Gametraders Live September Magazine
Gametraders latest magazine, featuring venom, a love letter to Jurassic Park and much much more!
Gametraders latest magazine, featuring venom, a love letter to Jurassic Park and much much more!
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INTERVIEW: Spike Spencer - REVIEW: Spider Man - A Love Letter to Jurrasic Park<br />
SEPTEMBER ISSUE 2018IVE<br />
WIN<br />
A double<br />
pass for<br />
Venom!<br />
pg. 24
Go to page 24 for details on how you can go in the drawn to win tickets to see Venom! (Australia only)
From the Editor<br />
Hello and welcome to the <strong>September</strong> edition of <strong>Gametraders</strong> <strong>Live</strong>!<br />
As some of you may know this is my second edition of <strong>Live</strong> <strong>Magazine</strong><br />
and I am incredibly excited and happy to be able to bring this to you<br />
all once again!<br />
This issue we have interviews with Spike Spencer and Neil Kaplan by<br />
our excellent writer Paul Monopoli. As well as an article about venom,<br />
brought to you by Shaun Stoddard, and two articles from Scott Sowter.<br />
One an anaylsis of the sucess of Marvel and the other a love letter to<br />
Jurrasic Park. I’d like to take a moment here to say a huge thankyou<br />
to all three for their continuous commitment and contributions to<br />
<strong>Gametraders</strong>. As well as encourage any of our readers to email us with<br />
your own contributors! In conjunction with those articles, we also<br />
bring you our usual reviews, for games such as the new Spider Man<br />
and Overcooked! 2 to name a few.<br />
Emily Langford<br />
Emily Langford,<br />
EDITOR
What’s inside<br />
“What if<br />
someone who<br />
was unafraid<br />
to kill and<br />
was a lot more<br />
physically<br />
imposing had the<br />
same powers as<br />
Spider-Man and<br />
was unaffected<br />
by his Spider-<br />
Sense?”<br />
pg. 20<br />
INTERVIEWS<br />
WITH SPIKE<br />
SPENCER AND<br />
NEIL KAPLAN<br />
“Sixty-five<br />
milion years<br />
ago our planet<br />
was ruled by<br />
dinosaurs.<br />
Massive,<br />
unimaginable<br />
creatures of<br />
flesh and blood<br />
walked, roared<br />
and ate.”<br />
pg. 14<br />
pg. 28
THE LIVE TEAM<br />
EDITOR & DESIGNER: Emily Langford<br />
WRITERS:<br />
Shaun Stoddard from Spinions by Shaun<br />
Scott Sowter, Entertainment review and opinion<br />
Paul Monopoli, Interviews / Retro Editor<br />
Ben Dye, Stephen LaGioia, Evan Norris,<br />
Nicholas Taylor, Paul Broussard & Adam<br />
Cartwright VGChartz<br />
A MARVEL TO<br />
BEHOLD<br />
Pg. 10<br />
8-45 MOVIES<br />
24 VENOM GIVEAWAY<br />
46-101 GAMES<br />
REVISITING NO MANS SKY, pg 48<br />
OVERCOOKED! 2 REVIEW, pg 54<br />
DOWNWARD SPRIAL REVIEW, pg 66<br />
OCTOPATH TRAVELLER REVIEW, pg 72<br />
FIRE EMBBLEM VS HYRULE WARRIORS, pg 78<br />
MARIO PAPER SERIES ANALYSIS, pg 84<br />
INTERVIEW: BROMIO, PG 90<br />
SPIDERMAN<br />
REVIEW pg. 60<br />
INTERVIEW: RATALAIKA GAMES, PG 96
FEATURED BOARDGAME<br />
DINOSAUR TEA PARTY<br />
“You’re looking well, darling. One lump or two?”<br />
It’s the most sought-after invitation of the year: Dinoton Abbey for high tea.<br />
Now you’re all gussied up in your finery and ready for some tea and chitchat.<br />
One problem: You can’t remember anyone’s name. Who’s that, sporting<br />
the fancy brooch with her pet chicken? Is that Jeannine? Beatriz? Oh, dear.<br />
If you’re not careful, you’ll commit a faux pas everyone will be gossiping<br />
about.<br />
Dinosaur Tea Party is a game of pure deduction for 2-5 homo sapiens.<br />
Each player takes a card corresponding to one of the dino guests. Players<br />
take turns asking each other questions or guessing their dinosaur’s name.<br />
If someone guesses your name, draw a new card. The first player to guess<br />
three names, wins the game.
SPIDER MAN 2018 POP VINYLs!<br />
JURASSIC POP VINYLs!<br />
ASK STAFF FOR PRODUCT DETAILS / RELEASE DATES!<br />
Get it all at <strong>Gametraders</strong>! Order in-store.
PASS GIVEAWA<br />
MOVIE<br />
VENOM DOUBL<br />
WHO IS VENOM? A<br />
PROFILE OF A LEATHAL<br />
KILLER<br />
LIFE FINDS A WAY: A LOVE<br />
LETTER TO JURRASIC<br />
PARK
S<br />
(ANIME) INTERVIEW: SPIKE<br />
SPENCER AND NEIL KAPLAN<br />
A MARVEL TO BEHOLD<br />
E<br />
Y
A Marvel To Behold<br />
The Marvel Cinematic Universe exploded<br />
onto the scene in 2008 with the release of<br />
Iron Man. In the ten years that have followed<br />
we have seen twenty films dominate the box<br />
office. Avengers Infinity War undoubtedly the<br />
biggest of them all lands in home release in<br />
August after netting itself a tidy sum of just<br />
over two billion dollars at the box office. There<br />
is no doubt that Marvel has dominated the<br />
cinema screens of the globe since 2008. In fact<br />
if you look at the top twenty highest grossing<br />
films since 2010, six of them are a part of the<br />
Marvel Cinematic Universe. That’s insane. The<br />
only franchise coming close to that kind of<br />
market control is Star Wars. But the coolest<br />
fact is not only that Marvel is the king of the<br />
box office, it has also dominated our small<br />
screens too. Marvel has a staggering line of TV<br />
shows with eight shows running concurrently<br />
on a number of networks. With the Disney<br />
acquisition of FOX still looming over us all<br />
that would take the tally up to ten shows.<br />
The Marvel Cinematic Universe is an absolute<br />
behemoth.
But what is it about the MCU that keeps<br />
us clambering for more? Why is it that this<br />
franchise despite its massive scope is just<br />
continuing to steamroll at full speed? Warner<br />
Brothers has attempted a similar thing with its<br />
DC Extended Universe, with arguably more wellknown<br />
characters than Marvel’s initial outings,<br />
yet is has proven to be a meagre success.<br />
Star Wars is in the process of it’s expanding<br />
universe, yet it’s latest outing with Solo proved a<br />
disappointment also. Marvel marches on.<br />
Let’s break it all down. Here are some of the key<br />
ingredients that seem to have helped Marvel<br />
dominate the world.
Characters<br />
The characters that populate the MCU are as diverse<br />
as they are dynamic. Ultimately this may be the key<br />
reason for the monumental success of the series.<br />
They are characters that we all love, or love to hate, or<br />
hate to love, or just plain hate. With a few exceptions<br />
Marvel’s characters have all been fairly well sculpted<br />
and lovingly brought to life by a committed and<br />
dedicated cast. From the stock Chris Evans as Captain<br />
America, the pomp and snarky Robert Downy JR<br />
as Tony Stark, the attitude of Bradley Cooper as<br />
Rocket, the intensity of Charlie Cox as Daredevil, THE<br />
INTENSITY of John Bernthal as The Punisher. The list<br />
and the talent goes on. They gave us Loki, literally the<br />
most likeable bad guy ever! And they ripped our<br />
hearts out when Thanos took him away. They have<br />
created and built a world full of people we have<br />
become invested in. So, step one! Make<br />
your characters likeable. Check!<br />
Patience<br />
Woah woah. Slow down. Take your time… It took<br />
Marvel five movies and five years to get us to the<br />
Avengers. By that stage we knew the characters,<br />
we even knew the villain, then boom! 2012 saw<br />
The Avengers hit the big screen. At the end of the<br />
Avengers it was revealed that Thanos was the big<br />
bad in the background of this whole thing. Pulling<br />
Loki’s strings. Yet it took us six more years to get to<br />
Thanos finally taking center stage to go up against<br />
our beloved band of heroes. That is a long play. But it<br />
is one that seems to have worked. It built gradually to<br />
what is the biggest event they have attempted. It gave<br />
time for the world to build and be explored, for us to<br />
meet all the pieces of the puzzle required for it to give<br />
us the maximum impact. The slow progression and<br />
build up has been a key to the series success.
Risks<br />
Every now and then it proves it’s worth taking a risk. The biggest<br />
example of this working for the MCU is absolutely The Guardians of the<br />
Galaxy. Before the release of that film very few people knew or cared<br />
about Star-Lord or Rocket or Groot. Marvel took a massive risk to bring<br />
the movie about a talking Raccoon and his living tree pal to the big<br />
screen. Yet the film was a huge success, spawned a sequel and the entire<br />
cast appeared in Infinity War. I for one am still waiting for Tony Stark to<br />
meet Rocket Racoon. Just... Imagine it. The series has also taken risks<br />
on the TV front. Agent Carter was a modest hit despite only having two<br />
seasons. A female led super-hero (sort of) TV show set in the fifties. It<br />
was hard sell and ultimately the show didn’t get too far. Which is a damn<br />
shame because it remains my favourite MCU TV show. Peggy Carter was<br />
an amazing character and deserved more attention. But at least we can<br />
say Marvel gave it a shot. Black Panther also a risk with an almost<br />
entire African cast. It is sad to say that we live in a world where a film<br />
having a predominately black cast is a risk, but the box office has<br />
been dominated always by white casts. Then Black Panther came<br />
along and showed us all how it’s done! The film made a huge one<br />
point three billion dollars at the box office and has become a<br />
a cultural phenomenon. The only shame out of all of the MCU’s risks,<br />
is that it has taken so long to have a female led film, but with Captain<br />
Marvel on the way next year, hopefully it will have been worth the wait.<br />
Leadership<br />
Every good ship needs a skilled captain. Marvel’s Kevin Feige the<br />
president of Marvel Studios has proven to be the man for the job. Under<br />
his watch the MCU has grown from strength to strength. He is the guy<br />
we have to thank for assembling the MCU as it is today. He has had his<br />
work cut out for him, but safe to say he has done a pretty good job.<br />
Never before has something like the MCU been attempted. Multiple<br />
films and TV shows all being apart of a shared universe with characters<br />
jumping between films and story arcs that have spanned a decade. I<br />
doubt we will ever see anything like it again. With hard work, dedication<br />
and a rabid fan base I doubt it will be going anywhere soon. It surely is<br />
a marvel to behold.<br />
Written by Scott F. Sowter<br />
Twitter: @ScottFSowter
SCOTT SOWTER<br />
LIFE FINDS A WAY:<br />
JURRAS
A love letter to<br />
IC PARK<br />
Sixty-five million years ago our planet was<br />
ruled by dinosaurs. Massive, unimaginable<br />
creatures of flesh and blood walked,<br />
roared and ate. Then they vanished, wiped<br />
from the face of the Earth by some equally<br />
unfathomable cataclxysm. What we were left<br />
with is bones, fossils of these incredible giants<br />
that once rolled our world. In 1993 the film<br />
Jurassic Park was released around the world.<br />
Steven Spielberg brought dinosaurs back to life.<br />
As a kid in the 90’s I was a dinosaur kid, as many<br />
were and still are. Seeing Jurassic Park on the<br />
big screen was a life changing event. There they<br />
were, alive, breathing, walking, roaring like we<br />
had only imagined. This year sees the release<br />
of Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom the fifth film<br />
in the Jurassic franchise, showing that there is<br />
still blood in this pre-historic beast. Apart from<br />
being spectacular pop-corn adventure films the<br />
Jurassic Park series has succeeded on one other<br />
fuel, pure magic.<br />
While the films have bounced back and forth<br />
there is no denying that they have all been solid<br />
hits at the box office and that comes down to<br />
the film’s stars, and no, for once I am not talking<br />
about Ian Goldblum. It’s the dinosaurs. That’s<br />
why we watch. Jurassic Park has provided us<br />
the ultimate window into our imaginations. It<br />
has breathed life back into one of the world’s<br />
most amazing wonders. I remember distinctly<br />
as a child; my parents took me to a museum<br />
and I just remember sitting in awe in front of<br />
a Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton. The size is just<br />
staggering. This enormous meat eating creature<br />
used to move. We could picture it, in our minds.<br />
The way it walked, the way it ate, hunted, the<br />
thunderous crash it must have made as it ran<br />
across the earth.
