Pac-Man World Re-Pac - Updated Credits

A few months after the game's release, Bandai Namco and Now Production had made a patch that improved many aspects of the game such as credits, soundtrack and other stuffs that were changed. The credits part is the most important part of the update with the original team who made the game credited with True Accurate Information. Under the Sounds and Music part, it is Todd Dennis and Joey Kuras who worked on the music and sound part for the original version of the game under Tallarico Studios at the time. With this updated credit list, it can be proven that Tommy wasn't the one who composed the music for the game at all. Also, it is the first step in undoing the damage Tommy had caused in the past. The other games Tallarico Studios was involved in still have inaccurate credit information for the composer as if many websites still state that Tommy is the only composer due to him passing off others' compositions as his.

Besides the patch, there are two DLCs for the game and the Jukebox feature allows you to listen to the high quality versions of the songs in the Sound Test. The soundtrack in Re-Pac is said to be updated with high quality and uncompressed versions for free but the Jukebox remains a paid DLC.

Indeed, compliment is what I have for Bandai Namco and Now Production for a truly accurate credit information for the original team under Special Thanks category. However, this update should come with a new responsibility to keep those credits for the original team accurate and protected. The sites that wrongly claimed that Tommy Tallarico was the composer for this game should have corrected the credits in the game page once the update was out. I don't know for sure if there's some jerk-face out there who tries to make a malicious request to those sites to revert said changes or not but I think that the Special Thanks portion of the updated credits list should remain in the accurate form.

Aside from the Intellivision Amico controversies, there were other backlashes Tommy had done in the past such as giving Super Smash Bros games a low score in the most ignorant and offensive ways, and passing off other stuffs like sound effects he didn't make as his creations for instance but you can look up those stories yourself as they're beyond the scope of this blog article. His actions were not cool back then and the on-going controversies surrounding the Amico had already tarnished the Intellivision brand and his reputation further.

COD MW2 Phone Number Requirement Controversy (A controversy borrowed from Overwatch 2?)

If the phone number requirement for Overwatch 2 wasn't controversial enough and is a feature that won't go away for new players of the Overwatch series, even the upcoming COD MW2 will borrow that feature. That's Activision Blizzard for you which can mean game franchises coming from both sides. The problems Activision Blizzard mentioned like bots, cheaters and other types of gaming misbehaviors still exist to this day but to make use of phone number to tackle such problems isn't going to help a lot in my opinion as there are concerns of the solution's downside like someone using someone else's phone number to do such malicious activities for instance. So, if you see someone doing such malicious stuffs in the game online, you should report that person. Of course, it's not an easy feat from that point on as once that person's account is terminated for their disruptive behavior, they can come up with another account to circumvent the account termination and continue such nefarious acts using it.

It's like Activision Blizzard downplayed the backlash Overwatch 2 caused and they're trying to extend it further with other games like COD MW2. You may wonder if they're out of their minds enough to cause another gaming controversy in a row or something after a series of controversies surrounding Diablo Immortal occurred. It's worse than we thought but again, people were right to be disgruntled and vocal over such controversies like this. And to anyone claiming that people were "entitled" for feeling displeased, disgusted or whatever over the Diablo Immortal gaming controversies, it'll be best to reflect on this mistake.

Overwatch 2 Phone Number Requirement Controversy

What kind of greed would come up with an unusual requirement for playing a game like Overwatch 2? Indeed, there have been cases of bots, cheaters and toxic behaviors plaguing whatever popular game out there but to make people enter their phone number as part of logging in to the game in the guise of tackling those problems is already STEP BACKWARDS. How can THAT be a solution to said problems, anyway? It's like an email address isn't enough to mainly represent your gaming account that the phone number is somewhat the main thing or a required portion of the account information.

It's stupid that Activision Blizzard had the audacity to mandate something like linking/attaching a phone number to the gaming account to play. Sure, if anyone is caught using bots, cheats or even impersonating someone as part of a disruptive and immature behavior for instance, that account of theirs will be banned. Granted, that person may end up making a new account to continue such acts as a way to circumvent the account termination. As long as that person's malicious behavior continues to persist, it's going to be a long fight against it. So, what can Activision Blizzard do to the phone number belonging to the account that is reported?

A bigger problem is that not all players were able to play Overwatch 2 as they happened to use prepaid plans but the lucky thing was that not all prepaid plans were affected and even then, is there an acceptable reason on why the account used to play Overwatch 2 and other games must have the phone number attached? What about the authentication app? Many tech companies have one and it's said to be more convenient for account security.

I don't know for sure if handling over your mobile phone number by attaching it to your battle.net account as required for playing Overwatch 2 is considered a privacy violation or not. Even if it is, the mandation of phone number for playing Overwatch 2 is a NEW LEVEL OF GREED I've ever seen in gaming. How much worse the reputation can be for Activision Blizzard after endless amounts of controversy surrounding Diablo Immortal? There's already a well-known case of some streamer spending huge amounts of money on the microtransaction feature in Diablo Immortal and his acts were financially selfish. You could have spent that same amount of money for a house or something instead.

Yesterday, Activision Blizzard dropped the controversial requirement for Overwatch 2 for anyone who's played the original Overwatch. So, I do have a feeling that the requirement is still there for those new to the series or something.

Currently, the game is in early access and was recently released a few days ago as a free-to-play game on PC, Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Playstation 4 and Playstation 5.

