Forwards Compatible is a weekly roundtable discussion about thoughtful and interesting topics involving videogames. Each week a spearhead topic will be put forth and several Gametopius writers, as well as other contributors, will give their thoughts.

Jeff Grubb; Managing Editor

There have been a few, huge game changing shifts throughout the history of gaming, but the Earth-shattering, face-melting, brain-punching change that would result from Microsoft purchasing EA is nearly unfathomable. There are simply too many things to consider. What is that? You didn't hear the news? Well, looks like Microsoft would like to purchase EA. Sure, Microsoft denied this when asked about it, but since when has that ever stopped something from being true?

The purpose of this Forwards Compatible is for us to put our brain power together to help figure out exactly what a world would be like if Microsoft owned EA. It is such a jarring concept. However, I do know where to start.

I sat down last night and attempted to feel my way through the Japanese demo of Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker. Given that I had no kind of transcript and do not know Japanese yet, it was an interesting experience --- to say the least. If you still haven’t gotten your hands on the demo yet (it was released at the Tokyo Game Show this week), IGN posted it Wednesday and it can be downloaded here for free (http://psp.ign.com/articles/102/1027904p1.html).

If arthouse developer Vanillaware is known for anything, it's creating games that can aptly be described as ornate, both in the visual and tangible sense.  Among the studio's creations, Muramasa the Demon Blade stands out as perhaps the most beautiful and sensible.  Even if it doesn't completely escape the flaws of Vanillaware's brand of game design, the title ultimately prevails to fit the designation "action RPG" perhaps more than any other game I've seen.

For those not familiar with Vanillaware, they are most famously responsible for Odin Sphere - a 2007 PS2 action RPG that showed us what 2D sprites could look like on modern hardware, but was also pretty zany in its design.  A lush recreation of Richard Wagner's Der Ring Des Nibelungen, the game dragged players down a timeline of five intersecting stories over 60+ hours while making them study complicated role playing systems.

Now we get Muramasa for the Wii - a chronicle of two warriors' quests across fairytale Japan that has players gather up 108 swords.  In its core game design, Muramasa is quite tame compared to Odin Sphere, going for a more even balance between action and RPG, but it maintains the baroque presentation of its predecessors.