I have to assume Kaz Hirai still occasionally wakes up in a cold sweat after dreaming he's back on that stage, trying to drum up enthusiasm for RIIIDGE RAAACER all over again.
@@bloodkip9462 I'm not sure how much this has to do with it, but this being 2007 - 2008, nostalgia for previous generations of systems *really* hadn't hit the mainstream yet. That wasn't until about 2013 - 2014, when prices shot up. I used to buy older games (PS1 era and older) at yard sales for peanuts, kinda like buying $1 DVDs at yard sales now. 2003 - 2008 were amazing for an early retro gamer.
You know. When you watch the whole presentation you will notice there is nothing cringy or weird about it. He was just showing the PSP backwards compatibility with Ps1 games and nobody was laughing or making fun about it. The same goes for the "Giant Enemy Crab" line. Taken out of context sounds silly or funny, but when you watch the presentation and notice it was just part of Genji 2´s gameplay presentation, it turns the most normal of things.
it must have been completely crazy at the time that you couldnt shoot the animals it would obviously never going to do well specially considering this was in the wake of call of duty. people did not want to just take pictures back qthen
@@kingkoopa64 yeah but i doubt people would complain if next by the nikkon-700D w/ 20x telescopic lens you had a Remington 700 .308 magnum option to choose
One thing that genuinely *does* look technically impressive for the time is the absolutely insane draw distances. Views like at 16:02 with that genuine sense of the massive flatland in front of you were extremely novel at the time, and goes a bit of a way to explain why the actual graphical presentation of the game is somewhat low quality for the time period.
While watching this video, I was struck by this game's color palette in comparison to other games of that time frame. Y'know, when so many games had that almost monochromatic brown palette (or green if your name was Fallout 3)?
@@chadkingoffuckmountain970He supposedly had a speech lined up but then he heard the price of the Saturn and decided to do his 299 thing. What a Chad.
@@JDelwynn3rd generation cockiness happened to all the companies. Sega it was the Saturn, Sony had PS3, Nintendo had the 64 and Microsoft had the Xbox One. Each one seemed to come off previous generation of success where they could do no wrong. They each decided to do something crazy thinking they can pull it off, Sega it was pricing and rushing it out ahead of the competition. Sony it was pricing and not enough IPs ready for release window. Nintendo it was sticking to cartridges in era of cds which were cheaper and bigger storage. Microsoft it was too many things to list including “always online entertainment center” and trying to sell 2nd hand games licenses. So yeah they all had the arrogance to try some stupid ideas 😅
This era was so interesting in retrospect. I remember people immediately losing interest in this when we learned it was a photography game. Games like Prince of Persia '08 and Kirby's Epic Yarn experimented the idea of games where you can't die, and many rejected this as dumbing them down. The term "walking simulator" was coined to deride games where you just experienced a story with no physical conflict. And of course there was the rise of casual games with the Wii, web games, and mobile games. A common discourse during this era was, "What actually counts as a real game?" And for many, the only acceptable answer was, "Hardcore games for hardcore gamers such as myself." Guns, violence, high-octane action, difficulty, that was a true video game! That mindset hasn't completely gone away, but these days it's pretty much dismissed as a bunch of angry teenagers, whereas back then it was actually seen as a serious perspective worth considering. Like you said, players would be far more open to a concept like this today.
The thing is, they had a built-in formula for this sort of game already existing in Pokemon Snap for the Nintendo 64! Yeah, this is about real animals rather than fictional animals, but they still absolutely could have done an on-rails photography (perhaps in a safari jeep?) game with interesting events to keep players interested rather than have the free-roaming game that we ended up with that simply didn't.
"Games like Prince of Persia '08 and Kirby's Epic Yarn experimented the idea of games where you can't die" - Um... what. There were plenty of games before that where you couldn't die. The 90s point and click adventures were in part a fight between ones where you could never fail and ones where you could run into a game over.
Honestly, as a Aussie professional photographer, i want this haha. You never see this level of attention to photography. I feel the sheer amount of driving (with loading) may get jarring though.
Especially those long loading screens. I feel they were a few generations ahead of the graphics, with current gen, this concept could be done much more realistically.
@@HOTD108_ Same as truckers playing Euro Truck simulator i guess ha. Plus my work doesn't usually have Zebras and Hippos. The sandwiches of my corporate events i shoot pose less excitement than that (though the curry egg does have a spicy kick to it)
Peter, I admire your optimistism with these games. Even if they have problems you always talk about them in a way that gets me curious to explore it for myself. Thanks for the wonderful content as always.
i've been on safari & for 2008 this game's an absolute masterpiece in terms of realism. the terrain, the number of animals onscreen - that's Tanzania, recognizable even through the constraints of the 7th gen. feels like somebody had a great vacation & made a game about it.
These videos often feel like an ode to what every video game thought it could be but sadly, would never get to be. Thanks for playing them and making this content.
There is definitely a bigger audience for this kind of game nowadays and I'm kind of surprised that there hasn't been an attempt at something similar since.
