*Warning, this is a really long read. If you want to skip to different segments, you definitely can. Don't feel forced to read the whole thing

Welcome to my second entry of this series where I draw parallels between two things you wouldn't think have much in common. And yes, you’re reading the title correctly. I’m going to compare Sonic the Hedgehog, a videogame franchise, to the Oakland Raiders, a football team. Why? Let me put it this way, these two franchises were incredibly relevant and popular back in the day. They were once known for having amazing games/teams that also revolutionized their separate businesses forever. But lately, both have gained a similar reputation of simply being shells of themselves. Recent Sonic games for the most part have had terrible receptions and we’ve grown accustomed to seeing Sonic as a bad video game IP. The Oakland Raiders have had a recent history where they’ve played horrible football and like Sonic in video games, fans expect the Raiders to suck. Basically, I’m saying that Sonic is DA RAAAAIIIDEEERS of video games. I'm gonna compare both to in terms of their early history and the last 13 years and how both went from being some of the most prestigious brands of all of entertainment to being laughing stocks. And then how they earned some prestige back and then squandering all their momentum to be laughing stocks once again.

And for craps and giggles, both have made, well, ambitious attempts at producing music to say the least, namely hip hop. Look man, you can enjoy these in a perverse way and I don’t call myself a rap expert, but this stuff doesn’t hold a candle to DMX’s “Ain’t No Sunshine”. Sure Ice Cube did a rap for Oakland, which makes sense since he’s a Raider fan and because of N.W.A’s ties to the team, but this isn’t his best work. The Raiders in their prime inspired better songs for Cube and N.W.A. And the team did a rap in 1986 if you want to see embarrassing music.

The Clear Differences:

• Sonic is a much more colorfully franchise than the Raiders. The fact that Sonic himself is blue alone proves the games are more colorfully than the Silver and Black team out of Oakland, CA.
• The Oakland Raiders have been around much longer than Sonic the Hedgehog. The team was founded in 1960 and Sonic’s debut was in 1991.
• Sonic’s character design and image has been redone over the years. The Raiders’ logo and uniforms have gone through change, but the modern Raider uniforms haven’t had any drastic changes since the 1960’s.
• Professional Football is a way older business than the video game industry.
• Sonic and friends are fictional, and the Oakland Raiders are real people.

Early History: Lets think back to the early 1990’s for Sonic and think back from the late 60’s to the early 80’s for the Raiders. These were both earlier periods in each respected franchises’ histories as well as when they peaked.

Sonic was initially being conceived in 1990 as a potential mascot for Sega to use for the Genesis console to compete with Nintendo’s SNES and Mario. Shortly after the European and American launch of the Genesis, Sonic the Hedgehog came out on 6/23/1991. The game was praised for the sense of speed it gave players and for how beautiful and colorful the game was at the time. It was also noted that Sonic’s character had an attitude that was not the norm for Nintendo’s characters, where instead of being the stoic hero, Sonic was a cocky protagonist. Many people know that if you refuse to move Sonic in the first game, he taps his foot and eventually jumps off the screen, refusing to work with an inactive player. The game would become instrumental in the Genesis’ success around the world and solidified Sonic’s status as the mascot of Sega.

Soon, things got better for the Blue Hedgehog as more and improved titles came out for the Genesis and Sega CD, including Sonic the Hedgehog 2, CD, 3 and Knuckles. Looking back, Sonic beat Mario in the 16-bit era when it came to the quantity of main-line platformers on consoles. Though Super Mario World is the greatest platformer ever, no question. In the early to mid 90’s, Sonic was on fire, as it became the flagship franchise for Sega going forward. The over-confident attitude of Sonic’s character also went in line for Sega’s attitude in their marketing motto, “Sega does what Nintedont”.

The Oakland Raiders didn’t quite start off as smoothly as Sonic did, but much of their earlier history is when the franchise was at its finest. The franchise was founded in 1960 (originally called the Amigos, believe it or not) as one of the founding members of the rival league to the NFL, the AFL. In their first three seasons, the Raiders had a combined record of 9-33. That all started to change when future owner of the organization, AL Davis, became their head coach, and from 1963-1965, the team won a total of 23 games. Shortly after the NFL and AFL merged into one league, the Raiders would appear in the second ever Super Bowl, only to lose to the Green Bay Packers 33-14.

Things got much better for the Raiders during the 1970’s as John Madden, yes the man whose name is on EA's football franchise, led the team to glory. The team won 6 of 7 divisional (or regional) titles from 1970-1976, reached the postseason 8 times under Madden’s tenure, and won Super Bowl XI (11) against the Minnesota Vikings, 32-14, making it the franchise’s first SB win. When Tom Flores took over as coach in 1979, things got better. Under Flores, the Raiders won two more Super Bowls, which were SB XV (15) against the Philadelphia Eagles 27-10, and SB XVIII (18) against the Washington Redskins 38-9 (when the team was in LA). If you were a player for the Raiders during the 70’s and 80’s, you were feared by the rest of the league. Many of the NFL Greats were Raiders, including Ken Stabler, Marcus Allen, Fred Biletnikoff and Bo Jackson. Also like Sonic, the team developed this swagger attitude that wasn't seen by other teams. Both Davis and the players did whatever it took to win a ballgame, even if it was ugly. The motto in the 1983 season was “Just win Baby” and became the team’s official motto. Though the Raiders were known for playing dirty, and that rubbed many people the wrong way. One incident was defensive back George Atkinson knocking out Steelers WR Lynn Swann by using his forearm to hit the back of the head. Defensive end Lyle Alzado ripped helmets off of players in 1982, hence creating the rule to not take opposing players’ helmets off.

Fast Forward to 2002, the Last “Great” Year for Both Franchises: Ok, this is where the timeline argument begins. 2002 was arguably the best year for both franchises in the last 13 years. But as you read, you’ll understand why great is in quotes.

For Sonic, 2002 was an interesting year. 2001 marked the end of Sega Dreamcast console production and Sega became a third party publisher. Many of Sega’s games that were both released on or in development for the Dreamcast were ported to PS2, XBOX or GameCube consoles. For Sonic, its first third party console game was Sonic Adventure 2 Battle, a port of the Dreamcast title SA2 to the GC with additional multiplayer modes. People LOVE THIS GAME! The press wasn’t giving this game glowing reviews that other GC games like Metroid Prime or Animal Crossing got at the time. It did, however, gain a strong following from the public. Keep in mind; the original SA2 came out in the dying days of the Dreamcast, so it had little chance to save the system. When Sega announced SA2 Battle for the GC, Sonic fans were buying the GC to play the sequel to Sonic Adventure. For many who had exclusively played Nintendo consoles before, this was their first gaming experience of the blue hedgehog. The game’s legacy is noted for being the 8th best selling GC game of all time and many Sonic fans point to this as the greatest Sonic console title in recent memory. Admittedly, I played this game a few years ago and it doesn’t hold up well, though treasure hunting is slightly better only because I learned that you could kill omichaos. But again, this is one of the most adored games by the Sonic fanbase. Or they love it solely for the City Escape level or because of the Chao Garden.

As for the Raiders, the argument for them having a “great” year in 2002 is perhaps more valid. Under the coaching leadership of Bill Callahan, Oakland went 11-5 in 2002, had the #1 ranked offense, and was the last year the team won both the AFC West and the AFC Top Seed. Oakland would cruise to get to their 5^th Super Bowl appearance, taking on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The Bucs were coached by former Oakland coach, Jon Gruden and had the top ranked defense. People were wondering if the Raiders were going to change their gameplan against the Bucs because it is ideal to change your strategy against the coach who once coached your team right? Jon Gruden came up with the Raiders’ plays that were still used in 2002 and you’d think they’d change their strategy to throw Gruden off. Turns out that Oakland did NOTHING to change their formula, and Gruden and the Bucs smothered the Raiders in SB 37. The score was 48-21 TB and this was Tampa Bay’s 1^st and only SB victory.

