Non Comic-Con Jon!

I did not get a ticket for Comic-Con this year.  Boo.  I moved all the way across the country and, now living right in downtown San Diego, was totally psyched to finally attend the world’s premiere pop culturepalooza.  Nobody told me 100,000 tickets would sell out in 45 minutes!


So no, I did not go to the Con...but I did soak up every free ancillary event, and boy howdy, there were many! It’s amazing how not just the convention hall, but the entire city comes to life with sights to see and people to meet.  In addition to the Nintendo events described in my other post, these were the highlights:


Holy Batmobiles, Batman!

Every Batmobile from every Batman movie was out on display! Seriously, just sitting there on the lawn for everyone to see! Only a velvet rope and possibly armed security guard stood between me and having the most badass garage ever.  I can attest the Tumbler is in fact the coolest.  That thing looks like it feeds on lesser Batmobiles.

The SEGA Exhibit

Across the street from the Nintendo Lounge, as though rekindling the 16-bit wars, was the SEGA exhibit.  It was set up in a wine store, clearly to promote drinking and driving in Sonic and All-Stars Racing Transformed.  Outside was an actual race car adorned with decals from the game and a life-size Sonic statue securely bolted to the ground so I couldn’t steal it despite my best efforts.

The big draw was their much-hyped Aliens: Colonial Marines.  Syd Mead, renowned concept artist of Aliens, was on hand for autographs and a giant 20-foot Alien statue loomed over the premises.  Eight monitors played host to a LAN match where four guests as marines challenged four SEGA representatives as aliens.  Although I don’t consider myself a real FPS nut, I like shooters and ACM was fun.  As a Wii-only gamer this generation I’m excited to jump fully into the online arena, and I’ll pick up Colonial Marines when it debuts on Wii U.

While waiting to play the game I recognized one of the SEGA employees - Craig Harris, former member of the IGN Nintendo crew! I've been a loyal IGN reader since I first bought my N64, entered N64.com into my browser the next day, and came up with their website.  It's always great to meet someone who's not just a video game fan but specifically a Nintendo fan.  Craig was super cool and cleared some Miis from his Mii Plaza so we could StreetPass, and even gave me a cool Alien facehugger toy.  Thanks Craig!

Famous People

I saw a bunch of other familiar faces just walking the streets: Adam Sessler, Garfunkel & Oates, Mike Fahey.  I crossed paths with Anna Kendrick which was capital-A Awesome since Scott Pilgrim is one of my favorite movies.  The cast of Community did a free presentation on the Warner Bros. stage just outside the hall.  I meant to catch Kevin Smith on the same stage, but misunderstood the program schedule and arrived at the wrong time.  It’s comforting to walk the same streets as them and feel that these people you admire are not only industry employees, but fans just like you.


The Microsoft Lounge
The Microsoft lounge was a bit disappointing.  It felt too cluttered like your average LAN party but with prettier lighting.  On hand were some stars of a Crackle web series, a connection I didn't quite understand, though after watching enough Microsoft E3 conferences random celebrities appearing alongside games seems to be a chief marketing strategy.  My time was running short and all the TVs were occupied so I didn't play any games, but from what I saw Sleeping Dogs and Tomb Raider both looked like fun.


The Bandai Namco Arcade

Bandai Namco brought a fleet of classic arcade games and stationed them outside for anyone to play, no quarters required.  I jumped right to Pac-Man, anxious to get my fix since abandoning my Ms. Pac-Man machine at my sister’s house when I moved from Michigan (though I honestly tried to fit it in a mini-van along with everything else I own).  Most of their well-known properties were there, including Time Crisis, Tekken, and Soul Calibur.

The Spike TV Bar

Spike TV, a channel I loathe, nearly won me over by renting out the bar at the Hard Rock Hotel and offering food and drinks FOR FREE.  Beer, margaritas, whatever you wanted, done.  I tried to bankrupt them into not affording any more episodes of Manswers.

As Comic-Con's grown larger it's become blemished with companies whose agendas don't quite match the Comic-Con spirit.  A Spike TV photographer approached my corner of the restaurant.  She had her choice of subjects to photograph: the two blondes in mini skirts sitting at one end of the bench, or just five feet away, me in my Mario shirt and Power Glove eating Haagen Daz on a stick.

