Gametraders Live September Magazine

INTERVIEW: Spike Spencer - REVIEW: Spider Man - A Love Letter to Jurrasic Park
SEPTEMBER ISSUE 2018IVE
WIN
A double
pass for
Venom!
pg. 24

Go to page 24 for details on how you can go in the drawn to win tickets to see Venom! (Australia only)

From the Editor
Hello and welcome to the September edition of Gametraders Live!
As some of you may know this is my second edition of Live Magazine
and I am incredibly excited and happy to be able to bring this to you
all once again!
This issue we have interviews with Spike Spencer and Neil Kaplan by
our excellent writer Paul Monopoli. As well as an article about venom,
brought to you by Shaun Stoddard, and two articles from Scott Sowter.
One an anaylsis of the sucess of Marvel and the other a love letter to
Jurrasic Park. I’d like to take a moment here to say a huge thankyou
to all three for their continuous commitment and contributions to
Gametraders. As well as encourage any of our readers to email us with
your own contributors! In conjunction with those articles, we also
bring you our usual reviews, for games such as the new Spider Man
and Overcooked! 2 to name a few.
Emily Langford
Emily Langford,
EDITOR

What’s inside
“What if
someone who
was unafraid
to kill and
was a lot more
physically
imposing had the
same powers as
Spider-Man and
was unaffected
by his Spider-
Sense?”
pg. 20
INTERVIEWS
WITH SPIKE
SPENCER AND
NEIL KAPLAN
“Sixty-five
milion years
ago our planet
was ruled by
dinosaurs.
Massive,
unimaginable
creatures of
flesh and blood
walked, roared
and ate.”
pg. 14
pg. 28

THE LIVE TEAM
EDITOR & DESIGNER: Emily Langford
WRITERS:
Shaun Stoddard from Spinions by Shaun
Scott Sowter, Entertainment review and opinion
Paul Monopoli, Interviews / Retro Editor
Ben Dye, Stephen LaGioia, Evan Norris,
Nicholas Taylor, Paul Broussard & Adam
Cartwright VGChartz
A MARVEL TO
BEHOLD
Pg. 10
8-45 MOVIES
24 VENOM GIVEAWAY
46-101 GAMES
REVISITING NO MANS SKY, pg 48
OVERCOOKED! 2 REVIEW, pg 54
DOWNWARD SPRIAL REVIEW, pg 66
OCTOPATH TRAVELLER REVIEW, pg 72
FIRE EMBBLEM VS HYRULE WARRIORS, pg 78
MARIO PAPER SERIES ANALYSIS, pg 84
INTERVIEW: BROMIO, PG 90
SPIDERMAN
REVIEW pg. 60
INTERVIEW: RATALAIKA GAMES, PG 96

FEATURED BOARDGAME
DINOSAUR TEA PARTY
“You’re looking well, darling. One lump or two?”
It’s the most sought-after invitation of the year: Dinoton Abbey for high tea.
Now you’re all gussied up in your finery and ready for some tea and chitchat.
One problem: You can’t remember anyone’s name. Who’s that, sporting
the fancy brooch with her pet chicken? Is that Jeannine? Beatriz? Oh, dear.
If you’re not careful, you’ll commit a faux pas everyone will be gossiping
about.
Dinosaur Tea Party is a game of pure deduction for 2-5 homo sapiens.
Each player takes a card corresponding to one of the dino guests. Players
take turns asking each other questions or guessing their dinosaur’s name.
If someone guesses your name, draw a new card. The first player to guess
three names, wins the game.

SPIDER MAN 2018 POP VINYLs!
JURASSIC POP VINYLs!
ASK STAFF FOR PRODUCT DETAILS / RELEASE DATES!
Get it all at Gametraders! Order in-store.

PASS GIVEAWA
MOVIE
VENOM DOUBL
WHO IS VENOM? A
PROFILE OF A LEATHAL
KILLER
LIFE FINDS A WAY: A LOVE
LETTER TO JURRASIC
PARK

S
(ANIME) INTERVIEW: SPIKE
SPENCER AND NEIL KAPLAN
A MARVEL TO BEHOLD
E
Y

A Marvel To Behold
The Marvel Cinematic Universe exploded
onto the scene in 2008 with the release of
Iron Man. In the ten years that have followed
we have seen twenty films dominate the box
office. Avengers Infinity War undoubtedly the
biggest of them all lands in home release in
August after netting itself a tidy sum of just
over two billion dollars at the box office. There
is no doubt that Marvel has dominated the
cinema screens of the globe since 2008. In fact
if you look at the top twenty highest grossing
films since 2010, six of them are a part of the
Marvel Cinematic Universe. That’s insane. The
only franchise coming close to that kind of
market control is Star Wars. But the coolest
fact is not only that Marvel is the king of the
box office, it has also dominated our small
screens too. Marvel has a staggering line of TV
shows with eight shows running concurrently
on a number of networks. With the Disney
acquisition of FOX still looming over us all
that would take the tally up to ten shows.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe is an absolute
behemoth.

But what is it about the MCU that keeps
us clambering for more? Why is it that this
franchise despite its massive scope is just
continuing to steamroll at full speed? Warner
Brothers has attempted a similar thing with its
DC Extended Universe, with arguably more wellknown
characters than Marvel’s initial outings,
yet is has proven to be a meagre success.
Star Wars is in the process of it’s expanding
universe, yet it’s latest outing with Solo proved a
disappointment also. Marvel marches on.
Let’s break it all down. Here are some of the key
ingredients that seem to have helped Marvel
dominate the world.

Characters
The characters that populate the MCU are as diverse
as they are dynamic. Ultimately this may be the key
reason for the monumental success of the series.
They are characters that we all love, or love to hate, or
hate to love, or just plain hate. With a few exceptions
Marvel’s characters have all been fairly well sculpted
and lovingly brought to life by a committed and
dedicated cast. From the stock Chris Evans as Captain
America, the pomp and snarky Robert Downy JR
as Tony Stark, the attitude of Bradley Cooper as
Rocket, the intensity of Charlie Cox as Daredevil, THE
INTENSITY of John Bernthal as The Punisher. The list
and the talent goes on. They gave us Loki, literally the
most likeable bad guy ever! And they ripped our
hearts out when Thanos took him away. They have
created and built a world full of people we have
become invested in. So, step one! Make
your characters likeable. Check!
Patience
Woah woah. Slow down. Take your time… It took
Marvel five movies and five years to get us to the
Avengers. By that stage we knew the characters,
we even knew the villain, then boom! 2012 saw
The Avengers hit the big screen. At the end of the
Avengers it was revealed that Thanos was the big
bad in the background of this whole thing. Pulling
Loki’s strings. Yet it took us six more years to get to
Thanos finally taking center stage to go up against
our beloved band of heroes. That is a long play. But it
is one that seems to have worked. It built gradually to
what is the biggest event they have attempted. It gave
time for the world to build and be explored, for us to
meet all the pieces of the puzzle required for it to give
us the maximum impact. The slow progression and
build up has been a key to the series success.

Risks
Every now and then it proves it’s worth taking a risk. The biggest
example of this working for the MCU is absolutely The Guardians of the
Galaxy. Before the release of that film very few people knew or cared
about Star-Lord or Rocket or Groot. Marvel took a massive risk to bring
the movie about a talking Raccoon and his living tree pal to the big
screen. Yet the film was a huge success, spawned a sequel and the entire
cast appeared in Infinity War. I for one am still waiting for Tony Stark to
meet Rocket Racoon. Just... Imagine it. The series has also taken risks
on the TV front. Agent Carter was a modest hit despite only having two
seasons. A female led super-hero (sort of) TV show set in the fifties. It
was hard sell and ultimately the show didn’t get too far. Which is a damn
shame because it remains my favourite MCU TV show. Peggy Carter was
an amazing character and deserved more attention. But at least we can
say Marvel gave it a shot. Black Panther also a risk with an almost
entire African cast. It is sad to say that we live in a world where a film
having a predominately black cast is a risk, but the box office has
been dominated always by white casts. Then Black Panther came
along and showed us all how it’s done! The film made a huge one
point three billion dollars at the box office and has become a
a cultural phenomenon. The only shame out of all of the MCU’s risks,
is that it has taken so long to have a female led film, but with Captain
Marvel on the way next year, hopefully it will have been worth the wait.
Leadership
Every good ship needs a skilled captain. Marvel’s Kevin Feige the
president of Marvel Studios has proven to be the man for the job. Under
his watch the MCU has grown from strength to strength. He is the guy
we have to thank for assembling the MCU as it is today. He has had his
work cut out for him, but safe to say he has done a pretty good job.
Never before has something like the MCU been attempted. Multiple
films and TV shows all being apart of a shared universe with characters
jumping between films and story arcs that have spanned a decade. I
doubt we will ever see anything like it again. With hard work, dedication
and a rabid fan base I doubt it will be going anywhere soon. It surely is
a marvel to behold.
Written by Scott F. Sowter
Twitter: @ScottFSowter

SCOTT SOWTER
LIFE FINDS A WAY:
JURRAS

A love letter to
IC PARK
Sixty-five million years ago our planet was
ruled by dinosaurs. Massive, unimaginable
creatures of flesh and blood walked,
roared and ate. Then they vanished, wiped
from the face of the Earth by some equally
unfathomable cataclxysm. What we were left
with is bones, fossils of these incredible giants
that once rolled our world. In 1993 the film
Jurassic Park was released around the world.
Steven Spielberg brought dinosaurs back to life.
As a kid in the 90’s I was a dinosaur kid, as many
were and still are. Seeing Jurassic Park on the
big screen was a life changing event. There they
were, alive, breathing, walking, roaring like we
had only imagined. This year sees the release
of Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom the fifth film
in the Jurassic franchise, showing that there is
still blood in this pre-historic beast. Apart from
being spectacular pop-corn adventure films the
Jurassic Park series has succeeded on one other
fuel, pure magic.
While the films have bounced back and forth
there is no denying that they have all been solid
hits at the box office and that comes down to
the film’s stars, and no, for once I am not talking
about Ian Goldblum. It’s the dinosaurs. That’s
why we watch. Jurassic Park has provided us
the ultimate window into our imaginations. It
has breathed life back into one of the world’s
most amazing wonders. I remember distinctly
as a child; my parents took me to a museum
and I just remember sitting in awe in front of
a Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton. The size is just
staggering. This enormous meat eating creature
used to move. We could picture it, in our minds.
The way it walked, the way it ate, hunted, the
thunderous crash it must have made as it ran
across the earth.

