Why I Want To Play Grim Fandango Remastered (and it's nothing to do with the game)

Grim Fandango has always been in my peripherals. Not because i've always known it existed, but rather because i've seen the art everywhere but never really bothered to check out where it originated from. This was changed with the Remastered version that has just been released for PS4, Vita and PC. While the dark comedy noir-ish vibes are intensely appealing, it's not the storyline, gameplay, or the chance to play a cult classic remastered for a better system that's really enticing me. It's the developer commentary.

The game allows you to take a moment and listen to the developers talk through their work, as well as crack up at parts they remember creating, sharing anecdotes and making for what I believe to be a much richer gameplay experience. Sadly not many games offer their developers this indulgence, with just a handful of releases such as Half-Life 2, Left 4 Dead, The Orange Box compilation, and Lara Croft Tomb Raider Anniversary edition taking the time to implement this feature.

I enjoy the backstories, the mistakes, the in-jokes, and i'm sure so would many other players. There's a lot more to a game than the amount of time a developer spent on the project (and usually that comes under fire for making the players wait), and it's rarely seen in the video game industry. Especially with big games, players often forget the sometimes deeply personal experience that is developing and creating a video game and it's often tricky to bear in mind that every boss battle, puzzle, and gunfight came from literally nothing - a blank space on a computer screen. The journey from that blank screen to a polished, interactive, immersive experience is often unjustly ignored and I for one would love to hear the developer's stories behind their decisions. It just seems strange to me that for an industry so focussed on the creative decisions of a group of people, there is so much ignorance of the work that actually goes into those creative decisions.

To be able to hear the developers talk you through their creative decisions, the efforts they placed into the smallest effects (the number of punches a peripheral npc makes in a gym scene is the subject of one piece of Grim Fandango commentary), and the stories behind their efforts can only intensify your enthusiasm for the experience as a whole, especially in-game where you can actually experience there and then for yourself.

Gorillas, Carpentry, and Sewers: The History of Mario

In thinking about the origins of classic video game characters, who better to start with than Mario? The chubby Italian plumber bounced his way into the top spot in the video game hall of fame in the 80's and has broken more records than he has power up boxes in the decades since. Hailed as the video game icon, Mario's history is just as endearing as his famous catchphrases, stature, and gaggle of friends.

Around the time of the video game crash in 1983, Miyamoto understood that players were growing
tiresome of the similar designs of games that we're being rapidly churned out in the industry. Recognising the need for players to have a human character to connect with through the game rather than just a spaceship, he began working a carpenter character into his Donkey Kong game. And so the concept of Mario was born. 

Originally named Jumpman, Mario's original carpentry profession was developed to fit with the construction site setting of Donkey Kong. When he was granted his own title, however, his career path took a turn towards plumbing. It has been said that Mario's career was an effort to make him look more hard working, and therefore relatable to the player. A colleague apparently mentioned to Miyamoto that the character looked more like a plumber, and so Mario Bros. was based in the sewers of New York City. 

Mario's iconic outfit was originally reversed, with a red jumpsuit accompanied by a blue shirt. The character needed to stand out against his background and so his prominent nose, brightly coloured clothing and light-heartedly Italian moustache were necessary. Miyamoto completed the outfit with a red cap for simplicity's sake, to work around the issue of animating Mario's hair every time he jumped.

This appearance has developed with the abolishment of technical limitations. As the technology available for video games improved, so did Mario's characterisation. The colours of his clothes were reversed to what we see today, his cap took on the iconic 'M' marking, and his facial features became more animated. 

Charles Martinet is the prominent voice of Mario, and has been working for Nintendo since 1990. Originally uninvited to the auditions, he rocked up late to a video game trade show and asked to read the part. He originally planned a stereotypically husky Italian voice but developed the idea to become more child friendly, making his voice light, bouncy, and soft. The legend goes that Martinet's audition tape was the only one sent to Nintendo, but it must have been lengthly as Martinet stated that he maintained the Mario voice until the tape ran out. Martinet started as the voice of Mario at video game trade shows through the "Mario in Real Time" system - a motion capture interactive display in which groups of people would approach a 3D Mario head on a screen, watched on camera by Martinet, who would then have his movements synchronised with the image of his Italian character to respond to them. 

