Armored Princess Battle Conductor

The robot-themed action figure franchise seems to be back with the upcoming mobile and arcade games from Konami as announced from this year's JAEPO. The arcade game by the name of Armored Princess Battle Conductor has some interesting cabinet design with the left extra monitor displaying the characters you're currently playing as during gameplay like it reminds me of the link animation from Arcana Heart 3 or something. Like Sega's Ongeki, there will be character card slots to insert character cards on. There's also the customization stuff along with in-game photo-taking and other stuffs although you'll be doing all that within the limited time since it's an arcade game.

The strange thing about the game is that, the gameplay takes place in the house's living room and the characters are all figure-sized like it's Toy Story version of a robot action game and that makes sense since the franchise started off with action figures in the 2000s but the previous games based on the franchise didn't seem like that as if the gameplay takes place in the actual battlefields. OK, it turns out that even this latest game entry will HAVE stages taking place elsewhere instead of the house. There are other things to rant about like CHARGING CREDITS/PASELIS TO DRAW ADDITIONAL CARDS and of course, the character doing something I can't describe once she's knocked out and then she disappears from the field after a while. Note that the armor that she has disappears first upon getting knocked out. The character should stay lying down upon defeat before disappearing. Normally, in a third-person team-vs-team action game for the arcades, the match doesn't end until one of various conditions is fulfiilled so if a character is defeated, it's not over yet. In the case of Gunslinger Stratos series, the match can actually end if one of the teams has emptied the team health gauge completely so one of the characters from the defeated team must have faced a final knock out of something.

Armed Princess Battle Conductor will have its Card Entry Terminal thingy where you can print the character cards. Sega's Ongeki has the terminal thingy and you're charged each credit or something for each card printed. Like most of Japanese mobile games, there will be character cards of multiple rarity levels so it looks like there will be PAID LOOT BOX feature in an arcade game like this and there's a purpose in drawing character cards for the sake of gameplay and more powerful characters by higher rarity levels.

If you're interested in a franchise like this from Konami, then maybe this latest arcade entry is what you'll try should it come out one day outside Japan. However, if you're trying to feel offended over anyone ranting about microtransactions and loot boxes being like gambling features in video games, don't bother making defensive comments on their content. You'll be scolded online for defending such a greedy practice like spending too much real money on buying in-game currency for the sake of using that currency to keep drawing character cards until you get the ones you want. Plus, a run of a modern arcade game already costs $1 or more in the local arcades and the addition of loot box feature that charges you additional credits may look like a worse story than other game modes charging you additional credits.

Armored Princess Battle Conductor will be out in the arcades next month and questions about console/PC releases may be difficult ones since the game looks next-gen compared to the previous game in the series.

Capcom Retro Station

Like Capcom Home Arcade, Capcom Retro Station is another expensive equipment with low amount of games, this time with Street Fighter and Megaman games and needless to say, this is like a lame way like that with an expensive gaming machine that doesn't look like a smaller arcade cabinet design along with lower amount of games and the inclusion of NON-ARCADE Megaman games.

Capcom Home Arcade has various arcade games and uses the arcade controller design although it is shaped like a Capcom logo which may seem unusual. The bigger controversy surrounding it was the Final Burn Alpha emulator used in it. That emulator is supposed to be for personal use and the team who worked on it wasn't happy about it. So what happened was that they made a new fork which is like Final Burn Alpha you know of, MINUS the offender who defended the controversial practice, saying that the emulator is licensed. Some updates later, a different emulator replaced the Final Burn Alpha although the price of the machine and the amount of games still make things questionable.

Speaking of questionable, this is a worse story for Capcom Retro Station. It's sort of like a mini-version of playing a console game on TV with the arcade controller. That method of playing has been around ever since the 80s. I happened to play the PC-Engine with the arcade controller in my childhood and that was that back then. I never used the original controller for that console for the games I played. On the Megaman side, it's a questionable choice with a mix of arcade and non-arcade Megaman games. The Street Fighter side is a complete joke like it's comparable to some Street Fighter compilation game on PS1 and Saturn that contains various revisions of Street Fighter II. Super Street Fighter II may seem like a remake to Street Fighter II with better music, voices and altered graphics but it's still Street Fighter II in general, not a different game, no matter how different it looks and sounds. The design is ridiculous like there's no telling who is that machine built for.