Then when those perfect ringlets of water
rippled out across the surface of a cup of
water in the film we all got to witness the
power of one of the world’s biggest creatures.
I remember that scene so vividly. The feeling
it put into me. I was never scared, as my
parents feared I would be as a young child.
I was excited. I didn’t care that the human
characters where about to be eaten, I was just
grinning ear to ear.
“THE T-REX WAS ALIVE!”
to things of pure imagination. It still fails to
compare for some reason to the magic of
Jurassic Park.
Dinosaurs are something most children are
obsessed with. For some of us that never goes
away and maybe that is the real magic. These
films have the ability to take us back to being
children. They make us feel awe again. Awe
at the amazing things that used to be here,
things we can only dream about. They make
those old bones come alive. Life finds a way.
It eats the lawyer! So cool! No-body like him
anyway... I’m sure my parents often worried
about my sanity. I just cared about the
dinosaurs. It sparked in me and many of my
generation and undying obsession with these
creatures. That is the magic of Jurassic Park.
While films like Star Wars and Avatar have
taken us beyond the stars to other worlds
By Scott F. Sowter
Twitter: @ScottFSowter

YOUR ShAUN SAY STODDARD
WHO IS VENOM?
A PROFILE OF THE LE

ATHAL PROTECTOR
On October 4th this year Sony will release the
solo debut film of Venom. It’ll be the first real
attempt by Sony at creating a ‘Spidey Without
Spidey’ Universe. Reading about the other
adaptation of characters, using the Spider-Man
license, Sony wants to bring out kind of gives
the impression that they have a lot riding on
this movie. So why make a movie of Venom
specifically? Why think that he’s the one that
can start your universe?
Well to answer that let’s take a deep dive into
Marvel comics history!

From the outset, Venom was set up as a
villain for Spider-Man. Bonded to Eddie
Brock after Spider-Man used a church bell
to get the symbiote to leave him. Venom
found Eddie, who was praying in the same
church, and bonded quickly with him
through their mutual hatred of Spider-Man.
What if someone who was unafraid to kill
and was a lot more physically imposing
had the same powers as Spider-Man
and was unaffected by his Spider-Sense?
That’s the basic idea of Venom. It worked
incredibly well in his first introduction,
where Venom had an almost horror movie
vibe to him and has continued to work
when various writers have remembered
that Venom is meant to be a little bit
terrifying.
But always Venom seems to come back
to Eddie Brock, the disgraced journalist
and that’s the Venom we’re getting in the
movie.
And arrayed against our Lethal Protector?
The Life Foundation.
I for one, am looking forward to seeing
what Sony can pull off.
By Shaun Stoddard
Throughout his stories and not always well
written appearances in Marvel comics,
the Venom symbiote has given birth to
everyone’s favourite maniac Carnage.
Who became an almost constant thorn in
Venom’s side, and the 5 symbiotes used by
the Life Foundation. The Venom symbiote
has also been bonded to a grand total of
11 hosts (give or take weird retcons and
shifts in storyline), been a superhero, a
super villain, a spy and a space knight,
and everything in between. In alternate
universes it’s been a suit of goo created to
cure cancer, a ninja, a zombie and oddly
enough an anthropomorphic pig.

DOUBLE PASS GIVE AWAY
One of Marvel’s greatest and most
complex characters takes center stage
as Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy) becomes
the host for the alien symbiote Venom. As a journalist, Eddie has been trying to
take down the notorious founder of the Life Foundation, genius Carlton Drake
(Riz Ahmed) – and that obsession ruined his career and his relationship with his
girlfriend, Anne Weying (Michelle Williams). Upon investigating one of Drake’s
experiments, the alien Venom merges with Eddie’s body, and he suddenly has
incredible new superpowers, as well as the chance to do just about whatever
he wants. Twisted, dark, unpredictable, and fueled by rage, Venom leaves Eddie
wrestling to control dangerous abilities that he also finds empowering and
intoxicating. As Eddie and Venom need each other to get what they’re looking
for, they become more and more intertwined — where does Eddie end and
Venom begin?
WIN A DOUBLE PASS!
Thanks to Sony and Gametraders you could win a double pass to see
Tom Hardy as the new Marvel antihero VENOM when it hits cinemas
October 4
All you have to do is go to the Gametraders Facebook page and like
the competition post, tag who you’re going to take and comment why
you want to see Venom!

MARVEL and all related character names: © & 2018 MARVEL. Venom, the Movie ©2018 Columbia Pictures

DOUBLE PASS GIVE AWAY

PAUL MONOPOLI
INTERVIEW WIT
Transformers Robots
in Disguise: Optimus
Prime

H NEIL KAPLAN
During the Friday of AVCon I was given
the opportunity to speak with a man I had
previously conversed with, Neil Kaplan. I
had last caught up with the man who refers
to himself as the ‘budget Peter Cullen’ at Oz
Comic Con in 2015. Upon reminding him
of this he elaborated by saying he was the
‘budget friendly Peter Cullen’, taking over
from Peter as Eeyore and Optimus Prime,
among others.
Recently Peter had mentioned that he based
the voice of Optimus Prime on his brother.
Neil said that while this is true, the origin
of the autobot leader’s deep vocal stylings
owes much to a Western movie hero.
“If you listen to the rhythm it’s very
quintessential for what a lot of
impressionists did for their version of John
Wayne, so I would tend to say that when I
do Peter’s version I tend to lean into that
John Wayne-ishness”.
For there series ‘Robots in Disguise’, Neil
used a slightly different voice for the role.
“(it was) vocally similar, but not necessarily
with the same sort of pattern”.
We discussed impressions, particularly
Christopher Walken, arguably one of the
most impersonated celebrities of all time.
Neil claims that his Christopher Walken
is possibly one of the worst in the world
but that when it comes to impersonating
someone:
“There’s the real impression and the
impression that distills what we all think of”.
I decided not to ask Neil to do his
impression, but he explained that while his
Christopher Walken impression is pretty
bad, it has its advantages.
“Bad impressions make for really good
original characters. People don’t realise
where the base comes from, and then when
you’re really dedicated to it, it just comes to
life.”
Neil explained that he was able to take the
quirks and twitches of Christopher Walken’s
voice and use them to voice a shortcircuiting
robot.
“And nobody knows, because it’s so horrible.
They had no idea it was Christopher
Walken”.

The last time I spoke to Neil we had so
much to talk about that I neglected to ask
him about how he got involved in acting. I
decided to remedy that by asking him that
very question.
“I’ve always been fascinated by the human
voice. I grew up watching a TV show in the
states, when I was a kid before Saturday
Night Live even came into existence.
It was called The Kopycats, and it was
impressionists. Rich Little and Frank Gorshin,
believe it or not”.
“Add the letter r onto ‘bananas’, so what
you do is you say ‘bananars’. I was like ‘oh
my god!’ And I cannot do a Liam Neeson to
save my life, but I can do that!”
Neil became the ‘kid who did impressions’,
and nothing was off limits. Children, adults,
anybody with an interesting voice was up
for grabs. He would enter talent shows,
which led to him performing in plays. This
created an intellectual spark for the young
thespian, who took this opportunity to hone
his future craft.
Neil remembers that the show didn’t have
the budget that Saturday Night Live would
have upon its arrival, so the impressions
had to be spot on for the actors to be
recognised in the roles they were playing.
He particularly admired the one-word
impressionists.
“There are a lot of people who do oneword
impressions, which are genius! When
you can do one word, or one syllable and
people get it…”
Neil then taught me how to do a one-word
impression of Liam Neeson.
“When I started getting cast in shows that
would have dialogue I fought back. I would
start reading the play as we would have the
read through and by the end of the play I
would have the voice figured out”.
This is a skill that Neil shares with aspiring
acting students that he works with. He
encourages people to find the character.
“When you’re reading through your copy
you’re trying to find the character. Read
the description, read the direction, read the
copy itself, and as it starts to influence you
let yourself go, let yourself drift… you let the
words move you”.

Voltron: Legendary Defender - Emperor Zarkon
Naruto: Shippuden
- Madara
Naruto: Shippuden - Masked Man
Bleach - Genryusai Shigekuni Yamamoto
Bleach - Rusaburo Enkogawa
Transformers Robots in Disguise - Optimus Prime
Bleach - Gesell

Justice League Heroes – Gorilla Grodd
When creating the voice Neil explains that
while you may initially find the voice for
a specific scene, that this voice might not
be representative of the entire story the
character is involved in. He explains that
it’s about understanding what created that
voice inside you and how you can adjust it
for different scenes while staying true to the
emotion that led you to that voice.
I asked Neil about how he deals with
direction that might conflict with the voices
he creates.
“That’s the thing. I don’t create the voice. I
create the character and the attitude, and
what will happen is as the character comes
into focus… sometimes that voice will get
dragged over, because now all of a sudden
he’s not as angry as you thought in your
first read through, or there’s more subtlety,
he’s not quite as in your face, or you start
working with the other actors and as their
characters develop you (drag the character
over to where they should be). I don’t think
of myself as doing voices, I think of myself
as playing characters”.
Neil cites James Earl Jones, the man who has
played two of the most famous fathers in
cinema history. These characters developed
completely differently and as such you will
never mistake a line from Darth Vader with
a line from Mufasa because the attitude is
completely different.
“James Earl Jones, as far as I’m concerned, is
an amazing actor but he has the vocal range
of Y to Z… so it’s obviously not about just
the voice. It’s about his dedication to the
character, to their inner life, to their values,
to their goals, and how they go about
achieving those goals, and when those
things change, if you’re really dedicated, the
voice should follow”.