Looking back, 2002 wasn’t the best year for either franchise. But both were quite successful in their different businesses. A good number of Sonic fans will be as likely to point to Sonic Adventure 2 Battle as the last “great” Sonic console game as Raiders fans will point to 2002 as the last great season.

2003-2005, Forgettable Years Where Both Giants Began to Fall: The stretch between 2003-2005 was an unmemorable era for both Sonic and The Oakland Raiders. Sonic had a series of lackluster console games from that span and Oakland would begin their drought of playoff appearance in 2003. Yes for the purposes of this blog, I’ll ignore the Sonic Advance titles, even if those were the REAL best Sonic games of the GC/PS2/XBOX era.

In 2003, Sonic had Sonic Adventure DX released on the GameCube, in attempt to capture the same thunder they had for Battle, which was port the original Sonic Adventure with additional content. It ended up controlling poorly and was a mediocre package in general. 2004 had Sonic Heroes, which I’ll admit; there was a drive in me to beat this game, yet I found it despicable. What was wrong with me? And how do you play the game? You switch from 3 different characters based on a situation in a level and it was no fun. 2005 marked the release of Shadow the Hedgehog, a spin off title starring the then popular Wario and Vegeta rip off, Shadow. Never played it, but this game seemed like a mess combining Sonic’s sense of speed with weapon combat in attempt to get edgy, only to be lame.

This time span was a poor era for the Raiders, as teams in that span became one big disappointment after another. In 2003, Oakland went 4-12 and went from being defending AFC Champions to bottom feeders in the NFL. As expected, the team didn’t muster a #1 ranked offense that it had in 2002. Also in 2003, Bill Callahan was fired as a head coach and was replaced by Norv Turner, who also failed to “Just Win”. In Turner’s seasons, Oakland went 5-11 in 2004 and 4-12 in 2005.

Point of this section is to illustrate how both fell from grace since 2002. Now Sonic games still sold quite well around this span, but the quality of the product was deemed as sub par by most of the press. Plus, the Raider Nation was still a strong fanbase as Raider game attendance was in the top 10 in the league from 2003-2005. But again, the fans were watching games where their team was getting beat consistently, which was not seen in 2002.

2006-From Hopeful to Historically Bad: Its funny looking back at these two franchises in the first half of 2006 because both had plenty of hope and optimism to return to the promise land. When Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) was first revealed, fans and the press seemed genuinely excited. I remember seeing articles on IGN that were hyping up this title as Sega's grand rebooting of the franchise at E3 2006, or at least what they played looked promising. This was probably because even back in 2006, the idea of a next generation Sonic game was still thrilling to many people. What we got was an unforgettable experience, but not what Sega had in mind.

For Sonic 06’, what else can be said that hasn’t already? The game has reached Superman 64 levels of being an infamously awful game. It had terrible controls and level design, countless glitches, force-feeding players to play as Sonic’s no-fun gang, and a serious love plot between woman and hedgehog. The only other thing I want to say about Sonic 06’ is anytime I see it, it reminds me of those lousy live action cartoon film adaptations with awful CGI characters, like Garfield and Yogi Bear. The world has these realistic (albeit ugly) humans who seem totally okay with these freak, anamorphic animals co-existing with them rather than calling 911. Yeah the Sonic Adventure games had Sonic co-exist with humans too, but at least those games had anime looking humans that made Sonic fit more naturedly. And Dr. Robotnik’s design in Adventure was fine, but in 06...

As for the Raiders, there was also some excitement for them before the season started because the team acquired successful coaches and players. Their head coach was Art Shell, who coached the Raiders from 1989-1994 and had a 54-38 record. Al Davis commented on firing Shell in ’94 by calling it a mistake. The team also got former Saints starting QB Aaron Brooks, who had a respectable TD-INT ratio of 120-84 in the Big Easy.

What happened? The Raiders felt similar pain to Sonic where it was arguably their worst season in franchise history. Oakland went 2-14 in 2006 and not only came in last in their division, but had the worst record in all of the NFL. The only two wins came from back to back-home games against the Arizona Cardinals and the then defending SB champions, the Pittsburgh Steelers. Then they lost 9 straight. The weird thing about this team was that despite the dreadful record, the team wasn’t entirely horrid. The one decent aspect about the ‘Raiders was their defense. It went from being the 27^th ranked defense in the NFL in 05’ to being ranked 3^rd in 06’ and only once did they allow an opponent to score over 30 points (SF over OAK 34-20). The problem? The offense is perhaps the worst offense in the past 10 years in the NFL and about as unbearable as playing a glitch filled Sonic 06’ level. The team scored 168 points the whole season, which it petit compared to the Indianapolis Colts’ 451 points in 06'. The 2 starting QB’s, Aaron Brooks and Andrew Walter, only scored 3 TDs each the whole season. Football analysts may not bash this team as badly as the gaming community has panned Sonic 06’ when it comes to being called “The Worst Ever”. However, if you type in “Worst NFL Offense Lists” on Google, I’d be shocked if the ‘06 Raiders were not on those lists.

2007-2009-More bad years, but not quite like 2006: Going forward into this timeline, there is only one year coming up that will be comparable to how dismal 2006 was for both Sonic the Hedgehog and the Oakland Raiders. It won’t be any of these upcoming years, but all continued the each brand’s failing trends.

Sonic next console game came shortly after 06’, which was called Sonic and the Secret Rings for the Wii. It came out on February 20, 2007 and apparently takes place in the book "Arabian Nights". Many actually didn’t think the game was completely terrible as people enjoyed the on-rails levels. But the game forces the player to do boring missions like killing a set number of enemies that bog down the experience. 2008 marked the release of Sonic Unleashed, the infamous title where Sonic turns into the Werehog. Shame about the game because from what I’ve heard, the 3D speed levels were some of the best levels Sonic’s had up to this point. But Sega still found a way to mess things up with the many werehog levels. Finally in 2009, we have Sonic and the Black Knight on the Wii. The game takes place in the world of King Arthur and Sonic is given a sword now. The game itself is mainly just a simply swordplay action game that was considered by many as an incredibly easy yet dull game.

The Raiders would not have a year as bad as 2006 in the 2007-2009 span. However, each year in that span was incredibly forgettable to many Raider and football fans alike. 2007 marked a year of serious roster changes for Oakland as former HC Art Shell was replaced by former USC offensive coordinator, Lane Kiffen. New players on offense included the #1 overall draft pick QB JaMarcus Russell and former Colts Running Back Dominic Rhodes. This only led to little improvement going from 2-14 in 06’ to 4-12 in 07’ and the offense scored 283 total points. 2008 was marginally better record wise as the team went 5-11 and didn’t come in dead last in the AFC West. Though Kiffen got fired from Oakland and Tom Cable took his place. The moment that got Kiffen fired was making a call to kick a missed 76-yard field goal. 50-yard field goals are already tough tasks for kickers. 2009 was more of the same for the Raiders for literally the past 7 seasons. It was another record that maxed at 5 wins. It was another season where Oakland ended up in the bottom half of the AFC West (3^rd in 09’) and for the 7th straight year, no playoff appearance.

And here is the Raider equivalent of a Sonic glitch.

2010-2011- Years of Improvement: When compared to the previous years, this was when both franchises were at their best. After years of mostly terrible Sonic games and horrid Raider seasons, both finally showed signs of improvement. Yet despite the upgrades in quality, neither reached the goal of gaining the relevance they once had.

