The day many of us Dragon Quest fans have been waiting for has finally come as Square-Enix have finally came out and announced Dragon Quest X at the 25th Anniversary Dragon Quest New Production Announcement Event (go figure..). Instead of the portable route the series has taken in recent years, Dragon Quest X will be headed to the Nintendo Wii in 2012 for Japan, with a later release planned for the Wii U.
Quests for Dragon Quest X will work exactly the same as Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies, with new quests being distributed to the player. Seasonal Events will also take place that will enable special items to be obtained. A form of 3DS interactivity was also confirmed, which is looking to be the “Tag Mode” that DQIX originally presented. This Wii entry will also feature support for the Remote + Nunchuck, Classic Controller, Classic Controller PRO, or USB Keyboard and will also be bundled with a USB memory device.
The most interesting news surrounding this new title though is the name as well as the details surrounding it. The 10th Dragon Quest adventure is set to be called “Dragon Quest X: Waking of the Five Tribes Online”. Yes, this is an online RPG, where players will have to have an internet connection to progress. While this does add the potential for a ton of interactivity for other players, it also marks a large leap for the series that could be deemed a bit controversial for fans without the proper set-up to actually play the game.
Personally, I feel that the online feature is definitely a plus as the series has been cookie-cutter for 25 years now, so this kind of risk might be just what Dragon Quest needs to reboot itself. You can visit the new website for Dragon Quest X here (which is currently seeking Beta Testers), and once more details emerge we will be sure to bring you an update.
Hot off the heels of the Call of Duty XP event comes more details of Activision’s dedicated online service. Call of Duty Elite has been built especially for the franchise and will go live on the same day as Modern Warfare 3. Come November 8 players will be able to choose from a Free or Premium membership to get access to the service, which will also be backwards compatible with Black Ops.
There is a lot on offer here, and Activision really do want this game to take over the world – the service is even accessible on smartphones and tablets! Below are the details from Activision themselves, with free and premium services listed alike.
CONNECT: A true, franchise-exclusive social gaming platform, Call of Duty Elite gives players unprecedented control and flexibility over their multiplayer experience. Members can join and create Groups based on their hometown, gameplay style or favorite sports team, and then discover players who share that same Group in-game, encouraging Call of Duty MW3 gamers to play and compete with others of similar interests or affinities. Elite users can also create and manage a private Clan, as the platform enables players the ability to track their Clan mates from virtually anywhere, including in-game. The Connect features also include the Elite Theater service, which allows players to upload and share HD video directly from the game.
COMPETE: Multiplayer competition forms the core of the Call of Duty Elite feature set. The service hosts community-wide events and Operations for players of all skill levels. Casual and hardcore Call of Duty fans alike can battle for bragging rights, trophies and real-world prizes like iPads, LCD TVs, even a custom Call of Duty Jeep! Multiplayer competition and exclusive event programming will be available and managed by a live service team 24/7, year-round. Elite is built from the ground up to thrill the multiplayer combat seeker.
IMPROVE: Call of Duty Elite is a stat-freak’s dream, dynamically tracking a vast array of performance statistics at the individual, friend/clan network and community-wide levels. Players can enlist this comprehensive, always-on cache of data to improve their gameplay, target and outmatch the accomplishments of friends or put their skills to the test in numerous Elite Operations and events. Players will also have access to exclusive expert video strategies and detailed map and weapon breakdowns to help hone their Call of Duty skills even further. And, after studying these expert advice and strategies, players can configure and sync customized load-outs via the web or Elite apps for iPhone, iPad and Android directly to MW3, and changes will be ready in-game the moment they boot up their console.
Free membership gets you access to leaderboards and some group and clan functions, as well as use of the COD theatre (for uploading/browsing HD gameplay videos). With Elite accessible on smartphones and tablets as well as consoles, there is of course Facebook and app integration, with a friend finding match maker for the social network and a custom class creator app.
The Premium service comes in at $50 a year, and looks to follow the new trend of pre purchasing DLC that we’ve already seen from Gears of War 3. Fork out the cash and this is just some of what you can expect:
DLC for Modern Warfare 3: Everything apart from the map packs will be yours as it is released over MW3’s nine month ‘DLC season’, and yours to keep. Activision have 20 pieces of new content at the ready!
More Theater access: Upload more videos and get 8 times more HD video capacity than normal users.
