Gotta Snap 'em All

Pokemon Snap is one of my favorite games on the N64. Pokemon Snap was a great game that had a colorful world to transverse through, a variety of Pokemon and a lot of replayability. Nintendo even incorporated the ability to print out your pictures by taking your Pokemon Snap cartridge to a local Blockbuster. Pokemon Snap was a unique perspective of an on the rails shooter. The goal for each level was to take as many photographs of the various Pokemon that would net you the highest score. You then get to choose one photograph to represent that Pokemon which Professor Oak grades based on if the Pokemon is in a special pose, center of the image and if there are multiple of the same Pokemon. You were also given apples to feed Pokemon, pester balls to knock them unconscience and a poke-flute to either wake them up or to cause the Pokemon to dance. HAL Laboratory also included an infinite boost to use if you were replaying a level to only photograph a specific Pokemon. There were even some puzzle elements included through each level such as finding a way to hatch the Legendary Birds, or finding a ways to getting better pictures of a Pokemon that were originally obscured by objects. I’m surprised that over 13 years have passed since Pokemon Snap was released in North America and no sequel has ever been announced.

Pokemon Snap deserves a sequel and I believe will work well with Nintendo’s latest home console, Wii U. The Wii U GamePad is the perfect controller for a Pokemon Snap type of a game. The controller could be held up like a camera to the  television screen and capturing a photo would be as simple as pressing one of the shoulder buttons. The player would be able to control the in game character using either the analog stick or the gyroscope ability of the controller. The Wii U controller would create an interactive experience that would be a prime example of how Wii U can create unique gaming experiences.

A feature that Nintendo could bring back would be the ability to print out pictures. Since the Wii U has a slot for SD cards, users would be able to transfer over pictures and then print them out at a local photo store. Nintendo could also add in connectivity with the new Pokemon RPG games X and Y. Players would be able to use augmented reality to take pictures with their hand trained Pokemon team through Pokemon Snap 2. The player could also use the controller’s screen to edit pictures and add in effects to personalize the photographs.

Pokemon X and Y will have over 700 Pokemon available to capture and train. Pokemon Snap 2 would probably not utilize all 700 Pokemon throughout the game since it would be tough to place all the different Pokemon in the levels without it overcrowding. However I would like the game to still contain all the models for the Pokemon so that players will still be able to take pictures through the augmented reality when connecting the 3DS games to the Wii U. I’m sure that the 25 gigs available on the Wii U optical discs is more than enough space for 700 Pokemon models. If the 25 gigs is still not enough they could do a two disc special where the second disc is installed on to the hard drive for users who want to have the extra Pokemon models.

A criticism of the original Pokemon Snap was the length. There were about six full levels which the player had to repeat to photograph all available Pokemon and solve the puzzles to unlock the final area, Rainbow Cloud. Each level was themed differently such as a cave or volcano which would then have the appropriate Pokemon types. Pokemon Snap 2 should use a similar style for level design but instead should be based on the different regions. Nintendo could start off with the latest region that would be featured in Pokemon X & Y which would exclusively have Pokemon found in that region. Nintendo can then utilize their online marketplace to release downloadable content of the other regions such as Kanto, Johto, Hoenn and Sinnoh with their own levels and respective Pokemon. The levels could reference certain areas such as Mount Moon or Ceruelean cave to further reinforce the diverse regions found in the Pokemon world.This way the game would be able to incorporate a much larger number of Pokemon that would appeal to both old and new fans of the series.

I would love to see some online interactions such as using leaderboards and tournament ladder systems. The leaderboards would work for each Pokemon available throughout the game and then also a separate leaderboard for each overall level. The tournament feature would be a more direct competition between players. Players would create a tournament and invite other players to enter. After all the entrants are available to play, the game would choose a random Pokemon to photograph from the game and the players would be allotted a certain amount of time which they can go find the pokemon and photograph it the best way possible. At the end of the time, the player with the lowest score will be eliminated. Each round will eliminate the lowest player until there is only one player left who is then crowned the top photographer. Nintendo could even try to create like a monthly or weekly contest where places try competing for the best photograph of a specific Pokemon for that time period.

