I am going to try, most likely in vain, to use mere mortal words to describe Nintendo’s E3 press conference today.

Ahem.

It was freakin’ awesome.

It was nothing but absolute wonderful news from start to finish, the Nokia Theater in Los Angeles full to the rafters with amazing and exciting announcements. They made Microsoft look like a joke. Well, more than Microsoft did by themselves.

We saw the new Zelda for the Wii, Skyward Sword. Gorgeous, colorful worlds, blending the design of Twilight Princess with the cel-shaded color of Wind Waker. Mario Sports Mix, a compilation of volleyball, hockey, dodgeball and basketball all starring Nintendo’s plumber and his colorful cohorts. Wii Party, which is Mario Party minus Mario plus Miis. The return of Goldeneye. Disney’s Epic Mickey. The irresistibly charming Kirby’s Epic Yarn. Retro studios taking the reigns of Donkey Kong Country Returns.

All amazing games with literally something for everyone. This was before they even whipped out the big enchilada.

The Nintendo 3DS.

What’s it launching with?

A NEW KID ICARUS GAME. OH HELL YEAH.

The 3DS itself looks absolutely slick. The DS Lite and DSi are both great designs for a handheld, and the 3DS manages to look just as good. This time around we have an analog stick, which is a welcome addition. It even has a 3D camera on the outside, allowing you to take a picture of something and immediately view it in 3D on your screen.

Unfortunately, the 3D effect can’t be conveyed through video or pictures, but hands-on reports from the show all confirm that it works, and it works very very well. I can’t wait for the chance to see it hands-on. They didn’t announce a release date, but the document leaked a few months ago said holiday 2010. I doubt it’ll be that early, but I imagine it’s going to be sooner rather than later.

What games have been announced and shown for the 3DS? Metal Gear Solid. Resident Evil. Nintendogs + Cats. Animal Crossing. Mario Kart. PILOTWINGS. A remake of Star Fox 64. Professor Layton. Kingdom Hearts. Many others.

Including a remake of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time!

I am DYING for a 3DS right now. They set out to make it a must-own device and they have succeeded in SPADES.

The entire show was just spectacular. There was nothing that didn’t leave me impressed. This wasn’t like last year where they wasted time having Cammie Dunaway show off James Patterson’s Women’s Murder Club for the DS. Oh no. Nintendo was swinging for the fences on this one, and they knocked it out of the park.

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword really doesn’t need me to explain much. It’s Zelda, we all know we’re going to love it. The graphics are amazing, though. The thing with Twilight Princess was that it was just too drab, all brown and yellow and gray. They’ve taken the older Link and put him in a colorful world more akin to the Zelda titles of old, and I think it works much better than their previous release. It requires the Wii Motion Plus, which they’re using in very cool ways. Enemies will block your attacks from certain angles and you’ll need to adjust your swings accordingly. Deku Babas will have mouths that open either horizontally or vertically, and you need to slice the direction of their open maw. It all looked well put together and I can’t wait to play it.

Kirby’s Epic Yarn was the surprise of the show for me and honestly it might have been the game that impressed me the most that wasn’t 3D. Kirby, as a yarn outline, jumping around a world made out of cloth and fabric that he can manipulate via zippers and buttons? He can change into things like a car, a UFO, and a giant robot? Yes please.

I was super stoked to see Donkey Kong Country Returns, and even more stoked to hear Retro Studios was behind it. They far exceeded everyone’s expectations with the Metroid Prime series and I expect they’ll do the same with Donkey Kong. The familiar music and sound effects went very well with the updated visuals, and I liked the new team-up moves that DK and Diddy were performing in the trailer.

Really, Nintendo absolutely won E3 this year. Who said they forgot about their core audience? In one E3, we have new Zelda, Donkey Kong, Kirby, Star Fox, and Kid Icarus games, plus a fantastic new piece of hardware. What more can you ask for?

I watched the live stream of Microsoft’s E3 press conference while I was at work today. I felt it was a productive use of my time. Here’s what I thought.

They opened up with a new Call of Duty game, Black Ops. This one is by Treyarch, who are the guys who DIDN’T make Modern Warfare. The first 10 minutes or so of Microsoft’s conference was one of the developers playing the game. He didn’t talk about it, he didn’t narrate, it wasn’t a cutscene… he just played. It was super boring. I was working on reports while that was going on, so all I got was the audio. It sounded just like the other ones.

Then Cliffy B and some other folks came out and gave a demo of Gears of War 3. Don’t ask me why, but the Gears series are really the only shooters that I enjoy. The demo looked pretty intense. There was a lot of color in this one! Instead of just old abandoned buildings, ruined cities and caves, the battle here took place on the outskirts of a jungle. I really dug it. I’m deliberately not paying much attention to Gears of War 3 coverage, because I want to go in to it without a whole lot of expectations, but it looked good.

Xbox spokesman Don Mattrick said that the three biggest properties in gaming were Halo, Gears of War and Call of Duty. I laughed.

They showed some stuff from Halo: Reach. It looked like Halo. That’s good for people who like Halo!

The rest of their conference was all about Kinect, the new name of Project Natal. They showed off how it can be used to manipulate menus, which was kinda neat I guess. It can recognize voice commands as well. Saying “Xbox! Music!” made it activate the last.fm feature of the Xbox 360.

For some reason Microsoft signed an agreement with ESPN to allow streaming sports to their console. You can use Kinect to, er, connect with other sports fans. The bottom of the screen says “Which team are you rooting for?” If I was watching the NBA Finals and I said “Xbox! Join Celtics!” it would take me to an area where I’d be watching the game with other sports fans.

It’s a neat idea, but I can’t see people choosing that over, y’know, just changing the channel on their TV when the game is on.

Then they showed off a lot of Kinect games. There was Kinectimals, which was like a virtual petting zoo. They had their Wii Sports clone, their Wii Fit clone, and a dancing game. Then they showed off a badass Star Wars game, where you played as a Jedi, deflecting blaster bolts back at Stormtroopers with your lightsaber.

They wrapped up the show by unveiling what’s basically the Xbox 360 slim. Smaller, sleeker, and quieter than the current 360, it’s got a glossy black finish and looks like a fancy PC case mod. It’s also Kinect ready (the Kinect only needs to be plugged into the system, on older models Kinect will need to be plugged into the wall as well). It has a 250 GB hard drive and has a built-in Wi-Fi adapter. They also announced it was shipping today and would be in stores by the end of the week.

