Massively Multiplayer: Gaming In The New Millennium

Midia And The Gift Of Aqua

Midia And The Gift Of Aqua is an adventure game produced by Sony exclusively for the Nintendo Sapphire. The latest game directed by Fumito Ueda, it's also his only game to appear on the Sapphire. Its protagonist is a young amnesiac princess named Midia who must escape from a massive tower by using her ability to control water, aided by a water fairy named Violette. As Midia descends the tower, she learns more and more about her own destiny and the fate of the world she inhabits, which is intimately connected to her own. The gameplay is quite similar to OTL's Ico, with some of OTL's Shadow Of The Colossus mixed in, with the game's main mechanic being Midia's ability to control the flow of water. The player will become extremely familiar with Midia's gifts over the course of the game, which consists mainly of exploration, water-based puzzles, and a small amount of combat (though this combat is primarily puzzle-focused, with the player needing to learn how to use Midia's powers to defeat enemies). Throughout the game, there are many cryptic clues about the nature of Midia and the nature of the world, with her journey primarily being one of self-discovery even as she works to descend the tower and escape out into a world she can't remember. Midia's companion Violette is a constant presence, though unlike other fairy creatures in games such as the OTL Zelda series, Violette largely remains out of the way, only occasionally talking to explain a mechanic or some lore, and never interfering with or interrupting the player's journey. Occasionally, Violette becomes part of some of the game's puzzles, such as when the player must use her to reflect water somewhere, when the player must use her to explore an area, or when she must be freed from something. Puzzles are omnipresent in the game, with some puzzles being as simple as pushing block puzzles, while others can involve Rube Goldberg-esque water mechanisms that must be carefully manipulated by the player utilizing several of Midia's skills at once. Puzzles are designed to minimize frustration while also stimulating and challenging the player, and the game's focus on the water mechanics and physics means that many puzzles have been designed to directly involve water. Not only must the player learn to properly control water, but they must also learn to traverse it, as many areas of the tower are submerged and must be swam through in order to reach a new section. Midia initially is unable to swim great distances without needing to come up for air, but gradually, Midia's breath capacity increases, and she eventually gains the ability to swim indefinitely without needing to breathe. Free exploration is a major part of the game, not only mandatory exploration to find new areas, but also optional exploration to discover a piece of lore or complete a unique activity. The tower consists of many large and interconnected areas that the player is able to freely explore. It's not quite a Metroidvania-style game, but it does give the player a lot of freedom to look around and experiment, with plenty of things to do and to see. Combat is fairly simplistic. Midia is able to use melee attacks on opponents, though these are rarely effective on their own. Instead, the player will use Midia's water manipulation skills to harm enemies. Some enemies can only be moved or defeated by using a certain technique or moving a block a certain way. Combat is fairly rare, and the player will spend most of the time alone with Violette, exploring and discovering as Midia quests to be free of her tower prison. The game's graphics, while not quite at the cutting edge of the Sapphire's abilities, are still very artistic and impressive, with Fumito Ueda bringing his full skills as a creative worldbuilder to bear on the game's look and feel. The game has a small but memorable musical score, with music used to highlight certain moments while many moments are spent in relative silence. The game has a small amount of voice acting from Midia and Violette, with young British actresses voicing both in the English dub. Most of the emphasis in Midia And The Gift Of Aqua is on exploration and story, with the graphics utilized to service both of those elements.

The game begins with a young princess named Midia trapped in a cage with no memory and no way to escape. A few droplets of water turn into the fairy Violette, who gives Midia a few hints on how to use her powers to escape, but it's up to the player to solve the puzzle using the clues they are given. After Midia escapes the cage, the next segment of the game involves escaping the tower. There are a few more puzzles here and a bit of combat before Midia finally reaches what looks like an exit, but turns out to be a window leading to a balcony more than a mile in the air. To escape, Midia must make her way down this massive tower. The world below seems to be flooded, but not especially severely, and Midia must learn why the world is in the shape that it's in as she escapes, with hints about this hidden throughout the rooms of the tower. Midia slowly descends, solving puzzles, battling a few more foes, and making her way down watery tunnels and confusing corridors. All the while, Violette tells Midia that she is a princess and that her destiny is to escape the tower and save everyone. A few of the hints Midia finds seem to hint at this, while more hints paint a picture of a world in the midst of an apocalypse after the water has slowly risen up to flood the landscape. Midia doesn't regain any of her memories, but her control over her water powers slowly increases as she learns more about those, even if she doesn't have a clue about who she is. The further Midia makes it down the tower, the more that Violette's encouragement seems to contradict what the scrawlings and clues she finds seem to say. Now, Midia is being painted as a harbinger of doom rather than the savior she was hinted at being further up the tower (and by Violette's words). As Midia descends even further, the enemies she faces grow stronger and the more the forces of nature itself seem to oppose her. Midia also starts to gain strange markings on her body, markings that begin to glow as her power grows. The tower itself seems to be increasingly damaged the further Midia descends. She eventually reaches what appears to be a large open atrium, at the other side of which is the tower's entrance. She peers through a window and sees only water. The closer she gets to the bottom of the tower, the more the water seems to rise to meet her. The closer she gets to the tower's entrance, the more the world floods. Violette continues to encourage Midia, but she refuses to leave the tower, for fear that there won't be a world outside when she leaves. She tries to go back up, but the tower has grown so damaged that the stairs and all the ways back up are broken. Midia discovers a way to descend to the tower's basement levels, making her way through increasingly water-filled rooms to a dry temple-like chamber deep within. She learns here that the people of the world sealed their princess in the tower after she was bestowed with a "gift" that allows her to control the water, but unfortunately this gift meant that water would follow her and would flood the realm when she got close to the ground. She attempts to renounce this gift, but her renunciation is rejected by the spirit of the seas, who claims that Midia is needed to guide the waters of the world. Midia learns from Violette of a ritual that will sever this gift from her, and journeys deep below the tower, into its very foundations, to complete it. Once the ritual is completed, Midia ventures back up to the atrium, which is totally dry. She emerges from the tower, onto newly dry land, but once she sets foot outside the tower, her memories all flood back, and she learns why she obtained the gift in the first place: her older sister Violetta was once the crown princess of their kingdom, but when the waters began rising, she sought out an ancient method to control the seas, hoping to save her kingdom, only for her to lose control of her power. She had a massive tower built for her subjects to escape the rising waters, but the tower itself flooded and they drowned. In her grief and in one last desperate act, Violetta took all the water into herself and became the water, using her power to recede the floodwaters enough for a few survivors to escape the tower, which then was used to contain much of the water. However, the gift of control over the water was passed on to Midia, whose mind was already broken by watching her sister's death. Midia went berserk and the world began to flood again, but the people were able to stop the flood by caging Midia atop the tower, with a few stragglers remaining behind to become sentinels to watch over her. However, Violetta's guilt over her sister's fate caused her spirit to remain bound to the tower, enabling her to become a water fairy to guide Midia's way out. Midia is able to control her power, but her mind begins to break again from the revelations. Violetta binds her spirit to Midia, strengthening her mind and preventing it from breaking, but also destabilizing Midia's gift. In order to save Midia and protect the world, the player must return to the tower and restore the pact between Midia and the spirit of the seas (this is done via an elaborate puzzle boss battle that tests both the player's mind and their skill at controlling Midia's powers). In doing so, the tower is restored, and much of the water is trapped within, preventing the world from flooding and enabling Midia to finally be free. However, her powers are still slightly unstable, and while she can return to ruling her people, she must do so from a distance until she regains full control. She does have Violette's guiding spirit to keep her company (though Violette can no longer speak to her, and is instead more of a calming presence helping Midia focus). The game ends with Midia walking across a vast ocean, the waters parting slightly as she walks, showing the beautiful aquatic life all around her.

