If I needed saving, I would have done it myself!

There's quite a bit of opposition to Anita Sarkeesian's first video in her Kickstarter-funded project to increase the awareness of gender tropes in video games, and for good reason. Over $150,000 was poured into the creation of this series, and it seems like the first impression it made upon many viewers is that she went and pissed it away on a shiny new soapbox. If you haven't seen the video yet, I highly recommend you do so now before continuing on with this entry.

Anyway, when an individual wishes to educate the masses about... whatever, one of the most important things to remember is that it's usually beneficial to everyone to maintain a relatively neutral stance. People must be allowed to come to their own conclusions. This isn't to say you should never inject your opinion into a discussion, but, if you do so, then the audience should be allowed to do the same in response to it. As you may have noticed during the video, Anita has disabled comments, statistics, and ratings. In fact, everything she uploads onto YouTube shares this characteristic. While it's true that a viewer can go elsewhere to be heard, minor and unnecessary inconveniences like that one only help to deter others from wanting to hear what she might have to say.

Moving on to the video itself, Sarkeesian starts her series by focusing upon damsels in distress. There's no denying the significance of the trope. It's a quick and simple plot used in numerous games, because it allows the player to understand the purpose of the protagonist without having to watch some lengthy in-game opening before diving into the action. From there, all Anita needed to do was give some examples, discuss the issues surrounding it (for both men and women) and thank the audience for watching. It seems like a simple enough task, but the girl's got an ego to feed, so, instead, she goes into a moderate amount of detail about games like Dinosaur Planet, Donkey Kong, Super Mario Bros, The Legend of Zelda, and Double Dragon in order to prove her point that the video game industry is reinforcing the belief that women are the weaker sex. One could say that she's focusing directly on the damsel, rather than on video games as a whole, but as the video nears its end, her point takes a turn towards a more generalized perspective as she addresses the world's overall treatment of women and how video games are part of the problem. It was at this point when I couldn't help but think about all the female protagonists many gamers have already seen in a variety of titles throughout the years. Games where a woman is tasked with having to save herself, a kingdom, the planet, or even time and space apparently mean nothing, because, as far as Anita is concerned, that protagonist isn't specifically rescuing a single, helpless man. Seriously, even if the trope actually did have some sort of negative effect, where's the proof? Allow me to use the United States as an example. America has been exposed to video games for over 30 years. Since this is the largest gaming market in the world, one could assume that if there really was a problem, America would be the country most likely to prove it, right?

So, now to get into the detailed content of her "research", Anita makes an attack on Nintendo based upon Miyamoto's comment about Dinosaur Planet and upon the changes that were ultimately made to turn it into Star Fox Adventures. I can understand her dislike of that scene where Fox is shown staring up at Krystal as she's trapped inside a giant crystal. It's even mocked (fairly well, too) in a flash collab organized by Kirbopher about various Nintendo games. While Anita probably sees this as more evidence to prove that women are just sex objects or prizes in video games, I'm going to say that it was either a poor attempt at humor (which would explain the saxophone playing in the background) or an early attempt to help quell any insinuations some might have made about four guys spending a great deal of time together in space. After the release of Star Fox Command, we now know better, but, unfortunately, Amanda cannot be unseen.

Thanks Q-Games. Thanks,Nintendo.

The most probable reason I can think of for the change was because Nintendo already had an anthropomorphic fox protagonist, and utilizing the name of Star Fox to help increase potential sales is just smart business. 

When Sarkeesian began attacking the old Double Dragon opening and how it has remained unchanged in later recreations of the beat'em up, I found myself asking: "Yeah, why would all these remakes of the same game include the same scene of Marian getting punched in the gut?" Of course, if I'm going to ask that, then I might as well be asking, " Why does Obi Wan have to die at the hands of Vader in every remastering of Star Wars?" The original game came out in 1987. An in-game plot, especially one played in an arcade at the time, needed to be quick and simple. You think I or any other gamer wants to stand there and wait for a five- or ten-minute cut scene to play out that effectively ensures no one will be offended by the content? Imagine if Technos Japan and Taito took that a step further by trying to incorporate the notion throughout the entire game.

See that? Even generosity offends people!

