I only just recently picked up the gem that is Okami on Wii, so this isn’t a review. Instead I’m writing more from a fan’s perspective, and to spread the good word about this game if you still haven’t experienced it yourself. “Zelda killer” it’s not, but it’s still a terrific game that you owe it to yourself to play.

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Let us mourn the passing of one of gaming’s mainstays. After nearly 20 years, classic video game mag EGM is being laid to rest.

Farewell, old friend

Yes, it’s undoubtedly a symptom of the rut that our economy is in, but to me it’s also demonstrative of another, more gradual change that’s been happening for the past decade: print media is going the way of the dodo. This is especially true with video game publications - as gamers are naturally tech-savvy, we were among the first to switch to getting our info online instead of in print. While this was a logical step, and I can never see myself going back to limited gaming news once a month when the internet provides all the updates we need the instant they become available, it’s still sad to see the gaming mag industry withering away. There’s something irreplacable about holding that fresh magazine paper in your hands, looking at the vibrantly colored screenshots and reading the editors’ attempts at humor (with varying success).

You’ve had a great run, EGM. Thanks for the memories.

This week brought some desperately needed positive news for PS3 owners and Sony shareholders:

Exhibit A: Last year Sony sold quite a few more PS3’s than previously. This is accredited to the new 80- and 160-gig models (both of which, I must point out, are inferior choices for many gamers than the defunct 60-gig, as neither of the new models has PS2 backwards-compatibility.)

Exhibit B: Sony doesn’t get its ass handed to it quite as much on production costs. Granted, it’s nowhere near as profitable as the Wii’s production costs (Nintendo actually makes money for each Wii sold, a foreign concept in the industry’s recent years), but at least they’re not getting hit for almost double the cost of the console like they were at launch.

Now I’m sure Sony officials would love to play up these news items to show how great they’re doing. But while this is definitely a change in the right direction, it still reeks of being “too little, too late.” 40% more consoles is great and all, but when your base numbers are dismal it’s not terribly impressive. $50 lost on each console sold is a big improvement from $250, but it still hurts like hell, especially when you have almost no A-list titles to back it up. Good effort Sony, but it doesn’t change reality: you’re too far behind to catch up at this point.

                                     Little known fact: these guys wrote penned this album shortly                                               after spending two excruciating weeks away from their gaming rigs

I’m home for the holidays, and since I managed to brilliantly forget bring my DS, I’ve been playing absolutely nothing. Unless air hockey on my iPod touch counts. (It doesn’t.)

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I gamed more in 2008 than I have since I became, bar-none, the greatest Super Mario Bros. player in the world back in 1992. I would make a simple top 10 list, but I thought a more personal compilation of superlatives would be more interesting. Here goes:

Most Likely to Make Me Commit Murder: Professor Layton and the Curious Village

Watch your back, Layton: I’m going to murder you.

I borrowed (well, it’s been almost eight months, so ’stole’ might be more accurate) this delightful DS puzzler from my friend, Kate, and proceeded to get lost in the wonderfully illustrated village brought to life by the folks at Level-5. I say ‘get lost’ not only because I found myself immersed in the game, but also because I was also god-awfully terrible at it. I’d take waaaaay too long to solve even the most rudimentary puzzles, and every time I got an answer wrong, I came a little bit closer to diving into my DS screen, a la Pleasantville, to massacre that town full of needlessly cryptic weirdos. The fact that my girlfriend was much better — leaps and bounds better — at the game than I was only made my bloodlust stronger. 

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2008 Was a Good Year for Asian-American Gamers; Will 2009 Offer More of the Same?

 

Mirror’s Edge

You gotta hand it to Electronic Arts this year: they took a lot of chances. Instead of focusing their efforts on pumping out lackluster sequels to tired franchises, EA decided to put a lot of effort into the marketing and development of original intellectual properties. One of those IPs was the wildly inventive Mirror’s Edge, which featured Faith, an Asian roof-running, ledge-leaping courier. That would have been remarkable enough - there aren’t many games with female leads, let alone ones that are Asian - but Faith wasn’t a big-breasted, katana-toting ninja -seductress stereotype. She was well-developed and normally proportioned, and a big step in the right direction. It was wholly refreshing to play a game with an Asian main character, with nary a throwing star in sight. 

So yesterday, California Assembywoman Fiona Ma held a press conference in her office to talk to parents about ESRB ratings. What did she do exactly? She reminded parents…to check the ratings when buying games for their kids. Am I the only one that thinks this was a waste of time and money? Apparently ESRB has come up with a few new descriptors for game content, but the ratings themselves remain the same. All this conference seemed to do is repeat a message that any watchful parent would already know. I do appreciate, however, the fact that it shows the importance of parents taking responsibility for their kids. Way too often these days people go blaming video games and other media for screwed up kids and leave the parents out of it. But that’s a whole other can of worms I’m not gonna get into here. Point is, aren’t there a few more important issues facing California right now?

Not pictured: 13-year old boy at his computer

As an avid World of Warcraft player, I feel it is only right to tackle a serious issue that the game’s unbelievable popularity has created: a whole new brand of racist and classist stereotypes unique to the game world. Is it not enough that Asians still suffer from racism from time to time in real life? Apparently not, for when you step into WoW you also enter a world of hateful insults and preconceptions based not on who you are, but who your character is.
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XSEED Games, the offshoot of former Square-Enix members, recently launched the website for its tantalizing DS game, Retro Game Challenge. This may not be very enticing to the younger generation, but those of us who grew up with the golden age of 8 and 16-bit gaming should all sit up and take notice of this title. While it remains to be seen if the gameplay itself will be any good, the idea is great: Create a world of fake old school classics that mimic our real favorites, and compile them all in one game. Retro Game Challenge has shooting, racing, platforming, and even an entire original RPG packed in, along with fictional magazines that detail their fictional history. I for one hope that efforts like this and the recent Mega Man 9 herald more titles that return to our gaming roots. We’ll keep an eye on this one for sure.

Last week brought the first annual IndieCade. Never heard of it? I don’t blame you. This interesting event really shows how far gaming has come since its inception - we’re now so mainstream that we have an event specifically highlighting indie game developers, much like the film industry. Another positive sign of gaming’s growth, though I can’t help but feel a pang of longing for the days when we were the ones outside the status quo; as with any big business, sometimes it seems like it’s more about the money today than making gamers happy. But I digress. Here’s the press release, after the break…

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