When the game finally ended, I was satisfied by the final fight and the conclusion. The story felt solid. Thinking back on my experience, I felt that the mini-games were frustrating at times, but those required to continue were never ridiculously tiresome like those in Kingdom Hearts II. I finally did find Moley’s treasure eventually and was able to complete the quests I really cared about.

Perhaps one of the best aspects of Okami was the fact that dying was more of an annoyance that a danger. I think I only died once in the whole game. If you fell off a cliff, you would only lose a portion of your life. This lead me to always have a sense of security, which fit the game, as the character was a God and should not be defeated by such a paltry setback.

I really enjoyed Okami and hope that my future gaming experiences can live up to it.  

I was playing through Okami this weekend when I heard of a special treasure area called “Moley’s Treasure Trove.” My source told me to look for “a large, circular slab of rock at Taka Pass.” Sounds easy enough, right?

Apparently, you had to use the Digging Champ (advanced digging) ability to find this. I looked at the large, circular slab of hard ground by the moles (thinking the name implied that it would be close to Moley, the mole leader). I dug and dug, but the ground yielded nothing but a couple of inkpots and some food. I was disappointed, but I still held out hope that this treasure would prove easy money and be just a few footsteps away.

I ran around Taka pass, gradually exploring a wider and wider radius. I dug around every rock that was remotely circular. After finding no treasure troves, I went back to a side area of Taka Pass (accessible through a cave) where a I had bloomed a guardian sapling. I found a couple of clovers to bloom but, once again, no treasure trove.

In desperation, I looked to the internet for help. While a web search for “Moley’s Treasure Trove” yielded few results, I did find one clue. It appeared that one of the digging champ spots WAS in Taka Pass by someone/something named Bingo. I was very excited, despite the fact that I was not sure who Bingo was. I assumed that it was the little dog I fed and went back to the game.

Once I found the little dog, I ran around and around but to no avail. I was so thoroughly disappointed by what I had hoped would be a simple treasure hunt that I quit for the day. I had spent nearly an hour running around looking for something that definitely wasn’t worth the time.

As I look back, I can see how I was sucked into what was perhaps an unintentional addictive game element. While extras such as this treasure trove are meant to be somewhat elusive (if not time-consuming), I had taken on the typical addict’s view of “it’s just around the next corner” or “just one more try.” I hate that part of myself sometimes, because I lose sight of what’s really important (in terms of the game and my life in general) and become focused sometimes to the point of hindrance. On certain memory mini-games, for example, I could not try more than ten times at once because I would no longer be able to keep track of all the elements. One such games involved remembering the order in which I had to kill the five thieves, and after ten tries, I had been holding the order for fifty separate thieves in my short-term memory.

In the end, I left Moley’s Treasure Trove alone and decided to move on. Even if I had stupidly missed something, it was not worth my time anymore. I shut off the game in my frustration and took a break.  

“I’m so psyched about it – just seeing that chain saw gun makes me want to play it right now.” This is a shining example of the highly academic talk I encounter before my game design classes begin. This particular conversation was before the release of Gears of War. At the time, I shook my head, thinking, “Boys will be boys.” I knew little about the game and shrugged it off as another hack-and-slash testosterone indulgence.

While the idea of massacring large numbers of monstrous enemies often appeals to me (especially in an RPG environment), the whole idea of using a chain saw seemed a bit graphic at the time. My imagination began to wander…were people actually going to use such chain saw guns to hack up other humans in war? If so, I thought it was a bit extreme on the gore factor. Why couldn’t it just be a chain saw? Then it could be more or a melee weapon. The idea of combining a chain saw and a gun seemed ridiculous to me, but I guess I can’t be too critical. After all, one of my favorite games (perhaps because it was also one of my first) was Final Fantasy VIII, and that had a gunblade (which didn’t even fire bullets).

I guess video game weapons were made to be ridiculous, so maybe it was unfair of me to judge a game so quickly by its weapons. Fortunately, I was surprised a couple weeks later to find that Gears of War had been getting rave reviews.

I happened to watch some co-workers playing it at the end of the day. I was offered the chance to play myself, but, after watching one of my friends (with little more FPS shooting experience than myself) fail miserably, I politely declined. However, I was happy to discover that the game was not about killing other humans.

I watched the guy who brought in Gears of War as he played it. He went through part of a level, explaining how he liked the fact that it had depth, great graphics, and a viable plot. He loved the multiplayer (four on four). He was also explaining what he didn’t like: your partner’s A.I. had a tendency to run him into the line of fire and get him killed.

Then one particularly even co-worker began to play it. At first he was his calm, normal self. I admired the graphics and mechanics of the game, but decided to play Okami next to him after getting the feel of the game. Soon, however, he grew more and more agitated. He began to swear and became more aggressive. Our other co-worker chuckled and remarked on the difficulty of the game.

