Event, Game News, General

GameStart 2017 – Every Game You Can Imagine, It Is There.

1 Comment

Main Stage of GameStart 2017

Board game, card game, console game, retro console game, mobile game, indie game, VR game or any type of games you can think of, you can find them at this year GameStart 2017. Let’s take you through a tour of the highlights at this year GameStart 2017.

Bandai Booth

Dragon Ball FighterZ

The much anticipated Dragon Ball FighterZ has previously received many positive reviews from media when the trailer was first released at E3 2017. It is touted as one of the most faithful adaptation of the anime into game.

The game itself looks as promising as the E3 trailer. At times, you would even think you are watching the anime. The queue to try out the game was constantly long but it was definitely worth the wait especially for the Dragon Ball fan.

Taiko no Tatsujin (太鼓の達人)

Taiko no Tatsujin game was also available for visitors to try out at the Bandai booth.

PlayStation Booth

The biggest booth of all, a multitude of PS4 games were opened up to everyone. If you tried out all four booth, you can get to win a small token prize much like this year IT Show 2017 PlayStation Booth.

PlayStation Booth

Get behind the wheels of Gran Turismo Sport in a futuristic Tron-like pod.

Gran Turismo Sport

By now, most of you might have tried out PlayStation VR before. We tried out Farpoint VR. While refreshing to try out a FPS on PlayStation VR, the combination of running and shooting in the VR world was too much for me to take. After a 3 minutes gameplay, I’m already feeling dizzy.

PlayStation VR

Doujin Market

Another of our favourite was the Doujin Market. There are many great artists in Singapore. There is where we can support them by buying their work. Rachta Lin is one of artist whom we really like her work and her works were  available at this year GameStart

Doujin Market

eSports

SEA Mobile Major

There are two main stage for the eSports lover. SEA Mobile Major took place at one of the stage featuring ShadowVerse. Mobile gaming has indeed come a long way in eSports from the days of Angry Birds.

At the other stage, players battle each other at many popular fighting game such as Street Fighter V, Marvel VS. Capcom Infinite and Tekken 7.

SEA Major 2017

Hitting the groin is allowed in the world of eSports!

SEA Major 2017

Tabletop Game

A huge area was dedicated to tabletop games. Even if you are not a fan of tabletop games, you can just check out some of the impressive miniature models in games such as Warhammer.

And of course there are many fun-loving cosplayers at the events itself that makes the whole experience even better!

FF XV Cosplayers

 

Event, Game News

Nier Creator Yoko Taro and Square Enix Producer Yosuke Saito at GameStart 2017

Leave a comment

 

One of the highlight of this year GameStart 2017 is the main stage appearance of Yoko Taro, father of Nier, and Yosuke Saito, Square Enix Producer.

As usual the eccentric Yoko Taro has his Emil Mask on only for a short period of time before being ushered into a Yoko box where he takes off his mask. Nope you can’t see him from outside the box. It’s his own way of keeping his identity secret (though his real life photo can be found on the internet).

The interview session was entertaining with legion of fans participating actively throughout the entire session. Many shouted vehemently at the end of the show “人類に栄光あれ” in Japanese which mans “Glory to Mankind”. A pledge that is made famous in the game Nier Automata.

A set of pre-submitted fan questions were selected beforehand. Some of them are your standard fan questions, some elicit really funny answer from Yoko.

*Q&A below is not the actual transcript but a translated version from Japanese.

Fan: Are there certain movies or books that inspire you for the game.
Yoko: I get my inspiration from some of them. Evangelion is one from anime and the American Drama 24 is another one. I will try to avoid taking ideas from major titles as other would easily spot it. So usually, I will steal from the more minor title.

That’s Yoko Taro for you. Straight, honest answer with a tinge of humour.

Here’s another one:

Fan: Why did you include an ending where you have to delete the gamer’s save file?
Yoko: When I was young, my save file for Dragon Quest 3 was deleted. I was devastated and disappointed. But my parents do not understand what I was going through. Hence I make my players go through the same experience.

So that’s it?! While this sounds brutal, it is also really amusing to me. For the longest time, I always thought that there is a stronger meaning behind asking the user to delete the save file at the ending. So the truth is simply this. Advice to you when you play Yoko Taro’s game, don’t read too much into why things are how they are in the games.

The final section is a compilation of the fan’s answers to a list of Nier Automata related questions. Here are some of the results

Seems like long hair A2 is more popular…hmm…

Next question. Slightly controversial.

You would have guess it’s the (*AHEM) Tits as what Yoko Taro thought. But the result is…

Butt? Ok…let’s not discuss why and respect the crowd’s vote.

This is the funniest question yet. I wonder who came out with the questions…

And you guessed it…

Adult Game! Yoko Taro says he will seriously consider this. We will just have to wait for the Nier Automata sequel if there is going to be one.

There are many more things to see at GameStart 2017. Tomorrow will be the last day (15th Oct 2017). Be sure to visit if you have not!

 

 

Retro Gaming

The curious case of the front loading Nintendo Entertainment System (NES)

Leave a comment

If you ever own a Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), you would have encountered the problem where the system cannot read the game cartridge. Sometime all it takes is a few quick blow into the console. Otherwise, you would likely need to send the unit for repair. only to encounter the same problem a few years later.

The reason for this is due to a design decision made by Nintendo when they launch the NES in America. Unlike many gaming console, both before and after NES, the NES was likely the only console with front loading cartridges.

Most other consoles loads their cartridge from the top. The mechanism needed for front loading known as the Zero insertion force (ZIF) connector, was prone to wear and tear unlike the simpler connector used in the top loading consoles such as Sega Genesis and the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES).

A NES ZIF Connector Credit: thevintagegamers.com

So why did Nintendo op for that design which was in fact a pricier option then?

When Nintendo was launching the NES in America, it was during the 80s video game crash . Basically, it was a time when there was an oversaturation of video game consoles in US. Even Mattel (the maker of Barbie) has a gaming console of their own. Games were not selling well and Atari even resorted to burying their unsold game. It was not a good time to launch a video game console.

In order to entice retailers to carry the NES and for buyers to be more acceptance of the console, Nintendo tried to masquerade it as a toy. Being front loading would mean people can stack it up just like a regular VCR. It looked less like a game console at the same time. Eventually Nintendo did try to fix this issue by releasing the NES 101 which is top-loading.

So the next time your NES breaks, blaming it on the design decision that was made 20 years ago.