No Earthbound For You

You’ve been Lawyered!  The latest rumor on the street is that Earthbound is not, and never will be, released on virtual console, at least not in North America.  While I personally would like to believe that Nintendo just likes putting the screws on us over in the west, the truth seems to be much more boring.

The soundtrack for Earthbound does a lot of sampling of the work of other artists.  Now, mind you, it’s cranked down into a midi version, and I’m pretty sure you don’t need to pay royalties when you make a midi version of a sample of the Monty Python theme song, and then screw with the tempo.  Something about fair use.

Anyhoo, Nintendo of Japan is reportedly extremely uncomfortable with it regardless, and is also unwilling to release a version with different and definitely legal music in it.

Maybe someone should tell them that witholding products from the market that are in demand is why people install emulators on their Wiis and stop paying for VC content entirely.

You can read the full story on Starmen.net here.

Super Mario RPG Released

God damn you nintendo, I’m an old man, and I can’t take suprises like this anymore.

FINALLY, with no prior warning, Nintendo has re-released Super Mario RPG - in my opinion the second best RPG ever made for the SNES - for the Virtual Console.  With the upcoming re-release of Chrono Trigger for the DS, if Nintendo would see fit to release the Mother games in North America, and perhaps the Secret of Evermore, my SNES revival list would be complete.

Time to dust off that Wii and get playing.

Adventure Game Revival

One of my favorite gaming genres has always been the point and click adventure game. In North America, it’s been tough to point at a game in the last few years that was on par with the offerings from Sierra On-Line and LucasArts in the 90s - both studios that have since been eviscerated.

Europe, on the other hand, has generally been known as a more casual market, and maybe that’s why most of the scant few adventure games of any quality that have emerged in the last few years have come out of Europe. I’d love to throw some attention at FunCom’s masterpiece - The Longest Journey, but it came out eight years ago, and the sequel Dreamfall wasn’t up to par with the original. While it might be premature, I have a very good feeling about an upcoming title from Daedalic called The Whispered World.

The Whispered World follows the adventures of a young clown named Sadwick and his companion Spot through a melancholy world doomed to crumble and fall. The artwork and music are beautiful, and I suspect good things will come of it, but we’ll have to wait until launch I suppose.

Although, perhaps I have reason to hope yet. One of the critical factors that killed off the Adventure Game genre to begin with was the emergence of 3D graphics, and the games that technology ushered in. We’re now seeing a reversal in fortunes as the gaming market reaches out to those who were once outside their domain. That the industry is trying to gain appeal with the masses is one of two things that have changed in favor of adventure games. I suspect as the casual masses explore the new land they’ve found, interactive adventure stories are going to become interesting again.

Secondly, platforms now exist to market games which have niche appeal for reasonably low cost through digital distribution networks. Services like Gametap, Steam, Xbox Live Arcade, and Nintendo Virtual Console has created a space where these freaks can be shown in the daylight, without offending their muscular, brawny siblings. Creating these spaces is important - not just for adventure games - but for the future of the medium. Without these spaces, the story of game development becomes eventually more like the science of creating an addictive drug - increasingly refining only to what is known to work - and less like the exploration of the human psychology that it should be.