Wa-wa-WII-wa! A Hands-on Preview of the Nintendo Wii

Wa-Wa-WII-Wa!

A hands-on Preview of the Nintendo Wii

By Le Chupacabra

Despite having shamelessly nicked Borat’s famous catchphrase (does it even count as a phrase?), I think it’s a lot better than say, “Wii will rock you!”, “Playing with my Wii”, “Can I see your Wii?” or something cheesier. Trust me, I’ve seen really bad ones here…

Navel fluff aside, let’s get down to the nitty-gritty that is Nintendo’s new console. Long story short: it’s the successor to the GameCube. It was called the Revolution and now it’s called the Wii (pronounced, you guessed it, “wee”). End of story. Oh, and its take on next generation gaming is via intuitive and semi-revolutionary user interactivity than through unbelievable graphics or mind-boggling physics. It’s a fancy way of saying that the Wii Remote is awesome enough to make you ignore the unimpressive visuals showcased by the Wii.

Natty, the sub-warden in my corridor was nice enough to let me mess around with his Wii (damn, that sounds plain wrong) for a few hours. Thus I return with my hands-on impressions of the much-desired yet short-supplied next generation console, the Nintendo Wii.

Firstly, it’s quite small. GameCube small you ask? Smaller. The Wii is comparable to the PSOne (the remodelled, mini-PlayStation) surprisingly. Despite its Napoleonic stature it boasts quite a few nifty features. For starters, it has a smooth slot-loading disc drive that takes in the new Wii DVDs. The top can be flipped open to reveal all four controller ports for the original GameCube as well as the two prerequisite memory card slots for said console. And there’s a smaller panel above the disc slot that houses an SD memory card reader. Details aside, the Wii looks quite slick. I haven’t seen a PS3 upfront, yet between the Xbox 360 and Wii – the Spartan design of the Wii combined with a sleek, glossy white finish gives the Wii an air of sophistication and simplicity that I find more appealing. Nintendo makes some robust hardware as well and I expect (no, I didn’t dare try to test this) the Wii to withstand quite a few batterings and hurled controllers of which there shall be many.

Following the same theme as the aesthetic design, the user interface is clean, simple and quite user-friendly. You interact by aiming with the Wii Remote and a mouse cursor-esque hand follows your motions. It felt slightly wonky for me, but you can set your own level of sensitivity. The Wii has a neat picture viewer that you can use to browse through your shots from an SD memory card. The picture viewer offers the ability to apply special effects; particularly fun is the doodle tool. You can run a slideshow of your album as well and watch video files stored on the card. The Wii supports wireless internet which is routed to it via any general Wi-Fi dongle. With that you can browse the Internet, purchase legacy games from the online store and send/receive e-mail. My favourite part was the Mii (pronounced “me”), however. This is the Wii’s proprietary user profile management system and its use couldn’t be simpler or more fun! First you have go through all the basics of adding details such as your name, desired user name, date of birth, favourite colour, et al. The fun part comes in when it’s time to actually create your personal Mii avatar. While some will obviously go for the larger than life look, it’s quite enjoyable trying to get your likeness correct. After a few tweaks here and there by my sub-warden, I was pretty impressed with the almost-accurate version of me prancing on the screen. Speaking of which, I think I need to buy a new glasses to match those of the Wii Mii… erm me…

Now what makes the Wii unique is not the games you play, but how you play them. Enter the Nunchuks… and Wii Remote. Splitting a conventional controller into essentially two parts just didn’t seem right to me at first. After a few hours flicking, slamming, punching and flailing with the controllers – I can safely say that they officially rock! The remote is built surprisingly solidly and feels rather natural. After all, we are the TV generation and holding onto a remote for hours on end is part of the circle of life now. The buttons are perfectly set apart, although having the ‘B’ as a trigger (under the Remote) is initially confusing. The Nunchuk is where the analog stick rests. It looks like someone cut a DualShock in half, remoulded a half with one of the analog sticks and made it really ergonomic! The Nunchuk fits into your hand perfectly and follows the contours of your grip extremely well. A clearly obvious benefit of separating the controllers is that you can decide your own comfort level; whether you hold them right next to each other or lazily droop your arms over the sides of the chair is completely up to you. The controllers are connected to each other by means of a cable but other than that they are wireless courtesy of Bluetooth technology. A small, elongated receiver sits (preferably) on top of your TV and helps triangulate the direction the controllers face; this is what makes the motion sensing magic work.

