With half of the No High Scores community on the Ascension bandwagon we spend the bulk of Jumping the Shark #106 talking about board games, the iPad, and boardgames on the iPad. Danielle goes diving for downloadable content on the 3DS. And we share some thoughts on the new $1000 Razer gaming tablet PC (“Fiona”) that they showed off at CES last week. Has anyone else found themselves wondering if the game controller/handles on the side come off? Yikes.
As a sidenote, tomorrow I’m off to Sweden to see Paradox Interactive’s 2012 lineup. I’ll be gone all week so episode #107 is entirely in Brandon’s capable and caring hands. Then I’m off for a day job trip to Boston the week after, but I should be back in time to record #108. I also hope to still get a post or two up this week, but no promises.
iTunes Link
Past Episodes
(The embedded feed is included after the break.)
As another new iPad owner I’m always happy to hear more non-Angry Birds iPad game talk. The board and deck-building games seem intriguing as I enjoy them though no one else around me does. Heck, she-who-must-be-obeyed grabbed Illuminati last month and can’t find anyone to play with us, and Illuminati is pretty lame with only 2 people. Hopefully you folks won’t get the kind of flak about iPad games not being “real” game I keep seeing everywhere else.
The way the mainstream game media ignores phone/pad games is surprising. I’m trying to get a section for that added to Gshark
Trying.
Yeah, I have one word for the people who think iPad games aren’t real games: Avadon.
Boom goes the dynamite.
People that think that IOS games aren’t “real” video games are idiots who can not be trusted to form sound opinions about gaming or where gaming is heading in the future. Avadon is just one example of “hardcore” games available on IOS. Not to mention the Cave shooters, unique IOS-specific titles like Companions, ultra-hardcore platfomers like League of Evil, reissues of classics like Gunstar Heroes and Another World, half of Square’s backcatalog. suprisingly robust sports titles, and now implementations of tabletop board and card games. Hell, there’s even pretty good FPS games available. It’s not all Angry Birds and Angry Birds clones.
As for those games, say what you will about them but with 5 million+ downloads, it’s clear that it’s a great video game product that has had VERY deep cultural penetration. Fad? Probably. But it- even more than anything the Wii has done- has spearheaded the movement toward making games part of _everyday life_ for a very, very mainstream audience.
IOS is the vanguard for this movement toward the wider cultural uptake of _games in general_ right now, regardless of what washed-up nerds think about how much touchscreen controls suck. The forumistas who trumpet loudly about how it’s not a video game if there’s not a D-pad and physical, mechanical buttons are like the jackasses who proclaim that hip hop isn’t really music while championing Emerson, Lake, and Palmer. Time will bury them.
IOS (and other mobile platforms) are changing and have changed the way games are packaged, sold, marketed, and played. In some ways, for the worse with IAPs, “freemium”, and other hustles as well as the proliferation of “clone” titles and way,way too many birds. But it’s also opened the doors for some unexpected innovation and accessibility.
It’s partly because it’s a new toy, and partly because we’re still in the console release deep freeze until the end of the month but I’ve played my iPad more than either of the consoles in the past month. And I’m not just flinging birds. I’m playing very serious, very rich,a nd sometimes very innovative and compelling _video games_ on it. It’s all in what you choose to download. Like anything else.
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