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.

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.

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.

Microsoft-hired contractors listening in through Xbox One Kinect, Cortana and Skype Translator

It appears that Microsoft isn't the only one involved in the recent privacy violation incident through the personal assistant service, like Siri, Google Assistant, Alexa, etc. Who knows the motive and reason behind this? Plus, you're going to disable Siri/Google Assistant on your mobile device over this situation, though?
To train the AI through data collection through various products like Cortana, Kinect and even Skype Translator engine seems to be a dangerous excuse or a lousy one. So, it looks like Microsoft might have lied or something that the Xbox One Kinect wouldn't collect data when the console was revealed at the time that the data collection thingy through Kinect resumed sometime later. I don't know if this may seem accurate or not but then again, who the hell uses Cortana on their computers and Xbox One anyway?
To disable Cortana completely from Windows 10 will be no easy feat even when there were feature changes in Windows 10 1903 update which separates Cortana and Search feature as well as the fact that Cortana will be on the Microsoft Store in the future. It may seem like an acceptable change but don't go asking us that don't we even use Cortana at all or something. The worse thing is, there's still lack of support for other unlisted countries but it shouldn't be difficult asking Cortana something in the same vein you ask Siri or Google Assistant which is obviously more popular.

Ooblets Epic Game Store Controversy

Look, I cannot be mad or something over the fact that an indie game so good is released on the gaming platform that has been so controversial. Cuphead which is one of the indie games has extremely good presentation although it is an extremely hard game. The reason for mentioning it here is that it was first released on Xbox One as the console exclusive and the developers could plan to release it on other platforms if they wanted to. Fast forward to 2 years after Cuphead's release, there's the Switch version but that was obviously requested by Microsoft as a move to bring Xbox Live service to that console. Speaking of console exclusive, Ooblets was released to be released on Xbox One as the only console version. However, the big trouble began when it was announced to be Epic Games Store exclusive for PC.
To insult the consumers and gamers like the developers of Ooblets did was extremely offensive and they were already on Sidalpha's Dirty Developers list as a result. Not to mention that someone faked some evidence to frame the developers that caused various misunderstanding and even attracted their defenders and the defenders of the Epic Games Store platform. Calling gamers 'Entitled Babies/Children" or some other shit is what you'll attract more hate and it can ruin your reputation as a game developer whether you're professional or indie type. What makes the controversy worse? That is making political comparison and of course, thinking that consumers don't understand one particular thing or two or maybe thinking that consumers have bad attitude that they need to be "re-educated" or something. If there's an EVIL EDUCATION about Epic Games Store for consumers, I can imagine that the scummiest game developers may organize some lessons like that and if someone signs you up for some Attitude Reform style educational speech like the speaker there teaches you on how to LOVE such scummy gaming platforms, it's best to avoid attending that brainwashing bullshit or try to run away from the venue if backing out is available. Plus, what if some of THOSE CONSUMERS ARE PARENTS THEMSELVES, like they have their own children and the house owned by them, for instance?
I remember the time that PatTheNESPunk thought that the gamers were entitled to him over the Diablo Immortal announcement and he was thrown the amount of hate comments on that video about that. I also can remember the comments that say that "he is a shut-in dinosaur surrounded by toys" or something because of that video. WE HAVE CONCERNS about Free-To-Play mobile games that have Microtransactions and Loot Boxes as well as how controversial the Epic Games Store is! Plus, the harassment towards the developers of Ooblets has gone too far.
So, who are in the wrong in the end? Well, the game developers of Ooblets themselves for insulting consumers as a way to defend the announcement as well as those who have been harassing them. If you want to rant about something, do it with professional reasons. Don't just say that that particular product sucks or the other product is better than this one and that's it! That 's not criticism at all! And don't even try to make a useless troll comment to any game developers whose reputation is quite good either. I had seen those in the past and the backlash was caused as a result of them.

