Well, I'm gonna keep the intro short and sweet; so, welcome to Camp Kusoge.
... (ahem)...
Okay, fine, let's go slightly longer, and a little more sour:
Kusoge, for those of you who don't know (sometimes written Kuso-ge) is a Japanese term that translates as "shitty game." Thing is, if you've ever been a player of video games, then there's a good chance that, at least once, you've been the player of a shitty video game; it's one of the dirty secrets of the industry, that most video games kinda suck.
Actually, let me modify that thought a little bit, the majority of most things kinda suck. If you asked random people on the street to sing for you, for instance, a lot of them would suck. Not all of them; just, you know, most of them. The cream rises to the top, in other words, and the stinkers (ideally) fall by the wayside. The thing is, if you go through the barrel of wayside fallen... uh... I kinda mixed up my metaphors a little... so, yeah... barrels, we're definitely going with barrels now... if you scrape the absolute bottom of the barrel of shitty singers, you hit a group of singers we'll call the William Hung category, singer who are so very, ear-bleedingly awful, that it actually sort of becomes entertaining again.
It's this unique characteristic that separates your capital-K Kusoge from a game that merely sucks. These games aren't merely bad, they're bad in a way that makes them entertaining to play anyway.
Lately, however, thanks largely to the likes of Seanbaby or the Angry Nerd, it's been kind of in vogue at the moment to run through these games, pouring in all the snark one can muster, and tearing them a proverbial new one... or maybe just tearing them a regular new one, I'm not sure if threatening to tear someone a new arsehole actually qualifies as a proverb, but it'd be kind of awesome if it did, but I might be losing the plot a little bit.
The point is that when I first saw the angry nerd foul-mouth his way through Bible Adventures, a game in which Noah picks up animals, effortlessly carries them over his head, and tosses them into the ark, my immediate thought was "I must play this game, right now!" and I can't be alone in feeling this way.
Which then brings us to Camp Kusoge, (welcome to it) my own little corner to the world wide interweb wherein I celebrate all the games that aren't actually "good" per-se, but still entertain, and in ways their creators likely didn't intend. I do this because I think having a counterpoint to AVGN is a worthwhile pursuit, and because it provides an opportunity to have a witty dialogue (or more likely monologue) about gaming from a different perspective. The beautiful irony if it all is, with all the AVGN imitators out there, bad old games are being pulled out of the woodwork left and right, and the truly horrendous ones given special distinction... it's a Kusoge fan's dream come true.
A couple of things that need be noted:
1 - I'm a very sarcastic person... I mean... I'm not a sarcastic person at all (wink wink)... (heh heh, see what I did there?)... so while this might be an utterly futile request, this being the internet and all, please, pleeeese don't take what I say too seriously.
2 - We're not all going to agree on what qualifies as Kusoge and what doesn't. There's no point in getting too hung up about it, if you disagree, that's cool. Heck, some people out there genuine enjoy playing Pit Fighter; and every night I pray for their poor, battered souls, or at least I would, were I not a raving heretic brought up on the devil's rock and roll, and further corrupted by the secular, communist mind control of Tetris.
3 - If you were offended by point 2, see point 1.
4 - Not every game mentioned on this blog is necessarily going to be Kusoge anyway. I also consider casual games, movie and TV licensed games, mascot games, shovelware, copycats, edutainment, and games that are awesome but simultaneously weird as hell to fall into the purview. So yes, one way or another, Pit Fighter will get the love it deserves.
5 - I'm not made of money, and can only weigh in on a game so much without having actually played it, which is why consoles I don't own or can't emulate on my shitty, ageing mac won't get as much attention. This is where you, the fans, who can't possibly exist yet because the first post isn't even done being written (it will be by the time you read it, though... hopefully) come in. Join in on the fun, and tell the world about the bad games you love... and by "the world" I of course mean the five other HG101 forum members who found this blog linked in my signature.
and with that, we'll get right on with the show... whenever I get around to it. I'm just resting my eyes right now...
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Wicked. Can't wait for the first post.
ReplyDeleteI'm looking forward to seeing what you've got in store for all the shitty games out there.
ReplyDeleteI wonder how big a chunk of my old Amiga 500 library would qualify as "kusoge".
ReplyDeleteMind you, I had Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego? (best version ever, FYI) and Lemmings, so of course I had some genuinely awesome titles on my hands. Of course, since I could only actually get A500 games from obscure little bargain bin stores, may they all rest in peace (except Toys Unlimited...I think they might still be around after all these years), I had about as many misses as hits. The amount of effort I spent trying to get a working copy of Prime Time probably far exceeds the actual quality of the game...
@ Ryusui
ReplyDeleteThe rule of thumb I'm going by here is if what makes the game bad is also what makes it entertaining.
Think "Plan 9 from Outer Space," to use a film example. It's funny from start to finish... but was never meant to be a comedy. It's complete failure to be a serious film is what makes it entertaining to watch.
The same logic sort of applies to games like Action 52 or Takeshi's Challenge.
That said, I don't much like sticking to hard fast rules, so other games that might not actually be all that bad but have that same ironic kick to them will get talked about.