My Video Game Picks for 2018

2018 marks the year I was able to get back into blogging and it has been quite a journey for me. I got to finally do a series for Halloween that I have been wanting to do since my early-20s, and I was finally able to talk about some of my old favorites I've always wanted to write about such as Jinguji Saburo. While personally this was not the best year for me--I was in and out of a few jobs, and that has nothing on my own medical health’s rollercoaster--writing wise, this was one of my best years that saw the most creative output in me since probably my college days. 

For 2019 I really hope I can keep this creative train going, but enough about my own personal stuff, you guys just came for the list, right? Last year I combined my favorite anime and favorite games into one super list, which really was far too long--so this year I thought it was best to separate them into two different lists. I’ll start with my favorite video games of 2018 and then the next blog post right after this will be for my favorite anime of 2018. As always this is just a personal lists, and has no real merit on anything in the real world. I fail to see how I even qualify as an expert! Although I’m flattered if you thought I was! I’m just a hipster with a blog barley anyone reads, so take what you can from that.

A few rules, I am not omnipresent nor am I omnipotent, so I did not have enough time to play every game this year. I may have missed quite a few gems just because I have yet to play them. This could be from a lack of interest or it could just be for a lack of time, there a quite a few games I bought that I want to talk about such as 428: Shibuya Scramble, or The 25th Ward: The Silver Case, but I simply did not get a chance to play them yet. I want to hopefully make up for that by writing an entire blog post dedicated to a few of those I missed next year. I can say with 100% confidence, 428 is definitely getting its own post soon. There’s also my money being tight this year from jumping around jobs. I would love nothing more than to be playing Super Smash Bros Ultimate right now, but unfortunately I've been way too broke to get it! 

Without further ado, let’s jump into some of my favorite games of 2018, in alphabetical order.

Alliance Alive - Nintendo 3DS

The SaGa franchise has really made a total 180 in recent years, it wasn't too long ago that the series was all but forgotten except by a select few, but now in 2018 we’re seeing not one but two games that are heavily inspired by SaGa (and we’re even getting a new SaGa game to boot!). Octopath Traveler got the majority of the publicity out of these two spiritual successors, but I think I personally enjoyed Alliance Alive just a little bit more. It’s tough out there for a 3DS game in a post-Nintendo Switch world, especially tough for Alliance Alive competing with Octopath, but for the select few who got around to picking up this game they got to experience one hell of a send off to the 3DS era of JRPGs.

Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age - Sony PS4

You better believe I picked this one up as soon as I got out of work the day it was released and played this bad boy all through the night until it was time to go to work the next morning. Dragon Quest XI is just that kind of game. Once you pick it up, it consumes you, it becomes your life. Having a brand new Dragon Quest game after 8 years of almost radio silence from Square Enix (okay, we had a fair amount of spin offs and a couple remakes but I just wanted a NEW main entry so bad) was such a wonderful feeling, like seeing an old friend you never thought you would be able to meet again. Dragon Quest XI is my favorite game I played this year, and I have no regrets saying that. Usually I try to list all my picks for every year in alphabetical order to avoid playing favorites but screw it, this is my favorite. 

Dragon Quest XI is a beautiful game that really pays homage to the entire series and I couldn't think of any better 30th anniversary celebration out there than this. The characters were some of the best in the series, and Horii crafted such an emotionally powerful story. This was a fantastic game from start to finish, and that isn't even going into the post-game content where Dragon Quest XI goes all out on being an anniversary title with some mind blowing moments for long time fans.

Dragon Quest Builders - Nintendo Switch (Sony PS4/PS Vita back in Oct 2016)

Dragon Quest Builders may have already came out once in North America back in 2016, but who cares about that when you can play it on the Nintendo Switch in 2018! So yeah, this may just be a basic re-release of an older game, but I never got to spend time with Builders previously so the Switch release was an entirely new game to me. I never got into Minecraft so Builders is in a lot of ways my introduction to games of that style, and what a game it was. I became obsessed with mining early on in the game and building as many bases all around the world that I could. I got way into this and before I knew it I passed 100 hours in the main campaign. This is such a nice little spin-off I recommend to anyone that may have missed out on it back in 2016.

