Disney TOYBOX Action Figures: Lineup, Price, and Packaging Revealed!

     About a week ago Disney Infinity fans received a small bit of good news.  The Disney Store teased the release of new action figures featuring the extremely distinct Infinity art design style.

     Now, it must be stated for clarity- these are NOT Disney Infinity extensions and don't have anything to do with the game- they are only action figures based on the art style.  The designs were taken from Infinity and re-engineered into a completely new toyline, with added articulation, and will be launched under the "Toybox" as an homage to the game, as was confirmed by former Disney Infinity VP of Production John Vignocchi on twitter.

     The launch lineup will include figures from Marvel, Star Wars, and Pixar franchises.  There will be Buzz Lightyear, Woody, and Jessie from the Toy Story films as the Pixar Toybox figures, Spider-Man, Hulk, Thor, and Iron Man from the Marvel Toybox, and lastly, Rey, Kylo Ren, and a First Order Stormtrooper from The Force Awakens in the Star Wars Toybox.
     They all look amazing and have great packaging, and I really hope they continue the Toybox line with many more to come.

     The figures will be available EXCLUSIVELY on ShopDisney for $12.95 each on Nov. 3rd.

     Source [ Jason Inquires ]

Disney INfinity Returns via TOYBOX Action Figures

INFINITE POSSIBILITIES

     Last year was a bad year for Disney INfinity.  Small problems began began to emerge with the announcement that the Marvel Battlegrounds play set would ship with a single figure, then there was news that there would not be a 4.0 release, but rather 3.0 would be getting updates to continue the Infinity line.  In March Disney Interactive said they'd be dropping out of E3 without a reason giving, and then they officially announced in May of 2016 the video game series would be cancelled.

ENDLESS FUN

     It was a shock to fans, and there were a slew of problems that could've easily put off the toys-to-life game's closure- such as adding far more actual game content, more replayability, and even the simple feature of resetting a figure's data more than twice could've gone a long ways to it selling better.
     What the series did right, however, was in the art design.  The Disney INfinity design style was absolutely superb, and now fans of it are in for a treat.  Disney INfinity focused Youtube channel Infiniteer Adventures spotted an intriguing ad on the Disney Shop- showing that on November 3rd, Disney is releasing action figures that look exactly like they are ripped straight from the game's gorgeous designs.  Making the case even stronger, is the fact this toy series appears to be named directly after the specific Disney INfinity game feature called the TOYBOX as can be seen from the image above, featuring Rey and a Stormtrooper from the Star Wars: The Force Awakens playset.

     It's great to see that such wonderful toy designs are being salvaged for an even better use, bringing us articulated versions of the INfinity toys from Star Wars, Marvel, and Pixar properties.  This also offers the opportunity for fans to potentially obtain some of the previously cancelled figures such as Spider-Gwen, or the truly stunning looking Doctor Strange toy.  This is some truly exciting news coming a year and a half after the closing of the game and someone was smart enough to have held on to the game's slogan and put it to great use- "Infinite Possibilities, Endless Fun-" and we can all be thankful for it.

     Related posts [ Disney INfinity ]   

     Source [ Infiniteer Adventures ]

TMNT: The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Return to Arcades with a WHOLE NEW GAME!!!

     The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have had a long history in video games, loaded with many ups and downs, with occasional oddball gems that really stands out.  In recent years there's been some decent attempts to regain that special something that the old arcade quarter-munchers had and the home ones did not.  It's been nearly 30 years since Konami's original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game first hit arcades and Raw Thrills, Inc is looking to bring back those beat 'em up glory days with an all new adventure featuring our favorite heroes in a half shell.

     Modern arcade game developer Raw Thrills has been hard at work on reviving an old fan-favorite arcade genre staple in the form of a brand new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles brawler beat 'em up, and hopefully proving to us that there are still turtles games to look forward to.  This completely original TMNT game is based on the look of the extremely popular Nickelodeon cartoon, which will be finishing up season 5 in November.

     "This new version of TMNT is a completely new re-imagining of the brawler concept. There are more moves, more environmental interaction, cool Turtle Power special attacks, voiceover from the entire cast (including Seth Green and others)… it’s really amazing."

     Many fans will be quite excited to have this TMNT nostalgia returning to the coin-operated gaming for the first time in decades, and Raw Thrills, Inc plans to have a demo at this year’s International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions expo in November.

     This could possibly be the game I've been asking for for years, in my Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows game review I wrote:

"I think a bigger and better studio may have been able to truly pull off an open-world 4 player co-op beat-em-up much better than this- a game to match the ambition this one so desperately strove for.  We just haven't found the right company to do it justice yet.  Maybe Activision can find a group to do it with the Nickelodeon series on a larger scale. 

