I came into work today at eight o'clock in the morning. The first shift actually begins at seven, and, typically by the time I arrive, the lab is already fully active--well, as active as it can be with business so slow of late. This morning, however, I came in surprised to find everyone just standing around looking nervous, instead of staring down their scopes as usual. As it turned out, nobody was working because management had put a freeze on business since the day began. I checked my interoffice e-mail and was greeted with a cryptic message instructing all staff to attend a mandatory meeting scheduled an hour from my arrival.
People all around me were tossing around theories as to what the meeting concerned, but, whatever the news was, it had to be bad for them to stop us working for a full two hours. As the moment arrived, the entire lab filled into one wing, while the president and CEO herself, whom I had never seen before in my nearly two years working there, took center stage to deliver the somber news.
The economic downturn had hit us hard and hit us fast. Just two months ago, we had been so swamped that management was considering instituting mandatory overtime. Now, there was so little work to go around that the company could no longer justify the expense of paying us all. Therefore, we would be seeing a 10 percent reduction in the workforce across all departments. Those being cut would be informed via e-mail, and work would not begin until the matter had been completely taken care of.
Half an hour passed while we all stared anxiously at our inboxes. I still had yet to receive any message, when one man stood up, put his jacket on, and headed out the door. A few others then rose and were met with hugs and tears. I clicked the "Send/Receive" button on my Outlook to make sure I wasn't missing something. Evidently, only those being laid off had been sent e-mails, and I was not among that 10 percent. This was maybe the worst possible outcome.
The truth was that I had already planned to get out of there after this year. It would have been quite a bonus actually to get out early and receive two free months fully-paid, with severance pay and unemployment after that.
Putting things in perspective, 10 percent translated to a relatively small number, and, cruel though it is to say so, I don't suppose they needed too complex a formula to determine who would go. Still, a part of me is baffled that they should have cut needy single mothers and virtual fixtures of five years' service, while choosing to invest in someone who has never volunteered for overtime, has never shown any real enthusiasm for the industry, and seemingly has no attachments whatsoever to the place. Now, I suppose I'm obligated to work through February, lest I come off as a self-centered ingrate. On the other hand, this is just the first round, and, while management hopes it's the last, things could get a lot worse before they get better.
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Gattaca
I saw Gattaca for the first time last night via Hulu. I remember seeing the television commercials over ten years ago and having no idea then what the movie was about. All I took away from those ads was that it was a science fiction film starring Uma Thurman. I blame poor marketing for my oversight of this remarkable film up until now.
The film features some strong performances, marvelous sets, and a hauntingly beautiful score, but truly it is the rare sort of project driven by its ideas. Simultaneously heartbreaking and inspiring, it's a story that rouses the soul and comes close to stirring up more.
In the world of Gattaca, nobody is happy, because genetic engineering has taken chance out of the human equation, reducing individuals to numbers, life to a scripted performance, society to a spiritless machine, where the weak face dead ends before they are even born, the strong see only their own flaws, and even the most perfect specimens struggle under the crushing weight of expectation. The protagonist, Vincent, doesn't have the genes, but he has a dream. He wishes to go into space, but his heart defect would render that impossible even in today's world, let alone Gattaca's not-too-distant future of genetic discrimination. But Vincent knows better than the system what his place is, and he'll go to almost any lengths to get there. Whether or not he ultimately triumphs, his combination of will and ambition, rarer and more potent than anything the gene doctors can cook up, is worthy of envy.
The DNA manipulation of Gattaca is still a long way off, but, in practice, our world is not so far removed. The astronauts among us are few and far between, and, for most of us, giving 100 percent doesn't get us halfway there. On the other hand, there are those who maybe ought to try a little less. It takes a certain fortitude, no doubt, to come to grips with one's own limits. Perhaps genetic engineering could relieve us of this stressful, often fruitless lifelong quest to find one's place in the world. But then what would we do with our time? Sit at our desks being productive? To hell with that, I say!
