Chris Hardwick's Blog, page 2097

Stream ZELDA: A LINK TO THE PAST Music Until Your Hearts Revive

All The Legend of Zelda games are great (minus those couple that decidedly aren’t), but everybody has their game, the one that they either grew up playing, or the one they played the most, or even the one that just had the right mix of story, action, and puzzle solving. For me, my Zelda game of choice was 1992’s A Link to the Past for the Super Nintendo. It had gorgeous colors, the birth of now-standard game elements like the Master Sword and parallel dimensions, and a phenomenal 16-bit score by the legendary Koji Kondo.

Now, you can relive that amazing music in an updated form, thanks to a new analog synth album series called Switched On SNES (which we learned of via A.V. Club). Promising a series of these albums, Switched On is taking the music we loved from SNES games and reorchestrating them using updated and fuller electronic instrumentation. You can check out the whole (albeit very short) album below!

Switched On: A Link to The Past by Switched On SNES

This music sounds enough like the original versions to make you nostalgic but has a more dynamic edge. These games had several different themes but there weren’t much to them (i.e. they repeated a TON), so they had to be good so you’d be okay with listening to them over and over and over. Kondo composed some of the very best of these in the Nintendo canon, so it’s extra nice to get to hear them in a reverent but different way.

My favorite track from the original game is the driving “Dark World” theme which, to me, always sounded like a locomotive going through a thunderstorm (I truly don’t know why). That theme in the Switched On version is the most different, but is still incredibly effective. The new version has a brassier, echoier sound that I really like.

Here’s the original for comparison:

The album can be purchased via Switched On’s Bandcamp page for $5, and the profits evidently go directly to Koji Kondo and Nintendo, since it’s their music to begin with. So that’s pretty nice. The group also plans to do other SNES staples, like Donkey Kong Country, Earthbound, and Secret of Mana.

What other SNES games would you like given this treatment? Let me know that, and your favorite Zelda music, in the comments below!

Images: Nintendo

Kyle Anderson is the Associate Editor for Nerdist and an unapologetic child of the ’90s. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Twitter!

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GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 2 Puts Family First in New Featurette

Editor’s Note: T his post contains minor plot spoilers for  Guardians of the Galaxy (both Vol. 1 and Vol. 2)—don’t say we didn’t warn ya.

I believe it was the esteemed and sage Mr. Dominic Toretto who once said: it’s about family. Because it is. And even when people like to claim that it is the biologic connections that make us all stronger, Fast and the Furious and the Guardians of the Galaxy films know the truth: family comes in all shapes and sizes, and the family you choose is oftentimes just as strong—if not stronger—of a guide for us all. And in the latest featurette for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, the most ragtag family of intergalactic outsiders is put on display.

Taking a page from the Toretto playbook (because ridin’ fast and furiously on Earth — or across the galaxy — is life), the chosen family of Rocket, Groot, Gamora, Star-Lord, and Drax will be put to the ultimate test when a new school of potential Guardians-to-be show up for a common goal: to defeat Thanos. With Yondu, Mantis, and even Nebula coming into the fold, growing pains and struggles are sure to follow as the crew struggles beyond simply getting to know one another. This time? We’re diving even deeper into the feels, it seems, with the arrival of Ego, a.k.a. Star-Lord’s father. Here’s hoping he doesn’t Tokyo Drift right out of Star-Lord’s life—because that’ll no doubt cause a seismic rift in the poor boy’s already fairly messed-up life. Although with friends as good as these by his side when the film hits theaters on May 5th, we’re sure he’ll be alright.

Although now the question begs: who is the Brian in Star-Lord’s story? And what sort of paradox does this all create since Vin Diesel—a.k.a. Groot—appears in both franchises? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

Image: Marvel

Alicia Lutes is the Managing Editor of Nerdist and Creator and Host of Fangirling! Find her on Twitter gigglin’ about Baby Groot.

