GameTap - Recent Features

WiiWare: Downloadable Games for the Wii Arrive

Tue, 13 May 2008 00:00:00 GMT

What price tag do you put on fun? With WiiWare, Nintendo can now offer Wii games that fit just any budget, from $5 to $50. The WiiWare store is open for business at the Wii Shop Channel, and through it, Nintendo hopes to make available games that are low cost, imaginative, and hopefully fun.

Nintendo is promoting WiiWare as a way for smaller, independent developers to showcase their talents and create entertaining Wii content without incurring the development and marketing costs associated with releasing a video game into regular retail channels. Expect to experience the creative efforts of development companies of all stripes. Established video game publishers (some even presenting games based on their popular franchises) will have WiiWare offerings as well as smaller independent studios. The independents are the most intriguing aspect of WiiWare. As with Microsoft's Xbox Live marketplace, WiiWare can give unique and creative ideas a chance to find an audience and flourish in a smaller format but on a major video game platform.

Once you connect the Wii online, the transaction itself is a snap. The WiiWare section is in the Wii Shop Channel, where games so far cost anywhere from 500 to 1500 Wii points. Wii points can be purchased online or at video game retail outlets for $20 in 2000 Wii point increments. Doing the math, that's 100 Wii points per dollar, making WiiWare potentially one of the best bargains among console games.

The five WiiWare games available at the launch show off an intriguing range of gameplay and subject matter as well as some obvious mass market focus.

LostWinds (Frontier Developments, 1000 Wii points)
The imaginative wind-based gameplay mechanic at the heart of this adventure game is just the sort of idea that WiiWare was conceived to nurture. You control two characters, a young adventurer and a wind spirit. The nunchuk controls the kid and the remote controls the spirit, and they must work together as team to overcome obstacles, solve puzzles, and defeat evil creatures. The magic entity does a lot of the heavy lifting here. Swiping the remote or waving it literally blows enemies away or creates a swirling updraft that can lift the other character up to elevated areas. You might use the wind to blow flames over and around obstacles to solve puzzles or toast monsters lying in ambush.

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King (SquareEnix, 1500 Wii points)
RPGs come with a built-in level of complexity, not the least of which are the snippets of story that carry over from game to game. My Life as a King takes place after the events of Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles for the Nintendo 64. You play the young king whose kingdom was destroyed in that earlier game; this time you're building it back up one structure at a time. This game could be called My Life as an Architect because the focus of the gameplay is on constructing buildings, to which you send other characters to learn the skills and powers to carry out your bidding...primarily to find the materials to build more buildings. It's an intriguing choice as a downloadable Wii game, and it's sure to attract flocks of Final Fantasy fans.

WOW Interview with co-lead designer Tom Chilton

Sat, 10 May 2008 01:18:00 GMT

GameTap:Hi Tom, for clarification, can you describe which aspects of WOW you're in charge as, as the co-lead designer?

Chilton: My focus is on game systems, balance, PvP, that sort of thing. I'm in charge of any new sort of game system features or balance in general. Anything having to do with character classes, itemization, or PvP is under my purview.

GameTap:Alright, let's just jump right into the new character class: how long did it take for the design team to decide on the death knight as the hero class?

Chilton:: There was a lot of discussions; we went through several different hero class concepts. We talked about ideas for three different classes and ultimately settled on the death knight. It fit the "kit" of the Northrend expansion the best, and it filled the role that we wanted to fill out, as the tank hybrid. It took some time I would say; from when we first discussed it until I made the final call, it was probably a couple months.

GameTap: How many iterations did the death knight go through?

Chilton: We actually pretty early on decided to go with a system that somehow involved runes. We sat down and talked about the death knight in general, we talked about what things seemed really strong in WarCraft lore as they relate to the death knight. And the idea of runes and the death knight's runeblade kept coming up, so we figured we had to make that aspect an important part of the death knight. As far as actually coming to the final iteration of a rune-system for a class, that was over a course of a few months.

