Year 8: July Update

I've been very slow to get any videos done this year and have been falling behind on blog posts too. Sorry! I rarely talk about my personal life, aside from the past in relation to toys and video games, but that's what will likely keep me from updating very often going forward. There isn't much to say other than I lost my long-time job earlier this year and am starting something new this month that will keep me busy. When I've had free time of late, I've been playing Marvel's Midnight Suns from 2K and Firaxis which was a free game on the Epic Game Store earlier this summer. Although it has tactical combat, it's not like Firaxis' XCOM games that I'm a big fan of. Players control a team of three in battle, drawing and using cards to perform most actions. Outside of battle players control an original character, interact with the Marvel heroes to gain friendship, edit card decks, explore their home and its grounds, and select poolside, casual, and battle outfits.

As I sit here after viewing the numerous digital press events from the past two months, I can't recall anything that stood out. Let's see, the Nintendo Direct announced Mario & Luigi: Brothership, Super Mario Party Jamboree, The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, and Donkey Kong Country Returns HD. There are plenty of sequels and updates in development, like Sid Meier's Civilization VII, Gears of War: E-Day, and Age of Mythology: Retold. Unfortunately, my PC is on the old side and I don't have a PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X so I probably won't be able to play the games I'd like to try later this year, such as Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, Dragon Age: The Veilguard, Star Wars Outlaws, and Assassin's Creed Shadows.

                                        Mario & Luigi: Brothership                                      TMNT: Mutants Unleashed

Rumors appeared online in May about a Total War Star Wars game but there still hasn't been an official announcement. Also, two months ago Outright Games and Mattel unveiled a multi-year deal. The family-friendly game publisher will be releasing at least three titles based on Mattel properties this year: Matchbox Driving Adventures, Monster High: Skulltimate Secrets, and Barbie Project Friendship. Other upcoming games from Outright include Transformers: Galactic Trials, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants Unleashed, and Nick Jr. Party Adventure.

In an unexpected move, Hasbro and Mattel teamed up to create a Hot Wheels Optimus Prime, and it does transform, of course. Optimus is exclusive to Mattel Creations and is currently sold out; I'm not sure if that's final or if more are in production. LEGO always has a lot of cool sets on the way but I'll only highlight a few: Great Deku Tree 2-in-1 from The Legend of Zelda series, the Transformers' Bumblebee, and Star Wars TIE Fighter & X-Wing Mash-up. With the Star Wars set you can create standard TIE Fighter and X-Wing ships or swap the wings between the two iconic starfighters.

Something unexpected occurred in video games as well. Back on May 23rd, Atari announced that it had acquired the Intellivision brand. It now owns the Intellivision name and classic game catalog, not the company Intellivision Entertainment (renamed Amico Entertainment) or its long-in-development console, the Amico which I'd thought dead on more than one occasion. The sale provides Amico Entertainment some much needed financial help but, surprisingly, it isn't ready to give up on the console yet. While it can still release games based on Intellivision properties for Amico, those will be under license from Atari. 

One final note before I sign off. Author Lewis Packwood contacted myself two years ago to ask for permission to use a Captain Power photo from the blog in his then upcoming book. I agreed and while I've not read his book, nor am I benefitting from its sales in any way, I thought it was worth mentioning as the subject matter will likely interest Vault 1541 readers. The title is Curious Video Game Machines: A Compendium of Rare and Unusual Consoles, Computers and Coin-Ops. There is a nearly 40-minute video about it on YouTube with store links in the description.

Thanks for visiting,

Jonathan

Year 5: June Update

Topps Brady Bunch Trading Card

I've been quite slow to post here and upload YouTube videos this month but I need to take some weekends for myself from time-to-time or rather very often this year. As I write this I spent the better part of yesterday making seven attempts to record the die-cast cases video, and that was after making my first attempt on the Friday before. It's not much of a video but I made mistakes and had some issues during the recording process and then had to put together the blog post and it all ended up more time consuming than I'd have liked. Next I need to start work on a die-cast car video and I had a request not too long ago for another Starting Lineup Talking Baseball video which I plan on preparing for July. I also hope to launch another YouTube channel shortly but that might require days increasing from 24 to 30 hours because I don't have enough time!

June is still a month of many game announcements with an E3 digital event taking place again. I'll highlight a few of the reveals though nothing blew my mind. Being a Forza Horizon fan, the unveiling of the fifth game coming later this year was my favorite game of the show. I know, the fifth entry in a racing series isn't anything special but I find the games to be a lot of fun and mostly relaxing to play. Developer Playground Games has been working on the next Fable game too which led me to believe a new Forza Horizon wasn't releasing any time soon.