Mario is the proud icon of the best selling video game series of all time and has become one of the most widely recognised symbols of digital entertainment. With over 115 title games and countless other crossovers and references throughout the video game industry (everyone chuckled when the line "it's me Mario" was cheekily thrown into Assassin's Creed 2), his plumbing business has certainly had to take the back seat for a while. 

Cheap Weekends - PS2 Classics Now Under £5

With game prices hitting the £70 mark in some cases, it's proving more and more difficult to pick a title up on your way home from work to have a laugh with over the weekend. But never fear, because good second hand game shops are here to help. So, if you're between games or just fancying a chilled weekend of classic favourites, here is a list of top PS2 games you can get from second hand shops for under a fiver.

Something Classic: 

Crash Banidcoot, The Wrath of a Cortex - ok, you caught me, it's around £8 second hand, but it's worth missing your morning coffee and saving those few coins for the chance to spend your weekend saving Wumba Island through some of the most memorable levels of PS2's impressive repertoire. 

Something Chilled:

The Sims Bustin Out is a good weekend game, purely because it's easy to spend a few hours moseying around the game but after that it gets a bit boring. There's certainly a lot more freedom than The Sims on PlayStation in that you can actually leave the house, and the rewards you unlock in the story mode are then available in the freeplay mode. However, it gets fairly repetitive so maybe not one if you're looking for story development over patient completion of quests. But it's only about £2, so that's a win.

A Bargain: 

Gun is one of my favourite PS2 games to have graced my many consoles. Set in the Wild West, this shooter consists of missions just easy enough to actually get somewhere in the game but still warrant several tries in certain places, making for excellently engaging gameplay. When you're not completing missions feel free to explore the landscapes and take up a day job as a cattle rancher - much more fun than it sounds. Think Red Dead Redemption but available to your for about a quid. 

Something Psychotic: 

The third person stealth game Manhunt will leave you questioning your moral integrity but not after hours of ducking and diving to complete a white-knuckle Rockstar hit. Famously surrounded in controversy after it's graphic executions, today you can pick it up for about £1.50 and test those fiddly controls for yourself... 

Something Funny: 

Destroy All Humans, despite it's potentially samey missions, flips the alien invasion genre on its oversized, grey head.  Presenting the protagonist as an alien on a pretty obvious mission, the game achieved critical success on its comedic value alone, so at £2.50 it's a good shout for some light-hearted Saturday morning gameplay. 

Something Scary:

Obviously it's Resident Evil 4 - arguably the pinnacle of Resi's success. We all know the terrifying laboratory creatures and the creepy villagers of the small town but what you might not know is that you can enjoy their lovely company for a fiver now. 

Something With A Great Soundtrack: 

I've always been an advocate of the SSX game, the best being Tricky (also available cheap now), but for a soundtrack to kickstart your weekend go for World Tour. With music from Billy Talent, Avenged Sevenfold, Def Leppard, Queens of the Stone Age, and OK Go. Tricks and manoeuvres feel really good when set against this tuneage, and the whole experience can be picked up for 10 minutes or marathoned until sleep deprivation kicks in. 

Something Destructive: 

If it's been a signficiantly stressful week, the urge to smash may be your primary concern in picking up a game. Burnout will give you the opportunity to plough into anything you see with immensely satisfying replays, all for £1. The gameplay is fun for a while but it's more of a 'see how many cars I can hit' for 5 minutes kind of game, which is telling seeing as the gameplay revolves around... not... hitting the cars... 

Prices from: https://uk.webuy.com 

Video Games That Broke The Mold

When we talk about revolutionary video games, or the 'most important' games, we often sit back and relax claiming 'Pong', 'Space Invaders' and 'Pac-man' are obviously the most influential games in gaming history. I don't think this is necessarily true. Sure, they are the leaders of the basic idea of gaming that we have but there are other games that have heavily contributed to the way we see gaming today and if these games didn't exist, the gaming world would be unrecognisable. The interesting thing is, I hadn't really ever considered the role some of these games played in the long history of electronic entertainment, and some of them I outright despise (sorry Mark Zuckerberg).