Exclusive content: Access to COD TV episodes featuring content from Ridley and Tony Scott, Will Arnett and Jason Bateman.
Daily prizes: Compete for real-world prizes including iPads, LCD TVs and Jeeps in competitions exclusive to premium users.
So that’s a game, a console, a headset, an app, Facebook integration, TV episodes, a multi million dollar pre-launch party – what else is left for the juggernaut that is Call of Duty?
Driver: San Francisco Developer:Ubisoft Revelations Publisher:Ubisoft Platforms: Playstation 3 (reviewed), Xbox 360, Wii, PC, Mac OS Availability: Out Now Price:AU$108.00/US$59.99 (Available Here)
The Driver series has been around for quite some time, back in 1999 for the original Playstation. Since then, there have been three releases in the main series and a few spinoffs. Driver: San Francisco is the latest in the main series. I’ll sum up my opinion in one sentence: this game is a must buy. The story is well-written, the gameplay is absolutely amazing and the visuals are stunning. The music is alright, but the sound effects will make your inner car lover smile. If there is one thing that drags it in the mud, however, it would have to be the multiplayer.
Story
The story starts off with Charles Jericho, a convicted felon from the previous Driver games, being transported to court for his sentencing hearing. John Tanner, an undercover cop with his partner Tobias Jones, travel to a nearby overpass to see the police convoy take Jericho to the court, making sure nothing goes wrong. It was Tanner who put Jericho behind bars, so there is a bit of personal history between them. Flying above, a news chopper follows the convoy; however, the newswoman kills the cameraman and holds the pilot hostage. With an RPG, she destroys the convoy, giving Jericho enough time to escape his shackles and hijack the police van. Tanner and Jones are swept into action, going on a wild goose chase throughout San Francisco, only for Tanner and Jones to get involve in a hellacious car accident with a semi-trailer. I have given you a basic rundown of the prologue to the game. It is action packed, full of explosions and asks questions that will hook you into the game, like the central question: Are they going to get Jericho?
The game’s story is set out in chapters, focusing on finding Jericho and dismantling his criminal organisation. In order to keep his progress and try to link everything, he keeps a small board, showing what he has discovered over the course of the game. When you finish a story mission, Tanner will always return to this board to link new information in Tanner’s investigation. It’s like finding the next jigsaw piece for that puzzle that takes forever to compete. Story missions are not the only time you can access it. Choosing ‘Investigation’ in the pause menu and you will return there to remind yourself of what you know.
On the character side, I do see myself rooting for Tanner. He is your classic action hero, a cocky badass with witty one-liners. Jones acts in a similar way, but both are quite funny and fit the whole game. Jericho is rarely seen, but you could always feel his presence in the events of the game. The minor characters in the various missions offer a fresh side-story as a counter balance to the main story. A particular favourite of mine is Jun, a Chinese-American who participates in street races for money to fund his cousin’s college dreams. The interaction between Tanner and the cousin is quite funny to hear as you race for first place. Overall, the story and characters are well-developed.
Gameplay
The game’s core mechanic is, as the title suggests, focused on driving. All of the missions, both story and side, will take place in a car. You steer with the analogue stick while using R2/RB to accelerate and L2/LB to break and reverse. Pressing O activates the handbrake. Pressing the select button changes the camera angles within the car. The angles consist of behind the car, driver’s seat, bonnet and the grill. I often switched between full view and the driver’s seat. Within the driver’s seat, you may notice the speedometer and RPM meters actually move as you drive. I found this quite impressive, to be honest. It felt like I was driving a car. The driving in the game aims for a realistic approach, but also for a high octane, action packed stunt driver. You are rewarded for being a fast, reckless man (or woman) behind the wheel. Drifting is quite awesome and rewarding if done right. The thrill of going down the straight, passing other cars is present. It is a great feel, one that is done perfectly. Now, they need to patch it with support for steering wheels.
There is a variety of missions as Tanner tries to find Jericho after his escape. These vary from races to stopping a getaway. All of these missions are quite fun to do. One mission I found hilarious early in the game was a mission where Tanner takes control of a student driver. The objective of the mission is to scare the teacher out of his wits, indicated by a heart rate monitor at the top left corner of the screen. This allows you to become the craziest driver you can possibly be. Crashing into cars, speeding down the straight and driving on the wrong side of the road ensured me that I was doing it right. After every mission, it unlocks progress to the story mission and rewards the player with Willpower Points, used to buy new cars for the garage, instead of actual money.
