Photos - Super Metroid

Some screenshots of the great Super Metroid on the Super NES. I really hope Nintendo has been paying close attention to the spectacular blockbuster success of New Super Mario Bros Wii. 2D games are in demand and bigger than ever. We want a new Metroid, and we want it in glorious two-dee!

When I played this game back in the mid-'90s, I had no realization that would be the end of classic Metroid. God Bless the fine folks at Retro Studios for their Metroid Prime series, but it really isn't the same experience. And that goes double for the pair of overrated Gameboy Advance Metroids. I want Super Metroid - dark, moody, mysterious, and fiendishly difficult.

Videogame Classics - Super Metroid

Name the best game ever made for the Super NES. For some, it's Super Mario World or Zelda 3. Others, Super Mario Kart. A number will point to Final Fantasy 3, which was how it was named here in the States). And a lot of you will insist that it's really Super Metroid.

You may be right. This might very well be the SNES' finest hour.

I think some part of the mystique about Super Metroid is the fact that the game remained alone, without any sequels or follow-ups, for so many years. While Mario and Zelda and the rest continued with newer games on the Super NES and Nintendo 64, Metroid held back, alone in its own little world. It really wasn't until 2002, eight years later, that a new installment finally arrived, and even then, gamers were surprised to discover a 3D shooter that was closer to Quake and Doom then their beloved Metroid.

And, in the meantime, Konami completely reinvents its old Castlevania franchise by aping the gameplay structure of Super Metroid. The forgotten classic was becoming a legend, influencing others. Goodness knows Konami sure loved that game, enough to shamelessly steal from it for every 2D Castlevania game ever since.

Oh, yeah, sure, Nintendo eventually figured things out, and returned to their roots with a pair of Metroid titles on the Game Boy Advance. But let's be honest here. Those games weren't any good. The first one, especially was a clunker. The second, Zero Mission? Eh, better, but, again, it just felt like a dumbed-down kiddie version of the 1994 masterpiece. Remember those Atari 2600 games that had the child-friendly mode with the teddy bear icon? Yeah, that's exactly what Zero Mission was all about. A Metroid that holds you by the hand, when not stumbling into Miyazaki's Ohmus.

What comes to mind when I think of Super Metroid? Dark, moody, mysterious. This is just about the heaviest game Nintendo ever made - heavy in that late-'60s, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple sense. The whole enterprise just breathes in a dark, misty atmosphere, this strange alien landscape, this mishmash of different cultures. This world that Samus Aran finds herself in, this is a world with a history. You can almost trace that history as you progress through the game, spotting the places where some poor fool vainly tried to civilize the place. You can see the corpses for yourself to see how that turned out.

Modern videogames, if they really can be called "games" anymore, shove narrative down your throat. They think story can only be conveyed by scripted movie scenes. But a good game, all of the best ones, can tell a story without these tired cliches. Story, setting, mood, character - all can be shown by the actions and environment of the game itself. That's one of the things that makes Super Metroid a masterpiece. It's a very story-driven game at heart, but one that lets your imagination roam.

The only other exploration game that captures that same sense of mood and mystery, to my mind, is Todd's Adventures in Slime World on the Atari Lynx. And that game was created back in 1990. How's that? In many ways, Slime World serves as a foundation for the expansive game world Super Metroid builds upon. It seems impossible to keep the two seperate in my mind; the original Metroid serves as the original starting point, but this sequel stretches and expands and builds so far beyond those first boundaries that they become almost unrecognizable.

So that's what I take out of the experience. The dark, underground world, teeming with life and teeming with secrets. And the whole enterprise is hard. Real hard. In this game, Nintendo drops you into a cave, in the middle of nowhere, and just leaves you. No goofy sidekicks pointing the way out of the maze. No cheap icons to hold you by the hand and make things easy. In this life, things are much harder than in the afterlife. In this world....you're on your own.