Pokemon Snap 2 is definitely a game I’m waiting to be announced. I wouldn’t be surprised if Nintendo decides to test the markets with a remake of the N64 version on the 3DS which would show how much interest there is in a sequel. Pokemon Snap 2 would make me consider purchasing a Wii U which I currently have no interest in since I haven’t found any of the games appealing. Hopefully there will be some news in regards to a sequel at the next E3 or Tokyo Game show.

The Walking Dead - Review

WARNING: I will try not to spoil any of the plot but this review will effect how you play the game if you already haven’t. 

Telltale’s take on the successful zombie comic book series has received exceptional reviews from critics. I just finished a play through of The Walking Dead on my Xbox 360 (on a physical disc). I was a little disappointed to find out that you can’t install the game to your hard drive because I own the original Xbox 360 model. These models had louder disc drives which can really take away from the experience especially in story-heavy games. There are also numerous complaints about the physical disc having game breaking problems on the Xbox 360 but I was fortunate enough to not suffer any major problems, only a few stutters that would be fixed by reloading my last save point. These are bugs that Telltale is currently trying to address and will hopefully be fixed soon. My review of The Walking Dead game will not take these bugs into account since they will eventually be fixed.

The greatest part of the Walking Dead is the amazing story that Telltale unfolds. You play as Lee Everett, a man on his way to prison when he lucks out and gains a second chance at freedom in a zombie apocalypse world. You eventually meet a little girl named Clementine who you decide to take under your wing and try to protect throughout the story. While you try to survive in this post-apocalyptic world, you encounter other survivors. Telltale does a great job in creating characters that I either loved and wanted to help out whenever I could or utterly despised and couldn’t wait till I could smash their skull in. Telltale also included some twist and turns throughout the story to keep the player interested. I also liked that some of the decisions that are presented in the game have an emotional impact on the player. You start seeing more of these kinds of decisions starting in Episode 2.  Telltale does an impressive job with recreating the feeling of living in a post apocalyptic world where nothing ever feels safe.

The unique art style of The Walking Dead helps flesh out the rest of the world. The best way I can describe the graphics is cell shading meets the ink style introduced in Street Fighter IV.  The art style fits well with the original source material since it was based on The Walking Dead comic book. The soundtrack created for the game is excellent and fits perfectly within the atmosphere that the game creates. The melodies from the songs generate a variety of moods that range from somber tones to eerie feelings. This is one of my favorite soundtracks in a video game and it is unfortunate that Telltale hasn’t released it officially. I've included one of my favorite songs so that you can have a sample of what the soundtrack is like.

I did enjoy the fact that some dialogue decisions had a limited time in which you could respond. This time constraint prevents the player from just sitting around trying to figure out what the best possible response will be. It also helps keeps the player grounded into the world by not having them taken out to a separate dialogue interface that would impede their connection to the game. Another feature that I loved was the Decision Stat page at the end of each episode. I’m not sure if this was available with the original digital download of the game but it is also available on Telltale's website . The Stat page shows each decision made in that chapter and the percentage of players that choose the different choices. While it has no affect on the game play or how you made decisions, it is nice to see what other people did on their playthroughs. It would be great if this stat page also showed you what your friends did in their copy of the game so you can compare their play style to your own.

The Walking Dead is not without flaw. The major problem I had with The Walking Dead is that your decisions don’t make a difference. The events of the story will happen no matter what you do. This is disappointing especially considering that at the start of each chapter there is some white text that states “This game series adapts to the choices you make. The story is tailored by how you play.” This is far from the truth because nothing really changes when you make a decision. You will always end up going through the same places, and probably with the same bunch of people. This also affects how some characters can die. Many deaths are not preventable and scripted in a cutscene which means your decision to save them was pointless. Other times when you fail to save a character the game gives you a game over screen and forces you to repeat that section until you can save them. After playing a game like Heavy Rain where any of the four characters can die and will affect what happens in the story, I was expecting something very similar to that. Even a visual novel like 999 makes your decision matter by giving you a completely new part of the story. There is very little reason to play this game more than once since nothing major really changes.

