I always thought i was a Halo fan boy but this video slipped by me like an ODST in active Camo… Please forgive me Chief!
We’ve had a lot of trailers and sneak peaks into games and films this SDCC but as many will know Halo holds a very strong place in my heart and to see this documentary, well, it brought a tear to my chief loving, sticky grenade throwing, victory tea bagging, eye.
Bungie, and now 343, have always pushed forward in innovation of the halo franchise, all the while keeping it familiar as to not scare the halo fan boys / girls too much. **deer in headlights, when change is afoot**
In the case of Halo 5, it seems they will be pushing us to our limits of change tolleration with many game mechanics being rebuilt and overhauled, eg; incorporating squad based game play where you can order other Spartans around and the ability for squad members to revive or resupply you.
Now for a lone wolf like me, i’m not use to running around with squad mates (apart from multiplayer) and the concept, though not alien (it being in many other similar platforms) is going to be an interesting addition to the franchise; if it will work, well, we will find out this autumn….. and I will be totally all over that shiz!
Na na na naaaaaa, na na na naaaaaaaa, na na na naaaaaa, na na na naaaa, na na na na nin na
Check the video out and let us know what you think.
Howdy folks, a couple of interesting developments have plopped into my Inbox, and I just had to share as they relate to licenses I absolutely adore getting their own board game! Fancy playing as Donatello from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles? Done! Want to give M. Bison a good old slap? You got it! Got a hankering for some freaky giant slaying? Gotcha covered!
Having already worked with Capcom to bring us the Megaman boardgame, Jasco Games has another success with obtaining the license for a Street Fighter board game. Details are sketchy other than “characters to life in a brand new board game”. However, this license extends to the TCG called the Universal Fighting System, which previously used the SF characters way back when the game was first created. Whilst UFS was a great game (I lost many years chasing those rares), my fingers are crossed that the board game won’t just be UFS with miniatures.
This announcement came with a lot more details; IDW’s TMNT board game will give fans the chance to take on the role of one of the green-skinned vigilantes or even their nemesis the Shredder. This ‘Big Box’ game will also feature sculpted miniatures and artwork from the current comics. If this alone isn’t enough to get you reaching for the eye-holed bandanna and yelling ‘cowabunga’, IDW went on to describe the game:
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shadows of the Past will be a scenario-driven campaign game that features story content from the hit ongoing IDW comic. Two to five players will battle their way through a series of 60-90 minute missions where players develop their characters strengths, fighting styles, and equipment along the way to create a lasting story arc. Fan-favorite characters like Casey Jones and Alopex will appear throughout the missions, as the Turtles call on their closest allies for help in battling their deadliest foes.
These guys already have some great games under their belts (Machi Koro, Tammany Hall), I’m confident they’ll do a cracking job of realising the TMNT universe in cardboard and plastic.
OK, so this may be the one I’m having the most geek-gasm over. I loved the anime, and when the game was announced by big player Cryptozoic I got giddy. Then they said Antoine Bauza, designer of 7 Wonders and Takenoko (amongst a slew of other award winning games) I hit the deck. The first title, to be released in 2016 already features some awesome new features like a vertical board to represent a Titan attacking the ringed city.
In the game, one player takes on the role of a Titan while the others represent the human heroes fighting it. The game features a revolutionary game mechanic, the Titan piece is a vertical game board element and the hero game pieces climb in an effort to take him down.
This will probably be an auto-buy for me; the design pedigree and theme are all enough to put this straight on the buy list.
So what do you guys think? Any of these take your fancy?
For those who were lucky enough to be at San Diego Comic Con, they would have been able to see the first trailer for the forthcoming Suicide Squad. However, Warner Brothers took pity on those who were unable to make it, and have since released the trailer online.
So far, Suicide Squad looks okay. It has a cool grungy aesthetic that matches the tone of the movie, but we have little indication of the actual plot other than “turning bad guys into heroes”, with the Batman and Joker turning up before hilarity ensues.
The main question is though, is Jared Leto’s Joker any good? It is certainly a new cinematic take on the character, thankfully quite different to the Jack Nicholson and Heath Ledger interpretations. I will withhold judgement until I have witnessed much more in action. However, Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn nails it!
However, I still think the Suicide Squad look like the horror-punk band Murderdolls…
This amazing video lets you pan 360 degrees as your gryphon’s soars over Stormwind……Even now, after 8 years of being clean from Warcraft, THEY are still trying to bring me back… it’s… it’s, so beautiful!
