Bob Mackey

Nintendo

Nintendo By Bob Mackey

Etrian Odyssey Untold: The Millenium Girl is a friendlier remake

After a rocky and disappointing first year, the 3DS has transformed into a juggernaut of Japanese RPGs, with developer Atlus leading the charge. This year alone, the company will have four first-person RPGs to its name: Etrian Odyssey IV, Soul Hackers, Shin Megami Tensei IV, and the upcoming Etrian Odyssey Untold: The Millenium Girl – not bad for such a relatively niche product. The only issue comes from the fact that this particular subgenre rarely offers the accessibility of your typical Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest, though Atlus hopes to remedy this issue when The Millenium Girl launches this fall.%Gallery-191075%

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Gaming By Bob Mackey

Earth Defense Force 2025 adds another cheesy chapter to D3's bug book

With all of the hubbub about next-gen at this year's E3, Earth Defense Force 2025 stood out as the product of an entirely different generation, one where wildly idiosyncratic Japanese-developed games both delighted and confused gamers willing to take a risk on untested and out-there concepts. Technically, it's a complete mess, though I'm sure any fan of Earth Defense Force can tell you the series has never been known for its impeccable graphics or silky smooth action. Despite its rough edges in comparison to the polished Xbox One and PS4 games on display in the very same convention center, EDF 2025 still carries a unique charm.

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Gaming By Bob Mackey

Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy 13 hosts a party of one

No development process has been as interesting to watch than the multi-game pile-up known as Final Fantasy 13. It's not that these RPGs have been of poor quality, per se; they just represent the totality of Square Enix's resource mismanagement during the first HD generation of consoles. So it shouldn't come as a surprise that Lightning Returns wasn't the only Final Fantasy 13-related product on the show floor during E3 2013, as Square unveiled the long-awaited Versus 13 under an entirely new (though slightly predictable) name: Final Fantasy 15. This rebranding – combined with the Final Fantasy 13 name getting second billing to its lead character – provides some compelling evidence that the developer might be a little ashamed of that "lucky" number these days.%Gallery-190529%

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Gaming By Bob Mackey

Hometown Story hopes to recapture that Harvest Moon magic

The Natsume booth feels more than a little out of place amid the murder and mayhem that defines the E3 show floor experience. For those weary of the pulsing music, constant explosions and gruff voice-overs blasting from every ear-level speaker in sight, Natsume's display of gentle, colorful games about farming and fishing can feel like an oasis from sensory overload. While they've dabbled in just abut every genre known to man, an unexpected game called Harvest Moon – which hit the SNES long after it withered on the vine – has since become Natsume's strongest brand, with 19 prime series games to date. There's no end in sight for this strangely compelling series, though its creator Yasuhiro Wada has moved on to a new IP called Hometown Story, which he hopes will have the same longevity as the series that introduced the curious addictiveness of simulating mundane tasks years before The Sims.%Gallery-191606%

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PlayStation

PlayStation By Bob Mackey

Returning to simpler days with Disgaea D2

Nearly ten years ago, a quirky little game called Disgaea: Hour of Darkness put developer Nippon Ichi on the map for lovers of Japanese RPGs – the ones from America, anyway. This quirky strategy RPG combined Final Fantasy Tactics with a Tim Burton-inspired aesthetic, and just as the genre seemed to be fading from relevance. Nippon Ichi capitalized on the success of Disgaea by opening up an American branch months later, and continued to iterate on their particular brand of complex and bizarre mechanics. For some (like myself), Nippon Ichi's prolific nature soon became a case of diminishing returns, and their audience gradually checked out from the company's regular forays into strategy RPG territory. Disgaea D2: A Brighter Darkness for PlayStation 3 stands as the developers' attempt to recapture that magic of 2003 with a spirtual remake of the game that made them, and by all accounts looks to be treading some very safe waters. This might not be a bad thing, though; just as the New Super Mario Bros. series added a fresh coat of paint to old-school action, Disgaea D2 has the same intent. The latest installment to the series acts as a direct sequel to the first game, complete with the same mechanics and characters, but with an entirely new story. %Gallery-179545%