Happinet Gamers Festival from this year's TGS

Yesterday, there was a livestream from Game Center Mikado's official Youtube channel showcasing various classic remakes and the City Connection/Zerodiv port of Akai Katana for 8th-gen consoles. There are reasons for mentioning things about the remakes, the Zerodiv port of Akai Katana and a short video from the character from Needy Streamer Overload in a stream from Game Center Mikado's channel of all the gaming channels. What is that short video doing in a channel like that? It could have resided in WSS Playground's official YouTube channel.

The first game they had shown was a remake of Phychic 5, the arcade classic from NMK in 1987. The unique thing about its presentation is that you can switch between Original or Wide aspect ratio and Original or Arranged graphics and sound on the fly. This supersedes R-Type Dimensions when it comes to switching in-between on the fly during the game where you have not one but two options to switch things in-between. The earlier examples I can know of that have extended playfield are Giga Wing Generations on PS2, Mamoru Has Been Cursed on PS3 and Under Defeat HD and HD+. However, only some game modes have the extended playfield while the original game modes retain the original aspect ratio. By having an extended playfield, it's going to affect how you play the game. The shameful thing is that the game never had a home console release until its remake was announced this year. The remake will come out in Spring next year on Switch.

The third game they had shown was a remake of a Disc Station RPG originally from Compile. Many of the Compile IPs are with D4 Enterprise and it was a surprise that some Disc Station RPG was being developed. I don't know for sure if Sega owns the rights to the Puyo Puyo-related Disc Station games or not as those are part of the Puyo Puyo franchise. The RPG game is trying to be Compile's answer to Konami's Suikoden or something and the remake is going to come out on Switch next year.

The last one they showed was a City Connection port of Cave's Akai Katana Shin that will be released on Switch, Playstation 4 and Xbox One. It's a strange move to have an Xbox One release when there's already an Xbox 360 version. The new thing exclusive to those ports so far is the new arrange soundtrack named, Arrange '22, in which the arranged tracks are done by Daisuke Matsumoto of Cave. There's even the CD of said soundtrack that comes with the Limited Edition copy of the game. It's one exlucisve addition the Exa-Arcadia version doesn't have. It's unexpected that my encouragement for 3rd-party game developers about adding something new the Intellivision Amico version doesn't have to the later or previous versions of their game has become true or something due to City Connection's recent idea but that said encouragement was for 3rd-party game developers who happen to make the Amico version of their game, not City Connection. I don't know how Exa-Arcadia team will react to the City Connection's port of Akai Katana Shin due to its own exclusive addition. The City Connection port of Akai Katana Shin will come out in December this year.

So, the lesson or encouragement is that, the game developers can add extra stuffs like new characters/ships/planes/stages and new remade graphics/soundtracks to the previous or later versions of their game, the additions the Intellvision Amico version will not have. Hell, they may as well switch to a different game engine or a new version of the same game engine that the Amico is not able to support or handle it at all, with features added to their game after the game engine/version switch that will put their Amico version to shame. What City Connection did to their upcoming port of Akai Katana Shin is a brave but unexpected move with a brand new arrange soundtrack.

Pac-Man World Re-Pac Credits Controversy?

The Rangok Skies controversy was a real definition of controversy over stolen assets that the credits list remains questionable to this day because of the stolen sound effects. That is something the developers have no intention to do something about despite having made some improvements and other changes prior to the game's release. At least, Mojang put in the a fully detailed credits list for sound effects taken from freesound.org that are used for Minecraft and that's appreciated.

In the case of Pac-Man World Re-Pac's credits list, the original developers of the original Pac-Man World aren't credited in the remake and that's a shame and disappointment. I don't know if this qualifies as a gaming controversy or not as there's a chance the developers of the remake will be requested to fix the credits list, just like how the developers of the 8th-gen console ports of S**** Colors added the credits related to Godot game engine in a patch. Believe it or not, for every game made with Godot game engine, the game engine has to be credited no matter what despite it being a free and open-source game engine. At times, there are games that show the Made With Unity logo upon starting up. This lets people know that that game is made with Unity game engine.

Some interesting story prior to the remake's release included the fact that Tommy already sold the rights of the soundtrack to Bandai Namco and the composer is actually Todd Dennis, not Tommy himself. The credits information for the composer circulated on the net has been mostly incorrect and to find a correct one is a challenge to this day.

There are multiple reasons why people were interested in taking a look at Pac-Man World Re-Pac:

1. It's a remake of the original that came out on Playstation 1 in the late 90s.
   
2. Tommy and others under Tallarico Studios were involved in the sound and music department for the game.

The controversies surrounding the Tommy and Intellivision Amico were severe enough that the Amico console will never see a release because of his poor leadership and disrespectful attitude but the latest concern regarding the fact that the original developers of Pac-Man World aren't credited in the remake has attracted the attention of the content creators, fans of the franchise and some original developers. I don't know for sure if even Tommy would be disappointed for this but if it looks like he doesn't care for this controversy-to-be because the remake was released recently on Switch, Sony and Microsoft consoles, maybe his disrespectful attitude is still intact even if the Amico console was pretty much dead at this point that even a family would buy a Switch and play together or something.

Ray'z Arcade Chronology

Just how many re-releases are there? Many Psikyo classics were released on mobile like more than once with later releases being based on the Zerodiv ports. The same can go for Taito's Rayforce on modern consoles and Deathsmiles on PC with the City Connection port being part of the compilation with DLC characters for the first game. Even the original Darius is guilty of the same thing, one that is Arcade Archives version and the other being part of the compilation made by M2. A regular audacity ever since the past times is how overpriced Taito games are.

