My OperaAs Seen On T.V.
Friday, August 8, 2008 12:35:50 AM
We all have to do things we rather not to sometimes, putting ourselves out for our loved ones. Going to watch a film you'll hate with your partner, staying out late and not drinking to provide your friends with a safe ride home, grinding enough sleeping pills into your elderly relatives tea to make their final moments peaceful ones.
For me, as this is a gaming blog and not a euthanasia one, it's more a case of buying a game I ordinarily wouldn't. It's my sisters birthday next week, and as she's an adult there's nothing she desperately wants or needs. She did kind of hint that she wanted money, but even though I tend to ask for the same thing I feel weird giving my older sister cash as a present, I feel obliged to put more thought into her present. That extra thought was actually just a text asking her if there was a game that she wanted. I knew that she was broke and a bit bored with what she had for her Wii, even though she has my copy of the almost fantastic Zack & Wiki.
It turns out my sister has turned into a bit of a cliche given that she wants Big Beach Sports, probably the most advertised game on T.V. at the minute.She never used to be this way (my sister), back when I was a kid she listened to great music and watch some pretty cool films. The day it all changed was when she dug out her old New Kids on the Block cds, abandoning the likes of Pearl Jam and Nirvana. I could rant here about having to listen to I Should Be So Lucky through my bedroom wall, but I wont. My sister, despite not really owning a console at any point in her life (until the PS2, which she sold a year ago) actually liked some pretty good games. She'd play the likes of Streets of Rage and Road Rash on my Megadrive, Mario on my brothers Snes. She loved Ecco on the Dreamcast, except for that heart attack inducing giant Great White at the end of the first area.
Even when she did get a PS2, though she filled it with licenced games, her heart was in the right place. She remembered Goldeneye being good on the N64, so was trying to recreate that. One of the Simpsons games was a rip off (err, allegedly) of the mighty Crazy Taxi, another game she adored. She also had a GTA game, again because she loved the original, I've no idea how far she got with it, but at least she was thinking about the right games.
With the Wii though things have changed. To my knowledge she hasn't started Zack & Wiki because it'll be too hard (for the record, it's not all that hard, especially early on), she refused to borrow Resident Evil 4 off me because it too would be too hard. A shame because she'd love it, or she would have done a few years back anyway. Instead her Wii is being used the way critics accuse most Wii's of being used, as a Wii Sports machine.
In the past I've defended the casual market, just because they might not be what we look for in a game doesn't mean there's no value to them. the prime example if something like Mario & Sonic at the Olympics, it's a multiplayer game plain and simple, and when played as such it's a great game (well, a 'great' game) but it's hardly Ikaruga for hardcore appeal (don't get me started on the facets of 'Hardcore', but there's some very cynical people who wouldn't give a game like Ikaruga a chance yet claim to be teh hardcorz). If all you want is something diverting then these games can fill that hole. We're all guilty of buying less than stellar games because of some quirky, license or aesthetic appeal.
Thing is it's getting harder to defend these game. They seem to be getting more and more cynical and I'm waiting for the sign that some of the casual gamers are making a step up. Both my sister and my mum have gone backwards, to the point where a simple puzzle game terrifies them because it's not got Dr. Kawashima's erotically angular face on the box. Maybe that should have been the focus of this post rather than just an after thought at the end. Maybe I've been spending too much time on the internet and I've let its teenage cynicism infest me. I don't know any more.
What I do know is, I'd have rather spent more money than I did on a better game for her.
For me, as this is a gaming blog and not a euthanasia one, it's more a case of buying a game I ordinarily wouldn't. It's my sisters birthday next week, and as she's an adult there's nothing she desperately wants or needs. She did kind of hint that she wanted money, but even though I tend to ask for the same thing I feel weird giving my older sister cash as a present, I feel obliged to put more thought into her present. That extra thought was actually just a text asking her if there was a game that she wanted. I knew that she was broke and a bit bored with what she had for her Wii, even though she has my copy of the almost fantastic Zack & Wiki.
It turns out my sister has turned into a bit of a cliche given that she wants Big Beach Sports, probably the most advertised game on T.V. at the minute.She never used to be this way (my sister), back when I was a kid she listened to great music and watch some pretty cool films. The day it all changed was when she dug out her old New Kids on the Block cds, abandoning the likes of Pearl Jam and Nirvana. I could rant here about having to listen to I Should Be So Lucky through my bedroom wall, but I wont. My sister, despite not really owning a console at any point in her life (until the PS2, which she sold a year ago) actually liked some pretty good games. She'd play the likes of Streets of Rage and Road Rash on my Megadrive, Mario on my brothers Snes. She loved Ecco on the Dreamcast, except for that heart attack inducing giant Great White at the end of the first area.
Even when she did get a PS2, though she filled it with licenced games, her heart was in the right place. She remembered Goldeneye being good on the N64, so was trying to recreate that. One of the Simpsons games was a rip off (err, allegedly) of the mighty Crazy Taxi, another game she adored. She also had a GTA game, again because she loved the original, I've no idea how far she got with it, but at least she was thinking about the right games.
With the Wii though things have changed. To my knowledge she hasn't started Zack & Wiki because it'll be too hard (for the record, it's not all that hard, especially early on), she refused to borrow Resident Evil 4 off me because it too would be too hard. A shame because she'd love it, or she would have done a few years back anyway. Instead her Wii is being used the way critics accuse most Wii's of being used, as a Wii Sports machine.
In the past I've defended the casual market, just because they might not be what we look for in a game doesn't mean there's no value to them. the prime example if something like Mario & Sonic at the Olympics, it's a multiplayer game plain and simple, and when played as such it's a great game (well, a 'great' game) but it's hardly Ikaruga for hardcore appeal (don't get me started on the facets of 'Hardcore', but there's some very cynical people who wouldn't give a game like Ikaruga a chance yet claim to be teh hardcorz). If all you want is something diverting then these games can fill that hole. We're all guilty of buying less than stellar games because of some quirky, license or aesthetic appeal.
Thing is it's getting harder to defend these game. They seem to be getting more and more cynical and I'm waiting for the sign that some of the casual gamers are making a step up. Both my sister and my mum have gone backwards, to the point where a simple puzzle game terrifies them because it's not got Dr. Kawashima's erotically angular face on the box. Maybe that should have been the focus of this post rather than just an after thought at the end. Maybe I've been spending too much time on the internet and I've let its teenage cynicism infest me. I don't know any more.
What I do know is, I'd have rather spent more money than I did on a better game for her.
