10 Things About Tron Legacy (The Movie)

Just before I signed off for the holidays from work, I was able to watch Tron Legacy at the cinema. I saw the first Tron as a kid and remember it with fond memories. However, watching it today makes it look thoroughly dated, with not-really-that-great action, lots of techno-babble that went over my head and a long part in the middle that just went on forever. Well… at least this series is consistent.

1. First off, why did it take 20 years for Sam Flynn (Garett Hedlund) to figure out his dad was trapped in The Grid? The guy’s a genius, knows about The Grid and seemed pretty driven to find Flynn after his disappearance… he never thought about investigating that route? Also, nobody ever checked the arcade seriously? I mean, Sam found the ‘secret’ door after about a minute.

2. Villain CLU (a CG de-aged Jeff Bridges) actually looks very real during his first scenes. He only really becomes totally obvious CG at the very end, when his face almost splats into the camera.

3. Why, if CG was used to de-age Jeff, couldn’t the same effort be done with Bruce Boxleitner? I mean… the movie IS named TRON. It would have made more impact on an aspect of this movie that you could probably miss if you go on a bathroom break at the wrong time.

4. Need to improve/update a movie series’ signature action schtick? Just add acrobatics and fancy tumbling.

5. A big gripe I have with the one Light Bike battle was that I couldn’t really tell what was going on- hell, I couldn’t tell if the blue guy being hit was Sam or just a red shirt Blue Guy.

6. For something that should be incredibly epic, all the action scenes seem so small scale- enemies only come in small bunches every single time. I guess they took their training from Galaxian.

7. That very first Derezzing scene is the best one in the whole movie.

8. Kevin Flynn gets to indulge in his secret hobby- Star Wars cosplay. He even acts out a skit using a Jedi Mind Trick.

9. Castor (Michael Sheen) kinda reminds me of The Merovingian from The Matrix. ‘Cept he speaks in an English accent, not French.

10. The final Battle was… not a battle at all. Really, not even a good ol’ sock from Sam on smug CLU’s face..? Oh, he’s got his hands busy with something, er, someone else…

All in all, Tron Legacy wasn’t a waste of time, but it certainly wasn’t the big, sophisticated action/sci-fi fantasy I was expecting. As a sequel to a nostalgic favorite, it kinda delivers by at least being as good as the original film at least. If only as much effort was put into figuring out proper pacing as was put into the visual style, this movie would have been much better. Now, expect the tons of prequel stuff to come…

Tekken Tag 2 Character Languages

Wrong, Kazuya should say “NNNAAAANNNIIIIII????!”

According to the latest posts from Katsuhiro Harada on Twitter, he has said that characters will speak their native languages in Tekken Tag Tournament 2– even more so than previous games. So don’t be surprised when you hear the fighters exchange quips and dialogue in TTT2.

Leo Kleisen will speak Deutsch (German). Miguel Caballero Rojo will speak in Spanish. Eddy Gordo and Christie Monteiro will speak Native Brazilian (Portuguese). Lili Rochefort will speak French (although she can speak English, she was raised in Monaco, a French-speaking region). One notable exception is Ling Xiaoyu, who will speak Japanese since she is currently a student in a Japanese school. Marshall Law will continue to speak English. Zafina, in lieu of speaking Arabic or Egyptian, will speak English since she’s trying to conceal her actual nationality. Don’t expect Irish-born Nina Williams to speak accented English- again, concealing her background. Sheesh, these girls… so secretive!

I think it’s cool that the devs are taking these extra steps to detail in the game. Hopefully the changes won’t be too jarring. We’ll have to wait I guess, till we see the next trailers and see some characters talk smack. Tekken Tag 2 is set for release in Japan in Summer 2011.

TTT2 Mystery Part 2: Julia Chang Quick Change!

A couple of interesting comparison pics were brought to my attention by longtime poster Ryuhza, and I think it’s worth a look at. If we take Mystery Luchadore Girl’s artwork and super-impose it with Julia Chang’s Tekken 6 art (after first flipping it over) and then mess with the opacity… we can see that Julia and Mystery Girl’s features line up, almost perfectly. Eyes, nose, lips, jawline… they all line up. Heck, their boobs also seem the same size just by looking at them. Once again, a bit more evidence to the speculation that Julia Chang and our mysterious new Masked Babe are one and the same. Or at the very least, that they both look the same under that mask. We can of course consider that Mystery Girl’s artwork isn’t as hi-res or clear as Julia’s, but really- the closeness is unmistakable.

