Too Many Spiritual Successors, Not Enough Predecessors

Once Upon a time, in the last post, I talked about Yooka-Laylee and how it was officially the spiritual successor to the popular Banjo-Kazooie series. I talked about how in the short time its Kickstarter was opened it met its goal in just under 40 minutes and continued to raise over 2 million dollars USD in the short time the Kickstarter page was created. Along with Yooka-Laylee, another spiritual successor has come out of the woodworks. Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night the spiritual successor to Castlevania and created by the series' former producer Koji Igarashi has, just like Yooka-Laylee, reached its goal and then some. Just like Yooka-Laylee, it has also made over two million since its Kickstarter page was created in almost the same time period.
     2015 is starting to be the year of Spiritual successors. We have the work on Yooka-Laylee and Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night starting off to extremely well starts and we even have another spiritual successor on the way. Mighty No. 9 was a game made by Mega-Man creator Keiji Inafune which is suppose to be the successor to the Mega-Man franchise. It has met the same fate as the two previous games mentioned earlier. While this is all great and exciting, the question is what about these games' predecessors? What will happen to them?
     As much as it is nice to see these games, Yooka-Laylee and Mighty No. 9, being made it's almost bittersweet that we haven't gotten anything new from their predecessors. People are still clamoring for another Mega-Man game and people are still waiting for a true Banjo-Threeie.With the demand from fans, why isn't studios and developers trying to make new games from these franchises?
    What's the problem as to why most if these games haven't had anything new is that the studios and development teams have moved on and don't want to take a chance on these old franchises. After what happened with Nuts & Bolts, Rare just seems like it wants nothing to do with another full-fledged Banjo-Kazooie game. Mega-Man hasn't fared well either. Capcom has tried to make some Mega-Man games in the past but were met with poor sales. Capcom has tried to take the series in new directions, but they have yet to figure out what direction to put the series in and has cancelled project after project.
     What could be done to get studios to try to revive these franchises and start making games for these franchises again? What do you think needs to be done in order to see new games again?

Yooka-Laylee: Why People Still Care About Banjo-Kazooie?

     Yooka-Laylee is a game being developed by Playtonic games, former developers of the video game company Rare. Yooka-Laylee is being hailed as an official spiritual successor to the popular Banjo-Kazooie series meaning it is being made in the same mechanics and feel. Yooka-Laylee looks and feels like playing Banjo-Kazooie in every way except for the lead characters. This is enough to get people interested and invested in the game. Just in 40 minutes of launching funding for the game on Kickstarter, it has met its goal of $270,000. In less than 4 hours it has reached over one million. The current funding is over one million pounds (over two million in USD). People are excited to play this game as well as relive some nostalgia playing Banjo-Kazooie years back.

     I wouldn't blame them. Banjo-Kazooie was a phenomenal game when it came out. During Nintendo and Rare's golden age with the Nintendo 64 it was a great year in gaming. Rare and Nintendo was a match made in Heaven. Banjo-Kazooie was a success and it seems that almost every game Rare came out followed its format. Banjo-Tooie seemed like it was a bigger success. Aside from a couple of hand held titles like Grunty's Revenge and Banjo-Pilot, the franchise went dark and left a hole in our hearts. That was until we got Banjo-Kazooie Nuts & Bolts which left us shocked, in a bad way. I'm going to defend Nuts & Bolts a bit by saying it was a good game, it was just a complete 180 from what we expected from a Banjo-Kazooie game. It wasn't what we were used too and what we wanted. It was like seeing your best after losing weight, you didn't recognize it. Rare tried to do something fresh and new and they failed. They failed at recognizing the main rule of game development, if it isn't broke, don't fix it!

    But why is it that we are so invested in this so called new spiritual successor? Why is it why we love Banjo-Kazooie so much? Banjo-Kazooie gave us what we wanted to as children. We wanted to explore and have adventure. We were exploring different worlds as well as exploring the evil lair of a witch to save the day. It was fun not only getting all the Jiggies and notes and exploring the secrets if Grunty's lair, but also fun discovering all the secrets in the game like Bottle's picture game and finding out about Stop and Swop (points if you actually figured out what Stop and Swap was). Banjo-Kazooie was almost better than Super Mario 64 almost giving you more adventure and fun. With Banjo-Tooie, we had that idea magnified times 100. Hopefully Yooka-Laylee and Playtonic can keep this in mind when making this game and understand why we loved the predecessor in the first place. And also learn from the mistakes of Nuts & Bolts.