Fallout 76 Customer Support System Data Breach

I suppose that you should be fine if you have not bought Fallout 76 as it is plagued with many issues such as performance issues, bugs, low-res textures on some areas, conflicting ideas that defeat the objective of the story from the game's intro, pointless quests, poor execution and even the introduction of microtransactions in it. However, there are more controversies besides the negative opinions from the critics.
The main subject here is about the data breach of the customer support system due to the bug and if the game isn't bad enough, the data breach and the different item included for the Power Armor Special Edition had already pissed off the customers. Users were able to open and close tickets of other customers and view their personal information. It's a total shame on Besthesda that the data breach happened that they could face fines for breaching the GDPR but not all infringements will eventually lead to the fine. Thankfully, they started the investigation of the incident and will provide updates when possible.

Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection

The compilation probably says it all and it contains Street Fighter 1, 2, Alpha series and 3 series. Even Ultra Street Fighter IV will be included as a pre-order digital bonus included with the compilation although Playstation 4 already has that version all along and especially that Ultra Street Fighter IV is playable on Xbox One through backwards compatibilty. All versions in the compilation are probably based on the arcade versions although some of the games don't have the Training Mode for some strange reason. Some have the Online Mode but the others don't.
For Street Fighter III series, the second one, Second Impact, happens to have the true widescreen mode which can be enabled through the arcade operators menu although it is the only CPS-3 game to have that and the arcade system is 32-Bit-styled so having widescreen in 32-Bit arcade games is kind of rare. There's also the widescreen support for certain Playstation 2, Gamecube and Xbox games. Music for Street Fighter III series is obviously from the arcade version so if you're playing Street Fighter III Third Strike on consoles prior to the existence of this compilation, chances are that you hear the arranged soundtrack and especially for better quality sound effects and voices. The arcade version of Street Fighter III Third Strike is kind of too much or something to handle hence the lag or some sort it may seem to be due to the limitations of the RAM or something.
One cool thing that catches me the attention is that on the Game Selection screen, you get to see the arcade system the game is running on originally. To include Ultra Street Fighter IV in this compilation as a pre-order digital bonus is one challenge Capcom had faced. Obviously, it is a separate game and not part of the compilation. If it is, they will need additional rights from Taito to have the arcade systems the game's running on in the list but I figure out that it's unnecessary. This pre-order digital bonus applies to Playstation 4, Xbox One and Steam versions of the compilation which Playstation 4 and Steam owners will have those versions of Ultra Street Fighter IV with Xbox One owners receiving both Super Street Fighter IV Arcade Edition and Ultra Street Fighter IV through backwards compatibilty. Needless to say, as a pre-order stuff, it is obvious that it had to be done before the game's release date.
On the Switch, the compilation comes with Super Street Fighter II The Tournament Battle which is in the arcades only where machines can be linked locally for tournament purposes.
Needless to say, I'm not a goodie at this game genre but then, I already had bought some other fighting games for the Playstation Vita.

Lumines Remastered

There were already Lumines games on Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 although I don't know if they are remakes of the PSP games or maybe different ones. Fast forward to the time when Lumines is bound to come out on Playstation 4, Xbox One, Steam and Nintendo Switch. The recent Lumines game was probably on mobile and the cool thing was that there was also the Ultra Japan pack in which Ultra Japan is probably the big DJ festival. Unfortunately, how do you play Lumines with touch screen like it's beyond me. Lumines Electronic Symphony on Playstation Vita has the touch screen controls in addition to the traditional ones but I still preferred the traditional one all along. Maybe there should be a spot you can tap on somewhere else on the screen that does the block rotation while dragging the block horizontally with swiping down being dropping the block.
Things had already changed when it comes to games being transferred to new companies. For X-Nauts, the rights to Psikyo games were already transferred again to say, Zerodiv, in which those classic games were re-released again on modern consoles. For Enhance, it's the same thing although the classic games were remastered for modern consoles with additional stuffs like Rez Infinite which contained VR support and additional area using a different engine. When will there be a new Rez or other Q-Entertainment game or something, who knows? There was already a recent Lumines game on mobile released a few years ago as if the Lumines series is one of the main IPs owned by the main man behind it.
About X-Nauts, there might be additional new games that were part of the Psikyo classics but the sequel to Sengoku Blade Episode 2 which is on PSP is kind of half-assed. The graphics and stages are sort of bland and so are the gameplay concept and the way the game is programmed. There was also a Psikyo crossover spinoff on mobile which consists of Strikers 1945, Gunbird and Sengoku Blade series but what it does is to recycle things from the mobile ports and make itself an endless level-progression type. I don't have time for that bullshit to be frank and it's not that fun progressing that far!
Lastly, for the upcoming remastered version of Lumines, I don't know if there will be contents exclusive to it or not. I have feeling that the assets will be redone for 1080p screen resolution and the bigger challenge ever since the release of the Lumines mobile game will be the license for using licensed music since Enhance is the one-man-studio or some kind. It's a bigger challenge than say, the Lumines mobile game or Rez Infinite since Lumines Remastered will be released on 4 platforms.

