Lili gets a makeover, just in time for Street Fighter 6!

Quick update today. If you didn’t get a chance to see the new trailer featuring Zangief, Lili, and Cammy please have a look. It is chock full of new moves for the returning character, and a complete makeover of the new character. I wrote a bit about Lili’s early design on a previous blog specifically I said 

“Lili’s outfit Inspired in part by Mayan fashion, which is more Central American, than Mexican. The Aztec, and Mayan cultures did not exist at the same time, nor in the same part of Mexico. Many character artists don’t necessarily know this, but lack of knowledge is not an excuse for coloring all natives with one brush. There were hundreds, if not thousands of unique indigenous tribes in North, Central, and South America. Lili is an okay design, much better than the joke characters featured in SF IV, or the cannibal featured in SFV.”

I do not now if Designer Yusuke Hashimoto took my criticism to heart, or the other Mexican voices asking for less stereotypical designs. Either way he went back to the drawing board, and delivered a much better character. Her look, choice of colors, and cut of her costume seem authentic, but are anything but traditional. Let’s start with the most obvious things. A number of elements were taken away from her look. The feather was taken out of her headband, and necklace. As was the war paint across her nose. A single string of beads does a lot more to sell her native roots, rather than movie stereotypes. Her weapon is decorated with accurate native patterns. Her costume is less of a poncho, or folksy dress, and instead made of denim. The material is durable, and long lasting. It is easily identified with the west, and native traditions. The cut of her shirt, pattern, and color choices were very deliberate. They reflect jaripeo culture, a sort of Mexican cowboy subculture. A jaripeo is actually a bull rider, so the toughest type of cowboy. Western hats, dresses, boots, and shirts are very in fashion. These are the types of things that a young girl like Lili would actually wear.

The addition of fringes, or tassels helps show movement on the costume, and is entirely accurate to the cultures she reflects. Also the pattern on her shirt is accented with red, and green over a white band. This is a nod to the colors of the Mexican flag. Even her denim shorts are red so they stand out. Her stage is a celebration of Mexico with some very obvert cues, but also details that I don’t think a lot of people noticed.

Yes there is a stereotypical guy wearing a poncho, and sombrero in the background. Also there are bottles of beer, pulque, and possibly mezcal or tequila in the background as well. Look beyond that to the elements that Capcom wanted to highlight, and celebrate. Starting with the banner above one of the trailers. It says Gente Orgullosa, which literally translates to Proud People. We understand that the “Thunderfoot” tribe doesn’t have much, but they do have family, and culture. This comes across in the myriad of details. Some of which include the alebrije. These are colorful creatures that sometimes resemble monkeys, dogs, birds, and jaguars. If you have seen the animated film Coco then you know what I’m talking about. There is a statue of an alebrije in the background. But that isn’t the only statue. There is a larger head with headdress in the corner. It looks like a mask worn in Aztec, and possibly earlier Sican ceremonies.

The more typical Mexican details are obvious. There is an enormous Aztec calendar in the background, piñatas, as well as paper picado, or streamers, hanging in the stage as well. We’ve seen these things before in other Mexican levels, such as those featured in the King of Fighters series. The real subtle things are hidden in plain view. The desert plants are accurate. We see an agave plant, it is native to Mexico, and it can be harvested for its sweet nectar, or to help make tequila. The yellow sunflowers are also native plants. They are used to decorate memorials, graves, and religious icons. They represent faith, loyalty, and adoration. There is also a hairless dog in the background, these are known as Xoloitzcuintli, or Xolo for short. Again, if you’ve seen the movie Coco then you remember these dogs.

Last of the details I’d like to mention are the Guerrero águila, or the “Eagle Riders/Warriors.” There is a statue that is easy to miss in the colorful stage. These are the fearsome warriors of the Aztec empire. They would wear elaborate armor made of animal bones, skins, and decorate their headdresses with bright feathers. In this way the gods would be able to see them in battle, and grant them favor. We can imagine that the massive T. Hawk would be considered the biggest warrior for the tribe, and Lili is trying to walk in his footsteps. What were some of the details that you found in the trailer? I’d like to hear about it in the comments section please. 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!

