Up until now, Goichi Suda, aka Suda51, has been making video games for the future.



Flower, Sun and Rain relayed a nonsense plot to American gamers last year through the use of boring, number-related riddles. It also dared them to question the very reason they play games with its characters' long-winded, often self-referential soliloquies.

Metacritic: 54

Killer7 treated its audience to an ultra-violent, ultra-confusing tale of multiple personalities centered around infinitely respawning, suicidal, invisible zombies. It also united gameplay and plot by allowing players to guide themselves along a critically misunderstood rail system.

Metacritic: 74

No More Heroes exposed players to an open, yet barren Grand Theft Auto-inspired world of sexual innuendo and mindless violence. It also showed players that it's okay to not have fun in a video game through its use of mundane but satirical mini-games and side-missions.

Metacritic: 83

Let's be honest: Suda51's games are not fun. They're hardly even games in the traditional sense. They are, however, where games should be going.

Debate over whether or not video games are art aside, it's obvious the medium has a unique potential to provide its audience with experiences that can't be found anywhere else. The resolutions to each of Suda's three titles deemed "good" enough to make it to America leave the player with mixed emotions. They're not emotions regarding whether or not the game was good or long enough to justify our purchase, but emotions that make us wonder about life and the medium of video games itself.

We don't go into serious movies, critically acclaimed for their acting or themes or messages about society, to be merely entertained. We go watch these movies to be moved, or intrigued, or impressed. Unfortunately our preferred medium has the word "games" in its name, and no one wants to play a boring game.

Suda's titles cling to some gameplay traditions, but they fail to entertain. Flower, Sun and Rain has the player searching a guide book for answers to cryptically worded puzzles, but it's so traditionally boring to play and ugly to watch. Killer7 allows players to fire guns at glowing weak points and build stats to earn new abilities, but players are restricted to rails and are punished for backtracking by an endless horde of invisible enemies trying to blow them up. No More Heroes forces players to explore a bland, empty world and repeat mindless fights, which consist of little more than button-mashing, in order to reach mindless boss fights, which consist of little more than button-mashing.

These games aren't fun, but Suda is obviously getting "better" with each new release according to Metacritic; "better" meaning giving in to modern gameplay trends. Suda's titles have inspired cult followings that struggle to express why it is they love his creations, but it should be obvious after experiencing each one that they often something unique that we can only hope future releases can replicate more frequently and efficiently.

Unfortunately, it wouldn't be crazy to assume this month's No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle will clearly mark the point that Suda's knack for bizarre, existential games begins to diminish. Don't be surprised when the game ends up with a Metacritic average in the high 80s.

Sure, it'll be great to have a new, and enjoyable, reason to turn on the Wii again, but if Suda pulls out on making games that really make you think, who will pick up where he leaves off?

[Check out my blog BOLDSTATE for more of my views on everything video games.]

I’ve said before that Professor Layton and the Curious Village was the best game of 2008, but that’s obviously my opinion, especially when you consider heavyweights like Metal Gear Solid 4 and Grand Theft Auto IV were also released that year. While big sites were debating over which of the big games deserved their big “Game of the Year” award, I was trying to decide if I enjoyed Curious Village more than World of Goo and if the MOTHER 3 fan translation should be eligible for consideration. This year, I considered submitting to the “game of the year” craze, but it occurred to me that no one cares or should care. It’s not because I’m just one guy writing for a small site but because the honor is so broad that it loses all of its meaning.

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves appears to be receiving this year’s award from many outlets but I’ve never played the game and never had any desire to do so. The award means nothing to me, and it shouldn’t mean anything to you.



“Game of the Year” implies that there was a consensus among the staff of an outlet that this one game is better than every other game that came out that year. I imagine it’s left up to little more than a vote and maybe a bit of debate, but that isn’t representative of a staff’s opinion. What if some of them hated Uncharted 2 or didn’t even play it? A simple vote doesn’t convey that, but this only sheds light on a bigger issue that plagues all attempts to rank video games.

Outlets are always sure to make it clear that just because one game gets an 8 and another gets a 9, that’s not an outright claim that one is better than the other. Yet, when the year ends, they lay it all out on the table and explicitly state that this one game is better than all the rest. In the end, it’s just a culmination of the staff’s opinions, but I think this honor loses its meaning when it’s filtered and processed, usually for the sole purpose of gathering more traffic. Listing the runners-up accomplishes the job that should be done, shedding light on a year’s worth of quality games, but the big “Game of the Year” title seems to devalue all of the games involved.

