Giant Robot Store and GR2 News
Thanks for the visit to Game Over at Giant Robot. The exhibition features 140 pieces of art from nearly 80 artists. The opening reception on saturday was one of the most crowded ever. People filed in at 6 and we had people still hanging around well past 10. The work fills the walls and if you’re a game or art fan, this is a perfect place to get lost for a while. One of the first things you notice are video game cabinets and they’re featuring a game made by programmer Beau Blyth with art by Jeni Yang. It’s called Catburger. That’s Beau and Jeni below. Again to those who helped us get the show together including: Meatbun, Adam Robezzoli, Carlos Lopez, Dean Gojobori, Kio Griffith and to who promoted, covered and showed up, thanks much. We’ll get art online for sale perhaps later today or tomorrow.
Dylan Sprouse is an indie gamer.
I wish I shot them all. Maybe I will from now on. Many are fine and smiling. It’s a nice day out and if you’re self employed, you can go bike riding, but it is deadline day at Giant Robot for Game Over. Some artists look like they haven’t had enough sleep. Game Over has near 80 artists involved and that means 20% of the work will show up past deadline. These are some of the folks who walked in their work yesterday. I was happy to see them and I expect many more today. That’s Ray Young Chu below who’d project is comprised of many paintings and wooden cut letters. It’s a game that could easily exist about the L.A. Riots. You can be a first person shooter, looter, or even a police officer. It’s as real as a piece can get. Gary Musgrave – Joust (now corrected) action using acrylic ink. Sarah Lee – Yes that’s inspired by Donkey Kong. It’s a great take of the game. Sara Saedi – Crash Bandicoot. Who remember this game? Mandana Ozlati, Albert Reyes, Aiyana Udesen and Matt Furie in artist pose. Jon Lau doing some Tekken Sana Park Katamari
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Is Nintendo back? Not exactly, but it posted it’s first loss last year, but this year it’s still not going as well as they hoped. Why? Cellphone games. While projects from our friend, Zach Gage who made Spelltower can rank high in app sales for iPhones and be made by the hand of one humble guy, a company with thousands of employees who are wholesaling, subcontracting, and so forth are getting beat out. Are 3DS sales on the rise, is the Nintendo U catching on? Maybe just a bit and that’s their profit right there. Meanwhile, games everywhere else seems to grow.
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Review by Patrick Garcia Full disclosure before I begin: I was not actually able to complete this game. Every time I sat in front of my TV, controller in hand and ready to play, it wouldn’t take long before it got the best of me, and I had to turn it off. I don’t mean to suggest that this game is so inconceivably difficult that it makes TMNT 1 (NES) look like TMNT 2 (NES), but it’s just that there is so little to like about the game that the experience was just excruciating. Developer CyberConnect2 may have just created the first of a new genre in which I’d like to lovingly refer to as a ‘Snooze Button Masher’ (that’s right, you’re hearing it from me first!), because every nine minutes, you might actually get to hit a button. I’m referring to the overabundance of cutscenes, of which there are some that contain simple quick-time events. Now before any of you fans of the game out there start losing it (it’s hard to believe that they exist, but I’m sure even E.T. has its share of die-hards), of course I’m not being literal and there is a certain degree of exaggeration here, but only some. Let me explain… As a big fan of Ninja Gaiden, God of War, Castle Crashers, TMNT and other such brawlers, I actually had some hope for this game, because who doesn’t think unceremoniously maiming lesser mortals as a Demigod sounds fun? So you can imagine my disappointment when the first 15 minutes of the game (though it felt much longer) was essentially a poorly-executed rail shooter, frequently interrupted by cutscene after cutscene introducing the different demigods. As Asura descends to Earth, the objective was to blast away the Gohma, which were these red asteroid-looking things.OK, not so bad yet, I guess I just have to arrive on Earth first before I start obliterating everything. No problem. But after destroying a few Gohma, there would be a cutscene (well that was a short sequence, but I suppose we can move forth with some narrative). The scene ends and it was back to the rail shooter bit, then another cutscene, then shooter bit. These cutscenes lasted longer than the shooter sequences did, and that’s the way it progressed until all of the demigods had been introduced and the player properly detached and thoroughly disinterested. I could already see that the story was going to be your typical Japanese romp, with the infinite weirdness that comes with it. Usually I’m someone who can look past a bland story as long as the gameplay is good, but it quickly become evident that this wasn’t going to be the case here after finally getting on the ground for some brawling combat. Essentially the only attack you have to work with is mapped to the B button, which comprises your basic melee attacks. The player can use Y for a powerful attack, but it has a refresh timer after each use, so you’re...
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Report on the video game exhibition. There’s a podcast involved and from what we’ve read, there could be more interaction, but overall, it’s a start to the video game revolution in the USA. (voanews – Smithsonian)
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