I'm so glad to see this game receive your attention! I've always had a fascination with it, but never had the chance to play it. I was lucky enough to meet the composer Wataru Hokoyama a long time ago at a Video Games Live show. And he told the story of how he signed on to do the music for Afrika and studied the different instruments and compositions of the different cultures there. But the kicker was after it released, he was contacted by Capcom because they were developing a game set in Africa. So they mentioned the title and sent him some preview stuff to take a look at. He then jokes that he took a look before bed, had a nightmare, and then called Capcom back to say "I don't know if I'm fit for Resident Evil, but I will do it", citing the nightmare as reason to sign on. I'm sure he was joking and embellishing a bit, but he was so nice and friendly about the whole thing, I like to believe it actually happened that way!
The soundtrack is fantastic. Not often talked about either. I could totally see an remaster or using the UE5 engine, flexing the engine off in 4K. Expanding the idea with more territories/countries with the Aussie outback, Rocky Mountains, or even the Artic.
@@minimmekinda figured it was that or the animal clips around you like most racing games. I'd be VERY shocked if you could run over an animal in a game that national geographic sponsors
From your explanation, I wonder if the dev team just couldn't handle creating any sort of AI. The animals don't interact with each other or do "special set-pieces". Sounds like they had to fix it by doing these scripted events instead.
The best subscription on my TH-cam whatsoever. Great research, fitting gameplay footage, amazingly inspiring thoughts by minimme and most importantly, the footage ran on original hardware. Keep it up my dude!!!
Honestly, this game deserves another shot. Maybe with another team behind the wheel this time though. There's very clearly potential in a game about wildlife photography- I mean, Pokémon did it and people loved it
As an animal lover and reptile keeper this is genuinely compelling. If they included a jungle biome and/or more macro-lense style stuff for smaller animals, id try to get my hands on a copy for sure. Taking pics of snakes and crazy lizards, eapecially from other continents, would be cool. Unfortunate how many people immediately went all sadistic lol, very weird and creepy but maybe im the weird one haha. Edit: Plus you drive a Suzuki Jimny a car I love but we dont get here in the US anymore outside old imports because Consumer Reports screwed us all lol
I honestly believe the PS3/360/Wii era was the last truly exciting time for gaming. It was diminishing returns after that. Sure we had plenty of awesome games after that but I'm referring to that feeling of anticipation and excitement for a new gen of gaming.
Oh wow i always wanted know about this game. Thanks for making this! I remember you talking abour possibly making a video over it during the Rome ps2 game live stream. Glad you were able to make it.
I kinda agree with 'cozy games' being very popular they could easily make a sequel to this, but maybe with less realism add a bit more to do outside of the photography such as finding things to help build up your base of operations or something like that (a little bit Stardew Valley meets pokemon snap with real animals) or add a secondary character who fights off poachers
First saw this game on Sony's E3 2006 presentation, I feel like I was the only one to correctly guess what the gameplay was gonna be like. Wish I had a PS3 back then, this actually seems like a game I'd have loved.
I found an Asian copy of this game at a used game store for $30 complete. It being called Hakuna Matata threw me a bit but I recognized the font on the spine and knew what it was. Needless to say, I bought it.
That is the version I bought and it was in full English which was perfect. I also bought it early on when the online was live so I was able to take part in the photo competitions. I even won one, but not being in Asia I wasn't able to claim the prize.
That Tsetse camera is a Minolta, possibly a Maxxum STsi/Dynax 404si. All the Sony cameras in the game are also Minoltas - they bought Minolta in order to get into camera manufacturing, and all the first Sony A-mount models were designs Minolta had been working on before the sale. Minolta made the first SLR with in-body autofocus, the first digital camera with sensor-shift stabilisation (all Sony SteadyShot implementations are descendants of this) and they had a good few lens-based firsts too. And Saul Bass designed their logo!
There was another game similar to this that was released for the PC and Wii called Photo Safari Africa - Wild Earth. In that game you were tasked with taking specific pictures with set pieces for a magazine. Once the mission was finished you could even read the articles, which were quite lengthy. I like these sorts of games. They're a little niche and sometimes bare bones but they have a bit of nostalgic, simplistic charm to them
it's such a treat seeing your editing grow and evolve. from a minimalistic text on the screen before, now it feels like a documentary in a weird way, i really enjoy it
I remember following this game quite intently back in the day. The graphics looked amazing for the time and I was quite into photography during that period. I was really looking forward to it and was so gutted it never got a PAL region release.
I think a hypothetical polished version of this would appeal specifically to my dad, who spends his free time up in our local mountains photographing the local critters and picking up interesting rocks to show my mom.
It's so frustrating when games with interesting concepts like this have so many missed opportunities and bad decisions lol. I love that Suzuki though, shame it's boring to drive like you said. And I absolutely agree with your enthusiasm about games that clearly did their research to show a realistic place and/or time period from the real world. Learning about stuff we wouldn't experience in real life otherwise and knowing that what we are playing in the game is attempting to be accurate is really cool.
bought it when it dropped in the US. I remember that the slowness and load times were extreme. also I remember getting up in a waterbuffalo's face to take a pic and it got mad & charged me, lol. that was the best.
