Joe's Monologues - Sly Cooper

The next Joe's Monologues will focus on one thing that I loved as kid. If you're around on the time during the PS2 era, the franchise that began in 2002 was Sly Cooper, and that what I'm gonna talk about specifically on this post. Consider it as my own and simple iceberg for the thieving and sneaky anthropomorphic raccoon.

How the Franchise Started:

The franchise is known for its stealth and action combat and about the anthropomorphic raccoon named Sly Cooper, who became known for thievery and was chased by Inspector Carmelita Fox, who would stop at nothing and not rest until she has Sly and end his stealing crimes. Carmelita became a staple on how the stealing action became so fun.

In 2002, Sly Cooper and the Thievious Raccoonus came out on the PS2 by Sucker Punch Productions and it is a platformer that uses lives and is inspired by Crash and Spyro, where as taking damage can lose a life. But it uses a lucky charm system that can protect them from damage. Take damage and you lose a charm. It's similar to Crash and Spyro that taking damage can lose a charm and taking damage while having no charm can lead to losing a life and the encompassing hub worlds have levels. The game uses collecting clues to open vaults on each level, which defines a platformer game.

Innovation of the Franchise:

After the success of Sly 1, the following game has introduced innovations to make it look different than the first game. In 2004, Sly 2: Band of Thieves marked the start of trying new things. That involved not just playing as Sly, but also Bentley and Murray, thus making a Mickey, Donald and Goofy-style trio. The trio comes with different moves and have their own health bar rather than the protecting charm. The game did away with the lives and there is grinding coins to purchase abilities in the ThiefNet. They have missions to partake and the clues are scattered across the map since the platforming genre was done away since the home worlds are all in one world.

Then when Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves came out in 2005, it retains the core gameplay and mechanics from Sly 2 and has different additions and new characters beyond the trio. But there is a catch. In certain jobs, the side characters are playable and that's what makes Sly 3 so enjoyable and crazy. However, Sly 3 doesn't use clues, but they have master thief challenges and offers an option to replay the prologue and jobs you've already done Sly 2 doesn't offer.

Interestingly, Sly Cooper was not the first franchise that has the original trilogy that has the first game being a platformer and the sequels having innovation because the Gex franchise was the first to have that, with the first game being a 2D platformer and the sequels being Super Mario 64-style platformers in the original trilogy. That's called innovation.

Thieves in Time:

After the compilation of the original Sucker Punch trilogy, Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time came to take place after the events. But after Sucker Punch moved on to pursue Infamous, Sanzaru Games stepped up to remaster the original trilogy and develop Thieves in Time. It is a modern Sly Cooper game where the ancestors of the Cooper Clan are featured to be playable on each episode. I played it back in the day on the PSVita first and it was okay. The first half was peak, but the second half was just meh. Regardless, the animated cutscenes were peak and the graphics blew me away. They were able to copy paste the physics from Sly 3 and started from there to make a modern Sly Cooper game, but not all of it.

What has really soured us the most is that the game has ended in a cliffhanger where Sly travelled to the past and ended up in Egypt. A story DLC was planned to resolve the cliffhanger, but due to the poor sales of Thieves in Time, Sony rejected it. They were supposed to develop Sly 5, but Sanzaru had planned not to.

Revisiting the Originals:

Ever since PlayStation Plus Premium launched, I wanted to revisit the original trilogy and two years later my desire has been fulfilled after hearing that Sony got a new PS2 emulator. In last year's Day's of Play, we saw the first game launched into the catalog. And during PlayStation 30th Anniversary, sequels in the original trilogy came.

Back in the day, when I was a kid, I played the whole original trilogy and in this generation, I played the first one and the second one on stream and I will soon revisit Sly 3 and its crazy adventures created by new members of the Cooper Gang beyond the trio. I got my 3D glasses and I'm going to wear them because some areas are in 3D mode, meaning that I need to put on 3D glasses when I'm on certain areas.

I said that I'm gonna dive into Sly 3 soon, but decided to delay it until I upgrade to a higher RAM because HD recording and streaming and memory-intensive games and tasks consume a significant amount of RAM. That's why certain games I have on my library took longer to load when I'm having 8GB RAM on my gaming computer.

Astro Bot's Wild Performance:

Astro Bot excellent performance saw Sony being convinced to revive their old IPs, including Ape Escape, Jak & Daxter and Sly Cooper. Herman Hulst has announced that they are bringing their old IPs back into the limelight. The game became critically acclaimed that Sony looked into their hearts and give their nostalgic IPs back some love. That really changes everything for PlayStation.

What I Want:

If Sly Cooper is making a comeback one day, a lot of people wanted developers to dive right into a Sly 5 to resolve the cliffhanger. I'm with them, but what I want is that I want the developers to start over and remake the original trilogy to be in HD and replace Thieves in Time with something fresh. I like the fresh new fourth game to be completely on par with Sly 3 because the second half of Thieves in Time is just meh that it wasn't completely on par with Sly 3. That's why the subsequent games in the original trilogy are better.

