• 2Jun 13

  Partners

  If a time-traveler from the 90s suddenly developed an incredible curiosity to see how the world looks like in the early days of June 2013, he would certainly be surprised by a whole lot of things. He would surely judge the way we dress to be outrageously ridiculous, and unless such adventurer had somewhat of an open mind, he would undoubtedly attribute the Internet and all of its features to some insane sort of witchcraft. However, if our traveler were to be an avid gamer, nothing in this world - as technological as it might be - would cause an impression on him as huge as reading headlines that say "Nintendo and Sega Joining Powers to Develop Sonic Titles". It's a piece of news that would go against everything he had ever learned about the gaming industry, and not only would he have to come into terms with the fact that Sega no longer produces systems of their own, he would also have to wrap his mind around the fact two historical bitter rivals are now working together.

  

  In the eyes of the modern gamer, though, this new duo should not come as such a significant surprise. Both companies are products of the same gaming era, and everything they have gone through has somehow reflected on rather similar philosophies. Back when Nintendo and Sega were learning the quirks of the still young industry, hardware power was awfully limited, and - as it has so often happened in human history - difficulty and constraints are the perfect breeding grounds for creativity, which caused both companies to produce games that besides covering a huge amount of genres, presented the fantastic unreal element that had to be taken advantage of in an era where realism was out of the question. As time went by, and Sony and Microsoft arrived on the battlefield with an horde of franchises grounded on reality, Sega and Nintendo remained solidly faithful to their original core of games, which ended up developing into a more family-friendly branch of the industry.

  The two companies that created franchises with somehow parallel spirits always had an angry river between them that stopped the construction of any possible bridges, but that river ended up settling down when Sega dropped out of the console race in order to focus on its game-making magic. Aside from the fact Sega no longer manufactures any kind of hardware, another huge difference separates the modern version of the two giants. Sonic and Mario battled over the gaming market for over a decade like two legendary heavy-weights fighting for the boxing crown during the course of many title matches, with the belt always alternating between one and another. However, on the transition to 3D, Mario was able to maintain his top-notch shape, while Sonic struggled to find direction and motivation, leaving Mario without an equal. This distinction, much like Sega's withdrawal from console production, served as the initial supports for the connection that would be built between Sega and Nintendo.

  

  Sega's fumbling created gigantic opportunities for an approach, and - as of today - the approach is being performed. Though the recent Sonic Colors was an undeniable peak to the hedgehog on the aftermath of Sonic Adventure 2, it was still not even close to reaching the level of modern platforming masterpieces, which is a standard a character like Sonic should always aim for. If outside the gaming industry it is a good practice of the market for a company to seek the aid of third-parties whenever there is trouble in the deploying of some new technology, then there is no reason whatsoever why Sega should not try to use the same strategy to achieve the goal of finally giving Sonic the game he deserves. And this seems to be precisely the case with the partnership that has been revealed a few days ago.

  Though the development of the recently announced Sonic Lost Worlds is accredited solely to the always polarizing Sega Team, it is not very hard to see that Nintendo might be more involved than it seems. The first evidence is visual; Sonic Lost Worlds looks like a faster version of Mario's two greatest games of his thirty-year career, the two Super Mario Galaxy titles. The second, is political; Sega has announced a set of three Sonic games that will be exclusively released exclusively for Nintendo platforms, and no company in the world would make such a decision without any sort of return, given that going multiplatform is always more profitable. As a consequence, it is not far-fetched to narrow it down to two possibilities: either Nintendo has given Sega a huge amount of cash, or there is some technical and creative support effort going on behind the curtains. Given how Nintendo has constantly stated that it refuses to make deals with third-parties based on handing out money, it is likely that the reason Sonic Lost World will be a Wii U exclusive for life is that people from Nintendo EAD are in direct contact with developers from the Sonic Team sharing expertize and creative input.

  

  How can Nintendo aid Sega then? Well, in endless areas. For starters, the environments present on Super Mario Galaxy are mostly very complex, and they require an extensive amount of camera work to be playable. While Nintendo's automatic camera for Super Mario Galaxy was not flawless, it was still a major technical achievement, and given how much trouble Sonic Team has had with cameras on a multidimensional plain, the help is certainly welcome. Secondly, Nintendo seems to know quite well how to do storytelling on platformers without falling into a pit of juvenile and cringe-worthy situations, and that is a corner the Sonic games have always inadvertently walked into ever since it was wrongfully established they were in need of some extra layer of plot development. And finally, no company has as much knowledge on the Wii U's hardware than Nintendo itself, and that partnership could end up unlocking enough bits and processing power on the Wii U in order to turn Sonic Lost World into a graphical juggernaut that could compete and surpass Pikmin 3 on the graphical achievement scale.

