Chris Putnam

@yomachaser

Dene Carter's new project: Flaboo!
http://www.denecarter.com/

"The cutest game around!

Tap, tilt and shake the screen to make Fat Chick bounce his considerable bulk off clouds and up into the sky in this unique rhythm-action game. On his journey through the weird world of Flaboo!, Fat Chick will encounter magical coffee, his own spaceship, lightbulbs, plate-mail armour and much more."

Maybe eventually he'll return to his roots, but it doesn't seem to be high on the priority list.

@DigitalEmporer

I have no idea what you're even talking about.

Calling Dene Carter "also a developer" kind of misses the ball. He was the other co-founder of Big Blue Box, and he, not Molyneux, was the main creative force behind Fable and (I think) Fable 2. He left Lionhead last year.

It's a bit sad to see these two working on "cute" iPhone games.

>"And we want to see that value maintained over time."

Ah, I guess that's why you still sell all your five-year-old games at full launch price. Thanks for the value, Nintendo!

The same concern I have. In North America this would be completely impractical. We can rule out downloading PSN games, which leaves us with things like chat and web browsing. But why would I pay for an overpriced data plan on a device that can't even make phone calls?

>"Walfisz worries Sony won't be able to detect which users are playing pirated games -- though Sony claims it can and will shut down "jailbroken" consoles."

Where does this claim come from? The cited post links to a speculation article from Eurogamer about what Sony "might" do. Sony has made absolutely no statements regarding plans to brick consoles, or if they have, it wasn't to Joystiq or Eurogamer.

Somehow, in one step, we got from third party theories to declarations that Sony WILL (in italics, no less) shut down jailbroken consoles. This is what's wrong with the blogosphere.

Love the game, but it really doesn't need more missions. It has an absolute ass-load of them.

New maps might be a nice addition.

Let me predict that $200 will be the absolute maximum. Nintendo isn't Sony, and they sure as hell don't want to be. $250 handhelds don't sell to the mass market. It's questionable if $200 ones do. We'd see a very different market landscape today if the DS had launched at a higher price than it did.

I'm not going to get too excited about this. I've never actually played a good FF demo. The games just don't lend themselves well to short playthroughs, even when the full game turns out great. The appeal is customization and development, which are completely absent from a demo -- so all there is to go on is a battle system that usually doesn't stand up very well on its own. On top of that, you usually don't know wtf you're doing at that point.

Of course, it helps that they're apparently basing the demo on the game's opening. Then at least there'll probably be some impressive cinematics to enjoy, and the story teaser might be enough to hook a person. (That's what the FFXII demo was seriously lacking).

For genuinely mature gamers, "mature" doesn't mean boobs and violence. It means things like complexity, character development, and thematic depth in storytelling. The fact is that these are things Nintendo *doesn't* deliver. Super Paper Mario's script is hilarious, but it's shallow as can be. Like a fluff comedy, I won't remember a single line or plot event 6 months after playing it. The plotlines of Nintendo games are limited to kid-friendly subjects and issues, and so they can't help but be boring. There are only so many ways the hero can save the princess, and they've all been played out. Nintendo's defining icons -- Mario, Link, etc. -- are about as deep as Mr. Clean. They're flawless, mute (well, Mario has a few canned phrases) vacant shells of characters with no potential for growth or player identification. Mario will never overcome a personal flaw, and Link will never wrestle with guilt or a moral dilemma. They'll just save the princess, like always, because that's what they do. (I'm guessing Samus fits into a similar mold, but I've never played the Metroid games).

On the visual side of things, the criticisms of Nintendo also hold true. Cartoon is a valid art style, and I have nothing against it. But where children and adults differ is that kids are *only* interested in the cartoon style, while adults crave more. However talented the artists are, using *only* bright, single-shade colors for every single image gets old fast. There are simply things you can't do with such a basic art style. There are no memorable landscapes in these games, there is nothing that strikes a person as beautiful. There is no art. And that's a major limitation.

(I know that a couple franchises, like Zelda and Metroid, sometimes go with a more realistic approach. But even these don't have imagery that compares to anything from a "mature" developer. They're still limited to brightly lit areas and primary colors. There's beauty in the dull and grimy too, you know).

It's not just the cartoony look that bothers me, though. It's that every game feels a need to go "cutesy" when it's on a Nintendo platform. The transition from The Sims to MySims and Final Fantasy to Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles are the archetypal examples. Sometimes it causes ridiculous clashes. The recent batch of Batallion Wars screens, for instance, features a shot with a large number of war machines coming towards the screen, and the giant smiling face of what could be Sergeant Barbie in the sky behind them. What audience, exactly, is being targeted here? What does this game gain from the cutesy art style? Nothing except to pass itself off as kid-friendly. This, I would argue, is a real example of how Nintendo platforms consciously alienate adult audiences.

In summary: Nintendo has a kiddie image because it *is* kiddie. "Family friendly" means limiting the visual and intellectual palette a project has available to it. This is a fact. There is no mass delusion among consumers: Nintendo has restricted itself to children and to "the child within" adults. There's nothing wrong with enjoying these games -- they can be very good! -- but you can't blame adult gamers for wanting more after a while.

If you haven't played them, why are you saying the series is tired?