So we know how the Wii looks and some portion of what it does. The question that you’re probably salivating over is how it plays. In short, it’s freakin’ awesome. True, the games I played would be mediocre under any normal controller scheme but the Wii is not your average console after all. Because of the controllers, it becomes something a lot more special.

First up was Wii Sports. The game comes bundled with the Wii itself and serves as an addictive distraction while you get accustomed to the new method of play. We played bowling, tennis, baseball and boxing. Bowling wasn’t too bad; first you have to aim the path you intend to bowl on and then you lift the Wii Remote as you would an actual bowling ball. Once you’re ready, swing away and press the button to release. There are subtleties in the motion you can take advantage of to add spin. Tennis was fantastic, however. I loved 4-player Top Spin on the PS2 but it faces pretty stiff competition from the Wii iteration of the sport. Holding the Wii Remote like a racquet you actually have to swing away at the ball as it threatens your side of the court. Similar to bowling, you can make use of deft sideway flicks or smooth slices to change the way you hit the ball. It was exhilarating to say the least and with four players, this has the potential of being the ultimate party game. Boxing and baseball were pretty damn entertaining as well. While you’re not required to actually move around your character in boxing, you can perform cheeky dodges left, right and backwards by moving both controllers in the opposite directions. Here you actually have to punch out to hit your opponent’s smug face and defence is equally ingenious – you cover your face with your hands to block blows aimed at your precious visage. I foresee this being the future way of ‘settling the score’ between two testosterone-charged ‘gentlemen’. Baseball required you hold the Wii Remote like a bat and swing away once the pitched ball seemed at the appropriate distance from your player. Getting the timing right was fun and significantly more intuitive than simply pressing a button. The pitching was similar to the Bowling game except that you had to swing over-arm.

I played a few games that made up the Wii Play compilation but they weren’t anything too special. Spin-offs of Duck Hunt and Battle Tanks were quite entertaining, though.

However, after that I played one game that tempted me like no other to forget the PS3 and order a Wii – Rayman Raving Rabbids. It was one of the most hilarious and outrageously fun games I’ve played in a while. Every aspect of it effuses humour and the design is simply brilliant. Raving Rabbids comprises of a series of mini-games where you take the titular character and attempt to thwart world domination by a bunch of - you guessed it - raving, rabid rabbits (say that ten times, fast). This game fully integrates the Wii Remote and Nunchuk into the very core of its being and as a result, has effectively brought about a tangible manifestation of the word ‘fun’. Whether it’s the rhythmic disco game where you have to flick the corresponding controller in tune with the beats to parodied songs like “Rabbits just wanna have fun” or the juice bar portion where you have to fill up the advancing rabbits with carrot juice by literally pumping it into them, the game maintains a distinct air of energetic, in-your-face humour that draws you in for more. The beauty of the games (and the Wii in general) is that it physically and mentally involves you, the player, in the game itself. That avant-garde level of interactivity takes the concept to new levels and it’s really hard to go back afterwards. Oh, and multiplayer is just overkill in terms of sheer enjoyment.

There you have it regarding the Wii. If you’re in doubt concerning a next generation console purchase, then consider the Wii as a very, very able contender. It’s cheap, it’s outrageously fun and it’s also the ultimate party machine. However with that said, you should always consider what games you want before you go straight ahead and end up buying a console you really didn’t want in the first place. Oh, and the Wii works best (and sometimes only) as a multiplayer console as opposed to something to sit down with and get lost in; the games aren’t quite substantial enough to satiate solitary gaming sessions, mind you. Other than that, wii salute you, Nintendo, for such a fantastic console.