Another flaw with The Walking Dead is that the quick time events did nothing out of the usual. Everything is basically pressing a button very fast or moving the cursor to aim and then pressing a button. Even with the aiming you just needed to go in the general direction and it would usually be executed perfectly. However this is just a minor flaw since the main selling point of the game is to experience being a part of a surviving group within The Walking Dead universe.

I believe that if you look at any game there will always be flaws. What matters is if those flaws have a substantial effect on the experience to that point where it is no longer an enjoyable one. So would I recommend this game to others? It really depends on what the person expects from the game. If the person is looking for a game that really takes into account the decisions you make and affects the story then I would not recommend The Walking Dead. However if the person is looking for a great story, with an amazing atmosphere and exquisite soundtrack then The Walking Dead would be perfect for them. Overall I did enjoy the game for what it was and I am looking forward to the next season.

Pokemon: Gotta Improve 'em All

There have been five generations of Pokemon games since the original release of Red and Blue (or Red and Green in Japan). Each new release has brought minor changes or new features that have generally pushed the series a little closer to perfection. The original games captured the minds of many children because of clever game design and a great understanding of what children would find fun. Players could embark on a journey that lets them travel to different towns, explore caves and dungeons with mysterious Pokemon and even become the world’s best Pokemon trainer. Even after defeating the eight gym leaders and plowing your way through the elite four and the Champion, there is still more to do. You can try to finish your Pokedex which means collecting all the Pokemon available (originally 151 but the latest generation has 649 to collect), enter in Pokemon contests or even build a team to compete against other real life players.

Pokemon took full advantage of the hardware available on the Nintendo DS. Players are now able to use their internet connection for battling and trading with others. This made the number of trainers you could battle or trade grow from being only a few friends around your block to anyone in the world who had a wireless internet connection. Game Freak also included a new feature called the Global Trading Center. This allowed for trainers to put up a Pokemon and request any other Pokemon with the ability to specify gender and level. It allowed players to trade efficiently even if they lived in different time zones. The latest Black and White 2 games added the ability download the Champions’ teams of the real life Pokemon tournament winners and see how your own team does against them. This helped introduce competitive battling to a larger audience and showed them how the battle system can actually require skill and strategy instead of just power leveling through like in the regular story mode. Before the DS games had arrived, the only way to get some Pokemon officially (such as Mew in the original Red and Blue) was to attend Nintendo events. However since the release of Diamond and Pearl, users are able to connect to the internet and download the event Pokemon through the Mysterious Gift option making these Pokemon much more accessible to everyone.

I believe the Pokemon games are great but like all great games it has flaws. The first thing that I have noticed in all the Pokemon games I played was the constant random battle. Almost every step I take triggers a random battle, and usually is the same Pokemon over and over again. The battles end up becoming a chore and something that prevents me from enjoying the franchise. You can just buy some Pokemon repel but then you might be under leveled for the next Gym battle. I would love to see the next Pokemon game have a lot less random battles and increase the general experience awarded so the player doesn’t have to grind  to stay at the proper level. It would be great if there was a feature that allowed you to increase or decrease the likelihood of a random encounter. That way if you just want to get to the next area without having to fight too many Pokemon you could do so but if you were in the mood to level up then you could increase the chances.

Another problem with the battle system is that it takes forever to finish a battle or even farm a Pokemon to level 100. Pokemon Stadium and its successor had a feature which allowed players to connect their Pokemon game and play them on their TV. It also allowed for players to speed up the game to almost three times the normal speed which made grinding to level 100 feel like less of a chore. I would love for Game Freak to somehow include this in later generations through an attachment to the Wii or Wii U which they could sell at a reasonable price.