Is this what lies under the mask?

The last time a similar bit of identity hi-jinx occurred was way back in Tekken 4, when sneaky Lee Chaolan entered the tournament under the guise and alias of Violet. It was only after a bit of playing with him that his true identity would be revealed, and the Violet revealed to be just a skin.

In this case, perhaps the biggest proof will be if Julia’s missing from the roster come release day. If she’s also in the roster along with Mystery Girl, then perhaps there are other possibilities to consider (twin sister?). Or not. Maybe. In any case I love the idea of Julia taking on a new persona, hopefully with cool new moves, hot new outfits and customizations and a more playful personality. For now though, we can just wonder and hope the next updates to TTT2 aren’t too far away. The game is set for Japanese arcades in Summer 2011.

New Soul Calibur Game Confirmed!

The new champion of Soul Calibur, Daishi Odashima!

Namco-Bandai’s Katsuhiro Harada promised another surprise today, and he delivered with the official announcement that a Soul Calibur game is now in development! After months and months of fans voicing and signifying their support on online groups such as Facebook, a go-signal has been given. We can never really know what exactly went behind the scenes but fact remains- fans were clamoring for a new SC, and they got it. Well, we’ll get it someday- no release date yet, and who knows how long it will take to be done. Anyways, if you’re interested in keeping up to date to whatever SC updates happen, best to follow the game’s head of development, Daishi Odashima, on Twitter (Daishi_CALIBUR).

Odashima-san started as a fan of Soul Calibur, then later joined the development team of Soul Calibur III, SoulCalibur IV and SC Broken Destiny. Now he’s at the helm of the current SC project, with the hopes of countless sword-slashing fans pinned to him. Good luck, Odashima-san!

TTT2 Mystery Fighter… Julia Chang in Disguise?

Since the release of yesterday’s holiday trailer for Tekken Tag Tournament 2, fans have been discussing about it at forums, blogs and fansites endlessly. One intriguing issue though has surfaced regarding the mysterious masked luchadora fighter who debuted in the trailer. Who is she? Well, there has been speculation ever since she first appeared that she may not be a totally new character, but an existing one that has adapted a new persona. Some suspected at first it was Christie Monteiro, but that wasn’t likely since we’d know it was Christie the moment we saw her standing stance. Another possibility has been raised and posted over at sites like Neogaf and SD-Tekken which seems far more valid. Is Mystery Girl none other than Julia Chang?

Julia and Masked Luchadore Girl… one and the same?

There are several factors supporting this. if you look closely at the comparison pic above, both girls are wearing the same amulet- now unless there’s a store selling those things, the conclusion is obvious. Julia’s fighting style, though often characterized as Chinese Martial Arts, includes many wrestling-type throws. Yes, Miss Lucha has shown she has several lucha-type attacks that Julia doesn’t, but then- maybe Julia learned some new tricks.

Same height, similar fighting stance.

Next, as seen in the pic above, both Julia and Lucha Girl seem to be of similar build (yeah, they’re both hot), but more importantly their standing stance seems similar. This is, of course, taken from what we could get in the TTT2 trailer right now. There’s no reason though why Julia can’t change her stance to fit her persona.

The question is… WHY? Why take an existing character and dress her up as a totally new one? Well, for starters it saves the devs effort on actually making a new fighter. Maybe they have some sort of weird storyline that has Julia taking on a new persona to intervene in the feud between King, Marduk and Armor King (we do know from Tekken 5 that Julia and King are friends). If this is all true, will players be able to select regular Julia? Can you pit her against Miss Luchadore? Is this something that we will just suspect yet will never truly know if it’s true or not? Man, these devs are tricky dudes, aren’t they?
Then there’s that other possibility… that Miss Luchadore is Julia’s Twin Sister? I mean, there have been two Armor Kings after all. Two sisters… with twin amulets? Kind of a stretch, but at least this allows for two different babes. I like the mystery secret identity angle better though.

