Picture this; an amazingly well presented spirited Gameboy Color game. It contains gameplay which engulfs the player and keeps them entertained dispute the systems limitations. Now picture the game had a generation hiatus, a little room to breathe, now picture that when the game was finally back into your heart that it has come an over populated basic and imaginative shell of what it once was.
The funny thing for me was I was introduced to the series with the first of these empty shells. My first experience with the “Survival Kids Series” was Lost in Blue for the Nintendo DS. However I went back and looked as I was anticipating the title to its routes, I experienced the Gameboy part of its series and grew attached to it. I learned what the game was, and how it should be portrayed, however imagine my disappointment when Lost in Blue wasn’t anything which expanded what I had felt and seen on the Gameboy.
It is no means a bad series once it returned, but by no means is it anything great. With the DS “line” feeling it an increasing experiment in trying to please both fans and trying to develop a game which retains the games routes and works with the engine. It feels for the most part that Konami had found a way to sell the beta concepts of what the game would be as three separate games. With each one still never fixing the horrible AI, and graphic wise it wasn’t amazing as the sprites from the Gameboy games.
However there was a glimmer of hope for the series, with the Wii title release not so long later been a much more deserved follow up to the original series. However the title still retained many of the problems the DS titles did, and didn’t improve on the games mechanics one bit at all. Once again it was a dusty shell, trying to imitate their own series, instead of been its own.
The problem with the game is the executives probably saw “kids” in the original title and felt the title was just that, a kids game. Instead of handling the series with its core elements; survival, exploration and mystery. Simular mechanics which at the end of the day surround the popular series Zelda by Nintendo. Which is why it is so shocking that the games are quality wise, years apart, even more disgusting when compared with the treatment the series gets from Konami, if only it was Castlevaina or Contra it wouldn’t be treated like a shovel ware title.
The best thing Konami has done for the series of late was to rename the title to Lost in Blue. For two reasons, one they can release whatever crap they want and it will never tarnish the Survival Kids name and two, the name gives the series a fresh breathe and a way to move on.
What should have been done with the title should have been to make it a “gritty”, “hardcore”, survival simulator. Or at least stray more towards that absurdity.
The game needed a new image, and keeping everything and trying to modernise it or whatever they had done wasn’t going to pass it. Many of the game design techniques such as areas which separate themselves into one thing, for example a “swamp area”, a “beach area”, a “volcano area” weren’t going to cut it. They might have worked great back in the day on the Gameboy, where technical limitations could make each area exciting, but these days it would be impossible to convey an enjoyable survival experience keeping that strategy, especially when the major problem is it removes the exploration element or makes it quite basic.
Like Minecraft through its game development before its final release, the game should of through its development before release encapsulated more and more exciting and interesting elements of nature which just blur together to create an amazing experience. I’m not saying Konami would have to make the games land mass completely random, but least adding more variety and unique experiences within the exploration as well as making it more deeper- maybe some items can only allow you to access a certain area? Let’s get some thick jungles happening with some amazingly condensed areas which you have to cut through. Instead of having jungles huge open fields with some jungle textures on the side and some rolling logs to make it “exciting”.
I always through another element which should have been a no brainier to of been added would have been an unoccupied village. It would provide warmth and shelter to our would-be survivors and the resources which would have been left behind no doubt would provide ample amount of applications to survive with. Maybe some power lines with just a little bit of power in them lying around, extra dangers of been zapped. Crazy stuff like that- is what Lost in Blue should have been.
The entertainment expo has gone and passed for another year. With many enjoying the possibilities that E3 2011 would hold prior to the expo, many gamers coming out of it- felt dirty, relentless and quite underwhelmed. For while the expo offered some great new items, many where more of the same and others where just bland.
For the most part, Sony and Microsoft stuck with their strategies which they have been pushing for the past few years. With no major console in the future from either of the companies (expect Sony with its new portable), it seemed like quite a dry year. With what fans will call the big kicks from Microsoft been the next generation Halo trilogy starting, and from Sony- their new portable the Sony Vita. None of them offered anything to really write home about, with the extensive range been especially with the Vita, a portable PS3- which while might be good for some, for others shows the same old repeated, dumbed down- to a portable if you will.
This isn’t just “competition bashing” because I’m a Nintendo fanboy, oh no. Nintendo was also guilty of providing a mediocre response this year. The winner of this E3, would have to be the Nintendo Wii U, the companies brand new system. However it isn’t a victory- more of a white flag, compilation prize. With the systems controller, after rumours providing gamers exactly what it was before the conference, when it came time for the revel, many already new exactly what was going to happen. The controller isn’t something gamers can hype themselves up for the experience to play, unlike the Wii Remote before it, and the 3DS only recently. With the 3DS sales, especially with the horrible launch primary driven by curious gamers wanting to experience the joys of 3D.
Speaking about 3D, it seems that whole direction has turned out to be a waste of time. While the PS3 offers some 3D experience, it seems that’s primary been forgotten- and other companies are not willing to bring the experience to the big consoles no more. Even Nintendo’s Wii U, lacks 3D in anyway- especially with the tablet screen, it could have provided gamers with a 3D experience right there in the hands.
But the lack of 3D expanding isn’t a concern, mainly because it is really at the end of a day a horrible gimmick. No what is a concern is the E3 line up consisting of more than the same. While there where new IPs at E3, they seemed to have been buried, with the best new IP offering probably been from Ubisoft for the Wii U. With Killer Freaks from Outer Space, however the game is primarily still quite newly developed, and more than likely will change over the coming year/s into either something to be proud of, or something which just creates a niche following like the original Red Steel. E3 also had some amazing reboots of series gone by, however most reboots where of games which have seen the light of day only recently, which created a stale enjoyable stench from them.
The 3DS, had some great offerings as well, this year Nintendo started showing off what is new to the 3DS, instead of remakes from the 64. Which really complete the 3DS line up into the next few years, titles such as Luigis Mansion 2, Super Mario 3DS and much more. The system had a solid line up which no doubt after the batch of ports, will breathe fresh air into the system, especially with gamers upset about the amount of ports the system was receiving.
For me however, the shows winner wasn’t a game, or one of the brand new consoles shown. It was the tech demo for Zelda HD. It doesn’t amount for any future game at this stage, however if the past Zelda tech demos for the Gamecube and N64 are to be believed, what we see next on the Wii U when it comes to a Zelda game will be a technology marvel for the system. With previous tech demos highlighting current limitations, but only by the developers- with especially the Zelda tech demos becoming an amazing console experience with much more enhanced graphics than before. If you think the tech demo showed something amazing and worth playing, then my god you will wet your pants when Nintendo accuracy puts some resources together to make a game.