In 2010, this marked the release of Sonic Colors for the Wii and the DS. There was reasonable doubt for Colors considering Sonic’s lackluster resume of the Wii, but it turned out to be one of the best Sonic games in years. General Consensus for Colors was quite positive as it was praised for utilizing Sonic’s speed appropriately with decent level design and the little alien power ups were a nice little touch. While Colors was praised, it was an overlooked platformer in the press’ and public eyes in favor of other 2010 platformers. Mainly other Wii Platformers (Super Mario Galaxy 2, Kirby’s Epic Yarn, DKC Returns) and Indie Platformers (Limbo, Super Meat Boy) captured more love. 2011 also had a quality Sonic game released but this time on different platforms, which was Sonic Generations, which was released to celebrate Sonic’s 20^th Anniversary. I’ve played a bit of this game and was impressed with how it handled the different level styles with classic 2D Sonic and the faster, modern Sonic levels. But again, despite the positive buzz in reviews, that game was overlooked and platformer nominations and awards went to games like Rayman Origins, Super Mario 3D Land and Outland.

Kind of like Sonic in making some steps to improvement, the Raiders would have some of their best seasons in the last 10 years in 2010-2011, only to still disappoint their fans. 2010 was a strange year for Oakland. The team won all 6 of their Divisional matchups that year, including a 59-14 road win against the Broncos. Technically the Raiders should have won the AFC West by beating everyone else in the division. However, they went 2-8 against non-divisional teams and went 8-8 overall. The 2010 Raiders made history by being the 1^st NFL team to win all their divisional games and missing the playoffs at the same time (KC Chiefs won AFC West in ’10). The season did bring some hope for Oakland fans because the Raiders finally didn’t have a losing record. This was Tom Cable's last year as the Oakland head coach because he had allegations of violence against women and was accused of beating up assistant coach, Randy Hansen (he now works as an assistant coach for the Seattle Seahawks, believe it or not). In 2011, there was sincere belief that Oakland could finally make the playoffs. Oakland for the most of the 2011 season had a winning record and by the end of week 12, was 7-4. But they lost 3 of 4 from weeks 13-16 and had a divisional game against the San Diego Chargers to determine the AFC West champion. All Oakland had to do was win and they’re in. Unfortunately, the Chargers maintained a lead throughout the game and the Raiders lost 38-26 and went 8-8 again. It would be the Tim Tebow led Broncos who won the tiebreaker over both the Raiders and the Chargers to earn the divisional crown and playoff berth. This was the closest Oakland has gotten to getting a postseason shot in a long time, and they left their fans heartbroken that they couldn’t seal the deal. Oh and they had a new coach called Hue Jackson who they should have been given a second chance, but was fired after one season and later seasons proved the move to be a mistake.

2012-2013-Years of Decline: While the last two years were seen as high marks for each franchise, the following years would show that both would start to go back to their underwhelming ways. And no, Sonic All Stars Racing Transformed will not be brought up because it’s not a proper 2D/3D Sonic game.

Instead, Sonic the Hedgehog 4 Part 2 is the default choice for this essay. There was already Part 1 that came out in 2010 and was criticized for being too easy and having iffy physics. Part 2 came out in 2012 and included Tails to pander to fans of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and was used to have co-op maneuvers. While most people praised it for correcting the errors of Part 1, Part 2 was panned for having lackluster level design and some boring boss battles. 2013 had Sonic Lost World for the Wii U. I will say that it is a bit unfair to compare this Sonic game to the other Sonic titles and the terrible Raider seasons. Its because this game was praised for trying to do something fresh with Sonic by slowing him down to focus more on exploring levels. This was Sonic Team’s attempt to make their Super Mario Galaxy. However, despite people appreciating the new ideas implemented, the game still got bashed for a frustrating control scheme and questionable level design anyways.

Oakland would begin to enter familiar territory from 2007-2009, as the team would begin to win 4 games a year in 2012-2013. Dennis Allen would become the new head coach in 2012 and this came from new team owner, Mark Davis, wanting to start a new era for the Raiders and felt Jackson couldn’t lead the team in the era. Mark Davis is the son of former owner Al Davis. Mark took over shortly after his father unfortunately passed away in 2011 (RIP). Despite Mark’s efforts in bringing in fresh faces for coaching and the team, the team underperformed coming in 3rd in the AFC West, only ahead of the 2-14 KC Chiefs. 2013 was another disappointing year going 4-12 again and came in dead last in their division. To me, this is why firing Hue Jackson was a mistake. While his team choked at the end of 2011, he had an 8-8 record and showed potential to improve the team. Dennis Allen’s record as the Raiders head coach was 8-28 and proved to be an inferior head coach. We don’t know if Hue Jackson would actually lead Oakland to a winning season, but I believe he’d be better than Allen.

2014-A Year that is Somehow Comparable to 2006 in Terms of Sheer Awfulness: Boy, 2014 was incredibly unkind to both Sonic and the Raiders. This year was a complete disaster for both, as both would experience debacles in their quality that is almost as bad, if not worse, as 2006 was to both.

For Sonic, Sega had created a massive multimedia campaign to reinvent Sonic the Hedgehog, called Sonic Boom. The campaign promised video game releases exclusive to Nintendo systems that tied into a CGI cartoon of the same name on Cartoon Network. People got a little hope for Rise of Lyric when it was announced that a developer composed of former Naughty Dog employees, BigRedButton, was in charge. When the game was released, Rise of Lyric was panned across the board and even has the lowest Metacritic score of any Sonic game (32). The game was reviled for repetitive level design, rotten graphics, dump truck loads of bugs (Many of us saw High Knuckles) and the characters preaching about bounce pads and rings. Some of these criticisms felt like parallels of what made Sonic 06’ a notorious blunder. And if you were thinking that at least this game sold well like other Sonic titles, you’d be wrong. This title only sold 620,000 copies as of May 11, 2015, making it the lowest selling Sonic game of all time.

And where to start with Oakland? Let me present all these facts to show how bad 2014 was for DA RAIDERS. Dennis Allen got fired after starting 0-4 and Interim coach, Tony Sparano, took over for the rest of the year and soon got canned. Dating back to 2013, Oakland had a 15-game regular season losing streak that started last year. The Raiders were the earliest team to be officially eliminated from the playoffs since the 2004 Dolphins, after losing to San Diego in Week 11. As you can tell, Oakland became the last team to earn their first regular season win in 2014 after upsetting the Chiefs in Week 12, 24-20 and even then found ways to almost lose. That was Oakland's first win since winning against the Texans on 11/17/2013, and the Chiefs game was on 11/20/2014. They would later win two more games to go 3-13. Oakland played close yet lost to playoff teams this year, including 24-13 to the Cardinals, 30-24 to the Seahawks, and 16-9 to eventual SB champion, the Patriots. Yet managed to get shackled by mediocre teams, such as my Dolphins 38-14 and the St. Louis Rams 52-0.

Oh and you may be wondering, sure Rise of Lyric and the 2014 Raiders sucked last year, but at least Oakland didn’t do any weird tie ins with any cartoons right? Guess what, they have. In 2013, the organization revealed a new mascot for NFL Play 60 events in Oakland, which are the NFL’s child fitness programs. It also tied-in with the cartoon called NFL Rush Zone. The show is about these aliens who resemble all 32 teams and work with kids to defend these shards of power that are found in every NFL stadium from invaders. THIS AIN’T NO NFL FANFIC, THIS IS REAL! And so Oakland’s mascot is suppose to represent the Raider alien and…well… its garbage.

What's worse, Roid Knuckles or this?

Conclusion and What the Future Holds for Both:

Sonic the Hedgehog and the Oakland Raiders were once proud franchises that revolutionized each of their industries. Both were innovative in their separate businesses and have gained strong followings mainly due to their legacies. But recent times have hit Sonic and the Raiders hard and with the horrible, modern track records both have, we’ve gotten used to expect the worst from these 2 franchises. Oh and you may of noticed that I named every head coach the Raiders had in the span from 2002-2014. That’s because the Oakland Head Coach change is about as frequent as the changes to gameplay for a Sonic game in these last few years!

