A few day's ago we posted an article about Publisher Reacting To Switch. At the end of the article, I posted a bonus picture I found online of the Switch Joy-Con mount as a puppy. Well...
Yep! Someone has turned that cute drawing into a super adorable Nintendog Switch plush. This adorable doodle now plush is the work of 'Anna The Red' who has a whole host of other plush for sale on her site here. Please check out the rest of her work (which includes an awesome Jak and Daxter).
Abe's Take
As a bearded 'core' gamer I am above such things as plushes... have the other core gamers gone? good! I want about 4 of these, one is going to sit next to the Switch's dock on a little shelf above my TV, Next to my Wooly Yoshi Amiibo.
Yesterday was the SNES' American 25th birthday. Lots of the web celebrated the glorious day but to us in the GK-UK office because... well the US SNES was an ugly, blocky, purple monster with disgusting Parma-Violets sweets (that I also hate) for pad buttons.
Whilst we wait till next April for the EU 25th for our full celebration I've decided to give a quick look back/review at my personal SNES highlight Super Mario World, which along side Street Fighter II was one of the most played game on me and my brother's shared SNES.
Super Mario World is the first game I have a clear memory of completing and I remember 4 year old me sinking so many hours in to it searching for hidden routes, the alternate Yoshi, and competing in home made challenges against my brother (such challenges I am certain will soon become drinking games).
SMW is an all round fantastic SNES game as the graphics, gameplay and music are all top tier. The sprite work is nicely detailed whilst maintaining the bright colours that instantly invoke memories of Saturday morning cartoons. The work that went into the art clearly paid off as the title still looks great today (for an 16bit 4:3 game in an 1080p HD 16:9 era). The music and sounds are all highly effective any body who played the game in their youth will react to hearing the Haunted House theme with a cold sweat. In fact take a listen (the below is an 60 part playlist of the entire OST, so enjoy) All the music was composed by Nintendo's own musical genius Koji Kondo, using only a electric keyboard. One thing that stuck out to me was the ways they manipulated the music to the level/events with cave levels featuring the theme slowed and echoing, where as in underwater worlds the music is more waltz like creating a wave like feel, and any time you hop on an Yoshi Bongo's accompany the main track.
The games difficulty starts nice and easy before adding in more and more levels of complexity, the difficulty curve is nicely balanced and creates a rewarding sense of progression. Super Mario World added in several new abilities for the man of 'stache included the "feather cape" which whilst initially seems to be a simply reskin of the Raccoon tail and Tanooki suit but gave greater control of Mario/Luigi's flight allowing players to gain more air by swooping down and pulling back up (a skill that would go on to serve games in other titles such as the Arkham Games) plus you know, capes are cool. The other addition that ended up sticking around was everyone's dinosaur pal Yoshi.
Yoshi gave players a larger jump, an extra hit of damage, the ability to snatch enemies at range, and an heartless ejection system: that would save Mario from a pitfall drop whilst sending his loyal dino to his doom. Yoshi also possessed unique abilities depending on the colour of the Koopa shell he was holding in his mouth. Red shells gave him fire breath, yellow shells gave Yoshi ground pounds and blue (purple) shells gave Yoshi wings, Rainbow shells gave him all the powers, and finally green shells did... well nothing you spat them back out. these abilities could also be overridden by riding one of the alternative colour Yoshi hidden in the special world. These guys would ignore the shells colour and instead granted abilities based on their own.
Super Mario World is available on the SNES, GBA, Wii, Wii U VC and New 3DS VC
So Microsoft recently released the rather lovely Xbox One S but obviously has some spare time before Project Scorpio launches next year, so what have they given their design team to do? Introducing the Xbox One...S...ie.
Yes this is actually a thing, well according to Xbox Australia Xbox Onesie's are a real thing.
So what dose the marvelous fashion statements do, aside from making you look like an Assassin Guinea Pig held by Abstergo? Well MS has nicely give out a spec-sheet for them
Enlarged pockets to fit your Xbox Controller and Media Remotes.
Arm pouch to offer quick and easy access to your mobile phone.
Roll-able legs and arms to cater for all temperatures and seasons.
Forearm grips to prevent slipping on those ‘edge of your seat’ moments.
Extra-large hood to accommodate headsets for the ultimate gaming sessions.
