Capcom should NOT be in the list of companies you want to work for

Read this article, especially the orange-colored words!

http://www.cinemablend.com/games/You-Buy-Resident-Evil-6-Don-t-Forget-How-Capcom-Treats-Employees-46620.html

As much as I love the games Capcom makes such as Street Fighter and Megaman, I hate what Capcom has been doing for the past two years. They cancelled Megaman Legends 3, made too many Resident Evil games and movies, and shattered my hype for getting Street Fighter X Tekken by putting on-disc Downloadable Content in the game disc.

More recently, there has been a lot of reports on employee abuse, especially on Yoshinori Ono, one of my favourite key people in the gaming industry. He is a really awesome and funny guy and I feel really bad for him when I read that he got hospitalized after being overworked by Capcom to promote Street Fighter x Tekken. I was very surprised and shocked at the comments made by the employees who are working or worked for Capcom. I couldn't believe that a gaming developer like Capcom would do such a thing to their employees. As a computing science and interactive arts of technology major, I would love to one day work for a software developer. However, I would not want to work for a software developer that mistreats and abuses their employees like what Capcom is doing. I can't imagine how terrible it must have been for the Rockman DASH 3 team when they were developing the game before it got cancelled. It bet it must also have been terrible for the Street Fighter X Tekken team.

If you are a Computing Science major and you are interested in going into the gaming industry, I do NOT recommend working for Capcom. For me, working for Capcom is the last thing I would do in my life. I once wanted to work for Capcom, but after reading this article, I don't think it's worth the pain and effort. I haven't fully decided what I want to do, but I would like to work with a company like Valve.

My reaction to the reveal of Spike from Ape Escape in PlayStation All-Stars

I was really surprised when leaked information about Spike and a stage from the first Ape Escape game is going to be in PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale (PAS). As an Ape Escape fan, I thought the franchise was completely done for after the huge amount of disappointment that PlayStation Move Ape Escape brought to both fans and myself. I kept thinking that Sony wouldn't even want to make any mentions of Ape Escape in the future all because of that motion-sensing piece of junk. It turned that the game proved me wrong.

http://www.technobuffalo.com/gaming/platform-gaming/playstation-all-stars-leaks/attachment/ps-allstars-headshots-072012/

When I first saw Spike in the leaked pictures, I was surprised that Sony decided to use his Million Monkeys appearance. I knew that Sony has to put at least one Ape Escape character in the roster but I never expected his Million Monkeys attire. I was expecting Spike to be wearing the outfit he first wore in Ape Escape (1999) since most PlayStation gamers remember that game the most out of the series. He finally got a nose since the last time he ever had a nose in Ape Escape 2. He also looks very different from his usual appearances in the Ape Escape series but I guess they made him look like that to fit him with the rest of the roster.

I do not find it to be a problem for me since I have played Million Monkeys and watched the two seasons of Saru Get Chu ~On Air!~, but not for those who have never watched the anime or played that awesome game. They would be wondering how in the world did Spike get into this new outfit.

What's the point of putting Spike in an attire that most gamers outside of Japan probably have never seen before? Isn't it better to put Spike in the attire he wore for the very first time? It's not like it's foreshadowing that Sony will bring Saru Get Chu ~On Air!~ outside of Japan and be dubbed into English in the future or potentially foreshadow a sequel to Ape Escape 3 that has Spike in it with his Million Monkeys attire. Does it?

As far as I am concerned, as long as there are no mentions or references of PlayStation Move Ape Escape in PAS, I am satisfied. I think Sony is finally putting Ape Escape back in the right direction especially after grinding out a line of spin-offs for the past six years.

I think it's best to also share my opinions about Sony's attempt to make their own version of Nintendo's Super Smash Brothers (SSB). PAS is not the first game to create a game like SSB. There was another game which was released years ago on the DS only in Japan. It was called Ultimate Jump All-Stars. It had characters from Shonen Jump's mangas such as Naruto, One Piece and Kochikame. It also had items and stages based on their respective mangas and it's a very good game. 