Old Man Sly:

In honor of revisiting the original trilogy, I have planned a new Old Man Sly series on my career. It was on hold until the time I get a gaming computer. What Old Man Sly, the series is about? Well, Old Man Sly is about an old man dressing up as Sly Cooper never behaving. I originally said that I would put my career on hibernation until I get another gaming computer that has a higher amount of RAM that is the sweet spot of gaming. I'm leaning towards getting a 32GB RAM for future proofing.

Here is a final thumbnail of the next Old Man Sly where the Cooper Gang goes to Hawaii to recruit a new member of the Cooper Gang there. Along with the gang, what you're seeing in this thumbnail are changes I made to the characters, the Hawaiian flag and an arrow pointing right between the silhouette of a new member with a question mark and Hawaii to represent that the new member is located in Hawaii. The next one is gonna be big and ambitious that you will soon find out who the new member of the Cooper Gang will be once I upload it.

Summary:

Sly Cooper became a well-liked franchise that has a dedicated fanbase, especially to the original trilogy. The following games became fan favorites due to the innovation introduced in them that the first game was a Crash Bandicoot-style platformer, but with hub worlds that are encompassing and have entrances to levels like Spyro. I played the original trilogy back in the day when I was a kid and I get to revisit them since PlayStation Plus Premium has launched. I have played Sly 1 and Sly 2 in this point of time, so I will soon revisit Sly 3 and its crazy adventures once I get a gaming computer with a higher amount of RAM, especially when I'm playing memory-intensive games like Marvel Rivals and I'm recording and streaming.

Thanks to Astro Bot's wild performance that convinced PlayStation to bring their beloved nostalgic IPs back, our sneaky and thieving raccoon may be making a comeback one day. If Sly Cooper makes a comeback, I like the original trilogy to be remade in HD and Thieves in Time to be replaced with something fresh that is a great modern Sly Cooper game that is completely on par with the third game.

Marvel Tōkon Becomes the New Heart of the FGC

There is a new Marvel fighting game developed by Arc System Works in association with PlayStation Studios that becomes the new heart of the FGC as it became a successor of the Marvel vs. Capcom franchise. Let's jump right in.

This post is gonna give us news for fighting game fans. As we all know, fighting games were established when the original Street Fighter released in arcades. But there is one game that was announced during June's State of Play to make the FGC go wild. You see, as a part of the FGC and a fighting game fan, I have been hunting for announcements for fighting games while watching tournaments. And when I watched the trailer of the game, the quality hit me real bad, so without further ado, let's dive into the post.

Marvel vs. Capcom has been the long line of tag team-based fighting games since the mid 90s. Though the previous two fighting games were all-Marvel, they were presented and developed by Capcom. After the release of Marvel Super Heroes, the franchise was established, starting with X-Men vs. Street Fighter. After Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter, the next games point out to the Marvel vs. Capcom name when they replaced some of the X-Men and Street Fighter characters with characters from other IPs.

After a decade, Marvel vs. Capcom 3 was released and it's a starting point for the franchise's use of 3D models, along with the updated version and retained 3v3 battles from Marvel vs. Capcom 2. And finally, after five years, Marvel vs. Capcom Infinite came after Disney decided to cancel their Disney Infinity series and switch to a licensing only model to license their characters to third party developers, including Capcom. But became a flop due to its UI, reverting to 2v2 battles and a trimmed down roster.

For almost three decades, not counting compilations of retro titles, Marvel vs. Capcom was the heart of the FGC that they showcased Marvel vs. Capcom 2 for several earlier years at EVO, until it was crushed and landed into the hands of Arc System Works. They are the ones who led the way of developing tag team-based fighting games based on anime, Dragon Ball FighterZ and Hunter x Hunter: Nen Impact. And now, following the success of Dragon Ball FighterZ, ArcSys is developing their new Marvel fighting game in association with PlayStation Studios announced at State of Play, Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls. We've seen Marvel Comics in different genres of a puzzle, strategy RPG, card game, side scrolling beat 'em up and a hero shooter in a modern setting. Now it's going to the fighting game genre in a modern setting.

Watching the announcement trailer, I was blown away by the gameplay, graphics and the character designs and stage transitions from Guilty Gear Strive. I am shocked that the game is gonna be not 2v2, not 3v3, but a 4v4 tag based fighting game, which broken the boundaries of a tag-based fighter. It blew me away with the quality of this game they put into. Looking at the reactions, the announcement of a new Marvel fighting game became the hypest of them all that the gameplay trailer was met with widespread positivity. This is the first upcoming tag team fighter set to be critically acclaimed and release next year in 2026. But it's gonna be only on a Sony console since PlayStation Studios became a part of the project, as well as PC. But Sony is planning to remove their console exclusivity wall to follow Microsoft's footsteps, so it might also come to Xbox before release because Xbox players want this game too. Usually, we master multiple characters on our team, but in Marvel Tōkon, we can only master one character since the whole team can be in battle simultaneously.

But days later, Marvel Tōkon will not be the only tag team-based superhero fighting game that is coming out in 2026 because there is another tag based superhero fighting game announced during the Xbox Games Showcase also coming out in 2026 and that is NOT developed by Arc System Works, and that is Invincible VS. This is a 3v3 tag based fighting game based on the critically acclaimed adult animated series on Amazon Prime and the superhero comic book and this marks the first ever M-rated tag team-based fighting game to have an M-rated Marvel vs. Capcom-style combat. The gameplay trailer dropped and the gameplay blew me away that it became very bloody. Plus, they have finishing moves that cause mutilation of body parts like Mortal Kombat X's Brutalities, but flashier.

