I decided to hold out on posting this article up until our EoD thoughts post, because Cort deserves the extra time on the front page! Hopefully you’ll enjoy his highly-detailed hands-on time with the game. Man, I was ridiculously pumped for SMG2 months ago, and now I’m bursting at the seams! Read all about the fun below, and I’ll see you in a few, short hours. - RMC How many of you checked out the new trailer and screens this morning? If you haven’t, tsk tsk…DO IT NOW! So yesterday I finally got my paws on Galaxy 2. Was it as magical as E3 2006—pre Wii release—playing the original Galaxy for the first time? Pretty much. Press were shown a build at Nintendo’s media summit last month, but it was limited to some very specific experiences. This time, a more complete build was available, requiring a lot more supervision so as not to stumble into things we as human beings are not ready to comprehend. So what’s new? First, I played five brand new levels not shown at the media summit. To be clear, SMG2 is all new ; not re-hashed levels or any of that business. If the original Galaxy game was a hamburger, this is more like a taco pizza; only a few shared ingredients, and if the discs were smaller, both things I would love to put in my mouth. The least efficient art bin I’ve ever seen. Also, click images to enlarge. A quick run-down of the levels on display: Puzzle Plank - The Puzzling Pictureblock: A mixed level that includes some fun (albeit simple) sliding block puzzles early on, then some pretty damn difficult platforming later on when saw blades are cutting apart the level as you are trying to get through it, avoiding the holes they cut and the blades themselves. Sometimes you’ll want to get ahead of their slicing, other times patience is necessary to progress. I died many, many times before completing the second half of this one. Cosmic Grove - Twin Falls Hideaway: A mostly underwater level; really beautiful, visually. Features some secrets we don’t know about yet. Using a koopa shell underwater again improves speed and swimming ability. Awesome use of the shell design, leg holes become brake lights (press Z) to stop, and the neck hole is a headlight. The light can stun some underwater creatures. A freezing mechanic causes the water’s surface to harden, allowing for some wonderful visual effects on the ice, skating, and still being able to watch everything beneath the surface alive and moving as if nothing happened. Boulder Bowl - Rock and Rollodillo: The Rock Mario power-up, some fun obstacles like bowling as the rolling boulder, and a boss fight against Rollodillo, a new Pokemon if ever I saw one. Honeybloom - Bumble Beginnings: The bee suit returns, but this stage showcases a sort of 2D platforming. Everything is still 3D, but presented from the side, similar to NSMB. However, the stage does rotate and change dimensions as you hit certain corners, a litle bit like Fez . Haunty Halls - A Glimmer Bulb Berry: The Boo Mario power-up returns in Galaxy 2, but wasn’t in this particular level challenge. Instead, we see a glowing fruit that transforms our dino pal into “Light Yoshi”; his glowing, golden body illuminates parts of the level not otherwise visible (or accessible). The Mario-solo nether-platforming in the first half had some dizzying moments and effects that I absolutely loved! So about some of the new power-ups. With a shake of the Wii remote, Rock Mario (or Goron Mario as I and apparently others are also calling him…fun fact: the promo art is labelled “Goroiwa”) has the ability to roll into a ball a la Sonic and speed around for a short while, destroying things in your path. You have a few moments while Mario is winding up to perfect the angle of your launch, but you’re also vulnerable during that time. Since he rolls pretty quickly, your ability to steer the bowling wonder (analogue stick) is limited, but you can jump or jump out of the roll at any time. Goron Mario in his adorable protective helmet. Why protective? To be an active bowling ball, of course! One of Yoshi’s fruit-gobbling powers now includes turning into a golden light bulb that can light dark or invisible paths in a level. The light slowly dims, so if you have a winding invisible path to cross, you’ll have to hurry or hope there are refill berries along the way, because once the berry’s power extinguishes, even if you are on a “solid” path, you will fall through as though it doesn’t