Sonic Superstars and beyond. Sega makes up for lost time, part 5...

In the previous blogs I looked at Sonic Superstars, and the things that the developers at Sonic Team, and Arzest did great. I also talked about the technical and design choices that I think really hurt the game. While I played through it I was reminded of all the wonderful things that I enjoyed in the franchise. It very much felt like a continuation of the elements that made Sonic Mania work so well. The art direction, level, and enemy design fit in the classic 2D style, even though the models were in 3D. The introduction of a new character named Trip, plus using individual Chaos Emeralds to change the game play was inspired. When I struggled with some boss encounters it showed that there were cracks on the facade. Trying some encounters over and over lent me to discover what type of gamer I was. In the end I had a favorable opinion of the game that gave me a lot of insight into myself. It allowed me to realize that the Sonic series was one of the rare titles that was globally appealing for a number of reasons. The first thing that drew me to the franchise was the character himself.

I stated previously that I loved the art, and design behind the hero, and his friends. I never cared much for Knuckles though, but that was besides the point. I was a huge fan of the mascot style of character art. The cartoon star that created the movement was Pat Sullivan, and Otto Mesmer’s Felix the Cat. He debuted in 1919, almost a decade before Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, and Mickey Mouse. The large head, big expressive eyes, and animal features set a template that would be copied for the next century. The early US cartoon stars like Donald Duck, Bugs Bunny, or Flip the Frog wouldn’t have made it big without Felix. Sonic the Hedgehog, Tails the Fox, Knuckles the Echidna, Mighty the Armadillo, and Ray the Flying Squirrel all followed in the footsteps of Felix the Cat. They were descended from one of the greatest cartoon traditions the world had ever seen.

Although they were created by a Japanese team the Sonic art reflected my favorite form of American cartooning. The “rubber hose style of animation was the oldest form used in the US. The name was because the arms, and legs of these characters weren’t hinged as if they had bones. Instead they flexed like rubber hoses. Additionally the bodies on these characters were fluid. They could be pulled, stretched, and twisted like a rubber balloon. There was a sense of freedom in these cartoons that was liberating for artists. Although to be fair I was never good at drawing in a rubber hose format because my style was very rigid. It didn’t matter because I thought those early cartoon stars were so amazing. They could do the impossible, while still making their actions plausible. That tradition was rarely seen in modern cartoons, rare in video games, but not as rare in comic books.

The Mickey Mouse comics illustrated by Floyd Gottfredson in the 1930’s set a standard for adventure storytelling featuring cartoon mascots. His comics kept the animated icon alive outside of the movie theater. Mickey would hang out with his friends in some stories, having fun with the other Disney stars. Then he travel the globe on an international mystery for longer arcs. A decade later Carl Barks raised the bar in the Donald Duck, and more important, the Scrooge McDuck comics. Comic books were the perfect format for expanding on the animated shorts. We could get to see the characters develop a personality. The writers, and artists presented a universe that was much deeper than could ever be shown in a cartoon. For the longest time I assumed that these stories were for children until I actually sat down and started reading the collected volumes. I was not only amazed by the art, but by the storytelling. It worked on multiple levels There was action for the kids, great character development for teens, and mystery for the adults. They truly were books for all-ages.

Comic books in the USA were mainly superhero titles. Often mature in tone, and not really created for all-ages. However overseas the Disney comics were still popular with families, and even adults. They were an institution in Italy, where the Mickey comics (Topolino) had been in publication for over 90 years. I believe that they were the greatest run of all-ages comics ever published. Multiple generations were raised on stories that were every bit as good as those created in the USA. I would argue that the elite Disney cartoonists cut their teeth drawing on the pages of Topolino. The best of these stories were serialized and translated to multiple languages. I did a deep-dive on the Italian comics many years ago. The reason that I brought them up was because they were critical to keeping the characters popular. More than that they were important to spread the cartooning art form. You could only do so much in an animated short but the comics allowed the characters to live, and grow. They did more for audiences than the parent company did in the parks, television, or movie screens.

A similar thing could be argued for comics based on video games. Comic books could take a relatively short game, and give readers a cinematic experience. Udon was known for the Capcom books they published. Street Fighter, Mega Man, and Vampire / Darkstalkers were just some of the titles they released. Audiences got to follow the main, and side characters across a variety of story arcs. They allowed audiences to learn the dynamics between the stars, and any new faces introduced. As a fan of the mascot titles I was happy to see Sonic in publication. Granted not every editor, writer, or artist understood the games. This was especially true for many of the oldest issues. It seemed that the creators liked to make up stuff as they went along. The quality of the first comics didn’t matter to fans because they made the blue blur relevant. Whether in manga from Japan, or comics from the UK, and USA, Sonic had developed an international following. The most recent US comics from IDW were by far the best Sonic had ever appeared in print. The writing was amazing, and the stories stayed true to the games. Best of all the various artists captured the spirit of cartooning. They made young fans understand why the character appealed to older audiences, just as much as the Topolino comics helped kids understand why Mickey Mouse was beloved by their parents.