The gameplay trailer also received widespread positivity, making it the second upcoming tag team-based fighting game to be met with widespread acclaim. However, because Invincible VS is the first ever M-rated tag team fighting game to have very bloody violence and strong language, it is only suitable for mature audiences, meaning no children under 17 are allowed to play this game. I am personally glad the ESRB was established because it shows parents that the games have mature content in it.

Marvel vs. Capcom has defined a tag-based fighting game genre that is known for tag team combat, air combos, assists and super gauges that come in multiple levels and follow-up supers. After the release of Marvel vs. Capcom 3, other companies were inspired to make their tag team-based fighting games with core mechanics Marvel vs. Capcom is known for without the involvement of Marvel characters. It pretty much went well with Skullgirls. Then Dragon Ball FighterZ came along to have 3v3 tag team battles. Then an upcoming free-to-play tag team-based fighting game 2XKO was announced to have 2v2 battles and a fuse. Hunter x Hunter: Nen Impact came to be 3v3 like Dragon Ball FighterZ. And finally, Invincible VS was announced and becomes an M-rated tag team-based fighting game with very bloody 3v3 tag team combat only for mature audiences.

The fighting game community has a bit of a competitive trope. Marvel vs. Capcom wasn't the only one that defines a genre because Smash was the first to craft a formula of gaming. The release of Smash Ultimate comes with other companies making their own crossover platform fighter that competes with Smash. I know that those of you who are jumping up to say "what about MultiVersus?" That can apply to that too.

MultiVersus was a free-to-play platform fighter known for its Warner Bros. characters. During Open Beta, it was well received. After launch, it became a failure due to the lack of player satisfaction caused by developers not listening to the players' feedback and prioritizing monetization over everything else. That led to the premature shutdown of the game and will never rise again due to the closure of the studio and Warner Bros' shift to bringing their collaborations to Fortnite and other games. The failure of what could've been a phenomenal platform fighter indicates that it became a lesson learned by the gaming industry so that they can make their games enjoyable, and also an issue with modern gaming.

When Marvel vs. Capcom 3 came out, they have been using the "Mahvel" and "It's Mahvel, Baybee" terms to commemorate of the franchise. Despite Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls being a tag team-based Marvel fighting game developed by Arc, the terms will still be used. ArcSys has been supporting Guilty Gear Strive for five seasons, which is why we hadn't heard from them about their new game for years. And we finally got word from them about their new fighting game, and that is Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls.

Plus, the game will have a large roster of characters. If they asked that who we would like to see in Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls, I say Thena from Eternals because she would be straight up dope and so would Emma Frost, who would be way sexier than Palamena from Visions of Mana that her thighs are so wide that they classified her as a Tank in Marvel Rivals. But people would like to see characters that are fun and can cater to the audience, like Squirrel Girl, Luna Snow, The Punisher, Ant Man and many others. But these are the characters I also like to see, though, considering that the game will have characters from the original Marvel Comics rather than the MCU like Marvel Rivals.

As I said above, Marvel Tōkon will become the new heart of the FGC after the old one was crushed by Infinite's lackluster reception that soured the relationship between Marvel and Capcom. The desire for a new Marvel fighter was beared for so long, and the desire was fulfilled by Arc System Works with the inception of Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls as Capcom is pursuing Resident Evil Requiem and their new IP, Pragmata.

Interestingly, Marvel Tōkon and Invincible VS will not be the only tag based fighting games based on other media that we'll be waiting for because we're also waiting for 2XKO, which is coming out this year. It's possible that the devs of this game are making their next public stop at EVO 2025, which is around the corner and that where they will be making an announcement at the EVO Showcase, so we can look forward to that too.

But that's not all. Arc System Works is having their showcase this week where they will be announcing their updates on their new games and a mystery project in the works by Daisuke Ishiwatari. Maybe BBTAG 2?. We don't know if Marvel Tōkon will be involved in the showcase or not. The Arc System Works Showcase goes live June 26 at 6PM here and June 27 at 10AM there in Japan due to different time zones, so be sure to check it out to also find out what project Daisuke is working on.

Joe's Monologues - 6/3/2025

It's that time again, folks. It's time for the first Joe's Monologues of June. This month is when everything gets hotter for the summer. But to cool you down, I am going to give you a few topics to go over, so without further ado, let's dive right in.

The Demise of MultiVersus:

You heard it right here, ladies and gentlemen. MultiVersus has died, so be sure to show up to its funeral. Then show up to its gravestone and give it some flowers, carrots, pies and sandwiches. I sure it would love it. Now, as you can tell that it became a saddening end to a platform fighter with Warner Bros. characters, I was not amused that the game has prematurely bitten the dust. It's because of one thing that is the source of its failure, lack of player satisfaction from not listening to players and priortizing monetization over everything else. We talked about this a while back. That was the reason why MultiVersus has failed and had to bite the dust after five seasons prematurely.

