In 2002, Namco published a game for the PlayStation 2 called Katamari Damacy. The game told the tale of a prince who must rebuild the stars and Moon because his father, the King of All Cosmos, did the ultimate goof-up and destroyed them all. How will the prince do this job, you ask? Well, he's got to roll a big adhesive ball called a katamari around, make stuff stick to it, and then those things are used to rebuild the stars. Fun fact, the word katamari means "clump" or "clod" in Japanese. And "Damacy" comes from the word Damashii, which is a form of the word tamashii, which means "soul" or "spirit". The game's name literally means "clump soul".
The game was considered a bit of a sleeper hit upon release, and won numerous awards. It also got a lot of critical praise. Despite this, the game was able to launch a franchise. The game has had eight sequels, released on various consoles, handhelds, and even on mobile phones.
A high-definition remaster of the original Katamari has come to the Nintendo Switch, so let's grab our giant adhesive balls, rebuild the stars, and take a look at the launch trailer!
...are those ripoff Lego figures?
The stars have vanished, huh? Maybe Chicken Little wasn't completely out of his mind.
Aw man, we missed the giant robot's epic smackdown of the monster! I hate missing the epic smackdowns. Ah well, that show's likely on Netflix anyway.
What's all the screaming for? The Prince doesn't look that scary!
Have you been drinking again, King of the Cosmos? You know perfectly well cosmic weirdness happens when you get freakin' drunk.
If you're looking to keep anything you own, don't let the Prince near it.
Yeah, you better stay out of his way, too.
Look at the King. Just flying around without a care in the world while his son has to clean up his messes. Methinks it's time for a change in ruler.
Dear God, is nothing safe from the Prince's big sticky ball?! He's got SKYSCRAPERS in it!
Is that a rainbow? How did the Prince get a rainbow in that thing?!
I bet that when the Prince was flying with his father there, he wasn't thinking "I'm going to have to do this eight more times, aren't I?"
Well, despite my jokes, this game looks rather fun. It looks like a nice relaxing way to kill some time. It also looks incredibly unique and just plain old enjoyable. I hope there's more levels and stuff like that added, and it's not just a mere graphical improvement like Star Fox 64 DS was. I hope there's a demo...
Back in August, I looked at the trailer for Tekken 7's Season Pass 2. Among the new characters in the game would be one Negan from the Image comic book/TV series The Walking Dead. I noted that he was an unusual choice for a fighter in this game as Negan is not really a martial artist. He's just a ruthless killer with a baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire. Anyway, the guy has his own gameplay trailer out, so for my 570th blog entry, let's take a look!
I think the credits here are supposed to be done in the style of The Walking Dead. I never really watched the show, so...yeah.
"Hey, Negan! Come on, man! We're all cold and there are wolves after us! Let's get this over with"
I...don't really recognize a lot of these characters. I gotta play more Tekken.
Well, your trailer is the only one out here with a bathroom, Negan. Don't be a jerk and let other people use it!
Heh heh, that's for being a jerk, Negan.
I bet Negan never got to take a tiger to the face from Kazumi Mishima. But then again, I can imagine a lot of things in the Tekken world would blow even his crazy mind.
I think this is meant to be an homage to his debut in the Walking Dead series.
Ouch.
Heh heh. Vampire bat.
Huh. They got Jeffrey Dean Morgan to voice Negan in the game. That's pretty neat.
I'm no expert on fighting game mechanics or anything like that, but it does seem like Negan's style is just beat the tar out of everyone with his bat Lucille. It fits him. It is kind of interesting to see a character in a game like this. I still think he'd be a better fit for Mortal Kombat there, though. Gore and cursing, and all that. However, as I said before, as a crazy crossover, I love it. I hope we see more crazy game crossovers like this.
In 1994, Bandai-Namco released Tekken (Japanese for "Iron Fist") in arcades, and would bring it to the original PlayStation a year later. The game would be highly praised for its characters, controls, and presentation. The game would even get into the Guinness Book of World Records for being the first game released on the PlayStation to sell over one million units.
The latest game in the main series, Tekken 7, has crossed the crossover-mania in video games lately. First, the character of Noctis from Final Fantasy XV has been announced to be a playable fighter, and now...we're going to get some more playable characters...including another big surprise. Let's take a look!
Ah, the Mishima family. Settling issues the only way they know how: By trying to murder each other.
Hey, footage from EVO. EVO is short for Evolution Championship Series, an annual event in which professional gamers take each other on in fighting game tournaments for glory and presumably prize money.
