Mario Warfare Episode 2 January 2, 2013
Posted by Maniac in Game News.add a comment
Beatdown Boogie has done it again. They have released the second episode of Mario Warfare over the holiday, finally giving us a close look at the two Mario Brothers that we all know and love so much. While the first episode set up the stakes of just what kind of trouble the Mushroom Kingdom was in, this episode features the Mario Bros doing what they do best, and I don’t mean plumbing.
If you missed it, you can watch Mario Warfare Episode 1 here.
If you really liked the film, you can support Beatdown Boogie and help them release further episodes in the series. You can check out all the details on that here.
Dead Space 3: The Story So Far January 2, 2013
Posted by Maniac in Game News.add a comment
Since its release in 2008, the story of Dead Space has branched out into many different mediums beyond the original video games. There were novels, graphic novels, animated direct-to-video features, iPhone games, mini-games and more. It’s quite an impressive feat for such a new game property, but EA had a lot of faith in what they were releasing.
Since the Dead Space story goes beyond the games, EA decided that in anticipation for the release of Dead Space 3 next month, they would release a video to bring players both new and old back up to speed with the latest information on the Dead Space story. They did the same thing for Dead Space 2 when that game’s demo was released, and it looks like they’re doing it again. Take a look and remember, there will be spoilers.
Dead Space 3 is coming February 2013 to PC, Xbox 360 and PS3.
Pokémon Day – Pokémon ‘Bridged January 1, 2013
Posted by Maniac in Game News.add a comment
We’re coming to the end of Pokémon Day on the site and I wanted to conclude it with the thing that restarted my interest in Pokémon after over ten years. As I said before in my earlier articles I had an interest in Pokémon back when the original generation was released back in the late 90s for the Game Boy, but that was simply relegated to watching the anime and watching my friends play the game during lunch back in High School.
Then, at Quinni-Con 2012 back in April, I met two of the creators of the series Pokémon ‘Bridged, and my interest in the pocket monsters fired right back up. Pokémon ‘Bridged is a YouTube series where the original Pokémon animated series is cut down and redubbed with entirely new dialog…a lot of which is highly inappropriate for young children to listen to. It’s just hilarious in how completely out there it is.
I think what made the series stick with me coming out of that panel was when I met 1KidsEntertainment and Nowacking for the first time, two of the principal cast members for the series. I could tell that the series was being made by true fans of the subject material. Legally, they could not make any profit on the episodes they produced, so it must have been a great labor of love for them. They also reference the original games several times. It is clear that while they are using the original TV show as a framework for the animation, they reference being inside a video game several times, to hilariously anachronistic effect.
In this series, Ash is a total idiot, Brock is a total creep, Misty is out of her mind, and Pikachu is…well…you’ll have to see for yourselves.
Episodes of Pokémon ‘Bridged can be found on the YouTube Channel for 1KidsEntertainment, but here are some of my absolute favorite episodes.
The series creators recommend this episode for new viewers. It is a re-release of the first episode they ever did. Instead of just redoing the episode with improved technology, they wrote entirely new jokes that referenced episodes they hadn’t even released yet. It’s a great first episode to watch as it tells the quick story of how Ash got started on his quest to be a Grand Pokémon Master.
In Episode 2 we meet Officer Jenny for the first time. Yeah, not how I pictured her.
This is Episode 4. They’re still in the Veridian forest.
Next up is Episode 6. If you’ve ever been interested in knowing just how to meet someone special…DO NOT use this episode as a dating guide!
In Episode 7, Ash visits Cerulian City to battle Misty’s sisters…but Misty only had one sister. There were problems with the machine.
In Episode 8, the gang finds a Charmander. Misty loves it making her a disgrace to water trainers everywhere. Ash thought if he put it in the rain it would get stronger.
In Episode 11 the gang meets Gym Leader Lt. Surge. What a nice guy.
In Episode 14 we hear Professor Oak talk about his obsession with husks of corn.
For episode 15, they decided to take the animation for a later season of the show and use that as the framework for an episode. There are some great call backs to earlier parts of the series, and a great moment with Team Rocket. Just how many times do you think they have to do that introduction of theirs a day?
