Joe's Monologues - 7/26/25

Hello, everyone. Today's Joe's Monologues is potentially the last of the month and it's gonna have exciting things that I'm going to talk about, so without further ado, let's dive right in.

Update Regarding Our Trip:

First off, me and my family were supposed to visit Indiana, but apparently, we won't be able to visit there because of crisis reasons that associate with airports and airlines facing a crisis. To be honest, I am a little disappointed that I will not be going on a forest show where we drive through the road while watching trees through Portage. But I am fine with that because I know for a fact that we might go for the less innovative and cheap airline. Regardless, I did visit my old stomping grounds on November. I got to see bare trees and trees that have orange and yellow leaves and experience kids going to school for the first time since I moved to Arizona. However, the first time was better because it was on June and that's when the weather was nice and the forests made me think of Elora, especially when they have green leaves.

But it did fill out the Indiana-shaped sadness in my heart, though, especially when I loved being around those people there to bolster seeking my old friends and I'm going places I have been to. Big places I visited that have a lot of people were Franciscan Health, City Lanes and Blue Chip. Ones that were well-liked were City Lanes and Blue Chip with Franciscan Health trailing behind due to my mother getting sick. Let's not forget that Franciscan Health was formerly St. Anthony Memorial Hospital. Even though it was trailing behind, I got to visit there and it retains its charm. I just like being around those people, especially when I'm seeking my old friends back in the day. But the only conception is that the bowling alley is number one due to me and my family having nostalgic fun.

But that is not the only one that came to me. Remember what I said that my old stomping grounds in Indiana has the street that has its charm? Well, Franklin St. is not the only one because another street being Tilden Ave. has its charm because that's where you'll find the cemetery at and where my bus driver has taken me through when I was in high school.

I was able to conquer my fear of flying in a plane that I felt no tingle on my stomach when taking off and sat near the window to have a better view at the sights. I call it the Buena Vista Effect. It's when you sit near the window in a plane, you'll have a better view as Buena Vista is a Spanish term for good view. I don't know when I'm visiting my old stomping grounds, but it's only a matter of time.

32GB RAM Can't Be Beat:

It has been a week since I have upgraded my gaming computer to having 32GB RAM. So far, the performance has been greatly improved and I was able to play most of my games well. It is way better than having 8 GB RAM, which is the bare minimum for gaming. I am making 32GB RAM my new standard going forward. For those of you asking if I could upgrade my gaming computer to have 64GB RAM or higher, it's not happening anytime soon. 32GB RAM is more than enough for future-proofing and higher resolution gaming and I currently have no plans to expand to 64GB RAM or higher due to being so expensive.

2XKO:

The devs have dropped an update regarding 2XKO. It comes in not one, but multiple announcements. First off, the game is entering Closed Beta on September 9. Closed Beta is the first phase of game development that marks the start of bringing it to everyone globally and it has a goal, which is keeping the servers online, outside of any maintenance. But in order to participate in Closed Beta, new players that never participated in Alpha Lab 1 or 2 must register for a Riot account, and since Closed Beta marks the start of shipping 2XKO to everyone, new players that registered will get a guaranteed invite and wouldn't be left behind, so when Closed Beta starts, invites will start rolling out and gradually to new players that registered during the course of Closed Beta.

But there is one catch. Because they intend to keep the game running and online without going into maintenance, the Closed Beta will be only for PC, so console players will have to wait a while longer, probably until either Open Beta or official launch. But cross-progression is coming that if you start on PC, you can switch to console with progress you made on PC. Since the Closed Beta is only for PC, existing players that participated in any of the Alpha Lab playtests on PC are already in. Luckily for existing players that participated in any of the Alpha Lab playtests on console, they will automatically gain access through the Riot Client on PC, which is only downloadable by installing one of the games on the website, so technically, console players that participated in either playtest are already in and they can download it from the Riot Client.

There's even gameplay changes that they made based on player feedback from Alpha Lab 2. Those changes established faster gameplay to make timeouts any less frequent and involved UI changes, like the text of player names are now black, the text of the Champ names are in italic and the name of the fuse is now located above the health bar. We don't know how will the gameplay unfold during Closed Beta, but we can see it in action at EVO as they are setting up their booth there. Once Closed Beta starts, the servers will stay online and will have updates outside of maintenance.

And to make things even spicier, 2XKO is teaming up with Chipotle to bring spicy goodies and giveaways. It all starts off at EVO 2025 where they will be setting up the demo on custom-designed 2XKO x Chipotle arcade cabinets. Chipotle is running daily and hourly brackets starting at 11:00 AM. There is spicy rewards up for grabs. With Chipotle being a launch partner, the Closed Beta launch is set to become even spicier.

Now let's talk about the next Champ coming to 2XKO. That is Vi, the Piltover Enforcer. Now, Vi is known for wielding Hextech gauntlets with the blue Cherry Bomb effect in them. She is a powerhouse in 2XKO and she's gonna be playable starting in Closed Beta and at the devs' booth at EVO 2025, which is around the corner. So why is it that Vi is coming to 2XKO and why I wanted her to be in the game? Well, there are three reasons on why Vi deserves to be in 2XKO.

The first reason is straight up Jinx's debut and Arcane's lore. In Arcane, Vi and Jinx are childhood sisters of Zaun and their parents were killed by Vander. At the beginning of the series, Powder came to be until in Episode 3 where she becomes Jinx, and Vi is still related to her. It's considered canon in Arcane.

Second reason, a perfect opportunity for those who didn't get invited to Alpha Lab 2 due to being a smaller playtest than Alpha Lab 1 is that they are likely to try both Jinx and Vi out on the same team when Closed Beta starts. I figured that having them on the same team would make it canon to Arcane since 2XKO will have Champions that were featured in Arcane also. Now, if I am correct, there were skins of them in Fortnite, but will not make a return sadly.

Third reason, after having four male Champs in the roster and Vi makes her debut as the fourth female Champ in 2XKO, it created an even gender composition on the roster created from having four male Champs and four female Champs to work with at the start of Closed Beta.