An interesting and unique feature of this game is Shift. No, it doesn’t refer to manual shifting in a car. I refer to the ability to switch cars on the fly. Back when the first Driver was released on the Playstation, the ability to get out of the car was not present. Although other games introduced this feature, it was removed from the game to give it an unique flavour from other games of the same genre. Shift is activated with the X/A button and it allows you to travel throughout San Francisco. Once you see a car you want, pressing X/A allows you to possess the body. This is how you activate missions. I’m actually glad they did travel down this route. It opens a new gameplay avenue rarely seen in the sandbox genre. For example, you are taught to shift to cars heading in the opposite direction in order to conduct a head on collision. Rapid Shift is also available, but is only available when there is a partner car involve. Finding yourself trailing behind a getaway car but you AI partner close by? Hit R1/RT and you’ll shift into that car. It is also useful to return to the car you are currently using. Shift is a deep system of changing cars. It is also quite fun to use.
There are two other features that I should note, which are unlocked very early in the game. First off is the ram ability. Ram is the ability to line any car and unleash a devastating attack upon another vehicle on the road. In order to use the ability, hold L1/LT then release when you feel it is right. It is a necessity for mission which involves heaping destruction on another car or catching a car during a getaway mission. The second will help you catch up to runaway cars or give you an edge in the race. Tanner can boost any car he drives by pulling the left analogue stick up. No nitrous oxide (NO2), this is Tanner given the ability to boost any car he drives. These abilities are upgradeable at the garage.
OK, so some of the abilities sound a little supernatural for a game about cars, criminals and realistic location. I am not bothered with it. It is a breath of fresh air to see a game with some unique ideas being put in. The best thing about it is that it actually works and is fun to use in the process. The Shift ability allows you to see all of San Francisco and it is smooth when in transition. Boosting and ramming is also quite fun to use. Overall, the gameplay will keep you on the game for a long time. It is well-designed and fun to play with.
Visuals
I’ll sum up the visuals of the game in one sentence: these are the one of, if not the best, visuals you will ever see in any seventh generation game. I’ll start off with the meat of the graphical department: San Francisco itself. It is a great recreation. I haven’t been to the city itself, but the designs are realistic, almost life like. The character models in the game are simply gorgeous. Tanner and Jones are well-detailed during cutscenes, as well as the other characters. Even during gameplay, when two characters are interacting with each other on the top of the screen, the models looked closer to real life. It is quite amazing. Also a neat idea was the “Previously…” scenes, where the action of the previous chapter is re-told in a short amount of time. This is where the graphics shine. The style reminds me of an 80’s buddy cop drama on television with the use of multi-frames. It kept you up to speed, but the character models are simply stunning.
The vehicles are also divine. Car lovers will fall in love with the amount of detail put in building the authentic cars in the game. Gamers and car lovers would notice the abundance of real life car manufactures. For example, expect to see Dodge, Nissan, Audi and Ford. These are a few of the manufacturers. Ubisoft Reflections have done a wonderful job with the cars. They have recreated the bodies, interiors and other features perfectly. Overall, the visual capabilities are some of the best you will see in this generation.
Music
The music is top notch in Driver: San Francisco. From the moment you open up the main menu, you are greeted with an action packed main theme. It captures the style of both the story and the game. So do the various themes through the game. One piece of music I like is the piece when the “Previously…” scenes are shown, adding to the action. Within the cars themselves, there are no radio stations available. Instead, there are a pre-selection of tracks. To be quite honest, I have never heard of all of the artists that have a track in the game. I also didn’t notice the track playing in the background, taken over by the engines of each car I drove. They really hit the nail on the head with the sound effects. The engines roar like proper engines. Metal crashing into each other is music to my ears. It is heaven for anyone with a car loving bone in their body. Overall the music complements the style of the game, thus a perfect fit.
Multiplayer
For the first time in the series, Driver: San Francisco has online multiplayer. So, how does it fare up? Quite well, actually, gameplay wise. There was no noticeable lag and it was quite fun. Too bad I have to be Negative Nancy about it. The multiplayer is a mess, and here is why.
First off, assuming you don’t have an Uplay account, you have to create one, which takes about a few minutes. Once that is done, you have to enter a passcode to unlock these features. Now, I am not a fan of this method. If you bought the game with the intent of playing with friends or strangers online, you should have that right. I don’t care if it is bought used. Instead of locking out players, why not offer discounted DLC or exclusive DLC for those who buy it brand new. Much better than those codes. So that will take about another few minutes. So that is about five minutes to access online multiplayer.
