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Domain: video-fenky.com
Stories and comments across the archive that link to video-fenky.com.
Stories · 13
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Japanese Not That Interested In Online Videogaming?
Thanks to Video-Fenky for its weblog entry detailing the results of a Japanese survey about online gaming. When asked: "Have you ever played a premium online game?", 54.3% of the 300 Japanese net users surveyed said "No, and I have no plans to", increased from the previous year's survey and "now the majority." In addition, the question "What do premium online games need to become more popular?" elicits 56.0% suggesting "Better prices", and 20.3% want "Better payment systems." Apparently: "The [Nikkei-relayed report] concludes that while Japan's net infrastructure has improved greatly over the course of a year, work remains to be done on more useful payment systems and more interesting content." -
Conspiracies - A 'Final Justice' For Videogames?
Thanks to Video-fenky for its loving review of allegedly awful PC FMV graphic adventure Conspiracies, a game that some have compared to classic MST3K film Final Justice for its ability to "plumb the depths of lameness" in an intrigue-filled Mediterranean setting. Apparently, "Conspiracies is the story of Nick Delios, a balding Greek guy in a hoodie who has a living cactus with a face named 'Nionios' and solves crime... it's the year 206X, a world of flying cars and poor dubbing, and Nick... must solve... an alien plot to take over the World Government with android body doubles of top political leaders, starting with Greece first." The official Conspiracies site has more info on this soon-to-be-cult title, paradoxically well-received by JustAdventure, which includes gorgeously random puzzles such as "smuggling a crate full of plastic explosives from outer space so you can stick it inside a bra." Video-fenky happily concludes: "Overall, Conspiracies is a game no PC adventurer should be without, even if it's for all the wrong reasons." -
Famitsu Boss Talks Future Of Game Magazines
Thanks to Video-Fenky for translating a Japanese editorial from Famitsu Magazine discussing the future of videogame magazines, as Enterbrain president Hirokazu Hamamura muses: "With the Internet as widespread as it is, many people don't think we need game magazines at all -- after all, you can get the latest information right on the Net." But he argues for the "...real charm of your basic [paper-based] magazine news feature: it takes plain old news and turns it into something you don't mind sitting down and reading for a long time." He also suggests that game reviewers have to contend with much more targeted genres, suggesting: "The marketing tactics behind narrowing down target audiences [for specific games] will become the first step in game creation, not the last... Once that happens, game reviews based on the likes and dislikes of the reviewer will become meaningless." -
Fugitive Hunter's Bin Laden Fistfight Shenanigans
Thanks to Video-fenky for his weblog entry discussing Encore's PS2 military FPS, Fugitive Hunter. He explains: "By itself, Fugitive Hunter is a very simple military first-person shooter... you go through a level filled with bad guys before reaching your target fugitive. Once you do, the game shifts to a 2D fistfighting sequence (did I mention that [developer] Black Ops also did Knockout Kings for EA once upon a time?)" Since the game was dropped by former publisher Atari, and picked up by budget publishers Encore, the developers have switched things around, adding a final level with "...a network of caves where [Osama] bin Laden is hiding out." Video-fenky emphasizes: "I cannot overstate the impact of this. You are in a low-budget fighting-game fistfight with Osama bin Laden." Over at Worthplaying, they have more info and screenshots, including several pictures of the in-game bin Laden, though Video-fenky points out that "...even casual folks will likely be able to tell right off that bin Laden's inclusion is mostly a last-ditch gimmick." -
Nintendo Buys Bandai Shares, Prompts Merger Speculation
Thanks to Reuters for their story that Nintendo have purchased over 1 million Bandai shares, making them one of Gundam creator and toy/game/film company Bandai's top 10 shareholders. A spokesman "...said Nintendo, the maker of GameCube home video consoles, which did not own any shares in Bandai as of March, has no intention of acquiring the toymaker", but GamesAreFun relay Japanese tabloid rumors that "a full-on merger between the two groups could take place sometime in the future." But it may be more likely, Video-Fenky points out, that "it's a move on Nintendo's part to win Bandai closer to their side and get them to release Gundam and Super Robot Taisen games... on their machine." -
Tokyo Game Show Frenzy Continues
Thanks to various sources for their continued Tokyo Game Show coverage, as GameSpot cover the show in full and GameSpy is also showcasing regular TGS updates, with their Tokyo Game Show pictorial giving a good flavor for the sights and sounds of the show. Elsewhere, IGN's coverage is spread all over their console-specific sites, and there's more personal takes from Video-Fenky, who comments that "Sony is to TGS what Nintendo is to E3 - they always rent out huge spaces not to show off new games, but to make a point to the game industry", and NFG, who noted that the "cellular phone gaming sector was booming... [and] is Namco's biggest source of profit by division." -
Earthbound Petition Making A Difference?