The Browser Based Game 

World of Warcraft 

Browser based games came about after Runescape popularised the genre through its free to play design. Released in January 2001, Runescape now charges a subscription fee but was one of the first games to offer a basis for a virtual world populated by other people across the world. It was eclipsed in 2004 however, by World of Warcraft that surpassed 10 million players at its peak and is essentially the MMO responsible for placing the genre within the mainstream perspective. 

Social Gaming 

The social game is a fairly newborn concept within the larger span of gaming history. Sparked by the micro-transacting, infuriatingly popular, seemingly mundane Farmville in 2009. Farmville pushed this new social gaming market and used native elements of social media (those irritating invites and notifications that narrate to you just how your dinner lady from school just hatched a new batch of virtual eggs) to revolutionise the way casual gamers saw games as well as how casual games were marketed. It is arguable, however, that social gaming began a while before the internet really even took off. Dance Dance Revolution cued the idea that social party games were a viable entertainment option. It proved that video games could be marketed towards a new crowd of individuals and that dance mats could become a frequent fixture in every home and bootsale. 

Fighting 

Oh Mortal Kombat - you are the motorcycle riding, heavy rock playing older brother of the gaming world - the one who just wanted to push those boundaries until they shattered and then pushed on more. The game put the idea of violence into the mainstream media's worried eye with its horrifically violent, brilliantly gory Fatality moves which sparked the thriving violence debate that so plagues the video game industry. You just did it with such style :'). 

Survival Horror 

This one's fairly obvious. Resident Evil popularised the survival horror game after its predecessor, and kind of parent, Sweet Home. The 1996 PlayStation game spawned a large marketing strategy consisting of movies, novels, sequels of varying quality. and comics. Its creator, Shinji Mikami, is still hailed today as the godfather of survival horror with his new release The Evil Within. 

Adventure 

I hadn't even heard of King's Quest before, and now the guilt is raining down because the game revolutionised the way adventure games were played in 1983. Previously players had to work with backdrops and textual information, but King's Quest featured the first controllable character who could move around and perform actions within his surroundings. However, this was only the first game to feature a visible character to relate the text to, Adventure allowed the player to move around a castle and find a key in 1979 and interestingly, featured the first easter egg - a secret room with his name scrolling through. 

Strategy 

Command and Conquer was certainly not the first real time strategy game, but it certainly tied up elements found in slightly earlier games to promote what we come to know now as strategy. It boosted the genre into the public domain and proved its viability with the addictiveness of its plan-20-minute-ahead gameplay. 

Simulation 

Obviously, The Sims brought about the largest video game movement the industry has probably ever seen. Behind The Sims, however, Sim City popularised the entire simulation genre in 1989. Though the 2013 version is a slight embarrassment, the original game was the pinnacle of creativity and freedom within your own gameplay and possibly paved the way for The Sims to ever exist in the first place. 

Indie 

The move to independent developers over the last few years has been pretty revolutionary in itself, however the first Indie game to really see the daylight of grand successes is Minecraft. Minecraft was so successful that is even developed its own genre, leaving players hooked on alternate, free worlds and non-players wondering why... until they tried it... then they were lost to it as well. 

Open World 

GTA is often hailed as the parent of all open world video games. However the first game to give players the freedom to decide where they want and when, was Body Harvest on the N64 in 1998. Since then, however, Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time has held a lot of influence over the open world genre. The 3D world presented in the game changed developers' and players' perceptions of the possible size of the game world, with games such as Super Mario 64 assuring developers that the move to 3D might actually work. 

Mobile Gaming 

Now, you might not like this, but i'm going to say it... Angry Birds was critical in the launch of the Tetris was the poster-child for handheld gaming - a repetitive, addictive game that could fit in the palm of your hand and stay there fore hours, Tetris fully established Nintendo as a force to be reckoned with in the handheld market.
current mobile gaming hype. It was downloaded over 12 million times when it was released in 2009 and helped turn the mobile phone into a handheld gaming device. We must not forget our roots however, and look to the game that revolutionised the handheld console.