GameTap:With the death knight as an extra character, did you ever consider ideas such as turning an existing character into a death knight?

Chilton: We explored all sorts of ideas first, and came to the conclusion that most of those ideas were all flawed ones that we weren't happy with. For example, the very first concept we came up with was, actually, converting a character; taking an existing character through a questline and turning him into a death knight. But that had a flaw of how you would probably want a "try before you buy" sort of thing; what if I end up not liking the death knight as much and wanted to go back to my druid? We felt that inevitably, people would experience a sense of loss at the same time of getting that feeling of gain, and you never know which side of the coin they end up on. We felt that was too committal.
We also explore the option of leveling up to 80, and then going through a long quest chain, and after going through these quests you then earn the right to create a death knight—conceptually it would just be another character that you have. But at that point, there are a lot of players out there (and within the company) that felt "well, no, I want to be a death knight now, deathknights are awesome, I loved it back in WarCraft III, it's a really cool unit, I just want it now." But now, when I buy the expansion, I'd think "why do I have to jump through these hoops to be a death knight? I'd have to level up an existing character to 80; a character I might write off as soon as I become a death knight. So why go through all of the content to get a character that I would soon write off up to 80? We felt like that was a bit too cumbersome. So we took the basic idea of the death knight quest line, and rather than have it at the end of the experience, we shift it over to the beginning of the experience. Rather than level up, do a quest line, and create a death knight, you can now unlock the death knight earlier, create your death knight, and then go through the quests and experience.

GameTap: Can you elaborate a bit on the death knight experience? When you roll a new death knight, do you hang out at some new death knight newbie zone?

Chilton: We're building onto the Eastern Plagelands—players will find a new area that they didn't know previously existed. [laughs]. We're adding onto the Eastern Plaguelands, and there will also be a new necropolis out there—we haven't named it yet, so its informal codename is "Deathrammus." But this new necropolis will be a sort of hub for the death knights—where they have their own trainers, a place to forge new runes onto their runeblade, and so forth. The closest parallel I can think of is the Moonglade for the druids; death knights will be able to revisit this necropolis when they need to do. So we have a new starting area in the Eastern Plaguelands to ease them into the new quest chain, and their new hub area.

GameTap: You haven't discussed much about the talent trees for the death knight, can we touch on those? Are they based on the three presences?

Chilton: Essentially. So we have all their abilities broken down Blood, Unholy, and Frost. What we're trying to do is to not pidgeonhole your gameplay based on which talent tree you decide to develop. For example, we're trying to spread the tanking abilities across all three trees. That way, while you're emphasizing certain aspects of the death knight, you're not pidgeonholed into "only being a tank" or the "oh, you can't tank" type of roles as a result of whichever tree you like. The basic themes are that the blood tree emphasizes doing brutal things to your enemies, the frost tree is more oriented towards control, and the unholy tree is about doing evil, nasty things to opponents.

GameTap: Your presentation touched on the animated ghoul spell, and its effects on other players. So you can use it on enemy corpses in player-versus-player (PvP) as well?

Chilton:Yes, if you use it on an enemy corpse, it just creates an NPC ghoul from their corpse…

GameTap: So the opponent can still resurrect as a normal player, right?

Chilton: Exactly. Yea, it's no different than using it on a dead NPC. Same goes for if you use it on a friendly player, but they decline. You'll get an NPC ghoul instead of a player-controlled one.

GameTap:And so a ghoul player can be re-resurrected as his original character, right?

Chilton: His old corpse is still there, so he can easily hop back to his original body. One of the ghoul's abilities is to explode and do area effect damage. So one thing a player can do is once he's sick of being a ghoul, just suicide himself and then go back to playing as your normal self.

GameTap:How many ghouls can the death knight have? I thought I saw a spell that conjured a bunch…

Chilton: Just one ghoul. You might be thinking of the army of the dead spell, which summons a whole bunch of guys who don't last very long. They're designed to be used similar to a challenging shout from a warrior, in that you create a temporary army of ghouls who taunt their target and fight things for a while before going away

GameTap: So what sort of pet would you classify the ghroul as? A tanking one, a crowd control one…

Chilton: He's a little bit of everything type of pet. Bear in mind that's used more like a guardian—you don't have direct control, it's AI-driven. Unless a friendly player is controlling.