Forget about that first Metroid. It's a good game, but it's too dated to really hold your affections. This is the real version, the one that carries all the mystique. This is the moment which all future Metroids struggle to recapture. They'll struggle in vain. You'll probably never see a better action/adventure no matter how many years you'll live.

Videogame Classics - Ghouls 'N Ghosts

The winner and champine...Ghouls 'N Ghosts on the humble Genesis. I remember when the young EGM heavily promoted this game with its fourth issue. Steve Harris, the founder, boasted in no small way that this was the greatest home videogame, like, ever. Ever! Okay, he was prone to the hyperbole in those days. But he and his writers had their fingers on the pulse of gaming. They knew their stuff.

If I remember correctly, this was the game I bought a Genesis for. Or, more precisely, this was the first genuinely great game I played on it. Does Altered Beast really have to count? Ugh. It shouldn't. Start with this one instead.

Sega had established a unique partnership with Capcom early on, and it resulted in some of the best of the early Genesis games. Capcom would license their arcade hits, the ones that were not available on the NES, and Sega would develop and produce. From this partnership, we got Forgotton Worlds, Strider, Mercs, and Ghouls 'N Ghosts.

Younger gamers need to understand something very important. When Nintendo ruled the roost, they ran the place like tyrants. They called all the shots, bullied everyone into submission. Basically acted like jerks. For third-party developers, their demands were simple: no games on the NES could appear on any rival console, and companies could only release so many titles per year.

Sega learned from the Master System era, and entered the 16-bit age more aggressively. And Capcom was no doubt looking to expand their horizons. Perhaps they even knew that Nintendo's reign was bound to end, that the videogame market was expanding too rapidly to be contained by one player. Whatever the reason, Capcom's arcade titles started to appear on the Sega Genesis in 1989.

When Ghoulss 'N Ghosts appeared, it gave Sega a crucial advantage in the console race, as well as one hell of a game. Poor Turbografx was crippled by Nintendo's policies, and its chief patron was Hudson; they were a quality player, but they were not on gaming's A-list, and they had little to no presence at the arcades. The Genesis quickly became the place to turn for your arcade thrills.

Good lord, how I miss the arcades. This business is so much poorer without them, it's uncanny.

Anyway, that's the history lesson. What does this mean for you in the new century? It means you get a classic home version of a classic video arcade game. You get one hell of a challenging platformer, one that will shake your confidence and test your reflexes like nothing you've seen before. This game will knock your teeth out; and when you've thought you had reached the end, you'll be asked to complete the whole thing all over again, a second time. Those brave souls able to carry the distance will be rewarded with one of the greatest final boss fights of all time.

This remains my favorite entry in Capcom's Ghosts 'N Goblins series, mainly because it's the only time you can throw your weapons up and down, but also because of its brilliant level design that remains varied and challenging without ever becoming kitschy or dull. That's a tough needle to thread. But this was Capcom at the peak of their arcade skills, and the days when they had the entire platform genre mastered. Good heavens, they were only at Mega Man 2. The horrible sequel curse hadn't struck them yet.

Pretty much a no-brainer for an addition to your library. Good luck nursing those blisters.

Photos - Neutopia 2

Frankly, I wish the modern Legend of Zeldas would play like this game. I miss the action, the arcade combat, and I miss the way Classic Zelda (pre-Ocarina) perfectly balanced action with puzzle strategy.

I'd recommend both Neutopias for the Virtual Console, but if you only want one, the sequel is far, far better. Every Zelda fan should have a copy of this game. Hmm...in fact, I think I'll download it right now, heh heh.

Videogame Classics - Neutopia 2

Did Neutopia 2 really arrive on Virtual Console one month after the original? Hudson likely figured that you had enough time to finish that game, and since you had such a fun time wasting your precious hours away, here's the crack sequel, better in every way. Pony up the cash, kids.