City Connection has plans for modern console releases of several Taito arcade classics although Puzzle Bobble 2 was already in Arcade Archives under ACA Neo Geo but that was a little bit graphically inferior to the other arcade version of the same game whose hardware is 32-Bit. A cool thing about the S-Tribute release of Rayforce is that you can set the in-game screen orientation without setting the external UI to be in the same screen orientation as the in-game. Since the game is based on the Saturn version, you get superior soundtrack although the graphics are inaccurate in horizontal screen mode and the S-Tribute version doesn't fix the flaws the Saturn version has. The real concerns are the input-lag and screen shimmering and City Connection was aware of the input-lag issue.

What can the upcoming M2 version do besides the fact that all the games in the upcoming compilation game, Ray'z Arcade Chronology are based on the arcade versions? Will there be a consumer mode for the all games that have different game modes? G-Darius HD had Ver. 2 and Consumer Mode you can choose from in addition to the initial arcade version. Like G-Darius HD, Raystorm and Raycrisis will have a similar treatment from M2, so other than the games being basically upscaled, the rest of the graphics are the same. The mobile version of Raystorm is said to have Hi-Res HUD and rearranged Stage 1 BGM as the exclusive additions but it's a shame that the upcoming compilation game will not have that Hi-Res HUD for Raystorm Neo HD.

One exclusive bonus is that you'll be able to try out the prototype, R-Gear, which has only one stage. Suffice to say, it's something as experimental as G-Darius Exhibition from G-Darius HD Steam version, the deepest part of the compilation.

As for the choice of modern console ports of Taito's arcade classics, you can choose to go for either the City Connection port or the M2 port of Rayforce. It's unexpected for the upcoming compilation game, Ray'z Arcade Chronology to be the next project from M2 and it's going to be released in March next year. Only time will tell what else will they work on in the future.

S**** Origins compilation controversy

Hate to blog anything related to that franchise I'm no longer a fan of but it seems that many journalists and content creators brought up AAA GAMES while the topic is about S***c Origins, the upcoming compilation game from Sega that will come up in two months or so. The reason has something to do with Sega emulating what other companies like Rockstar and Square Enix did to the original versions of the old games in favor of the remastered ones. Suffice to say, GTA Trilogy Definitive Edition is a disaster when it came out that Rockstar would eventually come up with a plan to reinstate the original versions of the old games on Rockstar Store which is still an incomplete amend they had made. Square Enix had pretty much done the same for some classic Final Fantasy games on mobile and PC in favor of the Pixel Remaster versions and the Pixel Remaster versions of the classic Final Fantasy games are said to be quite good.

So, what is Sega planning for this compilation this time? Well, they're planning to remove the original versions of the classic S***c games from Steam, PS3, Xbox 360 and even Playstation Now service in favor of the enhanced compilation version done by Christian Whitehead and Headcannon, who were behind the enhanced ports of some classics previously released on mobile with S**** CD enhanced version released on mobile, PC and consoles. The recent actions from Sega attracted the attention of some content creators who make news videos on big games like those AAA games for instance.

The gaming news that had both the upcoming S***c Origins and whatever AAA games mentioned was the reason I wrote this blog article in the first place. Even the content creators who make gaming news videos, ranted about this S***c Origins controversy in a professional way like proper adults.

Space Kabaam on Playstation 4 & Playstation 5

What is this bare-bones looking shit that was recently released on Playstation 4 & 5? Indeed, I have appreciation for indie games being on consoles, mobile, PC and even arcades but Space Kabaam by Auto Slavic looks like something that is being shown in a game jam event. It has one stage, no powerups, simple enemy ship attacks, bare-bones presentation and the game session behaves like an endless runner. The flow is there from start to finish in which the game jumps to in-game and then goes to result screen after the game is over. Even Big Rigs: Over The Road Racing and Popeye reboot have a proper flow although some stages in Big Rigs are not there or something that choosing them might result in a program crash. Desert Bus on Sega CD has an in-game session that doesn't end or something and that makes it more incomplete than other games I just mentioned.

If you want to play an endless runner-style shmup game with a complete presentation and sufficient contents, how about MUGEN Vritra on mobile and PC or Galaga Wars on mobile? MUGEN Vritra has one endless stage that is divided into randomly chosen areas and the player character which is the flying dragon has different weapons to choose from. Galaga Wars has multiple ships to choose from and each ship has its own set of weapons that can be upgraded just like in other endless runner games. It also has multiple stages but it is still an endless runner-style game. Once you reach the final stage, you'll remain there for the rest of the game session.

For an indie game in such an incomplete state, the release of Space Kabaam has left people baffled on how could Sony allow something like this to happen. The gameplay of Big Rigs: Over The Road Racing is unpolished with the game having incomplete set of race tracks and Popeye reboot has a few different maps and that's that. Space Kabaam has a severely bare-bones presentation I've ever seen and is not worth the time no matter which platform it is released on.

Even as an indie game, people expect a complete and interesting set of contents. Undertale has tons of unique stuffs and demonstrates the goodness of indie gaming on modern gaming platforms.