If I recall the last time when they revealed the sixth character, I expected the sixth Champion to be female Champion to even the gender composition, but it was revealed to be a male champion, which was Braum. When Jinx was revealed as the seventh Champ, I had a desire for the eighth Champ to be a female and it has been fulfilled as Vi made her way. To have a fourth female Champion in 2XKO when there are currently four male Champs is a wise decision. Which means it's likely that we can be able to experience an initial 2XKO Female Tag Team Match to feature Ahri, Illaoi, Jinx and Vi in Closed Beta and potentially at EVO. That will bank on the fact of girls and women needing the same level of attention as boys and men, especially inside the line of women's sports leagues.

I am using this splash art that contains the eight characters that will be played starting in Closed Beta as a thumbnail for my reaction video, but will have the text to distinguish things. If you're not familiar with this font, it is used in the following games in the original trilogy of the Sly Cooper franchise and Thieves in Time. Honestly, I wanted 2XKO to have ten champions on Closed Beta, but having eight Champs at the phase where 2XKO gets released globally is a good deal, especially since 2XKO is a 2v2 fighting game and it holds an even gender composition of four male Champs and four female Champs. Now, since we're going into Closed Beta, the game is in a pre-release stage of development. This means the game will have bugs and may not work properly like it should and may crash.

Now, will the game stay at eight Champs? Absolutely not. League of Legends and VALORANT get new characters endlessly, so it's likely that 2XKO will get new Champs beyond Vi, hopefully during the game's pre-release stage of development. Just have faith in Riot as they are developing their game.

As we're getting closer to 2XKO's launch in its Closed Beta phase, the game's ESRB rating has been updated to still be rated T, but for violence, mild blood, mild language and alcohol reference and it's gonna stay that way going forward as Closed Beta marks the start of releasing the game globally to everyone and it's considered the real deal. Previously, it was rated T for use of alcohol, blood, suggestive themes and violence, but it was actually incorrect. There aren't any suggestive themes, there is small blood stains and the tavern stage conveys an alcohol reference. And you'll hear bad words at a mild level due to making the voice acting any less repetitive, unlike in Arcane where there are swearing at an explicit level and puddles of blood. I may not make it to EVO to go to their booth and try the demo, but I can wait until September because there is one game to hold me off until then.

Speaking of EVO, there was supposed to be a Keef skit about how people reacted to the EVO 2025 lineup, but apparently, it was postponed due to his adventure in Japan he had and ensuring that it's done at the quality level. So according to this, I don't think that this year's EVO skit is likely gonna see the light of day. I think next year's EVO skit is likely to happen. But the extended lineup will still be on next year's EVO.

What I found intriguing is that Deen TV has covered SEGA vs. Capcom: The Next Level. Deen and Noid played that game. Deen was talking crap and making tropes about the characters in the game, even the chili dogs part. Sonic likes chili dogs, so... Anyway, like if Deen TV covered SEGA vs. Capcom and Hunter x Hunter: Nen x Impact, they should also do 2XKO because I want to hear Deen make crazy quotes on characters, like "Sister vs. sister," "You're gonna give them the literal axe, Darius?," "Bang, bang, bang!" "The nine-tailed fox strikes back," "Show them what you got, Jinx, or should I also say Powder." "Dang Powder. Hmm? You think Powder fell down a well, Jinx?" and so on. I want them to do 2XKO for their Father and Son Beatdown, but they gotta sign up to have access to the Closed Beta on PC.

SEGA vs. Capcom: The Next Level:

And speaking of SEGA vs. Capcom, the game is indeed memory-intensive and loading a match while I had 8GB RAM at the time caused a bottleneck. It takes a higher capacity of memory to play this game and with that much memory I'm having, I can be able to play this game well. But the catch is that the RAM usage is not going down, so I turn it off and relaunch it. What has happened is that SEGA vs. Capcom was showcased at Combo Breaker as a Mystery Tournament to shock everyone. That driven commentators and attendees to try this game out, especially when it has been on the radar for quite some time and well made.

What is next? Well, they have a "red patch" for BETA 2.75 coming, hopefully fixing the analog issues and the controls. After that, it's off to Beta 3 where it is an overhaul and Linn Kurosawa from Alien vs. Predator will make her debut along with possibly Sakura from Sakura Wars. She was supposed to release next, but her development time takes a long time because she is three characters in one, so they had to do Batsu from Rival Schools next instead due to him being much faster to work with. Since Beta 3 is an overhaul, what I want for it is a core mechanic that 2XKO has; Duo Play. What I mean is that the game must have up to four players generally in all modes since Tag Mode is only available to keep it traditional and two players on the same team get to control their own character.

For context, this game was made before 2XKO. Both games have tag battles, but with the exception of Jinx, none of the current characters in 2XKO are faithful to the current characters in SEGA vs. Capcom. Jinx had to be an exception because like Mega Man X, she has an arsenal of weapons as she is the Marksman type Champion in League of Legends.

SEGA vs. Capcom just finally posted on X after nearly two months of silence with an art that shows that they are bringing Special Partners into the game. According to the art, there will be 20 Special Partners, ten on each side and they will be similar to Marvel vs. Capcom 1's Special Partners system, hoping we can choose one ourselves and even Skullgirls Mobile's Guest Stars system. Who are the Special Partners? We can find out. Looking at the at HUD on the art, it's likely that we can choose a Special Partner after choosing our characters.

Conclusion:

And that's for this Joe's Monlogues post. August is almost upon us and summer is coming close to an end as you must get ready to go back to school and that is my favorite part. Once school starts, grab your supplies and get ready to learn and always make good choices. This means you must stay out of trouble and follow directions, or you'll face consequences ranging from timeouts and expulsions.

32GB RAM Upgrade

Gaming computers are known for not just gaming, but also taking care of business. I am having fun with my gaming computer. I was able to stream and MultiVersus well and all that stuff that the GPU and CPU I'm having are powerful enough to play every game well. However, there was only one flaw I had at the time; not enough RAM. What this means is that I didn't have enough RAM to play memory-intensive games as I had 8GB RAM. This amount is the bare minimum, but only runs older and less-demanding titles well.

