Thursday, February 8, 2024

Joe's Monologues - 2/8/24

Hello, everyone, KnockDownJoe here and welcome to the first episode of Joe's Monologues of February. Valentine's Day is fast approaching. So is the Super Bowl LVIII. These are not the ones that I'm gonna talk about today. I have a couple of things that I want to monologue today, including the one that interests me, so let's get right into them.

Crash Team Rumble:

So we'll start with the elephant in the room, which is my experience with playing Crash Team Rumble. I was playing some Competitive matches, not only the day before yesterday, but also the past weeks. I am on the verge on unlocking Heroes and Powers. I had a lot of fun kicking some butt and scoring Wumpa. And now where it stands, I have unlocked all of the powers just by donating Common and Epic Relic Stations and unlocked more Heroes by collecting certain badges. I also earned enough Relic Assist badges to unlock Spyro, yet I have already unlocked him during his Early Access. It has to be a bug that occured when I collected enough badges to unlock the Hero I have already unlocked during their Early Access. I was even able to win that match, become Top Performer and unlock N-Gin as a cherry on top before the EVO 2024 Announcement Show, which I'll tell you about later. That's the wild way to wrap things up.

I have crossed the finish line on the Powers department. And now, there is only one Hero left to unlock, which is Ripto. I earned 32 Assist badges so far and I am 18 away from unlocking him, so all I got to do is focus on earning the rest of the Assist badges and I can finally unlock Ripto to cross the finish line on the Heroes department and this is gonna be my ambitious thing to complete. I plan to make a random wheel of my Hero mains in the game to help me decide which Hero to play.

After that, I'm gonna do this; the same thing 1smash18 was doing during the 9b finale of his SSF2 Let's Play Series. Play one Spyro character on each match and I can use the list randomizer to help me decide the order of Spyro characters to play on Practice Match in a Spyro map as a celebration for unlocking Ripto to cross the finish line. But if I lose, I can't move on to the next Spyro character until I win a match. Then phase two will be playing only Spyro characters on Competitive on the next session after this one and all of that will be on stream. This is gonna convince Activision to make Spyro 4 and add a 4th Spyro character to the game. Preferably Bianca. Emphasis on "4th" because Spyro 4 needs to happen and a 4th Spyro character needs to be on there.

You know what? I just came across something interesting. I bought Ty the Tasmanian Tiger on my PS5 the day before yesterday and played it a throwback to my childhood when I played it originally on the PS2. It is a remaster and remasters of the original releases still retain a lot of charm. But that's not the only thing that interests me. What really interests me is that Ty would also be freaking dope in Crash Team Rumble like Spyro is, along with his map since the third game of the franchise, Night of the Quinkan, was published by Activision. Showcased his abilities and I was working on a dream logo combo of Activision, Krome Studios (current logo), FMOD and Unreal Engine weirdly enough as a cherry on top, so I'm gonna do a breakdown on what will Ty bring to the table if he makes his debut to Crash Team Rumble in a future Season, his map and his release now.

Hero Breakdown:

Like Spyro, Ty is a Scorer, who excels at breaking crates and scoring Wumpa to charge Power faster. He'll be capable of scoring Wumpa for the ally team.

Now for part two of the Hero Breakdown, abilities. The Primary Attack button allows Ty to throw one of his regular boomerangs. Pressing the Primary Attack button again allows him to throw his second boomerang. He will throw his boomerangs again if one of them is in his posession. Ty can glide by pressing the Jump button while in mid-air. Note that Ty must have two boomerangs in his possession to glide. Ty's Chomp is performed using the Secondary Attack button. Aerial Chomp is performed with the Secondary Attack button while in mid-air. His Super Chomp is performed with holding the Secondary Attack button. This only works when he is on the ground. And finally, Ty's Special is his Thunderangs. Note that Ty must have two boomerangs in his possession in order for it to work.

And since Ty's boomerangs are his weapon, they can be customizable to have various skins, but not from his games because changing appearances does not give the team an advantage.

Map Breakdown:

Ty's map is Rainbow Cliffs, a first home world where the first Ty the Tasmanian Tiger game takes place at, like the Artisans World from Spyro the Dragon and Summer Forest from Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage!. Like the Spyro maps, which uses gems, Rainbow Cliffs will use Opals instead of Wumpa Fruit and use containers that contain Opals. The Common Relic Stations can yield Talismans with powers while a Epic Relic Station can activate Bunyip Elder to grant the ally team knockback resistance.

Release Breakdown:

Like other Heroes, Ty will have both his Early Access and Full Release. During the Ty Early Access, there are Rainbow Scales scattered across each map on both Competitive and Party Mode. Collect the first three Rainbow Scales and Ty will be unlocked permanently. Collecting more of them rewards you exclusive rewards. If you don't unlock him during his Early Access, you'll have to wait until his Full Release to unlock him, by earning Hunter badges, similar to unlocking Elora.

Hero Badge:

Each Hero has their own Hero Badge, like if you're Elora, you can heal allies within range 100 HP with a single Heal Aura to earn the Heal Deal badge. But Ty has his own Hero Badge called Walk in the Park, which is earned by killing an enemy Hero on the team bank with Super Chomp.

And this is the breakdown on how will Ty bring to the table if he makes his debut to Crash Team Rumble. You're gonna love it.

