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Bucks-news.com
The week of February 11, 2014
OPINION 8
The Nintendo-Hard Saga Stunning animation is high Games of the “Nintendo Hard” vaBY: ERICH MARTIN point of Disney’s “Frozen” riety hold a special place in my Centurion Staff
For many gamers, there is easy mode, nomal mode and hard mode. Then, just above hard mode, when one think’s it can’t get any worse, there is the fabled “Nintendo Hard”. “Nintendo Hard” is the difficulty that a game holds if it seems nearly unbeatable by simply picking the game up and trying it out. Games that fall into this category are often those of an older status, games from the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) era, and even before. Games from the NES earned the “Nintendo Hard” title, and made a genre to be used for gaming generations to come. “We are Nintendo. We challenge all players. You cannot beat us.” Says an Australian Nintendo ad from the 1980’s. Every game generation has games which could be classified as being “Nintendo Hard.” The first games to fit this description and some of the most recognizable are games such as “Ghosts and Goblins” and the always popular “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.” Anyone who remembers playing these games as a child or adult can attest to their incredible difficulty. However, “Nintendo Hard” games were not hard for the sake of being hard. These games often included inflated difficulty in order increase the length of the games, which would be considered very short by today’s standards. Games that could be finished in an hour suddenly took hours upon hours, and even days if the player was dedicated enough.
heart, these are the games that I grew up playing, and though a valiant effort was given, none were ever fully completed. Games such as “The Lion King,” and “Aladdin” on the Sega Genesis were the games that defined my childhood. Despite the fact that these games were based on lovable Disney movies, they were no piece of cake. Veterans of “The Lion King” will most likely remember the devilish giraffes and roaring at monkeys. These are the games which helped to define an entire generation of gamers, including myself. Just because capacity has increased in the memory of video games, they have not all gotten easier. Examples include games from From Software’s “Demon’s Souls” and “Dark Souls.” These games are certainly not easy. They give the player an undeniable sense of accomplishment when progress is created and saved. This is something that I can personally say I have experienced, through games in the vein of Aladdin, and more infamously, “Battletoads.” Games of the “Nintendo Hard” caliber are still being made today, even if they do not appear much on Nintendo consoles anymore, ironically. “Nintendo Hard” is a term which has been around as long as Nintendo itself has, and holds a special place in not only my heart, but hearts of gamers around the world.
BY: KELSEI TOTH Centurion Staff
Disney’s “Frozen” released in theatres November 27, 2013. “Frozen” was directed and written by Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee and produced by Peter Del Vecho. The franchise has since gained widespread popularity, even before its release in theatres. But was this movie really worth all this pre-release hype? The soundtrack felt a bit underwhelming. There were one or two golden music numbers to be heard throughout the movie. Christophe Beck wrote the music for the movie, and there was a distinctive change from its predecessors. As it turns out, the music was written to sound more like a musical than your average Disney track. A lot of the songs that made it into the movie were very forgettable and may have been better used as ambience. Lyrics didn’t exactly help keep it in memory. The main protagonist Anna, (voiced by Kristen Bell) has lived without friends or real socialization for a large portion of her life. By the time she was of age, she was completely naïve to things like love and marriage. She was plucky and upbeat; so eager to get out of the castle and meet new people. That’s not a very big groundbreaking change to the typical Disney princess lineup. The concept of
“naïve royalty” gets a bit stale after 53 movies, though at the same time it’s clear why they had her personality the way it was. Going into detail would spoil a very big plot twist at the end.
Romance in this story is a side dish. It’s not the foundation that the whole plot revolves around. This is where change can be very good. The main plot in this movie is Anna’s journey to find her sister. She travels with a few odd companions. It feels like baby steps, but it’s still
very welcome to see some new concepts and ideas come out of Disney. Elsa’s character was new as well (voiced by Idina Menzel). In accordance with traditional concepts, a Disney princess is supposed to be social, cheerful, daring and courageous. Elsa falls under none of the categories. She’s withdrawn and cautious. She avoids getting too close to people and refuses any physical contact. In this way, she’s very relatable for people who could never relate to previous princesses. It’s a character archetype Disney’s never really touched on before. She was originally going to be the antagonist, but a lot of consideration went into this movie. At the end of all their careful planning, they decided to go with one very wise decision and make Elsa the secondary character. Animation-wise, “Frozen” is probably one of the most visually stunning movies of it’s kind. As the animators were working with a lot of snow and ice based settings and designs, it was fairly obvious that this was going to have to look very specific. Most anticipators could probably predict that it would look beautiful but none of them had any idea how beautiful that really was. The animation team did an excellent job keeping the ice magic theme very much alive throughout the film. All in all, it’s a movie that breaks the mold of typical Disney princesses, and it does so beautifully.