GameTap: And when it's player-controlled, the player has a new set of buttons and ghoul commands, right?

Chilton: Yea

GameTap:So, uh, do ghouls have mana management?

Chilton: The player-controlled ghoul has an energy bar, so he manages energy the same way a rogue does.

WOW Interview with lead producer J. Allen Brack

Sat, 10 May 2008 01:10:00 GMT

It's quite an understatement to simply note that World of WarCraft is a large game. We don't envy the producer's role for this game, as keeping track of all sorts of stuff, such as quest design, area completion, and even technical issues fall under the producer's purview. We spoke with lead producer J. Allen Brack about the state of Wrath of the Lich King, and elements such as the overall design and production philosophy of Blizzard, and possible ideas for the future of WOW.

GameTap: So how would you describe the state that Wrath is in right now?

Brack: The way we make the game is sort of the way that players will experience it. So the starting zones like Borean Tundra and Howling Fjord are the most complete. Then we move onto the Dragonblight, which is mostly complete, and Grizzly Hills, which is also mostly complete. Then we get to areas like Scholazzar and beyond, which are not as complete. That's sort of where we are; we feel really good about four zones, we have a couple more zones to work on, and we'll have dungeons and raids we need to do for level 80 players. We've made several passes on abilities, but there's still a lot to go for those, we haven't even announced the new abilities yet. For inscription, we're still creating the system for how you're going to make an inscribed scroll, and once we have that we'll work on the abilities that go with the inscribed scrolls.

GameTap: That's interesting that you guys seem to focus on specific areas and move forward, as opposed to other development pipelines where the entire game is worked on and iterated repeatedly…

Brack: Basically, Northrend looks like a big banana, so we made a banana outline and divided it up into the zones. We had the level designers start working from the outside in, and as they move further inward, the quest designers working on the zones the level designers just finished, then the spawning guys go in to populate after the quest designers had their run. So in that sense, we are making passes and phases to the overall area as you describe, but in terms for what zones are actually considered "done", it's how I described it earlier.

GameTap:What would you say were the lessons you learned from the previous expansion, The Burning Crusade, that you are now applying to Wrath?

Brack: Two lessons: one of the biggest ones is that Illidan is the big bad guy for Burning Crusade, but a very small percentage of players actually interact, or even see him. So one of the big lessons for Wrath is that Arthas is the big bad guy, and all players should have visibility in seeing why Arthas is bad. So very early on, like in Howling Fjord and Borean Tundra, you will have missions where you interact with Arthas. As you move on, there will be other interactions with Arthas; you seek his plots and why you're there. You see why you're taking the fight to Arthas. That's one big lesson.
The other one was, we were unsurprised by the success of Karazhan. Karazhan is a 10-person instance and was hugely popular. If we could go back in time and do it differently, we would have released Zul'Aman before Black Temple, as people really like the 10-person content, and that would have felt a little more like a normal progression. If you were playing the game today, you would probably go Karazhan, Zul'Aman, and then work up to one of the 25-person raid instances. That actually led to the decision to make all Wrath raids have both a 10-person and a 25-person version.

GameTap: To go back to something you said earlier, can you talk about how you interact with Arthas? Is he a giant floating head like from the Wizard of Oz or something?

Brack: [Laughs] Sure, I'll use a mid-level example. In one of the mid-level encounters, there'll be a part where Arthas actually comes out of Icecrown Citadel, and players will actually see him. Other times, he'll be a spirit or a projection, aka the traditional floating head. But it's important for players to get a good amount of facetime with Arthas.

GameTap: And just to be absolutely clear: this is the big encounter with him, right? The final deal, and he's the last boss in Wrath, correct?

