Our live radio broadcasts are currently on hiatus while we work on improvements to Sanitarium.FM's core services. For further information, visit our Discord.
Mother Russia Bleeds is an ultra-violent co-op brawler overflowing with an unmistakable style and unforgettably brutal action for up to four players at once. Set in an alternate U.S.S.R, the story centers on a desperate crew of imprisoned street fighters that must overcome an oppressive criminal authority and crippling drug addictions through any means necessary. Battle solo or alongside friends locally and online in an exceptional story mode campaign or harden your resolve in a multitude of formidable challenge and versus modes.
In an interesting hark back to teh games I grew up with, Le cartel, a small indie in France has teamed up with Devolver digital to bring us Mother Russia Bleeds, a side scrolling beat’em up in the style of final Fight or Streets of Rage.
Showing off gameplay today at GamesCom, we got to see some of the graphically violent gameplay that immediately felt natural for those of us that grew up on those iconic side scrollers.
The graphics are typically pixel based but incrediblt detailed, and the game play flows really quickly.
The game allows for 4 player co-op with the difficulty increasing/decreasing based ont eh number of players in game aswell.
This looks like a really fun game for a few freinds either on console or pc and is out on PC/Mac/Linux via STEAM on September 5th, with console versions coming a little later
The Japanese magazine “CoroCoro” has become so associated in the west with Pokémon news, that one merely needs to say “CoroCoro” and Pokémon fans flock to see what else has just been revealed about the next games in the series. Thus it comes as no surprise that with the most recent issue now out in Japan, once more we bring you new details about things coming to Pokémon Sun and Moon.
New Pokémon
Let’s start with the new faces, since that’s what all new generations are about anyway. This month, CoroCoro have pictures for four new Alolan Pokémon, including one that’s a pre-evolution of another recent reveal. Currently known by its Japanese name “Nuikoguma”, this cute bear with the pink face is a pre-evolution of the previously-revealed (and rather funnily-named) Bewear. A Normal/Fighting type like its bigger brother, Nuikoguma is very popular among women and children, and tops the lists of Pokémon people want to meet. It hates being touched and will kick and struggle to resist. It’s also described as being very powerful, and it only becomes more so when it evolves into the “herculean” Bewear.
Both Bewear and this new pre-evolution are shown on the bottom of the page you see on your left, but what are those rather creepy-looking things above them? “Creepy” is the right word indeed. These two Ghost/Ground-type Pokémon are basically haunted sandcastles. Shirodesuna – the bigger one – steals the life force from other Pokémon, in a style not dissimilar to the Gengar family I love so dearly. Whatever grudges that Pokémon had then get turned into Sunaba – the smaller one – which is Shirodesuna’s pre-evolution. Sand that becomes sentient from angry spirits… yeah, that’s pretty creepy if you ask me.
The other new Pokémon reveal is the little fishy to your right, currently known as Yowashi. Capable of fighting on its own in “Single Form”, it also has a special form called the “School Form” where it turns dark and gathers lots of itself together, to create a far larger and rather monstrous-looking fish. Unsurprisingly, it is a Water-type Pokémon.
New Alolan Forms!
As well as the new Pokémon, Meowth is getting a makeover. In Alola, Meowth were bred by the ruling Royal Family; as a result, they have become far more pampered and regal-looking. For some reason, they’ve also turned grey, and now class as Dark-type Pokémon. Also getting a new Alolan form is Marowak, who to protect from the island’s native predators, has learned to wield a ghostly flame to resist them. This flame now lights up both sides of its traditional Bonemerang, and turns the Alolan Marowak into a Fire/Ghost type himself. Both are pictured to the left of the Alolan Exeggutor, revealed a month or so ago.
Other Stuff!
CoroCoro also has hints to the Alolan region’s villainous team. Currently known as Team Skull, it is suggested the team may be Pirate-themed; and is headed by a boss currently known as “Guzma”, while there appears to be many female members including a woman currently known as “Plumeri”.
More information is hinted to be revealed next week, including a hint to a “secret evolution” of Rockruff. We’ll have more as it gets revealed, but until then, as always, you can join our Forum or Discord to have your say on what you think of the new reveals.
