Critical News Top Headlines of the Week from Around the Industry
Good Mascots And Messages (Next-Gen.biz) The author veers off into a marketing lesson to go with the mascot discussion, but on the whole it is an interesting look at the videogame market as well as being a critique of once-cool blue hedgehog. It should also serve as warning to Nintendo, a company still making waves with its hardware, but doing so with an aging mascot. Mario has been in only two original games this decade, but has been (over)used to sell spinoffs and gimmick titles. -Dale Weir >>talkback
Good President Bush Receives Birthday Present-cum-cheeky PR Stunt From Nintendo (4 color rebellion) A little cruel perhaps; but hey, he got a free Nintendo DS out of it. And after all, Nintendo's Brain Age games are only looking to edify the game-addled youths of today in a way I'm sure the president would approve of. As the man himself once said: “Rarely is the question asked: Is our children learning?” -Andrew Fletcher >>talkback
Good First Images Of PlayStation Portable EyeToy (IGN) Is anyone else still a little baffled as to how this would perform the traditional EyeToy functionality on PSP? I can't really see Kinetic working on this. More interesting (and arguably more immediately conceivable) are the ideas of on-the-move gaming, with the built-in camera and the PSP's WiFi and forthcoming GPS capabilities offering up great gaming potential for those willing to explore it. -AF >>talkback
Good Making A Videogame: How The Money Is Spent (IGN) A little late picking up on this article, but I think it’s a good primer for anyone wanting to know what getting a new videogame onto the shelves entails. Scary, isn’t it? Worth remembering next time you lambaste a publisher for being too risk-averse. -AF >>talkback
Good Electronic Arts Confirms Major Wii Support (Gamasutra) One can argue that lack of support from Electronic Arts helped bury Sega's Dreamcast and almost prematurely did in the GameCube. For Nintendo's Wii to get this kind of support, given Electronic Arts' public hesitation with developing for the Wii and Wii controller and given Sony and Microsoft had support before they announced their next-gen consoles, it bodes well for Nintendo to grab some a wider audience. -DW >>talkback
Good Henry Jenkins On The Responsibility Of Games (Gamesetwatch.com) A well-done interview with, as usual, excellent responses from Henry Jenkins. It is wonderful to know we have someone who can argue for the industry and (by extension gamers) when it comes so routinely under attack. -DW >>talkback
Good Casual Gamers Not So Casual, Survey Says (Gamesindustry.biz) The study doesn’t exactly shatter misconceptions as the article claims, but it does show that an awful lot of time is being spent playing simple internet games that were long considered quick-break time fillers. Is there really nothing of more substance that mainstream gaming can offer these gamers in their free time? -AF >>talkback
Good Fear & Respect Goes Up In Smoke (GameSpot.com) Old news for sure, but I still take great pride in linking to it. The gangster genre is overcrowded and the exploitation and portrayal of black characters in games in general borders on racist—name a positive black character that isn't a bald, goatied, streetwise, heavygun-carrying hood if you can, I dare you. Maybe, just maybe, the people at Midway realized this as well and decided against Fear & Respect—that or they realized that NBA Balllers filled their quota. -DW >>talkback
Bad Is LocoRoco Racist? (1UP.com) Without the lovely LocoRoco having touched down in the US yet, I'm afraid many GameCritics readers might not be able to appreciate how silly this accusation is. I appreciate the author's wish to cite Sony’s LocoRoco as an example of unthinking racist representation slipping into ostensibly harmless media, but I think it’s pushing it to suggest the age-old “color black = evil” symbolism is purely a result of institutionalised racism. In fact, having recently played the game, I thought this piece would take issue with the black LocoRoco's funk singing style—not that this would be a valid accusation either. What I took from the game was that the different colored LocoRoco and their distinctive dialects (I heard hints of German, Spanish, French, Japanese and American) and singing styles fit beautifully with the game's varied soundtrack to create a game that absolutely embraces cultural diversity from an aesthetic point of view. -AF >>talkback
Bad Is Sony Racist? (Eurogamer) Oh dear, more trouble for Sony, this time from the NAACP. In truth, the advert was probably a little naive given the obvious black and white symbolism involved, not to mention the rather aggressive and dominating pose of the white woman in the photograph as she grasps the other woman’s face. At least it is far more worthy of the public ire than the incredibly random and unfair fuss made over LocoRoco (see above). -AF >>talkback
Bad Protective Fan Base Lays Thin Ice For Future Wii Games (IGN) A typically speculative article about the significance and likely trajectory of the Wii Sports games showcased at this year's E3. It's interesting to note the shock with which the author ponders upon Wii Sports replacing Nintendo's classic sports franchises: “If we get Wii Sports: Jet Ski instead of Wave Race Wii, blood will be shed. (…) The sheer concept of replacing awesome titles with more stripped down versions is horrendous”. I wonder how much of that stripping down is considered in presentation terms only? In any case, it is interesting to note that while Nintendo fans are generally rallying behind the company in their drive for fresh and original approaches to traditional gaming models, they are likely to be the sharpest critics when some of Nintendo's best-loved franchises do finally get the Wii treatment. Should make for an interesting love-hate affair over the coming years. -AF >>talkback
Bad Xbox 360 Yet To Find Its Feet In The East (IGN) This update on Xbox 360's Japanese prospects is kind of depressing. Given the huge effort made on Microsoft's part to attract Japanese developers to the system (and remember this probably means generous publishing deals that allow for more creative concepts and labours of love to get the green light), things have not gotten any better after that poor launch in December and it is hard to be optimistic with both the Wii and PlayStation 3 coming this winter. Let's hope we see a rise in system sellers of the kind that gradually raised its predecessors profile in the west during the last generation. -AF >>talkback
Ugly Jon Stewart Blasts Congress' Ignorance Towards Videogames (Joystiq.com) I'd like to thank these Pong- and Civilization- playing politians for keeping violent games out of the hands of poor (colored) children. I have a question: Are you aware that you are being recorded while saying these things? -DW >>talkback