Sony has always had a bit of an artsy streak with stuff like this, I just miss when that was interesting and not chasing the prestige television audience
i love this channel because its takes a game i have only heard of in passing makes me wanna go and buy it then makes me question why i wanted to play this jank in the first place by the end of the video, your videos are always a treat
It amaze how you and @Thorhigheels talk about the same game but having 2 different approaches but trying to show us what the game was trying to do, great video man
Seeing Encarta footage felt like my soul left my body and travelled to early 2000s. The feel, UI, all that was so unique to this day. Wikipedia could never.
I do travel photography as a hobby and I played this game a lot when I was younger before picking up my first camera. Must have left an impression! Thank you for your video! Great work as always.
See this is why you're the best minime. This sort of historical archiving even for the most obscure of games, in an obscure genre (edutainment) is going to be useful one way or another.
honestly, if they made something like this I would love to play it. It sounds great simulating the experience of going out and taking pictures at beautiful location. Adding in the progress in graphics they could probably simulate a couple of cameras and their lenses with all the quirks and features to give every photography fan something to love. And for everyone else it could be a great and soothing experience just watching a digital forest or mountain area or such filled with life and natures beauty.
I feel like the mid to late 2000s offered this perfect balance of development cost, uncertainty and risk tolerance. Games were cheap enough to produce but brought money enough to be a serious topic everyone wants a piece of and also unknown enough to take a risk (which wasn't too expensive) This Game is a great representation of that and I enjoyed hearing about it!
This is genuinely a cool idea for a game, I would really love to se a more modern take on this with all of the features you described. Not necessarily live service, I'd rather new areas/animals get added in as their own stand-alone expansions. But everything else, online sharing, editing photos, and just having an open world to explore and take photos of things you find sounds really fun. I mean, my partner and I already joke that filling out the compendium is the main goal of BotW and TotK lol.
thank you for this hard work, you seemed a bit sad last stream then you canceled the next stream so i hope you’re in better spirits and energy! take care my brother 🙏
I remember wanting to play this game even after learning it was about photography, but I lost track of it before it released and never did. But it's kind of astonishing to learn how similar the game theHunter: Call of the Wild is to Africa. The plodding pace. The devotion to realism that causes game mechanics to be opaque and/or clunky. But also the unique and rewarding progression of understanding new techniques and unlocking new gear that genuinely expands your horizon. What's funny is that the hunting game has a camera feature too. So if you really wanted to, you could probably ignore missions in favor of just taking photos of animals, basically recreating Africa in another game.
This reminds me of a game I played way back, which I had to look up and am glad I found pretty quickly. "National Geographic Sea Monsters" where it had you play as some prehistoric sea creatures. This game was as goofy as they get and very flawed on so many levels, but I still remember having a blast playing it because you got to play as all these unique creatures and actually learn about them somewhat. It even had you unlock new creatures with defferent "abilities", like one was very fast and could jump across the water and the last one you unlocked could even walk on land for a bit. I loved when games where just weird like that.
This actually sounds kind of fun? A nice wholesome experience to shoot with your camera instead of a hunting rifle. And nice touches to be able to upgrade your camera and those National Geographic covers with your pics is a fun detail. Not really the sort of game to pull an intense all-nighter with, but more something to enjoy with the kids for an hour or 2? Plus it looks pretty good for that time.
Damn man you put it perfectly with the missed opportunities and how back on the day gamers just dismissed it because you can’t kill animals I guess... I’d still like to try the game though. A modern version could have no load times, better driving mechanics like Uncharted 4 jeep section, and animal interactions like huge packs running and hunting/interacting dynamically. Could be incredible
9:19 OMG, you just unlocked a part of my memory I've spent years trying to figure out! The Encarta thing was the program I used the most when visiting my aunt, and I remember how scary and uncanny it was, specially bcuz of just how alone I was in those worlds, and I always expected something to jump at me, but it never did.
I'm a photography hobbyist, and I agree that waiting for the perfect opportunity to take a photo of something is very rewarding. I have an OG 30mm film camera, so waiting in anticipation for my photos to develop always makes or breaks a photo session for me. I'm always asking myself if the photos I took came out alright or have I ruined perfectly good shots with my sweaty shakey hands. I'd have LOVED this game if I had enough spare money to buy it when I had a PS3 for a very brief period (used PS3, the fat one with PS2 backwards compatibility that died about 3 weeks later; thankfully I got a full refund at the store I bought it from). It would be cool to see a sequel/spiritual successor to Hakuna Matata for the modern era because, nowadays, there are so many ways to share images and videos, like a whole career mode that goes open world like BOTW, you can choose which platforms you want to sell your media to, and without any restrictions on what you can photograph and where you can drive your buggy in the game.