You see, I am a part of the gaming community and that ignited my love for gaming. I went to Amazon to look for another gaming computer and I have decided to let it go and stick with playing less memory-intensive games. But fast forward into today, I have noticed that I can be able to remove a pair of 4GB RAM sticks that add up to 8GB RAM and replace them with the pair that contains the higher amount of RAM and I had the money and tools to do so, so what's stopping me?

I went to Amazon and have ordered a pair of RAM sticks that have a higher amount of memory. The one I have ordered is a pair of 16GB RAM sticks that make up to 32GB RAM, which is becoming the new standard for gaming and multitasking that it becomes the new sweet spot. Upon doing so, performance has been greatly improved and became so much better than with having 8GB RAM.

What does this mean? It means the memory my gaming computer has expanded. Multitasking became superior and has more than enough room. Practically speaking, along with a powerful and a dedicated GPU and CPU, it takes a gaming computer with a higher amount of RAM to establish better and smoother performance and with a bigger capacity I'm now having on my gaming computer, I can be able to experience shorter load times, better visuals and play memory-intensive games and up content creation without experiencing a single bottleneck. Here's what this means on the following things.

Memory-Intensive Games:

Playing memory-intensive games while having 8GB or 16GB RAM has huge bottlenecks caused by longer load times and stuttering that I had to stick with playing older and less memory-intensive games. But with the help of 32GB RAM, all of that will be remedied. I have memory-intensive games on my Steam wish list and I'll be ready to become a modern PC gamer.

Smooth Content Creation:

I am still on the verge of becoming a content creator and now that I have more memory, I can be able to do video editing, make complex videos on my Wrapper: Offline career and take care of business without experiencing a single bottleneck.

Higher Resolution Livestreaming:

Livestreaming while having 8GB RAM comes with a bottleneck when on 1080p or higher and being disciplined to lower the settings is just annoying and a pain. Now that I have 32GB RAM on my gaming computer, 99.9% of the RAM bottleneck on livestreaming on higher resolutions is going to be alleviated.

SEGA vs. Capcom: The Next Level:

When this game starts loading before a match, it comes with a RAM bottleneck, which is struggling to load a match despite closing other programs. The game struggled to load and been stuck in limbo when I had 8GB RAM at the time due to being a memory-intensive game. This applies to playing a memory-intensive game while having 8GB RAM to cause a bottleneck. 16GB RAM is enough for matches to load, but every time it loads before a match, the memory usage gradually increases up until the point where the game struggles to load before a match and gets stuck in limbo and never goes down. But thanks to having 32GB of RAM on my gaming computer, I can be able to have a lot of space and not worry about the usage getting up to the point where the game will struggle getting into the match for a little while. I'm looking to livestream this game now that I have more RAM and it's gonna be a part of the better performance showcase stream. However, there is a catch. Since the memory usage gradually goes up every time the game loads before a match and wouldn't go down, I have to close other programs first, even with 32GB RAM on my gaming computer.

2XKO:

Not a memory-intensive game, but I'm happy to announce that 2XKO will be one of the fighting games that I will be comfortable playing anytime on both PC and console since a paid subscription is not required to play this game online and will be well-playable while having 16GB of 32GB of memory. The only conception is that 32GB of memory is overkill for 2XKO and my GPU and CPU are powerful enough to play it well. Alpha Lab 2 went strong with a lot of improvements from Alpha Lab 1. But I didn't get my invite to Alpha Lab 2 because it was a small playtest. I was stoked to try Jinx out too and I had zero luck. To not receive my invite to Alpha Lab 2 is a dang shame and does sting and I was a bit disappointed. They had to downsize that because they need to focus on launching the game sooner and we understand that.

And I just received a tweet from the 2XKO devs. They said they are now heading to EVO and setting up their booth there and they have exciting announcements to give us tomorrow morning and it's likely that they are gonna reveal the 8th Champion.

Further Future-Proofing:

It's possible that future-proofing can be done while having 16GB RAM, but 32GB RAM can expand future-proofing even further for games coming out this year and beyond. I now have that much memory I need for further future-proofing.

They also have a pair of 32GB RAM modules that make up to 64GB RAM, which is overkill for pure gaming and leaves a ton of room for multitasking, but since I heard it is very expensive and a waste of money, I have no plans to upgrade my gaming computer to 64 GB RAM, so upgrading to 32GB RAM is enough. Here's a breakdown on each amount of RAM with fun quips.

4GB RAM and less - Your kid isn't advanced enough to be a gamer and can't handle the concept of modern gaming.

8GB RAM - It's likely that your kid can be laughingstock for being uncool because they are stuck playing a low graphical game.

16GB RAM - You would disappoint your kid at their birthday without being obvious that you wouldn't allow them to play a cooler more modern game that every other kid is playing right now.

32GB RAM - This is the only amount that will make your kid look cool in front of their friends and become the most savage gamer on the block.

64GB RAM and more - An amount that will never be required because they don't have the balls to get it, and giving this amount to your kid will make them a legend.

Gaming computers have become more popular than mainstream computers due to each of them having a dedicated GPU to accelerate graphics, especially when it comes to gaming, multitasking, taking care of business and doing Vyond. Ideal amounts are usually 16GB and 32GB, with 8GB trailing behind due to better performance benefitted by the higher amounts. When upgraded to 64GB RAM, dimishing returns occur. To be clear, the only conception is that 16GB and 32GB are enough since upgrading to these amounts sets the balance between spending and gaming. But 32GB of memory is becoming the new standard in 2025 and beyond so that they wouldn't have to worry about a single bottleneck for the foreseeable future.

I now have more memory than when I had 8GB RAM at the time, I am looking forward to getting more games on Steam.