Thanks to Nintendojo for their story regarding Shigeru Miyamoto's positive reaction to an online petition about the Earthbound games. Miyamoto, discussing the series (soon re-released for GBA in Japan) in an interview with Official UK Nintendo Magazine, says "We had high hopes for Earthbound, the Super NES version, in the US, but it didn't do well... You might not know this, but there was a petition in the US, a 'Please make Mother 3 [an Earthbound sequel]' petition and it got about 30,000 signatures! After that, we thought 'Wow... Earthbound fans are really solid'." The petition in question was put together by the fansite Starmen.net, and Video-Fenky previously got hold of a copy, commenting on the "testament to the Mother fanbase's... deep-seated devotion to the game they love." -
Sega Boss Stresses Fun Factor, Simpler Games
Thanks to Video-Fenky for their translation of an interview with Hisao Oguchi, the new boss of Sega. In it, Oguchi argues that less "grandiose games" are the way to rejuvenate the games market, referencing titles such as The Sims, Animal Crossing and Namco's Taiko no Tatsujin as good models for doing this, and saying: "Developers can't force their game worlds and huge stories on users. We can't have people balk at sitting in front of the TV and playing games because it's too tiring. All games are made to be fun for the people playing them, so in the next generation especially, making content that doesn't feel tiring to gamers will be very important." -
Nintendo's Maniac Mansion Censorship Explored
Thanks to Video-Fenky for a new feature illustrating the Nintendo censorship affecting the NES version of Maniac Mansion. These comments were originally written up in a 1993 issue of Wired, and an unedited prototype NES cart of the classic point n' click adventure has been found to show the changes - though "Nintendo didn't catch the old 'blow up the hamster in the microwave' trick (it was removed in the European version)", changes include editing Nurse Edna's suggestive speeches ("I should have tied you to my bed, cutie!"), and switching graffiti in the bathroom from "For a good time EDNA 3444" to "Call EDNA 3444". -
Konami Veterans Talk NES Classics
Thanks to Video-Fenky for posting an interview with Konami NES veterans, Kazuhisa Hashimoto and Shigeharu Umezaki, as they "...discuss what was involved in creating your typical 8-bit console game in the mid-1980s." Highlights include discussion of the infamous Konami cheat code - Hashimoto says "There's [no special story behind it], really. I mean, I was the one using it (laughs), so I just put in something I could remember easily", and the much-reduced development teams of the '80s - "With Hyper Olympic, my first game, there was a programmer and a designer - two people - and it took half a year. Gradius was four people and I don't think it even took that long." -
Nintendo Pioneer Talks NES Phenomenon
Thanks to Video-fenky for his article translating a recent Famitsu interview with Hiroshi Imanishi, former executive director of Nintendo, about the original launch of the Famicom/NES console, which celebrated its 20th anniversary last week. The Famicom wasn't immediately well-received, according to Imanishi: "We were the new kid on the block, and a lot of places said to us 'We've already seen Donkey Kong in the arcades and on the Game & Watch! You're putting it out again?'" He also describes how the trademark NES controller almost never came to be: "...during development the majority of Nintendo wanted to include a regular joystick with the system. However, during that time, we made the first multi-screen Game & Watch, and we introduced the control pad so you wouldn't have to keep on glancing at your hands while you're playing the game" -
Miyamoto Lecture On Design, Career
Thanks to Video-fenky for translating a Tokyo University lecture transcript with Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto, as originally posted on the Japanese Nintendo Cafe website. This in-depth talk discusses a cornucopia of interesting subjects, including originality ("..project documents that start out with 'If you did this and that to this other game, I think it would be really fun' are absolutely no good. Don't tell me about that! Tell the person who made that other game about it!") and job titles ("in Nintendo there aren't any official positions called 'director' or 'producer'.. [but] people overseas don't get that system. So when I started dealing with overseas folks, I wanted to sell myself to them, so I just wrote 'producer' on my business card. Later I got yelled at from the head office about assigning myself titles, but... (laughs).") -
Japanese Console Rumors Debunked
Thanks to an anonymous reader for pointing to a Video-Fenky blog post translating the 'Truth behind the rumors' feature that ran in Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu recently. Intriguing questions answered by major Japanese gaming companies include the use of the Cell processor in Sony's Playstation 3 ("..we will be investing 200 billion yen [$1.7 billion] over the next three years into Cell manufacturing facilities."), why Nintendo aren't so hot about online support ("As long as the rate of broadband installation isn't up there with TV sets, then online play can't be the core of business development"), and why Nokia's N-Gage won't be coming out in Japan ("..protocols are incompatible, [the N-Gage] cannot be used as a communications device in Japan.")
