Pokemon Co-Master Impressions

So the Pokemon Company released a new spinoff Pokemon game in Japan. It's a board style game where the goal is to reach your opponent's goal. The board itself looks fairly simple, but as I've played it, I've noticed it can actually be quite a complex game that's interesting to play.

Pokemon Co-Master! Because it would be lonely at the top?

I was able to download a copy of the game and try it out. However, the game itself is fully Japanese so I tend to act like former 5 year-old self and skip past dialogue and rules. I simply guess the effects and remember what I see. In the process, I've learned a few things but still confused on a few others. As a result, I cannot give a full review, but I'll get as close as I can for the bit I've played.

Reading through some comments on Polygon, this is apparently a video game version of some board game that came out quite some time ago but was short-lived. I actually like the board game. It's an interesting twist on the Pokemon formula as every Pokemon is useful, unlike in Pokemon Shuffle. By useful, I mean, you might want to hold on to your starter set and weak Pokemon, because they can be quite powerful. Yes, little Weedle can hold its own against a Charizard, probably. That's how awesome it is. Spearow is also perhaps the deadliest foe in the game where I'm at.

So here's game setup: You can have 6 Pokemon figures and you take turns placing or moving them across the board. Each side has 2 spawn points. If your figure gets defeated in battle, it gets sent to the Pokemon Center. If 3 Pokemon are sent there, the one that's been in there the longest gets sent back to your hand, allowing you to place it again after 1 turn.

Here: the board is showing where Pikachu can move to as well as its roulette wheel

For Battling, both sides spin a roulette wheel for their respective figures. The higher number wins, but it's not always that simple. There are effects which trump attacks. For example, Pikachu can spin a 100, but it's useless if Chespin guards. If the numbers are the same, nothing happens. Taurus' special ability can force its opponent to move back 2 spaces and have to wait 2 turns. This would also beat out Pikachu's 100 spin. On the flip side, if your special has more stars than the other figure's, then your special takes priority.

So what do I mean about Weedle defeating a Charizard? This is because if a Pokemon lands on a Miss, then Weedle only needs to land on a 10 and it will defeat its opponent. Each roulette wheel is specific to a Pokemon species so the value of Miss differs greatly. There are at least 2 Pokemon I've gotten where Miss is like 4% while others has it at like 60%.

Charizard may have power, but there's also a good chance he can miss

There's another thing that needs consideration when building your team: Movement Points. The highest I've seen is 3 and those are for the weaker Pokemon. The stronger your Pokemon, the more likely it'll be a 2 or 1. If you have all 1's, then you might lose to a team of all 3's.

Now just because there are roulette wheels doesn't mean this isn't a thinking game. Luck certainly has it's place in the game, but you definitely need to plan your actions. I've made a few silly mistakes that certainly cost me the match. However, if you are uncertain what to do, just tap the AI button.

That's right, you have an AI partner. If you tap it, then the AI will move for you. So far it's done a fairly god job and I've learned some neat tactics from it. However, I have seen a few moves that I think made no sense or were highly risky. I tend to use it when I see 2 valid moves but unsure which to choose. The benefit is that the AI tends to select one of those 2 rather than a 3rd. I also use it when I don't want to bother looking at every figure's roulette wheel in order to figure out which Pokemon to send out.

There is one thing I have noticed that the AI never does and that's play your "plates". These cards grant bonuses for your team. For example, I can increase attack power of Torchic by 20, cure a poisoned figure, etc.. Some cards end your turn as soon as you play while others allow for movement as well. Both have their places as sometimes you need to move, but it would cost you the game if you did move a figure. Sometimes the best thing to do is force your opponent to attack first.

Getting interested? How do you obtain new figures? The 2 ways I've seen so far is win a match or "purchase" one. Both are difficult as the match option has you spin another wheel with the odds not in your favor. The shop option requires either golden tickets or diamonds, the latter of which can be purchased with real money. The result is that it's difficult to get free figures, but I have managed to get quite a few with quite a bit of patience. There are some duels where the odds of getting a figure is a bit higher and sometimes you can win within 2 moves, so it's possible to collect the figures. There are also matches where you are guaranteed a good prize when you win the first time, like diamonds or a Pikachu figure, in addition to the roulette wheel spin.