The PS1 and PS2 Became Gems of the Gaming Industry

Did you know that both the PlayStation 1 and 2 became the bestselling Sony consoles all over the world? Sony became kings of the gaming industry in their time in the PS1 and PS2 eras. So today, I like to talk about Sony's first two of their consoles that became gems of the gaming industry.

The PS1 era became the community's most favorite era because of the polygon models, the original Crash and Spyro trilogies and the iconic start up screen. 1994 is when the PlayStation brand was first established. What is so special about the PS1 era is that it became the most charming era. It has great games that launched franchises. Crash Bandicoot became the mascot of the PS1 after Polygon Man was rejected. Our orange marsupal became well liked that his first game became a huge success, along with the rest of the original trilogy.

Naughty Dog has first developed Crash Bandicoot, which Universal Interactive owned the rights to. The developers went through an amount of stress during the development of the original trilogy. Even during crunch time, Universal wouldn't pay for the air conditioner during development of Crash 3. Naughty Dog wasn't the only company that Universal has brought on. They also brought on Insomniac to develop the original Spyro trilogy. Universal now has two IPs created just for them and they were the publishers of the original Crash and Spyro trilogies.

Along with the polygon models, the original Crash and Spyro trilogies became the source of fueling the PS1-era with charm and the reason why the era is believed to be community's most favorite. As a turned out, there is one other reason why, which is console ports of retro games that were first released in arcades and they became a part of the PlayStation's massive library. This factor showed that the PS1 has sold really well, even in Japan since Japanese game companies were able to develop their games for it well without losing any money. The PS1 became well-sold because of its widespread third-party support, attention to detail, a massive library of games and high quality games.

Over to PS2. We have experienced a lot of charming stories we already heard for generations. During launch, the PS2 has sold the most units because of the same factors the PS1 did and backwards compatibility to PS1 games and accessories. Sony now has two legendary bestselling consoles that became gems of the gaming industry, all on a silver platter and ready to go for emulation. The experience of the legendary consoles became well-liked by gamers that were born in the 90s and when they became adults, they feel the nostalgia in them.

Remember the part where Jim Ryan has disrespected us retro game fans just by talking down to the golden age that is revisiting PS1 and PS2 games while he was at a Gran Turismo event? That part reminds me of something familiar... Oh, I know. It sounds a lot like two things. First off, the sadistic joke Mike Z has created. During One More Once, Mike made an "I can't breathe" joke. When he made that joke, it alienated a lot of users from playing Skullgirls and they made calls to get him off of EVO, until he apologized to the whole community and he regretted making that joke. Now let's go on to the next one, two Mightykeef skits that involved disrespecting. One for anime and the other Persona 5. When he simplified anime as cartoons, the thoughts of an anime watcher emerged. One is the aggression while the other is reasonability. The skit about Persona 5 also has that. These events have occured in 2020, the year when the COVID-19 pandemic has hit.

Resources, time and money are indeed finite when it comes to developing a new console. Ryan has stated that after he apologized about his rude comment. But the PS3's unique structure and Cell processor are the reason why none of the modern consoles were backwards compatible to PS3 games. But PlayStation Plus Premium has resolved this enigma just by offering a vast catalog of PS1 and PS2 games with emulation features and PlayStation 30th Anniversary became even more exciting because of it. We can be able to finally revisit our cherished titles we played in our childhood on PS4 and PS5 after nine years since the PS4 came out. The PS2 boot up screen is still here, but the PS1 boot up screen has not returned. There is one game that I found interesting to play and experience.

Now, if you're around on the year when Sly Cooper and the Thievious Raccoonus released, one of the games in the PS2 era was Disney's Stitch: Experiment 626. But what makes this game interesting to experience? The game serves as an origin story and a prequel to the the 2002 animated film that entails 626's standalone adventure where he is ordered by Jumba Jookiba to collect DNA across the world of Greemas to assist him in performing more experiments. There are weapons and gadgets that navigate 626 on certain levels and squid bots that have a film reel. Each film reel has scenes of the movie.

The game was originally gonna be called "Experiment 626: Stitch on the Loose!" but they renamed it to "Stitch: Experiment 626" for unknown reasons. But what I'm gonna say is that it points out to the fact that the game serves as an origin story and a prequel to take place before the events of the film where our blue furry lad escapes from the United Galactic Federation and goes to Hawaii to befriend a charming Hawaiian girl and her big sister. While a classic Disney game, it became a PS2-exclusive as Sony is the publisher of the game. However, the game wound up with mixed reviews upon release and couldn't become critically acclaimed.

During June's State of Play, we got a number of classics announced. This month, Deus Ex: The Conspiracy has launched and this game was produced by defunct video game companies. Unfortunately, there aren't any deep logos. Coming in July, Twisted Metal 3 and 4 are coming to the catalog. This marks the possibility to complete the original quadrilogy just in time for Peacock's TV series adaptation's second season. And lastly, coming in August, Resident Evil 2 and 3 are launching into the catalog. That comes with completing the original trilogy and is in preparation of the upcoming Resident Evil Requiem. In total, we have one PS2 game and four PS1 games coming out this summer. This shows that PlayStation Plus Premium is reigning supreme so far that we're getting the very first Deus Ex, the last two Twisted Metal games of the original quadrilogy and the last two Resident Evil games of the original trilogy.

During this year's Days of Play, Myst and Riven were revealed. These are point and click puzzle games that first came out on PC before being ported to consoles. They may not be on my wish list, but they at least have silent logos and to my knowledge, since playing retro games is considered a break from playing modern games, playing Myst and Riven is considered to be a break from playing violent video games.

Desiring to revisit games from our childhood is what makes Sony being kings of the gaming industry in their time on their first two consoles so interesting and special. Our desire has been fulfilled by PlayStation Plus Premium and its ever growing classics catalog. That became the heart that revived classic gaming, especially for PS1 games since they aren't on PS Now. The golden age of PlayStation is back, with the PS1 being the shadiest like Bob Burgers' first season and the Simpsons' 12 seasons. They are the golden age ones. Since the PS6 and Sony's new handheld console are in the works, it's likely that we can continue using PS Plus Premium and play retro games on these new and upcoming consoles.

