Working Title 05.03.07: Working Rant - What Are You Waiting For?

Posted by Jordan Williams on 05.03.2007

Working Title is BACK. What better way to return than to just let out an old fashioned rant? So I ask this question to the Big 3. What are you waiting for?

I. HAVE. RETURNED.

That's right folks, the #1 Column to Miss a Month due to Injury is BACK. I'd like to say I'm VERY sorry for just running off and leaving you all in the dark. So now I'll tell you exactly WHY I was gone before I move on to today's Working Rant.

On Easter Sunday I suffered a severe accident, I won't go too much into details, but I suffered second degree burns on my left hand. It hurt like fuck. On top of all of the pain that came with it, I am also left handed. To give you an idea of what happened, pretty much the first two layers of skin on my fingers were burnt off, and some of my nerve endings were burned. My nerves are fine, they healed, and after a month of just sitting back and learning how to do everything with my right hand, my left hand is now completely healed(although the pigment on my fingers is gone, which is quite humorous...I'm a black person with white fingers.) But I've been told the pigment will replant itself as well.

Sorry I couldn't get here to tell you, but if you ask anyone who has had a severe burn like that, they will tell you it is VERY painful and not fun at all.

Second degree burns are the most painful burns you can get. You'd think it'd be third degree, but with third degree burns, your nerve endings have been destroyed, so you don't even feel it.

Either way, after that little ordeal I AM BACK, and I am ready to bestow some Working Title goodness upon the masses!

and now, let's get onto my Working Rant; let's see if I've still got it.


What are you waiting for?

You know, very often in life you will see things that just seem like great ideas, yet no one will ever think to do them, or when they do, it's just far too late.

We are seeing this happen way too much in the gaming industry as they are passing up very good chances in favor of making more sequels and ports more than anything.

So, I have one simple question to ask The Big 3.


What are you waiting for?

Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft? What's the big idea? You guys are delivering right now, and that's all well and good. But there are some things you can easily do now that you just aren't doing. So what's the big idea? What are you waiting for? Are you looking for fans to get angry and pissed about having to wait for this good idea to come about? Or do you just want everyone to forget about it therefore you never actually have to make the game?

Let's start of with the biggest offender out there.


Nintendo

Nintendo, Nintendo, Nintendo. You've been doing quite well. After the lackluster Gamecube you have seemed to bust back with the Nintendo DS and the surprisingly stable Wii. But man, there are just some opportunities you are just NOT taking advantage of. You want details? I'll give you details.


Super Smash Brothers DS

That's right; I'll come out shooting the big guns. What's the big deal here? You have a perfectly capable handheld that can display a little better than N64 graphics, two screens to work with, and online play. A Super Smash Brothers game for the DS should've been one of the first things we heard about, but even now almost two years later we haven't heard jack.



What's the hold up? I mean even with all of those things I listed up there, you have the ONE thing that could make this fighting game work on a handheld that none of the past generation handhelds had.

The DS has six buttons. Yes, the some six buttons that the SNES controller had. The same six buttons that revolutionized 2D fighters back in the day. The PSP has shown it can work, and the DS needs to follow suit.

Hell, Jump Superstars is pretty much the same style of game. So what hasn't Nintendo tossed their hate into the ring? We all know the game could be done; it's just a matter of them making it.

Mario Hockey OR American Football

You know, Mario's done every sport under the sun. Can we get some hard hitting action here? Please? I'd pay to see Bowser in full Football/Hockey gear and just straight up murderlizing the entire field.

And don't you tell me that you can't do it. You've managed to twist Mario to work in Tennis, Gold, Baseball, Soccer, Racing, Basketball, and even the FRIGGIN OLYMPICS. The next logical step is to give us Mario Hockey or Football...or something even more awesome like Mario Boxing.

That brings me to my next one...

Punch-Out!

I'm not even going to go into details here. Just make the game. We demand it. No, seriously. You people unleashed a monster with Wii boxing, now we want Punch-Out.

Non-Mario RPG

Yes, Paper Mario is awesome. Mario and Luigi, also awesome. Super Mario RPG, hella awesome. Now let's see if you can work that magic on a different source.

A Starfox RPG would be rad as shit.

And finally...

FIX ONLINE PLAY

I know, I know. You developed Nintendo Wi-Fi to be free, and we seriously love you for that. But this friend-code business is just too much. Also, what's up with not having widespread Wii online support for games until 08? You're making me mad here. It's bad enough that I just can't actively save someone's code from the net so I can play them again, but now you're telling me I have to wait a year before I can take my Wii online for games? Man...

