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[Kobun Heat]

do tell

It's not nearly as exciting as it sounds.

When I was in seventh and eighth grade I made a bunch of games for ZZT, which was Tim Sweeney's first game ever, the one he started Epic Megagames with. It was this little shareware program that used ASCII text for graphics and let you program your own action/adventure/puzzle games on it.

So, having no real imagination for characters my games all starred Yoshi and the rest of the Mario gang in some sort of bizarro universe where Mario and the Princess were married and etc. They were good for the time, but pretty awful now.

In any case, David hosted them on TMK and Nintendo asked him to pull them once they found out. I guess video games based on Nintendo characters would be a pretty clear copyright violation.

They're still up on my site somewhere.

 

[ferricide]

continuing to derail the thread: i took sudeki for a test drive, and the combat control is pretty damn stiff/unresponsive. not a great idea for a hack & slash action RPG. WHOOPS. shame, because the environments are decent, and it has some personality.

 

[Kobun Heat]

continuing to derail the thread: i took sudeki for a test drive, and the combat control is pretty damn stiff/unresponsive. not a great idea for a hack & slash action RPG. WHOOPS. shame, because the environments are decent, and it has some personality.

I think those are the only two parts of the game that have any appeal. Sadly, the completely migraine-inducing camera kind of makes looking at the environments a pain in the ass, and the "personality" changes to "dick jokes" a little ways in.

Combat would be fun if battles lasted, oh, half as long.

But then, I'm spoiling the fun of my review, which will be immediately pounced on by the usual suspects as another example of why I should never be allowed to write anything, ever. And we all go tra la la.

 

[Tellaerin]

Oh, by all means keep writing. Your detractors may have issues with some of your pieces, but your ability to write has never been in question.

I just wish you'd either cover Nintendo titles exclusively, or cover non-Nintendo titles exclusively. When you compare products within those categories with one another, the results are actually useful to consumers. It's when you start using Nintendo games and products as your benchmark for non-Nintendo offerings that everything goes pear-shaped. This is because in the Kohlerverse, Nintendo staffers are benevolent, highly-evolved creatures that dwell in a great sky tower and rain gaming joy down on the unworthy masses from the heavens. Other companies are thatch-roofed slums built by shambling subhuman savages, who spend their time flinging feces at one another (and consumers) when they're not trying to steal the secret of fire from the Big N.

In all honesty, I do think you have some interesting things to say about the industry. On the other hand, I'd be lying if I didn't admit that I think you let your enthusiasm for all things Nintendo sway your judgement more than you should. That won't stop me from checking out your book, though, for whatever it's worth.

Congratulations on getting published.

 

[Kobun Heat]

Thanks for the compliments. But obviously I'm going to have to disagree with you.

I've really never tried to hide that Nintendo is my favorite game publisher. Everybody gets to have favorites, there's nothing wrong with that. Having preferences doesn't automatically mean you're biased.

And I really do try hard to keep any such bias out of my professional writing - not because I'm afraid of negative comments (if I was, I wouldn't post here ever), but because I do want my work to be considered good. I really don't think your assertion holds up if you look at my articles on Kirby's Air Ride, or Custom Robo, or Star Fox Adventures. Or if you consider that two of my favorite games this generation are ICO and Katamari.

I absolutely agree with you as a general point that one shouldn't let enthusiasm for a particular company sway one's judgment about the industry in general. I think that my ideas about what's important in the industry are what make me a Nintendo fan, though, not the other way around. In any case if you read Power Up you'll definitely get a better sense of where I'm coming from. Whether you agree or not.

 

[DCharlie]

"I think that my ideas about what's important in the industry are what make me a Nintendo fan"

.... oh boy, why aren't we at 50 billion pages already?

Damn slackers.

 

[JasoNsider]

I absolutely agree with you as a general point that one shouldn't let enthusiasm for a particular company sway one's judgment about the industry in general. I think that my ideas about what's important in the industry are what make me a Nintendo fan, though, not the other way around. In any case if you read Power Up you'll definitely get a better sense of where I'm coming from. Whether you agree or not.

This is an important distinction to be made. People like myself enjoy following Nintendo titles because of thoughts on the direction of the industry as a whole.

In my time on this board I've noticed that people play the "blind Nintendo bot" card in pretty much every thread. This confuses me to be honest. Some people really do play Nintendo games because they just happen to cater to their needs more often than other developers or publishers.

Though it's pretty much a given that you will have those people who will defend Nintendo even if it's something they disagree with deep-down.

 

[JoshuaJSlone]

This is an important distinction to be made. People like myself enjoy following Nintendo titles because of thoughts on the direction of the industry as a whole.

In my time on this board I've noticed that people play the "blind Nintendo bot" card in pretty much every thread. This confuses me to be honest. Some people really do play Nintendo games because they just happen to cater to their needs more often than other developers or publishers.

Though it's pretty much a given that you will have those people who will defend Nintendo even if it's something they disagree with deep-down.

I think it goes both ways, though. Just like many other types of affiliation, like political parties.

When I was young, I enjoyed Nintendo games. So I knew Nintendo games were high quality, and they were my top priority when asking for new games (until I was 13 and also got an RPG jones). So given that I enjoy their games more than the average, when something comes up that differentiates them from the rest of the industry, I'm usually more than willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. Then if I find I do quite like whatever thing, that gives me more reason to like Nintendo's interpretation of things and the cycle continues.