The creators at IDW were also able to expand the Sonic comic books to include new faces that were interesting in their own right. For example Lanolin the Sheep, Whisper the Wolf, Tangle the Lemur, and Jewel the Beetle were citizens-turned-freedom fighters. Their story arcs, and contributions in the comics made them very memorable. They were adventurers, sometimes with a tragic past, all rising to meet the challenge. They complimented all of the established heroes, and added their own unique dynamic to the stories. For long-time fans like myself I thought that these were characters that would be amazing to follow in a game. More than anything the Sonic comic books managed to remind audiences that the universe covered in the game series was far more expansive, and serious than we sometimes thought. Sonic Team managed to create a world that seemed straightforward, and easy to digest. Sonic was the good guy, and Eggman was the bad guy. He kidnapped animals to power his robots. It was up to Sonic to set them free. The formula hadn’t changed much in over 30 years, yet the stakes had always been incredibly high. Without Sonic, and his friends, then there was nothing preventing Eggman from conquering the world.

The threat that Dr. Eggman presented was epic in scope. He didn’t just raise an army of minions, he created an entire armada of war machines. He had a fleet of flying warships, giant robots, autonomous factories, laser satellites, and space stations with enough power to take over a planet. The fight had to be taken to Eggman to prevent him from ruling the world. There was nothing easy about the threats that Sonic, and his friends faced in every encounter. At the same time the designers at Sonic Team didn’t want to make the game feel heavy-handed. Yes the characters were fighting against impossible odds, but at this world was also a cozy place to live. The studio made sure to show audiences what Sonic was trying to protect. Sega wanted to remind us that this world was a beautiful place filled with loving characters. There were friends that wanted to enjoy a picnic with our hero, or perhaps do some fishing with him. These gentle characters were set against a backdrop that was quite serious. Being the protector of the innocent was the heart of several IDW story arcs.

Sonic Team created different types of innocent creatures that Sonic, and his allies had to protect. In most games the animals trapped within the robots were the obvious ones. As the games evolved we were introduced to the Chao in Sonic Adventure, then the Wisps in Sonic Colors, and most recently the Koco in Sonic Frontiers. Those minor characters were adorable beyond description. However when you placed them within the context of the stories they were also tragic figures. Each of the characters had survived catastrophic trauma. An entire planet of Wisps were enslaved by Dr. Eggman for his cruel experiments. The Koco were the memories of the ancient aliens that brought the Chaos Emeralds to the planet. Sonic had to complete their memories, and reunite their ghosts so that they could have some closure. The Chao were the de-evolved descendants of those alien refugees. They were also nearly wiped out in a raid by the Echidnas a millennia ago. Even the cutest characters in the franchise were important to the story.

Felix the Cat started the tradition of cartoon mascots more than 100 years ago. Sonic the Hedgehog helped bring the art form to a new generation through video games. The creators at Sega, Sonic Team, and at IDW helped it evolve across multiple formats. Whether it was an animated short for social media, a live-action movie, or an award-winning comic book run. There was no doubt that cartoons were alive and well. The lore of the game series was already robust, and the comic books went much deeper than casual fans could have ever known. The characters they introduced in the past decade could still look cute, and universally appealing, but they had now grown to include shapeshifting assassins, psychic madmen, and even sentient AI. Heroes, and villains in the Sonic canon were colorful, memorable, and awe-inspiring. The games they were featured in evolved in unique ways. I’ll trace it out in the next blog. Until then I’d like to know if you have a favorite mascot character. Or if you even like cartoons at all. Tell me about it in the comments section. As always if you enjoyed this blog, and would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!

The horse jumped over the moon, the story of Namco, part 9

Over the course of this series I talked about the importance that play had with the early success of Namco. President, and founder Masaya Nakamura saw opportunities in the changing economy decades before most of his peers. The company extended this philosophy of “creating play” to their arcades. Unlike other Japanese arcades which were referred to as “Game Centers” Namco called their sites “Play Centers” like Milaiya, Plabo, and Carrot. Each had their own look, their own theme, and branding. These were places where casual, or hardcore gamers could escape the pressures of the world by engaging in play in the truest sense of the word. They could enjoy any number of sports, fantasy, science fiction, or other unique experiences that Namco had created. The way Namco approached each arcade title was akin to the way The Walt Disney Company approached each attraction. All of these wonderful experience were contained within a larger themed environment.