Prepare to soar through the epic world of Azeroth in this official 360 video inspired by the Warcraft movie and developed by Industrial Light & Magic xLAB. Look all around you as you fly over the city of Stormwind on the back of the mythic gryphon. Visit legendary.com/VR to find out more.
From Legendary Pictures, Universal Pictures and Blizzard Entertainment, Warcraft hits theaters June 2016.
Whilst backpacking across California for a month, I happened upon San Diego during the comic con. I had no badge for any of the days, and didn’t enter the convention center ONCE.
So what did I do? What can you do besides peer through the window longingly like Tiny Tim outside at Christmas? Well I’ll tell ya!
WANDER OUTSIDE THE CONVENTION CENTER – LIKE A LOST PUPPY
While you won’t find any stalls selling merchandise outside, there’s still plenty of promotional set ups about you can visit! Heroes Reborn, Adult Swim, Assassin’s Creed, FX, Lego Dimensions, Walking Dead, all had interactive experiences and and what not plastered around and between the Convention Center and the Gaslamp District. All free, no badge required!
They also put on parkour shows!
Lots of free promo swag, X-men promo posters, free ice cream, Christians and Satanists having a non violent turf war with picket signs, and even some free fair ground attraction rides. You might be queuing up for a while for some of the bigger attractions, but it’s Comic Con, and you don’t exactly have a panel to be at, Mr or Mrs ‘I Don’t Have A Badge What Do Argh’!
Or do you?
NERDIST/GEEK AND SUNDRY CONIVAL
Probably my favourite free attraction was the Conival. Very family friendly with laser tag and the joust puffy thing that’s basically that 1v1 knock the other guy off thing from Gladiators.
But they have panels! From Nathan Fillion and Alan Tudyk to David Hasselhoff, Rick and Morty to the cast of Orphan Black.
Rick and Morty panel! I was pretty much within burping distance.Having Season 3 of Orphan Black spoilt by the cast of Orphan Black. I’ll live!
I was really surprised, especially since it involved no queuing whatsoever. Of course it’ll never have Game of Thrones or Star Wars making an appearance, but I managed to grab a tasty burrito, sit down and awkwardly ask Felicia Day a question at her Q&A! Hidden in the bowls of Petco Park, it was definitely worth a visit, plus I got some free t shirts and posters!
CELEBRITY STALKING
Here’s some real advice, behind the Hard Rock Hotel next to Petco Park is where a LOT of celebrities can be seen entering and leaving the hotel. Some will hurry inside while others might stick around. I seen Clark Gregg and some of the Flash and AoS actors taking pictures with fans before retreating inside! Look out for the black cars sneaking famous people in and out of the busy area. You didn’t hear this though… its a secret shhh…
NERD HQ
Do you like Star Wars Battlefront? Do you want to try the new one for hours with very little queueing? Then yayyyy Nerd HQ! If you go in the daytime and have no tickets to the exclusive ‘Conversations with…’ panels, then, well, you’ll only really be able to play lots of Battlefront. But Battlefront is fun! Yay Battlefront! Battlefront. Yeah. Woo!
The Nerd HQ party (21+) however was AWESOME! Really really fun dance party at the night time if you want to end up somewhere after a booze up in the Gaslamp District.
Speaking of which…
THE GASLAMP DISTRICT
As an Englishman this both disgusts and excites me.
Great place to eat out in during the daytime! Get food, sit out and people watch, because the amount of cosplay about is like nothing you’ve seen before! But it is also really fun for a good drink. My highlight? The Dragon ball Z party at Whiskey Girl. Free cocktails, voice actors from the show giving out free swag and shouting at the crowd in character to drink more, with awesome DBZ cosplayers around to get pictures with! There was also opportunities to get access to an exclusive screening of the new DBZ movie! Only at comic con my friends. No badge required!
I CAN’T TAKE GOOD PICTURES OKAY
EXCLUSIVE RSVP EVENTS AND POP UP PARTIES
If you get lucky, you might even be invited to some of the more private parties, some hosted by celebrities in town for the con! There are also parties like the Geek and Sundry pop up that was only announced that day. If you know where to go, you can get in just fine (I missed it since I didn’t check my Twitter till the following day, but Nerd HQ did me just fine!).
