Posts Tagged ‘Japan’

I have just realised that I forgot the obligatory games of 2010 preamble… so yeah. This is about a game which came out last year that made an impact on me, not the best or the worst of the year but I liked it. This is the penultimate one of these so soon I should be back with some more in the moment posts, in the mean time if you want to check out my current reviews or articles go here, here or indeed here.

Games can encapsulate a mood; they can heighten a feeling, and sometimes even lighten the load. Some titles achieve this emotional resonance from their narrative content, others simply come at the right time capitalise on events in our lives, for better or worse (as Braid recently did for me). It is a dynamic that can be both painful or therapeutic, throwing in to relief an issue or allowing an outlet for raw emotions when there is no way to confront an issue directly. For me it was Vanquish that came at just the right moment to vent some very primitive emotions. And as thoughtless a game as it can be, it was just what I needed.

Beautifully Vanquish offers and standard definition HUD, also perfectly timed for this point my life.

Sat alone in my tiny apartment I was, simply, angry; at myself, at my life and my situation. I couldn’t decide if it was my fault, the worlds fault, the years fault, all I knew was that somewhere in me there was a rage with no escape. My anger sat beneath the surface of my smiling facade as I taught children and went out socialising, only occasionally escaping in at very drunk moments.

I had pre-ordered Vanquish months in advance of its release on the promise of another Platinum Games twist on an established genre and director Shinji Mikami’s involvement (the man behind beloved Resident Evil), little did I know how much I was going to need its cathartic action by the time I collected on my order, and how susceptible I would be to it.

Furious, fast paced action punctuated by mindless bravado filled cut scenes and (deliberate?) bizarre translation. Vanquish immediately drew from me a happiness that harkened back to movies like Starship Troopers.

This particular level is one of my favorites, fighting off attackers from a train as it circles around a tunnel.

As I struggled to decide how deliberate the genius of the game was, I realised I was transferring the anger inside me on to the hundreds of enemies that swarmed the world. Robotic opponents that balanced perfectly my ability to blow them to pieces with a range of satisfying weapons against a difficulty that challenged just enough to make me feel accomplished without a sense of being patronised.

It wasn’t just the gunplay that had me wowed. Vanquish’s core mechanic of fast paced movement, which saw me speeding around on rocket powered knee pads from one cover point to the next, did an equally amazing job of drawing the negativity from me. Typically such cover focused third person action games employ a plodding stilted advance, limping from one area of (relative) safety to the next, hiding as energy slowly recovers before repeating the same process again. Duck, fire, duck, fire, crawl forward, it frustrates and gives a sense of impotence in the face of the odds. Vanquish sheds this, forcing me to leap from one cover points to the next, dodging bullets as I go. In truth the system is ultimately the same, with a defensive posture still necessary to recover energy and boosters fuel, but speed and movement makes this defence as engaging and satisfying as offence, far more similar to the 2D games of old than a modern shooter.

AAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!!!.... AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Vanquish drew my frustration and anger from me as played. The game became a storm drain for my emotions, running off all the excess that had for so long bubbled under the surface. Harmlessly dissipating all of the darker thoughts I had been having. There was no down time, no question of thought or brooding as I sped from one piece of low cover to the next and switched between ever more satisfying weapons to take down robot hoards. Pure unadulterated stress relief that, in my case, was perfectly timed.

Welcome to number three in my on going review of 2010. It is not coverage of the best games, or the worst, but instead a look at those titles that became emotional touchstone for me over what was a difficult year. This time it is New Super Mario Bros, and it focuses a little more on the memories around the game than the game itself.

New Super Mario Bros holds a particularly conflicted place for me in my memories of 2010. After the usual blanket TV ad campaign (that Nintendo subjects Japanese audiences to) interest was high. While it released in 2009 limited funds in my UK account meant I was forced to wait some time before I was able to get my hands on a compatible copy.

During this wait I was constantly being asked by my girlfriend of the time when I was getting it. This was a woman who barely tolerated my gaming (maybe with good reason as I poured hours into it and writing) but here was a game she wanted to play, and we could play together.

Instantly recognizable, there is no barrier to entry for New Super Mario Bros.

On its arrival at my door she was suddenly keen to share my hobby. Everyday after this her first question upon arriving home from work was if we could play. Sometimes I even found myself reticent about playing due to commitments to cover other titles, but I always tried to make time.

We would laugh and enjoy hours with it each evening. At first I would play sloppily, ensuring she did not feel out classed. She quickly improved however and within a few days it was no longer necessary for me to handicap myself as she was happily bouncing her way through levels. Frequently it was her completing a stage as I died in my frequently unthinking haste, and while I would pick her up and throw her Luigi around in jest to show off my superiority she was in truth probably my equal at the game. Even if she never believed me when I told her.

It is the beauty of Mario that at this point though, especially in 2D, everyone of a certain age is almost certain to have had exposure to it or one of its derivatives.  With just a few additional, well-demonstrated controls the eight directions of the control pad and two buttons are enough to make it through each of the games archetypal levels.