G-Darius HD Steam version

While the game performs faithfully to the arcade original with accurate emulation, the game name is still misleading as the visuals are more or less the same with the player ship being updated and the edges no longer looking jaggy in HD Mode so it's basically G-Darius in upscaled high-res glory. The Steam version of G-Darius HD has on more game mode exclusive to it, G-Darius Exhibition, which is an experimental game mode offering ultrawide gameplay experience with the HUD and in-game UI re-positioned. That game mode puts Playstation emulators with widescreen feature to shame with more accurate emulation M2 has come up with so far.

Some of the SNES and Genesis emulators have the widescreen feature but the games were designed with original aspect ratio in mind so there may be issues with that emulation feature. To get a true widescreen experience for SNES/Genesis games on those emulators, the games will need to be modified with widescreen in mind with the modification saved as a patch for the roms. But in case of Darius 1 & II, why would you want to come up with a widescreen patch for Genesis version of them when you can experience the arcade version instead? Just buy the compilation game or something like Darius Cozmic Collection for instance.

Like the previous M2 Shot Trigger games, some of the game modes for G-Darius HD are exclusively new which included M2 modifying the games with their own feature additions and other stuffs. As G-Darius Exhibition is an experimental game mode on what it's like to have a dual-screen game just like the other Darius games in the arcades excluding Darius Gaiden, only the boss battle feature made the cut although not all bosses are present in that mode. It's an awesome addition but if only it includes the whole game.

There was even a campaign taking place at Tsukumo PC shop's second floor at Akibahara where the Steam version of the game was being demonstrated there in G-Darius Exhibition game mode, allowing people to experience the ultra-wide gaming with sub-woofer installed in the seats. Sub woofers installed in the player's seats of the arcade cabinet have been a thing ever since the original Darius hit the arcades. Darius Burst Another Chronicle is the latest to have the similar cabinet setup. Like Darius I, II and Darius Burst Another Chronicle (Part of Chronicle Saviors) PC versions, there will be support for multiple monitors for G-Darius Exhibition game mode for G-Darius HD.

Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid shmup game controversy?

If "fan-service" is the only thing Kaminari Games had without anything else like a message or mistake realization when making a shmup game based on Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid franchise, perhaps, I sense a bigger gaming controversy drawing near. Back then, during the game development of Omori from Omocat and her team, there were already some controversies including the one involving some indecent words on the main character's T-shirt. She already realized her mistake at the time and fast forward to when the game, Omori, was finally released, it was quite successful with positive reviews. This one from Kaminari Games will put the previous gaming controversies I discovered to shame. Of course, there are other shmup games out there that are more disturbing than this and they happened to be released in recent years.

These are the following reasons on how the controversy-to-be regarding the game based on Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid franchise could happen:

1. Damage portraits taken from Caladrius - The bosses have multiple phases and when you complete one phase like that, a portrait of the boss character can be displayed. For the player character's side, the same thing can happen if you lose a life in Caladrius. In the Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid shmup game, you can switch between three active characters and each character has her own health gauge. Taking damage decreases health and triggers such portrait taken from Caladrius. For boss battles, the same thing applies to some of the bosses. Needless to say, the game consists of the characters of multiple age-ranges with some of them looking like pre-teens or something. It's basically a gaming controversy waiting to happen since even the pre-teened characters are put in the mix for the gameplay with Caladrius elements.
2. Questionable character design and hybrid - We can complain about weird character hybrids all we want but rather than complaining about it countless times, why don't we redo something with more decent character design unofficially? The character concept from the source material is already questionable enough and Kaminari Games had made things in the game quite disturbing.
3. Worst way the enemies and bosses are defeated in a shmup game - We thought that Natsuki Chronicles had the worst explosion effects when enemies are defeated in the land of 8th-Gen console era but this one from Kaminari Games goes in an unusual way. The enemies are blown away with trails of static smoke when defeated like you're playing a modern Bomberman game or Super Smash Bros and the bosses retreat upon defeat like you're playing a platformer game or something. At least, in Sisters Royale, the enemies explode upon defeat and the boss characters blow into large amounts of particles, pieces of crystals and other effects upon defeat while the game still resembles Castle of Shikigami series. Even KOF Sky Stage has the modern boss defeat effects that slow down the game.

The first reason as described above is the most obvious one on how the gaming controversy could happen for real but as this is the game based on Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid franchise, it's not like Kaminari Games or Bushiroad is fully to blame for such controversy. The others' opinions on the game may be positive just because it's based on Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid franchise like they can dismiss my thoughts on how controversial it is as something bullshit and whiny.

A game like this that's disturbing and released on Switch had become one of the reasons on why Tommy would make offensive remarks on that console on the forum while manufacturing the Amico. Indeed, the Switch has tons of mature games besides the family-friendly games and the games with ESRB T ratings but the real offense from him is the lack of research and labeling the Switch in such an ignorant way that the Switch owners would get offended by him. The recent crowd funding from Intellivision at Start Engine also had a share of ignorant remarks about how such games like the one developed by Kaminari Games had divided families apart.

For the game center Mikado's part, I think that their support streams for Raiden IV are the final straws for MOSS and Kaminari Games after the Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid shmup game's release.

Rangok Skies/Operation Dracula Controversy Part Two

So, the game was recently released on Steam despite the large amount of plagiarized assets including some sound effects and when it comes to stolen sound effects used in an indie game, that's where the players who have cleared the game can sense that something isn't right with the Sound Effect portion of the credits. Like exactly where those stolen sound effects come from other than the sound effects taken from freesound.org? Prior to the release, there were some improvements done to the gameplay and visuals but the problem of plagiarism is still serious and present, putting other controversial professional indie games I discovered in the past to shame.

