Madagascar...DUH.

Movie tie-in games are legendary for providing gamers with mediocre non-canon, filler, or just plain garbage. Children's games are known to be occasionally fun, but usually go unconsidered. Low expectations can often precede impressive surprises, but what happens when you have a movie tie-in that takes the form of a children's game? Usually mediocrity. But is this the case with one of the many games I have owned for years but up until recently never had the interest to play?

Madagascar - Nintendo Gamecube

Yes, this is totally the case. Madagascar is really mediocre. I mean, duh, right? It's a "kid's game". But I wanted to play this game after noticing that I had no idea what made kid's games bad. I don't remember disliking kid's games as a child, yet I no longer play them as an adult. Why? Let's find out.

(for real) Madagascar - Nintendo Gamecube

Madagascar the video game, based on the Dreamworks movie of the same name, is an action-platformer that combines many different types of gameplay into one coherent title with a strong emphasis on plot and surprisingly little to no repetition. The main game is broken up into levels that take anywhere from 10 to 20 minutes to complete. The levels are easy, and there are only enough to make up what comes out as a 4-5 hour game, but each level introduces one or more additional mechanics that keep gameplay fresh, yet never stop it from becoming boring. Each level has you playing as one or more members of the cast of the Madagascar movie, and the dialogue (as well as the entire game, for that matter) does not assume that the player is already familiar with the source material.

The constant switching of characters contributes largely to keep the gameplay fresh. Each of the 5 characters you play as have enough of the same moves in common, such as jump or attack, to ensure a smooth transition from character to character, but have enough unique moves to justify the transition in the first place. Levels are designed around the moveset of each character used to complete them: Alex with his double-jump ability is featured in many of the levels that focus on platforming, Gloria with her large collection of attacks is featured in levels that emphasize combat, etc.

The problem is that while the gameplay is varied, it is simple and unrewarding. The issue with these kids games is that while they are not particularly offensive on their own  (aside from some hilariously bad graphics and unpolished optional mini-games) there is nothing satisfying about playing them.

Of course the argument would be made that no kids game could satisfy the needs of an experienced adult gamer, but I would be very quick to disagree. That which is known as a "skill-cap" is the amount of time or practice that must be devoted to a video game in order to master it as thoroughly as possible. If a game has a high skill cap, then it can be said that the game requires a lot of practice and/or time to master it, while a game with a low skill-cap may require virtually no practice in order to achieve mastery status. Satisfaction in video gaming comes with having achieved mastery despite a high skill-cap. Some games have a high skill cap despite being easy to play- this would be an example of "easy to play, hard to master", a phrase that adequately describes many titles. Many kids games are "easy to play, hard to master", but Madagascar is not one of them, and thereby scratches no itch.

Kid's games can be fun under particular conditions. I am familiar with many kid's games that become more fun as knowledge of their nuances is gained, but Madagascar is not an example of such a title. Though not particularly lazy in any one department, it does not pose enough of a challenge, nor does it possess a high enough skill cap, to yield a satisfying victory.

A Retrospective: Guitar Hero

I ventured a bit around Long Island today with a couple of my friends to our favorite video game
stores. One of our destinations was a retro video game shop called Video Game Trading Post, and it is incredible. It is just the tiniest bit out of the way of my usual hangout spots, but they have an extremely impressive quantity of quality games, as well as several walls filled from floor to ceiling with hilarious amounts of rubbish. It was while browsing the towers of garbage games and shovelware did I find a title about whose existence I had either once completely neglected or have since completely forgotten: Guitar Hero 5.

So I bought Guitar Hero 5 for the Playstation 2, but it was also released for the Wii. So there you go- we are still talking about Nintendo consoles if you're willing to use a bit of imagination for this post.

I played Guitar Hero 5 Career Mode for a bit, perhaps for a couple of tiers, then I went over to Quick Play mode and played a set of songs (all of which were unlocked without me finishing the Career Mode), and then I turned it off. Did I have fun? No, not really. But of course, the question is "why"?

Guitar Hero used to be incredible. It took the video game world by storm a good 10 years ago, but it was a fast-fading trend, and even it's attempted "revival" this year wasn't enough to rekindle interest in the rhythm-based franchise. The reason it stopped being fun is actually pretty obvious, especially for someone who has been with Guitar Hero since the near-beginning, but before we can answer that question, we first must identify exactly when Guitar Hero stopped being fun, look at the game that began the decline of Guitar Hero, and identify just how it influenced the future of the series' installments.


