opfexo.blogg.se

The story concerns our favourite (read: Only) virtual actress Laura. By which I mean it’s a standard story told really wierdly…

This is kind of a pity given that Enemy Zero from a mechanics and gameplay standpoint is possibly the tightest and most interesting of the Laura trilogy, including an array of unique twists on gameplay conventions on top of a story that has the somewhat faint honour of being the most straightforward of Eno’s ouvre. Very little of this has to do with the game though, which like all WARP games was released to mixed reviews and limited success outside of Japan.

The announcement and subsequent reaction of the Sega exclusive at a Sony trade show is legendary, and the fact that even after that he had major shareholders at Sony going to bat for him is kind of a testament to the man’s almost rock star aura. To put a long story short, they made about a quarter of the games they could have sold and Eno, rightfully pissed, did a deal with Sega to publish a game for the blind and donate Sega Saturns, as well as publish the anticipated follow up to D, Enemy Zero. The Sega Saturn and PC versions were released to mild success in the US but the Playstation version came with a few problems (as detailed in the write-up on Eno’s life). But it was around this point that D was being ported to other platforms by Acclaim. Well, the actual follow ups Oyaji Hunter Mahjong and Short WARP don’t really count, since neither left Japan, and the latter had an incredibly limited run of 10,000. So how would Eno follow up a game like D? How could he? By taking a lighter to a rather lucrative bridge.

D was the first big hit, the game that sent his name out there into the virtual aether, with a sweeping tale of virtual actress cannibals being a surprise hit. WARP month continues with Enemy Zero, a very divisive game from the ever divisive Kenji Eno. Welcome to Isometrics, the hyperWARPed historical look at the literary world of video games. Enemy Zero: More than an FMV-laden publicity stunt? Isometrics tackles invisible aliens, sweeping space soap opera and Michael Nyman in order to find out what’s what…