Namco purchased, and operated play centers all around the world. They learned about what different countries enjoyed in gaming, and catered to them. In the United States they worked with the Universal group to put classic style arcades in their Florida park. Their arcades had a vintage feel but featured the latest games. The company had become a major player in the amusement industry in both Japan, and the US. They learned the importance of creating, and maintaining a themed environment. Any mall, any park could have rides, and attractions, but the ability for the park to create a storytelling narrative through the use of detailed themed locations elevated the experience. Walt Disney wanted to create a special place for families to enjoy. He took the best elements of amusement parks, boardwalks, World’s Expos, and pleasure gardens. His imagineers cleaned them up, made them family friendly, and created a superior experience with Disneyland in 1955. It set a standard that was copied the world over. The question was if Namco could follow in Disney’s footsteps? Moreover, could they create what would possibly be the first urban theme park? After all there was a big difference between setting up a few play centers in a themed building, and creating an entire theme park around gaming in the heart of a big city. How would the studio accomplish this?

Before Disneyland opened Walt Disney had already established a series of cartoon, and comic book hits. These characters were destined to become mascots in the young park. Walt’s name was synonymous with pop culture going back to the 1920’s. By the time Disneyland opened 32 years after the founding of the Disney Bros. Studio there was an entire generation that had been raised on his IP. They had Mickey Mouse toys in their crib, wore clothes, and sneakers featuring the iconic mouse, followed along with his antics in movie theaters, comic books, and radio serials. When they were adults, and had children of their own they were eager to share the magic of the Disney brand with a new type of park. Masaya Nakamura, and Namco walked a similar path. The company had launched in 1955, and by 1994 they were ready to open their own theme park as well. There was a generation that had been raised on their rides, and games. There was a generation that celebrated Pac-Man, and Mappy with the same amount of love that the previous generation had for Mickey, and Minnie. These fans were getting older, their tastes were becoming more sophisticated, they were eager to experience the next evolution in play.

Namco had a deep library from which to pull new experiences from. The studio had teased the idea of creating a park with multiple themed areas, such as a labyrinth area inspired by Pac-Man, a race car track inspired by Pole Position, a fantasy area inspired by the Babylonian castle series, a horror themed area inspired by Golly Ghost!, and a science fiction area inspired by the UGSF universe. Drawing concept pieces in their self published NG magazine was one thing, but building an actual park was going to take considerably more time, and money. The good news for them that they had already built two theme park attractions for the World Expo ’90. They had disassembled them, but didn’t destroy them. They would be able to relocate, and build around them. Of course they needed to figure out where they would move the Tower of Druaga, and Galaxian³ “Hyper Entertainment” attractions. Real estate was at a premium in Japan, especially in the most populated cities. It would be less expensive to build any sort of business, or center if there was prepared land available for lease or purchase. 

Namco didn’t want to build too far from a major city, or train station. Parks that were difficult to reach didn’t last very long in the amusement industry. There was a reason why Tokyo Disneyland, and Tokyo DisneySea were built on reclaimed land from Tokyo Bay, it was far less expensive to purchase, and develop than anywhere near central Tokyo. At the same time both parks, and the surrounding hotels were easily accessible by light rail for tourists, and families. In the early ‘90s Namco discovered a perfect place to build their own park, Futakotamagawa Garden in the southern Tokyo ward of Setagaya-ku. It was colloquially referred to as “Futako” or “Nikotama,” the latter coming from an alternate reading of the first three kanji characters in the name. I think this location was selected thanks to Shigeki Toyama. It was the park that he used to work at when he was younger, and that featured a roller coaster designed by his grandfather Tokio. Namco would build in roughly in the same place of the amusement park, which was in operation from 1922 to 1985. The coaster, and various attractions had long since been torn down by the time Namco got their hands on the property.

The company had a name for their massive undertaking. They called their urban theme park Wonder Eggs. It was proposed to be unlike any other theme park before, and would challenge the other arcade titans to step up. I would argue that the work Namco put into Wonder Eggs would make Sega pursue their own Joypolis amusement centers. Wonder Eggs was designed to be a temporary urban theme park. Namco would build, run, and disassemble the park within a few years. I do not know whether this was an arrangement with the lease, or a business decision from the top. In either case it was meant to be a unique experience for visitors. The Disney parks domestically, and overseas were in a constant struggle to keep themselves fresh for visitors. Walt would say he was “plussing” the park by reinvesting in the individual attractions, and themed areas of Disneyland. These sometimes minor additions in the queues, restaurants, rides, and staff left visitors with a favorable impression. They could see, and feel that the park was not becoming stale or outdated. It was the gold standard that all other parks would be measured against. Namco did not have ambitions to challenge Disney, or Universal in the theme park arena. The company did however want to show that they could create something equally memorable in a short span of time. They would be willing to redo two of their standout attractions, and turn the temporary structures from the expo into more permanent buildings.