But that is just the beginning. Once you have finally entered the multiplayer mode, you might notice that you are in Tanner’s Dodge Challenger, which is the multiplayer menu. When you enter the mode menu, you will see quite a few choices of modes. These range from races, takedowns, Capture The Flag and so on. There is one problem: you have to be at a specific level to play them. You heard me right. Which means you can only play one mode in online multiplayer, Free For All. Words can not describe the utter disappointment I felt when I saw this. Imagine that you could only play Free For All on Call of Duty until you gained more prestige. Abilities and other little things are fine, but not modes of gameplay.
Of course, there is split screen offline multiplayer. The modes are divided between co-op and competitive. Unfortunately, spilt screen is limited to two players. Overall, the multiplayer is fun, particularly online, but I wouldn’t be surprised if you decide to stick with the single player story.
Overall
What a game Driver: San Francisco is. On the gameplay side, the unique features keep the game fresh while the driving aspect of the game is fast and furious (yeah, I’m going there). The story is interesting, alongside its cast of characters. The visuals are absolutely stunning, one of the best in the seventh generation, including the attention to detail to the authenticity of each and every car. The music is also put together, but the in-car tracks are barley noticeable as you race through the streets. However, it is not the perfect game, as multiplayer is a muddled up mess If you are a fan for driving games, open world games or just excellent, well built games, then Driver: San Francisco is a must for anyone’s Playstation 3 or Xbox 360 collection.
2K Games have released yet another trailer for the upcoming release title, NBA 2K12. The latest trailer, titled Momentus, takes a look at the gameplay animations.
The trailer features Eminem and Royce Da 59’s song Fast Lane, and showcases both legendary and current players in what 2K Games claims is their most “realistic simulation” to date. From the trailer, the animation definitely does appear to be very impressive, and players like Olajuwon and Pierce certainly do look and move like their real life counterparts.
NBA 2K12 is slated for release on the 4th of October, 2011, and will be available on PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, PC, and PS2. Check out the trailer below, and have a look at related coverage on the title here.
Dungeons & Dragons: Heroes of Neverwinter is the latest release into the Neverwinter universe from Atari and Liquid Entertainment. Having played the closed beta for a few days, I’ll attempt to give you a detailed rundown of how the game works so far, and throw in a bit of opinion on the way. Any questions or comments are more than welcome, and for more of an introduction to the game check out my earlier article which you can find here.
Build your Heroes
Heroes of Neverwinter lets you build a party of four to go questing with, and all of your allies are drawn from a level specific pool of other people’s characters. They only hang around for one mission though, and then it’s back off to the pub to pick up another team! Above level one your fellow adventurers will cost you to hire, either gold or some of the games buy-able currency – Astral Diamonds. Of course this means your own characters can be off adventuring without you, and upon logging into the game you might be lucky enough to receive some gold in payment for their services. There is also a gold bonus awarded for consecutive daily log ins and levels gained.
Character creation gives you the choice of a pre-made fighter, cleric, wizard or rogue, and also the option to build from scratch. Pick class and race (Dragonborn, Eladrin, Halfling, Human)set your stats and fiddle with some limited appearance options, pick a silly/serious name of your choice and you’re ready to go. Characters can also be customised with their own motto, and along with the often entertaining names on display these, if I’m honest, usually form the basis of my party selection. I haven’t managed to remember all of my favourites, but one recurring teammate was an Eladrin Wizard going by the enticing name of ‘Skulls Will Barf’ with a motto of “Exceptional Dennis”. I got an image of someone yelling that at top of the lungs volume whilst running into battle and stuck him in my squad immediately- stats be damned.
It’s almost another layer of strategy in itself, give your character a funny or topical name/motto, get picked more, get more gold. My ‘insert generic fantasy name here’ Rogue gets far fewer recruits than Targaryen the Dragonborn fighter for example (Game of Thrones reference to those not in the know). If you happen to be online when your character is recruited you can spectate on the other players adventure, throwing in a few powers along the way. Another nice touch with the customisation is the armour and weapons. These do change in appearance when you equip different items, which gives a good level of satisfaction from acquiring them and also a nice sense of character progression.
Let the Adventures Begin?