In addition, there's the official website of Rangok Skies which looks fine although the news part may seem slightly unprofessional and even then, the successful release of the game on Steam ever since its mobile release 6 years ago had already upon doors to legal investigation. Will the investigation really happen? I don't know if it will really happen or not since the game is an arcade-style 2D shooter although the incident regarding Dangen Entertainment and other indie game developers was bigger enough than this that Dangen Entertainment's actions were mentioned by Sentinels of the Store Steam Curator Page. I first discovered that Steam Curator Page and community group thanks to Sidalpha who highlights the dirty game developers' shady actions. Speaking of that page, Rangok Skies may deserve to end up in it under Theft List over stolen assets.

If Rangok Skies is to end up in that Theft List from Sentinels of the Store Steam Curator Page, it will look like an important lesson for indie game developers. But then, that important lesson has been there ever since the page was established and the lists have been growing larger with newer games added in them.

Love Live School Idol Festival After School Activity on PS4

Like Project Diva Arcade receiving a console release on PS4 and Switch and being an arcade spinoff to the original Project Diva series, it seems that Love Live School Idol Festival After School Activity is following the same route as well via the upcoming PS4 release that will come out next year, featuring songs, costumes and stages from the arcade version. From the game's official website, you can see which song corresponds to which costume which may seem like a nice touch but there's a severe downside of the game.

The downside is that, you'll have to buy tons of packs of songs and costumes as DLCs and the initial amount of songs and costumes isn't that much when you get the game. Project Diva Future Tone on PS4 has two large DLCs with extra stuffs being later DLCs and the physical package version bundles the first two DLCs. However, in the case of Love Live School Idol Festival After School Activity PS4 version, it goes in the route of past mobile rhythm game days where newer packs of songs added to the game will be paid-DLCs via in-app purchases. Jubeat Plus, Reflec Beat Plus and even some of Rayark rhythm games are notorious for this practice but in case of Rayark rhythm games on mobile, the number of free songs seems to be larger.

As a console port of the arcade game based on the original game that started on mobile way back in 2013, the controls will be a bit different while the gameplay concept still mimics the mobile game original the arcade game uses. A Switch version may mimic the arcade version and the mobile game closer with the touchscreen method.

Like Project Diva Arcade series and its console counterpart, there will be Performance Viewing Mode where you can make your own live show set list and move the camera freely. You can even take screenshots of the live show if you will.

There's even the material collection for costume making and I don't know if this is like a good alternative to buying costume DLC or not. However, other costume materials may require purchasing their corresponding songs.

Overall, the plans like that from Square Enix from the upcoming console version of the arcade game had drawn mixed impressions from the fans. The practice of making paid small packs of songs and costumes while having small amount of free songs in the game has drawn disappointment but the upside is that, it is a console port of the arcade game with tons of songs to go through.

Last month, the arcade game received the final update and after that, there will be no new songs and character cards that the support for the arcade version ended by then.

Progress update

Sometime ago, I forgot to turn off the charging adapter for my main tablet after the battery's reached full capacity and when the tablet was turned off, it wouldn't be turned on again even with the cable plugged in so it looks like my progress on the mobile game of LLSIF came to a halt until recently when I migrated my progress to my phone thanks to having linked the game to my SIF ID. By then, people are already into the next-gen mobile sequel, Love Live School Idol Festival All Stars, which has 3D in-game graphics for gameplay although the gameplay goes on an easier route with the character card management being on a larger scale. At this time, it looks like there will be way too many unlocked songs to go through after the progress migration but I should have migrated way earlier than that.

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.

Playstation 4 Firmware 8.0 Update Controversy

What the hell is Sony thinking with a controversial feature update to the Party Voice Chat for Playstation 4 and Playstation 5? This caused a backlash on Sony although they quickly responded to the privacy concerns the users already had. At least, the plan for data collection through this isn't as big as the Xbox One Kinect or Windows 10, with the latter ruining the peace that came with Xbox One when it first came out.

For the Party Voice Chat recording, you have the option to turn it on or off but that's a feature on Playstation 5. When you join the chat with the PS5 users, you'll be notified that the voice chat will be recorded and submitted by the PS5 users to Sony for moderation. I don't know if that will solve the on-going toxicity or not and especially for the false reports that caused superior players to get their accounts falsely terminated for whatever reasons. Needless to say, the voice chat stuff has been around ever since 2013 when the Playstation 4 initially launched and the update has a warning message alerting users that they will get recorded by the Playstation 5 users when they join the chat. ALSO, even without THIS CONTROVERSIAL UPDATE, there have been other ways the players' voices are recorded through video capture or even recording conversation on Discord or other platforms REGARDLESS on whichever gaming platform the players play on.

With an update like this, it has already driven many players to switch gaming platforms like the Xbox, Switch or even computers via Steam, GOG, etc. It's a common controversy plaguing both Playstation 4 and Playstation 5 and one bigger definition of a Playstation 4 userbase sell-out and betrayal several years after Playstation 4 first launched with initial respect for customers in mind.

Darius Cozmic Revelation - Mixed Impressions

Man, you call that HD when only the jagginess of the edges is gone without other enhancements in HD Mode of G-Darius in the compilation through upscaling? At least the other PS1 games that are ported to other modern platforms have remastered graphics whether they're standalone or part of the compilation. Even as an arcade shooter, the HD Mode should have REDONE graphics with true Hi-Res textures, various shaders and the explosion effects having Add/Screen type Alpha Blending. Raystorm HD already has remade graphics although something's off with the in-game aspect ratio and the remade graphics are not that great. The price is what turned many critics off the most as a result.