The Neo Geo Mini is fine with sufficient amount of games with a design that mimics the original arcade cabinet but the lack of clicky mechanism the arcade stick has may probably put people off. The upcoming Astro City Mini from Sega will have that for sure and the emulation is worked on by M2. But for Capcom Retro Station, who probably wants to buy that? Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection is already the best way to experience the Street Fighter series from Street Fighter 1-3, Alpha series included.

Like the Astro City Mini, Capcom Retro Station is getting a Japanese release sometime next month. Who knows if there will be an overseas release? Even with the western release, the amount of flaws already ruins Capcom Retro Station apart as listed below:

• Questionable choice of games on both sides
• Inclusion of non-arcade Megaman games and the lack of other Street Fighter games in the Street Fighter list
  
• Strange design
• Expensive price
• Low amount of games

Have five flaws like these listed above and you get one hell of an average machine.

Cinema hall booked for gaming?

What were those four patrons thinking when it comes to a shopping trip? Don't they have anything else to do besides shopping? HOW COULD THEY BOOK A CINEMA HALL FOR SOMETHING ELSE LIKE THAT? Normally, when it comes to cinemas, you'll go there to book a seat or something to watch a specific movie you want. You'll need to plan where you want to seat as well as the time slot when the movie will be screened.

The idea originated at the beginning of November and it kicked in several days ago when they had secured a time slot that would last 3 HOURS. And they claimed that they had "No Regrets" like they had a blast and once in a lifetime experience or something.

And the worse thing is, the cinema even allows something unusual like this to happen like it's more than watching a movie, as if the future customers want to go there to do the same thing as those FOUR PATRONS DID. You know what, TO THE BASEMENT with this unusual idea! I don't want to follow this kind of encouragement by going to a cinema just for something else like they did.

Of course, according to The Independent website, one of the patrons had the guts to dismiss the online complaint someone shared on social media against them. It seems that I can't access the link from that website as if that post was taken down or something. If it's not the complaint, then what is this to me, Surprise Experience?

What about the games with microtransactions and loot boxes? What can the cinema do? Is there a restriction to those games that have microtransactions and loot boxes? Even mobile games are considered video games for sure as if the smartphones/tablets can be hooked up to the theater projector or some sort. What about a gaming livestream, huh? Do cinemas give customers the rights for that?

What about LAN shops in Singapore, then? Isn't that a better choice instead of gaming in a cinema theater? Or maybe that's out of the question as they specialize in computer games, not console/mobile games. Even the arcade center may seem like a better choice, for arcade gaming only that is.

PS5 Scalping Group Claims That They Have "No Regrets" After Getting 3500 Units

Like the previous generation Playstation consoles, the amount of units being sold overall are quite super-high ever since the original Playstation. The same can probably go for various Nintendo consoles as well. However, the real problem is about product scalping in which scalpers sell the products they've obtained for a higher price and this is the one plaguing the Playstation 5 console with one group getting 3500 units. It's one scummy act and we hope that product scalping is a crime to begin with. Unfortunately, product scalping isn't a crime in the US on the federal level but some states view it as a demeanor. Depending on where you live, scalping or price gouging may or may not be illegal.

The situation is already out of control when it comes to Playstation 5 and the demands for that console are already quite high. One scalping group that has 3500 units had the AUDACITY to claim that they have "no regrets" for their actions. They also made the bots that messed up the online orders for Playstation 5 console in which instead of getting it as what the victims wanted, they got something else instead.

The group even has its own website that says that you can make Risk Free Profits through resales but of course, you'll surely find that site nefarious. They also had another audacity to lie online in social media, saying that the bots were not involved when the bots were INDEED involved in the mess as portrayed by the media. As the title of the blog post suggests, they claimed that they have "no regrets". However, a backlash was already drawn and I don't know if they will truly realize their mistakes and regret their actions. Needless to say, the comments on that social media post are mostly negative.