EVO 2024:

The EVO 2024 Announcement Show went live two days ago and Vicious and Majinobama were hosts of the show. Before I get to the announced games, changes are coming to EVO this year. This year and beyond, EVO is migrating from Mandalay Bay to a new venue in Las Vegas, the West Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center where everything is more spacious and bigger than what Mandalay Bay has to offer. Bigger BYOC and everything else that is bigger than before to make lines shorter. It is indeed big and that's what the key the mayor of Nevada offered the Cannon brothers is for. EVO has a YouTube channel named EvoFGC. Go check out their channel over on YouTube and give them 100,000 subscribers so that they can be eligible for their Silver Play Button.

What really interests me is that the finals of all games is gonna be played at the Arena on all three days. That's another improvement over EVO's Mandalay Bay-era. This year's EVO is gonna be a blockbuster, folks, as its West Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center-era is gonna be a huge improvement, that the big screen with better lighting will contain reveals, finals will take place at the Arena in all eight games during both Saturday and Sunday, and more changes.

And now, on to the games they announced for this year's lineup.

Street Fighter 6 - This has the most signups last year and that's why it had to be played last in the Sunday Arena Finals. I called this one and it is also being played at EVO Japan. AngryBird became the first champion of this game at EVO, so kudos to him. We are gonna see it again this year. Ed is coming out this month and he will be tournament legal in EVO. As for Akuma, we don't know when he will come out.

Tekken 8 - I also called this one because we know that this game is gonna be in the lineup. I heard it looks mesmerizing. Like even Reina is mad dope and it's not just because she is a Mishima. It's also because she is licensed to kick a lot of butt like Elora is. Maybe I should main her. The only thing about this is that this is the first game to not have an arcade release and to not have Heihachi Mishima in the roster because as Raven said in the Story Trailer; Heihachi Mishima is dead. This is something we can experience both at EVO Las Vegas and EVO Japan.

Mortal Kombat 1 - The gory fighting game series is going to the New Era as this is its first time making its debut at EVO. I was able to watch the whole MK11 finals to see how it unfolded. It was incredible, but what I don't like is the Fujin mirror match. And now, kombatants are shifting to the New Era crafted by Fire God Liu Kang so that no realms would be consigned to endless wars. Peacemaker from DC is set to come out this month and he will be legal for sure. However, because this is a fighting game big in the West, it will not be seen on EVO Japan.

Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising - It is a sequel to the original Granblue Fantasy Versus that has new content and this is the first time making its debut to the big show. The skybound clash continues both in EVO Las Vegas and EVO Japan.

Guilty Gear Strive - Last year, Leffen, legendary Smash player won last year's EVO. He Strive to Smash his way to win two different titles at EVO. That's my quip as to when he won EVO in both Smash and Strive. And this one is gonna be in both EVO Las Vegas for third time and in EVO Japan for the second time. A third encore is being rocked.

The King of Fighters XV - The first time this one made its debut to EVO is that it made it to the Sunday Arena Finals to start things off. And now, it is coming for the third time at EVO and it's also gonna be played at EVO Japan. And players are stoked to Shatter All Expectations.

Under Night In-Birth II: Sys:Celes - It is the first numbered sequel that is the final chapter to end all Hollow Nights. Back in 2019, Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late[st] made its debut and we get a trailer about UNICLR. I can see how strongly agreeing with Cerebella's Mika palette and Marie's Orie palette would have its perks. This is the first time we're seeing it in action on both EVO Las Vegas and EVO Japan.

Street Fighter III: Third Strike - nearly 22 years ago, this iconic classic fighting game made its debut at EVO. This energized the FGC in the past EVOs from back in the dat. There was one iconic moment when Daigo was parrying all of Justin's moves and he finished it all after that. This is how it all started. And now, where it stands, it is coming this year as a throwback tournament on both EVO and EVO Japan and we are seeing it again this year, but in 4K if they have Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection.

These are all of the games in this year's lineup that will be played. We got all seven games that are on this year's lineup for EVO we are gonna see on this year's EVO Japan first, but as I said before, Mortal Kombat 1 is not in the Japanese event because it is a fighting game franchise that is big in the West like Killer Instinct. Turns out that there are eight games like last year. I am expecting a Mightykeef skit about this and it is gonna be explosive as Street Fighter 6 is being played again like last year, Tekken 7 has migrated to Tekken 8, Mortal Kombat 11 has migrated to Mortal Kombat 1, the vanilla Granblue Fantasy: Versus has migrated to Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising and so on. Last year's wasn't even posted and I was disappointed, so this year must be posted.

EVO 2022 is the most hype. What makes it so is that Skullgirls has made its debut as a mainstage game and revealing Marie is the cherry on top. I have already got her Orie palette settled, so the only thing left is her full release. It's the first time in a while since 2017 when it was a side event. I have never felt this emotional in that point of time.

Now, tickets are on sale and they are on the Early Bird Registration, so you got plenty of time to register. EVO starts earlier than before as it is gonna go live July 19-21 because of the new venue they are moving to. But this is only part one. The community showcase and everything else aren't revealed yet.

Conclusion:

This has been the first episode of the Joe's Monologues series of February. I did a breakdown on how will Ty perform on Crash Team Rumble, I am closer to crossing the finish line on the Heroes department and EVO Las Vegas is undergoing a lot of big changes as it is shifting from Mandalay Bay to the West Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center where everything is more spacious and the event will unfold differently as the finals of each game will be played at the Arena on Saturday and Sunday and the showcase will take place at the stage with better lighting. Here's to a wonderful 2024.

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