It all starts in the vendor’s room at the convention. Now, I’m not going to say that I know the exact rarity class (which I don’t care about anyway) and price of each and every classic game, but I have a good sense of the average value of a game, plus a collection of handy tools (which I’ll share later) in order to avoid getting ripped (beyond the price of my nostalgia). This vendor seemed to be well stocked with just about every system from Atari up to PS1 & N64.

1) That brings me to my first point. Be suspicious! If a vender looks super clean and organized in their game collection, lots of complete boxes and all the popular titles – be wary right away. I have no problem lambasting one of the vendors in my town: Oogie games, who possess a very orderly collection of over-priced games. Most likely, the positive image of their product is going to entice you, which they are aware of, and the prices are going to be an easy $10 over, for starters.

The titled that caused me to laugh personally and walk away from the vendor was Mario RPG with box. A great game for sure, but the price they wanted was egregious: $110. I thought they had to be high, but of course they knew some sucker was out there.

2) This brings me to my second point. If it’s clearly too high a sale for you WALK AWAY. You aren’t bound to it, someone else is going to get scammed, be sure. Most of the games you’re looking for – with the exception of maybe Shantae (GBC) and Earthbound (SNES) – are in large supply around the world and you can find them at a steal at some other time.

I wrote off the vendor until I was in a panel about two hours later. I hadn’t thought about the game for a second more, in fact I thought, more about the excellent game shop I found situated in the lobby. Slightly messy place, cluttered and loaded with merch, but of course, as I’ve already stated it’s usually a good thing. This shop had Street Fighter II (SNES) for the price of $8. Absolutely, killer. But I didn’t up and buy it right away, I was too suspicious of such a windfall.

3) Provided you’re not in the same position at a garage sale or something, then here’s what to do when you find yourself in a similar spot: talk to the owner. Such a reasonable price made me wonder about the quality of the game, so I asked the shop owner if he tested his games and guaranteed them up to a certain time. He said they were all tested and that if I had a non working game I could bring it back whenever with the receipt.

Anywhoo, so two hours later I was listening to a Pokemon panel, when I heard two fellows chatting behind me. One remarking to the other, “Hey man check out what I got! Mario RPG!” His friend replied, “Oh man, nice!” Guy one then said, “Yeah, got it for 110, I would have bargained him down to 50 but I didn’t want to make him angry” His friend replied, “Yeah, I gotcha. Nice, man!” I just chuckled at first, and then realized how absurd it was that he was afraid to haggle the guy.

4) This brings me to my next point: Haggle Haggle Haggle Haggle Haggle! When you’re in a store establishment – or when the vendor looks fancy – it seems difficult to do, or, dare I say it, WRONG, but that’s a load of crap. Mankind has been bartering everything for as long as he had some goods. The retro game market is EXACTLY the market to bargain in. There’s no company that is pushing exact prices because this is all resale (with the exclusion of a few companies that still print games, like PS for example). If this vendor scares you, then just bail. Clearly not worth dealing with, but when the time comes, you need the stones to face up if you wanna collect games AND have a shirt.

That fool who bought the Mario RPG game had no frame of reference. He thought a good price would have been 50, which is absurd. Had he a frame of reference for pricing in general, he would have realized that few SNES games would ever merit that price, and that he was being robbed (of roughly 4X the usual price!) Knowing history would have come in handy in his situation too, the more you know about a console and its success/printings, the easier it is to gauge the price.

5) Price Range! This is one of the most critical. What I recommend to you is to check prices frequently, between stores, websites, and everywhere else you come upon them. When you start to develop a median in your head, you can better gauge in any situation. What I offer you in that respect is one of my favorite websites:

videogames.pricecharting.com

This beauty has a vast database of games and it generates the prices and history – over years and years! – of each game based on the info from: Half.com, Ebay, and Amazon. It is one of my bestest friends and you should make it yours too! Had our intrepid buyer used it, he would have seen that the price of Mario rpg is currently selling at: $28 middle of the road price. For fun 110/28 = 3.9

Then I offer you:

Dan’s Common Sense Average Price Table:
(These accord to consoles I regularly buy for)

NES: $1-$8*
Genesis: $3-$12
SNES:$4-$12(15)
PS1:$5-$15
PS2:$8-$15
GBC: $4-$12

If games exceed these ranges, RESEARCH THEM. They may be rare, with a possible special printing or unique history behind them, but you could also be getting terribly, horribly, ripped off.