I think a game like this would work better in the current day. In other words, there would be an open world with no loading screens. With better upgrades in terms of clothing, vehicles, camp sites, equipment (like GPS), bait, guides (that help you better around certain hotspots), dynamic weather, building ect; and then you could even have it be online, where you can stumble upon other players who are looking for the same animals like you, or compete with you in terms of the best shot/camping sites, ect; with the added bonus of rare animal sightings that are uncommon and grant you special rewards if you're lucky enough to capture it. There would be so many opportunities. And then, if you want to go even bigger - the game could then add more continents/regions down the line.
I would've loved a game like this honestly. I always like to watch wildlife in games like Far Cry, Metro, Fallout or zoo simulations and can easily see myself playing something like that. Especially without way points and stuff
This would be a fun game idea to revisit. On modern platforms, you could do stuff like drone and balloon photography and really push the animal AI and create massive herds and complicated behavior loops. Sadly, I don't think the money is there today any more than it was back in 2008.
I remember hearing about this when I was younger and was kinda sad that I never got to play it. Thanks a lot for covering this game and reminding me of it!
A sequel to this game would indeed be lovely. I have a soft spot for the Endless Ocean games, and this reminds me a lot of it. "Oh, it's Endless Ocean, but on land!"
Would love for you to tackle the Man vs Wild game! This reminds me of the level design and being a weird Nat Geo game - it will be your toughest challenge yet!
If i ever knew this game existed or there was a longplay of it i totally would have made something more in this game's camp than Pokemon Snap's when I made a photography game. Games that have some routing, timetables, and freeroam are my favorite. Combine that with meta-progress and upgrades for a thoroughly simulated mundane activity and I'm in love. I would love to know what more people would want out of this game's sequel or just wish this game did right.
I would actually love to see a modern day game like this, like Pokémon Snap but you take pictures and learn about wildlife. Maybe go to more places than just Africa too.
Would love to see something like this with modern graphics tech. There's definitely more of a market for slow-paced and relaxing games today than there was in the late 00s, especially on consoles.
I have to assume Kaz Hirai still occasionally wakes up in a cold sweat after dreaming he's back on that stage, trying to drum up enthusiasm for RIIIDGE RAAACER all over again.
"Remember that one? Guys? Hello?"
"It's powered by Namco!"
I feel so bad thinking it was dumb back then. Ridge Racer is a legitimately great game.
@@bloodkip9462 I'm not sure how much this has to do with it, but this being 2007 - 2008, nostalgia for previous generations of systems *really* hadn't hit the mainstream yet. That wasn't until about 2013 - 2014, when prices shot up. I used to buy older games (PS1 era and older) at yard sales for peanuts, kinda like buying $1 DVDs at yard sales now. 2003 - 2008 were amazing for an early retro gamer.
You know. When you watch the whole presentation you will notice there is nothing cringy or weird about it. He was just showing the PSP backwards compatibility with Ps1 games and nobody was laughing or making fun about it. The same goes for the "Giant Enemy Crab" line. Taken out of context sounds silly or funny, but when you watch the presentation and notice it was just part of Genji 2´s gameplay presentation, it turns the most normal of things.
In a lot of ways this feels ahead of its time. It's a "cozy" game, like a farming simulator or that powerwash game.
it must have been completely crazy at the time that you couldnt shoot the animals it would obviously never going to do well specially considering this was in the wake of call of duty. people did not want to just take pictures back qthen
He does prove a point there
@@kingkoopa64 yeah but i doubt people would complain if next by the nikkon-700D w/ 20x telescopic lens you had a Remington 700 .308 magnum option to choose
My dream game would basically be this, but with Dinosaurs. That would be amazing.
Harvest moon 96-97?
One thing that genuinely *does* look technically impressive for the time is the absolutely insane draw distances. Views like at 16:02 with that genuine sense of the massive flatland in front of you were extremely novel at the time, and goes a bit of a way to explain why the actual graphical presentation of the game is somewhat low quality for the time period.
Yeah, it's competition was Oblivion's pea soup mountains
While watching this video, I was struck by this game's color palette in comparison to other games of that time frame. Y'know, when so many games had that almost monochromatic brown palette (or green if your name was Fallout 3)?
Still seems pretty brown to me, it's just way more subtle than it's contemporaries
You talking about the piss filter era?
@@HipixOFFICIAL My favorite
That was Xbox this is a PS3 game.
@@chikato7106you tried
0:24 this Sony presentation was the polar opposite of the iconic "$299" moment from the E3 for PS1 and Saturn. You know the moment I'm talking about
>Sega: $399!
>Sony: $299.
>Doesn't elaborate
>Leaves
Having two industry leader consoles in a row made Sony think that they can do no wrong.
Also the opposite of the "299" of the PS3 slim price drop that helped bring the PS3 back
@@chadkingoffuckmountain970He supposedly had a speech lined up but then he heard the price of the Saturn and decided to do his 299 thing. What a Chad.