Customised Gamertag embroidery
Availiable in white and black
Whether we'll actually get to be able to buy these is up for debate. Xbox AUS claims its serious about these gaming PJs however there is no link to buy, pre-order, or register interest. IF these are truly coming out in the land down under then I would imagine they would also launch elsewhere too. (if not I'm sure the craft folk will quickly create their own)
If you home life doesn't look like this join my in some light crying.
If it does look like this well done and get out! we dont need your mockery.
Abe's Take
I hate this. I mean look at them big pockets and big hoods, yay innovation worthy of the gods. I also hate myself because I think I might need the white one in my life. Lets face it you walk into a room wearing one of these and the others know your not going to do anything today. No point in asking you to move stuff or do the cleaning you are clearly on a gaming mission and are far to busy to be involed in that day to day "adulting" nonsense
Now there are people who come to this site who's gaming careers started on the likes of Xbox or PS2. Whilst some of us have been gaming since the NES and Master System (Genesis to our US friends) and others have been playing on systems before the great cataclysm (also known as "Atari Shock" or "Video Game Crash '83).
Obviously there is a lot of nostalgia for the 8-bit and 16-bit era with no end of re-releases both VC and HD remakes, and Indie titles taking their inspiration from those titles. One person who obviously has ties to that era is the creator of Dragon Quest; Yuji Horii.
Speaking at a special "30th Anniversary Countdown" event Horii-San stated he would like to bring back the "Spell of Restoration" from the Japanese versions of the first two titles, to the brand new entery Dragon Quest XI. For those who don't know (which is anybody who didnt play the Japanese version of two 30 year old NES games) the "spell" was actually an password system that players used to "save" their progress. For those born after 1994 game carts didn't have batteries in their carts so players couldn't save their progress like we do now.
No idea in what form this long lost feature would take or even which version will see it on. I highly doubt they'll replace the now traditional save file but as an optional and possibly transferable option.
Abe's Take It's always nice to get a little retro blast like this when playing an new entry in veteran series like Dragon Quest.
Street Fighter is not only one of the top tier fighting franchise but also lore spinning machine, however there is a habit of not committing to it and end up creating an awful lot of questions that they tend to outright ignore.
Well after 25 years one question has been answered. Yes the fate of Ryu's Master Goken's daughter "Little Miss" last seen in SF1... wait! she vanished from the story 29 years ago in Street Fighter 1...then what is this resolved mystery from the depths of Street Fighter, is it Shen Long? Because I'm pretty sure that was why Akuma now exists.
Oh it these guys. Excuse me whilst I scream in frustration.
Right I'm back the two characters are from the opening of Street Fighter II, Their names are apparently Max (left) and Scott (right). Their profiles have been shared on the Street Fighter sub-reddit, The pages are in Japanese but I'll post the translated information and the artwork here. UPDATE: Rewrote the bio's as the translated text was the worst kind of "Engrish" and didn't make much sense, for example here is the original bio text (Original pages are linked to their names below).
MAX Boxer to be active in the heavyweight speed and technique to the weapon.
But decent influential person to participate in mixed martial arts tournament,
Behavior is poor causing the often problems are punished.
Gambling like a will is invested most of the prize money.
It is currently in the former boxer has been the bouncer of the bar.
Wage a street fight in the city of thugs opponent intense straight and opponent of the attack at high speed ducking dodge in a fine line.
Weekend seems to go the black bass fishing in the lake.
Name: Max
Height: 187cm
Weight: 93kg
Blood type: A
Birthday: April 1
Home Country: United States
Favorite things: Shiny things and gambling.
Dislikes: Serious things
Bio: An heavyweight boxer who uses his speed and technique to defeat his opponents. Despite his in ring ability his poor behaviour eliminates him from prize fights and this doesn't sit will with his gambling habits, to continue funding his gambling habit he enters the World Warrior mixed martial arts tournament.
Hey Listen! We all see all-sorts of fan made videos and content for all our favourite games. One franchise that is no stranger to fan re-imaginings is the 30 year old Legend of Zelda.
We've seen fan comics, fan art and even fan games all devoted to the love of Zelda. We've seen Zelda as a Sci-fi story, we've seen it in the style Edo period Japanese art and we've even seen western fantasy versions of the long classic series. Today's dose of weirdness comes from Dayside TV.
Dayside TV has produced this... You know what? first watch.
Yep you just witnessed (unitended pun) the Legend Of Zelda re-imagined as a modern Hong Kong crime drama. YOU. ARE. WELCOME.