Recently, there was a PS1 emulation core in Retroarch that allows custom textures in PS1 games but until the recent time, having something like custom textures or hi-res textures on PS1 emulators is no easy feat due to the way the PS1 performs. The N64 emulators already allow that opportunity probably due to the fact that the N64 console has the RAM expansion stuff. Even the Dreamcast emulators have that same opportunity as well. The screenshots of the N64 and Dreamcast games on emulators I saw had the sharp looking textures with that mod. Perhaps, anyone can try having Hi-Res textures with the use of Beetle PSX HW core for Retroarch and there's even the Widescreen option in the emulators as well although not all games may look like that and there will or will not be inaccuracies depending on the setup. There are ways to make Hi-Res textures for Beetle PSX HW core.

I don't know if the HD port of G-Darius in the compilation is emulation-based or some sort but M2 surely specializes on the emulation quite well and especially for a 32-Bit console-era game like G-Darius which performs well in the compilation. The one in the compilation is based on the arcade version whether you choose HD Mode or Original Mode which is kind of like the Arcade Mode of various Cave arcade shooters on Xbox 360. The resolution is like extremely low, around 240p for those games but it's basically what the arcade version of those games is like originally.

Another game in the compilation is Darius Burst Another Chronicle EX+ which actually has its own additions like additional stages and additional music in Event Mode. It's the same repetitiveness as Chronicle Mode but Event Mode seems a little bit more reasonable like getting your score recorded for instance. The additional music that's exclusive to EX+ is what I anticipate the most upon hearing it from ZUNTATA's live stream of the compilation game and the music from the upcoming album CD being shown.

Rangok Skies/Operation Dracula Controversy (Updated)

Operation Dracula was first released on mobile although the Android version was taken down. It is a bullet-hell shooter containing assets that are plagiarized or derived. Even some of the sound effects are stolen from various games that can easily be construed as plagiarism. For graphical assets, they are little bit different even in hi-res form although they're not that original. Perhaps, the sole developer of the game is a little bit worse than other sole game developers then.

At the time the game was released on mobile, we didn't have any interest or knowledge about it until years later when we eventually discovered it on social media. Since it was released first on mobile, the developer got away with having released it without being called out whatsoever as if the power of plagiarism ran amok that it already infested mobile gaming so quickly after the release of Flappy Bird. The upcoming console/PC versions have MORE plagiarized/derived graphical assets with the external in-game UI looking like the one from Crimzon Clover. Other assets look like the ones from Toaplan, 8ing and even Cave arcade shooters. Another controversial part is the sales of the game with such stolen assets. It's kind of wrong to pass it off as a professional-level indie game when it's on the same level as Gwange Dash which was no longer available for download due to copyright complaints from Cave back then. Gwange Dash is a fanmade-level indie game that you could obtain for free as it has the derived copyrighted materials. The same can pretty much go for Xeno Fighters by EddyMRA which has more copyrighted materials put in. Another Japanese indie game I played back then was Storm Calibur which happens to have copyrighted sound effects taken from various shmup games, Thunder Force V, Terra Diver, Dodonpachi, etc. At that time, it was bundled with other computer games on the optical disc. It was stored on a blank box with no cover/label art whatsoever. I wasn't an adult when I played that so I had no idea on where was that disc bought from.

The disappointing things about Operation Dracula/Rangok Skies are as follows:

1. Not all sound effects are implemented when things happen such as the bomb/special attack activation, the ship getting destroyed and the ship approaching from the bottom of the screen, etc. Only the voices are present when those things happen.
2. Rapid-firing speed isn't that fast when holding down the Shot button.
3. Large boss explosion is completely absent upon defeating the stage-end bosses. Shmup games of the present time should have that.

One thing that's not worth doing to the game is replacing stolen assets with a mod. The larger portions of the graphics can be difficult to replace and even if the sound effects and graphics are replaced like that, the gameplay is still the same and to change the gameplay via programming is going to be a riskier idea when it comes to modding modern games on PC.

With stolen sound effects and graphical assets as I mentioned at the beginning, a C&D is likely to come towards the sole developer as a lawsuit is going to cost tons of money. Cave is still active even today although they've been making mobile games with one of them still on-going for longer time. It wasn't easy for Cave to keep the mobile gaming business going and especially for certain mobile games developed by them that didn't last that long. It seems that Cave can be one of the active game companies to plan to sue the hell out of the sole developer of Rangok Skies if they want to but nobody knows if the lawsuit or C&D will happen or not. The only upside that is not part of the controversy is the soundtrack which is licensed. And nowadays, the composer wants to undo the license but if he can't do that as the sole developer refuses to be part of that undo, he may as well enhance the music he composed for the upcoming game, Westgunne, which is like a downgraded version of the cancelled Heaven's Variant which is done using UE3. Westgunne is made by the Heaven's Variant developers using Unity and showcases various creative things using 2D graphics.

The game is supposed to be released in two months but for whatever reason, it is delayed and set for January release next year. Not to mention that the sole developer recently had started the official Twitter account, only to get called out for the amount of plagiarism. The defense is immature for sure like calling those who called out the developer things like uneducated, kid, etc. Man, I bet that the developer may deserve to be on Sidalpha's Dirty Dev list.

