The Nintendo Gamecube was the first gaming console my brother and I ever bought with our own money. Until that time, we’d made do with the few consoles we’d been fortunate enough to receive as gifts (a NES and a N64) and a gaming PC that was, in fact, the product of cannibalizing three broken PCs into one, mostly functional PC. We all saw the Ganondorf tech demo, and the Eternal Darkness fog demo, and made the conclusion that the Gamecube was going to be the system we would invest in (plus I mean, we already had these other Nintendo systems).

So we saved our money, and just a little over a year after the system released, when public opinion had already turned and nobody seemed that interested in the system anymore (or more accurately “nobody,” because I think the backlash was probably smaller than I thought, and was a sign of the sickness that permeates the industry ideologies even today, but definitely in the previous two generations), we picked up a refurbished Gamecube for $100 sometime in December 2002. We had, through obligation (or at least through a desire for cheaper games), subscribed to Game Informer at the time, which is why when news of the Capcom Five broke the month before, I had looked at some early concept screens for Killer 7 and thought to myself “yes, this is a game I will definitely buy for the Gamecube, when the time comes.”

2002 is a long way from 2005, however, which is when the game actually released, and I’d moved away to New York for college and started playing World of Warcraft—so very, very much World of Warcraft, such a stupid, stupid amount of World of Warcraft—and did not in fact have a television to hook my Gamecube up to (not until later in the year, anyway, and it didn’t matter at that point because we were busy hooking up Xboxes to play Halo 2 multiplayer, and did I mention World of Warcraft?), so by the time it actually released I missed its arrival completely, and instead spent time in the goddamn Molten Core for like 8 hours a day. Fuck the Molten Core, is what I’m saying.

I spent the next year drinking heavily in Oxford and fully committing to the sophisticated aesthetic that Oxford brings (i.e. passing out in gutters, but they were brick-layed gutters from the late 19^th century—such history!), but I’d also become convinced that I should study postmodern literature, which led me almost inevitably back into Killer 7’s orbit. I’d even looked up the website for the game (which is still around!) and watched the trailer; promised a “surreal action adventure” I of course felt the desire to play it almost immediately.

YEAH, look at that. That looks crazy. Comparing it to the first trailers that released for the system is also pretty fun:

Check out that old Garcian! Also, Kaede is wearing trousers. It was a different world.

As it turned out, a friend of mine owned the PS2 version, and so while relaxing at his apartment one day I popped it in and was almost instantly disappointed. The opening cutscene was suitably bizarre, and I liked the style, but the graphics seemed muddy, and the controls on the Dualshock 2 were sluggish (I also really just don’t like the way the sticks on the Dualshock 2 felt), so I played a little bit of it (through the tutorial and up to the second or third floor of the apartment building) and then shut off the console, feeling cheated. I looked up a bunch of reviews of the game, and was pleased to find most publications indicated that the Gamecube version of the game looked and played better.

Obviously I would need to hunt down a Gamecube copy of this game which, I was warned by the internet, was getting fairly rare and hard to find. It became the thing I’d look for whenever I happened to be in the store for something else, and eventually I saw what I so desired: a copy in the bargain bin at my local Gamestop for $10 (well, $9.99, but you get the idea). I snapped it up immediately and rushed home to throw it into the Wii (the Gamecube having been donated to a friend of ours who really wanted to play the Resident Evil remakes). The game loaded up and I was basically lost for the next week (possibly longer). The Gamecube controller is a unique beast, something commented upon this last UPF, and for me remains one of my favorite controller designs. Much like Killer 7, it doesn’t make immediate sense just looking at it, but once you start playing a game that knows what the controller is everything falls into place. Metroid Prime especially applies to this, as I remain stunned at the appearance of an exploration-based FPS that tied movement and aiming to the same stick without being a complete pain in the ass to use (and this is post-Halo, which basically set the standard for how a FPS should control on a console). I don’t know if it is my favorite controller now—I think I probably enjoy the Xbox One’s controller the most these days—but every time I pick up a Gamecube controller there’s an almost immediate familiarity and feeling of coming home. It was like a big old apology for how fucking weird and unwieldy the N64 controller was.

