News For The Week Of May 4th

Another week, another post. On time, once again.

• Advergaming powers activate! Shape of an H&M shill! I totally don't get this in it's entirety... Never really dug the Sims too much, so maybe it's just over the top of my head here, but shouldn't advergaming still be making gaming... uh, cheaper? Where's the goodwill for the people who you might want to soon sell your affordably priced fashionable clothes to? Or are gamers not included in that demographic?

• Now I've said in the past that Consumer Affairs is basically worthless. They have a tendency to write to the lowest common denominator which always leaves me feeling like someone is talking to me like a rather dull sheep. Fairly often I'll read something there and it's kind of like they don't actually have someone checking things for grammar or flow before they are posted. Some of the stuff they have is good info, do not get me wrong, but this article on video games is not some of that stuff. Take every gamer stereotype and have some drunken travel hippy (you think I kid...) rehash it for you in a semi-cohesive manner and there you go. Have these people ever actually tried to immerse themselves into gamer culture before writing an article? What's that? No? Curious.

• Oh my god. Seriously? Srsly? It's not like this kid said "OMG VATECH SHOOTZES WAS SO AWZOMNLFDSKL!!!1" and built the map. This had to take time to do, the kid was proud of his work... He just had really bad timing. And a hammer is a deadly weapon? what the hell? There is so much wrong with this whole thing I don't know where to start. Which also reminds me, why didn't they arrest the other kids in the school who played the map? They were doing some terroristic training, you know?

• WoWcard? WoVisa? Are you kidding me, a World of Warcraft Visa card? I want to dismiss this out of hand, but you know... No annual fee, a fairly reasonable APR after a 12 month 0% rate and a full penny on the dollar (one 'reward point' per dollar spent... almost like xp!) goes to buying you more months of WoW. A WoW player with half-assed financial skills could be playing for free indefinitely just based on monthly purchases. Or every time you buy another 2000 gold, it's like Bliz encourages that and gives you a free month's worth of play for it. Huzzah!

There will be more. There's always more.

I'm Not Making Any Friends, Either.

I really want to dismiss this out of hand. But I cannot entirely disagree with Save the Children's statements, though there is no real methodology to the conclusions they draw. The gist of their study being that since kids are given more things that are insulating (ie: video games, ipods, TV) to the outside world, they don't interact as much as they could or should with others and it retards their ability to make friends or deal with people. Now, mind this was determined via a survey of primary (in the colonies we call it elementary) school teachers.

This is where I agree and disagree. Children don't find these insulating devices and pastimes on the ground. I'm pretty sure in most first world countries they cannot go ahead and get a job down at the textile mill to buy these things themselves. You get where I'm going with this? Don't think I'm singling parents out, either. I'm looking square at you too, primary school teachers and staff.

Here's the trick... As children, they are in our care. Ready yourselves for some Hillary Clinton style bullshit right here: it takes a village to raise a child. There, I said it. Especially in this day and age where people are increasingly busy and insulated from the surrounding world.

Technology is no more evil than a rock or a tree. It all comes down to how you use it. The problem here is that parents are just giving their kids these implements and turning them loose into the world. Once loosed upon us, they become our problem. When they are herded into a school that I as a taxpayer paid for, they become society's problem. Schools should be largely gadgetry free. You step into those buildings and that shit gets shut off. Anything else gets confiscated until either the end of day or until the parent can come on in and get it back.

Like everything else that some application of technology gets blamed on, this comes back to the human animal. Kids don't need less technology (they probably do, but that's an argument for another post), they need to be taught how to use it and deal with it, and when to turn it off.

Dear Jack: An open Letter to Jack Thompson

Right now I'm training to kill! Thanks to my "murder simulator" Super Contra for the Nintendo Entertainment system. Surely you've heard of this video game. It's the one that sent John Rambo over the edge just before his murderous rampage that killed a bajillion cops and law enforcement officers.

Now despite the fact that the FBI and secret service (where exactly does the secret service figure into this?) have released several claims that the county Sheriff did in fact draw "first Blood" as it were, the fact of the matter remains that Rambo was a avid player of Super Contra...according to all of his POW buddies. In fact he played Super Contra all the way through his tour of Duty in 'Nam! Everyone knows that Super Contra was yesterday's Counter Strike...and EVERYONE knows that Counter Strike is today's premier Murder Simulator!