This game totally explains Ash's Pikachu and how it can lose to easy opponents while taking down strong ones

It is possible that you just keep getting stuck with obtaining the same figure again and again. Those figures can still be put to good use. If you fuze them with another Pokemon, the base figure gains a lot more experience than you get from winning a battle. After leveling up, you can deplete the Miss sections and increase the odds of landing on something you want. It's a slow process, but the results can make your figure better than another of the same model.

You can also play online against other players in ranked battles. To do this, you first need to obtain special tickets by playing the campaign mode. When you go to play, there's ranked mode and room mode. I assume room mode is to play against nearby opponents. In ranked mode, you have a chess clock where your time goes down during your turn. This adds a sense of urgency to every action as you want to make sure you have more time on the clock than your opponent. It also forces you to try and plan your move while your opponent is making his.

If you have doubts that you are playing against a human due to the AI nature of the game, my doubts were resolved when my opponent stopped playing as soon as it was guaranteed that I had won. Luckily, if your opponent doesn't move for 1 minute, then you are declared the winner. I could see a desire for the time to be 30 seconds, but sometimes it really does take more than 30 seconds to figure a good strategy.

Uh-oh! Time is running out on my side

Something I find weird, which might be on Google's side, is how the game is rated for 3+. Does that mean they expect 3 year-olds to play this game? That's pretty bad considering that most of the text is kanji and there are quite a few currencies, making this a money trap for those who aren't careful.

In summary, I'm so far enjoying this free to start game. The progress can be slow, but it is fun when you have a good match.  It's a nice strategy game with good replay value and I could see them using this as a means of reintroducing the board game. Perhaps they can use all of those Pokemon Rumble figures that didn't become a hit. I do have one last warning and that is this app does drain the battery pretty fast, even as fast as you are charging. So you might want to limit playing when you don't have access to a charging station.

P.S. The app does crash occasionally. I haven't seen too many, but I have gotten a few. The good thing is it looks like the app handles it nicely so I didn't lose anything. Hopefully it doesn't get worse as I progress towards the end. I'm still only at the 2nd tower.

Interesting things about Twilight Princess

So yesterday, I wrote my review of how the Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess was ported to Wii U. In my analysis, it's a good port. Now as I played it, I noticed a few things that I found interesting.

1. Midna's hand gesture is the Japanese one for "Come": In the west, the palm would be face-up, which I saw one boss do in a fight (won't spoil for those who don't know who). However, in Japan (where the game was developed), the palm is face-down and looks like you are digging.
   
2. The Hidden Village shootout is awesome and inspired a spinoff game. However, you can also play a Cat-hunt version by talking to the cucco. The goal is to talk to every single cat in the village and you get a piece of heart.
   
3. This is the only Zelda game where someone looks at you as a hero: In most games, you are called the hero, but no one looks up to you as one. This makes Twilight Princess interesting, because you have the character Collin aspires to be like you.
4. The shaman can't stand the bar owner :D
5. The Gorons go from Sumo to Boxing. If this game was made in the US instead of Japan, it probably would have been deemed controversial.
6. I didn't try it, but you can make the oocca fly forever, making it look like they are trying to attack you Video on youtube. I wonder if they'll attack you like the cucco.
7. The wolf form is more powerful than the Master Sword.
   
8. When you reach the temple of time, it kinda looks like the Wii U tech demo. Makes me wonder if they have been developing this port since then.
   
9. Midna may have an interesting story and dialogue, but she stinks when it comes to giving you advice about what to do next.
10. The game is a bit inconsistent about whether some items should be in the fancy chest or just a normal chest.
11. When playing the balloon popping minigame, get the minimum high score and slowly increment each round in order to get money fairly easily.
12. There are mini-dungeons hidden in Hyrule Field.
13. The yeti's mansion is filled with paintings of various characters and locations, including some I don't expect he could reach.
14. When you switch to Zora armor, you can't swim faster like you can in human or wolf form.
15. Some of the howling stone songs are from OoT.
16. The developers seem to like Westerns. Not only do you have the joust and herd, but also the Hidden Village shootout and this pose.
    