As far as I’m concerned, Kinect is very impressive technology without much application. Microsoft’s mantra throughout the conference was “We want to make it simple,” but I can’t see navigating menus with my hands easier than just using a controller with a d-pad on it. The video chat was neat, but I can’t see anyone plunking down the cash just for that when they can just use a webcam on their PC.

The games… eh. The entire lineup just screamed “We wish we did the Wii first.” Everything they showed except for Kinectimals had a Wii equivalent, and you could make the assumption that even that’s just a hi-def Nintendogs.

I just don’t know who Microsoft is really targeting with Kinect. The obvious answer is people who like motion control, but honestly everyone who wants motion control already has a Wii. The 360’s core demographic isn’t going to be lining up for Kinectimals or Kinect Sports. People who start gaming on Wii might later move on to the Xbox 360, but if they do that, it’s because they’re looking for more mature games and a more traditional experience, not because they want what they already have but with better graphics.

And then the redesign comes into play. If you want to target new consumers, especially ones who don’t own a game console, you are not going to convince them to buy your console over the Wii when it looks like that. Sharp angles and a black finish make the machine look like a very formidable piece of technology, which is intimidating to people who aren’t already tech savvy. People know the Wii and they’re familiar with its image: clean, white, and friendly. The Xbox 360 is sharp, expensive looking, and will require the purchase of another accessory for motion controls.

I don’t think I’ll be picking up Kinect. I like my Xbox 360 as a compliment to my Wii: I can play motion games as well as hi-def traditional games. I can’t see putting the money into investing in a motion control scheme that doesn’t have Mario or Zelda attached to it.

It’s a shame that they based their whole conference on it, because if I was a 360 exclusive gamer, I’d feel pretty bummed out right about now.

Lately, the blog has been a lot of stupid bullshit about me driving listening to F-Zero music and playing Rescue Rangers on the NES. While I am a big proponent of stupid bullshit, I also have a serious side. It’s not big, but it’s there (that’s what she said). So today, I want to talk about the issue concerning the legality of selling violent games to kids that is on its way to the US Supreme Court.

What is currently happening is that the Supreme Court has decided to hear both sides of the case in regards to a proposed California law, written by State Senator Leland Yee and signed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2005. The law was challenged by industry representatives, and deemed unconstitutional.

What this law seeks to do is make it a crime to sell “ultra-violent video games” to children. The entertainment software industry has a voluntary and self-moderated ratings system, the ESRB (Entertainment Software Ratings Board) that has been in place since 1994.

So, what do I think of this bill? While I honestly believe that it has noble intentions (at least I’d like to think so), I find that it is a misguided attempt to wrest control over an industry that is often unfairly made the scapegoat once everyone starts finger-pointing after a child commits a violent act. I think that this bill becoming a law would have dangerous repercussions not only for the video game industry, but for entertainment as a whole.

“This is not about Leland Yee trying to destroy the industry,” Yee said in an interview with Kotaku. “This is not about Leland Yee trying to prevent any of you game [developers] from developing any more atrocious kinds of games. This is a free society. If you have the imagination to do something even more horrible with the technology, then god bless you. That’s part of our freedom of expression here in America, but you just have to figure out when it’s appropriate and when it’s not appropriate. For me, as a child psychologist you ought not be doing it for kids.”

Pick out the venom from that quote. “Atrocious kinds of games.” “Do something even more horrible with the technology.” Yee, who is proposing a law, which is supposed to be fair for everyone, has already made up his mind about the people who create these games. He sees them as little more than frat boys, high-fiving each other as they all seek to push the envelope a bit further than the ones before them. For me, as a human being first and a gamer second, Mr. Yee has thrown any credibility he had out the window with such petty remarks.

The thing that really seals the deal, though, is how he ended it: “You ought not be doing it for kids.”

As someone who has worked in the software retail industry in both California and Massachusetts, I can safely say that the industry is doing a fine job policing itself. While working at GameStop, we had specific instructions and training that required us to request identification from people who tried to purchase a game that had been rated M (for Mature, suitable for ages 17 and over). There were even secret shoppers who would test a store’s compliance with this guideline. If you were caught selling the game to a minor, you were terminated from the company.

Just two weeks ago, I was in Best Buy to purchase Mass Effect 2 for the Xbox 360, a Mature-rated game. I am 26 years old. I was with Christina, who is 24. We don’t get carded when we order a beer at a restaurant. The Best Buy cashier carded both of us before he would sell us the game.

Are there kids who occasionally slip through and purchase an M-rated game? It would be naïve to say no. However, every day there are also kids who get away with buying alcohol or cigarettes before they’re old enough as well. The sale of alcohol and tobacco IS regulated federally, and it has not eliminated children from acquiring them. It has made it harder, but not impossible. What proof is there that video games would be any different?

Lumping video games in with tobacco, alcohol and pornography is ignorant and prejudiced. Video games are not a form of entertainment solely for the enjoyment of children. Several studies have pegged the average gamer between the ages of 18 and either 39 or 49 depending on the study. They are the ones with disposable income, and as such there are games that cater to that demographic. Just because they are on a shelf does not mean that they are being promoted or sold to children.

When I worked at GameStop, nine times out of ten when I’d refuse to sell an M-rated game to a child, they’d leave the store and come back a few minutes later with an annoyed parent. I would explain the rating and the game’s content to the parent, and they’d buy it anyway.

This law will do nothing to stop children from getting their hands on these games. The solution isn’t to place federal restrictions on something that retailers are already doing voluntarily. The solution is education, putting the ESRB more out in the open as a way to educate parents about what games are and are not appropriate for children. Ultimately, it is the parent’s decision, not the government’s.

The problem is, most parents don’t care. They still see video games as a childish venture and they don’t want to be bothered with it. If God of War will make Billy shut up and stop bothering his sister, then God of War is what’s going home with them. It’s a video game, so it’s for kids, right?

This law will only reinforce that ancient assumption and doom the medium to always be considered below television, movies and books.