Released in April 2012, Midia And The Gift Of Aqua is considered mechanically and technically brilliant by critics, who praise the game's ambition and Ueda's vision. While players themselves are slightly split on the game, with many considering it a masterpiece while a sizable minority consider the game to be somewhat confusing and boring, sales are quite good, especially for a game of its kind, with early sales strong in both North America and Japan (but especially Japan). The game also does quite well in Europe, though not as well as in the other two major territories. Commentators would discuss the game's meaning for years, while fans would play and replay the game to decipher its lore and trade tales of their favorite puzzles and moments. The game emerges as an early contender for Game of the Year, and is considered by many to be one of the best games ever released for the Nintendo Sapphire.

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The second Nintendo Direct, which was streamed by Nintendo and posted to major Internet platforms on April 25, 2012, was somewhat of a lesser affair than the first Nintendo Direct. Posted less than two months before 2012's E3 show, the Nintendo Direct was less of a series of major announcements and more of a preview segment of the company's spring lineup, while it was clear that Nintendo was saving most of its big announcements for E3 itself. Satoru Iwata once again presented the beginning and end of the Direct, though Shawn Layden presented many of the games and announcements. The Direct started with a quick gameplay/story trailer for Tale Paradisia, the latest in Game Arts' Tale series of action RPGs. The game will take place mostly on a tropical island archipelago, and while things appear pleasant and first, we quickly learned that not everything is what it seems. The protagonist looks to be a young girl, around 13 years of age, who becomes a pirate captain, though she appears to be quite reluctant to plunder anything and seems instead to be seeking out her long lost parents. Tale Paradisia looks to build on the success of previous games in the series and could be the most epic installment in the series to date. After the Paradisia trailer, Iwata and Layden spent a lot of time discussing new Connect features, including new devices that it can connect to and demonstrating some interesting apps such as health and fitness apps, along with some accessories to pair up with the Connect itself. There was then a segment devoted to Metal Gear Solid III: Angels Fall. This was perhaps the most interesting part of the Direct, as we got a good preview of the game's plot as Solid Snake, who has continued to age, must seek out his father Big Boss to dismantle a plot by the resurgent Patriots to create new soldiers in their image, perverting Big Boss' dream of a soldiers' heaven. A new villain known as Skull Face has arisen to take up the mantle of the "new soldier", but seems to have an agenda of his own. Metal Gear Solid III seems to be a major step up from its predecessor, with a new system of melee combat and incredible new graphics. It's scheduled to come to the Sapphire in the summer. Next up were a pair of Connect game previews, Burst Bang Boom (sequel to the hit Supernova title Burst Bang) and a new gameplay video of highly anticipated indie title Undine Across The Water. Shawn Layden then returned, along with some Nintendo Treehouse employees, to demonstrate new online connectivity features for the Sapphire and the Nintendo Connect. These features were shown alongside teasers for some new Nintendo games, most of them digital titles featuring online gameplay. The last title previewed as part of this segment was International Rally, the newest game in the Rally series that includes American Rally and European Rally. International Rally will be released on both the Sapphire and the Connect, with players who own copies of the game on the Sapphire able to use their Connect as a sort of digital steering wheel with a special exclusive camera angle. We then saw more quick game previews, showing off multiplatform titles such as Star Wars: A New Order, Diablo III, and Lollipop Chainsaw. All of these games had been announced for the Sapphire before, but we got concrete release dates for Star Wars and Lollipop Chainsaw, while there were some unique items announced for the Sapphire version of Diablo III.