@@JDelwynn3rd generation cockiness happened to all the companies. Sega it was the Saturn, Sony had PS3, Nintendo had the 64 and Microsoft had the Xbox One. Each one seemed to come off previous generation of success where they could do no wrong. They each decided to do something crazy thinking they can pull it off, Sega it was pricing and rushing it out ahead of the competition. Sony it was pricing and not enough IPs ready for release window. Nintendo it was sticking to cartridges in era of cds which were cheaper and bigger storage. Microsoft it was too many things to list including “always online entertainment center” and trying to sell 2nd hand games licenses. So yeah they all had the arrogance to try some stupid ideas 😅
this... actually looks cool. I'd love to see something like this today but modernized and updated.
Look at photography simulator by madnetic games. Not quite out yet but looks pretty promising
Check out Alba: A wildlife Adventure. The graphics aren't realistic tho and the game is very short.
This era was so interesting in retrospect. I remember people immediately losing interest in this when we learned it was a photography game. Games like Prince of Persia '08 and Kirby's Epic Yarn experimented the idea of games where you can't die, and many rejected this as dumbing them down. The term "walking simulator" was coined to deride games where you just experienced a story with no physical conflict. And of course there was the rise of casual games with the Wii, web games, and mobile games.
A common discourse during this era was, "What actually counts as a real game?" And for many, the only acceptable answer was, "Hardcore games for hardcore gamers such as myself." Guns, violence, high-octane action, difficulty, that was a true video game!
That mindset hasn't completely gone away, but these days it's pretty much dismissed as a bunch of angry teenagers, whereas back then it was actually seen as a serious perspective worth considering. Like you said, players would be far more open to a concept like this today.
The thing is, they had a built-in formula for this sort of game already existing in Pokemon Snap for the Nintendo 64! Yeah, this is about real animals rather than fictional animals, but they still absolutely could have done an on-rails photography (perhaps in a safari jeep?) game with interesting events to keep players interested rather than have the free-roaming game that we ended up with that simply didn't.
"Games like Prince of Persia '08 and Kirby's Epic Yarn experimented the idea of games where you can't die" - Um... what. There were plenty of games before that where you couldn't die. The 90s point and click adventures were in part a fight between ones where you could never fail and ones where you could run into a game over.
@@0002pA He said "this era", I'm assuming 2006 to 2012.
@@XenonG Yeah, but as I just said, that concept has been around since the 90s.
Walking sims at the time didn’t apply to puzzle games. Even if they didn’t have combat.
Unless, they were first person
Honestly, as a Aussie professional photographer, i want this haha. You never see this level of attention to photography. I feel the sheer amount of driving (with loading) may get jarring though.
I really want to see how taking pictures is in the game, a have an old Sony a350, wonder how similar it will feel lol
Especially those long loading screens. I feel they were a few generations ahead of the graphics, with current gen, this concept could be done much more realistically.
Why would you want to play a video game that's just stuff you already do in real life?
@@HOTD108_ to do them without the stressful and tiresome consequences of real life, it's called simulation for a reason
@@HOTD108_ Same as truckers playing Euro Truck simulator i guess ha. Plus my work doesn't usually have Zebras and Hippos. The sandwiches of my corporate events i shoot pose less excitement than that (though the curry egg does have a spicy kick to it)
I regularly think about this game a few times a year, whether I want to or not
Peter, I admire your optimistism with these games. Even if they have problems you always talk about them in a way that gets me curious to explore it for myself. Thanks for the wonderful content as always.
i've been on safari & for 2008 this game's an absolute masterpiece in terms of realism. the terrain, the number of animals onscreen - that's Tanzania, recognizable even through the constraints of the 7th gen. feels like somebody had a great vacation & made a game about it.
These videos often feel like an ode to what every video game thought it could be but sadly, would never get to be.
Thanks for playing them and making this content.
There is definitely a bigger audience for this kind of game nowadays and I'm kind of surprised that there hasn't been an attempt at something similar since.
I'm so glad to see this game receive your attention! I've always had a fascination with it, but never had the chance to play it.
I was lucky enough to meet the composer Wataru Hokoyama a long time ago at a Video Games Live show. And he told the story of how he signed on to do the music for Afrika and studied the different instruments and compositions of the different cultures there.
But the kicker was after it released, he was contacted by Capcom because they were developing a game set in Africa. So they mentioned the title and sent him some preview stuff to take a look at.
He then jokes that he took a look before bed, had a nightmare, and then called Capcom back to say "I don't know if I'm fit for Resident Evil, but I will do it", citing the nightmare as reason to sign on.
I'm sure he was joking and embellishing a bit, but he was so nice and friendly about the whole thing, I like to believe it actually happened that way!
Dude! WTF! I can’t believe you met the composer! I wish I could talk to him! The music is unreal I’m this game.
The soundtrack is fantastic. Not often talked about either.
I could totally see an remaster or using the UE5 engine, flexing the engine off in 4K. Expanding the idea with more territories/countries with the Aussie outback, Rocky Mountains, or even the Artic.
Sounds like you want a remake, not a remaster.
The soundtrack is an unbelievable masterpiece. I’m not even kidding.