The film features some strong performances, marvelous sets, and a hauntingly beautiful score, but truly it is the rare sort of project driven by its ideas. Simultaneously heartbreaking and inspiring, it's a story that rouses the soul and comes close to stirring up more.
In the world of Gattaca, nobody is happy, because genetic engineering has taken chance out of the human equation, reducing individuals to numbers, life to a scripted performance, society to a spiritless machine, where the weak face dead ends before they are even born, the strong see only their own flaws, and even the most perfect specimens struggle under the crushing weight of expectation. The protagonist, Vincent, doesn't have the genes, but he has a dream. He wishes to go into space, but his heart defect would render that impossible even in today's world, let alone Gattaca's not-too-distant future of genetic discrimination. But Vincent knows better than the system what his place is, and he'll go to almost any lengths to get there. Whether or not he ultimately triumphs, his combination of will and ambition, rarer and more potent than anything the gene doctors can cook up, is worthy of envy.
The DNA manipulation of Gattaca is still a long way off, but, in practice, our world is not so far removed. The astronauts among us are few and far between, and, for most of us, giving 100 percent doesn't get us halfway there. On the other hand, there are those who maybe ought to try a little less. It takes a certain fortitude, no doubt, to come to grips with one's own limits. Perhaps genetic engineering could relieve us of this stressful, often fruitless lifelong quest to find one's place in the world. But then what would we do with our time? Sit at our desks being productive? To hell with that, I say!
Sunday, December 7, 2008
Recent PS3 demos
Fracture
The terrain manipulation mechanic is actually a pretty cool gimmick. While it's mainly used for creating pathways where instructed, some more interesting applications during combat include raising terrain to create cover or, better yet, sending an unsuspecting enemy soldier flying when the ground beneath them pops up suddenly. By all accounts, however, the game's use of the mechanic doesn't get much more varied or imaginative, leaving just the generic shooting action to fill out the experience. The game would have been better off focusing entirely around the terrain guns. As it stands, this game is already mostly forgotten.
Valkyria Chronicles
The visual style is stunning, of course, and composer Hitoshi Sakimoto is in classic form with the score. As for the gameplay, despite ditching grid-based movement, combat ultimately doesn't play out too differently from previous turn-based strategy RPGs. You're still moving one unit at a time and then selecting a command from a menu. That doesn't make it any less significant as an evolution of the genre. It almost feels like the jump from 2-D to 3-D platforming.
Mirror's Edge
The idea of a first-person platformer is plain enough, but, aside from maybe Metroid Prime, no project has really had the nerve nor vision to realize it until now. The convoluted controls somewhat undermine the visceral appeal and fluidity of the experience, and I feel certain that the gameplay would work better (and probably has) in third person. But I'm equally certain that the game would not be nearly so exhilarating were that the case. EA has already planned out a series, but I can't see it becoming the basis for a new genre. While improvements could be made, it strikes me as the sort of novelty that only really needs to be experienced once. Ugly character designs notwithstanding, the game has a very cool look, somewhat like a cross between The Matrix and an Esurance commercial.
Alone in the Dark: Inferno
Some ambitious ideas are wasted on a mediocre experience. The best feature is the DVD-style chapter selection. It's basically a stage select that doesn't require unlocking, but each chapter is preceded by a "previously" segment to recap parts that the player may have missed. I can think of a couple past games, where, given the choice, I might have opted to skip a frustrating or boring section of gameplay. The game also attempts a lot with the first-person perspective to try and better immerse the player in the adventure. For example, instead of a traditional menu, the inventory is accessed by pressing a button to make the character look down at the items stored in his jacket. Combat, however, is unwieldy, albeit it's hugely satisfying to toss a Molotov cocktail at an enemy and then ignite it in slow motion by shooting it mid-arc. In the demo at least, this is the only way to kill the zombies, and it gets cumbersome having to first knock them down with a melee weapon in clunky third person, then go into the first-person menu and put together the Molotov cocktail, equip it and the pistol, and then use them in turn on the rising enemy. And the driving stage, where you must outrun the apocalypse, is trial-and-error gameplay at its worst.