Dragon Ball FighterZ

So my initial impression when discovering Dragon Ball FighterZ is that it is a hybird between Guilty Gear Xrd and Marvel vs Capcom 2. It's a 3-3 fighter in the same way as Marvel vs Capcom series and the 3D graphical style is like Guilty Gear Xrd but superseding. It has some elements similar to other famous Arc System Works fighting games and especially that the Super and Instant Kill moves take the 3D animated scenes to the next level. Even the match's intro and outro are superseding at best like the fighters clash in 3D animated scene while the announcer is saying out the match quotes for instance. In Guilty Gear Xrd starting with Revelator, when the round is being announced by the announcer, the camera moves down from top to bottom before the round starts.
For Story Mode, it is sort of like Guilty Gear Xrd's Story Mode where everything is 3D animated but even better as Guilty Gear Xrd's Story Mode has some minor flaws like the separate windows of characters talking to each other like it's a different and unusual way to advance the visual novel gaming to the next level. It's kind of like two different screens of characters in different scenes talking on the phone or something. Also, there will be battles in the Story Mode in Dragon Ball FighterZ although the flaw is that you'll end up fighting clones or some sort. For Street Fighter V and Marvel vs Capcom Infinite, there are battles where you end up fighting enemy guards, enemy soldiers or even brainwashed dolls for SFV in addition to the standard battles. Why put in enemy soldiers or guards as fighting game opponents? A scene of characters tackling those enemies should be enough or perhaps, a modern 2D beat-em-up game where the camera switches to 3D mode for conversation and 2D mode for gameplay.
Graphics-wise, the game uses Unreal Engine 4 and it has superseded Guilty Gear Xrd in various ways. If there were problems in 3D character models for Guilty Gear Xrd, then the workaround the developers came up with was the swapping of parts of the models or something. Another challenge is that the characters may end up clipping through each other when they get too close during the fight. Through similar graphical techniques, the cell-shaded graphics match the modern Dragon Ball cartoon shows quite well although I might have seen portions of the classic Dragon Ball cartoons back then in my childhood. One thing I can recall is the scene where Goku's body was swapped by some opponent. Another thing I can recall is the Ginyu Force whose introduction is ridiculous.
It's a massive improvement over the previous Dragon Ball games developed by Arc System Works on 3DS. This one's a big effort from them and as of this writing, it seems that they need more time on creating assets for other characters for Blazblue Cross Tag Battle which is half-finished by the time of its release in terms of character roster. Not to mention that the game's release on PS4, Xbox One and Steam with Unreal Engine 4 has proven the amount of graphical potential done to it while retaining the similar techniques as Guilty Gear Xrd. Why can't Blazblue Cross Tag Battle go next-gen like it's beyond me? I mean the assets are one-era behind for Blazblue Cross Tag Battle although I don't know if the sprites will have much higher resolution or some kind.
Dragon Ball FighterZ is a must buy for fans of fighting games and Dragon Ball franchise. It may have finished off Marvel vs Capcom Infinite through its badass concepts and is said to be one of the best modern Dragon Ball fighting games for years to come.

