Oni

Oni is a third-person beat'em-up by Bungie West, a division of Bungie that only released this single game.  It's sad because they definitely showed promise.  Released in 2003, Oni took the fighting genre, which was largely the realm of console gaming, and brought it to the PC.  Oni is, at its core, a solid, well designed fighting game, but a little bit of misplaced hype wound up hurting the product in the end.

Set in a dystopian future, you take on the role of Konoko, one of the few female leads of PC gaming and a kind of police operative hunting down a criminal and terrorist organization referred to simply as The Syndicate.  As the story progresses, you learn that the government you serve has been keeping dark secrets about your past and go rogue to uncover the truth about your history.  Character designs were heavily influenced by the movie Ghost in the Shell, and Konoko was intentionally designed to resemble Motoko from the film.

Of course, all of that back story is just window dressing that sets the stage for action, and Oni has plenty.  As a fighting game, the third-person camera and controls are quite good, making it easy to weave around multiple opponents.  You unlock additional, street-fighter style moves as the game progresses, but personally I always found these a little difficult to execute during combat and would generally stick with conventional tactics.  The game also utilizes multiple ranged weapons, pistols, machine guns, plasma rifles and such.  These are extremely handy and add an additional level of fun.  Most of the time, you'll be picking these weapons off of your fallen foes.  Ammunition is very scarce, so you'll want to make your shots count.

The game environments tend to be open, which lends itself well to the style of gameplay, but also sometimes makes the levels feel a bit sparse.  Nevertheless, battles across rooftops and airport terminals are entertaining.  Levels tend to be large and full of areas to explore.  Bungie West hired an architect to help design the buildings used in the game.

The game can be quite challenging as you deal with stronger, faster enemies, often armed and in large numbers.  The game does not hold your hand at all, and defeat means starting the stage over from the beginning, but when you complete one, you just feel like such a bad mother that the satisfaction is hard to beat.  If you've seen Iron Man 2, think of the scene where Black Widow reveals her true nature and begins taking out security guards in epic fashion: that's you in this game, and it's awesome.

On its release Oni received good to mediocre reviews, partly influenced by the lack of multiplayer.  A multiplayer feature was hyper during pre-releases demos, but in development it was discovered that lag was a significant issue and common networking technology was not sufficient to develop a fighting game that could compensate for it, so ultimately the feature was dropped, disappointing potential fans.

I.M. Meen

I have always loved reading for as far back as I can remember.  I attribute this love to my mother, who in addition to being an avid reader herself, helped guide me through a frustrating period of schooling when I first began to learn the skill.  As an abstract thing, reading didn't exactly gel with me, although I loved stories and books (my mother doing the actual reading at that point, of course).  But with her aid she helped break away the barriers and the abstractions and opened up a whole world of adventures for me.  Our frequent trips to the library would often conclude with arm-loads of books which I would take home and devour.  Then the time came for me to learn to write, and once again frustration began to rear its ugly head.  My primary issue centered around grammar; letters and spelling I could deal with, but punctuation and structure involved strange words like "noun" and "verb" other terms that you'll never see in any Mad Lib.  There were lots of rules and they just weren't sticking.

Enter gaming.  You see, gaming has always been more than just a simple pastime for me.  As a child, gaming helped fuel my imagination and I would often walk away from a game with a whole new world taking shape in my mind.  Sometimes, the world that took shape was not merely fantasy.  I would often study subjects based upon interests that began as a result of gaming; subjects like medieval history, insects and such.  Occasionally the drive to study a subject was simply the result of an enjoyable game with a historical setting, but sometimes the study and the gaming went together hand-in-hand: edutainment.