ROBOTECH Returns in New Titan Comics Series

Thirty years since it debuted on weekday afternoon television, the Harmony Gold produced animated series Robotech continues to hold a special place in the history of anime in North America. Robotech was a combination of three distinct anime series from Japan — Super Dimension Fortress Macross,  Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross, and Genesis Climber: Mospeada — combined to tell one epic multi-generational story of Earth defending itself from various alien invasions. For an entire generation, the 85 episodes of Robotech, which originally aired in 1985, were their gateway to the world of Japanese anime and manga.

Now the Robotech story returns in a big way, via British publisher Titan Comics. Announced at C2E2, The all-new Robotech comic series returns to Macross Island, the place where the entire saga began. Series writer Brian Wood, artist Marco Turini and colorist Marco Lesko have crafted a thrilling new tale that’s perfectly accessible to new fans, as well as providing a deeper layer of twists for longtime fans who have been following the saga for over three decades.

In July, the story continues as Titan Comics brings series creator Carl Macek’s original vision full circle. The new comic book will take into account every iteration of the series, including previous novels, roleplaying games, and comics. Robotech #1 casts a fresh eye over classic characters like Rick Hunter, Lisa Hayes, Lynn Minmei, Roy Fokker, Claudia Grant, and Admiral Henry Gloval. While writer Brian Wood and artist Marco Turini take us back to a Macross Island, where the first Robotech war started, and “where nothing can be taken for granted.”

The debut issue comes with stunning covers by amazing talents like Stanley “Artgerm” Lau, Karl Kerschl (Gotham Academy), Michael Dialynas (The Woods), Blair Shedd (Doctor Who), The Waltrip Bros.(Robotech II: The Sentinels) and others. You can see all the covers for the first issue of Robotech down below in our gallery, as well as the first three pages of issue #1.

Robotech #1 hits comics stores on July 26.

Are you excited for the return of the SFDF-1 and the residents of Macross City? Let us know your thoughts down below in the comments.

Images: Titan Comics /Harmony Gold

FALLOUT is Getting Its Own Tabletop Game

It’s been almost two years since Bethesda sent players back to the wasteland in Fallout 4. And while we’re eagerly awaiting the first glimpse of Fallout 4 VR later this year, there are new plans to expand the Fallout experience in tabletop gaming.

Via Polygon, Bethesda and Modiphius Entertainment are teaming up for Fallout: Wasteland Warfare, a new miniatures wargame that will feature solo missions as well as player vs. player and co-op options for multiple players. Thus far, very few details have been revealed about Wasteland Warfare, but the first teaser image from the game was posted on Facebook over the weekend. In that pic, we can see that the game appears to be taking its cues from Fallout 4, with super mutants, and fighters in T-60 power armor. There’s even a Nuka Cola machine.

Presumably the game will also feature other icons from the Fallout universe, but it’s unclear where it fits within the narrative of the game. Modiphius Entertainment has a good track record of bringing its games to life through successful Kickstarter campaigns, but it’s not currently known if Fallout: Wasteland Warfare will also go the Kickstarter route or if Modiphius will simply go straight-to-retail with one of the biggest video game brands. An official site for the game has also been launched with a new piece of artwork from the game, and a very familiar canine companion.

What do you want to see in Fallout: Wasteland Warfare? Pop open a can of Nuka Cola and share your thoughts in the comment section below!

Images: Bethesda/Modiphius Entertainment

NASA Wants You to Make a Short Using Their Space Footage

If you have a unique vision of the future, NASA wants to help you share it with the world through its CineSpace Short Film Competition. Filmmakers of all stripes are asked to utilize NASA’s incredible library of space imagery to craft imaginative, celebratory films up to ten minutes long. A grand prize of $10,000 is on the line, so get those internal combustion engines rumbling. There will also be special cash prizes for films that best display the themes “Benefits of Space to Humanity” and “Future Space Exploration.” The vibe seems to be far more Interstellar than Alien.

For the third year in a row, Richard Linklater will serve as the head judge for the competition, so if you can jam a cinema vérité weekend-in-the-life of a 1980s college baseball team into your sci-fi epic, you might have a leg up on the competition.

