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Stiq Figures, June 25 - July 1: Grim Fandango edition
Welcome to Stiq Figures, where the sales data is after the break and the posts don't matter. Every week, we take a look at, uh, something – meanwhile, the previous week's Japanese hardware sales figures are posted after the jump, and a discussion of said figures takes place in our comments. It may not be conventional, but it's a time-honored Joystiq tradition. Before Tim Schafer hit the jackpot in a Kickstarter campaign, he had a storied career as a designer for games such as Grim Fandango, a 1998 LucasArts adventure title for PC. The game, as seen above, follows the hilarious and creative journey of Manny Calavera, a travel agent uncovering corruption in the Land of the Dead.Grim Fandango borrows distinct style elements of film noir, which explains why many of the characters in the game smoke cigarettes. Interestingly enough, Schafer and company address the dirty habit in a footnote in the game's manual, seemingly to put the minds of players and parents at ease:"For those who are disturbed by the amount of smoking in Grim Fandango, we offer two reasons: 1) we wanted to be true to the film noir atmosphere, and 2) everybody in the game who smokes is DEAD. Think about it."
Stiq Figures, June 18 - 24: Crash n' Burn edition
Welcome to Stiq Figures, where the sales data is after the break and the posts don't matter. Every week, we take a look at, uh, something – meanwhile, the previous week's Japanese hardware sales figures are posted after the jump, and a discussion of said figures takes place in our comments. It may not be conventional, but it's a time-honored Joystiq tradition. Just a few short weeks ago, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick said he was "skeptical" of Nintendo's upcoming Wii U console. However, he did note that in regards to console launches, "if you get it right, it's a terrific time to launch a new IP."Eighteen years ago, Strauss Zelnick would have likely agreed with himself that launching a new IP on a new console was a good bet. At the time, Zelnick was CEO of Crystal Dynamics, a company that placed a significant amount of resources in Panasonic's 3DO video game console. In a February 1994 interview with the New York Times, Zelnick said that "one of the benefits of getting in early in the 32-bit environment is we have been able to achieve a position of market dominance, which has been quite profitable for us, not a disappointment."This was prior to Zelnick leaving Crystal Dynamics after the 3DO system launch was deemed a massive failure. One of the company's games that released for 3DO was Crash n' Burn (seen above), a combative racing title akin to the Twisted Metal series. Zelnick said Crash n' Burn "stops short of graphic violence," when asked about violence in video games.He added that "every editor, and I consider myself an editor, has a responsibility to society, and I realize that our games are sold to kids." Years later, Zelnick would become CEO of Take-Two, which is responsible for the Grand Theft Auto, Manhunt, and BioShock series of games.
Stiq Figures, June 4 - 10: Rainbow Six edition
Welcome to Stiq Figures, where the sales data is after the break and the posts don't matter. Every week, we take a look at, uh, something – meanwhile, the previous week's Japanese hardware sales figures are posted after the jump, and a discussion of said figures takes place in our comments. It may not be conventional, but it's a time-honored Joystiq tradition. In light of the recent Kickstarter project for the tactical military shooter Ground Branch, we're looking back at a game that helped define the genre: the original Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six game.Former Director of Production Design at Red Storm Entertainment Brian Upton shed light on the game's development history in a January 2000 postmortem feature on Gamasutra. Of the hundreds of ideas for the game stemmed from a weekend-long brainstorming session in fall 1996, Upton said that "the only one that we unanimously agreed we had to build was HRT - a game based on the FBI's Hostage Rescue Team."However, the game wasn't a pure adaptation of the Tom Clancy novel of the same name. In fact, Clancy "hadn't yet decided to make [HRT] the subject of his next novel." Since Clancy and the team at Red Storm Entertainment shared information on a regular basis, Upton said that "bringing the game in line with the book didn't involve too much extra work."One significant part of the book that was lost in translation is the ending, as the team finished development several months before Clancy completed the novel. Upton considered it "one of the pitfalls of parallel development."