As for the future for both, time will tell. For Sonic, 2015 doesn’t look like the year of redemption. We’ll have another Sonic Boom game coming out for the 3DS called Sonic Boom: Fire and Ice, and the only console game that has Sonic tied to it coming out (in 2016 actually) is Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. Though Sega stated that they felt they’ve betrayed fans in recent years and hope to be relevant again. That may also mean that they have plans to try to bring Sonic back in a meaningful way yet again, but we’re not sure. Oakland is making strides to improve their team down the line. They have young offensive talent now w/ 2^nd year QB Derek Carr and rookie WR Amari Cooper is being hyped as being the next Calvin Johnson, meaning he could be the best WR in years to come. Oakland got humbled in their week 1 matchup this year against the Cincinnati Bengals, 33-13, but just upset the Baltimore Ravens in week 2, 37-33. Defense doesn’t look good, but the offense could have potential (Oakland ended up with a 7-9 record in 2014). The NFL season is still young and we still don’t know how the Oakland Raiders, or any team, will do throughout the season.

Welcome to a new writing series where I try to explain how two things you wouldn’t think are alike actually have a lot in common. As you can tell I’m going to compare the Kirby video game series to the Ratchet and Clank series. Of course, I’m not going to claim that the games an identical to each other. I’ll highlight a few similarities between the games, but I ain’t no fool, they’re different. I’ll mainly go through other similarities that each franchise has.

Now what has gotten me to write on this topic? There were a couple of comments made by both the GB staff and the community that actually reminded me that these two IP’s are literally in the same position for Nintendo and Sony. For Kirby, I remember watching the Rainbow Curse quick look and I remember Jeff saying that he really likes Kirby and wishes that Nintendo did more with the brand. I was a little confused when he said that because in the past 6 years, there have been 6 related Kirby titles released in that span. But now I understand Jeff’s statement because it doesn’t feel like that Nintendo gives Kirby this giant marketing push that it would for Mario or Pokémon.

As for Ratchet, I remember the UPF where the crew was looking at N64 3D platformers due to Yooka-Laylee killing it on Kickstarter. Ratchet was brought up amongst 3D platformers that were done right. One community member stated that he wished that a new R&C game would come out. After reading his comment, I couldn’t help but reply to that member and tell him that a) Its rumored that a new R&C game may get revealed at E3 this year and b) if he wanted a new R&C game, go check out Into the Nexus on the PS3. I wanted to tell him that because kind of like how Nintendo has treated Kirby, Ratchet has been an ongoing franchise, but gets very little of a push by Sony for people to know about its upcoming games. I felt like that one member was an example of someone who didn’t know. These a both first party IP’s that are actually a lot alike in falling under the radar with game releases, box art policies, similar themed titles that came out from 2011-2014 and their efforts into other media.

The clear differences: I’ll just get the clear differences out of the way:

• Kirby is traditionally a 2D platformer while R&C is traditionally a 3D action platformer.
• Kirby’s main ability is to suck in foes near him, where’s Ratchet has his wrench.
• Kirby games are generally meant to be about as easy as lifting a 2 lb weight, while R&C games have more of a difficulty curve.
• Ratchet has Clank alongside as a pretty rad sidekick. While Kirby may get a partner on occasion, Kirby don’t need a permanent sidekick.
• Unlike Ratchet, Kirby’s spinoffs do not include him having tower defense gameplay or have you play as a secret agent, say, Agent Meta Knight.
• Unlike Kirby, Ratchet’s spinoffs don’t include a full-on racing game, the characters turning into yarn, or having a re-skinned Puyo-Puyo game.
• Kirby is 10 years the elder of Ratchet and Clank.
• Kirby games are so adorable they make bunnies look like Medusas. Ratchet games are cartoonish and funny, but I wouldn’t call them “cute”.
• R&C games have a tradition of having sexual innuendos in their titles, while Kirby doesn’t, unless to read “Mass Attack” or “Triple Deluxe” as innuendos.
• Ratchet and Clank have no personal vendettas towards trees, but Kirby does.

The few similarities in games:

While both franchises are incredibly different in terms of how they play, I can find a few similarities when it comes to the characters. Both Kirby and Ratchet are aliens who have been isolated from their own species. And while Ratchet has done more of this, both have a history of traveling to different planets and realms to save the day. Two characters from each franchise that also share some similarities are King Dedede of Kirby fame and Ratchet and Clank’s former rival Captain Qwark. Both are public figures that try to put a good label on their names, but really hide their support for some dastardly plans whether its intentional or if they don’t know better. Plus, both have a history of going back and forth being antagonists or allies to the protagonists.

To sum up the games’ few similarities, they’re both very colorful franchises, both have many spinoff/experimental titles (Kirby has more), and both take pride in letting the player defeat enemies in absurd ways. On that last statement, Kirby will suck in enemies to take their ability. Some are common like the Sword and Beam abilities. But soon Kirby gets unique abilities where he can land a sick suplex on a fool or, in Kirby 64, get ice and spark powers to fight as a refrigerator! Ratchet does it through having a large arsenal of weapons to buy. While given standard blasters or bomb gloves at first, you eventually work your way up to weapons where you turn foes into farm animals and even shoot missiles with the 1812 Overture playing in the background.

Lack of Marketing Despite new games coming out:

I remember back in the 2000’s there seemed to be a solid amount of TV advertising for both IP’s. For R&C, there were those commercials where all those idiot bros toyed with the games’ gadgets. Sony wanted R&C to succeed alongside Jak & Daxter and Sly Cooper to usher in a new generation of mascot games for the PS2. For Kirby, I remember even seeing commercials for games like Kirby 64 and Canvas Curse on mostly every TV channel I watched.

My question now is, if these IP’s are still up and running, where are those commercials now? While Nintendo and Sony continue to let Hal Laboratory, Insomniac and other developers make games for both series’, they don’t seem to do much of a role in making their audiences aware that a new game is coming soon. In the world of the Internet, it would be ideal to give Kirby or Ratchet a little side ad on a webpage or have a Youtube ad to increase awareness of an upcoming title. But from my experience, I haven’t seen any ads. It is kind of weird how these two don’t get much of a marketing push, but it could be worse. Kirby could have ended up like F-Zero or Earthbound, where no new games for those series’ have came out in the past few years. If Kirby was in that position, the only software released associated to it would be either Mario Kart 8 DLC, Super Smash Bros or Virtual Console re-releases. Ratchet could have ended up like Parappa the Rapper or Medievil, where besides PSN downloads or Playstation All-Stars, no new software would be released. Fans of each IP should feel thankful that new games are coming out. We may not always know, but they are being released.

Though admittedly, if there is any advertising for these games, it would probably be on either a webpage devoted to Nintendo or Playstation or commercials on kids’ channels like Nickelodeon because these games are aimed at younger audiences.

It’s almost like if I had to compare these IP’s to WWE wrestlers, they’re basically Nintendo and Sony’s Dolph Ziggler or Cesaro. Like how these wrestlers are well liked and consistently perform on live shows, both Kirby and Ratchet are liked and consistently had 1-2 games come out every 1-2 years. But also like these wrestlers, it doesn’t seem like Nintendo or Sony will give them that main event push. Mario is Nintendo’s John Cena, and Sony’s Cena… I don’t know, but Uncharted has become their Brock Lesnar. Why? Because like how Brock is a part time talent who makes PPV's or RAW's special when he shows up, Uncharted games don't come out every year, but its a huge deal whenever its seen at either Playstation press events or when a new game is out.

