videogames

Alongside the Lucas amiibo figure for Smash, at least in Japan, is a pleasant surprise: MOTHER 3 is finally coming to Virtual Console! At least, in Japan. But, while I appreciate having actual honest-to-goodness EarthBound merchandise I can actually buy in a US shop, I should also note that a VC release of MOTHER 3 basically means any hopes for a localization are dead in the water.

Yesterday I found myself made to play the latest in a long series of fighting games based off young adult Japanese comic book series, most of which I don't particularly care for. It felt like what I imagine non-Nintendo fans feel trying to play Super Smash Brothers, except in a world where Mario never was a household name. The game itself, "Jump Super Plus Victory Versus Ultra Stars" (or whatever), I wasn't particularly interested in to begin with, and it didn't redeem itself with gameplay.

NFC figurine games are a new type of game, involving a line of figurines with RFID tags embedded within and typically a proprietary hardware NFC peripheral. Scanning these figures into the game typically allows the player to play as the character depicted on the figure, saving the character's progress within the RFID tag in the toy, among other ancillary gameplay benefits.

About a week ago I downloaded a mobile application called Flappy Bird. Now, I normally don't touch cellphone games, but this one was different. Why? Because it had no in-app purchases. This alone struck me as odd; but the lack of microtransactions alone was enough to sucker me in. The result was a quite difficult tapping game with a name that sounds like a certain Rovio game and pipes that look like a certain Nintendo game. But it was very challenging and engaging, so I kept it on my phone.

Upcoming furvor over the new console hardware has boiled over into the Internet's usual escape resovoirs of arguments and hipster contrarian counter-arguments. Specifically, the idea that console hardware will now attach digital-style, non-transferrable licensing to packaged products, ostensibly to counteract actions on behalf of certain retailers to cut game publishers and developers out of their revenue stream through selling used games. More specifically: screw GameStop, we're not letting you give your games to other people.

Yesterday, notoriously controversial (for no real reason) YouTube video producer Anita Sarkeesian released the first episode of her "Tropes vs. Women in Videogames" series. For those who don't remember, this was a series which was funded by Kickstarter and resulted in one of the largest Internet backlashes on record: "Shitstorm Picard"*, ranking a 10 on The Weather Channel's proprietary TROLL:CON circlejerk impact index.

Grey-market importation is a very important right of consumers which allows them to purchase and view works not available in their own territory without the permission of the copyright owner. This is a good thing, especially when there's no real reason for a delay between countries. Many times regions get delayed or inferior releases of content simply because of arbitrary reasons put in place by the owner. This is most a concern in countries like Australia, which are treated like the rest of Asia despite not having any language issues which would preclude a more prompt release.