JETPACK JOYRIDE and the essence of bullshit

I hate the coins from the Super Mario games.

Even when they were born they are merely a vestige from the arcade days of endless gameplay. When Super Mario Bros. introduced the idea of a game with an ending, the coins were merely mending the gap from the concept of playing a something to beat the score. Now, despite the fact games have fully embraced the idea of chasing an end goal, those coins have never disappeared. As we talk about the benefits of applying game mechanics to our real lives, we started to recognize these coins as the most basic achievement unit. Coins are the atoms that form achievements.

The reason why I hate coins is that they are too easy to use. In both games and real life, coins can trivialize the concept of gamification. They blurry the line and, instead of enhancing your experience, game mechanics become an end in itself. That’s the exact point gamification starts being bullshit.

Jetpack Joyride is a bullshit game. There is no better way to put it. Basically, it’s Canabalt without the elegant simplicity, without the context and meaning, without the balanced gameplay that encouraged the player to gain momentum… but with many things Canabalt did not need. Coins and ranks and purchasable items and crap.

Waiting to Respawn: How Draw Something Fixed Co-op

Everybody thinks their friends are awesome. Having a goal, punching it in the throat, and getting shit done is awesome, too. And clearly, based on the fact that you’re reading this on a website dedicated to video games, they’re pretty

Leaving Japan: What strategies should Nintendo adopt for the Wii U

There is trouble brewing for the Old Gods. On April 10th, Sony has released some very interesting numbers, announcing a ¥520 billion loss and an operating loss of ¥95 billion. It is the operating loss that matters, for it relates

ZIGGURAT and the end of the world during coffee break

A wise man once wrote what I believe to be one of the core tenets anyone who calls himself a game reviewer should have in mind: if you want to know if a game design works, imagine that game with an endless mode. It’s one of those advices so simple and obvious only a genius could have thought of.

And now that genius went off to make his own endless game, ZIGGURAT.

It’s one of those things that leaves me both excited for the results and frustrated about my own inadequacies. Just like when Erik Wolpaw, who used to write hilariously astute reviews and commentary on games in his Old Man Murray website, went off to write arguably one of the best videogames ever made: Portal.

The result is that Tim Rogers, the number one defender of friction in games, made what is, together with Canabalt, the game with the most friction you can find on the iPhone. ZiGGURAT is a genre great game with so much friction I have the impression my iPhone is rumbling even though it lacks a rumble feature.

MACHINARIUM and Steel-coated Contemplation

Movies – and by extension, games – are afraid of silence. They are deadly afraid the silence will bore the audience – and a bored audience will walk away. In response, movies and games are now coated with noise, music, action… anything to deter that silence. In the end, they confuse content with busyness.

Machinarium is a game where you play as little robot trying to do some good, correct some wrongs and solve some puzzles as they come along. It is a game very much like a Hayao Miyazaki cartoon, with its whimsical graphics, charming characters, moody soundtrack – and, yes, the silence: various quiet “empty” moments where characters just stand in contemplation. Or maybe that was me? I’m not sure anymore.

Grand Theft Auto III Coming to Mobile Platforms This Fall

Grand Theft Auto III turns ten this month, so its fitting that Rockstar release the game on the only big platforms its yet to inhabit (aside from anything Nintendo, of course): the iOS and Android. GTA III marked the developer’s

Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP Review

It’s not a game. It’s a “psycho-social audiovisual experiment”. Yeah… anyways… SUPERBROTHERS: SWORD & SWORCERY EP is a videogame developed and published by Superbrothers and Capybara Games for the iPhone and the iPad. The iPad version was played for the

Crimson: Steam Pirates – Review

Like Sid Meier’s Pirates but, you know, actually fun. Click the picture to read more!

EA's Riccitiello defends Wii U, proclaims previous console cycles dead.

Remember the good old days when you could count on camping out for a new console at least once every five years?  Those days may be gone.  In a recent interview with James Brightman at industrygamers.com, EA CEO John Riccitiello

A Sign of Things To Come

“What people want are simpler, more accessible games that are easier to play and solve”–Iwata, 2003 You probably had no idea of what Iwata meant at the time. None of us could. Who could predict the DS, the Wii–who could