G-pinions

We've all been in a situation where you come home from work, completely exhausted after suffering through hours of tedium, and want nothing more than to sit on your butt for the rest of the night. That's the big plan that got you through the day in the first place. And then your friend calls, begging you to come out. You don't want to move, you want to sit on your butt and watch baseball. "Who's going to be there?" you politely ask. They rattle off a few nondescript people before mentioning That Person. The one that makes you think, "I'm going to miss something awesome if I don't go." This happens in every walk of life. There are quarterbacks in the NFL who can make a football fan cancel any plans they had foolishly made. There are directors who have never made a bad film. That make you get out of the house, plop down $10, and just bask for two hours.

Rare is obviously the video game developer most likely to make me blindly shell out $50 for their game. But there are others. David Jaffe and Shigeru Miyamoto have such an outstanding track record that I cannot ignore anything they are involved in. Even though I wasn't a huge fan of Ico, Shadow the Colossus was so incredible I need to play everything from that developer. They demand attention. Of course Bungie falls into this category, but I should say that quietly since I had never heard of them before Halo came out. There are certain companies who either have mastered the basic tools of development so well, or have such creative ideas, that it would be a travesty not to play everything they put on the market. For the last two years I would have included Clover Studios in that mix. Sadly, they died before they ever got a chance.

I wrote about Viewtiful Joe a couple years ago. It is one of the best action titles I have ever played. A creative art style and goofy characters certainly help, but the gameplay is what separated it from every other 2D brawler. Think about how old this genre is. From Double Dragon and Bad Dudes to all those Ninja Turtle games, this is a genre that helped build the industry into what it is today. Viewtiful Joe is the fruition of all that hard work. It had perfect combat that never overburdened the player but promised huge rewards if you were patient enough to master it. I talked about God Games yesterday and how good it feels to finally be in control. VJ falls into that category because of its flawless controls. Every move could be strung together in perfect unison. When things were clicking in VJ, when your combo meter would soar and you could do no wrong, it felt like a symphony. With the rising crescendo of your Red Hot Kick to the mellow bridge of your Voomerang, Viewtiful Joe is an experience like no other in gaming.

I took a break from Clover after VJ came out. They ended up making four more games in the franchise, but I never had the heart to play them. Viewtiful Joe is a perfect video game. There is no way to make the game better. So I turned my focus to other games while I kept one eye on Clover. I was ready to pounce when they stopped with the VJ.

Finally, two years after VJ hit they released Okami. I am 25 hours into this game right now. I am in awe at how well it is made. Unlike VJ, the gameplay is not flawless. It serves as just one tool in the whole experience. VJ proved they can make a great action game, but Okami proves they know how to make the other parts work. The mood of the world is perfect. All the non-playable characters you run into have their own unique personality. In a game that shows what a creative developer can come up with given a clean palate, Okami continues to surprise with every new area. While VJ mastered a long running genre perfect for hardcore gamers, Okami created a world that anyone would be able to enter.

But Clover is no more. The same day their most recent game hit the American market (God Hand), Capcom announced that they were getting rid of one of the most promising developers out there. The lead directors have moved on, the programmers and artists are being incorporated into other Capcom teams. I really don't know what to say. None of their games were huge hits. Okami sold less than 200K copies in Japan. It was in development for four years. I'm sure Capcom looked at their bankbooks and decided they had no choice. But as someone who doesn't care about sales I am angry. Clover is a company that can become popular. Any time a developer is willing to make high quality, unique titles there has to be a market for them somewhere. Eventually, more people will be playing games and craving something different. People will get tired of mindless killing. When that day comes someone else will have to step up, though. I'm crossing my fingers that the creative heads of Clover will form their own company someday. Capcom got rid of Grasshopper last year after Killer 7 bombed. But Grasshopper found a new publisher and is still making games. I can only hope Clover has a similar fate.