ESPGaluda to be in the Smithsonian American Art Museum?

[Observer]

I mean, Shatter was probably quite a success on PC (moreso than PSN I think?), a bunch of people have it on Steam and it was even for sale as a retail game in Oz/NZ. Hell, I even won a signed copy (plus OST, plus awesome poster), you can't tell me Flow beats Shatter ffs. The shmuppy features are nice, the old Breakout mechanics mixed with insane combos and four balls at the same time add more chaos... Not to mention the co-op mode is fun as hell.

Seeing Ikaruga lose was funny too, one would expect the artfags would be creaming their pants for it because, you know, it's:

Ikaruga: THE LAST INNOVATIVE RETRO SHMUCK (c). Remember, kids, after Ikaruga nothing else exists besides Raiden IV (too retro that it makes you retro go retro) and that hentai RPG called Death Smiles (they are all over 18, I swear!).

The whole thing is a joke when half the late generations list is comprised of Square releases alone. I do not object Einhänder (gratuitous and glorious german taunting can only be matched by an equally gratuitous spanish/italian taunting or english spoken by them with heavy accents), I think it's a pretty damn badass shooter but I've always been more of a fan of Omega Motherfucking Boost with all the Itano laser/missile Circus and Kawamori's awesome mechas.

A pity about Espgaluda but the bacterions, the echoey manly announcer and Gradius V "serious business" fare obviously look more appealing to the west than a tecno-trance-house-hardcore magitech fest with transvestite bisexual fairies... or god knows what they are. It gets more points for all the loli maid clones killing but still, can't beat the good ol' "destroy the core!".

edit: I really like Espgaluda anyway, it's the only Cave shooter where I can reach the final stage without much effort... only to get crushed by the final boss.

[Obiwanshinobi]

If I understand correctly, the list is a result of voting by millions of people (and I doubt familiarity with each and every one of those 240 games was required). Says fuck all about tastes or knowledge of the individuals. The absence of Manic Miner or Jet Set Willy is baffling, but since Pitfall is better known (isn't it?), its presence shouldn't come as a surprise. Gradius V is quite likely the second best known polygonal shmup, R-Type Delta (ugly as sin) being the first. And so on, and so on.
I must admit 1943 does look good. As far as I can tell, only Gun Frontier had such mesmerising water*. As for CAVE games, I wouldn't vote for Espgaluda, ESP Ra.De. or Guwange as the gore in these looks hockey (the best looking gore in a shmup award goes to Vasara).
P.S.* Actually I thought about 19XX: The War Against Destiny - that one had gorgeous water. Still, 1943 is a looker.

[Skykid]

I can't believe MGS2 got voted in. Game is poor.

[Obiwanshinobi]

It's not about games being good or bad, it's about the artistic aspects of them. Say, the machines in Air Duel look like the have chitin armours, like Hemiptera or Coleoptera of sorts. Looking at the game in motion feels like watching some insect world and that's a high concept I dig, whether or not Air Duel is a good shmup.
I'd rather see Act-Fancer: Cybernetick Hyper Weapon up there as a bug-flavoured shooter instead of Einhänder, but the latter is better known than Act Fancer, Air Duel or Ex-Ranza.

[TrevHead (TVR)]

It's not about games being good or bad, it's about the artistic aspects of them

True, but our idea of gaming art is different to this new age art game crap like flower, flow, cloud and passage. If you consider the fact they used voting to pick the winners, with all kinds of games been picked I find the inclusion of some of the shallower more resent games to be almost offensive.

I hate bringing up XXXXXXX name up again since I dont want anyone to think im somekind of mindless fanboy of his. But the point he makes about how some ppl praise crappy art house games like Passage on par or even better then classic games like SMB, Fallout or Tomb Raider (I prefer Soul Reaver 1 myself) as in someways damaging to gaming as a whole and doing a diservice to those who make real games.

[mesh control]

I can't believe MGS2 got voted in. Game is poor.

MGS2 rocks, but it shouldn't be on this list.

[lift]

I guess this would be easier to take if they didn't just toss games in random, blanket "genres" for the hell of it. It shows a complete lack of understanding of the medium in question. Target genre? Did you mean light gun games? What are you even doing:

Action: straightforward, distinct genre.
Adventure: there are very few true adventure games on that list (Shenmue II, Grim Fandango, Monkey Island). Lots of RPGs, action RPGs and even a few action-adventure games, but they're still not adventure games.
Target: games where you shoot things. Straightforward, wholesale terminology, but still too ambiguous (Diablo II = targeting monsters!, Sniper Elite = tactical targeting!).
Combat/Strategy: the combat portion being a sub-genre of action-adventure, with strategy being its own distinct genre. It's restrictive and feasible, I guess.

It's no wonder the art community doesn't take video gaming seriously, the entire concept is completely alien to them. How did they even pool these nominees? Also: six Zeldas, open vote, Super Mario World over Yoshi's Island, no Vagrant Story, Zone of the Enders 2 or ICO, Jet Grind/Future winning nothing, Limbo being mentioned at all - lol.

Get your shit together, art community.

[Siren2011]

Did anyone see that? The Legend of Zelda: THE WIND WALKER was a winner. I don't believe I've played that one.

These idiots have no idea what they're doing. Remind me never to take anything Smithsonian-related seriously.

And lift, Ico shouldn't be considered video game art IMO. That game is boring to the extreme. It's a shame, because the atmosphere is breathtaking. The same goes for SOTC. They were both great concepts, but they suffered from tedious battles and backtracking (SOTC to a lesser extent as far as the battles are concerned. Ico was especially painful in that regard. I mean just tap one button to fend off simple enemies. Snoooore).

On another note, where in the FUCK is Godhand?

[Obiwanshinobi]

It's not about games being good or bad, it's about the artistic aspects of them

True, but our idea of gaming art is different to this new age art game crap like flower, flow, cloud and passage. If you consider the fact they used voting to pick the winners, with all kinds of games been picked I find the inclusion of some of the shallower more resent games to be almost offensive.

Again, this is neither about the art of game design, nor about significance of given titles for the history of gaming. Has anybody read the text above the list?

The games were selected based on a variety of criteria, including visual effects, creative use of new technologies, how the game fit into the nerrative of exhibiotion, and how the world events and popular culture influenced the message of the game.

This is not even about good quality. Museums are not only about showcasing good stuff. In the context of that exhibition, pretentious games with very little substance from gamers' point of view, games making a high concept their selling point etc. should be also included as examples of certain phenomenon.
There was an exhibition of modern art with all sorts of multimedial stuff, including video art, machinima, as well as a PC with an explorable Duke Nukem 3D map depicting the exhibition area. I doubt the visitors thought about it as turning Duke Nukem 3D into a work of art. Rather, it was considered an example of artistic exploitation of just another medium. The qualities of Duke Nukem 3D as a game, or the playability of that particular map had nothing to do with it.
Clay can be an artistic medium too. If it was a clay-themed exhibition, you could include buildings, musical instruments, pots, sculptures and whatnot based not just on the craftsmanship they display. Jōmon pottery isn't very well baked (or so I think; I'm not an expert), but asking why the fuck do they show something that'd fall apart if you tried to boil water in it would be a misunderstanding.

[Age of Kings]

This younger generation loves crap games.

[TrevHead (TVR)]

@ Obiwanshinobi: Yeah I get you bud, maybe i am been too critical and would probably see it all in a different light if I was to see the exibition personally. Personally ild still of prefered no games included that have been made since around 2001 - 02 and more home computer games other then PC and C64.