Thursday, September 30, 2010

Humming a Tune

There's nothing like humming the first 6 or 7 notes of the Super Mario Bros theme and having a room full of people follow it up to its completion a Capella style. It's a song that nary a man or woman under 30 doesn't recognize. The Zelda theme has a similar effect, if for a bit of a smaller audience. Music from the era where we could still see the bits in our 8-bit games had truly memorable, catchy music that we won't soon forget short of a case of early onset Alzheimer's.

As games moved forward visually, so did the music. Super Nintendo got rid of the bleepy chiptunes of the previous generation for mock-instruments that mimicked many different styles from symphonic to rock (See Chrono Trigger and Megaman X), and best of all, it was still just as great and as memorable, if not more so, than ever. The Super Nintendo era of games introduced a complexity of music that easily rivaled other musical genres. Video game music was evolving into a genre of its own and had its own varied styles and sounds that other music couldn't offer. The sheer number of bands that cover music from this era of gaming (The Advantage, Powerglove and the NESkimos, to name a few) is tantamount to its quality. This tradition is held strong in the next era of gaming as well with the Nintendo 64 and Playstation. The Final Fantasy games alone from this generation give us an admirable library of beautiful music.

However, it seems that the longer games are around, the less memorable the music is. Can anyone name more than 5 games of the current gen with good AND memorable music? (If you're reading, this is a real challenge. Please list current gen games that, in your opinion, have great music). There are certainly lots of games with "good" music, but I can't hum a single one of them. They don't stick in my head. I couldn't hum you the first note of a large collection of some of the highest ranked games that have come out in the last 3 years. The only games that come to mind with, what I consider to be, excellent music are Megaman 9 and 10 and they are mimicking the 80s in graphics, gameplay and music. Video game music has lost its video game-ness. In an attempt to keep up with graphics attempting to be realistic, music has done the same thing and a demand for orchestrated music with real instruments is on the rise. Heck, it's taking over. The problem here? I can't freaking hum a symphonic score.

Ok, so whether or not I can hum a tune doesn't make it good or bad. The problem is that the composers for a lot of these games (Red Dead Redemption, Uncharted 1 and 2, any FPS, just for some examples) are trying to make hollywood style music for these games, rather than video game music. This is a seriously major distinction and something that has been bothering me about video games a lot lately. Their attempt to be like a Hollywood movie. As much as I thought Uncharted 2 was a great game, I couldn't shake the feeling that I was playing through a Hollywood treasure-hunter movie (see Lara Croft or National Treasure). But that's another topic. Video game music is something special that is recognizable even if you haven't played that game. You will instantly know that a song that is properly video-gamey is from a video game and not a movie. I actually tried to sneak in some orchestrated Chrono Trigger music to a party play-list once to fool my friends into liking video game music, but one of them commented, "this sounds like video game music, what is this?"

Even apart from games that try to be hollywood movies, video game music has been degrading. I can't remember any new Mario music from New Super Mario Bros, NSMB Wii, Mario Galaxy or Mario Galaxy 2. I remember at several points in Twilight Princess thinking, "this is a pretty song," but I can't remember what they sound like at all anymore. That was not the case with Link to the Past or Ocarina of Time. Music from those games stuck after one or maybe two playthroughs. Followers might remember my lament (part of it, at least) about there being hardly a trace of Metroid-type music in Other M. Guess what it was replaced by? Yeah, you guessed it.

Megaman 9 and 10 are a glimmer of hope in the sea of symphonic crap that plagues games today. The Scott Pilgrim vs The World game that Anamanaguchi created the music for is also a great throwback to the excellence of 8-bit music.

I invite people to give examples of excellent modern-day video game music to prove me wrong. Maybe I'm just missing something.

Sunday, September 12, 2010

Parallel Motivations

So my partner and I were discussing motivation to complete video games last night. He says that he often has trouble to finish a game since his main motivation is often stuff like treasure hunting and exploring, so when it comes time to go deal the big baddie the final blow, he finds he has absolutely no motivation to do so since beating the final boss does nothing but show you the end scene of the game and then you're done. I've personally watched him play through entire games like FFXIII, Xenogears, Cave Story (the wii release) and many more, spending countless hours finding every single treasure in the game and uncovering every secret of every map, save before the final area (or right before the final room) and then never touch the game again.

As he was telling me this, I was thinking about my motivations for beating a game and instantly thought about Metroid: Fusion. If you read my last post, I talked about how in one of the final scenes, when the computer reveals itself to be Adam and asks, "any Objections, Lady?" before sending you off to the final scene, it fills me with a sense of objective. I find myself, the player, actually wanting to go do the computer's bidding. However, after thinking about it for awhile, I've realized that there's more to it. The SA-X. The SA-X is the X-virus clone of Samus in her fully-powered form from Super Metroid. Throughout the game, Samus periodically encounters the SA-X. Each time you meet it, you are not powerful enough to defeat it, so you can only hide and hope it doesn't see you. In these scenes, an excellent, chilling effect is achieved by cutting the music and replacing it with ambient, sounds and making the footsteps of the SA-X extremely audible (view this short video to see what I mean). Because of this, a reaction of real fear is instilled in the player as they watch Samus hiding just out of sight of the echoing footsteps of the unstoppable SA-X.

