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Texas news report blames graffiti problem on "Getting Up"
It's a well known fact that graffiti was on the decline nationwide as recently as two years ago. Spray paint sales were down, wall cleaners were going out of business, and the country's youth were refocusing their energies on local art classes and scrimshaw. Then the unthinkable happened. On Feb. 14, 2006, Atari released Mark Ecko's Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure, a game that went on to become a best-seller and created a new tagging boom.This twisted view of reality seems to be behind this KRIS-TV report, which largely blames Corpus Christi's increasing graffiti problem on Getting Up and games like it. According to CCPD Detective Ramiro Torres, school children use these games to "develop a base of membership to form these tagging groups." The report also implies that "students play this type of game and get ideas." Because, really, no one had the idea to tag a building before these video games were around. The whole concept of putting paint on a wall is entirely a creation of the gaming industry. Look, we're all for fighting graffiti and preventing costly vandalism. But blaming a recent boom on a two-year-old game that was drubbed by critics and sluggish in the sales department is a bit much. Especially when everyone knows it was really Jet Grind Radio that started the graffiti boom.
Metareview - Marc Ecko's Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure
Marc Ecko's Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure is the latest urban action game. A mash up of Jet Set Radio, Prince of Persia, and Grand Theft Auto, there is hardly consensus on the controversial title. A look at some notables: Gamespot (87%) - "It's easy to look at a game that has a non-gamemaking fashion designer's name right in the title and assume that it's going to be some sort of flashy, style-over-substance licensed product, but Atari, The Collective, and Ecko have effectively teamed up here and put together a game that has plenty of flashy style, but is a quality game underneath all that flash." 1UP (70%) - "The worst thing a decent action game can suffer from is bad camera control, and this malady afflicts Getting Up... The game strikes a nice balance between fighting and tagging. Although frequent, the fighting winds up being secondary to advancing the story line. In some missions, it even works out better to evade authorities and simply complete your objective." GamePro (50%) - "Focusing the majority of gameplay attention on the actual art of writing, rather than on a hackneyed up-from-the-streets story, would have been a good start. And, regrettably for Ecko, development just couldn't work the kinks out of the shoddy Getting Up game engine. Frame rate consistently dips to horrific lows, and many in-game objects and actions break frequently during gameplay." The reviews criticize the tempermental camera system and technical glitches, while praising the title's quality voice-acting, solid soundtrack, and immersive graffiti culture. See also:Australia knocks down Marck Ecko's Getting UpMore Joystiq coverage of Getting Up
