Bayonetta is not for kids though. And the amount of exposure is different in normal stance.
Is Shantae for kids?
It's not targeted for kids but it's a kiddie-friendly game when it comes to the artstyle and themes. At least that's what I gathered by playing the beginning last night. It's really not too different from the games I played when growing up afterall. Bayonetta on the other hand is meant to be played by more mature players (although I do consider teenagers kids but that's beside the point). It's not meant to be kiddie-friendly.
@DefHalan: I've heard the "It's E10+, so it's for kids." argument, but Journey is also E10+ and It's arguably more mature than several M rated games on the market. Really the only way to know is to guess based on the marketing.
Journey is a mature game in that its theme is adult or mature. However, it does not include anything that games with M-rating do: blood, gore, sex, gambling, horror, to name a few.
Vendetta-Strada - A mafia game forum
Currently playing: Hyrule Warriors Legends, Pokémon Shuffle
@CreamyDream: I just played the beginning of Shantae and the Pirate's Curse as well. I enjoyed the gameplay but I can't help but wonder why every single female character has her boobs out like that.
@Nego - I think it's probably because the game was produced by a predominantly male team, and because the market the game is intended for is predominantly male. And males like boobs, it's like... an established feature of male characteristics I think.
I remember going into the art stock room at school with 2 other boys as a 5 or 6 year old and finding some newspapers with topless page 3 models in. We came out of that room a few minutes later with newspaper ink all over our faces from having rubbed them all over the boobs. So I think we can acknowledge that even little kids can like boobs.
And, do you know what? It turns out boobs are ok. They're not the devil's work, just boobs. Boobs don't corrupt, they just jiggle a bit.
Complaining about boobs in a male-produced and male-targeted video game is a bit like walking into a public garden and complaining it's full of pretty flowers instead of plants that don't flower.
Pretty things sell. And they're not naughty. Just pretty.
You guys had me at blood and semen.
What better way to celebrate than firing something out of the pipe?
@Nego - I think it's probably because the game was produced by a predominantly male team, and because the market the game is intended for is predominantly male. And males like boobs, it's like... an established feature of male characteristics I think.
This should not be a reason in the first place. It's not only offensive against women but against men as well, saying all men are like that when they are not. You don't see all female teams making games intended for females with male characters with huge pouches in their pants.
And, do you know what? It turns out boobs are ok. They're not the devil's work, just boobs. Boobs don't corrupt, they just jiggle a bit.
Like I said earlier - had you read all my posts so far - I don't mind nudity nor am I against it in general. I don't think boobs are bad or the devil's work. What I am against is unequal characterization of characters based on their sex, gender, skin colour, sexuality, or other trait given in birth.
Complaining about boobs in a male-produced and male-targeted video game is a bit like walking into a public garden and complaining it's full of pretty flowers instead of plants that don't flower.
I don't agree with this statement at all.
Vendetta-Strada - A mafia game forum
Currently playing: Hyrule Warriors Legends, Pokémon Shuffle
What I am against is unequal characterization of characters
- so all games have to have equal representation of all possible types of character? Fast-forward to blandgames.com
By all means be offended if you choose, but I don't see it getting you anywhere, and I don't see why games developers should need to worry about offending people or not. Games are made to sell and be played. Don't like, don't buy and don't play. All content is optional - if you try and force content-producers to produce only content that doesn't offend anyone then things will get dull fast.
Are the boobs in Shantae necessary? No.
Do the boobs in Shantae enhance my enjoyment of the game? Yes - I like looking at boobs.
You guys had me at blood and semen.
What better way to celebrate than firing something out of the pipe?
I dunno I feel like games made for women have been on the rise very quickly. In a few ways, both of which are arguably as much stereotyping though, so keep that in mind
1. There's been a huge rise of games where either there is no story thus you can play as a woman because your character isn't a character.