I’m surprised that a New Game + feature has still not been added to the Pokemon series. I would love to play through the story of a Pokemon game again (especially since the Black and White story is much more involved) but the fact that I will lose all my data has prevented me from replaying the story line. The New Game + would allow the player to retain all the items (other than key items) and all Pokemon in their PC and team. This way the player can choose to start fresh and just place their team in a PC box or just plow through the story line with their leveled up team. The argument that many people will state is that people will be able to get duplicates of legendary Pokemon. However simple scripts can prevent those events from triggering again on a second play through so that people cannot abuse the system to get more legendary Pokemon.

The last thing I would love to be added to the Pokemon RPG series is a cloud saving service. After collecting all 493 Pokemon in the Diamond and Pearl generation, I never want to try collecting that many all over again. It would be nice to have my entire Pokemon collection transfer over to the next generation so I wouldn’t have to sit there and manually trade over all Pokemon that I managed to keep on that game. I would then be able to just focus on collecting the new set instead of trying to recapture what I had already did in past games. The cloud saving service would also help reduce the losses whenever someone receives a corrupt save file message and had no other way of backing up their data.

Pokemon has been around for about 14 years starting with the original games on the Gameboy. It is one of the few franchises that has gotten better with every installment and will only continue to grow closer towards perfection as the years go by.  I hope some of the features I have listed here will become available in future generations but only time will tell. I decided to end this post with one of my favorite Pokemon songs from the original Red version:

Diablo 3's Post Launch Problems

Happy Halloween!

Diablo 3 has been a game fans have wanted for over a decade. The final product was far from perfect and received harsh criticisms from fans. I've played over 350 hours of Diablo 3 since the launch of the game exclusively on my Barbarian. The game has gone through a few patches with each patch creating a significantly better game. I want to focus this post on how Blizzard can help improve the game even further through some minor changes.

Random Number Generation (RNG) is a player’s worst nightmare. The obvious reason why people despise RNG is that they have no control over it. My marketing professor once told my class that negative word of mouth is about 7 times more powerful then positive word of mouth based on human behavior. This means that players notice the negative aspects of RNG much more than a good RNG effect unless that good RNG is on the extreme of good. So how does RNG work its way into Diablo 3? Well first, rare quality items that drop can have anywhere between four to six magical properties (stats). There are hundreds of different properties that can be chosen from but only a handful is useful to a player. After these magic properties are chosen, they can roll a range of numbers depending on the item level or monster level. The last patch allows for more items to drop with the highest possible range of stats but I believe Blizzard can do more.

The last patch updated one of the magical properties to actually provide some benefit to the player. Bonus to Health globes would originally increase the amount of health orbs that drop from monsters by a small amount. While on paper this sound nice, in actual gameplay it was useless. In order to see a benefit the player would need to stack the stat or rely on healing through health globes which only dropped at set intervals based on champion monster’s health. This type of healing is something that players can’t really control and thus found other ways to recover health such as finding items with life on hit which returns health based on how often the player hits an enemy. The last patch made the Bonus to Health globe property include an increase to health potions. Blizzard was able to kill two birds with one stone because players were complaining about potion’s not healing enough and health globe bonus was a useless property. While the health globe property is not a stat players will automatically look for when searching for upgrades, it now provides a nice bonus.

Thorns Damage is a magical property that deals damage to the enemy whenever the player is struck. However the amount of damage is minimal compared to the amount of damage a player can dish out even if that player had stacked the thorns damage property on all their gear. Blizzard can easily buff this property by having it scale to a degree from the player’s primary stat. I do not expect it to be the main damage source but it should deal enough damage that it is viable for a tank build to try to stack it on their equipment.

