Viewtiful_Justin's HardestLevel

Art Vs. Entertainment

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 15:22:50 GMT

It's the age old question: Are video games art, or are they merely entertainment?

When you think about games like the latest John Madden game, it's easy to say they're entertainment: Because really, what's artful about a bunch of guys on a football field who all look relatively the same. There's no sweeping story. There's no character development. There's really not much to look at, right?

I don't know...the fog effects, the field, the mannerisms of players. When an artist sculpts a lump of clay to look like a real person, we call it art. These players look pretty lifelike to me. Madden might even lean towards art just a bit. But mostly, it's entertainment.

How about a better example: Doom.

Eh...there's really not much to look at. It's mostly about blasting demons. There's very little story, per se. Granted, it sort of defined a genre, but the art value of such a thing I think is pretty low. This one I'd chalk up to evidence of games being purely entertainment.

But then, if you look at a game like Grand Theft Auto IV, it's the same kind of a game, really.

You're tasked with shooting, finding, etc, just like Doom. But these people have personalities, stories, and they're a heck of a lot more believable. Scenery that looks like some of the best landscape painting you've ever seen? Check. Except this stuff you can walk right up to, examine, perhaps even climb on top of in between bouts of blasting drug lords and beating up on hookers. It's kind of a blurry line.

Further blurring the lines are games like Shadow of the Colossus.

This, in my opinion, is art first and foremost and entertainment second. Maybe that's just me, but I found myself stopping to stare in awe more often than I was climbing and shooting and stabbing. It elicits an emotional response with its melancholy missions and its brilliant bosses.

Maybe that's the crux of it: Emotion. Feeling. Is that what makes a game more art than entertainment? Is it story? Beauty? An emotional response?

Then what about this game?

Flower, for the PS3. It has little to no story, doesn't really elicit any emotion (at least not for me), and is almost sheerly beauty. But I would consider this art more than entertainment, I think.

It really is a difficult question to answer.

What do you think?

Best Bosses: Gruntilda

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 19:55:07 GMT

It's been a long time since the heyday of the Nintendo 64, but in all its polygonal glory, one villain stands the test of time in my mind: Gruntilda "Grunty" Winkybunion.

She was the mocking, rhyming, beauty-hungry witch in Banjo-Kazooie, the body-hungry witch in Banjo-Tooie, and the life-hungry witch in Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge. As you made your way through her castle (entering through the throat of her giant carved likeness), she appeared occasionally to toss one liners at you such as, "Once I'm nice and thin once more, burgers fries and chips galore!" or "Grunty's plan is rather cunning, when I'm thin guys will come running!" or even "Grunty's stomach and leg thins, goodbye to all those double chins!"

She taunts you with specific lines when you fall into traps or get hurt by certain enemies. It really makes for a frustrating experience when you're being kicked around by enemies and she's rhyming at you, telling you you'll never win, and proclaiming herself the premature winner! All the rage and frustration build to a head before you get to fight her, making the encounter that much sweeter.

I recall the first time I freed the Jinjos and sent Grunty plummeting to her doom (after many, many deaths, and many, many expletives that are too inappropriate to even mention). I stood on my chair, cheered, and I couldn't wipe the smile from my face.

She's the boss that has elicited the greatest emotional response from me in the entirety of the gaming world. It was so satisfying to trounce her! But she came back in the sequel as this monstrosity:

And then again in an alternate sequel for the Game Boy Advance as this clanking bucket of bolts:

She never was as satisfying to stomp or as frustrating in the sequels. Truly, her first incarnation deserves a spot on my list of best bosses of all time.

What are the best bosses on your list? Perhaps you'd like to submit a post about them to Hardest Level!

3 Movies that Beg to Become Video Games

Wed, 02 Dec 2009 19:18:41 GMT

You've seen the crappy Pixar-fueled games. You've played (or avoided) all kinds of crappy licensed merchandise that was only created to rake in cash from unsuspecting parents and children who may not know a good game if it bit them in the joystick. There are exceptions, but most games made from movies, as a rule, suck.