Be honest with us, you tried to run over the wildlife at least once right?
hahaha you got me. the game just immediately stops you in your tracks and you get told to watch out
@@minimmesmh the nanny state strikes again
@@minimmekinda figured it was that or the animal clips around you like most racing games. I'd be VERY shocked if you could run over an animal in a game that national geographic sponsors
Can you just get a picture of the Suzuki jimny for the cover of national geographic?
@@ExtraThicccYou run over an animal and you get a warning, you do it again and the wardens start hunting you and the game turns into Far Cry 2.
From your explanation, I wonder if the dev team just couldn't handle creating any sort of AI. The animals don't interact with each other or do "special set-pieces". Sounds like they had to fix it by doing these scripted events instead.
first thing that came to mind too, that stuff is extremely hard. there's a reason we're still playing stalker till now
The best subscription on my TH-cam whatsoever. Great research, fitting gameplay footage, amazingly inspiring thoughts by minimme and most importantly, the footage ran on original hardware. Keep it up my dude!!!
I remember watching my brother play this game. Man this brought back memories.
You genuinely make the most interesting game video-essays on this platform
Honestly, this game deserves another shot. Maybe with another team behind the wheel this time though. There's very clearly potential in a game about wildlife photography- I mean, Pokémon did it and people loved it
As an animal lover and reptile keeper this is genuinely compelling. If they included a jungle biome and/or more macro-lense style stuff for smaller animals, id try to get my hands on a copy for sure. Taking pics of snakes and crazy lizards, eapecially from other continents, would be cool. Unfortunate how many people immediately went all sadistic lol, very weird and creepy but maybe im the weird one haha.
Edit: Plus you drive a Suzuki Jimny a car I love but we dont get here in the US anymore outside old imports because Consumer Reports screwed us all lol
PS3 was so ahead of it's time, it single handedly got me back into gaming. What a time to be alive lol. Awesome video mate.
I honestly believe the PS3/360/Wii era was the last truly exciting time for gaming. It was diminishing returns after that. Sure we had plenty of awesome games after that but I'm referring to that feeling of anticipation and excitement for a new gen of gaming.
@@jonbourgoin182 Let me guess, you grew up during that era, right? If I am right, then I posit to you that the two things are not a coincidence.
@@jonbourgoin182shareplay though
@@HOTD108_the console wars ended right after so he has a point
The PS3 getting you back into gaming and not the PS2 is crazy.
Oh wow i always wanted know about this game. Thanks for making this!
I remember you talking abour possibly making a video over it during the Rome ps2 game live stream. Glad you were able to make it.
I kinda agree with 'cozy games' being very popular they could easily make a sequel to this, but maybe with less realism add a bit more to do outside of the photography such as finding things to help build up your base of operations or something like that (a little bit Stardew Valley meets pokemon snap with real animals) or add a secondary character who fights off poachers
First saw this game on Sony's E3 2006 presentation, I feel like I was the only one to correctly guess what the gameplay was gonna be like. Wish I had a PS3 back then, this actually seems like a game I'd have loved.
I found an Asian copy of this game at a used game store for $30 complete. It being called Hakuna Matata threw me a bit but I recognized the font on the spine and knew what it was. Needless to say, I bought it.
That is the version I bought and it was in full English which was perfect. I also bought it early on when the online was live so I was able to take part in the photo competitions. I even won one, but not being in Asia I wasn't able to claim the prize.
I enjoy having captions and seeing what you adjust or cut out from your script lol
That Tsetse camera is a Minolta, possibly a Maxxum STsi/Dynax 404si. All the Sony cameras in the game are also Minoltas - they bought Minolta in order to get into camera manufacturing, and all the first Sony A-mount models were designs Minolta had been working on before the sale. Minolta made the first SLR with in-body autofocus, the first digital camera with sensor-shift stabilisation (all Sony SteadyShot implementations are descendants of this) and they had a good few lens-based firsts too. And Saul Bass designed their logo!
Would love a modern version of this game very “Hunter Call of The Wild with realism setting” but for photography and I’m all here for it
There was another game similar to this that was released for the PC and Wii called Photo Safari Africa - Wild Earth. In that game you were tasked with taking specific pictures with set pieces for a magazine. Once the mission was finished you could even read the articles, which were quite lengthy. I like these sorts of games. They're a little niche and sometimes bare bones but they have a bit of nostalgic, simplistic charm to them
it's such a treat seeing your editing grow and evolve. from a minimalistic text on the screen before, now it feels like a documentary in a weird way, i really enjoy it
I remember following this game quite intently back in the day. The graphics looked amazing for the time and I was quite into photography during that period. I was really looking forward to it and was so gutted it never got a PAL region release.
I think a hypothetical polished version of this would appeal specifically to my dad, who spends his free time up in our local mountains photographing the local critters and picking up interesting rocks to show my mom.
very happy to see the giant enemy crab opening this video. what a golden age
You've been killing it with the edits and video style lately mini. Great job!
It's so frustrating when games with interesting concepts like this have so many missed opportunities and bad decisions lol. I love that Suzuki though, shame it's boring to drive like you said. And I absolutely agree with your enthusiasm about games that clearly did their research to show a realistic place and/or time period from the real world. Learning about stuff we wouldn't experience in real life otherwise and knowing that what we are playing in the game is attempting to be accurate is really cool.