She did not pick me.  Sigh.

We Can Be Heroes

DC Comics overtook a local art gallery with some very creative and liberal interpretations of their most popular characters.  These were familiar images chewed up and spit out as uniquely personal visions.  The works were coupled with touching images of people being real-life heroes around the world.  As a whole, the exhibit was a thoughtful meditation on how fictional characters can inspire the best in us.  

Breaking Freaking Bad!

I didn't know until too late, but Breaking Bad premiered its season debut episode at the Gaslamp theatre Saturday night.  I knew they were at the Con, but I thought it was a paid event.  Bummer! Of course the cast was there with a Q & A and everything, but maybe it's for the best I didn't go.  I like knowing as little as possible about that show before each episode.  I even change the channel when the preview ads appear on TV.  Normally I don't care about spoilers because I'm not into entertainment for the surprises; I'm more intrigued by the mechanics of the story and how it's constructed.  Breaking Bad, however, is special as it's entirely about people playing their cards close to their chests.  What a phenomenal show in every regard.

Just Walking Around

Sometimes the best part of going someplace cool is not doing anything in particular, but just being there amidst the fun.  Without any particular plan, I walked the length of the hall several times, up and down 4th and 5th Avenue, and everywhere I looked was entertained by something: a guy playing guitar here, a zombie march there.  The pedometer on my 3DS said I walked nearly 11 miles that day, but I never felt like stopping.  I was on a treasure hunt, and obsessed with finding more.

Free to Be You and Me

I'm still not coming down from my Comic-Con contact high.  It was amazing, and remember, I didn't even actually go to the convention.  Everything I mentioned here was absolutely free.  I knew Comic Con was big, but its size is really something that can't be conveyed in writing.  It consumes all of downtown San Diego, brings together scattered and varying factions of nerd-dom under one roof and spilling out into the streets.  It reverses the trendy Gaslamp district to a welcoming celebration of all the people who'd normally be laughed back to their parents' basements.  To many, the Con itself is a superhero, bringing to the popular conscience their most beloved story or character - the axis on which their world spins.

Most importantly, it allowed me an excuse to walk around in public wearing my Power Glove, something I've always wanted to do.  I love that thing.  It's cool, I think, but now with the Con complete, if I'm still wearing it people will call me crazy.  This past weekend, I wore it proudly.  And from a lot of strangers who, otherwise, I'd never guess loved the Power Glove too, all I got were high fives.

The Best Games I Played in 2011

This was a bargain bin year for my gametime as I just don't have the funds to purchase every new must-have game, and therefor can't honestly give you a best games of 2011 list. I just didn't play many new releases, so instead I'll recount my favorite games I played this year that were new to me, regardless of their release dates. Maybe you'll find a few here you missed:


Chibi-Robo

Pure joy - that's the acute way to describe the experience of Chibi-Robo. All great games elicit joy of a sort, but this is the only such game I know that's also about joy. As the titular miniature robot, your one and only purpose in life is to make those around you happy. Being the newest object in a household packed with Japanese absurdities (an egg army, an egomaniac action figure, a tiny pirate, etc.), you earn happy points by assisting the Sanderson family with their myriad problems, among them a lazy dad trying to be a better husband, a daughter who only speaks frog, and a mom trying to hold the family together. The genius of Chibi-Robo is it's an adventure game taking place entirely within one house from Chibi's 4-inch-tall viewpoint.




The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D, Link's Awakening DX, Four Swords Special Edition, & Minish Cap

I played a lot of Zelda this year! I have my 3DS to thank for that (thanks 3DS!) as it offered remakes of two games I've played and loved, and two portable Zeldas I somehow missed before. Ocarina as you know by now is the twinkle in my eye, and this 3D portable version makes it shine brighter. Four Swords was fun when included in the GBA Link to the Past cart years ago and it's even more fun now with its new solo mode. Minish Cap, though I'm only an hour or so into it, appears to retain the Zelda charm. And finally the first ever portable Zelda, Link's Awakening (as offered in its GBC DX form on the eShop) - as someone who jumped into the series late with Ocarina, it strikes me just how much the series already found its footing by this, only its third entry.