The video above is edited with the Effekseer effects I made using the assets that come with the program and I used some sound effects from Sound Effect Lab. At the time I made the video, no assets were changed. Not to mention that I'm no Unity user as I find it much harder than Game Maker Studio and it has traditional coding stuff which is also difficult for me.

Goodbye Volcano High Controversy Part Two

Edit: I forgot to mention here that none of the parts from whatever model are used for other models as I wouldn't do something like that. Instead, many parts of some models are disabled using MMEffect.

Part two has the MMD animation video I did of the redone Goodbye Volcano High Reveal Trailer which I sort of posted on my Twitter account. Unfortunately, it is missing some parts the original trailer has as well as one more character. What's not replicated so far:

1. The scene where the protagonist is standing with the door behind them: I've no idea where it takes place at as it looks too zoomed in, focusing on the protagonist character so it couldn't be replicated.
2. The street at night scene with the female character saying something to the protagonist: Nobody knows what she is saying and there has to be a MMD model of the street scene or some sort.
3. The performance scene: I've no idea where it takes place at and I don't think I can replicate it faithfully. Instead, I can try to animate that scene where the protagonist is seen DJing or some sort.
4. The graduation scene.

MMD models of the alcoholic drinks will NOT be in the main scene which is the night scene where all the main characters surround the campfire as I bet that it's an inappropriate idea for me. Also, sometime in the video I posted on Twitter has the stage showing part taking place outside the school. What I mean by that is, before the match in Blazblue series starts, the stage is being shown before the camera focuses on the area where two fighters face each other. However, this is where things may be different after the stage is shown where the gameplay portion may or may not be the same. If the gameplay is sports festival-based, the camera focuses on the characters standing before the starting line for dash-type/obstacle course. If the gameplay is 2D/3D action-based, the camera focuses on the area the main character is on and follows their perspective. Or if the gameplay is fighting/puzzle based, the camera focuses on the area where two characters face each other but for competitive puzzle, that's not necessarily the case. A sports festival or competitive puzzle is something I can go for according to my take of the open-source idea regarding the gameplay of Goodbye Volcano High redo.
The Story Mode of the redo is said to be taking place in the original virtual world of Goodbye Volcano High with stages based on the original scenes. This is where the actual battle between victims and the characters originally depicted in the game with the victims being human characters dragged by some culprit to the virtual world. The other modes will be Dream-Match-like and include scenes of the reconstructed virtual world as bonus scenes/stages.

Goodbye Volcano High Controversy

As part of the event where the upcoming Playstation 5 games were revealed, this one's a controversial one as its writer had written the extremely disturbing Harry Potter and Pokemon materials involving underaged characters from two franchises. That was her past work but it's not the first time I discovered a controversy like that. A few previous ones included the M1 Fringe Festival 2017 which was like an adult festival and it was called out for disguising something disturbing as art as well as the cancelled Steam game, R*** Day, that was supposed to be published by Arcane City Game Studios. For that Steam game that was cancelled, it was kind of victorious for those who came up with the petition as if the Nu***u console is the only platform left for it as someone from that publishing studio stated that he liked something disturbing I can't mention here from his interview.
The writer, Kate Gray, was recently called out for her past work and her recent involvement in the development of Goodbye Volcano High for Playstation 4, Playstation 5 and PC like it's a cancel culture for people. You can give her a second chance but it's too bad that she blew it with the weirder character concept used in the game she works on. A family-friendly content she works on should be finer enough, damn it! That way, she's keeping a low profile but I suppose this is not quite the point for me.
When the trailer video was posted, it had tons of dislikes probably due to the character concept more than the writer herself. Even the name of the fictional high school/academy seems stupid for me although I can let the same name of the fictional high school from the movie, Volcano High, off since that live-action movie is about the martial arts stuff AND it has human characters.

Redo ideas

The story will be redone from scratch and in summary, it's about you battling your way through the weird fictional school in an unknown world you were dragged in and then dealing with the culprit if  you want to return home. The gameplay idea is up to you like it's an open-source idea I can come up with for you, be it an action game, puzzle game, fighting game or even a sports day game like River City Super Sports. In my case, it's going to be a puzzle game kind of an idea since it focuses on the native human characters' perspective with the opponent side being the game's characters' side. It may seem tough but the Spriters Resource website is the only place to take the assets of this game from for the opponent side although I have concerns about being called out for redoing shit like it's a fabrication.
Currently, I'm redoing the game trailer via the MMD animation consisting of mostly the models and accessories taken from various websites as well as to put in alternate music if I want to but story-wise, this is taking place in a reconstructed post-battle digital world where characters can do whatever good things they want like it's a virtual park to begin with. Unbeknownst to the culprit, the reconstruction of the fictional virtual world kicks in after you and other victims return home with the administrators formatting and reconstructing the virtual world after one of the victims calls them for the investigation.
Consider this all a prototype story and idea as the actual developers, Ko_OP, are still developing Goodbye Volcano High that will be released next year. It will also be released on other consoles after the timed exclusivity of Playstation 4 and 5 releases.