Another problem with the proposed legislation is the vague wording. “Ultra-violent” games. How do you define that? Here is the outline from the bill, taken from a Kotaku article:

(d) (1) “Violent video game” means a video game in which the range of options available to a player includes killing, maiming, dismembering, or sexually assaulting an image of a human being, if those acts are depicted in the game in a manner that does either of the following:
(A) Comes within all of the following descriptions:
(i) A reasonable person, considering the game as a whole, would find appeals to a deviant or morbid interest of minors.
(ii) It is patently offensive to prevailing standards in the community as to what is suitable for minors.
(iii) It causes the game, as a whole, to lack serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value for minors.
(B) Enables the player to virtually inflict serious injury upon images of human beings or characters with substantially human characteristics in a manner which is especially heinous, cruel, or depraved in that it involves torture or serious physical abuse to the victim.
(2) For purposes of this subdivision, the following definitions apply:
(A) “Cruel” means that the player intends to virtually inflict a high degree of pain by torture or serious physical abuse of the victim in addition to killing the victim.
(B) “Depraved” means that the player relishes the virtual killing or shows indifference to the suffering of the victim, as evidenced by torture or serious physical abuse of the victim.
(C) “Heinous” means shockingly atrocious. For the killing depicted in a video game to be heinous, it must involve additional acts of torture or serious physical abuse of the victim as set apart from
other killings.
(D) “Serious physical abuse” means a significant or considerable amount of injury or damage to the victim’s body which involves a substantial risk of death, unconsciousness, extreme physical pain, substantial disfigurement, or substantial impairment of the function of a bodily member, organ, or mental faculty. Serious physical abuse, unlike torture, does not require that the victim be conscious of the
abuse at the time it is inflicted. However, the player must specifically intend the abuse apart from the killing.
(E) “Torture” includes mental as well as physical abuse of the victim. In either case, the virtual victim must be conscious of the abuse at the time it is inflicted; and the player must specifically intend to virtually inflict severe mental or physical pain or suffering upon the victim, apart from killing the victim.
(3) Pertinent factors in determining whether a killing depicted in a video game is especially heinous, cruel, or depraved include infliction of gratuitous violence upon the victim beyond that necessary to commit the killing, needless mutilation of the victim’s body, and helplessness of the victim.

Again, it’s too vague. A lot of the wording of this definition leaves it open for interpretation. Virtually any game with any level of violent conflict could become entangled in this catch-all web. What this means is that there will be a committee, appointed by the government and paid for with taxpayer dollars, to re-do everything the ESRB is currently doing.

There will be a government body deciding what is and is not appropriate for your children to play.

Please re-read that sentence a few times and let it sink in.

So where does it go from there? Now the government can decide what games can and can’t be sold to kids. So what’s stopping them from deciding what kind of games can’t be sold AT ALL? If a “game, as a whole… lack(s) serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value” then why even bother putting it on shelves? Only psychopaths would play that game, right?

The fact of the matter is that video games are a protected form of free speech, as has been proven time and time again when a lawyer or lawmaker has tried to get their 15 minutes of fame by creating one of these laws. The music industry has stood by the video game industry during this entire issue. “Culture and art thrives on the preservation of the First Amendment. Any law or effort to weaken First Amendment protection of free expression whether in music, film or video games or other creative content is ultimately a harmful thing,” said Cara Duckworth of the Recording Industry Association of America in a Kotaku interview.

So once video games are regulated, what’s stopping them from regulating the sale of movies, books or music?

This bill is dangerous, misguided, misinformed, and unconstitutional, just as others have been deemed by the Supreme Court before. I hope that this bill will suffer the same fate.

So the inaugural PAX East has come and gone. They say PAX is an experience unlike any other, and it certainly was. Here’s my rundown of our weekend.

The doors didn’t open until 2pm on Friday, and we arrived a little bit before noon. We got some coffee and headed in to see how long the line was, and after walking through one queue room, we came to a SECOND queue room. An Enforcer told us they expected both rooms to fill up and then some. So we got in line and got ready to wait, and luckily they made sure no one would be bored in line.

Several giant screens were set up to play “line games,” which were simple things that relied on audience participation via cell phone. There were trivia games and “this or that” type games, and everyone would text their answer in and the results were reflected on the screen. The most interesting was a storytelling game in which everyone in line picked the hero, conflict and resolution of a story. Pac-Man got to combat the polluted Lifestream by casting Holy on Sephiroth. It was awesome.

When we got in, we decided to attend the keynote by Star Trek alum and geek icon Wil Wheaton. This led us from one line into another, something that would become a bit of a theme for the weekend. We weren’t sure if we wanted to attend the keynote since we’re not big Star Trek fans, but I had a feeling that we’d regret it if we didn’t, so when the line forked we took the path to the right.

Wil’s speech was incredible, an hour-long reassurance that it’s okay to be a geek, and we’re a very unique group of people with a lot of common experiences that allows us to form unique bonds with one another. If you weren’t able to attend, I’d very highly recommend listening to the audio from the keynote here. It was honestly one of the most inspiring things I’ve ever heard, and I really understand why Wil has earned the love and appreciation he has as one of the icons of our culture.

Once Wil was done speaking, Gabe and Tycho took the stage for their first panel, which was a riot. Sometimes in interviews they can come off as jerks, but it’s really not who they are at all. Listening to them speak to their fans, how it’s a real back-and-forth and not just “ask a question and sit down” really shows that although they’re rock stars, they’re still very much one (I mean two) of us.

The only downer during the panel came when they were asked about Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness Episode 3. Unfortunately, Hothead Games has a lot on their plate and in order for the third episode of their game to come out, Hothead wouldn’t be able to give it the polish it needed. As Gabe said, “We’d rather not release a game than have it half-assed and not as good as it should be.” As Tycho explained the situation and apologized several times for it, with genuine regret in his voice, he vowed that they would continue the story via another medium so fans weren’t left hanging. I loved the first two games, so it was a big disappointment to me, but their reasoning makes perfect sense. These guys are gamers through and through, and if the game isn’t going to be the game they want to be made, it’s better off not being made.

I saw that Scott Kurtz, another hero of mine, had a booth outside the Exhibition Hall, but he wasn’t at it. So I kept checking back every hour or so until he was, and luckily I managed to catch him there, with no line to boot. He signed my copy of his new book, and we talked a little bit about his writing style and how sitcoms are a huge influence on how he writes. I got to tell him how much I liked Truth, Justin and the American Way, and he was really appreciative of the praise since unfortunately the project didn’t get the recognition he and his partners had hoped. So everyone go buy it! It’s a great throwback to 80’s television, and a fantastic read.

