MovieBob Talks Mario Movies, Game Journos, and the State of the Industry

[Eternal_Lament]

BTW, is it just me, or is Bob just trying to start some more fires with the "Flash-in-the-pan" comment? Although knowing him, two series that have spawned a few sequels, have been rated extremely high, have sold tons of copies, and play extremely well would be flash-in-the-pan games if they include any semblance of an FPS. Besides which, a better example for Flash-in-the-pan would've been something like Blood Rayne.

Its not that its "FPS", its the simple fact it isn't Nintendo-made. He does this all the time though, and its one reason I can't really take his "Game Overthinker" crap seriously, because his bias towards Nintendo is so strong that it screws up whatever semblance of a point he has in them. For the most part it isn't an issue, but when it comes time to doing a video that might have something to do with Nintendo, its completely skewed towards the big N's favor.

Hell, if he were to do a Game Overthinker video about the current little "Operation Rainfall" thing going on, he'd be telling us all that we're being selfish and we aren't entitled to every game that's released, because Nintendo does more than a damn good job of bringing over strong titles to all of its systems. Then he'd tell us all to play Metroid Other M, because its such a masterpiece to him.

True, either that or "OMG guys! Why are you complaining? They just released 10-15 year old games on WiiWare! What more could you ask for?!"

The only time I think I heard him say a Nintendo game wasn't good was the Metroid Prime series, because according to him "It's just another boring FPS", and he once said that in his Mario/CoD comparison that Nintendo released the same game, but counter-acted with "But holy shit, the Koopa Kids are in this! That's all I need in my game!"

 

[Irridium]

Uhm...do we?

In film, things like Taxi Driver, Transformers, The Godfather, District 9, Scary Movie 3 and The Godfather can and do coexist too....

That's because films like those don't shy away from controversy. When a game gets called out on controversial subjects(whatever those may be), all anyone seems to do is shout "dude, it's just a game, calm down!".

And then when people call them "just games" people get all pissy and go "no! It's an art form!"

Only times that hasn't happened was when Fox tried to push Mass Effect as a sex-simulator, and when Atomic Games stuck to their guns with Six Days in Fallujah and defended it to the end. Konami abandoned the game, quite a few gamers felt the game shouldn't have existed... it was just a whole sad affair. It wasn't even supposed to be like other FPS's, it was more of a "first person documentary".

And then there's EA and their whole "Taliban" controversy for when they just used the name for the second team in multiplayer. Everyone else called them out for it, and instead of sticking with it they change the name a few weeks before release.

But hell, at least those games tried to tackle real-world issues. God knows how many games were shut down because they were a bit too close to home.

 

[GothmogII]

He also thinks that gamers need to decide exactly how they want videogames to be viewed by the general public, and actually be consistent with it. "You cannot say 'take us seriously as an artistic medium!' when you're railing against Roger Ebert; but then turn around and go 'oh, lighten up, it's just a game!' when people point out that Resident Evil 5 might be a little bit racist."

I'm not in favour of the 'if they can do it why can't we' style of logic, but it does fit I feel in this case.

But...why does say A Serbian Film get to exist and -other- films don't get called out it? Why have I never heard: This is why movie lovers can't be taken seriously, when their medium produces -this- kind of tripe!

Why are games, all games forced to carry the stigma of the tasteless, crude, brain crushingly stupid ones?

It's like some people posses an infuriating lack of ability to differentiate, taking the notion of one bad apple spoiling the bunch as a cue to unload righteous indignation on the rest of the basket.

You damn good apples! You didn't do enough to distance yourself from the bad one! You didn't come out and condemn him, expose his rotting core. And because of that you are all tainted apples, guilty by association!

Point being, there are many baskets of apples. There are many bad apples. You praise and eat the good ones and scold and throw the bad ones away. Easy, non?

 

[lord.jeff]

Lots of different things mentioned in this article

In film, things like Taxi Driver, Transformers, The Godfather, District 9, Scary Movie 3 and The Godfather can and do coexist too....

That's how I feel about it to.

I like the game idea, although it's not really a game just an idea to be incorporated into a game maybe if you added more to the idea then no regenerating health bar.

Resident Evil 5 is just as racist as 4 there is no difference between a white going around and shooting a bunch of Hispanics in Spain and shooting a bunch of black guys in Africa. Plus wouldn't it have been more racist to fill Africa with a bunch of white guys.

As for the Mario movie yes it can be done well but a movie can be done well for any subject if you have the right crew for it.

 

[SoopaSte123]

I love hearing Bob's opinions, but he loves Nintendo and Mario more than anyone else I know. As for the "flash in the pan" comment, yes, it comes off as extremely biased (I'd say "pure fanboyism" but I know how he hates that phrase). The Hitman and Uncharted series may only have 3 games, but that's because they haven't been done to death like old man Mario and his plot-less series.

How can Bob rationally think a live action Mario movie could work? There is barely enough plot in the entire series to fill a paragraph with! Yes, you could do a gritty reboot comedy, but Bob hates gritty reboots, or you could do a pure action movie with no plot, which Bob also hates.

Write us a script, Bob. We'd love to see you pull off the impossible.

 

[Special Kiz]

I love hearing Bob's opinions, but he loves Nintendo and Mario more than anyone else I know. As for the "flash in the pan" comment, yes, it comes off as extremely biased (I'd say "pure fanboyism" but I know how he hates that phrase). The Hitman and Uncharted series may only have 3 games, but that's because they haven't been done to death like old man Mario and his plot-less series.