2. There are plenty of women who are only casual gamers and mobile gaming has been heavily focused on women vs. console gaming
3. Visual novels have become more and more frequent, especially the ones where you date handsome boys that sometimes make you cry
4. Rise in narrative games and games in general that don't have the typical difficulty that used to be the norm (again, stereotyping, I realize, I didn't make these creative choices)
I think the big thing is that even in terms of fanservice, from what I understand at least, women don't look for the same thing in men that men do for women in this sort of thing. So you don't see men in the same level of shameless outfits because that wouldn't appeal to women as much as you might think. I've also heard there's sufficient evidence that in popular online games, women specifically choose the "sexiest" female characters to play as.
Granted, I do think fanservice is overused. Especially if it's just awkward or distracting.
They're adding too many sprites to Mario Maker that only Japan or weebs would know about, and not even a lot of weebs. But I guess this is better than some stupid western compromise. Lookin at u Splatfest
That's true about Mario Maker, but in my ongoing quest for a solid Nintendo community, I'm realizing the the Ninty fan community is filled with weebs. Just look at any Nintendo Life comments section every time Nintendo decides to cover up some anime gal's boobs.
@CreamyDream, probably not the thread for us to get into that whole can of worms — I was just following up on Danky's comment. Hope that doesn't come off as rude, I just don't want to derail the thread.
@CreamyDream, cool, cool. Thanks for understanding.
Back on topic, I'm sad to hear your take on Affordable Space Adventures. It's a game I've been looking forward to since it was announced, but never got around to buying till the (always awesome) Humble Bundle pushed me into it. I've been really looking forward to it.
I'm curious to know — did you play co-op, or solo?
Ah, sexualization/female represenation in video games. A delicate minefield if ever there was one. A few thoughts:
1: This is so much more than gaming. It saturates pretty much our entire culture. And video games aren't even a remarkable offender. definitely not he worst offender by a long shot.
2: The Feminist/SJW/Anti-GG/Whatever you want to call them has some very good, very salient points. However, some of their most vocal representatives, for various reasons, end up putting a bad face on the entire movement.
3: The same as #2, but for the other side.
4: A big factor of the conflict is differing senses of what constitutes empowerment. Men (generally speaking) view sexualization as empowerment - when they want to make a strong, empowered woman, just as with a man, sexualization is one of their go-to resources. It's built into the cultural gestalt. Women, on the other hand, (generally speaking) do not find sexualization to be empowering - again, part of the cultural gestalt.
5: It's not as simple as male creators = sexy women. (In)famously, CLAMP is pretty female-dominated, and, well, "Miyuki-chan in Wonderland."
6: The hypothetical "female gaze" that focuses on men's packages is a bit of a rhetorical disservice. My anecdotal evidence finds a much stronger female visual focus on swimmer's chests and nice butts.
To focus on a more unpopular opinion, I support the editing/censorship of games when they come overseas - provided that's the only way it's considered feasible to make it a domestic product. I don't think it should be that way, and I feel that people often err too much on the side of caution, but I support the general idea. If I could make one request, it would be that a little effort goes into making the change a "value-added" proposition (cf: Fatal Frame replacing sketchy outfits with Nintendo character cosplays).
(On a side note, in Bravely Default, my biggest objection to the Bravo Bikini was that the player got to see it at all. The conversation without the reveal was gold. But, after knowing what it looks like, well, my Agnes objected to wearing it while she was dressed as a Spell Fencer...)
@VelvetElvis: Well weebs or not, they've added a handful of sprites that basically nobody got excited for, and it's a fact because even the special levels have low play count.
So, the New 3DS = apparently another DSi. It has what? 2 exclusive games and one is an eShop only game. Why did they do that again? With the NX coming and Xenoblade coming to the WiiU VC (at least for NA), and the rumors of it being 1 system to kill off having a home and a mobile system, seem like clues to it all fitting together.
At any rate there's absolutely no reason for me or anyone to get the N3DS anymore. I suppose that's good since I can use the money for something different but kind of a bummer. If you upgraded from a regular XL to a New XL then you wasted your money. At least the original has the screen size upgrade.
