What’s Happened To Us?
For some time now, I’ve had mixed feelings about the Fantastic Four soundtrack. Why? Because, Orange Range, a major Japanese pop music group, is on it, with their song, “Kirikirimai,” which means “Whirlwind”. That’s where the aforementioned mixed feelings come into play. I mean, I’m glad they’re on the soundtrack, but it also goes to show you just how of a fad Japan, and Asia for that matter has become in America.
It was bound to happen, sooner or later, but that doesn’t take the sting out of it. I remember, years ago, during the dawn of Japan’s media exodus to America, there were only a few of us who got into it. It was unique, it was something all our own. But as the years passed, more and more people have gotten into it, watering the uniqueness down.
Now, at the zenith of its popularity, Hollywood and the music industry have taken notice. More so, Hollywood, as more and more movie and TV series ideas are being “borrowed” from the Asian entertainment industry.
Movies such as The Ring, The Grudge, and Dark Water are all remakes of Japanese motion pictures, with The Lake House being a remake of the Korean film, Il Mare. Also, even if it’s unintentional, the TV series, Angel is parallel to the Japanese animation (anime) series, Rurouni Kenshin. Title characters, Angel and Kenshin, had killed a lot of people in their pasts, Kenshin was a Samurai, and Angel, a vampire, and are now trying to atone for their sins by helping and protecting people.
Hollywood is also remaking Infernal Affairs, My Sassy Girl, and My Wife Is a Gangster. As if ruining The Ring, The Grudge, Dark Water and Il Mare wasn’t good enough for them? Where the hell has all the originality gone? There’s millions of people in this country, I’m sure someone other than Joss Whedon can come up with a decent idea. I find this really aggravating. These movies are already great. There really isn’t a need to go and remake them into pieces of crap. This is just really starting to annoy me, because it’s not like anyone ever knows the movie is a remake, unless they’ve seen the original. I mean, really, give credit where it’s due, dammit!
As the internet has become a larger part of our lives, it’s become increasingly easier to get our hands on new anime, which, a decade ago, would have taken us years to obtain. Years that would’ve been spent doing things like translation and making distribution deals. But, like with other new abilities, this comes with a price: more new “fans.” These new fans believe that the new stuff coming out of Japan is visually more pleasing than the older stuff. I tend to disagree with this. At the risk of quoting an anime entitled Full Metal Alchemist, “in order to gain something, first you have to give up something of equal value.” In this case, for the ability to easily obtain new media, we’ve given up some of the originality of the original. You always lose something in translation.
The internet has also opened the door to the Asian music market. Thankfully, that one has not caught on as much as the other areas of Asian entertainment have. Yeah, there are a good number of Americans who like Asian music, but it’s nowhere as many as those who like the other areas. The main curse upon that being that it’s not in English. However, that particular aspect is another blog for another day.
It’s not the fact that it’s become mainstream that’s the problem. It’s the fact that it’s become a fad. It’s not a bad thing that there are a lot more people that are into anime and manga (Japanese comics). That in itself is a good thing, because it means more money for the companies and thus more anime. It’s the fact that there are those who like it simply because it’s in and treat it as a fad. It’s the infernal networks like Cartoon Network, that create fanboys, that are too stupid to realize that that crap isn’t really anime. It’s because it’s a fad that it’s a problem, and when that fad dies, it will be even worse because it could make it harder for the true fans to get anime than it ever was before.
Take for example, the original Star Wars trilogy. It was great and groundbreaking, sure, there are the insane fans but they are the minority. Therefore, it is very enjoyable and there is plenty of easy access to merchandise. However, something, like, say Lord of the Rings, The Matrix, Harry Potter, which had the potential to be something great, but were killed by the massive fandom and fads. Therefore, the types who would be true fans tend to want to have nothing to do with them. It’s a shame, anime series I once enjoyed; I can’t bring myself to watch anymore because of the massive numbers of idiot fanboys.
It’s truly sad to see how of a fad Asia has become in America. The fact that it’s now a fad is what has killed most of the enjoyment that original fans once had for it. Slowly but surely, it’s losing its fanbase, and when that unfortunate day arrives, true fans will be out of luck.
Monty Oum – Hail to the King
Like many others, my first experience with the epicness that is Monty Oum was Dead Fantasy I and Haloid. Yes, that’s right, I didn’t see the server-overloading Halo and Metroid mash-up first. But no matter which you watch first, only one word can describe Monty’s work. Epic.
A high school drop-out, this 28-year-old has become something of a legend on the internet. With no formal training, Monty has continued to astound his fans. Using Poser and other programs, he choreographs the action and animates the 3D models, himself. Yep, it’s all done by one person, unlike something like Kung Fu Panda or Toy Story which had entire teams working on them.
Haloid, which took him about 3 months to do, is so well done and brilliantly animated that the previously-unknown Monty’s popularity skyrocketed. As previously stated, the amount of traffic that Haloid generated overloaded and crashed GameTrailers‘ servers. Needless to say he was by no means expecting it to be so popular.