If you thought that first game was a ripoff from Legend of Zelda...hoo, boy. Get a load of the title screen from the sequel. Hudson didn't even try to hide it this time. They gave up any pretense of originality, and instead focused on creating the best damned Zelda ripoff they could. I think they really did a great job. No, I still insist that Sega's Golvellius was the best Zelda clone ever made, but Neutopia gives a serious run for the money.

This game features one unique premise, and it's one that I'm surprised Nintendo never tried. In this game, you play the son of the hero from the first game, who has turned up missing. You spend the game chasing him down. Travelling through towns and exploring dungeons just happens along the way.

I've spent some time with this game, since I've missed it entirely the first time around. I only had one or two chances to spend time with the Turbografx back then. Fortunately, I knew this kid in my high school, and we swapped game systems - his Turbo, my Genesis - for a few weeks. It was a good plan. I think this was after Sonic the Hedgehog appeared, by which time Nintendo was in the game, and poor Turbo was on the way out. The next time I saw any consoles was when local stores were dumping their excess stock for sale.

That's too bad, because it meant that a great game like Neutopia 2 largely missed out. And you have to admire Hudson's drive to push the system's limits, and push themselves. The tendency would be to just run through the numbers, planning their jump to greener pastures. But Hudson and NEC were joined at the hip, and the PC Engine was popular enough in Japan to keep the game running for another couple innings. Good news for us.

The first Neutopia looked very good for the time, and the sequel improves in every way. It's really amazing, actually. Far more color and detail, for more touches like grass and trees and rocks, desert and snow, and underground caves without any light. There was a tremendous amount of effort put into the graphics, and the assortment of monsters that lie scattered across the landscape. The landscape, of course, looks terrific, brilliantly conceived and varied.

Your hero, Junior, or whoever he's called, can also move and attack in eight directions. This is a great addition, one of those obvious things that too few developers noticed when copying the original 1986 Zelda. The feel is looser, as well; the pace seems a touch faster and more limber. Neutopia 2 is like an athlete who's already warmed up and ready for action.

I find myself constantly praising Hudson's virtues with their Turbografx reissues on VC, and there's a reason for that. They definitely deserve their praise for this effort. If the greater gaming public doesn't stand up and take notice of the Turbo, then there's really no hope for 'em, is there? They'll probably just go back to their karaoke games and custom drinks.

Videogame Classics - Wave Race 64

And so we come to one of the signature games from the Nintendo 64 library. Wave Race 64 was one of the first launch games for the console, sharing the space alongside Super Mario 64 and Pilotwings 64. Yep, Nintendo thought they were really being clever with the names. Well, lemmie tell ya. Throwing "64" at the end of every game wasn't clever; it was annoying as hell. Worse than the "super" prefix for every other Super NES title.

Ahem. It's easy to get sidetracked here. Almost too easy, in fact. This isn't an indictment against the game proper. No, something deeper. I think Wave Race 64 came to symbolize, and embody, all the highs and lows of Nintendo 64. Mario 64 was perfect. The greatest videogame ever made. You couldn't find a pair of eyes in 1996 to disagree,not even the NiGHTS junkies clinging tightly to their Sega Saturns.

So Mario was perfect, and Wave Race was, and is, a great videogame. But it's the true mascot for the console. Here lies the true archetype. Hmm...am I stumbling into a running theme? Blame the collective digital unconscious.

Wave Race 64 was as much a standout for the new Nintendo console was Mario. Those water effects made a tremendous impression. This was a fantastic achievement. Revolutionary, even. This was something that was clearly far ahead of anything seen on Saturn or Sony Playstation. Nintendo was staking the high ground on the graphics war.

And the way the water felt, really, was just as important to that feeling of immersion. The flow of the waves, from serene calm to stormy turrent, moved with an expressionist zeal. The movement of your jetskis across the surface was precise, intuitive, perfect. It's still perfect, which is slightly unsettling. Haven't there been any better water racing games since then? Actually, um, there haven't been any such games in a long time. I remember Hydro Thunder on the Dreamcast. Even that game couldn't carry you through quite like Wave Race.