*Why is NES so low? They are some of the oldest games, and people have no conception of their prices, so you can get them scandalously cheap at garage sales etc. Especially group sales on ebay where someone clears out a closet and mass sells 30 games at once.

Dan’s Box Rule of Thumb:
Unless the game is exceedingly rare, the box should only add 5-10 dollars to the value. Tack on an additional five dollars if they have the manual too. If they have some nifty crap, like a T-shirt that came with it – for example Illusion of Gaia – then you’re on your own.

Dan’s Plea of Common Sense:
Just because it’s a TOTALLY AWESOME GAME does not mean it merits an inflated price. Stores make a killing on N64 games because of this. Even, Goldeneye 64, yeah that’s right, should not cost more than $15 at this point, but it’ll be 25-30 in store, and people WILL pay it.

Dan’s List of Notable Titles to Watch the Hell Out For:

Nes:
Snow Brothers: I would shakily say pay 30-40 for it, but I have heard of 60.
Nintendo Campus Challenge,                \
Nintendo World Championship Gold,     JUST RUN
Nintendo World Championship           /
Myriad 6 in 1: 1000+

Genesis:
Blockbuster World Championships  IT’S A TWAP
Sega Genesis XVC X’EYE 200+
Megaman the Wily Wars 100+
Beggar Prince 140+
Spiderman Web of Fire 100+

Snes:
Super Mario RPG: Pay 20 for it, 25 if you have to. If they want 30. WALK AWAY. (unless it comes with box)
Final Fantasy VI (III) $30-40 tops. If they want any more than that, they’re smoking.
Chrono Trigger: $35-40. No más.
Earthbound: Shoot for 80-90 Max, but 110 isn’t unheard of. (This one saw a limited printing)
Super Mario Allstars 15 MAX. if it is the bundled one with Super Mario World: 20.
Seikken Densetsu 2 (Secret of Mana): $25-30 MAX. It’s not the most common game, but that doesn’t mean that it deserves to cost more than 30.

PS1:
Clock Tower: 20 or lower.
Clock Tower 2: 25 MAX. idiots out there run this thing up to 60 on ebay, just ignore them.
FF(ANY): 15-30 There is a website that is still printing new copies of these games, flooding the market with even more copies, you don’t need to pay tons. If you want black label, you’ll have to look it up. But no more than 50 even then, please.
Lunar Star Saga: try for 80 if you can.

GBC:
Shantae $140+ This was the last game printed for the NES, and it’s unfortunately really good to boot.
International Super Star Soccer: $100+

I leave you with this wisdom that I have stumbled across through years of collecting and wish you happy hunting.

~Dan

** Adendum: While I very rarely deal in Sealed games, my first rule stays the same: BE SUSPICIOUS. If you’re buying sealed, do it from a trusted vendor. It’s incredibly easy to seal a game – store like EB games do it all the time – so don’t think you’re getting a great deal.

Wikipedia thoughtfully wrote out the storyline for this odd game in just a few sentences:

Save Mary is an Atari 2600 action game that revolves around creating platforms to save Mary, the damsel in distress. The character is a humble construction worker who must pick up crates to use as platforms to get Mary to climb up, eventually leading to the top of the valley. The villain of the story is a mustachioed fiend who keeps Mary at the bottom of the valley for his own perverse pleasure.

Lovely…

Just one small problem: there was no villain.

Atari games are made to really draw on your imagination. Without it, we make very little sense of what is going on. But in the case of this game, the exact opposite happens: we know exactly where we are and what is taking place before our eyes… Which allows us to ask some questions about our environment, and what really is happening on the screen.

(Keep reading after the break)

There are a few questions that come to mind immediately when playing this game, as well as a few that linger well after you finish.

Who really is the villain here?

While the game’s description mentions the deeds of a “mustachioed fiend”, we never get the opportunity to prove his existence. The whole reason we played this game until its anti-climactic conclusion was to SEE this fiend. But alas, he did not exist.

To fill in the blanks, I’d like to present a theory: Mary is one of the princesses from Mario Brothers, and Wario is the fiend. At least in terms of mental imagery, the problem is solved.

Why not just use a wooden crate?

Metal crates that sink are one way to save Mary, as she can jump higher and higher to safety… But why wouldn’t ANYONE on the worksite consider the possibility of using a wooden crate as a makeshift boat? Someone skipped out on engineering class that day.