The city of Neverwinter is the game’s hub, providing a couple of merchants, a tavern for recruiting other party members, a house for your own character, a notice board and a Dungeon Workshop, which only becomes accessible after you reach level 10. At the time of writing I haven’t reached this milestone yet due to having a bit of trouble loading the game (browser swaps and cache clearing be damned, sometimes it just doesn’t load).
The notice board forms the adventure selection screen, and has a handy link back to the tavern in case you forget to pick up your allies before heading out to slay some nasties. There is a huge amount of content on offer here – with 50 unique adventures to play through over three difficulty levels. These are managed well with the easiest a newbie/casual friendly pick up and play option and Heroic being something that requires real strategy, a bulging inventory, and a little bit of luck.
The adventures themselves all come with a specific set of requirements and rewards, and from my experience thus far are forest or dungeon set. There is a good variety to the enemies and the plots of each episode are well written and add a much needed bit of depth, as well as some overarching story. It’s a nice hook to be able to follow a chain of quests to wipe out a cult, or a band of goblins, but I couldn’t help but want a bit more from the game that Facebook just can’t allow as a platform (a good sign in some respect).
The turn based combat is solid and enjoyable, with characters having their own set of at will, once per encounter, once per adventure, and free use moves. These are built up as you level, with each one gained offering a selection of new abilities.
The actual dice based mechanics are visible when you highlight the moves, and character stats are available too, so there is definitely room for in depth play here. Characters can flank (or be flanked) for combat advantage, and ranged attacks operate by line of sight so that every movement has its significance. I definitely found myself progressing as a player as I became familiar with the system.
Loot, gold, and other expensive things…
Loot is doled out via a ‘luck of the draw’ system, where you are presented with ten face down Dungeons & Dragons cards that net you varying prizes. Pick one to reveal your choice! You get to see what you have missed out on too – I seem to have a knack for picking the smallest pile of gold available. The other big source of goodies is also an incentive for consistent play. The Chest of Wonder (that definitely begsto be said in voice over man style!) is pretty much the sole reason for your house existing, and fills with a selection of treasure every 8 hours. The quality of the loot increases with each consecutive day that the chest is emptied. There is a limit of course – once you hit five back to back empties then the quality resets back to level one. The treasure system works here exactly as it does in adventures. Aside from the daily treasure, the chest also holds onto achievement rewards and any gifts you receive from friends.
Other than gold there are two commodities in game that warrant a mention, and not for positive reasons. Both can be won but only in very small amounts, and are part of the game’s only major problem. It is something of a platform related issue, but I feel that it needs to be brought up.
Play is limited by an energy gauge, which depletes as you take on adventures which each have a specified energy cost. Depending on the adventures you choose and the treasure you find you may be able to fit in one or four missions before you either have to pay to refill the meter (using Astral Diamonds or items payed for with Astral Diamonds) or do nothing for a period to let the meter refill. Now I don’t mind waiting, it’s a Facebook game, stuff like this is to be expected. It still breaks the immersion and defeats a lot of the point of an RPG (freedom to develop the character as you please – it’s very difficult to go off farming gold and getting the best items or example), but I enjoy the game enough to look past it.
It’s the Astral Diamonds system that gets me. Astral Diamonds are the in game currency, mainly acquired by purchasing through the Facebook credit system. $1 USD will buy you 5 Facebook credits, which in turn gives you 5 Astral Diamonds. Players can use them to hire allies, purchase items (some only available with real world cash) and refill the energy bar. A Potion of Life (revive a party member) is only available if you spend 15 Astral Diamonds on it, that’s $3! Fill the energy bar? $2. People with the cash to blow on this will be able to level up faster and get the best items for no effort. It’s unfair and it’s irritating. Charge a set amount to purchase the game then give everybody the same tools – advantage via real world wealth should never be part of a game.
A strange and fantastic place The difficulty I have in describing the presentation of this game is the platform. This is Facebook, designed for sharing photos and sending messages of basic text, not for games. Saying that, Heroes of Neverwinter looks good considering the limitations of the platform. The style fits well with the Dungeons & Dragons world and character sprites are detailed and individual. In windowed mode it all looks great, but I found that playing through the adventures themselves required using the fullscreen option, and this does stretch things to the point that all detail is lost. Of course which view you use will all be down to preference, my own reasons being that in windowed mode the rest of the Facebook page amounted to far too much clutter. The sound is, for the platform, good enough, although some of character sound effects are one note and irritating when repeated ad nauseam.