LittleBigPlanet
Not actually a demo, I purchased this on release day, but haven't had much time to do more than sample it. So far, the multiplayer is pretty awesome, but the platforming has major issues. The physics and collision are a tad overdone, but the real problem is the Fatal Fury-style multi-plane system, which has frustrated every player I've talked to. Also, the "story" mode is badly in need of some context--not necessarily a full-blown narrative, mind you, but some sense of purpose at least to motivate progression. As for the user-generated content, I'm pleased to find that, despite Sony's best efforts, a large portion of the material is blatantly copyright-infringing. I played through a Metal Gear stage that did a great job of capturing the first Metal Gear Solid's mix of pattern observation and hiding spots. But I also played a Resident Evil-inspired stage that was so broken that I almost wanted to report it. More on this as I get further into it.
The terrain manipulation mechanic is actually a pretty cool gimmick. While it's mainly used for creating pathways where instructed, some more interesting applications during combat include raising terrain to create cover or, better yet, sending an unsuspecting enemy soldier flying when the ground beneath them pops up suddenly. By all accounts, however, the game's use of the mechanic doesn't get much more varied or imaginative, leaving just the generic shooting action to fill out the experience. The game would have been better off focusing entirely around the terrain guns. As it stands, this game is already mostly forgotten.
Valkyria Chronicles
The visual style is stunning, of course, and composer Hitoshi Sakimoto is in classic form with the score. As for the gameplay, despite ditching grid-based movement, combat ultimately doesn't play out too differently from previous turn-based strategy RPGs. You're still moving one unit at a time and then selecting a command from a menu. That doesn't make it any less significant as an evolution of the genre. It almost feels like the jump from 2-D to 3-D platforming.
Mirror's Edge
The idea of a first-person platformer is plain enough, but, aside from maybe Metroid Prime, no project has really had the nerve nor vision to realize it until now. The convoluted controls somewhat undermine the visceral appeal and fluidity of the experience, and I feel certain that the gameplay would work better (and probably has) in third person. But I'm equally certain that the game would not be nearly so exhilarating were that the case. EA has already planned out a series, but I can't see it becoming the basis for a new genre. While improvements could be made, it strikes me as the sort of novelty that only really needs to be experienced once. Ugly character designs notwithstanding, the game has a very cool look, somewhat like a cross between The Matrix and an Esurance commercial.
Alone in the Dark: Inferno
Some ambitious ideas are wasted on a mediocre experience. The best feature is the DVD-style chapter selection. It's basically a stage select that doesn't require unlocking, but each chapter is preceded by a "previously" segment to recap parts that the player may have missed. I can think of a couple past games, where, given the choice, I might have opted to skip a frustrating or boring section of gameplay. The game also attempts a lot with the first-person perspective to try and better immerse the player in the adventure. For example, instead of a traditional menu, the inventory is accessed by pressing a button to make the character look down at the items stored in his jacket. Combat, however, is unwieldy, albeit it's hugely satisfying to toss a Molotov cocktail at an enemy and then ignite it in slow motion by shooting it mid-arc. In the demo at least, this is the only way to kill the zombies, and it gets cumbersome having to first knock them down with a melee weapon in clunky third person, then go into the first-person menu and put together the Molotov cocktail, equip it and the pistol, and then use them in turn on the rising enemy. And the driving stage, where you must outrun the apocalypse, is trial-and-error gameplay at its worst.
LittleBigPlanet
Not actually a demo, I purchased this on release day, but haven't had much time to do more than sample it. So far, the multiplayer is pretty awesome, but the platforming has major issues. The physics and collision are a tad overdone, but the real problem is the Fatal Fury-style multi-plane system, which has frustrated every player I've talked to. Also, the "story" mode is badly in need of some context--not necessarily a full-blown narrative, mind you, but some sense of purpose at least to motivate progression. As for the user-generated content, I'm pleased to find that, despite Sony's best efforts, a large portion of the material is blatantly copyright-infringing. I played through a Metal Gear stage that did a great job of capturing the first Metal Gear Solid's mix of pattern observation and hiding spots. But I also played a Resident Evil-inspired stage that was so broken that I almost wanted to report it. More on this as I get further into it.