Oh, and not only that, the metal crates are filled with explosives.

Why can’t the crates stop the water from flowing in?

We know exactly where the water is seeping up from the ground, which brings us to question why the crates couldn’t just be used to stop the flow of water. Now I know what you’re probably thinking: “If you did this, or had a wooden boat, it would ruin the game!” My response: why create the game in the first place? This is such an odd situation to find yourself in, that an entire video game being created using this plot line is admirable at best. Which leads me into the next question…

Who approved this as a video game plot?

Atari games were known to be imaginative, using only a few pixels to tell whatever stories possible. From Haunted House to Adventure, the story was there because of some thought out background. We can see ourselves looking for items in a haunted house, defending castles from invaders, and fighting monsters in space… but who ever imagined themselves saving a person who is drowning in a quarry, using a crane and metal crates?

Sitting in the boardroom during a brainstorming exercise, someone must have said aloud “what if we had a workplace accident, and it was your job to keep us from getting sued!” Somehow, this resulted from that.

To be fair, the technology was very limited at the time, so any idea (minus E.T.) was a good idea.

What exactly did the power-ups do?

As far as we could decipher, the construction workers aiding the crane operator had a sense of what was going on. One of them had the right idea throwing scuba gear out to help her… but other than that, everything else was next to useless. I’m pretty sure a dodgeball and some cardboard numbers would do nothing to help a drowning lady.

Furthermore, what were the point of any of them if they disappeared after you dropped them to her? No extra points, time, or crates. We learned to ignore them.

How did the crane dig such a deep hole, if it can only reach a few feet into it?

I’m not really going to mess with game mechanics on this one. This is more just a personal complaint about the crane itself.

If you swing a crate by Mary, you knock her in the water. Why then, could she have not just climbed up the crate? Is that so hard? Apparently.

—

If I were to write the description for this game, it would have been much different. This is more along the lines of what really appears to be happening:

While teasing the men at a local quarry, Mary falls into a freshly dug hole. Thinking it would be funny, the other construction workers decide to blast away the edges of the hole to trap her in it. Little do they know, an underwater reservoir lies just underneath the blasted away rock. The pressure erupts, filling the hole with water. To save her, the construction workers push metal crates into the pit, hoping she’d jump on them. One guy, who can actually think, uses the crane above the hole to hoist them down. Whether or not she is saved depends entirely upon your skills at Tetris, and if you get lucky enough to not drop crates on her overreacting head.

In all honesty, the game is fun. Trying to stack crates high enough to save a panicking, pixelated girl is enough substance to outclass many Atari games.

If either were to pass, the internet as we know it would dramatically change. Continue? would no longer be able to function at the same capacity, social media would be severely restricted, and internet start-ups would slow to a halt. Streams and “let’s play” videos would end. THE INTERNET WOULD END!

Please take the time to educate yourself: http://projects.propublica.org/sopa/

Thanks for your time! We look forward to more exciting articles in 2012!

Sonicesque Vol. II
From the start, this album just screams sonic, from the nice 13 second start-up intro , all the way to the mash-up ending. I would say in many ways, Brueggemann has nailed the essence of sonic music more in this album than even volume one. His own goals for the album were,

Sonicesque Vol. II is the second original album of Sonic music in the Genesis style, composed by Karl Brueggemann. With this second volume, I really took things to the next level. I received some great feedback from Vol. I, which motivated me to go above and beyond what was originally just an experiment with a new plug-in. My goal for Vol. II was to try and emulate that classic Genesis style, while also making sure my own compositional voice was heard. Sonic 3 is the main influence here, but also Sonic & Knuckles, and Sonic 2. Fans of those games will notice some songs inspired by specific levels, such as Hydrocity, Angel Island, Ice Cap and Lava Reef, among others. I’ve put a lot of love into this album, and I really hope you enjoy it as much as I do. If so, please spread the word! Below is the Youtube link, as well as the download link.

Thanks for listening! Let me know what you think!
-Karl Brueggemann
 

I can just about agree with everyone of his comments. It’s actually kind of neat to notice in all of the tracks how he stays true to many of the references he is making in the sense of style, but his own composition is totally different, and yet doesn’t lose an ounce of WIN. One of my first examples of that would be the second track, “Coconut Hill”. It’s seems like an Angel Island reference (with a touch of 2 I’d say) but I can honestly say that I would take “Coconut Hill” over “Angel Island” any day as an opening track.