Now, it's true that many times an "educational game" has more education than game, but I was fortunate to find a few that had such a well-crafted game that the educational part barely intruded on the experience.  One such title is I.M. Meen.  I.M. Meen is a game designed to help instruct in the basics of grammar.  The premise is that an evil, child-and-grammar-hating librarian and magician, I.M. Meen, captures children and locks them in cells in a dark labyrinth.  You start the game as one such child freed by Meen's gnome slave Gnorris, who has had enough of his master's deeds.  You explore the labyrinth searching for the cells of the other children, and when you find a cell, you must unlock it by proof-reading a scroll written by I.M. Meen.  The scroll (often humorous poems or memos written by Meen to his minions) will contain several grammatical errors, and correcting them will magically open the cell door and allow the captured child to escape.

The great thing about I.M. Meen is that it is a legitimate, challenging and atmospheric game.  It may be the first-ever gothic-horror title for kids.  The labyrinth is dark, creepy and full of beasts, some of which are pretty frightening.  Heck, the very first enemy you encounter in the game is a giant, fanged spider.  These spiders can be found on multiple levels and will run away from you if you are looking at them, then circle around and try to sneak up on you from behind.  Often then'll come up behind you without you knowing they are there, and when they attack, they utter an ear-splitting shriek.  That, friends, is your introduction to I.M. Meen...an almost-immediate jump-scare as the first enemy in the game attacks you from behind, screaming at you.  It'll make you nervous to continue, and sets the tone for the game.  Occasionally, Meen himself will appear to taunt and rant at you, rather like Jareth from the movie Labyrinth.  One wonders if there might have been some inspiration there.

The level design is pretty solid.  Although not a very technologically advanced 3D engine (everything is flat, like Wolfenstein, although with better lightening and textures), the game features some handy tools like an auto map and an inventory system for storing health items and magical weapons for later use.  The controls are mouse-based. with movement being controlled by maneuvering the cursor around the primary game screen (toward the top goes forward, upper corners turn, sides strafe, etc.).  It isn't the first time I have seen this control scheme used in a game, but it is a little clunky and takes some getting used to at first.

The game received a sequel called Chill Manor which replaced the grammar with history.  I've never played this one but it looks much the same as the first, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.  I.M. Meen's fun-factor kept me playing, and proof-reading Meen's scrolls during helped me gain a functional knowledge of the grammar concepts I was learning at the time, so all in all it was win-win.  I still think it's a fun title that can be enjoyed without paying much mind to the educational aspects of it.

Here's an additional fact that might surprise you: I.M. Meen was developed by the same company that created the horrible Legend of Zelda titles for the Phillips CDi.  If you compare the animation styles during the cutscenes, the similarities are obvious.  How a company can create two products of such cataclysmic variance in quality is beyond me.

Mermaids of Atlantis and Bubble Bath Babes

Mermaids of Atlantis is a decent game with a somewhat sordid history.  I first saw this game as a kid looking through titles at Blockbuster, and I was intrigued by the title, which conjured up to my imaginative little mind ideas of a great underwater empire and endless adventure, but I went with Kirby's Adventure instead, which went on to become my favorite NES game of all time (but that's another story).  It would be years before I would ever see another reference to that illusive title, and part of that reason is that it is an unlicensed title produced by American Video Entertainment, a small-time production company that primarily pushed out strange puzzle and sports titles from 1990 to 1992.  Not exactly the paragon of adventure I imagined from the title, Mermaids of Atlantis fell within the puzzle genre of games.  Fortunately, it is a pretty good one.  But that's not where the saga begins.

Before being published as Mermaids of Atlantis: The Riddle of the Magic Bubble (which gets points for having a completely unnecessary subtitle), the game began life as Bubble Bath Babes, published by a seedy little outfit called Panesian, a group dedicated to the production of pornographic NES titles.  Yup, you heard that right.  Now, if you were the sort of child who giggled with delight at the site of a crayon-crafted, crudely-drawn pair of boobs on the playground and your mental development ended right there, then Panesian was the company for you.  After all, what could be more titillating than the sight of pixelated, 48-color, 8-bit boobies?  But despite the lack of maturity involved, Panesian did manage to craft a decent, Tetris-style puzzle concept.  Game play involved colored bubbles rising to the top of the screen.  These could be moved and rotated to attempt to match like-colored bubbles, popping them and, with proper planning, causing chain reactions.  If the bubbles touched the bottom of the screen, it was game over.

