Popular mobile games of the past

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

So here are the past mobile games listed below:

Angry Birds

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

Temple Run, Subway Surfers, Jetpack Joyride & Fruit Ninja

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

Candy Crush & other similar freemium match-3 puzzle games

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

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

Flappy Bird and other games similar to it

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

Netflix and Cu***s Controversy Part Three - Angry Rant

If the Netflix movie, Cu**es, is super-awful in my opinion due to too many flaws, then why do I want a Part Three blog article about this? Well, the saga sort of continues with some YouTuber by the name of MrGirl, making a defensive review of that movie and he got called out by many people as a result. Even TheQuartering made a video about him although I don't recommend that you subscribe to his channel or follow his social media accounts as I find his content list and thumbnail quite distracting. Plus, I'm interested in the gaming news, reviews and discussions on the net so having videos about other stuffs on his channel are one definition of delving way too deep.

Sure, MrGirl can defend that garbage movie all he wants and I already blocked him on YouTube and Twitter for advocating such disturbing stuffs depicted in it. Hell, I even blocked the others who promoted/supported/organized the M1 Fringe Festival of 2017 as that festival was severely disturbing and it already caused a controversy back then. I do not condone whatever disturbing stuffs depicted in that movie. It's one selfish and disturbing garbage in my opinion as if the director had the actresses to fulfill whatever moment she was NOT supposed to fulfill.

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.

Netflix and Cu***s Controversy Part Two (Angry rant?)

GREAT SCOTT, it's so much WORSE and MORE DISTURBING than we imagined when it comes to the movie, Cu**es, that recently came out on Netflix! This is part two of the controversy blog article and there are tons of latest info about this. Hell, even Sidalpha made a review video of that movie and I sort of agree with it. Sure, his channel is gaming-news related and especially that he does tons of Dirty-Devs videos but I fear that I cannot provide a link to that review video here.
The plot is unspeakably more questionable than I thought via a tweet on how questionable its source idea is. The protagonist does a bunch of bad things like a selfish character like, stealing her neighbor/cousin's phone with no intention of returning it back as well as telling him lies that she couldn't find it, retaliate her MALE classmate with a pencil for being provoked for whatever she did on social media, pushing her groupmate into a lake although her groupmate nearly drowned thanks to having grabbed something, fabricating the accusation on the security guard when he tries to detain her group, ruining the competition by realizing whatever she's done in the middle of the performance, getting the audience shocked about her actions and of course, taking an indecent photo of herself and posting on social media, attracting tons of negative attention and rejection from her classmates.
Certain situations the protagonist has caused remain unsolved as if the whole thing is rushed. To Sidalpha, the rest of the movie story is like dull or some sort and the way she turns over a new leaf with no punishments delivered to her is sort of bad enough. And of course, a bunch of highly disturbing scenes that will easily draw discomfort, the dance scene included.
So the serious flaws are that:

1. Protagonist becoming quite selfish like she's gone on the dark side
2. Fabricating the accusation on the security guard
3. Posting something extremely indecent to social media
4. Protagonist bursting into tears and getting her cover blown at the event venue in the middle of the performance
5. Certain situations the protagonist has done remain unsolved
6. Flawed execution of the story as if the dance thing is the most focused one in the movie making
7. Extremely disturbing scenes (Dance scene included)
8. What's with the protagonist's family?
9. The message that is supposed to be against such disturbing stuffs is hypocritical

I bet that anyone can give the movie, Cu**es, the LOWEST score out of 10 but of course, most of them have already given it a 0 out of 100 at Metacritic. The same goes for them giving it a similar kind of score at Rotten Tomatoes and IMDB. Of course, there has to be a professional reason on why you give the movie a 0 out of 10. The petitions in calling for the movie to be cancelled were right to exist but they were defeated by its release on Netflix.
In Turkey, the movie is fortunately delayed or cancelled and we may be glad about that. However, it seems that both the movie director and Netflix have the FILTHY guts to defend the movie. The encouragement from Netflix is nefarious and people had already cancelled the subscription as a result. Indeed, people were in the right to cancel their subscription with no point in giving both the movie and Netflix a second chance. Also, Netflix had blown it again, and again, and again, like a repeat offender with 365 Days being the cause of the similar backlash. Even the Pakistani actor had cancelled his Netflix subscription as well.
Like the Arcane City Game Studios' offending interviews, one of the interviews to the movie director from Indiewire is going to be an offending one in which she mentioned that the people who still have yet to watch the movie had started the controversy. Also, the positive scores coming from the critics are offensive to us as well like how even today's EA sports games get the amount of similar positive scores from the critics. Man, talk about the SEVERE LACK of honesty and from the number of flaws I stated above, the movie already deserves such an extremely low score. It's sickening to us and it's sickening even more on how it got the awards in the first place.
Lastly, if there's anyone defending that disturbing movie, they deserve to be blocked on the net. There's no giving it a second chance whatsoever and even without such disturbing stuffs, it is still bad due to the large number of flaws I stated above. And to call this garbage, beautiful or art, is an understatement coming out of anyone's filthy mouth disguised as a strict mouth.