The SA-X is a constant object of fear throughout the game and Samus' fear is shared by the player. Because of this, when it comes time to destroy the SA-X, the player has the same feelings as Samus herself must feel and destroying the SA-X is one part revenge for all those times it scared us and one part mission objective to push the game forward. This sharing of emotions is something rare in video games that we don't often feel. When faced with the final boss in countless games, I'm only doing it because I've come so far that I might as well finish it.

Another game that has a similar effect as the SA-X is Nemesis from Resident Evil 3. This is both a frustrating feeling and a fear effect that makes the point where you finally kill him doubley satisfying. Another is the Dahaka from Prince of Persia: Warrior Within. It chases the prince throughout the whole game. If you collect every health-upgrade in the game, you are rewarded with a water sword and get to fight the Dahaka and kill it; another extremely satisfying battle after being chased by the creature throughout the entire game.

An RPG that comes to mind that achieves a parallel motivation effect that is not as much fear-induced as Fusion, RE3 and PoP: WW is Final Fantasy VII. Sephiroth is certainly a character to be feared as you walk through the gutted halls of the Shinra building, blood and sword marks decorating every corner. But the main motivation that players are imbued with is one of revenge when Sephiroth kills Aeris in the legendary cut-scene (particularly if it's your first time playing the game and you were actually investing time in powering Aeris up for your party). From this point onwards Sephiroth is known as the king of jerks who killed one of your party members beyond the capabilities of a Phoenix Down, and you are pissed off.

The ability to appeal to the player's sense of motivation to work through a game and not just the character's story-driven motivations is something that I feel is not considered on a emotional level often enough. When a game developer is creating a game they think about what the player will be able to do: Level up, collect new weapons, collect treasure, develop strategies, learn battle systems and hone their reflexes to master it. But how often does a developer actually instill the player with a sense of mystery of what will happen next, or make the player feel as angry as the character's might feel at the death of a character or the destruction of a city. It's a difficult task, no doubt, but an extremely valuable aspect to consider.

Any other moments in games that readers can think of where they felt emotionally motivated to accomplish a certain task in a game?

One more that comes to mind is resurrecting Crono in Chrono Trigger. He is your typical silent protagonist throughout the entire game, but he still feels very much like the leader. When he shockingly gets destroyed by Lavos at a pivotal point in the game, you are left in as much disbelief as Marle must be in. How the hell did my main character just die? Because of this, when you find out that there is a way to revive Crono, you want to jump on the task immediately.

I'd love to hear of more situations like this if you can think of any.

Thursday, September 2, 2010

Metroid: Other M review

Here is another of my bi-yearly posts. Thank you to those who actually follow me. I just finished playing through Metroid: Other M, Nintendo and Team Ninja's story-intensive foray into the Metroid universe.

Warning! This post is going to be spoiler intensive, so if you give a hoot then stop reading right now.

Other M gives us a close look into the character and history of our favorite planet-destroying, genocidal space heroine, Samus Aran. The game is closely related in both style and story to Metroid Fusion, Nintendo's last side-scrolling Metroid game released in 2002. Like Fusion, Other M is very linear, which is a break from the mold from most other Metroid games, which are open and emphasize exploration rather than mission objectives. In fact, most Metroid games have vague mission objectives, usually starting the game off with a paragraph or two of Samus receiving a distress call or something similar, seeing the bounty hunter land, then having essentially zero story until after the final battle has been fought. The Metroid Prime series managed to maintain the mostly silent heroine while still providing a narative through space-pirate logs, chozo and luminoth lore. The logs and lore were entirely optional, but helped flesh out the world and the goals of your opponents.

Other M is different. This game explores Samus' relationship with her former CO, Adam Malkovich, who we initially learn about in Metroid Fusion. Although some complained that Metroid Fusion was too linear, I've always considered it as my favorite entry in the series. It still has an atmospheric feel to it, and the orders from the computer are contrasted with Samus' thoughts that we are provided with a few times throughout the game while she is riding an elevator to a new sector. Through these inner-thoughts, we learn that Samus respected Adam as a CO and that she is pretending that the computer is him, since it reminds her of him. In a chilling moment at the end of the game, Samus accidentally calls the computer Adam. At the end of the briefing, the computer asks Samus, "Any Objections, Lady?" a trademark line from Adam that identifies the computer as an AI of the former CO that we learn was copied into the computer.

We learn almost nothing about Adam during Fusion, but this moment is powerful regardless and always fills me with a sense of purpose as I march on to the final chamber to take down the SA-X (the sinister copy of Samus) and destroy the ship, foiling the Galactic Federation's plots once again.