     As a lifelong fan since I was about 5 years old, that is what I would want.  A huge action RPG brawler, maybe even a hack-n-slash, in a fully open world of Manhattan, complete with sewer system.  The world should be as large as any of the GTA games by Rockstar, and it should be filled with plenty of baddies and mini-missions.  Take note Activision- Traveller's Tales' Lego Marvel Superheroes did it right with the large cityscape full of fun mayhem to be had with a couple hundred characters to swap around.  Copy that and improve on it."

     Now, I know Raw Thrills' game won't be expansive enough to encompass a huge open world for a beat 'em up, but the mere fact they are returning to the roots of TMNT gaming is a wonderful thing.  I'd even consider the fact that they may steal the crown for best turtles game which I personally believe to be 2007's TMNT for the Nintendo GBA.  This could be the start fans of the franchise have been waiting for to point the following games towards what we've been wanting for years.

     I can't wait to play this at an arcade cabinet soon. And pray to the reptilian gods that this game may find a port to home consoles or mobile devices.

     For related posts [ TMNT ]

     Source [ Arcade Heroes ]

EA Delays Star Wars Project & Shutters Visceral Games

OF MIDICHLORIANS...

     Everyone's least favorite company EA has brought us a double dose of great news today- not only is Visceral Games being closed, but their current Star Wars project is being "revamped and moved to a different studio."

     EA's Executive VP Patrick Söderlund released this news in a game update post, including the unfortunate shuttering of the developers behind the tremendous Dead Space series, which declined in popularity after EA started implementing its own monetizations and the like- and thus diluting the sci fi horror roots that made the first game so damned good. 

...AND MICROTRANSACTIONS

     Through game test concepts and feedback through development, and after hearing "what and how they want to play, and closely tracking fundamental shifts in the marketplace," EA's decided to make these changes.  EA claims to be "reimagining central elements of the game to give players a Star Wars adventure of greater depth and breadth to explore."
     They say they wanted to pivot the way the game plays in a broader, more varied experience, allegedly offering players "more agency" in a way that will give us a greater depth and breadth to the exploration of the Star Wars universe.  Though that might sound great, it also sounds like it really means the core of Visceral's initial plot and design will be plucked from its dying body and replaced with an emotionless, dead loot box heart- presumably to be filled with vast and shitty Midichlorian-filled load of microtransactions and a multiplayer focus.

THE FORCE ASPHYXIATED

     This doesn't bode well for the Star Wars game as it sounded like the game was "shaping up to be a story-based, linear adventure game," under Visceral's good hands, but now it may be becoming something much closer in alignment with EA's push towards a "games as service model."  Meaning it might wind up like Battlefront, being all hype and no substance, and completely riddled with preposterous microtransactions for every little thing, of which we can only expect more of this same old shit from with the release of Battlefront 2 soon.  It's the same thing for Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes, Star Wars: Force Collection, and Star Wars: Force Arena, they are cheap games designed to siphon money off of players instead of creating a unique and memorable story in a beloved franchise.  All the really good Star Wars games have been cancelled or shut down- Star Wars: 1313,  the mobile game Star Wars: Uprising, the Untitled Darth Maul Project, and the amazing potential of Disney Infinity.
     So when EA says, "We want to take the time to get each game right, to make it unique, to make it amazing," I don't believe it.  When the game arrives we'll see if they really want a good story and experience, or if it follows the path of the Dead Space games, getting worse with each new installment, getting worse with each step away from a great single player experience, and closer to the large multiplayer messes.  We even know that Dead Space 3's original plan was great, and EA flubbed that up in the name of the almighty dollar, proving that they've become the money-hungry monsters worshiping a Marker with a big green S spray-painted on its front.

     A team from EA Vancouver will lead devs from EA Worldwide in picking up and working where Visceral left off.  The Star Wars game was expected to release in the late fiscal year end of 2019, but has been delayed and awaits a new anticipated release date to be announced at another time.

     On a lighter note, here's a fun, old Star Wars: Tiny Death Star post.

     Source [ EA ]

Beyond Oasis has Come to Mobile from SEGA Forever

     Thanks to the SEGA Forever program, the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive classic, action-adventure RPG Beyond Oasis, known as The Story of Thor: A Successor of the Light in Europe, is now available on mobile devices.

     SEGA Forever has been expanding their library of classic games, ported as free-to-play mobile titles, and Beyond Oasis is another tremendous installment being brought to the modern gaming market.  Beyond Oasis is the story of Prince Ali stumbling upon a sentient gold amulet attempting to save Oasis from a villainous enemy in possession of the silver amulet.  It's kind of like a wonderful combination of Prince of Persia and the Legend of Zelda- a huge open world filled with a variety of weapons, magic, secrets to uncover, and a wealth of enemies to slay.