I had to know what was going on—had to get to the bottom of whatever mystery was quickly unraveling before me (who was the guy with the sparkly hand? What in the world was the nature of the seven Smiths? What did any of this have to do with Japan?), so I played it nightly, getting stuck on some things (there were a few sections that just had too many enemies for me to take down, because I hadn’t figured out the upgrade system just yet), although the game’s signposting makes it pretty clear what needs to happen to move from one section to another quickly. Some of the bosses were exercises in frustration (that goddamn parking lot shootout, for one), others were laughably easy (Ulmeyda), but each one was something new. When I reached the final few stages, and the Smith’s story unfolded (and Samantha died (again? Maybe?)), I was rapt, trying to figure out just what the shit was going on and why I was suddenly chasing Iwazaru through the basement of my trailer home. When the game’s credits rolled, I sat back and wondered what exactly I’d just experienced, having decided to allow Japan’s revenge upon the United States. Is that what I should have done? I wasn’t sure.

The title screen showed up again, yellow this time, and I launched a second game almost immediately.

Author’s Note: Apart from being a sign than I have finally disappeared up my own ass, this is also to say that I was ill last week so that’s why there wasn’t anything posted. Enough folk seem to read and enjoy these posts that I figured an explanation was necessary. I’d also like to thank you all for reading and commenting on my posts, even the more boring ones. I’m having a lot of fun trying to write something interesting every week, so it’s good to know when I’ve managed to succeed a little.

If this isn’t enough for you, my brother and I also just started a weekly podcast where we yammer about games, because that seemed like a good idea at the time. You can find it here. See you all next week! I think I will give Killer 7 a break for a bit, although there’s more to say—always more to say.

I'm with you, the GC controller was oddly under-appreciated.

For me personally it was the best controller of that gen, but to be fair I didn't play many shooters. I think the trigger buttons and the US's love affair with the First Person Shooter that led people to dismiss it as a second tier controller of its' day.

You know I don't remember what I decided to do at the end of Killer 7. Kinda forgot there was a choice there until you mentioned it.

Never has the phrase "Method to the madness" been more apt. Playing the first stage of Killer7, you are completely lost, and have a lot of, what seems as the time, nonsense just thrown at you. A pulsating blue moon, weird cutscenes, changing characters causes you to explode in a shower of blood (I love that goddamn effect so much), and maniacal laughing invisible enemies. However, the more you play it, the more you realize that there is a pattern beneath the game, especially in the way it presents story and characters, and that there is a deep story, one that works on multiple different levels. There is the story of the Killer7 themselves, the story of the wider political affairs, the story of the fight between Harman and Kun Lan and the mystery behind their true natures. And the music.

I'm sorry, any mention of Killer7, and I have to have a mini-rant about it. What I'm saying is, Killer7 is really fucking good.

Nice write-up by the way.

@adequatelyprepared: Yeah I mean, there's an absolute fucking ton of additional things you could discuss about this game--the dots of blood are one of my favorite little visual touches, and exploding into a bunch of bloody dots that reconfigure into the shape of whatever personality you're switching to... it looks so good, and ties into the whole television motif (i.e. images on a screen are a series of dots, reconfigure them and you have a new image--the Smiths are composed of a series of bloody dots, reconfigure them as necessary--and even the early messages from Johnny Gagne mention that television plays a role in the changing of personalities... I could go on, but I won't because I need to sleep at some point and when it comes to Killer 7 it is hard for me to stop talking about it).

@slag: Yeah it kind of comes out of nowhere--there's been no indication that you will have any sort of real control over the narrative's direction until that final moment. It's weird; given the gameplay was one of the final things they locked into when they designed the thing, I wonder if there was a plan to have more in there. Also yeah I think the Gamecube controller was probably the one that felt the best suited to the games on its platform--although I have a real soft spot for the old giant Xbox controller, since my hands are pretty huge. I'm frankly surprised that Nintendo managed to put off having a more "traditional" looking controller layout for so long, I mean even the original Xbox controller was pretty obviously taking some cues from Sony (mostly in terms of button layout).