The jetskis that you control maneuver perfectly, allowing you to steer, cut, swerve, and spin quickly and easily. This was a crucial test for Nintendo's new analog control, and you can clearly see the results. Analog control became standard almost overnight. The last console to use such controllers was the Atari 5200. And that was a train wreck.

Oh, and you can perform some stunts on your ski as well, but I can't remember any of them beyond the barrel roll. It's purely for show, but this has always been a stalwart of the Nintendo design. Makes the games fun and immersive above all else. Create a daydream that you want to frolic in. You shouldn't be surprised to learn that Shigeru Miyamoto, yes, was in command of the design team. His fingerprints are once again on display, demonstrating just why he is videogames' greatest wizard.

Remember what I said earlier about this game being the true mascot for the Nintendo 64. We've gone over the good parts. Now for the downside.

Nintendo's stubborn refusal to give up the cartridge medium would almost prove their undoing, and it damn near sank the N64. The early games were judged intently to see how you could fit everything into that tiny space. The truth? They couldn't. Nintendo really couldn't. They couldn't fit the size and scope of the ever-widening Playstation and Saturn worlds into those carts, not without compromises. Those compromises would only become more and more glaring as the years dragged on.

I think, because of this, poor N64 wasn't allowed to really stretch as far as it could have. The polygon models were always blockier, simpler than the rivals. True, the console relied more heavily on visual effects over pure polygons. It was one of Nintendo's signature gambles. Didn't really pay off.

I remember noticing some limitations in Wave Race 64, and it wasn't pretty. Things like the character models. Your racers are really, really blocky. Chunky, even. It's like they were assembled in the cubist style. Backgrounds, likewise, were simpler, utilizing easier geometry. And those backdrops? The fuzzy textures? Yeah, that was pretty obvious even in '96. Clearly, that water took up most of the space.

I feel a bit guilty for pointing that out. Game reviewers are notorious for behaving like spoiled children on Santa's lap. But I feel no guilt in protesting about the game's biggest weakness - the level design. The race courses are simple. Far too simple. Simple, as in giant circles. Just when racing games on the rival consoles were becoming sophisticated, challenging, and loaded with surprises, Wave Race can feel like a ride at the kiddie park.

There are a large number of tracks, especially when most racers only had two or three courses. But I always had a problem with this. This has always been a thorn in my side where Wave Race 64 is concerned; I wanted some really inventive level designs, like Sega Rally on the Saturn, or Wipeout on Playstation. Instead, we get big ovals and simplistic circles. No doubt this was the inspiration for the game's use of buoys, in which you slalom through in order to build up your jetski's speed. I really like that idea; it's refreshingly original, adds a layer of depth to the races, and maintains a crucial balance in the gameplay. Miss too many buoys and you're out of the race.

Another check in Miyamoto's column. And another highlight of the challenges of working with those damned cartridges.

The game options allow you to change the water, from calm waves to heavy torrents. I've found it necessary to play in a storm in order to keep things interesting, especially for the two-player games (oh, what a shame this couldn't have been four-player). I do wish there were more options for customizing the races, ideas like random placements of the buoys and other objects. The final racetrack is novel for its receeding tides, which drains the water away with each lap. That option should have been available for all the courses. Now that would have added some challenge.

In the end, I have to admit that I remain torn about Wave Race's strengths and weaknesses. Heck, I like the drama. And it's still eminently playable and fun. I've yet to sit down and play the Gamecube sequel, Wave Race: Blue Storm; to date that remains the only addition to the series (which began as a humble Gameboy racer). A bit of a puzzlement, actually. Perhaps that only adds to the game's mystique. Sequel overkill has turned many a videogame into rust. I'd prefer this one fresh, thank you very much.