Saturday, December 6, 2008
The Essentials #6: Stunt Race FX
Stunt Race FX is probably the worst video game I have ever played, and definitely the worst game I ever owned. And, yes, that's including the literal garbage that was E.T. for the Atari 2600.Developed by Shigeru Miyamoto's Nintendo EAD team, with assistance from Argonaut Software, 1994's release of Stunt Race FX (aka Wild Trax in Japan) for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System was the follow-up to the previous year's groundbreaking Star Fox. Powered by the Argonaut-designed Super FX chip, it was a racing game featuring the same 3-D polygon-based graphical style of Star Fox. While arcades had begun to make some progress with polygonal graphics, true 3-D was still a very new frontier, one which Nintendo was eager to pioneer on console. Naturally, not all of the early attempts met with success. Star Fox 2, for instance, never saw release, despite insistence that the game was complete. In my mind, however, the infamy of that affair paled in comparison to the crime of Stunt Race FX actually getting a release.
The game put the player in control of one of three anthropomorphic cars, with a motorcycle as an unlockable fourth vehicle/character. Also, a bonus mini-game tested the player's ability to navigate an unwieldy semi-trailer truck through gates slalom-style. The inclusion of the big rig could only be taken as a bit of tongue-in-cheek humor, considering that all of the regular vehicles already maneuvered like tanks. Underwater.
The game offered four modes, each one worse than the last. "Speed Trax" was the single-player grand prix mode. In addition to having to place against three CPU opponents, the player had to race against a redundantly brutal clock that continuously counted down, eliminating the player if it reached zero. "Stunt Trax" had the player pointlessly driving around an arena collecting stars. The game included no actual stunts to perform. Instead of offering car combat, "Battle Trax" was a one-on-one splitscreen race for two players. The really lousy part was that this mode included only four short tracks, compared to the sixteen courses in single-player. Also, if, say, hypothetically, you were so desperate to manufacture some sensation of victory, so elusive in single-player, that you stooped to setting up a two-player race with just yourself, the game would actually notice when any car received no input for three seconds, after which the AI would take over and proceed to kick your ass. Oh, and the last mode was "Free Trax," a time trial mode where you could use the motorcycle. Useless.
Visually, the game was an abomination. The primitive, low-poly graphics, which constantly tore themselves apart, could not compete with sprite-based racers of the time, but still images could never come close to conveying the full, unbearable ugliness of it all. The unstable frame rate often dropped to incomprehensible levels of choppiness, rendering the game completely unplayable. Also the HUD took up an inordinately large portion of the screen area, a problem that was further exacerbated when playing in splitscreen.
I think Nintendo itself must have been dissatisfied with the game's technical aspects, as it would not release another polygonal title for the SNES. Some years later, I read in a Nintendo Power interview that Miyamoto was disappointed with the system's inability to truly realize his visions for 3-D games, and, while no titles were specifically mentioned, I had to believe he was referring to Stunt Race FX. A dream that vainly reached beyond the grasp of 16-bit technology, the resultant mess left an unflattering impression of 3-D.
So turned off was I by the polygonal future as represented by Stunt Race FX (I never played Star Fox), that I predicted my departure from gaming, upon learning that Nintendo, Sega, and Sony were all going 3-D for the next generation. Mario 64? This Lego creature was not the character I knew and loved. Virtua Fighter? A blocky atrocity. Battle Arena Toshinden? A Virtua Fighter-esque atrocity. Ironically, it was a 2-D game, Street Fighter Alpha 3, that finally convinced me to make the jump to 32-bit with the Sony PlayStation. Even more ironically, SFA3 was actually sold out the day I got my PS1, so my first game for the console ended up being Rival Schools, Capcom's polygonal fighter. But I digress...