PFG did this by removing Gold and replacing it with hard to difficult currencies. Gold was the source of the Open Beta era being better than the launch era. As it turns out, MultiVersus was not the only victim for shutdown because Star Wars Hunters is also facing shutdown. Effective now, MultiVersus has been delisted from digital stores and is no longer available. It's a good thing I downloaded the game during Open Beta way before it was delisted. The Beta was better because of Gold, the old UI and something that I love watching. The Open Beta era has a deep and silent flow of having the copyright and trademark notice screen before the logos. But when the game launched, it's no longer silent and deep.

Since announcing the shutdown of MultiVersus, Warner Bros. shifted their business to bringing their collaborations to Fortnite. And it pretty much went well with the return of DC skins. Then Mortal Kombat came along to shake things up. And there are Adventure Time skins. So far, none of the collaborations from Warner Bros. flopped. They are all met with a critical acclaim that their practice of bringing them to Fortnite turned out to be a hit more than having a platform fighter that was met with a critical flop because of monetization and lack of player satisfaction.

What is really cool is that when May 30th comes, their X profile has an avatar of a gravestone with the MVS logo and a profile banner of characters facing the sunset. They show that MultiVersus has died and will never rise again. How ironic that Mightykeef, a black comedian, would make an emotional skit covering MultiVersus' shutdown. The game will never again see the light of day now that it is dead due to the closure of Player First Games, the focus on bringing collaborations to other games and Warner Bros' focus on Harry Potter, Game of Thrones, Mortal Kombat and DC Universe.

Upgrading to a Higher RAM:

As I get ready to play a game, I have learned what is the important thing when it comes to multitasking, which is RAM. The gaming computer I have now is an 8GB RAM. It is not ideal for modern gaming or multitasking as I must close all programs before I boot up my game and play it at lower settings to speed up performance. The amount is ideal for older and less demanding games I have on my Steam library. Now, I went to Google and search for information about playing a memory intensive game on a higher amount of RAM. Let's take a look at the higher amount of RAM and its benefits.

16GB RAM - This amount is ideal and a sweet spot for most modern games and leaves some room for multitasking. In fact, it is recommended to speed up loading times on most demanding games. Even though, some can be disappointed without being obvious they won't to be able to play an even more demanding game every other player is playing right now.

32GB RAM - This amount is optimal and it is ideal for serious gamers, future-proofing so that it can play both current and future memory intensive games, heavy multitasking and content creators. This is the only amount that will make gamers look cool in front of their friends and become the most savage gamer on the block.

64GB RAM and higher - An amount of RAM like this is expensive that it leaves a lot of room for multitasking and it is overkill for pure gaming. This amount of RAM will make a gamer a legend.

It takes a gaming computer with a higher amount of RAM for memory intensive games to work well, and even though I closed other programs before booting up a memory intensive game on an 8GB RAM gaming computer, it still struggled with working smoothly. And even in the case of SEGA vs. Capcom: The Next Level, it doesn't work well on an 8GB gaming computer that it consumes over 2GB RAM due to being a memory intensive game.

Due to this, I will be limiting myself to playing older and less demanding games as they consume less RAM until the time I upgrade to getting another gaming computer with a higher amount of RAM after closing other programs, including the upcoming Hunter x Hunter fighting game. I'm leaning towards upgrading to a 32GB RAM gaming computer so that I can play most modern games well without experiencing a bottleneck, especially when I'm multitasking. And I don't know if 2XKO is gonna have the recommended amount of 8GB RAM or not when it launches.

Returning to My Old Stomping Grounds:

My big brother is wanting me to come to Indiana for my nephew's birthday on July and I have been thinking about it, until something has driven me. One of my cousins is loaning me their empty house to stay for a week or two. I approve of this. Well, pre-approved because my main concern is the bathroom. The bathroom on my big brother's house was so nasty as heck that I saw toothpaste stains on a tube of toothpaste and someone has forgot to flush the dang toilet and left the toothpaste stain on the sink. That's how I felt uncomfortable pooping there and I was right to get a couple of nights at the hotel and use the bathroom there. They have a nice walk in shower too. That's where I come across a lot of people to bolster seeking my old friends from back in the day, along with the bowling alley.

I am very excited to visit my old stomping grounds for the third time and it's gonna be on the summer time. I thought that things are gonna get warmer on the spring, but it stays cool on that season. Since I am having my own place in Indiana and I'm staying there for a month, I am bringing my gaming computer, along with my PS5 and my Nintendo Switch now that I have Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics. And the best part about it is that it's gonna on the summer time, which is by no means a bad time. But the only conflict is that since school's out for the summer, I won't be able to visit any of my schools I have enrolled and I won't be able to look for a female teacher who looks like Edna Krabappel from The Simpsons.

I sure do miss the charmingness of my old stomping grounds that I visited twice last year. Once for my brother's wedding and once for my father's funeral. The first time was better because of the fact that it was on a summer time that leaves were present on all trees there. I was even thinking of Elora the moment I stand near and go through the woods and that's what I told the purple haired woman who works at the place where I get my tuxedo for the wedding about that and my brother believed that she doesn't know what I'm talking about, which was very interesting. The place where the reception took place at is even located at the area where it's abounding in woods. That made me think of Elora to the max. And of course, Bianca. They are two of the best female characters in the Spyro franchise. But it doesn't work during the fall when leaves change their color and fall down to the ground.