Jake Hunter Detective Story: Ghost of the Dusk - Nintendo 3DS

Jake Hunter is back after not appearing on American shores for almost 9 years, and oh boy am I ever glad to see him. For the uninitiated, Jake Hunter, or Jinguji Saburo as it is known in Japanese, is one of the longest running Adventure game series that you have probably never heard of. I wrote quite a bit about him just last month actually, so if any of this seems interesting to you, I really recommend giving that a read when you have some spare time. This is one of my favorite Japanese adventure game properties, and I really want to share it with everyone that I can.

What makes Jake Hunter special is how much it adheres to the classic hardboiled detective narrative. This is a down-to-earth series without anything too crazy going on, just a classic 1940’s noir style detective tackling difficult cases in a harsh world. As Jake Hunter says, “No one is ever truly happy after a case.” All detectives can hope to do is figure out something tragic and offer a hand to the victims in picking up the pieces, they aren't magic men. This is a series that works best with a glass of bourbon and some smooth jazz vinyl. I really miss games like these and whenever I play an entry in the Jake Hunter series it reminds me of a lot of old point-n-click Detective PC games that we really don’t see enough of anymore.

Octopath Traveler - Nintendo Switch

So despite what I said about Alliance Alive it doesn't mean I did not enjoy Octopath Traveler, on the contrary, I think both games actually compliment each other. Octopath has a much better ambiance and atmosphere, where as Alliance Alive has much better character interaction and overall story. Had there been a way to get the developers of both games together they probably would have created the most perfect SaGa spiritual successor ever. 

But on to what makes Octopath so great, the effects and the personal journeys. It’s no secret that Octopath is an absolutely stunningly beautiful game. The 2D pixel art and 3D HD backgrounds create a stellar and unique look that carries a lot of the game. I heard people compare it to the N64 prototype of Final Fantasy VII and it really does have that similar kind of design aesthetic to it. It’s just absolutely stunning. But beyond Octopath’s looks is a very unique story approach that just tells eight different personal journeys. There is no evil alien to crush, no shadow organization, no end of the world, these eight tales are all just people’s journeys in this world. It’s far from perfect, and many people were left wishing the characters could interact and their stories would intertwine instead of staying separate, but I really respect an RPG that isn't all about all about saving the world for the ten millionth time.

Phantasy Star I - Sega Ages - Nintendo Switch

So believe it or not, I have never actually beaten the original Phantasy Star. I did get close to doing it in the past, but never seemed to keep my interest in the game to get all the way through. Which is a real shame because this game was groundbreaking for its time. The amount of firsts that PSI in general claimed in just insane, from the first female protagonist to the first use of 3D in JRPGs, it’s a game that has it all. Even the story is a step up from its Famicom brethren Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest. Yet unlike those you rarely see people clamoring to play PSI. 

That’s why I hope with this Sega Ages re-release that this time will finally be the one for me. I really want to beat this game all the way and see the ending credits. The added quality of life features such as a mini-map for the 3D dungeons, an easier difficultly setting, and a new translation certainly help to make this the best version to get into too. I also love the retro CRT filters, personally speaking, as seen above, but those are optional, don't worry.

Pokemon Let’s Go, Pikachu! - Nintendo Switch

Confession: I never played Pokemon Go, despite my best efforts I just could not understand what all the hype was about for that app. Because of this I did not closely follow any news for Let’s Go either past the main reveal, yet somehow I still got the game the day it came out. Maybe it’s my love for the franchise, maybe it’s because of my brother being super into Go and pushing me to get this so we could play together; I don’t really know. But what I do know is that I was having fun playing Let’s Go--a lot of fun actually. It’s weird, but the Go mechanic of throwing pokeballs is actually kind of addicting when it’s not tied to micro-transactions. Catching pokemon hasn't been this fun for me in probably a decade, and I know I just lost the respect of some people for saying that but I dunno, I was having a blast chucking these balls! I haven’t tried to complete a pokedex in ages, but that rush to catch ‘em all came back to me in Let’s Go.