This game mechanic, with several differently shaped clusters of bubbles and multiple colors, made for an excellent game that holds its own with the likes of Tetris, Columns and Dr. Mario.  It's nothing fancy, but it works.  Picking up on this, American Video Entertainment published the game with a few clever swaps; a reclining, topless girl at the bottom of the screen was redrawn as a mermaid, and cut scenes between levels told a (boring, sad to say) story about mermaids instead of presenting more 8-bit nudity.  The result is actually a fun, challenging puzzle game.  Of course, solid game mechanics aside, unlicensed NES titles were generally doomed from the beginning.  How many times have you ever seen a copy of Mermaids of Atlantis, or heard anyone speak of it?

The Adventures of Captain Comic

Here's a title that bears some significance in the world of PC gaming, but is one you'll rarely hear tell of.  Captain Comic was a shareware title released in 1988 by a single programmer, Michael Denio.  It is noteworthy because it is one of the very first side-scrolling platform games created for the PC.  Michael said that he created it to see whether an authentic arcade-style game could be produced on the PC, and whether one could make money doing so.  Given that Captain Comic was not a very big seller, and given that Denio stopped writing games after creating an (also under-selling) sequel, it would seem that, for Denio at least, the answer to that last question was no.  Nevertheless, it's not a terrible game and it helped to pave the way for things to come.

Captain Comic is a simple, yet in some respects open-world platformer that has you seeking out three treasures.  Finding all three will end the game.  You explore the world acquiring powerups, keys and special items.  You can find doors here and there which will allow you to freely move in and out of different areas of the game as you search for the treasures.  Each area has a fairly colorful and unique style and unique (if overly simplistic) forms of enemies.  The game gives you a life bar which you can replenish, but the enemies, which are quick moving, small and tend to fly all over the place, can be difficult to dodge, and there are many pits to fall into, so it's a bit of a challenging title, if not perhaps a little frustrating.

The Adventures of Captain Comic is not only unique because it was one of the first of its kind on the PC, but also because it received a port to the NES.  This port was made by Color Dreams, producers of unlicensed NES games which are often described as being amongst the worst titles you can play on the system.  Captain Comic is, however, one of the best titles Color Dreams produced, though it may be acknowledged that this is hardly high praise.  Part of the reason for its comparative quality is likely the fact that Color Dreams actually had the game's creator, Michael Denio, do the NES port.  The game plays much like the original PC version, although the control scheme on the NES seems much better.  The game's graphics were redesigned and look quite good for a Color Dreams title (again not the highest praise), although sadly the hero's outfit was changed from the rather quirky-looking "spaceman overalls" he was sporting in the PC version to a generic looking astronaut suit.

Supposedly Michael Denio began work on a second title with Color Dreams, but abandoned it to work on a sequel to the PC version of Captain Comic, which maintained the art style of the original but added numerous improvements, expanding the world, adding interactive NPCs and allowed the game to scroll in four directions, as opposed to just left and right.  This sequel, titled Captain Comic II: Fractured Reality was released as a retail-only product, and perhaps for that reason did not sell as well as the first despite the improvements.  After this release, Michael Denio called it quits on game design, but as one of the early pioneers of PC gaming, one must tip one's hat to him for all of the grand things that came after.