Update: Nintendo have pushed out a new English-language Trailer showing off the CoroCoro-leaked information. Watch it here:
I reviewed Star Trek Into Darkness back in May 2013, and although I gave it an 8/10, as a Trek fan, it didn’t live up to my wants and needs as a long term Trek fan! But reading through that review, I don’t know if I’d give it 8/10 now, but anyway, I did, so it stays and let’s look at Star Trek Beyond!
The USS Enterprise crew explores the furthest reaches of uncharted space, where they encounter a new ruthless enemy who puts them and everything the Federation stands for to the test.
Let’s kick off with the Memorial for Anton Yelchin though, and this film has a LOT of Chekov in it and it feels great for it! He plays Chekov brilliantly in Beyond, younger than in teh original series and rather a ladies man aswell, one scene on the Enterprise, as Kirk is doing a captain’s Log (monologue) we see Chekov being kicked out of a young ladies cabin, bare chested and top in hand and throughout the film, you get the sense he is rather the ladies man, more so than even Walter Koenig Original Series portrayal of Chekov.
He is a highlight throughout this film, he was fantastic to watch and he will be missed. I sincerely hope they DON’T recast Chekov and give him a great send off!
Right, let’s get into the review, and just as I did with Into Darkness in 2013, let’s look at the good and the bad…
As with Into Darkness, and 2009’s Star Trek, this film looks gorgeous.
Simon Pegg has done a great job on this script, I was invested nearly completely from the beginning and it was a character showcase from beginning to end!
The characters have a banter and friendship that comes across easily on screen and in some ways, is more solid than in the original series.
Where as Into Darkness bought Section 31 into the reboot universe, this one brings the Enterprise series in, with NX class ships shown off and even the Enterprise uniform blue jumpsuits (a personal fave of mine).
Now the bad points…
To be honest, most of my points that niggled me in Into Darkness still stand…
but let’s reiterate them again…
Why is the interior of the Enterprise like a huge power factory now, instead of the clean small rooms we are used to from the original series and the TNG series like TNG, DS9 and Voyager. The rebooted Enterprise warp core is fecking huge and looks like a turbine, not the sleek, throbbing beast we are used to from the old universe.
Why is the Engineering deck so fricking huge? Yes the warp core is 7 decks high, but why is it in the middle of a refinery?
The shuttlebay, why does it look like an aircraft hanger (which in theory it should) and not like the clean bay from the original universe?
The outside of the Enterprise, I don’t like it, I’m sorry, I really don’t… I know this is a new alternate universe, but why change the design, even subtely? Bring it upto date yes, but the DS9 episode, “Trials and Tribbleations” proved that a CGI’d original series Enterprise looked fantastic, the Constellation class Enterprise, considering it was designed and built in the 60’s is a beautiful design, why is the reboot version looking like a whale?!?
Physics… Throughout ALL the series and movies, we’ve heard that going to warp IN a solar system is bad… but both of the reboots have done this, all the ships going to warp in earth Orbit…
ok, lets get into the story then…
“SPOILER ALERT”
The film kicks off as Star Trek should, with a captains log, but this is a captain that knows he shouldn’t be in the centre seat. Kirk (Chris Pine) knows he’s there too early, he knows he joined starfleet on a dare (unlike Kirk prime (William Shatner) who joined following his dad into service), he has a crew, MUCH younger than they were in the prime universe and in a way, it shows. They are much more hot headed, more impulsive and get into scrapes a lot easier than Captain pike or even, Kirk Prime would have been.
Spock (Zachary Quinto) and Uhura (Zoe Saldana) are having relationship issues and everyone knows it. Leadign to a very real, very human crisis of concience for Spock after the passing of Spock Prime (Leonard Nimoy) and a beautiful quiet memorial to him.
