A week or so ago, I decided to jump headfirst into 1986 and tackle every game in the NES library. Luckily some of the older NES games only take a couple hours to clear. Searching for the right start to this thing, I rediscovered some old favorites I was dying to play.
Konami could do absolutely no wrong in the 80/early 90s. Castlevania, Contra, Metal Gear, the Ninja Turtles games; the list could go on for quite a bit. At the top of that list of titles has to be the Gradius series.
I won’t say Gradius was the first side scrolling space shooter, but it’s certainly the first one I remember playing. The main idea isn’t exactly complicated: pilot a ship, power up the ship, shoot space enemies, escape the exploding planet, then do it again. The soundtrack was great, the level design was creative and the learning curve just on the right side of difficult. My only real complaint is the length of the game. There’s only six areas and it probably won’t take long to clear them, but what IS here is polished and tight. Gradius was followed up by…
Life Force (Konami, 1988)
Titled Salamander in Japan, Life Force takes everything about Gradius and improves on it. There’s more varied environments, better boss battles (Gradius has pretty much the same boss for every stage), new power ups and a new gameplay mechanic: vertical stages. It’s still a fairly short game, but it’s also noticeably harder than it’s predecessor. Playing through these old games reminds me that you don’t need a 40 hour epic to have amazing gameplay and replay value.
Technically,Life Force isn’t a direct sequel so much as a spinoff taking place in the same universe. There IS an NES version of Gradius II, but unfortunately it didn’t make it’s way to our shores. Maybe I’ll track it down once I’m finished with this challenge.
It was reported by the Wall Street Journal that Google is planning on making some interesting changes to the Nexus program. Instead of giving one hardware maker early access to it’s operating systems to build one phone, they will now choose multiple manufacturers to partner with to produce Nexus devices (phones which run stock, unmodified Android.) Presumably Google will sell these phones directly, as they did with the Nexus One, and currently the GSM Galaxy Nexus.
The idea is to begin to exert more direct control over Android’s direction, and to cut down on the fragmentation problems that have plagued Android recently. Google’s operating system has been chided in recent months for giving users a less than uniform experience across devices. An Android phone from one manufacturer can operate in a completely different manner than another. Updates come at carrier discretion, usually months after the initial software release.
Given those facts, I think this is a step in the right direction, but I don’t think it’ll be the paradigm shift some are expecting. More timely updates? Great. More devices with stock Android? Tremendous. Direct sales through Google? Where do I sign up? The question is, what leverage does Google really have with carriers? The phone companies will simply market the devices that DO have all the bloatware and carrier branded software, just as they always have. Smartphone geeks will have no problem buying through Google, but is the average consumer going to do that?
Another point of concern: subsidies. Or the lack thereof. Most consumers (unfortunately) still buy into the “sign a contract for a discount upfront” model. If the majority of the buying population balks at the idea of paying $400 up front for a phone, where is the incentive for anyone other than Google to promote the Nexus devices? This is also to say nothing of the possibility that these phones will all be GSM based. Verizon and Sprint customers probably aren’t invited to the party. That’s ALOT of users who
I’m not trying to a fly in the soup here. I am glad that Google is trying to do SOMETHING, and choice is always exciting. I simply feel we’ve seen this song and dance before. The Nexus One was supposed to revolutionize the smartphone purchasing experience, and ended up being a commercial afterthought despite having a strong following in the enthusiast market. Let’s not forget the fact that Google probably doesn’t care what OEMs do to Android as long as it gets your eyeballs on the screen. Your eyeballs = using Google services = ad revenue. That’s another story for another time however.
Kudos to Google for hopefully taking a step in the right direction. As small a step as it may be.
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Something About Instagram
April 4, 2012 CommentaryRecently one of the most popular apps on iOS finally made it’s way to Android. Sounds fairly pedestrian. Happens all the time. Doesn’t sound like a world changing event. Don’t tell that to the Twitterverse. Upon the release of the long awaited release of Instagram for Android, a full blown social networking civil war broke [...]