Rygar and the Nintendo Power Mystery

I've got some spare time because my NES is auto-leveling Rygar, which I'm going to attempt to play through tonight. I've never beaten the first boss, though I have played the game many times. Of course I won't be using any FAQs. One could look the maps up at The Video Game Atlus, a great site upon which I recently stumbled. Another useful site, if you have any old Nintendo Power magazines (The first few years are the best gaming magazines ever), is the Nintendo Power Index. I'll be using it to look up a few games in this post.



It's found in the first issue of Nintendo Power, so let's open it up to get some tips!



It has a great Zelda spread, and good maps of the levels. But notice the only entry Rygar receives in Nintendo Power (ever).



Note the early use of "ftw" in the not-obvious Kid Icarus tip.

The game is very difficult, but they only give one small blurb to Rygar? It's very strange, older games often got reviewed years later. Most popular games got covered, and it's a really decent title. I wonder if gamers would think that maybe Rygar looked more fun than the original Zelda. Not all gamers, but Americans might be drawn to this Captain-America adventure game, which combines aspects of Mario and Zelda. Similar to Kid Icarus, but much, much better. Placed lowest on the page, smallest. Juxtaposed; size confirming worth.

Super Mario Bros. was featured in issues 2, 3, and 12. It was again featured in the Lost Levels issue, and again for Super Mario Bros. Deluxe, for the GBA.

Kid Icarus was featured in issues 2 (twice), 10,12, and 45. I'm not sure if contemporary Nintendo Power reviews VC games, but if so I'm sure it's in there somewhere.

Of course it's the official Nintendo-sponsored magazine, but they purport objectivity like most periodicals. Looking at the title page for the first issue we see SMB2, the game designed specifically for stupid Americans who couldn't play games with the fury of the Japanese spirit. Jerks. Second, Zelda, the most blinging NES cartridge. What else do Americans like? Baseball, and therefore 3 baseball game reviews. The other features fade into meaningless over-excited magazine talk. At least SMB2 was a pretty fun game, even though I would have preferred the real SMB2. And Zelda was definitely worthy of a gold cartridge. But baseball games are boring. Why the hell do we need three baseball games, just because we are American? I guarantee that 2 baseball games are plenty for me, though Mario Strikers looked really fun if it were a present from a distant relative who couldn't expect to know what video game I would enjoy, a raffle prize, or perhaps found in a fast food coffee shop. However, Wii Baseball suffices for any baseball-related gaming activity in the 21st century.



It's time to see who is behind this racist madness. The following is a transcription of the Editor's letter (huh, he's American) with my commentary applied as footnotes.

Dear Player,

We hope you enjoyed reading the first issue of Nintendo Power as much as we enjoyed making it. We spent many hours doing research (playing games) in order to bring you the most complete reviews, the best tricks, and the raddest reading ever! (1) I even jetted (2) to Japan for a week(3) to work with Nintendo Power staff over there(4). You try to explain Wheel of Fortune to someone who doesn't speak English (5)! It was great to make new friends and to meet some pretty hot game players too (6)! Maybe we'll even profile a few of them in a future issue (7).

Nintendo Power will come out every other month, and we want to provide you the very best in video journalism (8) (We've discontinued the Fun Club News(9), so that we can devote all our energy to making Nintendo Power the best magazine you could ever subscribe to(10)). What could be more fun? (11) So, if you have an opinion about something (12), or a hot tip you want to share(13), we'd like to hear about it.

See you in September,
H-------------------

P.S. I'm working real hard on Zelda II (14). Look for it. It's going to be great!


1. The letter begins well enough. It's 1988, so rad is acceptable.
2. More lingo emphasizes the cool. Too busy being to cool to play Rygar.
3. A whole week!?
4. The guys that actually make this magazine?
5. Exciting statements end in exclamation points!
6. Palis Hirton?
7. See Nintendo Power Sluts XXX, Erotic Electronic Publishing, 1989.
8. With your leadership this magazine rocks!
9. Who cares!
10. Most of the time National Geographic is boring.
11.What indeed!
12. How convient!
13. "Which library bathroom should I haunt?"
14. No way! Zelda 2 was released in 1987. The coverage, however, was great.