Then when those perfect ringlets of water<br />
rippled out across the surface of a cup of<br />
water in the film we all got to witness the<br />
power of one of the world’s biggest creatures.<br />
I remember that scene so vividly. The feeling<br />
it put into me. I was never scared, as my<br />
parents feared I would be as a young child.<br />
I was excited. I didn’t care that the human<br />
characters where about to be eaten, I was just<br />
grinning ear to ear.<br />
“THE T-REX WAS ALIVE!”<br />
to things of pure imagination. It still fails to<br />
compare for some reason to the magic of<br />
Jurassic Park.<br />
Dinosaurs are something most children are<br />
obsessed with. For some of us that never goes<br />
away and maybe that is the real magic. These<br />
films have the ability to take us back to being<br />
children. They make us feel awe again. Awe<br />
at the amazing things that used to be here,<br />
things we can only dream about. They make<br />
those old bones come alive. Life finds a way.<br />
It eats the lawyer! So cool! No-body like him<br />
anyway... I’m sure my parents often worried<br />
about my sanity. I just cared about the<br />
dinosaurs. It sparked in me and many of my<br />
generation and undying obsession with these<br />
creatures. That is the magic of Jurassic Park.<br />
While films like Star Wars and Avatar have<br />
taken us beyond the stars to other worlds<br />
By Scott F. Sowter<br />
Twitter: @ScottFSowter
YOUR ShAUN SAY STODDARD<br />
WHO IS VENOM?<br />
A PROFILE OF THE LE
ATHAL PROTECTOR<br />
On October 4th this year Sony will release the<br />
solo debut film of Venom. It’ll be the first real<br />
attempt by Sony at creating a ‘Spidey Without<br />
Spidey’ Universe. Reading about the other<br />
adaptation of characters, using the Spider-Man<br />
license, Sony wants to bring out kind of gives<br />
the impression that they have a lot riding on<br />
this movie. So why make a movie of Venom<br />
specifically? Why think that he’s the one that<br />
can start your universe?<br />
Well to answer that let’s take a deep dive into<br />
Marvel comics history!
From the outset, Venom was set up as a<br />
villain for Spider-Man. Bonded to Eddie<br />
Brock after Spider-Man used a church bell<br />
to get the symbiote to leave him. Venom<br />
found Eddie, who was praying in the same<br />
church, and bonded quickly with him<br />
through their mutual hatred of Spider-Man.<br />
What if someone who was unafraid to kill<br />
and was a lot more physically imposing<br />
had the same powers as Spider-Man<br />
and was unaffected by his Spider-Sense?<br />
That’s the basic idea of Venom. It worked<br />
incredibly well in his first introduction,<br />
where Venom had an almost horror movie<br />
vibe to him and has continued to work<br />
when various writers have remembered<br />
that Venom is meant to be a little bit<br />
terrifying.<br />
But always Venom seems to come back<br />
to Eddie Brock, the disgraced journalist<br />
and that’s the Venom we’re getting in the<br />
movie.<br />
And arrayed against our Lethal Protector?<br />
The Life Foundation.<br />
I for one, am looking forward to seeing<br />
what Sony can pull off.<br />
By Shaun Stoddard<br />
Throughout his stories and not always well<br />
written appearances in Marvel comics,<br />
the Venom symbiote has given birth to<br />
everyone’s favourite maniac Carnage.<br />
Who became an almost constant thorn in<br />
Venom’s side, and the 5 symbiotes used by<br />
the Life Foundation. The Venom symbiote<br />
has also been bonded to a grand total of<br />
11 hosts (give or take weird retcons and<br />
shifts in storyline), been a superhero, a<br />
super villain, a spy and a space knight,<br />
and everything in between. In alternate<br />
universes it’s been a suit of goo created to<br />
cure cancer, a ninja, a zombie and oddly<br />
enough an anthropomorphic pig.
DOUBLE PASS GIVE AWAY<br />
One of Marvel’s greatest and most<br />
complex characters takes center stage<br />
as Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy) becomes<br />
the host for the alien symbiote Venom. As a journalist, Eddie has been trying to<br />
take down the notorious founder of the Life Foundation, genius Carlton Drake<br />
(Riz Ahmed) – and that obsession ruined his career and his relationship with his<br />
girlfriend, Anne Weying (Michelle Williams). Upon investigating one of Drake’s<br />
experiments, the alien Venom merges with Eddie’s body, and he suddenly has<br />
incredible new superpowers, as well as the chance to do just about whatever<br />
he wants. Twisted, dark, unpredictable, and fueled by rage, Venom leaves Eddie<br />
wrestling to control dangerous abilities that he also finds empowering and<br />
intoxicating. As Eddie and Venom need each other to get what they’re looking<br />
for, they become more and more intertwined — where does Eddie end and<br />
Venom begin?<br />
WIN A DOUBLE PASS!<br />
Thanks to Sony and <strong>Gametraders</strong> you could win a double pass to see<br />
Tom Hardy as the new Marvel antihero VENOM when it hits cinemas<br />
October 4<br />
All you have to do is go to the <strong>Gametraders</strong> Facebook page and like<br />
the competition post, tag who you’re going to take and comment why<br />
you want to see Venom!
MARVEL and all related character names: © & 2018 MARVEL. Venom, the Movie ©2018 Columbia Pictures
DOUBLE PASS GIVE AWAY
PAUL MONOPOLI<br />
INTERVIEW WIT<br />
Transformers Robots<br />
in Disguise: Optimus<br />
Prime
H NEIL KAPLAN<br />
During the Friday of AVCon I was given<br />
the opportunity to speak with a man I had<br />
previously conversed with, Neil Kaplan. I<br />
had last caught up with the man who refers<br />
to himself as the ‘budget Peter Cullen’ at Oz<br />
Comic Con in 2015. Upon reminding him<br />
of this he elaborated by saying he was the<br />
‘budget friendly Peter Cullen’, taking over<br />
from Peter as Eeyore and Optimus Prime,<br />
among others.<br />
Recently Peter had mentioned that he based<br />
the voice of Optimus Prime on his brother.<br />
Neil said that while this is true, the origin<br />
of the autobot leader’s deep vocal stylings<br />
owes much to a Western movie hero.<br />
“If you listen to the rhythm it’s very<br />
quintessential for what a lot of<br />
impressionists did for their version of John<br />
Wayne, so I would tend to say that when I<br />
do Peter’s version I tend to lean into that<br />
John Wayne-ishness”.<br />
For there series ‘Robots in Disguise’, Neil<br />
used a slightly different voice for the role.<br />
“(it was) vocally similar, but not necessarily<br />
with the same sort of pattern”.<br />
We discussed impressions, particularly<br />
Christopher Walken, arguably one of the<br />
most impersonated celebrities of all time.<br />
Neil claims that his Christopher Walken<br />
is possibly one of the worst in the world<br />
but that when it comes to impersonating<br />
someone:<br />
“There’s the real impression and the<br />
impression that distills what we all think of”.<br />
I decided not to ask Neil to do his<br />
impression, but he explained that while his<br />
Christopher Walken impression is pretty<br />
bad, it has its advantages.<br />
“Bad impressions make for really good<br />
original characters. People don’t realise<br />
where the base comes from, and then when<br />
you’re really dedicated to it, it just comes to<br />
life.”<br />
Neil explained that he was able to take the<br />
quirks and twitches of Christopher Walken’s<br />
voice and use them to voice a shortcircuiting<br />
robot.<br />
“And nobody knows, because it’s so horrible.<br />
They had no idea it was Christopher<br />
Walken”.
The last time I spoke to Neil we had so<br />
much to talk about that I neglected to ask<br />
him about how he got involved in acting. I<br />
decided to remedy that by asking him that<br />
very question.<br />
“I’ve always been fascinated by the human<br />
voice. I grew up watching a TV show in the<br />
states, when I was a kid before Saturday<br />
Night <strong>Live</strong> even came into existence.<br />
It was called The Kopycats, and it was<br />
impressionists. Rich Little and Frank Gorshin,<br />
believe it or not”.<br />
“Add the letter r onto ‘bananas’, so what<br />
you do is you say ‘bananars’. I was like ‘oh<br />
my god!’ And I cannot do a Liam Neeson to<br />
save my life, but I can do that!”<br />
Neil became the ‘kid who did impressions’,<br />
and nothing was off limits. Children, adults,<br />
anybody with an interesting voice was up<br />
for grabs. He would enter talent shows,<br />
which led to him performing in plays. This<br />
created an intellectual spark for the young<br />
thespian, who took this opportunity to hone<br />
his future craft.<br />
Neil remembers that the show didn’t have<br />
the budget that Saturday Night <strong>Live</strong> would<br />
have upon its arrival, so the impressions<br />
had to be spot on for the actors to be<br />
recognised in the roles they were playing.<br />
He particularly admired the one-word<br />
impressionists.<br />
“There are a lot of people who do oneword<br />
impressions, which are genius! When<br />
you can do one word, or one syllable and<br />
people get it…”<br />
Neil then taught me how to do a one-word<br />
impression of Liam Neeson.<br />
“When I started getting cast in shows that<br />
would have dialogue I fought back. I would<br />
start reading the play as we would have the<br />
read through and by the end of the play I<br />
would have the voice figured out”.<br />
This is a skill that Neil shares with aspiring<br />
acting students that he works with. He<br />
encourages people to find the character.<br />
“When you’re reading through your copy<br />
you’re trying to find the character. Read<br />
the description, read the direction, read the<br />
copy itself, and as it starts to influence you<br />
let yourself go, let yourself drift… you let the<br />
words move you”.
Voltron: Legendary Defender - Emperor Zarkon<br />
Naruto: Shippuden<br />
- Madara<br />
Naruto: Shippuden - Masked Man<br />
Bleach - Genryusai Shigekuni Yamamoto<br />
Bleach - Rusaburo Enkogawa<br />
Transformers Robots in Disguise - Optimus Prime<br />
Bleach - Gesell
Justice League Heroes – Gorilla Grodd<br />
When creating the voice Neil explains that<br />
while you may initially find the voice for<br />
a specific scene, that this voice might not<br />
be representative of the entire story the<br />
character is involved in. He explains that<br />
it’s about understanding what created that<br />
voice inside you and how you can adjust it<br />
for different scenes while staying true to the<br />
emotion that led you to that voice.<br />
I asked Neil about how he deals with<br />
direction that might conflict with the voices<br />
he creates.<br />
“That’s the thing. I don’t create the voice. I<br />
create the character and the attitude, and<br />
what will happen is as the character comes<br />
into focus… sometimes that voice will get<br />
dragged over, because now all of a sudden<br />
he’s not as angry as you thought in your<br />
first read through, or there’s more subtlety,<br />
he’s not quite as in your face, or you start<br />
working with the other actors and as their<br />
characters develop you (drag the character<br />
over to where they should be). I don’t think<br />
of myself as doing voices, I think of myself<br />
as playing characters”.<br />
Neil cites James Earl Jones, the man who has<br />
played two of the most famous fathers in<br />
cinema history. These characters developed<br />
completely differently and as such you will<br />
never mistake a line from Darth Vader with<br />
a line from Mufasa because the attitude is<br />
completely different.<br />
“James Earl Jones, as far as I’m concerned, is<br />
an amazing actor but he has the vocal range<br />
of Y to Z… so it’s obviously not about just<br />
the voice. It’s about his dedication to the<br />
character, to their inner life, to their values,<br />
to their goals, and how they go about<br />
achieving those goals, and when those<br />
things change, if you’re really dedicated, the<br />
voice should follow”.