I have to confess, I'venever played a Tekken game. I'm more of a Super Smash Bros. guy myself. Hey, Tekken X Super Smash Bros.. That would be one heck of a fun crossover. Nintendo, Bandai Namco, get on this! Please?
Hey, Anna Williams is in! She and her sister Nina, the blonde in the wedding dress, are...not on the best of terms usually. Between the Williams sisters and the whole dysfunctional Mishima clan, one can't help but wonder if the creators of this game have a thing against families.
Anna got herself some new tattoos. I can imagine she spent many an hour in the tattoo artists' chair. Considering Anna is described as narcissistic and arrogant, I can bet that artist deserved a medal for enduring her.
Yeah, the Williams sisters' meeting up often does involve heavy weaponry. Just be grateful she didn't break out the nukes.
When it come to creating characters for fighting games, creators will draw from real life. For example, Fei Long from the Street Fighter series is basically Bruce Lee. Lei Wulong is another such character. He's an homage to Jackie Chan. You can see that in the ending of his part in the trailer. The whole thing with him shaking his hands like he hurt them after hitting the screen. That's classic Jackie Chan.
I have to admit, I was surprised to see this guy in a Tekken game. Yes, Negan. Arguably one of the most famous characters from the Walking Dead franchise, Negan became famous because of his brutality, twisted sense of humor, and love of profanity. He was portrayed by Jeffrey Dean Morgan in the TV series. He is also known for his trademark weapon, a bat with barbed wire wrapped around it he named "Lucille". I wonder if Morgan will voice him for the game.
Honestly though, I'd think the Mortal Kombat series would be a better fit for him. I'm not the first to notice this, and it makes sense. That series is known for its brutality and gore, and it would allow a character like Negan to go all out and knock some heads off, quite literally. I am curious about how he got here.
I have to admit, I was surprised by Negan in this game. Anna and Lei Wulong make sense, as they are long-running characters. I also have to admit, I love the current trend of crossovers in video games. I think it's really cool seeing characters from one series meeting other series' characters. The possibilities of it are endless. I can't wait to see what crazy crossovers come next!
Namco. One of the great video game developers, it also was regarded as one of the premier developers of games during the 80s Golden Age of Arcades, with games like Dig Dug, Galaga (one of my favorite games), and of course, Pac-Man. They've also been releasing compilations of their arcade games on various consoles since the 90s, and now the Switch is the latest console to receive one of their Namco Museum complains, this coming to the eShop in July. So, in honor of that, let's look at the trailer for it!
The trailer begins with footage of Pac-Man playing. I have to admit, I like Pac-Man. It's an enjoyable game, but it's not my favorite Namco game.
Galaga. Now THAT is my favorite Namco game. If I see the game in an arcade, I have to play it. I recently went up to Lake George and they have an arcade. I was so happy when I saw a Galaga cabinet there. I was also quite overjoyed when the game got a shoutout in The Avengers. I got the NES port of it on my 3DS, and it's the reason why I like shooter games. Why do I like it? Well, I guess I just like the colorful bug enemies. Yeah. I like it because I think it looks cool.
Dig-Dug. I have played the sequel to it: Dig Dug 2. It was on the Namco Museum compilation for the Nintendo DS. Funny enough, it did not have this one. I think I remember playing this on a computer years ago? I'm not sure. But I did enjoy the second one, so I think I'll like this game. It does remind me of Mario 2, the sand levels where the player has to dig through the sand? I think of that when I see this.
Druaga. It looks neat. Running around in a maze and fighting green slime monsters? Reminds me a bit of Dragon Quest.
Rolling Thunder. I have heard of this game, but never have played it. Looking at it, though...it makes me think that this could have been a James Bond game. Seriously, just do some re-skinning and you could have Bond fighting SPECTRE.
I do like that each of the games has a unique border. I wonder if they're based on the art on the sides of their old cabinets? Druaga's is the coolest of the ones shown as it's essentially a comic. Yeah, it's a comic!
The trailer doesn't show footage of all the games included, but we do get a list of the games that will be there. I want to play Galaga '88. I have never really played that one. Same with Splatterhouse. Never saw it in an arcade, and I never owned a TurboGrafx-16 (Heck, as a kid, I never even heard of that console). The collection is ten games. That's a good amount, but hopefully we'll get some more by DLC. Would be nice to play games like Bosconian, Galaxian, and Pole Position on the Switch. Or maybe a Vol. 2.
It's a basic trailer, not much to say about it. We do get a tease of what's to come. Namco Museum does sound like it's a good choice for those who own a Switch and love retrogaming and/or want to bring back some memories of the Golden Age of Arcades.
