Fans of the franchise will already know that the green guy didn’t originally have the voice he ended up with, and the Austin Powers actor has talked openly about re-recording the dialogue for the first movie before. Now, though, he’s admitted to having done so for free, and that the change was inspired, in part, by his own heritage.

“I wanted it to be good. Fairy tales were about the class system,” Myers recently told Vanity Fair (opens in new tab). “You had worker people, and then you had this people who were, for no reason, the king and queen. They weren’t elected or anything. So I always thought that ogres were working people, growing up as a working person. I tried it as a Canadian, and it just didn’t have any oomph. 

“Then I said, ‘Can I record it again as Scottish?’ Because I know fairy tales are a Eurocentric form. Scottish people are near and dear to me. I have relatives in Scotland and background in Scottish, and they’re working people. It’s a working people accent. And they went, ‘No, we like it the way it is,’  and I said, ‘Oh, come on, just let me.'”

Myers went on to say that executive producer Steven Spielberg wasn’t entirely convinced, but he eventually agreed to let him try it. Upon hearing Shrek’s new sound, the legendary Hollywood filmmaker sent Myers “a lovely letter” saying, “You’re so right, it’s way better as Scottish. Thank you so much.” 

Released way back in 2001, Shrek sees, well, Shrek strike up an unlikely friendship with a chatty donkey (Eddie Murphy), before half-heartedly embarking on a mission to save Princess Fiona (Cameron Diaz) from the sleazy Lord Farquaad (John Lithgow), in the hopes of regaining his swamp. It spawned a whole bunch of sequels and spin-offs including Shrek 2 (2004), Shrek the Third (2007), Shrek Forever After (2019), Puss in Boots (2011), and a few short films, too. It is believed that, accumulatively, the feature-length movies have made around $3.5 billion worldwide.

More recently, Myers has appeared in new comedy series The Pentaverate, in which he portrays a number of different characters (including Shrek). If you’re already binge-watched the whole show, check out our roundup of the best Netflix shows for some viewing inspiration. 

The post Heres why Shrek has a Scottish accent, according to Mike Myers appeared first on Game News.

The Wii Sports follow-up will have a number of sports for players to get involved in including volleyball, badminton, bowling, soccer, chambara, and tennis. In the new trailer, we got to see these sports in action as well as how the Nintendo Switch’s motion controls will come into play in the game. 

For the likes of badminton and tennis, just like back in the Nintendo Wii days, players will be able to swing their Joy-con to launch the ball or shuttlecock across the court. According to the trailer, players will also be able to pull off more technical moves like drop shots and topspins with a combination of various swings and buttons.

For volleyball, chambara, and bowling, things are pretty much the same except the direction in which you swing your Joy Con controller can make all the difference. Things get a little more complicated with soccer though as players are encouraged to use both Joy Cons. There’s also the option to equip the Joy Con leg strap accessory for this sport to pull off intuitive kicking motions. 

The final thing revealed in the Nintendo Switch Sports overview trailer is a brief look at how online connectivity functions in the game. According to the trailer, players can compete against up to three of their friends via online co-op. If you’d rather take things to the next level though, there is also the option to compete in the Pro League via random matchmaking. 

Better start warming up now as Nintendo Switch Sports is set to release on April 29, 2022. 

Wondering about the future of the series? Well, according to a recent datamine, more mini-games could be on the way. 

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Based on the children’s novel of the same name by J.A. White, Nightbooks follows Alex (Winslow Fegley), a young boy with a penchant for telling horror stories. After a bad day at school, Alex finds himself trapped inside an apartment belonging to the eccentric and malevolent witch, Natasha, played by Jessica Jones actor Krysten Ritter. She decides to keep Alex alive, but only as long as he tells her a sufficiently scary story every day. How long can he keep it up for? Together with fellow captive Yasmin (Lidya Jewett), Alex attempts to escape the witch’s apartment so the duo can return to their families. 

Both Yarovesky’s movies follow young outcasts, with Brightburn centering on a young alien boy who rejects his humanity and turns to evil upon discovering that he has superpowers. We spoke to Yarovesky about the comparison, as well as diving into the making of Nightbooks and whether a sequel could be around the corner. Here’s our full Q&A with the director, edited for length and clarity.

GamesRadar+: Sam Raimi was a producer on Nightbooks – what was it like working with him? And which elements of his work behind the camera were you most excited to bring into the movie?

David Yarovesky: Sam was a literal god to me growing up. There were two directors that I especially fixated on, it was him and Peter Jackson, and they were both directors who, at some point, had made really crazy horror movies that were not mainstream, that were out of the box and weird, and then both of them went on to make massive, huge studio movies and become massive directors. At the time, I really can’t think of any horror directors that were really doing that, not coming from that corner of horror at least, and it was really just inspiring to see. 