“It’s just a different facet of doing what we<br />
did when we were five years old. It’s just<br />
pretending… and somewhere in our lives<br />
school and traffic, work and the world, politics<br />
and the weather, and everything beats that out<br />
of us”.<br />
Neil says it all comes down to imagination, a<br />
skill that actors need to be able to personify<br />
the characters they are playing.<br />
While doing my research for the interview<br />
I saw that Neil had delved into comedy in<br />
his younger days. I asked whether it was<br />
something he still had an interest in pursuing.<br />
“Yes, very much! But I’ve given into fear for so<br />
long I almost don’t know how to do anything<br />
else. And fear is the main reason I haven’t<br />
been on stage in a long time… It’s funny<br />
because I’ll do conventions, and I’ll host stuff<br />
and I’ll talk off the top of my head for an hour<br />
and a half and people will be laughing and it’s<br />
when it’s like ‘no, you’ve gotta memorise the<br />
joke, you’ve gotta have it written and you’ve<br />
gotta have every word of it down… and that<br />
just terrifies me”.<br />
With that said, Neil has a few projects he<br />
is trying to get off the ground that are on<br />
the ‘funny side’. He enjoys going on Twitter<br />
and sharing jokes, even if they are for niche<br />
audiences. As long as the joke lands he’s<br />
satisfied.<br />
Digemon: Hawkmon
At this point we were getting the wind<br />
up from the AVCon media staff, but<br />
Neil decided that after two interviews<br />
he wanted to make sure I had all of my<br />
questions answered. I decided to ask<br />
Neil what he loves about Australia and<br />
why he keeps coming back.<br />
“What do I like about being down here?<br />
Well, that I can come down here and<br />
do my Scottish dialect and none of<br />
you know it’s crap! … You know, that’s<br />
fun. That’s nice. You know… each time I<br />
come down to do a convention I make<br />
new friends and it’s not a commodity<br />
that I have overflowing in my life… so<br />
that speaks to me. I’m attracted to the<br />
architecture down here. I enjoy the<br />
people, and let’s be honest: Not a whole<br />
lot of South American countries are big<br />
fans of the work I’ve done because they<br />
hear my Spanish counterpart, so that<br />
kinda limits some of the places I can go<br />
to as far as convention travel. As much<br />
as I’d love to go to China or Japan it’s<br />
like ‘well, I’m gonna have to do that on<br />
my own’ because they’re hearing their<br />
guys”.<br />
Neil would love to meet some of his<br />
counterparts, particularly the Japanese<br />
seiyuu for Madara Uchiha, whose voice<br />
he used as a basis for the English dub.<br />
After a quick tale about voice actors in a<br />
karaoke bar, which really doesn’t translate<br />
to the written medium, we are given<br />
the hard wrap up. We thank each other,<br />
and he goes off to do his next interview<br />
possibly anticipating our third encounter.<br />
Interview conducted by Paul Monopoli
Evangelion - Shinji Ikari<br />
Martian Successor Nadesico<br />
- Akito Tenkawa<br />
Bleach - Hanataro Yamada
PAUL MONOPOLI<br />
INTERVIEW WITH<br />
SPIKE SPENCER<br />
Neil Kaplan had vacated his seat to take<br />
part in other interviews. The void in<br />
front of me was filled by the shape of<br />
Spike Spencer, another voice actor I had<br />
previously interviewed. Rather flatteringly,<br />
Spike remembered me from AVCon 2013,<br />
when he had previously attended as a<br />
guest.<br />
When I last spoke to Spike he declared<br />
that he was going to roll down the hill on<br />
the side of the River Torrens. This never<br />
happened, and it was something I joked<br />
about with some of my AVCon friends<br />
before the interview. They suggested that<br />
as Spike is now a family man that he might<br />
not be so keen to do this.<br />
“That makes no difference whatsoever!<br />
Rolling down a hill, I mean… come on!...<br />
My wife really wants to, so we might just<br />
do that”.<br />
“I’m married, I have an 11 month old baby<br />
boy who’s here with us. I have done more<br />
voice over work. I’ve done a lot of other<br />
training as a coach. I’m a sales coach, a<br />
dating/relationships coach, relationships/<br />
sales dynamics”.<br />
During the last AVCon Spike had presented<br />
a dating tips panel, details of which can be<br />
found at dontkillyourdate.com. A book on<br />
the subject, ‘Foodgame: The Ultimate Recipe<br />
For Dating Success’ is<br />
currently with the<br />
editors and will be<br />
available soon. So<br />
Spike has been<br />
quite busy, though<br />
he confesses that<br />
the bulk of his time<br />
is spent raising his<br />
son.<br />
I asked Spike what he had been up to<br />
since we last spoke.<br />
Blazblue - Arakune
Black Butler: Book of the Atlantic - Snake<br />
Spike worked with AVCon to make the event<br />
a family affair, with his wife judging the<br />
cosplay event, which their son, Declan, will<br />
be participating in. If you saw a very young<br />
Woody from Toy Story then that was Spike’s<br />
son!<br />
“He took his first step last night in a pub! He<br />
was actually standing against a little plate<br />
glass and there was some scotch there and<br />
then he turned to my wife and took a step<br />
towards her. I’m like, ‘OK, he was staring at<br />
scotch and took his first step in a pub. He’s<br />
YOUR son!’ That’s my boy!”<br />
Spike is also quite the foodie, trying<br />
different local cuisines as he travels the<br />
world participating in conventions. Last time<br />
we spoke he was waiting on a kangaroo pie.<br />
I thought I’d ask him how it was.<br />
“I had the kangaroo pie and, this is my<br />
seventh time down here so, I cooked some<br />
kangaroo last week in Sydney myself and<br />
I just love the food down here. I do love<br />
kangaroo, it’s great, but I love meat pies.<br />
I remember that my first meat pie was at<br />
the zoo in Melbourne and I was just like…<br />
blown away”.<br />
Spike is open to introducing his son to the<br />
world of voice acting, should he wish to<br />
work in the industry. He claims that Declan<br />
has the lungs for the job, though he will be<br />
encouraging him to do whatever he wants in<br />
life.<br />
Though Spike has eaten plenty of meat<br />
pies since, he hasn’t managed to find<br />
one that tops that first experience from<br />
a vending machine at the zoo. It’s an<br />
experience he can’t quite share with his<br />
wife, who suffers from a gluten intolerance.
I asked what it is that he likes to cook at<br />
home, to which Spike shared his recipe<br />
for Thomas Keller style baked chicken.<br />
Several of Spike’s favourite recipes can be<br />
found on the website, dontkillyourdate.<br />
com.<br />
“I like to explore though, like while I’m<br />
here I’m like ‘OK, what is THE BEST food<br />
I should have while I’m in Adelaide?<br />
Like, in Melbourne I would say go to the<br />
Chinatown because they do great duck. I<br />
love that. In Sydney… I dunno, you know,<br />
it’s so eclectic. But when I’m in a locale<br />
(and I ask) what’s the local thing? What is<br />
it you’ve gotta have? And they always tell<br />
me”.<br />
Upon this revelation I shared the<br />
not so secret recipe of the pie<br />
floater, an Adelaide specialty. Spike<br />
had actually eaten this before in<br />
Sydney of all places! Most of Spike’s<br />
meals are typically meat and three veg,<br />
though it’s how he works with the food<br />
that makes it special.<br />
“I will say this. I’m not such a snobby<br />
foodie that I won’t go to<br />
McDonalds and get a Big Mac,<br />
because I grew up with that stuff,<br />
and I’m like ‘yes, it’s crap, it’s awful,<br />
it’s horrible and amazing sometimes!<br />
So, I won’t judge”.<br />
After this we decided it was time to<br />
discuss Spike’s acting career, as this was<br />
the whole reason for the interview. I<br />
have an appreciation of food as well, and<br />
could have devoted the whole interview<br />
for it. However, I’m not sure that<br />
<strong>Gametraders</strong> would have published it.<br />
I asked Spike how he got the storyline<br />
for the characters he voices in video<br />
games. At that point he can’t play<br />
through the game like the player can, so<br />
does he read the whole script first?<br />
“Mainly you just focus on your character<br />
because a lot of times we don’t have<br />
access to any of this. I’ve done jobs<br />
where I don’t even know what I’m doing.<br />
Here’s the character, the director says<br />
‘OK, here’s what’s going on and here’s<br />
what you’re feeling, go! You do that.’ So<br />
when people think about an actor who’s<br />
doing a role, you have to… understand<br />
the actor is only doing what the director<br />
tells them to do. If you don’t like the way<br />
an actor did something don’t blame the<br />
actor, because we’re doing<br />
what we’re told. That’s our<br />
job”.<br />
Blazblue: Continuum<br />
Shift - Hazama<br />
Mana Khemia 2: Fall<br />
of Alchemy - Puni Jiro
This was something that happened back<br />
in the early days of mainstream anime<br />
dubbing, where shows like Sailor Moon<br />
and Dragon Ball Z were criticized for heavy<br />
changes to the script and mispronunciation<br />
of specific words. I mentioned to Spike that<br />
in the early days of the internet it was the<br />
voice actors who used to be negatively<br />
spoken about the roles they performed.<br />
“Well they don’t get it. I mean, if you<br />
understand the business of it then you need<br />
to talk to the director, because our job is to<br />
do what the director tells us to do.<br />
Another actor said a long time ago, ‘I’m<br />
an instrument. You tune me. That’s what<br />
I do. So you tell me higher, lower, this<br />
way, that way, whatever it is… there!’<br />
I mean, hey. Someone hired Jar Jar<br />
Binks”.<br />
Earlier in the week I had read that<br />
Ahmed Best, the actor for Jar Jar had<br />
experienced depression for a long time<br />
over the fan hatred of his character. This<br />
is something that Spike was not at all<br />
surprised to hear.<br />
Code Geass - Rolo Lamperouge<br />
Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn - Daryl McGuinness
“I believe that, and it sucks because as<br />
annoying as the character was, hey man,<br />
voice wise it was a great gig!... I did<br />
Supanova years ago with Jake (Lloyd)<br />
who was Anakin and his mum told me<br />
stories that I was just like… it’s insane what<br />
people do to people. It’s like, oh my gosh!<br />
They had to move and all kinds of things<br />
so it messes people up, and they don’t<br />
realise, hey, it’s just another human being<br />
doing a job that somebody else is telling<br />
them how to do it. So you know, go get a<br />
life and stop harassing them”.<br />
Back in 2013 AVCon screened a<br />
subtitled version of Neon Genesis<br />
Evangelion 3.0 in anticipation for the<br />
upcoming dub release. It ended up<br />
coming out three years later, which<br />
was an unusually long time to wait<br />
for an anime dub, particularly one as<br />
anticipated as this.<br />
“Well, it’s funny because we did the… I<br />
forgot what year it was… I want to say<br />
it was 2012 or something. We showed<br />
it. We had a preview at New York Comic<br />
Con and twelve hundred people saw it<br />
and loved it and said ‘yay, it was great,<br />
it was awesome’ and I was like, it’s<br />
coming out! And a year later they called<br />
me in to do some pickups on it and I<br />
was like, ‘is this ever coming out?’… but<br />
it takes its own sweet time. Nobody<br />
tells me. People are always going ‘Spike,<br />
what’s going to happen?’… Do I look<br />
like I’m part of the franchise? I mean,<br />
I come into a booth, I scream, I leave.<br />
That’s my job”.<br />
Spike has since heard through the<br />
grapevine that Gainax are advertising<br />
for animators to work on the final film<br />
in the series, Evangelion 3.0+1.0. Spike<br />
agrees that the naming conventions for<br />
these four movies have been difficult to<br />
understand.<br />
Durarara! - Saburo Togusa
I wondered how it felt revisiting the<br />
same character and the same series over<br />
and over again.<br />
“The 1.11 was a complete redo of<br />
everything, so it was just like stepping<br />
back into the original series and going<br />
‘OK cool’, I’m a little bit older, obviously…<br />
a lot older, and you know, but I still get<br />
into the character and I can still do it. It’s<br />
like I have the voice, I mean, my voice<br />
has gotten deeper so we said… it wasn’t<br />
just my thing, it was the director. We said<br />
we’re manning him up a little bit… I think<br />
it’s awesome, I love it. And you know<br />
what, let me say something. It’s funny,<br />
I get this a lot. People like goes ‘Spike<br />
Spencer hates Shinji’, well first of all, no.<br />
Shinji’s a two dimensional character and<br />
by the way, not real. And second, it’s a<br />
character”.<br />
I asked Spike about his time working<br />
on Doraemon. Johnny Yong Bosch<br />
had previously told me how much<br />
fun it was to work on the show, and<br />
Spike also had good things to say<br />
about it.<br />
I’ve never had this impression from<br />
Spike, but apparently it does the rounds<br />
in fan circles.<br />
One of the things Spike likes to do<br />
during signings is to draw on pictures<br />
of Shinji. He signed my laserdisc of the<br />
first 2 episodes back in 2013 and drew<br />
glasses and a beard on the character. As<br />
Spike says, when you “man up” Shinji he<br />
looks just like his father, Gendo.
“You know, it was a long time ago. I<br />
haven’t done it in years… I was Ace<br />
Goody and it’s basically a younger<br />
Shinji, and it was fun… I auditioned for<br />
Doraemon and didn’t get that, but I got<br />
to play with it and a cute, fun little series”.<br />
Spike said he occasionally can get lost in the many<br />
series he’s been involved in as similar plot lines and<br />
stories can create a blur of memories. Anime has<br />
certain styles and tropes that remain the same for<br />
almost every series that comes out of Japan. This<br />
has its advantages, as the more anime he works on<br />
the more he understands how certain voices and<br />
sounds work in specific situations.