Suicide Squad's Joker: A Sick Sad Joke or A Sick Looking Joker?

     On Friday we were treated, finally, to how Jared Leto will look as The Joker in the upcoming Suicide's Squad movie. We were teased a bit when we got a sneak peak of Leto would look as he uploaded an image with dyed green hair on his SnapChat a while ago. Now that we finally know how Leto will look, we can really start critiquing.

     Right off the bat, it's a very different Joker than what we usually see. Leto is sporting multiple tattoos and gold teeth. Of course if you didn't know, this Joker's appearance was inspired by The Killing Joke's Joker. Realistically, we see that the Suicide Squad's Joker is an inspiration of the hardcore tattooed white bad guy you see in gritty criminal films, and possibly inspired by rapper Riff Raff and James Franco's appearance in Spring Breakers. It's a complete contrast from the the different live-action Jokers from the past. We had Jack Nicholson's and Cesar Romero from the 1989 Batman film and the 60s TV series which looked almost as close to the comic book appearance of The Joker. The Dark Knight's Joker, played by Heath Ledger was a more realistic gritty twist to the villain. With cracked paint make-up and smile scars and the interest of telling his victims how he got them, this creepy disturbed Joker delivered just that: Creepiness and disruption.

     Back to Leto's Joker. I understand the concept of this Joker's appearance. Again it is using the cover of The Killing Joke as a catalysis to give us a new Joker that we've never seen. The problem is that it's probably a Joker we don't want to see. It's looks outrageously try hard and over the top in a bad way. This Juggalo-ker looks almost comical, but maybe that's the point. Maybe the absurdity of the tattoos and gold teeth is something to throw people off of what horrific shit the Suicide's Squad's Joker can do.
     This look can give us a hint to what we're in store for the Suicide Squad. This look can either help or hinder Jared's Leto performance. We need to see more. We need a trailer to see Leto in action as The Joker to really how everything works out. Hopefully we will get it and hopefully we won't be waiting too long to see it.

The Batman v Superman, Star Wars Episode VII, and Fantastic Four Trailers: Do They Suck?

 Movie nerds got a treat over the weekend. We got to see the new trailers for Star Wars Episode VII, Batman v Superman, and Fantastic Four. These movies have been highly anticipated and have been scavenged for any rumors, leaks, and any small scrape of information that could be found. So, this weekend getting new teasers and trailers has been a gift to the geek gods. Thanks to these trailers, we can get a glimpse of what we might be in store for the up coming summer movie season and holiday film season this year and next. But the question is do they suck?


Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens

First things first we're going to start Star Wars. This is the second trailer for the film. This trailer we get to see more of the story in this first trailer. We got to see more of John Boyega's character, Finn which is a good thing. With the Luke Skywalker narration, we see that Episode VII is going to be Star Wars: The Next Generation. This is more evident with the buried Empire battleship and the melted Darth Vader helmet. We're going to be getting a lot of nostalgia moments in this film and possibly the other Star Wars films. That can be a big problem. Of you have to rely on nostalgia, it is usually a sign that the film doesn't have much to stand on on its own. Hopefully the whole thing isn't like that. It could be cool to see. Also, we didn't see any lens flairs so farso that's awesome.

Fantastic Four

Next up we have the Fantastic Four trailer. I must admit, I am actually impressed with what I'm seeing with this movie. All the news coming out about this movie, aside from having a black Human Torch, was absolute cringe worthy. It almost seemed that this movie would be as horrible as the Fantastic Four movies before it, I'm looking at you rise of the Silver Surfer. Anyway, this is the first time that you really get to see what The Thing looks like and I have to say that he looks pretty cool. Again, what impresses me is how everything is looking. The director, Josh Trank, has said that the film will not be using the source material from the comics. This concerned me and a lot of fans of the comic books. So far everything is looking like it's going to be fine as there are some liberties on the origins of the Fantastic Four so it's nice to see that we don't have to worry about it, or do we???

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

Lastly we have the teaser trailer for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. It looks like we're going to see the dark gritty Superman idea work, maybe. There's not much to take from it, being a teaser but it seems that taking place after the events after Man of Steel Superman has become public enemy number 1. People are at odds at what Superman is and what his agenda is. Apparently, Batman is here to find out, by taking versus part of the movie's title literally. Some of the parts in the teaser, especially the Batman parts look a bit Nolan-esque. That figures since what Nolan did to Batman had changed the game on what Superhero Films can look like. It revolutionized Superhero movies. Not much of the plot has been revealed and that's bit of a bummer, but the teaser sets the tone that this film is going to be epic.


