The 1UP Show: Episode 02/08/08

In this episode: Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Lost Odyssey, Barkley Shut Up And Jam Gaiden, Nintendo… On Smash Bros: nope… i still don’t get it’s appeal. It’s expected to be one of the biggest selling games of all time… and I’m completelly unimpressed by it. I don’t get it. Everything just seems so 80s-90s to me. Which makes me think: Nintendo’s doing what it’s been doing in the past too, in the meanwhile Sony’s in the same position it was with it’s Playstation… except now MS is in that position too: by that I mean I think I once read that when it started it’s Playstation brand it differentiated itself by catering to a more mature audience. I’m totally behind that. It pains me to see the huge success of the Wii because I know that’s not resources that will go into deeper games, games talking about choices, life, death, relationships, consequences… but then again that’s why I’m in such a tiny minority :D Most people just want out of games fun little thingies where they do something and something on the screen reacts, little reflex diversion, while I expect from games works of art, great stories, moving cinematics, complex plots, mind twisting concepts…

As for Lost Odyssey: I had my hopes up for a moment that it’s a more mature audience targeted tittle, hoping it touches on subjects as for example the loneliness of such a long lifespan, which it probably does, but then I didn’t hear anything at all about choices, and heard about dying fighting bosses: not only do I hate the concept of bosses, but also the whole "trial&error" approach totally takes me out of the game: unless well justified by the game like Planescape how can I live an epic experience of the character when I know that if this was real life he would have died many times already. I understand dying as a punishment for somebody doing all the wrong things, but for somebody doing the right things but missing by 10% it just means that that character’s story just shouldn’t have existed. So, I’m sorry to say even this hope faded and I have pretty much no big mature rpgs to look forward to that would promisse choices: if all I’m getting is a super linear generic experience (as oposed to my very own) then I might be better off watching a movie or reading a book.

PS: oh, and it looks to me like you don’t have the option of playing like a solo main character which is to me a downer that I constantly have to not only take care of 3 characters but also can’t identify (seeing as I’m not a 3-way split personality… just one more complex one)