A while ago, a colleague introduced Cuphead to our small lunch group and I kinda forgot about it. I recalled it while researching for self-introduction slides (I just joined G Element as web developer). Here is the trailer:
The look immediately attracts attention. It is rare to see 2D game so well animated these days. I personally think it shows that the concept of revisiting an old, nostalgic product packaged for new audience holds a lot of promise.
What do you think? Let me know in the comments below :)
Just last week I posted a He-Man game model I recently finished. In a nicely-timed coincidence, I learned the existence of this game today:
It is called Toy Soldiers. (Let me clarify that I have nothing to do with this game.) Listening to the cheesy He-Man lines made me smile :\
More info in this Kotaku article.
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I used to be excited about video games. There was a period of time I thought I would work in a game company. With time and work experience, I changed. I was, and still am, convinced that what I really like is animation and story-telling, not games.
Games are complicated. Some games, such as Chrono Trigger and Terranigma, captivated me with their stories, music, and atmosphere. Other games, such as Sonic The Hedgehog 3, captivated me because of a fun game play, large stages, and great music.
I was lucky enough to grow up more or less in parallel with the game industry. The side effect was that I realize whatever factor I found fun in a game would be irrelevant in the "next generation" of games. To illustrate, I cannot honestly recommend Chrono Trigger and Terranigma to people to play now. They were fun for their time; they were fresh when they came out. Now they feel tedious to play.
The same thing applies to Sonic. I used to like Sonic games. I played Sonic 3, Sonic 1, Sonic 2, and Sonic & Knuckles. For a period I drew nothing but Sonic. A few years ago, probably around 2008, I revisited Sonic by playing Sonic Rush. Similar formula, so in theory I should like the game. I was puzzled to find the game tedious. Since then, at the back of my mind, I wondered what changed.
Today, I found this rather in-depth video about suggestions on how to redesign Sonic games. It is called "DEAR SEGA // Sonic Re-design."
(I link the video instead of embedding it with the hope that you will go there and leave a comment.)
I found the video answered some of my questions. It made me excited about games. I think great games do not have to push the innovation envelope; in fact, such games will probably feel tedious in a few years. Great games should respect the gamer and give an experience mixed with unexpected touches (instead of giving the same experience only with new levels).
Mr Lee Kuan Yew passed away on Monday morning, 23 March 2015. The last three days have been internally confusing. I wanted to express my gratitude towards this great man, but I did not know how. Today I decided that I should at least share articles that formulate in words what I feel about him.
Here is a quotation from the article that I personally feel important.
"My father immediately stood up when it was announced that Mr Lee had arrived, even though he must have known that, standing so far away in the midst of hundreds of parents and cadets, Mr Lee would not have been able to see him. After he stood up, others from all races followed. It was then that I truly realised what this Chinese man meant to my Punjabi father who was not even born in Singapore."
"It were these spontaneous reactions from migrants, who had seen what life was like in their home countries and now felt protected by a man they completed trusted, that made me pause and think."
The text in italics expresses my personal feeling about Lee Kuan Yew and Singapore.
Closer to my present occupation, this article was a surprise find. Perhaps I underestimated Singapore's gravity as an economic destination.
On Wednesday evening I went to the tribute site at Jurong East, just behind JCube. I have two anecdotes that I feel worth sharing.
I saw Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam and Ms Halimah Yacob there. To my surprise, they said "Thank you for coming." I thought it was I who should be thankful to have a tribute site arranged near where I live.
I saw a young father, around my age, with his young daughter, probably younger than Primary 1 age. He softly said to his daughter, "Let's give respect and then we go home." It brought so many thoughts, memory, and feelings to me. I start to understand that we all try to introduce some understanding about the past to the next generation, "to link the far past with the far future."
Rest in peace, Mr Lee Kuan Yew. Thank you for enabling Singapore to be what it is today.
Recently my wife and I watched Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014). We found it good enough, that I suggested that we watch first film, Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011). Watching the two films near enough to each other enabled us to see some interesting parallels between them.
(Spoiler alert. If you do not want to be spoiled, please stop reading here.)
Both films start with a group hunting another group.
In Rise, human hunted apes.
In Dawn, apes hunted... other animals.
Perhaps this parallel tries to tell us how far the apes advanced.
Both films put a (school?) bus as a significant piece in human versus apes battle.
In Rise, the apes pushed a bus to shield them from human machine guns.
In Dawn, the apes loyal to Caesar were imprisoned in a bus.
I do not know if this is intentional. If it is, why a bus? If you have an insight, please comment below. I will be happy to know.
Both films have a scene in which an ape rode a horse.
Both films have a sense of dread throughout. My wife and I agreed
that somehow the films makes us dread the bad thing that will happen in
the climax.
Overall, though, we thought Rise was more fun to watch than Dawn.
(Edit on 10 Feb 2015)
In both films the "villain" character fell (to his death?).
My wife pointed out an interesting observation related to this:
In Rise, Koba pushed the villain character.
In Dawn, it is Koba who fell.
It struck me as a poetic way to show Koba's character arc. Further, it revealed this to me:
In Rise, Caesar was not willing to do the pushing/killing. He let Koba do this.
In Dawn, Caesar accepted that he needed to do the killing. So, he let Koba fall.
What a way to design parallel scenes to show arcs of the two major characters.
Sunday, 2 February 2014, was the second day of Chinese New Year and Channel 5, one of Singapore's TV stations, aired G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra as a "Chinese New Year special." On the surface, it looked like a simple coincidence. After the film ended, though, my eyes went wide with realization. G.I. Joe has an abundant of characters (quite a few even have flashbacks); it also has an abundant of cool things for audience to see. The last scene in the film perfectly captures these. The film is about abundance, one of the traditional things related to Chinese New Year.
Now I know why G.I. Joe fits Chinese New Year (and knowing is half the battle).