NINTENDO, WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR!?


Oh, I see you trying to get away Sony. I've got your number, too!

Sony

Amazingly, there aren't a lot of things Sony can do better game wise, this doesn't mean they are completely devoid of fault, though. They have some things that need answering. Also it'll be focused more on them as a company rather than the games.

Grow your balls back

Yeah, this one isn't really a game related one, but more of an overall request. What happened to the Sony that pretty much killed the Dreamcast and stole every good exclusive from Nintendo? What happened to the Sony that used to put out about 30 games a week and have most of them been good?

I'm not seeing that Sony this generation. The Sony I am seeing is letting Microsoft just waltz in and gank all of their thunder without even putting up a fight. Now, I'm sure there are probably a lot more things that go on than I know about, but for the better part of this generation Sony hasn't been doing much to show that it's still the gorilla that was throwing its shit at everyone two years ago.

Exclusives!

This one was quite obvious, and it actually is a game related one, but it spans a lot of titles. We have the Wii, who still gets a lot of ports, but most of its games are games made SPECIFICALLY for the Wii, or ports that have been fine tuned. Sony and 360 are really just sharing the same games with different button layouts.

Sony has the money to contract these developers to make more exclusives games just for them, or at least more enhanced versions of such. So what are they waiting for?

Are they waiting to see if the exclusives they have now actually pan out and give them some much needed clout? Are they waiting to see if the Wii Magic will wear off before they go out and try to get people on their good side again?

Whatever it is, they need to stop waiting and just pull the trigger.

Why is the PSP still alive?

Seriously. The PSP was a bad execution of a great idea. Why is Sony even bothering with this anymore? For a company that is so quick to talk about cutting losses, they seem damned eager to hold onto the PSP which isn't doing anything but getting schooled by a handheld that it should've blown out of the water. Just let the PSP gracefully die, no amount of rehash games and remakes will save it.


Now...if the PSP came with her...


SONY, WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR!?


Microsoft, right next to Nintendo, you are being seen as Mr. Can't Do Wrong. Well, there's a couple thing you are dropping the ball on, and some things that are seriously just taking you too long to do.

Microsoft

Out of the three, Microsoft is actually the least offensive. There are really only two points they need to catch up on, one is specifically game related, and another has to deal with it's games as a whole.

KOTOR III

I know this falls on LucasArts and BioWare more than it does yourself, but hey, outside of the PC you are the only console that gets this game...so where is it? KOTOR was great, KOTORII was awesome, and that means KOTORIII should be nothing short of legendary. I understand that Bioware has got its hands full with the awesome looking Mass Effect right now, but come on, we could at least get an announcement for KOTORIII. After all, you seem really happy to divulge any and all information to press nowadays.

Getting Backwards Compatibility on games we care about.

Okay. What the hell is the big deal? I understand now with that newfangled console you have to go back and fix things so older games will work...but I do not understand the thought process behind some of the games you patch over.

Catwoman? Avatar? Dead to Rights?

Who in the right mind would want to play those on the Xbox 360...who in the right mind hasn't traded those games back in to EB four hours after playing them?

It's really bad when it takes you almost two years to finally patch over games like Panzer Dragoon Orta and the best game no one ever played, Mercenaries. I mean, I know that it's hard to patch these games over, but what are you all waiting for with patching over the bigger and better releases?


Why can't I play you?

It's quite simple. No one wants to play Aquaman. No one wants to play Bad Boys II: Miami Takedown. No one wants to play Zapper OR BMX XXX. So why waste your time even porting these over. While I know the goal here is to make sure you patch over the entire library, seeing as that will take some time, how about to just focus on patching over the big name titles that people WANT to play instead of the ones that no one played back on the original console.

The same goes for you, Nintendo...stop padding the good games on the VC with crap we didn't even want to play back then.

There are some other points I could make on how Microsoft is seemingly abandoning all of its under-13 year old gamers, but that's a rant for another time.

MICROSOFT, WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR!?

Next week...

Well, I am back kiddies. It was a long time to be away, but rest assured I am HERE. Next week will be another Working Rant/Off-Week. Mainly because in my time resting up, I really haven't had much time to play any more games and get and ideas in my head.

Well, I did have time to play one game...luckily it only required one hand. So, be on the look out for my review of Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo Tales this weekend.

Until next time, I'm Jordan Williams...and this column still doesn't have a name...BUT IT'S BACK!