Hello and welcome, fellow viewers and readers new and old. This is me again, your Kakuchopurei content director Jonathan “Mr Toffee” Leo, with this week’s video game and pop culture recap.
This week, we’ve been blessed with a few opportunities, with the ones I’m allowed to share in public jotted down below. Suffice to say, it’s a few weeks before the big video game showcases are happening, because after the delay of big titles like Starfield and Redfall, we may need a lot more games for the latter half of 2022.
Video Games: What We’ve Done
Capcom, the makers of Street Fighter, Resident Evil, and Monster Hunter, might be setting up a studio in Singapore. It looks official, what with the SGP Business Registry entry and the director’s LinkedIn page stating as such.
Regardless, it’s great to see Southeast Asia having big and prolific companies setting up shop here, be it in a game-making or production capacity. From PlayStation Malaysia to Larian Studios, Southeast Asia is getting more recognition for being a hub for major-level games development.
Arc System Works has talked about plans for its upcoming season for its hit fighting game Guilty Gear Strive. No, there aren’t any new characters revealed for its Second Season DLC, but the developers promised a major update on 10th June.
Also, they displayed their upcoming May statue which will probably cost you US$250. Preorders start on 6th June. If you’re a fan of cute girls and dolphins, this statue might be up your alley.
The vampire action RPG survival game hybrid V Rising is doing great, selling over 1 million copies in its first week while in Early Access mode. The game looks promising and will keep fans of action RPGs and survival games ala Valheim up at night. We suspect this title will be a sleeper hit a year after its Early Access launch.
JRPG series Dragon Quest will have a bunch of new games announced and showcased next month, according to its creator Yuji Horii. These include Dragon Quest X Offline and Dragon Quest Treasures.
As for Dragon Quest XII? Well, the development team at Square Enix are really hard at work on that one, so you’ll have to placate yourself with the aforementioned X and Treasures when they’re out.
Last but not least, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City voice-over and actor Ray Liotta has passed away. He was more well-known in films such as Goodfellas and Field of Dreams, but to gamers, he’ll always be Tommy Vercetti.
Pop Culture: What We’ve Done
First up, we interviewed Hayden Christensen, the Star Wars actor who played Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader in the sequel trilogy. Our interview was so well-received, that it’s been picked up by international sites like Gamesradar and Comic Book Resources.
Speaking of Disney, we also made a feature highlighting all the references and easter eggs of the new live-action and animated movie called Chip N’ Dale: Rescue Rangers. As for the movie, is it worth watching? Well, if you like movies with jokes centered around being just nothing but references and having comedians typecasted as CGI chipmunks but not exactly standing out, you might enjoy the film.
Me? I’m just surprised Disney greenlit the David Cronenberg-eque idea below.
We also reviewed the sequel to the 1986 hit movie Top Gun. Top Gun: Maverick stars Tom Cruise and it’s a great rollercoaster ride of plane action and nostalgia pandering; at least the movie isn’t completely obnoxious with its pandering.
The film hits the right balance with its callbacks and making new conflicts and stakes for Tom Cruise’s Maverick. Plus, the film just looks beautiful and has well-directed action scenes that are easy to follow. That’s useful considering how fast these planes are.
Speaking of iconic Tom Cruise roles, here’s one from our writer Alleef Ashaari about the actor’s many iconic characters.
Last but not least, we saw the first few episodes of Stranger Things 4. While a lot of people might be feeling burnout from the long-running sci-fi horror series set in the 80s, the fourth season opens up with quite a bang.
Each of the new episodes goes past the 1-hour mark, but it’s definitely not filler material. In fact, you’ll feel right at home being with the Hawkins gang (and the other half split off into California) as the plot finds a way to bring them together. And the big bad of the show, Vecna, is as terrifying as he was in the trailers.
We’ll say this: the first episode is one helluva way to start the show. Never would I thought a basketball game and Dungeons & Dragons tabletop session would be spliced back and forth really well for some compelling TV.
Stuff We’ve Read & Watched
Youtuber Austin Eruption has recently published a video detailing bad video games in good franchises. These include Death by Degrees, a Tekken spin-off starring femme fatale Nina Williams, Phantasy Star 3, and Lost Planet 3. Man, a lot of these games really lose their momentum in the third entry, huh?
Even after 2 months have passed, the Morbius Sweep continues. To recap, the Morbius Sweep is a phenomenon on social media that amplifies false praise for the box office flop superhero movie Morbius. Right now, there are a number of Twitch channels that are streaming the movie 24/7 non-stop to thousands of viewers late this week.
It’s pretty magical to see people band together to make fun of a pretty bad superhero movie that’s trying to justify its handling of the Marvel universe and Spider-Man spin-off side of things. Even the catchphrases of “It’s Morbin Time” and “Morbheads Unite” just brings a chuckle to to even the most jaded of users.
What We’ve Been Playing
Our writer Lewis Larcombe has reviewed Soda Crisis, an indie game with 2D high octane side-scrolling shooting action. Here’s a quote:
“The flow of the game feels natural and smooth for the aesthetic and pacing. At no point does anything feel awkward. Soda Crush is simply challenging and the kind of fun where you can kick back, turn off your brain and just vibe out.”
I’ve been playing the preview build of Two Point Campus quite a bit. For those who don’t know, the people behind the classic sim title Theme Hospital have banded up to create a game company called Two Point Studio. They released Two Point Hospital in 2018, and now they’re gearing up for Two Point Campus.
That’s all for this week of our gaming news recap feature and what we’ve been up to for the week of 21-27 May 2022. Catch you next time, readers new and old. As always, do check out our awesome content on kakuchopurei.com and on our YouTube website. We post new content every day and every week!
