Fallibility, Atonement, Redemption, Trust, and other arcane technical concepts -
November 5, 2001 - Chris Jones
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed
within this column are those of the participants and the
moderator, and do not necessarily reflect those of the
GIA. There is coarse language and potentially offensive
material afoot.
Just when I think I'm out they pull me back in.
Don't say we didn't warn you.
Hi, I'm Chris Jones. You may remember me from such columns as "151 reasons Dragon Quest 7 sucks even though I've never played it", and "I'm not a Square whore, I'm a Square courtesan, dammit!"
So, um, anyway, I'll guest hosting for most of this week, occasionally tagging off with Drew. We've got a handful of solid candidates currently under consideration for the DA spot, and most likely there'll be a new permanent person in this spot next Monday. For now, just think of this week as a sort of mental palette cleansing, a chance for DA to drift back toward the bland, verbose neutrality that I used to oversee, before it shifts into... who knows?
Onward.
| Like shooting Ewoks in a barrel (which sounds fun too) |
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Chris:
I got the N64 for Zelda, Rogue Squadron, and Shadows of the Empire. Shadows, caught between an FPS and an adventure game, wasn't executed as well as it could have been, but it still managed to be wild fun (for me, anyway).
You would think that the non-starship combat games would have been done better, considering that the writhing mass of Star Wars fiction, comic books, and the table top RP system all focus on story-telling as much or more than gaming. The SW universe is so populated by barely-used characters and sub-sub-storylines that picking one and turning it into an excellent RPG doesn't seem like it'd be too much effort. I'm picturing a Suikoden-style RPG with dozens of playable characters and a galactic "world" map.
I think the only thing stopping them from making a mind-numbingly good Star Wars game that doesn't revolve around space combat may be that they need to focus on making a good game, rather than relying on the Star Wars brand name to sell a billion copies of an otherwise crappy game. (Anyone else try to play the Episode I for the PlayStation? Ugh.) Maybe they should take a page from Disney's playbook and team up with an experienced firm to produce a Stars Wars RPG or Action title.
--DarkLao |
Time for a sad but true confession: Shadows of the Empire was the game I bought along with my N64. That's right: a brand new Nintendo system and I bought some market driven piece of crap rather than a new Mario game to christen my console with. Of course, the N64's downfall was the result of a wide array of issues, but I can't help but feel at some level that the system failed because I didn't buy the right launch game.
Not that the above has anything to do with the topic at hand: Star Wars, for me, has always been somewhat torn between two goals. On the one hand, what makes the series powerful (at least the first three movies) is that the core story is very simple, and the main characters clearly defined. It's obviously Luke's story all the way through, and no amount of backstory or surrounding atmosphere matters from that perspective. On the other hand, people get at least as fanatical about the Star Wars universe as they do Tolkien, or Star Trek, and there's a large demand to flesh out characters who get the merest fraction of a second on screen during the movies proper. So yeah, there's plenty of fodder for games, books, tabletop stuff, whatever... but whatever Bobba Fett's official history turns out to be, can it ever be as good as what Lucas did with the first films? I'd say not, and for that reason, I tend to see a lot of Star Wars spin off stuff as failing before it even begins.
| Speaking of atmosphere... |
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Chris,
Despite what some might think, not all Star Wars related games have been
bad. Unfortunately, to find most of the good ones, you have to leave the
console world and check out the games for the PC. In particular, the X-Wing
series (X-Wing, TIE Fighter, and X-Wing Alliance) have been excellent. I've
also enjoyed others like Rogue Squadron and Starfighter. However, these
are mostly space combat games, out of the coverage area of the GIA. But
there is one genre I would love to see a Star Wars game in: I want to see
a Star Wars graphic adventure.
If you're not familiar with graphic adventures, they play sort of like console
RPGs, except that usually there's no combat, and challenge is provided by
solving puzzles. In the early 90s, LucasArts produced a series of wonderful
graphic adventures such as Monkey Island, Day of the Tentacle, and Indiana
Jones and the Fate of Atlantis. Unfortunately, the genre went into decline
with the dawn of 3D gaming, but has recently been making a comeback with
games like LucasArt's newest Monkey Island game, Escape from Monkey Island.