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Gaming By Bob Mackey

New hybrid figures jump into the Skylanders: Swap Force toybox

When you're tasked with previewing the latest and greatest in kid stuff, it's hard to not feel at least the slightest bit jealous. In my day, our molded lumps of China-manufactured plastics rarely interacted with technology in any meaningful way, and we liked it just fine. Even so, if you lopped a good 20 years off my current age, it would be impossible to avoid the charms of Skylanders, a series that's successfully merged the worlds of physical and digital play – all with a booster pack-style setup that's only mildly predatory on parents' wallets. As backwards compatibility quickly becomes a thing of the past, Skylanders: Swap Force offers compatibility with every figure Activision has sold since 2011, along with a slew of new features that promise to make this installment the biggest and best its pint-sized audience has seen yet.%Gallery-191171%

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Gaming By Bob Mackey

Diablo 3 for consoles may be different, but it's still Diablo

Utter the phrase "Diablo for consoles" to anyone that has some familiarity with gaming history and you're bound to hear some Sideshow Bob-style shudders in response. Blizzard's skeleton-clicking series didn't have the most graceful entry into the world of console gaming, and after a disastrous 1998 PlayStation port Diablo hasn't dared to leave its PC home. This year, however, Blizzard revealed Diablo 3 would make the transition with versions coming to Xbox 360, PS3, Xbox One and PS4, finally giving console players a taste of the magic they've been missing out on for well over a decade. Thankfully, Blizzard has been much more thoughtful this time about transitioning a mouse-and-keyboard-driven experience to console controls.%Gallery-191164%

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Nintendo

Nintendo By Bob Mackey

Pokemon X and Y's online features feel like a true evolution

Presiding over an audience of devoted Pokemon fans during an E3 2013 roundtable session, Tsunekazu Ishihara and Junichi Masuda of The Pokemon Company dropped some interesting new facts about the upcoming Pokemon X and Y, releasing October 12 for the 3DS. The games' new online functionality, known as the Player Search System (or P.S.S.), taps into the power of the 3DS by allowing players to switch between local wireless communication and full-fledged Internet connectivity with the push of a button. During play, the bottom screen of the 3DS will display confirmed friends – fully integrated with the 3DS' Friend List (meaning friends you add before the game's release will appear there) – as well as people in the area who happen to be playing. Battling someone from the latter group will add them to an acquaintances list, and after a few battles, X and Y will establish a friendship between the two players. True to the series' focus on multiplayer from its very first generation, X and Y has made it easier than ever to smash your pocket monsters into friends' far and wide. One important question, though, left some lingering disappointment in the room: when asked if previous generations' Pokemon can be imported into X and Y, Masuda could only offer "we're working on it," citing the problems in communicating data between the DS and 3DS. Hopefully, you won't have to take your current stable of Pokemon out behind the woodshed come October.

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Gaming By Bob Mackey

Skylanders: Swap Force to hit PS4 and Xbox One at launch

During an E3 demo today, Skylanders executive producer Scott Krager announced that the newest entry in the series, Swap Force, will launch "day and date" for both the XBox One and PlayStation 4 -- though the specific release date (or dates) for these consoles is still unknown. In the meantime, some good news: in keeping with the series' tradition of cross-platform compatibility, the next-gen versions of Skylanders: Swap Force will use the same figurines as the current-gen titles, due to release for 3DS, Wii, PS3, Xbox 360, and Wii U October 13 in the United States.