NASA also greatly encourages participants to check out past finalists and winners, not only to get a sense of what they’re looking for, but also to see what imagery has already been used. As for that list, narratives vary widely, but an airy art house style pervades winners from the last two years, as well as a subtext of discovery and adventure. Last year’s winner, 1950DA, is black and white and very French, while the competition’s inaugural winner, Higher Ground, is literally home-made (the Magsamen/Hillerbrand family tore apart their house to make a spaceship).

There’s also a healthy dose of fantastically, sometimes psychotropic animation in the finalists cohort, like Mission Avante (above), and Home, which claimed “Best Depicting Spirit of Future Exploration of Space” in 2015 has a car commercial gloss to it.

The submission period ends July 31,2017. Here are the full guidelines. You can peruse NASA’s video hub for celestial goodness and inspiration. Good luck, explorers!

Images: NASA

What will the future hold for the Guardians of the Galaxy?

Kenny G Played a Surprise Charity Concert During His Flight

Airline passengers could use a bit of good news right now, so Kenny G’s most recent adventure is a heartwarming tale: On a recent flight on Delta Airlines, he decided to give a spontaneous performance that quickly raised over $2,000 for charity (via Entertainment Weekly).

On Saturday morning, the musician boarded a flight from Tampa, Florida to Los Angeles, after performing a show in Clearwater on Friday night. He found himself seated next to a woman who explained that since the death of her daughter, she has been raising money for Relay for Life, an organization that raises money for the American Cancer Society.

It was then that Kenny G decided to use his talent and celebrity to help out, saying he’d perform on the plane if his fellow passengers could pool together $1,000 dollars for the fundraiser. It turns out they were able to more than double that, so the video below shows Kenny G making good on his word, walking up and down the aisle while playing his saxophone.

There’s nothing quite like putting your talents to use for a good cause, especially when it comes as a spontaneous moment after making a real human connection with a stranger. Hats off to the passengers as well for managing to raise so much money in such a brief period of time. This is the coolest impromptu charity event we can think of, but do you know of any other heartwarming stories like this? Sound off in the comments and let us know!

Featured image: Webster Public Relations

Did Kevin Feige Confirm Our AVENGERS 4 theory?

Next year, Marvel is throwing down the Infinity Gauntlet with its biggest movie to date. Avengers: Infinity War has all of the Avengers, the Guardians of the Galaxy, Spider-Man, and even Doctor Strange, but considering there’s a fourth Avengers movie set for 2019, the real question is what’s coming next? Until last year, the fourth film would have been known as Avengers: Infinity War Part 2. Marvel has been cagey about the new title ever since, and today’s Nerdist News may have the reason why.

Join host, and the Living Tribunal’s top paralegal, Jessica Chobot, as she looks at Kevin Feige’s recent comments about Avengers 4. During a recent chat with Cinemablend, Feige acknowledged Marvel is withholding the sequel’s name because it’s a spoiler for the ending of Infinity War. Assuming that surprise isn’t simply an Infinity Crusade, we’re thinking this means the potential deaths of several Avengers in the next film. That would naturally pave the way for a New Avengers movie, which has been our primary theory for several months now.

But who could possibly fill the spots left behind by Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, and the Hulk? The Captain America movies have already laid the groundwork for either Falcon or Bucky to pick up the Shield if Steve Rogers goes down. Spider-Man seems like a pretty safe bet, considering that Marvel and Sony are sharing him for at least three films beyond Spider-Man: Homecoming. We suspect Black Widow will be sticking around, while Vision and the Scarlet Witch also seem likely to return. Whether they’ll still be going up against Thanos in the fourth film remains to be seen.

That said, comic book movies are a lot like comic books: dead rarely means dead. Even if a beloved Marvel hero or three bite the big one at Thanos’ hands, there could always be a potential resurrection down the line. Possibly even with new actors or actresses taking over the iconic roles, if any of the current MCU performers want to step away. The only thing that is certain is that Marvel’s got long term plans for its cinematic universe that go far beyond the end of Phase 3. And we’re still excited to see what they have in store for us!

What do you think about our Avengers 4 theory? Assemble in the comment section below!

GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 2 is Wall-to-Wall Delightful (Review)

The Marvel Cinematic Universe is known for a particular quality of movies–they look great, have wonderful casts, are full of action and humor–but that also means they can feel samey after awhile, especially if the film’s main goal is to further the complex company-wide story arc. 2014’s Guardians of the Galaxy was a major exception to that, keeping the great stuff about the MCU but adding weird heart, riotous humor, and a colorful, spaced-out setting. With Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, writer-director James Gunn takes a further step away from the usual MCU stuff…and it’s terrific!

In a lot of ways, Guardians Vol. 2 is a smaller film than both the first film and the previous grip of Marvel movies. There are still the requisite CGI space battles and monster fights and universe-jeopardizing peril, but even more than the first time around, Gunn does all this directly as a result and reflection of his characters. It feels much more like a comedy of personalities than it necessarily does a comic book sci-fi movie, though it deftly proves what the cosmic side of the MCU ought to always be. There’s clearly abundant love from the writer-director for the team, and even for the new characters and returning side characters. Each of them matters; they all get their moment or three to shine.

The movie opens with the Guardians–Star-Lord (Chris Pratt), Gamora (Zoe Saldana), Drax (Dave Bautista), Rocket (voiced by Bradley Cooper), and Baby Groot (voiced by Vin Diesel)–on what amounts to an assassination mission, tasked to destroy a giant monster for a gold-and-haughty society of intellectuals, led by Ayesha (Elizabeth Debicki). After doing something typically reprehensible, the Guardians are chased away, only to be saved by the bearded and swaggering Ego (Kurt Russell), a near-god who just happens to be Star-Lord’s long-lost alien father.

Meanwhile, Yondu (Michael Rooker) is having trouble maintaining control and respect from his Ravagers after going soft on Peter Quill at the end of the previous film. All the same, he takes Ayesha’s bounty offer to hunt down the Guardians, little knowing that Gamora’s arch nemesis sister Nebula (Karen Gillan) is also in the mix. All roads lead to Rome, as they say, and Gunn puts his characters on different paths that eventually lead to a big ol’ joke-and-tears-filled finale.

As with the first movie, Vol. 2 has a killer soundtrack full of needle-drops. I had worried that following the success of that first awesome mix tape, the music choices here would feel kitschy more than fitting to the movie, but one of Gunn’s strengths is picking music that is at once iconic ’70s hits and perfectly matched to the scenes at hand. And even more than that, the music becomes part of the plot, to a greater degree than it had been in the first film. There are three or four scenes that just wouldn’t work with a different song.

Gunn’s love for the characters is both a major asset and the source of some of the only minor complaints I have about the movie. He spends a great deal of time making sure each and every one of his characters is fleshed out, far more than before, and even Ayesha–who has less screen time than Ronan in part one–is much more defined and her personality and motivations are very clear. New addition Mantis (Pom Klementieff), the empathic alien companion of Ego, is wide-eyed and innocent, but makes for a really great foil for Drax, since they can essentially bond over their lack of understanding subtlety or subtext.

But the flip side of all this attention to characters, and indeed outright affection for them from Gunn, is that the culmination of storylines tends to veer into the realm of schmaltz, sentimentality, and blatantly cutesy heartstring-pulling. Now, I’m not opposed to this, but it seems antithetical to me that a film with rampant destruction, henchmen actually getting gleefully killed onscreen, and some fairly tough moral dilemmas at work, that Guardians 2‘s climax would be almost totally devoid of a hard edge. This doesn’t detract too-too much–as I said, I think this movie made me laugh more than any this year–but it does strike me as strange. It’s as though Gunn decided to amp up the “We are Groot” moments by 400%.

Those small things aside, and the fact that Baby Groot is SOOOOOOOO cute, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 delivers on all of the promise of the first movie and even improves in almost every aspect. Particularly refreshing to me were its almost defiant disinterest in what’s happening in the rest of the MCU, favoring its own internal continuity more than that of the studio as a whole, and the focus on mixing up character dynamics in a very real way, without it being “dun dun DUN” plot reveals.

The action’s great, the performances are top notch, and the soundtrack is killer. 2017’s first Marvel movie is, impressively, one of the best sci-fi adventures you could hope to see. I defy anyone to watch this and not smile from beginning to end.