The Street Fighter 6 pre-order trailer, a look at Marisa, the modern gladiator

One of the things that I despised in SFIV, and SFV were over-the-top characters, moves, and animations. They often broke the fourth wall, and turned the fighting game into a series of sight gags. The way that Abel would spin opponents over his head with ease was one example. But also the way Rufus would bounce, or F.A.N.G. would flap his arms, and fly all over the stage. These silly animations took me out of the game. In the previous blog I mentioned that Marisa was a second take on one of the cringiest characters in the franchise. I honestly believe that she was a way to make up for Hakan, the Turkish oil wrestler. Let’s examine the roots of both characters.

Yağlı güreş is an actual form of wrestling from Turkey. It’s among one of the oldest forms of wrestling in the world, and certainly deserves some respect. In Street Fighter IV any appreciation of the art was thrown out the door. Making a joke character out of Hakan was more than likely a call from Producer Yoshinori Ono. His sense of humor colored both SFIV, and SFV. I think it was unnecessary what the studio did with Hakan. If you have a moment I want you to review the idiotic special moves given to the character. Hakan would slather himself in oil, and slide across the screen. He would squeeze opponents until they slipped out of his arms, or roll with them on the ground with the frenetic energy of a Beyblade. Remember the amount of detail that I mentioned went into the judo moves of Manon in the previous blog? Well, none of that went into the moves of Hakan. Instead we have a beet-red character with a strange haircut that continuously breaks the fourth wall with his attacks. I believe that the SF6 team wanted to show more respect to the Mediterranean this time around. While at the same time revisiting many of the same elements that worked for Hakan.

The obvious connection between the two is the area of the world that they inhabit. Turkey, Greece, and Italy share a long history in the grappling arts, we are talking about thousands of years of cross-pollination with the wrestling arts of the East, and West. Their respective cultures helped plant the seeds of modern wrestling, boxing, and even MMA. From a storytelling perspective their body types have to show what type of fighter they are. Both Hakan, and Marisa are very muscular. They do not wear boxing gloves, or boots. So we can tell they are likely very powerful grapplers, with some striking thrown into the mix. Both also have odd hair styles, which are reminiscent of ancient warrior helmets. They also each share a golden lion motif in their design. There is a lion in the decorations of Marisa’s stage, as an actual lion parades in the background while wearing a golden mask. Hakan wore a gold lion on his belt, and his brand of oil featured a lion as well. The ways that each character was presented demonstrated the new direction that the franchise was taking.

Everything related to SF6 shown so far was a love-letter to the series, and the genre as a whole. The developers were not trying to make gag characters, or special attacks this time around. They respected the martial arts that they were trying to capture. At no point were any of the SF6 cast revealed to be joke characters, with silly styles. Yes they could be carefree like Dee Jay, energetic like Kimberly, or flamboyant like Juri, but they were all serious about their craft. Audiences can tell by looking at Marisa that she is heavy hitter. However she is also a multidimensional character whose background shapes her appearance. According to the official bio she is “An up-and-coming jewelry designer from Italy who claims ancestry to ancient Greek warriors. As a child, she was inspired by a vision of the Colosseum in its prime. Today, she seeks glory with a smile—and an eye for beauty.“

In my first take on the character I called Marisa a gladiator. All of the superficial elements placed on her told a story. The cut of her hair, the plates on her shorts, even the sword jewelry all spoke of Ancient Rome. Seeing her in action in the SF6 trailer shows that the team wanted to make her an awe-inspiring fighter. Several of her poses are taken right out of the history books. Her step over grab into a punch was immortalized in Greek statues that highlighted the roots of Greco-Roman wrestling. These were not the only things that we could make out in the pre-order trailer. Marisa is very tall, not as tall as Zangief, but still a titan in build. She’s actually shown picking up an adult African male lion in the footage. These lions weigh over 400 lbs. and are nowhere near as docile as a house cat.

The mythological figure Hercules, father of pankration the original form of MMA, was said to have wrestled the Nemean Lion, the Erymanthean Boar, and the Cretan Bull during his famous labors. These wild animals were bigger, more ferocious, and stronger than their regular counterparts. Marisa is a callback to the Greek hero, and moreover is making the lion motif part of her identity. It makes more sense in her context than as a mascot on a bottle of olive oil, wouldn’t you agree? In her stage we see other warriors, possibly actors, wearing costumes reminiscent of ancient soldiers. The blade logo featured on their shields, as well as the jewelry piece hanging around the neck of Marisa is reminiscent of the Lambda symbol found on some Spartan shields.