Brack: Well, we've already said that Arthas will be in a patch. It will be similar to Illidan; he's not available from day one, but he will be the final, giant boss. We have plans to evolve the Arthas storyline over the course of content patches we release for Wrath. For Burning Crusade, we released Illidan with the first patch, and then we did Zul'Aman and then we did Sunwell, and it was kind of hard to see how it all fit together then. With each patch for Wrath, we'll have some kind of advancement in the Arthas storyline leading up players eventually fighting Arthas.

GameTap:I noticed that the content for Wrath seems very high-level focused, in contrast to Burning Crusade which is pretty new-player friendly, since you added new starting zones for the new races and fiddled with the pre-level-60 game. Was this purposeful, in making Wrath a more late-game-centric expansion, while the new WOW player who picks up Wrath won't see a bunch of cool stuff until at least level 55?

Brack: That's a very fair question. So, I think for things like that, we came up with a list of features that we want players to experience. We came up with things like new class, add the levels from 70 to 80, add new dungeons and tradeskills. So for the things we wanted to add, it ended up being a lot of things we'd give to level 55 and higher players. So that ended up being the expansion's focus. It wasn't a situation of "what's the new-player friendly feature, and what's the experienced player feature." It was simply a list of features we needed, and what will the players be excited about. But for new players, we've got inscription, and we'll have new UI that's improved over the original release and some new ideas. One of the things we've talked about doing for a long time, and are going to try to do for Wrath is the addition of the "menagerie," or a place to store the various cosmetic pets you might have gather, just so they don't take up bag space. That will be for all players. There will be things like that to help improve the experience, even for new players.

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Retrospective

Fri, 09 May 2008 20:29:00 GMT

When Prince of Persia was released in 1990, it turned heads and raised eyebrows with its striking animation, elegant gameplay, and innovative style. A sequel, The Shadow and the Flame, quickly followed in 1993, expanding the scope of the original game and improving the look while still retaining the core gameplay that made the original so successful. It came as no surprise that this game was as well received as the first.

But then the Prince entered dark times. While creator Jordan Mechner pursued the graphic adventure genre with the critically acclaimed (but commercially unsuccessful) The Last Express, the Prince of Persia series sat idle. An attempt was made to update the game with 1999's Prince of Persia 3D (known as Prince of Persia: Arabian Nights on the Dreamcast), but a rushed release and mediocre reviews made it a disappointing effort all around.

Things were not looking good for the Prince.

It was 2001 when Ubisoft approached Jordan Mechner with the idea of reviving the franchise. Mechner was reportedly skeptical at first, having lived through the lackluster reception of the most recent Prince title. But Ubisoft's Montreal studio wooed Mechner with early demonstrations of the gameplay they had in mind. After seeing the kind of acrobatics that could be simulated with the newly released PlayStation 2 and Xbox, he was sold.

And thus was Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time born. Infusing cutting-edge graphics, animation, and gameplay with a story developed by Mechner, The Sands of Time would go on to astound critics and consumers alike upon its 2003 release. By combining the spirit of the original games with new abilities, acrobatics, and a stunning story, the game managed to be both fresh and familiar, delighting fans of the original while converting millions of new players. The game worked its way to the top of plenty of best-of-2003 lists, and set itself up for two successful sequels.

On its surface, the idea of The Sands of Time seems deceptively simple: As in the original game, the point is generally to get from point A to point B without getting impaled by traps, crushed by falls, or stuck with the pointy end of a sword or spear. But two qualities make the game much more special than it sounds.

The first is the Prince's acrobatic skill. While in the original game, the main character's abilities were generally within the realm of what would be possible for most humans, the abilities of the hero of The Sands of Time are gleefully unrealistic. He can scramble up sheer surfaces, run sideways along walls, cling to crumbling handholds on the sides of cliffs, and perform backflips, somersaults, and powerful leaps with a casual grace. Even combat becomes a ballet, with the prince leaping over enemies, rebounding from walls, and attacking in all directions with simple combinations of movement, jumps, and attacks.