Increase Pickup Yards affects how far you can be away from gold and health globes to pick them up. With 0 increase pickup yards, the player has to manually walk over every gold stack and health globe which becomes a pain (this is something I learned very recently when I upgraded my boots which was my only source of this property). My solution to this is to increase the base pickup radius to about 6 or 7 yards and change the property to Pickup Tiers. There would be 3 tiers and each property would add a plus one pickup tier. Having no pickup tiers will only pickup gold and health globes within 6 or 7 yards.  A plus one Tier would allow for auto pick of up health potions, gems, and tomes of secrets. Another plus one tier (Tier 2) would allow pickup all magic quality (blue) items within the base radius. The final Tier will allow for auto pickup all rare items. Now the problem with this approach is that some people do not pickup magic items or do not pickup potions. Any easy way to rectify this is to have an option on the character sheet which allows the player to check off the items they wish to auto pickup such as only gold or item level 63 rare quality items, potions and gold. It would take some work to program this into the game but I believe it would be a feature appreciated by the fans.

After playing World of Warcraft (Blizzard’s cash cow) for many years, I expected Diablo 3 to contain some of the same interface options. There should have been an interface option that allows the player to select builds from a list that players has assigned so switching specs would become a much more fluid experience. I can see this becoming a requested feature when PVP becomes available because the builds will change so much since PVP will be a whole different game. An equipment manager would also be necessary with PVP since I am expecting Blizzard to have a new set of gear that is specific to PVP. Also having another set of gear means we will need more stash space. I’m surprised Blizzard hasn’t already implemented a feature where we can pay real life money for more tabs in our stash. I’m sure many people would be outraged at the idea of having to pay for more space but realistically creating more space means more data for the servers to maintain which does cost Blizzard money.

There are few other minor changes that Blizzard should make towards Diablo 3. The first is releasing more transparent information in game with regards to life on hit and life steal. From what I’ve noticed there doesn’t seem to be anywhere in game to let the user know that life steal has a penalty on it while playing the higher difficulties. It would be nice to show the actual life steal amount on the character sheet and an explanation when hovering over the stat. Also proc coefficients should be explained somewhere so that the user can begin to understand how various abilities and life on hit actually work. The argument Blizzard would make is that, many users would become confused by the technical math behind the game but realistically I believe having some of that information readily available could help users make better decisions. Another stat that needs to have light shed on it is average damage. It makes a huge increase in your damage when compared to other stats such as your primary stat or even critical hit chance yet there is no explanation to as how average damage helps to increase your damage.

The final few minor changes I would like to see are in regards to the leveling system. I think followers should be shared across all characters on an account. Players should be awarded for leveling another character after maxing out their first character and using a high level follower could provide some incentive. The Paragon leveling system could also use a few tweaks to make it worthwhile. I honestly do not think that gaining 3% magic find and gold find makes hitting Paragon level 100 worth it. Instead it should be something unique such as allowing the user to have an extra passive ability or maybe even allowing an ability to use two runes. Paragon leveling system is counter intuitive for anyone who wants to have multiple characters since the Paragon level is specific to each character. Blizzard could alter the system so that your magic find and gold find carries over to other characters but not your primary stat or any other bonuses such as the extra passive so you can still farm efficiently for items on any character.

Diablo 3 had a rocky start but Blizzard has shown the fans that they are willing to put in more effort through patches to make the game that fans have been waiting for since Diablo 2. Every game has its flaws and Diablo 3 is no different but thanks to Blizzard’s dedication post launch they will be able to minimize those flaws. My goal was to address some minor issues that are overshadowed by the major issues of PVP combat and lack of end game content and hopefully will be addressed in a future patch.

Unique Modes

My last article discussed the details about Mortal Kombat 2011 and how it had many unique modes. This is probably a good time to discuss some of the other fighting games and how they have contributed to creating unique experiences.