Anime and Bangladesh: The 90's Connection

Bangladesh and Anime:

The 90s’ Connection

By Le Chupacabra

A quick glance at the wall clock shows the time as 5:30pm. Outside, the summer Sun has sunk low and casts cool shadows all over the place. The sky is a bluish-purple and the clouds are still white and fluffy; the chance of rainfall is quite slim. Ah, perfect conditions.

It's time to prepare yourself then. Call your cousin (or heck, cousins) over and ring up your friends…

… Robotech is about to begin on Star Plus.

What, you were expecting, cricket or something? Well, not for me.

During the mid-1990's, my (and certainly many others') evenings were characterised by half-an-hour of blistering fast fighter jets that miraculously (I was six) transformed into sleek robots armed with all manner of laser rifles, mounted machine guns and of course, an infinite stock of missiles with wonderfully ceaseless smoke trails. Robotech was its name and despite being a pretty old anime series already, it was rather brilliant. Granted, most of the story and characterisations zoomed over my head, but what bits I caught could be deemed 'ultra cool' for me. And even if all the plot pouting lost me, there was still some very awesome fighting as the consolation prize. Watching the Veritech jet fighters pirouette through barrages of gunfire to emerge unscathed from the smoke and then slickly transforming into the Guardian mode and unleashing their own salvo of heat-seeking missiles - the warhead count numbering in quadruple figures, it seemed - that was entertainment like no other. Back then, the now-ancient artwork was considered incredible and how could one not like it with all those superb robot designs? I'd wager that even now Robotech could hold its own - heck, if Victory Gundam can do it, why not? But best of all was the music; call it outdated, call it pointless… but the music was (and still is, in my opinion) the very definition of memorable. A decade on from the ending, and I still recall some of the tunes. A particularly unforgettable moment for me was when the story arc made the huge leap over to the bit with the Cyclotrons and the alien Invid. I simply didn't understand how or why back then, and I was so disappointed that the Veritech fighter parts were over that I decided never to watch Robotech again. Fortunately, curiosity got the better of me and the good times rolled again - the last arc of Robotech was still brilliant.

Within the next few years, Star Plus started degenerating into yet another pointless Hindi channel. At first, the shows were dubbed in the language (Small Wonder, we will never forget) but later they were completely replaced with the forerunners of today's never-ending serials beginning with the letter 'K'. Anime, it seemed, was being snubbed rather badly. Even early morning showings of Sabre Rider and the Star Sheriffs slowly vanished. However, it was replaced by G.I. Joe which was much better, so no big loss. However, waking up that early made it a bit tasteless. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles ran for a while during the afternoons, but that didn't last too long either. Pity, because that was my favourite cartoon when I was younger. (Okay, so both of those weren't anime, but you know… I'm kinda being washed over with nostalgia while writing this - work with me here!)

Salvation came after three years and two house shifts in the form of a little channel called AXN aka Action TV.

At first, I didn't pay much heed to it - after all, they still showed too many 'reality TV' shows on it. It wasn't until I was really bored that I flicked on to the channel while at my grandmother's house. What a fight scene it was... Himura Kenshin versus Aoshi Shinomori! It was a fantastically tense clash of two great swordsmen and the battle choreography was superb; I was hooked within minutes! After that, I caught every episode of Samurai X (aka Rurouni Kenshin) and I absolutely loved it! The final fight with Shishio was breathtaking but no other scene stayed with me like that one with Aoshi - after all, that was the one that got me interested in Samurai X in the first place! The later episodes spiralled rapidly away from a coherent storyline but back then, it didn't matter; those episodes were entertaining at the very least. The ending song during the Shishio saga (Heart of Sword, FYI) still stands as an all-time favourite. And in 2004, I bought the DVD boxed set of the entire Rurouni Kenshin series - one of the very few anime I have in original DVD form.

Another anime that was shown alongside Samurai X was Flame of Recca. I don't remember too much about it (they are showing it on Animax, so yeah I'm watching it again), but it was a great example of those tournament based anime that keep throwing an endless barrage of increasingly powerful.

Foes. Of course, the hero hovers near the brink of death only to burst forth with hitherto unseen powers galore; a certain Mr Goku can attest to such a formula. However, the fight scenes were still superbly entertaining and it was quite an imaginative show as well. The recent and super-popular anime Naruto owes many of its fight scenes, techniques and what-not to Flame of Recca. Recca Hanabishi, Naruto fans all over the world salute you!