@Dankeykong, agreed. I haven't played in months. The completionist in me will eventually get those sprites, but they used to be enough to make me want to fire the game up — now I see an announcement and just say, "Who?"
Also, I think the n3DS absolutely is another DSi, in that it's the best iteration of its platform, and it's also a business move to keep the platform relevant. The whole "exclusive games" thing is pretty much bunk.
@Freeon-Leon, that's great to hear. I'm stoked about it.
so all games have to have equal representation of all possible types of character? Fast-forward to blandgames.com
Not at all what I said. The problem I have with Shantae's artstyle is the fact that every single female character (barring maybe one) has their boobs out as if the developers thought it would make horny boys play the game, while no male characters (as far as I've seen) are having their sexual parts bulking out or showing. It would be a different matter if it was just one or two female characters but it is pretty much every single one I've encountered so far.
I'm not saying it only applies to Shantae because it doesn't. You might have noticed by my avatar that I love the Ace Attorney (also Professor Layton but that does not apply here) series. Yet the character of Mia Fey along with some other are examples of the same thing (and in case of Mia Fey it gets even worse when the under 10-year-old Pearl uses her spirit medium powers to channel Mia - and thus gains her physical qualities). But that series features other body types as well and it's more balanced. It even has most of the male characters sport a wide muscular upper body (this does not apply to the overweight or child characters obviously).
6: The hypothetical "female gaze" that focuses on men's packages is a bit of a rhetorical disservice. My anecdotal evidence finds a much stronger female visual focus on swimmer's chests and nice butts.
I wasn't referring to the hypothetical female gaze but talking about sexual parts in general. My example of there being no characters with a visual package in their pants was because that's a sexual part of a man's body just like the boobs are a sexual part of a woman's body. Obviously this is not that simple as boobs would be just boobs if we as society wouldn't have sexualised them. The same applies to dicks too though.
@VelvetElvis: Agreed. I think also agree that subject is for another time and place.
With that said: Affordable Space Adventures is kinda meh.
I don't think it's bad, but it's not great either. Everything blends together into a forgettable gray blur, and the levels having loading screens between each segment makes things not feel organic at all.
I do like some of the puzzles and the use of the gamepad though, so it's still an okay game.
Edit: In a nutshell I think the problem with the game is that I JUST played it but if you were to hold a gun to my head and ask me what level 10 was or what my favorite part was, I just couldn't tell you for the life of me. Whereas, in games I like, I can recall individual parts with ease.
I played ASA for about half an hour yesterday and really liked it. It has that great sense of adventure and discovery I've learned to love from games like Metroid and Zelda. I do agree though that it has its weak points - so far the tunnels and progress have been very narrow without really any way to get lost in a maze. I don't mind the loading screens though as they are entertaining given the context of the game's story.
I haven't played co-op either and I most likely won't but I would really like to try it out because it would truly be a co-op experience without a single leader. I had stop playing yesterday when I hit a puzzle I couldn't figure out. I'm sure that if there was another or two other players playing the game with me, we could work the solution out together - if not by else, then by trial and error.
@CreamyDream: I didn't mean to say that ASA has the same kind of exploration than Metroid and Zelda but that it has a sense of adventure and exploration in that you are thrown in an uncharted world you're left to figure out what to do. I personally am taking my time with the game and not using too much the thrusters.
I also like the fact that it doesn't handhold you too much. Sure it tells you tips on what to do and how things work but it also leaves a lot up for you to figure out on your own.
Vendetta-Strada - A mafia game forum
Currently playing: Hyrule Warriors Legends, Pokémon Shuffle
@Nego, thanks for the take one Affordable Space Adventures. I have a feeling I'll jell with it — related, the Wii U has been a hell of a great local co-op system for me. Also, lucid points in your post about gender representation.
@arronishere, I'm still curious about that game. Wish it were a bit cheaper here in the U.S. How active is the online community these days?
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