DLC

I haven't played any new games lately, I've keeping my plate clear for Portal 2. But, the other night I finally finished the final level of Super Meat Boy, which got me thinking about downloadable games. To me, the most exciting stuff going on in this console generation is in the downloadable arena. In the long run, we'll probably look back one day and say that motion controllers were this generation's biggest contribution to the medium. The Kinect, especially, has a lot of untapped potential-- just take a look at what the warlocks over at KinectHacks are doing. But Microsoft has figured out what to do with the thing yet, and motion controls in general have a long way to go. For the moment, the most innovative and creative stuff is happening on Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network, and....whatever the Wii online service is, I guess.

In a lot of ways, it's a return to the olden days of game development, when a small team (or even just a couple guys in a basement) could craft a good idea into an instant classic. You don't need tons of features and modes, you just need a good central gameplay hook. You don't need hyper-realistic graphics, you just need a unique aesthetic sense. If I ever get a job in the industry, I hope it's in making these smaller, downloadable games. They don't have as much investment money attached to them, so you can afford to take chances and make crazy experiments. And development cycles are much shorter-- as much as I love Halo, I feel kinda bad that the guys at Bungie have been stuck basically making the same game for 10+ years.

Beautiful...and hard.

So, with downloadable games on my mind, I thought I would run through a few of the best I've played. The first, Braid, is Important, with a capital I. If you haven't played this game yet, you really, really need to. (And it's available for PC, if you don't have an Xbox.) On the surface, it appears to be a platformer, and even pays obvious homage to classics like Mari Bros. and Donkey Kong in some of its levels. But underlying the Mario-like running and jumping is a fiendishly difficult puzzle game. What make Braid unique is the manipulation of time. It begins with the ability to simply reverse time, so that if you miss a jump or die you can simply rewind and try again. But each set of "world" plays with the time mechanic in different ways. In one, certain objects aren't affected by your time reversal; in another, you can record your movements and work alongside your shadow-self; in another, you can create pockets of slowed time. The puzzles, which rotate around creative uses of the time mechanic, are supremely difficult-- this game WILL make you feel like an idiot. But I admire that Braid never tries to hold your hand or take your intelligence for granted. The juxtaposition of old-school platforming and unconventional puzzle solving is artfully done, and the hand-painted art style is simply gorgeous.

This is one of the easier levels.

Super Meat Boy is a game I would call "old-school" in its sensibilities regarding difficulty. Do you remember how hard games used to be? Just getting to the last level of a NES game was a feat that few achieved, let alone beating the final boss. Nowadays, there's never a question that you're going to beat Halo or Call of Duty's campaign. Old games took some real skill and determination to complete. Super Meat Boy honors this tradition of making games hard as hell, but also thankfully takes some creative steps to mitigate your frustration. Each of the 300+ levels is very short, only taking about 30 seconds to complete with a successful run. Of course, getting a successful run can be very difficult, and you're expected to die a couple dozen times before making one, but the level resets almost instantly when you die, so you don't have to spend a lot of time waiting to respawn. And when you finish a level, you're rewarded with a replay of ALL your attempts...simultaneously. It never gets old watching two dozen little meat boys leaping to their deaths at the same time. Super Meat Boy is the rare game that makes you feel like you're becoming a better gamer as you play it.

 Limbo, like Braid, is a puzzle game wrapped in a platformer. Though not as challenging as Braid, it is absolutely worth playing for the art and atmosphere alone. You're given very little information about the story; all you know is that you're looking for your sister as you travel through forests, factories, and dilapidated towns rendered in greyscale. The few living beings you meet either run away or try to kill you. (Mostly the latter.) Despite this laconic approach, the game manages to convey goals and objectives very clearly, and the estarkness of both the story and the setting leave an emotional impression on you. You should expect to die, a lot, and in grisly fashion. but checkpoints are plentiful, and the death animations are entertaining enough that you don't mind the "trial-and-death" style of gameplay.

The pricing of downloadable games is in a weird place right now. Most of them come in at around $10-15, which is about the price you can find many used full retail games at Gamestop, and these smaller games don't offer the same amount of content as full retail releases. Limbo clocks in at about 3-6 hours of game time for your $15. Is it worth it? To me, the answer is yes, because it's a beautiful and creative game, but I can see a lot of people being turned off by the price. And that's a shame, because indie developers should be rewarded for pushing the medium forward. Personally, I prefer shorter games, because I can finish them and move on to the next new experience-- I'd rather play more, shorter, cheaper games than fewer, big, expensive ones. But the average consumer can go pay $8 for an old copy of Madden and it will provide him with hours and hours and hours (and hours) of game time. The length-to-price ratio unfortunately favors things like Madden and Call of Duty, especially with the used market distorting prices downward. But perhaps we should start thinking about the quality of our game time more than the quantity.

Eventually, it will become a moot point-- we're already moving towards a world where EVERY game is downloadable, and prices should even out. But in the meantime, consider giving some indie downloads a chance, even if they seem a little pricey right now.