Sarkeesian took this clip and proclaimed it as proof that women are portrayed as weak and inept victims in games, and thanks to her, I now realize there's clearly no other way to interpret those ten seconds. Why argue with thorough research, right? Well, I'll throw an idea out there anyhow because I'm a stupid male who enjoys typing stupid things.

Watching a female get hurt, human or otherwise, was heavily frowned upon in the states back in those days. If it did occur, it was at the hands of a villain, and even that was preferably kept at a minimum. Woman abuse in America was becoming a relatively hot topic back in the 80s, so it was probably a better idea to avoid showing images of females getting beaten up to the impressionable youth. Some of those brats might actually think, "Hey, let's pretend we're in this game and start slapping a bitch around!" Kids are idiots. Never forget that! Over in Japan, it didn't seem like the market was all that concerned about allowing their females to get beaten up. Hell, a lot of anime revolves around only having girls fight. This was not something shared by us over in the states, and one of the most well-known examples of this would be Poison from the Final Fight series. Capcom wanted to include a female in the Mad Gear gang, but when Nintendo voiced their concerns for its release in North America, Capcom tried to claim her as being a guy in women's attire. Obviously this wasn't good enough, so both her and Roxy were replaced with male sprites named Sid and Billy. Another example is found in the first American-released sequel to the Super Mario Bros. series. Birdo, as many gamers have noted before, is referred to as a male in the original manual (and labeled incorrectly as Ostro), but is now generally referred to as a female in most other titles, which is reinforced by the use of female voice actors for her dialogue. There is an exception to this in the Japan-only game Captain Rainbow, though I can't help but speculate that this might have been done solely for comedic purposes. If I were to take a guess, I'd say the North American branch of Nintendo didn't like the idea of watching Mario's group repeatedly nail a girl in the face with eggs, turnips, and mushroom blocks until she was literally knocked right off the screen. There are games from that era that feature female enemies, but the actual abuse you inflict upon them is usually no where near as graphic as they would be in a beat-em up or, in Birdo's case, a platformer. One example is Final Fantasy. Two of the four fiends (Kary and Tiamat) that the Warriors of Light must defeat are female, but the only thing we see during combat is a flickering portrait on one side of the screen responding to one of the party members swinging their weapon into the open air. In Battletoads, the Dark Queen's sprite barely moves, and it certainly gives no indication that she's actually been hurt. Whereas striking the final blow on any other enemy sends them blasting off again like Team Rocket, she just floats right back up in the air, says a few things, then goes spinning up into space. Yeah, if you haven't seen it, she turns into a yellow twister, so I'm assuming she spins, but the actual movement is just a single image being flipped horizontally a bunch of times. In her final scene, Trademark doesn't even go that far. The single frame of her twister just slides off the screen as Prof. T. Bird arrives to pick up the toads.

Things changed gradually as the industry entered the 1990s, with titles like Fire Emblem and Shining Force actually showing the female characters being struck, but still resulting in a flickering portrait, and, a few more years later, gamers witnessed females participating in all sorts of titles that provided far more detailed reaction to abuse, like watching Chun-Li flinch when struck, lie unconscious on the ground after being defeated, and sporting a bump on the head during her game over screen. Still, compared to the other portraits, it looks like her pride is hurt more than her actual body. 

Actually, all of these fighters got off lucky compared to poor Blanka.

Just look at those eyes. They remind me of a scene from Total Recall.

If we're going to make silly assumptions about what is seen in a video game, then I think Capcom is trying to tell the world that women should be doing all the fighting. Clearly, it doesn't take much to break a man's face, and if that man is also a mutant, then he should be wearing a helmet at all times.

Despite having typed all this, I still have no effective explanation for Linda Lash in Double Dragon. The player can clearly see this woman (and her clones) getting punched, kicked, and tossed around like every other gang member they come across. Granted, she's got a bit of muscle (Marian doesn't) and is given a more butch look for the console games, especially in the first sequel, but her sprites are still visibly feminine.

The most noticeable change to Linda in her recent design is that she now possesses a slimmer body that helps emphasize her chest and hips. Was this decision made to reinforce unrealistic beauty standards or was it done to reinforce the belief that a female does not need to look or act like a man in order for her to be viewed as strong and powerful.