The ease with which the player can execute these moves is one of the main draws to the game. Jordan Mechner described it as "the sheer exhilaration of movement...the feeling that you are one with the animated character on the screen, that you are not just going through mechanical motions to complete the level, but that you're flying--a feeling of joy in your own acrobatic grace."

Origins: Gaute Godager

Thu, 08 May 2008 19:30:00 GMT

If you had told Gaute Godager back in 1993 that the company he started as a lark with some friends would be still be going strong 15 years later—Funcom’s latest game, Age of Conan, is set to launch May 20—he probably wouldn’t have believed you. Godager recently shared with us how he got into the industry, the lessons he learned from Anarchy Online, and what he would change if he had it all to do over again.

I started playing games back in 1982, 1983. My brother and I bought a Commodore 64--it was very big in Europe. We played with it and then we wanted to start programming. Especially him--I just wanted to tell him what to program. So I guess that’s why I ended up as a director. [Laughs] Then I bought an Amiga back in the late ’80s when I was like 17, 18, and I started doing my first game there. I spent three years doing that.

Then I went to university. I’m a clinical psychologist actually. I started that study, but I had to wait because there was some screwup in the in the timing of the first exam. So while waiting, I started making computer games and founded Funcom with some other people. And that’s basically the story. I never actually worked as a psychologist, but I am licensed. I still have some patients every now and then just to keep up. It’s really cool because it’s such a completely different thing from doing games. When you train to be a clinical psychologist, especially in Europe and Norway, it’s like 50 percent theory. And that theoretical part is kind of like a master’s degree it’s all about social things, understanding social structures. So doing social games, it’s quite important.

I wouldn’t say that I thought I could make games for my job when I was growing up. I think that I always thought, like the typical arrogant attitude of kids, that if I just did it I would do it better than anyone else. But that just comes from not knowing how little you know; I quickly learned that things were a lot tougher. I especially remember thinking when I stated Funcom back in ’93, that there’s no way I would be here in 15 years--but look, here I am. So, that’s really a surprise.

I think when anyone wants to found something it’s more belief in yourself than wisdom. You don’t know how little you know—you just think you can do it. I was one of the more technical ones. We were five guys, and I’m the only one left. The others I guess didn’t have the stomach to handle one setback after the other for so many years. I was always the skeptical one, always the one saying, “Yeah, this is fun, it’s a trip, it’s never going to amount to anything.” I also have more resilience against disappointment I guess.

One of the other people starting the company used what he got from quitting the military and we rented a small apartment, and we threw out all the furniture. And then we had like friends sitting around, pretending to be working. And then when all the American developers and publishers came over, we were like, “Yeah, yeah, we know what we’re doing.” [Laughs]

The Digital Daily 05.07.08: XBLA

Wed, 07 May 2008 23:24:00 GMT

If there's one style of gaming that Xbox Live Arcade would benefit from, its board games like Monopoly and the sort. A few trivia games wouldn't hurt either, so when Wits & Wagers comes along, slamming the two ideas together, you'd think we'd be excited, right? Perhaps it's time to think again...

What's worth dropping some change on? Which games are worth passing on for a nice pastrami and swiss? Read our suggestions for each of the five major online platforms in the Digital Review. We carefully assess each game, and we also recommend using these helpful resources for additional review scores, Game Rankings, Game Stats, Metacritic, and Rotten Tomatoes.

Xbox 360, Xbox Live Arcade

Wits & Wagers
Cost: 800 Microsoft points
Based upon the board game of the same name, Wits & Wagers is a trivia game pitting your educated guesses against those of others. Players are presented with a question where the answer will be a number of sorts ("How long is the Mississippi river?"); they must then respond without going over. The gimmick is found in betting on who actually has the correct answer; one good bet can launch you into the winners' circle.