One night I met a wonderful Starlord who liked my groot tattoo so much, he invited me to his costume party and I ended up partying on the Star of India Friday night with some amazing people! Shout out to Starlord Brendon and all the lovely people that night who accepted me even though I didn’t have a real costume! I just threw on my Union Jack flag left over from the 4th July. Yeah you heard that right!
I had hardly any good boat pictures, they’re all dark and blurry. I’m on a boat though trust me!
MISCELLANEOUS EVENTS
Sunday night I got a ticket for Harmontown and did that. I’m not sure what else was on like that but that’s what I did. Yup. It was good!
So is it worth coming to SDCC without a ticket? Maybe. If you’re 21+. And just passing through. And have a ticket to Harmontown. And a Groot tattoo. And money.
Craig here again and I thought I’d tell you a little bit more about myself.
So, I work in an office when I’m not writing, and it can get pretty stressful. Now what’s the best way to get rid of your daily stresses? Well for me, I like to get home, make a fresh pot of tea, put on my bear slippers and enjoy a nice, family movie; Today, that wholesome slice of entertainment was Zach Lipovsky’s “Dead Rising: Watchtower”.
Yes, that Dead Rising – this film is a tie-in to the Capcom game franchise of the same name.
For those of you not familiar with the game series though, this is still a solid zombie action horror movie which should keep even you loyal Romeroists content.The central plot is set between the events of the second and third game and our story follows online reporter; Chase Carter (Jesse Metcalfe).
Zombrex (an infection supressing medicine introduced in the second game) is delivered to a quarantine zone but in the words of The Verve, the drugs don’t work.Chaos ensues as the outbreak becomes widespread within the city, leaving Chase and two companions fighting for survival while Chase tries to uncover the deeper story for the news.
Meanwhile, in the news studio, the Anchorwoman is interviewing zombie survivor and award winning journalist/author, Frank West (the protagonist from the first game, expertly played by Rob Riggle]) and Frank gives “expert” zombie survival advice to the viewers. This breaks up the main plot rather well and provides light hearted humour whilst still allowing the main story to continue as Chase reports in to the news channel.
Another sub-plot running through the film is that of Maggie, a mother who (avoiding spoilers) is trying to find her daughter.
I genuinely felt myself moved by Maggie and found her disjointed persona (the character is suffering from shock) worked very well. She is perfectly portrayed as a terrified, worried mother who is desperate to find her child and doing everything she can to cope in the meantime.
This film is definitely aimed at fans of the Dead Rising series, referencing all of the games (see if you can spot them all with some Easter Egg Bingo) at various points but as I say, this is a solid zombie movie in its own right; the main hook for the narrative (Zombrex) is explained right at the beginning with a Robocop style TV commercial and immediately the theme of the film is set.
The only downsides to the film would be some of the acting. It felt a little wooden at times and there was some questionable colour correction and camera angles in some scenes, but overall this didn’t detract from the film itself.
As a fan of both the zombie genre and the Dead Rising franchise I would definitely recommend this film to other fans.From its enjoyable characters – especially Logan, one of the main antagonists of the movie, to its tongue in cheek humour, if you’re looking for a good zombie movie but are bored of the classics then try and find this film.
If you’ve seen it already then let me know what you think in the comments!
And don’t worry, a sequel has been confirmed for next year also.
Until next time, I’ve been and shall remain Craig.
Ah Heroes, the super powered TV show that we all wanted. It started great, gathered quite the following and looked like it would be a long running success until the writer’s strike resulted in a longer hiatus then we, the fans, are used to. It was a shame, it had such potential – save the cheerleader, save the world, and all that. Unfortunately, character develop got weird, villains became less scary and the time travel became all too wibbly wobbly; it was axed and no one was surprised. So you can imagine my mild surprise when they announced Heroes: Reborn, my reaction was ‘meh’ and I didn’t give it another thought. Then came the first trailer.
Yep, I hold my hand up, I admit it, this trailer gave me goosebumps.I don’t what it is? Maybe it’s my ever growing craving for a properly done X-men TV series or is it my love for things that evoke a feeling of nostalgia? my goosebumps certainly got harder/bigger/bumpier (not sure what the correct adjective is here) when I caught a glimpse of familiar characters. Now I’m all kinds of looking forward to it. The trailer certainly suggests a X-Men style mutant hate theme, plus the addition of Zachary Levi certainly helps the cause, but last but not least, I always had respect for ol’ Noah Bennet and his horn rimmed glasses, it’s exciting to see him back. Judge for yourselves and comment below, are you excited for the return of Heroes?