Speaking of becoming the heart, Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls became the new heart of the FGC to surprise the community after Arc System Works is leading the way of the development of their Marvel fighter. I have the link to the post about it, so go check it out if you're interested.

https://rpggameroom.blogspot.com/2025/06/blog-post.html

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:

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 involves collecting clues to open vaults on each level, which defines a platformer game.

The first game became the starting point of the franchise. It entails the origins of the manual that is a prized possession, the Thievious Raccoonus. The book became a treasure to the Cooper family, until the group of villains known as the Fiendish Five showed up to not just ransack the place, but take the Thievious Raccoonus and tear the pages and split into parts of the world to commit crimes as well. Following the ransacking, Sly was taken into the Happy Camper Orphanage where he met two of his loyal buddies, Bentley and Murray. Together, the trio track down the Fiendish Five and retrieve the book.

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 charm that protects from damage. 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 new 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. The only thing about revisiting the original trilogy is that it bears the mind of the Cartoon Network skull and the Buena Vista International logos, the ones that given me the chills. It has gone to heck from both logos. That happened during my childhood and also during this generation. But you see, what I'm saying is that revisiting the original trilogy really had its perks that making a dream logo combo of Shadowmachine, Stoopid Monkey, Sony Pictures Digital, Williams Street, Cartoon Network and Buena Vista International Television would be chaotic.

Astro Bot's Wild Performance:

Astro Bot's 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 were 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. But decided to return to my career if I upgraded my gaming computer to have at least 16GB RAM for better performance. But upgrading to 32GB RAM is overkill and optional for Wrapper Offline, but required for modern gaming and superior multitasking.

Here is the 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 and Old Man Sly misbehaves 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 and why Old Man Sly is misbehaving at Hawaii once I upload it. Why am I pointing the next video to associate with going to Hawaii is because none of the games of the franchise involved going to Hawaii.

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 upgrade my gaming computer to a higher amount of RAM, especially when I'm playing memory-intensive games like Marvel Rivals and multitasking.

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 Yōtei, 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 absolute bullcrap 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.

Joe's Monologues - Nintendo Switch 2

My series usually talks about general things, but this Joe's Monologues will be the first one to focus on a specific thing that I will be talking about, and that is Nintendo's upcoming new system, the Nintendo Switch 2. Now, because this is specific to the Switch 2, I will be talking about things that the Switch 2 Nintendo Direct has shown. I may not be able to cover everything, but here they are.

Immersive Features:

Right off the bat, I will be talking about the features that were introduced into the Switch 2. First off, HD and 4K support. The Switch 1's handheld mode uses 720p resolution and TV mode uses 1080p HD support. But the Switch 2 is a huge upgrade that its games are played in 4K on TV mode and in 1080p HD on handheld and tabletop modes. The Switch 2 having a bigger screen than the Switch 1 is how will games support HD resolution on handheld and tabletop modes. The graphics are insane and they are meeting up with standards that the PS5 and the Xbox Series X|S have.

Now let's go on to the next feature, which is the C button. The button was newly introduced on the new system. Pressing it gives you access to voice chatting with anyone on GameChat. It's like you're on Discord, but built it on the Nintendo Switch 2. It even supported a camera to put yourself into the game, which is cool. It is something that other platforms didn't have. It can also work on the Switch 1, although it doesn't have the C button. What is really cool is that we can see children play Pokemon while using this feature on the playground.

And last but not least, Joy Con 2s as mice. If you watched the announcement trailer, we did see one thing that became innovative, which is using Joy Con 2s as mice. It's something Nintendo innovated on that trailer. There are games that support this feature, like Super Mario Party Jamboree, the upcoming Metroid Prime 4: Beyond and Drag x Drive, which only uses mouse features to play. That could mean that they can add a browser to it, right?

256GB of Storage:

The Switch 1 didn't have that much storage that we had to get a microSD card to expand storage drastically. But the Switch 2 will have a bigger space of 256GB. That is mighty big and we don't have to worry about running out of space for awhile.

Backwards Compatibility with Switch 1 Games:

The Direct has confirmed that the Switch 2 will support backwards compatibility to over 10,000 Switch 1 games, including 3rd party games that were released on the Switch 1. The developers said that at launch, they won't be able to make every Switch 1 game work on the Switch 2, but they are looking to test more Switch 1 games on the Switch 2 post launch. And we can be able to transfer our Switch 1 games to the Switch 2.

GameCube Emulation:

GameCube emulation has been a recurring demand since the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack came with Nintendo 64, GBA and SEGA Genesis. And now, it is finally happening as it is coming on the Switch 2 exclusively. We saw Soul Calibur II and its inclusion of Link from the Zelda franchise, F-Zero GX, which is something I really want to revisit because it's fun to crash on this game and the Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. There are even more GameCube games coming to the Nintendo Switch 2, like Super Mario Sunshine and many others and this is exciting news. It's good enough that I am pretty darn excited to revisit my PS2 games I played back in the day. And I am also excited to revisit my GameCube games I played back in the day as I am with PS2 games.

Why is it exciting that I finally get to revisit GameCube games? Well, good question. GameCube games have a charming environment, use Dolby Pro Logic II, Sofdec and ADX, were produced by nostalgia-centric companies like Midway and involved Fox Interactive's two Simpsons games developed by Radical Entertainment like those of the PS2 and original Xbox games. And one of the games that is coming at launch is using Sofdec and ADX, and that is Soul Calibur II. And if Sony releases it on PlayStation Plus Premium, I'll be ready for that too.

Strong 3rd Party Support:

Remember what I said that the Switch 2 will have 4K and HD support like the Xbox Series X|S and PS5? Well, this can also apply to the Switch 2 getting a strong emphasis on 3rd party support. What it means is that many 3rd party games that were never released on the Switch 1 will be released well on the Switch 2.