“It’s just a different facet of doing what we
did when we were five years old. It’s just
pretending… and somewhere in our lives
school and traffic, work and the world, politics
and the weather, and everything beats that out
of us”.
Neil says it all comes down to imagination, a
skill that actors need to be able to personify
the characters they are playing.
While doing my research for the interview
I saw that Neil had delved into comedy in
his younger days. I asked whether it was
something he still had an interest in pursuing.
“Yes, very much! But I’ve given into fear for so
long I almost don’t know how to do anything
else. And fear is the main reason I haven’t
been on stage in a long time… It’s funny
because I’ll do conventions, and I’ll host stuff
and I’ll talk off the top of my head for an hour
and a half and people will be laughing and it’s
when it’s like ‘no, you’ve gotta memorise the
joke, you’ve gotta have it written and you’ve
gotta have every word of it down… and that
just terrifies me”.
With that said, Neil has a few projects he
is trying to get off the ground that are on
the ‘funny side’. He enjoys going on Twitter
and sharing jokes, even if they are for niche
audiences. As long as the joke lands he’s
satisfied.
Digemon: Hawkmon

At this point we were getting the wind
up from the AVCon media staff, but
Neil decided that after two interviews
he wanted to make sure I had all of my
questions answered. I decided to ask
Neil what he loves about Australia and
why he keeps coming back.
“What do I like about being down here?
Well, that I can come down here and
do my Scottish dialect and none of
you know it’s crap! … You know, that’s
fun. That’s nice. You know… each time I
come down to do a convention I make
new friends and it’s not a commodity
that I have overflowing in my life… so
that speaks to me. I’m attracted to the
architecture down here. I enjoy the
people, and let’s be honest: Not a whole
lot of South American countries are big
fans of the work I’ve done because they
hear my Spanish counterpart, so that
kinda limits some of the places I can go
to as far as convention travel. As much
as I’d love to go to China or Japan it’s
like ‘well, I’m gonna have to do that on
my own’ because they’re hearing their
guys”.
Neil would love to meet some of his
counterparts, particularly the Japanese
seiyuu for Madara Uchiha, whose voice
he used as a basis for the English dub.
After a quick tale about voice actors in a
karaoke bar, which really doesn’t translate
to the written medium, we are given
the hard wrap up. We thank each other,
and he goes off to do his next interview
possibly anticipating our third encounter.
Interview conducted by Paul Monopoli

Evangelion - Shinji Ikari
Martian Successor Nadesico
- Akito Tenkawa
Bleach - Hanataro Yamada

PAUL MONOPOLI
INTERVIEW WITH
SPIKE SPENCER
Neil Kaplan had vacated his seat to take
part in other interviews. The void in
front of me was filled by the shape of
Spike Spencer, another voice actor I had
previously interviewed. Rather flatteringly,
Spike remembered me from AVCon 2013,
when he had previously attended as a
guest.
When I last spoke to Spike he declared
that he was going to roll down the hill on
the side of the River Torrens. This never
happened, and it was something I joked
about with some of my AVCon friends
before the interview. They suggested that
as Spike is now a family man that he might
not be so keen to do this.
“That makes no difference whatsoever!
Rolling down a hill, I mean… come on!...
My wife really wants to, so we might just
do that”.
“I’m married, I have an 11 month old baby
boy who’s here with us. I have done more
voice over work. I’ve done a lot of other
training as a coach. I’m a sales coach, a
dating/relationships coach, relationships/
sales dynamics”.
During the last AVCon Spike had presented
a dating tips panel, details of which can be
found at dontkillyourdate.com. A book on
the subject, ‘Foodgame: The Ultimate Recipe
For Dating Success’ is
currently with the
editors and will be
available soon. So
Spike has been
quite busy, though
he confesses that
the bulk of his time
is spent raising his
son.
I asked Spike what he had been up to
since we last spoke.
Blazblue - Arakune

Black Butler: Book of the Atlantic - Snake
Spike worked with AVCon to make the event
a family affair, with his wife judging the
cosplay event, which their son, Declan, will
be participating in. If you saw a very young
Woody from Toy Story then that was Spike’s
son!
“He took his first step last night in a pub! He
was actually standing against a little plate
glass and there was some scotch there and
then he turned to my wife and took a step
towards her. I’m like, ‘OK, he was staring at
scotch and took his first step in a pub. He’s
YOUR son!’ That’s my boy!”
Spike is also quite the foodie, trying
different local cuisines as he travels the
world participating in conventions. Last time
we spoke he was waiting on a kangaroo pie.
I thought I’d ask him how it was.
“I had the kangaroo pie and, this is my
seventh time down here so, I cooked some
kangaroo last week in Sydney myself and
I just love the food down here. I do love
kangaroo, it’s great, but I love meat pies.
I remember that my first meat pie was at
the zoo in Melbourne and I was just like…
blown away”.
Spike is open to introducing his son to the
world of voice acting, should he wish to
work in the industry. He claims that Declan
has the lungs for the job, though he will be
encouraging him to do whatever he wants in
life.
Though Spike has eaten plenty of meat
pies since, he hasn’t managed to find
one that tops that first experience from
a vending machine at the zoo. It’s an
experience he can’t quite share with his
wife, who suffers from a gluten intolerance.

I asked what it is that he likes to cook at
home, to which Spike shared his recipe
for Thomas Keller style baked chicken.
Several of Spike’s favourite recipes can be
found on the website, dontkillyourdate.
com.
“I like to explore though, like while I’m
here I’m like ‘OK, what is THE BEST food
I should have while I’m in Adelaide?
Like, in Melbourne I would say go to the
Chinatown because they do great duck. I
love that. In Sydney… I dunno, you know,
it’s so eclectic. But when I’m in a locale
(and I ask) what’s the local thing? What is
it you’ve gotta have? And they always tell
me”.
Upon this revelation I shared the
not so secret recipe of the pie
floater, an Adelaide specialty. Spike
had actually eaten this before in
Sydney of all places! Most of Spike’s
meals are typically meat and three veg,
though it’s how he works with the food
that makes it special.
“I will say this. I’m not such a snobby
foodie that I won’t go to
McDonalds and get a Big Mac,
because I grew up with that stuff,
and I’m like ‘yes, it’s crap, it’s awful,
it’s horrible and amazing sometimes!
So, I won’t judge”.
After this we decided it was time to
discuss Spike’s acting career, as this was
the whole reason for the interview. I
have an appreciation of food as well, and
could have devoted the whole interview
for it. However, I’m not sure that
Gametraders would have published it.
I asked Spike how he got the storyline
for the characters he voices in video
games. At that point he can’t play
through the game like the player can, so
does he read the whole script first?
“Mainly you just focus on your character
because a lot of times we don’t have
access to any of this. I’ve done jobs
where I don’t even know what I’m doing.
Here’s the character, the director says
‘OK, here’s what’s going on and here’s
what you’re feeling, go! You do that.’ So
when people think about an actor who’s
doing a role, you have to… understand
the actor is only doing what the director
tells them to do. If you don’t like the way
an actor did something don’t blame the
actor, because we’re doing
what we’re told. That’s our
job”.
Blazblue: Continuum
Shift - Hazama
Mana Khemia 2: Fall
of Alchemy - Puni Jiro

This was something that happened back
in the early days of mainstream anime
dubbing, where shows like Sailor Moon
and Dragon Ball Z were criticized for heavy
changes to the script and mispronunciation
of specific words. I mentioned to Spike that
in the early days of the internet it was the
voice actors who used to be negatively
spoken about the roles they performed.
“Well they don’t get it. I mean, if you
understand the business of it then you need
to talk to the director, because our job is to
do what the director tells us to do.
Another actor said a long time ago, ‘I’m
an instrument. You tune me. That’s what
I do. So you tell me higher, lower, this
way, that way, whatever it is… there!’
I mean, hey. Someone hired Jar Jar
Binks”.
Earlier in the week I had read that
Ahmed Best, the actor for Jar Jar had
experienced depression for a long time
over the fan hatred of his character. This
is something that Spike was not at all
surprised to hear.
Code Geass - Rolo Lamperouge
Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn - Daryl McGuinness

“I believe that, and it sucks because as
annoying as the character was, hey man,
voice wise it was a great gig!... I did
Supanova years ago with Jake (Lloyd)
who was Anakin and his mum told me
stories that I was just like… it’s insane what
people do to people. It’s like, oh my gosh!
They had to move and all kinds of things
so it messes people up, and they don’t
realise, hey, it’s just another human being
doing a job that somebody else is telling
them how to do it. So you know, go get a
life and stop harassing them”.
Back in 2013 AVCon screened a
subtitled version of Neon Genesis
Evangelion 3.0 in anticipation for the
upcoming dub release. It ended up
coming out three years later, which
was an unusually long time to wait
for an anime dub, particularly one as
anticipated as this.
“Well, it’s funny because we did the… I
forgot what year it was… I want to say
it was 2012 or something. We showed
it. We had a preview at New York Comic
Con and twelve hundred people saw it
and loved it and said ‘yay, it was great,
it was awesome’ and I was like, it’s
coming out! And a year later they called
me in to do some pickups on it and I
was like, ‘is this ever coming out?’… but
it takes its own sweet time. Nobody
tells me. People are always going ‘Spike,
what’s going to happen?’… Do I look
like I’m part of the franchise? I mean,
I come into a booth, I scream, I leave.
That’s my job”.
Spike has since heard through the
grapevine that Gainax are advertising
for animators to work on the final film
in the series, Evangelion 3.0+1.0. Spike
agrees that the naming conventions for
these four movies have been difficult to
understand.
Durarara! - Saburo Togusa

I wondered how it felt revisiting the
same character and the same series over
and over again.
“The 1.11 was a complete redo of
everything, so it was just like stepping
back into the original series and going
‘OK cool’, I’m a little bit older, obviously…
a lot older, and you know, but I still get
into the character and I can still do it. It’s
like I have the voice, I mean, my voice
has gotten deeper so we said… it wasn’t
just my thing, it was the director. We said
we’re manning him up a little bit… I think
it’s awesome, I love it. And you know
what, let me say something. It’s funny,
I get this a lot. People like goes ‘Spike
Spencer hates Shinji’, well first of all, no.
Shinji’s a two dimensional character and
by the way, not real. And second, it’s a
character”.
I asked Spike about his time working
on Doraemon. Johnny Yong Bosch
had previously told me how much
fun it was to work on the show, and
Spike also had good things to say
about it.
I’ve never had this impression from
Spike, but apparently it does the rounds
in fan circles.
One of the things Spike likes to do
during signings is to draw on pictures
of Shinji. He signed my laserdisc of the
first 2 episodes back in 2013 and drew
glasses and a beard on the character. As
Spike says, when you “man up” Shinji he
looks just like his father, Gendo.

“You know, it was a long time ago. I
haven’t done it in years… I was Ace
Goody and it’s basically a younger
Shinji, and it was fun… I auditioned for
Doraemon and didn’t get that, but I got
to play with it and a cute, fun little series”.
Spike said he occasionally can get lost in the many
series he’s been involved in as similar plot lines and
stories can create a blur of memories. Anime has
certain styles and tropes that remain the same for
almost every series that comes out of Japan. This
has its advantages, as the more anime he works on
the more he understands how certain voices and
sounds work in specific situations.

