Return to the (Video Game) Castle

I wrote a eulogy back in August of 2010 for Video Game Castle, which is an independently-owned video game store in Chicopee, MA. At the time, I was still living in Arizona and had heard about the closure of the store from a story on Kotaku. I was saddened to read about it, given my personal ties and experiences with the store and its owner.

I had heard through the grapevine that the store had reopened, and one of the benefits of being back home in Massachusetts is to revisit Video Game Castle and see how things are. I ventured over there without thinking to call first, assuming that what I’d heard about the store being open was true. Upon arriving at the address, I was relieved to see an open sign in front of the store. I parked my car in the lot across the street and made my way back towards the Castle for the first time in over two years.

Upon entering the store, the owner acknowledged me and explained his hardships. He told me that he’d read my eulogy piece, which I found to be flattering, and filled me in on what’s been a challenging time for him. He mentioned that nobody followed up on the story about the store’s closure with information about the store reopening and resuming business, which was unfortunate. While the store was closed, a competing shop opened just two doors down… and that store remains open today. It’s interesting to see the competitive dynamic between two stores so close in proximity. I didn’t stop into the other store, but I do admit that it’s a good thing to have two independent stores open, regardless of proximity or reasoning.

After our conversation, I set to what is the best part of visiting Video Game Castle: looking at the varied selection of games that have accumulated over the years. I was happy to see that the NES display case was still intact and had a decent amount of games inside. Sadly, there wasn’t any NES hardware around, but titles like Ninja Gaiden, Super Spike V’Ball, RBI Baseball, and so many others that I loved playing once upon a time stand at the ready if I am able to get another system to play them on.

Complete NES games, boxes and all.

There are still impressive collections of games for the SEGA Genesis and the SNES. There are cabinets for each platform with loose and boxed games included. Far to the rear of the store, a cabinet with SEGA Saturn games waits for interested buyers; in fact, a Saturn console was for sale while I was there and I thought about it briefly. There was even a small number of 3DO games for sale, including Wing Commander III, Sewer Shark, and Twisted. These consoles, along with more recent ones like the PlayStation and Nintendo 64, all have their place in video game history. For me, walking into Video Game Castle and looking around is like being in some sort of museum. I had mentioned to the owner that he should reorganize the basement of the shop and open a console gaming museum of sorts. He chuckled and mentioned that he’d actually sold off a lot of that merchandise since I’d been in there last. I was happy for him that money was made, but jealous that I wasn’t able to buy any of it.

After spending most of the day visiting, I did wind up buying a few PlayStation games:

• WWF Wrestlemania: The Arcade Game: I have a soft spot for Midway arcade games, and this is one that I didn’t own before now. Surprisingly, there’s no game saving or memory card usage… but that’s OK. Dominating with Yokozuna is still a blast, even though I am a bit rusty.
• Bases Loaded ’96 Double Header: I’m not sure why I bought this, aside from seeing the Jaleco name and because the game was complete. It’s obvious how early this game is in the PlayStation life cycle. The players are blocky, the animations are deliberate, and the opening cinematic is unintentionally bad… errr… funny.
• Wayne Gretzky’s 3D Hockey ’98: Long title, I know. Since I don’t have a Nintendo 64 right now, this is as close as I can come to playing a game that I spent tens of hours playing 15 years ago. The sound of awfully compressed and the PlayStation controller layout isn’t intuitive, but I sure get my nostalgia fix for $5.
• Mat Hoffman’s Pro BMX: This game uses the engine from Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, and I played the demo enough to want to own the full game. It feels like a looser version of THPS, with trick animations that unfortunately sometimes take too long to resolve. This isn’t as good as Dave Mirra Freestyle BMX, but is still a solid game.
• Slam ‘n Jam ’96: This is a port of a 3DO game that sadly arrived too late to make any difference for that troubled platform. Crystal Dynamics and Left Field Productions put together a game that seemed to use Konami’s Run ‘n Gun coin-op as its inspiration. The PlayStation port added Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to try and lure players in, but the game never sold well. I liked it on the 3DO, and the PlayStation version was just fine.

Yes, this is still sealed, despite being released 15 years ago.

I’m happy for the owner and for local gamers in this area that Video Game Castle has overcome its challenges and is open for everyone to see. It’s not the most organized store that you’ll ever see, but part of the fun for each visit is to find new things to gaze at. It won’t be around forever, so if you happen to drive through the Chicopee, MA area at some point, I encourage you to stop in and see over three decades of history… much of which is for sale.

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Consoleation Status Report: 2012 Changes

2012 is almost upon us, and it’s going to mark some changes as far as my writing and for Consoleation.