We hit the Exhibition Hall, and it was insanely crowded so we didn’t really get a chance to try anything, but we did stop by the Fangamer booth. They had Camille Young’s clay figurines on display, and they were absolutely stunning in person. I’ve seen pictures of them online and in the Mother 3 Handbook, and photos absolutely do not do them justice, especially these I took with my DSi.

Mega64 was there, but they didn’t talk to you unless you were buying something or were with the press. I kinda had the feeling these guys thought they were too cool for school, and I guess it’s true. Maybe I’ll start making four minute long videos with one joke and then act like my farts smell like roses.

That was it for Friday. Saturday we came back early for Kotaku’s Stephen Totilo and former Newsweek writer N’Gai Croal’s panel “Canon Fodder: The Top 10 Video Games of All Time.” They had come up with a scientific method to determine the top 10 games ever made. They took the 10 highest ranked games on Gamerankings.com, and went to several key figures in the game industry and gave them a chance to alter the list in one of several ways: they could leave it as is, replace a game, or swap two games that were already on the list. It was really interesting and a lot of fun, and there were several outcries from the audience when a controversial move was made. The full rundown of the panel is on Kotaku.

Next we went to Major Nelson’s live podcast recording, which was a blast. Major Nelson is such a cool guy. He’s one of the guys who you can tell really loves what he does, and working with video games hasn’t gotten him completely jaded. Him and his co-hosts lollip0p, e, and Stepto were very fun to listen to, and I can’t believe I haven’t followed his podcast regularly until now. Thankfully, the audience wasn’t full of frat boys who only care about Modern Warfare, either. As a cool bonus, everyone who attended got a PAX East hoodie for their Xbox Live avatar as well.

We went back to the Exhibition Hall for a bit, because I wanted to check out Crackdown 2. I loved the first game, but as we waited in line, I saw that it was just a deathmatch demo, which I had no interest in, so we decided to check out the other games in the Xbox booth since the lines were much shorter. I’m really glad we did, because as we walked into the booth I ran right into Tycho. He signed my badge and was cool enough to pose for a picture.

I can’t stress enough how humble the man is. I apologized several times for bothering him and he kept looking at me saying “It’s no bother, really.” He was walking the show floor specifically for that reason. The fame hasn’t gone to his head at all, and he’s obviously very grateful of all the success he has and how he got there. I didn’t run into Gabe, but I imagine those who did had a similar experience.

We checked out a few games, and what we played was awesome. Frobot is an upcoming Wiiware game about futuristic disco robots made by a self-proclaimed Nintendo fanboy, and it was surprisingly fun. We played The Behemoth’s new game Battle Block Theater, which is a crazy arena-style game with all the style and flair you’d expect after Alien Hominid and Castle Crashers. Raskulls was a neat little game that was like a platformer met Mr. Driller, with a little bit of Bomberman and some racing elements thrown in. Christina gave AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! a quick play, and it was visually stunning and unlike anything I’ve ever seen. I guess that’s obvious with a name like that. It was developed right here in Boston, and while the other games in the Boston Indie Showcase all looked great, we didn’t get a chance to give them a hands-on.

We stopped by the Nintendo booth, where we got HeartGold/SoulSilver shoulder bags and checked out the DSiXL. The screens were nice, but in my opinion the games look a little too stretched out. Christina tried Picross 3D, which she says is a little confusing but she’s looking forward to picking up all the same. This was also the apparent spot for everyone to link Pokéwalkers, as we linked with a dozen people in about two minutes, including this really cute little girl who came over when she saw what everyone was doing, clutching her Pokéwalker containing her Sentret in both hands, too shy to say anything. Luckily we noticed her and she became part of the group.

There was actually Pokéwalker linking all over the con, which was fun. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to do a single Pokémon battle.

We went to go get in line for Adam Sessler’s panel about an hour before it started, but they had Enforcers with signs saying it was already full. We turned around to leave and I ran right into Adam Sessler himself. “Hey, Adam Sessler!” I said, giving the thumbs up. He smiled and said “Hey, how ya doin?” I’m counting that as meeting him. I’d give it a four… out of five.

We didn’t make it back on Sunday, as we had some other things to do and neither of us were really feeling that great (luckily we didn’t wind up with any form of animal-themed influenza). All in all, though, I’d say PAX East was a ton of fun, but there were several things that could have been improved.

For one, considering the event was supposed to be about socialization, they made it remarkably hard to game with other people. The “Handheld Lounge” was just a bunch of beanbag chairs in second and third floor hallways, so everyone just used them as a resting spot rather than an opportunity to link up with others. I entered the Union Room in Pokémon several times in the “lounge” but never found anyone else in there. Considering the amount of Pokéwalkers I saw clipped to people, I knew it was being played.

The console gaming rooms weren’t much better. You had to check games out and check into a station, with a 30 minute time limit. There was no encouragement to sit down at a station dedicated to a game and invite a passerby to pick up a controller and play with you. I understand why they ran it the way they did, but the game room at Anime Boston every year is much more optimized to play with others than this was.

Really, a lot of the empty rooms were dedicated to tabletop and CCG games, so they seemed to be the primary focus when it came to the socialization aspect.

However, I’m very glad we went and I had a fantastic time. The atmosphere was very comfortable and relaxed, and everyone was having a good time. I got to meet some of my personal influences and tell them what their work means to me, and Christina sat on the “be cool” button and kept me from being a babbling idiot.

When they roll back into town next year, you can bet I’ll be there.

Alright Lunar fans, I’ve been promising a surprise for you all for a while now, so I think it’s time I came clean! I, and the rest of PK Bloggin’! are excited to say that Jessica Chavez of XSEED Games was kind enough to make time for us to do an interview, and even provide some great exclusive Lunar: Silver Star Harmony screenshots just for us! (I’ve never conducted an interview before, how exciting!) Even if you aren’t a Lunar fan, please enjoy it, since there’s a lot of great information here about the localizing process, and being part of the game industry in general.

For those who don’t know you, can you tell us who you are, and what you do at XSEED Games?

My name is Jessica Chavez and I am a localization monkey at XSEED Games.  I am the company’s sole editor at the moment and I oversee the translated text in some of our games. Mostly I smooth out rough translations, fix spelling errors and adjust for formatting, but for some titles I also go to the recording studio and, as you’ve seen lately, I manage some online community stuff like the blog and facebook.