Narrative 

Narrative is critical to a game today. In the beginning, games were created with instant gratification Donkey Kong stepped away from the goals of its time (to kill anything you see) and employed a beginning, middle, and end set up to its game narrative. This step pushed storytelling in games a lot further than is often recognised. But then Myst decided to go further. Myst revolutionised the use of a narrative in video games - the linearity of previous games was abandoned and players were sent across different locations to gather clues. The game literally changed the notion of a linear time and space within gaming.
in mind. Nowadays we have the technology to build suspense, and create an in depth story which causes players to question character motives, build up their own suspicions about plot twists, and generally engage deeper with the context of the action.

Top 5 Mini-games I Played More Than Story-Mode

A dietary staple of all video games is the sometimes overlooked mini-game. The short break they offer from the gruelling 9 - 5 of story-mode can either be welcomed as a quick slice of light-hearted fun, or are abhorred as a stodgy slab of game-play that must be laboriously tolerated before proper play can continue. Their appeal lies in the simple, repetitive nature of their goals which can be replayed for hours on end in addictive sessions with players growing in skill and speed and being genuinely proud of their exploits. Everyone can follow the storyline of a horror game or complete a race enough times that they eventually win but there is a certain amount of dignity in a quickly achievable high score. And this is almost the mantra of the earliest video games which offered simple, quick entertainment that proved highly addictive and charming.

Top 5 Mini-Games

Fishing - Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time 

I think the beauty of the Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time fishing game lies in the beauty of the open world and the bizarre calm that's created through a virtual fishing session when compared with the manic mashing of buttons you've just come out the other side of in the Water Temple. Out of all the mini-games unlocked at various stages of the game, fishing has to be my favourite. 

Mercenaries - Resident Evil 4 

Whether you're going through a zombie dry-spell or you just want to blow some undead faces off, Mercenaries drops you in a zombie infested war zone with a time limit. Kill as many as you can and gain a score you will definitely be disappointed with. This mini-game was so good it won its very own 3DS spin-off but gained mixed reviews when released for a slightly high retail price.

Crash Bash 

Slightly cheating, but this game deserves it. So no, Crash Bash isn't technically a mini-game in itself but rather a collection of Crash Bandicoot mini-games compiled onto a loveable PS1 disk. Move through several different warp rooms and discover the delights of 4-man air hockey, painting floors with pogo sticks and desperately avoiding being trampled by a tonne bell while maintaining your spot on a tiny ice glacier. 

Monkey Wars - Super Monkey Ball Touch and a Roll 

Super Monkey Ball Touch and Roll on Nintendo DS had many download play mini-games that I devoted a lot of time to mastering. Possibly the best, though, was Monkey Wars. A first person shooter monkey-style in which one player flings fruits and pies at their opponents, the game was horrifically competitive and has broken many a sibling relationship. 

Pong - Test Drive Overdrive 

Test Drive Overdrive brought classic back to PS2 with a playable version of the classic Pong game on its opening screen. Most of my childhood was not spent playing Test Drive Overdrive. It was spent playing Pong on the opening screen.

Follow me on Twitter: @MusingsTwit 

The Retro Revolution - How the Clock's Turning Back for Gaming

So, Russia have returned to the old faithful typewriter for their official documents, a strange decision that was supposedly spawned out of the increasing complexities of computer systems making valuable information vulnerable. But this blog doesn't document the life and times of the Russians, this is a video games blog so why is this useless piece of information here? Well dear cynical reader, it is because this event could act as a weirdly global metaphor for the return to retro that we can see happening in the gaming world.

While we all love our systems from the 90's, we all also love the crisply vibrant artwork that accompanies modern gaming. So what happens when these two ideals slowly merge into one another, we might just find out in the future of gaming.