  More relevant than the initial benefits brought to the Sonic franchise, though, is what could be in store for the future of this joining of forces. At first, Sega and Nintendo's teamwork has a set deadline and limit of three Sonic games. However, it is impossible not to sit down and imagine what else we might end up getting if these three initial projects, out of which Sonic Lost World is bound to be the highlight, wind up being judged as productive by both Nintendo and Sega. It could open the door for the reworking of a large number of franchises and the creation of some gargantuan IPs born out of this merging of creative forces. And it could all start right here. The Wii U is off to a very slow start, and while this exclusivity could pump some oxygen into Nintendo's system, the partnership could also work in the benefit of both Sonic and Sega. We could be witnessing the birth of quite a monster.

  

  • Posted Jun 2, 2013 4:08 pm GMT
  • Category: Editorial
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• 31May 13

  Albums of the Month: June 2013

  

  Album: Desire
  Artist: Bob Dylan
  Released: January 5th, 1976
  Highlights: Hurricane, One More Cup of Coffee, Joey, Sara

  Though not as highly-regarded as much of his masterful 60s output, "Desire" is worthy of consideration for being up there amongst Dylan's five greatest works. He is a man that shines through his storytelling and playfulness with words, and although the latter quality is not very present on "Desire", the former is on full display on each and every song. Sometimes it's in the re-counting of a real life story, such as in the protest against an unfair arrest in "Hurricane", or in the polemic romanticizing of a gangster's life in "Joey". On others, Dylan is the architect of delightful fictions: the couple of outlaws running away through the Mexican desert in "Romance in Durango", a jolly summer vacation gone wrong in "Black Diamond Bay", the Arabic-sounding plea of a man fearful of the journey that's ahead of him in "One More Cup of Coffee", and many others.

  "Desire" does not distinguish itself exclusively because of its many delightful characters; it is one of the most unique-sounding Dylan albums. The energetic and chaotic music comes from The Rolling Thunder Revue, a band put together by Dylan himself after watching a number of live gigs by other artists. The two most prominent items in the album, aside from Bob Dylan and Jacques Levy's shared compositions, are certainly the female backing vocals by Emmylou Harris, and Scarlet Rivera's beautiful violin. They are both constant during the course of the album, and they add such a level of novelty to "Desire" that it becomes a monster of its own. It's extremely different from everything Dylan produced before and after it, and it stands as a fantastic example of how Bob would sound were he the leader of a band.

   

  Album: Mr. Tambourine Man
  Artist: The Byrds
  Released: June 21st, 1965
  Highlights: I'll Feel a Whole Lot Better, Spanish Harlem Incident, Chimes of Freedom, We'll Meet Again

  Sharply choreographed harmonic vocals, simple pop songs full of hooks, and little showcase of proficiency in the playing of the instruments. Those are characteristics that could easily be applied to The Beatles in the first half of their career, but in this case, it's The Byrds we are talking about. One key difference separated both bands, though: while the early version of Paul, John, George, and Ringo wrote their own music, which basically consisted of the expression of teenage feelings; McGuinn and his crew opted to focus on covers of rather poetic folk rock tunes. Often, they trumped the originals in their delivery - Bob Dylan's "Spanish Harlem Incident" sounds like a new and much better song - and, as a consequence, the band was massively responsible for making folk music popular.

  "Mr. Tambourine Man" was the album that kicked off that journey, and it presents a certain divide between covers and original material. The Byrds' reworking of other composers' music was frequently stellar, and in spite of the fact that the band was flagrantly sloppy in its playing, the songs are invariably moving. Meanwhile, despite its quality, the original material penned by Gene Clark inevitably fails to reach the same level as tunes like "Chimes of Freedom" and "The Bells of Rhymney"; a difference that would grow ever thinner as The Byrds produced other records. Besides bringing folk to the masses, "Mr. Tambourine Man" is historically relevant for introducing McGuinn's jangly guitar-playing, something that would go on to influence an enormous horde of alternative rock bands, most notably R.E.M.'s Peter Buck. It's an album that, even with all its glaring irregularity, maintains an above-average quality through all of its thirty minutes.