Namco challenged their staff to go far beyond the work that they had put into the World’s Expo. They saw first hand how quickly the entertainment industry evolved between Expo ’85, and Expo ’90. The technology used with their own video games jumped exponentially in that time. They had moved from 2D sprite art into 3D polygons within their arcade hits. The company knew that unless their attractions kept pace with these changes then they would become stagnant within a few years. Setting an end date for Wonder Eggs would prevent them from hemorrhaging money on upkeep, “plussing” or developing new rides. The initial goal was for Wonder Eggs to run for about four years. Similar to an Olympics, or World Cup. What happened instead was the park ran for eight years, and brought in almost 15 million visitors. To be fair Tokyo Disneyland had about 16 million visitors a year in the early ‘90s, however that park was massive by comparison, and had been in operation since 1983. I would argue that Namco managed to do much more with less, and in a shorter amount of time. In fact Wonder Eggs was so successful that it ended up having a sister park built right next door within two years. To put it in context Disney California Adventure opened in 2001 across from Disneyland. This was 46 years after Disneyland began operations. Tokyo Disney Sea also debuted in 2001, some 18 years after Tokyo Disneyland opened their gates.

Namco certainly had a hit on their hands, but it was much more than being in the right place, at the right time. The philosophy of play that Masaya Nakamura cultivated had a lot to do with it. It was embraced by his company, and allowed his staff to reach into the psyche of visitors, and give them experiences they never knew were possible. In fact some of the attractions were never equalled, and others are barely being matched by the titans of theme parks some 30 years later. We will look at the phases of the urban theme park in the next blog. Were there any unique theme parks, or amusement parks that you visited as a kid? Are there any around these days that you still visit? Please tell me about it in the comments section. As always if you would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!

Wonder Eggs, and Egg Empire research collected from: Wonder Eggs Guide Map, Namco Graffiti magazine, the book “All About Namco II", NOURS magazine, The Namco Museum, Namco Wiki, Ge-Yume Area 51 Shigeki Toyama Collection, mcSister magazine, first person attraction details from Yoshiki. Event details from Hole in the Socks

The horse jumped over the moon, The story of Namco, part 8

The bookkeepers at Namco were not thrilled that so many resources had been put into Expo ’90. No matter how much money visitors spent at the midway, or how they reacted to Galaxian³, or the Tower of Druaga active simulators, they saw little value in creating temporary rides for the World’s Expo. They asked Shigeki Toyama, and the other designers at the company to never spend that much money creating one-off attractions ever again. I think their showing had the opposite effect on the team, and especially the president of the company. After all it was putting their chips into play that shaped Namco. The founder, and President Masaya Nakamura believed in the power of play. He created a business that ran contrary to what other Japanese studios were doing at the time. He didn’t want to pursue what other corporations were doing, and just stick with manufacturing like his father before. Instead of hiring the top graduates at local universities Mr. Nakamura was hiring creative thinkers, artists, and composers that had no formal gaming education.

Mr. Nakamura's company found the right roles for them. They learned as they went along, created their own tools when none existed, and found new ways to create play. Mr. Nakamura used their contrasting personalities to create hit, after hit in the arcade. It was not unlike the way Walt Disney used the contrasting personalities of his “Nine Old Men” (who didn’t always get along) to revolutionize animation, live action film, and theme park design. Namco was founded by selling small kiddie rides to malls in 1955. That was the same year that Disneyland opened its doors. It didn’t take long for Namco to move from single person rides, to running entire amusement parks on the roofs of Japanese department stores. It wasn’t just a handful of locations, but instead in every major city in Japan. This lead to them developing their own ride technology, robots, and animatronics as well. When it came to entertainment Mr. Nakamura knew that it was going to become a major part of the Japanese, and global economy. He saw the importance of investing in R&D at every chance.

Namco launched a robotics department, whose mandate was on entertainment rather than manufacturing. This sounded absurd to any Japanese business. Automation was already revolutionizing the auto industry. Robots were predicted to take over all of the jobs in the next few decades, and Namco was making them play music, and do dances. The company was among the first to make the leap from electromechanical to video games. The entire time he, and his team were aware of the lessons the Walt Disney Company was teaching the industry. They were fans of the things coming from the west. They were finding out ways to make the art, design, and approach from Disney work for Japanese audiences. One of the things they did was heavily theme their own arcades. They wanted guests to be completely immersed in a world of play that they created. That was especially true with the Milaiya arcade, and its anime spaceship design.