Bang Zoom! Dub Dragon Ball Super - Majin Buu
As a Dragon Ball fan I had to ask Spike<br />
about the Bang Zoom! Dub of Dragon Ball<br />
Super, in which he plays Majin Buu. It’s<br />
hard to get ahold of any footage from that<br />
show, as we receive the Funimation dub in<br />
Australia. I asked Spike whether he based<br />
the voice on his Funimation counterpart,<br />
Justin Cook.<br />
“I don’t think so… This may sound bad for<br />
me, I don’t research because the director’s<br />
gonna tell me what to do and a lot of times<br />
I don’t want to colour what I’m doing. I’m<br />
like, ‘OK, you’re the director. You’re the<br />
boss. What are we doing? We’re taking it<br />
in a different direction? Great, now I’ve got<br />
to unlearn everything I’ve already learned<br />
and go in.’ And I’ve had episodes where<br />
I’ve done that and they’re like, this other<br />
voice just keeps creeping in because I’ve<br />
already got it on my brain. So I don’t want<br />
to do that, so I go in and am like ‘what are<br />
we doing? Oh, Majin Buu. He sounds like<br />
what? You want this? Let’s try this voice.<br />
Ahhh! Whatever!’ And they go ‘yeah, that’s<br />
it. Great!’ OK, so I have no idea what (Justin<br />
Cook’s) Majin Buu sounds like”.<br />
resume and like ‘yeah I was, look at that’”.<br />
I thought I would use my last question to<br />
ask about roles he is uncredited in.<br />
“You know, I don’t know how that works,<br />
honestly… It could be a paperwork snafu.<br />
It’s not something that I did, like ‘oh, I don’t<br />
want to be credited’. I don’t care. I did the<br />
work, I’m proud of it. If I don’t want to be<br />
credited then why do the work?... If it’s<br />
hentai then I’ll give you a different name,<br />
but it’s fun. It’s a fun name… If I do another<br />
one you’ll see as ‘Heiney Pickelhammer’”.<br />
And on that note we were given the signal<br />
to suggest it was time to end the interview.<br />
Spike said that due to business interests he<br />
has in Australia he may be making more<br />
stops on our shores. Personally, I look<br />
forward to seeing him again.<br />
Interview conducted by Paul Monopoli<br />
I asked whether fans tend to know more<br />
about the roles that Spike plays that he<br />
does himself.<br />
“YES! YES! And they’re like, ‘sign this’ and<br />
I’m like, ‘was I in that?’ and they go ‘yeah,<br />
you were this guy’… and I look at my
gameS<br />
REVISITING NO<br />
MANS SKY<br />
PAPER MARIO SERIES<br />
ANALYSIS<br />
COMPARING THE NINTENDO WARRIORS:<br />
FIRE EMBLEM vs HYRULE
INTERVIEWS<br />
REVIEWS
BEN DYE<br />
REVISITING N
O MANS SKY<br />
Hello Games’ No Man’s Sky<br />
launched back in 2016 to more<br />
hype than even the vast majority<br />
of AAA games. Prior to release<br />
many people - myself included -<br />
treated it like it was going to be<br />
a great leap forward for gaming.<br />
All of the promises of procedural<br />
generation, the idea of an infinite<br />
universe awaiting to be explored,<br />
and bumping into people across<br />
a universe of space, seemed like<br />
such novel ideas.<br />
And then we played the game.
Amongst other things there was little<br />
guidance on how to do anything; most<br />
of the player base started out on horribly<br />
deadly planets and were confused as to<br />
how to expand from there. Options were<br />
also limited, not least the base-building<br />
functionality. And of course the people<br />
you might hope to bump into weren’t<br />
even there. In the end, No Man’s Sky was<br />
a bitter disappointed; a lonely and shallow<br />
experience.<br />
That was then, however. Since 2016, the<br />
game has received update after update,<br />
slowly pushing it from being a mediocre<br />
game to a decent one. Now, with the<br />
release of the ‘NEXT’ update, it has finally<br />
made the move from decent to pretty<br />
great.<br />
Visually it has improved significantly. A<br />
large number of new assets have been<br />
added to the game to give the whole<br />
procedural generation gimmick a fresh<br />
coat of paint. Now the game really does<br />
have a wide variety of planets, creatures,<br />
and flora. So far, every planet I’ve visited<br />
since the update has been markedly<br />
different from all of the others. One felt like<br />
Mars, for example, another like a deceptive<br />
oasis planet plagued by acid rain, and one<br />
even like the planet Hoth from Star Wars.
There are far, far more computer<br />
characters, pieces of technology,<br />
races, and fleets than ever before;<br />
and items, things to discover, and<br />
beings to interact with are all over<br />
the place. Random NPC ships will<br />
fly overhead every now and then,<br />
which makes the experience feel<br />
much less lonely. Granted, I’ve only<br />
encountered one real person thus<br />
far (and that a Steam friend), but<br />
the ability to join another player’s<br />
session and unlock their bases to go<br />
through what is in effect a Stargate<br />
is a huge improvement.<br />
I’m currently in the process<br />
of fervently constructing<br />
my own glorious base on<br />
a planet that I found with<br />
my aforementioned it. It<br />
almost feels like Minecraft<br />
in space, but with stronger<br />
visuals and the addition of<br />
some enjoyable exploration<br />
components. This is the<br />
game I wanted (an expected)<br />
at launch. Unlike Minecraft<br />
it doesn’t get aesthetically<br />
boring either, at least not<br />
so far. The sheer number<br />
of possibilities, especially<br />
with future updates, should<br />
ensure that it remains<br />
interesting for a long time to<br />
come.
When No Man’s Sky first came out I was<br />
incredibly excited. I came from an Eve:<br />
Online background and loved many<br />
aspects of that game but simultaneously<br />
hated how slow it felt and how you never<br />
had direct control over your ship (it’s a<br />
point and click game, for the uninitiated).<br />
When No Man’s Sky was announced and<br />
shown off, I soaked it in like Squidward<br />
eating Krabby Patties. Then, when it<br />
was released, I played it for about three<br />
hours before hanging up my boots and<br />
walking away from the depressingly<br />
isolated and limited experience.<br />
Now? Now I can’t stop playing it. Every<br />
day I feel an eager temptation to play it,<br />
and when I do I’m lost in this universe<br />
for at least an hour (which is a lot of<br />
time for me to devote to a session). I<br />
love the exploration, the discovery, the<br />
interaction with aliens, and the possibility<br />
of easily and meaningfully interacting<br />
with people. I love that the resources<br />
required are always available in some<br />
way, shape, or form, and usually rather<br />
easily. I love that I continue to learn as<br />
I play the game, figuring out how to<br />
do things better and more efficiently. I<br />
love the gorgeous sunsets on beautiful<br />
planets... which quickly turn into deadly<br />
hot acid rain. I love that I can literally<br />
pick it up and play for a bit, quickly save,<br />
and then resume right where I left off. I<br />
love how easy it is for friends to join my<br />
play sessions. There are so many things<br />
about this game that I love, now, that I<br />
could keep going on like this for quite<br />
some time.<br />
What makes this update even better are<br />
the implications for the future of the<br />
game, with this as the basis for what<br />
to expect. Hello Games’ press release<br />
was rather telling of the developer’s<br />
intentions in this respect:<br />
“This is an incredibly important update for<br />
us, but it’s also just another step in a longer<br />
journey, and we’ll continue to support No<br />
Man’s Sky in this way for the foreseeable<br />
future. This is an incredibly important update<br />
for us, but it’s also just another step in a<br />
longer journey, and we’ll continue to support<br />
No Man’s Sky in this way for the foreseeable<br />
future.”<br />
No Man’s Sky has gone on a long<br />
journey, from being straight up bad, to<br />
middling, to now good. So who knows,<br />
it’s possible that one day No Man’s Sky<br />
will eventually morph into a superb<br />
game.<br />
In truth, dozens of major features that<br />
have been added to No Man’s Sky since<br />
its disastrous launch in 2016, and many<br />
more significant tweaks have been made<br />
beyond that. If you own the game but<br />
quickly gave up on it back in 2016 then<br />
now is a great time to experience all of<br />
these improvements for yourself. I can<br />
honestly say I have never seen such a<br />
drastic turnaround in all of video gaming<br />
- No Man’s Sky was a complete and utter<br />
disappointment but now it’s finally fun to<br />
play.<br />
By Ben Dye, VGChartz
Stephan LaGioia<br />
REVIEW NS:<br />
OVERCOOKED! 2<br />
I<br />
never thought I’d experience a game that<br />
so authentically captures the stresses of<br />
being a chef at a bustling kitchen - or at<br />
least what I presume those stresses would<br />
be like. And yet, Team 17’s Overooked! 2<br />
manages to capture it. I mean that in the<br />
best way possible, by the way. Taking its<br />
cue from the first entry, this sequel utilizes<br />
the ingredients of what made Overcooked<br />
so enjoyable and adds some delectable<br />
additions of its own, including online<br />
multiplayer.<br />
If you’ve played the original it likely won’t<br />
take much for you to jump right into<br />
the action and get acquainted with the<br />
frantic multi-tasking the game demands.<br />
The controls are pretty simple and only<br />
require the use of a few buttons for the<br />
main commands. Not being well-versed<br />
in Overcooked culinary arts myself,<br />
there was certainly a learning curve that<br />
I had to shake off with so much going<br />
on around me. After 20 minutes or so<br />
of stumbling around, dropping food<br />
on the floor, burning things, and falling<br />
down pits, it all clicked, and the game’s<br />
enjoyment elevated massively.<br />
Essentially, you’re tossed into one of a<br />
number of unique kitchens, complete<br />
with an array of cooking tools and crates<br />
full of food items at your disposal. You’re<br />
immediately put on the clock as you and<br />
at least one other chef must scramble to<br />
whip together a laundry list of varying<br />
dishes. You’ll often have to prepare these<br />
items by way of chopping, steaming,<br />
frying, and/or baking.
The rate at which you accumulate points<br />
will depend on how quickly and orderly<br />
you assemble these items. Following<br />
completion of a stage, you’ll be awarded<br />
1 to 3 stars, the latter of which usually<br />
requires a synchronized assembly<br />
line born of teamwork and ample<br />
communication.<br />
You can jump into either a local or online<br />
multiplayer mode with relative ease, and<br />
decide to face off in a cooking throwdown<br />
Iron Chef style, or choose to band<br />
together to crank out as many food<br />
items as possible within a 3 minute span.<br />
You can pick your chef from a number<br />
of cartoony options, both human and<br />
animal, and unlock more as you progress.<br />
In addition to boasting a larger lineup of<br />
chefs, Overcooked! 2 also replaces the<br />
soup recipes that so heavily permeated<br />
the original and swaps them out for a<br />
much more diverse lineup of dishes.<br />
These range from sushi, to a couple of<br />
the sequel’s more elaborate additions<br />
- flapjacks and cakes. This new lineup,<br />
along with a few old classics like the<br />
burger, keep the experience feeling fresh,<br />
as most of the food items come with their<br />
own separate process for cooking and<br />
preparation.
While the game revolves around a pretty<br />
simplistic core, there are certain nuances<br />
you can exploit in order to run your<br />
kitchen more efficiently, which can go<br />
a long way in nudging over the 3 star<br />
cliff. You can allocate various tasks to<br />
certain players, such as dish washing or<br />
serving, and can choose to fulfill orders<br />
in the order they pop up to receive extra<br />
tips. You can now even toss food items<br />
directly into the arms of an awaiting chef<br />
or into a pot or pan to save on time.<br />
Overcooked! 2 mostly hits that sweet<br />
spot of solid mechanics and simplistic<br />
gameplay that’s easy enough to grasp,<br />
but provides room for completionists<br />
and die-hard chefs to shine and earn that<br />
triple star ranking.<br />
The game comes with a pretty standard<br />
campaign mode that gives you a quick<br />
tutorial before plopping you onto an<br />
overworld map containing a number of<br />
colorful kitchens, each with their own<br />
characteristics, equipment, and hazards.<br />
You’ll be cooking in everything from<br />
sushi kitchens wrought with conveyor<br />
belts, to pit-laden coal mines, to hot air<br />
balloons that force you to scurry across<br />
moving platforms. Some of these stages<br />
go a tad far in tossing random elements<br />
at you, but most add a certain charm and<br />
do well in keeping you on your toes in<br />
a creative, chaotic way. The variance in<br />
the environments also helps the game’s<br />
cute and colorful art style flourish even<br />
further, giving a delightful sense of<br />
character.
The campaign comes with a simplistic, but<br />
nonetheless amusing narrative involving<br />
the cheekily named “Unbread”. Yes, as<br />
you might imagine, these are zombie-like<br />
bread creatures, and they’re apparently<br />
taking over the Onion Kingdom. Naturally,<br />
you’re summoned by the great Onion King<br />
- who looks exactly as you’d expect - to<br />
keep the hordes at bay by satiating their<br />
hunger.<br />
The difficulty stays at a manageable level -<br />
even when playing solo and painstakingly<br />
forced to swap between 2 chefs - and<br />
ramps up pretty steadily throughout. The<br />
game also does a nice job of providing<br />
new recipes and gameplay elements at an<br />
easy-to-absorb trickle, so the mode proves<br />
a fun and useful 5 hour diversion, though<br />
the real meat of the gameplay lies in the<br />
local and online multiplayer.