Radiant Historia: Perfect Chronology - Nintendo 3DS

Hey look, yet another 3DS game! Yeah, if you are like me then you weren't quite ready to throw away your old friend in 2018 either despite already owning a Nintendo Switch for almost a year. I never got a chance to really play the original Radiant Historia on the Nintendo DS, so this enhanced port helped me finally experience what a lot of people considered one of the best JRPGs of the DS. I definitely don’t think I would go that far after finally playing Radiant Histroia, I mean the DS was packed with some real masterpieces, I would still put Strange Journey or Solatorobo much higher personally speaking, but damn if Radiant Histroia isn't one great game either way. 

I really enjoyed all the characters, and the newly introduced voice acting that wasn't in the DS version went the extra mile to make the cast come alive. The combat system was great, the time travel mechanic was thoroughly thought out, and the story had me invested--not much else I could ask for really. I have to say though, the original DS endings actually seems kind of crappy though, so I am definitely glad I played this version that got a new (and much better) ending. Although this is all just my own personal opinions.

Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey Redux - Nintendo 3DS

Well, well, well, speak of the devil. Yeah, I’m not sure if this was a coincidence or if Atlus planned this, but 2018 marks the year of Nintendo DS remasters by Atlus. Strange Journey on the Nintendo DS was one of the earliest SMT game I ever played, and to this day is still one of my personal favorites, so having an enhanced port of it on the Nintendo DS with more content and a new ending is such a dream come true for me. I was and still am bummed that Atlus did not dub the game for the English release, especially since the voice acting is a key feature for this release and because of the lack of dub I opted to turn it off thus missing out on said key feature, but well, what are you gonna do? Budgets and all. 

This is a great game I really highly recommend to anyone that has missed it originally on the DS, especially if you played the Shin Megami Tensei IV duology, as you really Didi get the full picture yet without Strange Journey.

Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana - Nintendo Switch (Sony PS4/PS Vita back in Sept 2017)

I know what you’re thinking, yup another game that technically already came out earlier but just came out for the Switch in 2018. Maybe I am cheating this year by including games like these but well, I’ll let you be the judge of that. What matters here though is that I loved playing this game in 2018 and I just want a chance to shout about it!

Ys VIII initially threw me off, as one of my favorite things in the Ys series has always been all the cool landscapes and ruins Adol can explore, and learning everything about the native culture and people there, so having a game set entirely on a deserted island felt like a misstep, but boy was I wrong. The Island of Seiren turned out to be one of my favorite locations in the Ys series that truly feels alive, like it’s almost a real place. You get such a sense of everything exploring the island in this game, that it sticks with you. Not to mention the village building mechanic ended up being a ton of fun. Finding all the NPCs and getting to know them really gave Ys VIII a unique charm compared to other entries in the series and suffice to say all the characters were excellent. Uncovering the dark secret of the island and its now lost people had me engrossed pretty much the entire way through. There’s a lot more going on here than what you initially are lead to believe. 

By the end of the game I was sad to finally leave the Island of Seiren, but Adol Christian can never stay in one place for too long!

BONUS ENTRY: -Game of Yesteryear-

Last year I added a bonus section to my picks for game of the year that was on my biggest gaming disappointment of 2017--so for this year I think I should do the opposite and add a bonus section on something more positive. 

I figured since I am already here and since I already wrote about so many games from previous years with my excuse being that the game in question was a port, remaster, came out in the US in 2018, or downright just the same game but came out on Switch in 2018 now, I am already pretty deep into pre-2018 anyways. So here’s one more bonus game, one that no matter how much I tried to BS it into the list I had to admit it had nothing whatsoever to do with 2018. A game that may not be 2018 material but a game that you should play nonetheless, I know I did, and it was one of the best gaming experiences I had in 2018, falling only a little short of my favorite Dragon Quest XI, that is. 

So, once again, without further ado, here’s the last game I played during 2018 that I wish to share with you all tonight.

Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony - Sony PS4/PS Vita - 2017

The Danganronpa series was always a complicated one for me. I really wanted to like the series a lot more than I did, but I could never seem to like it as much as everyone else. And that’s the key word here, because I certainly liked it, but I just didn’t like it as passionately as most others seem to. I found a lot of faults with the writing and character, and honestly some of this stuff is just a bit too much for me personally. The game play though was always so darn good, and while I may not had enjoyed every chapter in past games, the overarching story in said games were always able to keep my interest for the most part, some too chuuni moments for me aside, and I was able to power through those chapters. It’s because of that, and many more reasons, that I missed out on Danganronpa V3 last year when it came out new, something I finally got around to correcting in 2018.

What makes Danganronpa V3 so special to me has to be that the game is incredibly self-aware of most of its issues. V3 is the third mainline entry in the series, and counting spin-offs like Ultimate Despair Girls, and the Danganronpa 3: End of Hope Peak Academy anime series, the franchise has pretty much done everything it could by this point. A bunch of students being trapped in a school forced to kill each other in some twisted game pretty much went from a super interesting premise, to a super old one, and the staff behind V3 were well aware of this. No matter how good a franchise may be it will inevitably suffer from franchise fatigue, and by this point Danganronpa was pretty much a limping, wounded deer. 

So instead of reinventing the wheel and risking upsetting long time fans, the staff behind V3 pretty much did the next best thing and intentionally jumped the shark. They went places they never went before, they did things that were so weird, and so out there, that it brought back a lot of the magic of the franchise’s early days. By the end of the game the level of self-awareness was pretty much off the charts that the game practically trolled you--even going as far as insulting you for why you still like these games in the first place. And I loved every minute of it. It’s hard to talk about the final hours of the game without ruining some of the best surprises, so I’ll try not to say anything too revealing, but at one point, the game even reached maximum meta, and the only way to win was to put the controller down and stop playing it. It’s really great stuff. 

Happy New Year's everyone and I hope you all enjoyed this silly list of mine!

Nintendo’s Virtual Console: The End of an Era

The Nintendo Wii is more than a decade old now; it’s been a long time since 2006, yet it feels like it all has gone by with a blink of an eye. Sometimes I wonder if today’s gamers still remember what the Wii launch meant. It’s easy nowadays in 2018 to look back at the dark days of the console when Nintendo just left it to wither away with their focus elsewhere, fans had to beg for certain games to even be released for it, and the shovelware. Oh the shovelware! If there was ever any cheap-shot to take in gaming, it would be to mention the sheer amount of shovelware that came with the Wii and dismiss the console as nothing but. However when the Wii first came out everything about it seemed to define what Nintendo would be for a time. The Miis, the new game-play mechanics (or gimmicks depending how jaded you are), great background music for apps/online shops (with awesome fan remixes), and the Virtual Console. All of these things were kept at the forefront of Nintendo’s future consoles since then with the Nintendo 3DS and eventually the failed follow-up: the Nintendo Wii U.

This changed though when Nintendo launched their new Switch console on March 3 last year and ever since then all the old Wii era branding has slowly faded away. Sure Miis are still here, and you can even transfer your old Miis over to the Switch (I know I did), but gone is the day where setting up a Mii is one of the first steps you take when turning on your brand new console straight out of the box. Mii Maker? Not here. For a time if you wanted to make yourself a Mii you would need a smart-phone, but even that has gone on to pass since Miitomo is dead now too. At least Nintendo just recently created an online website for Mii creation but the writing is definitely on the wall for these little guys.

That’s not all either, like what about the background music? There’s none. The Nintendo Switch is as silent and cold as library in the middle of a snowstorm. Where is the fun and exciting music? Where are the themes that were introduced with the Nintendo 3DS? Why are the games silent when you click on them? No longer is there an exciting voice yelling out the title of the game, or a nice little 3 second jingle playing when you select something on the OS. No, instead when I turn on the console I’m just left with cold silence, as I stare into the abyss that is the barren Switch OS until a game finally loads.