Bang Zoom! Dub Dragon Ball Super - Majin Buu

As a Dragon Ball fan I had to ask Spike
about the Bang Zoom! Dub of Dragon Ball
Super, in which he plays Majin Buu. It’s
hard to get ahold of any footage from that
show, as we receive the Funimation dub in
Australia. I asked Spike whether he based
the voice on his Funimation counterpart,
Justin Cook.
“I don’t think so… This may sound bad for
me, I don’t research because the director’s
gonna tell me what to do and a lot of times
I don’t want to colour what I’m doing. I’m
like, ‘OK, you’re the director. You’re the
boss. What are we doing? We’re taking it
in a different direction? Great, now I’ve got
to unlearn everything I’ve already learned
and go in.’ And I’ve had episodes where
I’ve done that and they’re like, this other
voice just keeps creeping in because I’ve
already got it on my brain. So I don’t want
to do that, so I go in and am like ‘what are
we doing? Oh, Majin Buu. He sounds like
what? You want this? Let’s try this voice.
Ahhh! Whatever!’ And they go ‘yeah, that’s
it. Great!’ OK, so I have no idea what (Justin
Cook’s) Majin Buu sounds like”.
resume and like ‘yeah I was, look at that’”.
I thought I would use my last question to
ask about roles he is uncredited in.
“You know, I don’t know how that works,
honestly… It could be a paperwork snafu.
It’s not something that I did, like ‘oh, I don’t
want to be credited’. I don’t care. I did the
work, I’m proud of it. If I don’t want to be
credited then why do the work?... If it’s
hentai then I’ll give you a different name,
but it’s fun. It’s a fun name… If I do another
one you’ll see as ‘Heiney Pickelhammer’”.
And on that note we were given the signal
to suggest it was time to end the interview.
Spike said that due to business interests he
has in Australia he may be making more
stops on our shores. Personally, I look
forward to seeing him again.
Interview conducted by Paul Monopoli
I asked whether fans tend to know more
about the roles that Spike plays that he
does himself.
“YES! YES! And they’re like, ‘sign this’ and
I’m like, ‘was I in that?’ and they go ‘yeah,
you were this guy’… and I look at my

gameS
REVISITING NO
MANS SKY
PAPER MARIO SERIES
ANALYSIS
COMPARING THE NINTENDO WARRIORS:
FIRE EMBLEM vs HYRULE

INTERVIEWS
REVIEWS

BEN DYE
REVISITING N

O MANS SKY
Hello Games’ No Man’s Sky
launched back in 2016 to more
hype than even the vast majority
of AAA games. Prior to release
many people - myself included -
treated it like it was going to be
a great leap forward for gaming.
All of the promises of procedural
generation, the idea of an infinite
universe awaiting to be explored,
and bumping into people across
a universe of space, seemed like
such novel ideas.
And then we played the game.

Amongst other things there was little
guidance on how to do anything; most
of the player base started out on horribly
deadly planets and were confused as to
how to expand from there. Options were
also limited, not least the base-building
functionality. And of course the people
you might hope to bump into weren’t
even there. In the end, No Man’s Sky was
a bitter disappointed; a lonely and shallow
experience.
That was then, however. Since 2016, the
game has received update after update,
slowly pushing it from being a mediocre
game to a decent one. Now, with the
release of the ‘NEXT’ update, it has finally
made the move from decent to pretty
great.
Visually it has improved significantly. A
large number of new assets have been
added to the game to give the whole
procedural generation gimmick a fresh
coat of paint. Now the game really does
have a wide variety of planets, creatures,
and flora. So far, every planet I’ve visited
since the update has been markedly
different from all of the others. One felt like
Mars, for example, another like a deceptive
oasis planet plagued by acid rain, and one
even like the planet Hoth from Star Wars.

There are far, far more computer
characters, pieces of technology,
races, and fleets than ever before;
and items, things to discover, and
beings to interact with are all over
the place. Random NPC ships will
fly overhead every now and then,
which makes the experience feel
much less lonely. Granted, I’ve only
encountered one real person thus
far (and that a Steam friend), but
the ability to join another player’s
session and unlock their bases to go
through what is in effect a Stargate
is a huge improvement.
I’m currently in the process
of fervently constructing
my own glorious base on
a planet that I found with
my aforementioned it. It
almost feels like Minecraft
in space, but with stronger
visuals and the addition of
some enjoyable exploration
components. This is the
game I wanted (an expected)
at launch. Unlike Minecraft
it doesn’t get aesthetically
boring either, at least not
so far. The sheer number
of possibilities, especially
with future updates, should
ensure that it remains
interesting for a long time to
come.

When No Man’s Sky first came out I was
incredibly excited. I came from an Eve:
Online background and loved many
aspects of that game but simultaneously
hated how slow it felt and how you never
had direct control over your ship (it’s a
point and click game, for the uninitiated).
When No Man’s Sky was announced and
shown off, I soaked it in like Squidward
eating Krabby Patties. Then, when it
was released, I played it for about three
hours before hanging up my boots and
walking away from the depressingly
isolated and limited experience.
Now? Now I can’t stop playing it. Every
day I feel an eager temptation to play it,
and when I do I’m lost in this universe
for at least an hour (which is a lot of
time for me to devote to a session). I
love the exploration, the discovery, the
interaction with aliens, and the possibility
of easily and meaningfully interacting
with people. I love that the resources
required are always available in some
way, shape, or form, and usually rather
easily. I love that I continue to learn as
I play the game, figuring out how to
do things better and more efficiently. I
love the gorgeous sunsets on beautiful
planets... which quickly turn into deadly
hot acid rain. I love that I can literally
pick it up and play for a bit, quickly save,
and then resume right where I left off. I
love how easy it is for friends to join my
play sessions. There are so many things
about this game that I love, now, that I
could keep going on like this for quite
some time.
What makes this update even better are
the implications for the future of the
game, with this as the basis for what
to expect. Hello Games’ press release
was rather telling of the developer’s
intentions in this respect:
“This is an incredibly important update for
us, but it’s also just another step in a longer
journey, and we’ll continue to support No
Man’s Sky in this way for the foreseeable
future. This is an incredibly important update
for us, but it’s also just another step in a
longer journey, and we’ll continue to support
No Man’s Sky in this way for the foreseeable
future.”
No Man’s Sky has gone on a long
journey, from being straight up bad, to
middling, to now good. So who knows,
it’s possible that one day No Man’s Sky
will eventually morph into a superb
game.
In truth, dozens of major features that
have been added to No Man’s Sky since
its disastrous launch in 2016, and many
more significant tweaks have been made
beyond that. If you own the game but
quickly gave up on it back in 2016 then
now is a great time to experience all of
these improvements for yourself. I can
honestly say I have never seen such a
drastic turnaround in all of video gaming
- No Man’s Sky was a complete and utter
disappointment but now it’s finally fun to
play.
By Ben Dye, VGChartz

Stephan LaGioia
REVIEW NS:
OVERCOOKED! 2
I
never thought I’d experience a game that
so authentically captures the stresses of
being a chef at a bustling kitchen - or at
least what I presume those stresses would
be like. And yet, Team 17’s Overooked! 2
manages to capture it. I mean that in the
best way possible, by the way. Taking its
cue from the first entry, this sequel utilizes
the ingredients of what made Overcooked
so enjoyable and adds some delectable
additions of its own, including online
multiplayer.
If you’ve played the original it likely won’t
take much for you to jump right into
the action and get acquainted with the
frantic multi-tasking the game demands.
The controls are pretty simple and only
require the use of a few buttons for the
main commands. Not being well-versed
in Overcooked culinary arts myself,
there was certainly a learning curve that
I had to shake off with so much going
on around me. After 20 minutes or so
of stumbling around, dropping food
on the floor, burning things, and falling
down pits, it all clicked, and the game’s
enjoyment elevated massively.
Essentially, you’re tossed into one of a
number of unique kitchens, complete
with an array of cooking tools and crates
full of food items at your disposal. You’re
immediately put on the clock as you and
at least one other chef must scramble to
whip together a laundry list of varying
dishes. You’ll often have to prepare these
items by way of chopping, steaming,
frying, and/or baking.

The rate at which you accumulate points
will depend on how quickly and orderly
you assemble these items. Following
completion of a stage, you’ll be awarded
1 to 3 stars, the latter of which usually
requires a synchronized assembly
line born of teamwork and ample
communication.
You can jump into either a local or online
multiplayer mode with relative ease, and
decide to face off in a cooking throwdown
Iron Chef style, or choose to band
together to crank out as many food
items as possible within a 3 minute span.
You can pick your chef from a number
of cartoony options, both human and
animal, and unlock more as you progress.
In addition to boasting a larger lineup of
chefs, Overcooked! 2 also replaces the
soup recipes that so heavily permeated
the original and swaps them out for a
much more diverse lineup of dishes.
These range from sushi, to a couple of
the sequel’s more elaborate additions
- flapjacks and cakes. This new lineup,
along with a few old classics like the
burger, keep the experience feeling fresh,
as most of the food items come with their
own separate process for cooking and
preparation.

While the game revolves around a pretty
simplistic core, there are certain nuances
you can exploit in order to run your
kitchen more efficiently, which can go
a long way in nudging over the 3 star
cliff. You can allocate various tasks to
certain players, such as dish washing or
serving, and can choose to fulfill orders
in the order they pop up to receive extra
tips. You can now even toss food items
directly into the arms of an awaiting chef
or into a pot or pan to save on time.
Overcooked! 2 mostly hits that sweet
spot of solid mechanics and simplistic
gameplay that’s easy enough to grasp,
but provides room for completionists
and die-hard chefs to shine and earn that
triple star ranking.
The game comes with a pretty standard
campaign mode that gives you a quick
tutorial before plopping you onto an
overworld map containing a number of
colorful kitchens, each with their own
characteristics, equipment, and hazards.
You’ll be cooking in everything from
sushi kitchens wrought with conveyor
belts, to pit-laden coal mines, to hot air
balloons that force you to scurry across
moving platforms. Some of these stages
go a tad far in tossing random elements
at you, but most add a certain charm and
do well in keeping you on your toes in
a creative, chaotic way. The variance in
the environments also helps the game’s
cute and colorful art style flourish even
further, giving a delightful sense of
character.