There was then a two minute trailer for Lunar 4: The Sword Of Lore. This game had also been previously announced as coming to the Sapphire for quite some time, but the game's preview trailer showed off some very interesting cutscenes, with the game's hero Keith fighting alongside the game's main female protagonist, a mysterious cloaked woman named Zera who seems to be a refugee from a family of evil sorceresses. Lunar 4's anime cutscenes have some of the smoothest animation we've ever seen, almost as beautiful as something done by Studio Ghibli, and it's clear that the game will be intensely story focused, with traditional RPG gameplay alongside modern production values. The game's not a Sapphire exclusive, but it's likely to look somewhat better on the Sapphire than on the iTwin. We then got an appearance from Katsuya Eguchi, who lovingly introduced the upcoming Yoshi And The Mysterious Lake. The game is a traditional sidescroller with beautiful 2-D/3-D graphics, and sees Yoshi and his friends attempting to rescue a mysterious mermaid after she is captured by Kamek and imprisoned at the bottom of a deep lake. The game features a mix of water and land based worlds, and plenty of the classic Yoshi exploration gameplay, with lots of cuteness as well and cameo appearances from Baby Mario and Baby Luigi, and Baby Peach as well. Eguchi was the game's main director and seems as happy with this project as he has been with a game for quite a while, so it should be fun to see how this passion project has turned out. The game is headed to the Sapphire on July 24th. Iwata then returned to thank everyone for watching and that he hoped to reveal many more upcoming Nintendo projects soon. He then said goodbye, but that he had one more upcoming Sapphire game to show first. The Direct then ended with a preview of Cyberwar 4, the most extensive preview for the game to date, showing off the game's vast scope and its extensive array of things for its protagonist Lucy (aka Netizen X) to do. After some more footage of Lucy's cyber meddling and the online multiplayer, we were then treated to some scenes of Lucy referencing various Nintendo properties, and even able to hack into the player's Nintendo Connect, showing the connectivity between the Sapphire and the Connect, which could be used as a controller for the game. If the player has Sony speakers, Lucy can even play unique music over them, blurring the lines between the game and the real world. It's certainly a neat gimmick, and a further example of just how much connecting the Connect is able to do, and the game itself looks like a lot of fun. While we still don't know the other protagonist of Cyberwar 4 (which will likely be revealed in an E3 presentation), the game is shaping up to be amazing, and will be released for the Nintendo Sapphire (and so far, nothing else) in November. That was the end of the Nintendo Direct, which was much lighter on content (and ten minutes shorter) than last fall's Direct, but gave salivating Nintendo fans a nice appetizer for the big E3 show in June.

-from Super Nintendo CD Chalmers' Nintendo blog update on April 25, 2012

 

A little over half a year after the releases of the Nintendo Connect and the Apple Gemini, and we're starting to get a good idea about how the latest round of the handheld wars might play out. Both devices now have a decent lineup of exclusives, while they also share a few multiplatform titles between them. Sales remain strong for both handhelds, but halfway through 2012, a clear frontrunner has emerged.

The Nintendo Connect has thus far sold just over seven million units worldwide. Just over half of those have been sold in North America, with around 2.5 million sales in Japan and just over a million in Europe. So far, the best selling Nintendo Connect game is The Legend Of Zelda: Tower Of Sentinels, which has achieved more than two million units sold so far. Meanwhile, the Apple Gemini has sold around four million units, with around 1.8 million units sold in Japan, 1.5 million sold in North America, and half a million sold in Europe. The Gemini's best selling game thus far has been Virtua Fighter Infinity, which has achieved around 1.5 million total sales. At the moment, the Nintendo Connect has a significant lead in the first few months of sales for both handhelds, but the Apple Connect is still keeping pace with expectations, and in Japan, it's managed to keep pace with the Connect. The Nintendo Connect is thus far the fastest selling Nintendo handheld to date, outpacing sales of the Game Boy Supernova during the same time frame, and it's expected to clear ten million total units sold by the end of the year. Meanwhile, sales of the Gemini are lagging somewhat behind those of the iPod Play, which raced out of the gate in 2004 and 2005 to become the fastest selling handheld at the time.

The reasons for the continued slow sales of the Gemini relative to both its predecessor and its competition are focused around the system's price and the lack of a true must-play game, with Virtua Fighter Infinity thus far the closest thing the Gemini has to a killer app. The Gemini is also larger than most other previous handhelds, limiting the portability of the device. This, combined with how expensive it is, makes it a tough sell for parents of young children, or even older children, who might lose the device or break it. The iPod Play, despite being positioned as a device aimed at an older demographic, was still popular amongst children, even if not to the same degree that the Game Boy Supernova was. Meanwhile, the Connect, while bigger than any of its predecessors save for perhaps the old gray brick Game Boy, is still big enough to carry in the average adult pocket, and kids can usually fit the device into their backpacks easier than Apple's Gemini. The Connect is also more kid-friendly in terms of its game lineup, with family friendly titles such as Parcels: Special Delivery and Spider-Man driving sales to younger players. The Connect has also proven more popular than the Gemini amongst both casual players and hardcore gamers, despite the Gemini's more powerful technology. The Connect's promise to be compatible with Nintendo's upcoming Sapphire successor, and its compatibility with the existing Sapphire, has helped to give the Connect a more "future proof" image. The Gemini will also be able to connect with the iTwin and the upcoming Apple Virtua, but its connectivity features are less known at this time.

Even though the Connect is beating the Gemini right now, it's definitely possible for Apple to turn things around. With upcoming titles such as Party Karts 2, Railstorm, and Star Siren SSS, it's very possible that the Gemini could turn things around, and indeed, with no new Pokemon game yet announced, the Gemini is expected to have more highly anticipated titles than the Connect, at least in the near future. It's still early in the next generation handheld race, and the Gemini is a formidable machine, more than capable of outselling the Connect if Apple plays its cards right. Meanwhile, Nintendo's Connect is expected to have a strong lineup this summer, thanks to titles such as Final Fantasy Brave and Soul Sacrifice, but many players are still waiting with bated breath for the announcement of a brand new Pokemon game, especially after Game Freak's recent announcement that Pokemon Rise and Pokemon Fall wouldn't have a follow-up game like every other generation of games in the series. It's likely that this is due to Naughty Dog's involvement and the extra work being put into the sixth generation Pokemon game, but it will leave at least a three year gap between mainline Pokemon games and spinoffs, the longest to date for the series.