Everything is clearly laid out in menus and maps, and the game holds a surprising amount of stats and has full inventory, ability and character screens. All taken into account, Heroes of Neverwinter is a well presented game that will be both accessible to newcomers and enjoyable to veterans. The actual D&D mechanics are present in such a way that they can be ignored or enjoyed, so full marks to Atari for making the game appeal to a broad spectrum.
Closing Comments
For a Facebook game Dungeons and Dragons: Heroes of Neverwinter is nigh on brilliant. But that’s the issue here, every comment I make I want to preface with “for a Facebook game”. It’s not the platform for this, and although it does allow for a social element to play, the game is limited by the platform far more than it is helped. I admire the way the game is in it’s current form and think that aside from the awful ‘pay for content’ aspect the developers couldn’t have done much better, but I would still prefer to see this buffed up and available for download on Steam, the PSN and XBLA.
Heroes of Neverwinter is currently still in closed beta, and is due to hit the open phase around September 14. Keep an eye on Capsule Computers for word of a concrete date, and as above, feel free to leave any comments below.
Here’s a treat for all of you Aussie Resistance fans. The guys at Insomniac Games have put together a video of a survivor of the Resistance in the outback city of Alice Springs. For those who don’t know where the Alice is, it is basically located in the middle of the country, north of Uluru or Ayers Rock. This is following the announcement of an Alice Springs multiplayer map, which you can read here.
The survivor is Rex Eastley and he recounts on his terrifying experience with the Chimera. He reveals that he lost his family early in the fight and had to go alone until finding a group of people in the mountains. After months without Chimera contact, they finally find the hideout. Rex, instead of defending the hideout, he runs, mortally terrified of the threat. Such an emotional account of survival, isn’t it.
You can check it out on our channel or below. Resistance 3 launches this Thursday. Be sure to check out our review as well as some gameplay footage sometime next week.
Spring is in the air. The sun is out, the birds are singing and a cool gentle breeze sweeps in through the window. Honestly, who wants to be inside on a day like this? Thanks to Gameloft you can play a huge range of portable games outside and appreciate the glorious weather. Gameloft have reduced the price of eight games, yes, eight games, to the price of 99c for both the iPhone and the iPad. The following games are available at a discounted price for a limited time so get in quickly.
Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Shadow Vanguard – iPhone | iPad
Shadow Guardian – iPhone | iPad
Prince of Persia: Warrior Within – iPhone | iPad
Zombie Infection – iPhone | iPad
James Cameron’s Avatar – iPhone | iPad
Rogue Planet – iPhone
Action Pack – iPhone
Sports Pack – iPhone
Announced over the weekend at Call of Duty XP in Los Angeles, Microsoft is to launch a brand new Limited Edition Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Xbox 360 Console. The limited edition Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 themed console will include two custom wireless controllers, a 320GB hard drive and a copy of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 complete with exclusive avatar items.
The console will also feature special Call of Duty custom sounds when the console turns on and off and when the disk tray ejects. Along with this, Microsoft will also be launching two other limited edition accessories, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Wireless Headset with Bluetooth and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 themed Wireless Controller.
The Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Limited Edition Xbox 360 Console is available for pre-order now and will launch on the same day as Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 on November 8.
Back in April this year in Weekly Shonen Jump Magazine, the Gintama and SKET Dance manga both featured crossover chapters with one another. It has been announced today that in what is without a doubt a rare occurence indeed, Sunrise anime studios and Tatsunoko Productions will band together to bring the crossover to the respective anime series of both Gintama and SKET Dance.
The Gintama episode airing on September 26th will feature various SKET Dance characters and the SKET Dance episode airing on September 29th will in turn feature various characters from Gintama.
It is well known that Kenta Shirohara (creator of SKET Dance) worked previously as an assistant for Hideaki Sorachi (creator of Gintama) and are both quite good friends. So this crossover came as little surprise to fans of these series. Be sure to check out the crossover episodes when they air.
What do you think of this announcement? Let us know in the comments section below.