The campaign comes with a simplistic, but
nonetheless amusing narrative involving
the cheekily named “Unbread”. Yes, as
you might imagine, these are zombie-like
bread creatures, and they’re apparently
taking over the Onion Kingdom. Naturally,
you’re summoned by the great Onion King
- who looks exactly as you’d expect - to
keep the hordes at bay by satiating their
hunger.
The difficulty stays at a manageable level -
even when playing solo and painstakingly
forced to swap between 2 chefs - and
ramps up pretty steadily throughout. The
game also does a nice job of providing
new recipes and gameplay elements at an
easy-to-absorb trickle, so the mode proves
a fun and useful 5 hour diversion, though
the real meat of the gameplay lies in the
local and online multiplayer.

Local multiplayer was a blast in my
experience, and felt as much a couch co-op
game as an exercise in communication. My
matches were filled with people shouting
commands and recipes at eachother, frantic
moments of exhilaration, and plenty of
laughter-beckoning blunders. The online
play doesn’t quite offer this same charm,
nor the ability to talk directly with one
another on the Switch version, despite being
enjoyable in its own right. Thus, despite this
newly included online multiplayer feature,
couch co-op still stands out as the highlight
of the game and the best way to experience
Overcooked! 2.
Aside from the lack of communication
options (basic emotes notwithstanding), I
had a surprisingly smooth and endlessly
enjoyable experience playing online. Players
usually were on the money with tasks and
there was a fair degree of working around
the lack of communication through quick
wits, improvisation, and multi-tasking. I
was usually matched up quite quickly, and
only got an occasional bit of lag stutter.
The head-to-head mode is ideal for the
competitive types, but for my money, the
more simplistic Arcade co-op portion
proves a perfect blend of action-packed
intensity and mindless cooking fun. Playing
with 3 others can occasionally get chaotic,
but it’s certainly preferable to managing
multiple tasks on your own. The online
could perhaps have been fleshed out a bit
more, as its customizations are limited and
there’s no leaderboard to be found. Still, it
works well enough, and goes a long way in
extending the game’s shelf life.
The original Overcooked managed to be
something of a sleeper hit and its sequel
further reminds us why this quirky co-op
franchise has won over so many. Ghost
Town Games and Team 17 have sprinkled
in just the right amount of new elements
to strengthen and further flesh out the
experience without overwhelming it. While
your levels of enjoyment playing solo are
likely to be tepid, those looking for co-op
multiplayer gaming excellence should look
no further than this charming, addictive
sequel.
By Stephan LaGioia, VGChartz

Marvel’s Spider-Man (PS4)
Review
Marvel’s Spider-Man is without a
doubt the absolute best Marvel
game ever made. The world
Insomniac Games have created, even with its
many and varied references to the greater
Marvel universe, feels so authentically Spider-
Man that it’s almost unbelievable. The systems
they’ve implemented, the gadgets and suit
powers, serve well to enhance the experience
and feeling of being Spidey.
The game starts you in as a 23-year-old Peter
Parker in the midst of working to bring down
the Kingpin (continuing basically straight from
the prequel novel Spider-Man: Hostile Takeover,
which is also very good) and thrusts you
straight into a fully immersive New York City.
The first mission in the game feels both like a
well-designed tutorial and a hugely impacting
part of the story, which feels so damn good.
“The story is where this game
well and truly shines”
It shows you everything you need to know to
get started, including introducing you to the
swinging mechanics literally straight out of the
gate... or rather window.

These swinging mechanics
are a big part of what makes
this game so fun, with an
emphasis on fluidity and
building up speed using
different techniques. Traversal
in open world games is
always touch and go, with
some being really good and
some being incredibly boring.
Luckily Spider-Man gives you
enough variations to enable
you to move throughout the
city quickly, which opens up
directly after the tutorial.
Collectables and side missions
periodically open up as well,
which keeps it fun from start
to finish. It’s telling that I only
used the fast travel system
once (when it’s introduced.
It never forces you to use it
after that).
Combat in this game is
heavily Arkham inspired, but
with more of an emphasis
on movement over brute
strength. The different
gadgets enable a wide array
of play styles and the use of
aerial combat gives a more
3-dimensional aspect. Learn
to love the dodge button, and
make sure to make liberal use
of webbing people because
the earlier you web, the less
people you have to punch
repeatedly.

I must talk about the
voice acting for a
moment. The voice
cast of this game is
phenomenal. There’s
not even a character
I can single out as
the best or a stand
out because they’re
all amazingly good.
The motion capture
is also incredibly well
done, and I’ve had
multiple people walk
past and ask what
movie I was watching,
which is just incredible.
Every character is fully
realised and acted
incredibly well, and
there are some hard
scenes particularly
towards the last third
of the game which are
phenomenally well
done. Kudos to all the
actors and workers
involved.

The story is where this game well and truly
shines though. The interactions between
Spider-Man, his supporting cast and his
villains are incredibly well done. The journey
the story goes on, with the revelations
about certain characters taking center stage
in the late game, is well realised. Also, I
have to mention the incidental storytelling,
with the collectables and newspaper
clippings you find throughout the game
helping to establish a believable world
where Spider-Man has been active for
almost a decade.
In a year where we’ve gotten such amazing
games such as God of War, the fact that a
game like Spider-Man could be released
and be as good as it is, is absolutely
amazing. If you have a PS4, go buy this
game and experience it for yourself. It’s a
monumentally well realised experience and
one of my favourite Spider-Man stories
ever.
By Shaun Stoddard

YOUR Evan Norris SAY Review
DOWNWARD SPIRAL: HORUS STATION
(PS4)
Few things are as alien and inhospitable as
a derelict space station drifting aimlessly,
noiselessly through the inky, empty vastness
of space. It’s a terrific setting for a sciencefiction
or horror tale, and first-person actionadventure
game Downward Spiral: Horus
Station knows it. Part 2001: A Space Odyssey,
part Dead Space, Horus Station — the first
of a planned anthology series — owns
some striking sci-fi ideas, impressive zerogravity
controls, and thick, tense atmosphere
(strengthened by a menacing electronic
soundtrack from HIM frontman Ville Valo),
but suffers from repetitive tasks, enemies, and
stage layouts, a missing sense of progression
and geography, and incoherent, evasive
storytelling.

The story in Horus Station is
purposefully — and sometimes
bewilderingly — vague. An astronaut
wakes up on the Horus space station
after a catastrophic event. Sections
of the installation have broken apart,
entire areas are on lockdown, and
hostile security robots run amok.
As the nameless, faceless hero pulls
the station back together, destroys
rampaging robots, and re-engages
a host of deactivated systems,
more information about Horus and
its extraterrestrial purpose comes
into view. Even so, that “more”
information is, by the end of the
adventure, insufficient.
Developer 3rd Eye Studios deserves
much respect for opting for
environmental storytelling in its zerogravity
thriller, and in the process
skipping cinematic cut-scenes, but
the game’s vagueness come at a
price: an often incomprehensible
storyline that leaves the player with
a nagging question by the time
the end credits roll — did I miss
something?
As you decipher the game’s abstruse
story, you’ll explore the multichambered
station in zero-g, fight
off murderous robots, and solve
a few simple puzzles. Navigation
without gravity is the principal joy
of Horus Station, thanks to a clever
control scheme where players can
extend a hand by pressing up on
the left control stick, grasp a nearby
bulkhead or console, and launch
forward simply by releasing the stick.
At first, it’s a bit daunting, but after a
few minutes it becomes a responsive,
liberating experience — even better,
ostensibly, in the optional VR mode.
Shooting is worthwhile also, mainly
because of a surprisingly diverse
arsenal of firearms. Among them: an
introductory pea-shooter, a semiauto
pistol, a scattershot gun, a
sniper weapon, and several more.
Players can equip weapons in either
the right or left hand (the same goes
for a hookshot device and a portable
motor, which make mid-air navigation
easier). While Horus Station’s armory
and shooting mechanics are solid,
its enemy encounters are decidedly
less impressive. The same rival robots
appear again and again, and attack
in similar patterns. Basically, if you
unholster your weapon early, you’re
likely to win. If the floating foes fire
first, it’s probably game over — which
means a quick reset at a nearby
checkpoint, with all your progress
intact. Overall, firefights aren’t nearly
tactical enough and fall on the
repetitive side.

Repetition also infects the
game’s objective and level
designs. The Horus space
station has a samey look,
with Kubrick-esque tunnels,
bulkheads, hallways, and
doorways having a similar
appearance. Objectives tend
to repeat as well: locate
key card, insert fuel rod,
navigate across open space.
There are a few mechanically
interesting sequences,
like manually docking two
large parts of the station
or deactivating a large,
patrolling security bot, but
for the majority of the game,
players will settle into a
monotonous groove.
Objective design suffers not
only from uninvolving quests
but a general confusion
over progress and place.
As you hover around the
Horus installation, it’s not
uncommon to be unclear
about where you are in
proximity to other key points
in the station, what you’re
meant to be doing, and why
exactly you’re doing it in the
first place. There are maps
and monitors throughout
Horus that flash information,
but rarely do they provide
insight into how far you’ve
come and how much is
left ahead. Again, vague
instructions and oblique
storytelling can be a gift,
particularly in a cerebral
sci-fi setting, but 3rd Eye
Studios strays too far into the
incomprehensible.
In addition to the four-hour
campaign, which can be
played solo or in online coop,
and in one of two modes
— “engage,” a traditional
adventure, or “explore,” which
removes any hostile threats
— Horus Station offers up
deathmatch and horde via
online multiplayer, staged
in environments from the
story and populated with
its weapons. Unfortunately,
online lobbies were vacant
pre-launch.
A game like Horus Station
isn’t about graphical fidelity;
it’s about atmosphere.
Judged by that metric, the
game succeeds, even if its
textures and lighting are
merely middling. Valo’s
ambient soundtrack is the
real star here, anyway. It sets
the hazardous, unexplained
mood perfectly, and strings
you along to the final frame.
For all its atmospheric feats,
Horus Station struggles to
break orbit. Every good sci-fi
idea and engaging mechanic
is paired with a repetitive
process or confusing
narrative. Armed with better
enemy AI, more complex
puzzles, and a fleshed-out
story, the game could make a
mark on the genre. Hopefully
future titles in the anthology
series will succeed where this
game falters.
By Evan Norris

NICHOLAS TAYLOR REVIEW
Octopath
Octopath Traveler is the newest RPG from
Square Enix, a developer held in legendary
regard mainly because of that very genre
since decades past. Having been featured
heavily in Nintendo Directs since its unveiling,
Octopath Traveler seemed by all accounts
to be Square Enix’s main project for the
Nintendo Switch, to the extent that it was
even published by Nintendo in every region
outside of Japan.
Given the pedigree of the developer when it
comes to RPGs, Octopath Traveler instantly
has very high expectations to live up to, and
honestly, it’s no exaggeration to say that it
is on par with the legendary games Square
produced back in the golden age of 2D RPGs.
The first thing that really stands out about
the game, and which caught my attention in
the very first trailer, is the unique graphical

Traveler (NS)
style that the developers themselves dubbed
“HD-2D”. At first glance, it seems reminiscent
of SNES-era games, but you quickly realize
that Octopath Traveler’s aesthetic goes above
and beyond, bringing a new twist to the old
sprite-based graphic it’s honoring.
After putting a few hours into Octopath
Traveler, the biggest question I had was
how nobody seemed to have had this
idea for graphics before. It’s a distinct
style which merges everything that’s loved
about classical 16-bit masterpieces with
new technology, and the world feels all the
richer for it. You analyze every nook and
cranny on the screen to see if there might
be a hidden path there, and the more I
gazed in-depth at the art of the game,
the more I fell in love with its entire visual
approach.

