Michael Bay's Mega Man X

I am troubled by the trend in video games of simply "rebooting" classic franchises, in ways that are fundamentally wrong. The badly-designed, ugly re-imaginings that confuse missing the point of the source material with "going in bold, new directions"(or what Winston Rowntree called "Franchise-destroying change for the sake of change").

And they usually title these abortions in ways that just make it annoying to talk about them years later. Sonic the Hedgehog. Bionic Commando. Devil May Cry. Tomb Raider. The upcoming Thief installment isn't numbered or otherwise categorized from the original moniker, which looks like it might as well be an entirely different game. Now we have to clarify if we're talking about the original good game, or the stinking pustule that borrowed its' legacy.

At least Bomberman's terrible reboot had the decency to add the subtitle "Act Zero", which could be synonymous with "Bad Version".

They're usually overly serious, gritty, pandering only to cheap gimmicks of the time. Often they lack not only whatever creative spark made the originals so enduring, or any of the original people who worked on it, but also any polish or even a sign of remedial QA testing. If they are useful in any way, they are barometers for everything wrong with video games at the time of their creation. A historical record of how clueless the people in charge of making video games can be.

If there is one small silver lining to Capcom's total abandonment of the Mega Man franchise(and Keiji Inafune's ragequit from their offices), it's that we were spared the horrible reboot of Mega Man X.

▼

Favourite Things of 2012

2012 somehow managed to suck harder than the previous three years. I don't know how life just keeps getting gradually worse every day. I don't know what is wrong with the planet I live on, but I'm sick of it. I'm honestly surprised I was able to think of 10 things this year that didn't make me want to throttle someone.

Whatever, here's the 10 least terrible things I can remember from last year:

▼

OCRemix: "Maverick Rising"

Good enough.

Although now I have no reason to ever go to OCRemix.org again. They've pretty much done everything I've wanted to hear from them.

END OF LINE

~A.H.

Bundle Of Joy

The PS3 has been doing a good job so far with bundling PS2 games. Especially since the damn machine isn't backward compatible... Yes, it's gouging and "HD" textures and slapped-on 3D effects don't really soften the blow. But if it gives people access to games that you can't find on the shelves anymore, I suppose that's better than nothing(or Ebay). And anything that gives "Ico" and "Shadow of the Colossus" renewed exposure can only be good for video games, and for people who enjoy them.

(I think there's also a compilation package for the older Metal Gear Solid games, as well as the God of War series, if those are more your thing.)

Boy, Snake's really let himself go...

▼

Conveyance

There is a problem with video games today. Something very, very recent, as in the last couple of years. Maybe even more recent than that. I don't notice it in the SNES era, or when games moved into the third dimension, or even when the Playstation 2 and Gamecube were still relevant things. And no, it's not the first-person shooters.

Egoraptor recently made a video about how video games tend to hold your hand too much, to the detriment of the game. The idea being that they're actually not conveying necessary information in a way that doesn't hinder the experience. He spends 20 minutes explaining how the Mega Man series did a great job at letting the player learn through playing the game, with very little consequence. I always loved Mega Man X, but I never really knew the importance of how well the intro stage was designed until he ran through it point-by-point.

Also, this happens.

He called this "Conveyance". This is when the game communicates the player what the game wants you to do, without bashing you over the head with it, or slapping your wrist for deviating from the "ideal" path. Mega Man X taught the core mechanics, and even some trusty tips on the side all through playing the very first stage in the game. No tutorial. No loading screen with the controller setup. Nothing intrusive.



The challenge for game designers today is an unenviable one. They have to convey a lot more to the player now than they did in 1991. But lately it's like they're not even trying. What I speak of is worse than some "Navigator" warning you not to eat that nuclear warhead. I'm not talking about a poor attempt at dialogue between the developer and the player.

What we have here is a failure to communicate... at all.

▼