  

  Album: Five Live Yardbirds
  Artist: The Yardbirds
  Released: December 4th, 1964
  Highlights: Smokestack Lightning, Good Morning Little Schoolgirl, Respectable, I'm a Man

  The Yardbirds are usually, and understandably so, known as the band responsible for introducing three of the greatest guitar players ever to the world - Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, and Jimmy Page - though they never shared the stage at the same time. Musically, however, The Yardbirds were responsible for doing something that is often accredited to Page's other band: Led Zeppelin. The Yardbirds were one of the the first bands to dress up traditional blues tunes and turn them into modern rock compositions. "Five Live Yardbirds" is one energetic display of that experiment, as the boys take the very same stage that The Rolling Stones used in their debut two years prior in order to showcase the sheer force of the still young group.

  Starting things up with a song that did not claim for much re-structuring, Chuck Berry's iconic "Too Much Monkey Business", they move on to take "Smokestack Lightning" with a harmonica work that would be enough to make Howlin' Wolf himself be very impressed, and three numbers originally coined by Bo Diddley: "Pretty Girl", "I'm a Man", and "Here 'Tis". As a band that refuses to limit themselves to one trick, they even give it a shot at an R&B song, The Isley Brothers' "Respectable", and they pull it off in a quite remarkable fashion. What is most enchanting about "Five Live Yardbirds" is how clear it is to see, even through sound waves, how much of a blast the band was having while going through their set. It's raw, roughly-produced, and freely played music by a bunch of British boys with a strong passion for American music. And, as it turns out, that is precisely the kind of solid fertile ground great old-school rock used to flourish.

  • Posted May 31, 2013 5:34 pm GMT
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• 22May 13

  Sonic Racing Transformed Review

  Having such a ridiculously long title that forced me to shorten this blog's title is not the only distinction of this game, it is also one of the most challenging and engaging racing titles I have played in recent years, even if that challenge brings a few problems along with it. I finished Lego City Undercover a few days ago, and now that I am up-to-date with the system's library I shall join fellows Wii U owners on the waiting game for Pikmin 3. Anyway, here is my review for Sonic Racing Transformed.
  

  Warning! Huge review approaching!
  

  It's not just a temporary replacement for Mario Kart, it is a very worthy competitor

  In all of the gaming industry, there is no niche where there is a domination as huge as the one that exists on the kart racing one. All games and teams that venture into the realm know exactly what needs to be done, which is to produce a game that draws positive comparisons to Mario Kart. After all, not only was it Nintendo that created the often-copied formula, but Mario and his crew have been executing it masterfully for over two decades. During that period of time, only a very restricted number of titles out of which Diddy Kong Racing and Crash Team Racing stand out - were able to break the monopoly, each for their own reasons and pronenesses. Sonic Racing Transformed manages to enter that select group, and it does so by fixing the flaws of its predecessor, and offering a fantastic mix of challenge, content and outstanding track design.

  

  The first noticeable feature that makes Sonic Racing Transformed stay away from being just another kart game is exposed right on its title. The game does not focus solely on wacky automobile competitions. Instead, the races take place on the water, in the sky and on the land. It would not have been such a refreshing concept but for one detail: tracks are not based on a single vehicle; each one of them presents segments that demand different racing approaches, forcing characters to magically go from one vehicle to the other on the fly. With the exception of a few rare instances when the vehicles behave oddly in the milliseconds following a transformation, the transitions are mostly smoothly done and add a lot of excitement to the race. Aside from the fantastic visual value of, for instance, going up a ramp with a boat and watching as it turns into an airplane in the midst of a battle for a position, the transformations also have strategic value, because as flying is considerably faster than the other two options of movement, the racing tracks will offer opportunities to transform into a plane earlier, rewarding those who find ramps and taking off spots.

  Speaking of the tracks, they are yet another point that heavily benefits from the blending of vehicles, and are the clear highlights of the game. Courses take advantage of that opportunity in two distinct ways: they are either built so that three vehicles are used during the same lap, or they present environmental elements that alter the path in between laps. Therefore, even though the game contains sixteen original tracks, plus four extracted for its predecessor - all of which are kart-only it feels like much more, because as they mutate, tracks often become different to the point of not being recognizable. As if all that work was not enough, the game's tracks are also packed with alternative paths and shortcuts, which add a lot to both their already high replayability and to the element of surprise waiting within each race.