I still do not understand why people would get worked up and crazy over something like this. For instance, if you look back in the history of fighting games, there were games that almost resemble Street Fighter II such as Mortal Kombat or King of Fighters. People weren't complaining if Mortal Kombat's gameplay reminds them of Street Fighter II, they were too busy "FINISHING" their opponents off. Same for racing games too, ever since Super Mario Kart came out, every developer made their own versions of that game. To the readers who are worked up about Sony copying Nintendo's SSB, you need to chill out and relax.

I don't have anything against PAS and this is coming from a big fan of Super Smash Brothers. I knew eventually Sony would make a game like this ever since I laid my hands on Ape Escape: Million Monkeys and Pumped and Primed. I am not really into PAS and I do not have any intentions to get the game. There's nothing that I truly like about the game, but there are one thing that I had to nitpick about.

I dislike the fact that you can only defeat your opponents and earn points by using your super moves. I appreciate Sony by being different, but not at the expense of the gameplay. Imagine playing Super Street Fighter IV and the only way you can knock out your opponent is to either perform an ultra combo or a super combo. That would be lame and boring. As a fighting game fan, I always love to come up with a variety of ways on how to beat your opponent. By giving players a huge variety of ways to KO your opponent, the game's replay value will greatly improve.

I am actually somewhat forward into seeing how PAS would be like, even though I am not getting it.

-TechieWidget

Twitter account and Anime Revolution

I had a twitter account for a while, but now I decided to open it to everyone.
Please feel free to tweet me! :)

https://twitter.com/TechieWidget

Other news:
If you happen to be going to Anime Revolution in Vancouver, you may have a chance to find me there.

Upcoming game reviews and videos!

I am not sure when I will do a review on these games. I will love to do a review on these games but I will be busy working on a group project to make an iPhone app for one of my courses this semester. In addition, I want to lean towards making video reviews instead of typing out written reviews. Youtube is a much better place to express my opinions on games that I played and know instead of blogspot and deviantART. Other than just reviewing games, I also want to do reviews on iPhone apps.

Games that I will be reviewing:
Kid Icarus: Uprising (3DS)
*Ape Escape: Piposaru Racer (PSP)
**PlayStation Move Ape Escape (PS3)

Apps that I will be reviewing:
Marvel vs. Capcom 2 (iOS)
Ringtone Maker (iOS)
TF2 Backpack (iOS)
Midori (iOS)
Pixiv (iOS)

Videos that I am planning to do:
Top 5 Nintendo anti-heroes
Characters that I want to see in the next Super Smash Bros
Top 5 English-dubbed games

*I know I have done a written review on this game, but I want to make a video version of it.
**Although I don't have PS Move Ape Escape, I feel that I need to address a lot of issues that other reviewers didn't go over in this game as a fan of Ape Escape.

Ape Escape 2 - Blue Monkey Boss Fight (Team Fortress 2 Edition)

Redrawing Plans

In my latest deviantART journal, I said that I am going to focus more on redrawing previous drawings that I have done in the past. It could be that I am either feeling nostalgia for the characters that I liked in the past, feel that it's about time to give them an upgrade, or I am short on ideas.

As of April 21st 2012, here is the list of characters that I do plan to redraw some time in the future:

• Palutena from Kid Icarus
• Kazuki (Lunick) and Hinata (Solana) from Pokemon Ranger
• Rosalina from Super Mario Galaxy
• Yoko Ritona from TTGL
• Natane (Gardenia) from Pokemon Diamond, Pearl and Platinum
• Silver and Kotone (Lyra) from Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver

This list is not in order, so I can redraw them in any order. I do have plans to make two drawings of Kazuki and Hinata. I may still add more to the list, but this list is just giving you an idea about what's going to happen over the next few months.

Flannery (アスナ)

Tron Bonne and Flannery doodles

Tron Bonnengineer

Minecraft - Tokyo Tower Video Tour

JOINED THE MML3 DEV ROOM!

I am officially Servbot #015434.

Join the dev group and help Megaman Legends 3 get revived!
LEGENDS NEVER DIE!