Update on Spyro 4:

And speaking of Spyro, Canadian Guy Eh recently posted a video covering that Spyro 4 is gonna be big and ambitious. I watched the video and he did an interview with Paul Yan, the director who did Spyro: Reignited Trilogy. Now, what I mean by big and ambitious, I meant that I recall what CGE said. He said that according to what Paul Yan said, the upcoming Spyro will not be getting the same treatment as Crash Bandicoot 4, meaning that it will not have the standard of hub worlds with several levels, a boss level and a flight level, collecting gems and partaking on missions. It's gonna be much more than that.

What this means is that it's gonna be open world and have a deeper narrative, RPG elements, a skill tree and dedicated combat. I'm down with Spyro being open world and having dedicated combat, a deeper narrative and a skill tree. But do you know what I want for an upcoming new Spyro? Different playable characters with their own skill tree. Think of Sonic Frontiers where Sonic and his friends have their own skill tree. And I believe a new Spyro game could work like that.

Reading the words, the project may not be called Spyro 4 at all due to it not being a by the numbers Spyro game as it's not gonna have the same treatment as Crash 4. It may be called Spyro Frontiers or whatever they will be calling, but I think it might likely be announced at The Game Awards. Spyro is indeed a charming 3D platformer and it is more charming than Crash Bandicoot.

Sony's Upcoming State of Play:

Sony's digital showcase is coming tomorrow, right before Summer Game Fest. We are looking forward to see what Sony has been up to. It's gonna be 40+ minutes long Sony has confirmed. On the previous State of Play, we got a look at upcoming new games like Saros. Tomorrow is gonna be even bigger. Maybe we might see a new game from one of the franchises that have not gotten a new game get announced. Since previous State of Plays given us a look at the classic games coming in that month, it's likely that we can see what classic games are coming in tomorrow's showcase.

The only thing about State of Plays is that they show the ESRB rating screen at the beginning. It indicates that games that are shown are rated RP-M, meaning that some games up front received an ESRB rating while some others are not yet rated as they temporarily carry an RP rating until the final ESRB rating is determined. The RP rating comes with the "May Contain Content Inappropriate for Children" warning disclaimer, meaning that the upcoming game will have content that may be inappropriate for young audiences due to violence, mature content, language or other elements.

This week is gonna be fun for gaming because we got State of Play happening tomorrow, the Nintendo Switch 2 releasing June 5 and Summer Game Fest coming June 6th as the cherry on top of it all. Let's not forget that Summer Game Fest was created to fill in the void created by E3's death and it will likely be the new standard of an exciting weekend of game reveals.

Conclusion:

We're at the thick of the year as we are down to the final month of the first half and moving to the second half of the year. Here's to later months.

Nintendo and PlayStation's Revival of Retro Gaming

It has come to my attention that both Nintendo and PlayStation have revived retro gaming by offering emulation of their older consoles released in the 80s and 90s. This has sparked fan excitement among gamers who were born in the in the 80s and 90s like to revisit games they played during their childhood and relive the nostalgia as adults. Let's jump right in.

Hello, everyone. Man, this post is gonna bring in some good news for us gamers of the 80s and 90s. Now, if you have been living in a pineapple, retro gaming was created when the consoles of the first generation were released. Nintendo was impressed by the production and success of the Color TV-Game series and it gave the company faith in the console business. That led to them developing their first dedicated console, the Nintendo Entertainment System. Also known as Famicom in Japan.

Fast forward to when the Wii was released. Nintendo threw in their Virtual Console system, which had games that were released on their older consoles. Virtual Console doesn't offer just games that were released on their older consoles. It also offered games that were released on non-Nintendo consoles. Nintendo did something really amazing. However, when the Switch comes out, the retro games we know and love were gone, until they brought in a new subscription service, Nintendo Switch Online. It offers emulation of NES, SNES and Game Boy games. It's like Virtual Console, but they are locked behind a pay wall.

Then the second tier came along to offer emulation of GBA, Nintendo 64 and SEGA Genesis games, but criticized for being too expensive. If you watched the Direct, GameCube games are coming to the Switch 2 through the Switch Online + Expansion Pack tier. GameCube games have been a huge demand and they are coming. This has sparked excitement that people that were born in the 90s will finally be able to revisit GameCube games, despite the fact that the GameCube was met with a mixed reception and sold poorly. In short, Nintendo's beloved retro games come with rewinds, upscaling, quick saves, video filtering and online multiplayer in certain games that have multiplayer.

Playing Nintendo classics on the Switch isn't that bad because it is faster than downloading an emulator and ROMs on PC. In fact, CoolROM no longer has ROMs for Nintendo's retro consoles. I was eight years old when playing the SNES games. Today, I get to play them on the Switch. And the NES games.

