A multi-layered series that looks back to the formative years of Ryu and Ken as they live a traditional warrior’s life in secluded Japan. The boys are, unknowingly, the last practitioners of the ancient fighting style known as “Ansatsuken” (Assassin’s Fist). The series follows them as they learn about the mysterious past of their master, Goken, and the tragic, dark legacy of the Ansatsuken style. Can their destiny be changed, or will history repeat itself?

Well, time for our first on demand/youtube review and what a doozey of a review aswell…
Season 1 of Street Fighter: Assassin’s Fist, the follow on to the Youtube short from 2010, Streetfighter: Legacy, which showed a night time fight between Ryu and Ken and got the whole of Street Fighter fandom around the world salivating for a real live action Street Fighter spectacle (especially after the travesty that was Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li)

This is very much a prequel to the First Street Fighter: World Warriors game/story and the years of Ryu (Mike Moh) and Ken Master (Christian Howard) training, aswell as the young life and training of their Sensei Goken (Akira Koieyama) and his brother Goki (Gaku Space), and his betrayal of Gotetsu (Togo Igawa) to become Akuma (Joey Ansah), the Demon of the No Hado!

The first thing that strikes straight away is the choreography of the training and fight scenes.  The training is utterly wonderful to watch and the fight scenes, especially the CGI added for the ingame moves, like the Hadouken and ShoRyuKen look cool.

Filmed in Sofia, Bulgaria, the locations are stunning too, the perfect backdrop for the training of two young world warriors into the video game characters we’ve been knocking heads with for nearly 30 years now

What I WASN’T expecting, yet supremely surprised about was the introduction of Ken’s father (Mark Killeen) in Episode 4: A Rough Night,  a boxer, who spends a day training with Ryu and Ken and showing them a few of his moves.  What really stood out most in this episode was the bond and training these actors and fighters have, the moves and dialect is fluid and warm and the fighting/training is quick and beautiful to watch aswell.

But they also get a taste of street fighting at a local bar against some American GI’s (and leave them in a mess of course) in this episode, of course we see Ken in full flow offering large bets, while Ryu looks out of his depth and uncomfortable being thrown into the ring.  Everything we know about these characters is there and real.

The real stand out throughout the series though is Goken, more than just their teacher, he’s a father figure and one that is respected and loved by both teenagers, and the flashbacks to his own training and trials with his brother Goki under the training of Gotetsu is part of the Street Fighter legacy that hasn’t been deeply looked into before now and it was good to get to know.

Goki’s transformation into Akuma is good to watch aswell, almost a rocky level montage of his body falling apart under the power of the No Hado and his transformation into the demon Akuma is great to watch.

The one thing that I don’t get with this series is why its even a series.  All 12 episodes were released right away and at 9/10 minutes an episode, I have to ask why…   If this was released on DVD/BluRay as a feature length episode, like  , Then I would buy it in a heartbeat.

Here’s hoping Machinima see sense to release it as a movie.

Now, to get back into the dojo myself, this gave me a definite recharge to my No Hado!

~9.5/10  Utterly Amazing!

Well, seems those details for Far Cry 4 have emerged a little bit sooner than was originally planned. Someone pressed a button they shouldn’t have and now we know just a little bit more about this game; this time from a legitimate source. Earlier someone set Far Cry 4’s store page on Uplay to display publicly, and it did get noticed by people. It got taken down again of course, but not before someone managed to cache a copy of it for the viewing of all who had the link.

So what do we know now? To further on the location of the game, the game takes place in the Himalayan region of Kyrat, and your character Ajay Ghale is there to fulfil a last request from his dying mother. This sees you getting mixed up with the plot to overthrow the self-appointed ruler of the region, Pagan Min. There also seems to be an option for a pre-order, which adds a free Limited Edition upgrade. This includes 3 single player missions that lead up to an exclusive weapon – a harpoon gun called “The Impaler”. Nice.

Google cache of the page is here.

There has been relatively little new information on Tecmo Koei’s Zelda/Dynasty Warriors mashup since the initial announcement some months ago. That changed with the release of Famitsu this week, as the magazine has revealed new images and details.

Titled Zelda Musou in Japan, Hyrule warriors is being developed by Omega Force and Team Ninja with some supervision from Eiji Aonuma, the Zelda series producer. Link will be cast as a soldier in-training that must resuce Princess Zelda from the witch Shia. There will also be several playable characters, including Impa who will be cast as the captain of the Royal Army and will wield a giant long sword. In addition, it will be possible to equip different weapons that will change the way characters fight, and the game will feature a weapon upgrade system. The gameplay is being described as Dynasty Warriors style action combined with Zelda’s Z-targeting, allowing players to avoid attacks and focus on enemy weak spots. Bombs also make an appearance, but are not a combat item.