So working with him was a dream. There’s a saying to never meet your idols, but the person who invented that saying, their idol wasn’t Sam Raimi, because meeting him was everything I would want it to be and working with him was incredible. He was a creative ally on the project and someone I could go to and discuss things. There were times when he would say, ‘Oh, what about if we do it like this?’ Or, ‘What if you try this,’ and I’d be like, ‘Oh my god, that is the most Sam Raimi idea I’ve ever heard.’ It was smart, but it was also, the second he was saying it, I could watch the scene as if he directed it. I was like, ‘Oh, I see how he thinks, I get why his movies are the way they are.’ He’s so good at what he does. And so it was a dream come true for me to work with Sam and, knock on desk, I hope I get to do it again.

Nightbooks is a family movie, but it’s still spooky. I know if I’d watched it when I was a kid, I’d have been freaked out. How did you strike the balance between keeping the movie family-friendly while also ensuring that things were still sufficiently gruesome?

DY: This movie is different than other family horror movies. If you think about all modern comparisons, they’re often, at its core, an adventure comedy or something. They’re not really horror, they just have the look of horror, but they’re striving more for jokes than tension and anticipation. And one of the things that we first started talking about when I was talking about doing the movie, I just felt like people overlook the reality of horror. They think what’s scary about horror, what defines the genre of horror, the storytelling tradition of horror, is gruesome things or horrific imagery that kids can’t be exposed to. But it’s not the case.

A thing that I said on Brightburn a ton, the scariest part of every movie is someone walking through an empty house, saying, ‘Hello?’. Because you’re sitting there going, ‘What’s in the house, what’s in the house,’ and you’re waiting for where it’s gonna come from. And that’s all fair game – there’s nothing about that that kids can’t enjoy, like, the anticipation of where a scare’s gonna come from, but you just have to make sure that, when the scare happens, it’s just not something that’s inappropriate for kids. 

And so one of the fun things about this movie is it doesn’t pull its punches, it doesn’t talk down to kids, it doesn’t do any of those things. It really looks and feels and sounds, for all intents and purposes, like a real horror movie, it’s just not too scary for families to watch together. So this was an attempt to make a negotiation, to really try something new on that front, and I’m proud of what we did, because it feels different. There really isn’t a movie like it, or at least hasn’t been in a very long time. And I’m just thankful to the producers, to Netflix, for letting us try it and see if we were crazy or not.

There are a few references in the film to The Lost Boys – was that a source of inspiration? Or were there any other horror movies that you wanted to pay homage to?

DY: I love Lost Boys. Krysten [Ritter] loves Lost Boys, it was one of the things we first bonded on when we were talking about the movie. But Lost Boys was not just a beloved movie from my childhood, it ticked a number of boxes, which made it a good choice for [main character] Alex’s favorite movie – it was not too hardcore of a horror movie. We had a lot of conversation about what that movie could be, because in the book it’s Night of the Living Dead, and I wanted to base Alex’s stories off of his favorite movies, and I wanted the stories that he tells to be inspired by the things that he loves. And so, what I was looking for was not just a movie that I love from my childhood that could be a classic for Alex, but a movie that also could help be inspiration for the visual style in Alex’s storytelling. I found that in Lost Boys because of the use of red, and how that last sequence is bathed in red. And it was a simple way to use the visual language to say that these two are connected – that Alex is inspired by previous creative weirdos, to go on to make his own creative weird stuff. 

The main character in Brightburn is also a kid, and obviously, in Nightbooks, there are two kids as the main characters. What do you think a story gains from being centered around children rather than adults?

DY: You know, I’ve asked myself this, because I get sent scripts, I read a ton of scripts. Why was I compelled to movies, back-to-back, to center around a young boy who’s a weirdo or an outcast? Perhaps that’s how I see myself, not as a young boy, but just as a weirdo or an outcast, and that’s the story I feel like I can tell most authentically. Certainly, the message of this movie is a love letter to the young generation today, to encourage them to keep being weird, and to not let the world stomp that magic out of them. And so I guess it’s that. And then, on top of that, there’s a piece of it that’s just coincidence, that they’re two stories that really spoke to me, and they’re just two of the best scripts that I had read in the breadth of time that I was doing it.

I thought Natasha’s outfits, and also her apartment, were amazing – I liked the maximalism and opulence of it all. So how did you approach the production and costume design for the movie? Did you go into it with a vision? What was the process?

DY: My wife [Autumn Steed] was a costume designer on this and Brightburn. We’ve worked together as long as we’ve been together, and we’ve been together for a long time. And it’s become part of my creative process that she and I just bounce ideas off each other and challenge each other. ‘Do better, be more creative, think deeper about things.’ 