The eShop isn’t much better. The Nintendo Wii, Nintendo DSi, Nintendo 3DS, and Nintendo Wii U all had fantastic music playing while accessing their digital shops. It felt like an experience—like you just entered a Nintendo super store. Now it’s just another boring app store. Cold, hard to navigate, older stuff easily becomes lost, and so, so, so quiet! Then there is the Virtual Console. Forget not evening getting to swing the bat, the VC never even got a chance to show up to the ballpark. A whole year passed for the Nintendo Switch with nothing and finally as of May 8 we learned why: Nintendo is no longer supporting the Virtual Console. Another old staple of the Wii era dead.

Does it sound like I’m harshing on the Nintendo Switch too much? If so, I really am sorry. I love the Switch, and my excitement for its release was palpable; I even got mine the day it came out at the midnight launch (my first and probably my only considering how awful that experience was but that’s a story for another time). Between the Nintendo Switch and my 3DS I barley played anything else last year. I put nearly 150 hours into XenoBlade Chronicles 2 alone (and I’m scared at how hight the number would be if I added Mario Odyssey and Breath of the Wild to that too. Needless to say: probably too much). But just because I love it doesn’t mean I can’t start to feel a bit disappointed at some of the console’s shortcomings. And yes, I’m sure there’s better, more reasonable shortcomings to address: like the limited hard-drive space, the short battery life, and game cartridges being so expensive leading to some shady developers only putting half a game on a cartridge and forcing large downloads on their consumers instead of just paying for bigger cartridges, but well, people are talking about that to death already. You know? And maybe it’s just my nostalgia for the simpler and easier time of time of 2006, but seeing all the old Wii stuff finally die has been a real experience for me. I wanted to talk about this.

The death of the Nintendo Wii Shop struck me hard back in March 26 of this year. It’s still around until January 2019, but only as an abandoned ghost-town. You can’t add any more points to buy anything so this is essentially just a grace period for people to redownload old stuff. Before the Wii Shop went the way of K-Marts all across the nation, though, I made sure to buy up all the great Virtual Console games I could as well as a few WiiWare titles to boot. I honestly probably spent an upwards of couple hundred dollars on this like a complete and total idiot. Was it sane to burn away a whole paycheck like that? No, no it was not. But that was just how much nostalgia I had for the console and its digital storefront. I needed the last few VC titles I really wanted and that have yet to resurface on any other digital platform, and all those WiiWare titles that aren’t anywhere but the Wii shop: I had to have them too!

You see, the Wii shop was my first ever experience for digital game purchases, and at the time was mind blowing to me. I couldn’t believe all the great stuff I could get on my Wii through the internet. Back in 2006 the Virtual Console was actually a major selling point of the entire Wii system for me. And the great hits kept coming, and coming, and coming. The support for the Wii’s VC was simply phenomenal, and I experienced some consoles for the first time through it, like the wonderful and often over looked TurboGrafx-16.You see, the Wii shop was my first ever experience for digital game purchases, and at the time was mind blowing to me. I couldn’t believe all the great stuff I could get on my Wii through the internet. Back in 2006 the Virtual Console was actually a major selling point of the entire Wii system for me. And the great hits kept coming, and coming, and coming. The support for the Wii’s VC was simply phenomenal, and I experienced some consoles for the first time through it, like the wonderful and often over looked TurboGrafx-16.

The support sadly is something that got worse and worse through the ages, however. The Nintendo 3DS VC was an exciting prospect for me since I always wanted GB and GBC games to come to the Wii VC (The GCN’s GameBoy Player spoiled me back then), so finally getting Nintendo to dig into their old backlog as well as Sega’s GameGear backlog, not to mention the 3D Classics, had me over the moon. There was a laundry list of classic GB and GBC games I just had to have on my 3DS, and things sounded great near the launch of the console’s eShop. Then sadly it took awhile for the 3DS VC to really get going, and games trickled out a lot slower than back on the Wii. We got some huge games early enough like Link’s Awakening, but some other games that should have been an easy given took years. We had to wait until 2016 to get Pokémon Red, Blue/Green, and Yellow for Arceus’ sake! And Pokémon Crystal (the one retro Pokémon I wanted to revisit the most) didn’t trickle out until 2018! The Nintendo Switch was already a year old by then. If you count all the way back to the Wii when I wanted GB support, I waited 12 years for Crystal, what the heck?!