To show support for Megaman Legends 3, I renamed myself as Megaman Volnutt/Servbot #015434 in Team Fortress 2 and used my Volnutt Mii in Mario Kart 7. In Team Fortress 2, show your support for Megaman Legends 3 by making a spray of the 100,000 Strong for Bringing Back Megaman Legends 3 logo!

https://www.facebook.com/GetMeOffTheMoon

http://www.capcom-unity.com/devroom/

コブンゲッチュ

Megaman Legends - Ape Escape Crossover WIP

The sketch will be a bit different once I finished inking and coloring it. The inked version of this sketch looks better than the original sketch.

My thoughts on Piposaru Racer

Note: For this review, I am focusing more on my own opinion of this game, and a brief summary of it. I don't feel that it's worth it to explain in detail when it's better to see the game for yourself.

SaruGetChu: Piposaru Racer is the first and only racing game in the Ape Escape franchise. It was released in the same year as Ape Escape: Million Monkeys and the anime: Saru Get Chu ~On Air~. Although Million Monkeys was a big hit, the racing spin-off barely touched the one million milestone.

I had high expectations for Piposaru Racer when I saw the commercials and a few episodes in the anime that had the game be part of the storyline. I played the demo and I thought it was good. When I finally got the game, I was overjoyed. Despite the amount of advertisement and promotion that was done to help sell the game back then, the game did not live up to my expectations.

Gameplay (2/5)

Racing with four wheels attached to your hands and feet is not a smooth ride. I give credit to Japan Studio and Sony for making Piposaru Racer be distinguishable from other racing games such as Mario Kart, but I wish they did not implement the gaming mechanics they intended to do in this game.

There are five things that I did not like very much when I play this game:

1) Every time I hit another racer from behind, I keep spinning for like 2-3 seconds. This is the only racing game that I know where you spin out of control for bumping behind someone.

2) Tipping over from a turn is an unforgivable punishment. Not only will you tip and flip sideways, you will keep going until you reach the edge of the track.

3) You get rarely a turbo boost at the start. I only got it once, and you must get the boost at the exact millisecond before the countdown ends.

4) The race courses are boring and too brutal. Sony keeps recycling the same settings and only changes the layout of the courses. There are only four settings in the game: a tropical island, a city, a haunted mansion, and a volcanic island. Every grand prix has these four settings, but different kinds of race courses. Couldn't have Sony come up with a much more variety of scenarios? I was expecting the game to have scenarios that are based on stages from previous Ape Escape games. Are they that lazy to come up with more!? Is this the best they could come up with!? If they can come up with a variety of cities players can race in Gran Turismo, why can't they do the same in Piposaru Racer? Even in Mario Kart, Nintendo can come up with gorgeous and different scenarios for the race tracks. In addition, a lot of obstacles in the race tracks are unpredictable, merciless and nasty. In the Banana Grand Prix, the Robo-Jimmy in the City race track fires its laser whenever it wants, and you don't know where the hell are the cannon balls from the pirate ship will land in the tropical island race track.

5) You have to keep racing in the same grand prix until you fill up an entire bar. It feels repetitive even though you get to choose different kinds of modes for your vehicle. You don't have to win first all of the time and just fill up the bar. Once the bar is done, you can race against each of the Pipotron Brothers in the grand prix. The grand prixes doesn't motivate me a lot compare to the ones in Mario Kart. They don't have a ranking system to show how well you raced or keep a high score. I appreciate their attempt to increase the replay value, but it feels more like a chore to keep racing for more money to get more parts and fill up the bar to progress further in the game.

Despite the negative things I said about its gameplay, there are some positive things that I can say about the gameplay. Once you get coins from a grand prix that you finished, you can spend them to buy parts, costumes and horns. I wish there is a much more variety in parts, because I think Sony focused way too much on horn sounds. The blue missile that targets the winning racer gives him a chance to dodge, and the disco ball item is much more effective weapon than the ink splattering item in Mario Kart.

Honestly, I feel that Sony could have done so much better because of their experience in making Gran Turismo. As much as I hate to admit this, the gameplay in this game somewhat feels like the crappier version of Mario Kart.

Graphics (3/5):
The graphics are mostly just like Ape Escape Academy's but slightly better. Nothing special.

Music (3/5):
The music could have been done better. In tracks that have the same scenario (for ex, the city), the soundtrack for each of those tracks are not very distinct from each other. It's pretty much almost the same song but with minor changes.