-from an article on Games Over Matter, posted on June 30, 2012

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X-Totality

A multiplatform title released on both the Gemini and the Connect in April 2012, X-Totality is an RPG/rail shooter hybrid with some gameplay similarities to OTL's Final Fantasy Type-0. The game focuses primarily on three protagonists: Xander, Xinnia, and Xero, who have been recruited by a mysterious corporation/scientific consortium known as the X-Evangelists. The player selects one of the three to control, while the other two serve as "wingmen" so to speak as the player makes their way through a series of corridors and defeats enemies. They're able to upgrade and switch between their equipped weapons, each of which has its own unique firing method, and are also able to build the stats of both their characters and their guns as they progress through the game. Switching frequently between the three characters is encouraged, both due to their unique strengths and weaknesses and the fact that when each of the three achieves their maximum special charge level, they can go into a state known as X-Totality, where ammo is free and bullets do a lot more damage for a limited time. Players have their best chance to succeed by frequently swapping characters to take advantage of enemy vulnerabilities while also using X-Totality at the most opportune time. The game's plot plays out over eight chapters, divided into sub-chapters of a few minutes in length (most of which have a boss or tough enemy group to fight at the end). The X-Evangelists defend the world from destructive entities, including giant space centipedes known as the Vesper, and also from a terrorist group called Grunge. The plot is fairly straight forward (the X-Evangelists, while sometimes a bit too serious about their mission, aren't secretly evil, while the Grunge, even though they have a few sympathetic members, are still mostly the bad guys), and builds up to the Grunge's leader merging with the Vesper Queen to achieve godlike power and destroy the world, forcing the X-Evangelists to destroy him. In the end, the world is saved, and the three heroes have a chance to rest until the next cosmic horror threatens their world. X-Totality is a fairly good looking game, though it's a bit underwhelming on the Gemini (it's optimized for the Connect, and doesn't look any better on Apple's more powerful handheld), with strong voice acting from the people playing the three heroes. Overall, it's a fun RPG/shooter that scores very good reviews and sells quite well, both on the Connect and the Gemini (with Gemini sales stronger in Japan and Connect sales stronger in North America).

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Dungeon Master's Codex

A JRPG dungeon crawl game with a mix of humor and adventure, this isn't quite an Etrian Odyssey style of game, it uses a more traditional combat system (and it's a bit easier) and has a lot of fun little anime-based characters and humor. The game takes place in a forested town surrounded by dungeons, and allows players to create their own heroes with an anime-styled character creator that's fairly limited in options. The characters soon happen upon the Dungeon Master, an ancient witch who looks like a little girl, and needs help defeating the monsters that keep crawling out of the dungeons and messing up her spells. She sends the characters into an increasingly hard series of dungeons, which are navigated in first-person style (much like Etrian Odyssey or the Persona Q games), in which they must descend to the deepest level and defeat the boss within, picking up treasure and gaining levels along the way. They must also gather information on monsters, items, and landmarks to complete the Dungeon Master's Codex, an ancient book with all sorts of secrets about dungeons and adventuring. Completing tasks in the Codex grants the player bonus treasures and money, and sometimes even grants them new character classes or the chance to explore secret dungeons. The game's not the prettiest in terms of production values, and voice acting is fairly limited to a few small scenes and mid-battle voice lines, but for lovers of classic dungeon crawlers, it's a really fun game. It's released in North America in May 2012 for the Connect and the Gemini, and while it's not much more than a cult classic in the States, it does do quite well in Japan.

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Undine Across The Water

A digital indie title exclusive to the Connect, Undine Across The Water has some gameplay similarities to the Shantae series, but has a style all its own, as well as some unique elements and a small focus on puzzles. The game's protagonist is a water sprite named Undine who ends up marooned on dry land after being magically exiled from her home within the Lyric Ocean. She must make her way to the Melodic Ocean, but must do so by venturing across an unforgiving land and gaining the help of others along the way. Unlike Shantae, transitions between the regions aren't seamless: the game has a level-based design in which the player must complete objectives while getting Undine to the end of each level. She has numerous special powers, including the ability to wield weapons and blast water at her foes, and can also pick up various items to utilize or to trade to the characters she meets. With the game's heavy story focus, there's lots of different interactions between Undine and other characters, and she can befriend several different people who will become crucial allies, including two potential human love interests and several other characters who can help her access different areas or provide her with certain items. Each level has its own distinct storyline that ties into the game's main storyline, giving the game an almost "mini episodic" feel and further distinguishing it from other games of its type. The game has a cutesy artstyle that's not quite anime, and characters are designed with distinct traits that help them to feel both unique and important to Undine's quest. There's no voice acting in the game, with the budget mostly devoted to graphical style and gameplay polish, but it's easy to "imagine" the characters' voices from their design and personality. The game's plot is fairly straightforward, and ends with Undine finding her new home in the Melodic Ocean. Even though she has to say goodbye to her new friends, it implies that it will be easy for her to visit them again someday, setting up future adventures. The game becomes a major hit for the Connect when it's released in June 2012, topping the digital indie charts for several weeks and cultivating a strong fandom as well.

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Orpheus

Released in May 2012, Orpheus is a JRPG exclusive to the Apple Gemini. While the game features modern graphics (including 3-D exploration outside of battle), its gameplay style hearkens back to the old school Phantasy Star games, with basic attack functions and only small quality of life enhancements. It's a sci-fi RPG with a focus on music, and its plot revolves around restoring music to a galaxy that has lost said music. This is done by plundering temples and defeating ancient monsters to release the ancient music spirit trapped there. Each temple houses a guardian that protects a different style of music, represented by a certain instrument: there's a guitar spirit, a violin spirit, a piano spirit, a drum spirit, etc., with seven total spirits in all. When the music is restored, the people of those planets gain joy and liveliness, but freeing the music also frees ancient evils that cause an increased threat to each world, forcing the game's heroes (of which there are eight, with four able to be in the party at the same time) to act quickly to restore the galaxy's music without causing the ancient evil to overwhelm everything. It's not a strict time limit, but it's represented with an increased sense of urgency in the plot itself. The game has some of the best production values to date on the Gemini, with great 3-D visuals, full voice acting, and gorgeous animation. It's intended to be one of the premier Gemini RPG titles of 2012, but sales are a bit lower than expected, owing to the game's fairly traditional combat and pacing. It's a fantastic example of what the Gemini is capable of, but it's not quite the RPG killer app that Apple and the game's developers were hoping it to be.