17. Rutela's theme is the Serenade of Water from OoT.
18. The Hidden Village is likely the Kakariko Village from OoT due to the information provided by its inhabitant, which had a shooting game.
19. You can play fetch with the dogs in Castle Town by picking up a bone and throwing it. The dog will bring it back.
20. Even though it's dogs that are known to have good smelling senses, it's Telma's cat that says she could tell you're Link based off your scent 
21. Possible Spoiler: Your trainer for Hidden Skills call you his Child
    
22. The Wii U version adds a touch button to let you switch between Wolf-Link and Human Link on the fly.
23. You don't need to talk to Midna in order to warp on the Wii U version. Just open the map, press L to turn on portals, and touch your destination.
24. The Wii U version starts you off with a wallet to hold 500 rupees and the next one holds 1000. Much better improvement over the Gamecube's 300 start. However, if you can't hold the rupees, you won't put them back into the chest anymore.
25. If you plug in headphones to the gamepad, the audio will stop playing on the TV automatically
26. In some of the dungeons for the Wii U version, you can't access some chests until later. First one I noticed was in Death Mountain
27. The Wii U version has a special lantern to help you find Poes.
28. If you want to make a bow combination on the Wii U, you have to pause the game.

Bonus one: Concept art for Ilia had a fairy image on her forehead. That could possibly mean that she was intended to be Navi from OoT incarnate (I recall seeing this in Hyrule Historia).

Extra one: This is the only Zelda game that has an explanation as to how Link can carry all of that equipment

Update 6/16/16
The character who repairs the cannon is a reference to Mario. Using cannons to reach new locations such as a sky world or desert world appeared in New Super Mario Bros. for the Nintendo DS in 2006, the same year Twilight Princess originally released.

Port Review: The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess for Wii U

First things first, I should apologize for not writing a review for a long time. The simple explanation consists of two things. First, I've been busy with life changing events. Second, I haven't been buying as many new games but instead been playing Pokemon Shuffle with the little spare time I had. However, I did pick up Twilight Princess for the Wii U for a few reasons. First, I wanted the soundtrack that came with it. Second, I cannot play my Gamecube version for a while as I do not have access to a Wii or Gamecube to play it on. Third, I wanted to check out the Wolf Link Amiibo and I hope that it has some neat feature in the new Zelda game. So how does the game hold up as I went through effectively my third playthrough? Pretty good and it gives me some hope for how the new game will turn out.

Good Job, Nintendo

Of course, I should clarify but what I meant by the word "hope". There are some good features that I want them to carry over and there are features I want them to make/improve. All of these have to do with the gamepad implementation.

Twilight Princess used the gamepad to an okay level. You can play the full game using the gamepad only, but I found that out by accident rather than being told how to do so. For those who want to know, pause the game with the + button and then press the - button to switch displays. As a warning though, the resolution takes a hit. It still looks nice, but not as nice as on a 32-inch 1080p HDTV. To make up for that, Nintendo included a feature that's nice for "need to be quiet" time: Audio Source Swap. If you plug in headphones into the gamepad, the game audio will automatically stop playing on the TV, switching completely to the headphones. It sounds so trivial, but I utilized that feature quite a bit during the 30 hours I played.

So I can listen to the Hidden Village song without disturbing my family

Now the gamepad can be used for both items and map display and you can use either in real time. I found that neat for the times when I wanted to swap items when waiting to reach a destination. A good example is when you are sinking in the water and want to pull out the clawshot or water bombs. It may not save a lot of time, but it's a lot of the little moments like that where you can determine if a feature is good or not. If you are in big trouble, then you can always pause the game and change your items that way. It's good, but it could be better.

Twilight Princess is an interesting Zelda game in that it does try to utilize old items later on, but those occasions are sometimes only for one-time use.  As a result, I find it annoying to assign one item to button and then change it back to something I'll actually need. For instance, the bombs are sometimes used everywhere, but not often enough to keep a button assign to them. There are two things I would like done here. One is to follow the example of Ocarina of Time 3D in which there were 2 touch buttons that you could assign items to. That way, you just tapped that button and the item would be used. The second option, which I think would be better, is a double-tap activation for the item on the touchscreen. It's perfect for the often one-time need, and by making it a double-tap, the chances of wasting precious resources becomes smaller.

I know that Nintendo can do that, because they implemented it to do one awesome feature: the change between human and wolf-Link! It's perhaps one of the best additions to the game as it makes things so much smoother than having to talk to Midna to transform every single time, only to find out that you can't do it. Once you gain the ability to transform on-demand, that icon is fantastic. No longer are you bound to fighting either as a wolf or as swordsman because it's too inconvenient to switch. Two thumbs up for this feature!