Now, while Samurai X and Robotech retain a certain timeless quality, others faded from my memory. (Kudos to Lancer for the heads up.) One such anime was Ninja Robots. Yes, it of the same fight scene… over and over and over again! And now that I think about it… how did ninja fit into the context anyway? Somewhere in Japan, stealthy masked assassins are taking their own lives. Jokes aside, this has to be said: no matter corny or lame Ninja Robots may seem now, I (and plenty of others…. 'fess up you all) actually, honestly and genuinely liked and enjoyed the show. Besides the blatant copy-pasting of the aforementioned fight scenes, some of them were quite entertaining. The story wasn't too bad (or maybe that has to do with the fact that I reached an age where I could understand 'plotlines' - sorry, Robotech) and the artwork was quite decent. Let's not forget the, bless it, 'catchy' theme song - courtesy of the whole Americanisation process. Still, no matter how many times the Princess ended up being kidnapped (once you realise you can't count off your fingers, it was no longer funny), when Joe, Michael and Jenny (and later, Damien) strapped up into their robots to rescue her, you were rooting them on to victory. Cybertroooooooooooooooooon!

And, you cannot talk about anime in the 1990s without mention (unfortunately, that's all this one gets) of the one, the only… Speed Racer! *cue large-eyed, lopsided-mouth gasps of 'Oh!' ala Speed himself* What can you say about Speed Racer? (Preferably avoiding expletives). Nothing much. Of course, you could do some of those character expressions - they're a great hit when you and a bunch of friends go all nostalgic regarding TV shows. Speed Racer was embarrassingly corny and the constant exclamations made you roll your eyes, but hey, it was somewhat entertaining. Also without that Volcano Mountain race with the whole Snake (or was it Viper?) racing team, you wouldn't get that brilliantly hilarious parody episode of Dexter's Laboratory. Speaking of which, Dexter was at its satirical zenith during that time - the newer version lacks much of what made the old Dexter so bloody brilliant. Sad.

Lastly, and on a more serious tone, was the Anime Fest on Animax during the end of 1999. As a fitting end to that decade (and this article), that week highlighted some great anime films, particularly the subliminal Ghost in the Shell. That was the time when they also released The Matrix (the first, and brilliant, one) which shared much in common with Mamoru Oshii's animated opus; it was a doubly sweet dose of sci-fi centric philosophical musings. More importantly, it was also an indication of the burgeoning International audience for anime. And within a few weeks, we celebrated the New Year… the year 2000.

That golden decade ended on a fantastic note and was a forerunner of things to come. Cartoon Network picked up the slack with the loveable DragonBall Z and rather fun Cardcaptor Sakura. Unfortunately, it also started showing the inexplicably popular Pokemon, Digimon and Beyblade, and so on. One Piece is due to air soon (avoid the English dub, read the manga - bloody brilliant stuff!) The anime channel Animax commenced a few months back and we got access to anime like Gundam, Cowboy Bebop, GetBackers, Inu Yasha, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, Ranma 1/2, Samurai X, Escaflowne and other wonderful shows. The sublime FullMetal Alchemist and entertaining Great Teacher Onizuka are due soon. Whoever's writing this piece in 2010 will need all of RS for that article then!

The Twilight Road

The Twilight Road

By Azfarul Islam

Thirty-five years.

It’s only a small phrase yet it’s quite a long time to live through – and especially if you yourself haven’t reached that age, it’s easier to appreciate the magnitude of such a figure…

Everyone probably knows what I’m talking about. If you don’t, then shame on you. The 26th of March is upon us. On this momentous day, thirty-five years ago, we established sovereignty – we became a free nation of our own.

It was freedom from the tyranny of Pakistani rule. It was freedom from those who wished to subjugate and dominate. It was freedom from a life of a fear.

In perspective, after 35 years, what has it become a freedom to?

A failing Government needs a puppet terrorist organisation to assert itself as a leader we should put our faith in. The reputations of two groups are built up over years – one through fear and one through notoriety.