Wizards & Warriors

I spent the weekend reading Faulkner and playing Wizards and Warriors. (and Ironsword, the first two games in the 4-part series). You play as Kuros, a knight running around freeing tied-up half-naked babes from evil monsters.
Fun game, really hard. However, you continue from exactly where you die... so eventually you forget about lives altogether. And as the afternoon drifted into evening like insects skimming on water, improbable yet somehow vindicated by the harsh physics of our world, I battled as Kuros, falling repeatedly in battle like Confederate and Yankee soldiers pierced by bullet from afar or the close and familiar sting of a bayonet, leg vaporized by the earth tumbling explosion of a cannonball... In the words of the wizard in Conan the Barbarian: "Life and Death, the same."



It's a curious game, because it's kind of bad. The jumping physics are awkward (though somewhat fun), you can easily loose the best items in the game by picking certain treasure chests, and monsters constantly spawn off-screen and kamikaze into Kuros with no hope of ever defending the attack.

But, the game has nice artwork, great music, infinite lives, and some cool areas to explore. It's a good game if you are looking for a fantasy adventure and have already played Legacy of the Wizard (and part 2 of the post) and Faxanadu. Similar and inferior to both, that about sums it up.

Had I played this game as a child, I might enjoy it more. But as the list of NES games I haven't played dwindles, Wizards and Warriors is a refreshing reminder of the high-quality NES library. I have owned the sequel, Ironsword: Wizards and Warriors 2, for some time, but I could never figure out what to do. I've decided to sink some more time into Ironsword, maybe it gets better as the game progresses.

Wizards and Warriors (the entire series) is also notable for being made in America. Most good NES games come from the land of the rising sun and it's comforting to see that at least some Americans were trying to make a decent NES game.

This installment steal it's story from Mario, having you rescue a princess in 8 castles, the first 7 named from myth and literature, but not being "your" princess. Eventually "Thou Hath Rescued Thy Princess / Thy Search Hath Ended" and thy princess remaineth kneeling in submission, half-naked and blond.



Levels 2-4 are caves, and all look similar, thus the game drags. But stages 6-8 are fantastic, epic, and worth the trouble of getting there. Wizards and Warriors simply needed well-programmed enemies, something even Legacy of the Wizard couldn't accomplish. Enemies in this game appear from everywhere, can fly through walls, or simply can't be killed. Every enemy in the game feels cheap, both in battle and programming.

There is also a place (I believe it is level 5, but it could be 6) that seems oddly familiar. Hmm, what could it be? See the final screenshot, I had to take it with a real camera; I was playing on cartridge today. I'll continue the series and post my thoughts if something interesting should come to mind. I've been looking for a Game Boy game to play recently, and Wizards and Warriors X: The Fortress of Fear looks fun. Any other fans of this series or a particular game within?

The 2600 Adventure of Zelda

Every gamer suspects that games were better in the past. Obviously, most such feelings are nostalgia, but others enjoy playing older video games more than most modern ones. Older games ring true in myth. Modern games fail because of the lack of integrity in the creators of the game, executive meddling, stupid ideas, million dollar budgets, or, primarily, an asbestos desert of creativity, content to copy the great games, adding nothing and producing hollow xeroxes of great adventures.

Adventure was the first graphic adventure game and released in 1979. The story is distilled medieval adventure: a hero travels from the gold castle, through countryside and mazes, fighting dragons, harassed by bats, steals the treasure back from the wizard's black castle, returns to the gold castle. He then becomes king and builds an army and takes over other video game worlds. That's the story to adventure and it is a perfect description of the gameplay. That connection between material function and story exhibits pure unbridled form.

"Created by Warren Robinett" was inscribed as a rejection of Atari's unrestrained video game commidification. You can't expect people to care about your video game company at the expense of the artists producing your product; it breaks every code of author attribution. The video game creator functioned as programmer, artist, musician, and writer. Obviously a man or woman might be exceptionally skilled in some areas and lacking in others forms a small team of individuals who carry out a united vision.