One final note: you may be wondering about those screenshots posted above (well, they should be there, if this computer cooperates), and why they appear a bit patchy. Nearly all screenshots come with the aid of emulators on my computer. The best Nintendo 64 emulator is one called Project 64. Games consoles become increasingly difficult to emulate properly, and while Project 64 is the best and most comprehensive of N64 emulators, many games remain glitchy and imperfect. Wave Race 64 can be very patchy in play; it's kinda like drunk driving at times. Which explains the glitches in the photos. I've no doubt that everything plays perfectly on Wii, so no worries.

Photos - Castlevania 2: Simon's Quest

These screenshots originally appeared on its Virtual Console review, but I decided to move them to a single post, sending Simon's Quest to a seperate Videogame Classics post.

This is probably my favorite Castlevania game, and despite all the Symphony-themed titles in this series, it's Simon's Quest that has aged the best. At least, it has for me.

Videogame Classics - Castlevania 2: Simon's Quest

Hooray! Everybody has a number of classic games that they wait eagerly for. They buy themselves a couple Wii Classic Controllers just for the occasion. Well, folks, here's mine.

A little backstory for everyone first. As a teenager, Castlevania was my favorite videogame series. This was sometimes contested by Super Mario and Contra and Ninja Gaiden, but it always came back to this. It was also a favorite with many of my oldest friends from Duluth, Minnesota. If you were sick of the winter weather that day - and, kids, this was back in the day when we actually had winters...back when we had polar ice caps - just turn on the Nintendo, then turn it off, then turn it on and off again, then pull out the cartridge and blow on the ends, then pop it back in, turn it on....and start playing.

Um, yeah, by the way? If you ever find the person who actually designed the NES, please punch him in the stomach for me. Anyway, let's get back...

Castlevania! It's part gothic, part monster movie, part serious, part jokey, and all hardcore gamer fun. These were the tough games, the ones you blistered your fingers trying to beat. Just how are you supposed to get through all those armored knights? Slash, slash, jump, that's how. You have to be fast, too. This becomes something of a bonding experience for everyone involved. Many grownups assumed that one person is playing, and all the friends are merely watching, but that's not the case. We're all in this together. Castlevania's the prime example in my case.

Castlevania 2: Simon's Quest was my favorite NES game. It still is. Played it to death through high school, at least until we all got to that point where were were all hopelessly stuck. This is a fiendishly tough game. Like many Nintendo games of its day, it's more of an adventure quest than an arcade game. Blaster Master, Rygar, Zelda, Guardian Legend - just a few titles off the top of my head. The NES couldn't compete on the graphics front, so developers resorted to deep, lengthy adventures instead. It was the smarter choice, I think. This is why I often lament the poor choice in Virtual Console titles for the NES. Some of its best games have never been bettered, because technology enabled software makers to take a simpler route.

I've discovered over the years that Simon's Quest has a mixed reputation because of this. Many gamers prefer the straighforward action of the original Castlevania, and they felt Konami strayed from their roots. As it turns out, everyone has it completely backward. The long-running series began, not with Castlevania (or Demon Castle Dracula, as it's known in Japan), but as Vampire Killer on the MSX computer. The game was an adventure game, using single screens instead of a scrolling environment. The settings were identical to the first Castlevania, only with different arrangements and a more adventure-minded style.

There's actually a bit of dispute about this, since Vampire Killer and the Castlevania we all know both appeared within weeks of each other. You could say that this was the stripped-down version, created due to the MSX's scrolling limitations. However, Symphony of the Night challenges all that. Now, the Castlevania series follows in the mold of MSX Vampire Killer and NES Simon's Quest.

In any case, it's far easier to appreciate Simon's Quest today, after all the post-Symphony titles in the series. I can't imagine what any fan would find wanting. There's just as much to fight and just as many enemies to kill. Only now you're fighting through the forests and villages of Transylvania, and stuggling to figure out where all those other castles are hiding.