As a side note, everything that is selectable in the menu screens works with the touchscreen as well. I could select portals to warp to without talking to Midna, change my equipment, save my game, etc. So bonus points for that as well, Nintendo and Tantalus.

There is a another worry aspect and that's the hub on screen. You can have the map displayed on the gamepad, but you are still forced to have the hub on your TV. I looked at the settings, but I couldn't turn it off. Maybe I do want to keep them on screen, but sometimes it's in the way, especially since I did actually look at the gamepad map most of the time. It's a handy tool though I'm not sure if the tab design for switching between map and items was best practice. I might have liked a 3rd option that had the mini-map with some items to pull from.

One improvement I would like added here would be to be able to write notes like in Phantom Hourglass. The reason for this is because I found some treasure chests, but was unable to access them until I found an item. I would have liked to make a note for myself, which I could do with the 3DS built-in game notes, but the Wii U doesn't have such a function.

To be fair, you can share pictures like this on Miiverse with your notes.

Back to the improvements, I'll claim that Amiibo was implemented fairly well. Since Link is one of the most popular Amiibos, it's generally safe that the player has Link or maybe Toon Link. Using the Link (or Toon Link) amiibo restocks arrows, which is a useful function without being game-breaking. The only caveat is that you cannot do it more than once a day (I don't know how it works if you have multiple Link Amiibos).  Now if you bought the edition with the Wolf-Link Amiibo (a.k.a. the Midna Amiibo), you can play a special gauntlet of enemies as Wolf-Link. What I've learned form doing that is that the wolf form is more powerful than the Master Sword and sometimes easier to defeat some enemies.

Last improvement to note is the option to use motion controls. You may not want them, but I found to be using it more often the the control stick. Why? Because I could move the camera at just the right speed and precision for my target. It is on by default, but turning it off is as simple as going to Collection screen (Down on the D-Pad) and then Settings (lower-right corner). However, I do suggest to try using them for the whole game. The same rule applies here as with every Nintendo motion controlled game: the game initializes its tracking based off your controller's location at the instant you regain control. So if you use the clawshot to reach a location, it will re-initiliaze after you reach that location so you need to make sure that your controller isn't at a funny angle. It was like this for Wii Sports Resort, Skyward Sword, and Splatoon. I think most of those who hate motion controls really just don't pick up that this is how it works.

Now, if you already know you don't like Twilight Princess, this port probably won't change your mind. The story and pacing is still the same. While some of the core gameplay has been improved thanks to the gamepad and motion controls, you still have to deal with the mandatory mini-games and side-quests. On the other hand, if your complaint was the graphics, they look nice here. At least as nice as I recall them back in 2006. If you were wondering about picking this up, then hopefully this analysis proved to be helpful.

Does this make anyone else think about the Wii U tech demo? The room here was very nicely done

Impressions: Rodea the Sky Soldier for the Wii (not Wii U)

I've been busy the past few weeks and will continue to be so. Therefore, I do not know when I'll be able to write a full review after beating Rodea the Sky Soldier. However, since I do have time today, I can write most of my impressions for the Wii version. The consensus I have found online is that this is the best version even though it's only available in the Wii U for the first run. Can you still find it? I say most likely since I was able to get it as well even it's been weeks after the release. I believe that until the publisher says something about the game, there won't be a second run. The shame is that the Wii version is a neat game even with my critiques.

Rodea is an important game for a number of reasons. First, it was announced at the end of the Wii's time and the beginning of the 3DS lifecycle; a time where there were no real support for either. Second, it was by the man behind Sonic the Hedgehog and NiGHTS. When you realize who the developer was, it isn't surprising to see the influences from those two series. Now I haven't played NiGHTS, but I hear it's good and the images I've seen of gameplay show the influences it has on this game.

The basic summary of gameplay is you flying to reach a destination. You collect things called gravitons and when you hit a chain at a specific angle, your flight is guided to complete the chain. Collect 100 and you get a 1-Up. Special stages require certain amounts of gravitons with the goal being to collect a shiny object. You can find item boxes with extra gravitons, 1-Ups, and even a barrier to protect you from 1 hit. Guided paths can be speedy loops, launch points, grinding experiences, speed boost panels. Enemies consist of machines trying to attack living organisms. To attack foes, you perform an homing spin attack which also acts as your boost to reach your destination faster. Sound familiar?

