I am a girl gamer. I enjoy many of today's popular games like Grand Theft Auto, Tomb Raider Legend, Prince of Persia games, you name it. But I find myself staying away from new titles more and more as I find myself playing a game where the female characters are void of anything that would allow me to be vaguely interested in them.
Take for example my abysmal experience trying the game Rumble Roses XX for the XB360.
Fighting games have been my passion since I first played Double Dragon on the NES. Action titles get my blood boiling; I find them not only entertaining but engaging. Give me an action title with simple mechanics but a storyline that is exciting and interesting on an emotional level and I'll pre-order the sucker and be it's biggest fan. So when I got the chance to rent this game I jumped on it. From some of the things I had seen it looked like a Dead or Alive clone, but with wrestling as opposed to hand to hand martial arts type combat. That was a huge misconception.
Rumble Roses XX is one of the worst games that anyone may ever play.
In DOA, the characters each have a somewhat intriguing back story so even though a big part of the game is the T&A aspect, you enjoy playing as any player character because, well, they have character. Kasumi has had a storyline full of tension with the other female ninja lead in the game Ayane. And though the storyline is weak at some points, it does tie all of the characters in the game together and allow the player to become vested [at least in some small way] with them and ultimately the game. I absolutely hate Rumble Roses because it lacks this fundamentally important thing. The game has no redeeming qualities at all.
As I started the single player mode I found no back story for my character. I was dropped off on a map to select a battle area. In starting a match I was "treated" to a ring entrance for my character that was bland at most, with some generic rock music playing in the background, and my nearly naked chick stumbling her way towards the ring. While the controls are pretty solid, most of the characters in the game are these vapid pieces of eye candy that just bore me. I found myself having to reassure myself that the game was going to get better, that
I just hadn't found that character that resonated with me yet, but I was bound to do it. But then I started doing some "grappling" moves and noticed a recurring theme: See my panties? The more time spent playing the game revealed what the game really was: an excuse to have nearly naked CGI chicks squat, spread, and bare as much as possible to the player. First this made me mad, then it made me sad. While I have nothing against games being sexy, sexual, prominently featuring female characters with little or nothing on, I do feel that there needs to be a balanced reason for the characters being featured in this way. I love the sultry hot-looking female character that is obviously very smart and uses her appearance against her enemies, and I think a lot of girl gamers [and guys] like that as well. Hell, I'll go out on a limb and say that they prefer that kind of character because good looks and brains in a woman equals power, and power is always sexy.
I think that's what aggravates me most about this game, it could have been a very good sexy game. It could have had female characters with charm and backbone [wearing the same outfits] and been a more enticing game than it ended up being. In the form it's in now, Rumble Roses XX is just a farcical one line comedy bit that no one in the room finds funny. As the audience we look at it and kind of grimace, but really just want the better material to hurry up and start. For all the effort that you put in you don't get nearly as much, if anything at all, back in return.
Maybe developers and publishers will get the message if gamers made it clear that we want more than just bouncing big breasted babes in our games. What we do want is the same level of plot and character development that big screen movies get. We want to pop in a game and be so consumed by what is going on that we CAN'T stop playing it, we have to know what happens next, so we have no other choice but spending $60 bucks and 40 plus hours of our lives to get through it.
God of War has the fan base it does not just because it's a gory game. The story was emotionally involving. It drew you in from the moment the game first starting spinning your PS2. And though one of the first mini-games you play was a ménage à trois with some bare breasted and big nippled women, you kept on playing because the gameplay was solid, the visuals were gorgeous, AND the story was compelling.
The gaming community needs more games like God of War, and less like Rumble Roses XX
But that's just one gamer's [who happens to be a girl] opinion.
Take for example my abysmal experience trying the game Rumble Roses XX for the XB360.Fighting games have been my passion since I first played Double Dragon on the NES. Action titles get my blood boiling; I find them not only entertaining but engaging. Give me an action title with simple mechanics but a storyline that is exciting and interesting on an emotional level and I'll pre-order the sucker and be it's biggest fan. So when I got the chance to rent this game I jumped on it. From some of the things I had seen it looked like a Dead or Alive clone, but with wrestling as opposed to hand to hand martial arts type combat. That was a huge misconception.
Rumble Roses XX is one of the worst games that anyone may ever play.
In DOA, the characters each have a somewhat intriguing back story so even though a big part of the game is the T&A aspect, you enjoy playing as any player character because, well, they have character. Kasumi has had a storyline full of tension with the other female ninja lead in the game Ayane. And though the storyline is weak at some points, it does tie all of the characters in the game together and allow the player to become vested [at least in some small way] with them and ultimately the game. I absolutely hate Rumble Roses because it lacks this fundamentally important thing. The game has no redeeming qualities at all.
As I started the single player mode I found no back story for my character. I was dropped off on a map to select a battle area. In starting a match I was "treated" to a ring entrance for my character that was bland at most, with some generic rock music playing in the background, and my nearly naked chick stumbling her way towards the ring. While the controls are pretty solid, most of the characters in the game are these vapid pieces of eye candy that just bore me. I found myself having to reassure myself that the game was going to get better, that
I just hadn't found that character that resonated with me yet, but I was bound to do it. But then I started doing some "grappling" moves and noticed a recurring theme: See my panties? The more time spent playing the game revealed what the game really was: an excuse to have nearly naked CGI chicks squat, spread, and bare as much as possible to the player. First this made me mad, then it made me sad. While I have nothing against games being sexy, sexual, prominently featuring female characters with little or nothing on, I do feel that there needs to be a balanced reason for the characters being featured in this way. I love the sultry hot-looking female character that is obviously very smart and uses her appearance against her enemies, and I think a lot of girl gamers [and guys] like that as well. Hell, I'll go out on a limb and say that they prefer that kind of character because good looks and brains in a woman equals power, and power is always sexy. I think that's what aggravates me most about this game, it could have been a very good sexy game. It could have had female characters with charm and backbone [wearing the same outfits] and been a more enticing game than it ended up being. In the form it's in now, Rumble Roses XX is just a farcical one line comedy bit that no one in the room finds funny. As the audience we look at it and kind of grimace, but really just want the better material to hurry up and start. For all the effort that you put in you don't get nearly as much, if anything at all, back in return. Maybe developers and publishers will get the message if gamers made it clear that we want more than just bouncing big breasted babes in our games. What we do want is the same level of plot and character development that big screen movies get. We want to pop in a game and be so consumed by what is going on that we CAN'T stop playing it, we have to know what happens next, so we have no other choice but spending $60 bucks and 40 plus hours of our lives to get through it.
God of War has the fan base it does not just because it's a gory game. The story was emotionally involving. It drew you in from the moment the game first starting spinning your PS2. And though one of the first mini-games you play was a ménage à trois with some bare breasted and big nippled women, you kept on playing because the gameplay was solid, the visuals were gorgeous, AND the story was compelling.
The gaming community needs more games like God of War, and less like Rumble Roses XX
But that's just one gamer's [who happens to be a girl] opinion.
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