Square Enix and Eidos Montreal have been working on a Guardians of the Galaxy game that is on target for an October 26th release. Ubisoft and Nintendo showed off the second Mario + Rabbids game subtitled Sparks of Hope. Nintendo made no mention of a new Switch model but it did announce Metroid Dread, WarioWare: Get It Together, Mario Party Superstars, Advance Wars Re-Boot Camp, and a Game & Watch handheld that includes three The Legend of Zelda games plus one mini-game. 

Sony skipped E3 again and Sega is celebrating the 20th anniversary of Super Monkey Ball with a new game that includes 300 stages from previous games. While not announced specifically at E3, Outright Games has revealed quite a few more licensed games recently that are expected to release before the end of the year. Since I've played a few of its games on my YouTube channel and I like to promote family-friendly games, I'll list those here too. The titles are PAW Patrol: The Movie -- Adventure City Calls, My Friend Peppa Pig, PJ Masks: Heroes of the Night, The Addams Family: Mansion Mayhem, Blaze and the Monster Machines: Axle City Racers, and Fast & Furious Spy Racers: Rise of Sh1ft3r. I had no idea there even was a Fast & Furious cartoon.

Thanks for visiting,

Jonathan

Video Games & Computer Entertainment's 1988 Awards (February 1989)

Video Games & Computer Entertainment,
February 1989 (Guess there wasn't room on the
cover to mention the awards article.)

From Video Games & Computer Entertainment's (VG&CE) February 1989 issue, the 10-page article scanned below is titled The Year's Best Video and Computer Games: Our Editors Pick the Outstanding Cartridges and disks of 1988. Magazines do have to write articles a bit in advance though this one seems to be far in advance as it must have hit newsstands in 1989 and features games released between September 30, 1987 and October 1, 1988. It may come as a surprise to see a hockey game as the computer game of the year and while it is not one I've played, it is designed by Ed Ringler and he made some great games. I own basketball and horse racing games he developed that have a lot of depth and simulation aspects. VG&CE didn't give the top sports award to that game though so I'll assume they simply didn't want to give one game multiple awards.

My favorite computer game of 1988, the role-playing title Wasteland, got an honorable mention under the adventure award. Brian Fargo worked on that game and the winner of the category, Neuromancer, and he got his name mentioned again for Battle Chess, an honorable mention for Best Computer Sound & Graphics. I am surprised by the top selection for video games which went to Sega's Super Zaxxon 3-D. I've not played that version of Zaxxon though I'd expect it's simply an arcade port that requires the Master System's 3-D glasses. In the video game section I did notice one error on the 7th scan (page 62); the screenshot for Nintendo's Pro Wrestling is incorrect, that's actually the Sega Master System's wrestling game which shares the same title.

The Legend of Zelda: A Look at the Past

Friday marks the release of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild game for both the Switch and Wii U. To mark the release I've scanned a few articles of a couple of past Zelda games from Electronic Gaming Monthly (EGM) and one from GamePro. From EGM is a preview and review for The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (Zelda III), and a review for The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening.

Electronic Gaming Monthly #30

If you're not familiar with EGM's review format let me briefly explain how they were set up. On the first page of their reviews they listed their Review Crew and a short blurb on what each of them has been up to. Then every game had a short overview followed by a few sentences by each reviewer. The reviews were grouped by platform and I had to do some editing to place each review next to the list of reviewers which is why the colors look a bit off. Of course, like most everyone they enjoyed both games, awarding A Link to the Past a gold award and game of the month. Other gold award winners that month include Super Adventure Island (SNES), Rolling Thunder 2 (Genesis), and Mega Man II (Game Boy). Link's Awakening received a gold award but not game of the month. In that issue Zombies Ate My Neighbors (SNES) was awarded a platinum award and game of the month while other gold awards went to Alien 3 (SNES) and Battletoads in Battlemaniacs (SNES).

Electronic Gaming Monthly #49

Electronic Gaming Monthly #32

From GamePro is a review of The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past followed by their pro tips for playing the game. They rate games on a five-point scale and use various facial expressions to represent the numerical value. A Link to the Past received a perfect score and while it probably deserved it, I should point out that GamePro was never shy about handing out perfect scores.

GamePro -  August 1992

I'd add my own Legend of Zelda experiences but I've never played more than a couple hours of any Zelda game. I'm sure they're as good as many people say but I grew up primarily with Sega platforms and just haven't taken the time to play many of Nintendo's games. If you're buying Breath of the Wild on Friday I hope you have a lot of fun with it this weekend and thanks for reading!