In this post I would like to discuss with you an all time favorite title of my own. As many of my readers know I have been a Final Fantasy nerd for a long time. Ever since I first saw Setzer spin his slot machine in 1994 I was enthralled by this storyline. And from the beginning of the series a great plot and story line were key to these titles. Even when graphics were something to be taken with a grain of salt, Final Fantasy had some of the most amazing story lines you could think of. And then by the time of Super Nintendo when graphics could at least be a little bit better, square soft created an absolute master piece. Moving story line, moving characters, exciting plot twists and even an excellent music score to top it off. I still love listening to the piano introduction of Final Fantasy Six.

And then Final Fantasy Seven came along 3 years later to the then fresh new console of the Play Station (click here to see history of consoles) and many new fans were hooked as well. People debate which game was better six or seven. The graphics were of course undoubtedly better, and I would say the storyline is just as dynamic as its predecessor. There aren’t supposed to be any repeats in the Final Fantasy world. That was one of the things that were so intriguing about the whole series. They would always start fresh, with new characters, a whole new world really, to build up a completely different plot line. The only continuation would be slightly similar themes and the same familiar attack and item styles.

This freshness was usually a trademark of the series and any real sequel to a Final Fantasy title was seriously frowned upon. That is until we had Final Fantasy X-2 for the Play Station 2. This game title brought out all of the worst fears in what it would mean to make a sequel in the Final Fantasy world. Final Fantasy Ten (X) was of course a blockbuster success, one of the best ever made, in the same kind of ranking as 6 and 7. So this was probably one of the worst titles to make a sequel to in my opinion. Because Final Fantasy ten was so good that anything that came afterwards as a direct sequel would seem lacking and just not quite as dynamic. And in this area, Final Fantasy X-2 did not disappoint. Final Fantasy X-2 at this point is almost guaranteed to go down as one of the worst games ever made. I don’t know what they were thinking or trying to do when they came up with this one, but basically they took all the beloved main characters of Final Fantasy Ten and either completely cut them out or made them goofy side characters that you could not actually play. I realize that Final Fantasy X-2 was most likely an attempt to gain a younger audience to the franchise with it’s more lighthearted plot, but it just fell completely flat.

After this unpopular sequel, it was like the Final Fantasy spell had been broken for a bit and even after they tried to regroup back to the classic formula with Final Fantasy Eleven it was almost too late. Final Fantasy Eleven was a good game but it was not great. It was missing several key components of the Final Fantasy series. The same can be said for Twelve and beyond. Ever since unlucky Thirteen hit the store shelves Final Fantasy really just seems to be losing its way. I suppose that everything gets old after a while, even the great strategy of starting every game fresh has gotten old for the makers of Final Fantasy. So is the dream, the fantasy really over?

No. I don’t think so. They developers of this title need to just take a break and revaluate what they can do with this series. Most importantly I think that for future titles they need to readjust what they can do with newer consoles and systems. Because one thing I really feel is that after play station 2, the makers of the Final Fantasy series really started to hit a brick wall. That’s why Final Fantasy for Play Station Four is almost unmentionable now.

So they need to go back to the drawing board and revamp this series, taking all of these new factors into account. Then maybe after hiding under the rocks of the gaming industry we can see once again Setzer spinning his slot machine and this time for the luck of the whole Final Fantasy series and the future of great RPG’s in general.

I love classic nostalgia, especially when it comes to gaming. Recently when I was surfing through YouTube I came across a really classic. Does anyone remember Captain Nintendo? The whole premise is so hilarious. The dude was playing his Nintendo when he gets sucked into the TV screen and arrives in what they call, “Game Land”. Once there he is greeted by characters from classic games like Mega Man, Kid Icarus and Castlevania. One thing I always wondered about that show is why they never had Super Mario, maybe he was too goofy even for that goofy show? Anyway the video brought back some memories. I found the goons led by the evil mother brain from metroid to be fairly disturbing though. The boxer villain guy seems like he needs to where a bra!

This episode was cool though the Mother Brain goons were trying to steal Zelda’s Tri Force and had hatched a plot to trick the denizens of the game kingdom into going to a party. A party that of course invites Link and Zelda so that the High Rule thrown room would be unoccupied and safe for their grand theft tri-force. So the villains want to beat Ganon to the punch and start their evil agenda.

The plots in this piece are pretty hair-brained and goofy but what really cracks me up the most are the voices, especially those of mother brain and her henchmen. What the heck happened to mother brain anyway? Whenever I played Metroid the mother brain was a scary alien bio organism that spread its larvae. It was an insect like organism that did not speak, it especially wouldn’t have a voice like is displayed in this cartoon! So this show gave up some pretty goofy personas and characterization of classic Nintendo characters. I found this pretty interesting to see.

Have you ever wondered why one console or video game title succeeds and then another one is destined for failure? Why is it when Atari created its ET title it was destined for a literal resting place in the garbage bins of history? In this Post I explore these questions and try to discern the variables required in making a classic and a tragic piece of gaming history.

(Click on image for the history of Video Game consoles)

Well like I mentioned in the above paragraph. What the heck happened to ET? That is a great example of a flop. ET was a blockbuster movie in the 1980’s so everyone thought that anything the little alien guy would be involved in would be a smash success as well. But alas, this was just not destined to be the case. The games graphics itself were very ugly, even for the days of Atari they were just extremely bad.

The plot was awful too, it consisted of ET going through various pits in search of pieces of a telephone so he could phone home. And apparently as he dropped down and then attempted to levitate out of the pit he would get weaker, and what did ET need to get stronger again to beat the game? Well, Reeces Pieces of course! This blatant commercialism was bad even for the 1980’s

Another big problem that Atari had for this title was that when they released it over the Christmas season of 1982 they had way over estimated how many would be sold. As a result they manufactured way to many copies of the title and even though the game did well initially that Christmas, it soon became clear they simply had way too many copies and nobody was going to buy them! So this led to one of the most embarrassing instances in gaming history. The biggest game console of the day, found themselves with no choice but to throw the copies away. Apparently they thought the game was so bad they couldn’t even give them to needy children, they just had to bury it!

So the death of ET was a combination of horrible graphics, bad plot, and even worse marketing. So many bad factors went against the poor extra terrestrial that even his blockbuster movie could not save his video game debut.

So that was a great flop of a video game, but what open entire consoles that flopped? Here’s a good example. Does anyone remember the Virtual Boy? Yes, don’t you remember how virtual reality had arrived in 1997? Nintendo’s commercials for the product seemed amazing. I remember seeing them at 13 years old and thinking it really was some breakthrough in Virtual Reality. Needless to say that Christmas when I received the product I was very confused. First of all it was very cumbersome to put up, a heavy apparatus you wrap around your eyes placed on a flimsy tripod. Then when I loaded the game I wanted to cry. I was expecting virtual reality, the first thing I wondered is why everything was red, no other color, and then why do the graphics look worse than my Super Nintendo?

After about ten minutes I started to have a headache. Then in my sickened and disappointed state I discovered various warnings and disclaimers that prolonged play could really hurt your eyes or worse.

So these are the ways that games and their consoles become quickly extinct. Games that have no plot, horrible graphics and no marketing capability quickly flop as do gaming consoles that false advertise their capability and are detrimental to your health!