Impressions

How To Make a Good Kids’ Game

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I’ve honestly lost count of the number of times that an insipid and distinctly average 3D platformer with a crappy anthropomorphic mascot has tried to excuse itself based on the fact that “it’s a kids’ game”. It’s as if they think kids are too vacuous to play anything that could actually be considered decent and so think it’s better to patronise them with some half-baked tat that only the most moronic would enjoy than to make something that is actually a good game (in that you don’t have to be on Valium enjoy it) but is accessible enough for kids to play.

Arguably Nintendo are the masters of doing that but, once in a while, someone else will manage to press all the right buttons and come out with something fun for all ages. Lego Star Wars is one of those games.

Lego Star Wars

It’s a fairly gimmicky concept and it can spoil much of Revenge of the Sith for you, but the developers haven’t made the mistake of taking themselves too seriously – characters fall into pieces of Lego brick when you kill them and some artistic licence has been taken with certain events to good comic effect, and the simple controls combined with wealth of playable characters with their own attacks and special abilities manage to be simple enough for young children but provide enough variety for the Star Wars buffs who won’t be able to resist it to enjoy. The characters fall into basic categories within which they all control similarly (with the notable exception of Yoda I defy you to spot the differences between the Jedi) but each one has its own animations and idiosyncrasies, and the forced (no pun intended) interaction with different types of character keep things interesting.

The game isn’t long by any means but in an effort to keep players coming back it has the obligatory collectables to encourage replays (unlocking characters and parts of larger Star Wars Lego kits, for example). I can’t really see it bringing most people back far beyond the time it takes to go through the main game but when the game is probably a lot better than the main movie tie-in will be and they’ve infused it with this much charm it’s hard not to like. They’ve put it out for a cheaper price than normal (£29.99) and if you’re looking for some simple fun or something to entertain the kids you can’t go wrong with it.

General

The Mystery of FIFA Street

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Guardian Unlimited is running an excellent article on FIFA Street as a microcosm of EA itself which you can find here. I’ve made my feelings clear about EA on many occasions and Keith Stuart has echoed many of my own feelings in a very insightful article. It possibly shows how the reviewers of games might not have as much influence over whether or not a game succeeds as we like to think we do.

General

Alienware Does Star Wars

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I’m not the biggest fan of the old prebuilt PCs because I think they’ve overpriced and often lock people into proprietary hardware, and Alienware are one of the worst offenders in the first area at least. They also have the most hideous cases that I’ve ever seen, and when you lose on substance (not saying they don’t have power, but not as much as they make out) and have aesthetics against you there’s not a lot going in your favour. Still, they get some nice exclusive technology and are certainly better than the Dell’s of the world.

Anyway, the purpose of this wasn’t to bash Alienware but to draw attention to this, a rare thing of beauty from them. Those monstrosities of cases are horrible, but making anything black and slapping the Death Star on the side of it will improve it infinitely. It still wouldn’t make me buy one but if anyone wants to buy one for me you’re quite welcome.

General

Chaos Theory Review

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My review of Splinter Cell Chaos Theory is available here, finally released from the half-written purgatory where I left it. Anyone who’s seen my previous comments about the game probably realises that the score was something of a forgone conclusion but I hope you still find my thoughts on the game interesting.

Editorials

UK Trade Shows

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First Game Zone Live, now ECTS and GDCE. Even SCoRE, the retail arm of the industry’s annual excuse for a big piss-up, is no more. Are there any legs remaining in the UK trade show?

After last year ECTS may have been more of a mercy killing, but it seems almost inexplicable at a time when Europe is pushing up the list of the world’s biggest games markets we can’t hold a good show. Germany has the apparently excellent GC (stands for “games convention” – gotta love that German efficiency), but that barely registers on the radar of most who would prefer to wait for E3 and Tokyo Game Show where the big guns come out to play. Germany aren’t exactly the hotbed of development in, uh, development either. The US and Japan might be the spiritual homes of gaming but when so many influential developers are based around Europe – Rockstar North, Ubisoft, Rare, Lionhead, Core Design, and others have made billions for the industry – why can’t even a public show where they charge for entry be a success?

E3, apart from a handful who’ll cough up $300 for a pass, is trade-only and none of them pay for entry, but it still remains incredibly successful. TGS strikes the balance by having a day for the trade and then makes some more money by having two days for the public. Last year they charged £12 per person for access to Game Stars Live and it was packed for the Thursday and Friday (both school days) so I dread to think how many they pulled in for the Saturday…

I suppose I shouldn’t try the price of admission angle since I get into every show I can free and don’t pay them anything, but I still find it baffling that we can’t make it work. Then again I look at our trains, buses, postal service, health service, and I’m not actually that surprised anymore.

General

How UMD Can Succeed

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I’ve commented in the past that I perhaps don’t share Sony’s vision of the PSP as the de facto standard for portable video, not least because nobody in their right mind is going to buy UMD movies when they’re only playable on the PSP and I’m certainly not because they’re not in their OAR, but Bandai may have cracked the way to make them a success, albeit still on a far more limited basis than other, more mainstream, formats.

According to Engadget they’re going to be releasing a special set for anime series Eureka 7 which will have the standard DVD package, but for ¥1,260 (£6.16) extra you can get the same thing with another copy of the series on UMD. Obviously exchange rates have to be accounted for, but I’d pay £10 or so more for a movie that I really liked in order to own it on both formats. I’ve seen Spider-Man 2 on it so I know how much better the UMD movies can look than the low-bitrate MP4 files that a DVD rip would give and although this wouldn’t increase the liklihood of me repurchasing my DVD collection on UMD I’d definitely consider it for new releases.