exist anymore. We already know the bee and boo suits return, along with the fire flower, invincibility star and Yoshi berries, and while it wasn’t discussed or confirmed, seems likely there are even more secrets yet to reveal between power-ups for either Mario or Yoshi. Hopefully they stick a few more homages to Majora’s Mask in there. As has been noted before, this game is noticeably more difficult than the previous Galaxy, perhaps akin to NSMB on DS to the Wii version. One of the SMG2 levels repeatedly kicked my arse and it was only from “World 2″; coincidentally the same time I noticed NSMB Wii ramping up significantly. I am not a gamer of great skill and will never win any tournaments not involving Tetris, but even with some tricky moments and some well-placed 1up mushrooms, I managed to grab the star in each level…eventually. On a related note are Cosmic Challenges . Similar to the various comet challenges in Galaxy 1, you can unlock these more brutal tests of skill and patience by finding and collecting special oversized coins in a level. One example was described to me thus: the level with the red/blue platforms adds a timer AND 100 purple coins, among other obstacles. At least now I can go into the final version of the game knowing I will never complete everything. Yellow, ahem, LIGHT Yoshi isn’t quite how you remember him from SMW. People have already written to ask me what the Mario Kart-esque blocks are. They’re dice. You can kick, punch, rock roll, etc. to “toss” it, and depending on what lands face-up is your reward. Maybe you’ll get a 1up, coins or star bits, or maybe it’ll land on Bowser and then be faced with a menacing goomba. I found some “hidden” areas with multiple dice at once, and seemed to roll 1ups most of the time, with star bits a close second. Another subtle feature that the Nintendo folk swear was in the original Galaxy but I don’t remember are the progress-marking checkpoint flags . I recognise them from the NSMB games, but they seem new to me here, and very, very welcome considering the difficulty. All new, beautifully orchestrated music returns , although with the significantly higher difficulty I didn’t get to pay much attention to it except on the Cosmic Cove (underwater) level, where I noticed a soothing, almost ambient feel along with some subtle melodic phrases hinting at World 2-2 of the original SMB. The rest of the tunes did sound good and very in line with the fantastic score from the original Galaxy. I just wish the levels gave me a chance to pause for a moment and bask in the audio delight! Last but not least is Starship Mario , the plumber’s head-shaped planetoid. Many people were shocked, some upset, others just confused about the lack of a “hub world” in this sequel, as Rosalina’s ship served in the predecessor. Let me clarify that Starship Mario is NOT a hub world. It is tiny and you can run around on it, and as you progress in the game and unlock new power-ups, the ship’s environment updates with some basic features to give you some practice with them, but a hub it is not; it does not directly link to levels. Instead, a sort of hybrid map exists; somewhere between the overworlds of NSMB and Galaxy’s previous implementation. Instead of walking Mario to each level, the starship itself floats between galaxies on the map, and you can launch from the ship into a galaxy and then its worlds. A subtle detail if you watch the footage closely: as you launch from the ship into a level, it will turn to watch you. This streamlined map system also has some bonuses, maybe similar to a Toad House; I saw a free box of star bits hanging out on one. Smash your ship into it to collect. Starship Mario: not a hub, just your chubby-faced space-faring vessel. That pretty much covers what is new. There are a LOT of things they haven’t revealed yet, as evidenced by the large number of “no comment” answers to things like: multiplayer? Rosalina? super guide? etc. Since this was a newer build than what was shown at the Media Summit, they couldn’t really even show me those levels again because things had changed or would reveal some kind of detail that would likely cause at least one pants-wetting and at least one trip to the emo hospital. They expect to have another Super Mario Galaxy 2 expose in a few weeks where hopefully more will be revealed. I absolutely can’t wait to be pwned by the greater Mushroom Universe again. —cortjezter