Controls (4/5):
The controls are pretty solid for this game. That's pretty much all I can say.

Final score: 5/10

Conclusion:
I feel that this game is a bit too relentless for people who play other racing games and not used to the gameplay in Piposaru Racer. I also find that I can't get myself to keep playing the game when I can just play a better racing game on another portable console right next to me. This game came at the end of 2006 after the release of Million Monkeys in the summer of 06, and I feel that this game is somewhat rushed and is just made to take advantage of the franchise's popularity. There can so much more be done if more time was given to come up with more scenarios and better features. If you're a fan of racing games, you're better off skipping this one. As an Ape Escape fan, this is one game that is not worth getting for your Ape Escape collection unless you have intentions to collect every Ape Escape game that exists. I feel disappointed in Sony for rushing the development of this game. I just realized that instead of making somewhat inadequate spin-off games for the next 6 years, Sony could have just focused their efforts more on a sequel to Ape Escape 3.

I somewhat regretted getting this game, but I am glad that this game never left Japan.

Back from Japan

I just had a wonderful trip in Japan. I went to Tokyo, Osaka, Hiroshima, Aso and Kyoto in 2 weeks.

I finally found Piposaru Racer in a Book-Off store in Osaka, and I got myself Megaman Legends 1 and 2 for the PSP.

I will post a review of Piposaru Racer soon.

-TechieWidget

New Year Starts Off With A Tragic Loss

Dear blog visitors and blog followers,

I wasn't able to update on my blog, deviantART and Youtube or anything for the past two weeks due to the tragic passing and loss of my grandfather.

The following content in this entry are serious and actually happened. Condolences are welcomed and please do not make any jokes or troll on this post. I have already cried enough and been depressed for the last few days.

My grandfather had pancreatic cancer for 4 years and he was suffering the last stage of cancer. Over the past three months and before I flew to Singapore on December 20th 2011, he lost thirty kilograms and he threw up anything he ate and drank. On Christmas Eve 2011, he kept vomitting and having diaherrea and my dad and I had to bring him to the emergency room. The moment he entered the hospital, he knew that this will be his last hospital stay.

When the world entered the year 2012, I got a call from the hospital that my grandfather's conditions are getting worse and that my family has to get ready to prepare for the worst. On New Year's Day, my grandfather was surrounded by my family and I and I cried beside his bed. On the night of January 2nd 2012, my dad phoned me to immediately go to the hospital. On that night, it was the last time I saw my grandfather when he was alive and it was the last night for him.

On January 3rd 2012 at 9:30am (Singapore Time), my grandfather peacefully passed away at the age of 73.

Over the next four days, his funeral was being held and numerous guests came over to see his body for the last time. On January 7th 2012, the St. John Ambulance brigade performed a flag ceremony for his coffin as his last wish and his medals and the flag of the organization were handed over to my grandma. I saw his body get cremated and I cried my heart out loud like mad for nearly more than thirty minutes while everyone in my family hugged and comforted me.

My grandfather was close to me, and this is the first time I have ever lost someone who is important to me. Although I don't see him often since I live in Canada, he always tell me stories about his life and my ancestors and that he and my grandma always loved me ever since I was born. My grandpa and I were the only ones in my family to know the full history of my family tree and I am now the only one left to know.

I wished he lived long enough to see me graduate from my university, get a chance to see my future wife, be the one to help conduct my wedding ceremony when I marry my future wife, or maybe see his future great grandchild. It was so painful to think that now he is gone, he can no longer be there for me in these events. T__T

After the funeral ended, I decided to type out everything he told me about my ancestors and his life so that it won't be forgotten and be passed on to my future desendants as a tribute to him. Once it's done, I will send it out to all of my relatives.

I am already shredding some tears as I am typing this post. I still miss my grandfather up to this day, but I am glad that he is no longer suffering from pancreatic cancer and that he is watching me from above the skies. I hope everyone had a great new year's day, and whenever you see your grandparents please tell them that you love them very much, give them a hug/kiss/both, spend as much time as you can with them, and cherish the moments that you have with them.

Happy New Year.

Sincerely,
TechieWidget