And one of the interesting challenges of making this movie – besides the obvious ones, the COVID of it all, and besides all the regular challenges that come with making a movie – you step into the dark fantasy or fantasy horror genre, and suddenly everyone’s expectation is Tim Burton. And by the way, I love Tim Burton movies, I grew up on Tim Burton movies, but this genre has a look, and it’s Tim Burton’s look, and it has a sound and it’s Danny Elfman’s sound. And one of the things that I came to this movie to do was to say, ‘What if we don’t do that? What if we make a different kind of world?’ And certainly, there’s been other directors who have done that, Guillermo [del Toro] is incredible at that, and there’s plenty of others, but for the most part, everyone’s default setting is everything’s gonna be monochromatic, there’s gonna be stripes, everything’s gonna be crooked and twisted, and that’s where people’s brains go. 

So there was that, and then it was also just the struggle of taking really fantastical concepts that are magical, and totally not things that could happen in real life, and trying to make them feel as real as possible for the viewer. Because the movies I grew up on and loved made me feel like what I was seeing was real. When I saw Jurassic Park, I was like, ‘Those dinosaurs are real,’ and they did everything they could to really make you feel like you’re looking at dinosaurs. And I think that was our goal, was to try to take these ideas that were way fantastical and try to ground them in reality and build an internal logic, visually, and using storytelling and visuals and sound and just make it feel good.

Read more…

There are the best Netflix movies to watch right now

The ending of the movie definitely suggests that we haven’t seen the last of these characters. What would you like to explore in a sequel if that were to happen?

DY: Well, wouldn’t we be lucky? That would be a wonderful thing, if people liked this movie enough that they want to see a sequel, and if Netflix likes the movie enough that they want to see a sequel, that’d be a great thing. I would obviously love to make a sequel. It’s a world that I’ve constructed with tons of love and care and design and, obviously, working with Winslow [Fegley] and Lidya [Jewett] and Krysten was incredible. So I would just love to come back to this universe. 

In terms of what I’d like to explore creatively, I certainly wouldn’t get into that. But I would say that the author J.A. White did an incredible job with the first book, and I would certainly lean on him to be a creative partner. I totally want to respect what he sees for the future, as well as all the other factors that are going to come into it. But yeah, I have a lot of ideas, a lot of things that I would do in this universe, so we’ll just have to watch and see and hope people enjoy the movie and go from there.

James Gunn was a producer on Brightburn – do you have any plans to work with him again?

DY: I don’t have any direct plans to work with him other than, like, I would love to work with him again. He’s really busy, you know, he’s making Marvel movies, DC movies, and he’s just, like, he’s everywhere, and they’re all very big movies. He’s a guy who, when he makes something, he’s all in. It’s not a casual job, it’s an all-consuming, life-swallowing job. 

James is a mentor to me, but he’s also an incredibly close friend. He officiated my wedding, so he’s close with me and my wife, and so anytime you can work with people that are close to you like that, it’s a blessing. It’s a dream come true. Because what a dream, to go to work, to get to make these movies and imagine this stuff and do it with your friends. I mean, what could be better in life? So yeah, I hope to make more movies with James, I truly hope to make more movies with Sam and with Netflix, and I made a lot of friends on this movie as well. So, knock on wood, I’ll get to make more.

Nightbooks is on Netflix now. Looking for more on the streamer? Then check out the best Netflix horror movies available right now.

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Produced by Spider-Man director Sam Raimi, the movie follows Alex (Winslow Fegley), a young boy who becomes the prisoner of a witch (Ritter) in her magical labyrinth apartment. Planning to kill him, he convinces her to keep him alive by promising to tell her a scary story every night. When Alex meets Yazmin (Lidya Jewett), the witch’s servant, they team up to try and escape before the witch changes her mind.  

Based on the children’s book of the same name by J.A. White, Nightbooks is directed by David Yarovesky. He previously helmed Brightburn, a superhero horror flick about a young alien boy who rejects his humanity and turns to evil upon discovering that he has superpowers. The movie starred Elizabeth Banks and David Denman, and it was produced by The Suicide Squad director James Gunn. 

Ritter last appeared in El Camino, Netflix’s 2019 sequel movie to Breaking Bad. She played Jane in the hit series, who was the love interest of Jesse (Aaron Paul). On the small screen, she played Jessica Jones in Netflix’s Marvel series of the same name, as well as in the following ensemble series The Defenders. She also had the lead role in the sitcom Don’t Trust the B—- in Apartment 23. 

While we wait for Nightbooks to arrive on the streamer on September 15, check out our list of the best Netflix movies that you can watch right now.