Thumper Pocket Edition on IOS

Originally on Playstation 4 and Steam with VR support, followed by the Xbox One and Switch releases, Thmuper is the violent rhythm game where you ride to the beat in a similar fashion to Audiosurf except that it is more of an actual rhythm game than Audiosurf.
On consoles and Steam, you use the controller to do the interaction but on the upcoming IOS version, this is all done on the touchscreen although I don't know if you can tilt the device to the beat or something. As this is on Portrait orientation, it can be easy to play with one hand and that's that. The IOS version will be coming out in January 24th this year.

Superbeat XONIC for Switch

Originally, the game was released on Playstation Vita being getting the Playstation 4 and Xbox One releases. The Switch version is the next version to happen as this is the second portable console version next to the Playstation Vita version. It will have all the songs along with the songs that are previous DLCs for the previous console releases. One bonus celebration is that the new DLC-songs will be free for Switch users. The same DLC-songs will be available in Playstation 4 and Xbox One versions. I don't know if the Playstation Vita version will have those DLCs as well.
Basically, the game originated from the arcades as Beatcraft Cyclon although the home console versions are closely based on the Playstation Vita release and even the Switch version will follow as well. It's a similar story to how DJ Max Technika Q has similar rows of notes to DJ Max Technika Tune in which you get three rows of notes on each side instead of four rows as used in DJ Max Technika series in the arcades. Maybe the size of the device is more or less an important factor and it may be same for the upcoming Switch version of Superbeat XONIC.
The release date for the Switch version in the US will be sometime late this year although there was already a delay from the intended release date which was sometime a month ago.

Cuphead

Talk about a positive change in this one as Cuphead uses the style of 1930s cartoon but with color and sharper visuals thanks to modern technology. Don't expect any shiny shaders like you see in modern cartoons nowadays in which the character's body is having gradient fills everywhere as if those things are done in 3D and then converted into 2D. Not even the smoky and explosion effects will have those shaders as well. Music back then is mostly jazz-like and the cartoon shows back then are probably suited for everyone to watch. Not to mention that the way the cartoon shows are produced in the past is analog-ish so it's not all digital like you produce a modern cartoon with a modern computer. Imagine a modern cartoon produced at this present time with the style of the past, will there be whiny complaints or something?
The gameplay is said to be a run-and-gun shooter similar to Contra or something. You can shoot enemies, slide and even air-dash like in Hard Corps Uprising. Certain games are mentioned as official references by the developers in their blog to proof the inspiration. I guess that the only originality is the modernization of the past cartoon style without drifting away from what the game looks like in visual style. Be warned, like other run-and-gun shooter games, this one is really hard as if my hard times in playing Hard Corps Uprising weren't hard enough due to how harsh the games of this genre are. Perhaps, it's something to do with the level design part with a bunch of harsh platforming elements. Not to mention that there may be some kind of concept conflict in Hard Corps Uprising when I played it like no matter how modern the gameplay concept is with additional action techniques, the game is still hard.
The story of the game occurs because the two main characters had caused trouble at the casino or some kind in which they lost to the devil and had to pay a huge debt. In fact, they shouldn't have gone there in the first place and that the story should be completely something else.
As this is an indie game with the graphical style of a 1930s cartoon, the game could have been ported to other platforms besides Xbox One and Steam as it doesn't take up so much resources that way, not like those anima-tic games produced by Arc System Works that take up more than what Cuphead does. In fact, even Animal/Kemono Friends should have the same character style as Mickey Mouse franchise as I find it a serious mistake of this year over childish behavior influence coming from some of the human-personified animal characters which reduces one person's IQ and maturity according to the critic. Also, a talking penguin with white gloves and shoes should be worth looking at like it is a style of cartoon character suited for everyone instead.