The ability to synthesize, and remix western culture with a unique Japanese aesthetic was one of Namco’s strengths. They were able to create titles, and especially art that worked in just about any market. Yet it wasn’t the only thing that the company was working towards that would be universally appealing. Everything they did was in service of play. The company did not want to get stuck repeating themselves. They had seen how Atari, Kee Games, and other studios in the USA rose, and fell because they stopped innovating. They did everything they could to push the concept of play forward. For example every space game from Namco broke new ground. Namco’s first big hit Galaxian was a superior version of Taito’s Space Invaders, but they knew that a follow-up had to go in a different direction. They would add scrolling to space adventures in Xevious, and later build a 3D masterpiece with Starblade. The alien action game Baraduke predated Nintendo’s classic Metroid. Even the tank combat game Grobda was a revolutionary sci-fi title that remixed the Atari mechanics found in Missile Command, and Combat. Best of all the Namco hits were set within a shared UGSF continuity. The studio built a brand that audiences could become familiar with on every new release.

In addition to innovating rides, video games, and robotics the studio was very smart with their IP. Instead of selling games to the international market, they licensed the IP, and allowed games, and merchandise to be produced locally. The royalties they collected helped the company grow rapidly. Unfortunately they didn’t learn that it was bad to remake the same game over and over. Pac-Man (1980) was their biggest star, and highest-earning character. He launched the maze game revolution. Any other company would have been quick to bring sequels to market. Namco tried it, and their sequel flopped with audiences. International players didn’t quite understand the rules, or mechanics behind Super Pac-Man (1982). Collecting keys, flipping cards, and more with two versions of the titular character didn’t seem as intuitive as the first game.

Namco went back to the drawing board. The Pac team needed to figure out what else they could do with the character before he fell out of favor with the public. They saw how popular he was in the US, and how outside companies were making variations of the original, but with the members of his family. A number of the popular “sequels” that you might remember were not designed by Namco at all. Ms. Pac-Man (1982), and Junior Pac-Man (1983) were designed by General Computer Corporation. Baby Pac-Man (1982) was designed by Midway. It could be argued that Namco didn’t even consider that a video game mascot could have a family until the IP was licensed to the US. In the west Pac-Man had a family, and they were featured in the Hanna-Barbera Saturday morning cartoon series.

Namco would learn some of the nuances of localization. The version of Pac-Man in the cartoon looked slightly different from the version on the original Japanese marquee art. He wore a fedora, his nose was shorter, he had white eyes, and black pupils like classic US cartoon characters rather than anime designs. Namco wanted to take their version in a bold new direction after the failure of Super Pac-Man. Perhaps he should go on some sort of adventure? His town would be the backdrop for a platform game. The studio would make sure to create sprites that were slightly different for US, and Japanese audiences. This was how Pac-Land came to be, one of the first platform hits from 1984. From that point on the designers at Namco made sure to sprinkle in relationships between the main characters of their various titles. For example Taizo Hori, the star of Dig Dug (1982), was the husband of Masuyo “Kissy” Toby, the hero of Baraduke (1985). They would have a few kids, and one of the more famous was Susumu Hori aka Mr. Driller (1999). This tradition would help their IP grow organically in comics, and cartoons not unlike Disney through their comics, and cartoons as well.

Pac-Land was created by Namco Research and Development 1 programmer Yoshihiro Kishimoto. His job was to make an arcade game based on the American Pac-Man cartoon. The characters were no longer yellow circles on the screen, but rather large sprites with arms, and legs just like in the show. The backgrounds were made to be vibrant and colorful. The music was composed by Yuriko Keino, and she was able to create variations of the catchy cartoon theme despite memory restrictions. Pac-Man was no longer stuck in a single screen maze but could instead travel to a destination across a long course. It was considered an important milestone in the platform genre. It set the stage for Capcom’s Ghosts'n Goblins (1985), Sega’s Alex Kidd (1986), and Wonder Boy (1986). Pac-Man creator Toru Iwatani called it his favorite Pac-Man sequel for its interesting concept and gameplay. He said Shigeru Miyamoto told him it had a profound influence on the creation of Super Mario Bros (1985). Miyamoto said that while he was in Tokyo he saw Namco had developed a platforming game he decided that he should follow suit. The only feature of Pac-Land Miyamoto cited as a direct inspiration was the blue background of the game as opposed to the black skies he typically would put in his games like Donkey Kong and the original Mario Bros.