I’m a gamer first, always have been. I play tabletop, roleplay, computer games, even Facebook games, I absolutely love gaming. When I used to work for Games Workshop, I absolutely loved everyday, as I got to do the hobby I love as a job. I originally started out with Epic, moved onto Warhammer fantasy and then into the other various games of old (E.g Necromunda, Gorkamorka, Blood Bowl, Battlefleet: Gothic etc). Being a long standing Warhammer player has been a struggle, a long standing struggle, as the game hasn’t really had a revamp for such a long time.
As new army books have been released, this gave us a light, something to aim for, something we could herald as a possible 9th edition. It wasn’t to be, as we received Age of Sigmar instead of the long awaited 9th Edition. However that doesn’t mean its over, it just means a new start, a new system. We can still play 8th edition, as everything still supports 8th and works for 8th, so what’s the issue?
Well for one guy, DeathHolyDeath (DHD throughout the rest of the article), it was a massive, immense issue. Such an issue that he burnt $900+ (£580 to us British) worth of Warhammer Fantasy Battle miniatures in protest. Now before you all go running off to YouTube to see this guys video, which I have happily placed here: Fool burning Miniatures, wait and hear me out. Alternatively watch the video, whilst reading what I have and see if you agree with us, or him. Please read through to the end for my own opinion of Age of Sigmar
DHD starts out by stating that he has a habit of overreacting quite poorly, and the video may offend sensitive people. Here is where it loses me, like your typical armchair general he wants us to run off and join a “Social Justice Warrior” forum, and he’ll see us in hell. Why would I join a Social Justice Warrior forum, to complain about someone who doesn’t appear to have a clue about the game that has just been released? Then he states that the “Whiny British Fucks” (I cut out the majority of the immensely, offensive language that he called us British) couldn’t really run the business…yeah, Games Workshop. He finishes off his first section of rants by declaring Age of Sigmar a terrible game, one he has obviously never played. I am not estranged to people, especially in today’s modern world with social media where it is, shouting off without a clue. It isn’t something that worries me, what worries me is the impact this guy could have. Anyway, I digress, apparently “Age of Shitmar is a terrible game”.
DHD goes onto explain that the follow are serious bad points in his mind, he does go into detail, but rather than give you a transcript, I just cut it down to this handy, non-swearword induced list.
No Points
Static to Hit/Wound system
Slow Magic system
Shooting Wins
Melee is pointless
Random initiative ruins the game
Terrain doesn’t matter
Measure from closest point
No customisation options
And his good points?
Comedy Rules
Yeah, this appears to be someone throwing his toys so far out of his pram, he needs a passport to retrieve them. Throughout his opinion of the bad points of Age of Sigmar, he doesn’t quite get the reasoning as to why these changes were made. He blindly, throughout his eight minute speech, gives his uninformed opinion of why he can validate his “Bad Points”. The actual reason for the so called bad points, is something called “Forging the Narrative”, which to the majority of the Age of Sigmar hating Warhammer players, is not important in this day and age. All the current rules make the game “Fun”, apparently. However, I will conclude why at the end of my article.
Overpowered and unbeatable is okay, apparently.
DHD goes into his final segment, which again is more bull, with more opinionated lack of actual understanding. Again I have listed the reasons in a convenient list (again the removal of the foul language).
Games Workshop is not trustworthy
All of their IP is ripped off
Games Workshop are strangling Brick and Mortar Independent shops
They fuck their customers
Games Workshop is quickly becoming obsolete
Transparent attempt to retain old customers
Failure to listen to the community
Competitive rules are a hurried attempt at damage control
I was actually showering when I was listening to this, and nearly choked on water due to the amount of laughing I did. Obviously DHD is a forum fed member of the wider gaming community, someone who really doesn’t get it. The Intellectual Property thing made me giggle; who the fuck actually has ORIGINAL fantasy/science fiction based game any more that isn’t based of a pre-established IP? How far into the closet are you? What makes this worse is later, when he mentions the other games he plays; none of them are fully original IP. Games Workshop doesn’t strangle shops, they strangle themselves. They provide a product, the shops don’t have to take it. I mean if anything DHD says is correct, its not like it matters, right? I mean, who the fuck plays Games Workshop games any more? He later states the company is becoming “Obsolete” and the company “Fucks their customers”. Ha!