You know what wouldn't suck? How about games made from these three movies:

1. Labyrinth

Part platformer, part action-RPG, part dancing game. You play as Sarah Williams, who is soon joined by Huggle as her sidekick. After skipping the first ten minutes of the movie in a thirty-second clip (mostly to avoid five minutes of baby Toby crying), you are plunged into the labyrinth. You must fight your way through, dodging and navigating with a map that constantly fills out as you advance. After meeting Huggle, you can use his abilities to reach new areas of the maze. Logic puzzles would have to be solved in order to advance to certain rooms, and there would be secret passages and alternate routes depending on your answers and what abilities you chose to upgrade along the way. After you meat Ludo and gain the ability to call boulders forth, the labyrinth opens up and you have the remainder o the thirteen hour time limit to explore and try to find the Goblin King (played by David Bowie in a fantastic codpiece, by the way) and save your screaming brat of a little brother. The showdown at the end would be a dance off, for sure. Pure video gaming gold.

2. Little Miss Sunshine

As crazy a driving sim as you are ever going to get. You must navigate the roadways between Albuquerque and California's Little Miss Sunshine beauty pageant in time for the performance of a life! Along the way you can make stops to fuel up at roadside eateries, making sure to keep all the family members happy and (most importantly) in the van by picking up powerups along the way such as heroin (for grandpa),
porn (for Uncle Frank), philosophy books (for Dwayne), etc. Along the way, the van continues to deteriorate and you must avoid the cops that try to stop you for your moving vilations and unsafe vehicle (if you're caught, they discover grandpa's body in the back). And it could end with one of the best dance offs in the history of video gaming.

3. The Nightmare Before Christmas

Yes, yes. I know. They made Oogie's Revenge for Ps2, Xbox, and GBA. That doesn't count. This would be an old school platformer, the kind that hasn't been seen since the glory days of the Super Nintendo. You would play as various characters, collecting the proper accoutrements for a Christmas celebration all your own. Levels would inclide the holiday forest grove as Jack and Zero, Christmas Town, the graveyard, Sally's tower as and escaping Sally, Christmas Town again as Lock, Shock, and Barrel, the real world as Jack (which would be a flying level in the sleigh dodging missles and delivering presents), and a final showdown with Oogie Boogie himself. Oh, yes...and...just for good measure, it would end with the best dance off in video gaming history.

Okay, so maybe they wouldn't be the best games ever, but you've got to agree that they would be far more entertaining than any Disney schlock that's out there!

What other movies would you love to see made into video games?

Pokemon on the TI-83? What Ever Happened to Pimp Quest?

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 19:46:54 GMT

"You can't play video games in math class!"

I know I'm not the only one who has been told this. Of course, when I was being caught playing games during a lecture it was classics like Pimp Quest and Drug Wars on the TI-83.

Recently I broke out my dusty old calculator and took my favorite games for a spin. It made me yearn for those days when I could just tune the professor out and focus on my drug cartels. It also made me wonder if kids are still playing these things. I went looking on the Internet. Have you seen what's out there now?

Super Mario?!

Pokemon?

Just do a YouTube search for calculator games and see what else is out there! My, we've come a long way since text-based adventures featuring everyone's favorite professions. It's enough to make this guy feel old...

Do you still play games on your TI-83?

Submit Your Posts To Hardest Level!

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 15:56:51 GMT

Got a hilarious story about the time you fell down a flight of stairs while playing DDR? Or how about when your grandma busted a hip trying to nail the finish on that song you just couldn't get through?

We hare at Hardest Level do our happy dance on EXTREME DIFFICULTY when you send us your stories about your video game experiences. Shoot us a line, and if not for yourself, do it for Grams.

Castelvania: The Do-Over

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 13:50:47 GMT

After success with its Castlevania franchise on the NES, Konami branched out onto the Game Boy with this title:

Yeah...Does anyone else feel like Konami owes us an apology? Well, maybe that's a bit harsh. It wasn't good. But it was still Castlevania, right? And back then it was manna from Heaven...

Now we've got Wii Ware, the Wii's download service on the Wi Shop Channel. It's a great place for game publishers to release things that aren't quite worth the $35 cart tag. And sometimes, you get an absolute gem!

Enter Castlevania: The Do-Over! Oh...sorry...I meant...Castlevania: The Adventure Rebirth!