I am female, hopelessly fond of the phrase “clowns taste funny” and addicted to coffee.

How long have you been working in the video game industry, and how did you get your start?

I’ve been at XSEED for nearly two years come September, and I owe my start here to a bittersweet combination of ill-timing and pure luck.

I actually started off first in comic books (I worked for TokyoPop previously) and through unhappy circumstance (TokyoPop’s subsequent downsizing in 2008) I made the happy transition to video games. A prior three-year stint in Japan also contributed to my move to niche Japanese game publishing.

Were you a “gamer” prior to working in the business? If so, has having a career related to gaming made them less enjoyable?

I was a gamer prior to working in the industry and I’m afraid I have to say “yes” to the, er, being less-inclined to play part of that question. Most of my work is done staring at the computer screen until my eyes bleed as I wrestle text into shape, but I do have to play our games quite a bit here as well. As a result, when I go home the last thing I want to do is play anything… But, I am still a big fan of RPGs and my love of those has made this career choice very desirable despite the drain on my own personal enjoyment of games.

I still haven’t touched much of Dragon Age Origins since I got it…

What’s the localization process like? For RPGs, especially, there’s a lot of text, and usually a lot of cultural references. What kind of work goes into making the game accessible to a Western audience?

Brace yourself, this might be a bit long…

The localization process is actually extremely complicated and depends on the coordinated efforts of a lot of people. Bare minimum you need,

1) A trusty translator, 2) a cutthroat editor, 3) a go-between the publisher and the Japanese dev team (my boss, Kenji, does this), 4) Marketing/PR gurus, and 5) suffering interns. we don’t actually have one of these right now but they’re such a staple of the gaming industry that I thought I’d give a nod to their stoic plight.

There are other steps prior to the translation of the game, but the translation stage is the approximate start for my role in this so I’ll begin there.

First the text is sent via file format (.xls, .csv, etc) from Japan and the translator will begin laying the groundwork for system text. We’re talking character names, locations, menu text, etc. I’m usually in communication with the translator during this period and together we settle on naming conventions and the general feel of the game. After that, the files start getting tossed back and forth between myself and the translator as he/she finishes it and I take a scalpel to it.

For my part, I go through chapters and chapters of roughly translated text at a time and sift out spelling mistakes, grammar issues, even graphic problems. I do rewrites where cultural clarification is required or make outright changes that are needed for the NA audience and also insert quotes from “The Tick” where I see fit. Additionally, I spend a lot of time getting the script to fit into the nice, clean little speech bubbles you see in-game. That’s probably the most tedious aspect of the job.

After a few rounds of that, the edited files are sent to Japan and implemented into the game. A few days to weeks later (depending on the Japanese dev team) I’ll have an English build of the game to look at. With this ‘beta’ version in hand I’ll start playing through and doing more minor rewrites, check that names/places/spells match up and clean up any mistakes that I missed previously. This is the beginning of the QA (Quality Assurance) period of game localization. After we think we’ve caught most of the problems, the final files are given to Japan and those are what end up in-game.

At the end of the process, essentially the game is still what it is in Japan, just now in a language that makes sense to you, and presented in a way that’s also going to make sense to you. We do take liberties here and there but we also have a deep respect for the Japanese team and their intended vision of the game. It’s a balancing act for sure.

The XSEED, Lunar, Ragnarok, etc. Facebook pages are one of the only times I’ve really seen a company strive to actively converse with, and touch base with their fans. It’s really great to see. Is that mostly your doing, or is it a team effort?

Well, we had always hoped to be big enough to expand out and reach more fans, but prior to the Facebook push we’ve only had a blog or two for a few games. It has always been a matter of having enough people/time to be able to manage a community, and even though we still don’t have that luxury, we really want to develop a relationship with our fan base.

For my part it seemed natural for me to take control of the Lunar Facebook, because I’m the one who worked on the game. I like talking with fans and it’s nice to have a chance to explain what’s in the game and what we’ve done to make it special for you. I want people to know that we care and that we’re working hard. I want you guys to know that you’re supporting something worthwhile and that we appreciate it. As a gamer myself I’ve always kind of felt like I was nothing but a dollar sign to companies, and personally, I believe that you enjoy your purchase more if you know what went into it, who’s behind it, and that they’re listening.

Honestly though, the Lunar Facebook has been really fun. It’s hard for me to budget time for it but I’m actually quite obsessed. It delights me to see it grow so exponentially over the last few weeks and in return I try to post as often as I can to make it worth your while.

I’ve talked about the Lunar: Silver Star Harmony release a lot on the site. Do you have any funny anecdotes from the translation process, (or anything interesting really,) that you could share with our readers?

Well, there was definitely a lot of shock and amusement when we played the SSSC version to prepare for it (that book in Vane still has me gaping) (yes, you know the one I’m talking about) and it gave me no end of opportunities to slip in my own stuff…so I’ll leave you with this. See if you can pinpoint where all these things are in-game. A treasure hunt, if you will.

ALL-NEW Lunar: SSH inserts

1)      Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy reference
2)      Cameo of the infamous “graveyard duck” from Castlevania
3)      The unfortunate adventures of Mr. Tiddles
4)      5th Element nod
5)      The best children’s book title ever
6)      Monty Python stuff
7)      Buffalo Bill, is that you? (X 2)
8)      Jaws reference
9)      Nivea commercial gag (props if you know what this is or noticed it)
10)     Breaking of the 4th wall a la Jessica

For readers unfamiliar with the game, (though if they’ve been reading this site at all I don’t know how they could be!) what would you say makes Lunar stand apart from other RPGs?

Lunar stands apart from other RPGs on the strength of its story and the depth of its humor. It’s one of the few RPGs today that doesn’t take itself too seriously and yet packs such an emotional punch for not just one character, but all of them. It’s no hack and slash, fetch-quest, generic RPG. Yes, the story is familiar but it’s done so well that it’s classic, not clichéd. It doesn’t try to coax you out of your money on pretty visuals or gimmicky undress. Lunar: Silver Star Harmony is bacon, folks. Pure, unadulterated salty goodness.

We’ve been commanded to inform people that there are bath scenes in the game. Who are you most excited to see there?

I’m excited for Jessica and Nash because I have two killer outtakes for those scenes! Coming soon!

A lot of people on the internet are concerned that this new version of Lunar for PSP is not going to hold up to the older versions on Sega CD and Playstation. Is there anything you want to say to ease their concerns?