Then the next track we’ll check out is his nice “Ice Cap Zone” inspired track, “Frozen Valley”, which he just nails. He has all the same tones and styles of the original, but I’d say his own melody has more variety and play to it than the original; It’s something you notice throughout sonicesque, that he really works with all of the layers of the song, giving them each a time to breathe and jump out to the front of the stage.

Then I’ll bring up my own personal favorite, a track that is just plain chill, “Sunset Garden”. This one, I’m not entirely sure of the reference, the choppy base reminds me of “Marble Garden Zone”, but I don’t want to bog anyone done to one track. This track is just smooth all around, there’s this great drum bass combo that just flows amid the synth/string that just builds and builds. I’d say for all time favorites, this track rivals the ever excellent, “Windy Wetlands” from Vol. I.

Then finally I will go to his ending boss track, this one is interesting. I think this is the one track that he didn’t win me over from the original “Doomsday Zone” but it’s one hell of an effort. This is great epic ending track with an entirely original melody, and it represents a great improvement from his boss tracks from last time. Just the synth-shredding alone makes this track listen-worthy.

Final comments? Well I will say there was one thing I missed, and that was a killer end theme. Brueggemann did an excellent job making a nice mash-up ending in the style of 1 or 2, but there was no awesome end theme like the ending of Sonic 3. granted, it’s probably my favorite melody of all time and easily one of the best (of course, it was done by Michael Jackson and not Nakamura/Sonic Team but anyway), but I was hoping for something, but as I write this… I am aware that volume III is already out! So I apologize for the slowness in digesting all of KB’s excellent music, and stay tuned for Vol. III!

Download Vol. II here

~Dan

http://technodrome.bandcamp.com/

Rock on!
~Dan

So, why should we bother to remember this game? I know I usually think of launch titles as fodder for a system. Of course, every single Nintendo one is usually a Mario game – and a good one at that, but more often than not, they’re just created to fill in the hole until companies can get a steady stream of games coming out for their system.

What sets Mario 64 apart from other N64 games, is how many things it set out to achieve and did well – intentionally or not. At the forefront of this list would have to be 3D. There was certainly a list of games that had already cracked into this field – even the earlier, Mario RPG (kind of), but Mario 64 did this one with aplomb. This was a balanced, fast moving, smooth 3D world with an adjustable camera angle. Clearly Nintendo sat there and thought of every possible quality they could add to make it the best experience, and they hit it on the mark.

Continuing off of the idea of 3D, is this feel of openness. This aspect caused me to hate the game when I first tried it, but I later realized how great it was that I could not only choose which stars I wanted to do whenever I wanted, but I could also accomplish them in any way I saw fit. Apart from racing tracks, there are no time limits, and no cues or arrows to force me to go in some direction. It’s kind of funny when you think about how much hullabaloo that Scribblenauts got for being this sensational new approach to gaming, when it was really Mario 64 played with words. If that sounds like a huge generalization, then hear me out.

The cool feature of Scribblenauts, was that there is no one way to solve a puzzle, and the 3D world of Mario supplied that same approach – through glitches or not. You can find speed runs and YouTube videos that take completely different paths to get through the game, either by using incredible imagination and dexterity *cough* tool-assisted dexterity *cough* or just interesting glitches. But as much as it seems ironic to say, you can always count on glitches with Nintendo, and that means that there will always be a new way to solve a level.

Take the last star in the Bomb-omb portrait for instance: I would think that I would have to keep ground pounding the post until he broke free and I could then take the star. But, if you watch Spazz’s speed-run, you will see that you can actually glitch into the fence by using a bomb-omb to knock yourself in – much faster than it would be to do it the proscribed way and watch the cut-scene.

One other feature that I will talk about briefly in closing, since I know that going on about every single feature is exhaustive, is Music. The music of Mario 64 not only was jazzy, top notch, and ambiently fitting to every level, but it also touched on a cool feature that you see off and on in video games: adaptive.

The level that comes to mind immediately in this vein of thought is Dire, Dire Docks. If you listen to the soundtrack, you’ll get the standard cut in the VG music world of intro, two repeats, and a fadeout. But when you play the game,  the music will only play certain parts from the main song depending on where you are, which always made for a fun time for me. For instance, the cool drum beat that slides in, will only appear when you go to the top of the level and jump from the sticks (to my knowledge).

