However, there is something I’d like to say about this particular video & song though, since this is a perfect opportunity to do so, and that is that this is not as fanboy-ish as it may appear to be, or that you may be led to believe by reading through the numerous comments (btw, there are just over 440 comments for this video). No, rather it was my critique of where I saw the video gaming industry going heading into this generation, not what I wished or hoped necessarily, but just what I think would play out. I intentionally didn’t say anything really disparaging or hateful about the other companies if you really listen to the lyrics, which I tried really hard to rhyme with or mimic the original lyrics as close as possible. So, this is what I‘m gonna do, I’ll break the song down completely for you, these are the lyrics for the song (with the original lyrics in parentheses underneath):
*** Please keep in mind that this was written around Aug or Sept 2006 ***
Sony’s got a toy with a big price, prayin’ their machines’ gonna be the big gun some day.
(Buddy you’re a boy make a big noise, playin’ in the street gonna be a big man some day)
But they’ll have egg on their face, they’ll cry in disgrace, if Blu-Ray ends up losing this new Beta race.
(You got mud on your face, you big disgrace, kickin your can all over the place)
Translation: PS3 cost over $600 ($700+ here in Canada) when it came out. For a video game machine. For, technically speaking, an electronic toy. And of course they hoped it would be the #1 machine. But they would look pretty bad if it failed due to Blu-Ray not catching on as widely as they had hoped, like what happened to them with Betamax in the 80’s. No bashing, no ridiculous comments, just a thought of what could happen to them this generation, ‘cause they seemed to be going after a different market altogether that Nintendo, or even Microsoft, was. Read: they shouldn’t underestimate Nintendo this generation, or be so confident that people will spend whatever on anything PlayStation, as has been the case thus far in the past, because the Blu-Ray drive in the PS3 initially drives the price too high for the average gamer, and that will look like a poor decision should Blu-Ray fail. Whew! That’s what those two lines meant, not “OMG. PS3’s too $$$. Sony Sux”, or anything like that. Next, Xbox 360:
Microsoft’s the young man, rich man, they got into the game and took the world online to play.
(Buddy you’re a young man, hard man, shoutin in the street gonna take on the world some day)
They drew first blood in this race, can they keep up the pace? I hope they don’t mind ending up 2nd place.
(You got blood on yo face, you big disgrace, wavin your banner all over the place)
Translation: MS is the young man, that is, the newest player of the 3 in the home console arena, the rich man because, well, I shouldn’t have to tell you, and once they got into gaming they showed people how to take console gaming online the right way, with LIVE, and continued that great implementation (actually improving it) with 360. They came out first, by a whole year, of the three, but would they keep selling as many consoles as they were once these other two machines came out? They were the leader by a mile at the start of this generation, but there was a danger they may lose their chart-topping position once the affordable Wii, and powerful PS3 were released. These two lines I don’t believe need much “this isn’t a fan boy rant” explanation, as they are actually relatively pro-Microsoft in a way. Now, the Nintendo verse:
Nintendo is the old man, wise man, and their big surprise was to change the whole way we play.
(Buddy youre an old man, poor man, pleadin with your eyes gonna make you some peace some day)
They’ll put a smile on your face, through innovation and grace, this system could put them back into 1st place.
(You got mud on your face, you big disgrace, somebody better put you back in your place)
Translation: Nintendo is over 100 years old, hence the old man, wise man line, and of course they surprised everybody when they unveiled the Wii Remote at E3. They touted the machine as a ‘revolution’ (~_^) in gaming, and every picture of someone interacting with the remote showed a big goofy smile on their face (this is especially evident in all of Nintendo’s promotional materials for Wii). The Remote was definitely innovative, and it looked like many movements in some games required a certain grace to pull off, that could only be done with such a controller (again, this is what most pre-launch videos and materials highlighted). And after their slow sink to the bottom of the industry (for home consoles that is, starting with N64, leading to the disappointment of GameCube), this super-hyped, so-called-revolutionary ‘’new-gen” machine could be just the thing to catapult them to the top spot once again. That’s what those two lines meant.
Of course, between each verse there was the ‘Wii Will Rock You” chorus’, which really refers to the gaming industry, and the other companies, in general. It will “Rock You” in the sense that it will be a huge wake-up call to the industry that graphics and power are not the be-all end-all in videogames, but rather its the content and gameplay. And that you can expand the market too, bringing in more gamers who feel “rocked” by how playing on Wii ‘feels’, compared to more traditional games. That pretty much sums that up I guess.
So, the whole song was based on what had been shown prior to launch, the gaming climate at the time, and what I thought would happen at the start of this generation. Again, not what I wanted or hoped to happen like in a fan boy-ish type of way, just pure speculation. I’ll say this though: I’m a video game fan boy, that is, I’m a fan of gaming in general, not individual profit-based corporations. I play everything from Wii to 360 to Dreamcast to PS2 to DS to whatever, all the way back to Atari 2600, you name it, I have that system (except for Neo*Geo, or, yet, a PS3), and play it, and love it, ‘case I’m a gamer, dammit.
Yeah, this song was a funny idea, and I still stand by it as a parody, but I don’t like the unnecessary fan boy connotations & branding that comes with it. I was trying to think of a way to make a video that praises PS3, or even 360, just to make it all even, but I thought why bother really? The only person who’s gonna call me a Nintendo Fanboy is either a Sony or Microsoft Fanboy, so really, who am I trying to please by doing that? Exactly, it pointless, so I just say enjoy it if you dig it, go find a Pro-Sony or MS video if you don’t, but please listen closely to the lyrics before slinging accusations around. I don’t mean just me personally, I mean the whole internet. There’s an almost tourette’s-syndrome-like thing online that causes people to brand others blind fan boys if they simply claim to ‘like’ something. It’s really quite silly.
Well, that’s all the time I’m gonna spend typing about that, I feel I’ve explained myself rather thoroughly there, and well, you can think whatever you like. The funny thing about everything though? It’s almost like I wrote a prophecy or something (OK, I’ll calm down), because nearly everything that I said could happen, did, in a way. Weird, man. I did have an idea a couple months back for a follow-up to this video, a sequel if you will, done with the other half of the song, “We Are The Champions” (with ‘We’ changed to ‘Wii’, of course), and even wrote half of it out (I’d definitely say it was much, much funnier than this one too), but I nixed it. Only a pure Nintendo Fanboy would make a video like that. ;P
-Kimo
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