For me, this was the greatest thing about Simon's Quest - it's atmosphere. There's such a wonderful Bavarian style to these lands, to the designs of the towns, the way everything is build with those damn stone blocks. It was the most compelling and believable game world I had seen up to that point. People walking by are always eager to offer advice or hints; I was floored when I discovered that most of what these people have to say is, frankly, bullshit. Ahem.

This is a great sendup of all those adventure and role-playing games in which every civilian has some key piece of information that's useful only to you, and only at that moment. It's all so contrived. Konami clearly felt so, and they decided to mess with our heads. This is a great game for messing with heads. You can explore most of the countryside, find such things as flames for your morning star, or secret books, or crystal balls. But you'll be damned if you can ever get beyond that first castle. Dracula's first castle is a gimmie, it's right out on the main road. The others are deftly hidden away. It took me and my peer group years to finally figure it out.

Sure, you boast that you won't get stumped. Then again, you can just go online and look at the solutions at gamefaqs. Heck, most major games have cheat books that walk you by the hand all the way through. You have an easy out. Kind of defeats the whole point of playing an adventure game, I would argue. We didn't have those options in the late '80s. The solution to discovering Dracula's second castle relied upon a gameplay maneuver that wasn't even revealed in the instruction book. You were just expected to solve it yourself. You kids today are coddled.

If you can somehow withhold the temptation to reach for those easy cheats, you'll really see how challenging and mysterious Simon's Quest truly is. Like most adventure games, and most riddles, it loses a degree of mystique once the secret is revealed, so it's far more rewarding to struggle and sweat it out by yourselves. I don't even want you reading the Simon's Quest strategy guide I wrote for the first issue of V, my old zine. No! Bad toad! Bad toad!

Like all the classic Castlevanias (meaning, frankly, all the ones before Symphony), this game is deeply challenging without ever feeling unfair. You're never placed into an impossible situation, nor left underpowered against foes. It's a brilliant example of game design from the NES era, just as it's a perfect example of Konami's skill. This series may have long since lost its lustre, but back then, the NES days? Konami were the kings back then, baby. They were the kings.

Photos - Muramasa

Muramasa's art style is breathtaking, simply breathtaking.  Why is the video game industry obsessed with millions of 3D polygons if 2D games can look this stunning?  New Super Mario Bros' smashing success reveals a great demand for the classic games of the 8-bit and 16-bit eras.

I'm hopeful that Muramasa builds a Long Tail audience.  Lowering the $50 retail price to a more reasonable $20-$30 would help a lot.  I'm sure there are many gamers - myself included - who have their eyes on this game, but can't afford that outrageous price.

Muramasa on Nintendo WIi

Critics either complain about the lack of genuine "hardcore" games on the Wii, or complain about the lack of strong third-party software.  Muramasa succeeds on both counts.  This visually spectacular game deserves its audience, and it's steadily building one.

www.DanielThomas.org (2003-2010) - Some Final Thoughts

Today, the plug was finally pulled on my website, DanielThomas.org.  The domain was due for renewal, and after many months of consideration, I decided to let it go.  It's time to move on, and, in fact, I've already moved on some time ago.  My blogs, Daniel Thomas Vol 4 and The Ghibli Blog, are where I create online today.

I build DanielThomas.org in 2002, and launched on January, 2003.  It's remarkable to see how far the internet has evolved over these seven years.  I was so proud of my design, proud of the ease of navigation, proud of the way I assembled my art galleries, proud that I had a home online where I could write and share my thoughts on a variety of topics: art, music, games, movies, politics, personal happenings.  It was a lot of hard work, but I was proud of my efforts.

