I remember when there were months of anticipation surrounding upcoming releases for system "X". And the reason was a just one. Quality titles/Entertaining titles were few and far between for any platform. I remember waiting for weeks for FF3 (u.s.) for the SNES and I remember waiting for weeks and shelling out damn near $100 for Phantasy Star 4. Both of these fine games deserved the buildup I created around them for myself. These were "true" quality titles. Titles that were months or years in the making. And after shelling out $75 for FF3 and an even bigger chunk of change for PS4 I was not disappointed by either title. I still believe to this very day that both of those games were worth every single penny or more!
Now this column is going to take a turn toward the schizoid.
Let's start with point one.
For every hotly anticipated game there are multiple games that aren't, and some of them turn out to be some of the finest examples of why video games will never just go away completely. These are referred to, as they are in music and film, by the term "sleeper". A sleeper is a game that has everything going for it except a budget for advertising. It is a game that takes either a new concept and makes good, takes a proven formula and perfects it or a game that earns critical acclaim (damn I hate using that word cause the last time Akklaim made a groundbreaker was years ago, if ever) and a cult following.
Examples? Wipeout, Abe's Oddyssey, Bust A Move (Puzzle game), Final Fantasy (for the NES, it never even hit 1 million copies until the sequels came out for the SNES in America, Japan always loved it), Shining Force, the original Bomberman (also referring to the NES game), Golgo 13: Episode One, Gabriel Knight (the first one for the PC), Shadowrun (Genesis or SNES).
Hopefully these ring a bell. If not check a few out, they are the absolute cream of the crop (remember the time frame of their release when you play them though). These are only a few. There are many, many more. The problem is that these game either redefine or perfectly refine a new gameplay style, and did not sell as well as many of their own copycat games. Even worse than that fate is when these games inspire sequels that either are stagnant rehashes of their previous incarnations or don't sell well enough to allow the developer's to develop even more genre stretching games. All while we see knockoffs that are clearly not as well exucuted go on to sell millions of copies. Or worse people follow the series and buy unspirited and unoriginal sequels, sometimes not even from the same people who created the original games (see also, 989 Studios F**ks up Coolboarders and Twisted Metal real bad!!!).
On the other hand we have the unspirited and dumbed down sequelitis syndrome. Want some suspects? Here we go! First and Foremost MegaMan 2-6 (NES)! After a challenging original which rivaled the great SMB for platform goodness we get no less than 5 sequels that are good but unforgivably formulaic and easy. Ninja Gaiden 2 which was much easier than the original and even more insulting was that the 3rd installment simulated challenge by limiting your continues instead of using real gameplay challenges! Golgo 13: The Mafat Conspiracy (2) which was a extremely simple sidescroller with no challenge at all (one of my personal sore spots with sequelitis!!! I love Duke Togo!). Gabriel Knight 2: Phantasmagoria 1.5!
All I'm saying is that creativity takes a dive when you know WHATEVER you make will sell copies because of name recognition. Things are bad enough with tons of unoriginal software (a.k.a. cookie cutter games) cluttering the shelves. The last thing real video gamers need are sequels to excellent titles being turned into the crap that sits on the shelves next to it.
Relying on name recognition to sell brings me to my second point...
One of my very sore spots right now is the hype concerning the PS2 this October. Now I grant these facts for Sony. The PS2 is a good piece of hardware, it is a capable machine, and ... erm ... that's about it actually.
Sony has a problem... actually it has many problems.
Sony has a lot of things going for them including but not limited to the following. They have market momentum in their favor. They have a lot of PS lovers blinded. High name recognition. Large group of third party support because of their PS installed user base. A slightly superior platform (on paper at least) than their closest competitor (Sega). and of course, EA/Square.
Unfortunately they also have the thing that has brought the once mighty Nintendo down during the last changing of the guard (16-bit to 32/64-bit). That is overconfidence. Now don't worry Nintendo ain't going broke anytime soon for two simple reasons - Pokemon and GameBoy (std, Pocket, and Color) and Sony ain't gonna go broke either (they are a huge electronics maker in case you didn't know!). But Nintendo came to the market with N64 like it was gonna be the next best thing to sex a while ago and believe me it isn't even close. Lack of software, long development times, and media cost (cartridges) kept the N64 from even giving the PS a run for it's money. In fact the N64 failed miserably everywhere in the world except for The US (Where advertising outpaces common sense at a staggering 3:1 ratio. It sold horribly in Japan (and it only surpassed the Sega Saturn in console sales when Zelda was released a year and a half ago!).
To me this proves one thing, you need quality software, original software, and plenty of it. The PS2 does not have this and will not have this. It's system selling game is being touted as Metal Gear: Sons of Liberty which is not going to be released until almost a full year after the launch of the PS2 in America. Even hardware retailers are unimpressed with the PS2 as of yet. Yeah the thing sold like hotcakes in Japan and has 1.2 million consoles in homes in the land of the rising sun. Here is Sony's problem. It is selling the PS2 at a substantial loss expecting to make up the difference in no time with the royalties/licensing fees it charges developers on each game sold. That shouldn't be too hard, right?
Wrong.
The ratio of software to console is 1 to 1 in Japan right now. In other words the avg. gamer in Japan who owns a PS2 owns only one game. I figure the Licensing Fee to be between 5 and 10 dollars a game. Sony is losing approx. 135 dollars on every PS2 console it sells right now. I trust you can do the math and see that if Sony was a Video Game only company it would have been Chapter 11 already. Like I said they aren't. Here is the problem in specifics. The Japanese gaming public was holding off on purchasing a stand alone DVD player and waiting for the Game Playing/DVD Playing hybrid that is the PS2. Unfortunately Sony doesn't see a dime off of DVD sales unless it is from a Sony owned movie studio (yes they do own movie studios, sad isn't it?).
And so far there are NO original headturning blissful games for the PS2. Everything features a Tag Tourney, 2, 5, or some such at the end of their name. And unfortunately, as good as the PS2 specs are, when it comes to real world performance you would be hard pressed to tell the Sega Dreamcast and PS2 apart just based on onscreen performance. In fact it's been proven that you might even pick the incorrect one based on just watching the game (in other words, Dead or Alive 2 looks markedly smoother and more fluid on the Dreamcast even though the PS2 version had more time in development).
Which brings me full circle. To my Video Game collection. I have 31 Dreamcast games and those are only my must haves, if I had more disposable cash I would easily have 50. As it stands I have more DC games than PS games. That happens to be because developers just seem to be more willing to take gameplay, scripting and all around challenges on the DC, not to mention the fact that Sega's lifeblood is Gaming, and they develop some of the most polished and entertaining and *gasp* original games to be had.
Point is this, I want good games, I want them now (and have had them since 9/9/99), I want tangibles and not fallacy ridden hype. Thank you and good night!
N8