Stiq Figures, May 14 - 20: He's heating up edition
Welcome to Stiq Figures, where the sales data is after the break and the posts don't matter. Every week, we take a look at, uh, something – meanwhile, the previous week's Japanese hardware sales figures are posted after the jump, and a discussion of said figures takes place in our comments. It may not be conventional, but it's a time-honored Joystiq tradition. There aren't many sports games like NBA Jam. Back when Michael Jordan was the king of the court, the 1993 Midway arcade classic was known for its tight controls, secret characters, zany dunks, and outrageous catch-phrases by announcer Tim Kitzrow. While Jordan wasn't in the game (he reached his own licensing agreement with the NBA in 1992, and Midway was unable to secure a deal with him), it was Scottie Pippen that brought his excellent three-point shots to the court alongside Chicago Bulls teammate Horace Grant.That is, Pippen's usually excellent three-point ability. NBA Jam creator Mark Turmell admitted in a 2008 interview with ESPN: The Gamer that Pippen's tendency to win close games was tuned down in certain circumstances. Specifically, when any Bulls player attempts a glorious last-second shot against Turmell's favorite team, the Detroit Pistons, a special piece of code in the game would average the shots out to be bricks.Turmell said, "There was the big competition back in the day between the Pistons and the Bulls, and since I was always a big Pistons fan, that was my opportunity to level the playing field." This is one case where any close loss against a friend can be reasonably blamed on the game.
Stiq Figures, May 7 - 13: I'mma can't use any of my dominoes edition
Welcome to Stiq Figures, where the sales data is after the break and the posts don't matter. Every week, we take a look at, uh, something – meanwhile, the previous week's Japanese hardware sales figures are posted after the jump, and a discussion of said figures takes place in our comments. It may not be conventional, but it's a time-honored Joystiq tradition. By now, Mario's cheerful, sing-song voice is as endemic to the character as his mustache and overalls. Sprightly proclamations of "It'sa me, Mario!" and the like have endeared voice actor Charles Martinet's work to the hearts and minds of millions, but it might surprise you to know that Martinet's first stint as the man behind the 'stache wasn't Super Mario 64. In fact, it wasn't a Nintendo game at all.Martinet's first appearance as the prolific plumber was actually Mario's Game Gallery, a digital collection of card and board games for DOS, Windows and Mac OS, developed by Presage Software and published by Interplay. Mario's Game Gallery predates Super Mario 64 by roughly a year, but as you can tell from the collection of sound files above, Martinet had already settled into a ridiculous, heartwarming and hilarious groove as Mario Mario.It's physically impossible to make it all the way through this video without laughing. In fact, it might be physically impossible just to make it all the way through this video.
Stiq Figures, April 30 - May 6: SG-1000 edition
Welcome to Stiq Figures, where the sales data is after the break and the posts don't matter. Every week, we take a look at, uh, something – meanwhile, the previous week's Japanese hardware sales figures are posted after the jump, and a discussion of said figures takes place in our comments. It may not be conventional, but it's a time-honored Joystiq tradition. For most of us who've grown up outside of Asia, Sega's history as a gaming hardware manufacturer begins with the Sega Master System, released on North American shores in June of 1986 to the tune of $200. In truth, the Sega Master System was actually the Sega Mark III, which itself was the third iteration of Sega's real first foray into hardware design, the SG-1000.The SG-1000 (an acronym of "Sega Game" 1000) was released in Japan on July 15, 1983 for ¥15,000, which at the time amounted to $62.48 USD, assuming an average exchange rate of ¥240.06 to the dollar. (Coincidentally, this was the also the day that Nintendo launched the Famicom.) Armed with a blistering 3.5 MHz CPU and two whole entire kilobytes of RAM, the SG-1000 was only mildly successful in Japan, Australia and New Zealand, but curiously saw much greater success in the piracy-infected Taiwanese market.North America, however, never saw an official SG-1000 release, although the Telegames Personal Arcade was released stateside and was capable of playing SG-1000 carts, had they somehow managed to make the trip across the Pacific. The SG-1000 Mark II was released a year later in 1984, sporting a redesigned case and identical components (sound familiar?). Nowadays, Mark I versions of the SG-1000 can go on eBay for as much as $1,500 – a good bit more than the 63 bucks it would have run you back in 1983.