Similar Box Art Policies:

So this is an ever-relevant topic when it comes to presenting a game to different cultures. Generally video games will have a unique box art in somewhere like Japan or Europe to that of its North American box art to appeal to various audiences around the world. Both Kirby and R&C have a long history of this with their North American box art and Japanese box art.

Kirby is perhaps better known on the subject matter. Since 2002, Kirby has been shown as happy, innocent or neutral in the Japanese box art of his games. In North America, he tends to look grumpy.

There are a few exceptions to this rule, such as Epic Yarn and Rainbow Curse, but for the majority of Kirby games since 2002, the box art has changed based on the region. It’s believed that it is to cater to the cultural differences of each region. So Nintendo lets Kirby be his joyful, cute self in Japan because if the game is cutesy, that’s gonna be known to the Japanese audience. But for North America, they probably feel like Kirby will sell better if he looks angry because they think North Americans want their heroes tough, even if Kirby’s an adorable pink ball.

Ratchet and Clank have also gone through a similar box art policy, or for a time. The original trilogy of R&C games had box art that looked way different in Japan than that in North America. In NA, Ratchet and Clank either had cocky smiles or serious faces but in Japan, they were generally seen as happy and stoked. In the NA Up Your Arsenal art, it has both Ratchet and Clank looking at the sky with grimacing looks. In Japan, both protagonists are falling through the sky, having the time of their lives.

This practice was extended to their PSP games like Secret Agent Clank (also below) where you have a 3D Clank rocking a tux and a sketchy, 2D Ratchet smiling with a black and white prisoner outfit. Unlike the NA version, which just has Clank in a tux.

Clearly it seems that R&C has its box art changed for a similar reason to Kirby. Sony probably wants the heroes to look tough despite the cartoonish appearance to appeal to the Western audience. The exaggerated cartoon look in Japan will cater towards the Japanese crowd. This practice seemed to continue until 2014, where in Japan, the Ginga Saiyko Tristar Pack was released, which bundled 3 PS3 R&C games. The box art used artwork from the NA box arts of Full Frontal Assault, Into the Nexus and Quest for Booty with Japanese title fonts.

From 2011-2014, a recent trend of similar ideas in titles were coming out:

So this sort of jumped in my mind when comparing these two franchises. From 2011 to 2014, these games had similar themes in certain game releases that came out in each year. In Fall 2011, both Kirby and R&C would release an exclusive on the Wii and PS3 respectively that put a major emphasis on 4 player co-op play, which was a first for both. Kirby had Return to Dreamland and R&C had All 4 One. Kirby also had Mass Attack for the DS in 2011, but that won’t be compared. Both games could be played solo, but both titles encouraged the player to play with up to 4 players. Though RTD plays more like a Kirby game than All 4 One plays a Ratchet game, according to reviews. Also, look at the A41 NA box art compared to the Europe RTD box art and look at how similar the styles are!

In 2012, both franchises had an anniversary collection released. Yes R&C had Full Frontal Assault which was basically a tower defense game with Ratchet and Clank, but that won’t be discussed (this might be the first time you’ve heard of this game, either). There was the Kirby Dream Collection, which celebrated Kirby’s 20^th Anniversary, and the Ratchet and Clank Collection, celebrating R&C’s 10^th Anniversary. Sony also released Jak and Sly 10year collections in 2012. I got the R&C collection and the games are great and definitely hold up. But its super lean on extras as the only extras worth noting is trophy support and the Sly 4 beta. Much like Ratchet, Kirby’s collection has Kirby’s earliest core platformers, ranging from Dream Land to Kirby 64. But unlike Ratchet, there are plenty of extras thrown in, like a Challenge Room using the RTD engine, a 45 song soundtrack, and a museum feature looking at all of Kirby’s history and believe or not, three episodes of a Kirby anime (we’ll get to that soon).

While the next two games weren’t released in the same year, they were both returns to traditional gameplay for each IP. In 2013, Sony published R&C Into the Nexus on the PS3, making it one of the last PS3 games before the launch of the PS4. After having Ratchet in a 4-player co-op game and a tower defense, Into the Nexus was marked as being a return to roots for the R&C series. The gameplay harkens to those of the original trilogy where you collect bolts, buy new weapons and gadgets and complete missions. There were some new gimmicks like the 2D Clank levels to add some variety. In 2014, Kirby also returned to his roots after having some experimental titles released (RTD could count, 1^st 4 player co-op Kirby game). Kirby Triple Deluxe for the 3DS had gameplay that resembled something like Kirby’s Adventure where you suck in enemies, get power ups, and complete a series of worlds. It also brought in a few new tweaks to make it different, like the Hypernova ability where Kirby will literally eat everything in front of him!

Though the streak of oddly similar releases by concept will come to an end. Nintendo just published the clay-mated sequel to Canvas Curse, Kirby and the Rainbow Curse. Unless the new R&C game has claymation or has the player draw lines for a ball-form Ratchet, this streak will be over. It sounds all but confirmed from E3 2014 that the new R&C game is based on the upcoming movie, which both will try re-tell the original game’s story. Speaking of which…

10 or more years after being exclusively video game franchises, both IP’s have had/will have their crack at animated entertainment:

So believe it or not, both Nintendo and Sony have approved letting different animation studios produce animated entertainment based on Kirby and R&C respectively. Though Kirby already had his chance. In 2002, the Saturday Morning Anime, titled “Kirby Right Back at Ya!” premiered on the former FOX Saturday Morning program, the FOXBOX. It was dubbed by 4 KIDS Entertainment and it had King Dedede deal with the final boss from Kirby’s Adventure to make a monster to destroy the E.T. known as Kirby. Kirby would then get a power up from the games to save the day. I remember watching this as a kid and I didn’t like it. Kirby was not the problem though. Beside making his cute sounds, he was a silent, hungry protagonist who would always claw his way to victory. The problem? Every other characters' voice acting was a grind to listen to, like Dedede talking like some redneck. It was a pretty silly show as expected and this series had 100 episodes aired on TV.

More than 10 years after being just a game series, Ratchet and Clank will also have animated media released soon, though in the form of a movie. In 2013, it was announced that Rainmaker Animation and Blockade Entertainment were working on a Ratchet and Clank CGI animated film originally set to release 2015. It had two teasers, one on the day of the announcement and the other at E3 2014. No news popped up about the film until on May 13, when the film was delayed to release in theaters on April 29, 2016. The news also stated that celebrities are lending their voices to the film, including Paul Giamatti, John Goodman, Rosario Dawson and Sylvester Stallone. Don’t worry! The games’ voices actors for Ratchet, Clank, Qwark and Dr. Nefarious will all reprise their roles for the movie. So if you were thinking that Stallone was voicing Clank, which could either be great or terrible, its not happening. It actually was shown to international audiences not too long ago at the Cannes Film Festival, where all that news was announced. Honestly with the delay and hearing that the writer for the R&C series, TJ Fixman, is behind the screenplay, it sounds like they’re trying to make a decent movie while staying true to its source material. Fingers crossed.

Yes both forms of animation are completely different to each other. But this is proof that both Nintendo and Sony gave different animation studios the thumbs up to let their respective properties be turned to animation media. Plus, Kirby Right Back at Ya was set in the earliest games of Kirby’s series, being Dream Land and Adventure, and the upcoming R&C movie is set in the first game. So both have the similarity of taking place in the earliest games. Also, like how the upcoming R&C movie has a game coming out alongside, Kirby had a game in Nightmare in Dream Land released shortly after the anime premiered, which was a dope GBA port of Kirby’s Adventure.

So basically, Kirby and R&C have way more in common than you might think. New games come out for each series even if the marketing doesn't seem to be there. They also have a similar history in changing box art in Japan and North America, having similar themed titles come out and one having a crack at animated entertainment while the other will have its chance in 2016.