What are your thoughts on the trailers?

Super Smash Bros 3DS/Wii U Alternate Costume Easter Eggs Part 4: The Final Meta Knight-mare Smash (Until the Mewtwo and Lucas DLC Comes Out...)

     Here we are folks the long awaited final (maybe not?) installment of alternate costume easter eggs in Super Smash Bros for the Wii U and Nintendo 3DS. As I stated before in the previous parts. you don't have to look at trophies and stages to see Nintendo's history. You can witness it in even the alternate costumes which are much more than just palette swaps and cool recolors. Here is part 4 of alternate costumes easter eggs for the characters of the recent installment of the series. Enjoy.

Bowser Jr.
All of Bowser Jr.'s alternate costumes are the Koopalings.

Dark Pit
Black: Default costume.
Green: Based on the color scheme of Immortal Phoenix.
Black 2: Loosely based on Magnus' color scheme from Kid Icarus: Uprising
Yellow:
Red: Based off of Twinbellows.
Blue: Based off of Pandora.
White: Based off of Pit.
Purple: Based off of the Great Reaper from Kid Icarus.

Duck Hunt
Orange: Default costume.
Black 1: Based off of a Rottweiler or Coonhound. Duck is based off of a blue duck.
Black 2: Based off of a Border Collie.
Brown 1: Based off of a Chocolate Labrador Retriever.
White: Based off of a Dalmatian.
Brown 2: Based off of a beagle. Duck is a female mallard.
Yellow: Based off of a Golden Retriever. Duck is a male mallard and which is also the black duck from the game.
Black 3: Duck is based off of red duck from the game.

Greninja
Blue: Default costume.
Red: Could be based off of a shiny Gyarados.
Pink: Based off of the color scheme of a Lickilicky.
Black: a shiny Geninja.
Purple 1: The color scheme of a Spiritomb.
Green: Could be based off the color scheme of a splendid leaf frog, which the Pokemon is based off of
Grey:
Purple 2: Could be based off of a Haunter.

Lil Mac
Wire Frame: Based on his design in the arcade version of Punch Out.
Green: Default: Based off of his appearance in Punch Out Wii.
Yellow 1: Based on his Title Defense Mode appearance in Punch Out Wii.
White: Based on his appearance after defeating opposing boxers in Punch-Out!! for NES. Could also be based off of Piston Hondo's attire.
Blue 1: Based off of his appearance in World Circuit in Punch Out Wii.
Blue 2: Based off of his appearance when fighting in the Major Circuit in Punch Out Wii.
Yellow 2: Based off of his Player 2 appearance in Punch Out Wii.
Black: Based on his appearance in Super Punch Out.
Pink: Based on his pink jumpsuit in the training montages in the original Punch Out. The wire frame switches the colors.

Lucina
Blue: Default costume. Based off of her appearance as a Lord
Green: Based off of Nowi's color scheme in Fire Emblem: Awakening.
Black: Based off of Cherche's color scheme in Fire Emblem: Awakening.
Red: Based off of Chordillia's color scheme in Fire Emblem: Awakening.
Pink: Based off of Tiki's appearance in Fire Emblem: Awakening.
Yellow: Based off of Lissa's appearance in Fire Emblem: Awakening.
Black 2: Based off of Tharja's appearance in Fire Emblem: Awakeing.
Pink 2: Based off of Sumia's appearance in Fire Emblem: Awakening.

Mega-Man
Blue: Default costume.
Red: Based on the coloration when using 1, 2, and 3 items in Mega Man 2. Also based off of using the Rush Coil in Mega Man 3.
Green: Based off the coloration when using the Hyper Bomb in the first game as well as Leaf Shield in Mega Man 2.
Brown: Based off of the coloration when using the Metal Blade in Mega Man 2 and the Ring Boomerang in Mega Man 4.
Light Blue: Based off of the coloration when using the Air Shooter from Mega Man 2, Blizzard Attack from Mega Man 6, and Freeze Cracker from Mega Man 7.
Light Green: Based off of the color palate when using the Slash Claw from Mega Man 7.
Red: Based off of the color palate when using Fire Storm from the original Mega Man as well as the Atomic Fire from Mega Man 2, the Flame Blast from Mega Man 6, and the Flame Sword from Mega Man 8.
Black: Based off of the color palate when using the Thunder Beam from the original Mega Man, as well as the Top Spin from Mega Man 3.