Thank you minimme for describing real-life pokemon (animals) in terms I can understand as a gamer
One of your best videoes. I really liked the art analysis, your essays have grown so much.
I cant believe we never got a sequel to Tokyo Jungle, it had such a good base and couldve been so much more :(
bought it when it dropped in the US. I remember that the slowness and load times were extreme. also I remember getting up in a waterbuffalo's face to take a pic and it got mad & charged me, lol. that was the best.
Got an NTSC copy of Afrika in my display case. Found it at a local Game exchange for around $55 during the lock downs.
Sony has always had a bit of an artsy streak with stuff like this, I just miss when that was interesting and not chasing the prestige television audience
9:20 HELL YEEEEEAH. Encarta was so cool! I'd spend hours reading about the most random stuff -- it singlehandedly inspired my love of trivia.
i love this channel because its takes a game i have only heard of in passing makes me wanna go and buy it then makes me question why i wanted to play this jank in the first place by the end of the video, your videos are always a treat
It amaze how you and @Thorhigheels talk about the same game but having 2 different approaches but trying to show us what the game was trying to do, great video man
idk why but the crouching down and taking a candid pic of your suzuki at 14:25 reminded me a lot of MGSV.
Seeing Encarta footage felt like my soul left my body and travelled to early 2000s.
The feel, UI, all that was so unique to this day. Wikipedia could never.
I cant believe they "metroid" your camera at the start.
I do travel photography as a hobby and I played this game a lot when I was younger before picking up my first camera. Must have left an impression! Thank you for your video! Great work as always.
I feel like your channel preserves game history for titles be otherwise forgotten
I love this game! It's got it's rough patches, but overall I had a blast when I played this :D
Aww yeah, Giant Enemy Crab opening!
See this is why you're the best minime. This sort of historical archiving even for the most obscure of games, in an obscure genre (edutainment) is going to be useful one way or another.
Your overly personal and comfy nature of explaining things is what draws us to your videos bro, keep it up❤
Never gonna let Minimme forget about Sims 2 DS.
Never gonna let you down.
honestly, if they made something like this I would love to play it. It sounds great simulating the experience of going out and taking pictures at beautiful location. Adding in the progress in graphics they could probably simulate a couple of cameras and their lenses with all the quirks and features to give every photography fan something to love. And for everyone else it could be a great and soothing experience just watching a digital forest or mountain area or such filled with life and natures beauty.
I feel like the mid to late 2000s offered this perfect balance of development cost, uncertainty and risk tolerance.
Games were cheap enough to produce but brought money enough to be a serious topic everyone wants a piece of and also unknown enough to take a risk (which wasn't too expensive)
This Game is a great representation of that and I enjoyed hearing about it!
This is genuinely a cool idea for a game, I would really love to se a more modern take on this with all of the features you described. Not necessarily live service, I'd rather new areas/animals get added in as their own stand-alone expansions. But everything else, online sharing, editing photos, and just having an open world to explore and take photos of things you find sounds really fun. I mean, my partner and I already joke that filling out the compendium is the main goal of BotW and TotK lol.
yup this game NEEDS a sequal
I can never click off one of these videos, always draws me in with the context and premise.
We had these Encarta tours in my school, I never managed to find them again, thank you so much !
I feel like i haven't seen one of your videos in awhile glad to see you in my feed again
This conceot could 100% work today with modern tech and game design
I would argue Red Dead 2 is the interactive wildlife sim of today
That E3 presentation sounds like a meme goldmine from the bits of footage you showed alone
this game looks like something i'd really enjoy on a night where i cant sleep (if it was being read from SSD)
thank you for this hard work, you seemed a bit sad last stream then you canceled the next stream so i hope you’re in better spirits and energy! take care my brother 🙏
I remember wanting to play this game even after learning it was about photography, but I lost track of it before it released and never did. But it's kind of astonishing to learn how similar the game theHunter: Call of the Wild is to Africa. The plodding pace. The devotion to realism that causes game mechanics to be opaque and/or clunky. But also the unique and rewarding progression of understanding new techniques and unlocking new gear that genuinely expands your horizon. What's funny is that the hunting game has a camera feature too. So if you really wanted to, you could probably ignore missions in favor of just taking photos of animals, basically recreating Africa in another game.
The second I saw that crisp 1080p Sony conference footage I thought, "Thank you NoClip!"
Fun fact, TseTse is a name of the fly (the first camera is branded TseTse)
Miss minimme probably loves the art theory talk. Got my heart pumping
Oh man I remember getting on the school computers during the 2000s to explore random historical locations on the encyclopedia
If released today as a safari simulator with latest graphics this would bang. Having been to the Masai Mara on a safari I would play this game 100%
This reminds me of a game I played way back, which I had to look up and am glad I found pretty quickly. "National Geographic Sea Monsters" where it had you play as some prehistoric sea creatures. This game was as goofy as they get and very flawed on so many levels, but I still remember having a blast playing it because you got to play as all these unique creatures and actually learn about them somewhat. It even had you unlock new creatures with defferent "abilities", like one was very fast and could jump across the water and the last one you unlocked could even walk on land for a bit. I loved when games where just weird like that.