In today’s gaming world
of extremely high-quality
graphics, it’s rare to have
something wow you visually,
unless it has a very distinct
art style. Puzzling as it may
seem, Octopath Traveler
gave me similar vibes to
those I experienced playing
Donkey Kong Country on the
SNES back in my childhood,
where it felt like it may have
changed the entire scene
for games of its type. Just
as Donkey Kong Country
served as a predecessor to
the 3D quality we would see
everywhere a few years later,
it does feel like Octopath
Traveler will go down as a
trendsetter, with many 2D
games following its visual
approach. I certainly wasn’t
expecting sprite-based 2D
graphics to be brought to
new levels in this day and
age, but Octopath Traveler
and its “HD-2D” really does
give me that vibe when I play
it.
The gameplay is reminiscent
of classic RPGs like the 2D-era
Final Fantasy titles, though it
also takes some inspiration
from the more recent Bravely
Default series, with a battle
system that feels like a more
refined version of the Brave
Points system we saw in
that game. In battle, your
characters will gain a Boost
Point at the end of every turn,
which can be spent to attack
multiple times or strengthen
a spell you’re casting.
Besides this, each of the eight
characters present in the
game has unique abilities,
such as the hunter H’aanit
being able to tame monsters
and call them in for backup
in later fights, or the cleric
Ophilia who fills the classic
healer role with spells which
will restore your allies’ health
points. Characters also have
unique abilities outside of
battle when they interact
with NPCs in the overworld,
such as the dancer Primrose
being able to lure characters
to follow her, or the merchant
Tressa who can buy items
from NPCs who wouldn’t
usually be selling them (and
sometimes ones that aren’t
ordinarily available in stores
at all).

Although each of these
overworld skills is effectively
repeated in another character
(for example, both H’aanit
and Olberic challenge NPCs
to do battle), there’s more
than enough variety to go
around, and you can mix and
match amongst the 8 potential
party members to fill your
4-character party to your
liking, and switch between
characters throughout your
adventure for the optimal
experience.
The big draw of Octopath
Traveler is, of course, what’s
alluded to in the very title;
namely that there are eight
paths, with each of the eight
characters having their very
own adventure to embark on,
with the rest of the characters
serving as little more than
hired help to achieve their
goals.
That said, the characters’
stories are definitely solid
enough to intrigue you on
their own, and while the rest
of the cast mostly feel like
supporting cast members
when they’re on somebody
else’s chapter, you definitely
get a strong feel for their
motivations, backstory, and
personal journey during their
own intricate storylines.
The player gets to choose
which path to pursue,
with each character’s next
story chapter being clearly
marked out on the world
map, meaning that you can
continue a certain character’s
storyline and ignore the rest
if you want to, although you’d
probably have to do a fair
amount of grinding to be able
to successfully pull off such a
focused playthrough. Because
of the interesting characters,
it can almost be difficult to
decide which storyline to
advance next.
Regardless of whether you
decide to go all-in on each
of the characters or not,
Octopath Traveler is a pretty
big game with lots of things
to do. Besides the main
stories, there’s an abundance
of sidequests and interesting
areas to explore, but if
you’re a player who prefers
linearity, the game indicates
what’s good to do next by
displaying main quests on the
world map, including level
recommendations for each of
them, giving you a clear sense
of guidance if you’re just
trying to get through the main
stories.
All in all, Octopath Traveler is
an ambitious game in a lot of
ways but doesn’t necessarily
cause a huge shake-up to the
genre. Rather, it goes back to
basics and does everything it
attempts to do exceptionally
well. The battle system feels
rewarding and nostalgic, but
without any of the old qualms
that retro RPGs can bother
you with when you replay
them, and the characters are
quite varied in their abilities.
On top of this, you can later
unlock subjobs and advanced
jobs, allowing you to evolve
your party even further, which
gives you a distinct sense
of choice even beyond just
picking which story to unravel
next.
In an era where people have
lamented the lack of RPGs
which maintain that old
school feel from many of our
childhoods, Octopath Traveler
is an extremely welcome
breath of fresh air, and it’s
hard to imagine it going down
as anything other than a true
classic both for Square Enix
and for Nintendo.
By Nicholas Taylor

Paul Broussard
Comparing the Nintendo Warriors:
Fire Emblem
vs. Hyrule
Over the course of the Wii’s and Wii U’s
lifespan, third party developers were
in short supply for Nintendo. For one
reason or another, third party games simply
weren’t selling very well on Nintendo home
consoles. As a result, any sort of partnership
that did produce sales was valuable. One such
fruitful partnership was with Koei Tecmo, who
developed two games based off of the Dynasty
Warriors series, but focusing on story and
characters from specific Nintendo franchises
rather than the usual Dynasty Warriors cast.
Hyrule Warriors, based on The Legend of Zelda,
was released for the Wii U in 2014 and later
ported to 3DS and Switch in 2016 and 2018,
respectively, while Fire Emblem Warriors, based
on Fire Emblem (duh), launched simultaneously
for 3DS and Switch in 2017.
As someone who’s enjoyed both games quite
a bit, I thought it might be worth looking back
on the two and comparing them. I’ll be placing
them head to head in a number of different
areas, determining which I think was the better
title, and ultimately picking one game to
recommend to people who might be interested
in trying a Nintendo Warriors title out. So, with
that in mind, let’s get started.

Presentation
Right off the bat, which game presents itself
better? From music, to levels, to just the general
overall aesthetic, which title provides more
glisten to surround the meat of the experience
with?
Hyrule and FE Warriors both provide some very
interesting takes on areas pulled from their
respective franchises. Being able to run around
Fire Emblem areas that were previously only
viewed from a top down perspective is a real
treat, while looking at Zelda areas reimagined
and mixed with each other is also extremely
enjoyable. Hyrule Warriors gets a slight nod in
this area due to having a few more levels from
its 3DS version, but both earn high marks here.
The music for both games is also (pardon the
pun) rock solid as well, with electric guitar
remixes of songs found throughout the games
pulled from. FE perhaps edges ahead here
slightly, if only because I like the few original
songs introduced in FE Warriors more than the
ones found in Hyrule, but again it’s very close.
On the other hand, Fire Emblem wins easily
in regards to graphical quality and poststory
content. Hyrule’s graphics have dated
considerably since the Wii U release in 2014,
and don’t look significantly better on the
Switch. FE Warriors’ more stylized aesthetic
does and likely will look quite good for
some time to come. And while both games
have roughly equivalent story modes, FE
Warriors stacks up better in regards to
post-game content, with its History Mode
providing a much more enjoyable incentive
to fight additional battles than Hyrule’s rather
schizophrenically organized Adventure Mode.
WINNER: FIRE EMBLEM WARRIORS

Roster of Characters
Much of the appeal of crossovers like these lies
in being able to play as a variety of different
characters from the series being represented.
Both Hyrule and Fire Emblem Warriors market
themselves on the player being able to play
as various protagonists and/or antagonists
from the series’ past. Since Link is usually the
only playable character in Zelda titles, and Fire
Emblem is more about giving orders to units
than actively playing as them, these crossovers
present the first real opportunity for many
people to directly control many characters that
they may have always wanted to.
In that regard, it’s hard not to feel at least a
little disappointed in Fire Emblem Warriors, and
its DLC, opting to pull from just three games:
Shadow Dragon, Awakening, and Fates. Hyrule
Warriors, at launch anyway, only featured
playable characters from three games as well,
but since then has added both protagonists
and antagonists from titles across the series.
Conversely, FE Warriors only offers characters
from those three titles, even with its DLC. In
fairness to FE Warriors, there are far more
characters from the Fire Emblem series that fans
really want to play as, so it would never have
been realistically possible to satisfy everyone,
but this doesn’t even seem like trying. The
infamous “too many swords” excuse doesn’t
hold up either, given the sheer amount of sword
characters already included both in the main
game and the DLC.
And this doesn’t even touch upon the sheer
number of clone characters included in FE
Warriors, who reuse the same moveset.
Camilla and Hinoka are similar to Cordelia,
Celica is similar to Marth, Navarre is similar to
Lyn, Lucina is similar to Chrom, Tharja is similar
to Robin, Owain is similar to Ryoma, etc. In
total, of the 34 playable characters available
with DLC, ten have a copied moveset. By
contrast, Hyrule Warriors has 29 characters, all
with unique movesets. And this doesn’t even
touch on some characters having different
weapons, each of which provides entirely new
movesets.
WINNER: HYRULE WARRIORS