Local multiplayer was a blast in my<br />
experience, and felt as much a couch co-op<br />
game as an exercise in communication. My<br />
matches were filled with people shouting<br />
commands and recipes at eachother, frantic<br />
moments of exhilaration, and plenty of<br />
laughter-beckoning blunders. The online<br />
play doesn’t quite offer this same charm,<br />
nor the ability to talk directly with one<br />
another on the Switch version, despite being<br />
enjoyable in its own right. Thus, despite this<br />
newly included online multiplayer feature,<br />
couch co-op still stands out as the highlight<br />
of the game and the best way to experience<br />
Overcooked! 2.<br />
Aside from the lack of communication<br />
options (basic emotes notwithstanding), I<br />
had a surprisingly smooth and endlessly<br />
enjoyable experience playing online. Players<br />
usually were on the money with tasks and<br />
there was a fair degree of working around<br />
the lack of communication through quick<br />
wits, improvisation, and multi-tasking. I<br />
was usually matched up quite quickly, and<br />
only got an occasional bit of lag stutter.<br />
The head-to-head mode is ideal for the<br />
competitive types, but for my money, the<br />
more simplistic Arcade co-op portion<br />
proves a perfect blend of action-packed<br />
intensity and mindless cooking fun. Playing<br />
with 3 others can occasionally get chaotic,<br />
but it’s certainly preferable to managing<br />
multiple tasks on your own. The online<br />
could perhaps have been fleshed out a bit<br />
more, as its customizations are limited and<br />
there’s no leaderboard to be found. Still, it<br />
works well enough, and goes a long way in<br />
extending the game’s shelf life.<br />
The original Overcooked managed to be<br />
something of a sleeper hit and its sequel<br />
further reminds us why this quirky co-op<br />
franchise has won over so many. Ghost<br />
Town Games and Team 17 have sprinkled<br />
in just the right amount of new elements<br />
to strengthen and further flesh out the<br />
experience without overwhelming it. While<br />
your levels of enjoyment playing solo are<br />
likely to be tepid, those looking for co-op<br />
multiplayer gaming excellence should look<br />
no further than this charming, addictive<br />
sequel.<br />
By Stephan LaGioia, VGChartz
Marvel’s Spider-Man (PS4)<br />
Review<br />
Marvel’s Spider-Man is without a<br />
doubt the absolute best Marvel<br />
game ever made. The world<br />
Insomniac Games have created, even with its<br />
many and varied references to the greater<br />
Marvel universe, feels so authentically Spider-<br />
Man that it’s almost unbelievable. The systems<br />
they’ve implemented, the gadgets and suit<br />
powers, serve well to enhance the experience<br />
and feeling of being Spidey.<br />
The game starts you in as a 23-year-old Peter<br />
Parker in the midst of working to bring down<br />
the Kingpin (continuing basically straight from<br />
the prequel novel Spider-Man: Hostile Takeover,<br />
which is also very good) and thrusts you<br />
straight into a fully immersive New York City.<br />
The first mission in the game feels both like a<br />
well-designed tutorial and a hugely impacting<br />
part of the story, which feels so damn good.<br />
“The story is where this game<br />
well and truly shines”<br />
It shows you everything you need to know to<br />
get started, including introducing you to the<br />
swinging mechanics literally straight out of the<br />
gate... or rather window.
These swinging mechanics<br />
are a big part of what makes<br />
this game so fun, with an<br />
emphasis on fluidity and<br />
building up speed using<br />
different techniques. Traversal<br />
in open world games is<br />
always touch and go, with<br />
some being really good and<br />
some being incredibly boring.<br />
Luckily Spider-Man gives you<br />
enough variations to enable<br />
you to move throughout the<br />
city quickly, which opens up<br />
directly after the tutorial.<br />
Collectables and side missions<br />
periodically open up as well,<br />
which keeps it fun from start<br />
to finish. It’s telling that I only<br />
used the fast travel system<br />
once (when it’s introduced.<br />
It never forces you to use it<br />
after that).<br />
Combat in this game is<br />
heavily Arkham inspired, but<br />
with more of an emphasis<br />
on movement over brute<br />
strength. The different<br />
gadgets enable a wide array<br />
of play styles and the use of<br />
aerial combat gives a more<br />
3-dimensional aspect. Learn<br />
to love the dodge button, and<br />
make sure to make liberal use<br />
of webbing people because<br />
the earlier you web, the less<br />
people you have to punch<br />
repeatedly.
I must talk about the<br />
voice acting for a<br />
moment. The voice<br />
cast of this game is<br />
phenomenal. There’s<br />
not even a character<br />
I can single out as<br />
the best or a stand<br />
out because they’re<br />
all amazingly good.<br />
The motion capture<br />
is also incredibly well<br />
done, and I’ve had<br />
multiple people walk<br />
past and ask what<br />
movie I was watching,<br />
which is just incredible.<br />
Every character is fully<br />
realised and acted<br />
incredibly well, and<br />
there are some hard<br />
scenes particularly<br />
towards the last third<br />
of the game which are<br />
phenomenally well<br />
done. Kudos to all the<br />
actors and workers<br />
involved.
The story is where this game well and truly<br />
shines though. The interactions between<br />
Spider-Man, his supporting cast and his<br />
villains are incredibly well done. The journey<br />
the story goes on, with the revelations<br />
about certain characters taking center stage<br />
in the late game, is well realised. Also, I<br />
have to mention the incidental storytelling,<br />
with the collectables and newspaper<br />
clippings you find throughout the game<br />
helping to establish a believable world<br />
where Spider-Man has been active for<br />
almost a decade.<br />
In a year where we’ve gotten such amazing<br />
games such as God of War, the fact that a<br />
game like Spider-Man could be released<br />
and be as good as it is, is absolutely<br />
amazing. If you have a PS4, go buy this<br />
game and experience it for yourself. It’s a<br />
monumentally well realised experience and<br />
one of my favourite Spider-Man stories<br />
ever.<br />
By Shaun Stoddard
YOUR Evan Norris SAY Review<br />
DOWNWARD SPIRAL: HORUS STATION<br />
(PS4)<br />
Few things are as alien and inhospitable as<br />
a derelict space station drifting aimlessly,<br />
noiselessly through the inky, empty vastness<br />
of space. It’s a terrific setting for a sciencefiction<br />
or horror tale, and first-person actionadventure<br />
game Downward Spiral: Horus<br />
Station knows it. Part 2001: A Space Odyssey,<br />
part Dead Space, Horus Station — the first<br />
of a planned anthology series — owns<br />
some striking sci-fi ideas, impressive zerogravity<br />
controls, and thick, tense atmosphere<br />
(strengthened by a menacing electronic<br />
soundtrack from HIM frontman Ville Valo),<br />
but suffers from repetitive tasks, enemies, and<br />
stage layouts, a missing sense of progression<br />
and geography, and incoherent, evasive<br />
storytelling.
The story in Horus Station is<br />
purposefully — and sometimes<br />
bewilderingly — vague. An astronaut<br />
wakes up on the Horus space station<br />
after a catastrophic event. Sections<br />
of the installation have broken apart,<br />
entire areas are on lockdown, and<br />
hostile security robots run amok.<br />
As the nameless, faceless hero pulls<br />
the station back together, destroys<br />
rampaging robots, and re-engages<br />
a host of deactivated systems,<br />
more information about Horus and<br />
its extraterrestrial purpose comes<br />
into view. Even so, that “more”<br />
information is, by the end of the<br />
adventure, insufficient.<br />
Developer 3rd Eye Studios deserves<br />
much respect for opting for<br />
environmental storytelling in its zerogravity<br />
thriller, and in the process<br />
skipping cinematic cut-scenes, but<br />
the game’s vagueness come at a<br />
price: an often incomprehensible<br />
storyline that leaves the player with<br />
a nagging question by the time<br />
the end credits roll — did I miss<br />
something?<br />
As you decipher the game’s abstruse<br />
story, you’ll explore the multichambered<br />
station in zero-g, fight<br />
off murderous robots, and solve<br />
a few simple puzzles. Navigation<br />
without gravity is the principal joy<br />
of Horus Station, thanks to a clever<br />
control scheme where players can<br />
extend a hand by pressing up on<br />
the left control stick, grasp a nearby<br />
bulkhead or console, and launch<br />
forward simply by releasing the stick.<br />
At first, it’s a bit daunting, but after a<br />
few minutes it becomes a responsive,<br />
liberating experience — even better,<br />
ostensibly, in the optional VR mode.<br />
Shooting is worthwhile also, mainly<br />
because of a surprisingly diverse<br />
arsenal of firearms. Among them: an<br />
introductory pea-shooter, a semiauto<br />
pistol, a scattershot gun, a<br />
sniper weapon, and several more.<br />
Players can equip weapons in either<br />
the right or left hand (the same goes<br />
for a hookshot device and a portable<br />
motor, which make mid-air navigation<br />
easier). While Horus Station’s armory<br />
and shooting mechanics are solid,<br />
its enemy encounters are decidedly<br />
less impressive. The same rival robots<br />
appear again and again, and attack<br />
in similar patterns. Basically, if you<br />
unholster your weapon early, you’re<br />
likely to win. If the floating foes fire<br />
first, it’s probably game over — which<br />
means a quick reset at a nearby<br />
checkpoint, with all your progress<br />
intact. Overall, firefights aren’t nearly<br />
tactical enough and fall on the<br />
repetitive side.
Repetition also infects the<br />
game’s objective and level<br />
designs. The Horus space<br />
station has a samey look,<br />
with Kubrick-esque tunnels,<br />
bulkheads, hallways, and<br />
doorways having a similar<br />
appearance. Objectives tend<br />
to repeat as well: locate<br />
key card, insert fuel rod,<br />
navigate across open space.<br />
There are a few mechanically<br />
interesting sequences,<br />
like manually docking two<br />
large parts of the station<br />
or deactivating a large,<br />
patrolling security bot, but<br />
for the majority of the game,<br />
players will settle into a<br />
monotonous groove.<br />
Objective design suffers not<br />
only from uninvolving quests<br />
but a general confusion<br />
over progress and place.<br />
As you hover around the<br />
Horus installation, it’s not<br />
uncommon to be unclear<br />
about where you are in<br />
proximity to other key points<br />
in the station, what you’re<br />
meant to be doing, and why<br />
exactly you’re doing it in the<br />
first place. There are maps<br />
and monitors throughout<br />
Horus that flash information,<br />
but rarely do they provide<br />
insight into how far you’ve<br />
come and how much is<br />
left ahead. Again, vague<br />
instructions and oblique<br />
storytelling can be a gift,<br />
particularly in a cerebral<br />
sci-fi setting, but 3rd Eye<br />
Studios strays too far into the<br />
incomprehensible.<br />
In addition to the four-hour<br />
campaign, which can be<br />
played solo or in online coop,<br />
and in one of two modes<br />
— “engage,” a traditional<br />
adventure, or “explore,” which<br />
removes any hostile threats<br />
— Horus Station offers up<br />
deathmatch and horde via<br />
online multiplayer, staged<br />
in environments from the<br />
story and populated with<br />
its weapons. Unfortunately,<br />
online lobbies were vacant<br />
pre-launch.<br />
A game like Horus Station<br />
isn’t about graphical fidelity;<br />
it’s about atmosphere.<br />
Judged by that metric, the<br />
game succeeds, even if its<br />
textures and lighting are<br />
merely middling. Valo’s<br />
ambient soundtrack is the<br />
real star here, anyway. It sets<br />
the hazardous, unexplained<br />
mood perfectly, and strings<br />
you along to the final frame.<br />
For all its atmospheric feats,<br />
Horus Station struggles to<br />
break orbit. Every good sci-fi<br />
idea and engaging mechanic<br />
is paired with a repetitive<br />
process or confusing<br />
narrative. Armed with better<br />
enemy AI, more complex<br />
puzzles, and a fleshed-out<br />
story, the game could make a<br />
mark on the genre. Hopefully<br />
future titles in the anthology<br />
series will succeed where this<br />
game falters.<br />
By Evan Norris
NICHOLAS TAYLOR REVIEW<br />
Octopath<br />
Octopath Traveler is the newest RPG from<br />
Square Enix, a developer held in legendary<br />
regard mainly because of that very genre<br />
since decades past. Having been featured<br />
heavily in Nintendo Directs since its unveiling,<br />
Octopath Traveler seemed by all accounts<br />
to be Square Enix’s main project for the<br />
Nintendo Switch, to the extent that it was<br />
even published by Nintendo in every region<br />
outside of Japan.<br />
Given the pedigree of the developer when it<br />
comes to RPGs, Octopath Traveler instantly<br />
has very high expectations to live up to, and<br />
honestly, it’s no exaggeration to say that it<br />
is on par with the legendary games Square<br />
produced back in the golden age of 2D RPGs.<br />
The first thing that really stands out about<br />
the game, and which caught my attention in<br />
the very first trailer, is the unique graphical
Traveler (NS)<br />
style that the developers themselves dubbed<br />
“HD-2D”. At first glance, it seems reminiscent<br />
of SNES-era games, but you quickly realize<br />
that Octopath Traveler’s aesthetic goes above<br />
and beyond, bringing a new twist to the old<br />
sprite-based graphic it’s honoring.<br />
After putting a few hours into Octopath<br />
Traveler, the biggest question I had was<br />
how nobody seemed to have had this<br />
idea for graphics before. It’s a distinct<br />
style which merges everything that’s loved<br />
about classical 16-bit masterpieces with<br />
new technology, and the world feels all the<br />
richer for it. You analyze every nook and<br />
cranny on the screen to see if there might<br />
be a hidden path there, and the more I<br />
gazed in-depth at the art of the game,<br />
the more I fell in love with its entire visual<br />
approach.