In the end, we’ll just have to wait and see as more of the game is revealed. If Luchadore turns out to have more than enough moves to set her apart from ‘Vanilla’ Julia Chang, her own costumes and customizations as well as intros and win animations, then that’s fine. If she’s got a secret- a secret identity, then perhaps it just adds to the charm of this new character while at the same time giving the existing, and admittedly kinda bland, Julia Chang an air of mystery which players may latch onto. More as we get it then!

Check out SD-Tekken’s articles on this subject here! Check out the original post from Master Thespian at Neogaf’s TTT2 thread here.

Musing About The New Tekken Tag 2 Trailer…

Heihachi’s gotten one extreme makeover.

So, have you seen the new Tekken Tag Tournament 2 trailer? Well, if not, WHY NOT? Check it out in the previous post. Anyways, I’ve been watching the spot for a bit, and it’s gotten me musing again. Here are my thoughts and speculations on this latest spot which bodes well for fighting nirvana in mid-2011…

Young Heihachi. First and pretty foremost, is the coming out from the shadows of Heihachi Mishima. But wait- What the HEI-?! It’s pretty obvious that Heihachi’s not the man he was for the past seven Tekken games. In fact, he seems to be the man he was before the first Tekken, looking as if he’s in his thirties or perhaps even twenties! His look seems to have a bit of Kazuya, a bit of Jinpachi, and he’s spoiling for a rematch to go with his rejuvenation. How did he get young again? Given though that this is Tekken Tag, this is non-canon, so perhaps this is just one of those things you just take and accept. It will be interesting to see how different he is from the Heihachi we’ve all known and loved to hate all these years. Surely he’ll be a lot more obnoxious than ever.

Young Hei’s voice actor is named Unsyo Ishizuka, who will probably take over the role from the late Daisuke Gori from now on…

During Heihachi’s sequence, we see him knock away Feng Wei, then suddenly get jumped by Miguel. Does this mean that rounds will require the defeat of both enemy opponents as opposed to just one partner being KO’ed to end the round? At least make this an option though, I say.

New Stages. If you look closely after Heihachi’s intro, there’s a huge balloon now in the original arena stage (from the first trailer) that has the name ‘Chanko Paradise’ and Ganryu’s image all over it- this is both an advertisement for the Yokozuna’s restaurant. Apparently Ganny is a Tekken Tag Tournament 2 sponsor.
There are two other stages shown in the trailer. One is a Christmas-themed snow stage… kinda like a cross between Tekken 6’s Hidden Retreat and the Manji Valley, complete with snowmen, carolers and Santa Claus statues. The Beach Resort stage shown off in one of Harada’s tweets is now shown more in full, and man, it looks perfect for poolside brawls.

Apparently the Christmas stage was just hastily-made up to show off for this holiday trailer- it might be changed or totally disappear in the final game.

Returning Characters. Some more fighters make their first appearance so far in the game, although really people- if that fighter was in Tekken 6/BR, they’ll most probably be in the roster. Baek (despite looking mortally wounded in his ending) is back, along with Hwoarang, Steve, Marduk, Lili, Xiaoyu, Miguel and Feng Wei.

Miguel is sporting an all-new outfit- a reddish Aloha shirt. Is it a new default or a customization? Hopefully we’ll see more characters (if not all) sporting totally new default outfits in the final game… it’s about time to get a change of wardrobe, guys and girls!

The Full-body Motion Blur is back. Harada has mentioned that the option to turn it on or off in the console version will return as well.

El Blaze’s sister defects from Sega.

The New Girl. Yep, there’s an actual all-new character- an as-yet unnamed female masked luchadore ala Rainbow Mika. She actually reminds me a lot of VF5’s dinky little lucha, El Blaze, with her high-flying moves and over-the-top posing. We see this sexy new challenger laying the Smacketh Down with Armor King against Marduk- A.K.’s new tag teammate? It seems that he’s tipped the scales a bit in his favor in his feud against Marduk and King. Now I’m of course hoping that Character Customization will allow us a look at this new babe’s face, but if she’s a true luchadore she’ll be like the Kings and refrain from ever really showing her mug in full. Let’s hope they make an exception with her.