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GoNintendo ‘End of Day’ thoughts - Super Mario Galaxy 2: Cort’s hands-on and impressions!

Don’t you get tired of hearing the same PR spin on every game announcement? The press releases are filled with tons of buzz-words…terms that won’t stick with the industry for more than a few months. Then when you try to get a developer interview, they spout the same type of nonsensical rhetoric. Wouldn’t it be refreshing to hear game developers speak to us like we are people, instead of mindless consumers? Article here

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Ditch The Script — The Art Of Developer PR

The upcoming issue of Japanese game magazine Famitsu has an interview with Final Fantasy XIII director and scenario writer Motomu Toriyama. According to Toriyama, the in-development game is currently running at a resolution of 720p with a frame rate of 30fps. Square Enix is doing its best to make sure as many people as possible can enjoy the game — thus, developers are being very careful that all onscreen words and letters can be read on analog TVs. This hopefully avoids tiny text issues that arose when Capcom’s Dead Rising and Rare’s Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts were played on standard televisions. Considerate considering how not everyone who will play FFXIII will do so on a HD TV, and smart because this means Square Enix won’t have to rush out a patch after people freak about tiny text. Another piece of good news: cut scenes can be paused or skipped. Square Enix sounds like it’s hitting the home stretch with the game. “We’ve almost finished all the parts of the game,” says Toriyama. “From now on, it’s a matter of putting them together.” Square will give the battle system a revision before final release, but the actual battle design work is nearly finished. About the demo, Famitsu reports that it clocks in at one hour and twenty from the onset of gameplay. Toriyama says the demo is “about an hour” of gameplay. What’s more, according to Famitsu , “there’s almost no load time” and “the background music is so so cool.”

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Cheap Bastards Can Play Final Fantasy XIII Too