Here is the final few points on his list before he goes and burns all his miniatures.
You can still play 8th edition – No thanks
Don’t support Games Workshop
Active member of Warmachine for the past decade
Limited medium of language – Watch the video of burning miniatures
YES, you can still play 8th. I mean, until Age of Sigmar was announced, was DHD not playing Fantasy? He compares playing 8th edition to eating glass, yet, fuck me he has £580 of miniatures for his Warhammer Fantasy alone. This tells me he was, indeed, playing 8th edition. 8th is a good system, good for those who enjoy a game like 8th edition. DHD also points out he has been a dedicated Warmachine player for over a decade; NOW we get to the reason why he is kicking off at Games Workshop; he doesn’t like the company. Finally he states that pictures speak louder than worlds, as language has a limited use. It does for you DHD, but for most of us, we can explain ourselves in writing a whole lot better than you can it appears.
During the burning of the miniatures
Age of Sigmar is for a generation of gamer who wants to be immersed into the Fantasy genre, without playing a game where he gets tabled in a turn. No one likes setting up a one or two thousand point army, to lose in the first two turns. The reason why Age of Sigmar has been released is to stop the forum fucks who just download an army list, build it and table people. That isn’t a game, there is no skill or fun for anyone in that. I used to be that person, I used to play a list that could table an opponent within two turns. OPPONENTS HAVE NO FUN! DHD is just one of these guys who circulates around forums, copying and pasting army lists that win tournaments and table opponents “For the Lolz”. Don’t play 8th edition, eat glass, you will not be missed. If anything you have been laughed at.
You could have sold your £580 worth of miniatures, put the money into something else, or worse case given them to a kid who couldn’t afford them. You hit rock bottom. The only message that was sent to Games Workshop wasn’t one that panicked them, it just proves that idiots, like yourself, still exist. Age of Sigmar is about forging the narrative, that means speaking to your opponent, creating a story and enjoying the game. It isn’t about how quickly you can make an army run. Adding personality which is something DHD mentions, with characters, essentially equates to having a character that cannot be hit, nor killed by an enemy character. Those things are not fun; you’ve just switched God Mode on using a tabletop game. It’s shit, and THAT is why Age of Sigmar represents a new era of gaming.
A new dawn of Sigmar
What adds insult to injury however is DHD’s continued rant & rampage about not supporting Games Workshop. Right, go ahead and make the business most popular entry into gaming obsolete. Remove the most successful wargaming company from the high street, yeah the Indy shops will pick up the gamers, but for how long? The reason behind Game Workshops success has nothing to do with screwing over the community; its a fucking business. They follow trends, they entice the people into the shop, and excellent assistants get you playing the game.
The only reason DHD knows about Warmachine, and I would put money on this, is because he got into wargaming through Games Workshop. Slag them off all you want, the company is the largest percentage of entry into the wargaming hobby for wargamers worldwide. No other company can do that, afford to do it, or they are not willing to do it. Games Workshop brings this hobby into peoples lives, otherwise they would all sit at home on computer games. I just find the entirety of what DHD did & said offensive, slimey, a low blow in terms of getting a message out there. You essentially just tried to win over a wider community by riding your high horse into everyone else, shouting, forcing them to listen.
Let me tell you, Age of Sigmar is a great system. It’s fun, its easy to pick up, and its entry now is cheaper; hell you need a handful of miniatures to play. Free rules set on the website and free Warscroll compendiums on the website here: Age of Sigmar. Shit, don’t want to play it, don’t worry; you can still play 8th edition. I think the point of this article is to tell you this; Don’t listen to someone who has no fucking idea what the hell they are saying. Yeah, he didn’t get 9th edition; yeah he can’t table people any more. He could have continued tabling people at 8th edition, but he has no miniatures any more. He hasn’t given the game a chance, all this was assumed by a pre-release understanding of the rules over a week ago. So why would you listen to anyone who does that? Please don’t.
Remember 2nd Edition? Yeah, people raged then as well.