In today’s gaming world<br />
of extremely high-quality<br />
graphics, it’s rare to have<br />
something wow you visually,<br />
unless it has a very distinct<br />
art style. Puzzling as it may<br />
seem, Octopath Traveler<br />
gave me similar vibes to<br />
those I experienced playing<br />
Donkey Kong Country on the<br />
SNES back in my childhood,<br />
where it felt like it may have<br />
changed the entire scene<br />
for games of its type. Just<br />
as Donkey Kong Country<br />
served as a predecessor to<br />
the 3D quality we would see<br />
everywhere a few years later,<br />
it does feel like Octopath<br />
Traveler will go down as a<br />
trendsetter, with many 2D<br />
games following its visual<br />
approach. I certainly wasn’t<br />
expecting sprite-based 2D<br />
graphics to be brought to<br />
new levels in this day and<br />
age, but Octopath Traveler<br />
and its “HD-2D” really does<br />
give me that vibe when I play<br />
it.<br />
The gameplay is reminiscent<br />
of classic RPGs like the 2D-era<br />
Final Fantasy titles, though it<br />
also takes some inspiration<br />
from the more recent Bravely<br />
Default series, with a battle<br />
system that feels like a more<br />
refined version of the Brave<br />
Points system we saw in<br />
that game. In battle, your<br />
characters will gain a Boost<br />
Point at the end of every turn,<br />
which can be spent to attack<br />
multiple times or strengthen<br />
a spell you’re casting.<br />
Besides this, each of the eight<br />
characters present in the<br />
game has unique abilities,<br />
such as the hunter H’aanit<br />
being able to tame monsters<br />
and call them in for backup<br />
in later fights, or the cleric<br />
Ophilia who fills the classic<br />
healer role with spells which<br />
will restore your allies’ health<br />
points. Characters also have<br />
unique abilities outside of<br />
battle when they interact<br />
with NPCs in the overworld,<br />
such as the dancer Primrose<br />
being able to lure characters<br />
to follow her, or the merchant<br />
Tressa who can buy items<br />
from NPCs who wouldn’t<br />
usually be selling them (and<br />
sometimes ones that aren’t<br />
ordinarily available in stores<br />
at all).
Although each of these<br />
overworld skills is effectively<br />
repeated in another character<br />
(for example, both H’aanit<br />
and Olberic challenge NPCs<br />
to do battle), there’s more<br />
than enough variety to go<br />
around, and you can mix and<br />
match amongst the 8 potential<br />
party members to fill your<br />
4-character party to your<br />
liking, and switch between<br />
characters throughout your<br />
adventure for the optimal<br />
experience.<br />
The big draw of Octopath<br />
Traveler is, of course, what’s<br />
alluded to in the very title;<br />
namely that there are eight<br />
paths, with each of the eight<br />
characters having their very<br />
own adventure to embark on,<br />
with the rest of the characters<br />
serving as little more than<br />
hired help to achieve their<br />
goals.<br />
That said, the characters’<br />
stories are definitely solid<br />
enough to intrigue you on<br />
their own, and while the rest<br />
of the cast mostly feel like<br />
supporting cast members<br />
when they’re on somebody<br />
else’s chapter, you definitely<br />
get a strong feel for their<br />
motivations, backstory, and<br />
personal journey during their<br />
own intricate storylines.<br />
The player gets to choose<br />
which path to pursue,<br />
with each character’s next<br />
story chapter being clearly<br />
marked out on the world<br />
map, meaning that you can<br />
continue a certain character’s<br />
storyline and ignore the rest<br />
if you want to, although you’d<br />
probably have to do a fair<br />
amount of grinding to be able<br />
to successfully pull off such a<br />
focused playthrough. Because<br />
of the interesting characters,<br />
it can almost be difficult to<br />
decide which storyline to<br />
advance next.<br />
Regardless of whether you<br />
decide to go all-in on each<br />
of the characters or not,<br />
Octopath Traveler is a pretty<br />
big game with lots of things<br />
to do. Besides the main<br />
stories, there’s an abundance<br />
of sidequests and interesting<br />
areas to explore, but if<br />
you’re a player who prefers<br />
linearity, the game indicates<br />
what’s good to do next by<br />
displaying main quests on the<br />
world map, including level<br />
recommendations for each of<br />
them, giving you a clear sense<br />
of guidance if you’re just<br />
trying to get through the main<br />
stories.<br />
All in all, Octopath Traveler is<br />
an ambitious game in a lot of<br />
ways but doesn’t necessarily<br />
cause a huge shake-up to the<br />
genre. Rather, it goes back to<br />
basics and does everything it<br />
attempts to do exceptionally<br />
well. The battle system feels<br />
rewarding and nostalgic, but<br />
without any of the old qualms<br />
that retro RPGs can bother<br />
you with when you replay<br />
them, and the characters are<br />
quite varied in their abilities.<br />
On top of this, you can later<br />
unlock subjobs and advanced<br />
jobs, allowing you to evolve<br />
your party even further, which<br />
gives you a distinct sense<br />
of choice even beyond just<br />
picking which story to unravel<br />
next.<br />
In an era where people have<br />
lamented the lack of RPGs<br />
which maintain that old<br />
school feel from many of our<br />
childhoods, Octopath Traveler<br />
is an extremely welcome<br />
breath of fresh air, and it’s<br />
hard to imagine it going down<br />
as anything other than a true<br />
classic both for Square Enix<br />
and for Nintendo.<br />
By Nicholas Taylor
Paul Broussard<br />
Comparing the Nintendo Warriors:<br />
Fire Emblem<br />
vs. Hyrule<br />
Over the course of the Wii’s and Wii U’s<br />
lifespan, third party developers were<br />
in short supply for Nintendo. For one<br />
reason or another, third party games simply<br />
weren’t selling very well on Nintendo home<br />
consoles. As a result, any sort of partnership<br />
that did produce sales was valuable. One such<br />
fruitful partnership was with Koei Tecmo, who<br />
developed two games based off of the Dynasty<br />
Warriors series, but focusing on story and<br />
characters from specific Nintendo franchises<br />
rather than the usual Dynasty Warriors cast.<br />
Hyrule Warriors, based on The Legend of Zelda,<br />
was released for the Wii U in 2014 and later<br />
ported to 3DS and Switch in 2016 and 2018,<br />
respectively, while Fire Emblem Warriors, based<br />
on Fire Emblem (duh), launched simultaneously<br />
for 3DS and Switch in 2017.<br />
As someone who’s enjoyed both games quite<br />
a bit, I thought it might be worth looking back<br />
on the two and comparing them. I’ll be placing<br />
them head to head in a number of different<br />
areas, determining which I think was the better<br />
title, and ultimately picking one game to<br />
recommend to people who might be interested<br />
in trying a Nintendo Warriors title out. So, with<br />
that in mind, let’s get started.
Presentation<br />
Right off the bat, which game presents itself<br />
better? From music, to levels, to just the general<br />
overall aesthetic, which title provides more<br />
glisten to surround the meat of the experience<br />
with?<br />
Hyrule and FE Warriors both provide some very<br />
interesting takes on areas pulled from their<br />
respective franchises. Being able to run around<br />
Fire Emblem areas that were previously only<br />
viewed from a top down perspective is a real<br />
treat, while looking at Zelda areas reimagined<br />
and mixed with each other is also extremely<br />
enjoyable. Hyrule Warriors gets a slight nod in<br />
this area due to having a few more levels from<br />
its 3DS version, but both earn high marks here.<br />
The music for both games is also (pardon the<br />
pun) rock solid as well, with electric guitar<br />
remixes of songs found throughout the games<br />
pulled from. FE perhaps edges ahead here<br />
slightly, if only because I like the few original<br />
songs introduced in FE Warriors more than the<br />
ones found in Hyrule, but again it’s very close.<br />
On the other hand, Fire Emblem wins easily<br />
in regards to graphical quality and poststory<br />
content. Hyrule’s graphics have dated<br />
considerably since the Wii U release in 2014,<br />
and don’t look significantly better on the<br />
Switch. FE Warriors’ more stylized aesthetic<br />
does and likely will look quite good for<br />
some time to come. And while both games<br />
have roughly equivalent story modes, FE<br />
Warriors stacks up better in regards to<br />
post-game content, with its History Mode<br />
providing a much more enjoyable incentive<br />
to fight additional battles than Hyrule’s rather<br />
schizophrenically organized Adventure Mode.<br />
WINNER: FIRE EMBLEM WARRIORS
Roster of Characters<br />
Much of the appeal of crossovers like these lies<br />
in being able to play as a variety of different<br />
characters from the series being represented.<br />
Both Hyrule and Fire Emblem Warriors market<br />
themselves on the player being able to play<br />
as various protagonists and/or antagonists<br />
from the series’ past. Since Link is usually the<br />
only playable character in Zelda titles, and Fire<br />
Emblem is more about giving orders to units<br />
than actively playing as them, these crossovers<br />
present the first real opportunity for many<br />
people to directly control many characters that<br />
they may have always wanted to.<br />
In that regard, it’s hard not to feel at least a<br />
little disappointed in Fire Emblem Warriors, and<br />
its DLC, opting to pull from just three games:<br />
Shadow Dragon, Awakening, and Fates. Hyrule<br />
Warriors, at launch anyway, only featured<br />
playable characters from three games as well,<br />
but since then has added both protagonists<br />
and antagonists from titles across the series.<br />
Conversely, FE Warriors only offers characters<br />
from those three titles, even with its DLC. In<br />
fairness to FE Warriors, there are far more<br />
characters from the Fire Emblem series that fans<br />
really want to play as, so it would never have<br />
been realistically possible to satisfy everyone,<br />
but this doesn’t even seem like trying. The<br />
infamous “too many swords” excuse doesn’t<br />
hold up either, given the sheer amount of sword<br />
characters already included both in the main<br />
game and the DLC.<br />
And this doesn’t even touch upon the sheer<br />
number of clone characters included in FE<br />
Warriors, who reuse the same moveset.<br />
Camilla and Hinoka are similar to Cordelia,<br />
Celica is similar to Marth, Navarre is similar to<br />
Lyn, Lucina is similar to Chrom, Tharja is similar<br />
to Robin, Owain is similar to Ryoma, etc. In<br />
total, of the 34 playable characters available<br />
with DLC, ten have a copied moveset. By<br />
contrast, Hyrule Warriors has 29 characters, all<br />
with unique movesets. And this doesn’t even<br />
touch on some characters having different<br />
weapons, each of which provides entirely new<br />
movesets.<br />
WINNER: HYRULE WARRIORS
Gameplay<br />
As important as representing your series well<br />
is, playing well is just as significant, and it’s<br />
here where Fire Emblem Warriors shines over<br />
Hyrule. A number of significant improvements<br />
are either unique to or simply present in FE<br />
Warriors that are not available in Hyrule.<br />
Arguably the most significant improvement<br />
is the ability to change characters on the fly,<br />
which allows players to quickly be in several<br />
places on the map rather than having to run<br />
back and forth constantly. This function is<br />
completely absent in the Wii U version of<br />
Hyrule Warriors, and while present in both the<br />
3DS and Switch versions, it’s significantly limited<br />
and, in many cases, not even available.<br />
FE Warriors also brings in the concept of the<br />
weapon triangle from the Fire Emblem series,<br />
which functions essentially as type advantages<br />
between units. This, in turn, helps alleviate a<br />
lot of the bullet (or sword?) spongy nature that<br />
tougher enemies would otherwise possess.<br />
Having trouble with a tougher foe? Plan your<br />
units’ positioning correctly so that you can take<br />
advantage of the weapon triangle and give<br />
yourself an advantage in combat. This also adds<br />
a degree of strategy to the game, and it adds<br />
another much needed layer of complexity to<br />
keep things interesting later in the game when<br />
the joy of simple button mashing has worn<br />
off. Hyrule lacks any equivalent, and as a result<br />
many foes will require long stretches of running<br />
up, getting a few hits, and ducking out before<br />
they attack again. Taking down foes is almost<br />
always enjoyable in FE Warriors, whereas it can<br />
turn into something of a grind in Hyrule.<br />
The last major benefit present is that, while<br />
FE Warriors does copy a lot of its movesets,<br />
the movesets that are there tend to be much<br />
more enjoyable than the ones in Hyrule.<br />
Playing Lucina/Chrom is probably the most<br />
fun I’ve had in a Warriors game, and other<br />
characters such as Lyn, Robin, Lissa, Ryoma,<br />
Olivia, Frederick, Azura, and Oboro are all<br />
incredibly enjoyable to use. While Hyrule has<br />
a greater variety of movesets, they are often a<br />
lot slower, more easily interrupted by enemy<br />
attacks, and just don’t hold the same visceral<br />
appeal as most of Fire Emblem’s. Out of the<br />
movesets in Hyrule, I only found myself really<br />
enjoying Ganondorf, Zelda, and Tetra, and<br />
leaving a lot of the cast relatively untouched.<br />
WINNER: FIRE EMBLEM WARRIORS
Overall<br />
Simply put, while Hyrule Warriors feels like a<br />
better celebration of the series, Fire Emblem<br />
feels like a superior overall game. If you’re<br />
looking for a celebration of the Zelda series,<br />
it’s hard to go wrong with Hyrule. However, if<br />
you’re in any other category and looking to<br />
try out a Nintendo Warriors title, Fire Emblem<br />
Warriors would be my recommendation.<br />
There may be a bit more content for Hyrule<br />
in the way of playable characters, but quality<br />
beats out quantity in my opinion, and Fire<br />
Emblem Warriors is certainly the more quality<br />
experience.<br />
By Paul Broussard, VGChartz
YOUR Ben Dye SAY<br />
Paper Mario Series Analysis:<br />
COLOR<br />
SPLASH<br />
(PAINT STAINS)<br />
FROM VGCHARTZ.COM
I<br />
have long felt that the Paper Mario series<br />
is one of the best video games series out<br />
there, at least based on its roots, but many -<br />
especially those outside of the Nintendo family<br />
- probably have no idea why it’s talked about<br />
quite so much. The idea behind this five-part<br />
analysis of every Paper Mario game currently<br />
available is to work through each game quickly<br />
sifting through the pros and cons of each title<br />
for fans and non-fans alike.<br />
First up is Paper Mario: Color Splash, and if<br />
you love this game then prepare to weep; your<br />
tears will fuel my ever-growing linguistic might!<br />
That’s because Color Splash is, without a doubt,<br />
a prime example of Nintendo sacrificing what<br />
fans want for the sake of innovation. Instead of<br />
returning to the roots of what made the series<br />
great, Nintendo continued a sub-par pattern<br />
that had been established in Paper Mario:<br />
Sticker Star.
