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Hanging with the Kacho
Jan. 22nd, 2012 11:22 pmThough I've been aware of Game Center CX/Retro Game Master for a while, it wasn't until the impending Kotaku cancellation notice that I decided to check it out one snowy, lazy morning. As stupid as Kotaku can be, I do feel sorry for them in how the broadcast deal didn't work out. The fansubs are more accurate and less stilted, and the dub narrator is a bit bombastic, but Kotaku's episodes aren't bad at all, really. Then Kotaku mentions the fansubs in their cancellation notice to console those left hanging, and they get slammed for promoting piracy. They couldn't win either way.
I think Kotaku's choice of episodes handicapped them a bit; some of the Famicom-era games showcased were a bit uninspiring. Were rights to broadcasting the games themselves an issue? I mean, the appeal of the show is either a) "hey, I remember this game; I wonder how he'll get past this point?/oh, God, this place; I hated this place/omigod, he's having trouble with that?! Just ***** why can't you see that arghskjfsdkl" or b) "Jesus Christ, look at the crazy/awesome shit that never came over here." The unfamiliar, bland games that have no visual interest (Wing of Madoola; 53 Stations of the Tokaido, as promising as the concept itself is) are just thin gruel to hold attention for an hour-long effort.
That's kind of my problem with the whole show, actually, even with eps showcasing good games - Game Center eventually becomes trying to watch when the kacho gets stuck in one place for hours on end. Arino often compounds the problem through making some aggravatingly simple mistakes, like refusing to read the manual and thereby getting stuck for several hours on end through ignorance of an incredibly simple trick (like Alucard's bat transformation in Castlevania III that would've short-circuited his eight-hour grind through level 7). Obviously, Arino's personality makes up for his poor decisions - as do the little details like the "police investigation" in the murder-mystery adventure game and the cavalcade of local cuisine specialties offered to him as the Kacho progressed down the 53 Stations of the Tokaido. The show's more about the joy of gaming than anything else, and if it sometimes missteps in communicating that, I can't fault the effort. I've been pretty much marathoning the show since yesterday, so they must be doing something right.
(It also serves as a reminder that I've wanted to play Human's other survival-thriller 16-bit title, S.O.S., ever since I saw it on the department-store shelves a decade before I'd ever heard of Clock Tower but have never sealed the deal. I'll have to rectify that.)
I started off with Kotaku's stream of the Clock Tower (SFAM) ep, naturally, and was pretty pleased - even though Arino got stuck, he didn't get interminably so, and the show works better with a game with auto-saving where he doesn't have to backtrack or replay constantly. I was surprised he figured out the use of the pointy rocks so quickly and pleasantly impressed with how he sussed out the two-item black-robe puzzle on the first go. He actually happened across a number of neat little hidden things on his first run - the haystack evade (and Scissorman's apparently hilariously broken pathing there), the pool death, how to use the ham outside of being captured... I was annoyed that they resorted to hand-holding him to the S ending, though - what was he missing to get a good ending in his last unassisted run, information about the clock tower? He must've kept getting the E elevator ending - he certainly wasn't getting the D ending as shown after visiting the secret room. Probably was a game-design error to trigger E in so many different circumstances - that was probably what made Arino think he'd hit a wall.
He got the car ending, though, and that's the important thing.
.
I think Kotaku's choice of episodes handicapped them a bit; some of the Famicom-era games showcased were a bit uninspiring. Were rights to broadcasting the games themselves an issue? I mean, the appeal of the show is either a) "hey, I remember this game; I wonder how he'll get past this point?/oh, God, this place; I hated this place/omigod, he's having trouble with that?! Just ***** why can't you see that arghskjfsdkl" or b) "Jesus Christ, look at the crazy/awesome shit that never came over here." The unfamiliar, bland games that have no visual interest (Wing of Madoola; 53 Stations of the Tokaido, as promising as the concept itself is) are just thin gruel to hold attention for an hour-long effort.
That's kind of my problem with the whole show, actually, even with eps showcasing good games - Game Center eventually becomes trying to watch when the kacho gets stuck in one place for hours on end. Arino often compounds the problem through making some aggravatingly simple mistakes, like refusing to read the manual and thereby getting stuck for several hours on end through ignorance of an incredibly simple trick (like Alucard's bat transformation in Castlevania III that would've short-circuited his eight-hour grind through level 7). Obviously, Arino's personality makes up for his poor decisions - as do the little details like the "police investigation" in the murder-mystery adventure game and the cavalcade of local cuisine specialties offered to him as the Kacho progressed down the 53 Stations of the Tokaido. The show's more about the joy of gaming than anything else, and if it sometimes missteps in communicating that, I can't fault the effort. I've been pretty much marathoning the show since yesterday, so they must be doing something right.
(It also serves as a reminder that I've wanted to play Human's other survival-thriller 16-bit title, S.O.S., ever since I saw it on the department-store shelves a decade before I'd ever heard of Clock Tower but have never sealed the deal. I'll have to rectify that.)
I started off with Kotaku's stream of the Clock Tower (SFAM) ep, naturally, and was pretty pleased - even though Arino got stuck, he didn't get interminably so, and the show works better with a game with auto-saving where he doesn't have to backtrack or replay constantly. I was surprised he figured out the use of the pointy rocks so quickly and pleasantly impressed with how he sussed out the two-item black-robe puzzle on the first go. He actually happened across a number of neat little hidden things on his first run - the haystack evade (and Scissorman's apparently hilariously broken pathing there), the pool death, how to use the ham outside of being captured... I was annoyed that they resorted to hand-holding him to the S ending, though - what was he missing to get a good ending in his last unassisted run, information about the clock tower? He must've kept getting the E elevator ending - he certainly wasn't getting the D ending as shown after visiting the secret room. Probably was a game-design error to trigger E in so many different circumstances - that was probably what made Arino think he'd hit a wall.
He got the car ending, though, and that's the important thing.
.