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Shuffle Up

A fully 3-D platformer released exclusively for the Apple Gemini in May 2012, Shuffle Up is a game in which its protagonist, a magician named Lou uses cards to attack his foes as he attempts to rescue his lovely assistant from his magic rabbit (which has gained intelligence and has turned evil). Lou visits a variety of worlds based on various magic themes (with some Vegas scenery mixed in) to rescue his beloved, battling rival magicians along the way. The game is most notable for the cards themselves: There are more than 60 total cards in all, with 52 cards based on the classic suits (Ace through King), a Black Joker card, a Red Joker card, and a few other unique cards that can be added to Lou's repertoire, each with their own distinct effects to make for some truly wacky battles and allowing the player to choose how they best wish to play the game. The platforming itself is fairly ordinary, it's not on the same level as the Mario series, though the graphics are quite nice. The game is also a bit short, which is a strike against it considering that it releases at full retail price. Despite this, the unique card battling system makes the game fun enough to achieve good reviews, perhaps slightly better than the game deserves, and it becomes one of the better selling Gemini exclusives of the year.

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Mixolydia Surround

Released in June 2012, Mixolydia Surround is the third game in Apple's unique music based series starring a hero named Mix who engages with music to fight evil and save his girlfriend Lydia. Like its predecessors, Mixolydia Surround has the unique mechanic of using music from the player's world, as well as music stored on their device, to create a unique world and unique challenges for Mix to face. Because the Gemini is first and foremost a gaming device, the music mechanic is downplayed somewhat, and instead, the player is given the ability to utilize hundreds of unique samples and songs created for the game, in tandem with the music surrounding them in the real world and the music they have on their device (the Gemini is not an iPod, but it can play and store music just the same, even if it wasn't made to do so). These music samples and songs are found as Mix interacts with the world, and the player is then able to mix them together with their own collection of songs (in a mechanic that has some similarities to the OTL game Dropmix, though without the ability to mix real world songs together). As the player mixes songs together, the world changes around them, while Lydia's parallel predicament changes as well. In this game, Lydia has her own adventure running side by side with Mix's. Though the player never directly controls her, they have the ability to see what Lydia's doing at almost any time, and Lydia is able to collect songs and samples as Mix's quest progresses. The game's plot has Mix and Lydia needing to reunite in order to use their unique powers in tandem to defeat an ancient evil, an evil capable of destroying music and corrupting it with its own alien noises (which can also be part of the samples collected by the player). As the music corrupts more and more of the world, Lydia finds herself increasingly corrupted as well, drawing a strange parallel with this evil creature and forcing both her and Mix to discover new powers within themselves to save the universe. Mixolydia Surround, like the previous two games, draws heavily on its music-based mechanics to provide a unique experience for players, and the in-game soundtrack helps to fill in the gaps that would have been created by the Gemini's lack of focus on real world music. Overall, it's a very good game, and proves to be another strong financial success, remaining one of the tallest pillars in Apple's lineup of handheld franchises.

 

Eternal Summer

An RPG developed by a Japanese indie studio exclusively for the Nintendo Sapphire's digital store, Eternal Summer combines town building with monster hunting to create a unique and challenging JRPG experience. The game takes place in a country where it's always summer, where the fields bloom brightly and cute but fierce creatures roam the forests and plains. The game's protagonist is a young swordman named Atno, who has been tasked with hunting these monsters to protect the humans who live there. Atno's journey takes him all across this magical and mysterious land, and eventually, he and his friends settle down to build a town of their own. Meanwhile, an ancient evil has been sending a cold wind down from the distant mountains, threatening to bring the chill of winter to Atno's land, killing monster and human alike. Atno must unify the people, defeat the Lord of Winter's evil henchmen, and put a stop to the threat once and for all. The game is an action RPG that plays a lot like the Mana games, with Atno able to bring two companions with him on his adventures. There are no human enemies to fight in the game, only monsters and humanoid non-humans like demons and vampires. Monster hunting has two primary objectives: defeating evil/threatening monsters, and befriending/pacifying friendly ones. While many monsters seek only to kill humans and friendly monsters, some monsters can be brought to live with Atno in his town, and even help him by becoming salesmen or by lending him their power (though monsters can't fight in Atno's party, they can be used to buff his stats). Monsters can also be employed to defend Atno's town from outside threats, which can help since Atno's town regularly comes under attack from the Lord of Winter's forces. Apart from Atno's town, which can become the biggest in the game, there are five other primary towns visited as part of the main story. The game itself is fairly short, clocking in at around 15 total hours of gameplay, but side quests and town building can easily pad that length out significantly. Being a fairly low budget game, Eternal Summer's graphics are fairly low tech, comparable somewhat to a 3-D MapleStory type game or the OTL Mana remake, with a cutesy style to it unlike most of the Sapphire's other RPGs. The soundtrack is fairly whimsical and simplistic, and there's no voice acting to speak of. Despite the game's lack of production values (save for gameplay polish), Eternal Summer becomes quite popular. It's a legitimate cult hit in the States and a chart topper in Japan, and is part of Nintendo's ongoing initiative to bring content-heavy indie titles to their consoles and handhelds. It's sold at $19.99 at launch, which is a fairly good price for a full RPG, even if the game is a tad on the short side. Nintendo would continue to work with the developers of this game in the future, while also working to bring other digital exclusives to the Sapphire toward the end of the system's lifespan.