Nintendo is not the only one that is reviving retro gaming by offering emulation of NES, SNES, GB, GBA, N64 SEGA Genesis and GameCube games because PlayStation is following suit by using PlayStation Plus Premium, the third tier that offers emulation of PS1, PS2 and PSP games. Like Nintendo's retro games, they have rewinds, upscaling, quick saves and video filters. But they don't offer online multiplayer sadly. And they are also purchaseable so that you wouldn't require the Premium tier to play them since it is cheaper than subscribing. In fact, it is better than having full backwards compatibility because I don't have to switch discs like in the time when I played the PS1, PS2 and PSP games.

Both manufacturers now offer emulation of their retro games released on older consoles beyond the 7th generation era where the Wii and PS3 came out. I am not mentioning them because these systems are technically the first modern consoles that introduced home screens.

Retro and modern are two factors in gaming, so as a fun fact, playing retro games puts you in the shade while playing modern games puts you in the sun. There is one concept that you have to take the first half of the gaming community, the retro gaming community, which likes to play mostly retro games and the other that likes to just play modern games. Unifying them is quite the balancing act.

Nintendo became the kings of their time in the NES and SNES eras that both of them reigned supreme. However, as soon as later retro generations came in, things took a turn for Nintendo. The N64 and GameCube didn't come close to the renowned the NES and SNES did. And they didn't come close to the worldwide sales of the PS1 and PS2.

So here are the charts that determine the worldwide sales of the 5th and 6th generation consoles. Both of Sony consoles were very dominant while the others, have came very far from them. It's due to the first two Sony consoles using CD-ROMs rather than game cartridges, having a ton of games from their widespread 3rd party support, critically acclaimed high quality games like the original Crash and Spyro games and backwards compatibility. Both of them being dominant benefitted a longer life cycle.

Now, I have learned what makes it so interesting and special about Sony's first two consoles selling very well and reigning supreme over others in both generations. Since the PS4 came out, we gamers who were born in the 90s desired to revisit PS1 and PS2 games. We have beared this desire since. But the PS4 lacked backwards compatibility and the PS5 can only play 95% of PS4 games because of the PS3's structure. That applied to what Jim Ryan, the former PlayStation bigwig, stated. He stated that time, money and resources are finite when it comes to developing a new system after he regretted saying all that about what we gamers of the 90s loved and talking down to the golden media that is retro gaming.

Fortunately, PlayStation Plus Premium has resolved this enigma and fulfilled our desire by offering emulation of PS1 and PS2 games. It is better than backwards compatibility that they come with rewinds, quick saves, video filtering and upscaling. With it, we can be able to finally revisit our games from back in the day. Even by a longshot, we got the original Sly Cooper trilogy back, which became the best thing that happened to us. However, it doesn't use online multiplayer on certain games that use local multiplayer. And that's something Sony should add and it doesn't have to be just with friends, but with anyone across the globe. But you need PlayStation Plus Essential to play retro games online when you purchased them.

Defunct video game companies became a factor of nostalgia in gaming. It's possible that Sony and Nintendo are releasing their old games produced by companies that don't exist. That's why we don't consider SEGA, Bandai Namco, Capcom, Square Enix, Konami, Ubisoft, Koei Tecmo, EA or Activision as nostalgic since these companies as a whole are still prevalent and they still exist in today's market to produce games of this generation. No, the ones that are nostalgic were Bandai, Namco, Square, Enix, Koei, Tecmo, THQ, Acclaim and Midway. These are the nostalgic ones that produced games in retro generations and they became defunct before the modern generations, as well as nostalgic sound integrations and middleware like Dolby Pro Logic II, Sofdec and ADX. But Criware and Unreal Engine as a whole are not nostalgic.

The PS1 and PS2 being ranked among the best was because of backwards compatibility, handling of high quality games and a huge library of games. However, the PS5 was ranked the worst because of its remasters of PS4 games and its first-party games being ported to PC and doesn't have that much first-party games. The graphics do look real, though. It shows that we like to play PS1 and PS2 games more since the systems became the best. And since the Switch 2 is offering GameCube games, we are interested in playing them.

April's lineup contains Alone and the Dark 2 and War of the Monsters, the next existing PS2 game to have all of the bells and whistles. The lineup came with an interesting touch. Alone in the Dark 2 was produced by Kokopeli Digital Studios and Infrogrames. This is the game produced by defunct video game companies, marking the opportunity to continue to release classic games by defunct video game companies and Kokopeli was considered THQ.

And speaking of THQ, one of the games that has the THQ logo is Up, a game based on the movie by Disney and Pixar with the same name. It is published by THQ and has a copyright screen. However, the logo flow took place ingame and it's the PSP version. But there is one Disney game that I know has met my expectations and that's Toy Story 2: Buzz Lightyear to the Rescue. The game has a copyright and trademark notice that only points out to toys and not the elements of the game, the original ESRB rating design with a white letter and black pixels on the outside, and was published by Activision in association with a defunct video game company, Disney Interactive and developed by Traveller's Tales in their old logo that was better than the current logo.