Improved Graphics. I think the trailer is showing off even a little bit the improved character models- Lucha Girl is certainly looking very lively (talking about her facial animations during her closeups) and quite eye-catching (talking about everything else). The lighting in the stages give it all a more life-like feel and look. Make no mistake, this is going to be one pretty, pretty game.

Rockin’ Tunes. The music for the trailer was done by Akitaka Tohyama, one of the several musical masters working on the soundtrack of TTT2. Expect the game to sound strangely familiar but paradoxically all-new.

Stronger Floors. Notice when Marduk is slammed into the floor during his scenes with Luchadore Girl, no huge craters exploding? GREAT! I hope that they do away with the exaggerated floor break-up effects for good. There is a chance that they just haven’t implemented it yet since it’s still a bit early… crossing fingers.

This isn’t apparently our last look at TTT2 this year- Harada mentioned that he has another thing to reveal tomorrow, although he has already said that it’s not more footage (but important). Till tomorrow then! Man, it’s gonna be another excruciating wait to Summer 2011…

Happy Holidays from Harada: New TTT2 Trailer!

Here Comes New Challengers!!!

What a way to welcome in the holiday! Tekken team head honcho Katsuhiro Harada delivers on his promised gift for fans with a short but freakin’ awesome new trailer for Tekken Tag Tournament 2! And that’s not all though- apparently Harada-san has another surprise waiting for tomorrow, on Christmas Day itself. Isn’t it awesome that the Japanese don’t have a Christmas Holiday? Heh… Anyway, for now though, enjoy the trailer! WOOHOO!!!

New MK Scans: Sindel, Sonya, Kratos, Etcetera!

View it while it’s there!

UPDATE: Hadoken.net posted larger pics of the scans. Check ’em out here.
A video posted on Youtube is showing off some scans from a gaming mag with pics from the upcoming Mortal Kombat. Newly-revealed is Sindel, the long-haired Scream Queen of Outworld, who comes with a sexy outfit that leaves little to the imagination. Not to be outdone is Sonya Blade, who’s sporting her own skimpy outfit in a look that’s reminding me of Nina Williams’ Death By Degrees outfit… that’s a good thing, btw (the outfit was hot even if the game wasn’t). Also shown off is returning ninja Ermac, who’s so far my favorite ninja design (even if I don’t play him at all) and looks at Jax and some other fighters.

This new, rebooted MK looks slick as heck, but in the end, the proof is in the fighting. We’ll see if the actual fighting system, which has supposedly been redone to be more free-form, has the goods to keep players in this new Kombat. This is out in April 2011.

More Namco-Bandai Twitter Teasing to Come…

It seems that while the past month or so has been pretty thin when it comes to any updates to upcoming fighters from Namco-Bandai, that may change in the very near future. SD-Tekken just dropped some hints that fans should keep their eyes peeled on Twitter (on new Namco-Bandai community manager FilthieRich and of course, Tekken main man Katsuhiro Harada) for some updates. No word yet exactly on what games, but heck- there are only two games to wait for updates for- Tekken Tag Tournament 2 and a possible new Soul Calibur (Tekken X SF is slated to come much later, so I don’t think they want much focus on that right now).

Latest word I’ve gathered from Twitterati is that development on TTT2 is going along well, and that character models are looking a lot improved from before. Well, hopefully we’ll see a lot more info, screens or perhaps even a video or so as a holiday gift from NB. I’ll keep my eyes peeled then.

Dragon Age: The TV Series… Well, Kinda…

Dark age treachery, romance, war and intrigue abound in Game of Thrones.

Here’s a long and lusty look at the making of the upcoming HBO series, A Game of Thrones, based on the series of fantasy novels by George R.R. Martin. As far as I know, this lustful and bloody epic is one of the great influences on the recent wave of RPGs of the ‘dark fantasy’ flavor, including Dragon Age. It may not have winged balrogs or hordes of orcs, but GOT makes up for it with in loads of interesting and engaging characters engaged in brutal power struggles all across the strife-ridden lands of Westeros and beyond. Magic may be very subtle and incidental in GOT, but this is something any fantasy fan will love. I can’t wait to see how HBO gives this the live-action treatment. The series arrives next year, in April or so. Wow, between this and the upcoming Legend of Korra, I think the fantasy geek in me is gonna be very, very pleased.