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Battle Mob

A digital iTwin exclusive with a decidedly retro style, Battle Mob has the player controlling 100 miniature characters in a fashion reminiscent of games such as OTL's Kirby Mass Attack and the Mario vs. Donkey Kong Minis games. The 100 tiny people, armed with various combat implements (which can be switched by obtaining items), are subjected to a series of combat, platforming, and puzzle challenges, which the player must figure out how to complete without losing all of his guys. Gameplay is frantic and fast-paced, with the action playing out on screen quite quickly, forcing the player to make split-second decisions and allowing the consequences of those decisions to instantly play out on screen. It is possible to recover fallen characters with special (and rare) items, but for the most part, once someone is "killed", they're gone until the next challenge (and sometimes players must complete multiple challenges in a row without getting a chance to recover any of their dead guys). Even though the game's graphic style is quite retro, the animations are fairly detailed, allowing for some truly comic scenes to play out. The battle mob will playfully hack enemies to bits (though the violence doesn't rise above E10 level), pick up things much larger than itself, tear down walls, get stuck, and bump into things, reacting and complaining with garbled language not all that dissimilar from Simlish. The main game has 120 challenges to complete, and 60 more challenges can be unlocked over the course of the game, with even more challenges made available via DLC. The game's story is told through a series of quick motion comic-like animations, though the real attraction is the gameplay, with the story taking somewhat of a backseat. Battle Mob, which is priced at $14.99 at the time of its May 2012 release, ends up being quite popular amongst fans and critics, becoming one of the iTunes Store's most popular digital games. It would eventually be ported to the Gemini and other Apple devices, but spends the entirety of 2012 as an iTwin exclusive. The game wouldn't have been possible (or at the very least, would have been significantly delayed or significantly worse) without the aid of Apple's game development studio, which contributed material and personnel resources to the game's development while still allowing the development company to self-publish. The game is a shining example of Apple's approach to digital indies, and the company would contribute to the creation of many other exclusive digital titles via this process.

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Six and a half years after the creation of Nintendo's first digital marketplace on the Game Boy Supernova, the company has emerged as one of the leading players in the digital gaming landscape, with a strong lineup of indie exclusives on both console and handheld, and a wide array of downloadable retro titles, a library that grows with each passing month that sees new games added to the service. Digital sales now make up just over a quarter of Nintendo's total software numbers, making the online marketplace a multibillion dollar industry for the company. Back when Nintendo first launched its digital service, the company seemed like the ultimate underdog. Apple's iTunes service had been going strong for years, selling digital games on both the Katana and the iPod Play, and was already making more than a billion dollars a year off digital titles by the time Nintendo came onto the scene. Apple continues to be the market leader in digital software sales, and has even produced a digital-only handheld, the Apple Gemini, which has held its own with Nintendo's Connect despite a complete lack of physical titles. iTunes sales make up more than 40 percent of total software sales on Apple's gaming platforms, not counting its Macintosh digital sales, which have been steadily increasing as well. Apple remains the dominant king of digital gaming, and despite confirmation that Apple's upcoming console, the Virtua, would have both physical and digital games, digital download titles are expected to play a major part of that system's success as well.

Enter Google unto the breach. The Google Nexus, which is scheduled to launch this November, will debut with literally tens of thousands of digital games available at launch via the Android platform, and a massive lineup of Nexus digital exclusives set to be released in the first few months of the system's lifespan. Google is making digital gaming the cornerstone of their strategy, and while the Nexus too will feature physical game discs, Google has already announced that they expect a majority of Nexus software sales to come from its Google Play digital store. With the Nexus expected to be the first ever home gaming console with the majority of software sales coming from a digital marketplace, it will signal a paradigm shift in how video games are marketed and sold, and could signal the long anticipated death of physical media. The Gemini is poised to be the first successful all digital gaming device, and it's more likely than not that the ninth generation of game consoles, expected to begin releasing toward the end of the 2010s, will feature at least one all digital platform. The success of the Apple Gemini and Google Nexus will ultimately decide whether or not such a thing is even commercially feasible, but even if these prove to be only marginally successful, we'll probably see one of the Big Three try to eliminate physical media all together, or even a brand new player come onto the scene pushing an entirely online platform.

-from an article on Kotaku, posted on June 28, 2012

 

(Here's the update reviewing the 2011-12 network television season!)

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ABC:

ABC had the year's strongest rookie class, adding to their #1 ranking in all of network television and bolstering their lineup after a few veteran shows slipped down the ratings charts. Their biggest new show of the year was The Entrepreneur, a Mark Cuban-produced reality/documentary show following three different start-up businesses attempting to make it in a tough economy. The show proved to be one of the year's biggest hits, with a mix of heart and humor that endeared it to viewers. Just behind The Entrepreneur in overall rankings was Once Upon A Time, a show about fairy tale characters trapped in our modern world. The show charmed and riveted viewers with its quirky retellings of classic fairy tale stories, and should be a major ratings hit for years to come. Then there was E-Rika, a comedy about a single woman looking for love online. The show was primarily driven by its lead, with critics largely panning the show in their reviews. ABC continues to be the biggest broadcast network, and doesn't look to be relinquishing that title anytime soon.

CBS:

CBS' huge comedy lineup didn't skip a beat, with The Big Bang Theory rising in the ratings and its fellow comedies falling only a small bit down the charts. CBS also struck it big with their remake of Hawaii Five-O, an action packed crime show that riveted viewers and became one of the year's best new shows. Apart from that, there wasn't much going on on CBS. Escrow fell down the charts a few spots, as did The Triathlon, but both shows remained popular with viewers. Next season will see another intriguing remake: a brand new Murder, She Wrote, starring Reshma Shetty and connecting to the original series (with a TV movie expected to air in the summer of 2012 starring Shetty and Angela Lansbury that will be a “passing of the torch”, so to speak).

NBC:

NBC continues to be the home of big budget action serials, with The Event and Powers both finishing in the top 12 of the ratings charts, and being joined in the top 20 by newcomer Agency, a spy thriller and conspiracy-driven drama. It's fairly by the numbers as far as action shows go, but has enough twists, turns, and betrayals to keep audiences guessing. NBC mostly treaded water in 2012, with enough hits to stay successful despite largely being shut out of the year's small group of rookie hits. The network does have Sunday Night Football, so there's that.

