HokutoAndy 🤜🤜➡️ 🦶👊
@hokutoandy.bsky.social
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East Coast USA 🇺🇸 to East Asia🌏
Dragons, Ninja, Swords, Giant Robots. Researcher of Occidentals and their culture.
Orientalism, Japonisme, Chinoiserie and the making of modern western fantasy.
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![Tomonobu Itagaki: I just want to say that people who really want to know about videogames should avail themselves to master a traditional game like Chess or Backgammon, find one and master it. In particular Backgammon is a good choice. The way it's played is a good example of having simplicity and a lot of depth. I've never seen anything in the videogame domain that had better playability than that.
1UP: Tetris?
TI: No. The only reason that videogames have become the more popular medium is because it's interactive visual and audio and it's easier to do by yourself. But people who really want to know the essence of gaming, in all its forms, should definitely master a traditional game. There are plenty of games within the realm of gaming that are deeper than videogames. So it's kind of pointless to debate playability in videogames without first learning the basics in that regard.
You know there are people out there who say "Graphics aren't important!" That's ridiculous. It's the whole point. And that's why the games that we make are incredible visually, and we always try to make the playability as good as we can, because that's the whole reason for the existence of videogames.
1UP: Or else we'd all be playing Backgammon.
TI: [Laughs] YES! OK, now back to the main event.
(In no particular order)
Pikmin - GameCube
Publisher: Nintendo Developer: Nintendo Release Date: 2001
It's the only game I haven't grown tired of. Both 1 and 2 are great, they're amazing.
Legend of Zelda - Ocarina of Time - N64
Publisher: Nintendo Developer: Nintendo Release Date: 1998
It no longer needs any justification. It's a masterpiece, pure and simple.
Image Fight - arcade/NES
Publisher: Irem Developer: Irem Release Date: 1990
This is all about memories. If I could only pick one shooting game to leave with the world, this would be it.
Dragon Quest II - NES/Famicom
Publisher: Enix America Developer: Square-Enix Release Date: 1993
It's got a great story and great gameplay. It…](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:ebgc2if76vqhdtkcpneo36re/bafkreibbch6aniro2ycyirwr2g4imndbmerxpg6kdefk2o5lyvwhaxmlke@jpeg)
![1UP: Sounds tough. It'll be fun to give that one a shot. Is the other new difficulty setting Easy Mode?
TI: No, that's not quite right. The lowest difficulty will be called Ninja Dog. While it is a mode intended for casual gamers, it is not Easy Mode. Not being able to beat the game on Normal means that you are a failure as a Ninja, but not that you are a failure as a gamer, right? Ninja Dog is for those players.
1UP: How does that affect your ranking at the end of each stage? Can you get a Master Ninja ranking in Ninja Dog mode?
TI: [laughs] That's nonsense. Impossible. How could a dog become a Master Ninja?
1UP: You know, when we reviewed the game, we warned people "This is hard,"1 but everyone on message boards scoffed. But when everyone finally got the game the reaction was "OMG." Did you guys think "Well maybe the average gamer isn't as good as we thought, so let's make it easy on them?"
[click the image to check out a high resolution version of the above screen]
TI: That's right. In other words, there are some people who want to beat the game, even if it means being reduced to the level of a dog; people who are not afraid to shame themselves to accomplish their goals. Sometimes in life, that type of style is necessary. Anyone who can think like that can still be a real man. The Ninja Dog difficulty setting is for men like that. So don't give up too easily!](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:ebgc2if76vqhdtkcpneo36re/bafkreidzdgjkhadsxxezufs5su7opelzoqj72ufkrpdxedrokwiwvxwwam@jpeg)