mental manifestations

My sister gave me The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks for Christmas, and I have been fastidiously trying to complete it since the holiday. The whole concept of the game — conducting a train and restoring train tracks connected to ancient spirits — is rather odd, but Nintendo has made the adventure entertaining. The game is enjoyable, but its experience is rather detaching.

My personal favorite incarnation of the Zelda series, and also my choice for best video game of all time, is The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. The game is over a decade old now and was released on hardware that is considerably dated by today’s standards. No Zelda game comes close to its standard save for its sequel, Majora’s Mask, which is a close contender.

The game’s plot and pacing is one of mystery and excitement that really makes the player personally vested in the adventure. The introduction to the game is dark and mysterious that suddenly forces the player to immediately take the role of Link, the Hero of Time. Little background is revealed about Link and the game, but it sets up a responsibility that is almost overwhelming that is slowly discovered as the game progresses. Once the player progresses enough, the plot becomes more comfortable and familiar while retaining the sense of new adventure throughout the game.

The other strong point of the game is the time-travelling concept, one of the most common science fiction plot devices, that really shapes the entire adventure. The player initially controls Link as a child, and then is suddenly forced into adulthood (through a seven-year slumber of time travel magic) to save Hyrule. The evil that has spread over seven years changes locations and their inhabitants, and the player has to time-travel back and forth to restore the balance to the world.

Each step that the player takes and every completed task brings about a sense of accomplishment. The game creates an emotional evoking environment, a “big picture” painting of the universe, that becomes the player’s personal world. Actions that the player does in the past affects situations in the future, and it’s done in a very compartmentalized manner. The game’s presentation treads lightly on the cinematic front and holds back from overdoing it so that it doesn’t detract from a full interactive gaming experience.

Few games come close to the emotional experience of Ocarina of Time but often remove the player from full immersion by providing much more backstory that creates something akin to an interactive movie instead. What I think makes it the greatest game above all is that it is the archetype of good versus evil without the complex grey area of morality that other games have. The game becomes an emotional investment right from the start drawing you in until the ending scene that leaves you with a breath of relief and wonderment of everything that you had done before.

Batman: Arkham Asylum is one of the most impressive games I have played in a very long time. Right when I played through the demo, I could tell this was a game that was definitely needs to be played. After garnering such acclaim from every video game review source, it is not surprising that this game deserves so much praise.

One of the best things about this game is that it is a very original story written by Paul Dini, a veteran Batman writer whose work includes Batman: The Animated Series (a very good and mature cartoon series from the 1990′s). Voice actors from the animated series also reprise their respective roles in this game. Kevin Conroy, whose has been the longstanding voice of any animated Batman incarnation, instantly makes the iconic hero’s presence that much greater the moment you hear it. It stands out right from the start. Opposite Kevin Conroy is Mark Hamill as The Joker who also manages to really show you what kind of mania and destruction he is going to cause right as the game takes off. The moment these two characters go at it, you already know that you’re in for a ride. Arleen Sorkin lends her voice as Harley Quinn once again, and the interplay between her, Batman, and Joker really sets up the entire adventure.

Most free roaming games I’ve played haven’t been too thrilling (except for the Grand Theft Auto series and Mafia) mainly because they don’t really take advantage of this huge environment they have available to them. The entire game takes place on Arkham Island (which houses various buildings of Arkham Asylum) keeping Batman confined until the game is over. This makes the game’s entire storyline more coherent because it creates a sense that the madness on the island has to be stopped. Had the game taken place in Gotham City, the game would probably let the played walk around to do whatever until he was ready to take on a new mission; it’s a feeling of the typical crime-fighting night for Batman with a detached “epic storyline” to it. On Arkham Island, there are no random civilians to save or crimes to be stopped as you roam around. Arkham Asylum gives you purpose and meaning for every action you take. Every subplot is just part of the larger story at hand. Nothing ever feels out of place in the game from the trove of classic Batman foes to the hidden trophies scattered around the island with clues from The Riddler.

The real gem of the game is that it puts the player in full control of Batman. There is no walking around and fighting you way through each “level” (a term relative to 2-D side-scrollers but 3-D games tend to do as well) to get to an end boss and move on. You can sneak up on foes and silently take them out, utilize a variety of bat gadgets, glide through the air, and perform all sorts of combative moves. The game is more focused on what Batman needs to perform rather than being designed as a bunch of discrete events cobbled together by a crippled, half-baked gameplay that you see in other typical games. This is especially true of movie tie-ins which do a bad job of rehashing one work into an entirely different medium. The line, “It’s not who I am underneath, but it’s what I do that defines me,” (Batman Begins) is an appropriate quote for this game. Thankfully, Batman’s suit is also not invincible against gunfire. A quick barrage of bullets will take you out which emphasizes the stealthy role Batman needs to take when the inmates are running the asylum. As a classic “good guys win, bad guys lose” deal, the game is made to set you up for victory, but you have to put in the effort for it, and the experience never feels cheapened because of it.

Arkham Asylum is a complete Batman experience. Everything little detail of the game blends and flows together so well that it is hard to find almost any flaw. It does Batman a huge sense of justice because it perfectly captures the epitome of his character. It is one of those rare, well developed video games that can take a concept, transform it, and deliver a package of art.

I think I’ve become one of those so called “casual gamers” which has become a huge market now ever since Nintendo changed the whole direction of gaming once again.I can almost never find the time to play games anymore. I spend some of my time at work or being in bed by a certain time to be awake for it. The other part of my time is spent in tai chi, kung fu, or helping out with the youth classes. Every so often, I need to be at certain places which takes up even more time.

In contrast, college afforded me a lot more time. I did not do much outside of class and other normal club activities so I had plenty of time to run amuck. It was after my high school graduation when I really started getting into PC gaming and that carried into my first and second year of college. It stayed on in my later years of study but slowly diminished since I had to spend more time on schoolwork. After moving back home and getting a job, I just felt a huge need to “go outside” and not spend all day sitting on my butt indoors.

I realized that I wanted to spend (relatively) more time with people, but I have also decided to give up a lot on games. I used to be really into games but was never really hardcore as some people are. When I look at the games on the market now, I don’t see anything worth playing anymore. There are few gems here and there, but those only come by every so often. My personal tastes in games depends on what design the game has, and a winning combination (i.e. hits of the year) are hard to come by.

I have always liked and believed in Nintendo because their philosophy is all about gaming which they seem to understand very well. They know that games should be about the players and creates their games and systems accordingly (even it ends up being a flop). I believe that is why there wasn’t anything worth playing on the Nintendo Wii or Nintendo DS initially. They were so drastically different from the typical gaming standard (which only targeted those hardcore gamers), but they opened up a whole new world including a huge niche market that was so untapped.

When I actually do pick up a game these days, I can’t really stand playing it for more than a few hours. Unless a game is really that good, I start to get restless because I just need to get up and walk around or go outside for some air. It may just be that my apartment is congested, but most of the games I play these days don’t do anything more for me. I can never recapture that same feeling after you play through an epic game after a few times. There is nothing left once the replay value is gone, and I have been trying to relive that experience in various remakes or ports of games I played ages ago. I’m not terribly sad since most games aren’t worth my time anymore. I’ve learned to grow up and move on to better things gaming or otherwise.