 

[Kobun Heat]

By the way, I did want to point something out that the press release didn't mention (but the IGN piece did) - the foreword is written by Denis Dyack. Obviously, I'm really happy about this.

 

[BuddyC]

By the way, I did want to point something out that the press release didn't mention (but the IGN piece did) - the foreword is written by Denis Dyack. Obviously, I'm really happy about this.

Whoa, that's pretty cool.

 

[CrimsonSkies]

"If his Xbox trolling is any indication of what KobunHeat's views are... it would be that his views are absolutely worthless."

Yep.

 

[Kobun Heat]

Whoa, that's pretty cool.

Very, thank you.

Oh, and I've decided: my second book will be titled "Trolling The Xbox." Watch for it.

EDIT: I say this because of the amount of times I've seen people say OH WELL HIS BOOK WILL JUST BE FULL OF XBOX TROLLS HUR HUR HUR so far. Obviously there's high demand out there.

 

[border]

Ugggh, I am still interested but it turns my stomach to think that someone is publishing anything that pretentious Miyamoto-sucking Japan-worshipping jackass. Do you know if Dyack wrote the foreward after Nintendo kicked him to the curb? Maybe getting shitcanned has led him to tone things down a bit.

 

[nubbe]

Oh, and I've decided: my second book will be titled "Trolling The Xbox." Watch for it.

I want to read this book

 

[Kobun Heat]

I won't be spoiling the surprise here. Suffice it to say that the fact that I really like Eternal Darkness, the fact that I agree with a lot of Denis' ideas, and the fact that he's obviously a controversial figure made him the perfect choice.

Nobody's in the middle on Denis Dyack. If people really like him, they'll pick the book up to read the foreword, and if they don't like him, they'll pick the book up and read the foreword.

 

[border]

**shakes fist**

If the foreward was kind of a retrospective about what went wrong with Nintendo and what he learned then I think it could be decent and important to the subject of the book. If it's just more "Kojima-san and Miyamoto-san are great blah blah blah and Greek philosophy blah blah blah", then I will skip it.

 

[shuri]

So wait a minute

This book is about japanese's influences on videogames. But the whole book focuses only on NINTENDO?!

Frankly, sony (and the third party creW) pretty much ejaculates in Nintendo's mouth and forces it to swallow when it comes to the importance of japanese. If you look at Mario *insert sport* or *most* nintendo titles, it doesnt ooze japanese at all. Most nintendo games really looks "international", as in the amount of japanese inspiration (aka anime characters, quirky music) and so on is usually very low.

Frankly, if you show Mario Tennis/kart/whatever and Katamari to a guy who has no idea of Nintendo's background, he's gonnat ell you that Katamari looks much more japanese than Mario kart

 

[BuddyC]

Yea shuri, there's so much wrong with that post I'm not even going to bother.

edit: ..yes

 

[border]

I didn't get the impression that the book was entirely Nintendo-focused. I'm not sure what the point of that would be considering that there's already a Nintendo book.

 

[Kobun Heat]

Most nintendo games really looks "international", as in the amount of japanese inspiration (aka anime characters, quirky music) and so on is usually very low.

Well, you're looking at it from the perspective that anything "Japanese" has to be strange or wacky, or else it isn't "really" Japanese. But actually, that's one of the things that I touch on - games that we would identify as being "Japanese" versus Japanese-developed games that would be considered mukokuseki, or lacking in cultural or ethnic traits.

EDIT: By the way, although there is a lot about Nintendo in the book, it's stuff that David Sheff didn't touch on. Sheff talked about Miyamoto and crew for a chapter or two, then he was on to litigation, Tetris, and business intrigue, mostly set in America. My chapters on Nintendo are a lengthy one on Miyamoto, the story of Star Fox and the Super FX chip, and a chapter on Pokemon. There's a tiny bit of overlap here and there, but only where it was necessary for my arguments. (Game Over remains the starting point for all research on Nintendo.)

 

[explodet]

 

[Agent Dormer]

I always pray for American Standard toliets because I don't like to feel that I'm ever that close to Kohler.

 

[brandonnn]

I always pray for American Standard toliets because I don't like to feel that I'm ever that close to Kohler.

I thought I was the only one! And let me tell you, the company has a stranglehold on the Chicagoland area. EVERY DAMN TIME I GO PEE.

 

[ferricide]

I always pray for American Standard toliets because I don't like to feel that I'm ever that close to Kohler.

i like toto myself.

or in england, they have 'armitage shanks' which is an absolutely horrifically awesome name for a toilet, somehow.

 

[jooey]

I always pray for American Standard toliets because I don't like to feel that I'm ever that close to Kohler.

see that's funny because it's 100% false!!!

 

[Kobun Heat]

Brady's got its product page up.

Why am I mentioning this? Because there's a place you can click to request review copies, either for media/press use or if you're a high school teacher/college lecturer who's doing a class on video games.

So, if you think you can finagle a free one through this page, go right ahead. It's the American Dream.

 

[Agent Dormer]

see that's funny because it's 100% false!!!

It's like you can see into the depths of my soul.