Anyway, I am starting to forget what point I was trying to make, so I'm going to move on to a few exceptions of the trope, something that Anita only provide one of (Super Princess Peach), and only did so to further support her bias against men in the second video.

Seen here, Peach exhibits four different types of anger, because, just like a real woman, she is never happy.

For examples of role reversal, an excellent place to look would be in Chrono Trigger. At least three times do we see a man (or men) being rescued by a woman. First, if Crono stays in his cell, Lucca will actually bust into the prison by herself to help him escape. Even if you insist on trying to escape with Crono, Lucca will already be at the entrance, standing beside an unconscious officer. Second, when the king is put on trial for a crime he didn't commit, Marle comes crashing through a large window in the courtroom to not only rescue him, but also to expose the chancellor for what he really is, a liar liar with his pants on fire! The third example involves the introduction of Ayla to the party. When the gang is unable to defend themselves against a relentless assault by the reptites, she drops down into the middle of the fight and clobbers every enemy herself.

Another, slightly newer, example can be seen in Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance. Early into the game, your entire party (including the leader, Ike) is weak and vulnerable with the exception of Deputy-Commander Titania, a pre-promoted knight who not only acts as a life-saver for inexperienced players, but is also a must-have for surviving the Hard and Maniac versions of the first seven to thirteen missions. She is so strong, in fact, that it's recommended for players to remove her weapon until mission five to prevent her from stealing experience points from the rest of your group.

A different sort of exception to the trope is also a feeble excuse for me to include her in another blog entry. Katt from Breath of Fire 2 is a female Woren that your hero must defeat in a one-on-one battle before you can rescue her from being killed by Augus. It's like watching Peach tell Bowser to step aside so that she can fight Mario as the final boss. As the story goes, Katt refuses to believe Rand's story about how the manager of the Colosseum is planning to use poisonous darts to finish her off during her fight with Ryu. As a result, you now have to win the fight and then quickly push her out of the ring before she is hit by one of them. Yes, she is a female, and yes she is saved by a man, but, had she taken Rand's warning to heart, I'm fairly certainly she would have marched into the manager's office and handled the matter herself. Once Katt joins your party, you'll soon discover that she's not only the fastest one in your group, but is also strongest (physically speaking), further reinforcing my belief that any realized attempt at her life would have been met with some rather violent repercussions. 

Going back to the video, Sarkeesian goes on to point out, "It's a sad fact that a large percentage of the world's population still clings to the deeply sexist belief that women as a group need to be sheltered, protected, and taken care of by men." So, this is no longer about the trope, but about the view of women across the globe, huh? Well, you know, it's also a sad fact that a large percentage of the world's population is malnourished to the point where statistics estimate that a person will die from starvation every three and a half seconds (according to Poverty.com), but let's focus our attention on making sure the women feel empowered before they starve. If Anita truly cared about the world, she would have given that $150,000 to a non-profit organization like the WFD or maybe even Feeding America, rather than blow it on a series that viewers can't even share comments with her about, because anyone who would leave a comment that disagrees with her work must be without exception a bigot, a troll, or both. 

Now, before I end this bit of whining, I'd like to clarify a few things that no one will probably care to read about. Under normal circumstances, I don't mind if a feminist, or any other sort of -ist, makes a video online that might come across as one-sided or just idiotic by the bulk of its viewers. I don't usually care if the person disables all forms of feedback, nor do I spend much time wondering about the money that some are willing to donate to help support these videos. The only reason I can really come up with in an attempt to justify my fascination with Tropes vs Women in Video Games is that it not only includes all three factors of what I just mentioned, but that it was also given considerable attention by a variety of media sources, including The New York Times, Kotaku, The Huffington Post, Gamespot, and Digital Trends, and Anita rewarded their time and effort with a questionable and poorly-researched introduction that would have been a great deal more informative and interesting in the hands of someone who didn't feel the need to risk the validity of the piece by polluting it with their personal agenda.

For your viewing pleasure, a more notable rebuttal to Sarkeesian's first part in this series can be found here, while a parody narrated by Ebolaworld's own Sam T. Nelson can be found here. I deeply apologize to my future self, because I highly doubt anyone else will actually waste their time reading this long and boring piece of crap. Thanks.

