Vaguely Related Review: The New “DuckTales”
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 07/12/20 at 04:19 PM CT
Back in 1987, Disney Television Studios Buena Vista produced a cultural touchstone for a generation. The original “DuckTales” cartoon, which ran from 1987-1990 over the course of four seasons and a feature-length film, was originally based on the “Uncle Scrooge” Disney comic books written and drawn by the legendary Carl Barks.
Thanks to a partnership between Disney and Capcom during that era, “DuckTales” also found itself cemented into the hearts and minds of a generation of gamers thanks to a fairly good NES adaptation of the show into a 2D Platformer. Indeed, Capcom was renowned for producing high-quality licensed videogames (an oxymoron, for sure) based on Disney IPs well into the ‘90s.
Thanks to the fact that ‘80s kids are now reaching their mid-life crises, everything old is new again, as media peddlers try to help the first wave of Millennials (and the last wave of Gen-X) recapture the nostalgia of their lost youth… for a nominal fee, of course. Thus, in …
New Gen = New Price Hike
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 07/05/20 at 04:09 PM CT
This past week, rumbles from within the bowels of the Games Industry began to murmur of a $10 price hike that at least some big “AAA” publishers will start applying to their console (and probably PC multi-platform) game releases. This increase will take the retail cost of a new game from the exorbitant $60 it has been since roughly 2006 to an egregious $70 for the “basic” game experience.
Those of us with some common sense know that games have, in fact, NOT been “priced at $60 forever, and thus due for an increase due to inflation,” as the apologists like to argue. No, new “AAA” videogames have been roughly $100 new for quite some time, thanks to the fact that the $60 “basic” experience pretty much requires an extra payment of $40 for the season pass in order to have the “complete” experience. There’s no word yet about whether publishers plan to hike their season pass prices too, but the smart bet is that they will.
“AAA” publishers, who make up …
Backlog: The Embiggening – July, 2020
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 06/28/20 at 03:15 PM CT
Welcome back to another look into the near future. Here we sit in July, right at the height of the Summer Game Drought Season, with COVID-19 showing no signs of relenting and “going away with the Summer heat,” as our Dear Leader promised – in his infinite ignorance – that it would. So we’re all still stuck at home with nothing but our (huge enormous) backlogs to keep us company. Yet, surprisingly, this year’s annual Summer Game Drought has been remarkably mild, with a large slug of titles slated for release in July… and it’s not all crap!
Of course, we will start with the crap. Get your shovels ready, folks, because it’s getting a little deep in here. We’ve got two upcoming anime-based games in “Fairy Tale” and the Junk-Latin titled “Sword Art Online: Alicization Lycoris.” We’ve got two upcoming annual releases in two officially licensed Racing series, “NASCAR Heat 5” and “F1 2020.” Shockingly, VR (specifically PlayStation VR… the …
The PC Gaming Show 2020: Good/Bad/Ugly
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 06/21/20 at 04:52 PM CT
Hot on the heels of Sony’s PlayStation 5-centric ‘Direct’ video, “PC Gamer Magazine” has produced a new entry in the annual PC Gaming Show, only this time it is, like the PlayStation Direct and… everything else in 2020… outside the context of the E3 Electronic Entertainment Expo, which was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Look below for a list of my hot-takes on the show’s announcements and reveals, followed by a more in-depth summary.
Good: “Torchlight 3,” “Fae Tactics,” “Inkulinati,” “Troy: A Total War Saga,” “The Forgotten City,” “Weird West,” “Dungeons of Naheulbeuk: The Amulet of Chaos”
Bad: Effing Survival games, effing Roguelikes, ports of bad games like “Persona 4 Golden,” the trend of so-called ‘retro-shooters,’ “Potionomics,” remasters of bad games like “Shadowman,” “Mortal Shell,” “Surgeon Simulator 2” (why?!)
Ugly: Political BS statements, atrocious pacing and long-winded ‘comedy’ intros, …
The PlayStation Direct: Good/Bad/Ugly
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 06/14/20 at 04:02 PM CT
This past week, Sony disgorged an enormous amount of video content on their corporate Youtube account. While E3 may have been canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Sony had already decided to pull out of the big June gaming event prior to the cancelation, which, in hindsight, appears to have been a great move, as they were able to continue producing their Nintendo-style (because Sony loves nothing more than copying Nintendo) ‘Direct’ set of video presentations, including the reveal of the upcoming PlayStation 5 console and a swath of games that will be available on the new platform.
Since I don’t get to do an E3 Impressions article this year, I’m just going to remaster the format for the PlayStation Direct, changing “Want” to “Good,” “Do Not Want” to “Bad,” and “Not Sure if Want” to “Ugly.”
