Toejam and Earl Officially Bringing Funky Back

Attention, Funkotronian aficionados: A fourth installment of the adventures of the beloved 90’s duo, Toejam and Earl, is officially in the works — or it will be in a month, assuming the Kickstarter campaign meets its fundraising goal by then.

90’s underground comic-style promo art courtesy of Nathan Shorts, the team’s lead artist.

Greg Johnson, co-creator of Toejam and Earl and head of his indie team of four at Humanature Studios, has officially set plans into motion for the series’ next game, Toejam and Earl: Back in the Groove. According to the Kickstarter, the game will make use of mechanics popularized by the first and second games in the series — and thankfully, makes no mention of the third other than to say that the project won’t harken back to it.

“Will it be like game one or game two, you ask?  Well… (holding breath)… mainly like game one. We plan to go old school with this one. Fixed isometric camera, 2D sprites, simple controls, and an emphasis on coop [sic] play. It will also pull in some of the more beloved elements from game two… Things like the Jam Out, hidden presents, and buttons and coin meters. Maybe we’ll even be able to bring back the Hyperfunk Zone! … Don’t worry we won’t make you sick and confused with an over-the-shoulder POV camera like we had in game 3.”

In addition, the upcoming game will bring all new elements to the table, such as a 4-player co-op mode, randomly generated levels, character customization, and headwear that modifies the characters’ abilities — or “hats for stats,” as I’ve decided to call them. The project currently has plans for a PC release, but hopes to spread to other consoles once a foothold has been established.

Of course, all of this depends on the Kickstarter reaching its $400,000 goal by March 27th at 3:00 PM EST. Over $150k has been pledged so far, and some truly amazing incentives have me wishing I could throw caution to the wind and empty my bank account. If anyone out there pledges enough to get those TJ&E vinyl figures and for some reason doesn’t want them, my ever-collecting hands are always open.

 

Obligatory Legal Crap

I am not associated with Humanature Studios and do not own Toejam and Earl — nor does Sega, I learned over the course of researching this article. Toejam and Earl is entirely the property of its co-creators, Greg Johnson and Mark Voorsanger.

I am, however, calling dibs on “hats for stats.” C’mon, that’s catchy as hell.

Halloween Special: Playing with Dolls

Today is Halloween! Those of you that were here last year might recall that I celebrated by discussing a spoopy spooky head canon concerning the game Sonic & Knuckles. Since this series has been a hobby of mine for well over three quarters of my life now, I have no shortage of head canons to talk about, and today we’re going to explore the one you’ve all been waiting for. The one that every Sonic fan mentions at least once every October.

Oh yes, my friends. Today, we’re going to discuss the infamous Tails doll, and what exactly makes it tick.

Treat it like a weeping angel: Don’t blink.

Customer Service: Nintendo’s Doing it Right

While July 1st typically conjures thoughts of impending fireworks and barbecues for the average American, there is a certain breed of nerd for whom it’s New Years Day.

Club Nintendo, aka one of the sneakiest vehicles for market research on the planet, is a free membership program offered by Nintendo to its consumers. By registering the PIN codes included with specific game titles, gamers can earn coins that can then be used to for reward items in exchange for answering a short survey. If a user manages to accumulate 300 coins within one calendar year, that user achieves Gold status; those that earn twice that amount achieve Platinum. For whatever reason, Club Nintendo’s calendar begins its year on the first of July. This is significant because it also resets the counter tracking new coins. The previously earned coins are still there, and can still be spent on rewards, but each member’s progress toward achieving Gold or Platinum status is returned to zero after June 30th.

Well, last night was Club Nintendo’s new year’s eve, and I realized that I was still 70 coins shy of achieving Gold for the year. If it was purely a pat-on-the-back sort of ranking, I wouldn’t care if I reached it or not, but Club Nintendo offers a special free gift for its Gold and Platinum members each year. So far I’d managed to reach at least Gold for the last six years, and I wasn’t about to let 230 coins go to waste. Looking over my game shelf, I noticed that I still hadn’t opened New Super Mario Bros. U, which came bundled with my WiiU. I figured that it’d at least get me a big chunk of the way toward my goal (especially since it also contained the Luigi expansion), so I shredded the plastic wrap and cracked open the case — only to find it absent of a PIN code.

Figuring the PIN was simply missing, I decided to call up Club Nintendo to have it manually added to my account. I scoured the website and tracked down the toll free number, and after wading through the menu system, I found myself on hold to speak with a representative.

And that’s when I discovered that Nintendo is brilliant.

Many of you will recognize this as the daytime theme to Hyrule Field in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. As it turns out, it’s also the hold music on Nintendo’s hotline.