I did not know about this until today, but Spill.com had a Daily Spill show yesterday that involved Ryan Davis again. If any of you don't know what Spill.com is, Spill is a movie review website owned by Hollywood.com. The crew usually has reviews of movies in both podcast form and animated video form. They also have another podcast show called the Daily Spill, where two of the critics on the site choose whichever big news stories to talk about whether they are about movies or something else. At the beginning of yesterday's Daily Spill show, there was an apology by one of critics, Cyrus, for he choice of words when joking about a scenario of how Ryan Davis died back on the July 9 show.

So the background on this, on July 9, both Cyrus and his co-host, Korey Coleman, decided to talk about the sad death of Ryan Davis. They were definitely sorry to hear about this loss and the consequences surrounding this news. Then they talked about maybe how we should live a better lifestyle so we don't die so soon and make ourselves live longer, which came from them thinking that Ryan might of died from health issues when looking at his shape and and that nerd culture does not allow much time to work out. Then at the end of the podcast, there was a joke that Cyrus said that I initially thought was not needed that maybe his new wife stabbed him to death.

What happened after that podcast was some negative reactions to how the Ryan Davis story was managed, myself included. Some of you may know that I already wrote a blog about my overall reaction to how Spill covered this story. While I did appreciate them taking the time to talk about this, I expressed disapproval of them going into a discussion of staying in shape and Cyrus' joke about Ryan's wife.

So at the beginning of yesterday's Daily Spill show, Cyrus apologized for making that joke about Ryan's wife killing him. He said that while he meant no harm to anyone when stating it, he realized that it was of poor taste and acknowledged that there was an audience who would of taken offense to the joke. He then said that making jokes about someone's death is never easy to do. He even said that he looked at both the comments of his site and even read my blog about this, saying he read a mutual Spill member's essay on the podcast and that joke on Giant Bomb. I'm thankful that Cyrus apologized for this, for even though I've gotten to believe that the joke was really not meant to offend anyone since writing the initial blog, Cyrus probably should of taken into account that a joke like that could be offensive to a specific crowd. Its good to know that the Spill crew acknowledges audiences out there who wouldn't take that joke lightly. I even commented about that to Cyrus saying thanks for apologizing. I also explained my mentality when first hearing that joke, saying that as a long time Giant Bomb fan, it would be easy for me to get sensitive over that.

Then he got to one thing that he did not apologize for. This is in reaction to my blog and the comments from both my blog and Spill, but Cyrus said that he was not going to apologize for the discussion of keeping yourself healthy in connection to Ryan's death. He felt justified to advice everyone out there to make an effort to stay in shape or else you might die at an unexpected time. Initially I did not approve of that discussion because they might of speculated of how Ryan died because he was large in shape and I thought that was disrespectful to Ryan. But again, the Spill crew meant no harm in discussing this and they're right that we need to maintain our health to live longer lives. I should of mentioned in the past blog that on the July 9th podcast, Korey and Cyrus made fun of themselves and their own shape during the Ryan Davis talk, acknowledging that they too need to be healthier. They talked about how a game of Racquetball between themselves would go, having them laugh at each other for how gassed out they'd be in the first few minutes. I got to respond to this too as I apologized for finding their health discussion disrespectful and should of gave them more credit for addressing this. Even if some of you may think that discussion was insulting to Ryan, they never meant to disrespect the man by any means. I should not of made the Spill crew's discussion on health look bad as they were more than right on how we can live better lives and I apologize for making that a bad thing in my initial blog.

I also want to apologize to you guys for the overreactions of the first blog. When first hearing that podcast and listening to Korey and Cyrus' comments on this, I wanted to make this blog to express how I felt about how they managed it and wanted to hear what you guys felt about it too. It was really a mixed bag of response types saying "Fuck Spill.com for disrespecting Ryan Davis" or "They are right about how we should watch our health, you know" or "I'm sure they meant no harm, don't overreact to this" or "This blog was pretty unnecessary, whether the Spill crew approached this story poorly or not." The last three types of responses hit me harder than the first, I probably should of kept this to myself instead of writing a blog about it. Much like the Spill crew when talking about Ryan, I did not mean anything bad when writing my blog, I just wanted to get my thoughts out there on this, even if I was critical of the Spill crew. So if I made that blog into an overreaction, I apologize. Next time when I might find something offensive or stupid, I'll try to let it go by and not bother me. Think from now on, I will make blogs that don't have negative responses, I'll try to be more positive.

I also want to make a shout out to @jouseldelka for some very wise words about how we should stay in shape and having Ryan as his inspiration for a healthier life. Great message man.

So yeah, thanks you again Cyrus of Spill.com for acknowledging how we responded to your joke and podcast, and next time, I'll be more positive when making blogs. Have a good weekend duders!

RIP Ryan Davis

Edit: I've been looking through the comments, and noticed that the trend went from the community saying fuck you to Spill.com to agreeing with the Spill crew that we need to get into shape and that this blog post was unnecessary. I was actually hoping to see what you guys think, and now I'm feeling like I'm changing thoughts on what I said before. I probably should of gave Spill more credit about keeping yourself in shape because it is important for us to stay healthy. Also, I guess I got too sensitive about this and I apologize. It was probably too much for me to expect these guys to know more about Ryan Davis besides his death and I really shouldn't of expected them being more empathic towards Ryan. I might make more edits to this blog later, but if you want to read it now, here it is.

Hey guys, on June 9 I noticed that the movie/humor website, Spill.com, actually talked about Ryan Davis on there podcast show, The Daily Spill, where two of the site's critics, Korey Coleman and Cyrus talk about recent news of movies and entertainment overall. Here's the link to the podcast for anyone who wants to listen to, but I'm going to tell you guys my thoughts on how Spill handled the story.

The Podcast

On there front page, I saw Ryan as one of the four dudes in yesterday's Daily Spill logo where he is in between Johnny Depp as Tonto from The Lone Ranger and the lead guitarist for Metallica. I have a feeling if Ryan saw this picture, he'd probably be stoked seeing it. And I did not listen to anything else they talked about on the show, I just jumped into the Ryan story to see what they were gonna say. I thought if that picture of Ryan was on that logo, maybe Korey and Cyrus (real name is Chris Cox) from Spill actually knew Ryan from the past somehow and wanted to talk about him as a person and why this news is so tragic. Maybe the Loading Bar guys pressured the Spill crew to talk about this because maybe when those guys were on Spill, they might of saw Ryan and Giant Bomb as inspirations for their work. Instead, the Spill crew went this direction:

When they got to Ryan's death, they were stating some facts about what they found about Davis and his death, saying he was a former editor at Gamespot and then became a senior editor on Giant Bomb, mentioned that Giant Bomb was one of Time Magazine's best websites of 2011, stated that he died at the age of 34 and died in less than a week after he got married. Of course they felt very sorry for Ryan as they felt he died too young and felt extremely sorry for his wife, family and friends having to deal with such a loss. This was something I appreciated, they brought up facts about Ryan's career and his legacy and they seemed genuinely sorry for him passing away too early. That said, their podcast went into a direction that I thought was utterly unnecessary.

After stating how sorry and sad they were hearing this news, Cyrus then brings up a quote he found from someone saying "When was the last time you pressed the X button?" This quote would lead to Korey and Cyrus using this story as an example of encouraging people to stay healthy because they brought up that Ryan was a "big guy" in their podcast and assume he might of died from health problems. While they do acknowledge that they themselves aren't in the best shape either and they are right about what health problems can do to someone's life, this to me seemed like an excuse for them to take this story somewhere where it did not need to be because they did not know what else to talk about. Granted later in the podcast, they admitted they never met or heard of Ryan before this story and once they saw a picture of Ryan, they probably thought he did not take care of his body enough and that might of resulted to his death, thus causing them to transition to tell the audience to find time to stay in shape. Right now, I don't know if I should feel angry or not because they really had little to work with because of their lackluster knowledge about Ryan, but at the same time if they are willing to put a picture of Ryan on the Daily Spill logo of June 9, that would imply that these guys knew more about the man besides his death and would emphasize why this news is so tragic for a selected group of people.