How can Bob rationally think a live action Mario movie could work? There is barely enough plot in the entire series to fill a paragraph with! Yes, you could do a gritty reboot comedy, but Bob hates gritty reboots, or you could do a pure action movie with no plot, which Bob also hates.

Write us a script, Bob. We'd love to see you pull off the impossible.

I was going to post a long winded wall of text, but instead I shall just quote this for accuracy. I am glad that his opinion is getting broadcast to me weekly and I enjoy most of his work, but I could not disagree with him more on matters concerning games. He has such a heavy Nintendo bias, but to his credit, he never claims otherwise and the man is entitled to his opinion as much as I am entitled to mine; he is wrong.

 

[shrekfan246]

I love hearing Bob's opinions, but he loves Nintendo and Mario more than anyone else I know. As for the "flash in the pan" comment, yes, it comes off as extremely biased (I'd say "pure fanboyism" but I know how he hates that phrase). The Hitman and Uncharted series may only have 3 games, but that's because they haven't been done to death like old man Mario and his plot-less series.

How can Bob rationally think a live action Mario movie could work? There is barely enough plot in the entire series to fill a paragraph with! Yes, you could do a gritty reboot comedy, but Bob hates gritty reboots, or you could do a pure action movie with no plot, which Bob also hates.

Write us a script, Bob. We'd love to see you pull off the impossible.

Hitman actually has 4, soon to be 5, games, and Uncharted is going to have a fourth when the PsVita is released.

...sorry for being pedantic.

 

[bombadilillo]

BOB. As much as you talk about the white whale that is your Mario movie idea. I have never heard you talk about HOW you would make it not suck.

I don't understand how the story could be brought to the bigscreen without turning into a giant bowl of creamed corn.

 

[Infernoshadow211]

What if the earth tone was used for earth?

 

[Mr. Omega]

Regarding the movies:
Uncharted a flash in the pan? Yes. Yes it is.
Hitman a flash in the pan? HELL NO.
I get the main point: that they're going for the "it's popular now, so let's make a movie" and yet the icons of gaming are just left out there. Mario could have a good movie. If it's animated. I guess live-action COULD be done, and if someone who actually knows and cares about the material is in charge, it could work.

Regarding the "way we see games": I get the point. Saying that we want to be taken seriously, but hide behind the "it's just a game!" defense when the going gets tough. Thankfully, with all the strides gaming has been making culturally, we might not need to be making that defense much longer. And at least for a while, we have some legal protection with games being recognized as an art and the regulation of the sales of games being deemed unconstitutional.

As for his "dream game": A game with western mechanics and eastern aesthetics, using new-school graphics technology and and old-school FPS mechanics. ...Give this man a lot of money. Please?

 

[crimsonshrouds]

resident evil 5 wasnt racist unless the player makes it racist. If you consider 5 racist then so would be 4 where you murder a hell of a lot of spaniards. TBH, people forget what racism even means and It's just plain sad anymore.

 

[starwarsgeek]

I'd love to hear how he'd plan to make a good Mario movie. Personally, I think Mario 3 would be the best choice. Interesting locations...long journey...two guys annihilating an entire military near the end. Find a way to make the story work in a movie and that might actually be pretty good.

As for his "dream game": A game with western mechanics and eastern aesthetics, using new-school graphics technology and and old-school FPS mechanics. ...Give this man a lot of money. Please?

Also, this!

 

[Orekoya]

"You cannot say 'take us seriously as an artistic medium!' when you're railing against Roger Ebert; but then turn around and go 'oh, lighten up, it's just a game!' when people point out that Resident Evil 5 might be a little bit racist."

Eh, it wasn't racist, sorry. No more than Resident Evil 4 was toward Spaniards.

 

[General Vagueness]

He strikes me as being fairly open-minded yet he doesn't see the possible good in regenerating health-- then again, he dislikes Halo as a whole despite noting its good points, and made an attempt to understand it but doesn't seem to have succeeded. Maybe the two are related. Maybe I'm ranting, IDK.

 

[Arkynomicon]

I prefer games when you got set health and have to restore it with power-ups.

I do kinda like reg health in CoD BO multiplayer because it keeps the flow going. But I hated it in the singleplayer part because just taking cover all the time isn't really all that fun against the AI opponents.

 

[Lightslei]

So to the people saying Mario can't translate to the screen:
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/there-will-be-brawl


I honestly think people need to be actually creative. I'd love it, but do it justice or GTFO.

 

[Sinclair Solutions]

The Hitman and Uncharted franchises are just a 'flash in the pan', eh Movie Bob?

That's the most obscene thing I've heard all week. Not that I should be surprised, Bob does love to flame bait.

I don't think that is really what he meant. I think he was focusing more on the fact that they are less known that series like Mario. I also think he was focusing on the fact that Hollywood studios say, "What's popular in video games right now?" "Uncharted?" "OK, let's make a movie of that."

 

[duchaked]

...comments on MovieBob himself aside......

When it comes to regenerating health vs a health bar, I'd evaluate the game as a whole itself first before deciding which would be a better fit. Even if I were just coming up with an idea of for a game, I wouldn't shut one out because it seems foolish to simply make the call that one is better than the other. IMHO of course..

 

[Fasckira]

I would love to see MovieBob's take on Mario, what wheels need to be put in motion for this to happen?