“So why listen to you Len?” I hear the cries already, I can see the criticisms in my own writing as I type it down. Why listen to me? I haven’t burnt my Fantasy, I enjoy 8th and I can use them in Age of Sigmar. I used to work for the company; biased? A little, but I also play X-Wing, Flames of War and other tabletop games, from other companies. I didn’t cry when their systems changed, or forced me to buy new stuff, or even change how I play; I embraced the challenge. I got into the game fresh, happy that it wasn’t the same stagnant game that I had been playing for years. The exact same thing happened when the Warhammer 40,000 changed from 2nd edition to 3rd edition. People raged, the game changed. Do you hear them now? No, and the reason why is because the change was for the better. Embrace the change, enjoy the new system and please try Age of Sigmar before setting fire to any miniature. Thanks for reading and let me know what you think.
The video game world suffered a tragic loss Satuday as the company reported President Satoru Iwata died due to growth from a bile duct tumor. Mr. Iwata was 55.
A sober statement was released by Nintendo.
“Nintendo Co., Ltd. deeply regrets to announce that President Satoru Iwata passed away on July 11, 2015 due to a bile duct growth.”
Mr. Iwata first jumped aboard the video game bandwagon with HAL Laboratory in the 1980s where he worked on games such as Earthbound, Kirby, and Balloon Fight. After years of developing games for Nintendo, he formally joined Nintendo in 2000 as head of its corporate planning division.
He was appointed as the company’s fourth president in 2002 following the retirement of Hiroshi Yamamuchi where he oversaw the massive success of the Nintendo DS and Nintendo Wii. He later added the title of CEO for Nintendo of America in 2013.
Per the statement from Nintendo after Mr. iwata’s death, the video game giant current management structure is the following:
“The following two Representative Directors remain at the company. Genyo Takeda (Representative Director; Senior Managing Director) Shigeru Miyamoto (Representative Director; Senior Managing Director).”
Mr. Iwata missed E3 2014 after the discovery of a tumor growth in his bile duct. He underwent surgery and later reported that he was progressing well. In a June 2014 letter to shareholders, he explained.
“Recently, as the result of one of my routine physical examinations, an issue was detected. Following a more detailed examination, a growth was found in my bile duct. In general, it is said that a bile duct growth can be difficult-to-treat, partly because of the difficulty of detecting it early. In my case, luckily, it was detected very early and I had no symptoms.”
“I was counseled that removal at an early stage would be the desirable medical option. Therefore I had surgery last week, and I came through it well, as predicted.”
Iwata was thought to be in convalescence and made an appearance at the annual shareholders meeting in June. However, the Financial Times reports that Nintendo said his health retrogressed a few days ago and was hospitalized.
Iwata wasn’t just an efficacious president of Nintendo, he was a very popular figure in the video game community as well. Following his unfortunate passing over the weekend, members of the game industry took to social media to remember Mr. Iwata.
Mr. Iwata was more than just a successful businessman, he was a gamer who “never stopped smiling”. The Wii consoles, DS gadgets and games like Super Smash Bros, Kirby, Pokemon and Earthbound, filled my childhood with boundless joy, which I spent countless hours playing. The games alone not only made the video game industry richer, their sequels continue to entertain gamers worldwide today. Even his lesser- known games like Super Billards, Air Fortress and Roller Ball left a lasting impression in me.
Even as he advanced through the hierarchies of HAL Laboratory and later Nintendo, Iwata always struck me as someone who genuinely cared about the joy of gaming more than anything else. In 2005, when speaking at the Game Developers Conference, Iwata pondered on his time leading HAL, which was responsible for the Smash Bros video game. “Mr Nintendo” stressed that the defining moment for him wasn’t when the original Nintendo 64 version of Smash Bros. and its sequels sold millions of copies worldwide, but rather the maiden opportunity testers picked up the game and provided evidence it was fun. This is what he said.
” I also remember the first version of Smash Bros. developed for Nintendo 64. The concept for this game, as you know, was to take the classic, friendly Nintendo franchise characters and have them — as you say in America — beat the heck out of each other. The ideas not brand new — there certainly have been a lot of fighting games. And the characters looked pretty much the same way they always had. So when we brought the idea to Nintendo, the concept did not sound hip or cool or revolutionary. And because of all this, there were people both inside and outside Nintendo who did not strongly favor the idea. And this was the environment that we worked under.
That attitude remained until the moment of truth — the moment when testers began picking up the controllers and actually playing the game. This is what happened. People smiled. They laughed. Then began shouting at each other. That was the moment when everything for Smash Bros. changed. And I must tell you, this was also one of the proudest moments in my development career. Yes, the Smash Bros. series has become a great worldwide success because it’s sold more than 10 million copies. But the memory of that first moment when the testers began to play stays with me always. That is the moment I call success.