New indie game releases are all highly reminiscent of early Nintendo - games like Fez use simplistic ideas and nostalgic controls in a modernised development suggesting that these game designers who are free to develop as they please look to using more simplistic visuals which in turn relate to these older games. These visual similarities between games created decades ago and newer releases are becoming more and more noticeable. Games like Hotline Miami are returning to simplistic visuals perhaps to recreate the importance of player imagination in gameplay. Finally, Wii virtual console sales are still higher than its Wii Ware sales and recently the Wii U virtual console has seen a large increase in sales. These methods of bringing retro gaming into the living rooms of millions of gamers across the world have obviously made Nintendo very happy bunnies, but the importance of the virtual console is much more than that. It has paved the way for this 'Retro Revolution' by making older games more accessible and more importantly, more recognisable. It's developed consumers' tastes and paved the way for preferences to games that reflect these older titles.

Is this return to retro gaming a positive step for the gaming industry though? Newcomers have the opportunity to enjoy where it all came from and in the same instant appreciate the development of modern gaming. This return to simplicity means that consumers will no longer take the high quality of gaming we have readily available for granted. Other industries hide their outdated models, whereas the gaming industry celebrates its evolution from slow, blocky button punching to linear, jaw dropping entertainment. There are also more controversial pros of the retro revolution - the idea that these older games were just plain better. I don't necessarily agree with this though - 'better' is not the same as 'different'. However, the gaming industry at the moment would do well to incorporate the high level of uniqueness displayed in these retro video games in their modern developments which are beginning to become fairly samey and bleh. However, while all this is good and well, does doing something first necessarily make it better? Just because the beginnings of Nintendo are displayed through this catalogue of titles doesn't mean that they are necessarily better than modern titles and this evolution back to retro may ultimately lead to a dead-end in the future of gaming.

So it's all very fun considering what may happen or yaying about what may happen but who's to say this will happen, and how could it happen? A major factor in the development of the retro revolution is the people who turn to these games. Returning fans seeking the nostaligia of their childhood, newcomers curious to experience the early franchises and the sudden requirements of fans seeking something different all vote retro. In terms of business, retro is the way to go to cover costs - old style graphics are considerably cheaper to produce, not only leaving room for greater development of storyline or controls but also making the end result cheaper and therefore more accessible to the common user - a move that would greatly benefit the consumers who are having to face prices slowly reaching the £50 mark.

The way i see it, there are 2 possible outcomes for this revolution. A yoyo effect - retro until consumers become bored and inevitably want more and so return to modern gaming, the age of games fluctuating through the decades from one end of the scale to the other. The other outcome being absolutely nothing new. BOOM. Nothing. This momentary return to retro is just the knee-jerk reaction to the importation of retro through the virtual console in every home and just a fad that will fade until the games we are buying brand new now are the classics of the future.

So the question now lies with the future. How far will games replicate those of today or of yesterday? Will they be top of the range graphics with brand new features we haven't even considered yet or nostalgic Super Mario Bros. spinoffs?

Follow Me on Twitter: @MusingsTwit

A Letter To 6 Year Old Me

Hi Tabs,
First of all, I know you just got your silver Gameboy Advance with a "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" game. You need to understand that you need to stick with that game - i know it won't always be easy, you can't save it whenever you want and your attention span doesn't really cover the length of gameplay between save points. It's a game that you will be constantly searching for during your teenage years when you get back into Harry Potter for a bit - and the search will bring you much sadness. Also quickly while we're on the topic of the Gameboy Advance - just stop trying to keep it pristine, you will go on a camping holiday with it and it will get scratched and it will seem like the end of your life. It. Is. Not. It's just very annoying and it ends up pretty badly scratched up (but still playable as of July 2013). Also, you will get a handheld with a backlight pretty soon so you're attempts at playing it in bed will not all be futile. You're reading this on a "blog" and i am writing it on a "netbook" (basically you know that wierd little game you used to play with your lunchbox where you pretended it was a portable, flip open computer like the one Dad has under the stairs? THAT HAPPENS).
Onto more pressing matters, later on you will probably play "Golden Eye" with Dad. This is NOT being played on the playstation but in fact on the N64. Yes, you have an N64 in your possession ad you will not realise it until you're nearly 18. Keep this N64. Nurture it. Buy cheap games from CEX in 2013 and enjoy the summer locked in your room with the TV on like every self-respecting Nintendo fan.
There's quite a lot i could say here, keep "Crash Bash" safe so you can play it when you're 17, don't give up your job at the pub when it changes hands - you'll be skint for years, wait until buying the iPod touch in year 10 - a new generation will be out literally the next day with much better ios, Dad will win a giant Crash Bandicoot soft toy at Thorpe Park soon which will revolutionise your Crash Bandicoot gameplay, don't lose Dragon Quest 9 on DS and cuddle "Tug" the cat because he might not be around much after September 2012.