And that's about it. While a trivia game based on guessing does even the field a bit, it doesn't deliver the sense of satisfaction that comes in actually being right. The interface combined with a dancing mechanic which is, sadly, more fun than the game itself quickly turns this would-be party into something of a funeral reception.
Verdict: Skip it

Mortal Kombat's Creator Talks

Wed, 07 May 2008 23:00:00 GMT

Since its 1992 debut in arcades, Midway's fighter Mortal Kombat has been acclaimed by players and denounced by livid parents. The superviolent fatalities and finishing moves put it front and center at the local quickie mart as a must-play arcade game, but those same moves also fueled parent groups, which used what they deemed as a growing out-of-control level of violence in videogames to help form a formal ratings system.

In April, Midway announced the eighth version of the successful American fighting series, Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe, debuting the likes of DC superheroes Superman and Batman alongside Mortal Kombat characters Sub-Zero and Scorpion. We caught up with co-creator Ed Boon, who spoke about the new inclusion of DC characters, balancing superheroes such as Superman, the new storyline, and the new face of fatalities and finishers.

ReBoot
GameTap: With Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe, why did you feel that you needed to do something so different?

Ed Boon: We have done this a few times before. The 2002 release of Deadly Alliance was also a reboot in many respects. When you do sequels, it's an interesting balance. You always introduce something new or people take a "been-there-done-that" approach to your game. And I'm a big fan of our competitors--Street Fighter, Tekken, all those games--and some of them are in their fourth, fifth, sixth iterations. We keep our eyes on how well fighting games sell, and fighting games in general have decreased in sales. They don't have the impact they used to, but we have managed to continue to sell our games well, I think because we introduce new elements to each version. This being a new generation of consoles requires a whole new presentation for Mortal Kombat. So we thought we should do something dramatic. If you're counting, this is Mortal Kombat 8. Had we done something with a little tweak to the story and minor adjustments to the mechanics, I think people would get it and just move on really quickly. That's what I have witnessed with some of the other fighting game franchises.

GameTap: Fighting games and platformers were once prominent staples in the industry. Not any longer. When you look at Mortal Kombat, how do you decide what elements should stay and what should be cut?

Ed Boon: To a large extent, we started from scratch. We had two characters on screen throwing kicks and punches. We asked ourselves, "What have we always wanted to improve on?" We have had such a great opportunity to rethink some of the basic 3D mechanics--3D walking, punching, kicking, all of the basic moves in the last generation. It's not like we got rid of something just because we had to. We basically just reset everything. What makes Mortal Kombat Mortal Kombat is magical moves: People teleport and throw spears, as opposed to just hand-to-hand fighting. So we know we'll keep the magic element, with the DC characters really lend themselves to amplifying MK's best qualities. Now we have even more outrageous moves. We have always tried to separate ourselves from the other fighting games by going our own direction.

GameTap: Most fighting games are tweaked in such subtle ways it's hard to know what exactly is changed, unless you're a super dedicated hardcore fan.

Ed Boon: That's exactly true. There are nuances that people discuss, but the reality of the situation is that 90 percent of the public will never experience it or will realize that it's even there. To me, that's a question of game design. If you're implementing changes that most of the people who are buying the game will never recognize, I have to question whether adding something so subtle is a good idea.

Toned Down?
GameTap: Speaking of subtleties, fatalities and Mortal Kombat have always been part of the same equation. With the recent revealing at Midway's event in Las Vegas, now it seems that fatalities are being eliminated. How do you expect fans to react to what is considerably a major alteration to the series?

Ed Boon: I guess that's my favorite part of the reaction--your exact sentence, which is, "it looks like fatalities will be gone." There was never any statement on our part that fatalities will be gone or that finishing moves will be gone. We did acknowledge that we won’t be able to do the same kinds of outrageous moves, like tearing someone's head off and the spine being attached to it. But there are a lot of assumptions that there will be no blood in the game, that there are no fatalities in the game. It's an assumption that, because the DC characters will be in there, those features will have to be dropped. My response is that, no, we're modifying fatalities. But I have every intention to keep finishers. You know, to let gamers do a really cool secret button combination and follow with a really outrageous finishing move to end the match. The names of these moves, and the level of violence we use, are to be determined. But it's certainly not a feature we plan on eliminating from the series.