Stiq Figures, April 23 - 29: Forgotten hero edition
Welcome to Stiq Figures, where the sales data is after the break and the posts don't matter. Every week, we take a look at, uh, something – meanwhile, the previous week's Japanese hardware sales figures are posted after the jump, and a discussion of said figures takes place in our comments. It may not be conventional, but it's a time-honored Joystiq tradition. There's a lot of noise going on about The Avengers this weekend, what with it having the most successful opening weekend in cinematic history and everything, but we thought we'd take this opportunity to remind everyone about a super hero they were forced to forget: The Sentry.The Sentry, in his time, was a superhero filled with "the power of one million exploding suns," and was arguably the most powerful living being in the Marvel universe. He was also Reed Richard's best friend, a confidant of the Fantastic Four and mentor to the Hulk. Peter Parker even won a Pulitzer Prize for a photograph he took of The Sentry, though neither Peter, nor Richard, nor any other hero from the Marvel continuum (save for the Hulk) remembered any of this.The reason being that, in order to defeat The Void, his greatest nemesis that also happened to be a manifestation of his subconscious, The Sentry used his immense powers to erase the memory of his existence from nearly everyone on the planet, including everyone at Marvel Comics, and those who had read about his adventures in the past. The Sentry only resurfaced when a virus in his brain caused him to subconsciously implant memories of his forgotten life into comic book writer Paul Jenkins.Once released from the debilitating grasp of the virus by Emma Frost, The Sentry became a member of, wouldn't you know it, The Avengers.
Stiq Figures, April 16 - 22: Digital distribution of yore edition
Welcome to Stiq Figures, where the sales data is after the break and the posts don't matter. Every week, we take a look at, uh, something – meanwhile, the previous week's Japanese hardware sales figures are posted after the jump, and a discussion of said figures takes place in our comments. It may not be conventional, but it's a time-honored Joystiq tradition. It's funny how Nintendo getting on-board with digital distribution is such big news. Granted, Nintendo may seem a bit late to the party when compared with Microsoft and Sony, but it's not like they were exactly pioneers of the medium either.We like to think that buying things digitally and either downloading or streaming them to our consoles is a modern invention, that it somehow classifies this era as futuristic or technologically advanced, but the truth is that digital distribution and stream-based gaming has been around since the dawn of time.Well, very nearly, at any rate. In 1981, the PlayCable system was introduced for the Intellivision, allowing cable television subscribers to download games (up to four whole kilobytes!) into a special cartridge. Two years later, the CVC GameLine service was launched for the Atari 2600, allowing subscribers to download games via 1200 baud modem into a massive, silver "Master Module" cartridge.If either of these services sound familiar, it's because the same basic premise was used just over 10 years later by the Sega Channel in 1994. So comparatively, when Microsoft launched the original Xbox Live Arcade in 2004, it was already 20 or so years behind the times.
Stiq Figures, April 9 - 15: Kirby edition
Welcome to Stiq Figures, where the sales data is after the break and the posts don't matter. Every week, we take a look at, uh, something – meanwhile, the previous week's Japanese hardware sales figures are posted after the jump, and a discussion of said figures takes place in our comments. Those interested in the minutiae of the Japanese gaming economy get the numbers they so desperately crave, and everyone else gets something (hopefully) interesting to end their week on. It may not be conventional, but it's a time-honored Joystiq tradition. The announcement of a Kirby 20th Anniversary collection for the Wii reminded us of one of our favorite little anecdotes from the early days of Nintendo's life in America. See, during the development of the first Kirby game, Hoshi no Kābī for the Game Boy, series creator Masahiro Sakurai and Shigeru Miyamoto had a disagreement. Despite the Game Boy's inability to display color, Sakurai saw Kirby as being pink, whereas Miyamoto envisioned a bright yellow Kirby.When it came time for Nintendo of America to localize Hoshi no Kābī as Kirby's Dream Land, the conflicting stories regarding Kirby's actual color resulted in the ghostly vissage you see above. Perhaps in an attempt to play it safe, or to reflect Kirby's actual color on the black and white Game Boy, everything from the box art to the television commercial featured a Kirby more akin to a Boo than the little pink puffball we've now grown to love.