Minimme series is so chill and fun and funny. It's great stuff. I wish TH-cam would tell me when it's posted.
Great video man, as usual. Watching your vids never fails to chill me out
This actually sounds kind of fun? A nice wholesome experience to shoot with your camera instead of a hunting rifle. And nice touches to be able to upgrade your camera and those National Geographic covers with your pics is a fun detail. Not really the sort of game to pull an intense all-nighter with, but more something to enjoy with the kids for an hour or 2? Plus it looks pretty good for that time.
I demand a remake of this game. This is one of the PS3 games who caught my attention immediately.
Spent days catching bees inside bottles in this game
Damn man you put it perfectly with the missed opportunities and how back on the day gamers just dismissed it because you can’t kill animals I guess... I’d still like to try the game though. A modern version could have no load times, better driving mechanics like Uncharted 4 jeep section, and animal interactions like huge packs running and hunting/interacting dynamically. Could be incredible
Afrika looks incredible here. The graphics and the animations are very good. Incredible how much the PS3 is capable of back then.
9:19 OMG, you just unlocked a part of my memory I've spent years trying to figure out! The Encarta thing was the program I used the most when visiting my aunt, and I remember how scary and uncanny it was, specially bcuz of just how alone I was in those worlds, and I always expected something to jump at me, but it never did.
I'm looking forward to Ha2na Matata
Underrated comment
has to be the most eloquent creator on TH-cam, 10/10 content yet again sir
I feel that games like this really got the concept of virtual photography rolling before it was a thing
I'm so glad people remember that glorious PS3 console release. Giant enemy crab was top tier.
I'm a photography hobbyist, and I agree that waiting for the perfect opportunity to take a photo of something is very rewarding. I have an OG 30mm film camera, so waiting in anticipation for my photos to develop always makes or breaks a photo session for me. I'm always asking myself if the photos I took came out alright or have I ruined perfectly good shots with my sweaty shakey hands.
I'd have LOVED this game if I had enough spare money to buy it when I had a PS3 for a very brief period (used PS3, the fat one with PS2 backwards compatibility that died about 3 weeks later; thankfully I got a full refund at the store I bought it from). It would be cool to see a sequel/spiritual successor to Hakuna Matata for the modern era because, nowadays, there are so many ways to share images and videos, like a whole career mode that goes open world like BOTW, you can choose which platforms you want to sell your media to, and without any restrictions on what you can photograph and where you can drive your buggy in the game.
I think a game like this would work better in the current day. In other words, there would be an open world with no loading screens. With better upgrades in terms of clothing, vehicles, camp sites, equipment (like GPS), bait, guides (that help you better around certain hotspots), dynamic weather, building ect; and then you could even have it be online, where you can stumble upon other players who are looking for the same animals like you, or compete with you in terms of the best shot/camping sites, ect; with the added bonus of rare animal sightings that are uncommon and grant you special rewards if you're lucky enough to capture it. There would be so many opportunities. And then, if you want to go even bigger - the game could then add more continents/regions down the line.
I would've loved a game like this honestly.
I always like to watch wildlife in games like Far Cry, Metro, Fallout or zoo simulations and can easily see myself playing something like that.
Especially without way points and stuff
Kudos for using the unearthed HD version of the Sony 2006 E3 conference
This would be a fun game idea to revisit. On modern platforms, you could do stuff like drone and balloon photography and really push the animal AI and create massive herds and complicated behavior loops. Sadly, I don't think the money is there today any more than it was back in 2008.
I remember hearing about this when I was younger and was kinda sad that I never got to play it. Thanks a lot for covering this game and reminding me of it!
the clunky car mechanics aren't a mistake - suzuki jimnys just drive like that
A sequel to this game would indeed be lovely. I have a soft spot for the Endless Ocean games, and this reminds me a lot of it. "Oh, it's Endless Ocean, but on land!"
You’ve done it again!
Would love for you to tackle the Man vs Wild game! This reminds me of the level design and being a weird Nat Geo game - it will be your toughest challenge yet!
If i ever knew this game existed or there was a longplay of it i totally would have made something more in this game's camp than Pokemon Snap's when I made a photography game. Games that have some routing, timetables, and freeroam are my favorite. Combine that with meta-progress and upgrades for a thoroughly simulated mundane activity and I'm in love. I would love to know what more people would want out of this game's sequel or just wish this game did right.
Jimnys are hilariously slow. That might be accurate :) This looks like some weird game you'd find on Dreamcast. Shenmue and Polyphony vibes.
I would actually love to see a modern day game like this, like Pokémon Snap but you take pictures and learn about wildlife. Maybe go to more places than just Africa too.
Would love to see something like this with modern graphics tech. There's definitely more of a market for slow-paced and relaxing games today than there was in the late 00s, especially on consoles.