There was a Pro Evolution Soccer in 2008. 2007, too. And 2006. And so on, and so on. So it will be again in 2009, with the release of Konami’s Pro Evolution Soccer 2010 . Last year’s edition was a crushing disappointment. For the first time in recent memory, the series yielded its crown as the best football game on the market to EA’s FIFA, primarily because Konami seems intent on releasing the same game over and over and over, with tweaks, rather than really adding anything new . So what’s in store this year? Judging from this first press release for the 2009 edition of the game, sadly, it doesn’t sound like much. Because while there’s lots of talk about a little nip here and a little tuck there (with lots of vague marketing speak in between) there’s no mention of real improvements or additions to the game’s two fundamental flaws: an ageing game engine and a lack of licensed real-world teams. Instead of a new engine, Konami are boasting of “live player expressions to be depicted with an improved lighting system”, along with “grass and other in-stadium elements [that are] finely depicted”. That sounds a lot less like a new engine and a lot more like incremental improvements to an engine that’s showing more of its last-gen roots with each passing year. And instead of promises of an increase in the number of officially licensed teams, particularly in the Premier League, Konami can only proclaim that, along with the Champions League license from last year, they’ve added the new Euro League. As in, the UEFA Cup. As in, something nobody cares about. In fact, the only thing I can really see that’s a significant improvement is the promise to get an entire team working on online multiplayer. Then again, fixing something that was broken in last year’s version isn’t really an improvement . Now, don’t get me wrong. There’s plenty of time for these things, and more, to be announced in the coming months. But if there was an all-new engine, as we saw with FIFA a few years back, wouldn’t it have been announced in big letters in the game’s first press release? And if there had been big improvements made in the number of licensed teams, wouldn’t that also be something to crow about? Let’s hope Konami are keeping a few things under their hat, and that Pro Evo 2010 doesn’t follow the precedent set by the last couple of current-gen versions and try and pass off a tarted-up PS2 game as a modern football title. For those interested, here’s the full list of promises made in that press release. • Gameplay: PES 2010 focuses on enhancing the excitement of matches between players, making for a truly challenging experience that will constantly test the player. Intuitive zonal defending will cover spaces and players need to look constantly for new ways to attack. PES 2010 focuses on being a real football simulation, as it requires both strategic play and quick reactions, as in real life. In addition to key out-field elements, goalkeepers are more versatile and with abilities matching those of modern shot-stoppers. The game’s referees have also been reworked, with smarter AI elements allowing them to make more balanced calls during matches. • Improved Visuals: PES 2010 has undergone a major visual revamp, with its celebrated player likenesses and animations now even closer to those of real-life players – including live player expressions to be depicted with an improved lighting system which differentiates between various conditions! Stadium detail is also massively improved, with the grass and other in-stadium elements finely depicted. • All-new animation and moves: Animations now dovetail into each other seamlessly, with dribbling and shots on goals worked into dribbling animations. More individual skills are also on show, including new flicks and tricks that have a definite showing on the way a game flows. Several elements have been completely reworked, with the dribbling, turning and kicking animations greatly enhanced, while there is a noticeable change in pace when a player passes a ball from a standing position than from within a run. • Match-Day Atmosphere: Crowd reactions to the on-field action are now more varied, with all new chants and cheers. The subtle difference between Home and Away matches will be reproduced, and the crowd will react spontaneously to specific situations in a game, showing their disdain or pleasure as fouls are committed and goals scored. Likewise, the commentary has been altered to offer a fresher, more concise overview of the game. • Enhanced Master League: Master League has been thoroughly renewed with the enhancement of managerial aspects, which enables users to enjoy managing a team for a longer career lifespan. Seen by many as a key contributor to the series’ success, the Master League elements in PES 2010 have been bolstered by far-ranging and vital new additions, dedicated to enriching the mode. Further details will be announced shortly. • AI: The Tokyo team has worked to improve the AI of the game, with Teamvision 2.0 implemented. Midfielders and defenders now work together to cover open space and close down attacks, meaning that cover can be provided for lower-ranked defenders. This also has the additional effect of removing soft goals, thus returning PES 2010 to its simulation roots. In terms of attacking, players can also now move several players once, sending them into different areas, opening up more goal-scoring possibilities than ever before. As such, PES 2010 necessitates a new level of control from the player. Strategic thinking is as important as quick passing, but the new system greatly opens the way the player oversees control of the team. In free kick scenarios, for instance, players can now instigate the runs of the players awaiting the ball in the penalty area. • Individual Play Characteristics: In previous PES games, the team formation has determined the movements of the players. PES 2010 introduces a new system wherein the individual attacking and defending nature of the players is integral to the way they play. Each player enjoys unique AI tied into their best abilities, and is reflected in the actions of their team mates – i.e. if a player who is known to be a good crosser of the ball is in possession, more players will flood the penalty area to receive it. Similarly, if a player is known to be good with close control, defenders will work to cover their stronger side, while lone strikers will be automatically supported by midfielders on receipt of the ball. • Strategy Use: A new power gauge system allows users to balance their strategy in a quick, but wide-ranging way before a match. Every element – pass frequency, movement, the line of defence, width of play, or the position of the front line – can be altered to match those of a favoured club: Juventus Turin are a dangerous side on the counter-attack, for instance, while FC Barcelona use width in their attack. These formulations can be altered at any point, too, with Home and Away matches forcing different circumstances on the user, as does the rigours of a Master League season. • Penalties: An all-new system has been implemented, offering greater control, placing and accuracy. • Enhanced Online: A new dedicated section of the Tokyo team is committed to improving the online side of PES 2010. More downloadable content is also planned. Konami has supported PES 2009 with the release of new licensed teams, transfer updates, etc, and this support will grow for PES 2010. Team and content updates are planned throughout the game’s lifespan. These will make the game even more bespoke to the player’s match day needs. Konami has strengthend its relationship with UEFA and can announce it has secured the exclusive video game rights for the Europa League Licence (formerly known as the UEFA Cup). In addition Konami will be enhancing and developing the use of the UEFA Champions League within PES 2010 to make even better use of the best club football competition in the world. Pro Evo will be out later this year on 360, PS3, PC, PS2 & PSP (the Wii version now being a separate title in the series)

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The Pro Evolution Soccer Carousel Spins Around To 2010

Nintendo’s video on demand service, planned to launch in Japan sometime this year, might not just be limited to the Wii. According to Nintendo president Satoru Iwata , it may also come to the Nintendo DS . Iwata tells the Wall Street Journal that the advertising-based video service— currently announced for availability in Japan this year , but reportedly coming to other territories “later”—may go portable. He also hints that the video service, born of a partnership with Japanese ad agency Dentsu, will be different “in a Nintendo-like way.” “If the Wii and the DS are connected, it should be possible to download video through the Wii and take it with you on the DS,” Iwata tells the Journal. The Wii already allows DS owners to download game demos via the internet. “When the service begins, you’ll see how we’re going to do it differently in a Nintendo-like way,” he adds. “There are a lot of on-demand video services, so there’s no reason to do the same thing, so we’re going to do something different. We’ll start the service in Japan, and if it does well, we’d like to take it overseas.” Iwata also tells the Wall Street Journal one of his goals for the Wii is to make the console “something that people will turn on even if they don’t have a purpose in mind.” “We’re not there yet though, and there are a lot of things we have to do to achieve that,” Iwata said. We’ll leave it to you to fill in the rest. Q&A With Nintendo’s President [WSJ]