Assy McGee Season 1 + 2 Collection Tag Line: Crime doesn’t pay, but it sure does stink! Produced by: Madman Entertainment Run time: 220 minutes in 20 episodes Language: English Genre: Comedy, Crime Release Date: 20/07/2011 Available for purchase at Madman Online Store ($29.95)
Overview:
Adult Swim programmes are not usually known for subtlety, so it comes as no surprise that Assy McGee is about as unsubtle as these types of shows come. But does subtle always equate to comedy? No. But does it mean that not being subtle equates to comedy? No. A balance is necessary when it comes to comedy. Sometimes to obvious can be funny and likewise sometimes something that is subdued can be funny. Assy McGee goes for the obvious jokes and hits all the notes you’d expect it to hit. But does Assy stink or swim?
Story:
The plot of Assy McGee is simple, yet complicated, yet unimportant, all at once. All you need to understand is that there is an ass named Assy McGee, who is a detective at the police headquarters and hes a total ass. I mean he literally is an actual ass.
Each episode runs for roughly 10 minutes or so and follows Assy as he tries to solve a case, usually against his commanders orders. How does an ass solve crime you ask? Well he mostly just walks in a shoots everyone, then gets drunk and uhh… Yeah he kinda causes more trouble than he solves. He is definitely the worst officer of the police headquarters.
Other than that, each episode is littered with the expected ass humour. Assy often farts randomly, stinks and just does what an ass does in general. A lot of the humour is based around the fact that he is an ass. Oddly none of the characters ever acknowledge that he is physically an ass, opting to instead comment on his personality as being a total ass.
For an Adult Swim cartoon, which are known for being obvious and crude, Assy McGee is definitely memorable. Mostly due to it’s complete out of left field concept. Overall it is a quite humourous ride. But ultimately, I believe it may be a little too low-brow for a lot of people. Though, if crude humour is up your alley, Assy will certainly appeal to you.
Characters:
The cast of Assy McGee consist of the titular character who as I previously mentioned is an actual ass, that solves crime. Other than Assy, the rest of the cast aren’t particularly used for humour. They mostly play the straight man to Assy and provide something for his craziness to bounce off of.
Although well concieved Assy is at the end of the day, still a stereotypical asshole detective character, no matter how original his design may be. Like Assy the rest of the cast fill stereotypical roles – the sidekick, the angry police boss, unhinged priest, etc. Thankfully they are all interesting enough to base comedy upon and therefore work in their intended way.
Artwork: Assy McGee has a very unique art-style which oozes Noir and Grunge each and every frame. The series is dark, that is for sure. The fact that they opted for this art-style adds to the gritty and often disgusting crude-ness on display. It works extremely well and provides Assy with it’s artistic centre which may appeal to some and drive others away just upon inspection.
The fact that they opted for such a unique visual-style is a credit to the creators as it would’ve been just as easy to go for a straight for animation style, which would have no where near as much heart as Assy McGee ends up having.
It’s this visual flair that makes Assy stand out from the Adult Swim crowd which consists of a lot of basic styled American animation artwork. Assy McGee however contains a memorable and easily recognisable art-style that suitably looks as funny as the show is.
Audio:
The audio on display in Assy McGee is truly brilliant. Not only does it compliment the concept and characters well but it also is damn catchy. The theme song in particular will have you humming along after a few watches. The incidental music and score in general are also well concieved and make a perfect match to the show.
The voice work was all on par, however I found Assy’s voice to be a little difficult to adapt to at first. However after you watch a couple of episodes, his speech patterns become second nature and are easy to comprehend and accept. All in all it was a commendable job by the audio department.
Special Features:
Madman didn’t manage to pack a hell of a lot of special features in here, however with a nice slip-cover packaging as well as containing two entire seasons is something to be happy about to say the least. There is certainly enough on offer here to appease anyone.
Due to the episodes being so short there is much replay value in quick bursts, thus eliminating too much need for special features to get some extra life out of this collection. I believe what we got was good enough, though something a little extra wouldn’t have hurt.
Conclusion:
In closing, Assy McGee is indeed an original series. I know I certainly haven’t seen anything like it before. It knows how to bleed every possible laugh out of the viewer as it possibly can with this concept and does so resoundingly. There may be a little too much obvious jokes on display here but it doesn’t detract overall from the experience.
This series is for sure going to be very divisive. There will be those who hate it with a passion and those who love it. Whether you love it or hate it at the end of the day, Assy McGee is wildly original and doesn’t leave a single possible joke unmade by the time the final episodes credits roll. It’s predictable, but still unpredictable enough that it ultimately is a winning formula, but it is still short of an Adult Swim classic.
