Hello and welcome, fellow viewers and readers new and old. This is me, your Kakuchopurei content director Jonathan “Mr Toffee” Leo. It’s about time we had one of these weekly recap columns.
I have done these sorts of features a while back in other publications, but those felt like actual obligations so that I’d keep my job and just keep the news cycle rolling. This one in particular? Think of it as a recollection of video game and pop culture-related thoughts and excerpts to cap off the week. We will be talking about what we did the past seven days since.
There’s a lot we’ve done with Kakuchopurei/KKP for the past few months, of course, but we haven’t done a good job at communicating that outwardly. That changes today, so here’s what we’ve been up to.
Video Games: What We’ve Done
We did a short video on why Capcom shouldn’t rush flagship fighting game Street Fighter 6 out of the door. Capcom plans to release a multitude of titles before 30th March 2023, but SF6 should at least not be out the door if it’s not done yet.
We posted a quick video of video game edgelord Shadow’s appearance in the new Sonic The Hedgehog 2 movie for giggles, adding in his Dreamcast/Gamecube debut scenes and PS2 solo game intro scenes for a good measure. It’s quite a hit online for some reason.
We also are keeping tabs on the 31st SEA Games 2022 Esports event, featuring titles such as League of Legends, Mobile Legends, PUBG Mobile, League of Legends Wild Rift, FIFA Online 4, Arena of Valor, Free Fire, and Crossfire. That’s a lot of MOBAs.
Our new writer Lewis Larcombe has created a recap on Valorant and Overwatch’s current competitive scene. In case you need an esports refresher, I highly recommend you check it out on the links below.
He also wrote about why Valorant player Patiphan’s return to Overwatch esports is a long time coming. Here’s an excerpt:
“His debut was highly anticipated as many have waited a great many years to see this Thai phenom reign terror in top tier competition. But at long last, as fate would have it, his long-awaited debut would also align with the very first match of the OWL against the former giants in the New York Excelsior.”
Pop Culture: What We’ve Done
LEGO announced its version of Autobot leader Optimus Prime from transformers. Not only do you build him up from scratch, but he can transform from robot to truck without removing bricks.
It’s definitely worth adding to your library of pop culture statues and goods. Also, it’s going to sell out like hotcakes, so go pre-order yours now.
We recap the cool spoiler-y things that happened in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. It’s pretty crazy, so do check it out if you’ve already seen the film for a reminder.
We pay tribute to George Perez, the legendary comic book artist who made excellent superhero team books and comics come alive and kicking. In a time when people were (still) paid the same amount regardless of whether they were drawing fewer characters or more heroes, he was one of the brave artists who took on the thankless job of group superhero groups like The Avengers, New Teen Titans, and the Justice League.
As such, he is a legend even beyond death because his work is just detailed and iconic. Every splash page you see that involves the Avengers or DC Comics’ finest are usually from him, or heavily influenced by him. Without him, we wouldn’t see the epic-ness that is the Crisis on Infinite Earths and Infinity Gauntlet event series in comics.
Stuff We’ve Read & Watched
We read the Bloomberg report where PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan has urged staff to “respect differences of opinion” on abortion rights via an email. Said email addresses the recent leak of a draft of the US Supreme Court opinion to overturn Roe vs. Wade, which legalizes abortion in the United States.
He also made an alleged thinly-veiled passive-aggressive string of words at the end of the email. You can read up on our thoughts here. Suffice to say, this may not be a good PR look for PlayStation, and may taint the goodwill the PlayStation Plus revamp might bring, if it’s even doing that at all.
Halo main character Master Chief has recently lost his virginity after 21 years. Technically, the version in the Halo TV series showing on Paramount+ and Mola.tv has knocked boots with a primary character in the TV show in the latest episode. People are talking about it either on Twitter or on gaming news sites.
My GameSpot ex-colleague Edmond Tran did a lovely recap of the episode; do check it out. I do agree with the fact that the 8 episodes of the show have actual character and story arcs, unlike all six Halo games.
YouTube content creator and ScrewAttack alumni ProJared has created a series called Now in the 90s, where he talks about the hottest news and game releases 30 years ago, today.
He does extensive research on what was hot back in the three decades since, as well as brings up trivia like what Atlus did prior to bringing Shin Megami Tensei to Western shores and other obscure oddities.
In any case, it’s interesting to find out how gaming was back in the day, so chalk one up for a lovely weekly retro game series I’m happy to set 10 minutes aside for.
Malaysian game developer Wan Hazmer (Final Fantasy XV, No Straight Roads) talks about his trip to Japan and brings up toilet tips when visiting Malaysia. Protip: bring lots of tissue and do your business in your hotel room bathroom before you set out.
What We’ve Been Playing
Our writer, Alleef Ashaari, has been playing Warhammer 40K Chaos Gate: Daemonhunters. It’s a strategy game based on the Warhammer 40K franchise set in a scifi universe where human space marines are at war with aliens and green-skinned humanoids called Orks.
He thought that it was fun, especially if you are a fan of strategy games like XCOM. The game’s combat looks cinematic and stylish, though its difficulty is punishing and isn’t balanced well. Still, if you need a turn-based base-building and alien-shooting fix with a squad, you can’t go wrong with this Warhammer 40k game.
I have played through Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising from start to finish. Long story short: it’s a harmless and kinda charming 2D action RPG platforming game that neither offends or highly impresses.
It has enough to keep you entertained if you’re into doing backtracking-heavy fetch quests with pretty PlayStation-One-era-graphics-but-up-rezzed aesthetics.
I also dedicated a couple of hours into the newly-launched Soundfall. What is Soundfall, you may ask? Imagine if an action RPG like Diablo and music rhythm games like Rhythm Heaven or Guitar Hero had a baby that’s equally colourful and loot-heavy. You play as a struggling musician with a barista job who ends up getting teleported to a music-savvy fantasy land, where you’re tasked to saving the denizens from monsters called Discordians. It’s essentially an isekai anime tale, but with music of various genres you fight enemies to.
If you hit your attacks and dodges in sync with the music beat, you’ll deal more damage and your evades are more effective. If not, you deal weaker damage and have crappier defenses. It might be tough for some, but I dig the mix between two lovely genres I frequently play: loot drop-heavy games and music games.
So far, my 4 hours with the game has been a lovely time with the pop, bolero, metal, chiptune, and jazz music I’ve played through as I defeat baddies left and right with my music gun and specials. It can get pretty challenging especially in higher difficulties where the beat inputs are more strict and the screen can get flooded with a ton of particles and bullets.
Do give it a shot: it’s only RM51 and is for PC and Nintendo Switch.
That’s all for this week of our gaming news recap feature and what we’ve been up to for the week of 7-13 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!
Source: Kakuchopurei