But, oh, Good Grief, maintainence was such a pain.  Having to literally redraw the homepage with every addition or new essay was time-consuming and increasingly irritating.  Having to debug the code was a pain in the neck, even with my elegant (and ancient) HTML design.  Somewhere around 2004 or 2005 I completely redesigned the site, refining and honing the design skills I had learned.  I was always pushing for traffic and trying to build an audience.  It was so much work, and eventually, I realized that I just wanted to focus on the art, and leave the tech side to someone else.  Once I decided to experiment with Blogger, there really was no going back.

DanielThomas.org was very successful, at least by my standards.  I can tell you that I reached over two million visits, and thousands of hits per day, during the site's golden days.  But I learned to distrust these numbers.  Much of my traffic was due to message boards and other sites hot-linking my images.  It became such a problem that I tried to change the photos around, swap in nasty messages, harass any offenders I found who wouldn't give credit (or links) back to me.  It was a real pain in the neck.

The worst offender - and my highest bit of notoriety - was my film review for The Boondock Saints.  This was a cheap, practically direct-to-DVD gun movie, humorless, witless, and crude.  I watched it on the couch of some so-called friends one night, and just hated it.  I wrote the review, published, and then soon discovered, to my surprise, that Boondock Saints was a cult hit among the college crowd.  And these were not the smart kids.  Hoo boy.

For the next two or three years, I received a steady stream of hate mail, barely coherent, mostly whining.  Those kids really loved that movie.  I was burnt out enough by the obnoxious and dumb frat culture, and this certainly didn't help.  Do you know how annoying it is to sit in an empty theater, watching an acclaimed documentary, while the sports bar crowd is shouting and howling for dreck like Boondock Saints?  I still get headaches thinking about it, even though I've moved on and learned to enjoy my qwirkier neighbors.  They'll be middle aged and overweight soon enough, and I'll someday miss their belligerance.

I also received a steady stream of critical emails in response to my essay on Stryper.  That was a real surprise.  I wrote the essay to accompany one of my digital paintings, which just happened to be yellow and black.  Of course, I immediately thought of those 1980s hair metal bumblebee costumes.  I really hated '80s hair metal when I was a kid.  I'm still getting a rare message today; my last Stryper defender wrote to me last summer.  Haha.

I always took the good and the bad.  I always cherished every letter from someone who enjoyed the paintings.  I even tried to sell a few, without much luck.  I've grown tired of the art hustle; it's just another nerdish clique that seems trapped in the past.  I always wanted my art to embrace the future, the people, not the hipsters.  The hipsters can look after themselves.  That's why I built my own arts site in the first place.  I was convinced that the internet was the key to an artistic revolution.  Every artist should have their work online, I thought.  I felt art should be treated as music, where the internet was concerned.  Open the doors wide for everybody.  I still believe those things, and the explosive evolution of the internet has proven this again and again.  Everybody can create.  Everybody has something to contribute.

DanielThomas.org - I couldn't get a dot-com back then, because it was taken by a Trekkie - was made possible by a roommate of mine named Joe Osburn.  Joe worked for a local internet and web design company, and he offered to host my site for free.  That was very generous of him, very generous.  He renewed it whenever necessary, moving it around one server to another, keeping it secure.  I have always felt deeply indebted to him for his kindness.  I think I once paid him by giving him some of my paintings.  It's getting harder to remember.  Time always moves you forward, and the years melt away with the clouds.

Once my blogs were up and running, there really was no need for my old art website.  I can focus on movies and animation at The Ghibli Blog; politics, pop culture and art have a home at Daniel Thomas Vol 4.  The work now feels freer, faster, more immediate.  Well, at least when I can be bothered to write regularly.  Ahem.  Pardon.

So, dear friends, let us pay our final respects to my "arts-and-entertainment webzine," DanielThomas.org.  It was a wonderful experience, and I enjoyed every minute of it.  Thankfully, I've moved much of my older work to the blogs, and I'll have to continue that until everything is preserved online again.  I'm still not sure what to do about the artwork.  I'll figure something out.  I hope I don't get the idea to start a third blog....yuck!

"The Wii Fad Will Fade"

So...How well did this prediction turn out?