Hyrule Warriors will include a two-player mode that will use the Wii U GamePad as a separate screen. Reportedly 70% complete, the game will be playable at E3 2014. and is slated to be released in Japan on August 14.  The Japanese version will also be available in a premium set that comes with a Triforce shaped clock and codes for 6 special character costumes. As yet, Nintendo has not announced a western release date for the game.

The Indie Game Show with DJs Digmbot and PredictedCyborg
Sunday night, 6pm til 9pm GMT, 1pm til 4pm EST.

On the Indie Game Show this Sunday…

Dead Shark TriplePunch!

Currently working on Epigenesis, a game they describe as an ‘FPS Ball/Domination Game’ on their Twitter and takes place in a future where two teams work their way across platforms high above to score goals against their opponents.

We’ll be joined by Calle Boström (@deadsharkcalle) to talk about the game, field the questions from the IRC and talk about the usual Inide Gaming topics.

Dead Shark TriplePunch Website: [x]

The Game: [x]

Click the link for your player to tune in:

Join us both on the website and in IRC @ irc.sanitarium.fm 6667 for indie gaming discussion and your chance to ask our guests questions!

Peter Parker runs the gauntlet as the mysterious company Oscorp sends up a slew of super villains against him, impacting his life.

Ok, a couple of weeks late on this review (so sue me, I’ve moved and still setting up my new office…), but here we go with The Amazing Spider-Man 2

Now I enjoyed the first film (For my Amazing Spider-Man review, please click here), but like Sam Raimi’s last trilogy, Amazing Spider-Man 2 falls over in the second installment and actually in a worse way to how Spider-Man 2 did…

Just like the Tobey Maguire films, this one went off the rails with too much going on, now the web swinging and butt kicking of NORMAL crooks was cool, the special effects looked amazing, but the real enemies left me meh.

Peter Parkers (Andrew Garfield) childhood friend Harry Osborne (Dane DeHaan) returns as his father, Norman Osborne (Chris Cooper) is on his death bed, to find out he is afflicted by the same genetic condition as his father that will likely kill him and is handed the research his father was close to finding a cure with.

At least Norman Osborne rightly got his time as the Goblin in the last trilogy, but this time, Chris Cooper doesn’t get any screen time beyond a death bed confession and accusation that Harry is useless and a disappointment…   I was literally wondering WTF when I saw that, and would have said it, had there not been a group of 8yr old’s two rows ahead of me…  (I go to the cinema in the day to get away from bloody kids, grr…) and to add insult to injury here, Chris Cooper isn’t even credited at the end of the film for his part, it was THAT small!

Now it was cool that the genetic illness killing him made him look goblin like, but c’mon, it looked shit…

And Dane DeHaan…  I thought he was exceptional in Chronicle in 2012, but his portrayal of Harry Osborne was awful. I hated the character and just thought he was a whiny lil’ bitch, don’t get me started as him as the Goblin…   I preferred James Franco back in Spider-Man 3…

Ok, lets move on to Electro…

/facepalm

I hated Electro (Jamie Foxx), he looks awful and even if he just wanted to be recognised by people, again, I just wanted to slap him and tell him to man up…

Can I also just say, I hate the CGI on his skin, yes, some of the effect on him fighting spidey was cool, but standing there?   he looked bloody awful and that’s all I’m gonna say there…  (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻

Now, I guess we should talk about Spidey (Andrew Garfield) and Gwen Stacey (Emma Stone) huh?  Peter is still haunted by the death of Gwens father in the first film and his dying words (he told Peter to leave her to keep her safe) and Peter can’t reconcile it.

Now we all know the actors are together in real life and this comes across on screen and somewhat redeems the movie.  Peter and Gwen are really sweet to watch on screen, especially on their date.

Peter and Aunt May (Sally Field) are also a joy to watch aswell and sally Field nails Aunt May much better than Rosemary Harris did in the last triilogy.

Then there’s the side story of Peter finding out more about why his parents did their midnight run for the border, leaving him with Aunt May and Uncle Ben and just HOW MUCH they were involved in the troubles at OSCORP.  Now in the comics, this surfaced that they were SHIELD Agents, undercover at OSCORP to expose Norman Osborne’s genetics work.  In this, the story of them leaving could have been totally left out of the film and him finding his dad’s secret lab would still have worked (and saved a not so great action scene on a plane)

Anyway…   So did I like the movie?   Yes, it was ok, the action scenes, for the most part, gave me a buzz and showed just HOW lythe and agile Spidey can be, but like the last trilogy, it’s trying to do too much, too quickly and shows that they really want to be part of the Avengers line, when clearly there’s nothing from Marvel to make this a thing…

On that note, would i like to see Andrew Garfields Spidey in Avengers 3?   Yup!   Fuck Yes in fact!

Will it happen in this humble journalists opinion?   Nope…

So, Rating time…

6/10

Let’s hope the Sinister Six don’t over shadow Spidey completely in The Amazing Spider-Man 3 in 2016