Super Smash Bro’s for the Nintendo 64 was a new approach to fighting games. Outside of just brawling with other Nintendo characters, the developers introduced two mini games based on the game engine. Board the Platform had character specific stages where the player must maneuver through traps to land on the ten platforms. The other mini game was an obstacle course specific to each character where the player had to break ten targets placed strategically to utilize specific character abilities. The level designers had to figure out ways to make each character’s level unique to their abilities so that the player can learn to use the entire arsenal of moves to beat the mini games. It was an excellent way to show players what the characters could do without having them train in practice mode or fight through the arcade mode. I remember a time when I was having trouble with Jigglypuff’s board the platform stage. There was one platform at the very bottom of the stage which seemed almost impossible to reach. After many attempts and repeatedly hearing “Failure” from the announcer’s voice, I smashed a random button out of frustration. That’s when I noticed Jigglypuff’s neutral smash attack allowed her to move forward while still floating in the air. It was a great feeling to finally be able to complete the stage but I also learned more about character.

The Tekken series has introduced quite a few mini games over the years. Tekken Ball was featured in Tekken 3. It is a variation on volleyball where the players have to juggle a ball back and forth. Every time the ball takes a hit, a meter at the bottom of the screen fills up for that character. When the ball either hits a player or falls to the ground, the meter resets and inflicts damage based on how full the meter was.  It was a nice change of pace from just playing the normal arcade or versus mode. I would have loved to see the mode fleshed out in later installments but unfortunately it has never reappeared in the series.

Tekken Force Mode was also introduced in Tekken 3. The best way to describe this mode is a traditional beat-em up game like Streets of Rage. It even had a roasted chicken that recovered a player’s health just as it did in Streets of Rage. You were able to choose any of the characters from the roster and retained their move set. The game featured four stages set on a 2-D prerendered background. Tekken Force reappeared in Tekken 4 with full 3-D stages and a longer campaign. Tekken 5 changed the formula by forcing the player to use Jin Kazama who can transform into a much more powerful character, Devil Jin through a special bar. This was the first time Tekken Force mode had an actual storyline.  Tekken 6 continues the Tekken Force mode with its Scenario Campaign. At first only two characters are unlocked but as you progress through the story, more character become available to select. Scenario Campaign also introduces the ability to use weapons and features a co-op mode for some of the stages. It also features an arena mode where character endings are unlocked.

My favorite mini game from all of the Tekken series has been Tekken Bowling. It was first introduced in Tekken Tag Tournament and then reappeared in Tekken 5 Dark Resurrection for the PSP. It is a traditional bowling simulator that allows you to use the Tekken cast. Each character has a unique set of stats that determines how fast the ball will travel and the type of spin. The robot characters feature a different heads up display and have targeting assistance. While it has nothing to do at all with the fighting game, it’s a great way to end off a long Tekken session.

I’m sure there are many more examples of fighting games with unique mini games but unfortunately these are the only one’s that I have played and had an enjoyable experience. While some modes are more related to the basics of a fighting game, I believe all the mini games listed here introduce some creative gameplay mechanics.

Mortal Kombat 2011, Raising the Bar

I recently was able to acquire a copy of Mortal Kombat 2011 Komplete edition for the 360. The last Mortal Kombat game I remember playing was back on the Sega Genesis with Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. But I was young at the time and barely knew how to perform fatalities without the aid of the code books that were sold at Blockbusters. I still remember being fascinated by all of the over the top gore and violence along with the realistic digitized sprite graphics. It was a unique perspective to the fighting game genre that was made so popular with games such Street Fighter II and Killer Instinct. Mortal Kombat 2011 does not disappoint. It creates a new standard which all fighting games will be judged upon.

           

My expectations for a fighting game have usually been the same across all the different series. While Tekken is my preferred fighting game series, I’ve played various Street Fighter, Marvel Vs Capcom and Dead or Alive games. Until Mortal Kombat, none of these games really reinvented themselves in a meaningful way. Most fighting games will have an arcade/story mode, a training mode and some form of online multiplayer mode. Capcom is notorious for pretty much providing these basic features and nothing more. Mortal Kombat 2011 goes above and beyond the traditional fighting game features.