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As reported by Variety (opens in new tab), the threequel will start filming in 2022’s second quarter – so that’s anywhere from April to June. There’s no director confirmed to helm the movie just yet, and there’s no cast announced, either, but we can probably expect the central characters to return. The story comes from Paddington and Paddington 2 director Paul King, along with Simon Farnaby and Mark Burton, while Burton, Jon Foster, and James Lamont will pen the screenplay. King will also produce. Plus, there’s a third season of The Adventures of Paddington TV show in the works.

Paddington co-producers Heyday Films and the Astrid Lindgren Company are also working on a Pippi Longstocking film with Studiocanal, and it seems the studio have a lot of faith in the project, because more than one sequel has already been given the greenlight. Plus, though A Boy Called Christmas isn’t set to release until later this year, it’s already confirmed to be getting a sequel, with Gil Kenan again writing and directing.

Also announced was work on a follow-up to Gunpowder Milkshake, with Karen Gillan set to return. Studiocanal are busy with another action movie, too, starring genre regular Liam Neeson and directed by Nimrod Antal. The film is titled Retribution and is currently filming in Berlin. Studiocanal is also producing a follow-up to Cold Pursuit. 

Baghead, a horror/thriller starring The Witcher’s Freya Allen and directed by Alberto Corredor, will also film in Berlin. It will be based on Corredor’s short film of the same name, released in 2017. 

In even more news, The Big Bang Theory and The Flight Attendant actor Kaley Cuoco will star in and produce Role Play, which will focus on a couple in turmoil after their secrets are revealed (Deadline (opens in new tab) first broke the news). Meanwhile, War Magician, starring Benedict Cumberbatch and directed by Jurassic World 3 helmer Colin Trevorrow, is set to start filming in 2022, while a third season of The War of the Worlds is currently filming. The already announced Attack the Block sequel was said to be in early development, while Evil Dead Rise was said to be currently shooting in New Zealand for a 2022 theatrical release, and Thomas Bidegain’s Suddenly, a high stakes drama starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Vanessa Kirby set in Iceland, will film on location.

While you wait for Paddington 3, check out our roundup of all of 2021’s movie release dates to start planning those theater trips.

The post Paddington 3 filming date, Gunpowder Milkshake 2, and more revealed by Studiocanal appeared first on Game News.

Among Us has seen around 2 million players jump into the game over the weekend. This impressive figure follows after the game going free for a limited time last week during the Epic Games Store sale. Victoria Tran, Innersloth’s community director shared the results on Twitter (opens in new tab) (via PCgamesN (opens in new tab)) showing a spike in players over the weekend starting May 27, 2021.

Showing a normal weekend specifically for PC players, the player count usually sits around 300k to 350k players. The sale that started last week saw that number shoot up. Tran showed a chart that climbs to around 2 million players.

While these are just statistics for PC players, the game is also available on mobile devices, Xbox for PC, and a surprise release on Nintendo Switch. It will be heading to PS4 and PS5 this year with some in-game Ratchet and Clank-themed costumes as well as Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S.

and here it is when it went free on Epic, May 27thnotes:- this shows PC players only- not all new players, many people grab Among Us on as many platforms as they can and were probably testing it out – long weekend for Americans, possibly more ppl playing/giving small boost pic.twitter.com/wUag8a4i7AMay 31, 2021

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A new Airship map has recently been added to the game which introduces not only a new playing field but also some new tasks to complete. So there has been plenty for players to sink their teeth into.

Among Us hitting 2 million players in a weekend is pretty impressive, especially given how the game saw a player count of almost half a billion in 2020 alone. This popularity saw famous faces such as Resident Evil voice actors playing the game and even US Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

Its huge success during the global pandemic found the developer canceling plans to make a sequel and instead, pouring their efforts into improving the current game. This has already seen numerous quality of life updates such as a quick-chat wheel and an updated art style, and bigger lobbies on the way.

There have been different versions of the game appearing in other games to spread the game’s Imposter-filled joy, such as Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Minecraft, and even in VR.

Fancy getting a bit sneaky yourself? Find out the best ways to play as the Imposter with our Among Us Impostor tips guide.

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Pokemon Snap behind waterfall day route explained

Unlocking the route that goes behind the waterfall in Pokemon Snap during the day is actually slightly harder than doing it at night, simply because you need to first get the Founja Jungle (Day) trip to research level three. Attempting this before level three will result in failure, unfortunately.

As you go over the treetops in front of the Toucannon nests, look to your right and you’ll see the Liepard leap onto the rock by the edge of the waterfall. Fire some Illumina Orbs at Liepard before it starts to rest and it should jump back to its feet and leave. Scan the area as you get closer and you’ll be able to interact with the prompt, unlocking the Pokemon Snap behind waterfall route during the day. Note that if this doesn’t work for you despite being level three, try completing the night route first, and/or playing a tune while you throw the Illumina Orbs.

Behind the waterfall during the day, you’ll find two Pokemon; Leafeon and Sobble! While Leafeon can be found elsewhere in the level, this is the only place I’ve found Sobble. If you take a picture of the pair right as they come into view, their interaction should result in a 4* photo.

