Happy Twentieth Anniversary, Halo November 15, 2021
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Since it was released twenty years ago, the Xbox platform has held its own as a staple console throughout video game history. Part of its continuing success has come from its incredible Halo franchise. For Halo alone, We’ve had five main titles with two side spin offs for Xbox consoles, two RTS games, and two twin stick shooters for smartphones, tablets and Windows PC. And that’s just the video games released for homes. There was an incredibly popular Halo game that shipped to arcades across the US in 2018, Halo: Fireteam Raven.
Starting in 2010, Halo branched out into home video starting wirh a series of animated shorts that went direct to video. It was followed up by live-action movies, and will continue with an upcoming television series. If you include print, you can’t forget about the novelizations, starting with The Fall of Reach by Eric Nylund. Halo books have seen multiple series and have gone on to conquer The NY Times Bestseller lists on multiple occasions.
Also, Martin O’Donnell can be credited for creating one of the greatest soundtracks in video games history. Don’t believe me, take a listen at this.
And now, on the anniversary of the release of the Xbox, Microsoft has released the multiplayer campaign for the next game in the Halo series, Halo: Infinite, free to play. You can download it for yourselves right now.
Halo: Infinite is coming December 8th, 2021 to PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
Classic Pokémon TCG Commercial Resurfaces November 12, 2021
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How did I never know about this? In the later end of the 90s the first wave of Pokémania was in full effect and commercials for Pokémon products were all over the television. Here’s a look at one of those commercials. The incredible thing is it starred Todd Licea (of Phantasmagoria 2 fame) and was edited by Wes Plate, who also edited Phantasmagoria 2.
Nostalgia overload!
Marvel’s Avengers Announces Spider-Man Release Date November 11, 2021
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Before it was first released, Square Enix had revealed that the iconic character of Spider-Man would be coming to Marvel’s Avengers…but only for the PlayStation console owning players. Now, we have the release date and details of how Spidey is coming to the platform. Please enjoy.
He’s coming November 30th, 2021 exclusively for PS4 and PS5 copies of the game. I’m of a mind that still believes the PlayStation Spider-Man games still exist in the same universe as Marvel’s Avengers. I’ll be sad if this campaign will disprove that.
Marvel’s Avengers is out now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Stadia, and Xbox Series X/S. Spider-Man will only be playable on the PS4 and PS5 versions.
Halo: Infinite UNSC Archives November 6, 2021
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Microsoft has begun their commercial campaign leading up to the release of Halo: Infinite. Taking a similar page from the highly successful Halo 3: Believe campaign, these new UNSC archives videos detail the history behind how the Master Chief’s armor was designed.
Halo: Infinite will release December 8th, 2021 on Xbox One, PC, and Xbox Series X/S.
How Should Donkey Kong Be Portrayed In Universal Studios Parks? November 2, 2021
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Its Tuesday and I know I typically reserve Tuesday’s for Japan Travel Tips articles but I decided the subject matter for today’s opinion piece makes it perfect to release today. Its been a long time since I’ve produced an opinion piece on this website and that streak ends right now. After I learned that Universal Studios Japan will be opening its own Donkey Kong Country area adjacent to the heavily popular Super Nintendo World in 2024, I paused to wonder just how the logistics of the area will work. Super Nintendo World offers the ability for guests at the park to meet and interact with several characters from the Super Mario games including Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach and Toad by putting USJ cast members in custom made suits. By all intents and purposes it has been a tremendous success and has set a new gold standard for theme parks worldwide. You may have seen a tease for what this would look like in this famous television commercial.
Okay, I admit I’m being a little silly in posting that here. This commercial may be a little misleading, and not just because the beloved characters are beating the crap out of each other. What I wanted to use it for was a simple comparison of size. According to Nintendo, Mario is a human of average height, but Donkey Kong (even from his earliest days) on the other hand has always been depicted as about four times bigger than Mario. I guess bananas really did make him big and strong. For the proposed Donkey Kong Country area, it is heavily expected we will be able to have meet and greets with many of the famous characters from the DK franchise. Since Mario represents the size of an average adult, that would mean DK should be represented as four times larger than a human being. That begs the question if Donkey Kong be portrayed by a cast member in a fuzzy costume, or is DK just so big he can only be portrayed through some kind of animatronic or special projection affect?
If Universal plans to bring Donkey Kong to their theme parks, will having him depicted by an actor in a suit be sufficient? My answer is no, I think he should be portrayed by an animatronic. Producing gigantic animatronic apes is something Universal Studios has in their wheelhouse. King Kong, for those of you who don’t know, is ENORMOUS. As someone who remembers dangling from a ceiling track right next to the 35-foot tall animatronic ape as fire and explosions blasted out, I can tell you firsthand Universal is more than capable of pulling of the task. If you don’t believe me watch this video courtesy of Theme Park Crazy.
So that’s how I feel about Donkey Kong. He’s bigger than life and we should see him as such. Before I wrap, I would like to bring up one last point. The closest comparison I could find in size to Donkey Kong that currently exists in the Super Mario universe would be Bowser (or King Koopa if you’re old-school). Oddly, no Bowser costume character exists in Super Nintendo Land, although the character himself does exist and is referenced in the parks. While he is not depicted as an animatronic, the Mario Kart ride depicts him as an Augmented Reality special effect on the ride itself. Before that, we only see his appearance hinted at with an enormous statue and portrait in the ride queue.
I want to close this article by saying I have no idea what Nintendo or Universal actually plan to build, and in all honesty I would be fine with whatever they decided to create. If you have your own ideas for how you’d like to create your own Donkey Kong Country theme park land, post a comment below!
Guardians of the Galaxy: No Guts, No Glory Novel Released November 2, 2021
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It’s a personal delight for me to see a novel released that ties in with a major video game. Since Marvel’s Spider-Man was released on PS4 in 2018, it has become customary for a prequel novel to get released in bookstores all across the country. That tradition was continued for the release of games like Spider-Man: Miles Morales and Marvel’s Avengers. Today, Titan Books has officially released the prequel novel to the new Square Enix game, Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, No Guts, No Glory.
Anyone think I should do a review?
Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy is out now for PC, Xbox One, PS4, PS5, Switch and Xbox Series X/S.
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