The Negatives<br />
Centered on collecting stickers/cards, Color<br />
Splash is, unfortunately, bland. While past<br />
games featured numerous different cultures<br />
and races, with levels based on wonderfully<br />
imagined and unique aesthetics, Color<br />
Splash continues where Sticker Star left off<br />
- with toads everywhere. And I mean that.<br />
They are literally everywhere. If you read<br />
up on the developer team’s justification for<br />
this, it’s utter nonsense. They wanted it to<br />
‘feel’ like a Mario game, which ignores all the<br />
different and wonderful species/creatures<br />
from the original three games and from the<br />
multitude of other Mario titles as if they<br />
aren’t canon.<br />
It felt like the Star Wars expanded universe<br />
being retconned all over again. Are you<br />
telling me Rawk Hawk doesn’t exist, or<br />
Dimentio, or Count Bleck, or the dozens of<br />
other crucial characters from the first three<br />
titles? I tolerate minimalism in the real world<br />
(though it isn’t my cup of tea). I cannot<br />
tolerate it infiltrating a game series I love<br />
above any other.<br />
Another flaw is the sticker collection. Before<br />
important battles, this can be a nightmare.<br />
If you don’t want to obsess over a simplified<br />
game akin to Roshambo (rock, paper,<br />
scissors), then you can look up how to get<br />
through it online to unlock thousands of<br />
gold coins and then just buy all the cards<br />
you need. Sadly for me, I played it before<br />
there were any guides out there.<br />
I imagine the majority of the lowly 860,000<br />
people that bought this game at retail (the<br />
worst sales in the series) were in the same boat<br />
as me, which meant they had to do something<br />
that’s incredibly rare for a Nintendo game:<br />
grind. “Am I suddenly in an MMO,” I wondered<br />
to myself, “surrounded by ore nodes I have to<br />
mine in order to build some amazing thing?”.<br />
Paper Mario is supposed to be fun, with the<br />
ability to beat the game if you obtain the<br />
limited skill set required (in general) and learn<br />
certain patterns. Now, all of a sudden, you had<br />
to farm for huge stickers for hours on end in<br />
order to progress. Who thought that was a<br />
good game design?
On top of that, in Color Splash had Nintendo<br />
decided to make two games in a row that<br />
employed the same design. The previous title<br />
- Sticker Star - actually sold the second most<br />
in the series, so an argument could be made<br />
that people didn’t mind the new system at all.<br />
On the other hand Super Paper Mario sold<br />
the most out of any title and that had taken a<br />
completely different approach.<br />
Those results are both great and horrible at<br />
the same time. What in my view is the best<br />
game in the series, Paper Mario: The Thousand<br />
Year Door, had the highest attachment ratio of<br />
any of entry. But the second best was actually<br />
Color Splash and if Nintendo decides to look<br />
at just attachment ratios, we may never see the<br />
franchise return to what many of us want (a<br />
more traditional Paper Mario game).<br />
When it comes to sales it’s probably more<br />
useful to look at physical attach ratios, which<br />
roughly work out as follows:<br />
Super Paper Mario – 3.7%<br />
Paper Mario: Sticker Star – 3.3%<br />
Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door – 10.3%<br />
Paper Mario – 4.2%<br />
Paper Mario: Color Splash – 6.1%<br />
Color Splash could, however, be considered a<br />
bit of an outlier when it comes to attachment<br />
ratio because people were starving for a game<br />
on a system that was woefully unsupported.<br />
That’s purely speculation and I could be wrong,<br />
but either way it sold less than a million at<br />
retail, which is definitely lacklustre.
The Positives<br />
There aren’t many positives, but the game<br />
is undoubtedly gorgeous and the opening<br />
CGI is absolutely stunning. The ‘thing’<br />
items, like those in Sticker Star, also produce<br />
some laughter in the middle of fights or in<br />
overcoming obstacles. It’s a light-hearted game<br />
with a fun sense of humour.<br />
at other 2D objects and determine their color,<br />
or is Mario only aware of this is for the player’s<br />
benefit?).<br />
After that, however, it feels like scraping the<br />
barrel or plucking at straws trying to come up<br />
with positives. And so...<br />
The idea of paint being stolen is also quirky<br />
because it feels like the game is breaking the<br />
fourth wall (after all, can a 2D object really look
Conclusion<br />
Color Splash is definitely the worst entry in the<br />
series as far as I’m concerned. It’s essentially a<br />
visually more impressive version of Sticker Star<br />
but with an almost entirely unoriginal concept. I<br />
am just hoping its poor sales are either blamed<br />
on the still-born platform it released on, or<br />
(hopefully) on the series’ recent direction. If it’s<br />
the latter then there’s hope that this will either<br />
lead to a return to the franchise’s roots or a<br />
reboot. Either way, I hope this entry doesn’t<br />
stain the series permanently.
vv<br />
YOUR INTERView SAY by Adam Cartwright<br />
INSPIRATION, KICKSTARTE<br />
BROMIO (PATO
R, PATO BOX & VITA WITH<br />
BOX)<br />
Kickstarter has been a rather mixed<br />
bag for Vita (as I wrote about in<br />
a previous article), with a number<br />
of great games released but many<br />
more still unavailable despite the<br />
creators happily taking funds from<br />
avid handheld fans. Despite this, it’s<br />
difficult not to get excited about<br />
some of the more interesting-looking<br />
upcoming projects and undoubtedly<br />
the stand-out of these is Pato Box,<br />
a boxing-adventure game starring<br />
a duck that features 3D exploration<br />
mixed in with Punch Out style fighting.<br />
The game is due for release on Vita<br />
this month (following successful<br />
launches on PC and Switch), so I<br />
took the opportunity to talk to the<br />
game’s creators from Bromio about<br />
the project - in particular I wanted to<br />
know what inspired them to make the<br />
game in the first place as well as what<br />
convinced them to bring it to Vita.
First off, tell me a little bit about<br />
yourselves. Who makes up<br />
Bromio and what do you all do?<br />
Antonio: Hi! We are 9 people<br />
working at Bromio - Samir as<br />
Product Manager, Luis as Lead<br />
Programmer, Heri as Game<br />
Designer/Technical Artist,<br />
Colette as Animator/Illustrator,<br />
Emma as 3D Modeler, Joaquin<br />
as Progammer/QA, Abraham as<br />
Illustrator/Community Manager,<br />
David as Programmer and myself<br />
(Antonio) as Game Director/<br />
Programmer. In the development<br />
of Pato Box we also worked with<br />
Cesar from 2think Design Studio<br />
and Controvol.<br />
Can you tell me about the history<br />
of your studio? How did you first<br />
get started in videogames?<br />
Antonio: We started development<br />
of games in 2013, we were focused<br />
on mobile games as a learning<br />
point since getting our game<br />
released on the AppStore and the<br />
Google Play Store was easier at that<br />
time than Steam. After developing<br />
a couple of mobile games we<br />
wanted to make a bigger game and<br />
that’s when we started developing<br />
Pato Box.<br />
What made you decide on<br />
Kickstarter as a means to fund<br />
Pato Box? Did you find it<br />
difficult to pitch the game to<br />
traditional publishers?<br />
César: We wanted to maintain<br />
all the freedom we could in<br />
the development. While we<br />
had some money saved for<br />
the project we knew that the<br />
development time could be<br />
reduced by the help of backers<br />
turning it into a crowd funding<br />
project and also use it as a tool<br />
to let more people know about<br />
our dream and help us make it<br />
happen.<br />
What made you decide on<br />
Vita as a target platform<br />
for the game?<br />
Antonio: We were able to<br />
get in touch with Sony some<br />
time ago and we got access<br />
to dev kits pretty early on.<br />
Unfortunately we weren’t<br />
able to develop a game for<br />
it until Pato Box and we saw<br />
that the gameplay would be<br />
perfect to have on the go<br />
and that’s why we decided<br />
to support the Vita.
Was the response by the Vita<br />
community what you’d hoped<br />
it would be? Were you pleased<br />
with the feedback you received?<br />
César: We met a lot of people<br />
really interested on the game being<br />
made for the Vita, and just like<br />
many of the development team,<br />
there were fans of the system that<br />
really got into it once we showed<br />
one build of it at PAX. We were<br />
really pleased to find out we were<br />
not the only ones that wanted this<br />
game on Sony’s portable system.<br />
Antonio: When we announced<br />
the game was coming to the<br />
Vita we got an overwhelmingly<br />
positive response from the<br />
community and they supported<br />
us a lot on our Kickstarter, so<br />
releasing the game on the<br />
platform is a big priority for us.<br />
How did you first come into<br />
contact with Sony regarding<br />
Vita development? How has<br />
Sony been to work with?<br />
Antonio: We met our contact in<br />
Sony at a development event in<br />
Mexico and they have been very<br />
supportive from the start; we<br />
received a dev kit really quickly<br />
after getting in contact with<br />
them.<br />
How have you found working on<br />
Vita as a piece of hardware? Is it<br />
difficult to develop for? Have you<br />
had to make substantial changes<br />
to Pato Box to get it running?<br />
Antonio: The portability on the<br />
system is great but it has been<br />
difficult for us to adapt the game<br />
for it. The stages on Pato Box<br />
are kinda big and we made the<br />
mistake early on of not taking<br />
the Vita memory into account, so<br />
getting the 3D exploration right<br />
has been a challenge for us. Most<br />
of the changes were made on the<br />
exploration side but we are did<br />
our best to keep the experience as<br />
similar as possible to the PC version.