Instead of a joystick the game used buttons to control the left, right, and jump actions. The reason the studio did this was because Konami’s Track and Field from the year before was a breakout hit. They decided to make Pac-Man control through button presses as well. Many arcade visitors, myself included, didn’t care much for it. I wished that his first platform game had a joystick instead. Pac-Land was not only a response to the popularity of the US cartoon series, but also a way for Namco to share their affinity for all things Disney. The plot of the game involved Pac-Man taking some fairies that were lost all the way back to Fairyland, which was on the opposite side of Pac-Land. These characters had never been featured in the cartoons (to the best of my recollection). The fairies were inspired by Tinker Bell, as well as the Blue Fairy from the film Pinocchio. They were closely associated with the Disney brand, and specifically theme parks. The studio didn’t have to change the fedora from the US version, but they needed something that Japanese players could identify. This detail could help tie their mascot in a fantasy setting. I would argue that the feathered cap in the Japanese release was based on the Peter Pan cap sold at Disneyland, and specifically Tokyo Disneyland. Each of the areas in the game had distinct environments, or themed lands if you will.

Namco was approaching 35 years in business when they introduced a hybrid amusement ride, and video game which they called Hyper Entertainment. The technology for the Tower of Druaga, and Galaxian³ would debut in the 1990 Flower Expo in Osaka. Namco could tell where the entertainment industry was headed decades before any other company. They accomplished this because they mirrored the rise of Disney Studios. Namco had a leader that saw things that none of his business contemporaries could. He took chances in an industry that was either young, or yet to live up to its potential. He surrounded himself with creative minds that were able to make the impossible happen. Walt Disney did the same thing for film, and animation. He also surrounded himself with brilliant minds. They created an entertainment revolution. Eventually leading to the birth of theme parks.

At every instance Walt knew the power of storytelling as a form of entertainment. It was the backbone of most of his greatest works. By comparison Masaya Nakamura the founder of Namco focused on play. The importance of play shaped the creation of their kiddy rides, electromechanical games, video games, and eventually simulator attractions. The pursuit of play, and different forms of play inspired some of the best creative minds in his studio to build entirely new avenues of entertainment. The clues for where Namco was headed were sprinkled through every game, arcade, and concept illustration in the ‘80s. As technology grew so did the ability to create titles with bigger, more complex, and immersive worlds. The studio was putting us in the ancient past, on alien planets, the Wild West, high fantasy, a coaster kingdom, and eventually virtual theme parks in their various games. The titles were wrapped in arcade cabinets that were becoming bigger, and better themed as well. Eventually some of their best arcade titles were simulation experiences.

The question was whether they could be able to do these themed titles on a larger scale. After two successive Worlds Expo showings Namco was ready to commit to the next evolution in play. They would create a fully-realized video game theme park. They accomplished this by doing a lot of homework, pursuing revolutionary design, and a little bit of magic. We will start a deep dive in the next blog. Until then I would like to know if you were a fan of the Pac-Man titles, or any of the older Namco titles. Did you have a favorite Pac sequel? Please tell me about it in the comments section. As always if you would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!

Wonder Eggs, and Egg Empire research collected from: Wonder Eggs Guide Map, Namco Graffiti magazine, the book “All About Namco II", NOURS magazine, The Namco Museum, Namco Wiki, Ge-Yume Area 51 Shigeki Toyama Collection, mcSister magazine, first person attraction details from Yoshiki. Event details from Hole in the Socks

Freeze frame, my poster collection, part 2…

I love pro wrestling, specifically lucha libre. Did you know that the oldest promotion in North America belongs to the CMLL out of Mexico? It's over 90-years-old, and still going strong. A few years ago they signed a deal with Warner Bros to produce merchandise, soft goods, toys, stickers, and posters.

I managed to get my hands on a few things, including these sweet posters by Francisco "Paco" Herrera. His style would work great on a cartoon show don't you think?

Sadly some of the wrestlers are retired or no longer with us. It's one of the reasons I love the posters that I collected. They are a snapshot of an era. 

Are you a fan of pro wrestling or other sports? Do you have any favorite athlete posters? I'd like to hear about it in the comments section. As always if you would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!

Darkwing Duck Trade Paperbacks, must get items! - A 1UP classic from Nov 9, 2011

Howdy friends, this blog goes out to the comic book readers and fans of the old Disney Afternoon series. As many of you may have heard the license for Disney comics has expired and Boom Studios in the US hasn’t been handed it again. No word yet on whether or not Marvel will take over. In the meantime the talented James Silvani and Amy Mebberson are in creator limbo, not forgetting the uncredited writing talents of Aaron Sparrow. The best thing fans of the classic Darkwing Duck series could do is pick up the issues or trade paperbacks of the book and show Marvel that Disney comics can be a hit when put in the right hands.

The most recent books F.O.W.L. Disposition and Campaign Carnage keep the sharp writing and amazing art fans of the series have grown to love. Readers owe it to themselves to add these books to their collections. Fans have a chance to show James, Amy, Aaron and series creator Tad Stones that readers support their work and would like to see them keep going.