I think that Star Wars could be used as the basis of a wonderful graphic
adventure. I picture controlling a new Jedi recruit traveling across the
galaxy to try to rediscover an ancient Jedi secret. Or to stop a Sith
conspiracy. In the graphic adventure genre, the story is key, so there could
be any number of interesting possibilities. They could even throw in a few
Starfighter sequences to add a bit of variety. I am hoping that Star Wars
Galaxies has some of this sort of gameplay, but I am honestly not very
interested in MMORPGs. But with a license as big as the Star Wars universe,
they should be able to make an entertaining Star Wars console game eventually.
Oh, and by the way, welcome back, at least for the time being.
Brian Sebby
|
Time to do one of my usual tricks and completely reverse myself on everything I said in my last response: while the newly invented backstory of tangential characters may never match up to the central Star Wars plotline, said atmosphere is still interesting in and of itself. How can it not be, when a good chunk of it is dreamed up and implemented by Lucasarts and ILM, some of the finest nerds on the planet? It's been said that The Phantom Menace works far better as a travelogue than as an action movie - in that sense, a graphical adventure where you largely get to wander around and look at the pretty scenery would be a nearly ideal way to experience the Star Wars universe. Of course, it'd probably play a lot better on a high resolution PC screen than on your television, but that's neither here nor there.
| Scary. Deeply scary. |
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Already sent a human Pikmin link, but here's a better one. Nyeh.
-Joshua Slone
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I'd be inclined to give the guy more credit, except that the leaf on top of his head doesn't look particularly Pikmin-like. Now, had he glued some sort of rubber appendage onto his head... but on the other hand, is this kind of behavior something we really want to encourage? What if people all over the world start dressing like this as a fashion statement? I think the living would envy the dead, as the saying goes.
| You are on the Death Star. Command? |
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Hey Chris, nice to see you again (he said, pretending he hadn't stalking you all this time).
If I were to make a Star Wars game, I'd have to go with an Infocom-style text adventure. Why? Because it's the only genre LucasArts hasn't yet managed to screw up with a bad Star Wars game. Or maybe a graphical adventure... strange to think that LucasArts, the masters of the graphical adventure genre, have yet to cram their star property into the form. Even Indy had a few before he went Lara Croft on us. Just replace Sam and Max with R2 and 3PO and you've got an interactive episode of "Droids."
Actually, I guess that's not really a good thing.
--------------------------------------------
J. Parish |
There's something pleasingly perverse about taking one of the most graphically spectacular worlds ever created, and putting it in a format where none of that matters. Ironically enough, it might even bring forth something that a lot of Star Wars games have been missing, but which Lucasarts games in general have never been short on: character.
Seriously, think about it: Day of the Tentacle, Monkey Island, Sam and Max, Grim Fandango... all of these games have phenomenal characters that make you want to keep playing even when the gameplay itself isn't that great. But when it comes to Star Wars games, somehow we end up getting characters who aren't even worthy of being called wooden. Reduce character interaction and environmental description to just text, and you might end up with something that's actually enjoyable to play.
Selling such a game, on the other hand...
| Dead Stormtroopers or your money back! |
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Welcome back, Dr. Jones. You've been sorely missed in my jurisdiction. ;)
I've no problem with the gameplay found in most current Star Wars games--
Rogue Squadron and its ilk are, to me, quite fun. I wouldn't mind more
powerups, and the ability to fight very large capital ships (thereby
bringing an element of strategy into it), but all in all I like today's Star
Wars games much better than older Star Wars games such as the Super NES
trilogy.
My main problem with the Star Wars games of today is a lack of
originality in terms of setting and storyline. Hundreds upon hundreds of
books are in print today attempting to expand the Star Wars universe beyond
what was shown in the movies, and yet the games continue to focus
exclusively on the movies. Rogue Squadron's biggest selling point (according
to its advertisements) was the ability to play as Luke Skywalker; Rogue
Leader's developers continue to promote the ability of players to fly in the
Death Star missions from the movies. There's nothing wrong with this in and
of itself, but when every single Star Wars game made in the past ten years
(with one or two exceptions) is retreading the same ground, it gets
tiresome.
So, what I'd like to see in a new Star Wars game is a fresh new setting
and storyline. That doesn't mean to take some random dork no one's ever
heard of (i.e. Dash Rendar) and let you take him through the same levels
found in every other Star Wars game. Give us a new character, with
computer-controlled wingmen (very good AI so you don't have to worry about
them). Give the wingmen interesting personalities and lots of banter
throughout missions. If one of them dies, he remains dead throughout the
game, and his presence (or lack of it) affects the overall tone of the
conversations over your flight communication system. It also affects the
kind of ending you get.