My blind faith in Nintendo should have already been shaken by the less-than-stellar Pilotwings and Super Play Action Football, but my fondness for their previous racing titles, F-Zero and Super Mario Kart, encouraged me to add another to my collection. Some positive press, hyping up the realistic handling and physics offered by the 3-D engine, further assured me that it would be a sound purchase. And, of course, there was this:
It was probably appropriate, given how often it was seen, that the best thing in the game was the "RETIRE?" screen, featuring a cute 2-D animation.
Aside from that, I suppose it had some decent tunes going for it, and this box art, featuring the clay sculpture work of illustrator Wataru Yamaguchi, who, ten years later, also provided the clay art for Pikmin 2:
Thursday, December 4, 2008
The Best Laid Plans
I had a dream that I was back in college. It was the first day of the semester, and I had just arrived in class for an early morning lecture. Including me, there were only six students attending that session. After a few minutes of mingling, the professor arrived, or so we thought. As it turned out, the elderly gentleman was not our professor, but, rather, he had come to explain that the course had been canceled, on account of the fact that the actual professor had lost his will and gone on spontaneous sabbatical, leaving no time to devise a contingency plan. The fellow then noted that he had other business to attend to. Before he left, he asked that we kindly inform the next, much larger set of students, which was scheduled to arrive in an hour in the same room.
Shocked and disheartened, we pondered what to do. Were we going to leave just a hastily-scribbled note, before moving on separately with our days, semesters, lives? Suddenly, an outrageous idea swept across the room, seemingly originating from no one individual, but taking shape rather in the manner of an insane ouija board. Together, we decided that we would not tell the next class about this disappointing turn of events. Instead, we would take the place of the missing professor and teach the class ourselves. Yes, that's right. We were going to pretend to be instructors to our fellow students. We then spent the hour studying up on our materials to prepare for the coming group.
What followed was a disorganized yet highly gratifying experience, as six phony professors, only an hour more educated than those they were teaching, stumbled through a scattered discourse, taking turns to relieve one another as needed, and regularly asking the students what they thought. At the hour's end, students walked off looking as though they had enjoyed it, while we came away convinced that the real professor could not have done any better. Our resolve strengthened by the scheme's apparent success, we were eager to keep it going. We even decided to set aside the other courses we had enrolled in, in order to direct our full attention toward teaching.
What short-sighted madness led us down this ill-conceived path? Perhaps we didn't want to disappoint the unsuspecting students, who, like us, simply wanted to learn. Perhaps we were still determined not to be disappointed ourselves, and we realized that the best way to learn was to teach. Or maybe we were intoxicated by the power and influence. Well, the real answer, obviously, is that it was a dream, and logic had gone to bed. But, even in a dream, a plot this full of pitfalls could not possibly last.
What if a student wanted to consult us at our nonexistent offices? What if some young go-getter decided to study ahead of where we ourselves had read? What would happen once they inevitably learned that they were receiving no credit for their work? For that matter, what were we going to do about our own futures?
My memory of the dream's remainder is hazy. I know that I had personal misgivings about the scheme once my co-conspirators began to discuss how to grade the students' work. Around that same time, the faculty became aware that something strange was going on. Sometime later I found myself staking out territory in some swampland. Perhaps it had become a different dream by then.
Shocked and disheartened, we pondered what to do. Were we going to leave just a hastily-scribbled note, before moving on separately with our days, semesters, lives? Suddenly, an outrageous idea swept across the room, seemingly originating from no one individual, but taking shape rather in the manner of an insane ouija board. Together, we decided that we would not tell the next class about this disappointing turn of events. Instead, we would take the place of the missing professor and teach the class ourselves. Yes, that's right. We were going to pretend to be instructors to our fellow students. We then spent the hour studying up on our materials to prepare for the coming group.
What followed was a disorganized yet highly gratifying experience, as six phony professors, only an hour more educated than those they were teaching, stumbled through a scattered discourse, taking turns to relieve one another as needed, and regularly asking the students what they thought. At the hour's end, students walked off looking as though they had enjoyed it, while we came away convinced that the real professor could not have done any better. Our resolve strengthened by the scheme's apparent success, we were eager to keep it going. We even decided to set aside the other courses we had enrolled in, in order to direct our full attention toward teaching.