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Iwata: Wii Video Download Service May Transfer To DS

X-Men Origins: Wolverine is not a movie game. Raven Software senior producer Jeff Poffenbarger wants to be crystal clear on that before we get started. The game was well under development before talk of tying it to the movie kicked off. “We finished up work on Marvel Ultimate Alliance and wanted to get away from group games, we wanted to concentrate on a single player experience,” he said last week during a presentation in a hotel suite. “A Wolverine game was a no-brainer because in a lot of other video games he has been watered down.” So two-and-a-half years ago the developers sat down and started talking about what would make a Wolverine game stand out, what elements needed to be included in the title for it to feel real. “His combat, we wanted Wolverine to have razor sharp claws that actually cut through people,” he said. “We wanted to show his mutant regeneration healing.” So they made sure their Wolverine model had four layers of graphics: clothing, skin, muscle and skeleton. And that weapons would eventually chew through all of them. “We didn’t just want to nail him as a character. Wanted to nail him as a bad ass.” And after spending perhaps too much time with the game, it seems that Raven has succeeded. It succeeds on two levels: Visually, the game is surprisingly raw. When Wolverine attacks his claws slip through flesh, muscle and bone leaving severed limbs, heads and punctured bodies. When attacked, bullets tear off chunks of Wolverine’s clothing, punch holes in his flesh, eventually expose muscle or vertebrae. Slowly those injuries rewind, becoming flesh wounds and then disappearing. His shirt only reappears when he levels up. The settings are thick with detail and the battles often crowd the screen. Controls are also raw, allowing gamers to tear through enemies quickly, like an animal. Wolverine leaps from target to target before enemies can get off shots or, at least in my mind, register in their AI programming the oncoming blur of blades and muscle. Punching a button or two allows for a string of bloody attacks, and a lock-on option gets Wolverine to leap across the screen, smacking into attackers with his claws. While I didn’t get a chance to play through any of the game’s cinematics, Poffenbarger shows me a few. In the interactive cut scenes, Wolverine has to fight his way along an exploding bridge or up the falling body of a Sentinel. I didn’t have enough time to fully preview the title, but what I played of X-Men:Origins: Wolverine gave me quite high expectations. The game is due out on May 1 for the DS, PC, PS2, PS3, PSP, Wii and Xbox 360.

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X-Men Origins: Wolverine Hands-On

According to Pocket Gamer , who cite a developer working on the hardware, an all-new PlayStation Portable will be out and on store shelves before Christmas. This source repeats earlier rumours surrounding the design of the system - such as the fact it features a sliding screen (which reveals game controls) and also boasts touchscreen capabilities - while also mentioning some other stuff, such as the release window and the fact that, once you slide the controls out from under the screen there will be a D-pad, face buttons and two thumbsticks . Yup. Two thumbsticks. Finally . As of writing, Sony have yet to respond to requests for comment. Though you have to wonder, with the rumours increasing in number and gradually zeroing in on a common set of features, whether Sony will have something to reveal at E3 in a couple of months. PSP 2 coming pre-Christmas will be an iPhone beater [Pocket Gamer]

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New PSP Due Before Christmas