One of my goals in 2012 is to gain a wider audience for my writing, if I can. Consoleation gets about 20 hits a day, with some variance if the content is controversial. Pieces that I’ve been submitting over on my blog at Game Informer seem to be gaining a lot more traffic, so I’m going to be splitting content between Consoleation and Game Informer in 2012. I’ll be doing more reviews and impressions here at Consoleation and moving a lot of my industry analysis over to Game Informer. I’m still active with the League of One project over at KmartGamer as well, so my writing will be spread out a bit more.

As money remains tight, a lot of the reviews and impressions that I’ll be posting here will be for older games. My PlayStation 2 games library gives me a lot to pick from, plus I do have a small selection of PS3 and Xbox 36o games that I managed to hold on to since the move. This writing will be important in order to keep my reviewing skills fresh and as I occasionally experiment with different formats. While I enjoy writing about the business side of gaming– and occasionally criticizing decisions and moves that I don’t agree with– it’s necessary for me to continue to grow as a writer and be able to do more than just provide insight on predictions and data. If I want to pursue this career path, I need to grow in many facets. I think that I have the knowledge, but to succeed, I must have the ability to deliver diverse content.

My Game Informer blog, as you can see if you’ve visited, is more geared towards sales and industry analysis. I think that it’s distinct content for that site, rather than contributing more reviews or previews. Having a niche like that will hopefully gain some readers and give my writing in that field a bit more of an audience. So far, traffic numbers have been impressive for being a newcomer there, and I’m hoping that will continue.

I expect 2012 to be one of my most productive years since 2005 when it comes to writing. The time for excuses and obstacles is over. I want to move forward and find out if I really have what it takes to be a success in this field. I think that parts of 2011 showed that I have potential… but I want to put it together this coming year. Consoleation will be a big part of that, and I hope that you’ll follow me along for the ride.

Consoleation Time Machine: Super Castlevania IV (SNES)

20 years have flown by since Konami launched Super Castlevania IV for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. I have fond memories of the game. The visuals were impressive, the music was great, the challenge was fair, and it would be the catalyst that would make me a fan of the series for many years to come.

Back in late 1991, games for the SNES were still pretty scarce. Sure, we played Super Mario World, F-Zero, ActRaiser, Final Fantasy II (errr…FFIV, but who’s counting?), and others… but my friends and I were anticipating any new games that we could get our hands on. Gaming magazines had been hyping Super Castlevania IV, and I remember buying it as quickly as I could. I knew a little about Castlevania, but my exposure to the games on the NES had been limited at that time. I watched a friend play through Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest a year prior, but had little hands-on time with the games myself.

I wasn’t prepared for just how good a game that Super Castlevania IV would be.

For starters, the graphics and sound were top-notch. Some of the Mode 7 tricks were more than impressive for the time and I really liked the gothic setting and atmosphere. Areas like the treasure room and the library stood out to me, and the clock tower looked better than ever. The soundtrack was good enough that I’d actually taped it to listen to on the go, thanks to running my sound through my stereo. Now-familiar themes like Bloody Tears and Vampire Killer had arrangements that sounded fanastic thanks to the Sony sound chip and DSP that fueled the Super Nintendo’s sound output.

I also thought that the difficulty was just right. There were challenging parts of the game for sure, but I was able to play through it and was satisfied with the challenge. The experience reminded me a bit of Ninja Gaiden II versus its predecessor. Ninja Gaiden is notoriously hard, especially during the last act. Even to this day, I have not beaten it. Ninja Gaiden II, on the other hand, had a more forgiving difficulty and I was able to finish it. For me, a game is more enjoyable when it’s challenging without being cheap. Getting to experience a game at your own pace and with the feeling that the game actually wants you to succeed is important. Super Castlevania IV– like Ninja Gaiden II– felt fair. It was a ride worth taking, and a memorable one.

Super Castlevania IV provided some unforgettable moments for me. Block 4-2, with the rotating room, was imaginative. Having the room spin around you as you cling to a post from your whip was one of those “Wow” moments. 4-3 then showed the power of Mode 7 technology with the rotating room. Block 6-1 challenged my fear of heights as I leapt from one moving chandelier to another. The onslaught of bosses with Slogra, Gaibon, and Death was a nasty gauntlet to run. Then, of course, the final battle with Dracula stood between me and destiny. These are only the big highlights for me; I could play through the game today and comment on each and every event that stood out to me, and I’d still be excited.

Perhaps the biggest thing that I take away from Super Castlevania IV is that it hooked me on a series that I really didn’t have any interest in before. After playing through Super Castlevania IV, I would eventually go on to games like Castlevania: Bloodlines on the SEGA Genesis in 1994 and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night for the PlayStation in 1997. I became a fan, and it was this one game that pulled me in.

The Future is Digital

We’ve been seeing a gradual shift in software sales in the last couple of years towards digital distribution. Full retail games have been available for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 over that time and, although the digital library is but a fraction of the retail library, digital has been catching up. Now, a circulating rumor about software for the PlayStation Vita takes this one step further as the price structure may be significantly different for physical versus digital games.