What short-sighted madness led us down this ill-conceived path? Perhaps we didn't want to disappoint the unsuspecting students, who, like us, simply wanted to learn. Perhaps we were still determined not to be disappointed ourselves, and we realized that the best way to learn was to teach. Or maybe we were intoxicated by the power and influence. Well, the real answer, obviously, is that it was a dream, and logic had gone to bed. But, even in a dream, a plot this full of pitfalls could not possibly last.
What if a student wanted to consult us at our nonexistent offices? What if some young go-getter decided to study ahead of where we ourselves had read? What would happen once they inevitably learned that they were receiving no credit for their work? For that matter, what were we going to do about our own futures?
My memory of the dream's remainder is hazy. I know that I had personal misgivings about the scheme once my co-conspirators began to discuss how to grade the students' work. Around that same time, the faculty became aware that something strange was going on. Sometime later I found myself staking out territory in some swampland. Perhaps it had become a different dream by then.
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix
I believe this is the seventh edition of Street Fighter II, not including ports and minor arcade variations. I'm sure it won't be the last time I buy SFII, but, for now, it is the definitive home version. Just as a home port of Super Turbo, it's probably the closest that any attempt has ever come to the arcade. It's not as bug-ridden as the emulation included in Capcom Classics Collection Vol.2, and Vega's wall dive actually works reliably, unlike in the PS2 Hyper Street Fighter II: The Anniversary Edition.
The redrawn sprites are a mixed bag. They're attractive overall, as expected from Udon, and it's nice to have a 2-D fighter that actually looks good in HD, but nothing could ever replace the old sprites, which remain some of the best pixel art of all time. Thankfully, the game includes the option to play with classic graphics.
The remixed soundtrack is okay, though I don't really find that the new arrangements add anything noteworthy to Yoko Shimomura's immortal compositions. As with the sprites, HD Remix includes an option to use the classic tracks, but not the awesome 3DO remixes. This is actually somewhat disappointing compared to Anniversary Edition, which included the 3DO tracks, on top of two different sets of arcade synth.
I'm certainly not qualified to discuss the refinements in gameplay balance, but the people behind this job are well-known Street Fighter players, and I have every confidence in their ability to apply over a decade of accumulated knowledge toward perfecting this tournament staple. Fundamentally, of course, it is still Super Turbo, the last fighting game that regular people could kind of understand. Speaking objectively as one such individual, I find the game to be a rather odd case. Compared to more recent fighters, it is frustratingly archaic in the punishingly tight timing required for combos and command inputs. Yet the game speed is also tuned way too fast on account of it having been the fifth release on an engine that had begun to run out of other tricks. So, even though it's basically SFII, it's a really hardcore version intended for experts. Mind you, these are issues with Super Turbo, which HD Remix merely inherits.
My only major complaint right now is that the DualShock3's D-pad is a nightmare to perform moves on, and, strangely, this release doesn't even help the player out by including the standard option to assign buttons to combination shortcuts (PPP, etc.). Sadly, better control options probably won't arrive for the PS3 before the release of Street Fighter IV.
The redrawn sprites are a mixed bag. They're attractive overall, as expected from Udon, and it's nice to have a 2-D fighter that actually looks good in HD, but nothing could ever replace the old sprites, which remain some of the best pixel art of all time. Thankfully, the game includes the option to play with classic graphics.
The remixed soundtrack is okay, though I don't really find that the new arrangements add anything noteworthy to Yoko Shimomura's immortal compositions. As with the sprites, HD Remix includes an option to use the classic tracks, but not the awesome 3DO remixes. This is actually somewhat disappointing compared to Anniversary Edition, which included the 3DO tracks, on top of two different sets of arcade synth.