4.5 Spaced-Out Burritos out of 5

Images: Marvel

Kyle Anderson is the Associate Editor for Nerdist. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Twitter!

What’s next for the Guardians?

Researchers Have 3D Printed LEGO-Like Bricks and Tools Using Simulated Martian Dust

Mars, that glorious red wanderer in the sky, may be humanity’s next vacation spot in the solar system (the first visitors get to say they were there before it was cool warm!), but the old cold planet coated in oxidized iron rust and pockmarked with canyons and massive dormant volcanoes still poses a lot of trouble when it comes to the whole actually living there thing. But teams of researchers are on it, and one of them says that it can 3D print a pretty nifty set of LEGO-like bricks and tools almost purely made of simulated Martian dust.

According to a press release from Northwestern University, which comes via Gizmodo, Ramille Shah and her Tissue Engineering and Additive Manufacturing researchers—it’s a TEAM team—at the college’s McCormick School of Engineering have figured out a way to 3D print bendable, rubbery tools, and bricks that are described as “similar to Legos [LEGO?]” because they are interlocking and can be used as building blocks.

3D printed tools and bricks using simulated Martian and Lunar dust. Image: Northwestern University McCormick School of Engineering

In the TEAM team’s paper, published in Nature, the method for 3D printing the bricks and tools is described as a “new approach for additively manufacturing planetary materials… [using a] powder-bed-free and energy-beam-free, resource utilization scheme for fabricating user-defined, soft-material structures from unrefined, highly inhomogeneous regoliths.” In other words, we can take Martian dust, load it into a 3D printer as a building material and crank out some usable objects. Keep in mind that if we’re talking about Martian dust, we’re talking about very, very tiny particles. Martian dust particles can have a diameter of around 30 micrometers, which is just a bit smaller than that of a human hair.

Shah’s team was also able to build bricks and tools using simulated Lunar dust, but since nobody ever had to science the shit out of the Moon, it seems a bit less glamorous—though still very cool!

What do you think about these 3D-printed objects using simulated Martian and Lunar dust? Were you surprised that it took all the way until the last paragraph for a Mark Watney reference? Let us know in the comments below!

Images: Wikimedia / Dmytr0

GIF: 20th Century Fox via Morbotron

Miracle of Sound Debuts the Theme From SEVEN: THE DAYS LONG GONE

For the past few years, Gavin Dunne, a.k.a. Miracle of Sound, has built a following on YouTube for his original songs that were inspired by video games and movies. That success has not gone unnoticed by the game industry, and it may have directly led to Dunne’s latest song. Earlier this month, Dunne unveiled his newest release, “Keepers,” which will be the official theme song of the upcoming RPG, Seven: The Days Long Gone.

For “Keepers,” Dunne collaborated with Witcher 3 composer Marcin Przybyłowicz, and the video was released with new gameplay footage that offers gamers a taste of the unique exploration that awaits in an island prison, many years after the post-apocalypse.

“Very happy to finally get to share this song with you,” said Dunne on his YouTube page. “It’s great to [be] a part of something made by such talented folks and also to work with Marcin, one of my fave composers…needless to say he’s a master of his craft.”

Seven: The Days Long Gone is being developed by several of the team members behind Witcher 3, and it will give players the ability to control Teriel, a thief on the prison island known as Peh. It’s an open-world isometric RPG that will let the players steal anything while also practicing their parkour skills and pulling off stealth kills as necessary. It’s expected to be released later this year, and it certainly looks enticing at this stage. You can check out more art and clips at the game’s official site.

If you want to hear and see more from Dunne, check out his regularly updated Miracle of Sound YouTube channel, which features video game and movie inspired songs as well as a new series of videos that go behind-the-scenes of his creative process. You can also visit Dunne’s Bandcamp page, which has seven albums of his Miracle of Sound music, a Heavy Metal album, instrumental albums and other recordings.

What did you think about Dunne’s latest song? Saddle up in the comment section below!

Images: Fool’s Theory/IMGN.PRO