McCoy (Karl Urban) is the father figure on the ship, giving sage advice aswell as being the bar tender. What really gets be in Karl Urbans portayal of Bones is actually the closest to the prime universes Bones (DeForest Kelley), as he was already older and more experienced, not only as an officer, but as a practiced Doctor. In fact, karl Urban holds a lot of this film together, plot twists always revolvoe around his character to one degree or another, from McCoy and Spock being stranded together while Spock is injured, to McCoy and Spock leading a raid to free the Enterprise crew and keeping Kirk from doing something stupid (like quitting starfleet) or out of his depth and really enjoying flying an alien fighter jet. This may have something to do with reports that Urban, as he had little to do in Into Darkness, nearly didn’t return to the film, but he was a main plot part all teh way through.
There was also a big upset in the news about Sulu (John Cho) being openly gay in the film. Now I actulaly really liked the way this was portrayed, we also know fromt eh prime universe that he has a daughter, adopted or otherwise, who grows up to join starfleet and end up as the helmsman of the Enterprise B in Generations… “It wouldn’t be the Enterprise, without a Sulu at the helm!” Kirk prime exclaims. But the very simple scene where Sulu meets his boyfriend/husband is beautiful, a nice simple cuddle and walking off with their daughter to spend time together on Sulu’s shore leave was not only tastefully done, but actually made sense. A lovely little flash later in the film that i really liked was Sulu having a photo of his daughter on the helm, I dunno if that would be ok, but apparenlty Kirk is fine with it.
Ok, there are LOADS of new characters in this film, but lets just go over the main bad guy and the main good guy thats not a member of the crew…
First up (and HUGE SPOILER WARNING!!!), Krall (Idris Elba) turns out to be a brilliant throw back to the Enterprise era of Star Trek and is actually a NX class starship captain who was classed as MIA and has been living off the life energy of other species while he builds an army to destroy the Federation for abandoning him and his crew? Ok, I might feel that way too in his situation, but he’s a SOLDIER, he knew the risks, especially as a MACO captain pressed into the role of an NX class starship captain. Krall (really Captain Balthazar M. Edison of the U.S.S. Franklin, NX-236 and one of the first Warp 4 starships before the launch of the Enterprise NX-01 Warp 5 starship) seemed to have come to the conclusion that Earth Space Forces (later starfleet’s) ideas of peaceful exploration over conquering other races was a sign of weakness that needed to be destroyed. A strange reaction, but it’s the centre point for the film, although it’s never REALLy explained how he got his regenerative powers or the technology his army are using, which urked me a little.
Next we have Jaylah (Sofia Boutella) and alien who’s parents were killed by Krall, allowing her to escape. After escaping him, she finds the derelict Franklin and make it her home on the planet, scavenging parts from other crashed ships Kralls forces destroy in orbit. She finds Simon Pegg’s Scotty in his escape pod (well, hollowed out photon torpedo) and saves him from other scavengers. She’s a great character, but you never really feel like you know where she learned to fight or how she learned to make all the tech she has, even from the scrap. thanks to the music library ont eh franklin she has an appreciation for good music, which also makes a cheesy moment near the end of the film and gets an amused smile from Chris Pines Kirk, but yeah, I never really felt overly invested in her character, hopefully she’ll be back in the next one though, maybe as a love interest for Scotty.
Ok, the script for Beyond was written by Scotty actor Simon Pegg, and it sometimes comes across cliched and almost a little rushed in places. I enjoyed the film as an action film and romp, but I don’t feel liek this new crew could live upto a series as long as most series are now. Of course we have Discovery coming early in 2017 and we know Star Trek “4” is coming, maybe in 2018/9, ut although this IS Trek, it’s not the Gene Rodenberry Star Trek I grew up loving, it’s still mising the exploration and especially the science that we love from the series… and this is bourne out by the larger than needed refinery looking engineering decks, rather than the clean original series or functional TNG/Voyager starship engineering decks. It’s a workable film and I’ll happily add it to my movie collection, but it doesn’t excite me like the series and original movies, but this is certainly the best of the three reboots!
One thing I did love and bought a slight tear to my eye though, was a scene of Spock going through Spock Prime’s personal items and the main one being a photo of the original cast, one that I actually have on my desktop, so I’ll share it here too to finish this review off…
A bold 8 out of 10, but i could take it or leave it, rather than rewatching religiously
There’s nothing better than playing old-school classic games on the original hardware. Sure, software emulators, Nintendo’s Virtual Console, and Steam re-releases may make it far easier to play older games and even bring them with you, but there’s just something about using the original controllers and playing on dedicated hardware that just feels right. Problem is, when those consoles are approaching three decades old, are chunky as hell, and the cartridges likely to now be rusted-out and playable – not to mention they use the kind of outputs like coaxial cables that are practically unheard of on modern generation TVs – who really wants to go to the effort of setting up an original NES once again to play games like Castlevania the way they were meant to be played?