Hopefully after reading this, you’ll walk away from steam for a minute, dust off the old 64 – or just take Smash Bros out of it, and toss in that good ol’ Mario game and try for 10 stars or so. Just this time, don’t do what the instructions tell you, make your own course. When I recently played I realized that for the past five years I always shortcutted the first race by using all of the teleports to do it in like 40 seconds instead of actually racing the roid-induced Koopa, and I thought to myself, why do I always do it that way? So why don’t you ask yourself the same question and map out a new way to the princess and her pretend cake.

~Dan

I hope everyone is doing well! I’m back with another episode and to talk about some of the mechanics of this game.

Last video, we met a lively young tadpole (who didn’t quite look like one) by the name of Mallow from Tadpole Pond. He currently is on an errand for his Grandfather, but that journey was hampered when a purple, speedy crocodile snatched an important coin from him.

Mario decides to assist Mallow in retrieving his coin from the speedy croc. Chasing that thief down isn’t going to be easy with him being so fast. Will Mario and Mallow be able to retrieve the coin?

A big part of Super Mario RPG is the absence of 2D side scrolling. Mario can now move in a plethora of directions in caves, towns, castles, etc. Paired with his classic jumping, mind blowing results ensue (well at the time it came out anyway). While this is a really great new experience in a Mario game, there are some draw backs to this greater realm of movement.

There can be several issues with depth perception. For example, there is a point later on where two block platforms are swinging back and forth in the sky and a treasure chest is right at the end of the second block’s swing. While it is difficult to jump from block to block due to the quick swinging speed, it is made possible due to the shadows they cast underneath. However, the treasure chest’s shadow doesn’t seem to appear. The chest itself looks as if it is just at the end of block two’s swing. The chest is at the end of the swing, but it is really to the immediate right of it, not straight ahead as I originally thought. I spend several minutes trying to collect a chest that wasn’t even there. Eventually I manged to obtain it through a fluke jump and discovered it was actually located to the right.

This little “problem” appears several more times with platforms and treasure chests. At this time I am not sure if it was intentional by the developers of the game to give it a bit more challenge or if it was something that was just over looked.

Please enjoy the video and leave any comments, questions and feedback that you might have.

Thank you!

Until next time,

~Drew

More videos after the jump.

Part 5 (attempt 1)

Part 5 (attempt 2)

Part 5 (attempt 3)

Part 5 (attempt 4 – success!)

?

It seems to me that the Japanese names are different because Pokémon is a product of Japan and for this reason, it contains idioms, jokes, and aspects of that culture. My problem with that is: apart from Japanese, the Pokémon have different names in English, Chinese, French, and German! But not in Spanish?

At least, the names of Pokémon in English, Chinese, and German are translated and the translation from Japanese takes into account the sayings, jokes and idioms of each language — even in French,

“In the French version Nintendo took care to translate the name of the creatures so that they reflected the French culture and language.” (Wiki)

They give such respect to those countries, but only some countries! There is France (and clearly if there are many other ((countries)) that have French as the official language or second language) – but the number of Spanish-speaking countries is much greater than those that speak French or German — and perhaps close to the size of English (when combined).

In America, the country that has the second largest market for Pokémon, there is a Spanish-speaking population that is almost 20 percent of the total! So then there is no lack of interest or demand.

The problem is possibly due to the unity of the countries, in the sense that there are many Spanish-speaking countries, and they are far apart and unconnected. But, at least you have Spain, Mexico and Argentina that are large countries, ‘powerful’, and have an economy to support video games. (I know that realistically this isn’t true in Mexico and Argentina – especially the south of Argentina – but bear with me.)

Perhaps we have to ask the Spanish-speaking companies and our governments. I know that France is focused on the development of its language and culture (this is reflected in the above quotation) and as a result the names of Pokémon and the language used in the games specifically includes cultural references. So maybe the (Spanish-speaking) governments don’t care about this – a big problem, I think. Especially now, when there are still new versions coming out. The fundamental issue should be that no emphasis is placed on the culture and history of Spanish speakers, but perhaps this is the problem:

There are too many. They would have to include the culture and history of three countries at least!! – but there is also the entirety of South America, all of Central America, Mexico, Spain, and the Caribbean Islands as well. And each country has its own jargon.

This is also the case in English. English is the lingua fraca ((“lingua franca”)) and with the number of Spanish-speakers in the United States, it makes more sense to change the names such that there are two versions ((of the game)) in the same country.

My conclusion? Who knows? But, I’m going to Catch Them All!