Readers of the series would also get a chance to read a story possibly influenced by me. I say possibly because there’s no way I could prove it was more than coincidence when a rare Darkwing character from the TV series returned in the Toy With Me story arch featured in the Campaign TPB. I wrote a blog about my experience at last years’ Long Beach Comic Con.

I had asked James to sketch Wiffle Boy for me and the rare character stumped both he and Tad. They had to look up the episode for the character reference. Well a few months later the character appeared in a Darkwing Duck Annual. Not only that but the game company had grown from the 8-bit inspiration from which Wiffle Boy was based to reflect the more modern world. This time he is a mascot for World of Wifflecraft.

I'm certain that longtime 1UP member, and current Blizzard Production Diva, Erin Ali might find some humor in that. Anyhow I hope that you get a chance to read the books, they really are among the best stories out now. Let me know if you've gotten a chance to read through them.

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Disney, the Italian Legacy, final part - A 1UP classic from July 20, 2011

Warren Spector was passionate and knowledgable about the Disney universe, this message was obvious in Epic Mickey and his DuckTales story thus far. As a die-hard Disney fan he was familiar with the work on most of the television shows and especially the comic books. He knew the various incarnations of characters in comics produced domestically as well as overseas. Through Kaboom Studios Mr. Spector was able to find a good middle ground between the comic canon laid out by Carl Barks, the animated canon of DuckTales and the Eurpean take on the universe as well.

The first issue of Warren's DuckTales had a strong visual impact. This was because of the differences in coloring between American and Italian comics. In Italy the artists that worked on Topolino magazine were also the inkers and colorists. The magazine itself was full color but the turnaround time was very short. Each issue of Topolino averaged 180 pages which meant that artists had to have pages pencilled and inked at a rapid pace, leaving little time for artistic touches.

In the US most comic books averaged 24-36 pages and the inking and coloring duties were often delegated to specialists. This meant that the art on many US comics had a stronger visual impact than those featured in Topolino. The colors used in the various Topolino stories were solid and flat, there were almost no shadows, midtones or highlights on any character. The colors themselves were very bright but rarely did they have any gradation. The massive volume of pages turned out could explain why the art was minimalistic.

Some of the better artists in Topolino used rendering techniques in ink to create gradations for the panels while still using flat colors underneath. Unfortunately these artists and stylistic panels were few and far between. The best coloring jobs usually ended up on the covers or on promotional material.

Kaboom Studios went with western coloring team Magic Eye Studios for the pages of DuckTales. This same team helped color several of the other Disney comics published by Kaboom including Darkwing Duck. Many of the panels in Darkwing Duck for example took advantage of digital coloring effects. Characters could be colored, given highlights, shadows and mid-tones and then on top of that have lighting, transparencies and even blurs and weather effects added to the art. These were coloring effects that would have been impossible with the traditional techniques used in Topolino. Advances in digital coloring, effects, higher quality paper and digital presses allowed the art featured on the pages of Darkwing Duck and DuckTales to match the vivid style of the animated shows they were based on. At the same time these techniques were also more time consuming than those used overseas.

These advances weren’t cheap either, the cost on average for a comic book had shot up to $3. The trade off of quantity versus quality pages of art and story was worth it for US consumers. They had grown to expect a high level of visual impact in the graphics department, especially since digital coloring and magazine-quality paper had been a standard for over a decade.

The Spector version of the DuckTales universe became much more interesting because of the choice for rival. Mr. Spector’s comic worked in regards to the Italian approach of villain choices Rockerduck was the tycoon with little respect for Scrooge’s hard-earned fortune. The fact that he was a younger and more impulsive mogul gave him a bigger chance for doing something brash to Scrooge.

Warren slipped Rockerduck right into the start of story and kept pushing forward with the plot masterfully. He knew that readers unfamiliar with the character would pick up instantly if he was supported with great dialogue and shown doing something devious or underhanded later on.

At the same time Warren did not completely ignore the established US canon for DuckTales. That was why he went with Webby as the character that could get the ball rolling on a new adventure. Her innocent voice would have sold the idea of returning treasure to the rightful owners. This plot could then easily unfold into a more grand adventure.

The story by issue #2, included a return to the island of Ripan Taro and a cameo from a giant jellyfish featured the classic Carl Barks story of The Status Seekers. Mr. Spector had filled the adventure with many nods to the classic comic adventures. The entire series thus far seemed to be rooted in a lot of nostalgia and material that had been covered in previous adventures. In the museum on the first issue of DuckTales the characters pass many treasures that had been gathered over the decades of the classic Barks stories. Scrooge even mentioned how some treasures were added to his collection from the adventures of other characters. Like how the crown that got stuck around Gladstone Gander’s neck in the Secret of Hondorica was now featured in the museum.

