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• Mega64's Movie Adaptation of Shadow of the Colossus Possibly Better than Sony's

  I hate to ruin your day, but Sony is making a Shadow of the Colossus movie--the news is a few weeks old, actually. So how, exactly, is Hollywood planning on handling such a beautiful, understated game? About as well as you would think. I'm pretty sure all I need to do is quote Variety's The Cut Scene blog to give you a full understanding of how the final product will most likely turn out: I understand the folks working on the project are planning to have some of the characters who appear only momentarily in the game, such as those who try to track down and stop Wander, play bigger roles in the film. And despite the game's somewhat "artsy" cred, they're hoping "Shadow" will be a "Lord of the Rings"-style fantasy tentpole. The silver lining to this ugly little cloud comes in the form of a video by gaming pranksters Mega64, who were undoubtedly inspired by Sony's unfortunate announcement. While I'm sure Sony will throw millions more dollars into their own adaptation, there's no denying that far more entertainment can be found in the group's 2-minute take on this PS2 classic. Video after the cut. Read More... Posted Apr 21 2009, 09:30 PM by Bob Mackey with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: mega 64, sony, shadow of the colossus, movies, bob mackey

• Shadow of the Colossus: First Blood

  This weekend, I did a bit of shopping, visited my parents, and destroyed two idols the size of skyscrapers. Yes, I have drawn my first blood (or some kind of black ichor, anyway) from Shadow of the Colossus, and it's been as much fun as a naked pagan dance. My previous assessment of the first Colossi battle was a little off. The first Colossi battle is a tutorial battle—of sorts. It's just not a very easy one. You're expected to learn and perfect the basics of climbing, stabbing, and shimmying. Otherwise you don't stand a chance against the second Colossi, which is three times as large as the first and has twice as many hooves to flatten you with. The sink-or-swim approach of Wander's first real fight is a clever way to bypass modern gaming's overzealous hand-holding, though it took me a while to realise I would get better if I tried. I was just initially scared to keep trying. I'm not even sure why I harboured that fear. Who was going to laugh at me for my failures? The shadowy Gods flitting near the ceiling of the Temple of Worship? Wander, who wouldn't change his facial expression if you dropped a cinder block on his foot? Agro? Wander's dead girlfriend/wife? I eventually realised I was being silly, and took up the controller again. Read More... Posted Apr 20 2009, 08:16 PM by Nadia Oxford with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: super mario bros 3, shadow of the colossus, ps2, mega man x, nadia oxford, secret of mana, Suikoden ii

• Shadow of the Colossus: First Impressions

  Fear not. Shadow of the Colossus is a pretty epic title, but I won't run to the computer and bang out a report every time I actually get Agro to run in the direction I want him to—though if you ask me, that's an accomplishment in itself. First impressions are fun to read, though, so I will accommodate the good readers of 61FPS. It probably won't surprise you when I say the presentation in this game is absolutely gorgeous. I usually give an opening cinematic ten seconds to please me before I mash the Start button, but when I sat back and watched Wander's ponderous but purposeful journey to the Temple, I felt something familiar pull at me. Like I was watching a favourite sequence from a well-loved movie. Various flashes of imagery and sound in this game already remind me of The Neverending Story, a book that never fails to instill me with a sense of solemn adventure despite multiple readings. Doubtlessly you already know that Shadow of the Colossus features a quiet, calming atmosphere that stands to be butchered by Hollywood, so I'll talk a bit about how it plays. What you need to know: this game is creaming me. Read More... Posted Apr 08 2009, 03:06 PM by Nadia Oxford with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: the legend of zelda, playstation 2, shadow of the colossus, nadia oxford

• Time For Me To Play Shadow of the Colossus

  From the Department of “Oh God, Why?” comes word of a Shadow of the Colossus movie. Hollywood has yet to get a game movie right, and there's no immediate reason to decide that the movie based on this Playstation 2 masterpiece will be any different. In fact, Justin Marks, the talented hero responsible for Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li will be penning the script. May as well hunker down in the fallout shelter with your Civil Defence helmet pulled over your head. Feel free to sigh: that weary, defeated feeling that comes with most game movie announcements is no doubt familiar by now. What's especially sad is that a Shadow of the Colossus movie truly stands to be a heartbreaking waste of the source material. It's a game that thrives on its sparse atmosphere and quiet but riveting heroics. Sadly, Hollywood requires by law for action movies to waste approximately five words per second, and God only knows how it classifies video game movies. I suspect the categorization involves a filing cabinet marked “FOR AUTISTICS.” The Shadow of the Colossus movie is likely going to be very loud and it might contain jokes about horse boners. Admittedly, I am talking partially out of my bum. I have never played Shadow of the Colossus, but reading this dire news has driven me to bloody well start. Read More... Posted Apr 07 2009, 08:33 PM by Nadia Oxford with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: playstation 2, shadow of the colossus, game movies, nadia oxford

