Back from the grave...

My god, it's been a long time since I've posted to this blog. Anyone who was a regular visitor (were there any?) probably is long gone. Oh, well. Hopefully they'll come back some day and say "Hi" or something.

Anyway, where have I been and what brought me back? Well, the horribly simple answer to the first query is that I've been busy. Just too many assignments coming in these days, and when I'm done with that work at the end of the day I'm generally completely sick of the computer and posting news to this site is the last thing on my mind.

To answer the second question, I'm back because I just finished the latest round of assignments and feel like I can relax a bit--or at least take a momentary breather. Also, I just read the funniest interview with Perrin Kaplan, Nintendo of America’s vice president of corporate affairs at gameinformer.com.

I've interviewed a lot of people--some important and some not--and I can honestly say this woman would make me more nervous than almost anyone else I can think of. She's just so good at what she does--she doesn't let anything slip and she comes up with the most perfectly witty retorts.

Here's a snippet from the gameinformer.com interview, in case you aren't interested in clicking over to read the entire enjoyable affair:

GI: Speaking of hardware, there’s a lot of companies that are making light-gun shooters that we’ve been seeing. At E3 last year, you had that gun peripheral. Is that ever going to be released?

Kaplan: Could be.

GI: Could be. There’s a lot of games coming that would take advantage of it. Resident Evil, Sega’s got an arcade title coming over.

Kaplan: I couldn’t agree with you more.

GI: Reggie said last year that there would be regular releases through out the calendar year…

Kaplan: Do you feel like there haven’t been?

GI: No, I don’t.

Kaplan: There have been 52 games!

GI: From first party, I’m talking.

Kaplan: I think we’ve had quite a few. You don’t think so? Are they ones that you just don’t like?

GI: No. Paper was great. WarioWare’s good, but…

Kaplan: So you’re already done with Paper and you’re ready for something next. The average consumer spends a little bit of time with it. You have to remember as a core gamer you have an insatiable appetite. You, at all costs, probably don’t shower or eat until a game is done. You’re a freak. And then you want the next one. I think we’ve launched a lot.

GI: To put everything into perspective, for the first party releases, you’ve released two games that have had some meat to them – Zelda and Paper. The rest are shorter experiences…

Kaplan: Have you not enjoyed any third-party experiences.

GI: Rayman, SSX was fun.

Kaplan: Have you tried many?

GI: A lot!

Kaplan: You’ve already said the big guns are this year. You’re going to be busy. Don’t you think so?

GI: Starting in August.

Kaplan: You don’t like Big Brain?

GI: Big Brain is cool, but it’s following the same mini-game formula. The party game.

Kaplan: Those products are for me. Those products are for you to enjoy, but for me to really spend time on. Me, meaning an alpha mom. That’s all part of what we’re offering.

GI: It seems like the core gamer is being left in the dust for this new gamer.

Kaplan: Reggie would tell you that we’re fully committed to the core gamer. You know it’s interesting, we have these arguments internally. Do we have too much expanded audience and not enough core? Do we have too much core and not enough expanded? Everybody on any given day has one opinion, and they can change their minds the next day. We’re figuring out what that balance is. By December I’d love to know if you still feel this way.

GI: By December I’d expect to have Smash Bros., Mario and Metroid out the door.

Kaplan: Tell me by November then.

The portable Resident Evils that weren't to be

I remember reading about this back in the day: A remake of the original Resident Evil developed for the GameBoy Color.

Unfortunately the game never saw the light of day--though I guess I can understand why Capcom (or whoever produced the game) would be a bit wary of trying to sell a highly pixelated version of a game known for graphics that scare the hell out of people.

A few videos of the game--along with a brief video of Resident Evil for the GameBoy Advance--have popped up on YouTube and are quite interesting. I know I should be more impressed with the polygons appearing in the RE2 video, but to be perfectly honest it's the RE1 video that interested me the most. That's probably because instead of seeing a pixelated mess, I see an almost impressionist take on the game that started the entire survival horror genre of games.

Now where's the ROM of this thing so we can try it out for ourselves?

On the dissecting table: Animal Crossing

I may not look it when I'm out in public, but in the privacy of my own home (er, the apartment I share with my husband and calico) I'm a complete nerd--at least as far as video games are concerned.

Where my nerdiness really comes out, though, isn't in front of my TV (while playing Super Paper Mario, for instance)--it's in front of my computer screen, reading articles about the process of making games on sites like Gamasutra.com.

A perfect example of the kind of article I like to read (when I have the time) was posted recently on GameCareerGuide.com--an article by Eric-Jon Rössel Waugh titled, "Ambition and Compulsory Design in Animal Crossing."

In the article, Rössel Waugh dissects Nintendo's Animal Crossing: Wild World--mainly from a designer's point of view, but partially from a player's point of view as well. It's quite an enjoyable read by a writer with whit to spare.

The Advocate discusses Queer Power (the video game)

The latest issue of The Advocate (with the lovely Rebecca Romijn on the cover) features not one but two short articles on gay gaming--and they're both on the same page!

For starters, Atlanta's "Fruit Brute," proprietor of Gaygamer.net, does the Q&A thing for writer Morgan Kroll. Just below that is an article I wrote about the Internet-based game, Queer Power, a hilariously nasty little fighter in the vein of Street Fighter II.

Here's a link to my article, if you don't happen to subscribe to or regularly purchase The Advocate.

Dragon Quest goes back to its roots

When Square-Enix announced Dragon Quest IX late last year, RPG fans (especially in Japan) were all atwitter for two reasons: 1) a numbered entry of the vaunted series was going to appear on a portable system (the DS) instead of a console for the first time ever, and 2) the game was moving from turn-based to real-time battles.

Although Japanese gamers didn't seem to mind that first point too much (not surprising, considering the DS is by far the most popular game system in the Land of the Rising Sun these days), they were pretty darn vocal about sharing their disappointment with the second point.

It seems all the caterwauling worked, as Square-Enix officials have let it slip that gameplay has been altered to make it much more like its PS2 predecessor. Sounds like a smart move to me, especially considering how popular the numbered DQ games have fared in their country of origin over the years.

To see how the game is shaping up, check out tres magnifique Jeux-France.com.