Pokemon Snap behind waterfall night route explained

To get behind the waterfall at night time, you simply need to hit research level two rather than three. In the same spot, when you’re in the tree tops, Liepard will be fast asleep with some Pikipeks nearby. Aim at them and play music to wake them up and make them fly off, then fling Illumina Orbs at Liepard. This should make it stand up and leave, then you can scan and access the new route. If the Illumina Orbs don’t work, try throwing fluffruit instead.

Behind the waterfall at night, there’s a Leafeon and a bunch of Morelull, along with two sleeping Swampert. Behind the Swampert is a sleeping Wooper too, so you can get some unique photos back here.

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Animal Crossing fans are treated with not one, but two new entries in the series this year, with the 3DS Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer, and the upcoming Animal Crossing: amiibo Festival on Wii U. We may have to wait a little longer for a mainline entry in the series, but the more limited scope of Happy Home Designer gave Nintendo plenty of room to experiment with new ideas, many of which really need to be brought to the mainline games in the series.

Here are 10 such ideas that absolutely need to be in the next, full-fledged, Animal Crossing title, whenever that may happen (hopefully soon!). Or else well send Tom Nook after someone, and Nook always collects his debts.

Touch-screen placing

With a titular emphasis on designing homes, Happy Home Designer completely reinvents the way players are able to lay out, arrange, and decorate houses. No more walking to an area and dropping down an item where you want it, only to pick it up when you want to move it again. That’s just exhausting.

Instead, HHD uses the bottom screen of the 3DS as a grid to easily make your dream homes a reality. The navigation system in HHD isnt perfect, but it does make placing and arranging furniture easier than it has ever been before. A future AC game on the Wii U could easily pull this off with the GamePad.

Interior sounds

Another new feature in HHD is the addition of various interior sounds you can have playing in the background of your house. Background sounds – such as rain, wilderness, train, space, jungle, and city – all flesh out the auditory ambience of your homes, giving them that little extra flair.

The sound selection in HHD isnt huge, especially when compared to the other music options – such as K.K. Sliders tracks – but it could be further developed to really add in some melodic atmosphere to rooms. Imagine Pikmin background noises in your garden, or even more minute, but realistic, details, such as having a tea kettle go off in your kitchen.

Ceiling decorations

Theres a certain dimension in Animal Crossing that has hitherto been left unexplored. Players are able to decorate almost all of the house, and even hang stuff on the walls. But, look up… who wants a house with bare ceilings?!

HHD has made the sky the limit – literally – by adding a bunch of new fixtures that you can hang from the ceiling. Chandeliers, ivy, disco balls, lamps, shelves, and spotlights are just the start of the fun things you can add to pimp out the rafters. Just imagine if each existing AC set added a new piece that glammed up the ceilings. Oh, yeah… the Happy Home Academy would love that. And so would we.

Curtains, windows, and doors

While it isnt like we have to worry about Nook being a literal peeping Tom, its the small details and finishing touches that really help take a new, empty mansion and make it a place that any of the cutesy AC villagers would want to call home.

HHD allows players to pick not only the window frames (everything ranging from simple colors to exotic, shoji, and lattice designs), but also the drapes that cover them. There are some cool prints as a start in HHD, but, again, heres hoping a future AC would have matching drapes for every existing furniture set. (I never thought Id be so excited for drapes!)

And while were at it, anytime you show a villager the door, that door should fit with your theme as well. A solid gold wall could go between your main room and the secret gold-themed temple we all know you have in your house somewhere.

Outside decorations

New Leaf allowed players to place some pieces of furniture outside their homes with Public Works projects, but for the most part, AC games have kept with a strict furniture-belongs-only-in-the house-or-else rule.

Its a silly rule, and one that HHD happily throws out the window, as players are able to design entire front and back yards at the whim of the many villagers. This opens up loads of possibilities for designing an entire town, but it also sets the stage for a whole new world of furniture options to surround your house. And speaking of towns…

More town options

Happy Home Designer added a bunch of new liveries for revelry in your town: a school, a hospital, a hotel, an office, and even a concert hall. All of these are new to the Animal Crossing universe, and would make great additions to the already standing locales, such as the coffee shop, museum, and shoe store.

The public works in New Leaf enabled players to create and help develop their towns, so if Nintendo combines that with the new principalities in HDD, players would have the ability to add – and customize – a wide array of different municipalities.

And for bonus points, make it so the player can deck them out just like in HHD – thatd make it so much better. My Mars 2112 themed restaurant needs to live on.