The video from Yongyea about this situation may probably say things all in detail and especially for the interesting comments I referred to.

Speaking of "No Regrets", I had seen a local news article that mentions four patrons booking a local cinema just to do something else but that will be in the next blog post. It's scummy enough for that scalping group to get away with "no regrets" like that and now, I discovered a different group that mentioned that they had "no regrets" as well.

Popular mobile games of the past

As if the previous blog article I wrote that mentioned something like Fl***y Bird somewhere in it wasn't enough due to the discovery of one of the recent news articles from Neowin about popular mobile games on Android, I may as well mention those past mobile games that article mentioned here. At the time, certain popular mobile games mentioned on that article had microtransactions as in-app purchases of premium virtual currency or additional default virtual currency using real money so you can use that feature for buying in-game items or upgrades and such. When I say additional default virtual currency, it means the only virtual currency in the game gets additional currency points. There are multiple ways the default virtual currency can be increased provided that it's the only kind of virtual currency in the game. Sometime in the early 2010s, there were eventually mobile games that introduced loot box feature but I won't include them in this blog post here as this is quite a different story.

So here are the past mobile games listed below:

Angry Birds

The classic Angry Birds games came out on mobile without any charge although they seem to have tons of levels with further levels being quite difficult. Having endless amounts of levels along with microtransaction for purchasing items as an easy way to proceed is what threw me off the most, more on that later, but with multiple Angry Birds games with tons of levels, it's going to seem like you would need tons of free time to attempt those levels if you could.

Temple Run, Subway Surfers, Jetpack Joyride & Fruit Ninja

They may seem simple concept-wise but the item-upgrade is what increases the replay value. The same may go for other games that are not endless runner games. Fruit Ninja has tons of sequels and versions with Kinect and VR being the good gaming experimental ways to play with full motion controls and usage of in-game slicer weapons to slice down fruits in the VR world using VR controllers. Even Angry Birds franchise has the VR spinoff as well but I don't know if there will be a VR endless runner game as well as if the only way to slide or jump will be through a press of a button while bashing away whatever obstacles coming your way or even avoiding whatever you're not supposed to run into.

Candy Crush & other similar freemium match-3 puzzle games

This is the kind of game you'll probably love or hate. Further levels will be TOUGH and that wasted tons of my time until I cleared some further levels by luck without even buying the in-game items or some sort through microtransactions. Maybe I'm better off with NOT spending money on microtransaction stuff as it may seem like a dangerous and addictive act in gaming. I could have used the money on something more important.

Hell, there's a good alternative to Candy Crush series that existed and that is Sugar Shock, from the same man who made the Bejeweled series of games and that follows the classic Bejeweled Blitz which relies on skills and luck for score. At least, that is a better time to spend on instead of Candy Crush which I couldn't tolerate anymore. It's a shame that EA had to follow suit with Bejeweled Stars for the sake of gaining additional money.

Flappy Bird and other games similar to it

This is one game I pretty much despised and avoided due to unoriginality of assets and garbage gameplay although its clones might have different look while retaining the same gameplay. The pipes looked like something from the Mario franchise and people including me eventually bashed the hell out of the game due to plagiarism and such.

Speaking of plagiarism of Nintendo IP stuff, there was some game like Giana Sisters on C64. One real fact is that, the lawsuit NEVER happened at all when it comes to the original Giana Sisters game on C64. Rather, Nintendo asked that the original Giana Sisters game be booted off the retail stores. Later games in the Giana Sisters series distanced themselves from the original Giana Sisters game.

The original Flappy Bird game was taken down due to bad influence such as addicting nature coming from it according to the sole developer. However, the damage was already done even if that game was taken down and with endless amounts of clones, the power of plagiarism has been running amok in the world of mobile games. At least, I had seen a paid professional indie game that took that power and its indie developer got away with it without being called out until the upcoming console/PC release that will take place next year. The power is real starting with stolen sound effects and the graphical assets are still similar to whatever the developer took even with various differences made.