Wii U version screenshot since I can't find official Wii ones

That being said, the gameplay actually works nicely and tries a few new ideas. The game is played with just the Wiimote without the nunchuck. You use the wiimote to point to your destination and then press B to fly. If you just press B, you'll fly in a small but fairly straight arc, but if you swing a bit, the arc will grow. This allows you to attack from the sides or change directions without having to change the camera angle. The latter being useful for gravitron chains. I do advise that you take breaks every stage or two to let your wrist relax from the pointing position.

The damage system is close to Sonic's but not as mean. Each level starts with you able to take 2 hits before death, but you generally can find a flight upgrade which are fairly generously placed throughout the level. The upgrade not only grants you one more hit, but doubles your attack power and distance you can fly with one press. Add the barrier and you can take up to 4 hits at a time. Also, weapon upgrades count as flight upgrades, so you'll almost always be at maximum power. However, once you are down to 1 hit, you are in danger since your flight ability is very weak and you cannot attack anything.

Remember that I said the primary gameplay is when you are flying? When you are in the air, things are fairly smooth and neat. However, once you land, the gameplay feels slow. You move Rodea by using the d-pad on the wiimote while moving the camera by pointing the wiimote at the borders of the screen. This camera movement is incredibly slow and there's no option to speed it up. You also control the camera the same way in the air, but generally the game does a good job in getting it close enough to the right angle for smooth gameplay. That being said, I feel like the game would greatly improve if the d-pad could quickly control the camera when you're in the air, especially during boss battles.

When you are fighting a lot of foes, sometimes it is best to completely give up controlling the camera and switch to automatic view. By pressing the (-) button on the wiimote, you lock on to the nearest enemy and switches when it's defeated until there are no enemies close enough anymore. This is helpful because the camera will shift fast, allowing you to more effectively chain and attack. There is one power up that allows you to quickly lock to multiple foes and attack quickly but I found it slightly hard to master. Luckily, you only need it for a few sections and there you have plenty of time to use it.

It's the Saiyan Scanner thing

Speaking of time, you generally don't have to worry about it, unless you are allowed only to play for 15 minutes at a time. Levels are fairly long which is why I suggest you take breaks. Keeping your wrist at the point position for a long time will make it hurt. There are unfortunately a few sections where you have to race the clock or you lose a life. On the bright side, you generally have a lot of lives and checkpoints are fairly well placed. So far, there's only one time where I had to start back further than I wanted to and I'm on section 22 or 24.

Perhaps the most annoying feature besides the camera is the voice acting. However, NIS America was gracious enough to include 4 languages, including the original Japanese. Once I switched to Japanese, I can totally stand the story now and practice my Nihongo. From the amount of knowledge I have, they pretty much translated everything literally, which is good. Also, if you want more Sonic similarities, I see the same attitude vibe from Rodea every now and then.

Multiplayer is included in the Wii version, but the stages need to be unlocked and are pretty much standard Sonic competition. In other words, they aren't so great. It's a split screen experience and can be played with up to 4 players, but you may want a big TV if you want to try. My TV is pretty small so it's no good for me to get 3 of my friends to even attempt.


So what's my recommendation? I like it so far and do want to play it more often than I have. However, I'm quite busy and when I have free time, the TV is in use. Luckily I can use the Wii U gamepad as my "TV" and play it that way when I really want to, assuming it has a charge and my sister isn't playing Splatoon. If you like Sonic the Hedgehog or NiGHTS, give the game a try if you can find the Wii version. I picked up the game brand new on Amazon for about $32 or $37 and I consider it worth it. If you are worried about the fact that Rodea looks like a Devil, I haven't seen any reference to that yet. The story is that Rodea is a machine who thinks he has a heart and wants to stop the evil robot empire. Anyways. Happy flying!