The one moment that had me furious beyond belief was right around the end of their discussion on this news as Cyrus says out of nowhere "Maybe his new wife stabbed him to death, who knows". I shit you not. He said that. That was by far the stupidest and not welcome assumption I've ever heard. Sorry if I'm overreacting, but that just pissed me off! It just just doesn't seem right to just randomly assume that. At least Korey stated that he felt really bad for his wife and did not accuse her of something terrible.

And one more thing, they had links to all of the stories they talked about, but for Ryan Davis, the source came from Rueters.com and not from Rorie's blog from this site. They probably went with Rueters because that had the facts about Ryan Davis' resume, but still, I would of rather have them cited Rorie's article. To me, that would of been an honorable move on Spill's part to provide the link.

My Response

After listening to this, I was pretty torn with what I listened too. I was happy that the Spill.com crew bothered to talk about this news and see them send their condolences for the loss. However, moments like them telling people to stay in shape and Cyrus' idiotic assumption about Ryan's wife had me either raising my eyebrows or really upset. So I thought of writing a comment to them, but instead of sounding angry, I collected myself and wrote what I thought was a restrained and critical response to the Ryan Davis bit in the podcast.

First thing I did is to actually provide the reason why he did, and most of us know it was of natural causes. I even provide a source to one of our forums that had the information. I wasn't sure about directly making a source to Mr. Richard Davis' twitter account, because I wasn't sure if directly linking to his account just to find an answer to their podcast was bad or not. So I chose the board that had the quote instead.

Then I stated that I appreciated that fact that they got to talk about this news. Then I stated what I thought about this news in two sentences, saying it was a shame that he died so young because he was an amazing video game personality and approached his job in such a positive and humorous direction. I even made a comparison between their site and Giant Bomb because like what Korey and his crew have done with movie content by providing video reviews and a variety of podcasts, Ryan and his co-workers did the same, with video game content providing excellent content all around that was for the most part, freaking hilarious. I was probably being too hopeful that when they were going to talk about Ryan Davis, they would actually connect themselves with Giant Bomb, but that did not happen.

Lastly, I had to tell Cyrus how I felt about his comment about Ryan's wife. I avoided expressing my thoughts on their direction to lose weight, but that comment had to be addressed. For those who do not know, the Spill crew have a tendency of bashing their members in the comment section whenever the members themselves make rather outrageous comments that the crew might find offensive. I decided not to take that route and say that I just found that comment inappropriate and unnecessary. I also said that based on what I've listened to on their podcasts, Ryan and his wife were madly in love and she would never do such a thing. I then asked him to please never make an assumption like that again if you truly know little about a news story like this.

I hope my feelings seem justified about this. For me if they put Ryan's picture on that logo to talk about this, I would think they would talk more about Ryan rather than starting off sending their condolences and then go on talking about maintaining your shape, which they said is hard to do in "nerd culture" as they call it. If you really know little about the man, why bring this up at all? Now I think about, Spill should of avoided this story if they do not know who Ryan Davis is and just talk about movie news. I also hope my response was the right thing to do. I made a restrained response that wasn't too critical and I wanted them to know more about the man by providing more information. I hope I did not do anything stupid linking the board that was about Ryan's dad giving the reason why Ryan passed away. All I know is that I'm still waiting for Cyrus to respond back to me so he can apologize, because again, that comment should never been on the show.

Man I wanted to get this out! Some feedback about how I handled this would be much appreciated. RIP Ryan Davis

I have to say, this was some of the best E3's in recent years. It probably makes sense since this was a year where we had to know about the new generation of consoles coming out, but seriously, this was some of the best E3's ever. I did noticed some trends that I wanted to point out in E3 that came from not just the companies, but the overall coverage of the show floor. Here's my list of things I noticed at E3 2013!

1. Nintendo is making a bigger push than before to make their systems homes of platformers.

I saw the Nintendo Direct for E3, and for the most part, all I could think of was "Is it just me, or is 70% of this direct catering to platforming fans". Yes not everything from their Direct was about platformers, but it is safe to say that Nintendo will have the biggest library of games in that genre for 2013. The revealed Super Mario 3D World, which looks like a hybrid of Super Mario Bros 2, Super Mario World and of course, Super Mario 3D Land. Nintendo is releasing this game in December just to play it safe and making a sequel to 3D Land instead of doing something radically different.

Later they revealed Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze, which is Retro's next game. Much like Super Mario 3D World, this is a safe sequel that will cater to the crowd that loved Donkey Kong Country Returns. Again, I'd rather have Retro test themselves by making a new IP, but it seems they are working on another fun platformer for the system.

Then there's Sonic Lost World, or Sonic Galaxy as some are calling it. This was announced earlier than the other two games and got a few seconds of screen time on the Direct. It's also not a Nintendo published game, but this is yet another platformer exclusive for the Wii U and looks pretty solid.

And then there's Smash Bros, which I might call these games "platters" from now on because they are hybrid of platformers and fighters. The main reason I bring up Smash Bros in this is mainly because of one character reveal, Mega Man!

Granted, this is an awesome reveal and I was stoked to see him confirmed from the game, but I felt Nintendo again advertising to get a specific crowd interested in this news. In my world, I wanna think that Nintendo released their inner Hulk Hogan and sent a message saying, "LISTEN UP SMASH BROTHERS! EVERYWHERE I GO, ALL THE LITTLE MEGA MANIACS ASK ME, WHEN IS MEGA MAN GONNA BE IN SMASH BROS?! WELL TODAY MAN, AT E3 2013, THE WORLD WILL SEE MEGA MAN IN SMASH AND ALL THE MEGA MANIACS ARE GONNA LOVE IT!" While Mega Man is in due to constant requests and this is some neat fan service, it makes me think that they are advertising Mega Man to attract another group of platforming fans to buy their system just to play as the Blue Bomber in Smash.

And one more thing, if Nintendo is gonna sell independent platformers to the e-shop such as Oddworld New n' Tasty and Shovel Knight, you know they are making a bigger push than before to be the home of platforming titles.

2. Under new management, EA will no longer be called "The Worst Company of America"

I have to say, I was pretty impressed with EA's press conference this year. Yeah they showed off the usual flagship games such as a new Battlefield, another Madden and another Need for Speed. However, I thought EA was showing some other games that told me that they are starting to care for the consumers. For anyone who wanted a new Battlefront game after 7 years, don't worry, a reboot of Star Wars Battlefront is coming soon! That's proof that EA is listening to the Star Wars fans and hopefully make an effort to start a trend of great Star Wars games again!

Now I never played Mirror's Edge, but I know that it has a cult following and fans have been persistent in telling EA to make another one of those games. Well, EA listened and now fans are going to get Mirror's Edge 2. Even though much like Battlefront, we didn't see any gameplay footage, but based on what the trailer showed, it looks like its sticking with the parkour, action gameplay that the first one was known for.

I also enjoyed seeing EA's developers making some crazy games associated with one of their IP's. I rather enjoyed the stage demo of Plants vs. Zombies Garden Warfare. We weren't sure if it was a real game or a joke, but its real and I think its great that they're doing something insane with Plants vs. Zombies by making it into a third person shooter.

Also I like how EA is still publishing new IP's for people to see at E3. I'm actually talking about Titanfall. Now coming from someone who has grown jaded about the constant FPS releases as of late, this looks like its going to breathe some new breath into the genre with giant-mechs and jet packs! Looks sick Respawn!