Back on Track, Jack. I'm training to kill. I'm practicing running with my nondescript machine gun and firing wildly forward, down and up at an angle. I've almost mastered all the powerups that I'll surely find here in the real world (I'm not sure you know what that is Jack) and soon I'll be coming after every pixelated bully that's ever picked on me!

Oh yes Jack, Video games are teaching me to kill. Pac Man really fucked with my head. Dark rooms, taking pills, seeing ghosts...scary shit man.

mmmm Sarcasm.

News For The Week of April 27th, Curt Edition

There it is.

• It's beautiful, it's Katamari... It's Beautiful Katamari. I thought they were done making these things, but whatever. I"m not going to get upset over a Japanese LSD trip on a disc. It's fine by me.

• Playing games makes you green, huh? All that item management, wearing gear for as long as it'll last you, hording items... I can see that.

• This isn't specifically game related, but it can be used in the application of games, and it is really awesome, so in it goes. 3D, cheap, in your living room.
  

Maybe more news next week.

News for the Week of April 20th, Unbelievably Late Edition.

There was a fair bit of news last week, and it's Wednesday already... Yeah. This is going to be a quick update, basically for the sake of posterity at this point.

That is why I bring you news for the week of April 20th, Jack Thompson's Worst Week Ever edition. Just so I can get him out of the way before this week's news. Plus, everyone likes seeing a massacre chaser take a beating, amirite?

• So there was that thing in Virginia last week, and someone let our favorite rabid bat on TV. Then Crecente from Kotaku put that segment under the magnifying glass and went to take a peek at the lies he was touting, of which there were plenty.

• Then the media machine he has so diligently milked for years begins to turn upon him. Mr. T was on MSNBC's Hardball and got taken to task about his statements that the VT shooting was video game related when the police found no evidence of video games being related to it at all.

• But then there was some good news... Still for us, I mean. Just so we're clear. Take Two and JT settled their suit basically barring JT from ever suing or threatening to sue Take Two; he will not communicate to Take Two or anyone doing business with them any accusation that Take Two committed any wrongdoing by selling its wares and he will make any future contact with Take Two through their lawyers. Now, he can still criticize the content of the games they make and act as a council (though I do not know who would use him as council now) in a lawsuit against Take Two. Good for him.

• Then Jackie starts to go a little bit crazy again. Gaming site Kotaku won't bend to his steely will, so he asks the... FBI... to look into them for him about threats made in their peanut gallery. On the internets. No, I am totally serious.

• I guess the FBI didn't have the guys at Kotaku up against the wall fast enough for Jack, so he went ahead and added their parent company, Gawker Media, to a suit he filed in March against the Florida Bar Association. It's interesting to note that he added the entire Florida Supreme Court to the same claim back on April 11th. These three entities are conspiring against his - wait for it... wait for it! Freedom of religion. His religion compels him to fight Take Two, Kotaku and the Florida Supreme Court! He will not stand idly by as multiculturalism invades to destroy his religion! No no, I'm not shitting you. Give it a read. (pdf link)
  

I suppose if misery loves company, Jack must be really damn miserable. Man just needs to simmer down and spend some time with his wife.

Rayman Raving Rabbids (Nintendo Wii)

Genre: Party
Publisher: Ubisoft
Developer: Ubisoft Montpelier
ESRB Rating: E for Everyone
Price: 49.99 USD
US Release Date: November 19, 2006
Equipment: HP 23" widescreen monitor with composite cables in 480p, standard Wiimote with Nunchuk attachment.
Completion: Approximately 5 hours for the single player story mode.


Bunnies don't give gifts. Bunnies don't understand bowling. Bunnies never close doors. They also have a penchant for kidnapping Rayman's Globox buddies and forcing him to participate in sick and twisted minigames for their amusement. Daaaaaaaaah!!!


Rayman is controlled by the player, but the bunnies are arguably the stars of the game. They're evil and scream like maniacs, but it's hard not to like them, especially as the game progresses. The story mode lasts 15 days, during which Rayman must successfully complete 3 minigames and a final stage each day in order to escape the bunny prison. If Rayman completes 4 minigames each day, he gains either a bonus costume or a song for the jukebox in his cell.