We at HAL found a way to bring our idea to life. Our team believed deeply in the concept and we did not waver in our approach. So in this important sense, we at HAL — we’re just like every one of you. Even if we come from different sides of the world, speak different languages, even if we eat too many chips or rice balls, even if we have different tastes in games, every one of us here today is identical in the most important way: each one of us has the heart of a gamer.”
I’ll always have fond memories of Iwata — as someone who had no qualms to innovate, but who always strived to put gamers first in all his work. The visionary is a class of his own and will be solely missed.
Rest in peace, Mr. Iwata, and thank you for all the joy you brought to my life.
Truth be told I’ve never really been that big a Superman fan, I’ve never picked up any of the numerous books featuring the character myself although I have read several that others have got. My introduction to Superman, like many people of my generation I suppose, was at an early age via the films featuring Christopher Reeve. I wasn’t even aware that Superman was actually the star of a by then decades old comic created in the 30’s until some time later.
Now years later I often find myself watching films that are based on comic properties. Marvel Studios (side note who actually thought Marvel would have its own film studio one day??) can be accused of a distinct narrative formula in most of its films but they remain enjoyable regardless for me the same can’t really be said for DC/Time Warner’s output.
Putting aside the woefully squandered opportunities of Green Lantern and Jonah Hex DC/ Time Warner doesn’t really know what to do besides putting Superman and Batman on the big screen ad nauseam. Whilst I thought Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy was impressive (even if it does have questionable narrative developments) I was pretty much done with Batman in film, a character which unlike Superman I am actually a fan of. Then Man of Steel the latest Superman film turned up.
Man of Steel just reminded me I was even more done with Superman, it was an overwrought, poorly edited incoherent mess of a film with scenery chewing abounds, characters who didn’t seem to serve any narrative function, some truly awful CG FX and featured someone (Henry Cavill) with the acting range of a baked potatoe as the titular character, a character who, as far as I understand Superman, is supposed to inspire humanity.
The few good ideas it did have were lost in a rapidly boring orgy of destruction which paid scant regard to collateral damage. If I didn’t know better I’d think writer David Goyer and director Zack Snyder were trolling everyone. More than that though it placed Superman in the now default “gritty” setting which just didn’t work at all and which also seems to be shorthand for desaturating the colour palette. Whilst it doesn’t change the other problems just reversing the colour desaturation makes Man of Steel more visually appealing check this out .
When I heard the plans for Batman Vs Superman I rolled my eyes with contempt with images of men in suits rubbing their hands with glee at the prospect of the truckloads of cash they’d be making regardless of whether the film was just as bad as Man of Steel. Imagine my Surprise when the new trailer for Batman Vs Superman: Dawn Of Justice drops at SDCC (and on the internets) and I find myself actually kind of wanting to see it despite it featuring two characters I thought I was sick of seeing on the big screen.
Whilst the “gritty” setting didn’t work for Superman it totally works for Batman and that’s one of the things that makes it work. Mainly though this is a trailer that somewhat shockingly for modern day cinema actually makes me want to see the film and more shockingly doesn’t seem to feature any plot spoilers (I’m looking at you Terminator Genisys marketing department). I haven’t actually seen a trailer that actually made me want to see a film since the first trailer for Mad Max Fury Road appeared.
There’s a lot narrative ideas that seem to be indicated in the new trailer whether they will actually go anywhere is another matter. The most obvious ones being Superman as immigrant to be feared and Superman being worshipped as a god and apparently even having his own military troops. . Elsewhere there’s Ben Affleck as Batman in a rather inspired casting choice and the possible introduction of Jared Leto’s Joker and ofcourse Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman something which The Internet has been frothing at the mouth over ever since she was cast in the role.
I find myself wondering if this is a Batman film that just happens to feature Superman given that the Joker Batman relationship is seemingly set to underpin both Dawn of Justice and the upcoming Suicide Squad film.Whilst Batman and Superman might have been on the big screen numerous times already, at least this is something different and whilst it might all collapse on itself and be a train wreck due to Zack Snyder driving the train again whilst writers David Goyer and Chris Terrio stoke the engine with coal I’m actually interested in finding out.
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