If you’re one of the people who agrees with everything I just said, you might find Nintendo’s newest product announcement of interest. Enter the Nintendo Entertainment System: NES Classic Edition, a mini replica of the original console. The NES Classic Edition is designed to give you the feel of playing on original NES Hardware – the controller even looks and feels like the original – while removing all the inconveniences. While it won’t read your cartridges, the NES Classic Edition packs in 30 of the NES’s classic titles, which together offer a well-rounded sample of the best of NES history even if there are some decidedly odd choices – SUPER C but not the original Contra? Come on, Nintendo!
The full list of included games runs as follows: Balloon Fight, Bubble Bobble, Castlevania, Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest, Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr., Double Dragon II: The Revenge, Dr. Mario, Excitebike, Final Fantasy, Galaga, Ghosts’n Goblins, Gradius, Ice Climber, Kid Icarus, Kirby’s Adventure, Mario Bros., Mega Man 2, Metroid, Ninja Gaiden, Pac-Man, Punch-Out!! Featuring Mr. Dream, StarTropics, SUPER C, Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros. 2, Super Mario Bros. 3, Tecmo Bowl, The Legend of Zelda and Zelda II: The Adventure of Link.
All this is packed into a miniaturised replica of the original NES hardware that’s small enough stand on your outstretched palm. The package also includes a HDMI cable so that the games can be played on modern HDTVs, and a single NES Classic Controller. The controllers and ports use the Firewire standard as used on the Wii Controller for its accessories – so sorry, original NES peripherals won’t work here, like they’d have much use anyway.
The system launches this November 11th for $59.99 across North America and the UK. However, it is interesting to note that the UK edition will not launch with its own AC adapter, which is included with the North American edition. Cheers for that, Nintendo. We still remember the 3DS XL…
Okay, as much as I am a fan of Mega Man games, when it comes to Keiji Inafune’s spiritual successor, Mighty No. 9 – a game that I was super-hyped about when it was first announced, and was devastated its Kickstarter was at a time I was financially unstable – in more recent months, I have simply stopped caring.
When you look at the track record, it’s hard not to see why. The project has been delayed three separate times for varying periods of length, which have led to its launch being delayed by almost two years in total. For its promise that it would arrive on all “current and next-gen consoles and PC”, it has really missed the boat to be relevant on consoles such as PS3 or Wii any more; and with Nintendo’s NX expected next year, it’s also rather late even for the Wii U. The fact it finally even HAS a launch date (June 21st) is the only saving grace.
So, after the long wait, you’d think Deep Silver – the development team working on the game alongside Inafune’s company, Comcept – would at least have a clue how to market Mighty No. 9 properly, right?
Well, no. The latest trailer for the game, while visually impressive and packed with action, is embarrassing fans and non-fans alike for its cheesy voice-over. Not only does it refer to the game using the sort of lines that should have probably stayed in the 80s – “Do you like awesome things that are awesome?” as an example – but it even borders on offensive to both Mega Man fans and Anime addicts – anyone who thinks “and make the bad guys cry like an anime fan on prom night” is a good line should be summarily fired. Unless you’re highly lactose-intolerant, take a look at the video below and make sure you keep the sound on:
Let’s be honest here. Mighty No. 9 is the kind of game that is most likely to appeal to people with a love of old-school platforming action games – I should know, I am one, and I still plan to get this game despite everything. Considering Keiji Inafune is well-known for such titles, Deep Silver should have been well-aware of this and marketed the game accordingly. Instead, they seem to be aiming for a ’90s Teenager vibe – excuse me while I look at a calendar. Keiji Inafune himself is already facing fan scepticism for his antics with the Kickstarter for another Comcept title, Red Ash, so this marketing disaster is unlikely to restore confidence in him or his company.