The Nintendo Wii U’s Virtual Console was another exciting prospect at first that really just fizzled out, probably even worse than the 3DS’. I still have fond memories of coming home from some University summer courses to the Nintendo Direct that revealed Earthbound will finally get a rerelease for the first time in 18 years! Only on the Wii U Virtual Console! “Immediate purchase” I said to myself that day, and sure enough I was there day-1. And a few years later Earthbound Beginnings (aka Mother 1) came out as well for the first time … well ever. What a nice surprise, getting a previously canceled game from 1990 is what stuff like the VC is all about. And then of course Mother 3 finally — ha ha ha … if only. The two Earthbound releases were more the exception and not the norm, sadly, and things soon got pretty stagnant on the Wii U in general, even outside of the eShop and Virtual Console.

Nintendo seemed desperate for a while to give the Wii U something though and the GBA games were a nice surprise even though I have to admit it felt off getting these on a home console instead of the 3DS. Thankfully the wizs at M2 at least had some great emulations for their GBA releases so they didn’t look gross on a modern big screen TVs. Not all of the GBA games would be so lucky on the Wii U VC, though, so it can be kind of awkward every now and again when you stumble on a GBA game that just looks pretty bad on the Wii U. The Nintendo DS came later and was an even weirder add for the Wii U’s VC and honestly I’m not even sure why Nintendo did that. I’m a bit of two minds on it still. On one hand this will probably be the only system to properly emulate these games given the Wii U’s unique two screen set up, but on the other hand, should we really try to stretch out Nintendo DS games on modern big screen TVs? Even GBA games were worrying enough. Sure I wanted the Wii to play GB and GBC games back in the day, but TVs weren’t nearly as big. Nowadays the 25 inch TV I played my Wii on would be considered a child’s play thing. Well, regardless they were here, and Nintedno did manage to release quite a few DS games on the Wii U, even getting both Zelda Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks out there.

But besides some weird portable console pick-ups the Wii U’s VC was super slow and barley had much of anything release for it. Third party support wasn’t absent and there were companies like Natsume who really kept at it for a while but it was once again no where near the level of support the Wii had. I still manged to make the most of it and I’m glad rarer N64 games finally got a rerelease like Harvest Moon 64 and Ogre Battle 64 (Swearing Simulator 64), but overall, I felt I barley got a chance to use the poor thing. What better way to sum up the Wii U though? I barley got a chance to do anything on it.

When it comes to both the Nintendo 3DS and Nintendo Wii U, they were such a far cry from the Wii’s glory days when you could just cycle through the plethora of retro games for hours trying to decide what to play next. Seeing how much the Virtual Console degraded over the past 12 years is honestly kind of heart breaking, I had so much admiration and really bought into the hype when it was first launched only for it to end up like this more than a decade later. It makes sense why Nintendo decided to finally move on. It’s always sad to lose some sort of branding you really enjoyed, after all you made it a part of your life and have such found memories of it. I would surf the Wii Shop on Friday nights for hours as a teen trying to find what cool looking retro game to try out next. Between that, and Twilight Princess, my high school weekends were all set. So seeing how the VC died with such a quiet and weak whimper instead of a bang, really hits me right in my nostalgia. A part of my youth felt like it would be gone forever when the Wii Shop closure was announced. I knew it wouldn’t last forever but all the same, it was hard to finally admit it will be gone.

But then something really special happened. When it came closer and closer to Nintendo shutting down the Wii Shop I saw so many people share their memories about it. I wasn’t alone in my love! Lots of great stories from Nintendo fans got passed around and of course recommendations on what to get before it was all gone. This really put a smile on my face, 12 years later and we were all talking about the old Wii Shop just like I was a teenager again. So many passionate videos and articles resurfaced with people reminiscing about the glory days of the VC and all the fun and interesting experimental titles that used to be part of digital game stores. If Nintendo themselves would stay silent then it was up to us to be the ones to raise our voices and say the final eulogy. So yeah, maybe Nintendo will never say anything about this 12 year old branding or a digital storefront on a dead system that is two game generations old now, but us fans will keep talking about it, because whether or not anyone realized it at the time, Nintendo created an unique shopping experience we’ll never forget.