The official Assassin’s Creed web site gives us a brief taste of the second entry in the series and clues us in on when we can expect concrete details on Assassin’s Creed 2 —next Thursday. The teaser consists of little more than a short Flash animation, rendered in a hand drawn style noticeably similar to that of Leonardo da Vinci’s inventions—focusing on the concealed blade Altair used in the original—and his Vitruvian Man. The final drawing hints at some sort of winged contraption that may indicate we’ll be doing some flying (or at least some floating/humming of the Batman theme song) in the sequel. The teaser also notes that we’ll see more in the upcoming issue of Game Informer, with the date April 16, 2009 presumably indicating when the games mag is allowed to lift the veil on Ubisoft’s sequel. Given the Italian pedigree of the teaser, we’d think those rumored details of Assassin’s Creed 2 taking place in Venice are sounding more and more likely. We’re sure to know by next Thursday. Keep an eye peeled! Assassin’s Creed 2 Teaser [Official Site - thanks, Andrew!] Assassin’s Creed 2 Teaser [YouTube - thanks, Gavin!]

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Assassin’s Creed 2 Teased, Revealed Next Week

These days, a big weekend in Ottumwa, Iowa, population 26,000 or so, is defined by the line out the door at its Applebee’s. On its chamber of commerce’s list of 101 things to do there, you’ll see attractions like genealogy research, pumpkin picking, and a tour of the John Deere factory. The same as most towns spread out on the frying-pan flat Midwest of the United States, Ottumwa is the kind of place whose charm you’d come to understand not if you bothered to visit, but if you cared to stay. However uncomplicated and guileless it may seem, Ottumwa still is the Video Games Capital of the World. The honor might be 26 years old, self-bestowed, and rooted in the long-gone days of arcade gaming. But no other city has laid claim to the title. And Ottumwa hasn’t abdicated it. And some think this place might be a good location, some day, for a video games hall of fame . The Claim to Fame Chris Hoeksema, 29, lives in Ottumwa and grew up in nearby Pella. He thinks Iowa embodies perfect video game country. “There isn’t much to do in this state,” he says. “There’s only so much cow tipping you can do before you get bored.” When he and his friends did, they headed down to a roller rink to feed quarters into its machines. Hoeksema was only 3 years old when Ottumwa was the epicenter of no less than a pop culture earthquake. The stories of that time were sort of murky half memories, built as much on what others recall as what Hoeksema himself thinks he remembers - video games lining the streets, records being set, the governor coming to town, stuff like that. But talking with others of his generation, the memories matched up. The stories of Ottumwa were true. Ottumwa’s heyday was unique enough to Hoeksema that, at least, it shouldn’t risk going another few years of being barely remembered or almost forgotten. And more than Ottumwans should remember the significance. “We thought, wouldn’t it be great if we could revive the idea that Ottumwa is the Video Games Capital of the World,” Hoeksema said. So he left an email message for a guy whose name he’d heard, someone who had been in Ottumwa around the time: Walter Day . “Walter’s response was just - ‘Call me.’” Hoeksema said. If Ottumwa has any legacy in video games it is owed to the out-and-out miracle of self-promotion wrought by Day, who put an arcade there in 1981 called Twin Galaxies . Video gaming was in its nova stage as a pop culture phenomenon, and in a January 1982 cover story on the craze, Time magazine reported that 15 million was the highest mark ever achieved on Defender, the iconic side-scrolling space shooter from the first arcade boom, literally engineered to provide an average of 90 seconds of gameplay. One of Day’s local players set out to beat that score and did so, racking up 24 million in front of a tremendous crowd and a media throng. Day contacted Williams Electronics, the maker of Defender, to ask if they would certify the score as the highest ever. Williams didn’t keep such records. It didn’t know what the highest score was for this game. Neither did any other game maker for theirs. The only one with anything close to a comprehensive database of scores was Day himself, who had gathered as many as he could from visits to more than 100 arcades he’d made while scouting out a good location to open one. So Day did the only thing he could think to do - he certified the score as the world record, the first one recognized by Twin Galaxies. Then he called the leading game manufacturers and recommended they refer all high score inquiries -they got dozens per day - over to him. Within minutes his arcade got an inquiry, via Midway, about a high score on Galaga. From that first query a quarter century ago to today, Twin Galaxies, of Ottumwa, Iowa, is acknowledged as the sanctioning authority for all scores, times, marks and achievements in video gaming, arcade or console. More than just a few game companies and industry media took notice. Mainstream outlets seeking a sense-of-place location for features on the video games inevitably sent reporters to Ottumwa, thanks to Mayor Jerry Parker’s shrewd proclamation of the town, on Nov. 30, 1982, as the Video Games Capital of the World. “The Dodge City of Video Games” is how a wire service put it, with world class players from all over the country, and others too, having their showdowns in Ottumwa’s “Video Game Olympics.” Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad, joined by top Atari executives, would visit Ottumwa. Ultimately, Life magazine took a picture that became representative of America in the thrall of its first video game love: Sixteen guys, all elite players, lined up in the middle of Main Street behind six arcade cabinets and a cohort of Ottumwa High cheerleaders. “There was not one obstacle at any point back in that time,” says Day, a trim, bearded man known for singing and writing his own songs, wearing a referee shirt, and speaking in soaring “feeling bites,” rather than sound bites. The media and the public had this cultural need to get their arms around video games, and they found it in Twin Galaxies,” Day said. “A bunch of phenomenology that was already in place found Ottumwa to be its lightning rod.” He’s confident that can be channeled again. “I want to get the spiritual attention of Ottumwans, and say, ‘Look what we’ve got here in the palm of our hands.’” Day said. “It may just be merely planting a seed. But if we can get the collective recognition by people here in Ottumwa, the movies and the tradition and the legacy and the Life magazine picture, and say, ‘Shouldn’t we be doing something about this?’ “Ottumwa should be the site for the video game hall of fame.” The Case No one has yet planted the flag for a video games hall of fame in the United States. Perhaps the closest anything might come is a “Walk of Game” begun inside the Metreon in San Francisco, almost purely as a private marketing venture. It only inducted two “classes” and fizzled out in 2006 after being largely ignored. The longest running and most notable museum exhibit on video games is Videotopia, which is a traveling exhibition with no permanent home. Ottumwa’s biggest problem, in being considered a credible home for video game history and achievement, is that the gaming culture it represents is extinct in America. Arcades are long gone - few more so than Twin Galaxies itself, which closed in 1984 partly as a victim of the infamous video game crash. “People haven’t really heard of it,” said Dr. Mark J.P. Wolf of Concordia University in Wisconsin, one of the foremost historians of video gaming, who edited “The Video Game Explosion,” the subject’s first scholarly work. “But then again, Cooperstown, N.Y. is best known for the baseball Hall of Fame, and what was it known for before that?” Actually, Cooperstown had less of a factual connection to its subject than Ottumwa, however obsolete, does to its. The story describing baseball’s invention in Cooperstown has long since been debunked. What’s important is that the idea of a Hall of Fame there was unilaterally acted on by the community’s leaders, after a wealthy resident bought a relic baseball that had been found in a nearby barn. “It’s not like you have an artist’s colony for video games, a place where you have a whole bunch of things developing over time,” Wolf said. “Maybe the closest thing would be something like Silicon Valley, where you have most of the companies. But you’d think they’d have funded something like that by now. It’s interesting that they haven’t.” The answer may have as much to do with self-interest, corporate rivalries, or the instinct to promote only one’s brand, games and/or console. But as Cooperstown proved, just because a pastime doesn’t have singular home doesn’t mean one can’t be found. And Wolf doesn’t think Ottumwa is too farfetched, for a few reasons: • Independence. If a hall of fame were funded principally by one company, “it’s hard to believe someone like Microsoft would be unbiased about the achievements or significance of PlayStation as they would be about Xbox, and vice versa,” Wolf said, “whereas Twin Galaxies is not beholden to any particular company.” • Permanence. Few brands are as prominent today as they were at the beginning of video gaming - Nintendo being about the only one. Companies have been bought, sold, folded and moved. While the Twin Galaxies arcade is closed, its record book is an institutional memory spanning all generations of games, Wolf said. “It would make sense to most of the public to have a hall of fame somehow connected to high scores.” • Location. Yes, it could actually work in Ottumwa’s favor. Sure, it’s about four hours from the nearest major airport (Kansas City) - so is the baseball Hall of Fame. “It’s still a central location in the United States,” Wolf said. It might be out-of-the-way, but it’s equally so for both east and