*This article originally appeared in spanish on this blog, but someone was nice enough to translate it, so credit for translation goes to melangau

~Dan

Water Music

Well, to start I thought I would open up with one of the most well known and easily one of the best: “Dire, Dire Docks” This classic out of Mario 64 is one of those themes that sticks with you. It’s just so well done, and (I’ll elaborate more on it in a later article) it features -something you can’t appreciate without an N64: dynamic sound. So the song will reflect your location and actions in the level – something that always made me stare at the screen (not that I wasn’t already) and just enjoy the subtle changes in style.

Then next up, I of course have to throw in another classic, “Aquatic Ambiance” from Donkey Kong Country. The entire soundtrack is just a marvel of Wise’s skill and experimentation, but the track itself is one of the standouts from an already great OST. There’s just something timeless in the song as it changes instruments (and certainly get’s aided by the beautiful backgrounds in the gameplay)

Then I wanted to throw a ‘new comer’ into the ring. This track comes from none-other than the infamous Maple Story. I will say, for a repetitive, yet delightfully cartoony MMO, it turns out easily some of the best music in all of VGM. This particular one is called ‘Boat Quay Town’ (it’s a water theme too, I swear, I looked up Quay in the dictionary to be sure)

This next track comes from one of the best Doujin (VGM Cover) albums that I have ever heard. It’s this magical blend of Jazz and solid instrumental meshed together to take one of the greatest Zelda Games (that I’ve never played) Link’s Awakening, and really bring it to life. This particular track makes the album for me (and it happens to be sizably long to boot)

This next track, “Drowned Valley” doesn’t really need much of an intro or a discussion to it. I can state it in about 3 lines: Chrono Cross OST. Yasunori Mitsuda. WIN.

Next up we have a track from one of the masters of western VGM, Jeremy Soule. The track, “Crystal Oasis”, comes from the Guild Wars OST. A work that I think can easily get looked over, but with tracks like this, man that would be a mistake.

One MMO that I always keep coming back to is Runescape. I enjoy the game in general, but what really hooks me is the music. The quality just never drops off, this particular track, “Mellow” plays at the fishing guild, and it has always been one of my favorites. Unfortunately I could only find an 8-bit cover, but it’s not half bad.

Of course, what would any playlist be without, “Zora’s Domain” I couldn’t dare leave out this relaxing masterpiece. It’s one of those tracks that I can always get behind. Especially in Zelda Re-orchestrated, when they do it all on steel drums.

And then I couldn’t skip over another good, classic mario water theme, so we’ll go back to the SNES to listen to the “Water Theme” from Super Mario World.

Then I’ll finish with one of my favorite series for music, Sonic, and also I’ll take the track from one of my favorite OCRemix Projects, Project Chaos. The track is, “Hydrocity Zone”

Ok, I lied. Finally, I’ll put up the king of all water tracks. This song has been a favorite of mine for years. Not only because of how calming it is, but also because it’s such a long track that it’s great for falling asleep to. “Aquamarine Bay” is easily one of the best songs in VGM, and another notch in the starry (yet undercelebrated) career of Tim Follin.

Cheers

~Dan

Because Square-Enix hasn't been for a while now.

The Japanese Role Playing Game. A genre that’s been with us since the 80′s as Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy led the charge for stat-building, NPC tropes, and epic tales on our consoles from across the sea.

From there, the tales only grew grander as technology improved. The animations of the 16 bit era managed to convey emotions and body language in the few pixels available to their creators, and it seemed for a time that both Squaresoft and Enix could do no wrong. Each game that found its way out had its own story to tell, its own uniqueness, and its own flavor.

Final Fantasy IV, Earthbound, Secret of Mana, Illusion of Gaia, Terranigma, Robotrek, Star Ocean, just a few of the excellent games to be released at the time. This trend continued into the 32-bit era, with Final Fantasy VII, whether you consider it overrated or not,  rushing to the forefront to bring the JRPG to the masses.

Even far into the Xbox/Dreamcast/PS2/Gamecube era there were new ideas and great games being thrown around. Shadow Hearts: Covenant tackled both the occult and comedy in a single setting, GUSTs Atelier Iris and Mana Khemia series kept sprite-based RPGs alive, and Persona 3 and 4 are considered some of the best of the best. So the real question  is, what happened?

Blame Yourself… Or God.