Lunar: Silver Star Harmony will be both familiar to you and yet wholly new. It will comfort you with its recognizable humor and charm and surprise you with the fresh coat of paint the visuals, history, music and characters were given. It’s worth buying because it adds to the richness of the series. It doesn’t try to subvert the old Lunar that you love, it just adds another facet that you’ve yet to see. And more of Lunar is never a bad thing.

Lastly… how about that Lunar: Eternal Blue? ;P

I’d love to see it too, and I know Japan is watching the American response very closely. I have my fingers crossed the same as you.

I cannot thank Jessica enough for taking the time to answer all of these for us (and so thoroughly/wittily, to boot!) and for being among the first interviewees for PK Bloggin’! ..and for the exclusive screenshots, of course! I’m so glad to have had the opportunity to talk with her. (…in the metaphorical-internet-typing sort of way.) It is really interesting to read about the whole process (I had no idea about quite a few things that she mentioned!) and her writing is always fun to read! (I really like parentheses!)

I’ve come across a few of the new references in Lunar that Jessica’s mentioned here already, and will definitely be keeping my eyes peeled for the others. Everyone should keep an eye on their Facebook page for those outtakes that she is going to post, too… I bet they’ll be hilarious! (There’s some great ones uploaded already, if you’ve got time to check them out.)

As you should all know by now, Lunar: Silver Star Harmony was released March 2nd for the PSP, and March 4th for the PSN for those unfortunate enough to have been suckered into a PSP Go. Whether you’re a Lunar fan, or an RPG fan with a PSP and a penchant for classic themes with added personality and charm, I think you’ll really love it!

(For those of you wondering what else XSEED Games has done that is awesome besides Lunar, or wondering if I even know or have played anything else that they’ve done, some other great games they’ve localized include Half-Minute Hero for the PSP, Ragnarok DS and Retro Game Challenge for the Nintendo DS, and Little King’s Story and the upcoming Fragile Dreams (which looks stunning) for the Nintendo Wii… just to name a few. See, I can totally talk about games that aren‘t Lunar!)

Christina and I have been spending a lot of time (now that we have free time) with Mass Effect for the Xbox 360. I bought it a while ago and never really got into it, but since the sequel came out I decided to give it another shot, and I’m really glad I did. Not only am I greatly enjoying the game, it’s also actually got me thinking a lot about how video games can function as a medium for storytelling.

BioWare is famous for their branching dialogue system they’ve used in their games, beginning with Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic on the original Xbox and PC. Your character never spoke, but there were pauses in conversations when you’d choose what your character would say next. Several complete sentences were presented, you’d choose one, and the conversation would continue based on how you responded. I loved KotOR, and while I didn’t realize it at the time, I was experiencing the first step towards defining video games as a unique method of telling a story.

Now, it’s important to note that a video game does not require a story. Just look at Tetris, the most successful (and famous) video game of all time. No story there, just you, some blocks, and Russian music. The Super Mario series has about as paper-thin a story as you can get, instead relying on gameplay to define the experiences they provide players. This is how video games will differ from books or movies; for the former, a story is completely optional, depending on what kind of experience the developers are trying to create. For the latter, they are defined as a storytelling medium. A book without a story isn’t much more than a dictionary. A movie without a story is Napoleon Dynamite.

Video games have been telling stories for over 20 years, so it’s not like this is a new development, not by any means. Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy, the grandfathers of the role-playing genre, set the standard for how Japanese RPGs structure their stories. They’re really “role-playing” in name only; the story is told to you, and your interactivity with the story boils down to few (if any) dialog options, and selecting which characters will accompany you into dungeons.

I’m not claiming that JRPGs are bad at storytelling, or somehow inferior to Western RPGs. I’m a huge fan of JRPGs, and the Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest franchises in particular, so I’m not saying one is better than the other. They just take a more traditional approach to telling a story, an approach similar to books and movies where the story is told to you. As far as books and movies go, this is due to the limitations of the medium; there is no interactivity. You have no way of influencing the dialogue in a book or movie, or making the main character’s decisions. And before you say anything, no, “Choose Your Own Adventure” books don’t count. For JRPGs, though, it’s just the way they’ve always been.

That’s why I’m enjoying Mass Effect so much. It’s a completely new way to experience a story. In KotOR, when you made a dialogue choice, your character didn’t speak the line through voice acting, but the other characters would react as if you did. In Mass Effect, you choose from several options that give you the gist of what your response would be, rather than a full sentence (it’s also structured in a way that once you know how you typically respond to things, that type of response is always in the same spot so you don’t need to keep looking at the options), and Commander Shepard will speak the line. It’s very cinematic, and much more immersive than KotOR. Rather than making your protagonist silent in an effort to try to make them more relatable, BioWare instead chose to make Shepard an active participant in the conversations based on what you choose to have him (or her) say, which in my opinion makes Shepard much more relatable, and the connection between player and avatar is much stronger.

Rather than a piece of fiction where you’re told “Here is the story I am trying to tell,” BioWare has placed you in the setting and said “There’s a story here. Tell it however you want.” You can make Commander Shepard a ruthless badass with no regard for anything but himself. You can make Shepard the nicest person in the galaxy, going out of his way to help anyone who asks. Shepard can be male or female, and even romance different members of the SSV Normandy’s crew. There are places you must go to advance the story, but you can approach them in any order you wish, and the game will change accordingly. There are key decisions to make, decisions that will affect the galaxy as a whole, and the consequences are reflected in Mass Effect 2, and will be further in Mass Effect 3.

When you think about it, it’s an incredible way to tell a story; provide the framework and let the player decide the details based on their preferences. When you think about all the choices you make in the first game, which will change what you see in the second, which will again change when you play the third, there’s a staggeringly vast amount of ways for the story to play out. Penny Arcade’s Gabe posted a vague reference to ME2’s ending on his Twitter, and after receiving some angry posts in return, he told everyone to relax, because of the sheer amount of influence the player has on the story, there was almost no way anyone else would have the same ending as he did.

I’ve been hearing the same thing about Heavy Rain for the PlayStation 3 as well. A commenter on Kotaku mentioned that he and his friends were discussing the game, and none of them had experienced the same thing during their playthroughs. From what I’ve read, if your main character dies, the story will just shift to a different character’s perspective and keep on going.