However, May's lineup became disappointing as it contained only one classic game that I am not familiar with and is NOT in my wish list. And that is Battle Engine Aquila. The game was developed by Lost Toys and published by Infrogrames Europe. This marks another classic game produced by defunct video game companies and the trend of bringing us retro games produced by defunct video game companies is continuing. It is now available on the catalog, so boot it up and there's a copyright notice with the Lost Toys and Atari logos and the Ziggurat Interactive disclaimer below the Lost Toys logo that has the year we're on now, yet Battle Engine Aquila came out in 2003. I am disappointed in May's lineup that it would give us only one PS2 game that is not in my wish list, but at least it met my expectations that it has a silent copyright notice screen before the cinematic logos. It's only a matter of time before June's lineup drops, hoping it has at least one game to meet my expectations.

The Nintendo side of things comes with something interesting. First off, the beloved fighting game for the Nintendo 64, Killer Instinct Gold, also known as Killer Instinct 2, is coming to the N64 Classics catalog this month. It is a sequel to the original Killer Instinct for the SNES and arcade. It was first developed by Rare when they were with Nintendo until they shifted their business to Microsoft. And there are four new Game Boy titles coming this month also. It was revealed to be Survival Kids, Gradius the Interstellar Assault, Kirby's Star Stacker and the Sword of Hope. While the Game Boy is nuanced and is not a mainline console, it is a part of retro gaming like the GBA and PSP and they are being played on the big screen.

The only takeaway from all this is that we desired a revival of retro gaming from not only one manufacturer that would be dominant on their first two consoles and is working on epics like Ghost of Yotei, but two manufacturers. They are releasing their beloved retro games monthly in their infancy. When both manufacturers fulfilled our desire to play GameCube, PS1 and PS2 games, excitement of gamers of the 90s have been sparked. But they are not done yet. There are still a lot more retro games to come and us retro game fans wouldn't be raped in the butt by those who want to focus on the future and playing remasters is bullcrap.

And speaking of getting raped in the butt, it is not as bullcrap as the part where the mods of the Skullheart forums penalized users for a low content post just because they made a post about how excited they are about the update. That's the bigger bullcrap part I have experienced. I have the link to my rant about it below, so if you're interested in reading my rant, go check it out.

https://rpggameroom.blogspot.com/2024/06/low-content-post-penalty-rant.html

Radical's Two Simpsons Games

There are two of Fox Interactive's Simpsons games developed by Radical that were released on 6th generation consoles. But what's so special about them? Why we desired them to be in PlayStation Plus Premium and Nintendo Switch Online's GameCube Classics catalog? Let's jump right in and talk about it.

This post is gonna be a doozy for you to read because I want to talk about what is really special to us in the gaming community. I had posts about being excited for revisiting classic titles from back in the day, but this one will focus on one thing that I will be talking about in terms of nostalgic gaming.

As we all know, the Simpsons has been a longest running animated comedy known for its direction of yellow skin on white characters, humor and their life in Springfield. There are a lot of Springfields in the US, but the one in the Simpsons is fictional. What I like about the Simpsons is that it has unhinged and crazy moments. Over the years, the Simpsons became a franchise to extend beyond the TV show realm to have a movie, toys, LEGO sets and video games. You see, I have been looking up for information talking about why I was so excited to revisit my old games I played during my childhood, but there is something that caught my interest, so let's take a dive into the post.

Fox Interactive had brought on Radical Entertainment, and was impressed by their first game based on one of Fox's franchises, Independence Day. Now, Radical wanted to make a game that catered to the audience among Simpsons fans. This is when they brought on EA to make a driving game based on the show. When the developers made a game that only involved driving and picking up and dropping off passengers, they have confirmed a name for it, the Simpsons Road Rage.

It is a driving game where players have to pick up and drop off passengers to their destination across Springfield, but the characters each have their own vehicle to be a core of the game. Road Rage's story involved Mr. Burns' schemes using radioactive buses to damage public. But the Simpson family would do anything to reverse his schemes. To do that, you must earn $1 million and unlock every character and area.

There is also a GBA version that is a different story. Unlike the console versions, it was published by THQ and developed by Altron Corporation. Though these companies became a different story, they became a solid pass that they were Kokopeli Digital Studios before they became THQ and their partnership with Altron became faithful to the era where they produce 5th generation era games. And sadly, the game has landed in a very awkward spot.

After Road Rage was released, SEGA came along to sue the companies behind this game over patent infringement. The lawsuit shows that Road Rage became a carbon copy of Crazy Taxi by having a gameplay similar to it. It involved having the similar gameplay as Crazy Taxi from picking up and dropping off passengers to their destination. This led to a conduction of the SEGA of America v. Fox Interactive, et al. case, which was already settled before going to court, so EA ultimately called it quits and gave the companies a second wind.

Now, over to Vivendi. We got some reported cases that they were able to differentiate their game from Road Rage to be a GTA-inspired game to not show any signs of getting sued, but minus the killing and guns. And soon, they followed EA's footsteps to make another Simpsons game. Fox Interactive now has two games developed by Radical with their publishing partnership from EA and Vivendi. All polished up and ready to go for emulation. Except that they can beg Sony and Nintendo to release their games on their catalog and the licensing issues may occur.

The big takeaway from this is that Fox Interactive and Radical Entertainment had found not only one co-publisher that would go on to make future titles in this generation, but two co-publishers. The co-publishers make companies look amazing. However, Hit & Run would be the final Simpsons game handled by Fox Interactive before they get defunct and the license was renewed by EA to make the Simpsons Game, which was one of the first games that had no involvement with Fox Interactive.