These nods to the canon established by Barks were great for fans of the comics but possibly lost to those that were only familiar with the cartoon series. Worse, the series thus far seemed to be a retread, if not several layers of retread material.

Don Rosa tied up my entire Italian Legacy theme. He was an Italian-Irish-Scottish-American whose full name was Keno Don Hugo Rosa and was named after his Italian grandfather Gioachino Don Rosa. Mr. Rosa was without a doubt the undisputed master of modern duck storytelling. He picked up all of the qualities that made the Carl Barks adventures memorable and then expanded upon them. He was able to connect the dots between actual historical events and phases through Scrooge's lifetime, all while managing to fold those adventures right into Barks continuity. Not unlike the research required to pull off historical Forrest Gump or Dan Brown sleight-of-hand. The problem for the Spector DuckTales comic was how similar it was to material created by Don Rosa. The whole idea of Scrooge having a museum display his treasures had been covered in the the story the Son of the Sun. Those first pages also managed to cram a lot of treasures from canon into the background. In that story Flintheart Glomgold, not Rockerduck, played the major villain.

Flintheart challenged Scrooge to a treasure hunt instead of tricking him into returning the treasures. The winner of the bet would be the one who found the single greatest piece of Incan treasure. This allowed Rosa to revisit the Andes and craft a story that was in the classic vein but completely new to audiences. The story took place geographically in the same part of the world of an earlier story yet there was no overlap of specific locations or even supporting characters. The same could not be said of Spector's DuckTales story. It was the Status Seekers in reverse as it took the Candy Striped Ruby past a giant jellyfish to the island of Ripan Taro to be returned to King Fulla Cola. To be fair Don Rosa also revisited Barks locations and canon and in one story had even written the adventure path backward from the original story as well. 

In the story Return to Xanadu Scrooge, Donald and the nephews went on a new treasure hunt. The ducks used historical data and even the poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge to track down a location for the final resting place of Kubla Khan. Scrooge knew the legends of the fabled location must have been true because he had the crown of Kubla's grandfather Genghis Khan. He had retrieved it from a Yeti hidden in the nearby Himalayan mountains. Most avid fans of the Barks universe knew that the ducks had never been to Xanadu in any prior story yet were eager to find out what Don Rosa was crafting.

Rosa took the ducks across some very interesting and exotic locals and the entire journey supported the clues and historical data through winding mountain passes and hidden underground tunnels skirted by a river which went on for miles. Eventually the ducks came across an enormous underground reservoir and a bridge that had been destroyed leading up another tunnel. The poem suggested they were indeed following the right path because in order to reach Xanadu they had to go backwards through the locations described.

"It flung up momently the sacred river.

Five miles meandering with a mazy motion

Through wood and dale the sacred river ran,

Then reached the caverns measureless to man,

And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean"

The ducks found a way across the river by damming the lifeless ocean and walking up another tunnel. What they discovered was breathtaking for both new and old fans. The hidden valley of Xanadu turned out to be the same one visited decades earlier called Tralla La in the Carl Barks Story Time To Dream. This serene place was in and of itself was a take on the hidden valley of Shangri-La. Don Rosa sublimely gave that valley a back door under the guise of a completely new treasure hunt. Where the story went from there was pure genius. I would be hard pressed to find a fan of the universe that saw this revisit of a classic location coming.

The DuckTales adventures by Mr Spector did not seem to have the same hidden path or "back door" to a greater adventure. In the two issues presented thus far everything was plainly laid out and foreshadowed with scenes featuring a saboteur. The art was fantastic, the nods to comic book and cartoon canon were great but the story did not seem to have enough substance. There was too much reliance on fanservice and nostalgia and not enough story construction. By comparison the pilot series of the DuckTales cartoon, the search for the Treasure of the Golden Suns was a fantastic and completely original adventure. Written by Jymn Magon, Bruce Talkington and Mark Zaslove the series captured the spirit of the Barks and even Rosa adventures without overlapping into any previous stories.

The lack of substance and reliance on established canon for the new DuckTales comics was indicative of some traps that other Disney comics were falling into. The stories were becoming too safe, too childlike rather than family oriented. Even the very first Carl Barks comic Donald Duck finds Pirate Gold! had recently been revisited by Kaboom studios in the story Donald Duck finds Pirate Gold… Again!

The DuckTales comics had just started and I was undoubtedly being too heavy handed with my criticism in this blog. However in order to make the series work with new and returning fans Mr. Spector has to take the rest of the series into some figurative and literal unexplored waters. For those stories I cannot wait. If you were a fan of the television series and want to rekindle those memories then you owe it to yourself to pick up this new series. They would be big hits for Disney fans, especially those that play games and read comics as a family. I hope you enjoyed this series. If you have any comments of questions please let me know.

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