  In a genre usually dominated by multiplayer-focused games, Sonic Racing Transformed brings forth a whole lot of single-player value. There are two main modes where the solo fun resides: Grand Prix and Career. The first one is nearly self-explanatory, players compete against nine other characters in four-race cups to see who ends up with the biggest amount of points. In total, there are ten cups, equally divided between regular and mirrored ones, and the difficulty of each can be chosen among four distinct options. Meanwhile, in the Career mode, through which most of the characters are unlocked, presents individual challenges that include regular races where players must finish in a certain position, time trials, boost challenges and racing duels against a series of characters. According to the difficulty chosen for each challenge, players will earn stars, which can then be used to unlock gates that are either protecting new characters or more challenges.

  

  For a game as colorful and seemingly kid-friendly as this one, it packs an immensely surprising amount of challenge. While the high level of difficulty is extremely welcome, for it considerably boosts the time that can be spent playing solo, some of its implementation is questionable. Facing at least a portion of the game in the hard difficulty is key if players want to unlock certain characters, and open a few gates hiding some of the more advanced challenges. It is all fine and good if the player in question is experienced; youngsters, however, will most likely be overwhelmed by the many hours of practice one must go through if he wants to clear a good part of the game.

  The core problem here is that practice is not the only thing required to go through the entirety of the game; patience is also extremely important. Like all games of its kind, Sonic Transformed presents an assortment of items that can be used during the race. Unlike Mario Kart, however, the items you get are not heavily dependent on the position you find yourself in. Meaning that while leaders are boosting their way through the tracks with powerful items, people in the middle of the pack might be struggling with simple powers. As a consequence, a big part of the game's result, especially on the hardest levels, relies on luck. Though those occurrences are annoying on Career mode, they can be even more frustrating during a Grand Prix, where three straight good races can be destroyed by a bad race where players - which always start at the back of the grid - are unable to reach the leaders because they are too busy being hit by an army of items. Regardless of how good a player is at speeding through the tracks, finishing 1st will usually demand many tries, and an eventual victory is most likely to come due to sheer luck of getting the right item at the right time.

  In general, though, Sonic Racing Transformed is a very pleasant game to play. Not only is the game bursting with the personality extracted directly from fantastic Sega properties - including a vast selection of characters, each with very a very unique trio of vehicles - it is also a software that can be enjoyed with friends. The multiplayer gameplay is not restricted to especially designed modes. It is, instead, available in any mode of choice - with the exception of Time Trials - and, by taking advantage of the Wii U gamepad, the game allows for up to five players to battle each other on any of game's many Grand Prix tournaments, Career Mode challenges, or online matches. Whoever holds the Wii U gamepad - which on single-player works as a map display and a rear view mirror - will play on the controller's screen, which despite its average size produces very nice visuals, while those who hold the Wiimotes will share the TV. Though it is not used in any asymmetric and creative way, which is totally understandable given the nature of a racing title, it is nice to be able to avoid split-screen when playing in pairs.

  

  While its predecessor suffered from constant frame rate problems, this is a game mostly free from that issue, and that is no small feat. The tracks are full of activity. Aside from ten racers throwing items and shoving each other, there are plenty of traps going around, scenario details to be processed at the game's relatively fast speed, and that all goes without mentioning how some of the courses suffer mutations in-between laps as a result of explosions, and other kinds of physical destruction. Throw into the bag the fact that the game looks really great, and holding it all together through the entirety of the race becomes quite a technical achievement. Besides being exciting by their fast and frantic nature, races are boosted by a nice soundtrack which is highlighted by some tunes that have been selected from games that present a very powerful soundtrack.

  Often, when a good game of the kart racing genre hits a Nintendo platform early on, it tends to be labeled as a title that exists for the purpose of temporarily satisfying any racing needs that players might have until Mario Kart comes around. This time, though, the Nintendo Wii U has received a game that will not simply be thrown away once Nintendo unleashes a new installment on its longstanding racing series, but one that will be able to compete side-by-side with it regardless of how great the next Mario Kart will be. Sonic and All-Stars Racing Transformed has tons of content, which aside from simply racing include over 100 collectible stickers that serve as awards for the completion of achievements, a nice degree of vehicle customization, and a huge load of the undeniable charm of the Sega franchises. Put some good level of challenge in there, which is sometimes unfortunately done cheaply, and you have a lasting, fun and rewarding title.

  • Posted May 22, 2013 4:08 pm GMT
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