This is where I think video games stand above any other medium when it comes to storytelling. Interactive fiction – truly interactive fiction – establishes a standard of immersion and personalization that a movie or a book simply cannot match due to the limitations of a printed word or a prerecorded video. The fact that we can have games where tiny decisions can change what happens hours down the line, and even in later installments of the series, really shows how far video games have come as a form of media. There will always be a place for Tetris and Mario, so don’t fool yourself into thinking they’ll ever be put away on the shelf. However, games like Mass Effect and Heavy Rain are taking large strides towards establishing video games as a form of entertainment as important to storytelling as literature and cinema.

Matt Casamassina is a giant douche. I’ve thought so for quite some time, as his air of unwarranted pompousness and unbridled sense of self-worth have affected me like a bite into a wormy apple. His superpower as of late seems to be completely missing the point, like an unskilled archer or perhaps Tim Buckley.

Matt Cashanabahooha, who is the editor for IGN’s Wii channel, has recently penned a column entitled “Nintendo is Lazy and You Don’t Care.” In said column, Cabananarama chides Nintendo on multiple occasions for “seem(ing) content to cut corners and cash in.” He says “we all praise Nintendo for returning gameplay and not graphical pop to the forefront. Since their conception, games have been designed to be fun first and everything else second” and then nitpicks about the graphics in Wii Sports. The man is a grade-A toolbox, and I’m here to set things straight.

Cahalabooda first sets his pissy sights on New Super Mario Bros Wii, regurgitating the same internet argument about why there are two Toads playable instead of Princess Peach. I’ll half-concede there; it would have been nice in a Super Mario Bros. 2 kind of way, but to fault Nintendo for not including her is petty. If Peach is with you, then what’s the point of the game? Mario games have a pretty thin story to begin with, so if you subtract rescuing Peach as the end goal, there’s not much left. So who else are they going to include? Wario and Waluigi? They don’t exist in the Mario series proper, and even barring that, why would they bother helping Mario and Luigi anyway? They’re not exactly heroes. All Waluigi even is is an extra playable character in Mario Party and the Mario Sports games. No one likes Waluigi.

He also cites the fact that New Super Mario Bros Wii looks similar to New Super Mario Bros on DS. Really. Read that sentence again. I’ve decided that it’s lazy that Modern Warfare 2 looks similar to Modern Warfare 1. I think I’ll write a column about how Infinity Ward is lazy.

Seriously, New Super Mario Bros Wii has some pretty sharp graphics, but if you judge the graphics alone as the sole criteria for production values, you’re doing it wrong. Look at the exceptional level design, the vastly different experience of playing with four players on screen at once, and the revolutionary, yet controversial Super Guide feature. If you can look at all of those and say that Nintendo is lazy, then you’re either a liar or you don’t understand video games.

He claims the fact that the Wii is unable to produce high definition graphics has made gamers give Nintendo a free pass to create games whose “presentations journey backward and not forward in time”. It’s funny, Cashashimi, because one of Nintendo’s biggest strengths is their ability to create games that are timeless. Is Super Mario Bros. 3 not a good game because it doesn’t have super high resolution graphics so detailed you can count the individual hairs on Mario’s fantastic ‘stache? No, it’s a good game because it’s a fucking good game. The gameplay is as solid now as it was in 1988. In 20 years, no one is going to care about the graphics in things like Uncharted, Gears of War and Halo; people will remember how those games played. Will they stand the test of time? It’s very possible, but if they do it’ll be because they’re still fun to play, not because they look nice.

Wii Sports isn’t supposed to have fancy graphics. Wii Sports had one mission, and that mission was to attract non-gamers to the Wii, and it accomplished that goal admirably. Could they have made the Mii characters more realistic looking? Absolutely. But the real magic of Wii Sports is that it’s accessible to everyone. The simple, limbless characters are inviting. The whole point of Miis in the first place was to enable players to create a caricature of themselves or anyone else they know. You’re playing as yourself in the game. Can Wii Sports stand up to Dead Rising in a graphical contest? Of course not. But here’s the memo that Catagafina missed: it’s not supposed to.

The Wii was not meant to stand up to the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 as far as graphics and sound go. Nintendo got out of the technological dick measuring contest and forged their own path. The console is affordable, accessible, and fun. Catamadahooie says Nintendo did it to create a “console that it could manufacture cheaply and sell at a reduced price.” They did, and it paid off. They made an affordable console that would be perfect for families, something that wouldn’t be a daunting $400 investment. They designed a console that was accessible to developers, and as a result small independent game studios are putting out a lot of pretty solid titles, however ignored they may be.

Wii Music is next on his “things I don’t understand but I’m going to bitch about it anyway ” list. He writes, probably using the same two-fingered typing technique grandmas use, “Don’t even get me started on Wii Music, a game that so easy that it not only nearly plays itself, but houses a soundtrack full of public domain songs (because they’re free for Nintendo to license) and MIDI-style music (because it’s easier and cheaper to produce than orchestrated songs). The bottom line might as well have its own logo on the box.” He’s so far off base he’s still in the batter’s box. Does that baseball analogy work? Whatever. Anyway, Catargobahina, Wii Music is not a game so much as it is a tool for teaching children music by helping them understand things like rhythm and tempo. Would you like Wii Music better if it had a scrolling note chart and had songs from totally bitchin’ bands like Slayer? Cashoobiedoobie proves he has the musical range of a fourth grader by refusing to play something that doesn’t have totally shreddin’ guitar solos. People complain that Wii Music is only played with one button. Speaking of games played with only one button, have you seen this scrub play Smash Bros? Good Lord.

The whole column is a poorly cobbled together string of nitpicks that all have the underlying subtext “please let me write about Xbox.” Check this sentence out: “But for players who do value cutting-edge graphics and audio — there are millions of us, by the way; we’re not a niche, as six million copies sold of Modern Warfare 2 in November show — it’s a slap in the face and a clear case of the bottom line taking precedence.” Pay attention to the use of the word “us”; he’s deliberately distancing himself from Nintendo fans in an effort to appear more hardcore, most likely to pander to IGN’s slack-jawed readership. I think he’s just upset that he can’t lick a PSP and become a star like other IGN editors have done.

Cafooglemina has joined the ranks of countless other internet trawlers who feel like when a company doesn’t do what they themselves want, then the company is in the wrong. What’s the matter, Caboodle, not a fan of Nintendo after your secret girlfriend left the company?

