Kill Screen Magazine's Blog, page 469

The new Zelda crossover heralds a future in which all Japanese devs merge, then expand, then consume Neo-Tokyo

Nintendo announced a confounding but potentially cool new Zelda title for Wii U today. Dubbed Hyrule Warriors, the latest adventure for our peach-fuzzed wonder is being developed by Tecmo Koei, not Nintendo. The game will be chockablock full of action, as Link will find himself facing an unfamiliar game structure: the hack-fest. It’s pretty much Dynasty Warriors wrapped in a green tunic. 

What gives? The takeaway from the conference was that Japan is turning into one giant gaming conglomerate. Before long every Japanese game property is going to bed with one another, and all Japanese game universes will converge before folding in on themselves. We were also shown during the conference that Yoshi is coming to Sonic, Megaman is coming to Smash Bros., and Luigi is starring in Dr. Mario, er, Dr. Luigi. And I hear cats and dogs are living together just fine. 

This is something we’ve seen a lot of lately, from Project X Zone’s mash-up of Capcom and Namco, to Shin Megami Tensei crossing swords with Fire Emblem. This isn't an entirely new phenomenon. We've seen Sega develop a stellar F-Zero and Capcom worked on some of the Zelda titles on Gameboy. But now that the crossovers and cross-game-development-overs are being farted out, it may indicate that the industry over there is hurting and needs gimmicks to shake things up. But on the bright side, this could lead to an official Salty Bet's Dreamcast Casino. Fingers crossed!

Nintendo announced a new Yoshi's Island. Here's hoping it's completely insane

One of Nintendo’s shotgun spread of videogame announcements this morning included Yoshi’s New Island, which hopefully carries on the Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island tradition of being totally bizarre. There are quiet legions of Nintendo fans who hold the game above all other Mario titles. Miyamoto’s departure from typical Mario form with Yoshi’s Island strongly appeals to a section of his fanbase, like the Weezer fans who swear by Pinkerton. It's nice to hear someone break out of their established form.

There was no shortage of that in Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island. You played Yoshi instead of the baby Mario on his back, health was based around you rescuing Mario before he got kidnapped, and you could eat enemies and birth (?) them in egg form to be thrown at other enemies. The graphics looked like they had been drawn by Miyamoto’s kids, baby Mario could skip on water and run on ceilings, and on and on. Miyamoto hardly ever works on all-new ideas, but Yoshi’s Island felt like he unraveled the concept of a Mario game, tied in some threads of dinosaurs, children, and just a dash of batshit crazy to create an unapologetically unique game. Here’s to hoping Yoshi’s New Island follows through.

Playlist 12/18: Samurai Gunn re-defines the party game, The Room 2 mystifies, and The Novelist haunts

Cozy up with these games this week.

You can now relive the original Tomb Raider's ridiculousness on the iPhone

Square Enix dug up an old fossil.

The best "Best of 2013" list not by us

Over at freeindiegam.es, Terry Cavanagh, designer of really hard games like Super Hexagon and VVVVVV, has put together a list of his favorite free games from this year. These are great because you aren’t likely to hear these games mentioned anywhere else (aside from Become a Great Artist in Just 10 Seconds by Andi McClure and Michael Brough, which made our Top 5 Michael Brough Games of 2013* list.) Those that made Terry’s cut include Jack King-Spooner’s surreal claymation Western Blues for Mittavinda, Jake Clover’s mind-fuck 000000052573743, and Sophie Houlden’s semi-magical Dream Fishing. Be sure to hop over and check out the complete list!

And lo! Square hath bequeathed a new franchise upon us

The impending release of Bravely Default: Flying Fairy on January 2nd marks the end of an era. We’ll just call it the we-can-make-nothing-but -Final-Fantasy-era. For a while there, every game coming out of the RPG studio Square Enix had something to do with Final Fantasy: Final Fantasy XIII, Final Fantasy XIII-2, Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII, Final Fantasy Agito, Theatrhythm Final Fantasy, Final Fantasy: Four Heroes of Light. Are you picking up on a recurring pattern? Oh yeah, and Dragon Quest, not Final Fantasy.

The important thing is that Bravely Default is not branded "Final Fantasy," and that it already has a sequel in the works: Bravely Second. This, by our rough estimate, makes it the first new franchise from the RPG mega-corp in a quarter-century. But how does it play? Eh, it’s pretty much old-school Final Fantasy.

High Scores: The Best of 2013

So begins endgame. 

République is the sensible answer to Kojima’s call for more erotic characters

République is out tomorrow for iPhone, and one of the features the stealthy-action game prides itself on is the realistic depiction of the female sex. The lead, voiced by none other than FemShep herself Jennifer Hale, is a tough, resilient, and fully-clothed woman who was just hanging out in a hoodie when shit went bad. 

This is unlike the hyper-sexualized characters you’ll find in another stealth game, Metal Gear Solid 5, as Hideo Kojima’s mantra seems to be: Make it sexy. He caught some flack earlier this year after releasing some sexed-up renders and Tweeting that his motivation for the character design was “more erotic.” 

I bring this up not to smear Kojima’s name, because after all the man made Metal Gear, but because Camouflaj, the studio behind République, was founded by Ryan Payton, who was previously Kojima’s right-hand man. It’s remarkable that two guys working intimately on the same project could have such conflicting views in regards to how main characters should look. Snake, god bless him, is a gruff, idealized Hollywood-stereotype of a leading man, while Payton’s protagonist could be walking down the hall right now. Maybe this is a sign of the changing of the guard. 

Elevator game makes avoiding people a challenge

A new game with embodied technology jolts us out of our familiar habits.

Celebrate the official release of Day Z with these photos of Chernarus in real-life

Day Z was officially released today, kinda. So in honor of the brutal zombie game that had otherwise decent men writing borderline fanfic about breaking their leg and groping in the darkness until a bandit finished them off with the butt of a rifle to the head, we put together these photos. 

You may recognize some of the scenes from the rolling Czechoslovakian countryside as places where you’ve done desperate deeds in the game. That’s because Bohemia Interactive are sticklers for authenticity, combing their homeland on foot and taking aerial photography to create a more lifelike place. Who knew Chernarus was modeled after such beauty?

Summer on Green Mountain

Autumn at Mogilevka

A co-op farm at Mogilevka

The infamous barn at Stary Sobor

The church of Gorka

Photos courtesy Ivan Buchta. Thanks Ivan!