As with any shift, there are positives and negatives to consider.

The biggest positive to the rumored Vita plan is the lower cost to the consumer. Digital games could be as much as 40% cheaper if consumers buy digitally than if they buy a physical copy. Leaving the expensive proprietary memory cards out of the equation for a moment, these savings would add up before long.  Imagine paying $25 for a game that sells for $40 at GameStop or Walmart. If you bought six games in a year, that’s a savings of $90. Granted, the savings would be offset by the exorbitant cost of the memory cards, but it could pay for itself within the first year if you buy enough games.

This move is long overdue and makes sense. Publishers can eliminate overhead like packaging and printing, plus they can eliminate the “middle man” that is the retail chain. Consumers would stand to gain from this cost-cutting measure more consistently in this system, as opposed to the on-demand retail titles that we’ve seen on the Xbox LIVE Marketplace and the PlayStation Store. In many cases, pricing for full retail titles mirrors MSRP (Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price) in spite of sacrificing tangibles. It doesn’t benefit a consumer to buy digitally in many cases under the current system… but the rumored Vita software pricing scheme most certainly provides a benefit. The loss of the physical product and tangibles is arguably more than offset by the lower price, which could be very important for staying competitive. If consumers can get past the high cost of the hardware and the necessary expense for a large memory card, the Vita can be perceived as a good value in the long run. That’s provided, of course, that Sony and its third-party partners deliver consistent and quality software.

There are other positives to digitally downloaded software, which remain for the Vita. Not having to carry (and potentially misplace or damage) physical games makes the platform all the more portable. If consumers buy a large memory card, like the 32GB model, a fair number of games can follow the user wherever he or she goes. Cutting out retail also adds a level of convenience for some consumers. If you want to buy a new game at 3am, digital distribution allows this instead of being out of luck until the next day. Digital distribution eliminates shipping errors or damaged packages from Amazon or any other retailer, as well.

There are drawbacks to digital distribution, as well. Perhaps the biggest one of these is the inability to trade in, sell, or allow a friend to borrow a game. Once you buy a digitally distributed game, it’s yours. Beat a game 100%? Your only recourse, aside from keeping it and occupying valuable storage space on your memory card, is to delete it. In most cases, you can re-download the game later if desired, but you won’t be able to recoup anything. This is most problematic if you buy a game and wind up not liking it. Physical copies of games give consumers a few options in these cases. They can be sold to friends or online, can be traded in at GameStop or Best Buy, and listed at a tag sale. Even if you got $10 for a game that you spent $40 for and hated, you still get something back. Not so in digital distribution for consoles. All it could take is a few clunkers for some consumers to get cold feet.

Demos are usually cited by defenders of digital distribution as methods of ensuring that consumers don’t buy “the wrong game”, but these are unreliable in at least some cases. Demos can sometimes misrepresent what the actual game is like. One example of this was the demo for Brutal Legend back in 2009. The demo came across as a straight-up action game, with some vehicle sequences thrown in. The demo sold me, leading to a preorder and purchase. My delight turned sour quickly when the game added real-time strategy sequences, which I hated. Nowhere in the demo– or in any pre-release articles on the game– was the RTS content mentioned. I wound up trading the game in the next day. If I’d bought it digitally, I’d have been stuck with it and been much more angry about the misrepresentation.

The other major drawback to digital distribution is the limitation of the internet. Some people have great speeds and performance, where downloading even a 1GB game isn’t an all-day affair. For many others, speed and reliability are problems that make digital distribution a futile practice. In cases like we see now with full retail games for the PS3 and Xbox 360, buying physical copies is the best solution since it’s the same price in most cases and provides more timely gratification and experience. In the Vita’s case, potentially, a tougher decision lies ahead for consumers like that. Are they willing to pay what amounts to a penalty for buying physical copies, or do they just ignore the Vita altogether based on its apparent online focus? Sony seems willing to risk alienating a certain segment of their prospective Vita consumer base this way, but it’s arguably indicative of what’s to come as the industry seems to take for granted that consumers have reliable high-speed connections… and may be willing to sacrifice a few users in the name of advancing their online strategies. This remains to be seen, of course.

If this pricing strategy rumor for Vita winds up being correct, the industry will be watching it very closely. If consumers buy into it and sales numbers support it enough, publishers may start talking to Sony and Microsoft about how it can be applied to the next generation of consoles. Although I’m not a proponent of killing physical media in favor of digital distribution, it’s hard to argue against the business side of the decision. It’s financially advantageous to the industry to cut back on physical copies and the overhead associated with the practice. Logistics would become easier and street dates would be easier to enforce. On the flip side, however, I’d be on the outside looking in as a consumer and would likely be forced out of a form of entertainment that I’ve enjoyed for so many years… and that’s obviously not an outcome that I want to see take place.

Time will tell, of course, but I believe that we’re about to see the future– and it’s digital.