Pebbles are thrown into the pond and the ripples reverberate throughout, ruining the balance and tranquillity – the fish are oblivious to world beyond the surface and their hatred, if they feel it, is directed at the unsightly stones that mar their otherwise peaceful lives.

The white pawns are sent into battle, dying so that the King remains unharmed. The black pieces ravage the pawns with little thought. The white army appears to be in disarray until the white Queen and her Knights, Bishops and Rooks are sent into the fray. The black pieces are cut down. The despised black King and Queen seem demoralised and offer little in the way of a fight. The battle ends with their cold, calculated destruction and the surviving pawns celebrate. The black pieces deserved what they got for all the terror they wrought. The King is a true hero.

If only the pieces knew that the game was being played by one person – the same person who enjoyed throwing stones into the pond.

We live in this game where a battle of egos and supremacy rages on at all fronts – from the highest to the most base of levels.

A man wishes to express his ideals and his thoughts – such an activity is duly encouraged. After all, they all shout out to the world that we would be nothing without the right of free expression, right? Of course, they agree that limits must be observed for the sake of protocol and respect. What is being expressed may infringe into the ‘ethics’ of others, but that isn’t an issue if it is a ‘freedom’, right? The man will gladly go up to the podium and smile and wave at the awaiting crowd. He will then bow and step down. Maybe there’s no real need to say all that, he thinks. After all, he’s quite sure they all know. No need to repeat something that everyone already knows, right? There’s no need for him to force his personal ethics upon others. Infact, as far he’s concerned, his ideas are actually quite biased. As far as he knows, the people might disagree completely with him – that in itself is the freedom of their expression right? It makes no sense to go through such trouble, after all. It might even be in the best of interests of himself and others that he not bother to step up to the podium again.

Embracing a single day out of hundreds to celebrate and offer our respects to the ghosts and dreams of history. Spending the rest of our days in activities that undermine the true worth of a freedom fought for in blood and tears. Spending that single day revelling in an emotion that becomes terrestrial for that day and alien the next. What a farcical and pretentious beast patriotism is here!

A nation cannot bring itself up to stand head and shoulders with others if it travels in a straight line. From that point in 1971, it had to travel a curved path. A path that lead up and towards the stars. Such beautiful hopes and dreams they must have had back then. They should be happy that such a dream was realised! The curved path was traversed higher and higher. The path kept curving further. It finally curved back and is now curving into itself – it’s almost a full circle. Are returning to the very point we aimed to get as far away as possible from?

In the most cliché of definitions, light and dark must coexist in order to maintain harmony. We like to believe that we began that journey on the twilight road, on the 26th of March, 1971. We traverse that same twilight path into not the dawn but the night that is the 26th of March, 2006.

While it’s been too long, it’s never too late. On this the 35th anniversary of our freedom, it’s not too late to remember what this day stands for. Then it is imperative to hold on the same thoughts, the same feeling for the other three-hundred and sixty-four days. I myself am far from patriotic – my only thoughts about the 26th of March usually involve wondering if it will fall on a weekday so that I can enjoy a day off from school. At the same time, I truly appreciate and respect the sacrifice that so many made for a future that was uncertain at the time. If you want to honour those brave men and women, then don’t just be patriotic – mean it. Every single day. Like those before us, stop looking at the now and stare on past the horizon to a brighter future.

Maybe then, we may be able to embrace the glorious light of daybreak.

Videogames as mainsteam media: Yay or Nay?

Videogames as mainstream media: Yay or Nay?

By Le Chupacabra

Consider these factoids:

• the Xbox game, Halo 2, earned $125m on day one, breaking the all-time opening day records for any form of media;
• Metal Gear Solid creator Hideo Kojima was hailed as one of The 20 Most Influential People of the 21^st Century by Newsweek;
• the US Army is utilising games like America’s Army for recruiting purposes and Full Spectrum Warrior for combat training;
• the Sony PlayStation received an Emmy Award for ‘Outstanding Achievement in Technology and Advanced New Media’;
• Nintendo’s Mario character has earned himself a wax figure at the Hollywood Wax Museum in lieu of The Matrix’s Neo and Trinity!

