takunomi-blog/posts/Dr. Advanced Wargroove: Orcs and Humans.html

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/62nqJxq3E-4" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<time datetime="2017-03-02">2017-03-02</time>
<p>Two days ago, this trailer was released for <em>Wargroove</em>, a new turn-based strategy game for <em>Switch</em> (and other platforms, but whatever). I, like so many others, lost my shit, since it looks incredibly good and I am fucking <strong>starved</strong> for more <em>Advance Wars</em>. And, let's not kid ourselves: <em>Wargroove</em> is <em>Advance Wars</em> in everything by name, according to the trailer.</p>
<p>Yet, being okay with this, made me wonder</p>
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<p>Why the fuck am I okay with this being a complete rip-off?</p>
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<p>It might be a bit harsh, but I think the developers can handle it. They're making a fantastic looking game that everyone will love. My question above, is really: Why is it sometimes okay to be a blatant rip-off, and sometimes the worst thing ever? <em>Oceanhorn</em> is obviously a rip-off of Zelda, but in that case it makes me go &quot;yuck!&quot;.</p>
<p>There might be several factors, including randomness. Sometimes effort shines through. The original real-time strategy game was <em>Dune 2</em> and being the first, invented a new game genre. Yet for some reason, two years passed before <em>Blizzard</em> released <em>Warcraft: Orcs and Humans</em>, which, by definition almost, had to be considered a rip-off. What probably made a lot of people forgive <em>W1</em>, was that in that age, being a rip-off took a huge amount of effort, and <em>W1</em> is such a better experience to play, that there almost isn't even a comparison to make.</p>
<p>Tile-matching puzzle games too, are a genre rife with rip-offs, and yet some titles are totally forgiven. <em>Dr. Mario</em> shares a playing-field setting with <em>Tetris</em>, but the mechanics of playing it and the aesthetics make it quite different, and saying it was <em>Tetris-like</em> seems like more of a description short-hand than a criticism. <em>Puyo Puyo</em> built on the <em>Dr. Mario</em> mechanics, and based the success of <em>Street Fighter 2</em>, decided the correct way to differentiate itself, was to as visually appealing as SF2, but with the gameplay of <em>Dr. Mario</em>. It's been so popular over the years, that games seem to have to show how they're not just <em>Puyo Puyo</em> rip-offs, even though that itself isn't even that original.</p>
<p>Trying to figure out where some game draws its inspirations form can also lead to embarrassment. <a href="https://rainingblobs.itch.io/raining-blobs"><em>Raining Blobs</em></a> by... Raining Blobs (Really?), initially made me think of it as yet another <em>Puyo Puyo</em>, but speaking to the creator, I became aware of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zK1WChpy58s"><em>Pnickies</em></a>, the far less known <em>Compile</em> (creator of <em>Puyo Puyo</em>) game that <em>Raining Blobs</em> had gotten its mechanics from. Suddenly social situations became a factor in the idea of when something is a rip-off: Some games are hard or impossible to play in certain parts of the world, and Compile were never good at getting their games to the Balkans. If <em>Raining Blobs</em> (the creators, not the game) wanted that sort of gameplay as <em>Puyo Puyo</em> or <em>Pnickies</em> might have, making it themselves was a decent course of action. <em>Raining Blobs</em> (the game, not the creator) by the way, is really good. Like, amazingly tight and stuffed with content and <a href="http://www.whompcomic.com/2014/04/02/kokoro-shaped-box/"><em>kawaii shoujo</em></a>.</p>
<p>So <em>Wargroove</em>? I want it to be the Fantasy Wars to <em>Advance Wars</em>, that <em>Warcraft: Orcs and Humans</em> was to <em>Dune 2</em>. Even if it isn't though, I guess I don't care in this case. It looks great, and <em>Intelligent Systems</em> sure aren't fulfilling my needs right now.</p>