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Nintendo

Nintendo By Bob Mackey

Super Mario 3D World pounces on Wii U Dec. 2013 [Update: Trailer added]

After years of seeing the New Super Mario Bros. series taking over consoles, Nintendo gamers are in for a treat this December: today's Nintendo Direct included the announcement of Super Mario 3D World for the Wii U, which includes a roster identical to the line-up of the 1988 NES classic Super Mario Bros. 2. As indicated by its name, 3D World contains the same type of game play as its 3DS predecessor, but with an added cat-themed power-up for added cuteness, and the same multiplayer madness as the New Super Mario Bros. series. R.I.P. Blue Toad: we knew thee well.%Gallery-191101%

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Xbox

Xbox By Bob Mackey

Xbox One now available for pre-order at several retailers

If an MSRP of $499.99 isn't too rich for your blood, good news: several online retailers are now offering pre-orders on Microsoft's Xbox One console. Amazon, GameStop, Best Buy, ShopTo, and GAME have started taking orders on Microsoft's new console, which will ship at a to-be-announced date this November. Curiously, as of this writing, Target and Walmart are only offering pre-orders on Xbox One games and accessories, but expect that to change when these retailers remember how much they like money.

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Xbox

Xbox By Bob Mackey

Halo coming to the Xbox One in 2014 [Update: trailer!]

Master Chief will make the transition to the next generation with a new game in the series for the Xbox One slated to arrive in 2014. Bonnie Ross at 343 Industries referred to the title simply as a "Halo FPS," noting the game would run on dedicated servers, use Microsoft's cloud computing infrastructure and run at 60 frames per second.%Gallery-191153%

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Xbox

Xbox By Bob Mackey

Deadly Premonition director's D4 scheduled for Xbox One [Update: Trailer!]

Get ready for SWERY's (Access Games' Hidetaka Suehiro) patented brand of weirdness; his new project, simply titled D4, made it into Microsoft's showing of their upcoming Xbox One games at E3 2013. Not much information about it exists at the moment, outside of its status as an episodic murder mystery -- much like the director's cult hit from 2010.%Gallery-191152%

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Entertainment By Bob Mackey

Parasite Eve and the RPG road less traveled

In his weekly column, writer Bob Mackey will alternate between two of his passions: the Japanese RPG genre and classic games. As a lifelong follower of Square Enix – through both good times and bad – Parasite Eve stands as the first of its US-released games that left me feeling pangs of disappointment. Parasite Eve deviates wildly from the prescribed JRPG format, and even though its battle system introduced elements the developer would expand upon in the future, Square's take on Resident Evil features one playable character involved in a story that barely squeaks past the 10-hour mark. To some, Parasite Eve's focus on streamlining Square's expected RPG design can't be seen as anything but sacrilege, and you can count me in with those who initially felt burned after blowing through the game over the course of a weekend. But it should be noted that Square created this new brand of "cinematic RPG" (as they would call it) to draw in an audience larger than the hardcore JRPG stalwarts who had supported them up to that point. Final Fantasy VII might have sold based on its impressive CGI-laden advertisements, but it did so at the cost of alienating players unprepared for menu-driven gameplay.

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Entertainment By Bob Mackey

Powering beyond 100 hours in Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate

In his weekly column, writer Bob Mackey will alternate between two of his passions: the Japanese RPG genre and classic games. This week, Bob returns to the world of Monster Hunter. Since I don't play MMOs, it's a rare occasion to see the timer on any of my games roll past that magical 99:59 mark. Still, it's happened more times than I'd like to admit; whenever an especially deep or content-rich RPG hits me during a particularly inactive time in my life, I'll focus on it and it alone. Since I've chosen a career path laden with vast periods of inactivity, RPGs Fallout 3, the Persona and Dragon Quest franchises, and Dark Souls have done a fine job of soaking up free time that would have otherwise gone to waste on frequent power naps or community service. Chalk it up to fate if you want, but Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate found me in the familiar condition of "nothing better to do," and for the past six weeks, Capcom's hardcore action-RPG has given me a whole new set of complex mechanics and arcana to obsess over with thousands of my fellow monster-hunting fans. Now that I've reached that monumental 100-hour mark, it's time to ask myself one question: Did I invest my time wisely? Short answer: no, but I'll save regrets over playing too many video games for my death bed.%Gallery-176601%