Apparently Dayside TV plan on releasing the short film on the 5th of May via their YouTube Channel, here is their official synopsis for their unofficial adaption.
Link quits the police force to search for Zelda, a key person to Ganon's crime empire
Abe's Take You know what? this could be the closest thing we'll every get to a real Zelda TV show, so I'm gonna watch this.
One of the few benefits of mobile gaming (to core Gamers) is that it isn't constrained by things like "genre" or even IP's that are "active" even currently active IP's and now the ultimate glory is heading to mobile gaming... YOU WILL CLICK THE LINKS! DAMMIT
Yep looks like we've fallen in to a TIME WARP as the 1975 SCIENCE FICTION, DOUBLE FEATURE The Rocky Horror Picture Show is coming back as a touched based rhythm game perfectly titled "Touch Me". The title is in development by an independent UK studio called Rocket Lolly Games and they are describing it as a "tactile dance dance revolution" and will "give the experience of being a theater member in the show". This sounds like it will be inline with the cult classic's tone which will make it a "HOT PATOOTIE". We don't really know much such as if the legendary Tim Curry will reprise the role of Frankie but we do know we'll be OVER AT THE FRANKENSTEIN PLACE in 2017.
Abe's Take
Man I was exposed the The Rocky Horror at a young age and certainly had an effect in MAKING ME A MAN so this his huge for me (it also weirded the crap out of my friend). Phew thankfully that's over its been hard twisting this article in order to hit as many RHPS song titles as possible, its been a hard job than.... crap.... TRANSVESTITE!!!
Nintendo is probably one of the strictest yet silliest companies on the planet and this often crops up in odd ways. In this case it seems someone on the localisation team for the 3DS swear filter are fans of a certain British sci-fi comedy ( or not depending how you see it).
Nintendo's Most Wanted (Not really)
Someone on reddit has managed to find the 3DS swear list (which can be viewed here, which is obviously super duper NSFW) and buried in that list of horror and nastiness is one that utter obscenity that shall not grace your 3DS under any circumstances is...
for those to skipped the vid (in which apparently shows Kryten is running on the 3DS firmware) the word is "Smeg". Which is to me rather fantastic as it such an "out there" reference.
Abe's Take
Despite being fun this news is of cause string up a bit of "trouble" within vocal groups of Nintendo fans who are adding this to their "Nintendo is too sensitive" campaign and furthering their annoyance in their perceived censorship war on their fan base. Their argument here is pretty weak as A) Red Dwarf is currently "revived" and B) Smeg is an abbreviation of Smegma an unpleasant medical term.
Anyway its unlikely this list of blocked words will change before their mobile app Miitomo which blows my opening line plans. so excuse me whilst I rework my ice breaker.
It's often scary to realise just how much games train us in bizarre ideas. Things that at the time seem perfectly normal with in context of the game. Something that became apparent to me when playing Farcry 4, my partner asked why I was trying to kill a Rhino and my sole answer was "I need a bigger wallet"
This isn't unique to Farcry or even other "mature" titles and also just happened to be similar theme for this video but one "Source Film Maker" (Using game files to create characters for animation) Callegos-Y has created a brilliant almost Dreamworks (Ice Age, Shrek) style short using assets from multiple Zelda titles such as Ocarina of Time, Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword.
Obviously in-game we never went as far as selling the sacred stone from the Temple of Time (could we?) but everything else is pretty much spot on and is such a good quality that I suspect may pop up in places as a "trailer" for a mythical Legend of Zelda movie. Please check out some out the rest of Callegos-Y YouTube videos .
Abe's Take
Thanks to technology and fantastic games there is no end to the amount of amazing fan work coming out of the increasingly talented gaming community, Here's hoping this inspires someone at Nintendo to kick of a new era of Nintendo animations in cinemas and TV.
A Minecraft style Lego game seems like such a logical (and rather lucrative) idea, it seems like such a massive oversight in their extensive gaming portfolio. But it seems they have their reasons.
That reason appears to be us gamers and an surprising cost. Former coder from the now canceled Lego UniverseMMO, Megan Fox (this is humorous considering the upcoming issue) says the single largest cost of was removing...
