Everything Wrong is Right Again
People have been pestering me to go on some podcast or another and debate the merits of Mega Man 9. But I don’t wanna. Unfortunately, it was all bound to come out eventually, so what was supposed to be an editorial on the resurgence of classic gaming forms is pretty much an apologia for Capcom’s baffling design decisions. But whatever. You know I’m right.
Gears of War
At the exact opposite end of gaming’s spectrum from MM9 is Gears of War. I personally find GoW to be precisely what I don’t want in a game, at least in terms of aesthetics and presentation, but I have to admit its game mechanics are pretty rad. Being a kind and benevolent god, I have not polluted SamuelMarston’s article with my snark. You’re welcome.
Tragedy of the Collectathons
And finally, adventure game nut Merus leads us on a Queen’s English-tinged journey into the dark underbelly of the modern platforming genre. In my opinion, it’s a pretty good case for why we need Mega Man 9! But at this point I’m starting to see signs of its divinity everywhere I look. I’m probably not very reliable on this topic. Uh, anyway, this article is great. Read it!
18 thoughts on “GameSpite Issue 8.3: Polar opposites (collect them all!)”
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This is the first time I’ve ever left a comment for any kind of an article ever, but I had to do it because, Parish, your piece on Mega Man 9 may be the best thing I’ve ever read. I was so excited when they announced that MM9 was going to be an 8-bit title because of exactly the reasons you outline in your piece. It’s great to see that developers may finally be catching on to the fact that old tech may sometimes be the right tech.
Also, while your power of calling retro games into existence is still working, do you think you could manifest a retro Castlevania Collection?
Wow.
Your MM9 piece was wonderful. This isn’t simply a matter of agreement – you’ve actually helped provide brand new perspective on the game; both temporally and artistically. Most gaming articles can’t touch this sort of in-depth, cohesive analysis.
Again, fantastic.
Both the MM9 and Collectathon articles were excellent. Good job, folks.
Thanks, guys. I spent all day yesterday working and reworking my article and all this morning formatting the contributions, so I’m glad my weekend hasn’t been wasted.
Parish, I came to the comments section to praise your exquisitely crafted and insightful MM9 essay, and look! Others beat me to it. But I still feel compelled to say it: very good.
I don’t play games much these days. Yeah, a big part of that is money and time, but also, I just don’t feel like getting into these big games. On some level, I miss the 16-bit days when games felt more approachable and digestable. I would love to see Square-Enix do a new, SNES style RPG. Maybe even make it a Final Fantasy.
(For the record: I think FF12 is a masterpiece, but still. I can’t help but wonder what a new SNES-era Square-Enix RPG would be like.)
Parish – you should be a lawyer after this gig drives you to be hosted by your own petard. That MM9 was really convincing and on point. I wasn’t too excited about the new direction they were taking, but now I’m totally anxious to see how they revisit the old style. Also, the first time i read the word “overanimation.”
Gotta find a way to use that in common speech.
I’ve only read the MM9 article so far, and I just wanted to say that it was freaking brilliant. Essential reading regarding the art in gaming debate. You just might find me referring a whole lot of people to it.
Didn’t it kind of sting though to have to associate the Legends game with the word suck?
Not really. I made it pretty clear that Legends is fantastic when divorced from its Mega Man context. It tanked as a sequel, but as a creative work in its own right was exceptional.
I can only reiterate what others have said about the MM9 article: excellent stuff. So instead, I’ll compliment your and Ray’s little Famicom retrospective. Your insight and analysis never fails to impress me – if video games are ever to be considered an art form, it’s this type of thoughtful insight that will take them there. Although… I wish they were posted here as well, since 1UP blogs are a pain, and my browser never seems to load them right.
Also: hasn’t that Gears of War article been on the 360 page for a while…?
can’t you make that an editorial and stick it on 1up as well? this article needs to be read and discussed by the masses.
I’ve really avoided reading anything on Mega Man 9 — after trying to play the many iterations of X that have popped up over the years, I’d just lost faith. However, I am glad to have your article be the first to show me that there is hope, both through beautiful (and I do mean beautiful) screenshots and prose to match.
Thanks, you.
What is the Square Enix game which is referenced in the little blurb at the end of the Mega Man article?
That was Crystal Chronicles: My Life As a King.
Also, I thought about putting this on 1UP but I’m not sure I could get away with using those screens ganked from the competition.
Parish, if your post was a forum topic on its own, I’d give it five stars. I’m glad it didn’t end up on 1up, Gamespite nabbed an awesome article.
Uh, my personal blog’s not in competition with my day job. That piece just didn’t fit at work for various reasons.
Sorry, that’s not what I meant. I just meant that on 1up I’d be less likely to miss reading it because I don’t really check up on 1up.
I was hoping Capcom would write the game’s name as “Mega Man IX”, make it the bridge between the original series and the X series, and scream in our faces that Zero is Protoman. Or maybe Bass. Or maybe Dr. Wily captures Protoman and fuses him with Bass to create Zero. Whatever. I just wanted IX to be the bridge.
Your Megaman 9 piece exercises every sentiment I was unable to express in frustration towards all the folks complaining that Megaman 9 was going to look blurry in HD. Bravo. :)