**Update**

The continuation of Anita's series doesn't appear to get any better. Rather than point this out myself, Jagos has provided a decent argument against the validity of Anita's series, primarily for its lack of professional research, and supports his own video heavily with links to references. It's definitely worth checking out, though I couldn't help but sense a small bit of arrogance in his words, as it begins to give the impression that he enjoys hearing himself talk. It runs for nearly an hour and a half, includes an intermission for whatever reason, and is interrupted with remarks about how more will be discussed in later videos. He could have reasonably chopped off at least half an hour from Act 1, possibly filling that in with a bit of Act 2, and still have provided more than enough information to support his views against Sarkeesian and her Kickstarter project. Then again, maybe I'm just reading too much into the whole thing. I am guilty of that once a while. It's best to watch it for yourself and decide, because I wouldn't trust my opinion alone on any matter. I'm an idiot.

Necromancing my Library 3: Robowarrior

Robowarrior, or Bomber King in Japan, is a spin-off of Hudson Soft’s popular Bomberman series. I consider the use of “King” as being a bit pretentious, but the cyborg can survive a single blast from its own explosives, which is still one more than Bomberman could endure back in the 80s. Sunsoft released a sequel called Blaster Master Jr. that, again, is a title worth more than the game deserves. It was brought to the states by Jaleco, a company best known for the Bases Loaded franchise, but I'll always remember them because of this:

Watch out, we got a couple of bad asses over here!

As the story goes, overpopulation of our planet has resulted in the need for scientists to create a new world for future generations to live upon. The antagonist is the Xantho empire, an alien race from another dimension, led by Xur (A The Last Starfighter reference, I'm assuming) that takes control of the man-made planet called Altile and changes the climate to suit their own needs. Meanwhile, the former inhabitants now hide underground in fear. In response, Earth sends a single Gort look-a-like to handle the matter, because all the other cyborgs resembling robots from old films were dismantled once worldwide peace had been obtained. No worries! This is the strongest robot warrior ever created… I think, which is why he was given the most colorful laser gun Toys "R" Us had to offer and sent into space riding a ship whose design appears to be loosely based upon the Millennium Falcon, which was inspired by a hamburger.

Basically, the story here is something any fan of sci-fi could have written during the commercial breaks of a Battlestar Galactica episode.

You control ZED, an acronym for Z-type Earth Defense, but since this is the American-given name, I’m going to make a wild guess and believe that it was inspired by David Zed, which none of you reading this may know is a mime from the 70s whose shtick was to get on stage and act like a cyborg. In 1980, he was also recognized for his song R.O.B.O.T. at the Sanremo Music Festival. 

ZED is dropped off in a cleared area surrounded by a forest that seems to be unaffected by the climate change and is welcomed by the survivors with a couple of goodies sprawled out on the ground. You won’t meet any of these people, because no one in their right state of mind would stand around a monster-infested area waiting for a guy whose idea of a greeting includes gunfire, explosions, and, worst of all, a pie plate salad he made during the trip.

No thank you. I already had a big helping of Scrapple right before you arrived.

Once you leave the screen, you have a significantly smaller bit of room and enemies will start flying across the screen to help chip away what little amount of health you are provided.

“…but Jerod (probably pronounced as “Jer-ROD” just to spite me), I’ve played Bomberman before, and it’s only the first level, so why should I read anything you have to type about the matter?”

First of all, no one reads this blog, so that question is moot. Second, the game forcibly causes ZED to move backwards a space whenever a bomb is planted, and you’re given minimal time to escape the blast. That smooth, bomb-dropping movement fans are accustomed to from the original series is removed. I don’t recommend ever using more than one bomb at a time unless ZED is properly shielded. Without recharging his batteries, two hits from his own weapon will end the game, and the explosion doesn’t appropriately blow the body to bits, either. Instead, it causes ZED to fall flat on the dirt while an annoying tune plays you off to the title screen. I can only hope you enjoy that piece of music more than I did. You’ll hear it quite a few times.

That's it? No boom?

The enemies you face don’t seem to follow any particular theme.

These are all the basic enemies throughout the game.