I'll go into detail on one of the games that is coming to the Switch 2, Street Fighter 6. This game came out on June for the PS4, PS5 and Xbox Series X|S back in 2023. And now, thanks to its strong 3rd party support, Street Fighter 6 is coming to the Switch 2 with an exclusive game mode and DLC other platforms will have. That is great news that Street Fighter in its next gen glory is getting some love on a Nintendo console.

There even a lot of games coming to the new system, like Elden Ring, Hitman, Silksong, Final Fantasy VII Remake and tons more. There's even a new James Bond game in the works at IO Interactive coming to this new system and others, which is great because there has not been a new game in the works for so long since Quantum of Solace.

What is really funny is that a Mightykeef skit about MultiVersus shutting down becoming emotional has a dramatic part at the end about Nintendo not putting the game on the Switch 2. That part became true that we will never once again see the game make it to the light of day after five Seasons because of the closure of Player First Games.

Now, these games will launch on the same day as the Switch 2, which is June 5. Beyond what we saw on the Direct, more 3rd party games will be coming to the Switch 2.

Mario Kart World:

The announcement trailer showcased a new Mario Kart game. It is officially unveiled to be Mario Kart World. It's a new open world take on the Mario Kart franchise that involves courses being connected seamlessly in one world and having real time elements that reflect on the current weather in real life. There's also a Free Roam mode where you can drive freely across the world, even off road. No highways were developed. This new Mario Kart is a real time take on the franchise is something that interested me.

Nintendo Switch 2 Edition:

Certain Switch 1 games are eligible for an upgrade to the Nintendo Switch 2 Edition, which has immersive visuals and graphics that reflect the 9th generation era. This also applies to games that were released on the PS4 and Xbox One get an upgrade to the PS5 and Xbox Series X|S versions.

Conclusion:

In conclusion, the Nintendo Switch 2 is set to become a much dedicated and powerful new console to catch up with PS5 and Xbox Series X in terms of its strong emphasis on 3rd party support by having a ton of 3rd party games, innovative features, 4K resolution, 120 FPS run and a bigger storage device. Again, the Switch 2 and all of its games we seen in the Direct are launching this year, with the console and its launch titles releasing on June 5. The price will be revealed later today. MightyKeef has a video about waiting for the Nintendo Switch 2 and it was just part one of the Switch 2 skit that covers the reveal trailer, so I will be expecting part 2 to come to cover everything the Nintendo Switch 2 Direct had to offer, along with the EVO 2025 skit, whichever comes first.

Joe's Monologues - 3/11/2025

Hello, everyone, KnockDownJoe here and today's Joe's Monologues is gonna ruffle people's feathers. I have interesting things to talk about, so read this.

Hidden Variable's Departure:

So that morning was so devastating. When I woke up, X dropped an article telling us that Hidden Variable is no longer involved in the development of Skullgirls. I am going to tell you what happened and why Hidden Variable quit development of Skullgirls in any way, shape or form.

Let's start with what happened. The first $131,000 payment rolled in to be due November 1, 2024. The same amount rolled in to be due November 15, 2024, December 1, 2024 and December 15, 2024, January 1, 2025 and January 15, 2025. Then the $139,000 payment rolled in to be due February 1, 2025, February 15, 2025, March 1, 2025 and March 15, 2025, as well as $15,000 in expenses. But publisher Autumn Games refused to make any of the following payments they owed.

Now let's go on to why Hidden Variable quit Skullgirls development. On March 5, 2025, Hidden Variable released their statement stating that as of January 21, 2025, they are no longer involved in the development of the Skullgirls IP due to their legal dispute with Autumn Games. They are suing the publisher for breach of contract, et al. in the Hidden Variable v. Autumn Games case. Autumn had until January 21 to make payments, but they refused to do it and we don't know why. That led to Hidden Variable terminating their business contract with Autumn after refusing to make a single payment.

The post about Skullgirls Top 8 in Frosty Faustings XVII from January 20th of this year from 2nd Encore's X account has turned out to be the final post before the day Hidden Variable quit development of Skullgirls. That explains why we haven't got any news regarding 2nd Encore for so long since the general balance update or this year's roadmap and Top 8 has unfolded while they are in the middle of a lawsuit. They also added that they will not make further comments on the matter until the dispute is resolved, including a reason why Autumn refused to make payments they owed to cause a breach of contract.

Hidden Variable has thanked us for our endless support on Skullgirls for years and we allowed it to thrive. They created and supported Skullgirls Mobile, promoted Skullgirls esports with the SGCS circuit, brought new characters to 2nd Encore through its first Season Pass, expanded 2nd Encore and the Season 1 Pass to Xbox and Nintendo Switch and produced a Webtoon adaptation. From December 2014 to October 2024, Autumn and Hidden Variable had provided a business relationship between them for Skullgirls Mobile. However, when the lawsuit was filed, their business partnership between them and Hidden Variable's contract with Autumn have been terminated after nearly a decade and it was just a Frankenstein mess of ideas and things that weren't even fully cooked, because Autumn refused to pay the amount of money they owed Hidden Variable to commit a breach of contract.

In response, Autumn has released a statement regarding an update on Skullgirls that contains a glimmer of hope to gleam on from the situation. Jason Donnell stated that Skullgirls is more than a game. It is a passion project we poured our hearts into as they became an unwavering backbone and it involved in so many extraordinary ways because of support of various teams from Reverge Labs to Lab Zero Games, Future Club and Hidden Variable Studios, who were the developers of the Mobile release until they quit in light of the lawsuit.

But to get a small snippet of things, Skullgirls would get approved by Autumn Games to get developed under the Reverge Labs name and under the Konami banner. Then later, the game was removed because of Mike Z's antics, but came back as Skullgirls Encore developed under the Lab Zero Games name. Years later, Lab Zero Games has been dissolved by Mike's sexual harassment practice and others left Lab Zero to form Future Club and development of Skullgirls continued under both names of Hidden Variable and Future Club. And now, where it stands, their contract has been terminated as Hidden Variable quit development of Skullgirls because they are suing Autumn Games over the amount of money they owed. Future Club didn't even bother negotiating between the companies so that the game can continue active development without a contract because according to their X bio, they are no longer involved in the development of Skullgirls, it seems.