Gameplay
As important as representing your series well
is, playing well is just as significant, and it’s
here where Fire Emblem Warriors shines over
Hyrule. A number of significant improvements
are either unique to or simply present in FE
Warriors that are not available in Hyrule.
Arguably the most significant improvement
is the ability to change characters on the fly,
which allows players to quickly be in several
places on the map rather than having to run
back and forth constantly. This function is
completely absent in the Wii U version of
Hyrule Warriors, and while present in both the
3DS and Switch versions, it’s significantly limited
and, in many cases, not even available.
FE Warriors also brings in the concept of the
weapon triangle from the Fire Emblem series,
which functions essentially as type advantages
between units. This, in turn, helps alleviate a
lot of the bullet (or sword?) spongy nature that
tougher enemies would otherwise possess.
Having trouble with a tougher foe? Plan your
units’ positioning correctly so that you can take
advantage of the weapon triangle and give
yourself an advantage in combat. This also adds
a degree of strategy to the game, and it adds
another much needed layer of complexity to
keep things interesting later in the game when
the joy of simple button mashing has worn
off. Hyrule lacks any equivalent, and as a result
many foes will require long stretches of running
up, getting a few hits, and ducking out before
they attack again. Taking down foes is almost
always enjoyable in FE Warriors, whereas it can
turn into something of a grind in Hyrule.
The last major benefit present is that, while
FE Warriors does copy a lot of its movesets,
the movesets that are there tend to be much
more enjoyable than the ones in Hyrule.
Playing Lucina/Chrom is probably the most
fun I’ve had in a Warriors game, and other
characters such as Lyn, Robin, Lissa, Ryoma,
Olivia, Frederick, Azura, and Oboro are all
incredibly enjoyable to use. While Hyrule has
a greater variety of movesets, they are often a
lot slower, more easily interrupted by enemy
attacks, and just don’t hold the same visceral
appeal as most of Fire Emblem’s. Out of the
movesets in Hyrule, I only found myself really
enjoying Ganondorf, Zelda, and Tetra, and
leaving a lot of the cast relatively untouched.
WINNER: FIRE EMBLEM WARRIORS

Overall
Simply put, while Hyrule Warriors feels like a
better celebration of the series, Fire Emblem
feels like a superior overall game. If you’re
looking for a celebration of the Zelda series,
it’s hard to go wrong with Hyrule. However, if
you’re in any other category and looking to
try out a Nintendo Warriors title, Fire Emblem
Warriors would be my recommendation.
There may be a bit more content for Hyrule
in the way of playable characters, but quality
beats out quantity in my opinion, and Fire
Emblem Warriors is certainly the more quality
experience.
By Paul Broussard, VGChartz

YOUR Ben Dye SAY
Paper Mario Series Analysis:
COLOR
SPLASH
(PAINT STAINS)
FROM VGCHARTZ.COM

I
have long felt that the Paper Mario series
is one of the best video games series out
there, at least based on its roots, but many -
especially those outside of the Nintendo family
- probably have no idea why it’s talked about
quite so much. The idea behind this five-part
analysis of every Paper Mario game currently
available is to work through each game quickly
sifting through the pros and cons of each title
for fans and non-fans alike.
First up is Paper Mario: Color Splash, and if
you love this game then prepare to weep; your
tears will fuel my ever-growing linguistic might!
That’s because Color Splash is, without a doubt,
a prime example of Nintendo sacrificing what
fans want for the sake of innovation. Instead of
returning to the roots of what made the series
great, Nintendo continued a sub-par pattern
that had been established in Paper Mario:
Sticker Star.

The Negatives
Centered on collecting stickers/cards, Color
Splash is, unfortunately, bland. While past
games featured numerous different cultures
and races, with levels based on wonderfully
imagined and unique aesthetics, Color
Splash continues where Sticker Star left off
- with toads everywhere. And I mean that.
They are literally everywhere. If you read
up on the developer team’s justification for
this, it’s utter nonsense. They wanted it to
‘feel’ like a Mario game, which ignores all the
different and wonderful species/creatures
from the original three games and from the
multitude of other Mario titles as if they
aren’t canon.
It felt like the Star Wars expanded universe
being retconned all over again. Are you
telling me Rawk Hawk doesn’t exist, or
Dimentio, or Count Bleck, or the dozens of
other crucial characters from the first three
titles? I tolerate minimalism in the real world
(though it isn’t my cup of tea). I cannot
tolerate it infiltrating a game series I love
above any other.
Another flaw is the sticker collection. Before
important battles, this can be a nightmare.
If you don’t want to obsess over a simplified
game akin to Roshambo (rock, paper,
scissors), then you can look up how to get
through it online to unlock thousands of
gold coins and then just buy all the cards
you need. Sadly for me, I played it before
there were any guides out there.
I imagine the majority of the lowly 860,000
people that bought this game at retail (the
worst sales in the series) were in the same boat
as me, which meant they had to do something
that’s incredibly rare for a Nintendo game:
grind. “Am I suddenly in an MMO,” I wondered
to myself, “surrounded by ore nodes I have to
mine in order to build some amazing thing?”.
Paper Mario is supposed to be fun, with the
ability to beat the game if you obtain the
limited skill set required (in general) and learn
certain patterns. Now, all of a sudden, you had
to farm for huge stickers for hours on end in
order to progress. Who thought that was a
good game design?

On top of that, in Color Splash had Nintendo
decided to make two games in a row that
employed the same design. The previous title
- Sticker Star - actually sold the second most
in the series, so an argument could be made
that people didn’t mind the new system at all.
On the other hand Super Paper Mario sold
the most out of any title and that had taken a
completely different approach.
Those results are both great and horrible at
the same time. What in my view is the best
game in the series, Paper Mario: The Thousand
Year Door, had the highest attachment ratio of
any of entry. But the second best was actually
Color Splash and if Nintendo decides to look
at just attachment ratios, we may never see the
franchise return to what many of us want (a
more traditional Paper Mario game).
When it comes to sales it’s probably more
useful to look at physical attach ratios, which
roughly work out as follows:
Super Paper Mario – 3.7%
Paper Mario: Sticker Star – 3.3%
Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door – 10.3%
Paper Mario – 4.2%
Paper Mario: Color Splash – 6.1%
Color Splash could, however, be considered a
bit of an outlier when it comes to attachment
ratio because people were starving for a game
on a system that was woefully unsupported.
That’s purely speculation and I could be wrong,
but either way it sold less than a million at
retail, which is definitely lacklustre.

The Positives
There aren’t many positives, but the game
is undoubtedly gorgeous and the opening
CGI is absolutely stunning. The ‘thing’
items, like those in Sticker Star, also produce
some laughter in the middle of fights or in
overcoming obstacles. It’s a light-hearted game
with a fun sense of humour.
at other 2D objects and determine their color,
or is Mario only aware of this is for the player’s
benefit?).
After that, however, it feels like scraping the
barrel or plucking at straws trying to come up
with positives. And so...
The idea of paint being stolen is also quirky
because it feels like the game is breaking the
fourth wall (after all, can a 2D object really look

Conclusion
Color Splash is definitely the worst entry in the
series as far as I’m concerned. It’s essentially a
visually more impressive version of Sticker Star
but with an almost entirely unoriginal concept. I
am just hoping its poor sales are either blamed
on the still-born platform it released on, or
(hopefully) on the series’ recent direction. If it’s
the latter then there’s hope that this will either
lead to a return to the franchise’s roots or a
reboot. Either way, I hope this entry doesn’t
stain the series permanently.

vv
YOUR INTERView SAY by Adam Cartwright
INSPIRATION, KICKSTARTE
BROMIO (PATO

R, PATO BOX & VITA WITH
BOX)
Kickstarter has been a rather mixed
bag for Vita (as I wrote about in
a previous article), with a number
of great games released but many
more still unavailable despite the
creators happily taking funds from
avid handheld fans. Despite this, it’s
difficult not to get excited about
some of the more interesting-looking
upcoming projects and undoubtedly
the stand-out of these is Pato Box,
a boxing-adventure game starring
a duck that features 3D exploration
mixed in with Punch Out style fighting.
The game is due for release on Vita
this month (following successful
launches on PC and Switch), so I
took the opportunity to talk to the
game’s creators from Bromio about
the project - in particular I wanted to
know what inspired them to make the
game in the first place as well as what
convinced them to bring it to Vita.

First off, tell me a little bit about
yourselves. Who makes up
Bromio and what do you all do?
Antonio: Hi! We are 9 people
working at Bromio - Samir as
Product Manager, Luis as Lead
Programmer, Heri as Game
Designer/Technical Artist,
Colette as Animator/Illustrator,
Emma as 3D Modeler, Joaquin
as Progammer/QA, Abraham as
Illustrator/Community Manager,
David as Programmer and myself
(Antonio) as Game Director/
Programmer. In the development
of Pato Box we also worked with
Cesar from 2think Design Studio
and Controvol.
Can you tell me about the history
of your studio? How did you first
get started in videogames?
Antonio: We started development
of games in 2013, we were focused
on mobile games as a learning
point since getting our game
released on the AppStore and the
Google Play Store was easier at that
time than Steam. After developing
a couple of mobile games we
wanted to make a bigger game and
that’s when we started developing
Pato Box.
What made you decide on
Kickstarter as a means to fund
Pato Box? Did you find it
difficult to pitch the game to
traditional publishers?
César: We wanted to maintain
all the freedom we could in
the development. While we
had some money saved for
the project we knew that the
development time could be
reduced by the help of backers
turning it into a crowd funding
project and also use it as a tool
to let more people know about
our dream and help us make it
happen.
What made you decide on
Vita as a target platform
for the game?
Antonio: We were able to
get in touch with Sony some
time ago and we got access
to dev kits pretty early on.
Unfortunately we weren’t
able to develop a game for
it until Pato Box and we saw
that the gameplay would be
perfect to have on the go
and that’s why we decided
to support the Vita.

Was the response by the Vita
community what you’d hoped
it would be? Were you pleased
with the feedback you received?
César: We met a lot of people
really interested on the game being
made for the Vita, and just like
many of the development team,
there were fans of the system that
really got into it once we showed
one build of it at PAX. We were
really pleased to find out we were
not the only ones that wanted this
game on Sony’s portable system.
Antonio: When we announced
the game was coming to the
Vita we got an overwhelmingly
positive response from the
community and they supported
us a lot on our Kickstarter, so
releasing the game on the
platform is a big priority for us.
How did you first come into
contact with Sony regarding
Vita development? How has
Sony been to work with?
Antonio: We met our contact in
Sony at a development event in
Mexico and they have been very
supportive from the start; we
received a dev kit really quickly
after getting in contact with
them.
How have you found working on
Vita as a piece of hardware? Is it
difficult to develop for? Have you
had to make substantial changes
to Pato Box to get it running?
Antonio: The portability on the
system is great but it has been
difficult for us to adapt the game
for it. The stages on Pato Box
are kinda big and we made the
mistake early on of not taking
the Vita memory into account, so
getting the 3D exploration right
has been a challenge for us. Most
of the changes were made on the
exploration side but we are did
our best to keep the experience as
similar as possible to the PC version.