     One neat new feature of this version is the "Rewind" button, which was recently added to Golden Axe, which helps alleviate some of the problems I had in my Golden Axe Sega Forever review.  It's a small clock in the upper left corner, that rewinds the game 15 seconds- oddly fitting for Beyond Oasis making it feel a bit more like a Prince of Persia game by coincidence.  It should be noted that there is an abuse-prevention measure in the form of a cooldown timer (or at the cost of watching an ad, if you didn't purchase the single IAP to remove ads), so you can't just rewind time over and over.
     In addition, like all the rest of the SEGA Forever lineup, the game comes with cloud saving, leaderboards, and controller support. I'm hoping they've cleaned up the controller support as it's been relatively loose and has been unresponsive on previous titles.  Beyond Oasis is a game with a 6 button set up, doubling the usual 3 button standard of the last bunch of games, meaning it'll need a much better handling of the control scheme.

     I'm looking forward to giving this title a go, as it was a an amazing title- ranking up there with games like Chrono Trigger, Secret of Mana, Alundra, and Landstalker- all around great action-adventure RPG games.

     Beyond Oasis on [ Google Play ] and iOS
          To eliminate ads, there's a one-time IAP of $1.99/ €2.29 / £1.99.

Undergrave: An Open Alpha Review

     Three Dudes Make Indie Games, creators of the indie title Tel and Aitch, have an awesome Castlevania inspired rogue-like action-platformer game called Undergrave that's been in the Open Alpha stage since October 2016, and has not been updated since November 2016.

     In Undergrave players take the role of an aged, nameless alchemist fallen into darkness.  In the gothic underworld you must rely on your chain-whip, platforming skills, and knowledge of alchemy to make your way through this dangerous journey.  You must slay strange monsters and harvest their viscera.

     What immediately caught my eye was the alchemy crafting mechanic.  As you kill enemies and find items, you collect bits and pieces of things such as bones or mushrooms with which to make potions.  It's a very interesting set up with a plethora of options in what can be created.  When you find a laboratory, you can bring up the list of craftable potions and by adding ingredients, crushing, and heating to the instruction's specifications you are able to make all manner of things.  Looking for a draught of flame?  Done.  Elixir of health?  Here you go.  An "osseous" potion that explodes a pile of bones through the air?  Just made 10.
     On the down side of this is sometimes the instructions aren't clear.  Following the instructions exactly often resulted in "unknown" potions.  After repeated tries, I found that I had to adjust the recipes just slightly, like heating half a second longer than was stated, to achieve the correct results.  It's a little frustrating, but still mostly works.  To not sound too harsh, I'd like to add the scrolling scroll of potions in the upper right corner is one of the smoothest, and coolest, animations in the game.

     What Undergrave does well lies in its concept.  It's basically just another rogue-like, but the Castlevania-esque visuals take it to a memorable level.  Then it pushes the game further with clean, gorgeous animations, in a heavily Gothic and atmospheric environment.  It also features brilliant and fitting music, adding to the tension of the environments quite wonderfully.
     Sadly, this open alpha is plagued by one awful problem- the controls.  As they are right now, the controls are very, very clunky and unresponsive.  In a rogue-like, unresponsive controls can lead directly to death, which is unbelievably frustrating.  A great many of my deaths were due to the jump not responding and subsequently falling to my death or taking fatal damage.  Jumping while moving often stops the character and instead of jumping in an arc, he just jumps straight upwards, and in turn often meaning incurring damage that could've been avoided had the momentum carried him forwards as it should.
     It should also be noted that the "interact" button is inexplicably in the center of the screen instead of one side by all the other controls.  That way players aren't forced to stretch a finger across to the center of their devices, some of which are large enough they may need to pull a hand away to reach.

     All in all, Undergrave is a tremendous in its alpha state- it's off to an amazing start with excellent graphics and distinctly moody music.  It's got an amazing base concept of creating your alchemical weapons, but could definitely expand on that, perhaps to making more than just potions- maybe other weapons or things to enhance his whip, such as adding an elemental attack to it.  They could add a wider variety of locations, a bit of story lore for us, and some permanent unlockables to aid us in our quest.
     Regardless of whether it's still in development or not, if you are a fan of Castlevania or rogue-likes, you should definitely check Undergrave out.  Despite my complaints, it's still a beautiful little game you can pick up and play in short installments.

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     To play [ Undergrave ]