I'm certainly not qualified to discuss the refinements in gameplay balance, but the people behind this job are well-known Street Fighter players, and I have every confidence in their ability to apply over a decade of accumulated knowledge toward perfecting this tournament staple. Fundamentally, of course, it is still Super Turbo, the last fighting game that regular people could kind of understand. Speaking objectively as one such individual, I find the game to be a rather odd case. Compared to more recent fighters, it is frustratingly archaic in the punishingly tight timing required for combos and command inputs. Yet the game speed is also tuned way too fast on account of it having been the fifth release on an engine that had begun to run out of other tricks. So, even though it's basically SFII, it's a really hardcore version intended for experts. Mind you, these are issues with Super Turbo, which HD Remix merely inherits.
My only major complaint right now is that the DualShock3's D-pad is a nightmare to perform moves on, and, strangely, this release doesn't even help the player out by including the standard option to assign buttons to combination shortcuts (PPP, etc.). Sadly, better control options probably won't arrive for the PS3 before the release of Street Fighter IV.
Monday, December 1, 2008
Castlevania Judgment
For anyone still hoping that this game might be decent, I'm afraid I must disappoint.
The gameplay is painfully shallow, with or without the mindlessly exhausting waggle controls. Four-player support usually helps to mitigate the lack of depth in Wii casual fare, but this game is limited to just two-player versus. Arenas are too large, leading to a lot of chase over confrontation, except in the clock tower stage, where everything falls to pieces and you both die immediately, having wasted your short lives flailing out attacks that whiffed badly in the absence of any sort of lock-on. Whenever blows do get exchanged, the weak sound effects rob them of all impact. In fact, impact is the key element that's lacking in all aspects of the action. There's just nothing in the combat to engage the player.
It doesn't even offer good fan service, since the characters are rendered nearly unrecognizable by the new character designs, which are not bad in and of themselves, but, if the point is to assemble a cast of old favorites, then they should look as fans remember them. After all, what is the point of digging up Eric Lecarde, if he's going to be completely redesigned as some ten-year-old child? If he's going to look, sound, and act like a completely different person, then they might as well have renamed him and made him a brand new character, because the only people who will recognize the name are going to be disappointed at what's been done with it. And, of course, where the hell is Soma Cruz? Are they saving him for the sequel?
Even the music, the one area I expected to be awesome, utterly fails to impress. The Castlevania series features some of the best soundtracks in video games. All this game needed to do was take a bunch of classic tracks and maybe remix them, louder and harder to better set the mood for a fighting game. While the tracks are indeed classics, the renditions are incredibly muted, with a mildly sterile pop flavor that feels more like lounge music than something suited for battle.
Now, excuse me, while I play a few rounds of MK vs. DC to wash the bad taste out of my mouth.
The gameplay is painfully shallow, with or without the mindlessly exhausting waggle controls. Four-player support usually helps to mitigate the lack of depth in Wii casual fare, but this game is limited to just two-player versus. Arenas are too large, leading to a lot of chase over confrontation, except in the clock tower stage, where everything falls to pieces and you both die immediately, having wasted your short lives flailing out attacks that whiffed badly in the absence of any sort of lock-on. Whenever blows do get exchanged, the weak sound effects rob them of all impact. In fact, impact is the key element that's lacking in all aspects of the action. There's just nothing in the combat to engage the player.
It doesn't even offer good fan service, since the characters are rendered nearly unrecognizable by the new character designs, which are not bad in and of themselves, but, if the point is to assemble a cast of old favorites, then they should look as fans remember them. After all, what is the point of digging up Eric Lecarde, if he's going to be completely redesigned as some ten-year-old child? If he's going to look, sound, and act like a completely different person, then they might as well have renamed him and made him a brand new character, because the only people who will recognize the name are going to be disappointed at what's been done with it. And, of course, where the hell is Soma Cruz? Are they saving him for the sequel?
Even the music, the one area I expected to be awesome, utterly fails to impress. The Castlevania series features some of the best soundtracks in video games. All this game needed to do was take a bunch of classic tracks and maybe remix them, louder and harder to better set the mood for a fighting game. While the tracks are indeed classics, the renditions are incredibly muted, with a mildly sterile pop flavor that feels more like lounge music than something suited for battle.
Now, excuse me, while I play a few rounds of MK vs. DC to wash the bad taste out of my mouth.
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