Skullgirls 2nd Encore Steam version - Controversial addition of S****Fox

Skullgirls is one great fighting game including its 2nd Encore edition upgrade and many versions of it were released in the past years but the recent addition of S****Fox as the background character in Skullgirls has angered the fans of the game and the genre, resulting in review-bombing the Steam version as well as the forum thread that would include the lawsuit or some sort. For that person, they're more or less an E-Sports player with an unusual persona route like he represents himself as a blue-and-white anthropomorphic fox. They're part of the fandom that has things about the animal characters with human personalities and characteristics. Such kinds of fictional characters already existed in the past as well as human-like characters based on the fictional monsters like those from the Pokemon franchise for instance. As an E-sports player involved in EVO events, they even overpowered other players in some tournaments. I guess that their character is one reason people frown upon or something and their addition in Skullgirls as the background character had caused some anger.
About the lawsuit someone came up with as stated in the forum thread, they even wanted Sega to be involved in suing Lab Zero Games over that character added in the game. I don't know if that is a reference to the S***c franchise which I don't give a native and faithful shit about but at least, S****Fox is a better character than that retarded and eccentric S***Chu comic franchise whose comic books and merchandises were like sold illegally without any official approval from both Sega and Nintendo. In fact, you can even come up with your own nickname/artist name that has the word S***c in it except that it has NOTHING TO DO with that S***c franchise. I've already seen some artists/DJs having that word in their professional alias. I even played some games that have that word in their game name.

Account update 

Last year, I even came up with the prototype DJ logo to represent myself professionally and of course, I can't use my current nickname as the DJ alias even though it is a reference to the name of the spaceship from Taito's Darius series so I came up with the alias based on my real name instead just like how DJs did. However, the profile header is still incomplete until I can use the proper photo of myself at the DJ event venue. I had one like that on my Facebook account but I'm still looking for a different photo even today. Furthermore, I even removed gameplay videos of S***c games I played from my YouTube channel due to the revised COPPA YouTube policies which was COMPLETELY UNNECESSARY in the first place as those games are family-friendly to begin with. I shouldn't have taken such actions out of panic to my YouTube channel like that. One thing to take note is that not all games I made videos of on my channel are family-friendly. Certain games may seem inappropriate for children.

Conclusion

So, in this case, you can go in the modders' favor in which you can remove S****Fox from Skullgirls if you don't like that addition so you can play the game just like it was before the controversial additions occurred. You're in the right to be angry over this addition but a removal mod seems to be a better way than review-bombing the game itself.

AI: The Somnium Files - Review-bombing incident

Seriously, the perpetrator must have lost his god-damn mind and gone to a new low when it comes to heavy obsession with a particular fictional character and review-bombing as multiple accounts? WHAT WERE HIS REGARDS when it comes to AI: The Somnium Files by Spike Chunsoft, a visual novel game? Not to mention that Spike Chunsoft specializes in adventure and visual novel game genres but back in the past, there were Chunsoft sound novel games and some games already had a television drama adaption. Many of those games by Spike Chunsoft are themed on murder mystery and you have to find clues and whatnot and then figure out the culprit behind the whole chain reaction of the incident in general. But be warned, there will be spoilers. Depending on the game, the story concept may or may not be quite dark when it comes to murder mystery theme. There was one sound novel game from Spike Chunsoft that was played by Chief Arino of Game Center CX and needless to say, he found the culprit, and thus, clearing the challenge and getting a good ending. Funny thing was, there was a localized release of that game although I don't know if the story will be same or not after you've seen the episode which obviously has tons of spoilers coming from the game he played. In regards to the review-bombing saga of AI: The Somnium Files, this is completely pathetic as if you care more for one particular stuff or one particular character depicted than the main stuff.
Apparently, the perpetrator had heavy obsession with a particular character which is a female high-school student doing live-streaming stuff although things won't go that smoothly because of the dark story depicted in the game. I won't explain what goes on as there will be tons of spoilers just like what other Spike Chunsoft visual novel games have. He doesn't like what goes on in the story but things about her are not the main important points of the game. The main important things are that, there's a murder incident going on in that game and it's your task to investigate it. The protagonist of the game is the male detective with the female internet personality I just mentioned being other one of the main characters. Of course, I don't condone that behavior the perpetrator had and I already blocked him on my Twitter and YouTube accounts for that.
Another thing he had done was that he review-bombed the game as multiple accounts under one or more different IPs to attract negative attention over whatever happened to that female character he liked. Followed by him coming up with various fake investigations of his only to be exposed some Twitter user like it's a murder mystery solving game already with that perpetrator being the culprit behind the whole mess. Eventually, he was banned from ResetEra but at least those involved in the development of the game were glad to have a happy ending and the game receives a higher user score than ever on Metacritic website.
Oh, as if that incident wasn't enough, the review-bombing CAME BACK AGAIN! Nobody knows if this is done by the same guy or not but it seems that the flaws are still there at Metacritic as if there's still no security feature against review-bombing. On Steam, there's already a feature like that and the user reviews stay mostly positive. Maybe the autistic anger is still there that the review-bombing came back again for the second time. Don't you hate such filthy nerds like that review-bomber for that indecent and immature behavior?
Some comment on Yongyea's video of this mentioned a case of a YouTuber being cyber-attacked by such similar individuals through false reports or something because that individual didn't like what that YouTuber said about the particular fictional character that individual had heavy obsession with but I don't know if that comment is true or not. If it's true, other YouTubers might end up making their own videos about that cyber-incident.
In the end, AI: The Somnium Files is one of the excellent games you should buy if you're interested in it and especially for other games done by the same director or even Spike Chunsoft themselves since that company specializes in various game genres like visual novels, adventure, sound novels, etc. Professional critics like it and give it a higher score with the average review score of being around 80%+.