Obviously I'm exaggerating, but the Wii does have many characteristics of popular mainstream fads. It's instantaneously accessible, it's unlike anything you've tried before, and it's great fun to share with friends. In short, it's everything Nintendo said it would be and it has captured the world's imagination. The only downside is that the world is easily distracted. Tickle Me Elmo captured the world's attention at one point, as did Furbies. They were both instantly accessible, were unlike anything people had seen before, and were fun to share with friends. But a year later, after everyone had seen them and tried them out, their popularity waned.

The Wii is currently riding on a massive wave of mainstream attention and has been purchased by lots of people who don't normally play games. But how many of those people who are hooked on Wii Sports will also buy Wii Need For Speed? Mainstream fads usually run their course within a year. As the honeymoon period fades, the Wii will be going up against more and more graphically impressive games on the PS3 and Xbox 360. More people will be buying HD televisions and looking for the most immersive and stunning experiences available. For these reasons, I think the Wii will be more successful than the GameCube or N64 but in the long run will still be outsold by the PS3.

This article was written in March, 2007, by Insomniac Games' Brian Hastings.  It was titled, "10 Reasons Why PS3 Will Win This Console Generation."  This was the dominant opinion throughout most of the video game industry in 2006, and 2007, and, yes, even through 2009.  I think this story - Nintendo's meteoric success, and the industry's spectacular failure to anticipate and respond to it - is the most compelling story in video games today.  I've never seen anything quite like it.

2009 Hottest Year on Record in South America

The incoming data from NASA reveals that 2009 was the hottest year on record in South America, and tied for second-hottest for the world.  This comes courtesy of Science Magazine, and was deftly examined, as always, by Climate Progress.

Also, nonwithstanding the January freeze across parts of the Northern Hemisphere*, 2010 is widely expected to break the record for warmest global temperature, thanks to a moderate-to-strong El Nino in the Pacific Ocean.

*Oh, and about that cold snap that "proves" global warming is a hoax...it's funny.  The cold snap in Minnesota has ended a while ago.  We're back to mid-30s, which is 20 degrees above normal.  Oops.

Gamasutra Looks at Torus Games' Scooby Doo First Frights

In their newest Postmortem installment, Gamasutra talks with Torus Games about their recent 2009 release, Scooby Doo: First Frights, which appeared on Nintendo Wii.  It's a terrific look into the development process, examining what worked and what didn't.  Torus is proud of their achievement, doubly so when considering the extremely short development time.

I'm a great champion of the underdog, and the Nintendo Wii is chock full of them.  I've long suspected that its software library is stronger than mainline videogame journalism will admit.  I also suspect that too few writers and critics are even looking.  The Wii is treated with general disdain, indifference, or outright hostility among the gaming press.  You would think there was nothing worthwhile on the console beyond Nintendo's AAA franchises.  And yet the Wii continues to dominate.  There must be a valid reason for that.

I think we should take a look at developers like Torus, and see what is working and what isn't.  This Scooby Doo title actually looks like it could be fun.  For some reason, that screenshot of Shaggy and Scooby in the sewers reminds me of The Third Man.  That's probably just me.

Evil Minds That Plot Destruction

Pat Robertson's reaction to yesterday's devestating earthquake in Haiti?  He boasts that Haitians made a pact with the devil, and "ever since, they have been cursed."  In other words, they got what they deserved.

Rush Limbaugh says on his show today that Haiti produces "zilch, zero, nada," claims Obama will reinstate deposed dictator Aristide, claims that Obama will steal aid money to Haiti, then boasts, "[W]e've already donated to Haiti. It's called the U.S. income tax...It's a simple matter of self-reliance."  Limbaugh also mocks Obama, claiming this tragedy will help him with "light-skinned and dark-skinned black community in this country."

Monsters, absolute effing monsters.  If they see your house on fire, they sit back and roast marshmallows.