Good: “Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart,” “Sackboy: A Big Adventure,” “Kena: Bridge of Spirits,” “Little Devil Inside,” “Horizon: Forbidden …
Disgruntled Dad: Tired of Nintendo’s Approach to Game Data
Matt - wrote on 06/07/20 at 08:35 PM CT
The family Nintendo Switch is dead. It no longer will charge. The pins in the USB-C are bent, and the console is lifeless. The culprit, who caused this predicament, is most likely my four-year-old, or his older brother. The boys have taken to playing Pokémon and Animal Crossing, and they probably broke it putting the Switch back into its cradle. I know, I shouldn’t let such young kids charge the thing, but the system was bought for the family, and since we have more time on our hands, I relaxed and let the little boys charge it instead of their older sister. The incapacitated Switch has made me one disgruntled dad, frustrated by Nintendo’s somewhat-Luddite approach to modern online technologies and their draconian attempt to curtail modding and piracy.
Overall, since 2018, I had been pleased with the Switch. It was the evolution of my all-in-one-game-console dream, a system for entertainment while traveling — we do a fair bit of it — and a system for a TV. Although I …
Review Round-Up: Spring 2020
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 05/31/20 at 04:45 PM CT
Welcome back to another installment of the MeltedJoystick Review Round-Up. Here’s what our staff has reviewed since last time:
Nelson’s Reviews:
The MJ Crew co-oped our way through significantly more titles than usual this Spring, but only I took the time to write reviews. Oh well! Aside from those shared experiences, I also finished my Backlog Ablutions for the year, played a few Indie games I’d been sitting on for a while, and grabbed the new hotness that is “Metro Exodus” and played it right away.
“Strange Brigade” – 4/5
“Metro Exodus” – 3.5/5
“Evoland: Legendary Edition” – 4.5/5
“Evoland 2” – 4.5/5
“Burokku Girls” – 2/5
“Finding Paradise” – 4.5/5
“To the Moon” – 4/5
“Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3” – 2.5/5
“Valley” – 4/5
“Satellite Reign” – 3/5
Chris’ Reviews:
THE Disgruntled Dwarf completely spaced-off the fact that he needed to write reviews for co-op games.At least he got started on his …
Backlog: The Embiggening – June, 2020
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 05/24/20 at 04:58 PM CT
Welcome back to another look into the near future. What do you get when you combine the annual Summer Game Drought with a pandemic?
…
…
Well, I was expecting s super-small release schedule, but thanks to the ‘other’ pandemic of ports/remasters/reboots/compilations/rehashes, there are actually TONS of “new” games coming out just in time for the start of Summer… and a few regular-old new games, too.
There are only four pieces of shovelware coming in June, and they hit all of the major shovel-ready categories. We’ve got a super-casual bit of nothing in “Clubhouse Games: 51 Worldwide Classics,” an officially licensed (and annually occurring) Racing game in “Assetto Corsa Competizione,” and we’ve got an anime tie-in in “Fairy Tale.” Last, and definitely least, is a licensed game that is also a remaster: “Spongebob Squarepants: Battle for Bikini Bottom – Rehydrated.” Oh boy.
Unfortunately, it’s time for us to all embrace the truth, that …
Dreadful DRM: Making a Comeback Under the Guise of “Anti-Cheating”
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 05/17/20 at 04:04 PM CT
We live in a world in which it has been statistically proven that piracy not only doesn’t harm media sales, but actually provides free advertising. Likewise, selling digital media in a DRM-free format, be it games, music, or whatever, allows sellers to improve their reputations among buyers by providing a better service that the pirates do.
But the Games Industry never did care to hear the facts, and has always insisted that DRM was necessary, in spite of overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Recently, the push to foist DRM upon gamers has taken a new angle, ostensibly ‘protecting’ gamers in online games from ne’er-do-wells.
In recent weeks, Riot Games – the creator of toxic e-sport MOBA, “League of Legends” – introduced the concept of kernel-level anti-cheat software in its latest release, a meritless PvP FPS frag-fest called “Valorant.” Hot on the heels of this reveal, Denuvo – purveyor of ‘launch-window’ sales-protecting Denuvo Anti-Tamper DRM – …
A Fond Farewell to the Legendary Genderless Water-Type Pokemon
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 05/10/20 at 05:56 PM CT
On 4/20/2020, while multitudes of people around the world spent the day smoking unimaginable amounts of marijuana and getting happy and giggly in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, I, instead, spent the day sobbing at the veterinarian’s office, saying goodbye to a friend I’d known for 18 years.
In the Summer of 2002, I was still a fresh college graduate, struggling with the frustrations of finding a job – or even finding an interview for a job – in the horrible modern economy. All of my immediate family was still alive back then, and I spent a lot of time on my grandparents’ farm (which is now my farm). Grandma and Grandpa always had a lot of farm cats, and the long-haired, tabby-striped Maine Coons that have accompanied me through my entire life all came from Nelson Farm stock. That year, though, Freckles – a short-haired tortoise-shell colored skank who happened to be one of the most prolific Queens of her era – had a litter of kittens in the bushes just outside …
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