Don’t get me wrong – I’m not against violence in video games, but it was pretty funny to see my even co-worker get all upset over a shooting game. I left that day, glad to have seen the game, but not filled with regret for declining to play. I am more easily agitated than my co-worker and definitely could do without the frustration and stress of a shooter.

The next week, when I walked into class, I heard my classmates talking once again about Gears of War. I was proud that I had seen it and had a little more knowledge than before. However, one of my peers did mention how "it's one of those games that becomes beautiful when you master the mechanics.” Even if I do not think I would enjoy playing Gears of War, I do think I should respect it for the beauty others have found in it.  

Designing games can be a very time-consuming process – especially if you take the time to play other games to keep an eye on the market. While working on a paper design project for class, I decided to share a couple games I really enjoy with my group to help inspire us.
One of my partners enjoys games, but not the same types of games that I play. He is more into the action, stealth, and FPS games. As our project was fairly free-form, we had a lot of room for innovation. However, it’s not easy to come up with an innovative idea that would be fun and engaging. This is where I decided to turn to two games I find very innovative: Katamari Damacy and Okami.

Again and again, I have found myself showing Katamari to people who only casually play games or rarely play at all. I even got my sister to buy it, and it became the first PS2 game she ever bought (the other title she owned being the RPG Legends of Legaia, which she never finished). She has been showing it to her friends, especially those who do not game. So why do we both want to show it to everyone?

There is something pleasantly surprising about rolling a ball and finding everything stick to it. The simple controls (mainly the two PS2 analog sticks) are fairly intuitive, making it easy for beginners to pick it up. An inherent beauty can be found in the ability to manipulate your environment in this new way – everything becomes a manipulative, as long as you are big enough. The sound effects are very amusing – especially when the annoying kid who blocked your way moments ago screams in terror as you roll him up along with a couple penguins. Then there’s the ridiculously Japanese music that ranges from perky J-Pop to jazzy swing. It’s quite satisfying to pick up everything around you while listening to such lyrics as “I want to wad you up into my life.” Aside from the mechanics and music, the visuals are highly stylized and full of colors so bright that they are almost hard on the eyes at first. The towering King of All Cosmos is terrifying with his huge head and tights that leave nothing to the imagination. Yet the little prince you control is so tiny and seemingly helpless, it’s hard not to love him.

With all these unique qualities, it’s no surprise that Katamari has spawned fiercely loyal fans. I am among them, even though I have not gotten around to finishing the game. However, this does not stop me from expressing my love of the game to others. I showed my partners the multiplayer mode of the game, in an effort to get them used to the unique world and innovative mechanics. I wanted to show them an experience that was very different from anything they had experiences, and Katamari is one of those games that truly has to be played to be understood.

After my partners had gotten a taste of Katamari, I played a quick demo of Okami. After all, I had heard little about the game until I saw someone else playing it. After watching the fluid movements of the wolf and staring transfixed at the screen for half an hour, I decided I had to play it. The art style is so unique in how it combined brush art with a 3-D environment that I was captivated simply as a viewer. My partners were similarly impressed with the art and flow of the movements. In the short time I played for them, they could see why I loved it.

This leads me to wonder, why do we love to share games with other people? In the one semester time that I have had the privilege of studying games in school, I have found a community of people who love games. They love talking about games and sharing their personal experiences. It could be about the desire to know the latest news, but I like to think that it could be more than that. Perhaps it’s more about sharing what we love with others and hoping that the market will someday adapt. I know that I dream of the day when innovation outsells the sequels, but it hardly seems commercially viable. Perhaps I love to share simply because I love games; I want understand the pleasure I find in video games and why I need to play them.  

Due to a much-needed break in my workload this weekend, I was able to play a lot of games. After DotA, I played another Warcraft III mod, Tower Defense. I also spent six or eight hours playing Okami.

Tower Defense is a game where you build towers to shoot down wave after wave of monsters. These monsters progress in strength, grow in numbers, and therefore become increasingly more difficult to defeat. When you begin the game, you are given virtually no help – no tutorial, no time to read the descriptions, and little warning before the first wave arrives. You can only let 100 monsters through the gate at the end, which only seems like a good number until one monster from the second or third wave counts for more than one monster. As the game gets harder, you can let fewer monsters through.

Due to the difficult nature of the Tower Defense from the speed, strength, and sheer number of monsters, I had little patience for it. The sounds effects, such as a sing-song “Job’s Done” in the voice of a pea-brained construction worker, get increasingly annoying due to the frenzied pace at which you have to execute such commands. You are also given very few resources in the beginning and receive more mostly by surviving waves, so it becomes very hard to get catch up if you ever fall behind.