And finally here is Episode 16, the most recent episode. Ash battles Sabrina, who can probably hear everything he thinks, and they visit super happy fun town which doesn’t look like anything I just described.
Well guys, that brings us to the end of Pokémon Day here on the site. I want to thank you all for visiting the site and wish you all a very Happy New Year!
Pokémon Day – Johnny Vs Reviews January 1, 2013
Posted by Maniac in Game News.add a comment
During my research for “Do We All Live in a Pokémon World” I came across YouTube Reviewer SomeCallmeJohnny and his Johnny Vs game reviews. This guy will usually set aside an entire month and devote it to an entire classic gaming series, like Metroid or Sonic the Hedgehog and review each of the games in the series. The guy is extremely talented with good writing, high video and audio quality, and good paced editing. His reviews can get as long as 40 minutes in length but I swear he’ll keep your attention so well the entire time you won’t even notice it.
He had previously said he would never devote a month to a Role Playing Game series, as he argued it would take far too long to complete a single RPG. Multiplying that for each sequel would be too complex a process. Well, as they say there are exceptions to every rule and that exception is Pokémon!
Johnny was a huge fan of the original Pokémon games growing up, and the spin offs that were released in the late 90s, so he devoted an entire month to these original Pokémon games from back when Pokémon fever started to take hold.
So where did Pokémon fever start? Lets begin with his review of the Pokémon Generation 1 games.
However, when Pokémon fever started to go crazy in the states, some new Pokémon games ended up getting released here in the states on the Nintendo 64 to cash in on its popularity and hold gamers over for when Generation 2 came out. One of those games was Pokémon Stadium. For the first time in the States we would see what these little creatures we had previously only saw on a Game Boy would look like when battling in full 3D on the N64. How was that game? Lets find out.
However, as I’m sure as you all know, there was a lot more to Pokémon than just the video games, tv show, movies and comic books. There were trading cards. Pokémon Trading Cards saw an extremely successful run in the early 2000s, so much so that extremely rare cards would fetch unbearably high prices in the reseller market. Personally I never had more than an original starter box (which I haven’t been able to find recently) of the cards and never played them, but then again even Johnny admitted the same. They were great collectibles, and he takes a look at them from that perspective in his video review of the cards.
There was another Nintendo 64 spin-off game that got released, called Pokémon Snap. It looked at Pokémon in a different way than we had before. We weren’t battling them in this game, we were taking a look at them in their own natural habitat and photographing them as if they were being used in a nature documentary you would see on television. How did it hold up? Take a look.
Well, that was the last spin-off game we got at that time and now it was time for the first official sequel to the original Pokémon games which continued the story that started it all. We now had two new games, an all new trainer with an entirely new story, and one hundred new Pokémon to catch! Here’s his review of Pokémon Generation 2.
Hope you guys are enjoying Pokémon Day on the site! More content will be coming all through New Year’s Day! Stick around.
Pokémon Day – Linkara Review January 1, 2013
Posted by Maniac in Game News.add a comment
Pokémon been absorbed so much into the media that it took over movies, television and video games at the same time. But that wasn’t all you could find Pokémon in, there were Pokémon comic books too! And who better to review a comic book than Lewis “Linkara” Lovhaug, the host of Atop the Fourth Wall. In this episode from 2011 he reviewed the first issue of the Pokémon manga, The Electric Tales of Pikachu. Based mostly on the animated series, this issue retold the story of how Ash got started on his quest to become the very best like no one ever was and how he met his Pikachu.
This review was the culmination of a plot Linkara was doing in his reviews. Over the course of several weeks of reviews, people all over the world were slowly disappearing, ranging from his fellow critics to his own personal friends. By the time the review was made he was supposedly the last person left on the planet. There’s some cool special effects culminating in an epic battle with one of Pokémon’s most infamous embarrassments.
So if you want to see just what a Pokémon comic looks like, give this review a look.
More Pokémon content is coming! Hope you’re all enjoying Pokémon Day on the site and Happy New Year to all of you!