What engine does Pato Box run<br />
in?<br />
Antonio: Pato Box runs on<br />
Unity - the engine has been<br />
great for us and we feel really<br />
comfortable using it.<br />
How long did it take to<br />
develop the game in total?<br />
Antonio: The PC version took<br />
around 1 year and 8 months<br />
to develop. After that release<br />
we have been working on fixes,<br />
the arcade mode, and the ports<br />
of the game for around 4-5<br />
months.<br />
Has it been difficult raising<br />
awareness of your game<br />
within the ever-growing indie<br />
market?<br />
César: I wouldn’t say it has<br />
been difficult but rather a slow<br />
process. We have relied on<br />
the users and their opinions<br />
on the game and how they<br />
recommend the game on social<br />
media and blogs. We have<br />
been lucky enough to grab<br />
the attention of some popular<br />
webpages that got interested<br />
in it as well expanding the<br />
exposure of it.<br />
Let’s talk about the game<br />
itself. What was the<br />
inspiration behind Pato<br />
Box? What made you<br />
decide on a boxing duck?<br />
César: The character and<br />
some of the story was<br />
pitched at Bromio based on<br />
a comic book I created in my<br />
free time. The main character<br />
was charismatic enough<br />
to bring attention to the<br />
whole idea and we started<br />
brainstorming every idea that<br />
would bring the character to<br />
life.
Did you feel the need to<br />
fill a hole in the market left<br />
by narrative-driven boxing<br />
games like Punch Out?<br />
How difficult is the game? Did<br />
you want to challenge players<br />
or make it accessible for<br />
newcomers?<br />
Will the game be PlayStation<br />
TV compatible?<br />
Antonio: We are working on it!<br />
César: We thought that the<br />
logical answer to making a<br />
game based on the character<br />
using the comic aesthetics<br />
would be Punch Out. The fact<br />
that there was need in the<br />
market for that kind of games<br />
just made it click afterwards.<br />
César: At the end we decided<br />
to have a very challenging<br />
game that felt fair to the player.<br />
We always had in mind the<br />
newcomers to this kind of game,<br />
but we wanted to maintain the<br />
challenging aspects of the Punch<br />
Out series.<br />
Will you attempt a physical<br />
release of Pato Box if the<br />
opportunity arises?<br />
Antonio: Yes! It’s something we<br />
really want to do but we are still<br />
looking into it to see what is our<br />
best option.<br />
What features make Pato<br />
Box unique? What made<br />
you decide on including<br />
exploration-based elements in<br />
addition to the fighting?<br />
César: Pato Box will show you<br />
a world that is a mixture of<br />
serious themes and places<br />
mixed with some really stupid<br />
moments and characters,<br />
making it a bizarre and unique<br />
experience. Most of the fights<br />
were designed to keep the<br />
simplicity of the Punch Out<br />
controls but to expand on the<br />
mechanics surrounding enemies<br />
to make it an original game.<br />
The exploration-based elements<br />
are meant to show more of the<br />
story of this world and act as a<br />
“break” between the hardcore<br />
fights in it.<br />
What is the expected length<br />
of the game? Anything<br />
to encourage multiple<br />
playthroughs?<br />
César: I think it really depends<br />
of what type of player you are.<br />
For some the fights are the core<br />
within the game and they will<br />
jump right to the action, trying<br />
to achieve a high rank within<br />
each fight. Others want to dig<br />
into the story of the hero and<br />
his world and will try to find<br />
every secret and detail around<br />
the characters, not to mention<br />
the collectables we left scattered<br />
around. I like to think you can<br />
jump back to the game anytime<br />
to do all this stuff and discover<br />
more easter eggs hidden within,<br />
or just to get better at the<br />
bosses.<br />
Finally, two questions I’ve been<br />
asking everyone – what are<br />
some of your favourite games<br />
you’ve played on Vita?<br />
César: Tearaway, Gravity Rush,<br />
Hotline Miami and Sound Shapes.<br />
Antonio: Persona 4 Golden and<br />
Gravity Rush are my favorites.<br />
Which of the two Vita models<br />
(LCD or OLED) is your favourite?<br />
César: OLED for me, it looks<br />
gorgeous.<br />
Antonio: OLED also, the screen is<br />
amazing.<br />
I’d like to thank Antonio and Cesar for<br />
taking the time to talk to me. You can<br />
follow updates on their game Pato<br />
Box and any future Bromio projects<br />
via their website, but they’re most<br />
active on Twitter! - Adam Cartwright
INTERView by Adam Cartwright<br />
Porting, Partnerships, Vita & the Future<br />
Ratalaika Games<br />
At the start of 2017, indie porting studio/<br />
publisher Ratalaika Games revealed on Twitter<br />
that it had received a Vita dev kit and was<br />
working on porting its titles to the console. Fast<br />
forward to the current day and the team has<br />
built up an impressive portfolio of more than<br />
10 games for the Vita, with plenty more on the<br />
way too. These tend to be shorter experiences<br />
that provide a fun dose of portable gameplay,<br />
but with the studio expanding into genres such<br />
as text adventures, the developer seems to be<br />
an interesting variable in the future of Vita in<br />
its twilight years.<br />
With the team being active on Twitter and<br />
regularly engaging with the Vita fanbase, I<br />
took the opportunity to contact them to ask<br />
all about their mantra, their future projects, as<br />
well as personal thoughts on the Vita as a piece<br />
of hardware and the buyers who still purchase<br />
games for it. What I got in response was one of<br />
the most enthusiastic replies I’d ever seen and<br />
a wonderful set of answers (including a few<br />
surprise reveals too!), making it quite possibly<br />
my favourite interview yet.
First off, tell me a little bit<br />
about yourselves; who makes up<br />
Ratalaika and what do you all do?<br />
We’re a team of two people! We<br />
work in porting & publishing games<br />
to consoles. I code and work on<br />
marketing / promotion duties and<br />
YOUR SAY<br />
my partner does testing and product<br />
management, submitting everything<br />
to the platforms holders!<br />
What is the company’s history?<br />
When were you founded and what<br />
was your first project?<br />
It was founded by myself a few years<br />
ago back in 2013. Back then I was<br />
working on mobile only projects<br />
as most indie developers. Also<br />
worked for OUYA and some other<br />
Android consoles, then after a few<br />
failed games I moved on to porting<br />
because it was easier as I suck as a<br />
game designer!<br />
How did you first get into<br />
contact with Sony? Was it an<br />
easy process to get hold of a<br />
Vita Dev kit?<br />
We pitched a self-developed<br />
game a loooooong time ago, it<br />
was never released but it was<br />
how we got into all consoles<br />
actually! We got our PSVita<br />
devkit to port a few games -<br />
initially we had only PS4.<br />
How has Sony been as a<br />
partner? Have your contacts<br />
in the company been<br />
encouraging in bringing your<br />
titles to the Vita?<br />
Pretty good! We’re really happy<br />
with working with them and the<br />
promotion they do. We caught<br />
PSVita a bit late so they never<br />
asked us to port anything to it<br />
or encouraged it in any way.<br />
Has Sony’s public<br />
withdrawal of support for<br />
the handheld discouraged<br />
you at all from future<br />
development?<br />
Meh, not really, I think it’s<br />
still a good niche for indies<br />
to work on! As long as the<br />
games run on it we will keep<br />
targeting it for sure.<br />
Vita’s fanbase tends to be<br />
very vocal on social media<br />
- have you found this<br />
encouraging to continue<br />
bringing titles to the<br />
platform?<br />
Yeah! Actually it’s one of the<br />
reasons that we keep making<br />
Vita ports! All the fans love<br />
them, which is great.<br />
In general, how is Vita to<br />
develop for? Do you run<br />
into regular difficulties in<br />
porting games across?<br />
Quite hard actually, the CPU is<br />
pretty power-less so it’s not easy<br />
to optimize for, also it has some<br />
downsides like the save system or<br />
the special resolution.
How is the submission process for Sony<br />
compared to Nintendo? Do you find one<br />
more onerous than the other?<br />
It’s easier and faster, also more predictable,<br />
which is great. As an indie dev there is<br />
nothing worse than not knowing when your<br />
game will be out of QA!<br />
How do your partnerships with<br />
independent developers to port their<br />
titles usually happen? Do you approach<br />
them or do they come to you?<br />
It really depends, initially we approached<br />
many devs, Like Twin Robots, Squareboy<br />
vs Bullies or League of Evil. After a few<br />
releases some devs started to approach<br />
us! Like Petite Games or TETRA’s Escape’s<br />
creators. Devious Dungeon was actually<br />
a recommendation from League of Evil’s<br />
developer.<br />
Do you have a favourite game (past<br />
or future) that you’ve worked on/are<br />
working on?<br />
I think Devious Dungeon! I played it back<br />
when it released on mobile years ago,<br />
so I loved playing it all over again as a<br />
DEVELOPER/PORTER! I never thought that<br />
could ever happen, not even in my wildest<br />
dreams!
What engines do the games you port<br />
run in? Do they require a lot of effort to<br />
adapt to consoles?<br />
Normally Unity3D or native code, like<br />
C or C++. We also do Java, Haxe, Lua...<br />
Depending on the game and the possible<br />
revenue we can adjust.<br />
What genre do you have most fun<br />
working with?<br />
I think adventure games - I really love a<br />
good story! So they are by far the best I<br />
think.<br />
Are there any dream Vita ports you’d<br />
love to work on?<br />
Hmmmm, I think not really at this time, we<br />
love working on small/unknown games so<br />
they can have a second chance on consoles;<br />
the one that they never had on Steam.<br />
Let’s talk about specific games - how<br />
is the porting of Devious Dungeon 2<br />
coming along? Will it include something<br />
new?<br />
At the moment we’re not working on it yet!<br />
We’re working on Random Heroes 1 first =).<br />
It should release later this year hopefully.
Can you tell us a little bit about your upcoming<br />
game TETRA’s Escape?<br />
Well TETRA’s Escape is a puzzle platformer where you<br />
have to control a bunch of characters that can change<br />
shapes to solve the levels. It’s a bit hard sometimes but<br />
we’ve prepared a guide for those who get stuck, like me<br />
lol...<br />
Similarly, what is this new adventure<br />
game you have been teasing - and what<br />
can we expect from the title?<br />
Well, as you may have heard/seen on some<br />
social media and trophy hunter channels we<br />
frequent, we’re working on an adventure<br />
game port.<br />
It’s a bit longer than usual, it would need<br />
~100-140 hours for the platinum according<br />
to the game developer. Also it’s most<br />
probably PEGI 18.<br />
You’ve teamed up with eastasiasoft for a physical<br />
release of One More Dungeon and Signature<br />
Edition Games for The Count Lucanor. Do you think<br />
initiatives like these are important for preserving<br />
titles into the future?<br />
The Count Lucanor was published by Merge Games<br />
digitally too, that’s why they did the physical edition. At<br />
the moment we prefer to keep the digital publishing in<br />
house too when possible so, we will probably reach to<br />
eastasiasoft for physical releases - probably all of the<br />
titles they want!
Can we expect physical releases for any of<br />
your future Vita titles? Is the decision on a<br />
physical release made by you or the game’s<br />
developer?<br />
Probably yes ;) The call is up to eastasiasoft<br />
haha - they do Asia for all our games so they<br />
pick the ones they like the most!<br />
Finally, two questions I’m asking everyone -<br />
what are some of your favourite games that<br />
you’ve played on Vita?<br />
I think Day of The Tentacle Remastered! I always<br />
loved that game.<br />
Which of the Vita models is your favourite<br />
(LCD or OLED)?<br />
Is there a chance we may see some of your<br />
Switch-only ports like Vaccine or I and Me<br />
come to Vita?<br />
I like the OLED more, but I think that’s just<br />
because I play more on it. My dev unit is LCD and<br />
my retail ones are OLED :)<br />
I doubt it to be honest... I was contracted for<br />
Vaccine for Switch, I didn’t even publish it, so<br />
there’s not much for me to do there anymore...<br />
I and Me is a bit so so. Maybe yes, maybe no,<br />
only time will tell...<br />
I’d like to thank the guys at Ratalaika for taking<br />
the time to talk to me. You can follow updates<br />
on the developer’s future projects via the official<br />
website - but the team is most active on Twitter.<br />
- Adam Cartwright<br />
Do future Ratalaika projects still have a<br />
chance of landing on Vita? Any unannounced<br />
ones that you can give us some hints on?<br />
I think we will keep making Vita titles all through<br />
2018 and 2019! As long as the game runs it will<br />
land there. Some may not if they don’t run well<br />
enough, but we will be doing our best to launch<br />
as many games as possible. I think we could<br />
have ~10/12? We have more games for 2018<br />
and 2019 already registered with Sony =D
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