Shadow Complex Metareview

Hindsight, 20/20, et al.

A proverb from my ancestral land of Norway:

"Av barn og fulle folk får ein høyre sanninga."

I don’t know what that means, but I thought I should open with another quotation.

Also like my last post, SNK is the matter of the day. This time, gadabout gadfly Jeremy Parish offers a glimpse back at the Neo Geo Pocket Color, SNK’s well intentioned but ill fated handheld turned failed yakuza investment. Though flawed, Parish’s account of the system’s turbulent lifecycle offers a good read. I would be remiss not to don my own pair of rose colored glasses with which to fondly remember the many hours I spent with Match of The Millennium on my own beloved ‘Pocket. Though frankly the software library offered little of interest beyond that clash of the fighting franchises, SNK’s NGPC remains a curious blip on the radar of gaming’s past.

Pervasive Crisis of Authority XII

"All the stories, characters, and organisations in this game are fictitious."

So states a disclaimer in King of Fighters XII, the latest installment of SNK's venerable fighting series. As a fan since the series' inception, my anticipation was piqued by news of SNK's plans to revitalize the stalwart fighting franchise. How does this offering fare? At a time when the industry strives to break new ground in the evolution of gaming as a transcendent narrative medium, SNK stands firmly with one foot planted in the past. Like its ancient videogame ancestors, KOF XII is devoid of any tangible plot. Indeed, SNK went back to the drawing board. They went so far back, in fact, that there is no narrative at all. The game's sole mode of play lacks a boss or ending of any kind. As Pac-Man demonstrated decades ago, there is no need for resolution if there is no story to begin with. SNK still believes in this philosophy, apparently; in KOF XII they simply lay out the gameplay in its most basic form and tell players to have at it. This would be an almost Zen-like design choice if not for the wonky play mechanics and dearth of play modes, unlockables, or anything else resembling a substantial experience. The visuals appear to have received the bulk of SNK's attention during development, but sadly it is too little, too late. For what purported to be a bold leap into high definition gaming, the visuals are pixilated and unrefined, offering a glimpse back in time rather than to the future. While leaving one foot in the past, KOF XII does in a way represent a step forward for SNK. Unfortunately, that step appears to have been aimed directly into the grave.

Industry Hangover

Ah, back from Japan just in time for a brief jaunt into the cacophonous funnybooks-cum-media conglomerate fête known amorphously as Comic Con. The familiar stickiness in the air feels no different than the squelching humidity of a Tokyo summer, but there is a specific dissimilarity - its origin is the unwashed mass of humanity that descends annually upon this abstracted soirée of incestuous licensing interests.

Besides the complimentary booze, the highlight of SDCC09 thus far has been Sega's epic failure of a press event. Attempting their deftest marketing maneuver in years, Sega managed to showcase not only their lack of development prowess but a monumental misunderstanding of industry relations in the act of unveiling Iron Man 2: The Game (2? Or would that be Iron Man 2: The Game 1?), the successor to last year's abysmally acclaimed movie tie-in. Attempting to gratify the gaming press, Sega made the cheeky decision to explicity acknowledge the unparalleled mediocrity of their previous effort. An insultingly feeble attempt at appeasement by its lonesome, Sega managed to top themselves by screening footage of the equally atrocious sequel all the while. In plain sight before the media was a dated game design with PS2-era visuals for all to see. Is it any wonder Sega of America failed to win hearts and minds with their last attempt at martyrdom, the Dreamcast?

Retroviral Marketing

In a post viral world, what does marketing look like? We have recently been offered a glimpse by FireProClub.com. The unlikliest of agents to expose such a paradigm shift? So, perhaps, you are meant precisely to believe. This congregation of enthusiastic rasslin' otaku recently posted elaborate details of a yet-to-be-announced entry in the storied Fire Pro Wrestling franchise, claiming their source as a man with very special connections to the project.

What better time for GDC09 to come upon us. While taking a break from the conference drudgery at a nearby tavern, I happened upon an old friend of mine: celebrity game dev and man of action himself, Suda51. Over a cold doppelbock, I pulled up the Fire Pro Club's purportedly leaked info on my iPhone. I then slid it across the small mahogany pub table without saying a word, so as not to bias Suda-san's reaction. He casually scrolled the page, looking up as the iPhone cast an ominous glow in the dark, cool air of the cave-like tavern. "Clever, aren't they?" he replied with a subtle wink. Was the hoax merely a product of overzealous fanboys, or a project of the penultimate fanboy himself? With visionary figures like Suda-san, these questions are most potently heuristic when they remain unanswered.

Proving the Old Axiom

Being a normal man (in the normal ways at least; exceptional in others), there are certain feelings that manifest themselves in the course of being a freelance journalist and consultant. And so to convey various notes about the games industry that arise outside the scope of my professional activities, this blog is unceremoniously born of a few clicks and skipping of much Terms of Service verbiage I claim to have read. Here I intend to post items in a fashionably haphazard (read: infrequent) manner. For more active updates, please refer to my professional workblog or follow me on Twitter. And if you're that hard up for momentary distraction to while away the work day, visit my friends and associates linked probably to the righ of this post (somewheres).

-Jeysen Jürgensen
Freelance Journalist and New Media Consultant