The uproar over Lego RockBand!! Is it because of the Wii?

Lego Rockband was rumored a few weeks ago and many fans have been taking this as a full on attack on against them, the “core gamers”. These core gamers should only be the fans Rock Band, but I am betting many people who have not even played Rock Band are upset because they take this as an attack from the invading casual gamers. Is the hate towards Lego Rock Band a result of the Wii hate out there? I think so and here is why. There have always been causal games on all game systems without question. Let’s not forget the huge mistake Atari made with ET. It did not start from the ET it started the very second gaming companies were aware a quick dollar could be made from causal gaming. It does not mean causal games are bad either. There are a number of good casual games out there. Who does not play games like Tetris, movie based games and so on.

With all these casual games having always been out, why is there hate now for them? In some way, I think it is the influence of the Nintendo Wii on the market. This hate is coming from gamers who are upset that the Wii is winning the so called console war with sales. You will not hear the hate for the Nintendo Wii and the hate for Lego Rock Band being talked about together. it was not until the Wii’s success did most gamers start caring about casual games on the market. Many other haters have picked up the reasons why the Wii they think the Wii is not a good system. These haters would yell name of games like Ninja BreadMan as to the reasons why the Wii is not a good system. Yet, they did not seem to care when that same game came out two years before the Wii on the PS2. These causal games still sell a lot despite the so called “core gamers” hate for them. With sales of games like Cranial games and Deca games reaching over a million it is little question as to why third party companies are trying to make more casual games. Don’t forget the Wii was not out when we got the first Lego Star Wars.

“Anakin Skywalker meet Strawberry Shortcake”

Now that we have gone over the Wii and why it’s not the Wii’s fault these games come out but companies wanting to make a dollar. Let’s take a look at a game which is tied to the music genre, but not hated on when it makes causal games. At least any hate which I know of. The name of the game is Dance Dance Revolution better know has DDR. It was one of the first major music franchise predating Guitar Hero and Rock Band by many years. There are well over 50 versions of DDR games with many of them not being the core editions of the game but more casual targeted versions. Some of these casual versions are Disney, Hannah Montana, Strawberry Shortcake, High School Musical and many more titles. So where was the protest when these games came out? The fact was very few cared because the DDR fans knew it was the norm and a good way to get more DDR players. Now this is something that the Rock Band players should be looking at when thinking about the casual friendly Lego Rock Band that it is only going to get more gamers into Rock Band. The more gamers that get into Rock Band the better and stronger the title is and the better the support will be for many more sequels. Even if these new Rock Band players start at a kid level it may be something that stays with them and that they will grow to enjoy as well as other Rock Band fans. The reason for this hate may be because of the Wii that so called core gamers are taking more notice to casual games. But that does not mean you, the fan, should get caught up in the hate.

Zelda 2 an amazing and underated game

Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link is, in my humble opinion, one of the best Zelda games and one of the best NES games. I know many may laugh at the idea and many might think of Zelda 2 as a fluke game that was hard and had too many flaws. I am going to go over many standout reasons why Zelda 2 was a great game.

First, random enemies unlike the Dragon Quest "or Dragon Warrior as it was know then," and Final Fantasy, Zelda did not have the random enemies that popped up. As shown below in the picture, Zelda 2 had a number of random enemies come up on the screen.

These enemies came up in such a way that you could run away from them or attack them to level up. What!!! Level up in a Zelda game. Yes there was leveling up in Zelda 2 and I will get to that later. These enemies would come out whenever you got off your path. When one did attack you, the screen turned from the the picture above to the 2d image you see below.

The whole attack system of where you fought the enemies made it where each enemy was like a mini level on itself.

Second, a leveling system: Notice the top of the screen the bar shows magic 1 and life 1 then next 0000/0050. The reason for this is as you attacked enemies you gained experience. How much magic you could do or how much life you had was based on the level you were in the game. Giving Zelda 2 more of an RPG feeling than any other Zelda offered.

The Third reason: the missions in the game with could be found in the towns. To get a spell like healing in the game you may have to get a mirror for some person who has lost it or find some lost kid. This added more to the game and made it much more enjoyable.

The Forth reason: A number of attack moves which are used in future Zeldas also came from this game. The up and downwards thrust used in many Zeldas now.

They had their start from this game. I could keep going but the point of the story is spend the $5. Download this game, and see what we are missing in some of the Zelda games that come out today.

Jack Campbell -HarlockJC