Pokémon Day – How Pokémon Went Viral January 1, 2013
Posted by Maniac in Game News.add a comment
Hope you guys are enjoying Pokémon Day so far on the site. Up next we have a really well made viral video from DNSQ where he takes his own look at the subject matter. How Pokémon Went Viral talks about the history of the game series and provides thoughts and opinions on just how this franchise took off. It’s a really well written and edited short with great music. Give it a look.
Stay tuned to gamexcess.net for more Pokémon Day content! Happy New Year!
Pokémon Day – Suede Reviews January 1, 2013
Posted by Maniac in Game News.add a comment
William Dufrence, formerly known to the internet as That Dude in the Suede is now simply known to the internet as Suede, and he is one of the anime reviewers for thatguywiththeglasses.com. Since April 2012, he has used his web series, Animenia, to review the feature-length Pokémon movies, and they have been absolutely fantastic.
However, he is not doing these movie reviews alone. Suede has reviewed the first two Pokémon films with Justin “JewWario” Carmical and Lewis “Linkara” Lovhaug. J-Dub is host of You Can Play This a classic import game series (with a Nintendo focus) and Linkara is host of Atop The Fourth Wall, where he reviews comic books every week. All three reviewers are die-hard Pokémon fans with a deep love for the series and knowledge of its expanded universe in both America and Japan.
If you want to watch their review of Pokémon: The First Movie, you can see Part 1 of the review here and Part 2 of the review here. Suede also provided a full commentary of that review where he talked mostly about the differences between the Japanese and American versions of the movie, as well as some extra things he didn’t get the chance to say in the original review and you can watch that here. That not enough for you? You can watch their review of Pokémon: The Movie 2000 in its entirety here.
While this was the last movie they’ve reviewed together to date, Suede has done some supplemental Pokémon reviews in the meantime on his own as he works on the third Pokémon movie review. The first up is a review of the Pikachu animated shorts which preceded the feature-length movies in theatres, and were included with the DVD releases of the movies. You can watch that review at this link. The most recent Pokémon video he did was released just in time for Christmas and is a review of the banned Pokémon Christmas episode, Holiday Hi-Jinx, which you can watch right here.
Suede has pledged to review all fifteen of the feature-length Pokémon animated movies, and that means that more will be coming. These guys really have a great time doing these reviews, the editing and animation are great, and their knowledge about the subject is quite extensive. Give it a watch.
More Pokémon related content will be coming all day today! Happy New Year!
Pokémon Day – Pokémon As A Mythic Narrative (Connecticon 2012 Panel) January 1, 2013
Posted by Maniac in Game News.1 comment so far
Princess Angel and I were fortunate enough to catch this amazing panel at Connecticon 2012 this summer, and luckily someone has put it online for everyone to get the chance to watch. Charles Dunbar at studyofanime.com hosted a panel where he talked about Pokémon as a Mythic Narrative. Specifically, he talked about the origins of Pokémon’s story and the inspiration behind many of the Pokémon themselves.
It’s an amazing panel filled with a lot of humor. Trust me, you’ll be glued to watching every single minute of it and whether you’re a Jr. Trainer or a Grand Pokémon Master you may just learn something new along the way. Enjoy.
Pokémon Day Announcement January 1, 2013
Posted by Maniac in Site News.add a comment
Happy New Year everyone! I hope everyone is enjoying the start of 2013 and is spending it safely with friends and family! I figured since it was the end of the holiday season, the time was right to spend a day talking about the little pocket monsters that have captured our hearts and been one of Nintendo’s most successful properties in the past ten years. That’s right, today is Pokémon Day!
Recently, I wrote an essay on the site entitled “Do We All Live in a Pokémon World“. While writing that essay, I did a ton of research all across the web and found a lot of great content that I would love to share with all of you. There is just so much fan made Pokémon content across the world-wide web it would take the entire new year to share all of it with you, so that is why I’m going to show some of my favorites.
So for the rest of the day, sit back and relax, as I share some of my favorite Pokémon videos from across the web. Keep your eyes glued on the site for the rest of the day as the site will get regular updates with a ton of different content. I hope you enjoy and Happy New Year to all!