What engine does Pato Box run
in?
Antonio: Pato Box runs on
Unity - the engine has been
great for us and we feel really
comfortable using it.
How long did it take to
develop the game in total?
Antonio: The PC version took
around 1 year and 8 months
to develop. After that release
we have been working on fixes,
the arcade mode, and the ports
of the game for around 4-5
months.
Has it been difficult raising
awareness of your game
within the ever-growing indie
market?
César: I wouldn’t say it has
been difficult but rather a slow
process. We have relied on
the users and their opinions
on the game and how they
recommend the game on social
media and blogs. We have
been lucky enough to grab
the attention of some popular
webpages that got interested
in it as well expanding the
exposure of it.
Let’s talk about the game
itself. What was the
inspiration behind Pato
Box? What made you
decide on a boxing duck?
César: The character and
some of the story was
pitched at Bromio based on
a comic book I created in my
free time. The main character
was charismatic enough
to bring attention to the
whole idea and we started
brainstorming every idea that
would bring the character to
life.

Did you feel the need to
fill a hole in the market left
by narrative-driven boxing
games like Punch Out?
How difficult is the game? Did
you want to challenge players
or make it accessible for
newcomers?
Will the game be PlayStation
TV compatible?
Antonio: We are working on it!
César: We thought that the
logical answer to making a
game based on the character
using the comic aesthetics
would be Punch Out. The fact
that there was need in the
market for that kind of games
just made it click afterwards.
César: At the end we decided
to have a very challenging
game that felt fair to the player.
We always had in mind the
newcomers to this kind of game,
but we wanted to maintain the
challenging aspects of the Punch
Out series.
Will you attempt a physical
release of Pato Box if the
opportunity arises?
Antonio: Yes! It’s something we
really want to do but we are still
looking into it to see what is our
best option.
What features make Pato
Box unique? What made
you decide on including
exploration-based elements in
addition to the fighting?
César: Pato Box will show you
a world that is a mixture of
serious themes and places
mixed with some really stupid
moments and characters,
making it a bizarre and unique
experience. Most of the fights
were designed to keep the
simplicity of the Punch Out
controls but to expand on the
mechanics surrounding enemies
to make it an original game.
The exploration-based elements
are meant to show more of the
story of this world and act as a
“break” between the hardcore
fights in it.
What is the expected length
of the game? Anything
to encourage multiple
playthroughs?
César: I think it really depends
of what type of player you are.
For some the fights are the core
within the game and they will
jump right to the action, trying
to achieve a high rank within
each fight. Others want to dig
into the story of the hero and
his world and will try to find
every secret and detail around
the characters, not to mention
the collectables we left scattered
around. I like to think you can
jump back to the game anytime
to do all this stuff and discover
more easter eggs hidden within,
or just to get better at the
bosses.
Finally, two questions I’ve been
asking everyone – what are
some of your favourite games
you’ve played on Vita?
César: Tearaway, Gravity Rush,
Hotline Miami and Sound Shapes.
Antonio: Persona 4 Golden and
Gravity Rush are my favorites.
Which of the two Vita models
(LCD or OLED) is your favourite?
César: OLED for me, it looks
gorgeous.
Antonio: OLED also, the screen is
amazing.
I’d like to thank Antonio and Cesar for
taking the time to talk to me. You can
follow updates on their game Pato
Box and any future Bromio projects
via their website, but they’re most
active on Twitter! - Adam Cartwright

INTERView by Adam Cartwright
Porting, Partnerships, Vita & the Future
Ratalaika Games
At the start of 2017, indie porting studio/
publisher Ratalaika Games revealed on Twitter
that it had received a Vita dev kit and was
working on porting its titles to the console. Fast
forward to the current day and the team has
built up an impressive portfolio of more than
10 games for the Vita, with plenty more on the
way too. These tend to be shorter experiences
that provide a fun dose of portable gameplay,
but with the studio expanding into genres such
as text adventures, the developer seems to be
an interesting variable in the future of Vita in
its twilight years.
With the team being active on Twitter and
regularly engaging with the Vita fanbase, I
took the opportunity to contact them to ask
all about their mantra, their future projects, as
well as personal thoughts on the Vita as a piece
of hardware and the buyers who still purchase
games for it. What I got in response was one of
the most enthusiastic replies I’d ever seen and
a wonderful set of answers (including a few
surprise reveals too!), making it quite possibly
my favourite interview yet.

First off, tell me a little bit
about yourselves; who makes up
Ratalaika and what do you all do?
We’re a team of two people! We
work in porting & publishing games
to consoles. I code and work on
marketing / promotion duties and
YOUR SAY
my partner does testing and product
management, submitting everything
to the platforms holders!
What is the company’s history?
When were you founded and what
was your first project?
It was founded by myself a few years
ago back in 2013. Back then I was
working on mobile only projects
as most indie developers. Also
worked for OUYA and some other
Android consoles, then after a few
failed games I moved on to porting
because it was easier as I suck as a
game designer!
How did you first get into
contact with Sony? Was it an
easy process to get hold of a
Vita Dev kit?
We pitched a self-developed
game a loooooong time ago, it
was never released but it was
how we got into all consoles
actually! We got our PSVita
devkit to port a few games -
initially we had only PS4.
How has Sony been as a
partner? Have your contacts
in the company been
encouraging in bringing your
titles to the Vita?
Pretty good! We’re really happy
with working with them and the
promotion they do. We caught
PSVita a bit late so they never
asked us to port anything to it
or encouraged it in any way.
Has Sony’s public
withdrawal of support for
the handheld discouraged
you at all from future
development?
Meh, not really, I think it’s
still a good niche for indies
to work on! As long as the
games run on it we will keep
targeting it for sure.
Vita’s fanbase tends to be
very vocal on social media
- have you found this
encouraging to continue
bringing titles to the
platform?
Yeah! Actually it’s one of the
reasons that we keep making
Vita ports! All the fans love
them, which is great.
In general, how is Vita to
develop for? Do you run
into regular difficulties in
porting games across?
Quite hard actually, the CPU is
pretty power-less so it’s not easy
to optimize for, also it has some
downsides like the save system or
the special resolution.

How is the submission process for Sony
compared to Nintendo? Do you find one
more onerous than the other?
It’s easier and faster, also more predictable,
which is great. As an indie dev there is
nothing worse than not knowing when your
game will be out of QA!
How do your partnerships with
independent developers to port their
titles usually happen? Do you approach
them or do they come to you?
It really depends, initially we approached
many devs, Like Twin Robots, Squareboy
vs Bullies or League of Evil. After a few
releases some devs started to approach
us! Like Petite Games or TETRA’s Escape’s
creators. Devious Dungeon was actually
a recommendation from League of Evil’s
developer.
Do you have a favourite game (past
or future) that you’ve worked on/are
working on?
I think Devious Dungeon! I played it back
when it released on mobile years ago,
so I loved playing it all over again as a
DEVELOPER/PORTER! I never thought that
could ever happen, not even in my wildest
dreams!

What engines do the games you port
run in? Do they require a lot of effort to
adapt to consoles?
Normally Unity3D or native code, like
C or C++. We also do Java, Haxe, Lua...
Depending on the game and the possible
revenue we can adjust.
What genre do you have most fun
working with?
I think adventure games - I really love a
good story! So they are by far the best I
think.
Are there any dream Vita ports you’d
love to work on?
Hmmmm, I think not really at this time, we
love working on small/unknown games so
they can have a second chance on consoles;
the one that they never had on Steam.
Let’s talk about specific games - how
is the porting of Devious Dungeon 2
coming along? Will it include something
new?
At the moment we’re not working on it yet!
We’re working on Random Heroes 1 first =).
It should release later this year hopefully.

Can you tell us a little bit about your upcoming
game TETRA’s Escape?
Well TETRA’s Escape is a puzzle platformer where you
have to control a bunch of characters that can change
shapes to solve the levels. It’s a bit hard sometimes but
we’ve prepared a guide for those who get stuck, like me
lol...
Similarly, what is this new adventure
game you have been teasing - and what
can we expect from the title?
Well, as you may have heard/seen on some
social media and trophy hunter channels we
frequent, we’re working on an adventure
game port.
It’s a bit longer than usual, it would need
~100-140 hours for the platinum according
to the game developer. Also it’s most
probably PEGI 18.
You’ve teamed up with eastasiasoft for a physical
release of One More Dungeon and Signature
Edition Games for The Count Lucanor. Do you think
initiatives like these are important for preserving
titles into the future?
The Count Lucanor was published by Merge Games
digitally too, that’s why they did the physical edition. At
the moment we prefer to keep the digital publishing in
house too when possible so, we will probably reach to
eastasiasoft for physical releases - probably all of the
titles they want!

Can we expect physical releases for any of
your future Vita titles? Is the decision on a
physical release made by you or the game’s
developer?
Probably yes ;) The call is up to eastasiasoft
haha - they do Asia for all our games so they
pick the ones they like the most!
Finally, two questions I’m asking everyone -
what are some of your favourite games that
you’ve played on Vita?
I think Day of The Tentacle Remastered! I always
loved that game.
Which of the Vita models is your favourite
(LCD or OLED)?
Is there a chance we may see some of your
Switch-only ports like Vaccine or I and Me
come to Vita?
I like the OLED more, but I think that’s just
because I play more on it. My dev unit is LCD and
my retail ones are OLED :)
I doubt it to be honest... I was contracted for
Vaccine for Switch, I didn’t even publish it, so
there’s not much for me to do there anymore...
I and Me is a bit so so. Maybe yes, maybe no,
only time will tell...
I’d like to thank the guys at Ratalaika for taking
the time to talk to me. You can follow updates
on the developer’s future projects via the official
website - but the team is most active on Twitter.
- Adam Cartwright
Do future Ratalaika projects still have a
chance of landing on Vita? Any unannounced
ones that you can give us some hints on?
I think we will keep making Vita titles all through
2018 and 2019! As long as the game runs it will
land there. Some may not if they don’t run well
enough, but we will be doing our best to launch
as many games as possible. I think we could
have ~10/12? We have more games for 2018
and 2019 already registered with Sony =D

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