• Super Secret Castle Discovered in Shadow of the Colossus

  The folks at Team ICO Gamers (whatever that is) have used an emulator in order to discover a structure in Shadow of the Colossus that didn't make it into the final game. For years Shadow of the Colossus players have wondered what lies in the Eastern section of the map. Many suggested that this part of the map was host to the lands shown in the intro scenes of the game. What no one imagined was that it was home to something more mysterious. Video after the jump: Read More... Posted Feb 26 2009, 01:00 PM by Cole Stryker with | with no comments Filed under: shadow of the colossus, ico, cole stryker, easter egg, gamesetwatch

• Go West! Red Dead Redemption and How to Get Cowboys and Indians Right

  By the time videogames had evolved beyond batting a ball back and forth across a digital net, the Western had already lost much of its cultural currency. The Lone Ranger’s audience had ridden off into the sunset, replaced by minds and eyes hungry for space instead of the frontier. That’s why we have Spacewar! in 1961 and not Stagecoach!. The last quarter of the 20th century’s appetite for science fiction is most certainly why Bald Space Marine is the icon he is in 2009’s gaming landscape, but I don’t think it fully explains why games have yet to produce a spectacular Western. Why is it that after decades of creation, there isn’t a game about cowboys sitting on Top One Hundred Games of All Time lists? Why is Oregon Trail the entire canon of frontier gaming? Rockstar’s Red Dead Revolver seemed like a contender before it released in 2004. The game certainly sold well, one and a half million copies according to publisher Take-Two, but its critical reception was lukewarm. Despite Red Dead’s grand narrative ambitions — bounty hunting protagonist Red Harlow and his quest for revenge are Louis L’Amour vintage — and seemingly fitting open world play, it wasn’t the defining videogame Western it could have been. Now, it could have been the game’s troubled development that kept it from greatness. It started as a Capcom game in 2000, stalled out, and was sold to Rockstar, where it apparently became a Frankenstein’s monster of legacy code and newer features. I think the real problem is that the Grand Theft Auto-styled open world is not the foundation for a great Western. Read More... Posted Feb 04 2009, 04:00 PM by John Constantine with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, capcom, rockstar, shadow of the colossus, team ico, grand theft auto, spacewar!, take two, Red dead revolver, trico, Oregon trail, red dead redemption

• Flower - A Zen de Blob?

  thatgamecompany's long-awaited "Zen game" Flower is finally being released on the Playstation Network next week, having been originally teased way back at the Tokyo Game Show in 2007. So far the game has caused all who've witnessed it to find themselves unable to accurately describe what the "game" is, only that it is captivating. VentureBeat's Dean Takahashi was recently treated to a demonstration by Creative Director Jenova Chen. While it is still nowhere near as telling as an actual hands-on experience with the game, it is most definitely insightful. Video after the break: Read More... Posted Feb 03 2009, 11:59 AM by Derrick Sanskrit with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: playstation 3, derrick sanskrit, shadow of the colossus, psn, de blob, flower, thatgamecompany, jenova chen

• When Video Games Make Us Sniffle

  It's all right to cry. Crying takes the sad out of you. Anyone else remember Rosey Grier serenading us while wearing a very groovy collar? He taught us that it's okay to weep when we're feeling sad, because even big boys feel down in the dumps sometimes. Gamers have taken his song to heart, shuffling and sniffling when bad things happen to good game characters. Video games and emotional expression have shifted monumentally: our fathers didn't cry for Donkey Kong, doomed to fall four storeys and crack his skull open over and over like some simian Sisyphus. But according to Roger Moore, who reviewed the indigestable Max Payne in the Orlando Sentinel, gamers have never cried at a game's story, because game stories never give gamers a reason to cry. This, of course, is false: denying that gamers have ever cried means denying the River of Aerith, which was formed from the tears of RPG fans when--well, you know. I do have to admit that I'm hard-pressed to remember specific instances when a game's story made me weepy. Don't get me wrong, I bawl pretty easily, but mostly because of something that happened in a book ("Dammit Colour-Me-Elmo, why can't I stay in your lines? Sob sob!") or a movie. I know I'm the exception here, but  games just don't seem to touch me in the same way as often. Read More... Posted Oct 20 2008, 07:33 PM by Nadia Oxford with | with 16 comment(s) Filed under: shadow of the colossus, final fantasy vi, mother 3, max payne, nadia oxford, game moves, sad games