west coast tourists. Jeff Anderson, the owner of Videotopia, the nation’s leading traveling video game exhibition, doesn’t reject the idea of a hall of fame in Ottumwa, but is skeptical considering the realities he’s seen in more than a decade of touring his show. “I guess you could say it’s a crossroads of America,” Anderson said, “but at the same time, it’d be the last place I would expect a museum would really have the kind of draw you’d need.” That’s speaking, of course, from the standpoint of an exhibition hall showcasing any artifacts from video game history it could get. The kind of scale one would imagine of a full service hall of fame would require “a ridiculous electric bill,” for starters. Anderson said he’s heard of several abortive attempts to open video game museums and/or halls of fame, most recently in Orlando, Fla. The efforts broke down pretty quickly, largely because of the overhead - storage, maintenance, staff, utilities - people confront once they crunch the numbers. By his estimation, a full service video game museum would need to bring in at least 1,000 visitors per day, if not upwards of 2,500. Anything in Ottumwa would have to start small, and establish some sort of position. Maybe in hopes that when larger interests inevitably explore this concept, they’d decide to back or buy into the existing one. “Sooner or later there’d be interest in (starting one),” by a big company, Anderson surmised. “But gaming companies now don’t really have a direct line to the past. Technology began at a very different place then rather than now.” If They’d Come, Would You Build It? Earlier this month, Ottumwa’s annual Home Expo sold out the 30,000 square foot exposition floor at its brand new Bridge View Center, a 95,000 square foot events hall at the bend of the Des Moines river. The culmination of more than a decade of work and planning, built with the help of $7 million in state funds, Bridge View is proof that Ottumwans get big things done. Would the community ever put that kind of muscle behind video games? “There probably is something there that we’re not capitalizing on, and probably should,” said Terry McNitt, the executive director of Ottumwa’s chamber of commerce. “We do need something to brand our town. And when I look at this thing, it’s there. Nobody’s ever taken this sort of thing and run with it.” McNitt, like any good chamber leader in a town his size, launches whole squadrons of facts and selling points when you ask what Ottumwa’s got going for it. The population, for starters, has actually grown there recently. It may be difficult in hard times to get members to ante up for the annual holiday lights celebration. But it won’t last forever, and tourism definitely gets the attention of merchants, who healthily back things like bringing a statewide bicycle race back through town, because of the near-doubling of the population the event brings. After a recent meeting with developers looking to stick a steakhouse chain in town, McNitt was told Ottumwa is a “sleeper” community - the fact it can draw 125,000 from a 70 mile radius is significant to those who write checks that start bulldozers and cement mixers. “I think there are probably things that have been covered up that need to be brought back,” McNitt said. “Gaming, it’s so huge, there’s so much history, and it’s only going to continue to develop. I don’t see it dying. If we were able to establish a hall of fame, I imagine it would do nothing but grow.” But there are a lot of dots to be connected before anyone even starts writing a business plan. “It’s definitely going to be a hard sell,” said Hoeksema. The movement, if it can be called that, has as of now a visionary, and a young man very proud of his hometown, and two business development leaders interested in hearing their story, but no definitive leader yet. Whomever that is will have to answer some fundamental questions - who should be honored? Will they even show up? Will such a place have an educational mission? If so, what is it? And every step of the way, who is going to pay for all this? For the moment, Hoeksema and Day aren’t opposed to making a unilateral declaration of Ottumwa as the home of a hall of fame, much like Cooperstown did in 1935, and trying to open something, anything. Such declarative chutzpah was, after all, integral to the city’s short, but bright, history with video games years ago. It may begin as a list of names on a plaque, and a console, and a computer where you can peruse the Twin Galaxies database, in one of the many open shop fronts on Ottumwa’s Main Street. Yet who knows. It might one day become the thing we all want it to be, the repository of an art form’s history and the shrine to those who wrote it, and all the great games going back to the legends of the arcade, lined up in a great hall. Like wax museum gunfighters in Dodge City again. In the video games capital of the world. [Top photo originally published in LIFE Magazine, November 1982]

Here is the original:
A Claim to Fame, in the Dodge City of Video Games