FOX:

FOX needed a hit to turn things around, especially with American Idol being dethroned, and the network would get two: The City, a drama about a mayor dealing with corruption in his office, and Jump, an action based show about a man with the ability to teleport, but whose powers take a toll on everything around him with every use. The City has drawn comparisons to The Wire, and while not all of them are favorable (since the show is a broadcast show, it can't be as graphic and uncompromising), it's still a realistic and riveting look at the trials and tribulations of modern America. Jump is another mostly play by numbers action serial, but does feature a compelling performance from its star Paul Walker, who left the Fast And The Furious series to star in this big budget show. FOX's ratings picked up, and though the network remains a close fourth behind NBC, it definitely had an upward swing this season.

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Top 25 Rated Network Television Programs Of 2011-12:

1. Sunday Night Football (NBC)
2. American Idol (Wednesday) (FOX)
3. American Idol (Tuesday) (FOX)
4. The Big Bang Theory (CBS)
5. Dancing With The Stars (ABC)
6. Dancing With The Stars- Results (ABC)
7. The City (FOX)
8. Northwest (CBS)
9. The Entrepreneur (ABC)
10. Once Upon A Time (ABC)
11. The Event (NBC)
12. Powers (NBC)
13. Hating Places (CBS)
14. Class Warfare (CBS)
15. The Triathlon (CBS)
16. Agency (NBC)
17. Escrow (CBS)
18. The Showdown (NBC)
19. Blue Bloods (CBS)
20. 60 Minutes (CBS)
21. Invasion (ABC)
22. Jump (FOX)
23. Hawaii Five-O (CBS)
24. Lane (ABC)
25. E-Rika (ABC)

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Blockbuster To Debut Original Television Programming In 2013

Blockbuster, America's most popular movie rental franchise and also the leader in digital entertainment streaming, has announced that it will be debuting its own slate of original television starting early next year. Though none of the programs have been revealed, the company is expected to debut five original shows that will be exclusive to its streaming service, which the company hopes will provide more incentive for people to subscribe. The company has been the leader in internet movie rentals since the early 2000s, when the company launched a program that would allow customers to have DVDs and video games mailed directly to their homes in exchange for a monthly fee. The service launched a few years after the debut of Netflix's similar service, and quickly overtook Netflix in market share, which can be attributed both to Blockbuster's name recognition and the ability of customers to return rented products to any of the company's stores rather than having to mail it back. In 2006, Blockbuster launched an online digital streaming service for movies and television shows, which it promoted by packaging the service with in-store rental privileges. Despite the decline in business caused by the recession and an overall decline in physical movie rentals, and the loss of more than a third of its physical locations, Blockbuster remains profitable in large part due to its entry into the digital media marketplace, and the use of its stores in synergy with its online services. The company has expanded beyond rentals into media and merchandise sales, and has turned many of its rental locations into full on media stores, where it competes primarily with companies like F.Y.E., while putting competitors such as Sam Goody and Suncoast out of business in 2007 and 2008 respectively. Now, with the launch of original media content, Blockbuster hopes to increase that synergy. The company has also gained a major asset in the form of its new CEO, former Sega of America president and later head of Apple's gaming division Reggie Fils-Aime, who has announced a new initiative to make Blockbuster a leader in creative entertainment content.

-from an article on Tubehound, posted on June 11, 2012

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From the moment that James Cameron announced that he would be producing and directing a film based on the classic Metroid video game series, the reaction was polarized. Many believed that Cameron, responsible for some of the best sci-fi films of all time, was the perfect director for the job, and might just be able to do something no other person had ever done: make a good video game film. Many others believed that Cameron would ruin Metroid, and that the film would be a disaster, like 1993's Super Mario Bros. film. The movie, which was announced in 2009 but had been in production since 2008, hit a number of snags along the way. Filming was long and expensive, the story was changed a number of times, from being based on the original Metroid to being an original story set just after it. The casting was controversial: Taylor Schilling, who was a relative unknown at the time, was considered “too small” to play Samus, while others said she was “too ditzy looking”. Many didn't think Andy Serkis would be able to pull off a convincing CGI Ridley, no matter how talented he was. All of the hype and all of the worries all came together with the release of the film on May 18, 2012. It was one of the most anticipated films of the summer, but many fans and most critics expected it to bomb. The film's score would be a collaboration between longtime Cameron collaborator James Horner and longtime Metroid series composer Kenji Yamamoto, and contained both original atmospheric themes and new compositions. James Cameron himself, who was a fan of the Metroid games but hadn't had time to play all of them before taking on the job, caught himself up on the series by replaying every single game, even taking the time to play through Metroid Starfall during some of the delays in production. Cameron would admit to re-writing major portions of the film based on his replays of the games, when a particular scene in the games would give him a new idea for the films.