Control over which villagers come to your town

This is a big one. In New Leaf, I got stuck with a large quantity of quite annoying animal neighbors with which to share my town. Nobody wants the AC equivalent of Everybody Loves Raymond, with obnoxious guests popping in your house all the time. HHD lets you choose between a few different villagers every day to have move in, which by itself would be a great addition to the next AC. Imagine being able to pick some of the starting villagers in a new town, or even being able to select which ones move in on any given day. Its a dream come true.

Taken even further, amiibo integration could also enable you to use amiibo cards to directly add villagers to your town, giving you the ability to hand-select which villagers you want to be your friend, while also single-handedly killing the AC villager online black market.

Ankha, you will finally be mine, one way or another. Make it happen!

Basic town design and power over where villagers live

Along with picking which villagers can move into your town in HHD, you also get to decide where the villagers live, and even place their houses in a specific location.

Sure, each villager lives in a bubble that isnt really connected to the others, but theres no reason this same approach couldnt be taken to designing your entire town. With each new villager that moves in, you get to pick where they set up shop.

I dont think I can properly explain my frustration every time a new villager started encroaching on my garden of perfect apple trees in New Leaf and then put up a house right in my backyard. Grrr… get out of my backyard, Jay!

Themed house exteriors

Two words: Christmas. Castle. HHD builds on the housing exteriors, adding a few new ones to the mix. Want a sweet Halloween-themed haunted mansion? Check. Or the really awesome Christmas… I mean Toy Day exterior. No longer are holiday decorations restrained to inside the house.

The holiday sets are some of the most coveted – and most fantastic – in Animal Crossing, and they enable players to expand their holiday-themed festivities to the outside of their homes. There were only a few themed exteriors in HHD, but hopefully a future installment will add one for each set. An animal can dream!

And while Im at it, St. Patricks Day really needs its own unique set of furniture. But I digress…

Designing villagers homes

While it might be weird for the mayor to be going around designing villagers homes, it could give players the opportunity to further customize their towns, while also giving more streamlined – and more interesting – tasks for them to do for their villagers.

Also, I tend to run out of housing space eventually, so taking HHDs ideas and designing the NPC animal homes in a future AC game would give me more buildings, and therefore more rooms, in which to display all of the furniture that I amass.

Pretty much, I want control over everything. Happy Home Designer opened the floodgates… and hopefully the next AC will substantially build on that new foundation as well.

The post 10 features of Happy Home Designer wed like to see in the next Animal Crossing appeared first on Game News.

In 2003 the idea of a game split into hundreds of smaller ones, each roughly five seconds long, seemed, well, demented. How could you even learn the controls if, after a single bite, the next plate was thrust under your nose like some slapdash taster course? How could you derive satisfaction from such meagre investment? The design turned out to be not only fruitful – kickstarting an irreverent new franchise for Nintendo that later saw releases on GameCube, DS, DSi and Wii (and soon Wii U with the upcoming Game & Wario: see page 51 for a preview) – but also prescient, predating the ethos that now powers the mobile market. That ethos? Gloriously instant gratification.

The rules were simple. Levels contained ‘microgames’ (presumably smaller than mini-games, but bigger than nano-games), which players tackled at random. You might launch a rocket, jump a shark, score a basket, brush some teeth, pick a nose or use a brolly to shelter a kitten. The catch was that you only had four lives. Let your kitty get wet, for example, and you lost one. The longer you survived, the faster the speed got. Survive a barrage of 20 or so and you advanced to the next level.

Halfway through levels lay boss fights, chances to restore a single lost life. These were slightly longer: you might fight a NES-style Punch-Out!! bout, or fly a spaceship in a top-down shooter, or bat balls from a tricksy auto-pitcher. True to WarioWare, these small, but perfectly formed gameplay nuggets stuck around just long enough to offer a challenge, but never outstayed their welcome. Of course, any videogame lives and dies by how it plays, and thanks to WarioWare’s sheer variety, there were a hundred ways in which it could fail.

Aside from a few duds (catching a falling pole, or hammering A to eat bananas were about as riveting as they sound), there were no glaring weak links. This is down to a host of different characters packing 25 microgames a piece. The hyper-intelligent alien, Orbulon, offered Mensa-lite games that rewarded mental agility, rather than reaction times: remembering a dance sequence, say, or quickly completing a sentence (“This game is a) Stupid, b) Great or c) Ridiculous.”). Mona, meanwhile, geared hers around human physicality: threading a needle, perhaps, or using some eye-drops.

Nintendo fanboy 9-Volt’s set was arguably best, taking you on a whistle-stop tour of retro franchises: you blasted Duck Hunt fowl, dodged F-Zero racers, leapt Donkey Kong’s barrels, killed Metroid’s Mother Brain and, in an even more nostalgic nod to pre-Mazza Nintendo, hoovered a mess with the Chiritorie vacuum cleaner and grabbed plastic balls with the Ultra Hand. Impressively, these microgames weren’t just recreations, but were actual slices lifted from the games to which they paid homage.

