One of the biggest criticisms of our hobby today is that video games are trying too hard to be like movies. In truth, it's always kind of been like that - numerous games from the 80s and 90s have ripped off famous Hollywood actors, most coming from overseas and hoping no one would notice. Derboo's feature article Tracing the Influence takes five pages and probably a few hundred images to dig through the many "inspirations" from movie posters, stills, and other bits of artwork. The Metal Gear/Terminator one is perhaps the most well known, but there are tons and tons of other examples, and is full of a lot of "OH SH-" trivia.
Another feature article too is Ike's Guide to NES Maintenance. Written by one of our forum members, this in-depth guide includes numerous photos on how to clean and keep your NES in working order.
For game articles, we have a review of the recent indie hit Gateways, a Metroidvania take on Portal developed by Smudged Cat Games, the folks behind The Adventures of Shuggy, both of which are available on the Xbox 360 and Steam; Panic Restaurant, one of those absurdly rare/expensive late NES release by Taito (similar in that respects to Little Samson); and Fire Bam, an interesting action-RPG for the Famicom Disk System. And Page 18 of the iOS Shooter article covers UFO Attack!, Space Falcon Commander, Ace Shooter and Flare Elite.
Our spotlight article is Sparkster / Rocket Knight Adventures, for no other reason than one of our longtime readers discovered a cameo of the high-flying opossum in the Konami dating RPG Mitsumete Knight. And your weekly kusoge is the infamous Superman 64.
Loved the ripoffs article, went in there hoping to see Guardian Legend/Creature and was not disappointed.
ReplyDeleteThe CVIII one felt like it was reaching a bit, though. Also:
"(and the angle of the stairs in the Castlevania III cover doesn't make a speck of sense)"
Probably because those are gears, not stairs, genius.
heh, perhaps its good to know Caen's ridiculous behavior isn't new, though it just makes it more mind-boggling that Brian Fargo sold Interplay to the guy (not that he hasn't since acknowledged it as the worst mistake of his life), since there was clear history of Caen NEVER knowing what he was doing.
ReplyDeletehe hasn't gotten better either.
this is the guy who just a few months ago announced reviving a zombie of Black Isle Studios, with no former BIS staffers, yet described it as "getting the band back together".
First of all: I've been a follower of your site for a long, long time now and I love it. Thanks for all the years of great work and efforts!
ReplyDeleteAs an Elvis fan since I was 5, it actually surprised me to not find more influences/rip-offs (I know GTA had a few references, but they don't fit on the article). As for Murder on the Atlantic, I have the exact pic they copied around here but I can't find it... It's from 1964 or 65, if I remember correctly it is a pic from some photo shoot for promotional shots. Just out of curiosity! ;)
Thanks for the great website!
Curiously, the "Superman 64" article was available for almost two weeks before this update news...
ReplyDelete(Not that I'm complaining, just making a comment!)
By the way, I miss the "crazy gaming" approach you had at kusoge articles like the one at "The Typing of the Dead". I mean, trashing s--tty games is funny, but sometimes I feel that we need more joy than the anger the latest articles have been showing.
(Oh, and please forgive any English mistake this Brazilian citizen might have commited!)