Makes you wonder, doesn’t it?

It also proves a very important point: videogames are no longer the niche hobby that they once were. It’s no exaggeration to say that it’s slowly become mainstream media much like films, books or even music. Today’s games are indeed a far cry from the blips and flashes of Pong or Space Invaders. Titles like the Grand Theft Auto and Legend of Zelda have sold hundreds of millions of copies over the past few years. Yet how is this phenomenon permeating into the masses?

Before, media ‘entertainment’ could be referred to that gleaned from reading books/comics, watching films/television and listening to music. All those forms run strong today, but among them (with the exception of music) they lack one feature: interactivity. Then came videogames.

For the first time, you were in near-complete control of the action, the drama and the suspense; being able to carve your own level of entertainment is a key point of the attraction towards gaming. In a society where we demand more control of our hectic lives, games are becoming an extension of our natural tendencies and much like other media, a sort of escape from reality. That’s only the beginning. Besides the fact that playing games is enjoyable in itself, they aren’t just about mashing buttons; there are titles that make you stop and think, questions about ethics and morality are raised – but aren’t those the tasks of books and movies? Not anymore. Elements of captivating storylines and multidimensional characters are not just seen from the mere audiences’ perspective. By combining that essential spice of interactivity, videogames provide the melting pot where all other media forms converge to allow experiences beyond the norm.

Games have been coined as childish, trivial pastimes by our elders, but with the complexities and minutiae involved in today’s titles, they are anything but. The casual person may see a game as nothing more than pointing a gun and shooting everything. These titles can be viewed as stereotypes that run rampant and mar the image of videogames as a creative media. But doesn’t that happen for movies and books as well?

There are many games that simply brim with a ‘feel-good’ factor that people enjoy from movies, TV or books in a way that just comes naturally. In Mario you run through levels just by timing jumps, defeating enemies and traversing through traps. It’s the simplicity of it all combined with other aspects that makes it so utterly compelling. Titles like this offer genuinely addictive fun without any strings attached. Sports titles are ones that have truly become a part of the mainstream now. In the same way that physically playing sports is a way of bringing people together into a competitive environment, the game renditions can do the same. One will be surprised to know how much strategising and co-ordination a sports videogame often requires. These also bring out the competitive spirits within the players and you see the same fervour that one sees on the pitch or the field. In Europe, thousands of gamers unite to play in ‘PES (Pro Evolution Soccer) Football Tournaments’ sponsored by the developer Konami. There are real cash prizes involved but besides that, everyone does have a genuinely enjoyable experience: they’re not only there to win, but to have fun. That’s one of the beauties of gaming: being able to feel genuine gratification from what appears to be an artificial medium.

However, don’t let that lead you to think gaming is about sheer mindless merrymaking. Books like 1984 and movies like Citizen Kane are thought-provoking ventures that seek to question many an event, creed or emotion. Philosophical musing and moral issues are endeavours that one does not normally associate with videogames yet that is further from the truth than you think. Deus Ex dealt with swirling Government conspiracies that were seemingly fantastical, yet were quite close to many truths. A prime example is the Metal Gear Solid series. Through the medium of gaming, Director Hideo Kojima has passed along many an ideology. One such analogy centered on the theme of dealing with ramifications of nuclear proliferation. In the award-winning MGS2, you are given enemies who display incredibly life-like AI. While confronting them you can either kill them or harmlessly tranquilise them. The fact that a videogame allows you to consider morals in such situations only hints towards the depths that can explored via this medium. Issues like preserving the past, data manipulation, being able to control society and questioning the morality of human dogmas were all major points being brought up – these are terrifyingly relevant real-world topics but gasp, they’re being discussed and pondered over in a videogame… and brilliantly so! You’ll be surprised how many of these ideologies run parallel to the musings of minds like Shakespeare and Nietzsche; videogames are becoming rather complex beasts. A key feature that is becoming prevalent in other games is this similar tendency to pass along significant messages that are relevant to the consumers, the times and various situations. Remember why kids learnt more about ‘green issues’ from Captain Planet rather than the stern Geography teacher at school? It wasn’t the messages themselves, rather the medium that changed their attitude towards accepting and assimilating the ideas. Surprisingly, games have the power to influence, and even moreso today.