Not every character made sense. Dog and cat cabbie duo, Dribble and Spitz themed their games on sci-fi and ninjas, while, erm, ninjas, Kat and Ana, based theirs on nature. Hmm. Elsewhere was Jimmy T, a disco enthusiast with a penchant for groove, so, obviously, his games revolved around, er, sports. In its scattershot way, WarioWare demonstrated another side to Nintendo, sometimes sophisticated, but also content to roll around in the infantile muck (Dr. Crygor’s level takes place over a toilet). Both sides of this split personality informed the story.

Yes, there was a story. One evening, as Wario chills on the couch watching TV, a news report explains how game sales are exploding. So he joins the dots: make games, make money. That’s what the guy’s all about, after all. Developers aren’t known for their bulging wallets, however, so Wario enlists the help of people, pets and aliens to form WarioWare Inc.

That’s as far as the story went, but if you took it to its logical conclusion and introduced a bit of philosophy (stick with us), it made a weird kind of sense. In a way, players adopted the mantle of videogame tester, trial-running each developer’s scattershot demos without the inconvenience of having to type up a bug report afterwards. Or you might say players were unwary focus group sit-ins during some mad brainstorming session, each microgame a sales pitch for a prospective full-fat title. Whatever theory you favour, WarioWare was a lot cleverer than it seemed.

It was a lot longer, too. Five seconds of gameplay isn’t much, but multiplied by eight characters, each with 25 microgames, you have… well, we were never any good at maths. But we do know each one could be attempted in isolation from the rest and this offered a whole new spin. Rather than spend time frantically working out what to do (a one-word instruction like ‘throw’, ‘bounce’ or ‘pick’ was all the assistance given), you knew what to expect and could therefore chase your own leaderboard records. Microgames didn’t just get faster over time, either. Catching a piece of toast was even harder when a few bites had been taken from it; fleeing giant footballs demands skill when two become four. Master these and there was more fun to be had. After conquering a set of each character’s microgames, you’d unlock a longer mini-game to play at any time. Longer experiences, such as Skating Board and Paper Plane, veered even closer to mobile titles of today, the endless runners in the vein of Jetpack Joyride and Canabalt.

So, while WarioWare, Inc: Minigame Mania was indeed a precursor to the undemanding insta-fun downloadables occupying iOS and Android, it was also, in a funny way, a fitting tribute to where it all started: Game & Watch. Like WarioWare, Nintendo’s 1980s LCD portable offered not just one game, but several – 59 games across 59 dedicated models. Titles such as Fire, Balloon Fight and Vermin made self-reflexive cameos in WarioWare, some lifted wholesale, others slapped with fresh paint to keep with a new aesthetic. The whack-a-moles in Vermin, for instance, were now claymation. The game based on Fire, on the other hand, retained the sparse, retro black and white visuals of the original. The Game & Watch was one of several nods: there were also references to GBA, NES, SNES and even that eye-ruining monstrosity, the Virtual Boy.

Regardless of WarioWare’s link to the past or future, it has firmly stamped its own unique mark in time thanks to one all-important reason: it was never boring. This was gaming without the unnecessary bits, pure nuggets of distilled fun. So while WarioWare at first seemed the furthest thing from a videogame, it ironically had more claim to the title than anything before. When you get right down to the meaning of the word ‘game’, past long cutscenes and exposition-spouting characters, past HD graphics and soul-shaking orchestral scores, it’s about a self-enclosed interactive experience. WarioWare didn’t just adhere to that definition, it embodied it, offering not just one tightly focused experience, but hundreds.

The post How Warioware nailed the minigame formula for generations to come appeared first on Game News.

There’s nothing better than adding a new face to your ranks. Whether you’ve recruited a new knight or unlocked some special character mode, it’s a great feeling knowing there’s more to a game than the starting roster. Nothing spices up a skating game like a Sith Lord, and nothing makes a survival horror game more intense than playing as a piece of food.

Even though fighting games are famous for expanding rosters, there are new characters to uncover in platformers, adventure games, and RPGs too. Get ready to recruit new party members and fight some hidden badasses, because we’re starting with…

Reptile (Mortal Kombat)

There’s no better way to start talking about secret characters than with Reptile: he was literally the first unlockable boss character in fighting game history. All you had to do was win with a Double Flawless Victory without blocking and finish the fight with a Fatality, all when a certain object flew past the moon in the one very specific level. Pssh, easy.

The master of the Pit has appeared in all the Mortal Kombat games since, alternating between a human form in green garb and a full-on lizard man. The scaly dude has quite a legacy; David Icke would be proud.