Jill of the Jungle

As a kid with a PC in the early days of Shareware, some of my favorite and most fondly remembered games game from Epic Megagames, creators of Jazz Jackrabbit and, another personal favorite of mine, Jill of the Jungle (released in 1992). Jill was unique in that it was unmistakably quirky and not entirely plot-driven. The first episode had you aimlessly exploring different, bizarre locations because...well, why not? Episode 2 had you journeying to a strange underground world because you just happened to stumble into it. Only the third episode had any real plot to it, as Jill quested to save a prince who had been kidnapped by reptilian humanoids. But it wasn't just the strange lack of plot, the unusual in-game physics and the obvious sense that the game was not taking itself seriously at all...Jill was special because it was one of the earlier examples of a PC game featuring a female protagonist, all rather cheesecake as Jill, like something out of a comic book, bounded around with flowing blond hair and a high-cut leotard. She also had the power to transform into different animals on certain levels, allowing her to fly and shoot fireballs as a Pheonix, change into a fish and swim (despite her athletic abilities, in her human form Jill swims like a rock and will immediately drown in water), or a frog, allowing her to jump to out-of-reach locations. Jill of the Jungle was a popular early title for Epic, but never saw a true sequel, although three future games were released that carried on her legacy in spirit if not in body: Onesimus: A Quest for Freedom, Vinyl Goddess from Mars and Xargon. She also got her own themed table in Epic Pinball, which was one of my personal favorites from that title.

First of the Jill of the Jungle successors is really more of a conversion. Onesimus took (by permission) Jill of the Jungle and altered the characters and setting to create a game based on the biblical story of the slave Onesimus, who escaped from his master Philemon and eventually found the Apostle Paul in Rome (from the short New Testament book Philemon, which is told in segments between levels). This title was sold in Christian bookstores as a standalone product. It is an interesting curiosity as it contains what appear to be some original levels (or perhaps edited ones) along with level designs from all three Jill of the Jungle episodes. It might be assumed that this game was created after the release of Jill, but references to Onesimus have been found in the code for Jill of the Jungle and some explorable areas in Jill that appear to be dead ends without purpose actually have function in Onesimus, suggesting that the two games were developed simultaneously.

Next in the line of Jill's siblings is Epic Megagame's Xargon, released one year later in 1993. Built on an engine that appears to be an updated, more sophisticated version of Jill's with enhanced graphics, Xargon plays much the same, but being a more serious tale about an archaeologist exploring ruins in Madagascar, being knocked out by gas released from the ruins, and waking up in a bizarre world. Unfortunately, bizarre didn't mean more fun, and the entire experience felt dull. Technologically superior, but sadly, forgettable and nothing special.

Last and most interesting of Jill of the Jungle's legacy is a little title called Vinyl Goddess of Mars (1995). This game was developed by a third party, and although some of the details are difficult to hunt down, the game appears to have been built using Xargon's engine. This title was actually intended to be Jill of the Jungle II, and at least one interview from the time has it referred to as such. It is fitting as a new Jill game was always a better idea than the dry concept of Xargon, but when the game was completed Epic Megagames was disappointed with the overall quality and chose not to release it. In response, the game's creators reworked the storyline and some of the graphics and released it as Vinyl Goddess of Mars, a tale about a b-movie actress from the future who crashes her spaceship on a hostile planet. The Jill influence is clear, although in its new form the publishers amped up the sex angle, redrawing the heroine in knee-high boots and a thong in place of Jill's leotard, and hiring model "Debra Dare" to appear on the title screen and a pin-up poster that was distributed with copies of the game (although Miss Dare wears a leotard more akin to Jill's in the photos). The gameplay is more interesting than Xargon's and more in tune with Jill, but as the year was 1995 perhaps Epic was correct not to take a shot on a title with an engine that was now showing its age. After this aborted attempt at a Jill sequel, it seems that Amazon hero is never to don her leotard again.

On the "Sexualization" of Female Protagonists

I've read quite a few articles that discussed or alluded to the role of sexualized imagery with regards to females in video games. Below is an image of two of gamings most famous female protagonists, Samus Aran from Metroid (seen here in her tight-fitting "zero-suit") and Lara Croft of Tomb Raider (in her normal, and in some respects most covering, attire). Clearly both ladies were created with a nod to visual appeal based on present American standards (travel to other countries, or even a few decades back, and these idealized images would be quite different, though no less idealized). The thought is that this imagery is designed to titillate, feed male fantasy and as a result harm women by reinforcing unrealistic expectations. I've had occasion to think about this a lot and consider it from several different angles, and ultimately I'm going to have to place my judgment on the matter by saying "I disagree".