While the Wii and many of its fun branding and concepts are gone now, they will never truly be forgotten and live on in a generation of Nintendo fans. Nintendo won’t ever truly ax off the Virtual Console either. The branding is dead now, but rereleasing older game ROMs is too lucrative a business to ignore. Someday soon I’m sure we’ll see Nintendo take another swing at giving us these older games. The Switch’s eShop is already full of classic games from SNK who took it upon themselves to release their backlog, VC or not. Then we have the NES and SNES Classics, which are just such fun little toys that I really can’t get enough of. Even when I’m not playing them I just like looking at these adorable reproductions of childhood consoles. So I guess all that’s left now is to ask what are some of your favorite WiiWare and Wii Virtual Consoles releases? Are you excited for an N64 Classic? I know I am. Even though I’ll never forget the fun times I had with the Virtual Console, I think we should all just keep enjoying the classic games we love, no matter what they are called.

Remembering Satoru Iwata

The link to the artist's work is here. Please credit them for this.

On July 11, 2015, Satoru Iwata, president and CEO of Nintendo, untimely passed away at the tender young age of 55. Iwata, was a man that I always respected, and still days later it's really hard for me to believe that he's actually gone. I said a lot of words to my gaming friends both offline and online in some comment sections as well as on Twitter, but I didn't really know how to express myself about his untimely passing in the long run. This whole time, since July 12 when the news first broke out,  I contemplated if I should write about him on my blog. It wouldn't be easy, and it would be kind of different from what I usually blog about, and more importantly, I wasn't even sure if it would be in good taste or not, either. Ultimately here I am writing a little bit about him, though, and well, that's because this is all I know. I can't draw awesome art tributes like the ones I've seen for him, or start some big online campaign to keep his mii in circulation like some people have. However I know how to write, and have a blog I keep up regularly, so I can do this.

In a lot of ways I'm being selfish and this is just as much for me, if not more, than it is for him, but I hope you all excuse me for this. I put off writing about Iwata for the last few days because there was no doubt in my mind that in the sea of endless tributes (that this man rightfully deserves), mine will go mostly unnoticed and be meaningless. But that was wrong of me. Everyone should say their goodbyes--stupid little things like whether or not anyone cares or sees it don't matter. So I wanted to take time and talk about Iwata, a man that I never even met in person, but somehow find myself respecting more than most people. Next week we will be returning to the piece I originally wrote for this Monday (Lucky July 13th) but put off because of this unfortunate event.

Iwata always loved video games, and he wanted to share that love with everyone. From a young age, he took to programing, and he stayed in the gaming business for the entirety of his professional life quite literally until the day he passed. His earliest work saw him programming games like Balloon Fight, and eventually being able to move up to being a producer, with his first producer credit being Rollerball from HAL Laboratories in 1990. Iwata stuck with HAL through the subsequent years programming and producing a lot of games, even including the original Kirby games with director Masahiro Sakurai (now most well known as the director for Super Smash Brothers). Eventually Iwata's hard work at HAL payed off and he was promoted to President within the company in 1993.

Even though Iwata eventually moved away from HAL as he became a bigger and bigger player at Nintendo as a whole, you could always sense the love and camaraderie that Sakurai had with him, so upon Iwata's passing it was nice to see Sakurai say such warm things about his previous boss and work associate. "He always understood the proper balance of things, between the right amount of effort, and making sure to listen. Even though he is no longer my boss, I think of him as the best leader I ever knew." (very roughly translated)

One of my favorite tribute pieces for Iwata.
Original source for the work can be found here. 

