Suteki

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Among the other things that have been put on the back burner of my life lately is video games; after treating myself to a Wii after slogging through that miasma of an election cycle, I pretty much let it collect dust from early February until this past weekend. I’m finishing up my “weekend off” where I didn’t have any real work to do for teaching; tomorrow my classes end and I get final portfolios, and of course those will keep me occupied for the next week as I get final grades for the semester calculated. Since I had a few days off here, I busted the Wii out, nought a couple of new Virtual Console games (I don’t understand how my gaming skills on so many other games can die so easily, but for some games, like Super Mario World, it’s like I never stopped playing them), and tried to decompress. As with sports, however, I feel like video gaming may be something that’s becoming much less important in my life, as I have other things to do that I feel are of more importance and are more fun to do.

(Of course, when I say “video gaming,” I’m not counting dance games, which for me are about exercise. To that end, this past month I finished collecting and assembling all of the items for a PC-based setup, which means that now I can add the songs I want — if I want to play Björk and Tori Amos songs now, all I have to do is rip the tracks and make stepcharts for them — and I don’t have to deal with the deficiencies in all the home versions of the arcade games I’d been collecting for so long. I haven’t had a chance to use this setup as much as I’d like lately — I’ve been busy, and the weather and other factors haven’t been cooperating — but it’s finally rekindled my passion for that, so I hope I can get back on my diet soon and start taking all of this weight off.)

I guess that as fun as the Wii is, though, I’m still just fascinated by the general design of it. I’m not the Japanophile I once was, but there’s still something about the general aesthetic of some Japanese goods that appeals to me. Too often, Japanese video game stuff that has come here has been “Americanized” and, I feel, made worse; I’m specifically thinking about the redesign that the Super NES went through from its Japanese roots. The Anerican Wii’s menu retains the soft curves and somewhat ethereal background noises of its Japanese counterpart, though, and I really appreciate that. I understand that this is probably a small thing for most people, but honestly, if I’d had to put up with generic nu-rock every time I turned my Wii on, I don’t think I’d be half as likely to play it. The same holds true for the design of the various channels; there’s something distinctively Japanese about them, and not only do I find it more soothing than the kinds of menus that American designers develop, but it’s a nice change of pace from what I’m used to on my PC and my other video game consoles.

When I first got Wii Fit, I was especially pleased with the voice that’s used during the body test. I’ve always been fascinated at how differently female Japanese voices sound compared to female American voices — something I’ve attributed to various factors, such as lower rates of female smoking in Japan and different cultural expectations — and the difference means a lot to me. I guess this may be due to me getting into anime in the mid-90s, back when the English dubs that were being done were mostly horrible. Anyway, I really like that Nintendo put a similar voice in Wii Fit (although the non-body test voices are definitely more American), and I like that it keeps with the Japanese aesthetic of the game’s visuals.

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