Look, Cagamadina, your column is irrefutable evidence that you’re not in touch with Nintendo anymore. And despite the tone of this blog post, that’s fine. If you’d be happier writing for IGN Xbox or IGN PlayStation, do it! If you’re going to nitpick about graphics and things like that, then maybe IGN Wii needs a new editor in chief, someone who will judge the company on what it does, not what others do.

Since I haven’t really made it apparent in my blog yet, either, I do enjoy my Xbox 360 quite a bit, and it has a lot of really great games. I have a hi-def TV and I like playing hi-def games on it. However, when I play a Nintendo game, I’m too lost in the gameplay to really worry about the graphics. I still play my Nintendo 64 regularly in all its blocky, muddy-textured glory if that tells you anything.

Some of you might be saying “oh, he’s entitled to his opinion,” but I think that’s wrong because his opinion sucks, and rule number one is my opinion is the only one that matters. If you disagree, well, that’s your opinion, and I ask that you refer to rule number one.

Look, Nintendo is a company that does things their own way and no amount of internet protest is going to change that. If you look at what they’re doing and appreciate their methods, you’re going to have a fantastic time. But if you keep turning your head to see what the other guys are doing, well, then you’re never going to be satisfied.

EDIT: Apparently Matt hasn’t been the editor for IGN Wii since September. Shows how much I read IGN. Ha. He’s still a douche though.

We’ve seen it a lot in the past, and the latest victim is the upcoming PlayStation 3 suspense/mystery game Heavy Rain. The PAL version of the game, released in Europe and Australia, according to Kotaku features this boxart:

It’s subtle, yet strong. The game is about trying to track down a serial killer known as the “Origami Killer” so the paper crane with the dab of blood with the dark, rainy background is almost poetic in its symbolism. That image alone conveys the atmosphere and tone of the game quite well, and is on par with some of the best “teaser” movie posters I’ve ever seen.

So what happens when the game comes to America? Sony Computer Entertainment America needs to remind everyone that, yes, this game has humans in it.

The pictures of the characters are not only distracting, they’re not even INTERESTING. It’s not a scene from the game, it’s a Photoshop nightmare. I do think it’s hilarious the hidden emphasis placed on the boobs though. The female character is right up front with the game’s title draped across her chest.

(Interesting side note, SCEA has offered a ready to print .pdf of the PAL boxart when it comes out here.)

This is certainly not the first time amazing boxart has been absolutely destroyed in order to catch the eye of Cletus and Brandine Wal-Mart, though. The most famous attempt to entice mouth-breathers was when the masterpiece Ico was released. Here is the PAL/Japanese boxart:

It’s beautiful. It absolutely matches the sense of scale of the game, and it’s a legitimate painting by Fumito Ueda, the game’s director, based off of the painting The Nostalgia of the Infinite by Giorgio de Chirico. So what do we get when the game hits the good ‘ol US of A?

Disgraceful. I’m not even going to bother tearing this apart, the cover makes fun of itself.

Even Zelda covers are being dumbed down. Take a look at the Japanese/PAL cover for the recently released Nintendo DS game The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks:

Again, it’s beautiful. It’s bright, colorful, and fun. Zelda is a key player in the game so it’s nice to see her get some attention on the box. Here’s what we got:

I want to see the memo that says Americans will NOT buy games unless there’s a weapon on the cover.

Just to wind this down, here’s the Japanese/PAL art for a few Kirby games:

And in America:

I honestly have no idea why they felt the need to make Kirby pissed off. He’s a pink poofball. He doesn’t really have a lot to be angry about. I mean, even in Smash Brothers Kirby isn’t mean. His taunts aren’t even taunts, he just waves and says “HiiiIIIIiii!” or does a little dance.

We spend so much time debating on the artistic quality of the games themselves that we don’t even realize that their boxart, their first impressions, are being nothing short of defiled. Imagine this being done to movie posters.

I got my first article request a couple of days ago from my old buddy Jeff. He sent me a link to a YouTube video about an upcoming game called Wiiwaa and said it warranted comment by me. Well, I’m a man of the people, and I’m going to give the people what they want.

Here’s the link to the video, so go watch it and then come back. I’ll wait.

I’d make a joke like “hey, glad you’re back” but I’m funnier than that. Now, with something as off the wall and bizarre as what you just watched, surely I have something scathing and sarcastic to say, right?

Actually, I think it looks pretty damn impressive. It’d be very easy for them to rely on the novelty of a game controlled by a stuffed toy and not put any effort into making it enjoyable, but it really looks like they’re using the toy as a unique way to control an action game.

I mean, look at the part where he was sneaking up on that other monster. When the monster would turn, he’d have to lay the toy down so the monster he was controlling would hide. That’s cool! I don’t care what anyone says, that whole video was awesome.

The thing is, a lot of people are going to write this off as stupid and complain yet again that “this is the cancer that is killing video games. I only play mature games for mature gamers such as myself.” When people claim that gaming is “dying” it drives me absolutely nuts. Everyone flocks to the new Call of Duty or Madden, and then they will say with a straight face that New Super Mario Bros Wii is “stupid and for kids.” Are you SERIOUS? You wouldn’t even HAVE Generic Online Shooter and Football Game if it wasn’t for Mario. Gah.

Look, just because you’re not a kid anymore doesn’t mean that kids don’t exist. Kids deserve to have games and things made for them, just like YOU had when you were younger. You would have LOVED Wiiwaa when you were a kid. If you don’t want to play it now, that’s fine! You don’t have to! But to claim that these games shouldn’t be made is way out of line. Gaming isn’t some “elite club” that you have to be this –> hardcore to join. Expanding video games to a wider audience, a younger audience, can only BENEFIT your “mature games” since kids will get into the hobby young, and then grow up with it like we did. It’s beneficial to the survival of the medium. Look at an industry like comic books, which is spiraling the drain. The comic book companies didn’t do anything to expand their audience, they kept it as their own little circle, and when you don’t have a flow of new customers getting into your products, you’re going to isolate yourself out of business.

Will I buy Wiiwaa when it comes out? Maybe, I think the little monster guy is pretty kickass. Even if I don’t, though, I’m glad it was made, because it shows that there’s still some soul left in this increasingly stagnant industry, and I know there’s going to be lots of kids who love playing with it, just like I had playing with my games when I was their age.