When Mega Man Ruled the World: An Anniversary Tribute
A look back at the games that saved Mega Man… at least, for a while.
By: Jeremy Parish October 9, 2011
When the original Mega Man hit the NES in 1987, it was a revelation: The slickest, most open-ended platform shooter ever made. With only ten stages, it was short compared to standards like Super Mario Bros. and Wonder Boy, but what it lacked in length it made up for with replayability… not to mention sheer challenge. Its sequel, 1989’s Mega Man 2, was even more spectacular. Together, the two games defined a genre and became high-water marks for 8-bit game design.
Sadly, a decade later, Mega Man had practically become a mockery of itself. The old-school sprites of Mega Man 8 and Mega Man X4 were comforting to gamers who weren’t completely convinced that the PlayStation’s chunky polygons should be an absolute replacement for classic game design; yet at the same time, the 2D Mega Man titles felt like relics, doing nothing to push the limits of technology or play mechanics. Mega Man had become iterative, where once he was innovative. Meanwhile, the Legends spin-off actually did introduce new ideas, including an early form of Zelda’s Z-targeting and real-time story cutscenes with lip-synched facial animations, but it was largely dismissed by Mega Man fans and detractors alike: By the former for being too different from the older games, and by the latter for wearing the name “Mega Man.”
Supply and Demand: Behind the Scenes of Retail Pricing
How consumer input affects the price of everything you buy.
By: Seth Macy October 7, 2011
Let’s take a trip back in time. Not too far; just 2006. America’s economy was zipping along at a frenetic pace. The price of real estate rose exponentially, and if you tried to tell someone that the market wasn’t sustainable, they would laugh in your face. Sony began gearing up for the release of the PlayStation 3, and if you spent any time on the Internet, you probably witnessed an argument or two concerning the $599 price tag for the more feature-rich of the system’s two models. The two sides of the argument generally boiled down to “it cost too much” versus “it’s a great value.” And you know what? Both sides were correct.
The fact that the PS3 cost more than the sum of its parts could be proven by gathering together the prices of similar, individual pieces (most Blu-Ray players at the time were still more expensive than the PS3, with none of the extra features). This much was undeniable. However, value is a wholly subjective notion and decided by consumers. If a consumer sees value in a product such as the PS3, then they decide that the price is just. If not, they simply don’t buy it, buy a substitute product, or wait until the price comes down to a level they feel is acceptable. This is known in economics as the subjective theory of value.
Perhaps From Software’s devilishly dark fantasy role-playing game Demon’s Souls caught your eye back in 2009. It received nothing short of unanimous critical acclaim, after all. But one crucial caveat kept you at bay: its fiendish and unforgiving difficulty level. Here was a game that dared to brazenly buck modern-day accessibility trends, testing its audience’s patience and self-control in ways that made even the good ol’ 8-bit era look downright tame. Demon’s Souls never held your hand; it lopped your hand right off, beat you to death with it, took all your stuff, and forced you to get right back to work (sans said hand).
Two years later, spiritual successor Dark Souls remixes its forebear’s merciless mechanics, enticing you to eat that same saucer of crow once again. This time, you give in; you’ve steeled yourself for the inevitable torment, determined to prove your mettle against this game that dares to flaunt its unforgiving reputation front-and-center, with a foreboding “Prepare to die” tagline. Conquer this, and you can conquer anything, right? Well, welcome to the most hellish fun you could possibly have with a video game. You’re going to earn those bragging rights.
When GamePro asked Mortal Kombat co-creator Ed Boon in 2008 if he’d continue to reinvent the brand (after MK vs. DC Universe), or take the iterative approach of the Tekken series, his answer points to an interesting truth: “Out of our competitors, my favorite fighting series is Tekken. When I pick up a new Tekken game and play as Hwoarang or Jin Kazama, I feel like my character gained a few new moves but overall retained the same strategy. Prettier graphics, but the same basic gameplay… I feel like I’ve played them all before.”
“Coincidentally, their sales aren’t nearly as big as they were back in the days of Tekken 3,” Boon says, “I think that’s something all fighting games, especially ones with multiple sequels, need to do: add something dramatically different.”
Missing Mascots: Gaming Personalities that Slipped Off the Radar
Mario and Sonic might have made it, but these guys definitely didn’t.
By: Todd Ciolek September 30, 2011
Once upon a time, they were important. They were more than just video-game characters scrambling to be the next Pac-Man or Mario. They were the symbols of game companies, seen in logos and commercials and as many cameo appearances as possible. Then they dropped out of the spotlight, thrown aside by a game industry that just didn’t have a place for a bald cave-child or a cross-eyed pink dinosaur.
They’re the fallen mascots of game generations past. Some were too bland to survive. Some hit a streak of lousy games. Some were just hitched to the wrong company. But all of them were mascots in the true sense. They served as the public faces of developers and publishers, and that makes the difference between a Bonk and a Battletoad. Here’s a chronicle of the once-proud mascots worth remembering today.
Re-imagining the Star Wars MMO through a flannel filter.
By: Dennis Farrell September 28, 2011
Having spent the last fifteen years compulsively adding random cgi aliens to the original Star Wars trilogy, George Lucas is taking a much deserved vacation following the release of The Complete Saga.
Meanwhile, The Old Republic is closing in on its recently announced release date of December 20th. Since the Star Wars MMO carves out a niche some 3,500 years before the events of the films, BioWare has enjoyed a great deal of creative freedom up to this point. With a restless George Lucas roaming the wild, however, it’s only natural to wonder what would happen if he turned his attention toward The Old Republic and gave it the “Special Edition” treatment.