Accessibility

    When Nintendo released the Wii, they were onto something with the reduction of buttons and change in design of the controller. The original NES controller also had very few buttons and this made it easy to learn controls. Something we must remember is that back then, there weren't any tutorials. Instead, the first level was where we experimented with the controls and then just started playing. I consider this important as this was how accessibility was defined, but we've lost that in modern gaming.
    Today's AAA games tend to be complicated with hours of gameplay or text devoted to explaining how to play. This actually hurts the game's value as those who quickly understand the controls don't want to sit through long tutorials. I know that every time I picked up a new Mega Man Battle Network game, I was annoyed by the tutorial stages that just seemed to go on forever. These levels are nice for new players, but they frustrate veterans and kill the reply value of the game. This actually brings about the ironic situation where the game may be accessible to newcomers, but not accessible to experts.
    On the flip side, if there is no explanation for a complicated game, then the developers risk isolating any new players. The solution is a proper balance. If the game is simple enough in gameplay, then no tutorials are needed. A good example is Super Mario Bros. where you move or jump. World 1-1 gave newcomers perfect environment to learn how to play the game while also not being annoying for experts to play. In fact, there are so many secrets in that level, experts would replay just to find them.
    Now what about complicated games? Fire Emblem: Awakening did a good job here as well. Instead of a time consuming tutorial, the player was given screens of text with picture examples with the option to skip and view later. This means new players can read the tutorials whenever they want to, making it a prime example of accessibility while not impeding those who already know the gameplay.
    Accessibility has a bad connotation in gaming to mean adding tutorials. However, it really means just making it so more people can enjoy and easily understand the game. It's a good goal, but it must be important to realize that it affects not only the novices, but also the experts. When that balance is achieved, the game is allowed to achieve greatness.

Inazuma Eleven First Impressions

Normally, I’d write a full review but that is unlikely to happen soon. I bought Inazuma Eleven as part of Nintendo’s eShop sale and I even reach Chapter 4, but now that Xenoblade Chronicles X has come out, my full focus has shifted to my most anticipated title of the year. However, Inazuma Eleven is not too shabby even if there are some minor annoyances in gameplay.

To start off, Inazuma Eleven is a Soccer RPG developed by Level 5.  The game is also primarily controlled by the stylus which is the best way to play but you may want to invest in a bigger stylus lest your hands cramp. When moving around the world, you can use the circle pad and buttons to move, which I often do, but once a battle or match starts, you need the stylus. In these modes, you draw lines for your team to follow and tap in order to pass or kick the ball. It is important though that you still use the circle pad to move the map so that you have a better view of your team. It’s the map aspect that makes me wonder if the game is better suited for the iPad but the stylus is pretty important.

Matches are the major battles. You have a full 11v11 match but these are also what progresses the story meaning you don’t always play to play soccer and you have a ton of cutscenes. The first few matches make it clear you can only succeed if you perform certain special moves. However, when you first start playing, it’s likely difficult to accomplish the one simple goal and failure means going through a lot of cutscenes again and pointless “gameplay”. This makes it annoying that you cannot save halfway through or the lack of checkpoints. However, once you get the hang of the gameplay, things start getting better. 

Battles are the Random Encounters of this JRPG. They consist of either scoring the first goal or stealing the ball within a time limit in a 4v4 format. They occur fairly often and reward you with 2 currencies and experience if you win. However, if you lose or run away, you lose some of both currencies. On the plus side, winning one round can make up for losing 7. The problem I have with the battles format is that the AI is dumb. Your teammates tend to go where you can’t see them, meaning you have to constantly move the map while defending the ball somehow. The map is also fairly small as it’s a 4v4 but its width is no different. This is annoying because your teammates also like going along the edges instead of actually towards the goal. This means that even if you pass to them, you have to move them back in order to be in range of the goal. With the Steal the Ball, your goalie will keep running back to the goal instead of actually helping you, resulting in a 3v4. In Matches, the AI is better but it’s still long.

To help with the bad AI, you have the ability to pause the game and draw routes for your players to follow. This is perhaps the game's best Risk-Reward implementation as they will continue to follow those lines even if things don't go the way you expected. You can change the lines, but that will have to be in real time as you have to wait before you can use another "timeout". It is important to note that any time the action is paused that you can draw routes, this includes during action decisions and kickoffs. When you master using these opportunities, things get to be pretty fun.

The next annoyance would be the Special Moves cutscenes, they get tiresome after a while and I wish that there was a "Turn Off Animation" like in Fire Emblem. These special moves are also somewhat of a gamble as you don't know when your opponent will use one.

Anyways these were my quick and poorly written impressions. I actually have found myself wanting to keep playing even when my wrists hurt. I really enjoy playing soccer and found myself as a strategist when playing, so this game is almost a perfect match for me. If you want more information about the story, there's an anime with a few episodes on the eShop that appears to follow the game's plot pretty well. Enjoy!