Pac-Man
Yellow: Default design. Based on his Japanese design on most arcade cabinets.
Blue: Boots are based on the magic boots from Pac-Land. Pads and wing color could be based off of Inky.
Yellow 2: Boots are based on the magic boots from Pac-Land. Pads and wing color could be based off of Kinky from Pac-Man Arrangement.
Black: Boots are based on the magic boots from Pac-Land. Pads and wing color could be based off of Spooky from Pac-Man World 2.
Purple: Boots are based on the magic boots from Pac-Land. Pads and wing color could be based off of Sue's appearance in Pac-Land.
White:
Brown:
Plaid:

Palutena
White: Default costume. Based off her appearance in Kid Icarus: Uprising.
Pink: Based off of her sprite in Kid Icarus.
Purple: Based off of Amazon Pandora's color scheme from Kid Icarus Uprising.
Green: Could be based off of Medusa's NES sprite in Kid Icarus.
Blue: Pandora's color scheme from Kid Icarus: Uprising.
Red: Based off of Virid's color scheme from Kid Icarus: Uprising.
Black: Based off of Dark Pit's color scheme from Kid Icarus: Uprising.
Purple 2: Based off of Medusa from Kid Icarus: Uprising.

Robin
Black: Default costume. Both the first and second male and female avatars from Fire Emblem: Awakening.
Green: Based off of Abel's color scheme from Fire Emblem: Ankoku Ryu to Hikari no Tsurugi.
Red: Based off of Anna's color scheme from Fire Emblem: Awakening.
Blue: Based on the Avatar from Fire Emblem: Shin Monshō no Nazo ~Hikari to Kage no Eiyū~.
Yellow: Based off of Evayle from Fire Emblem: Thracia 776.
White: Resembles a White Mage from the Final Fantasy series. Could be based off of Azel from Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War.
Pink: Based off of Serra's color scheme from Fire Emblem.

Rosalina and Luma

Light Blue: Default costume.

Pink: Based off of Princess Peach. May also be based off of a Hungry Luma.

Yellow:  Based off of a normal Luma.

Green: May be based off of a Trial Galaxy Luma.

Red: Based of of Fire Rosalina from Super Mario 3D World

Purple: Based off of a Lubba or the Lumacomète.

Black: Based off of the color scheme of a Power Star.

White: Based off of Fire Peach from Super Mario 3D World or Peach's NES sprite from Super Mario Bros. Could also be based off of her younger appearance in Super Mario Galaxy.

Shulk
Red: Default costume. Based on his default Colony armour from Xenoblade Chronicles.
White: Based on Fiora's color scheme.
Black: Based on Dunban's color scheme.
Orange: Based on Reyn's color scheme.
Blue: Based on Sharla's color scheme.
Purple: Based on Melia's color scheme.
Yellow: Based on Riki's color scheme.
Black 2: Sh ulk with light armour.

Villager
Red: Default costume. Wearing the No. 1 Shirt,
Pink: Wearing the Daisy Shirt.
Yellow: Wearing the Racer 6 Tee.
Green: Wearing the Turnip top.
Light Blue: Wearing the Blue Tie-dye Tee.
Blue: Wearing the Rugby Tee.
Purple: Wearing the Four-ball Tee
Light Green: Wearing the Yellow Bolero.

Wii Fit Trainer
Blue: Default costume. Based of the male and female appearances in Wii Fit. The female trainer's hair is based on Wii Fit Plus.
Green: Based on the male and female designs in Wii Fit Plus and Wii Fit U.
Red: Based on design of male and female trainers in the Aerobics category activities.
Yellow: Based on the design of trainer in Balance activities. Also loosely based on outfit in Wii Fit Plus when Yoga or strength training is done in My Wii Fit Plus mode.

If I missed anything, want to add something or would like to address if I make any corrections, please feel free to comment.

YouTube vs Twitch: Who Will Get the Streaming Crown?

   
YouTube is planning to revamp and relaunch their live streaming service. The reason behind is because YouTube wants to put its live streaming in a direction that will cater to gaming and eSports companies and viewers.