Reason being is that they are developing their first original game called Part-Time Hero: I'm Broke, But I'm Here to Save the World. The Kickstarter for their first original game launches in two days, so back it and spread the word about it to anyone to make it happen. If they find a publisher for this game, their project will expand to more platforms because you know, a publisher like Modus formed an acquisition with MANE6 to benefit bringing Them's Fightin' Herds to consoles and wanting a character for BBTAG and using a SEGA vs. Capcom style of showcase was the cherry on top.

Donnell also stated that Skullgirls will continue development despite Hidden Variable's quitting and they are stepping up to reinvest the project, so it's possible that they are going to pick up where Hidden Variable left off. Is it also possible that the development of Skullgirls can be much faster? Sure, it can be much faster since Autumn is a massive team of game developers, storytellers and passionate fans as the statement said. To make matters better, they are even planning to deliver on their promise to us fans as they are making changes now. Think of Epic Games. They are a massive team, which is why development of Fortnite took the shortest amount of time. Which reminds me; if we get a Skullgirls character in Fortnite, it can spark frenzy among fans of Skullgirls.

The statement has a hopeful paragraph written in bold. Guilds are coming to Skullgirls later this year and they are now actually in development since they have taken over in the past few months. That is indeed hopeful and it's only a taste as to how Autumn would usurp Skullgirls development while delivering on their promise to us; to bring new characters, new stories, new features and new game modes following Hidden Variable's departure. In fact, they are picking up where Hidden Variable left off.

After I heard Hidden Variable quit Skullgirls development, I thought we wouldn't get additional VO consisting of Annie's alternative voice pack, Japanese VO for the Season Pass characters in combat and English (and hopefully Japanese) VO for the Season Pass characters' story modes, the Season 2 Pass, Roxie, the third Guest Star, the later quarters' monthly fighters, the second season of the Webtoon adaptation and more. How naive to think that Skullgirls is gonna die. But thankfully, the things Hidden Variable have been working on are still on the docket and thank goodness for that. How is that possible is that beause Autumn refused to make payments they owed, Hidden Variable provided them with the login information required to continue providing community support for the game before they quit Skullgirls development in a way to not cause any damage to the IP.

Now, remember what I said about 2nd Encore's X post from January 20 of this year being the final post before January 21 when Hidden Variable quit Skullgirls development? I made me think of something that got me. Oh yeah, it reminds me of the transitioning from the Walt Disney Television logo to the barebones Buena Vista International logo.

But I think it's clear as to why Autumn Games would refuse to pay the total amount of money they owe Hidden Variable and cause a breach of contract. It's probably because Autumn was interested in pursuing a separate developer for the Mobile release after they failed to seek to sell their business. And to be honest, Autumn refusing to make payments to Hidden Variable was actually a wise decision as they will sell their business if they paid $1.2 million to Hidden Variable. Unless of course, if Future Club negotiated between the companies.

They also told us to stay tuned for updates soon after saying that they can't wait to take Skullgirls into the new chapter together and I am pretty dang excited for this, so updates should involve a detailed roadmap that contains news about the remaining things that are on the docket for not just Mobile, but 2nd Encore as well. In fact, with 2nd Encore being available on all four digital storefronts on Steam, PlayStation, Xbox and Switch, this new chapter is likely to be a fresh one. And with Hidden Variable no longer involved in the development of Skullgirls, they are focusing on working on their upcoming project, Spellomancer.

So, this has been on what happened before Hidden Variable sues Autumn Games for a breach of contract, et al. and quit development of Skullgirls. Though it became a sad ending to their contract, there is one silver lining on all of this. First off, if Autumn paid Hidden Variable the money they owed in the first place to avoid committing a breach of contract, then maybe Hidden Variable would still be involved in the development of Skullgirls and we would've finally gotten word about what is coming on the docket sooner. In fact, if Future Club was still involved in the development of Skullgirls, they could negotiate between the companies to continue active development without a contract like Sony did to negotiate between Naughty Dog and Universal to make their kart racer without a contract when Naughty Dog tried to break their contract with Universal for their three-game contract. If they did, Universal would sue Naughty Dog for a breach of contract.

The second thing is that Skullgirls is still in the mix at Combo Breaker, which is around the corner. Practically speaking, we didn't get an announcement for 2nd Encore at Frosty Faustings XVII because of the fact that Hidden Variable quit Skullgirls development on January 21 as they are suing Autumn for a breach of contract, et al. and during Top 8 at Frosty Faustings, the lawsuit unfolded. Here's hoping we get one at Combo Breaker, especially when we're waiting for the additional VO content to drop.

The Fall of MultiVersus:

Another devastating morning after we came across a tweet that on May 30th, MultiVersus is going to shut down again, but it's gonna be for good. What has happened is that it became a total failure. But how did it fail? It's actually not the fact that the game has shifted to Unreal Engine 5, PFG ignored their player base or gave us unwanted characters like the Banana Guard. But worse yet, it's priortizing their monetization strategy on a free-to-play game. The cause to this is during launch, skins and other things were only purchaseable with Gleamium. The currency that unlocks characters was extremely difficult to earn that it is not earnable just by playing the game. Same with the Perk and Prestige currencies. I was able to do a livestream on my gaming laptop to showcase how well the game ran on it.

I was looking forward to seeing Harry Potter, Godzilla, Furiosa and a host of others make it too. And even more exciting, Kayley from Quest for Camelot. She would be freaking dope in MultiVersus too. I mean, seriously. It's hurts to see the game bite the dust prematurely just because the developers have priortized monetization. And personally, fans seem to be happy that the game is shutting down because of its problematic thing it beared since launch. And that problematic thing was prioritizing monetization, which was caused by prompting us often to pay real money to purchase skins. But I didn't care about paying real money. I cared about having fun.