From Tabs

p.s. you're going to go to an end of GCSE exams party when you're 15 and you're going to play a game called "beer pong" with pints of Strongbow. Do. Not. Ever. Drink. Strongbow.

Follow me on Twitter: @MusingsTwit

RetroN 5

Hyperkin's E3 stand this year was dominated by the RetroN 5 - a console that differs from the rest of the E3 lot in that it looks to the past of gaming rather than the flashy, 3D, super-fast models of tomorrow. The RetroN 5 is a collaboration of Nintendo’s greats (bar the obvious choice of the N64 – what up wit dat?) all on one system which has basically been created to upgrade them to a modern television. The RetroN 5 incorporates Mega Drive, Super Famicon, Super Nintendo, Famicon and NES cartridges as well as a Gameboy Advance slot and is so far set for release this summer. I have a few problems though. Starting with the lack of N64, possibly the first console that comes to mind when the words ‘Retro Nintendo’ are uttered. Why, then is it not featured? It’s not like there isn’t a market for it (the reasoning behind the lack of Sega’s Master System) so perhaps there’s some other reason for the giant hole in the heart of the RetroN 5. My other problem is the upgrading to HD – these games are just meant to be played on a shit TV. 

I might be purchasing one of these if the price is right – but I’m not a retro game collector, so it might be worth more to someone who already has these cartridges stashed away in a cupboard. Saying that, however, the point has already been raised that this may boost the accessibility of retro gaming – the individual consoles and games would cost a bomb on their own.

In short, it’s a handy little system if you are already a collector – or you are seriously considering getting into retro gaming with a list of possible and favourite games to purchase. It is likely that this system will cost a whole lot less than all the individual consoles bought separately so it could be something to get into. A little ancient conundrum that we all have to face. 

Old Games

Just so that you're clear, this is a distraction. I have been trying to write an essay for about an hour now, and the only thoughts that popped into my head during that hour are as follows

-'SHIT I FORGOT HOW TO WRITE'

- 'I need tea'

- 'Why do people value old games so much?'

People, I have the answer - (I remembered how to write and am just boiling the kettle - so very English) - people value old games purely because they want to. It's nostalgia that makes us download from virtual console, or hunt for the oh-so-ancient ps2, not the gaming experience. From what I've played, Super Mario Galaxy is far more superior to Super Mario Brothers on NES, yet any Mario gamer is sure to gleefully express the fact that they have a copy of the outdated fossil of a game. Because that's what it is, a fossil. In the same way scientists are desperately trying to find new remnants of dead stuff from when dinosaurs were the shizz, gamers are desperately trying to get a feel for the old style games. But the truth is that will never happen anymore, unless you own a console that they were first played on that is. The very fact that you are playing the game on a Nintendo Wii makes the game different. The feel is different, the sound quality will be better, and the picture will almost certainly be bigger. Yet still, every self respecting Nintendo child will lovingly embrace their NES Super Mario Bros, caring for it's blocky gameplay and orangey appearance, because it reminds us that somewhere, deep down we are playing a game for the sake of the game. Not for the sake of beating others in terms of killstreaks or God forbid for the soundtrack. Instead, when we are playing Donkey Kong for NES we are reminded that simplicity can be bliss, and like parents, think back to when games were little bubbas compared to the 3D giants of games that they are today.