     "Gaming and eSports in particular are going to be a big driving force for the new-look YouTube Live," one source said. "There'll be huge opportunities for established streamers and organizations soon and I would say that the record numbers of eSports viewers are only going to grow when Google starts promoting and partnering with these events." 

     As you can tell, this us starting to sound a bit like another site that allows. People to live stream playing video games. What site could that be? Of course Twitch. Twitch hosts over 45 million users with 12 billion minutes of streaming games. Only last year that Google, YouTube's owner, tried to buy Twitch before its deal with the site fell through and Amazon ended up buying it for 1 billion. So Google and YouTube has learned the motto if you can't buy it, beat it. But can they?
     Twitch has made itself know to be the place online where you can go to watch people playing games live. Anything that will try to compete with that will have a hard time to beat Twitch, including YouTube. YouTube has their work cut out for them. Although YouTube still dominates as the source for gaming content with Let's Plays and people who had became internet famous for playing video games like Pewdiepie, Markiplier, and The Game Theorist, Twitch is slowly coming for that crown. Twitch hasn't taken YouTube's place but it's starting to take its spotlight. So it's no wonder that YouTube is trying to outdo Twitch. The question is will it?

As I said earlier it will be hard to do, but it seems that it won't be likely for YouTube to upstage Twitch with live streaming gameplays. Twitch has put itself in a niche that people will most likely stool prefer to do eSports and do live streams no matter what YouTube does. Twitch has made itself synonymous with live streaming games. There's also the question of content. YouTube as it is now seems like a mini basic version of Twitch and until we see the finish product, which their probably won't be that much improvement, it will still come off as a basic Twitch.
     YouTube and Twitch are two different sites with different content. Again, Twitch is mainly for live streaming video games and YouTube has become a palette for creating other gaming content like shows and other forms of entertainment. They should stick to what works for them.

What do you think?

Nintendo and DeNA: A Smart Move?

     Earlier this week we learned that Nintendo is making a partnership with DeNA in order to make games for smartphones. That's right! Nintendo is starting to make games for your smartphone. Director and president of Nintendo, Satoru Iwata stated:
     "One of my goals here is, now that we are challenging ourselves with this endeavor by making use of Nintendo IP, to produce multiple hit titles at an early stage after we start releasing our software on smart devices. Also, until now, when we said, “platform,” it meant a specific video game platform. Now that we are going to release games on smart devices and make use of globally widespread PCs and smart devices for our new membership service, we would like to offer more consumers with software that is suited to their tastes. In other words, we are challenging ourselves to redefine what “Nintendo platforms” mean."
     This means that soon you will be able to play Zelda or Super Mario on your iPhone. Aside from just releasing games on smartphones, Nintendo will be using its partnership with DeNA to create a membership service that will connect all devices, smart devices and game consoles. Meaning that you could have ccontent that could connect your 3DS, Wii U, or even the new Nintendo NX they announced as well this week with your iPhone or iPad. There have been some indications in the past that Nintendo will be doing this or that they were testing the waters. Not too long ago, we had Nintendo announcing they would be releasing a Mario Kart 8 app on smartphones weeks before the game came out. We also have a crossover with Mario and the popular Puzzle and Dragon series in Japan which will be coming here to the US in the near future.
      Whether or not you feel that this will help Nintendo, this was a decision that they desperately needed to make. It was no secret that Nintendo was facing some problems over the past years. The company has reported financial loss for the past three consecutive year due to the Wii U and the 3DS underperforming.Super Smash Bros, the Majora's Mask remake, and Mario Kart 8 Nintendo did well. They brought up sales Wii U and Nintendo 3DS sales as well as help sell the New Nintendo 3DS, but it is still not enough. Nintendo needs to do more to get them back to the top again.
There's a great chance that this could work for Nintendo. Here in the states, with games like Flappy birds and even the game from her whom we shall not speak of, mobile gaming is becoming a new medium to play games almost like handheld was years ago. This is more evident in Japan with the success of mobile games like Puzzle Dragon. We've come a long way from Minesweeper on you old Nokia phone. Nintendo sees this is becoming a big thing and know that this is where they need to go. It will be interesting to see that they are thinking forward on doing something like this. They are excited to go further with DeNA, hoping that there will be a mobile game at the end of the year. Whether or not it will work, we will have to see.

What are your thoughts on Nintendo and DeNA's partnership. Will it work for Nintendo?