Thank God E3 is Coming Back in 2023

The Electronic Entertainment Expo has been in trouble for a long time. The yearly industry event had rumblings of failing well before the Covid-19 virus but the worldwide pandemic finally caused the event to skip a year in 2020, go digital only in 2021, and take a hiatus in 2022. With many calling this the end of the event and Game Awards organizer Geoff Keighley creating a potential replacement for the event, it was honestly surprising for some to see the Electronic Software Association announce E3 for 2023, alongside a new co-organizer ReedPop. Promising to have both in-person and digital presentations and showcases, the ESA is already positioning E3 2023 as a return to form, a returning of the old guard to the glory of yesteryear as well as an evolution of the event thanks to the organizers responsible for PAX, Star Wars Celebration, New York Comic Con, and more.

Mortal Kombat Should’ve Had Less Buttons | Design Play

The original Mortal Kombat games are arcade classics. They are simple games that didn’t focus on long combos or complicated mechanics or meters to manage. Mortal Kombat 3 and 4 added chain combos or the dial-a-combo system but those games still kept things focused on casual friendly antics. It’s only when you start to get to the competitive scene do you start to see insane juggling, corner combos, and other exploits the game makers surely didn’t intend to put into the game. However, I’ve always felt that the game was never actually as simple as it could’ve been. There are not a lot of normal attacks in the original four games, five or six if you want to separate Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 and include the console exclusive but mechanically similar Mortal Kombat Trilogy. I theorize that the controls and button layout are overdesigned and they all could’ve been consolidated from a five and later six button layout to a three or four button one, preferably three.

Activision is Call of Duty Only Now

In early 2021, video games publisher Activision closed and folded its development studio Vicarious Visions into Blizzard, the second part of the Activision Blizzard conglomerate that operates separately from Activision. They had recently made Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2 and the Crash Bandicoot: N-Sane Trilogy. Now at the end of April 2021, Activision has moved developer Toys for Bob off of original projects and will now be a support team for Call of Duty. Toys for Bob were responsible for the Skylanders series, the Spyro Reignited Trilogy and the recently released Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time.

Mario Fakes His Death on March 31, 2021

March 31st has been dubbed by the internet as The Day Mario Dies. This is due to Super Mario 3D All-Stars, Super Mario 35, and all Mario 35th Anniversary merchandise being taken off the market at the end of the 2020 fiscal year. It’s a bizarre move by Nintendo, who has yet to communicate whether the collection, game, and merchandise will be sold in a different manner later on, only confirming the expiration date earlier this week. The one caveat is digital codes for the All-Stars collection will be redeemable after the 31st. Even the servers for Super Mario 35, an online battle royal take on the original Super Mario Bros., will be taken down after the 31st, meaning that game will be unplayable and more or less lost to time unless Nintendo decides to re-release it at a later date.

Discussing: Where Are All The Old Sega Franchises?

Sega is a company with a long history in the video games industry. In that time, they created a lot of IPs and recognizable brands and franchises. The argument could be made that Sega has just as many recognizable, if not as revered, franchises as Electronic Arts, Blizzard, and even Nintendo. And why wouldn’t they? They did after all compete with Nintendo throughout in the 1990s and created lots of new games and characters in order to do so. However, unlike Nintendo, they have not given as much love and care to their franchises and have instead relied on the one that gives them the most success: Sonic the Hedgehog. As a result, the value of these once notable and influential franchises has diminished.

Has Sonic Ever Been Great After the Genesis?

Sonic Mania has been making waves ever since its release, being heralded as one of the best entries in the franchise. It’s said to have captured what made the original Genesis games and Sonic CD classic better than any game in the franchise since. This has also sparked a new debate that has rubbed some people, especially those in the Sonic fan community, the wrong way: Is Sonic Mania the best Sonic game in the last 23 years? This question is specific in that 23 years from 2017 is 1994, which is when Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and Sonic & Knuckles were released. That means it cuts out all of the 3D Sonic games, including the few on the Sega Saturn, all of the handheld games released since then, including some on the Game Gear, and even Sonic 3D Blast, which was on the Genesis as well. As a result, because the internet, the question has been expanded even further to whether or not Sonic has ever been great since his Genesis heyday.

The Importance of Characters in Fighting Games

I’m a big fan of fighting games. Ever since I first tried out Street Fighter II: The World Warrior when I was a kid, I’ve loved the genre. I love how open ended the mechanics are, and how varied that makes each match. However, one of the most crucial aspects of fighting games that I love are the characters. The combatants you have available to you to play as is probably the most crucial aspect as it’s one of the main reasons people will want to play the game. In fact, considering that characters also heavily affect the gameplay in a fighting game, I would go so far as to say that the roster in a fighting game is the most crucial element in a fighting game.

Characters Should Build Worlds, Not Lore

I’ve been playing Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door again recently and I’ve been really invested in its personality and charm. This is actually one of my favorite RPGs ever, despite it being starkly different from most games in the genre. It got me thinking about why it is that this game stands out to me in a genre that’s been defined by the high fantasy and science fiction tropes populated by series staples like Final Fantasy, Phantasy Star, and The Elder Scrolls. What is it that Thousand Year Door does so fundamentally differently that it, in my opinion, holds its own and in some ways surpasses titles that have shaped and laid the groundwork for the entire genre?

Discovering Moon Knight

I know nothing about Moon Knight and, in all fairness, I still don’t know the character well. I’ve read all 11 issues of the fifth volume of Moon Knight and I get the feeling that it doesn’t explain what the general idea is behind the character and is instead dissecting the man rather than the superhero, Marc Spector. However, that’s a bit complicated as he has Dissociative Identity Disorder, and has two other personalities, Stephen Grant, and Jake Lockley. It’s quite engaging watching and reading this guy try to piece together his mind and bring a sense of control back to his identity so that he can fight back against the one who destroyed his mind in the first place. I don’t want to spoil anything, although this current volume is nearly a year old, but I’m not used to reading a comic that incorporates much more personality centric ideas into the ‘hero stops villain’ structure.

2016 Was Terrible, But Important

A quick introduction before I get into the editorial proper. This is an article that has been delayed longer than I would’ve wished for. I wanted for some time now to write about more than just video games, music, and movies. Moving forward, this WordPress blog is going to be more based on myself than the topics I typically focus on. I mentioned this in the past, but this is really the start of that. Instead of coming to this blog for stuff on video games, you’ll be coming here for me, for my views and thoughts on a variety of topics. Subject matter will start becoming more serious and more controversial topics are bound to pop up. I thank you for continuing to read my work, and support my content. Video games and the like will still have a big presence here, as I’m still passionate about those subjects. However, you’re going to see a lot more than just that from now on. Now on to the editorial.