This is nothing short of genius on their part. Ocarina of Time is not only one of Nintendo’s most wildly successful titles, but it’s considered by many to be one of the greatest games of all time. There’s a very good chance that the people calling them up will be at least mildly familiar with the song, and upon realizing that it’s a tune from such a beloved title, they’ll probably be in a better mood. This is exactly what happened to me when I was on the phone last night; I can’t even tell you how long I was on hold, because I was so giddy over the fact that a Zelda song was being used as the hold music that I spent my time jamming along in my seat instead of getting impatient or annoyed.

Furthermore, my attitude once I got to talk to a representative was significantly better than it probably would’ve been otherwise. I ultimately received bad news from the gent helping me; apparently bundled games aren’t eligible for Club Nintendo points, but I was in such high spirits, the news really didn’t bother me that much. Instead I thanked the guy for his help and told him that the hold music was a very pleasant surprise. He chuckled and said that they get that a lot.

In light of what I learned last night, I’m kinda tempted to start calling up other game developers just to see if they too have done anything fun with their hold music. It really is something that more companies need to adopt; if someone’s calling customer service, they obviously have a problem, and given that some waits can be upwards of an hour or more, having good music can probably go a VERY long way toward making customers feel better about their outcomes, even if they didn’t get what they wanted.

 

Obligatory Legal Crap

I am in no way affiliated with Nintendo, Club Nintendo, or Legend of Zelda. I’m just a geek that found myself wanting to hook up my N64 after I got off the phone with customer service.

Mario Marathon kicks off 7th year for Child’s Play Charity

Those of you who’ve been around for a while may recall that Respawn Point is not the only group whose charity marathons I follow. The annual Mario Marathon has officially begun its 7th consecutive year behind the controller, tackling all of the main platforming games in the Mario franchise. As with every year, all proceeds go directly to Child’s Play Charity without the team ever touching it, and the cumulative donations unlock levels for the team to play for the duration of the marathon.

Mario Marathon has broadcast yearly since 2008 and raised over $415,000 leading up to this year’s event.

As if providing some escapism for sick children isn’t motivation enough, the team is also doing more contests more often this year to help bring in donations and spread the word. MM7 t-shirts are being raffled off every two hours to both donors and Twitter advertisers. To earn a raffle ticket, viewers can get one ticket per every $5 in donations, or a single ticket for tweeting a link to the marathon (no multiples). Other prizes will also be available, but what, when, and how are decided spur-of-the-moment. The only way to find out is to tune in to the show, and if you’re going to be there anyway, you may as well donate!

 

Obligatory Legal Crap

Mario, Luigi, Super Mario Bros, and all other games in the series (as well as their respective elements) are the property of Nintendo. Mario Marathon is not endorsed by Nintendo, but it’s not opposed by them either, which is why it’s gone on for seven years.

Child’s Play Charity is a non-profit organization that provides books, games, and other toys for children’s hospitals worldwide. I’m not completely sure what is and isn’t their property beyond their name and logo, so let’s leave it at that.

I am not directly affiliated with either Mario Marathon or Child’s Play Charity, but I am enough of a regular to the MM team that they routinely torture me with a ceramic pig.

The Secret Legend of Princess Zelda

Well, I’m sure I don’t have to tell you by now that the interwebs are buzzing like a hive of fangasming hornets about the plethora of reveals made at E3 so far. Gamers around the globe have been inundated with so much new information that many folks can’t even pick a topic to squeal about, which I quickly noticed when a friend of mine IMed me as soon as I got online and covered three different topics in a single sentence.

Among the many reveals Tuesday was Nintendo’s announcement of a new collaborative spin-off for the Legend of Zelda series. Partnering with Tecmo Koei, Hyrule Warriors offers a departure from the typical LoZ dungeon crawl and keeps a much tighter focus on the combat. Between the Dynasty Warriors-esque gameplay style, the abundance of playable female characters, and Link’s decision to partake in the trend of protagonists sporting rad new scarves, there’s been a lot of chatter in the last 48 hours.

Leaving that much vital chest area exposed doesn’t seem very wise for the person the holding the Triforce of Wisdom.

Zelda in particular has been getting a lot of the attention. While this isn’t the first time she’s been playable, one would think that the series’ title character would’ve had a lot more active roles by now as opposed to spending the bulk of the last 25 years as the proverbial carrot on a stick. Furthermore, the only two games in which Zelda is actually the protagonist are sorta… well… they’re not quite… they… okay they suck. For this reason, many a fan is celebrating the news that we’ll all be able to assume the role of the iconic princess without having to bother with possessing phantoms, entering a fighting tournament, or obtaining outrageously rare hardware and software that isn’t even fun to play.

But perhaps the bigger news is the fact that we’ve all played as Zelda plenty of times before without even realizing it.

Obscure Observations: Parasitic Twins

Metroid: Zero Mission, released by Nintendo for the GameBoy Advance in 2004, is a title that rarely needs a formal introduction. It retold and revamped the original 1986 NES game by introducing graphics, controls, powers, and storytelling in a manner highly reminiscent of Super Metroid. It payed homage to several games in the series while still managing to stamp its own unique fingerprint on the Metroid canon. Needless to say, the game was a huge hit.