I had only played the game with her, at her request. I never indulged in solo player sessions, preferring instead to keep it for us.

It became a game for the two of us, playing it alone just didn't feel right.

But my memories of it are bittersweet. While I look back on it fondly it marked perhaps the best of my final days with her, and indeed overlapped painfully with our break up. Key among my negative recollections is a day we had a visitor. A mutual friend from a local karaoke bar, and while I cooked my girlfriend entertained.

Most people may not appreciate the inherent difficulties of an intercultural relationship. Touchstones are sometimes hard to find. It isn’t that there aren’t any connections, but when meeting new people of their or your own culture there often seems to be an ease that can’t help but make the other partner feel jealous.

So it was this day. As I cooked the two of them sat playing Mario and laughing. I was already worried about them, knowing there was some attraction between them, but their enjoyment of each other’s company really started to grate on me as I worked. Their ease in conversation was made all the worse by the time they had been spending together at the bar he worked at, and the struggles we were both silently starting to feel to make our relationship work. And as I worked in the kitchen the jaunty Mario tunes provided a theme tune for my anger.

I could elaborate at length ongoing problems of my relationship; suffice to say that my feelings that day were symptomatic of a larger issue that plagued my ex and me. It crystallised the fact that it would not work, that we were not happy for reasons neither of us could combat, however much we wanted to.

Now, without her to play with, Mario looks lonely by himself on screen. And I suppose I feel the same way.

That day sealed the fate of my relationship, it still hurts and is inseparably intertwined with New Super Mario Bros. Now playing it I feel only melancholy where there should be joy. Each jump deadens me a little inside, and it is impossible to continue, save file will forever sit at world six. In short, what was supposed to be a game designed to bring people together did so until I found my person gone, replaced by a horrible loneliness.

Logically I should sell it, remove it from my life, but I cannot. Even with all of the loneliness and pain it reminds me of, it still has memories of the good times. Somewhere in all the hurt having it on my shelf is a comfort, and while playing it remains beyond me, I do still it and the times we spent jumping and laughing together.

Got to worry about my diet too...

DoFuss has moved, or more accurately I have moved, back to the UK. After nearly seven years in Japan the time came to head home and start looking for work in the game industry seriously. It is going to be an uphill struggle. There will be thousands of people younger than me, fresh out of university with applicable skills, and thousands more with experience that I am lacking. Still should be fun, right?

As part of being back, it being a new year and being unemployed, I am attempting to become more active here and on Game People in the coming months. There is already one article here for later this week as well as two previews from TGS that I never got around to publishing previously (both fittingly of games that are about to release) and of course the final DoFuss Show coming later this month.

With many more articles in mind this site should get back to its old schedule soon, but with a few changes in content. Firstly there will be less about Japan, except by comparison. Instead expect my focus to shift towards the surprises of adapting back to life in the UK and the shocks this brings, such as game prices, the state of second-hand gaming and the general culture of our collective hobby. There may also occasionally be some slightly self-indulgent posts about my problems getting reacclimatised to (supposedly) my own society.

Keep an eye on DoFuss here for more posts later this week, and every week going forward. Sorry for the hiatus, but living back with my parents I promise I will have lots of time to make up for my previous inactivity. As has become something of a theme for post recently if you have been missing my writing and can’t wait until later this week to read some below are some links to my recent articles on Play Devil and Game People to keep you going.

Halo – Reach, Valkyria Chronicles 3, Prinny Can I Really be the Hero, Vanquish, Enslaved – Odyssey to the West, Marvel Vs Capcom 3, El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron.

Alan Wake – The Writer, Sonic the Hedgehog  – Episode 1, Vanquish, King of Fighters – Sky Stage, Game of the Year Awards 2010.

We are back for the almost-last DoFuss Show. December will see the last DoFuss Show with my return from Japan to the UK. As I won’t be in the ‘land of the rising sun’ any more, the opening lyrics claim that I am ‘the number one gaijin, the man in Japan who can’ will become hopelessly inaccurate so (as we can’t be bothered to rewrite the theme tune) we decided to cancel the show.

Being busy trying to get ready for my return from Japan it has been a while since the last show, because of this it is a game and news filled episode. Stretching the entire gamut of gaming we jump from Half Life to Megaman, Yakuza to Kinect and 3D Space Tank to the Bible (don’t ask). But any podcast can bring you games, so we also deliver the best in Japanese terror attacks and a smattering of my own personal insecurities about my immanent return to Blighty.

Just in case you are worried about the fate of DoFuss, don’t be. The site will endure, and in the near future Darren and I will return with some as-yet-still-amorphous something for you aural delectation. I say ‘near future’, but I mean in the New Year once I am settled and (hopefully) employed back in the UK. Talking of which, if anyone knows of any job openings in England please let me know, the email address on the left. Thanks.

The DoFuss Show – Penultimate [ 1:03:37 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download