The advent of the HD era of video gaming has seemed to have a similar effect on the industry as the switch from the 16 to 32 bit era. Rumors abounded about SCEAs reluctance to release anything in 2D on the original PlayStation, claiming that 3D was the future and that the sprite era was on its way out. Granted, this wasn’t entirely true, Xenogears mixed sprites with 3D to lovely effect, but the trend did lean toward using the latest and greatest technology.

So too, during this new age, does it seem that games are becoming massively expensive blockbusters, with increasingly large budgets spent on normal maps, detailed character models, and all the visual treats that the HD era can provide. While this makes for a lovely cinematic experience, it’s clear that costs are being cut elsewhere. Final Fantasy XIII has beautiful graphics, flashy effects, and a sweeping musical score, yet the majority of the game is running through corridors, letting the game Auto-Battle, and occasionally making the decision to let your team auto-battle in a different way. Even character progression is stifled, as each area has a cap on the amount you can level your characters, breaking FFXIII up more into a game with distinct stages than a classic RPG. The developers have spent all this money on their creation, and they’re going to make sure you play it their way.

The HD Era has also brought about internet connectivity to our home systems, for better or worse. Many games have embraced this situation and moved forward with DLC plans, adding new maps, new items, and expanding their games after launch. Multiplayer support is almost a given in every other genre, but again, it seems like the JRPG is lagging behind in this area as well.

Namco Bandai was one of the first RPG publishers to attempt DLC in their games, offering downloads for Eternal Sonata, and Tales of Vesperia. However, in a situation where they could have offered new quests, new battles, or new challenges to keep players interested in the game, they instead chose to sell cheats on the marketplace. Having trouble with a boss? Give us more money and get some free levels. Need some healing items but you’re too lazy to head back to town? More Microsoft Banana Dollars, please. Even alternate costumes,  items that were rewards for hunting down sidequests in the older Tales games, were put up for sale instead.

It's not like she needed more ears anyway.

In an even more brazen example, Compile Heart put up a party member as DLC for Hyperdimension Neptunia. A character who joins your party during the course of a regular game, is listed in the manual and shown on the box, but refuses to actually fight for you until you pay the required fee. They did this twice in the same game. Unacceptable.

It’s clear that the big budget JRPG is faltering at the moment. Releases are few and far between, and those that do release have little commercial success unless they’re attached to a major franchise, much like the situation confronting movies these days. Releasing a game in the days of $60 HD epics is too risky to take chances on things consumers might not like, so where do we go from here?

A future draws near!! Command?

The future for the big budget RPG may never again match the past, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t some people doing it correctly. Demon’s Souls, and the upcoming Dark Souls use the online connectivity in a novel way, allowing players to interact indirectly with each other, leaving messages and tips scrawled in the dungeons as they go along, as if you’re following behind some intrepid adventurers who have been there ahead of you. You see images of how people nearby have died, giving you warning to dangers, and it’s a novel premise that works well, without resorting to the old standby of multiplayer, the deathmatch.

Dragon Quest IX allowed players to interact with one another via wireless connection, fighting monsters and exploring dungeons as a team, along with having free quests for download after release (though to be fair, they were all stored on the game card, simply unlocked over time), and an shop whose inventory changed daily after connecting to the internet.

Square-Enix themselves had an interesting idea with the implementation of the “sequel” to Final Fantasy IV, The After Years. The game was sold in chapters, with each one focusing on a different party composition, tying together with a final chapter in the end. It did not sell too well on the WiiWare service, and was bundled together with the recent PSP remake, but it brings up an interesting idea.

Imagine, for the sake of argument, a downloadable game called Final Fantasy Tales. Sold for the price of $20, it could be a modestly designed game, with a cheerful and stylized look, cutting down on development costs and allowing them to market it as a return to “Classic Final Fantasy”. The base game would come with a fully fledged RPG tale, offering a competent experience.

However, it would also make use of the strengths of the current era. Why not allow players to interact with each other in some way? Go to a shop to sell your goods, and you end up listing them on an online marketplace for other people to buy and scour through for deals. Final Fantasy’s usual minigames could be played against other people, complete with leaderboards. Most importantly, offer new tales for download, reusing the same base game engine, while changing up the setting and assets. They could sell them for $15 each, (which is a much better value than buying a total of 6 maps for Call of Duty), and have a game that not only plays to the strengths of the current generation, but offers a much more attractive return on investment.

Like Radiant Historia. Seriously, it's awesome. Play it.