Now, let's talk about the only thing that was better than the state where MultiVersus is currently at, the Open Beta era. Now why is it that MultiVersus' Open Beta era was better that it became critically acclaimed and met with rave reviews to have a skyrocketing player base? Here is the best reason.

The best reason is the introduction of Gold. Since Open Beta, Gold was introduced and was the only free currency that was earned just by playing the game. At launch, Player First Games replaced Gold with multiple currencies. None of them were earnable through playing the game. The removal of Gold and replacing it with multiple currencies that were extremely difficult to earn was the main reason why MultiVersus' launch was lackluster. Brawlhalla remained alive for years since launch because they kept the free currency.

With MultiVersus shutting down and being delisted from digital stores on May 30th, Warner Bros. intend to shift their focus to bringing their collaborations to other games like Fortnite and Brawlhalla, which is nice, but not as nice as having a platform fighter with Warner Bros. characters that is set to shut down for good. But we are getting something nice from them, and it's a free-to-play hero shooter that is completely similar and akin to Marvel Rivals, but with DC characters. And I believe it can be called... DC Rivals?

If PFG hadn't replaced Gold with multiple currencies that were extremely difficult to earn, then the game's launch wouldn't be so lackluster. People would be thrilled to not be often prompted to pay real money to purchase decorative skins and cosmetics.

News Regarding 2XKO:

That's right, we have news regarding 2XKO. Shaun Rivera came with some news on X. The Pulse Fuse is being removed in favor of the autocombo setting each player will toggle on or off with at the character select screen. Fans delivered feedback regarding turning on autocombo while having a different Fuse. Now, I completely agree with having an autocombo setting on the character select screen while equipping a different Fuse. With the Pulse Fuse being removed, we are getting a new Fuse, which is the Sidekick Fuse. It allows the assist character to stay sidelined to support the point character, which gets more HP during the Fuse.

And as for the next Alpha Lab, we got info about it. But it's gonna be much smaller while devs build the infrastructure needed to ensure that they can bring the game to even more players and so that they can release the game sooner. Even if the next Alpha Lab is gonna be smaller, Jinx is still on the docket to be playable. And because it's gonna be a smaller playtest, the invite list will be smaller and each player has a small chance to get invited.

I made a suggestion of a new game mode where the assist character gets in battle with the point character on both sides recently. But since we're getting the new Sidekick Fuse and the game has up to four players on each core game mode, I am also going to restate my suggestion and make it a new Fuse that allows the assist character to be a second point character, so I think it's a Cross Fuse.

According to the developers, they plan to make 2XKO the best it can be, by listening to the players' feedback during the game's life cycle at launch.

Crash Bandicoot Brawl:

Canadian Guy Eh recently posted a video about an official and fake game called Crash Bandicoot Brawl. I made a reaction while watching that. Even the page is fake that it showed the wrong ESRB rating of M. Activision's Facebook account shown a fake promotion of a fake game. Activision made that game, but it doesn't exist somehow. That crap was funny, though. He was ticked off at that practice Activision had done just to trick us into filling out the survey and he ended the video by exiting his room and closing the door to get some coffee, like oh my gosh, what a weird way to end the video. His phone rang during the video too.

On the upside, I think we all know that what the fake promotion of Crash Bandicoot Brawl means. Activision could be showing us their interest of maintaining the Crash Bandicoot brand to enlist somebody to make a new Crash game. If the alleged Crash Bandicoot Brawl game becomes real, I am interested in it and I am getting it now that I got a new phone with a bigger space. In fact, if it comes to Steam, I will get it on there if it takes a very small amount of space because I gotta get a 5TB external hard drive to hold my games that use a lot of space like Mortal Kombat 1, which took a ridiculous amount of GB, and I wish we can play PS5 games directly though an external hard drive.

And speaking of Crash Bandicoot, I have neglected to tell you this on my post about finally being able to revisit my old stomping grounds. During my earlier days at high school in my old stomping grounds, I caused a conversation about how I loved Crash Bandicoot in any way, shape or form. What is special about that is that the franchise taken to a new direction when the 6th generation consoles came out. There was even a cancelled game called Crash Landed. That game didn't see the light of day because of the layoffs from Activision on that time when they bought out Vivendi Universal. I was reminising about the part where I talk about Crash Bandicoot at my high school back in the day on the time before I moved to Arizona too. It's all in good fun since uh... Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtz, maybe? But hey, it was worth it.

Conclusion:

Now, before I head out, I have one last thing to point out. Priortizing monetization from replacing Gold with multiple difficult to earn currencies being the main reason why MultiVersus' launch was lackluster is considered to be a lesson learned by the game industry for one reason. It is so that the developers can listen to player feedback and not prioritize monetization instead of everything else. If they do, their games will have a slim chance of biting the dust and be met with rave reviews.

We did see one game that became a huge success, Marvel Rivals. It was met with a lot of rave reviews over its handling of Battle Passes that never expire that rewards are earned anytime no matter the Season and that all characters, both current and future were unlocked from the get go. That's because the devs minimized monetization by giving us an everlasting Battle Pass that lasts for the forseeable future so that rewards can be earned anytime and make all characters free by default. I did play Marvel Rivals once and I enjoyed it on the PS5 first. I even got the Steam version, but I'll wait until cross-progression gets implemented because it's the only thing we want.

The only takeaway from all this is that maximizing and priortizing monetization is the source of MultiVersus' failure that allowed it to bite the dust prematurely. As long as other developers maximized monetization on their own games, they will have a good chance of them underperforming and shutting down their game prematurely and face a boycott. That was when in 2024, we saw Marvel Rivals get generally positive reviews at launch because of all characters being unlocked by default and the everlasting Battle Pass.

Now, if and when DC Rivals gets into production, the developers of this game can follow the footsteps of the developers of Marvel Rivals and implement an everlasting Battle Pass and make all current and future characters free by default. If they do, their game will be met with rave reviews and critically acclaimed. And who knows? They might make a free-to-play Marvel and DC crossover hero shooter.