On February 21, 1986, Nintendo released The Legend of Zelda in Japan, with Miyamoto credited. They don't credit Adventure, the game released 7 years (that's seven years without a decent overhead graphic adventure game) previously, maybe no one noticed. Adventure has 1 screen scrolling (so does Zelda...), dungeon entrances on one screen, isolated in the center (Zelda, too, has castle entrances like these. The point being that if one were to take Zelda and compress it, the result would be Adventure.) Multiple quests, bats, multiple items to solve puzzles, 3 dungeons, dragons, weapon, mazes, a holy item that needs to be retrieved. Zelda has, multiple quests, bats, many items to solve puzzles, 18 dungeons, dragons, 6 or 7 weapons, octorocks, mazes, a 8 holy items that needs to be retrieved AND a princess! Adventure even has an area, in the white castle, called the crypt. Zelda makes overt reference to this with the "white castle" i.e. the entrance to level 6 in the first quest being next to the graveyard. Zelda even assumed the dragon's mechanic of eating the character with the Like Like enemy, consciously avoided, but still changed and put to use.

The Legend of Zelda adds everything that Adventure couldn't with only 4k of memory. Zelda was on a 1-MB cartridge but was only 132K thanks to clever programming. The overworld is stored as "rooms", but rooms are made of columns, not tiles, which greatly decreases the amount of storage space, but sacrifices flexibility in map design. Certainly a matter of aesthetic taste, but the game that captivated 6.5 million had a certain aesthetic symmetry, a mathematical quality which made Hyrule appear as crafted by ancient and sleepy gods.



For your comparison here are both maps. Notice the graveyard in the west of Hyrule, as described in the above passage.



Where do these games not fail? In story, because each is simple and mythic. The games are likewise simple and mythic, and artist expectations are upheld. But what of other games that purport to good storytelling yet fail with hollywood blockbuster lowest-common denominator entertainment? Sometimes it's hard to appreciate a game without thinking, "this is all 50 million dollars could make?" And at the bottom line consumers buy graphic... actually consumers buy well-marketed video games and, occasionally, the outstanding AND well-marketed video game. One has to imagine that that money could have funded 10 smaller projects, with plenty of money left over for executives to waste, and at least some hope of producing something worth the time and effort invested by designers and consumers (and critics!)

Atari even made a little known spiritual prequel to the Legend of Zelda, which you can only play if you download the rom, known as The Adventure of Zerda. Here is a magazine scan of the world map. As you can see there are clear similarities between Adventure and The Legend of Zelda, proving the relationship conclusively.



Human nature assures us that individuals will make good video games because they want to, and people with a job making video games will become disillusioned with the corporate world and decide to at least get paid well and work on (what I assume) is important science, or put their name on half-assed products like Wii Music, the worst game ever made. Video games need artists, not fatcat sellouts.

Pitfall!

Pitfall! is considered the first major platformer, and an important piece of video game history. The game was released in 1982 for the Atari 2600 and soon found its way to the ColecoVision, Commodore 64, Intellivision, and Sega SG-100. I think the game is also playable via GameTap, but who cares? It was the second biggest seller on the 2600, surpassed only by Pac-Man. Unfortunately, Pac-Man on the 2600 is one of the worst games ever made. Pitfall!, however, is amazing.



You control Pitfall Harry through a jungle, jumping over pits of tar and water. You can swing from vines, jump on alligators, and collect treasure. Pitfall! has a unique game mechanic: you only have 20 minutes to beat the entire game. The perfect game results in only 1:42 seconds left on the clock... so you've almost no time to enjoy the detailed landscapes. You can complete the game by collecting all 32 treasures scattered about the jungle. Don't expect an ending, however. When you beat the game, everything just stops moving.

The world of Pitfall! is composed of 256 screens, each with some combination of pits, animals, logs, treasure, fire, and vines. The player can choose to progress through the game in either direction, but it is generally easier to move from right to left. Occasionally, you will have access to underground passages infested with giant scorpions. These passages allow for extremely quick travel: each underground screen corresponds to three above ground screens. To complete the game, you must use these passages.



Collecting treasure adds to your score, while tripping on a log or falling down a hole reduces your score. All the other obstacles (including the water and tar pits) simply kill you, and you have three lives (and are unable to collect more). A perfect score is 114,000 points.

Pitfall! was created by David Crane (who also made A Boy and His Blob, a similar game... sort of), and the famous anecdote is that he designed the game in 10 minutes and programmed it in 1000 hours. He probably could have spent a little more time in planning, but, I must admit, Pitfall! withstands the 27 year test of time.