           

The arcade mode in Mortal Kombat 2011 is your traditional styled fight X amount of brawlers to beat the game. The real gem is the revamped story mode. The story mode is broken up into 16 chapters, each with its own character. This mode essentially gives you a taste of most of the fighters available throughout the game. The story mode goes through the events of the original three Mortal Kombat games. It features cutscenes in between battles to help progress the story and explain what is happening. Each chapter consists of fighting four or five combatants either for the actual tournament or if the character is off doing some side mission. This is the first time that I've actually seen a coherent storyline for a fighting game where it makes sense. Sure Tekken provides an intro explaining why the character enters the King of the Iron Fist tournament but this new approach to the storyline in a fighting game has raised the bar.

           

Often times sequels for a game are not as great as the original because the developer seems to lose focus on the elements that made the original so great. I’m sure this happened to the countless sequels produced in the Mortal Kombat series. However with their latest edition, they have returned to the basics and made one of the best fighting games released in a long time. The fatalities have returned to being awesome. They are over the top, gory and very brutal. The unique abilities of the different fighters really shine when they are used to decapitate the losers in a match. The realistic graphics really help the fatalities flourish, especially when a character rips the torso off an opponent and you can see the blood and the entrails dangling from the lifeless body.

           

The new mechanic added to Mortal Kombat 2011 is the X-ray move given to each fighter. X-ray moves are equivalent to the super moves from Street Fighter where you need three full bars to activate. X-ray moves are some of the best looking and satisfying fighting moves to land on an opponent. When an X-ray move hits an opponent, the game goes into slow motion and zooms into the area to show a skeletal x-ray vision of how the hit impacts the opponent such as the cracking of bones and blood spraying out of the body. Other graphical improvements featured in Mortal Kombat include garments ripping from combat damage, skin becoming bruised and torn asunder showing organs such as the brain or other blood filled muscles. Again, these graphical details all add to what made the original Mortal Kombat such a popular series, the gore and violence.

           

Mortal Kombat does add a new feature to the series known as the Challenge Tower. Here the designers went all out in providing a unique experience outside of just a fighting game. The tower contains about 300 challenges that range from just playing through a regular fighting match to having to fend off a zombie invasion using only projectiles. Various other mini games are found here such as "Test your Might" where you have to repeatedly press a button to break the stack of brick or wood, or "Test your Sight" where you have to find the skull hidden under the moving cups. These are all refreshing ways to experience Mortal Kombat outside of the traditional arcade style fighting. The challenge tower rewards the user with "koins" that they can use towards unlockables.

           

Like in every game, there are flaws to this almost perfect fighting game. One of the most frustrating aspects of the game was the two-on-one battles. Essentially your character has to fight a tag team and win two rounds. While this wouldn’t be a problem in arcade mode since you would be able to use a character you are comfortable with, in the story mode you’re forced to use the one character for that chapter. You are put in a position where you don’t really know how to properly do combos with a character and then placed with a handicap. It would have been nice to have some extra health or some extra damage to help mitigate this handicap. The other frustrating battle was against Shao Khan who I only managed to defeat after using a cheesy strategy. Shao Khan’s moves hit like a truck and he doesn’t get interrupted if you hit him in the middle of his swing animation. He also has powerful projectiles which can stun you from afar. Luckily he does have flaws like every major villain. Once in awhile he’ll stand around and mock you which allows you to get some decent hits in. My final issue with the game is the training mode. Again, this is an issue that really impacts all fighting games and not just Mortal Kombat. Training modes seem to just feature the basic cookie cutter style modes such as cpu controlled, player controlled, auto block or combo recorder. While those are fine, fighting games should really strive to add in ways to show you how to make combos or add in a feature where you can see the list of moves without having to pause the game. You should be able to select a move and have it appear on the screen while in training mode. You should be able to see a demo of what the move looks like when you select it. Also, if a move is selected then there should be some sort of confirmation that you just did it in practice so you know you did it correct.

           

Other than those few flaws, Mortal Kombat 2011 is probably one of the best fighting games ever. If it is not in your "kollection" already you should go out and try it. I really doubt anyone would be disappointed with variety of gameplay offered in the game.