This may seem odd at first, but imagine if our planet invaded another and we released an assortment of dangerous beings to infest their ecosystem. Sharks, mosquitoes, honey badgers, airborne viruses, anyone from Japan, tree frogs, non-tree frogs, tree frogs that feel like non-tree frogs in tree frog bodies, tapeworms, lions, tigers, bears, Bronies, seals, salamanders, penguins, jellyfish, candles, vultures, elephants, snails, gorillas, protozoa, lawyers, owls, snowmen, platypuses, paper airplanes, Raggedy Ann, cats, bats, rats, the cast of All That, spiders, lemurs, boars, waffles, hawks, bass, Necco Wafers, Ford Pintos, and, if we have the technology to cross dimensions, then we probably have the ability to mass produce ZEDs that might actually be able to fight… or, at least, be turned into walking bombs offering hugs to the locals while being set to explode at the push of a shiny red button with a smiley face on it.

"Don't run! We are your friends!"

Since no one cares that a plant can feel pain, ZED’s strategy is to clear his own path through the trees, leaving a trail of craters in his wake. In retaliation, some of the alien wildlife will fire at your fragile fighter from all directions, regardless of what’s between you and them, while the more dangerous enemies, the tanks and dittos, will wait patiently for you to reach them before launching missiles and turning into flying balls of fire. Your energy might be slowly diminishing as you try to find the exit, but these creatures are your main concern, so remember that.

Leading this bunch are seven bosses, three of whom are pretty much the same thing.

Another wonderful example of the "Recurring Boss Template" Trope

They can be defeated using only your basic weapon, and it’s a fine idea for the first one, Globula the giant blue blob of gaming unoriginality, but this tactic takes a while and will burn through your precious “extra” supply when used later against the other six.

A blue slime! Rarely see one of those in a video game.

Bombs are only an effective tool if you can avoid hurting yourself in the process, and everything else in your arsenal is limited to what you've collected. Here is why creatures take priority over reaching the end of each stage. With exception to the few left for him at the landing zone, all your power-ups will be hidden randomly under various breakable objects and scattered about in pitch black tunnels that ZED must also uncover. Since the key is always located in the same spot of each period, it’s tempting to head straight for it and move on to the next level, but I strongly advise against this. A similar situation presents itself in Super Mario Bros. 3. Two of the three warp whistles can be found very early in the game, but using them to quickly reach the final world will leave Mario grossly unprepared for the final stages leading up to Koopa’s castle. In both games, it’s better to collect a bunch of power-ups early in the game before heading into darker territory.

When ZED inevitably falls, continuing will merely result in restarting the period without your points. You get to keep all the junk collected, but, believe it or not, those points do serve a purpose in this game. The higher your score, the less damage you take. Still, after getting defeated a dozen times, I had a nice supply of stuff in my inventory, made better by a secret within the stage that not only cleared the screen of enemies, but also doubled the amount of most of the items I had. In moments like that one, it felt like Hudson realized how this was going to play out for a first-timer and provided that treat as a reward for not giving up and smashing the cartridge into multiple choke hazards. On the other hand, to access the bonus, one had to know to bomb the same bit of wall five times and then stand in the water. Some quickly learn at the start of period 1-1 that ZED doesn’t swim, so while it seems suspicious that a square of water is surrounded by a rock wall in the middle of the area, most are not going to think to use at least five bombs at each part of the wall to find the right one to get inside. There are other spots like this one, as well as bonus rooms, but this game isn't really  that much fun to explore. Thankfully, we now have walkthroughs! Wonderful, glorious walkthroughs!

Thank you, Strategywiki!

Taking this a step further, using a walkthrough makes Robowarrior a significantly better game to play. The real fun and challenge lies in trying to survive. Back in the 80s, this felt more like an Easter egg hunt with only one egg and you had to search an entire neighborhood to find it. Making a game “Nintendo hard” isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It worked well with Contra and Ghosts’n Goblins. The problem with Robowarrior was that its developers based their work around the phrase “finding a needle in a haystack” and thought that was a good idea. Again, just use a walkthrough. It’ll allow you to skip all the stupid searching bullshit that no one enjoyed and focus upon keeping your cyborg from getting killed. Actually, just go play a real Bomberman game, instead. It’s pretty much the same thing at that point.