Right there, you've got character development to keep folks interested,
you've got incentive to use strategic attack manuevers, and you've got
plenty of replay value. Next, take our boys through strange new worlds-- a
planet completely made of water, with floating islands... a desert world
with a dark, stormy atmosphere hanging overhead.... or something like that
big metropolis world from the end of Episode I.
So, the gameplay's fine-- could use some improvement but it's good
overall. What we need, at least in my opinion, is a truly fresh experience
that builds on the fundamental essence of the Star Wars universe-- the
lighthearted sense of adventure, the combination of the futuristic and the
magical, that made people love Star Wars in the first place.
-Nij |
I see where you're coming from, but I think you've got it reversed from what most people want (or at least, what Lucas marketing's convinced most people want). As a strange and interesting world to explore, Star Wars has a lot to recommend it, but as an actual game, people want to do what they've seen in the films: ride speeder bikes, shoot Stormtroopers, fight light saber duels, blow up TIE fighers. You can go nearly anywhere you can imagine, but if you don't give the people the experience of the movie, you're undercutting a lot of the license's attraction.
Actually, that may be why a lot of the games have been so mediocre: developers try to fit in every possible Star Wars activity, and don't develop a very deep or interesting battle engine on any one game. It may also be why some of the PC games have been more successful than the console games, because they do tend to focus on one specific thing (flying in X-Wing, shooting in Dark Forces). Then again, everybody wants to do something different (I'd far rather use a light saber than pilot an X-Wing, but others are the opposite) so it's hard to blame game designers for wanting to hedge their bets.
| Surrender to the dark side, and other such cliches |
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Uh...*next* Star Wars game? Isn't it enough to spend all of my money
revamping my home theater just to play the one already coming out?
KZ
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Man, don't remind me. I'll wager Lucas will figure out a way to add in another speaker to THX for both of the upcoming prequels: by the time we get to Episode 3, we'll be up to Dolby 8.1, and everybody's current top of the line sound systems will look like My First Sony in comparison.
| Putting ideas in their heads |
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Chris--
There have been a few Star Wars games that were pretty well done. Dark
Forces and Jedi Knight come to mind, along with the 'Super' series back on
the SNES. Also, despite its flaws, I rather enjoyed the Phantom Menace game
on PC. Sure, it had its sucktastic moments, but the feeling of deflecting a
hail of laser fire back at those damn dirty droids can't be beat.
Anyway. As you know, Lucasarts has covered just about all of the genres ever
since the earliest days of video game yore. Except one.
Star Wars: Jedi Golfer. Imagine the fun as young Jedi Padawan Anakin
Skywalker travels the galactic golf circuit! From the opening screen
(complete with now-clichˇ Duel of the Fates music) to the joy of selecting
your personal caddy (Jar Jar, anyone?), this exciting game will truly become
a tour de "Force."
Use your Jedi persuasion skills to convince the judges to give you a
Mulligan! Bend the ball's trajectory to your wills with telekinesis! Ignite
your lightsaber and enjoy the "slice-a-gopher" mini-game!
And don't forget your opponents! Sinister Darth Maul and his double-sided
driver! Jedi Master Yoda atop a haggard Luke Skywalker! Jabba the Hutt and
his six-titted caddie!
Yes gamers, the golf fun will be non-stop next Christmas with Star Wars:
Jedi Golfer
LeFou
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Last year I would have laughed this off as an impossibility.
That was before Super Bombad Racing came out.
Now I know it's just a matter of time...
Closing Comments:
Ok, here's the deal: I asked for the day off tomorrow so I could take care of some homework, but that's already been taken care of, so it looks like I get to slack off and watch the Simpsons Halloween special while Drew covers for me. I'll be back on Wednesday.
Still, the man needs a topic, so try this one out: let's hear your impressions on the advertising blitz being put up by Nintendo and Microsoft for their upcoming new consoles. Gamecube has those oddly artsy glass cube commercials, and Xbox has tie-ins at Taco Bell and writeups in nearly every mainstream media outlet you can think of, but what's your take on whose ads are better, and who's winning the battle for the hearts and minds of US gamers? See you Wednesday.
-Chris Jones, back and gone again
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