Modern games are rubbish

Back in the day, one of my favourite Super Nintendo titles was an imported shoot 'em up construction kit. Building impossible scrolling shoot 'em ups for your friends and then watching them die horribly and repeatedly as your jaws of death closed in on them half way up the screen was a thrill unlike any other, and I still maintain that my original shooter is a better game than X-Wing Versus TIE Fighter… What the construction kit really proved though was that building a computer game for yourself is almost as much fun as playing it, particularly when all the programming graft is taken out of the equation. Enter, er, Enterbrain, with PlayStation 2 contender RPG School 5 (as it will be called in Japan). This latest title in their role-playing game development series is extra specially exciting, because Agetec is currently in negotiations with Enterbrain to release the game in the West! Players - well, developers - can create role-playing environments in a full 3D engine by placing objects and generating a story. Weather effects, lighting and the topography of the levels can also be manipulated. If RPG School 5 does make it to the West, perhaps I'll be able to create a proper follow-up to Stinging Ninja Phantom Monkey Blaster, but in a different vein…