He returned 6 months later with a brand new project, entitled Dead Fantasy, which pitted characters from Tecmo and Square-Enix against each other. This one blew me away. Not only is the series animated and choreographed even better than Haloid, but each and every character has their own fighting style, and even in the most hectic of scenes, Monty leaves the unique styles intact. The Dead Fantasy updates have been relatively slow to come, but the reason is quite obvious. Quality. With every new movie, and as with any artist over time, you can tell Monty is getting better.
However, that isn’t to say that his work is perfect. I can point out a few mistakes in Dead Fantasy I and II, from Hitomi sliding up a falling pillar, to Rikku’s foot being in front of a ledge she’s standing on, to Kairi holding her Keyblades with the teeth facing the wrong way (I chalk that last one up to his artistic license. I’ve always thought the Keyblade would attack better the way Monty put Kairi’s, anyway).
It was shortly after his movies hit the internet that video game companies started approaching Monty, he’s that good. In addition to continuing to work on Dead Fantasy, he now works for Namco Bandai Games, with Afro Samurai being his first game. Let’s see how this job influences his work.
As of this writing, GameTrailers has just finished up their 3-week Dead Fantasy release promotion (III, IV, and V being released one per week). While III and V (more so V) take the viewer out of their comfort zone with the blood, which I contribute to Monty’s work on Afro Samurai, it also gives some insight as to why Tecmo and Square-Enix characters are battling each other.
RemoteJoy & Xpadder – An Epic Win
I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again: I love hackers. The Jargon File, a compendium of hacker slang, defines hacker as “A person who enjoys exploring the details of programmable systems and how to stretch their capabilities, as opposed to most users, who prefer to learn only the minimum necessary.” As far as video game hackers go, among other things, they explore games’ internal code, and create cheat codes for those games.
Now I’m not saying most of what they do isn’t helping cheating for cheating sake, but every once in a while, someone comes up with something that’s actually useful. The most recent of these useful findings resulted in the Guitar Grip code for Guitar Hero: On Tour, which enables you to play without the otherwise-required Guitar Grip and maps the string buttons to the DS’ face buttons. This specific code is particularly useful for disabled gamers such as myself, that only have use of one hand.
While not a code per se, there is something similar for the PSP. RemoteJoy is a homebrew application created by TyRaNiD, which lets you stream video output from your PSP to your computer, and lets you control it via your keyboard. It even lets you record gameplay. Using RemoteJoy in conjunction with Xpadder, you can control your PSP through your computer, using an USB controller. Xpadder is a program that has the ability to emulate a mouse and/or keyboard using a controller or joystick. It can be used with anything – media players, web browsers, flash games, you name it. Personally, I also use Xpadder to play World of Warcraft. (Thanks a LOT, Matt! I owe you!)
RemoteJoy isn’t perfect, however. Some games like Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories and Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories do not display properly, because of how the games’ graphics are generated. But that isn’t to say the RemoteJoy/Xpadder solution can’t be used with those games. You can use RemoteJoy so Xpadder works with the PSP, and use the controller while looking at your PSP. True, you could go and mod your PSP to do something like this, but RemoteJoy and Xpadder give you customization options. I’ll get to that in a minute, though.
The RemoteJoy/Xpadder solution is very useful for disabled gamers, as the distance between the d-pad and face buttons on the PSP Slim and Lite (PSP-2000) is approximately 6 inches, and approximately 6.25 inches on a PSP Phat (PSP-1000). I have a Logitech Dual Action USB controller, which looks like a Playstation 2 controller, and the d-pad and face buttons is approximately 4.20 inches. That’s about a 2-inch difference. However, RemoteJoy can also help regular gamers, such as people who just hate the PSP’s analog nub. In addition, with Xpadder, you can map any button to any part of the controller. Say you can’t reach the shoulder buttons. You can map them to left and right on the right analog stick. Xpadder also has built-in turbo functionality, which is useful for action titles like X-Men Origins: Wolverine. But, I digress.
The RemoteJoy/Xpadder solution is very helpful, and it wouldn’t have been created without hackers. Playing the game would have gone in a totally different direction before if you had given me a PSP with Dissidia: Final Fantasy in it, but since I discovered RemoteJoy and Xpadder, I can actually play the correct way and enjoy the game.
Below is my first time recording with RemoteJoy after playing with the codecs. Yeah, I know there’s no sound and for some reason, the title screen and character selection didn’t record… o_O Oh well. Not my best match, but I’m rusty, and the 360 controller doesn’t help things (I didn’t feel like digging my Logitech one out of my bag)…
Note: I’d also like to thank Brad Borne of Borne Games (Mirror’s Edge 2D; Fancy Pants Adventures) for letting me know programs like Xpadder even existed. He told me about JoyToKey, which emulates key strokes. So first came Brad, then Matt.