GameTap: OK, so there will be fatalities and blood, but they just won't be as violent as in the past.

Ed Boon: Yes. I certainly can't speak with authority as to what DC will permit. There will certainly be some limitations. But my intention is that we want to push the envelope of a T-rated game as far as we can without being an M-rated game.

GameTap: What is DC's take on violence in videogames? What are the restrictions?

Ed Boon: There is no guideline. It's not black and white. It's really a matter of us creating animations in the game and showing them to DC. We'll have Superman or Batman doing these moves and DC will identify certain moves, and we'll go back and forth with them.

Starting from Scratch
GameTap: When you sat down to design this game, what were your goals? And when did you start working on the game?

Ed Boon: When Mortal Kombat: Armageddon was completed in 2006, we started working on this having no knowledge of including DC characters. We started planning out the game. The DC Universe idea was presented to us, and we talked it over. My idea was that for this next generation of systems and MK, we needed to do something really different. We needed to do a dramatic reboot to the series. We needed to make a dramatic change. Even something that will attract attention and may cause controversy. And DC filled a lot of those goals. We knew there would be a knee-jerk reaction, especially with so little information being released initially. Over the course of the next few months, as we release new information and characters, a lot of those questions and a lot of those gaps that people are filling in with their imagination will be answered.

GameTap: Given Mortal Kombat's level of violence in the past, did you ever deliberately think that while designing it, the next Mortal Kombat should just be less violent and more accessible? And did you ever decide to just work for a more kid-friendly ESRB rating? Did Midway executives ever say, "Well, MK has done so far, but we really need to tone it down a little, Ed"?

Ed Boon: For this title, believe it or not, the goal of making the game more accessible was never on our list of things we wanted to accomplish. We kind of inherited the T-rating because of the DC license. I suppose if we were crossing with another R-rated or M-rated movie, it might not have been an issue, but we never thought to ourselves, "Let's make this more mainstream." A lot of what makes Mortal Kombat what it is, is the violence and M-rated moves.

GameTap: How did the opportunity arise for Mortal Kombat and DC to work together?

Ed Boon: I don't know all of the details, but my understanding is that the head of marketing at the time had a relationship with somebody at DC. And on a separate note, we have had a few conversations with our marketing people, "Wouldn't it be cool to have a Mortal Kombat versus Tekken or Mortal Kombat versus Street Fighter?"--just like Alien versus Predator or Street Fighter versus Marvel. It's not that uncommon to cross into different worlds now. But when I was a kid, I thought that was the coolest thing in the world. I bought Superman versus Spider-Man. It's that kind of magic that we're trying to tap into; you know, the novelty of, "Oh my God, Batman and Sub-Zero are on the screen, together, fighting!"

Coming to GameTap: May 15

Tue, 06 May 2008 23:40:00 GMT

Every week the hard-working folks at GameTap risk life and limb (or at least a few hours of sleep) to bring you new games to consume. It's why folks subscribe to GameTap after all--we’re constantly adding to our collection of console, arcade, and PC titles. Check out the latest additions!

Coming to GameTap, May 15

Five Card Deluxe
Developer: 1C Company
Publisher: Strategy First
Quick shot: Five Card Deluxe is what happens when you mash together the elements of solitaire and poker and slap a scoring system on it. There are four different game modes, including casual and timed play, along with online leaderboards.

Outpost Kaloki
Developer: Ninjabee
Publisher: 10tacle studios
Quick shot: Back before indie gaming was the "it" thing, Outpost Kaloki put other tycoon games to shame with its space station simulation. With a fully fleshed-out story mode, 20 different scenarios, and over 45 unique station expansions, there's plenty to do and explore.

Questions or comments? Email the GameTap editors and let us know.