Now, with all the doom and gloom present in this article so far, you might think that the genre is headed to its end, however it has found a nice home on portable devices. The releases on the PSP and the DS have often been able to evoke that golden age, with the lower development costs and quicker development time allowing riskier games to see release.If care can be taken to continue this as handheld devices start to near the power of the HD consoles, we may simply see the major shift of JRPG development transferred there instead.

Captain Nintendo

As any good story, the captain opens with this lovely disclaimer,

“My real name is not important.”

Right there you just have to appreciate that you’re onto a good story. Or at least that this guy has a good sense of cliche and wordplay, but really, read on:

However, if you look in the flag of some of the early issues of Nintendo Power, you will see it there—under the title of Editor. Suffice it to say that for a time (late eighties/early nineties) I was known in the video game industry as Captain Nintendo. I make no claim to be associated with, or any claim to any copyrighted or trademarked material now owned by Nintendo. The point of this story is for informational and entertainment (if any) purposes.”

As you read on, you get a flavor for what Nintendo was like as a company around the late 80s, as it rose to become one of the biggest gaming companies in the world. Cap’n N gives you a look at an average day in the life of a nintendo worker, and what kind of jobs you could get,

” I don’t think I’m giving away any secrets when I reveal that their CSR force consists primarily of three groups: … a team of true CSRs who handle phone calls to answer customers questions … a group of about 30 people called Correspondence CSRs … for customers that wrote to the company… the third group of CSRs was the legendary Game Counselors. This is a team of individuals who play games all day.”

As you read on in the story, you grow to appreciate all of the thousands of individuals that did some of these seemingly monotonous jobs day in and day out to bring us some of the greatest games of our age. Of course, you’ll also grow to like (or not) Captain Nintendo himself as you hear about all of the things that he did for the company. From,

“I continued to contribute to the magazine. Nintendo Power…there were times when I wrote, edited, and laid-out more than a third of the issue.“

all the way to,

“So I set about writing a story and defining villains…And that’s how Power Blade was born.“

This harrowing tale really throws a light onto the video game industry of the past and future. You get the captain’s perspective on why a video game sells and what really makes the industry run – and it’s not a mushroom and a shoryuken like we would have all thought. Cap’n writes the story with a backward-looking sense of humor and optimism, but at the same time, this story is a vivid wake-up call to anyone who wishes to hop into the video game industry for their “dream job”. But I in no way mean that to be negative, considering as you watch him work and work, you see what your efforts can truly bring you when you give it your all.

I don’t want to go too deep into a lot of the story because all of the random facts and information are astonishing, and they jump from his own encounters with a screening of Batman starring Jack Nicholson all the way to the US military.

So if you’ve got the time for a good story, check it out: The Man Behind Captain Nintendo.

~Dan

Everyone’s favorite sci-fi variation on Sid Meier’s classic Civilization formula is finally available as a digital download on the online store Good Old Games.  Manage the first human colonies on an alien planet!  Defend your colony from hostile monsters!  Battle economically, politically and militarily against rival colonies!  Customize all of your units at an unparalleled level of detail!  Design your own civilization from the ground up in an extraterrestrial setting!

Do you need to hear more reasons why this is one of the finest 4X turn-based games ever built?  Go check out a true PC classic from 1999!

    Have you ever heard of a game called Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars for the Super Nintendo? Well I have and it is quite a heck of a game. Created in 1996, with the help of Squaresoft, it combines Super Mario platforming elements with role playing game elements. What’s more, Mario moves in more than two dimensions! With a wonderful story line, the first plot involving stars, amazing music and awesome battles it is sure to keep you hooked.

What do you say? Did I entice you into playing it? If you ever do have the chance, I’d say “GO FOR IT! WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?!” Although, if you are unable to… how about a walkthrough of it?

My name is Drew (also known as TrollyOre from You Tube) and I mainly record Pokemon battles with Pokemon Battle Revolution. I’ve done a couple of playthroughs as well. I hope all who join me on this playthrough of Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars take as much enjoyment out of it as I do.

In this video, Bowser has snatched Toadstool once again! Sheesh, he never tires kidnapping and plotting does he? Mario, after hearing Toadstool’s cries for help, races off after her. However Mario, Bowser, Toadstool and even the whole Mushroom Kingdom has no idea of the danger looming in the near future. A larger story begins to unravel even as Mario gives chase to rescue Toadstool from Bowser’s clutches.