60°

7 Gaming Comebacks That’ll Bring a Tear to Your Eye

Just one of the many reasons why geeks love to engage in heated forum flaming wars is the deep nostalgia we hold for our favorite gaming protagonists. As we lovingly (often frustratingly) guide our fragile friends through their digital worlds, we achieve serious feats, saving everything from castle bound princesses to entire civilizations. Memories are created, strong bonds are formed.

Understandably, when they disappear, it leaves us sad. Where do our beloved friends go? What kind of market dynamics have changed for development company bigwigs to axe them from the schedule?

Maybe, they just retired for a while? Strolling on a beach somewhere, sipping coconuts with the turquoise ocean lapping between their various extremities? This might just be true. Many have or (soon will) come out of retirement to make a comeback.

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wihdrocks.com
70°

A Brief Look at The Evolution of Video Game Mascots

BY MICHAEL WESSON: Gaming mascots have long served as the faces of their respective games and gaming platforms.  They have embodied the essence of what their titles are about and often transcend their digital origins, becoming cultural icons with a significant impact on merchandise, movies, and even theme parks.

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growngaming.com
86d ago
120°

Sonic Game Writers Had ‘Very Little Say’ On Story Scripts

The writing duo behind Sonic games like Sonic Colors and Sonic Lost World reveal they have little creative control over their game scripts.

-Foxtrot118d ago

They need to start letting people take inspiration from the comics, there's a ton of great stuff to take inspiration from.

phoenixwing116d ago

My beef is why even hire writers if you're just going to control the whole process. I'd be very upset as a writer if someone did that. A job is a job though.

DarXyde116d ago

Performative for optics, I would think.

It's like the US Congress holding a vote to "denounce the evils of socialism." It literally did absolutely nothing about anything and was a complete waste of everyone's time (and tax dollars—which is its own irony, by the way)

Dumbest thing in the world, but if you hire writers, it looks like you made a serious effort to make something great.

Do you remember when the original Suicide Squad movie was coming out? How much did we hear about Killer Croc's actor watching cannibal videos to get into character? Or even the "incredible lengths" Jared Leto went through to personify Joker on and off set?

It looks better when people think you're taking it seriously.

XiNatsuDragnel117d ago

Pretty much confirmed that SEGA controls everything about sonic no derivations fr

Profchaos116d ago

Nothing new sonic forces was meant to be far darker then sega got cold feet and they did the same old power of friendship ending

120°

Kingdom Hearts Is Too Hard To Get Into

Trying to break into Kingdom Hearts is a nightmare.

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thegamer.com
wwinterj132d ago

Play the first game. That is a simple enough story to get into the series.

Crows90131d ago

Was going to say the same. It's really not hard to get into.

Hofstaderman132d ago

My advice; play the games in release order. Alot of people say story chronological order but that can be really confusing. Trust me.

Inverno132d ago

Read the manga, story makes more sense there.

-Gespenst-131d ago (Edited 131d ago )

I think a problem that SE is going to run into (or already has run into) with this series is that a lot of the people still following it were kids / teens when they played the first one, and are now much older. I know I'm finding it increasingly hard to tolerate the childishness of some of the stuff in these games, and I'm sure there are plenty of original players who have since just stopped following the series for this reason. I can't count the number of times I was playing KH3 and just feeling like, "What the f*** am I doing?"

SE can keep the series PG-13, and try to get a new audience of kids, but how do they intend to get kids into a series with a story that has been expanding since 2002, and over the course of like a dozen games? Especially when there are already loads of newer franchises out there that have already pretty much cornered the kids / teens market.

Honestly, I think they should either end the series once and for all, or take it in a more mature direction, and ditch the Disney stuff (I know, unpopular opinion, probably). It is a series that hasn't really grown with its audience, I feel. Alternatively, they could try to steer it in a more all-ages Studio Ghibli direction, sort of like Final Fantasy.

banger88131d ago

I felt this way with KH3 as well, ended up dropping it around half way through. I won't even bother with KH4.

CS7131d ago

Same here. Kingdom Hearts 3’s dialog was way to childish for me and I only played just to finish the story and wrap up the near 15 year wait.

I doubt I would be buying any other games unless they go in a more mature (all-ages) direction as OP said.

jambola131d ago

It doesn't help with Sora's loud stretched out constant yelling either

smashman98131d ago

you gotta remember Disney has to sign off on everything they do with KH. Disney is super protective of their IP,

Either way I don't disagree with you on a lot of this stuff becoming more and more of an issue. But it's okay that fans grow out of things like this. But if they do decide to keep it more for the young audience then they will have to solve the problem that the article mentions.

-Gespenst-131d ago

Yeah, I just don't know what they could do to get all the kids invested in it at this stage. The only thing I can think of is a total reboot, but that would be an enormous project, and they clearly have no intention of doing it. I mean, the series has just embarked upon another "saga", which, if it's anything like the last "saga", will take another 2 decades to complete, will consist of 6+ games, and will convolute the overall narrative even further (if that's even possible). It seems to me that, if this is SE's plan, and if they want people to still care about the series in 5-6 years time, then their only real option is to try to appeal more to a non-adolescent audience. Otherwise, the kids won't care because they won't have a clue what's going on, and the adults won't care because the series is too childish.

Having said all that, the Yozora stuff, and the footage we've seen from KH4, does seem to MAYBE indicate that the series is going in the direction I'm talking about, but it's too early to say for sure. KH4 might look completely different the next time we see it, knowing SE.

Crows90131d ago

Kingdom hearts 3 is horrible ..that's why you felt that way. It's the worst in the series by far.

FinalFantasyFanatic131d ago

My issue is with the decline of the writing which has been an issue for Square-Enix games across the board. KH3 should have gone out with a bang and felt very satisfying, but instead it was like a wet tissue and left feeling like I missed a lot of content. Having said that, KH3 was probably the last KH game I'll purchase.

Rainbowcookie131d ago

Im playing 3 as my first one and I got that same feeling. Enjoying the variety and combat but im not into the story...too confusing.

+ Show (2) more repliesLast reply 131d ago
GoodGuy09131d ago

Indeed. If you wanna give it a try, just go with 1-3. The other games are unfortunately needed to know but you can just youtube all the cutscenes by order of release of each game.

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