But I’m not here to talk about popularity today. I’m here to talk about bugs.

Yeah, these little shits.

Respawn Point Returns with Metal Gear Marathon

Well, it’s been awfully quiet around here for the last month. Between being sick for two weeks, sojourning to the Motor City Comic Con to meet John Barrowman, cleaning the basement, and getting a ton of hours at work, I’ve had a difficult time getting around to articles lately — and not even for lack of content, since I was dying to comment on Microsoft’s latest backpedaling or the fact that I found a complete and in-the-box Sega Master System at a yard sale for $20.

Luckily, charity is usually enough to motivate me to do just about anything, and our friends over at Respawn Point have given me just the push I need to get back into writing for you guys. As I type these words, the familiar faces of Zack Harrot, Jay Zeach, and Ash Blackledge are running the Metal Gear Marathon to benefit Special Effect.

…Well, as familiar as they can get with the camera so far away.

Sonic Marathon 4 Approaches Home Stretch

While many choose to reign in the new year with the ball drop in Times Square, the Respawn Point team and hundreds of viewers worldwide prefer a slightly different celebration. As I write this very article, the fourth annual Sonic Marathon is just a couple days away from completing its yearly week-long charity marathon.

Sonic Marathon 4 (or as it’s properly named, “Sonic Marathon 4: Episode 1”) is a non-stop barrage of games starring the famous blue hedgehog in an effort to raise money for charity. In addition to the continuous stream of games, the marathon offers various community events, such as donation challenges and daily raffles. At the end of the marathon, one lucky donor will win a grand prize on Saturday, January 4th at 3:oo PM GMT.

Winter Is Here: Holiday Gaming Sales

I could’ve made a much better Game of Thrones joke if WordPress would let me use strikeout in the title line…

The annual Steam Winter Sale has officially kicked off today, and will continue through January 3rd 2014. New games will be discounted each day, and according to the website banner, over 2,000 games in total will ultimately be discounted. Considering how dominant Steam has become in the world of PC gaming, this tends to be one of the biggest gaming sales of the year, and I doubt 2013 will be the exception.

Xbox Live’s annual Countdown to New Years Sale is also active as of a couple days ago, much to my chagrin. While the sales regularly rotate on XBLA as well, the expired sales are not taken down once they’ve passed, lingering instead to taunt unfortunate gamers that missed checking in. This is why I’ve missed getting Fez on sale for two years in a row.

In any case, Xbox’s yearly game sale isn’t actually limited to games and DLC: Movies, TV shoes, and avatar items have also been known to turn up with huge discounts applied. Now that XBLA operates in real currency instead of points, those discounts will end up looking like even more of a deal than usual.

In addition, GOG.com’s DRM-Free Winter Sale is currently on its 8th day. Not only are there some great deals on older games to be found, but GOG offers a new “Daily Surprise” for buyers to pick from. Three games are listed with an unknown discount applied, and buyers may choose one each day — but only one. It combines the spirit of the sale with the mystery of wondering what Santa is bringing.

Origin also appears to be doing a holiday sale — a Winter Warmer Sale, according to Google — but oddly enough they don’t really have any information on their sale posted anywhere on their website. All I can say is that apparently they have some games up to 50% off.

Kind of amazing considering that EA is the king of marketing.

 

With all of these websites practically throwing games at us, this truly is the most wonderful time of the year for gamers. It’s time for us to get out there and stock up on games to last us through 2014!

 

Obligatory Legal Crap

I am in no way affiliated with Steam, Xbox Live, Good Old Games, or Origin, I’m just talking about their discounts. Besides, if I was actually working for Origin, EA probably would’ve fired me for publicly pointing out their massive oversight anyway.

GOG.com offering Fallout 1, 2, Tactics free for next 20 hours

Good Old Games has a holiday treat for Fallout fans by offering the first three games of the franchise  — typically a $30 purchase — completely free, no funding (or DRM) required. The promotion ends Saturday at 9AM EST and has barely under 20 hours left as of this writing, which still leaves eager players plenty of time to make an account and get their free downloads.

Unlike Steam, GOG.com does not utilize a client interface and allows customers to retain full ownership of any downloaded software, as opposed to most modern user-license arrangements. The site also proudly boasts that its downloads never contain any form of digital rights management software, and may be saved by the customer to any storage device for an unlimited amount of time. Most games offered also have extra goodies available as well, such as wallpapers and soundtracks.

 

Obligatory Legal Crap

Fallout and Fallout 2 are the property of Interplay Entertainment; Fallout: Tactics is the property of 14 Degrees East. And if I didn’t know any better, I’d probably say that Vault Tec had a hand in all this somewhere, too.