The minigames are fun, quick, and varied, and utilize the Wiimote and Nunchuk in interesting ways. Bunnies don't give gifts, so Rayman has to deliver a present (a lit stick of dynamite in a box) before it explodes by running as fast as he can. Bunnies don't understand bowling, so Rayman rolls a barrel down some train tracks to knock down ten bunnies at the end of the line. Bunnies never close doors, so Rayman must keep four doors shut at all times as the bunnies behind them relieve themselves. Bunnies are fantastic dancers, however, so Rayman can rock out with them in a DDR-style dance contest. The final stage on each day is either a first person on-rails shooter where Rayman takes a plunger gun to a horde of bunnies, or a race against three bunnies on mounts.

Each minigame has a slightly different control scheme, but they're all very simple and often intuitive. Hold the Wiimote and Nunchuk vertically, then shake them up and down quickly (simulating running), then press A to unleash a kick to an unsuspecting bunny, and aim the Wiimote while he's flight in order to score a goal against the bunny goalie in soccer. Strike down (like beating a drum) with either the Wiimote or Nunchuck as bunnies cross the platform in tune to the music to earn points in DDR. Aim with the Wiimote, fire with the B trigger, and shake the Nunchuck to reload in the shooter stages.

Rayman and the rabbids are in full 3D, and the art-style is clean, simple, and cartoony. Bunnies dancing and grooving to the music are fantastic to watch, as are all the other animations. What few CGI cutscenes there are look great.

Bunny screams are surprisingly hilarious. The thunk of a plunger onto a bunny's face is solid, and the resulting muffled protests sound as expected. There are a half-dozen "bunny-mixed" tunes for the jukebox, including Misirlou, Girls Just Want to Have Fun, and La Bamba that are fun to listen to, and even more fun to play in the DDR game.

Shooter stages are first person perspective, while most other games are third person. There are no serious camera issues, as there aren't any platform-like games that require free camera movement.

At the end of each day, the game is autosaved.

Difficulty is a mixed bag. Some games appear more than once, and are harder the second time around. Others only appear once, and range from effortless to hair-pulling. None of the games are impossible, but some may require multiple tries to complete. Certain games are unnecessarily difficult due to either the control scheme (turning the Wiimote to steer while flying is a pain, and would have been much better with the analog stick), or the Wiimote being unresponsive (tilting the Wiimote to tilt a board on screen).

Despite beating each other with spiked clubs, getting blown up with dynamite, having worms infest their teeth, and being smacked in the skull by a ball-peen hammer, bunnies never bleed or appear worse for wear. They do scream a lot, though.

The storyline in story mode doesn't make much sense, especially the ending, but that's not really the point. Outside of story mode, there is a score mode which awards additional bonuses for high scoring, and a multiplayer mode for up to 4 players. Some minigames support simultaneous play, such as the shooter and DDR games, the rest are turn-based affairs.

Raving Rabbids doesn't have much in common with other Rayman games besides Rayman himself. It's definitely not a platformer, though, so it's a refreshing change of pace.

As a party game, it does just about everything right. Some of the situations Rayman and the bunnies are in are outright ridiculous, and getting some friends together to play only increases the fun factor. Even without friends, it's still entertaining.


Heath Says:

Rayman Raving Rabbids is a great rental. For 50 bucks, though, there's just not enough play. I finished the story mode in under 5 hours. If it ever drops to 20 bucks, or if you have friends over all the time, then I'd say it's worthy of a purchase. Since I rented, I never actually got to experience multiplayer, but I bet it's a blast. I laughed my ass off more than once during the course of the story mode. The DDR games and the plunger shooters are my favorite parts. Hell, if Ubisoft released Rayman Plunger Wars or something, I think I'd buy that. This game really shows off what's possible with the Wiimote and Nunchuk. I think Sports is still the king, but Rayman proves the Wii controls are not a one-shot gimmick.


Final Verdict:

Editor's Note

The news might be a little late this week due to Shini having to work on projects from his real life job today. I believe Nass is still around as well, but also swamped with real life work. This is still a young blog with kinks to be worked out, but I'm proud of what we've accomplished so far. Our dear Heath recently acquired a Wii so be sure to check back soon for reviews from that! Thank you for reading Kitsune Games! Your continued support is greatly appreciated.