Remember what I said that the Simpsons has a lot of unhinged moments? Well, here's another thing; when the Simpsons was in development, they made everyone in the show yellow, except for the black and Indian characters, who have brown skin. They applied it to bringing Bart and Lisa their weirdly shaped heads to go with their yellow skin. Maggie's head is shaped the same as Lisa's. Well, it's an animation thing that Matt Groening didn't originally plan. Its mouth animation lacked tongue animation throughout the show's span, which led to the automatic captions on YouTube hiding bad words at a moderate to strong level.

However, there is no involvement of making every white character yellow and mouth animations have tongue animations on other animated sitcoms by Matt Groening, Futurama and Disenchantment. Both of these animated sitcoms have no involvement of making white characters yellow and have mouth animations that have tongue animations and that led to seeing bad words at a moderate to strong level getting replaced with brackets on automatic captions. And there is Big City Greens, another cartoon that involved white characters being yellow, but it's owned by Disney, not Fox.

Earlier seasons of the Simpsons are goated so far with its charm involving black lines on windows and wacky and unhinged moments that would include couch gags, Bart doing troublemaking stuff like hammering down mustard packets to make a mess, Lisa being an entitled Karen against meat while getting ticked off at Homer, two kids begging Homer to take them to Mount Splashmore several times, Maggie making pacifier sounds with her friends at daycare and probably the most exciting thing of them all, Homer drinking bottles of beer and a bottle of gin at Moe's. Until in the modern day era where there is HD animation, which lacked a lot of charm and uses white lines on windows.

For example, did you know that in the old intro, Marge's hair whipped while the HD intro toned it down? That's proof as to how classic Simpsons would be freaking goated to reign supreme over modern day Simpsons in terms of unhinged and crazy moments. However, there is one part on the modern era that resonated the classic era, and that is the human pyramid.

Classic Simpsons in all of its forms had paved the way for Fox Interactive and Radical Entertainment to develop two of the Simpsons games that are faithful to the classic era of the show's charm that the Nintendo and PlayStation fanbases want to revisit. That's what makes both games so special. That also led to people making random clips of them.

Now, both of them have Metacritic scores, but because each game is scored separately by platform since they are old games, I will be determing the average score on each game. Then I will determine the average score for both games. I will be leaving out the PC version of Hit and Run and the GBA version of Road Rage. Now let's get to the averages.

We'll start with Road Rage and look at its Metacritic scores on each platform. The GameCube version scored a 67/100. The PS2 version scored a 64/100. The Xbox version scored a 61/100. The average score of Road Rage is a 65/100.

Now let's take a look at Hit and Run's Metacritic scores on each platform. The GameCube version scored a 79/100. The PS2 version scored a 78/100. The Xbox version scored an 81/100. The average score of Hit & Run is an 80/100.

Road Rage:

GameCube: 67/100
PS2: 64/100
Xbox: 61/100
Average score: 65/100

Hit and Run:

GameCube: 79/100
PS2: 78/100
Xbox: 81/100
Average score: 80/100

Average score for both games: 74.5/100

We now have average scores of both Road Rage and Hit and Run and the average score of both games. If you look at the average scores, Road Rage's performance became a bit abysmal over its poor graphics and bugs, as well as being a Crazy Taxi clone. That's why it averaged on a 65/100 as none of the versions even passed a 70/100. The one with the highest rating was the GameCube version, which can be played if Nintendo releases it on their GameCube catalog. But Hit and Run became a critically acclaimed Simpsons game of all time over its GTA goodness and quality graphics. It has averaged on a good score of 80/100. Both games have averaged on a 74.5/100, so I believe that PlayStation Plus Premium and GameCube Classics should have a place for both of these games because this is a good average score of both Simpsons games developed by Radical.

And that is the story about Fox Interactive's two Simpsons games developed by Radical and what makes them so special and why we want Sony and Nintendo to release them on their catalogs. While it may seem like a convincing statement, there is a silver lining to this story. The first one is that if Road Rage did do well and get inspired by Crazy Taxi, then it would've received a lot of praise and SEGA wouldn't file a lawsuit against the companies over patent infringement at all because the Simpsons and Crazy Taxi are both great, especially when driving around Springfield to help passengers.

The next one is hopeful for Xbox players that they can be able to physically play two of Fox Interactive and Radical's Simpsons games on the Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S since these platforms support full backwards compatibility. Who knew that Microsoft, the only American manufacturer of the big three, would achieve full Xbox backwards compatibility on both of their modern systems to make Xbox players happy that they can be able to play both Simpsons games in the 6th generation era because of the Xbox 360 being easy to develop for?

I just received some news that Disney+ has launched a 24/7 stream that plays all 767 Simpsons episodes from Seasons 1 to 35 in chronological order. It is great news, but it needs a random episode button fans wanted as they don't want to watch the episodes in order. It is the perfect opportunity to binge watch The Simpsons on Disney+ to bolster your hopes of Sony and Nintendo releasing Radical's two games on PlayStation Plus Premium and the Nintendo Switch Online's GameCube Classics catalog.