Aug

4

New technology, old content

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My brother emailed me the other day to let me know that the first book in Steve Jackson’s Sorcery! series was now available for the iPhone. For those who don’t know the books, they were gamebooks, set up in the choose-your-own-adventure style, but with roleplaying elements such as stats and battles that required the use of 2 six-sided dice. There were a slew of them at one time including the Fighting Fantasy books (also from Steve Jackson) and the Lone Wolf gamebooks from Joe Dever.

These books were more my brother’s thing than mine, but being into fantasy and RPGs, I read them, too. They were fun – a kind of interactive reading experience that you could play by yourself, and in the case of Sorcery! and Lone Wolf, you could create your own continuity. If you found, for example, a particular item in one book, that item might come into play in a future book. But only if you had found it before (though, of course, this depended on the honor system).

Putting something like this on the iPhone, to me, makes a lot of sense. The game aspects can be automated while the choose-your-own-adventure parts are maintained. Only the first of the books is up, but I suppose more will appear if sales are good.

But this isn’t the only content from my youth that is now reappearing on platforms like the iPhone and the iPad. Point and click adventure games are making a comeback, too. Ports of old games have been reappearing with great frequency for mobile platforms. Monkey Island made a lot of noise when it was released for the iPhone. And not too long ago I downloaded an old favorite – Broken Sword – for my phone as well. It makes sense – the iPhone, iPad and even the DS are touch devices and the point and click interface scales well on them (with a few tweaks).

What I wonder, though, is whether this is a purely nostalgic phenomenon (as many of the people who have iPhones remember these games and books fondly), or whether this is simply the recognition that there is an opportunity here. What I hope is that we see some new games being developed with the same interface. Or at least newer entries in series that have long lain dormant. A new Monkey Island game, for example.

Whatever the case may be, I’m holding out for King’s Quest 6. If that happens, I’ll be happy.

Would you pay money to play any of these games again? Or new ones?

Nov

23

Best Videogames of the Decade

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The A.V. Club rounds up their picks for the best 15 video games of the decade (from 2000 on). I’m a big fan of several of their picks (Fallout 3, Rock Band, GTA) but I thought it was an unusual list. Picking out even 15 was a hard task, especially considering all the various console and PC games released in the last 10 years, but only one nod was given to Nintendo (and that was for a Game Boy Advance game). And as much as I love Fallout 3, I was surprised by its inclusion, maybe because I felt that the earlier Oblivion game from Bethesda maybe did a bit more right. But it’s a subjective thing, of course, and I would be hard pressed to pick out 15 games that I would call “the best” (though I may now be tempted to try).

I’m interested to hear what games you would put in the list.

Aug

31

9/9/09

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September 9 already promises to be an exciting day, but it just keeps on getting better. Not only does Beatles Rock Band release that day, but the remastered Beatles albums do as well. Then there’s an Apple event happening which I will likely follow. And the release of the movie 9, which seems like a movie that was made for me. It’s like my birthday, only not.

You excited for any (or all) of these?

Jun

13

GTA: Gotham City?

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Over at the YMB Message Boards, Chris C was asking about the dearth of decent comic book based video games. There are tons of movie tie-ins, of course – Iron Man, The Hulk, Batman – but very few pulled directly from the comic universe and of those, even fewer are decent. X-Men Legends and Marvel: Ultimate Alliance are the only two that come to mind.

That got me thinking. Grand Theft Auto is clearly one of the most popular games in video game history, and for good reason. The gameplay model and the in-game experience is something that few other games have captured.

Still, many have tried. After GTA 3 and Vice City, the market was flooded with games adapting at the very least GTA’s free-form approach.

So why not adapt this kind of game to a property like Batman? It’s  a perfect fit. Imagine Gotham City rendered in current generation console glory. Tall, gothic spires, seedy underworld hangouts, the Batcave. You are Batman, Gotham City’s protector, determined to clean up your city. Standing in your way are the usual kooks and criminals – the Riddler, the Penguin, the Joker, etc. Like the mission structure of GTA, you would have contacts – Commissioner Gordon, Nightwing, Robin, Oracle, possibly more. You can go around completing missions, advancing the plot of the game, or you can enjoy crimefighting diversions, like breaking up bank robberies and muggings. Drive from location to location in your Batmobile. Or jump across rooftops. Collect components or collect schematics to upgrade your crimefighting gear. Or do favors for people in order to accomplish the same purpose. Use the Batcave to save your game and heal up.  All leading up to the climactic finale in Arkham Asylum.

I saw we need this game and we need it now. Don’t you agree?