So here we go:
The game that began to ruin the Guitar Hero franchise was Guitar Hero 3.

Despite the currently (or once-currently) mass appeal of Guitar Hero 2, Guitar Hero 1 and Rocks the 80's were pretty niche for their time, and not very popular. In fact, Guitar Hero 1 and Rocks the 80's were hardcore games. They were challenging, and felt like the developers approached their creation from a gamer's perspective as opposed to strictly one of a music-lover. The games had solid difficulty curves, didn't insult the players by cheating them out of the experience they expected, and certainly offered gamers something new. Guitar Hero 2 was a sequel the way sequels are supposed to be, featuring proudly its improvements to the original game, hosting not only a larger quantity of songs, but a greater quality of songs when compared to that and those of the original title. Still, the difficulty curve was like that of a traditional video game: beginning easy and ending difficult, with each victory having felt earned, as opposed to grinded out. It is important to note that Guitar Hero 3 DID retain the same feeling, pacing, and tone that appealed primarily to gamers seen from Guitar Hero 1 to Rocks the 80's, but while it was Guitar Hero 2 that made the series popular, it was Guitar Hero 3 that made the series famous, and once you become famous, everything starts to die.

Each iteration of the Guitar Hero series following Guitar Hero 3 felt like games that were created not for art, not for experimentation, not even for the gamer, but exclusively for the studio to get more money. The design elements that made Guitar Hero feel like a traditional video game were completely removed from all Guitar Hero games following GH3. Up until GH3, the Guitar Hero franchise was responsible for delivering to me not only really fun gameplay, appealing to the gamer within me, but really good songs and music, appealing to normal person (deep) within me. There was a balance created by a development studio who knew that Guitar Hero was a video game first, and that gameplay could not be compromised if the title was expected to be fun. Guitar Hero 5's content is weak, man. There are a few good songs, but nothing about the game makes me want to play more. The personality and charm of the cartoonish graphics, awful covers, and sense of humor seen in the first games has given way to that which appeals to the masses: blink-182 songs in the line-up, long hammer-on sections that look difficult but are actually insultingly easy, lifeless venues, GOOD SONGS WITH BORING NOTE CHARTS, no context, no reason to even play the Career Mode since every song is just given to you from the start of the game.

Guitar Hero 5 reminds me of parents who just give their children what they want without asking if what the kid wants is actually good for them. Want more Guitar Hero? There you go: Guitar Hero 5. And yeah, fans who asked for a new Guitar Hero got what they asked for, but how does it feel? Does GH5 feel new, or earned, or valuable, or does it just feel like more of what you already have? Does it feel redundant and insulting, making you realize that while there exists an endless ocean of quality video games spanning 30+ years across multiple generations of artistic and technological experimentation, you've spent another $50 dollars on something you basically already own, albeit an inferior version? Do you feel like a chump who has sold your soul to a company that doesn't care about you unless you have money?

Guitar Hero 1 - 3 felt like an experiment gone wonderfully right; it started a little shaky, definitely strange but certainly suggesting potential. Guitar Hero 2 improved everything that had to be so. Rocks the 80's was essentially a DLC pack, but the songs were fun to play and fun to hear, as well as respectful of a gamer's-type difficulty curve and pacing, and Guitar Hero 3 was the series perfected with the best soundtrack, graphics, and gameplay the series has ever seen. But Guitar Hero 3 was too good. Guitar Hero 3 was the game that made the developers realize that they no longer had to respect their fans because the fans no longer respected themselves. Once it became clear that everyone everywhere was going to buy Guitar Hero no matter what, the developers didn't feel it was necessary for them to try anymore. In other words, once the fans stop putting pressure on the developers to make a better game, developers stop putting pressure on themselves to make a better game, and when that happens, you get Guitar Hero 5: the last few drops of water wrung out from a now-damp towel that once contained viscous, french-vanilla creams of originality, creativity, and video game art supremacy.

Number 2 Favorite Gamecube Game

Only 1 more!

Number 4 Favorite Gamecube Game

Number 4, fo' sho.