Yep. Single. Largest. Cost. Let's all let that sink in there. Lego has to pay people to go though Lego Universe and remove blocky nobs . Now I know that you're thinking "Surely a computer could recognize and delete it?" but as it turns out penis builders are extremely creative and persistent. Hiding trouser snakes so they can be viewed only in certain conditions, comprised of multiple separate structures, and generally defeating the filter. Apparently it caused such an issue Lego is permanently turned off to the idea of an online creation game.
Obviously for such a company aimed at young (and not so young) children this is a big deal. Lego works hard in earning the trust of parents and unsurprising parents get a little upset when their child discovers a wang. Where as Minecraft's online servers have always been basically lawless and rather todger filled.
Abe's Take
It is rather telling/worrying that the first response to infinite creativity in public view is often "do a wang!". However the fact that Lego Universe had official anti dong removers is still very, very funny.
One of my all time zombie games is State of Decay, the greater focus on surviving as a group endeared it to me more than other great zombie games. Watching food and resources dwindle as the undead continue to grow gave me a very different sense of fear to say Resident Evil, ZombiU and Dead Rising. It was subtle but constant. However it appears a different horror was hiding.. .
When Undead Labs was creating the original game they was just a small indie studio with some big ideas, so they could focus on all the behind the scenes stuff they got an design studio to do the textures for them. State of Decay went on to be Xbox Live's second biggest title (Minecraft being No.1). It wasn't until the developers now working with Microsoft decided to port their game to the X1and upscale the original texture did they discover the true horror.
Thanks Guys
Several textures was covered in penises, Thousands of them. Which i imagine would of been a rather strange experience for dev who discovered it. The contractors have obviously been dismissed and suffice to say the unintended outbreak wont be making it into the Year One remaster when it releases in April
Abe's Take
This was one of the weirdest things I've come across this week and dose make me question about "remastered textures" in other games, Just how many Gentlemen Snakes are hiding in our games?
Street Fighter 2 was big, I mean really big. It defined what would become "modern" fighting games for the next 24 years (and counting). It defined the mechanics and the now norm "arcade tested, console refined" cycle of development and as such landed on almost every system.
I would say its a safe bet that SF2 has hit every console in some form, whether it's been one of it update versions, compilations, remakes or ports. Everything from the last gen all the way down to the 2-bit, monochrome Gameboy but one platform didn't see a port. Nintendo's first 3D system (and massive failure) the short lived Virtual Boy ("famous" for making your eyes "bleed") never saw a version of the revolutionary fighter... till now!
Two talented homebrew developers Mr Anon and "MK" have rectified that "mistake" and have created not only the above packaging, booklet and cart but also their very own version of Street Fighter 2: Turbo (titled Hyper Fighting) for the eye-destroying-black-mark-on-Nintendo's-history Virtual Boy
Obviously the guys aren't "selling" it as doing so would surely bring Cacpom's lawyers' wrath (who here are played by M.Bison and Akuma) but several copies have made their way into collectors hands and I'm sure these have jumped to the top of the "collectable" versions of Street Fighter 2 list.
Check it out
Want to read more about another game with the Keywords Terrible, Retro and Fighting? Check out JM's Hourglass review HERE
Update: Thanks to Retro game collector and YouTuber VetrexRoli we have a better look at gameplay (check out his channel HERE)
Abe's Take
Over the last 5 years we've started to see retro consoles getting new games, whilst usually indie or long-delayed titles. Hell the recent Ducktales remaster's special edition came with a seemingly decorative golden NES cart of the original, which turns out to be a fully functioning game. It's good to see old systems getting love and this has certainly but these guys on our radar for their future adventures.
It's also a little frightening that SFII is 25 years old next year and it's celebrations will possibly limited to PlayStation, when it should belong to everyone (Nintendo being Street Fighter 2's spirital home makes this more unpleasant
Hour's Take
So here is the proverbial hero, the one the Virtual Boy deserves but not the one it needs right now. I don't know whether to bow to its majesty or savage my eyes with a rusty screwdriver. In acknowledgment of the efforts this pointless project required, I choose neither and instead respectfully opt to blueprint a mechanized pendulum of swinging torture to stab me in the eye for me. And by grace of Lady Justice alone this is still not the worst port of the game meaning U.S. Gold will continue to be pelted with warm apples. Hurrah!!
Super Mario World is the first game I have a clear memory of completing and I remember 4 year old me sinking so many hours in to it searching for hidden routes, the alternate Yoshi, and competing in home made challenges against my brother (such challenges I am certain will soon become drinking games).