The similarities between games and movies are increasing with each new game release. Gamers demand engrossing storylines, compelling characters and cinema-quality presentation in their titles. This has lead to the creation of vast, sweeping epics like the Final Fantasy series to the alluring sci-fi world of Halo. These are, in many ways, the gaming incarnations of films like The Lord of the Rings or Star Wars. Development studios now share many of Hollywood’s key assets for such games: gaffers (lighting professionals), conceptual designers, voice-actors, scriptwriters to even world-renowned music composers and directors! It’s also become in vogue to release game tie-ins of new (and old) films. Examples range from the upcoming King Kong to recent films like Batman Begins to classics like The Godfather and Star Wars. These collaborations exist due to the fact that these companies firmly appreciate gaming as a solid entertainment medium with immense commercial potential. Plus, the financial risks are justified since they are catering to a ready-made fan-base. It’s an interesting relationship that has lead to both industries using mutual talent.

Music was something less touched upon in gaming but it was a presence without which much of the experience loses it charm. From the pastoral fantasy themes in Legend of Zelda to the evocative orchestrations in Halo 2, the music has certainly evolved, but the emotional impact remains as potent as ever. Many people associate music with particular themes (as in musical themes) that appeal to their sensibilities and it’s that association that is the basis of the ‘band’: you listen to a particular band because you are receptive to their brand of music. Games like Mario and Metal Gear Solid have themes that have become famous and loved all over the world: not only because the themes are amazing (they are, really!) but because they have the organic appeal of the magic of music. But music isn’t just an accompaniment; often it is the essence of gameplay. Revolutionary titles like Amplitude and Rez have utilised the alluring power of music to build a gameplay foundation. These are ‘higher concept’ games that do away with traditional or standard game mechanics in order to appeal to a select audience. Examples are rare yet their presence is important in establishing games as art form.

Going on the topic of art form, it must be noted that there are many a title that deserve to be called true works of art. Be it from an aesthetic standpoint or from an ethereal experience, games have come closer to the intangible medium of art. Take Ico for example. Your main task is to accompany a young woman to safety by traversing through a gargantuan trap-laden castle. The premise is tried-and-true but in terms of execution it’s a far more delicate, otherworldly experience. When a game is able to evoke emotions like fear, awe, tension and hope (as well as the opposite) without the use of typical methods like gauges or even music, then it’s an entirely different beast altogether. Words like ‘evocative’ and ‘soul-stirring’ are often used to describe art or music, but they can be used, to the full essence of their meanings, for videogames in such instances. But it doesn’t have to be intangible all the time! Games can be direct showcases of creative artistry through aesthetic design as well.

Makes you think doesn’t it?

All this often leads to other trains of thought, though. If videogames are such powerful media, then they will naturally have addicting or influential tendencies as well. This leads to an issue that has raised many a head today: videogame-induced violence. While there are numerous studies that are supportive of this fact, an equal number say otherwise. However, it wouldn’t be prudent to say that violent titles like Grand Theft Auto or Mortal Kombat are good for society. There were very good reasons as to why there were so many legal ramifications when various questionable materials were found in both games. These aren’t the only offenders mind you! I myself have heard of isolated incidents where children have acted on violent urges induced by playing a particular videogame. There are also situations where people become so engrossed that they often lose awareness of reality. Health factors are also relevant when over-playing and lack of physical activity come into consideration; poor posture, eye-strain and RSI are notable side-effects although those are the results of extended play. Playing in bursts is the safest way to go. When videogames are able to manipulate emotion on such scales that rational thought is often cast aside, the possibilities are worrying. This is something that needs to be carefully regulated. However, the same case remains with R-rated or suggestive films, explicit music lyrics, et al for the rest of the media world.

So, there you have it. I may have changed your opinion or at least given you many points to ponder about. In the end, it is the mass population that will decide whether videogaming is here to stay or not.