Another stupid thing was the sales of IOS devices bundled with the original Flappy Bird app inside them after the game was booted off the app store.

Plagiarism in professional game development and music/video content theft = Copyright Infringement?

One serious note is that this blog post will be quite different than what Sidalpha made a video of when it comes to plagiarism in game industry. I blogged things about Filip Miucin as one notorious example of how much damage he had done to his reputation. Not even an apology is enough to help convince us as I expect something else like mistake realization. Sure, I did a bunch of stupid shit in the past but a change of the way I do nowadays as long as it's a good way and I'm doing right things may seem like something although it's still not enough to surpass mistake realization which is something that can convince people into knowing that I realized my mistakes or whatnot. Who knows how long until such past mistakes are eventually realized one day? From Sidalpha's video about plagiarism in game industry, it's obvious that plagiarism will not be tolerated by game developer companies or game review companies like IGN which is one company Filip Miucin was fired from. Right now, I'm not interested in the other culprit who took the Call of Duty Black Ops story script from the other person although the other culprit happens to be another YouTuber. Even as a YouTuber, plagiarism will not be tolerated or some sort as if you'll be called out online for doing that.

As I previously blogged about Rangok Skies/Operation Dracula, it is notorious for stolen assets that may seem like plagiarism. The ones the sole developer took already look obviously similar to the source material no matter the amount of differences. The sound effects already took plagiarism to the next level which is real copyright infringement. Plus, the game was PASSED OFF AS A PAID PROFESSIONAL INDIE GAME, first released on mobile, followed by the upcoming console/PC releases that will happen next year with even MORE plagiarized stuffs. Unfortunately, it looks like lawsuits against that sole developer won't happen easily due to how expensive the cost for one lawsuit can be. Not to mention that Cave Interactive is a small company or some kind. Perhaps, Sega and SNK can sue that developer because of those stolen sound effects as that kind of action the developer did is like a violation of a copyright law. Having stolen sound effects in a professional indie game like this have already made it worse than Fl***y Bird, probably after the power of the plagiarism started running amok like 6 years ago in the world of mobile gaming.

Another case I know of was about some artwork being stolen by Soulja Boy and used as a song album jacket. There were already different cases I mentioned like selling clone consoles he didn't invent whatsoever and passing them off as manufactured by him but that was a different story I already blogged about.

Another one involved a music cyber-thief named, Dimwell. That person was stealing tracks that were produced by other DJs/producers as well as false reporting their work and passing off the stolen tracks as his own productions. It may seem like copyright infringement but to me, what that person did was different than plagiarism for sure. I made a reply tweet to Fallensuperhero about this when I saw a tweet of his about someone downloading his YouTube video and then posting it on that person's channel because the video theft thingy wasn't the first time I saw on social media.

Then, there comes a problem whenever such culprits like the Rangok Skies developer got called out for their actions, and that is to call those who called out those culprits various things as an immature way of lashing out. The obvious examples from Rangok Skies developer involve calling those things like uneducated, authentic son of something, delusional piece of shit, etc. Even the Devil Engine developer got insulted when calling out the Rangok Skies developer as a result when being shown the comparison picture between the source material and the one used for Devil Engine. Another problem is the defensive brats defending the culprits who are being called out. So, about Soulja Boy being called out at that time for illegal clone console manufacturing and artwork theft for his song album jacket, there were those defensive white knights bringing out whatever that had nothing to do with the trouble he caused. I won't mention those outside things that were brought out here even though they had nothing to do with the problem he caused as bringing out those outside terms like that whenever he called out was sort of immature.

Citing source locations may be one thing under the Reference list for whatever you take as well as mentioning various source materials but major difference is probably another important factor like have you made something you've taken look a lot different? It may seem like it for Rangok Skies developer but the difference isn't that much that the things he took were still quite similar to source materials. There's no complete point fixing that game as it can be challenge in redoing it from scratch until it is a whole lot different.