HI AGAIN

So, I'm back after a month-long hiatus. Since no one reads this thing right now anyway, it doesn't matter. It's like I never left! Now I have a bunch to talk about.

The first thing that pops into my head is an article I read a while back regarding the new Prince of Persia game. The lead game developer was quoted as saying that he thinks it's a shame that PoP didn't get more acclaim for all its innovation.

Okay man, first off: The game already got like eights and nines. Basically the only person who didn't like it was some dude over at Destructoid, and knowing them he was probably a twat anyway. What the fuck do you want them to do, create a new system just for you? Hooray for you Ubisoft dev, you get an eleventy-billion out of wham-a-doodle.

Second off, what innovation? I've played a few hours of the game, and all they did was replace the sublime time-rewind mechanic with a judicious checkpoint system, and a clever female sidekick with your typical strong, tough, walled off tragic princess character. Oh, they also just about fucking ruined the combat. Everything else was inspired if not outright cribbed from earlier games.

When the games are as fantastic as the Sands of Time games, borrowing heavily from previous outings isn't a bad thing, but it's not innovation. When you turn the previous combat into barely animated glorified quicktime events, you shouldn't even get your eights and nines, much less praise for innovation. As it stands, congratulations guys: You've crafted what should be the gold standard for jumping puzzles this generation. Of course, after Sands of Time last generation totally redefined what a jumping puzzle was supposed to be, that was literally the least you could do.

Speaking of "least you could do", I've been playing Chrono Trigger on the DS on my lunch breaks. There are only two things i've ever given square my money for: Chrono Trigger DS, and Rocket Slime Adventures. Both of those are some of the best things they've ever done, certainly leagues ahead of their recent lunatic crystal belt zipper j-pop offerings. Final Fantasy III gets a gorgeous remake on the DS, Yet Chrono Trigger gets a couple of extra poorly laid out dungeons shoehorned into the main story poorly, and a totally nonsensical unbalanced monster dueling arena. After they used CT's release to make themselves a fat sack of cash while spending as little as possible, they turn right around and announce another 3D remake of some Final Fantasy piece of shit no one cares about or ever played.

Why did Blue Dragon have to be so terrible? I really wanted a JRPG alternative to Atlus and their generic prettiness and Square's J-pop madness. Oh well, the search continues.