Other M drops us into a similar ship, which was built to house creatures from planet Zebes, much like the ship from Fusion. This time, Samus is working alongside Adam and a troop of Galactic Federation soldiers. The narrative at the beginning of the game is promising. We receive some decent back story showing Samus as a young soldier under Malkovich's command. Thankfully, the game separates Samus from the rest of the soldiers quickly and exploration of the BOTTLE SHIP commences. Regardless of its linearity, I was hopeful in my first impressions of the game. The combat felt solid, and I still felt like I was playing a Metroid game. It felt like a refreshing reboot of the game and something closer to what fans have been craving since the start of the Prime series. This was a 3D third person version of Super Metroid and Metroid Fusion.

But the game isn't without problems.

My first issue: The weapon and suit upgrades. Almost every new Metroid game begins with an explanation of why Samus doesn't have her devastating arsenal of weapons from the came that chronologically preceded it. In Fusion the X virus infected her suit, so it was surgically removed from her, depowering her completely. In Metroid Prime 1, Samus is struck with a surge of energy that takes her suits abilities offline. In Metroid Prime 2, the Ing swarm over her early in the game, stealing most of her suit's powers. In Other M, the reason is the worst of them all. It doesn't take long to meet up with Adam and his troup, and once you do, Samus decides to take orders from Adam, which includes requiring authorization for use of weapons and suit abilities. Periodically throughout the game, you are faced with a puzzle or fight that you cannot win, and Adam will chime into the radio saying "Samus, use of (freeze beam, missiles, varia suit, grapple beam, etc) is a authorized." I can almost understand why she would wait for authorization of weapons, since they can be dangerous while working with others, but is there really a reason why she needs to wait for authorization for the grapple beam? The varia suit? The gravity suit? These are tools that provide Samus with defensive capabilities, not offensive, yet Adam does not allow them right away as a weak gameplay reason not to start off super-powered. Also, when you do receive authorization to use these weapons and abilities, it doesn't feel as satisfying as collecting a power-up from every other entry. Usually a power-up followed a tough boss battle and the upgrade was found once Samus destroyed her opponent, making it feel like a great reward. When Adam authorizes use of the wave beam because Samus is stuck in a glass cell and needs a weapon to penetrate walls, it doesn't feel satisfying at all. I got more of a "it's about time" feeling from each power received in this way.

My 2nd issue: Although I did not have as much of a problem with Samus' past and her new-found emotions as some reviewers did, some instances felt extremely unrealistic. When first confronted with Ridley, Samus is surprised to see that he is alive. Understandable, since the planet Zebes exploded and should have taken any remains of Ridley with it. What wasn't realistic was the way that Samus was completely frozen with fear as Ridley slowly approached her. Remind me again when Samus hesitated for even a moment in every other game when faced with Ridley? Even when she was plummeting down a long shaft in Metroid Prime 3, Ridley close by, scratching, clawing and breathing fire the entire way down, she didn't stop to worry for her life. She just threw her entire arsenal at him until he stopped. I understand that this entry was meant to be different, "other", than the other games, and that we are meant to see a side of Samus that we never saw before. But I feel that the team forgot to take into consideration that Samus is a battle hardened war-queen and has fought Ridley at least 4 or 5 times in the story up until now. Why the sudden fear? As a convenient element to make Anthony, one of the soldiers, come to Samus' rescue.

Third issue: Music. Where is the music? Almost every area has some background noise and some simple, generic background music, but nary a trace of one of the game series with some of the best music. The choice not to implement some old Metroid music may have been made to separate the game from the others, but not trying to create some new, memorable metroid-esque music was lazy, not a risky design choice. It deals a major blow to the game. The music in a Metroid game usually helps make the areas memorable as you remember the ambient tunes thrumming in the background while you destroyed countless aliens. I can easily say I have no fond memory of a single area of Other M, and I feel that lack of music is to blame.

Isssue #4: Short. So short. Before I knew it I had all of my upgrades and was fighting the final battle. Took me maybe 10-12 hours? Older Metroid games were about this length, with games such as Fusion and Super Metroid being as short as 2 hours if you were doing a speed-run, but it feels somewhat unforgiveable in a 3D Metroid entry. The Metroid Prime games are generally around 20+ hours.

The game feels that it doesn't know its own heroine, being borderline sexist in her portrayal at times, particularly when she is getting all "daddy issues" over Adam. Samus was a great feminist icon in gaming since its original release, since it played with our assumptions. The entire time you play the original Metroid, you assume that your protagonist is a male. Every other game hero has been male until now, and besides, what respectable lady would put on a space suit and go thrashing about a planet destroying all known life? When Samus' helmet comes off at the end of the game to reveal long flowing hair and a noticeably, if rather rough, female face, it's a shock and makes you see the character entirely differently. Her mystery was part of her appeal. Even in Fusion, when we are given elements of Samus' past, they are such rudimentary, vague details that we can still keep our image of the bounty hunter and impose our own imagination onto her.

Other M removes the element of mystery from Samus and replaces it with someone with relationships, emotion turmoil and regrets, not at all the Samus that we've grown to know.