Ouya, the Unneeded Competitor

Ouya is the latest competitor in the home console market. It has been gaining popularity through its Kickstarter campaign, raising over 5.5 million dollars with 43 thousand backers. But what is Ouya and why so much hype over this new console? Ouya is a home entertainment console that runs on the Android operating system. One of the reasons for the development of this new console is the idea that smaller developers want to make console-esque games. Creating a game on one of the three primary consoles usually requires high costs associated with buying developer kits and licensing engines. Ouya will allow developers to forgo the various fees associated with creating games on a traditional console. There won’t be publishers to deal with or retail merchants to negotiate shelf space. The essence of Ouya is to allow developers as much freedom as possible. While this seems like a great idea, is it really needed?

One of the great things about Ouya is the pricing. The console will cost $99 and come with a controller and SDK. The SDK will give user the tools necessary for developing games. The console is also hacker friendly in terms of software and hardware. In terms of software, users can root the console in order to get access to system files and various other superuser functions. The hardware hacking refers to the  user having the ability to create their own peripherals that connect through USB or Bluetooth which allows for even more unique gaming experiences. Ouya can become more than just a simple game console. Since it is based on the Android operating system, any developer can publish their apps to work on Ouya. Ouya has also announced the ability to play OnLive games on the console which helps it compete directly with current generation consoles. Thus Ouya is a fully capable media system which will put pressure on Microsoft and Sony future plans.

My main concern is whether there is a need for this type of console. Indie developers have many outlets to create their own games. Microsoft has a specific section for Indie games that is available on the Xbox Marketplace. If Microsoft can start working to make the Indie community feel more welcomed along with finding ways to promote the Indie marketplace, Ouya will have fierce competition. Steam has recently announced the Steam Greenlight program which allows the community to decide which projects should be released on steam. Developers could start showing their early prototypes to the Steam community where they will get feedback quickly and can adjust their designs to fit demands. Also many smart phones have the capability of connecting to an HDTV’s through an HDMI port. Add in the ability to wirelessly connect a Bluetooth controller and we pretty much have an Ouya. All you really need at that point is a game to recognize the controller inputs and you have a TV experience. It seems like the overall videogame industry is finding ways to accommodate indie developers.

I am wondering who Ouya is going to be marketed towards? So far it seems like its marketing towards the indie crowd but that does not seem like a large enough user base. If Ouya’s target audience is much broader, say a casual market then why would someone who owns one of the three leading console want to spend an additional $99 on something that has features similar to their current console. There needs to be more incentive for people other than developers to purchase Ouya especially since the new Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony consoles will be released soon. Incentives could include some new exclusive intellectual properties by well known developers. The software is really what’s going to sell the consoles.

While on the topic of software for the Ouya, there is another major hurdle that it needs to climb over. Reducing the barriers to entry for developing games means a lot more people will start publishing their own games. This means a lot of shovelware will be found on the marketplace. Shovelware discourages buyers by forcing them to look through all the terrible clones to find the one good game. Ouya can add a rating system to the games which allows users to differentiate between good and terrible games. However there will still be thousands of games to look through which can become overwhelming. The last thing Ouya wants to be known for is having a ton of terrible clones.

There is one thing I believe Ouya should incorporate into its strategy. Since Ouya seems to be targeting indie developers, creating a user friendly interface for their SDK should be a priority. This will allow those with less programming experience to have an easier time to break into game development by prototyping their basic designs. They should also encourage users to get together to collaborate on ideas through special events hosted by Ouya. People with different backgrounds could come together to form teams. Ouya events could help teams fill in the necessary roles that they are missing such as designers, programmers or artists. These events could all be done through the Ouya console by hooking up a camera and microphone to create a type of conference call.

While Ouya seems like a great idea on paper, I feel there is very little reason for it to exist. The current market seems too small to create a substantial impact on the gaming industry. These indie developers already have a plethora of option available in order to create games on a “big screen TV.”