Marvel vs Capcom Infinite

From what I saw about the gameplay in action from Angry Joe's YouTube channel, there were some impressions so far. The graphics were done with Unreal Engine 4 similar to Street Fighter V and King of Fighters XIV although people were already displeased with the way the graphics were done and especially for the character models and voices. The effects were fine for the engine alone but then, when it comes to cartoon-ish graphics done in Unreal Engine, there could be various shaders to make things cartoon-ish while retaining the coolness of the effects like what Arc System Works did with Guilty Gear Xrd and the upcoming Dragon Ball fighting game that uses Unreal Engine 4 itself.
Perhaps, it might be a mistake that way at first but the things is, the graphics of Marvel vs Capcom 3 are already in the same style as Street Fighter IV and Tatsunoko vs Capcom in which the cartoon-ish shaders are not used at all when it comes to 3D graphics. The only things that look comical are that certain screens like the Winner screen, Character Select Screen, Ending scenes, etc. look like something out of comic books. Perhaps, those aren't necessary for previous Marvel vs Capcom games but then, there should be comical feel in upcoming Marvel vs Capcom Infinite. Even the cinematic cutscenes are going in a different direction as well as if the game's not following the comic-style concept or some kind. Another problem is the art style in addition to how the characters are 3D modelled as stated above. I don't know if the criticism for this game is worse than the one for King of Fighters XIV or not but thankfully.
Also, the amount of characters is quite lower than in Marvel vs Capcom 3 but then, the game still has yet to be released sometime this month so we're not sure about the overall amount by the time of the game's release.
In fact, I don't even know if the game will have the Arcade Mode or not as the compensation for the incompetence Capcom has but to make Story Mode even more important like that than the Arcade Mode in terms of Capcom's game development is like they care less for the Arcade Mode like they do for Street Fighter V. Street Fighter V STILL doesn't have Arcade Mode as of the present time but to make it ABSENT for the consumer system versions isn't going to make any sense. In fact, that game also has the option to turn on or off the fight interruption when it comes to Single Player modes. That feature has been way to effective for fighting games in the arcades and it gets even more effective for fighting games on Nesica X Live 2 service with online matches as if going through various Single Player modes like Arcade Mode is not quite easy without getting interrupted. But taking out Arcade Mode for whatever reason is INEXCUSABLE! Not to mention that the arcade business part of Capcom has been doing well or something that it makes complaints about lack of finances obsolete after awhile as if the company has enough money to buy additional development kits for future main games.
Once again, it is INEXCUSABLE to take out Arcade Mode for fighting games like you and other players don't care for it! It is one COMMON AND STARTER GAME MODE for pretty much many of those arcade-style games regardless of the platforms! Furthermore, people expect sufficient content for Marvel vs Capcom Infinite when compared to the lackluster from Street Fighter V. Hell, even King of Fighters XIV has sufficient content like sufficient characters along with actual Arcade Mode which is called Story Mode. It is so successful that it also gets a proper arcade and Steam releases.

Emulators banned from Xbox and Windows Stores

Without the policy like this Microsoft has come up with, there will be risks of lawsuits that can happen to that company by other game companies alike. In fact, there were already past lawsuits from Sony against those who made the Playstation emulators for Windows PC and Dreamcast but eventually, the formally sued ones worked on the same emulation stuffs for later generation Playstation consoles like PS2, PS3, PSP, PS Vita and the list goes on. Also, the emulators are said to be banned from IOS completely but I don't know if this is true or not and you still can see a bunch of them in the Android app stores.
While chaotic troubles are prevented this way, there's one problematic workaround, sideloading of UWP apps. Hopefully, there should be a policy against this that can be done in Group Policy but this is still a problem when it comes to non-business devices and especially Xbox One. Another workaround is the fact that there online emulators that can be played on the web browser.