Stiq Figures, April 2 - 8: Need for Cinema edition
Welcome to the inaugural installment of Stiq Figures, where the posts don't matter and the Japanese sales data is found after the break. As you'll recall, Stiq Figures is identical to the Japanese hardware sales report in every single way, save for its name. Even the time-honored tradition of making fun of Hollywood's terrible ideas has made the transition from old to new.We know that EA is shopping around the Need for Speed movie to various studios around Tinseltown – what we don't know is how cognizant it is of the fact that this movie has already been made five times. Then again, Hollywood doesn't seem to have a huge problem with making the same movie over and over again.
Japanese hardware sales, March 26 - April 1: Stiq Figures edition
Starting next week, the Japanese hardware sales report will be rebranded as "Stiq Figures," which we hope you'll agree is a hilarious and apt play on words with a little more spirit and personality. We spent literally minutes coming up with that during a bleary eyed, half-conscious PAX East morning meeting, so we're almost positive it's the best idea we've ever had.Don't worry though, everything else will be exactly the same: The post will still have absolutely nothing to do with Japanese hardware sales, except for the wildly interesting sales figures tucked away after the break.
Japanese hardware sales, March 19 - 25: April Fools' Day edition
When I was but a wee lad, my oldest sister Erin played an April Fools' joke on me by convincing my young, squishy mind that Sega had announced that they were going to stop making video games systems. Since we were a Genesis household and my love of Sonic was boundless, I was understandably upset. After a few minutes of supporting the lie, she shouted "April Fools'!" and then knocked the Star Crunch out of my tiny hands and ran away.Many, many years later in the fall of 2000, Erin and her husband gave me a Dreamcast for Christmas. Three months later, production of the Dreamcast had ceased.The moral of the story is this: Be careful what you joke about. Saying something, even when it's untrue, gives that idea power in the universe and makes it a more likely occurrence. Now, I'm not saying that my sister is responsible for Sega leaving the hardware business, but I am saying that ... actually no wait, that's exactly what I'm saying.
Japanese hardware sales, March 12 - 18: Mad Men edition
Tonight is the two-hour Mad Men season premier on AMC, and what better way to celebrate Our Mrs. Reynolds' long awaited return to prime-time television than by playing a YouTube-based pixel-art Choose Your Own Adventure game about the show? Conveniently, such a game has been embedded above for your enjoyment.For those of you who aren't current with the series, I should warn you that while satirical, Mad Men: The Game does contain minor spoilers, so you may want to hold off on playing until you're entirely caught up. Also, how can you not be caught up? You've had literally years to get up to speed. Get out of my office.
Japanese hardware sales, March 5 - 11: We now join our story already in progress edition
Now that GDC and SXSW are totally and completely over, things should be getting back to normal around here. Broadcast interruptions like last week's non-existent Japanese hardware sales post will be a thing of the past, at least until PAX East starts up three weeks from now.Rather than run last week's numbers, we're going to jump right back into our usual groove with the most current figures from Media Create. I will, however, give you a brief rundown of what you missed: Many people in Japan bought many things, some of which were related to video games. All purchases cost varying amounts of money and totals for the week were either slightly different than the previous week, or dramatically different, depending on what actually happened.There, see? All caught up. Let's get back at it:
Japanese hardware sales, February 20 - 26: Greatest idea ever edition
We're totally in love with the idea of creating fighting games based on other gaming IPs. Arc System Work's Persona 4 Arena is looking really solid, for instance, but if you'd asked us which gaming universe should be turned into a fighter, Persona wouldn't have been our first answer. This got us thinking, what other unlikely universe might make a totally rad fighting game?The answer, as we're sure you'll agree, is obvious: The complete works of Hayao Miyazaki. Can't you just see it? Princess Mononoke squares off against Nausicaä of the Valley in an all out, over the top, no-holds-barred battle for cinematic supremacy! Laputa Gardener Robot vs. Ō-Totoro! Kiki vs. Porco Rosso! Yubaba vs. Moro no Kimi! There can be Cat Bus DLC and everything. Hell, No Face is practically in BlazBlue already. Let's make this happen, Arc System Works.