Is anyone as excited for this apology from Konami as I am?

Do Games Have a Responsibility To Portray Women and Minoritites Accurately?

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 15:05:37 GMT

There you are, cruising the streets of San Andreas, talk radio on the stereo as you look for a hooker to beat up and rob. Suddenly, four African American males in tattoos and bandanas screech around the corner in a souped up El Camino (don't ask me how they all fit) and start blasting you with assault rifles! It's just another day in a Grand Theft Auto game, but have you ever really stopped to look at it?

African American
Big gold necklace
Gang tattoos
Big Ol' Rims
Guns, of course
Latino-style religious imagery

It looks pretty stereotypical to me. Granted, it's a game about gang violence, so obviously they're not going to have crowds of nonthreatening people in pocket protectors and glasses wandering the streets. But even in that there's stereotyping.

Look at the cover art for GTA San Andreas:

You've got the African American men with guns out the window of the car. You've got the threatening Latino guy with the sparse moustache and wife beater looking threateningly with gun in hand. You've got the big roller with his poker chips, obviously rich--and he's WHITE. And even the woman is pretty skanky-looking, as women tend to be in GTA games. Need more proof?

She's practically fellating a cherry on this one. And are there male hookers? No. What about the gay guy paired up with the macho straight guy on one of the television channels in the game? It's all for laughs, and I think it's as funny as the next guy; but it's blatant stereotyping.

I'm not picking on Rockstar specifically. Look at Barrett from Final Fantasy VII:

Tatoos
Big gun as a part of his actual body
Menacing look

And I'm not saying it's wrong. I'm not saying it's right, either. It just raises a question in my mind:

Do video games have a responsibility to portray women and minorities accurately?

Better Know a Baddie: Met

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 14:22:10 GMT

If you've ever gotten past the title screen of a Mega Man game, you've seen this guy. I never knew his name, and you probably don't either.

Name: Met (commonly referred to as Hardhat)

First Appeared In: Mega Man

Basic Info: Met is a small robot with large eyes, a round mouth, two big yellow feet, and an indestructible yellow hardhat (hence the nickname) that commonly sports a cross. He can be found in almost every stage of every Mega Man game there has been (except the Mega Man Legends games). They sit motionless under their invulnerable hats until Mega Man approaches and then pop up and shoot.

Varieties: Met comes in as many varieties as there are worlds in Mega Man games, They've been seen hiding under bushes, wearing army gear with radios, swimming, flying, running, and, of course, waiting on the edge of a pit to knock you to your doom. Their differences are largely cosmetic, but some are given different abilities, such as a spread shot. You never know what they do until you approach them, which makes them a great enemy.

Trivia: Met appears in only the first episode of the Mega Man cartoon series and talks by making odd noises that only Dr. Light understands. He seems to keep items hidden under his hard hat in the cartoon, and perhaps that's where the things he drops upon being defeated come from.

Why They're Bad: If you were forced to be hidden under a giant, heavy, hard hat for hours on end, you'd be grumpy, too. Not to mention that they were programmed for evil by Dr. Wily himself.

How to Defeat Them: A Met will stay motionless and completely invincible under its hard hat until Mega Man approaches him. When he feels threatened, he will pop up and shoot several shots at Mega Man before dropping back under his hat. Mega Man must dodge the shots and shoot the Met before it disappears back under its hat again. Some larger, mini-boss Mets require you to blast away at them, aiming for the cross on their hat, completely turning their weakness on its head.

If they weren't responsible for half of my deaths by falling in a every Mega Man game, I might even call them cute! Please tell me I'm not the only one!

Thanks to the Mega Man Knowledge Base for the more obscure info!

Constant Fighting Got You Down?

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 19:16:05 GMT

I've been playing Dragon Warrior IV on the NES recently, and I've got to tell you, it's a fairly great game! With several different story lines set across four chapters (which, I assume, converge in the fifth chapter), the play style changes just enough to keep me going without feeling stagnant. My only gripe thus far is with the random encounter rate.

Trying to get anywhere at all on the overworld map is such a hassle! Every three steps or so there's another random encounter with enemies. Granted, the fighting is well done enough to keep it interesting, and the cast of characters you come up against is varied in fighting styles and looks enough to keep it from getting stagnant.