Tofu (Resident Evil 2)

So you’re playing Resident Evil 2. You could play as Claire Redfield or Leon Kennedy and enjoy the thrill of narrowly escaping death at the hands of zombies or you could play as a floppy, larger-than-life block of tofu.

Finish all parts of the game with A rankings, and he’s yours. He was originally just meant to test the game’s collision physics, but Capcom wisely made him playable – starting with just a knife and few herbs. Sure, he can take more damage than other characters, but that doesn’t save him from being eaten by fellow operative Hunk at the end of the game. Poor, delicious friend.

Mewtwo (Super Smash Bros Melee)

Oddly enough, Mewtwo isn’t considered that good of a fighter in the Smash Bros. series. Sure, he can dodge better than most, but it’s his status of being the only playable legendary Pokemon that makes him, well, legendary.

Originally meant for Smash on the Nintendo 64, Mewtwo didn’t make the cut until Melee on the GameCube – where you had to play dozens of hours and hundreds of matches to unlock him. After fan outrage at not being included in Brawl, those same fans freaked the hell out – in a good way – (opens in new tab) when he was announced as DLC for the Wii U and 3DS versions. Yay, Pocket Monsters!

Akuma (Street Fighter II Turbo)

There are Ryu and Ken, and then there’s Akuma. While the two Street Fighter posterboys battle for good, Akuma exists only to defeat others with his dark arts. Funny, considering he’s actually Ryu’s adoptive uncle.

The coolest thing about Akuma is his conception. An April Fool’s Day joke in an old issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly hinted at unlocking Ryu and Ken’s master Shen Long in the original game. After massive disappointment from their fan base, Capcom threw the kids a bone by including the evil master Akuma. And with Street Fighter 4, they finally revealed Gouken, Ryu’s adoptive father and Akuma’s older brother. Ah, family.

Devil Jin (Tekken 5)

‘Evil’ versions of characters are nothing new, and palette swaps usually satisfy the fanboys (I’ll take purple suit Luigi for as long as I have to, Nintendo). But there’s something extra special about Devil Jin, who is Tekken’s main protagonist consumed by the evil genes inside him – just look at those wicked wings!

He showed up in Tekken 3 and 4 in cut scenes, but we finally got our hands on his horns in Tekken 5. While Jin fights with traditional karate techniques, Devil Jin pounds foes with the high-level Mishima fighting style, full of dragon punches, tsunami kicks, and 10-hit combos. Bad to the bone.

Toriyama Robo (Tobal No. 1)

If you’re a fan of manga like Dragon Ball and Sandland but haven’t played Tobal No. 1, shame on you – all the characters are designed by mangaka Akira Toriyama. This is important, as Toriyama includes a “Tori Bot” in most of his work; it’s a little robot that represents himself in funny situations. And that bot is playable in Tobal No. 1, going by the nickname Toriyama Robo.

The best part is that you won’t even know Robo exists until you finish an especially difficult 30-floor dungeon in the game’s Quest Mode. “Who’s this fool?” you’ll ask until you beat him and realize he was a secret character all along.

Donkey Kong (Punch-Out!!)

The NES version had Mike Tyson, so Nintendo knew it needed another celebrity final boss for its Wii revival. It went internal, setting up the great ape Donkey Kong as the ultimate boss. Even better, you can spot DK in the audience in multiple Punch-Out games.

You’ll have to complete the game a few times over to reach the fight, but when DK finally hops into the ring, it’s on like something, I can’t remember. Anyway, the red-tied tank can take you down with pretty much any attack, arguably making him the most difficult fight in Punch Out history. Where was that verse in the DK rap?

Luigi (Super Mario Galaxy)

Poor Luigi, always living in his brother’s shadow. In Super Mario Galaxy, he gets literally lost in space and is taken prisoner at some point. Mario has to rescue him from the Ghostly Galaxy, at which point the green brother will assist him in collecting three stars.

A total of 120 stars and a Bowser fight later, and you can actually play as the other brother. Luigi runs faster and jumps farther, and his Cosmic Form is much smarter than Mario’s. The weird part? Luigi can also rescue Luigi from the Ghostly Galaxy, though his imprisoned twin looks a little ‘off.’ At least he has his own mansion…

Darth Maul (Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3)

Tony Hawk, Bam Margera, Bob Burnquist – these are real, professional skaters. Who better to join them on the halfpipe than Star Wars’ totally out-of-Lucas’-head Darth Maul? Kickflips and grinds are only made cooler with a double-ended red lightsaber in hand. What’s extra cool is that when you select Darth Maul inside the skate shop, the shopkeeper will actually be choking from the Force in the background.

So how do you unlock the Sith fiend? It’s a simple matter of completing all the game’s goals and getting every gold medal as Tony Hawk. Too much? Just use the cheat code YOHOMIES instead.

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The post 19 of the best unlockable characters appeared first on Game News.