Japanese hardware sales, February 13 - 19: Kasumi Ninja edition
"I saw it, so now you have to see it," is a common phrase around the Joystiq offices. The course of our daily work takes us to many strange and unexpected parts of the Internet, and often times throughout the day someone on staff will witness something so horrible that it must be shared in order to save their own sanity.Today, I've decided to extend that tradition to you, our beloved readers. While looking up pictures of the Atari Jaguar's monstrous controller to win an argument on Twitter, I stumbled across a fighting game I'd never heard of before: Kasumi Ninja. The game's muddy, generic graphics, Space Mutiny soundtrack and painfully faux-accented announcer are only the tip of this atrocity iceberg, and in order to free myself it, I must pass it on to you. I am so, so sorry.
Japanese hardware sales, February 6 - 12: Dragon Ball GT: Final Bout edition
Hearing about the greatest news ever yesterday got us waxing nostalgic on the history of Dragon Ball games. Sure, they're a fairly common occurrence nowadays, what with the series being a household name for more than a decade and everything, but there was once a time in the mid 1990s where the western world was so ignorant of Goku and friends that his games didn't even get released.Well, except for one: Dragon Ball GT: Final Bout was released for the PlayStation in 1997, a year after the series had debuted on American syndicated network television and a year before it would become the dominant force on Cartoon Network's Toonami programing block. Dragon Ball GT: Final Bout was so rare and so expensive that, at the time, it was cheaper to modify a PlayStation and import the Japanese version than to buy a second-hand North American copy. Unfortunately, as you can tell from the video above, it was one of the worst fighting games ever made.
Japanese hardware sales, January 30 - February 5: Love song edition
We talk a lot of trash about Valentine's Day because it's hilarious and easy, but in all honesty, there's nothing wrong with two people using the greeting-card holiday as an excuse to express their love for each other. To make up for our maliciousness, we want to help facilitate that lovin' by providing some nice background music for your romantic evening.Start off the night with the acoustic cover of Skrillex's Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites by Bear Cavalry embedded above. Once things get a little cozy, follow that up with this piano version of Intuition by Feist, and when the moment is right, throw on Glory Box by Portishead to shift the mood into overdrive. Leave that on repeat for as long as necessary, and then bring things back down with Bjork's All Is Full of Love. Now, get a room you two!
Japanese hardware sales, January 23 - 29: Crystal ball edition
By now, Super Bowl XLVI has finished and the victor has emerged victorious, their glimmering rings reflecting a light of shame into the hearts and souls of the defeated. This article was written much earlier in the day, however, so I'm going to use this as an opportunity to flex my fortune telling muscle and predict the outcome. You have my absolute word that this post will not be altered or edited in any way prior to it being posted.If I'm right, you owe me 50 bucks. If I'm wrong, and frankly when has that ever happened, I'll record an acoustic cover version of any song the commenters decide on, and post it as next week's hardware sales post. Ready?Based on the fact that Venus is in Pisces until February 8 and Mercury won't be in retrograde for another 35 days, I'm going to call the NY Giants as tonight's winners.
Japanese hardware sales, January 16 - 22: Forbidden love edition
His back slammed against the metal examination table, its ice-cold surface a stark contrast to the heat between them. The colonial marine's standard-issue helmet began to slip as she pushed him down, her claws lightly scratching his skin in an all-too-familiar fashion. The sensation filled him with lust, and shame, and when his helmet finally hit the floor the resulting clang reverberated throughout the halls of the still-sleeping ship."Not here," he whispered, his breath clouding in the humid, recycled air. "They'll catch us for certain, we'll both be killed.""SCREEEEEEEEEE," she cooed back, extending her ovipositor and whispering into his ear with her second mouth. "Screeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee."