But holy cow! Do I need to fight seventy battles walking from a castle to a cave where I'm just going to get my butt kicked anyway?

Contrast that with games like Chrono Trigger, where the enemies are visible as you pay and there are no random encounters.

You always know what you are getitng yourself into, and if you feel like bypassing the fights (as glorious as they are), you are able to. That kind of play always feels balanced to me, whereas games with random encounters often seem to drag on, especially when the encounter rate is as high as it is in Dragon Warrior IV.

What do you all think about this? Do you prefer the random encounters or games where your enemies are clearly visible?

Top 5 Pinball Games...

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 15:32:49 GMT

I'm sure we've all spent a few quarters in a pinball machine in our lives. Me? I've spent more than anyone ever should. I could probably buy every machine on this list with the number of quarters I've used playing pinball in my lifetime. But some of you may not know where to start. That's where this handy list comes in! If ever you see one of these in an arcade, you'll know it's worth the quarters! I give you the top 5 pinball machines I've ever had the pleasure of playing:

5) Tales From the Crypt

I remember playing this game in the general store of a campground we used to visit every year. It's been probably close to fifteen years since I've played it, but I remember it being one of the most fun pinball machines I've ever used. The Cryptkeeper was your guide through the game, and despite his creepiness, he never fell short of having a good quip when you failed. The ball launger in the form of a doorknocker-representation of him was a nice touch! I also remember this game having the loosest match numbers at the end of the game of any pinball machine I've ever used...and that means more free games!

4) The Simpsons

This machine has eaten far too many of my quarters. I would say that of all the games on my list, this one is the most unforgiving. There must be something about the pastel paradise of Springfield under the glass that drives balls to the no zone. It's not a fantastic pinball game, but, like everything else that has the Simpsons' name on it, people play it no matter how much it sucks. I think maybe there was a little too much going on under the hood, but that's what makes it so much fun and captures the zaniness of Springfield.

3) Hook

This game lands itself on the list because it's the easiest pinball machine I've ever played. I'm no pinball wizard, but even I have trouble losing a ball in this one. And with scores totaling in the hundreds of millions, it makes even the worst player feel like a big shot! The skill shot at the beginning is a great touch and keeps me coming back to nail just one more launch. The fact that it has an instant replay feature which gives you one free ball if you truly suck or have terrible luck on a ball is enough to set it apart from any other game on the market. The icing on the cake? Hearing Captain Hook say, "I hate, I hate, I hate Peter Pan!"

2) Fire!

I know what you're thinking: A pinball game based on the Chicago Fire? How on earth does that work? Quite well, let me tell you! It's one of the only pinball machines that I've ever been able to figure out, goal-wise. You're supposed to bep utting out the fires and saving the citizens of the city one flick at a time. There's a rather loud fire bell on the top of this machine that rings every time you hit the multiplier, which multiplies your bonus at the end of a round by how many times you hit it. That means huge bonuses and free games for people who can keep the ball going. A great feature of this machine is a certain ramp that captures a ball and tells you a firefighter is trapped. You're tasked with raising the ladder to the burning building and launching the ball up the ramp, triggering a multi-ball, the joy of pinball enthusiasts everywhere! It's mayhem; it's loud; it's fun; it's Fire!

1) Taxi

We've come to the top of my list, the cream of the crop, the best damn pinball game there is, in my humble opinion. Doubtful? Let me tell you this, then: Nowhere else can you find Mikhail Gorbachev, Marilyn Monroe, Santa Claus, Dracula, and Pinbot in one place! In one taxi, no less! They're your targets in this madcap game with a sense of humor, and y'all know how I love a game with a sense of humor. Your bonus at the end of every ball depends on how many of them you can cram into your taxi without losing. Fill it full and take a joyride, and the points shoot through the roof! Each character has their own voice and will call out when you're close to picking them up, and each shot gives you points depending on how many times you can "spin out" in the ramp off the main shoot. It's a riot, and I've spent enough money in this thing to buy the machine!

So there you have it, my list for the top 5 pinball machines of all time. Have you played any of these? What would you put on the list?