• Japan Scares Me: Tokyo Game Show Rising, Strangeness, and Panty-shot Beat ‘Em Ups

  Does it ever. Japan has me trembling in my delicate booties. Typically it’s just one thing or another that gets me quaking in abject terror: a bizarre fan-made video here, a witch molestation game there. Today, Japan’s working overtime. Gaming exists, at the Japanese moment, in a state of flux. Traditional gaming appears to be dwindling – way back in June 2007, Screen Digest predicted that 89% of Japanese households would own a Nintendo DS, a number that will likely need to be increased after the DSi releases later this year – while simultaneously thriving thanks to Capcom’s Monster Hunter Portable juggernaut. Major publishers continue to consolidate while the nation’s auteur creators start crafting more and more games to suit Western tastes and flock to Western publishing houses. Hell, the Xbox 360, an American console, outsold the PS3 throughout September. Things are topsy-turvy over there. It’s enough to make a man skittish, especially with the Tokyo Game Show due to start in just forty-eight hours. Read More... Posted Oct 07 2008, 05:00 PM by John Constantine with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, playstation 3, nintendo ds, xbox 360, wii, psp, shadow of the colossus, ico, fumito ueda, team ico, chrono trigger, tokyo game show, japan scares me, dsi

• Five Games That Will Be Awesome to Remake in LittleBigPlanet

  Ever since its announcement, excited gamers across the internet land have been discussing their level-making plans for LittleBigPlanet. Puzzle levels, hardcore platforming levels, insane art landscapes, and, most importantly, Level 1-1 from Super Mario Bros. Yes, LittleBigPlanet may be all about getting your creative juices flowing but there was never a doubt in anyone’s mind that players were going to throw down all sorts of lovely, copyright-infringing devotionals to gaming’s beloved creations of old. Team Sportsmanship, a group of art students participating in Parsons New School of Design’s Game Jam event, didn’t explicitly recreate a level from Fumito Ueda’s epic, but as PS3 Fanboy put it, their level can only be named Shadow of the LittleBigColossus. It’s a work of art, a lovingly crafted riff on Shadow of the Colossus’ grand encounters made terribly adorable by LBP’s style and Sackboy mascot. Of course, this got me thinking: what games are perfectly fit for the LittleBigPlanet treatment? Here’s what came to mind. Castlevania III Besides being a classic platformer overflowing with badass levels primed for reimagining, Castlevania III is also uniquely suited to LBP’s four-player challenges. You’ve got a vampire, a pirate, a witch lady, and a dude with a whip. What do they do together? They scale clock towers and kick the crap out of less-than-friendly vampires. Perfect. Read More... Posted Sep 24 2008, 08:00 PM by John Constantine with | with no comments Filed under: john constantine, little big planet, top ten, silent hill, castlevania, shadow of the colossus, leisure suit larry, silhouette mirage, top five, joe & mac

• Top Ten: Favorite Bosses part 2

  The first arcade game to sport a boss fight was Phoenix, which was released in 1980. While most people were probably playing Space Invaders, I was playing Phoenix on my Atari 2600. Boss encounters have come a long way since the days of yore, displaying wonderful variety and imagination. The last five on my list go far to demonstrate just how unusual these encounters can be. !! Spoilers Ahoy !! Read More... Posted Sep 19 2008, 01:00 PM by Amber Ahlborn with | with no comments Filed under: shadow of the colossus, amber ahlborn, pikmin, super mario galaxy, metroid prime 2, top ten list, sly cooper