Throughout the years Iwata accomplished a lot for Nintendo, doing great work that often went unknown to most of us (until he became the icon he was today) but was noticed by his fellow Nintendo employees. He brushed shoulders with many of the people who really made the company what it is today, Sakurai was definitely one, but he also helped produce and program EarthBound/Mother 2 alongside Itoi, even fixing the bad programming that almost lead to the game being canceled. Just like Sakurai, Itoi had only great things to say about Iwata upon hearing about his passing. "You always put yourself last, after you'd finished helping everyone else. You were so generous as a friend that this trip* might be your very first selfish act."

*Itoi referred to Iwata's passing as a trip, and that they will one day see each other again. For a full look at the statement's translation please check this link. This is not my translation. All credit belongs to yomuka.

Stories like these are so common for Iwata, no matter what Nintendo brand he touched. For Pokémon fans, Iwata created the way to compress Pokémon Gold and Silver's data in order for Game Freak to be able to add Kanto to the game carts. Iwata also managed to port the battle code and logistics from Red and Blue/Green to Pokémon Stadium in only a week--surprising the main programmer on the project, and really getting the project off the ground and started. For Kirby fans, he not only produced and oversaw many of the games, but also had a hand in the creation of the series. While Sakurai created the pink fluff-ball we all love, it was Iwata who created the original concept for the series. Kirby started out as Iwata's desire for a game that anyone could play all the way through from start to finish, no matter if you were skilled or a beginner; when Sakurai responded to this concept of Iwata's, he created Kirby. Even for Dragon Quest fans, Iwata was there. He reprogrammed the entire first game in order to overhaul it for its North American release as Dragon Warrior. Giving the game a proper battery save function that the Japanese version lacked (the original Japanese version resorted to a password system), and a great visual overhaul to boot.

Iwata helped to make sure many of the games that would become our childhood were created, but he also did a lot more. Of course, there's the obvious, when we talk about his recent work, such as taking the huge risk on the Nintendo Wii and Nintendo DS, and giving us two of the greatest consoles around. As hard as it is to believe nowadays, these were quite the risky strategy and direction to go into, but Iwata steered ahead. It's what he did best, and because of that, most of what we know about Nintendo of today can be attributed to him. So much of its current image, and even motto--Games should be one thing: fun. Fun for everyone--came from him. Iwata took an old, conservative company and opened it up to the world. He created the Iwata Ask column that gave us such great insight into the workings and mind of the company, and he created the Nintendo Directs, where he delivered us all the information we could want about their games, directly to us.

Under Iwata, the once secretive Treehouse Branch of Nintendo opened up a little bit, and we now have the great Treehouse Live segments at E3. Speaking of which, under Iwata, we had some of the most fun E3 presentations ever. Jim Henson puppets, Robot Chicken stop motion dolls, and one incredible bad-ass Dragon Ball Z-esque fight between him and Nintendo of America President Reggie. The company has become something more under his leadership; it's a place of fun, even while watching their advertisements, you just can't not have a smile on your face.

How can you not love this man's sense of humor?

That's what I think I will miss the most about him. Iwata's leadership of Nintendo wasn't without its faults and mistakes, after all I don't mean to make it out to be some perfect empire that could do no wrong, but his tenure at Nintendo was something that was more important than success. It was kind. The countless stories about Iwata that have been coming out now that he is no longer with us will no doubt put tears in anyone's eyes. He was a man who took two pay-cuts as President and CEO in order to make sure none of his employees would have to be fired when the company's finances were rocky. He was a man who would enjoy smalltalk and smile at journalist, even when they were off-camera. Iwata loved gaming, and he wanted it to keep evolving as a medium. He wanted it to bring families and friends together, he wanted it to make people smile, and he wanted it to be fun. Iwata embraced his fans with a unique sense of humor all his own, and ran Nintendo the same way he viewed gaming: everyone should be having fun. In today's crazy world, I can't think of anyone more I could respect for that kind of sentimentality. The gaming world has no doubt lost one of its most gentle giants.

Thank you, Satoru Iwata. These past years were bumpy, and rough, and confusing, not to mention even a little scary, but ultimately, they were fun.

Thank you, sir.