(Note: please remember I've yet to play the copy of Skyward Sword nestled safely in my sock drawer as I don't presently own a TV, though I've attempted to produce an image by spinning the disc on my finger without significant results)











Mario Kart Arcade GP 2

Two weeks ago I was at Dave & Buster's settling for enjoyable 10 year-old cabinets I'd played before when I turned a corner and found this:

I thought this was only in Japan! I'd longed resigned myself to having two missing stamps on my Mario Kart license as the arcade games weren't available in the states. But there it was! I immediately called my buddy Trey to brag, but apparently he'd played it already and they did bring the sequel here officially to a few hundred locations (without telling me? The nerve!). So how did it play? Exactly as a Mario Kart arcade game should: classic Mario Kart but faster and optimized for a quick thrill. MK staples like Rainbow Road and the starting-line boost trick are all in place, but this Namco-produced game controls looser than its predecessors and more like Ridge Racer (which isn't bad, just takes getting used to). Plus Pac-Man and a roster of Namco characters come along for the ride, though I would never get in a car with them, Luigi. Playa 2 4 lyfe.




Red Dead Redemption

Why o why are there so few western games? Red Dead Redemption sets an impressive standard for the scarcely-populated genre, easily shedding any pretense of simply being Grand Theft Auto on a horse by providing a fully-realized picture of history that lives and breathes with a character entirely unique from Rockstar's other open-world blockbuster.




NBA Jam (iPhone edition)

In fifth grade I mowed a lot of lawns for the right to take home NBA Jam; now most of my fifth grade memories involve boomshakalaking. When NBA Jam's return was announced for Wii, I instinctively mowed fifty lawns before remembering I now have a real job. When the surprise iPhone version dropped earlier this year for only five dollars, I purchased it. Enthusiastically, but with just the amount of hesitation required when buying an iPhone port of a console game. Touch controls are historically butt compared to buttons, especially for fast-paced jams like The Jam. Yet here, somehow, someway, they almost excel. Flicking your fingers to and fro adds to the illusion that you're working b-ball magic. For a measley five bucks it certainly stacks up to the $50 console versions. It's the best iPhone game I've ever played, and worth many lawn mows.




Metroid Fusion

Another missed classic I finally got to play via 3DS. I never got the original Metroid as a kid, and I criminally missed not just Super Metroid but the SNES altogether, so in the last few years I've really enjoyed getting caught up with Nintendo's redheaded stepchild (seriously, they altogether forgot Metroid's 25th birthday this year while giving Zelda a fucking worldwide symphony tour). Metroid Fusion is so damn good that when the free GBA games were released I sidelined Minish Cap, a Zelda I'd anticipated playing since 2004, after one hour to play Fusion for four. The graphics are some of the prettiest I've seen on the GBA, mixing splashes of neon into Metroid's dark palette with memorable effect. The sound design is appropriately dreary and expertly makes me forget I'm playing an emulation of a 16-bit handheld. And the well-paced story makes me want to marathon through all the Metroids in one unblinking sitting.




Donkey Kong Jungle Beat

This game is surely the result of a drunken bet. Betcha can't make a platformer controlled by bongos, someone said. And they said it foolishly, because obviously you can, duh. But who knew it would work this well? The guys at Nintendo, that's who. With power of the woefully-underutilized DK Bongo controller you slap and clap your way across some of the most resplendent run-n-jump jungle gyms ever conceived, no d-pads or analog sticks necessary. Pound right to go right, left to go left, both to jump, and clap to attack. Simple and fun! Now why couldn't Activision do anything as creative with all those plastic guitars?




Back to the Future: The Game

Part of me always wanted another Back to the Future movie, but my practical side said no, the classic trilogy closed the story definitely and perfectly (nuts to those hatin' on Part 3). Then when Telltale announced they'd acquired the rights to the license and applied their trademark point-and-click adventure formula, it dawned on me there should be another chapter and this was the way to make it. Like it and it works as a Part 4, or hate it and dismiss it as just a game and not a true sequel; either way the legacy of the films remains in tact. I'm satisfied with considering it a Part 4, although some technical errors like a near complete lack of lip-synching and glitchy animation throughout keep it from being the immersive cinematic experience it should be. Still it makes my top of the year list because it gets the BTTF characters and comically playful sci-fi lite just right, the story (co-developed by the series' original screenwriter Bob Gale - good move Telltale!) is inventive and gels with the originals just fine, and because my wife and I played through the entire game together. That's one unique benefit of the point-and-click genre which I love: one person plays but everyone watching can enjoy the game, making not just for a fun time but a great shared memory of an experience you conquered together. Bring on Part 5!




