1997 Gaming Report: The Best of the Bunch
This holiday season, a deluge of new game titles are being released. The Interactive Digital Software Association (IDSA) has compiled data from the NPD Group's Interactive Entertainment Software Service, to report that sales of video game and PC entertainment software this year have topped $1.5 billion (January through September); already a 35 percent increase over 1996. With more than 50 percent of total industry sales usually taking place in the fourth quarter (holiday season), those numbers are expected to increase dramatically by the end of 1997. IDSA President Douglas Lowenstein said, "All signals are now pointing to total entertainment software sales breaking the $5 billion barrier." While this estimate does lean toward the optimistic, there is no question that games are increasing in popularity as more home users purchase personal computers and gaming consoles.
From Screen to Machine
With so many games to choose from, how is an animation fan to make sense of them all? In preparation for our annual gaming issue, Animation World Magazine looked at more than 50 interactive games that have been released throughout the year. One thing we learned is that you can't judge a game by its cover. Actual game graphics often pale in comparison to the pictures on packaging and advertisements. When reviewing all titles, we looked mainly at the quality of the animation within the game, as well as the gameplay and story.
Many titles being released this season hope to cash in on the success of existing animated properties. Fox Interactive is following the tried-and-true Disney formula with their Anastasia tie-in release, a "storybook" style game called Anastasia: Adventures With Pooka and Bartok. THQ's PlayStation action game, Ghost in the Shell is based on the popular Japanese manga comic and anime feature film. Funnybone Interactive is releasing Animaniacs Game Pack, a collection of arcade-style games starring characters from Warner Bros.' animated television series. Broderbund's Living Books division has released Arthur's Birthday, another title in the Arthur line, which started as a collection of children's books and became a hit animated series from Cinar Films and WGBH Boston. Creative Capers' original property, Nightmare Ned was simultaneously developed as a game and an animated series with Disney.
The Best of the Bunch
2. Parappa the Rapper
1. Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee.
This outstandingly original adventure, features some of the best graphics and animation we've ever seen in a game. Abe's Oddysee is the first title in "The Oddworld Quintology," a five-part series designed and created by Oddworld Inhabitants, an innovative, young game design firm based in Northern California. With its sophisticated gameplay, this game is meant to be played over a long period of time, so be sure to have a memory card installed.
System: PlayStation
Publisher: GT Interactive
The latest and greatest interactive creation designed by Rodney Greenblat, a New York-based artist who has been creating offbeat computer games, such as Dazzeloids, since the early days of interactive animation. Parappa, which means "paper thin" in Japanese, describes the game's cartoony 2-D characters which move in a 3-D world. In addition to this innovative animation technique, Parappa the Rapper features a funky musical score by Masaya Matsuura. This is a game that's sure to be imitated.
System: PlayStation
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment
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