I simply hate feeling rushed and played this game only a handful of times before giving up. I found the tasks repetitive and frenzied, making for a game that quickly became frustrating and only seemed like something you’d play for hours just to say you had beaten a really hard game. I am not that type of player, which may explain why I happily moved on to Okami later that day.

I have already raved about the first hour of Okami and how engaging it was for me. I purchased the strategy guide so I wouldn’t miss out on important points or get lost. Without the stress of wasting time running on a wild goose chase for an item or task, I was able to relax into the game. The music is often very relaxing, and the natural environments provide a serene isolation. Even if you are accompanied by your tiny friend Issun, he provides no annoying commentary, just a helping hand to push the story and you, as the player, in the right direction. I never found myself feeling alone. I just felt peaceful, even in the fights. I often choose to fight with paintbrush strokes, which is a nice break from the button-mashing common in most games. Instead, you become the artist, unleashing the most powerful attacks through artistry. I have always found art to be relaxing, and maybe that is another reason why I find Okami to be a nice break from my life.

As much as I enjoy Okami, I never played for more than two or three hours at a time. I wondered if it was just me or the nature of the game. While I knew that Tower Defense would not entertain me for even one session of Okami, I grew tired of Okami for one of the biggest reasons why I tired of Tower Defense: repetition. Tower Defense seemed to provide little in the way of variation for gameplay throughout all the waves, but even Okami can feel trivial after a few hours. Running around to get something as trivial as a fishing pole for someone can take a while, and, even if you can accomplish some greater goal in the process, it can be tiring. I recently fell off a cliff and had to take the long way back up, drawing vines over and over. I also tend to get tired of drawing lily pads in the water so the wolf doesn’t drown (why she can’t breathe while doggie paddling is beyond me). Even so, I am sad to leave the world of Okami and find it addictive again after a short break. Perhaps I just find it easier to break up the monotony of gameplay with the monotony of my real life. I feel a little more grounded, and, if anything, it keeps the console from overheating.  

There are few games that you play and actually think, “Wow, if I could make a game like this, my life would be complete.” After playing Okami for an hour, I’m convinced that it will likely be one of those truly innovative games that everyone will wish they had created.

Okami’s most striking feature is the visual design. The world and characters are all made to look like Japanese brush paintings. The designs are a type of hybrid between 2D and 3D, where the lines are in 2D but the watercolor-style colors and character movement create a sense of 3D perspective. After obtaining a paintbrush, you gain the ability to paint the world and mold this fantastic reality.

The story of Okami was laid out like a storybook in the beginning, with simple 2D animation sequences and gibberish voice-over narration. It is based on traditional Japanese mythology, but it was captivating to watch. When the story switches to cinematics later on, the movements of the wolf are captivatingly realistic in their ability to portray her as a living animal. As a former dog owner, I know what expressions dogs can and can’t make.

The gameplay itself is very smooth. The wolf’s movements are animated to highlight the fluidity of this animal’s movements. Fights are fairly straightforward and don’t require a laborious wait. The paintbrush feature aids in battles and can be used to fill in pieces of the environment. Unlike other games, this feature is not in a separate space; the paintbrush can be applied at any time as an overlay for the current view. While the paintbrush will only react to certain objects, this seamlessness in which it is integrated into the game puts the player in the position of the artist and author of reality.

As you may have noticed from the beginning of my blog, I had been feeling frustrated for a long time with my gameplay. I had started several games without getting attached. I miss that feeling of addiction that I found so often with RPGs. Since Final Fantasy X, I have been searching for the next game that would pull me in. With Final Fantasy XII newly released, I thought it would be that. However, I received it in the mail and didn’t even touch it yet. So why was Okami so much more fascinating to me than the other games?

Okami was fairly simple and straightforward in the beginning. It was friendly in that you couldn’t run off the edge of the level and die. The wolf you control never talks, like a real animal. Your companion, a bug, has silly comments that keep the story from being dragged down by stuffy mystical drama. The bug tells you what to do and has character – he gets jealous yet compliments you on your new abilities. The NPCs say interesting things and seem to have their own lives. The visuals are fresh and beautiful and the paintbrush feature is quite innovative.

Traditionally, I have been a sucker for long games with good visual design. Maybe that’s because I want to escape to a world as beautiful (if not more so) than the world we inhabit. I grew up in Oregon, where I was surrounded by lush green. I love the clear blues of tropical oceans and vibrant sunsets. One of my favorite aspects of Final Fantasy X was the use of color. The sunny beaches and vibrant environments made it feel like a vacation. I love taking a trip to imagined worlds in games when it feels like a relaxing, captivating break from life.

I hope to make a game someday as beautiful as Okami. The visual design is only one part. The innovative paintbrush mechanic, seamless movement, and overall fluidity in the fantastic 2D/3D hybrid realm that really make the game shine. I am excited to be able to play more of Okami and rediscover my passion for gaming again.