Number 5 Favorite Gamecube Game

Half way there, boys. Half way there. 

Number 9 Favorite Gamecube Game

Number 9 spot!

For No Reason At All

Sometimes, you just like a game for no reason. No reason at all. This usually happens when the game is mediocre at best, because let's face it, if the game was good, you'd have a reason to like it. Games that you like for no reason usually just have something about them that appeals to you and only you. For example, Yu-Gi-Oh! Eternal Duelist Soul is one of my favorite games for no reason at all. I love Yu-Gi-Oh!, and so you'd think that I would prefer the latest Yu-Gi-Oh! game over an old one, on account of it having the greatest variety in cards, but no - this one is special to me. For some reason, I just think that it is awesome. So what does this mean for the blog? Well, I can't really write about my opinions of a game if I can't justify them, so here is a list of games that I like for no reason with a brief description of why I might like the game. Of course, these are all Gamecube games:

Rayman Arena - This wacky game involves Rayman and his pals either fighting or racing. The fighting mode in this game takes place in a 3D arena similar to like, Custom Robo or Gotcha Force. The goal is to defeat your opponent using power-ups to deplete your opinion's health as many times as possible before time runs out. This really isn't as fun to me, though, as the racing mode is. This racing mode feels a lot like Sonic The Hedgehog meets Crash Bandicoot where you try to complete 3 laps around the large, fully 3D "track" before your opponent does. The environments of the tracks vary greatly from lava factories to dusky beaches, while the platforming and sense of speed just feels good. Allow me to point out that this racing is done on-foot. This is a great multiplayer game, but it is also just a silly game to check out on your own.

Extreme G3 - This game is hard. I actually can't even beat the first circuit of this futuristic racing game. The goal of this game, like all racing games, is to complete however many laps and cross the finish like before your opponents do. However, this motorcycle futuristic racer involves just as much combat as it does speed. Each bike can be upgraded and fitted with guns, bombs, and many other weapons for you to use to take out your opponent and possibly destroy his bike before he can finish the race. This game is hard, but really satisfying.



Naruto Clash of Ninja 2 - This is just a Naruto fighting game. I have this fixation on good sound effects as I have found that they can really add to the satisfaction that comes with punching someone in the face. Sometimes a good "thud" can be just as sensually stimulating as the image of watching a fist collide with a face, or in this case, kunai colliding with shuriken. The audio in this game is amazing. Naruto Clash of Ninja 2 is a fighting game that takes you through the story of Naruto the anime series up until a certain point. You can chose whether or not to care about the story, but the fighting just feels good. The controls and camera are good and the arenas are fully 3D with a lock-on as opposed to the 2D feel that fighters such as Tekken or Mortal Kombat can have. It isn't really complicated enough for hardcore fighter fans to be satisfied by, but it is accessible and easy to pick up if you're looking for something simple, yet rewarding.

Ultimate Spider-Man - Oh boy, I love Spider-Man games. Somehow, they are just so consistently good. This game has you playing as the web-slinger himself as you swing through the city taking out bad guys by exploring the open world while adhering to the story of Peter Parker who's best friend had turned into the other playable character in this game: Venom. This game has you switching back and forth between Spider-Man and Venom as the day turns to night, and night turns to day. Now, time does not progress on it's own, you do have to essentially just sequentially beat every mission the game throws at you in order to move forward in the game, but it doesn't take away from the fun. This game isn't long, nor is it's size as impressive as that of Spider-Man 2 the video game, but it is a certainly a fun game with a lot of
humor recommended if you're looking for something short and sweet.

Street V3 - Street V3 is a street basketball game that features young versions of basketball legends and teams. These young pros challenge guest stars Mario, Luigi, and Peach in a 3 on 3, from the streets to the hoop basketball game. This game plays like any modern basketball game, perhaps with it's age showing a little bit. The controls are not any better or worse than "fine", while actually playing the game is just fun. It's fun to sink 3-pointers or slam the ball through the hoop via slam-dunk. This is one hell of a multiplayer game, too. I remember a night where me and a few of my friends who know nothing about basketball played this game for hours just taunting each other as if we were in the streets, ourselves. The single player in this game is solid, though it can become repetitive after a little bit. If you're looking for a tight single-player experience, pace yourself when it comes to Street V3;       multiplayer is where this game shines.