And my favorite game of the year of yesteryear is...


Chibi-Robo! Go ahead, dismiss it for its cutesy style (you're the same guy who still won't watch Toy Story because it's a cartoon) - that just leaves more copies for the true gamers with the emotional security and sense of humor to enjoy a crazy made-only-in-Japan family sitcom adventure with a surprising amount of heart, a lot of Zelda in its soul, and a premise so out there it's practically a celebration of the very escapism which makes games so darn fun in the first place. Let the campaign for a 3DS sequel begin here!

The Serviceable Legends of Zelda

My favorite video game series is The Legend of Zelda. Here is how much so: I bought the newest game, Skyward Sword, and I don't even have a TV.

Why buy the game when I don't have a TV? Truthfully I would've waited if not for the limited edition bundle including this sexy Zelda Wiimote:



I might get destroyed for saying this, but Zeldas usually have weak stories. Lovable characters, colorful dialogue, but very rudimentary, cliche fantasy stories. And I'm hoping that's changed with Skyward Sword.

I moved across the country in a mini van a few weeks ago. Rather than occupy precious cargo space with my big boxy TV, I decided the lack of room was a perfect excuse to leave it behind and find myself in need of a huge flat screen (soon...soon...). Of course all my games and systems made the journey, so Skyward Sword (or "Skyward S Word" - Shiiiiiiiiiit!) sits safely in my sock drawer giving me dreams of a richly detailed, twisting and turning Tolkien-worthy fantasy narrative.

I've played every Zelda game save for a few: Oracle of Seasons/Ages, Spirit Tracks, and the crappy CD-i games, and although the gameplay is routinely masterful the stories are always far too simple. Perhaps they're best likened to fairy tales, being good stories efficiently told, only drawing outlines and leaving the player to color them in, and that's fine. After so many years and so many entries in this series just once I'd like to defeat Gannon and feel I finished a mature, intricately-woven literary tome that I would enthusiastically read were it adapted into book form. But even Ocarina of Time is young adult reading at best.

And I say that with Ocarina being my favorite game ever. My brain just swelled with dopamine at the thought of it right then! The older Zeldas had an excuse as they were among the first in the series in a medium so new itself. Now with games passing the forty-year mark the industry has a strong storytelling foothold, and the number of great-read games could fill many bookshelves, but still not one of those books is a Zelda.

I think the closest Zelda's ever come to achieving pageturner status is Majora's Mask, and the reason is they clearly started development with an intersting narrative quagmire - having to relive the same three days saving the world - and not simply an inspired gameplay design a la Ocarina. I once heard that when developing the revolutionary Super Mario 64 Miyamoto's team started with perfecting Mario's control, then built a game around the fun maneuvers they'd developed. It seems to me Zeldas are generally developed the same way: wouldn't it be fun to alternate between worlds (Link to the Past), shrink to ant size (Minish Cap), or slow time (Phantom Hourglass), and the story is then "painted over" the established mechanic. There's nothing narratively compelling about the mechanic itself. Majora's Mask's three day cycle is a gameplay device sure, but it's also in and of itself an intriguing nugget of a story with questions that immediately spring to mind: What happens in those three days? Why does Link repeat them? With such a strong foundation informing the gameplay and the narrative equally, the game as a whole can only get better from there.

I have great hope for Skyward Sword because I think it begins with a similarly promising story and central gameplay mechanic, those being the origin tale of the Master Sword and the 1:1 swordplay controls. For a cohesive end product, story and gameplay must sprout from the same seed and be inseparably codependant. If the gameplay is so spectacular I feel like I'm affecting a virtual world, then I want the narrative depth allowing me to do unforgettable, fantastic things in it.