The film takes place a year after Samus' defeat of Mother Brain, Ridley, and the Space Pirates on Planet Zebes. Samus (played by Taylor Schilling, who put on 20 pounds worth of muscle for the role) is commissioned by the Galactic Federation to investigate a disturbance on the moon Tharsus Major, which the Federation suspects may be related to a Metroid hive there. Before departing, Samus spends some time with members of the Federation, including two friends: her old mentor, David Gunnar (played by Bill Paxton), who not only helped Samus to acclimate to human society after spending her childhood with the Chozo, but was also a friend of her father's, and young officer Martina Zeles (played by Rosa Salazar), who looks up to Samus despite the bounty hunter trying to distance herself from Federation soldiers. Though Samus seems to like these two, she also maintains a distance from humanity, and doesn't like getting entangled in Federation matters even though she sees them as a benevolent force for the most part. She then heads to Tharsus Major, only for a malfunction in her ship to cause her to crash land into the moon. This crash landing also disables much of the weaponry and mobility of her suit, leaving her stranded, cut off from communications, and without most of her equipment. Samus spends much of the next chunk of the movie isolated from any other humans. There are some sequences of Samus talking to herself or taking notes in the recorder/journal on her suit, along with a few flashback scenes, but for the most part she remains silent as she explores the moon, contends with its native fauna, or deals with the Space Pirates who arrive soon after Samus. They are led by Ridley (played by Andy Serkis), the movie's primary antagonist, who Samus believed to be dead but who somehow survived being defeated on Zebes. Serkis plays Ridley with a cold, snarling intelligence, and the CGI is some of the best ever produced for a film up to this point, with the dragon-like creature looking incredibly believable and not at all out of place even when juxtapositioned against Samus herself. As for Samus herself, CGI is heavily involved in showing some of the character's acrobatic flips and superhuman moves, while a real-life suit has also been crafted for close-ups and certain action scenes, with the transition between the “real” scenes and the CGI completely seamless. There are also scenes where Samus takes off her suit and we get to see the bounty hunter herself. Taylor almost completely disappears into the role, showing off that muscle she put on to play Samus and performing a lot of physical stunt work of her own in some particularly harrowing scenes. While Samus explores Tharsus Prime, we do get some footage of David and Martina on a mission of their own (as compelling as Samus' exploration scenes are, the cutaways to the two Federation officers do provide some needed emotional levity and occasional comic relief). Their activities are interspersed with scenes of Samus learning of the Federation's previous activities on the moon, culminating in the discovery of a hidden scientific laboratory. The Federation claimed that the moon has been uncharted by humans, so this discovery is a major revelation, and it's also when we get our first glimpse of a Metroid, including a horrifying scene in which one of the creatures clamps itself onto Samus' head, nearly draining the life from her before she's able to freeze it off of her with a burst tube of liquid nitrogen. Metroids are mostly depicted as being mysterious and terrifying, but there is an element of gentleness to the creatures as well, with Samus eventually discovering a Metroid hatchery and learning that the Federation was planning to raise Metroids as sources of energy.

Samus eventually re-establishes contact with another human, opening up a comm link with Martina. There's a scene where the two guide each other through various crises, with Martina helping Samus escape the secret lab before it's destroyed, and Samus helping Martina hack into a Federation database without being discovered. Meanwhile, David has to lead a group of Federation soldiers into battle with a group of Space Pirates, though his squad is nearly wiped out and he himself is nearly killed before Martina arrives to save him by pulling some Samus-like moves of her own. Samus herself ends up taking a few Metroid eggs with her, as proof of the Federation's activities on Tharsus Prime, only to be pursued by Ridley. The conflict between Samus and Ridley is intensely personal, and the film establishes Ridley as being responsible for the death of Samus' parents (with Samus' father saving David's life by pushing him out of an airlock before Ridley could kill them both), further intensifying the hatred between the two. Samus and Ridley's battle causes all of the Metroid eggs to be destroyed except for one, but eventually, the two are overwhelmed by the appearance of a fully evolved Metroid that injures Samus and seemingly kills Ridley. Samus makes it to safety and is able to relay her findings to David and Martina. Samus has learned that the Federation intended for Samus and the Space Pirates to kill each other on Tharsus Prime, eliminating two major problems for them. Samus now needs a way to escape the moon and return to civilization, and David and Martina commandeer a spaceship to fly to her rescue. However, in the meantime, Ridley has managed to slaughter the evolved Metroid and absorbs part of its DNA, triggering a powerful mutation. Just as it seems Samus will escape, Ridley finds and attacks her, and the two have one final battle, triggering the destruction of Tharsus Prime. Samus defeats Ridley (with the help of the Metroid that hatched from the last remaining egg) and manages to escape on a long-buried Federation ship just before the moon explodes spectacularly. She meets up with David and Martina somewhere in space. Realizing she's a wanted fugitive now, she can no longer return to the Federation, and decides to leave her friends, not wanting to put them in danger. Martina promises to be brave and help people as best she can, while David promises to keep investigating the corruption in the Federation. Samus leaves them behind, but before the movie ends, she reveals that she still has the last Metroid in tow, and it shows her returning to the Chozo homeworld in hopes that there is at least one Chozo remaining who can help her learn the secrets behind the Metroid race.

Before Metroid, there had been video game movies that had been at least decently received by critics. Ballistic Limit and the original Turok: Dinosaur Hunter movie both scored in the 60s on Rotten Tomatoes, good enough for a “Fresh” rating, while the original Mortal Kombat film is considered to have at least been decent. Final Fantasy: Advent Children was also well received, though most don't count animated films in their assessment of the critical success of video game movies (numerous anime films have also gotten good reviews). Those movies, along with Tomb Raider in 2001, all achieved some level of success at the box office. However, Metroid immediately became the strongest video game film ever released in both critical and commercial metrics. It achieved a 91% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with critics praising its faithfulness to the source material and the performances of Schilling and Serkis (and Paxton and Salazar to a lesser extent, along with Ben Mendelsohn as the corrupt head of the Federation and Stephen Lang as a grizzled soldier killed midway through the film). The CGI was also extremely highly praised, particularly the special effects surrounding Samus' weaponry and the look of Ridley overall. The film even earned two thumbs up from Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, with Ebert even admitting that watching the movie almost made him want to play the games. It would be one of the last films reviewed by Roger Ebert before he began the long fight with pancreatic cancer that would eventually kill him in 2016. The excellent reviews for the film would lead to a massive $96 million opening weekend at the North American box office, exceeding Fox's expectations of a $60-$70 million opening frame. The film would eventually gross $310 million in North America alone, and a total of $870 million worldwide, including over $100 million in Japan. Metroid was the first ever bonafide video game blockbuster, making back its $180 million production budget and then some. It was a shocking success, both to fans of the series and to Nintendo itself, and in the words of one commentator, “changed everything” when it came to cinematic adaptations of video games. Metroid would ultimately be nominated for several Oscars for its sound and visual effects, and Schilling was considered by some to be a dark horse candidate for a Best Actress nomination, but would ultimately fall short of receiving one, while the film would also be denied a Best Adapted Screenplay nomination in a move many insiders and analysts would consider a major snub. The film would end up sweeping that year's Saturn Awards, with Schilling taking home a Best Actress trophy there. Metroid had indeed changed the game, along with revivifying James Cameron's career and launching Taylor Schilling into stardom. There would definitely be a sequel. Only two questions remained: would James Cameron return, and just how many more video game films would be rushed into production as a result of Metroid's unexpected success?