Top Ten Games You’ve Probably Never Heard Of
In this day and age, we have come to realize that we in America can get jipped out of quality products, whether it’s music, movies, or video games. Being a gamer, I’ve come across more than my fair share of good yet relatively unknown games. I’ve made up a list of the top 10 games you’ve probably never heard about, be it because of them not being released in America, poor advertising, or just being simply overlooked, thanks to flagship franchises.
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Top Ten Worst Games
We’ve all had games we were looking forward to playing, but when we finally get to play them, they turn out to be less than we anticipated. These are no exception. While I may not have been looking forward to every one of these game at their release, I developed high expectations for them thanks to my friends’ comments about them. These have been the only times when they have steered me wrong. Here are, what I believe, to be the top ten worst games released (or scheduled to be released) in the US in the last decade and a half.
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Making It Work: Game Accessibility
2009.08.13 Edit – I now could repost it here, but I’m still only linking to it just to be safe.
Written by me, published on The Escapist
Life As A Disabled Gamer
I was born with Cerebral Palsy, a non-progressive condition that affects the part of the brain that handles the limbs and fine motor functions. I’m unable to talk or walk, which confines me to a wheelchair. I only have full use of my right arm, but I can play one-handed. Playing certain games one-handed can be challenging, and there are some games that I cannot play, but I’m always up for a good challenge. It’s part of what makes me, or anyone else, a gamer.
I began to play video games at the age of 8, with Super Mario Brothers on the NES (Nintendo Entertainment System), a game that I’ve yet to finish. Back then, it seemed endless (and apparently, to Nintendo, it is). I remember playing it for 4 hours each day for 2 weeks, hoping to beat it. Unfortunately, that never happened. Being young at the time, I simply put the game away for another title. I should probably go and pick it back up some day.
I’ve always received strange looks from my peers, but that has never stopped me from playing games. While the NES era was by far the most level era in terms of game-play, these recent generations have given me the most enjoyment and challenges. As the game-play evolved, so did the controllers. They went from just a directional pad with 2 buttons, to a d-pad with 8 buttons and 2 analog sticks. Adapting my technique to each style of controller has been a unique challenge.
Sometimes, I’m still a little surprised that the fact of my being a one-handed, physically challenged gamer amazes people. When I go out, such as to an arcade, people look down on me. It’s like me being in a wheelchair automatically makes me a bad gamer. But once they see what I can do, they’re left in awe. In my mind, I’ve never been any different from other gamers. Being a physically challenged one, though, has forced me to acknowledge my limitations with games as far as genres go. I try to stay away from the ones that I can’t play. But the genres I can play, I go full-throttle into.
Up until recently, I’ve played predominately roleplaying games, with some focus on fighters. However, with the inclusion of online multi-player and other networking features in games and consoles, I’ve been able to try different titles and genres (i.e. Devil May Cry 4, Grand Theft Auto 4, and Mass Effect).
One example of a genre I can’t play is shooters. Mass Effect is in this genre, and I had trouble playing it, due to the controls being too complicated for one-handed gaming. When you need to hold the controller a certain way, it causes problems when needing to reach some buttons.
The inclusion of online multi-player in some games has been a huge help to me. Being confined to a wheelchair greatly hinders my ability to go out and hang out with my friends, but with online functionality becoming more prominent in games, I can meet and game with my friends (and sometimes even complete strangers) over the Internet. I know that online gaming isn’t the same as gaming in the same room with my friends (due to the lag and/or delay), but just being able to interact with people on any level in a game is an amazing experience.
Deviating from my original topic for a moment, I want to point out that anything online for any challenged person is a great asset. In real life, when people look at me, they automatically think that I’m not on the same level as they are, and then treat me as if I came from a Special Education class.
However, online play is vastly different. Online I can communicate easily and no one is the wiser that I’m in a wheelchair. They don’t have those preconceived first impressions that are so valuable in the world. Online I can truly communicate the way that I need to.
Lately, the one title that’s gotten me the most number of strange looks from my peers is Ninja Gaiden 2. Since I started playing it, my fellow gamers have been saying things like I won’t beat the game one-handed. But, here I am, in Chapter 6 and still going strong. Yes, the Ninja Gaiden franchise is infamous for its unforgiving difficulty, but I like the challenge. Isn’t liking a challenge a common characteristic in a “gamer?”
Another current challenge is entering the competitive gaming arena with Soul Calibur 4 — my first competitive title. I’ve played some of the previous games in the franchise, but it was always for recreation, whereas SC4 is the first one that I wanted to get serious about. I know that I have a long way to go, but I think that it’s something I could really excel at. I’m really interested in seeing just how far I can go.
Much like girl gamers before us, challenged gamers are becoming a larger part of the gaming community. So, if I can show others that just because we’re “handicapped” doesn’t mean that we’re to be taken lightly, I’d feel satisfied. This is one reason why my motto on Xbox Live is “Seeing Is Believing”. I may not be the best gamer in the world, but I’m certainly not the worst. Underestimate me, and it’s very likely I’ll kick your butt.