Honestly with EA revealing these games that have either been requested by fans for years or revealing new games, how can you say EA is the worst company now? Now we're not sure if all these games are guaranteed to be great, but its good to know that EA is catering to specific and devoted fans while doing new things whether its new IPs or making a new game with a name of an current IP.

3. Racing games challenged FPS' for genre of the show.

This might be obvious for some, but who thought this was the year of the car? I did, literally every one of the big 5 had one or two racing games to announce or show more footage of. Microsoft has Forza Motorsport 5, Sony has Driveclub for PS4 and Gran Turismo 6 for PS3, Nintendo has Mario Kart 8, EA has Need for Speed Rivals, and Ubisoft had the new kid in town called The Crew. Maybe because with new consoles being launched, it makes sense to have some kind of racing game for first party publishers to advertise with their new system and that's what both Microsoft and Sony are doing. For others like Ubisoft, it seems they are trying some new stuff with The Crew as its a team racer where you're in a team and you're competing against other racing teams online to make for an exciting interactive racer.

Now hear me out, when I say racers challenge FPS', I don't mean that it beat FPS' as the main genre of the show. Yeah E3 had a crap ton of FPS' that were shown this year including Battlefield 4, COD Ghost, Wolfenstein: New Order, Destiny, Titanfall, Killzone Shadow Fall and so on. There were also reveals for upcoming big name shooters such as the new Halo. To me, it felt like the shooter genre was in the front seat of the E3 bus with the racing genre being a seat behind or even next to it. There was just a lot of coverage of the genre this year and people seemed to be more excited about the genre than before. Maybe its just me and I don't pay that much attention to racing games, but I don't think I've seen this much buzz about racing games at E3 in a long time.

4. While the FPS and Racing genres took the front seats on the E3 bus, strategy games took the backseat.

Man, what a bummer for me to write about this since I love the genre. Don't care if its Real-Time or Turn-Based, I love a well made strategy game. This year we definitely got some great looking strategy games, its just it was a small library and there didn't seem too much buzz surrounding them. Maybe one of the reasons for this is because with the new consoles coming out, it made more sense for video game sites to focus on what was on the next-gen consoles instead of what was shown for PC or even the Wii U.

First game is Company of Heroes 2, where Relic set up online demos of a game that at the time, was going to be released in two weeks. With the fact that this game is coming out in two weeks, people probably thought they could wait on playing the full game rather than play an online match now. It would explain why the Bombcast didn't check it out since they can just wait until it comes out. Yes people definitely checked out the demo and saw live demos on online streams of this game, but it seemed to got little attention when there weren't streaming demos. When Gamespot did a floor tour around the Mad Katz controllers and keyboards, there were a few CoH 2 demos ready to go, but nobody played them.

Then there's Total War Rome II. Sega had a private booth where only invited journalists could play the demo. Yes there were a few live-streams of the Rome II demo recorded online from places like IGN and Gamespot. And I will say that Rome II probably got the most attention out of all the strategy games this E3 with it getting the most best of show, PC and strategy game of e3 nominees out of the rest. However, compared to the coverage of games like Titanfall, Battlefield 4 and driving games such as Forza 5 and The Crew, its presence didn't feel as significant.

Then you have Pikmin 3, the only console strategy game of the show. Even that didn't get that much attention except for a few livestream demos of its new bingo multiplayer mode. Not to mention that Nintendo didn't show the new trailer of the game on their E3 Nintendo Direct to make gamers aware that's its coming out in August.

Finally there's Command and Conquer, which is still free-to-play. Much like the other strategy games mentioned, it had its fair share of livestream coverage and hands-on articles. But looking at how it was trending compared to other PC games, it doesn't seem like its getting much buzz. I can't find too many livestream video demos of Command and Conquer from E3. Even EA didn't bother to mention Command and Conquer in their press conference.

I'm torn on this because while I can accept that the press wanted to set their focus on what the next generation of consoles are and cover the biggest titles coming out on those systems. But at the same time, I feel bad that strategy games had little of a presence this year and was overlooked by bigger name games at E3.

-So these are the things I noticed and learned for myself this E3. I'm open to changes if I got anything wrong on my blog.

If anyone is interested in seeing this new list G4 compiled a day ago, here's the link. If you want to see the list on G4's site itself, here's the link to that, but you have to go through the list by looking at one game at a time.
 
When I saw this list, I couldn't help cringe at how its formatted. I will say that I'm happy with some of the games' rankings on this list, like Tetris being in the top 5 and Super Mario Bros taking number considering that its the game that brought back gaming in the West. However, I gotta list a few stupid things that are on this list as well as about the list that piss me off! I want to see if you guys agree or not.  

• This list was compiled from hearing opinions of game developers, which is valid. But they also got opinions from celebrities and athletes to count in the list just to grab freaking attention. Just ask those involved with making the games for this industry as well as the gamers!  

• There are some massive omissions on this list. WHERE'S HALF LIFE 2?! Yeah Half Life1 made it on the list, but 2 is often considered the best game on the PC by many PC gamers! Also, where the Hell is Super Mario World? Miyamoto himself said SMW is where its at for 2D Mario.

• While I love to spend time on IPHONE game apps, having a couple of those on Top 100 games ever doesn't sound right to me. I also want to say that its sad to see Angry Birds ranked higher than classics like Mortal Kombat and Contra as well as modern greats like Fallout 3 and Mass Effect 2. 

• There is an utter lack of strategy gaming on this list. Only two strategy games (Civilization 2 and Starcraft) made it on this list. Where's Rome Total War? Where's Age of Empires I or II?! Where's Command and Conquer?! Where are countless other strategy gems that are beloved I swear when I saw nothing for those games, this was how I wanted to react:   
    Oh and I'm not done listing my issues:
• Why on Earth is Madden NFL 2005 on the list when it was clearly out shined by ESPN NFL 2K5 back in 2004? Oh yeah because its Madden.  

• Going back to CIv II, that is ranked 62 on the list. That game is ranked too low for something that is considered some of the best games made.

• Tony Hawk Pro Skater is on the list, but isn't 3 is considered the pinnacle of the Tony Hawk Franchise?

• I love Wii Sports, but I;m sure you're going to angry some hardcore gamers if that is ranked higher than Silent Hill 2 and Left 4 Dead for best games ever. Expect Valve fans to rage faster than 

For those who haven't seen the only list I made, here's the link:   

http://www.giantbomb.com/profile/mocbucket62/underrated-games-from-past-and-current-generations/46-74345/  

Its a list of games I've not only played but feel have fallen under the radar over the years. Some games have came from the past generation like Armed and Dangerous, a third person shooter for the PC by LucasArts, others are portable gems like Age of Empires: Age of Kings for the DS (I bet some of you didn't think that game existed) and a few have came out this generation like Heavy Rain and the UFC Undisputed Games. I also mentioned doing a blog series going over these games that I find pretty damn awesome and write down why I find these games under appreciated. I might even do Versus blogs comparing one game on the list to another similar game that's also on the list (Maybe compare a game on the list to a similar but more popular title). I also have a tentative title for the series called Where's the Admiration, but I have a feeling users on this site will pan it as if its a shitty title. So I'm open for suggestions. If you all think I should do user reviews instead, I'll do that. Also, ask if I've played some other underrated games before and I might write up something about that product. Honestly I really want to do something cool with the games on the list  and making a blog series about these underrated games would get me excited. If you duders think I should do something else with the games on this list, please tell me. 

Hey not to long ago, I got an IPHONE as a birthday gift and have been having a blast with the device. I've enjoyed doing the usual business with the device, from surfing the Internet to making bullshit requests to the IPHONE Voice Navigation. But I have also been playing around with a few games and made me think I could do some quick reviews for some of the games for the IPHONE and see if its recommended or not. I'm only starting with two games and soon try to review more games by others' suggestions. Here we go, let's get to the first review out of the way.

Angry Birds Space

Bejeweled