A Journey Like No Other December 29, 2012
Posted by Maniac in Editorials.add a comment
I picked up Journey: Collector’s Edition on Boxing Day. Since then, I have played through Journey three times and unlocked nearly all the trophies in the game. It just grabbed me in a way that I very rarely get grabbed in this day and age. I don’t know if it’s the gameplay, art style or music that has made this game such a classic among gamers and reviewers alike. It warranted such an amazing fan community, high review scores and a few Game of the Year Awards. Needless to say, I enjoyed this game, and I have a few ideas why. But I’m getting a little bit ahead of myself here.
Journey is a Playstation 3 game developed by thatgamecompany, the same company that made flOw and Flower. In all of the research I’ve done about the game, the game’s developers wanted to make it clear to players that their goal was to retell the story of The Hero’s Journey with this game. This is one of the classic staples of storytelling. The Hero’s Journey, as described by game designer Jenova Chen, is told in three acts. The story’s hero is not some overly muscular person out to save the world, the hero is simply the story’s protagonist, and can be anyone. The hero has to travel a great distance to a very important destination and return back to where they started. On their return the hero will bring something back with them from the journey which will either help themselves out our help their entire community. In the game, you play as the wanderer. You do not have the ability to speak. You have indescribable features as your clothing covers your entire body and face. Your goal is to make it to the peak of a mountain in the distance. To get there, you need to cross an entire desert. Along the way to the peak I realized I found one of the best experiences I’ve ever had with a video game.
As I started to play the game I started making up my own theories as to what it was that I was experiencing. Here I was on this great journey trying to climb a small hill off in the distance. My character stood up and as I crossed the first hill I saw the mountain for the first time. It was far off, and looked miles away. A beam of light protruded from the peak, a product of some almost otherworldly energy. I just knew in my heart I had to make it to the top of that mountain. I pressed on, unaware of where my path to the top would take me.
As my journey continued it became more perilous for my character. Occasionally, I would see another person like myself making the same journey. Occasionally they would join me and assist me in where I was going, but most of the time we would have different personal goals and would end up parting ways with each other as I continued on.
The final stretch of the game was the most grueling for my character. The mountain had frozen and the heavy winds were slowing my progress greatly. The enemies that I had been able to avoid in earlier chapters were now more intent on harming me. Their paths had slowed down and their area of sight had increased. The game was not phasing in other players. I would have to complete this section alone. As the mountain grew colder and colder the wanderer’s speed slowed to a complete stop. I fell to the ground, deep into the snow. The game faded to white.
Suddenly I was presented with the gaze of my ancestors, the very same ones that I had encounters with along my journey. They were all ready to help me reach the summit. My character’s spirits renewed, the sun became bright, the sky became blue, and I literally could fly to the top! As I reached the peak, the game faded to white once again and I saw my character become one with the light. Their spirit had been released and shot out of the peak of the mountain like a star! As the credits rolled the wanderer’s spirit traveled back through all of the land I had crossed, and returned back where it had all started. The game’s completion trophy unlocked, but what I had gained from the experience was a lot more than that.
My game finished, I started to have a good idea about what it was that I had experienced. The hero’s journey is a three act structure. Jenova Chen said another way to look at it would be like the cycle of life. This is the structure which made Journey possible. In the first act, you are born, in the second you are in your prime and in the final act you die. Journey is told in that same way. In fact to me, without knowing any of this beforehand, it felt to me like my path was that of a lost spirit making the final journey to the afterlife. To a lot of people, death is simply a part of rebirth and to me it felt like the wanderer represented the spirit of a person trying to reach paradise, and in the very end, as they reach it, their soul is released to the world.
Along the way you meet other travelers on your path. They seem to phase in and out without much fanfare. They can stay with you an assist you in your journey or move along at their own pace after their own goals. You cannot speak to each other and the game will not reveal who they are until the very end, but you will immediately feel a connection with them. You’re both traveling the same path. Your goals are the same. Jenova described this experience to being very similar to two people when they meet in a forest and they come across each other when hiking the same trail. You’ll never know everything about the person you encountered but you’ll know immediately you at least share the love of hiking and desire to hike.