Games and Violence

I originally wrote this piece on my Philosophy Blog, but I feel like it deserves a place here as well as the ideas behind it haven't changed. Enjoy.


               Lately, video games are receiving the bad rep of leading to an increase of violence. This idea has been exaggerated to the point of games being blamed for shootings. Yes, these are terrible crimes and we should work to prevent them in the future, but in order to do that, we need to make sure our attention is in the right place.

                Games are only the latest to be blamed for violence. Before that, it was television. Then it was movies and comics. Books and stories have been blamed for a long time for inciting the people. That is why there is a thing called censorship, but that is an argument for a different time. As I was indicating, placing the blame on a single part of society has been around for quite a long time, and it’s always the “latest” thing.

                While some people agree that it cannot be pinned on just video games, they merely extend it to all of media. They are on the right track, but still are missing key information. They are still making broad generalizations in this modern day “witch hunt,” which also is another topic for another day.

                One of the causes for this mob is the lack of understanding. There’s that old saying that “people fear what they do not understand”. They cannot explain it, thus it is illogical and evil. Some people misunderstand it, and combined with the other group, a mob is formed. For the case of “witch” hunts, some people attributed resurrection and healing to black magic and the devil. In a Christian world, this cannot be done because it acts against the nature of their religion, considering the story of their savior healed people and raised them from the dead. Thus people need to first try to understand the issue correctly, hence my essay on the Allure of Video Games.

                In the case of video games and many aspects of the media, there is this tendency to paint everything under the same brush. Since the news generally reports only the bad stuff that happens, most of the public only hears of the bad stuff. They get the impression that video games are only Call of Duty and since they feature guns, they lead to real life shootings. I don’t know of anyone whose skill with a controller means they can handle a real gun.

                Now it is certainly possible that first person shooters can lead to real life shootings, only because we are human and thus stupid. But even then, there are two major prerequisites. First, there needs to be a disregard to the value of life, especially of innocents. Second, the guy needs to be crazy. And of course, people can argue the first implies the second or vice versa.

                Why those two? Because even with the abundance of violence in the media, that should not make it easier to kill people if we value the concept of life. And as long as we are not insane, we can maintain that view. As long as our heroes still show a respect for life, even of the criminals, then I would think that would prove my point. To my knowledge, the nature of Batman and Superman is still to let the law handle it, and the versions that don’t do that are turned into insane villains.

                While I acknowledge the possibility of causation, that's all it is. A possibility. A 1 out of 5 billion chance that someone will go crazy and somehow that is the cause. Do video games lead to increase of aggression? Not as much as just bringing up the idea of politics does. Politics are the cause of many innocent killings and shootings, and they get funding, but we haven't banned that yet. Is it fair for me to paint all political activity under the same brush?

                On that note, most games are not Call of Duty. There is still Mario, Portal, Angry Birds, Fruit Ninja, Minecraft, etc. In fact, in Nintendo games, the player rarely encounters another human-like foe.  I remember being told, “Don’t go into video games, because those are dens of evil.” Uh, no. Video games are art, the formation of something created in someone’s mind. Just like a movie or a painting, whether requested or not. There may be an abundance of bad art, but that doesn't mean there are not good ones. Even then, I wouldn't necessarily say Call of Duty is bad art per se.

                Is there an over abundance of violent video games? Probably, but since I don't play them so often, that leads to another thing. I've already mentioned there are alternatives, and they are popular. That means the consumer and gamer has choices in what games they play. Parents have choices in what games they let their children play. If they are buying primarily "Mature" content for a 10-13 year-old, then I would think there are far more fundamental problems going on there than the kid playing a game.

                One last thing I will address. I heard someone say that there is a “study” that playing video games cause people to be more irritated. Everyday life causes people to become irritated. If we were to ban games based off that idea, sports would also be gone (remember that obsessed fans really go crazy). Then again, traffic, politicians, and bullies would also be banned, which could eliminate so many problems, though cause new ones. The thing is, we cannot disprove the idea that games are what kept shooters from acting earlier.

                There’s actually one more thing that came to my mind. I don’t know what are the real motivations of these shooters. Did they just not have any value for life? Was there a specific message they wanted us to see?  With all the attention that is given to shooters, you’d think there would be some focus on what made them snap. Too bad our society decides to focus on debating guns and burning video games instead.

Game On,

N. D. Moharo