Thursday, February 29, 2024

Joe's Monologues - 2/29/24

Hello, everyone. KnockDownJoe here and welcome to the final episode of Joe's Monologues of February. Today is a leap day because this is a leap year that happens every four years to add an extra 29th day of February. The previous one became the worst one because of that dang pandemic that spiraled out of madness.

Before I get started, I have a new format that can list what things I'm gonna talk about in this post. Here are the topics I'm gonna talk about in this introduction.

-Crash Team Rumble
-SEGA vs. CAPCOM: The Next Level
-More on Video Game Remasters
-PlayStation's Mass Layoffs
-Mightykeef's Upcoming EVO Skit

These are the topics that I'm gonna talk about today in this post. Enough intro, so let's dive right in.

Crash Team Rumble:

In the day before yesterday, I did part one of the special session where I can play as only Spyro characters in their default skin. What really interested me is that one of the players just getting my butt kicked several times in a row with the Tawna when I was trying to score the last set of Wumpa to win. But thank frick that I finally broken that killstreak and won that match as a cherry on top. You know how strategic I am with that crap, man. I was playing as Spyro on that match. The one match is not the only thing that surprised me. The enemy team hadn't scored a single Wumpa and we achieved a flawless victory against them on that match. It's because we were keeping the enemy team from scoring for the rest of the match.

Again, I left off with part one, which is playing as Spyro characters in their default skin, so later, I'm gonna go do same thing, but they will be wearing any skin, including recolors for part two. The list randomizer has determined that Elora goes first, then Spyro, and then Ripto, so I should be able to remember the order. It's even the fact that coming across the woods on states that have them made me think of Elora and it can be true to that because she is one with the powers of nature and healing and retains a lot of that charm. I think I am starting to pull a 1smash18 here. Here's to Season 4 and unlocking every Hero and Power before then.

It's something I would love to say, but unfortnately, Crash Team Rumble Season 4 will not happen. Active development will cease after the final update coming in March 4th that gives us a completely free 500-tiered Battle Pass that contains new and old rewards from Season 1 to Season 3 and past events for everyone to grind and Crash Coin purchases will turn off on that time while servers will remain online. What this means is that there won't be any future Seasons to give us more characters, more maps and more Powers. This also means that I won't be expecting Bianca to make her debut. We have ended up with 13 Heroes and ten Powers, so it is gonna be like this forever. That's why I made a wanted poster to reflect on what happened.

The reason why active development is ceasing is that Toys for Bob has spun off from Activision. What this means is that the developers will develop future games without Activision's involvement going forward. However, that news won't stop me. I am still doing part two of my special session in a later date and it will be on stream. The show must go on, folks.

SEGA vs. CAPCOM: The Next Level:

The demo of the game has dropped recently. Madxruler did a great job developing their fan game. I played the demo and I am loving every second of it. Sonic and X are only available in this one I downloaded. Turns out that you can go 2v1 and can set the number of rounds on both Tag Mode and on Solo Mode like in Skullgirls. While I loved every second of it, the game didn't run well on this laptop I am currently using. It's the same thing I encountered on my Steam games. What can remedy that is getting a gaming laptop. But this is the first demo, so subsequent demos will come and they got to add a visual effect for when X is charging his buster and recovery animations. Plus that character select theme slaps that I was looking at Skullgirls' character select screen containing a full cast of 18 characters during the Season 1 Pass period.

They are now working on the next pair of characters, Akira Yuki from the Virtua Fighter franchise and Ryu from the Street Fighter franchise. Their basic movement is finished, so what's left are their attacks ranging from normals to hypers. These characters will be available in Beta 2. Then Axel Stone from Streets of Rage and Linn Kurosawa from the Alien vs. Predator arcade game by Capcom, which no one was familiar of, will be likely be available in Beta 3.

More on Video Game Remasters:

If you read the previous post, I told you about video game remasters. They are types of games that are faithful to the original releases' story and gameplay, but have better fidelity. The era when the PS4, Xbox One and Switch release marks the start of developing remasters. After I learned about remasters being faithful to the original releases' gameplay and story, they are also faithful to their charming environment despite them having better elements ranging from visuals to lighting.

It is kind of the fact that the PS3 having a unique structure is the reason why the modern Sony consoles weren't able to achieve full PlayStation backwards compatibility and that's why we had to stick with playing remasters. I don't think it's bullcrap, but remasters retain a charming environment original releases have.

PlayStation's Mass Layoffs:

I heard PlayStation has announced a reduction on their workspace recently. 900 jobs have been cut. If it's bad enough, Sony's London has been shut down in its entirety and several first-party games that were in development have been cancelled in light of this case, including the unannounced online only Twisted Metal game that uses live services by Firesprite. That game was early in development and it was cancelled in light of the reduction as Firesprite got affected by the impact. Other big studios among the PlayStation portfolio got affected, including Naughty Dog and Insomniac Games, developers that developed Crash and Spyro games on the PS1. That is not good.

But there is one good thing that came out of this. A Horizon online game is still in the works as Guerilla is still on track despite their reduction. They seem to be going strong. Now, I am kind of interested in an online game based on the Horizon universe, even though I never played the franchise. That reduction has shocked us. It is horrible. That reduction will not stop them. They announced March's lineup of monthly games that are available in all three tiers. In the later date in March, the additions to the Extra and Premium catalogs will be announced. I hope it has good additions. I will not let that reduction stop me from playing classic games. The show must go on.

MightyKeef's Upcoming EVO Skit:

The moment is upon us. Mightykeef is in the middle of working on an EVO skit. He announced it and I am looking forward to see how it unfolds since we have eight games on this year's EVO like last year's. Last year's didn't get uploaded, but this year's will be uploaded for sure. It's gonna be explosive because a new Street Fighter, a new Tekken and a new Mortal Kombat are on the lineup, as well as anime fighting games that go to their next installment. If Smash Ultimate is on the skit, there's no telling how emotional it will be since it didn't make it to EVO for the third year in a row. But that's not the reason why we are getting eight games in the lineup. This might deserve the Johnny Test Seal of Approval.

Conclusion:

And this wraps up today's post of my monologues and this is the final blog post of the series of this month as we are going into March tomorrow and it turns out that several things I am waiting for, like MultiVersus' return for its full release, Marie, SSF2 Beta v1.3.2, Nidra and Baihe might be happening well in March. You have a wonderful day. Also, you might want to brace yourselves for the big crap coming at you on social media...

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