Unless you agree with the result, a “Game of the Year” doesn’t represent your opinion, and that’s fine, but it may not represent some of the people tasked with awarding the honor either, and that seems counter-intuitive to me.

[And for the record, I honestly can't decide what my favorite game of 2009 is. You would think Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box would clinch it for me, but I had a lot of fun with Borderlands' co-op, Modern Warfare 2's multiplayer, coin-collecting in New Super Mario Bros. Wii, and being immersed in Silent Hill: Shattered Memories. Of course, those were all released in the latter half of the year and are still on my mind because of how recently I played them, but that's getting into a topic for another day... :P ]

[Check out my blog BOLDSTATE for more of my views on everything video games.]

Demoman is a feature in which I make (incredibly harsh) assumptions about upcoming games based upon their (horrible) demos, while making observations about their purpose and importance.

Today�s victims: My Life as a Darklord, World of Goo, and Pokemon Rumble.

These demos are a bit unique. My Life as a Darklord and World of Goo have been out for months but have just received demos on the Wii Shop Channel, making them the first WiiWare demos Nintendo has released, along with NyxQuest and Bit.Trip Beat. They�re also quite good, which is a change from majority of the DS demos lazily thrown onto the Nintendo Channel.

These three demos are also unique in the way they present their gameplay. They each give the player a taste of what it�s actually like to play the game rather than an isolated fragment of a level.

My Life as a Darklord



A spin-off of a spin-off where the bad guys are the heroes, My Life as a Darklord is a strategy game set in Final Fantasy�s Crystal Chronicles universe. Your goal is to protect the dark crystal atop your evil tower from pesky adventurers by building trap-filled floors and filling them with classic Final Fantasy critters.

Most demos would throw a boring tutorial at you explaining the game�s mechanics before leaving you to fend for yourself in a single level. Darklord, however, has its cast acknowledge that you�re playing a demo, but starts off as you would expect the full versions of most higher-end download games to begin.

You�re presented with a world map and the ability to use karma points earned in battle to expand your tower and level up your monsters. There isn�t much to do at first, but as you win battles, you earn access to different floors and monsters and the points to build more and increase their strength.

There�s a point where you would assume the demo should end, but it continues, presenting you with several more levels.

World of Goo



Much like Darklord, the World of Goo demo presents you with access to the world map where you unlock more and more levels, where the goal is to build structures around various obstacles to save as many goo balls as possible. The game�s uniquely-styled cutscenes play in between levels and you can unlock the World of Goo Corporation side game, which challenges you to to build the tallest tower possible with extra goo balls saved in the regular levels. This invites players to return to previous levels to top their high scores so they can have more goo balls to build with. There are also OCD challenges, which task players to beat levels in as few moves as possible.

The demo ends before you can complete the latter half of the first world, but by the time it�s over, you have experienced what it�s like to actually play the full version of World of Goo (one of 2008�s best games) and not just a couple examples of its basic gameplay.

Pokemon Rumble



It screams cheaply thrown together attempt to cash in on Pokemon fans early on, but Pokemon Rumble actually is quite deep for a fifteen dollar download, and its demo allows you to experience that.

Rumble is a beat-em-up featuring wind-up doll versions of pokemon competing in a free-for-all competition. You start off as a lowly rattata, quickly eliminated from the contest, but you�re given access to half a dozen levels to earn new pokemon and gears, which you can use to upgrade their abilities.

The levels are pretty straight forward point A to point B affairs with a themed assortment of pokemon in between. Occasionally a pokemon will topple over after being defeated, allowing you to add it to your party. Your team grows quickly, so you�ll always be using different and progressively stronger monsters.

Rumble doesn�t give off a very good first impression considering the graphics are noticeably toned down, many of the sound effects are taken from the Game Boy games, and the game play consists of relentless button mashing, but once you realize that the demo allows you to play through numerous levels, building and strengthening a team of dozens, you�ll find the gameplay is actually quite addicting.

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What makes each of these demos work so well is the fact that they offer you a glimpse of what it�s like to play the full game, not just a fraction of one of the gameplay mechanics. My Life as a Darklord�s demo could have easily consisted of a tutorial and a single level. Same for World of Goo and Pokemon Rumble. It�s pretty easy to summarize the mechanics of each, but games are more than just mechanics.

What you do in between levels often defines a game. Combat in most RPGs gets dull and monotonous pretty quickly. It�s the customization of your party where the real decision-making usually comes in, but just allowing a player to go through a few battles without being able to feel what it�s like to grow and improve doesn�t sell a game. Demos should sample a final product, not a gameplay mechanic.


[Check out my blog BOLDSTATE for more of my views on everything video games.]