This is a sensitive issue, and certainly there is amble evidence of "fan service" on the part of many game designers, but all things are not equal in the world of games. One would not take a painting such as La Grande Odalisque by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres and place it upon equal footing with a centerfold in Playboy, even though the two images would share quite a few similarities. This is an extreme example of course, and I'm not suggesting that Samus and Lara represent high art, only pointing out that there is often a fundamental difference in kind and type when considering two otherwise similar things.

Samus and Lara are no doubt idealized based upon what is presently considered to be attractive in our culture, and are to a degree presented to be pleasant on a sensuous level. But on the other hand, it is impossible for an idealized image of a woman to be considered unsensual. The ideal is based upon physical attractiveness, and physical attractiveness is necessarily linked to sensuality. This does not suggest that a woman who is considered "sexy" is therefore slutty. Take Samus, for instance. Certainly she has the physical build of an idealized woman, but at no point in the entire Metroid series is she portrayed as anything less than upstanding, strong and powerful (I don't consider Other-M's portrayal of her struggle with fear and the past to contradict this). Certainly her "zero-suit" fits like a second skin, but for most of the series she appears in her iconic battle armor, which apart from having no sexual characteristics at all, would make it impossible to wear anything looser underneath. So although you can go around and around about the design choice, the zero-suit makes perfect sense and is actually particularly modest within the rules of the world she was created to exist in. Certainly they could have dressed her in less. As for Lara, again, aside from her idealized physical appearance, she's dressed in a tight tank top and shorts. She could have rather longer shorts on, or perhaps a more loose-fitting shirt, but once more within the context of her world, exploring tropical destinations (she does appear more "fully clothed" when placed in other settings), the outfit is hardly worth considering. Although drawn as an idealized female form, she is never portrayed as loose, but is an archaeological genius, strong, independent and quick-witted. Quite frankly, both of these woman would, on the basis of their character, be excellent role-models, if not for the idealization of their design which is largely attributed to satisfying the sexual appetites of young adolescent boys. But to that, we must consider the whole history of art; unless we are journeying into the world of Realism, which paints the world as it is (games have never been much for realism), the whole of human history rests upon picturing the world in more idealized terms. Much of early Italian and medieval art portrays idealized women, but they are softer and heavier. Why? Because during this period in history this was considered more attractive. These women were not considered realistic so much as ideal. Travel to other parts of the world today, for instance countries in the middle-east, and you'll be able to find cultures that still hold to these same ideals over the more twiggy girls that tend to be idealized in western culture today (perhaps not surprising, chesty girls seem to have always been considered ideal regardless of their other physical leanings). It is hardly surprising that woman in games, just as in any other media, should be portrayed according to a culture's present set of ideals. We may object to the impracticality of achieving said ideals, but that doesn't change them. It is an example of art reflecting life; not the life that we see in the world around us (Realism) but the life that exists in the subconscious of the generation.

Another point to consider is that such women are not just the norm because of males. The fact is, females often enjoy partaking in the same escapist fantasies just as much as anyone else. How many reasoning people look at a picture of Lara Croft and determine to pattern themselves after her physical appearance? On the other hand, how many females enjoy picking up a game where they can not only indulge in the fantasy of a heroin, but an idealized one? This is a common thing, and it is not indicative of sexual-identity issues. If you asked my wife to comment on Lara Croft's looks, she'd respond that "she's hot". Heck, I'd say the same thing about Sting and that doesn't make me homosexual. It's a shared set of fantasy ideals that crosses gender lines. It is not unique to women; male heroes, which are more plentiful and thus perhaps escape scrutiny on account of their commonality, are also portrayed as idealized. Duke Nukem, Serious Sam, the great action heroes of gaming are often portrayed as either muscle-bound superheroes, or, if less muscular, metro-sexual male models. Exceptions exist, like a certain Italian plumber, but it's not a double-standard...within the world of Mario, there are no physically idealized characters. Princess Peach may be cute, but she's hardly sexy. But within the confines of the action-oriented male-fantasy games, how many guys would rather play as themselves, instead of as the Duke? Part of the enjoyment is the escapist fantasy of becoming the "ultimate man".