The Digital Daily 05.05.08: Virtual Console

Mon, 05 May 2008 23:39:00 GMT

The question this week is how much do you hate Pokemon? I ask because you'd have to loathe the furry little critters a whole lot to talk yourself out of enjoying one of the best puzzle games of all time. For those not interested in playing match-three with the Pokemon crew, Technos is delivering their third beat-em-up in a row with Renegade.

Nintendo Wii, Virtual Console

Pokemon Puzzle League
System: Nintendo 64
Cost: 1000 Wii points
The Puzzle League series, whether you're playing the original Panel De Pon or Yoshi-branded Tetris Attack on the SNES, has largely remained the same throughout time, and Pokemon Puzzle League is no different. Despite the copious amount of Pokemon slathered all over this title, you'll still be swapping pieces in a horizontal rule, matching three and racking up combos. It's essentially no different than Tetris Attack, only it features a variety of different ways to play the game, including a 3D mode that turns the playing field into a rotatable cylinder. Unless you really can't stand Pokemon, I can't think of a single reason why puzzle fans shouldn't pick this up.
Verdict: Get it

Prince of Persia Retrospective

Mon, 05 May 2008 23:00:00 GMT

With the rise of the platform game in the mid-'80s, gamers became used to a particular formula: A wacky character races headlong through cartoony levels, bumping bricks, picking up shiny objects, and bouncing on bad guys. Simple in concept (and usually in execution), these games relied primarily on quick reflexes and plenty of power-ups.

And then Prince of Persia came along.

Prince of Persia was the brainchild of Yale graduate and aspiring film writer Jordan Mechner. Mechner had made a name for himself in game design by developing the impressive fighting game Karateka while still at Yale. After being picked up by publisher Broderbund, the game was published for the Apple II and went on to achieve moderate success.

With Prince of Persia, Mechner was aiming for something a bit different. Using a graphical style similar to the fluid animation of Karateka, Mechner put a realistic spin on the platform genre, delivering a rich, immersive experience unlike anything gamers had seen before.

Prince of Persia puts the player in the role of a penniless adventurer who's fallen in love with the daughter of a sultan. While the sultan is away, his chief advisor gets it in his head to seize control of the land by marrying the princess. The princess, already head over heels for our barefoot adventurer, has no interest in this proposal. So the vizier gives her an ultimatum--marry him, or die--and an hour to think it over.

The princess, knowing her beloved is resourceful and acrobatic, is confident he'll sweep in shortly to save her. There's just one problem: The vizier has just thrown our hero into a dungeon. And that dungeon is positively brimming with traps. And deadly pits. And angry henchmen with pointy swords.

Now our hero has exactly one hour to escape from this maze, battle the vizier, save the sultan's daughter, and become the Prince of Persia by taking her hand in marriage. No sweat, right?

Sure, this may not be the most original of plots. But the story takes a back seat to gameplay so innovative that it practically created its own genre. By packing each level with a variety of deadly traps, Prince of Persia set a methodical, deliberate pace, requiring players to look--and think--before they leapt. Spikes could shoot out of the floor; platforms could collapse; pressure plates could open and close gates. The player would work his way back and forth through multiple strata within each level, looking for the exit door and the means of opening it while trying to avoid getting impaled, crushed, or stabbed.

For players used to the platform games of the day, this may not have seemed like such a challenge. But Prince of Persia's main character didn't have the resources common to most platform heroes. He couldn't jump three times his own height, survive five-story falls, or dispatch enemies just by jumping on them. Instead, he boasted a fairly realistic range of acrobatic moves: He could perform a standing jump of a few feet and a longer running jump. He could hang from ledges for a limited time. He could walk carefully or run carelessly. And that's pretty much it.

Early in the first level, he did pick up a sword, but he couldn't just hack his way through any enemy to cross his path; instead, he would have to carefully exchange blows with the vizier's sword-wielding henchmen. This swordplay bore a closer resemblance to true fencing than the vast majority of other sword-swinging games, requiring the player to advance, retreat, parry, and attack with careful timing. Battles with even the weakest enemies could become long, back-and-forth exchanges, with each character repeatedly blocking the other's attacks until finally an opening was found.