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Entertainment By Bob Mackey

The troubled history of Kingdom Hearts reflects Square Enix's own

In his weekly column, writer Bob Mackey will alternate between two of his passions: the Japanese RPG genre and classic games. This Tuesday brought the announcement of Kingdom Hearts 1.5 HD Remix's American release date, and with it, feelings of ambivalence from people like me who once thought the strange pairing of Square and Disney would do more than tread water for a decade. I worked at a mall GameStop when the first installment launched in the fall of 2002, and even though I'd outgrown Disney (and had begun to outgrow Square), Kingdom Hearts felt like the first true RPG of the PS2 era, outclassing the at-the-time-recent Final Fantasy X, which relied on the same pre-rendered – albeit prettier – backgrounds that evoked the previous console generation's limitations. Regardless of how you felt about the characters on display, turning away from our in-store TV during the Kingdom Hearts demo reel proved nearly impossible; Square's technical wizards worked overtime to ensure that an army of 2D Disney characters would look and move perfectly in real-time 3D – and they still do nearly 11 years later. For fans of Japanese RPGs and classic animation, the tag-team of Square and Disney felt like some impossible dream that somehow came true, despite the odds against it. After leaving the Capcom legacy behind in the mid-90s, the existence of Kingdom Hearts seemed like a second chance for Disney to make their games more than just cheap tie-ins sold on marketing alone.%Gallery-179789%

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Gaming By Bob Mackey

The spoils of Atlus RPGs

In his weekly column, writer Bob Mackey will alternate between two of his passions: the Japanese RPG genre and classic games. In recent years, Atlus' string of portable-bound RPG remakes has done an excellent job of showing off the developer's history with video games before the breakout success of Persona. Yes, if you're the type of person inclined to read a column dedicated to Japanese RPGs, you might be thinking, "Breakout success? But I've loved Atlus for years!" If that's true, then you probably remember an ugly past, making mandatory reservations thanks to the tiny quantities of Atlus games that once trickled into your local Gamestop – if they did at all – and the wallet-destroying eBay markups greeting those who didn't go to Herculean lengths just to buy a retail product. As a result of the developer's growing fame, we're now seeing the release of games we only dreamed about playing in the 90s, and Atlus has tried their best to replicate the experiences we would have had back then – for better or worse.%Gallery-185385%

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Gaming By Bob Mackey

Rebuilding Scrooge's money bin: WayForward dives into DuckTales Remastered

Fans of classic gaming tend to be a little overprotective of their favorites, so you can bet all of us obsessive weirdos breathed a sigh of relief when DuckTales Remastered landed in the best possible hands. And while I can't comment on the final product – or even a portion of it – there's no denying that the devs at WayForward know how to put together a solid platformer, with the same expressive, 2D graphics that drew so many of us to the medium back in the 8-bit days.Barring the impossible scenario of reuniting the original game's tiny team (none of whom still work at Capcom some 24 years later), it's hard to think of a more appropriate match than WayForward meets DuckTales.Still, when dealing with such a compact and complete package like Capcom's unassuming 1989 classic, the smallest tweak or change could result in a total upheaval of the experience that renewed hurtful Scottish stereotypes for a generation of Nintendo-addicted children. To assuage my fears, I recently spoke with three key members of the DuckTales Remastered team about reviving that special brand of Capcom/Disney magic for our modern world.

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News

News By Bob Mackey

No decision too trivial in Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate

In his weekly column, writer Bob Mackey will alternate between two of his passions: the Japanese RPG genre and classic games. This week Mackey discusses his evolving thoughts on Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate. It's only been a few weeks, but I can't help but feel a little ashamed of my last Joystiq post about Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate. Reading it from my current, semi-experienced perspective, the piece feels like an excited first-grader telling a long and involved story about learning to tie his shoes. To be fair, my revised take on things comes from a slightly embarrassing wealth of invested time; I've sunk 30 additional hours into the game since my initial column, and when I sat down to write about learning the ropes of MH3U, I'd barely hunted monster one. Looking back at the knowledge I picked up since then, and the numerous intricacies I've yet to figure out, it dawned on me why Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate has made every other game in my presence go completely neglected. Capcom has refined its specific brand of action-RPG into a trial-by-fire experience that requires constant hypothesizing and experimenting – pure brain candy for us unlucky folks whose minds crave constant stimulation. Of course, you don't have to take it from me; real academic-type people have picked up on this same value of playing video games – even if said people haven't necessarily jumped on the Monster Hunter train yet. When I taught a college writing course during my grad school days, I used James Paul Gee's What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy (yes, all academic book titles must be this clunky by law) to inform groups of mostly bored 18-year-olds about how gaming can actually increase our problem-solving skills.%Gallery-178777%

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Entertainment By Bob Mackey

DuckTales Remastered runs on more than nostalgia

In a new weekly column, writer Bob Mackey will alternate between two of his passions: the Japanese RPG genre and classic games. This week Mackey discusses the recently revealed DuckTales revival. Game designer Warren Spector's preoccupation with Mickey Mouse ranks up there with some of the more notable wastes of time in recent memory. You can't say Spector didn't have his heart in the right place, though; while much of his love for Disney's mascot seems to be informed largely by his generation's exposure to the character as more than just a soulless corporate brand, both of Junction Point's Epic Mickey games carried forth the noble mission of teaching a new generation about Disney's often-overlooked catalog of animated shorts.I found myself on board after hearing the premise of Spector's original Epic Mickey, mostly because Disney held nearly all of their shorts hostage on a premium cable channel during my childhood. If I wanted to soak up knowledge about the studio's earlier works, why not do it in Spector-engineered video game form?According to critics and consumers, the experiment didn't turn out so well. Epic Mickey didn't aspire to greater heights than "competent N64 platformer," and gamers regarded the series as such. Tragically enough, Spector had been sitting on a much better – though not necessarily more popular – property while developing Epic Mickey: Disney's Uncle Scrooge comics, best known to children of the '80s as the animated adaptation DuckTales.Spector had written for the newly launched DuckTales comic between Epic Mickey installments, and during a PAX Prime 2012 interview, I managed to sneak in a few questions that confirmed his interest in making a game that starred Disney's crankiest curmudgeon. His vague, non-committal statements didn't exactly set the Internet on fire, but they at least gave us all a moment to pause and fantasize about what a modern DuckTales game would look like.

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Entertainment By Bob Mackey

Breaking in Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate before it breaks me

In a new weekly column, writer Bob Mackey will alternate between two of his passions: the Japanese RPG genre and classic games. "Before you register any complaints with the management, remember one thing: I'm new here," Mackey says. Jump onto any video game forum these days, and you'll find no shortage of people willing to teach you the ropes of Monster Hunter. I'm sure a good portion of these devotees have been there for years, but – as with Nintendo's recent Fire Emblem: Awakening – this latest release has brought about a period of relevance for a series that never quite had the same impact on the States as it did in Japan. It's not as if Capcom had to try all that hard; Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate exists as a souped-up version of a three year-old Wii game, dropped into a release period where there might as well be tumbleweeds rolling across my Wii U's home screen. So even if I feel the game isn't all that great – hey, it's something to play.I've always been a little wary of Monster Hunter, even though some of my favorite series took Capcom's particular ball and ran with it for the sake of grabbing the attention of Monster Hunter's healthy user base. Both Dragon Quest and Metal Gear picked up on Monster Hunter's loot-driven, fun-sized focus, but for the most part, still presented single-player as a viable option. Outside of grappling with the god-awful adhoc party, the only way I'd be able to make the most of Monster Hunter before 3 Ultimate could be found in less than ideal setups, like somehow organizing a group of friends with PSPs – a statistical impossibility – or convincing this same group that their Wiis could indeed be used to play games online – Super Smash Bros. Brawl's multiplayer slide show did a fantastic job of putting this rumor to bed.%Gallery-178777%

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