• The Ten Greatest Opening Levels in Gaming History, Part 3

  Sonic the Hedgehog - Green Hill Zone By the time the original Sonic the Hedgehog came out, Super Mario World had been out for six months in Japan. In almost every way, Mario had the edge on Sonic — more levels, more power-ups, more variety, more gaming. But there was one thing you couldn't take away from Sonic, and that was the sheer dazzle of starting up the game and entering Green Hill Zone. To this day, Green Hill Zone looks spectacular, with its sparkling ocean, lush vegetation and abstract geometry — not to mention Masato Nakamura's unforgettable music. Mario had a lot to offer, but in terms of pure physicality, most of Dinosaur Land seems awfully drab next to Green Hill Zone. (Plus, it was 1991 — "zones" were just cooler than "lands", for Chrissakes.) — PS Read More... Posted Jun 12 2008, 09:45 PM by John Constantine with | with 6 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, peter smith, metroid, nintendo, capcom, final fantasy, top ten, prince of persia, konami, valve, half-life, shadow of the colossus, sega, zelda, sonic the hedgehog, square-enix, god of war, einhander, final fantast vii, metal gear, the ten greatest opening levels in gaming history, mega man x, strider

• The Ten Greatest Opening Levels in Gaming History, Part 2

  Metal Gear Solid 2 – The U.S.S. Discovery The opening level of Metal Gear Solid 2 is the finest Metal Gear game ever made in-and-of itself. Forget Hideo Kojima’s cinematic pretensions for just a moment and think about the raw play available in this self-contained prologue scenario. The tools of MGS’ trade may not be available to Snake in their totality here, but every inch of the tanker acts as a playground for the series' most fundamental mechanics. You can sneak through without ever being seen or you can kill every Russian soldier you come across. There is an expertly paced boss fight. There is skin-mag related humor. It’s all here. Now layer Kojima’s cinematic pretensions back on top of all that considering they are at their best (read: most restrained) here and you have a beginning that is, arguably, superior to anything the follows or precedes it in the entire series. — JC Read More... Posted Jun 12 2008, 09:30 PM by John Constantine with | with no comments Filed under: john constantine, peter smith, metroid, nintendo, capcom, final fantasy, top ten, prince of persia, konami, valve, half-life, shadow of the colossus, sega, zelda, sonic the hedgehog, square-enix, god of war, einhander, final fantast vii, metal gear, the ten greatest opening levels in gaming history, mega man x, strider

• The Ten Greatest Opening Levels in Gaming History, Part 1

  First impressions are important, in videogames as they are in life. The first moments you spend with any art can define your experience of it. They compel you to dig deeper, to more carefully consider the work or the hand that crafted it. Other times, they can be so startling that everything that follows is diminished. This week, 61 Frames Per Second looks at the ten greatest opening levels in gaming history. Stick with us past the first one though. They’re all great. — John Constantine Prince of Persia 2 - Rooftop Chase The original Prince of Persia was a unique and wonderful game, but it wasn't much for setting. Half the game takes place in a monochromatic dungeon, and the other in a monochromatic palace. 2 quickly makes up for it; about to be executed by the Vizier's goons, the Prince leaps through a window, and from there it's up to you to guide him across the palace rooftops, into the marketplace below, down a long pier, finally leaping into the hold of a departing merchant ship — all with those guards on your tail. The stage is a real nail-biter, and all the more memorable because the rest of the game is comparatively subdued. — Peter Smith Read More... Posted Jun 12 2008, 09:15 PM by John Constantine with | with no comments Filed under: john constantine, peter smith, metroid, nintendo, capcom, final fantasy, top ten, prince of persia, konami, valve, half-life, shadow of the colossus, sega, zelda, sonic the hedgehog, square-enix, god of war, einhander, final fantast vii, metal gear, the ten greatest opening levels in gaming history, mega man x, strider

• Team Ico’s Fumito Ueda at the Nordic Game 2008 Conference

  As self-professed gaming aesthetes, we here at 61 Frames Per Second obviously have a deep and abiding love for the work of Sony Japan’s Team Ico and, more specifically, resident auteur Fumito Ueda. Ueda’s work on the Playstation 2, including the stylistic milestones Shadow of the Colossus and his team’s namesake Ico, are the go-to namedrops for anyone engaging in the persistent games-as-art discussion. His trademarks are characters that convey emotional depth through body language instead of dialogue and austere worlds that imply long histories and lost grandeur. It’s been three years since Shadow of the Colossus and the world’s been waiting with baited breath for any word regarding Ueda and Team Ico’s Playstation 3 debut. His recent talk alongside Siren designer Keiichiro Toyama on disruptive game design at the Nordic Game 2008 conference yielded no news on that project but provided some rich insight into his history in the industry and the early forms of his seminal works. Read More... Posted May 21 2008, 10:00 AM by John Constantine with | with no comments Filed under: john constantine, playstation 3, neogaf, sony, playstation 2, shadow of the colossus, ico, fumito ueda, team ico