Battle Garegga Rev. 2016

As part of the M2 STG Triggers, Battle Garegga was released on Playstation 4 with various customizations, presets and various soundtracks. You can choose between Super Easy, Arcade, Premium or perhaps Custom where you can adjust the game rules. On Premium Mode, the rank may change for every stage you clear compared to Arcade Mode where your actions change the rank like getting full powered for instance. It's a notorious game for dynamic difficulty where losing a life on purpose decreases the rank. Also on Premium Mode, the medals can be attracted to you in you're in range but it depends on the game rank and the medal level. Getting the game rank to 100% may mean that the game is extremely difficult that way. On Super Easy, you don't have to worry about the rank like it's a normal shmup game like always.
Presentation-wise, you get the M2 Gadget which represents the HUD or some other stuff. It is all customizable and so is the controls, game settings and the soundtrack. The soundtrack consists of the Original, Revised version, Saturn Arrange version and Supersweep Remix version. And of course, even the physical copy won't contain the game disc as this is more or less a game released in the 90s originally and that it doesn't take up so much capacity of a Blu-Ray disc so making the game available on the disc is basically a waste of unused space of the disc and it can be expensive to buy a bunch of blank Blu-Ray discs needed for burning the game to them. A digital copy is already a better reason as it weigh so much of file size.
Even a physical edition of Darius on PS4 is much stranger than this but at least you do get a bunch of soundtrack CDs of the earlier Darius games as part of the series' 30th Anniversary. However, that will be a tale of another time.
And before the game was released for Playstation 4, there was a public location test version taking place in the arcades via a PC-based arcade machine running the game. It has the special switches that allowed the operators to switch soundtrack along with enemy bullet color. By doing so, it might result in restarting the game and there was even some M2-branded chip to emulate the game's original feel.
Lastly, there were DJ shows that played the game's soundtrack on the Pioneer-branded DJ set. It was unusual from what I saw and especially that the songs composed by Manabu Namiki were divided into multiple stems. They probably weren't MP3 files at all and transitioning between the songs from a soundtrack was a strange feat. The song, Marginal Consciousness, contained different melody which could be heard in the DJ video. Nobody knows where that comes from but at least, the song has an end unlike the one in the game which keeps on increasing the pitch non-stop to no end.

Windows 10 Creators Update Live Stream

The Creators Update also known as Redstone 2 of Windows 10 may look like a future fascination where you can use Paint 3D Studio, do easier messaging with files to be sent to the messaging box as the attachment along with Beam, the interactive live stream feature for both Windows 10 computers and Xbox One.
Paint 3D Studio may give you the ability to turn 2D stuffs into 3D objects along with other stuffs imported from cameras, 3D scanning and so on. It may look like the entire interface may be suited for tablet users although the professional tools like Photoshop can still be done with stylus and other cool things like Surface Dail for any Windows 10 computer. Paint 3D Studio allows you to import and export objects between Sketchup, Minecraft and other tools suited for Paint 3D Studio. There's also a website where 3D objects to be used for Paint 3D Studio can be downloaded from. There's also the 3D scanner stuff that can be done with a Windows tablet or phone device. It may be less difficult than Autodesk 123D Catch where you can capture real-life objects and turn them into 3D ojects in such a complicated way due to the technology being too new at the time.
Beam, the interactive live stream program, well, there's nothing special about it other than the interactive buttons at the bottom where viewers can use those buttons to ask the streamer stuffs like advices, what to do and even to keep up during the match. There's also a button that asks the streamer to pay attention to the chat or the gameplay screen. So if you want spectation in live stream, you can enter something like that in the chat but the special thing is that you can also organize the tournaments for an existing game that's suited for them. Unfortunately, the flaw is that the tournaments can be organized at the consumer-level so the idea may make things kind of ass. They should be organized at the corporate-level like EVO, E-Sports and other kinds of competitions.
Another cool thing is the Surface Studio, the all-in-one Windows PC that is kind of like iMac but superseding due to the inclusion of touchscreen feature, Surface Dial and the stylus feature. Be warned, however, such advanced computers like Surface Pro i7 and Surface Studio are extremely expensive. Other updates include the mixed reality for Hololens where you can mix both virtual reality and augmented reality although I still find the Hololens kind of delusional as if you're talking to your dead friend whose soul has entered reality where communications between you and him can work but not anyone else. You can also tour on public places with Hololens although it looks kind of weird to see not all things animating. Perhaps, it uses Bing Maps technology but chances are, things are not happening in real time when you do the tour. You actually have to go out and get to that place yourself. It things are happening in real time as if the satellite monitors whichever place you want to have a simulated tour at using Hololens, something may go wrong when it comes to privacy.

Lastly, there are VR headsets for Windows 10 starting at $299 although I don't know if they make use of Hololens software or something.
The live stream obviously took place on the last day of the NextGen Climate texting assignment and needless to say, my progress for that wasn't that great. The others' assignments had made great progresses though. The assignment expired by the time the live stream ended.