There may be room for argument on whether the culture should have fantasy ideals with regards to things like physical appearance, but ultimately that becomes a philosophical argument. The reality is that we do have them, always have, always will. We have them because it is a part of our psyche, a symptom of our existence within a fallen, broken world. We know ideals exist, even if they are beyond our grasp, and looking to them gives us hope and captures the imagination. This is true of higher ideals, principles of love, freedom and peace, and it is the same element within us that flows down into "lower" ideals as well. Is it all pure fantasy? Yes, but sometimes that's the point. If God grants me a daughter, I will raise her to respect herself, to love herself, to be strong and courageous and to accept who she is. And when it comes time for her to play out her imaginative fantasies, I would prefer that she do it on the backdrop of Lara Croft than the backdrop of Barbie.

Organ Trail: Director's Cut

This game is a pretty recent find for me, but it's so good it deserves more than a blurb.  Organ Trail began life as a Flash game designed after The Oregon Trail, except this time the setting was changed to the zombie apocalypse.  After a successful Kickstarter campaign, Organ Trail: Director's Cut came into being.  Released as a commercial product on Steam, iOS and Android, it is designed not just to be a simple conversion of The Oregon Trail, but a unique game in its own right, one that would take the basic mechanics of the beloved educational title but add in additional content to flesh out the idea of traveling cross-country to seek shelter from the zombie hoards.  No longer a face-lift, it is now a unique take on the survival-horror genre.

The game is designed in a beautiful and clever retro-style that avoids being cute.  It brings back memories of older horror games, where despite the limitations of graphical and sound hardware designers tried hard to use what elements they had available to create a bleak and frightening environment. The game has a sense of humor, but ultimately the visual and musical cues keep the setting dark and bleak, and it really works.

The gameplay is also varied.  You start out with a quick introduction to your circumstances, receive four traveling companions and assigned several points that you can apply to different parts of your inventory.  There are several supplies that you will need, parts to repair your aging station wagon, food, ammunition, fuel, etc., and you will never have enough. Do you take along a spare muffler, or extra food?  On the one hand, if your muffler breaks, the resulting noise will draw more zombies to you, which will be a problem when you have to stop. On the other hand, if you don't have enough food, you'll have to scavenge for it on foot, which means braving whatever is lurking outside.  No matter what decisions you make, you will never have enough, and it makes the game feel very tense as you struggle to keep your party alive.  Zombies will attack, people will get sick, and then what?  A sick companion can slow you down and drain extra supplies; do you attempt to nurse them back to health, or shoot them and keep moving?  Both options have advantages.

Along the road you'll come to towns and settlements where you can buy and sell supplies, talk to the locals, trade, and even take on mercenary jobs, whether defending the town from zombies or agreeing to help fight off a local gang.  These challenges can put a quick end to your adventure, but they also have rewards in the form of cash payouts, which you can use to buy extra supplies or upgrades to your car that will make your journey easier.

There are numerous mini-games that have you fighting the zombies, evading street gangs and scavenging for supplies, and "pick your poison" decisions that you'll have to make in order to survive.  Survival is not easy...this is not a game you can complete in an hour, the trek across the country is long, and the longer your survive, the more you'll find yourself struggling to keep going.

There is also an expansion pack for the game that includes an "endless" survival mode where your journey continues until you die and adds extra events and minigames.

All in all, if you enjoy zombies, survival-horror and/or have fond memories of playing a certain education title, Organ Trail: Director's Cut is for you.