Categories
Puzzled Over

Losing All Hope Is Freedom

> Tyler lies back and asks, “If Marilyn Monroe was alive right now, what would she be doing?”

> I say, goodnight.

> The headliner hangs down in shreds from the ceiling, and Tyler says, “Clawing at the lid of her coffin.”

People who have been around me for longer than thirty minutes know I’m very prone to the nervous tic of checking my [Sidekick](http://hiptop.com/). Combining all the functionality I need in a mobile device, it’s practically fused to my fingers anymore. As a mobile platform, it gets a fair amount of crap from alpha geeks for not being “open” and allowing anyone to put programs on it, but there is a system to download ringtones, applications, and games.

People who have been near my bookshelf and actually examined it know I’m a big fan of Chuck Palahniuk – perhaps as the only author I routinely pick up new titles for. Furthermore, I think Fight Club is David Fincher’s best work. It was the first DVD I ever purchased, and it remains one of my favorites to this day.

Gamers will recall the look of horror we shared when they heard Fight Club was being turned into a console game. [Universally panned](http://www.metacritic.com/games/platforms/ps2/fightclub) and [quickly budgetized](http://www.flickr.com/photos/remydwd/25553960/), it remains a black spot on the gaming release lists last year.
That look of terror is back, ladies and gentlemen, as I found “Fight Club” listed in my Sidekick 2 Catalog today. If transforming such a book/movie into a game wasn’t bad enough, this immediately hits three more crimes against humanity:

**One**, there is no preview. Most Sidekick applications come with a screenshot or two as previews, so you can maybe get some indication of what the game or application is like. Not here.

**Two**, the description of the game. I quote all of this verbatim. Short description:

> Punch and kick your way to the top of Fight Club in this thrilling adaptation of the cult movie.

The long description:

> Fight Club accurately recreates the atmosphere of the cult 1999 movie with its amazing graphics and sounds, a wide variety of combat moves, destructible environments and a strong storyline. You are Jack, a man disgruntled with society and suffering from insomnia & schizophrenia. Punch and kick your way to the top of Fight Club as you attempt to beat Tyler Durden, and stop the pending Mayhem. With its simple 1 button control and gradual introduction of behaviours, Fight Club is easy to pick up!

Nothing in this description is accurate (main character wasn’t named), consistent (wide variety of combat moves with simple controls?), or even terribly appealing as a game. One button controls? What is this, Kirby’s Air Ride?

**Three**, after not being able to see the game before buying it, and being given what may be the worst textual description in history, they want to charge you the most they can for a Sidekick game – $5.99.

Look, if you’re in the mobile content industry, do us all a favor. Stop shoveling crap at us. I know it’s a captive audience and all, but this is insulting to the intelligence of your customer base.

Categories
Explained

How To Install Songs on Taiko No Tatsujin Portable (2005)

NOTE FROM THE YEAR 2023: I see a lot of traffic to this page, so important to note this is about a weird 2005-era way of installing DLC on a PSP game. Sorry to those looking for something else!

As a music game geek, I would have been remiss to not pick up Taiko No Tatsujin Portable, a somewhat faithful recreation of the very popular Japanese arcade game. Granted, there’s no drum to bang on, but the game plays surprisingly well on the PSP.

Namco recently announced that they were going to allow song downloads, and lo and behold, the first three songs were posted today on the downloads site. The instructions, of course, are in Japanese – and while you can sort of make out what’s going on in English, I figured it might be worth having an easy-to-follow guide for those that don’t want to slog through page upon page of Japanese. Follow along, if you will…

Categories
Disliked

Four Gaming Travesties In Half A Week

One: Nintendo [delays the new Zelda title](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4158758.stm) until well into next generation land, guaranteeing the Gamecube won’t have a high profile title at Christmas time. I look forward to again seeing “ONE CONSOLE PER PERSON (EXCEPT GAMECUBE)” signs this holiday season.

Two: Nintendo also, after slashing $20 off the price of the DS, says the Gameboy Micro is going to be priced at $100. For $30 more, you get a DS, with lots more functionality. For $20 less, you get a GBA with a bigger screen. Who is this supposed to appeal to?

Three: Microsoft, not to be outdone by Nintendo, announces pricing for the Xbox 360, and manages to make [nearly every fanboy they had turn against them](http://www.majornelson.com/2005/08/17/xbox-360-details-and-prices/#comments). It’s not that there’s [two pricing levels](http://www.gamespot.com/news/2005/08/17/news_6131245.html), it’s that the baseline machine doesn’t have a hard drive, which means developers now have an lower hardware baseline to shoot for than they did for the original Xbox. Also: $50 for wireless controllers, $100 for the add-on hard drive, $100 for a wireless network adapter, and $60 per game make this one expensive console.

Four: Konami decides to [make Beatmania USA purple](http://media.ps2.ign.com/media/748/748592/imgs_1.html). I am not kidding when I say this: this is the ugliest Bemani game I’ve ever seen. Worse than all the 5-key mixes, worse than 3rd Style CS, possibly even worse than DDR Extreme USA. Why did I get my hopes up about this? More importantly, why did Konami tease us with pictures of the 9th Style interface?

I’m going to go cry into my copy of Taiko No Tatsujin PSP now. The pure unadulterated cuteness will surely get me out of this funk.