I've heard the word "emblematic" at least four of five times this week.

I've heard it in reference to Obama's juggling act, balancing health care left-leaning tendencies with Trip-To-Afghanistan right wing pacifying. One of the guests on 1up.com's Active Time Babble said that Mass Effect 2 and Final Fantasy XIII were emblematic of the current streamlining trend in RPGs. Two family members used the term at a recent birthday party. And I used it when I wrote this sentence to a friend: “Dynasty Warriors: Strikeforce is emblematic of bad game design everywhere.”

Along time ago Resident Evil 2 and RE: Code Veronica made waves in the gaming world. They helped turn the Resident Evil franchise into the juggernaut it is today. Capcam is no stranger to milking the Resident Evil franchise for every last dollar and drop of gameplay. It must seem like a pretty good deal to the company: they produce titles on the Wii that wouldn’t quite fit in elsewhere, and fans of the series (and old-school light gun games) get a helping of “new” zombie action.

Gas Powered Games puzzles me. They’re inextricably linked to some powerful bits of gaming history, most notably Total Annihilation. They’re also responsible for my favorite guilty pleasure, the streamlined, beautifully realized Dungeon Seige series. After the il-advised and completely underwhelming Space Seige, they’ve re-focused on RTS’s, producing the massive Supreme Commander series and the DOTA-like (but original and excellent) Demigods. With Supreme Commander and Demigods, they experimented with the “RTS” as we see it. I’ve come to think of them as an old school PC gaming company that doesn’t mind learning new, exciting tricks.

No More Heroes was an entertaining, genre-refuting, tongue-in-cheek, satiric video game. It drew on grindhouse films, neo and traditional noir, and pop culture. It was truly refreshing, especially for a title released on the Wii circa 2008. The game had a reputation before it was even released, whether deserved or not, which stemmed from Suda 51’s earlier Gamecube title, Killer 7. It arrived with a whole lot of hype and opened to joyous reviews. Post-release reviews whittled the hype away significantly, thanks to the combat’s subtle mechanical flaws, the completely broken open-world setting, and the minigames. The minigames – like most of the game – were refreshing and fun in a twisted way, but so repetitive that their charms quickly faded. Despite these flaws, No More Heroes was pretty damn good.