retraction
Alright, I do remember before that I compared Katamari to Citizen Kane.
I retract that statement.
Katamari is a bit like ice cream. Really, really good ice cream. Ice cream is great. It's easy to eat, very enjoyable to taste, and you can eat it about anytime.
But, like ice cream, sitting down to a session of Katamari can only last for so long, before the experience just gets kinda blah. Akin to ice cream melting in your bowl, and just not being that appealing any more - Katamari gets kinda repetitive pretty fast. The pacing is very good, that's not an issue I have with it, but after a while, it's the same thing over and over and over. Yes, I know, this is not any different from most games. Especially my all-time favorite - PacMan. But Pacman is ice cream too.
Another thing with Katamari. Man does it taste sweet. But there's no substance. You roll around, you're happy, you laugh. But other than that, it doesn't really affect you. Katamari is a GREAT dessert. It's the Tiramisu of games.
And that's saying something. Because, in reality, are games really much more than desserts? I'm not too sure, honestly. My hope is yes. My fear is no.
What brings this up, is that I finally watched Citizen Kane this week (thank you Blockbuster Online). I watched it about 3 times.
The first time, I just didn't understand why the movie was such a classic. It was good, it was entertaining, but I didn't really see WHY everybody made such a fuss about it - except for a few clever cinematography and editing tricks. I used to be impressed by editing tricks, but my friend John Paul, who works as an editor in movies, told me once that the minute the audience realizes something is clever, the editing failed. You're not supposed to notice it, it's supposed to add to the scene, not detract.
But then, I watched it with the commentary, and I started to realize something. The movie never got old. It's one giant mystery, you don't REALLY know what's going on in Charlie Kane's mind. And you never solve it, so every time you watch it, you are constantly engaged in it. And another thing, it didn't seem to set out to be a "classic". Orson Welles just wanted to tell the story he wanted in the most effective way possible, not the way it was done before. But when asked why he did things a certain way, like shoot the scene between Leiland drunkenly admonishing Kane with an extremely low angle, he just replied "I don't know, it looked better that way". And it did.
I think that was the real kick in that movie. It wasn't trying to be as much as people make it. The movie is too entertaining for that. It touches on just about every emotion known, from joy to fury, from humor to despair. Welles was a genius, but mainly because he just wanted to use the medium to the best of his ability, to get the emotion across.
I see another parallel in the life of Walt Disney. Currently I'm reading "The Illusion of Life" by Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston. They talk a lot about Walt and the early days, how they really didn't know what they were doing, but they knew that Walt wanted animation to be different from what was currently done.
How appropriate, after looking at E3 stuff, I just got into a debate with a coworker about these very things. Unfortunately, now I'm just mentally tapped, and don't want to talk about it anymore. I'll probably continue later.
Before I go, I post a challenge for you. Come up with a design for a game version of Citizen Kane. Don't worry, I'm doing it to. Let's see what we can come up with.
I retract that statement.
Katamari is a bit like ice cream. Really, really good ice cream. Ice cream is great. It's easy to eat, very enjoyable to taste, and you can eat it about anytime.
But, like ice cream, sitting down to a session of Katamari can only last for so long, before the experience just gets kinda blah. Akin to ice cream melting in your bowl, and just not being that appealing any more - Katamari gets kinda repetitive pretty fast. The pacing is very good, that's not an issue I have with it, but after a while, it's the same thing over and over and over. Yes, I know, this is not any different from most games. Especially my all-time favorite - PacMan. But Pacman is ice cream too.
Another thing with Katamari. Man does it taste sweet. But there's no substance. You roll around, you're happy, you laugh. But other than that, it doesn't really affect you. Katamari is a GREAT dessert. It's the Tiramisu of games.
And that's saying something. Because, in reality, are games really much more than desserts? I'm not too sure, honestly. My hope is yes. My fear is no.
What brings this up, is that I finally watched Citizen Kane this week (thank you Blockbuster Online). I watched it about 3 times.
The first time, I just didn't understand why the movie was such a classic. It was good, it was entertaining, but I didn't really see WHY everybody made such a fuss about it - except for a few clever cinematography and editing tricks. I used to be impressed by editing tricks, but my friend John Paul, who works as an editor in movies, told me once that the minute the audience realizes something is clever, the editing failed. You're not supposed to notice it, it's supposed to add to the scene, not detract.
But then, I watched it with the commentary, and I started to realize something. The movie never got old. It's one giant mystery, you don't REALLY know what's going on in Charlie Kane's mind. And you never solve it, so every time you watch it, you are constantly engaged in it. And another thing, it didn't seem to set out to be a "classic". Orson Welles just wanted to tell the story he wanted in the most effective way possible, not the way it was done before. But when asked why he did things a certain way, like shoot the scene between Leiland drunkenly admonishing Kane with an extremely low angle, he just replied "I don't know, it looked better that way". And it did.
I think that was the real kick in that movie. It wasn't trying to be as much as people make it. The movie is too entertaining for that. It touches on just about every emotion known, from joy to fury, from humor to despair. Welles was a genius, but mainly because he just wanted to use the medium to the best of his ability, to get the emotion across.
I see another parallel in the life of Walt Disney. Currently I'm reading "The Illusion of Life" by Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston. They talk a lot about Walt and the early days, how they really didn't know what they were doing, but they knew that Walt wanted animation to be different from what was currently done.
How appropriate, after looking at E3 stuff, I just got into a debate with a coworker about these very things. Unfortunately, now I'm just mentally tapped, and don't want to talk about it anymore. I'll probably continue later.
Before I go, I post a challenge for you. Come up with a design for a game version of Citizen Kane. Don't worry, I'm doing it to. Let's see what we can come up with.
posted by Lucas @ 11:19 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home