My friend had this game, and I remember swinging across vines and jumping on alligators. However, at the time I didn't have the benefit of the internet and we had no idea what the goal of the game was, other than exploring. It was fun, but completely eclipsed by the fluid gameplay and fantastical world of Super Mario Brothers.

Pitfall! was a technological accomplishment upon release, proving that the Atari 2600 could make games that didn't look like garbage. Activision has tried to update Pitfall several times, resulting in several abominations (Pitfall 2 is pretty good, but I haven't played it much). Ironically, the installments with the least technological advantages proved to be the best games. As with many classics, Pitfall! possess an almost supernatural magnetism. Play one single game of Pitfall! and tell me you don't hunger for more.

Arcadia Part One: Chasing Ghosts: Beyond the Arcade

This is the first entry in a three part piece entitled Arcadia. The second and third installments will cover philosophic readings of Berserk and some personal experiences in arcade hunting, respectively. Part one reviews the movie that inspired these articles.


Chasing Ghosts: Beyond the Arcade is a brilliant documentary detailing the glorious rise and ultimate fall of the Golden Age of video games. Comparisons between GC:BtA and King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters will inevitably arise: both documentaries star some of the same people and examine similar themes and ideas. King of Kong, unfortunately, proved highly inaccurate for a documentary (despite telling a great story). Chasing Ghosts does not suffer from the same problem.

The film draws an implicit parallel between the lives of some of the greatest arcade players and the end of the Arcade Era. Some stories are truly sad, even depressing, but the film doesn't just poke fun at them. There is a respect for the subject matter, an understanding that life doesn't work out for everyone, and, hey, these people are still living even after their dreams were crushed.

These players were on top of the world from 1980-1983, when the market started to crash. The most powerful image in the film is a series of arcades flashing, with the date they closed at the bottom. Dozens of arcades closed their doors between 1983 and 1985, and almost overnight the arcade scene was decimated. Some made their living from video games, and were left unemployed. Others were disillusioned and left the gaming world forever. Others dedicated their lives to preserving arcade gaming in history.

Ultimately, Chasing Ghosts is about lost dreams. Arcades were magical places, highly social, unique creations. The world turned its back on them, and some of the players subsequently turned their back on the world. Video games survived, but the arcade is dead; it was intense and brief like the life of a Romantic poet. Surely all things are transient, but arcades were something special, and their death was premature.

Dr. Zilog, Malevolent Necropolis

I've been listening to the latest cd by Dr. Zilog, Malevolent Necropolis. It's free to download on his myspace blog. It's a death medal odyssey using 8-bit sounds and common 8-Bit video game themes with at least one Sealab 2021 reference and plenty of 8-bit thrashing. 12 tracks, 32:42 hours and minutes long. I'm not a music critic but I know rhetorical devices, humor, sarcasm, and good video game music, though, in this case, curiously without the video game. Likely too intense for any games we play unlike the demonically-programmed arcade deathfest this album would demand.

Retrospective: Top Ten Games of 2008

The title of this post is intentionally misleading. What this retrospective is all about is taking a post to remember 2008, not in terms of new releases, but by examining the games that I spent most of my time playing. I encourage any readers to post their own lists, with optional commentary.

2008 was an extremely busy year for me, between working, applying to graduate school, blogging, programming and designing games I still found time to sink hundreds of hours into new and old classics. The following works of art are especially memorable and set the tone of 2008 quite nicely.

10. Animal Crossing: City Folk
Nintendo's latest entry into the Animal Crossing series has been a pleasure, and a slight disappointment. I was hoping for innovation and expansion of the series's scope, yet neither were delivered. What we received, however, was a solid entry and a slight improvement over Wild World. Incredibly fun if view objectively, one can't help but be disappointed. Though released only a month ago, I think this title sums up the mounting animosity that gamers have with Nintendo. They are abandoning their original consumer base, and, most frighteningly, it's working. Well, good luck in 2009 Nintendo, because there will be a lot less of your games on this list next year.

9. Ys: Book I & II
These classic TG-CD games were hotly anticipated, but were released without much fanfare. I finished Book 1, and am working on Book 2. This is one of two games on the list that I haven't beaten, but I was looking forward to its release for months. Adol's adventures running into the sides of monsters never grows old. If you are looking for some amazing music, look no further. Ys is also forever tied to history; it was the first CD-based RPG. This game really shows, like Mega Man 9, what 8-Bit game design combined with advanced technology can produce.


8. Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia
Another year, another Castlevania game. Don't let my brevity fool you, this is one of the freshest, most enjoyable entries in the series. Gamers unlocked the mystery of the sexy amnesiac and a gunslinger, and our faith in the series remained strong.


7. The Dynastic Hero
One of the first games I played this year, and one of the best. The Dynastic Hero impressed me with its bold visual style, CD-based audio, and intricate quest. Though originally a Wonder Boy game, I think the insect motif fit well with the environment. This game deserves serious credit for inspiring me to start 8-Bit City and to start blogging about lesser-known titles, because I had never heard of the game until it appeared on the Wii's VC. And although this masterpiece takes 250 blocks of precious Wii Storage space, it's worth every bit.

6. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
I'm a little late to the game, and this is the other game that I have not completed. Hurricane Gustav killed my momentum and I moved on to other gaming adventures (NES Pro Wrestling, which is definitely NOT on this list). I don't share in the disappointment for Twilight Princess, however, and I welcome the return of a serious art style. The Zelda series is definitely showing its age, and Nintendo must adapt. Either take the series back to 8-Bits, and keep it simple, or start innovating. The this work is not without flaws, but the true genius and beauty shine through.

5. Adventure Island 2
It's an island of adventure! Many parties this year ended in my friends and I playing Adventure Island 2. The smooth gameplay, lack of serious glitches, brilliant colors and balanced levels have made this game a favorite among my inner circle. I have owned Adventure Island 2 for over 15 years, and both the cart and my desire to conquer dinosaur island remain firmly intact. Keeping hammer tossing, Master Higgins!


4. Cave Story
Pixel's masterpiece painted a brilliant picture of sorrow and triumph. Cave Story showed us that one man can create great video game art. There is no title I anticipate more than the Wii Ware release of Cave Story, coming in early 2009.

3. Super Smash Brothers Brawl
How can I not mention the game that consumed over one month of my life and almost devoured my blog? Super Smash Brothers Brawl should act as a beacon for game designers. Never have I experienced so much content and balance in a fighting game. This game is so close to perfect, one wonders where the series can go from here. Probably down. Please prove me wrong.

2. Mega Man 9
I'm still playing Mega Man 9, in fact, I just beat the game without the helmet (and without dying). MM9 proved that 8-Bit is not an ancient necessity but a legitimate artistic medium. The conscious decision to used "outdated" styles caused ripples in the gaming community. The notion of "graphics" in professional reviews was questioned, and reviewers were forced to look at artistic design rather than technical capacity. Mega Man 9 aided intellectual video game criticism more than any other title and helped the mainstream understand that video games are a serious medium and that an increased vocabulary is need to properly describe them. In addition, Capcom managed to top Mega Man 2 and create the best entry in one of the most popular video game franchises of all time. I would have thought this impossible, and was thankfully proved wrong.

1. Final Fantasy VII
Love, life, and death. I journeyed through the world of Cloud and Tifa again this year, visiting old friends and exploring familiar locations. Everything about this game is dear to me; it is my favorite game of all time. Final Fantasy VII feels real while maintaining the mantle of fiction. It's ambitious story strives to tell a tale equal to the sublime heights of Dante's Comedy. Its themes are timeless, its music profound. It's unique, brilliant, and beautiful.

Extra Mention: 8-Bit Killer
I left this list for a few hours before posting it, and I realized that I left 8-Bit Killer off of the list. This title, along with Fallout 3 and others, are proving the legitimacy of the first person shooter. Anyone not a fan of the genre should play 8-Bit Killer and be converted.

Extra Mention: Monuments of Mars
Personally this game was a big inspiration and a breath of fresh gaming air when I needed a break from other games in which I was involved. Something different and ancient. Addicting gameplay and pure simple graphics.

Extra Mention: Super Paper Mario
I finally played this game, and though I am at the gates of the final castle, I haven't yet beaten it. A great game overall, this is the consciously retro and innovative platformer the Wii needed.

That sums up most of 2008 for me. Other titles probably should have made the list. Anything reviewed for this blog certainly does, but it'd be pretty redundant to just list them all. What about you, when you think back to 2008, what games will you remember playing?