On my third playthrough, I decided it was time to get some of the last trophies that I hadn’t gotten in my first two playthroughs. I turned off the Playstation Network so I wouldn’t interrupt anyone’s game and could get through the first section without much issue. I still needed the trophy in the third area, but something inside me told me that since I had already gotten most of the other major trophies in the game, it wouldn’t hurt to log back into the PSN. I thought, hey, maybe I could find someone willing to finish the game with me. Up until that point, no one had been willing to do that. Within no time another traveller appeared in the level with me when I hit the second area. Even though my objective was to get to the third area as quickly as possible, I decided to check out this new player and see how long he wanted to play.
We had no way of communicating with each other, short of some minor gestures with the circle button, but just by looking at the other player’s robes I could tell at least a few things about them. They had a single gold band around the bottom of their robe, and because of that I could tell that the person had played through the game at least once. Since they were wearing the default brown robes, I could also tell that they hadn’t unlocked all of the game’s secrets yet, but I couldn’t tell exactly what they had and hadn’t unlocked. I decided to show the other player some good faith by pointing them to some secret spots in the second area that I had found which could help them level up their character a bit. It would have taken far too long to navigate the entire area, so I kept most of the stops short. He tagged along pretty close and within no time we had made it to the final climb up the summit.
As I had competed this path before two previous times I lead, and he followed very close to me. We took a shortcut up the mountain, and I pointed out some secret areas that weren’t too far off the beaten path from us. As the enemies swarmed around us, I thought for sure I had mastered their timing by this point, so I lead us from shelter to shelter, trying to stay out of their gaze. He followed close, and I thought we had made it out unscathed, until just as I was about to leave the area, I noticed that my partner had attracted the attention of one of the enemies, and they were headed right for him! Throwing caution to the wind, I ran for them, hoping to distract the monster or take the attack myself! The monster ended up knocking both of us to the ground and harming our floating ability. I was severely worried that this would cause them to log out of the game in frustration, but they got up, shook off the snow, and we continued moving forward into the final area.
It was a gruling final push up the mountain and we stayed as close as possible together. Knowing the game would fade to white I wanted to ensure that we both would trigger the game’s final push together and not hand me another player. We had come this far together, we were going to finish this together. That was my mantra during the entire endgame. We both passed out together, triggering the game’s final cutscene. We had made it to the final part of the game, and we were going to fly through it together. As I played through the sequence I noticed that the game’s last level was almost like a retelling of our entire journey, starting with the simple processes that the game taught in the early levels, and moving to the more complex designs towards the end.
Together we had made it to the cave at the peak of the mountain. We walked into the cave, and the game took over. In the distance I could see two figures stepping into the light together, and the game faded to white as the credits began to roll once more. As the credits rolled I waited in anticipation not just for the notification if we had completed the game’s most difficult trophy, but for the credits to tell me just who this other player was that had assisted me in the game.
The final credit rolled and I saw a single name. In the upper right hand corner of my screen a trophy display popped up. We had done it, and we had done it together. I quit the game and fired up the PS3’s message system, something I very rarely used and addressed a simple thank you to the other player. Together, we had gotten some of the game’s hardest trophies, but more than that we had one hell of a great experience doing it.
Before writing this article the player I decided to check my PS3’s inbox to see if the other player had sent me something back. They got my message, and I had a very nice response back. I checked their profile, wondering if they had also gotten the same trophy during our playthrough that I had, and they indeed had unlocked it. I don’t know who this person is, I probably have never met this person before and never will, but like two people hiking the same trail, for two hours, we had succeeded in helping each other accomplish one very specific goal without saying one word to each other. Gaming can bridge the widest gaps among cultures, as like two people on a trail have the love of the hike in common, gamers have the love of the games to share.
What an experience. I can’t wait to see what thatgamecompany comes up with next.
GameXcess.net - Gaming News, Videos and Editorials! 