Zero Punctuation Review: No More Heroes

Patrick Steen — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 20:02:49 +0000

Let me introduce you to Yahtzee, though I’m sure you’ve already met. This Brit spouts his humour-filled videogame reviews using a fast bad mouth mixed with stylish cartoon visuals to make everything all the funnier. Often immitated but seldom matched, his No More Heroes review is after the link.

And remember, two lucky UK Ripten readers can win a Wii demo disc of No More Heroes, along with a bunch of other swag in our MS Paint competition. Just follow this link.

Source: The Escapist: Zero Punctuation

Echochrome Next Game to be Labelled “Racist”

Patrick Steen — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 11:11:07 +0000

The mind-twisting puzzle game Echochrome made its way to Play.com Live, available on the same unit as Hot Shots Golf 5. Recently released in Japan, I was able to get my hands on some of the latter levels in the game.

As the difficulty ramped up, a mini crowd built around me. With them in awe of my genius (read; luck) I wasn’t quite expecting the opinion I overheard.

A young gentlemen expressed his feelings to a nearby Sony representative, saying that Echochrome was “a bit racist.” Alright (???) His reasoning behind this was that “you’re a little white guy trying to get rid of the black ones.”

You see, in Echochrome, you’re a mannequin that has to make its way to the end of the level by following shadowy black figures. In reality, the mannequin is a see-through character on a white background, and the shadowy figures are your guides to the end of the level.

For a black and white game, it’s difficult to conclude that Echochrome’s Japanese developers had subconsciously input their (non-existent) pro-white racist opinions into the game…

Echochrome is the latest videogame to be short-listed as racist, from Resisdent Evil 5 to Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune (though this latter example was a joke from Yahtzee in his Zero Punctuation review.) Awareness of the attitudes presented in videogames is of course very important, but the uninformed labelling of a little puzzle game should only be ignored.

Naturally this was one mans opinion after seeing the game for a few minutes. The game hasn’t been labelled by anyone else, but this man’s words both saddened and amused me. Perhaps Echochrome could offer a black background (making the colourless mannequin appear to be black) as an option, in the vein of the original design for the PSP version.

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Zero Punctuation Review: No More Heroes

Echochrome Next Game to be Labelled “Racist”