I think that part of the reason that the SF6 team went so deep in the creation, and details of Marisa was because of an earlier Capcom game. Shadow of Rome was a title from 2005, that believe it or not was produced by Yoshinori Ono. It centered around gladiatorial combat in the ancient Roman era. It was violent, barbaric, and played very much like a spin-off of Monster Hunter. Both of which I assume shared the same engine. The sights, and sounds of the old world were faithfully captured. The fashion, armor, weapons, and combat of the title were fairly accurate. There was a lot of creative license with many of the encounters, but as a whole it did a good job of turning the brutality of gladiator battles into a fun game. It was forgotten, partly because the original God of War did a better job at recreating the mythical era that same year.

Marisa is a very interesting character that seems to maintain the same level of care that the other new faces in SF6 have. She doesn’t seem to be a joke character, nor does she have any silly moves like Hakan. A bit of planning, and some respect for the subject matter is what it takes to make a good character design, into a great one. These are the things that I believe Mr. Ono was lacking in SFIV, and SFV. As of this moment I will probably main Zangief in the game, but as I did with Alex in Street Fighter III, I will be looking at Marisa to act as my secondary heavy hitter. What do you think of the character reveal? What do you think of the new characters revealed so far? Who are you eager to see, and what are you eager to try in the game? Let me know in the comments section please. 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!

The Street Fighter 6 pre-order trailer, a love letter to the series, and a look at JP

Thank you for dropping by the blog. We have a lot to talk about with the release of the Street Fighter 6 - Pre-Order Trailer. Make sure to watch it if you haven’t already.

   

There is a tremendous amount of new information revealed about SF6, including official reveals of some new faces. One of the things that surprised me was the re-introduction of bonus stages. Ways to earn extra points, learn skills, and practice special attacks have been a part of the SF franchise since the very first game in 1986. In fact one of the earliest bonus stages involved board breaking. After 35 years this returns in the game. Long-time players would spot nods to other classic bonus stages, and even new challenges.

There was a shot of the player character chopping the tops off of glass bottles in one bonus challenge. Those of us old enough to remember would know this bonus was first used in the Art of Fighting in 1992. The SNK game directed by Hiroshi Matsumoto, and Akashi Nishiyama was a sort of updated take on the Street Fighter formula. The duo had developed the original SF before leaving Capcom to join SNK. They took with them a number of their martial arts influences, and translated them into game form. I have written a lot about Mas Oyama, and his influence in the creation of fighting games. The “God Hand” of karate could legit kill bulls with his bare hands. He was the basis for Mr. Karate / Takuma Sakazaki, arguably the most power karateka, and one of the top bosses in the SNK universe. Oyama would put on demos where he would cut the tops off of bottle with a knife hand chop. SNK used the bottle chop as a bonus stage in the original Art of Fighting. This skill now gets a nod in the SF franchise as well.

I have said it before, and it bears repeating. Street Fighter 6 Director Takayuki Nakayama, Producers Kazuhiro Tsuchiya, and Shuhei Matsumoto, and Designer Yusuke Hashimoto have all demonstrated a better understanding, and love of the culture than the previous director Yoshinori Ono with every SF6 update released. The game is not only pushing the genre forward, it is also a love letter to the games that came before. These influences are from Capcom, and from other studios as well. I am not going to focus on Dee Jay this time because he is a returning character. Instead I want to talk about the new faces revealed. Let’s start off with the sharply dressed older gentleman. According to the official bio “JP is the head of an international NGO (nonprofit organization, designed to address social or political issues) responsible for many successful investment projects, and the man behind Nayshall's present prosperity. Has a beloved cat named Cybele.” I did a quick look at JP earlier on the blog. As far as his look, and use of weapons is concerned there is a lot of precedence in the series.

The gentlemanly fighter Eagle was the top British striker in the original Street Fighter. He dressed sharply, and fought with the use of two sticks. JP is a continuation of other well dressed fighters who use a weapon in combat. The closest one that I compared him to would be White from the Fatal Fury sequel Real Bout Garou Densetsu Special: Dominated Mind. It could be considered fair for him to use a cane because JP was an older gentleman competing against fighters half his age, and twice his size. Of course as with any fighter in the franchise looks were often deceptive. JP was more than just skilled with a cane, in the trailer we can see he harasses some sort of psychic ability. The purple glow of “psycho power” had been featured as early as 1991 through Vega / Dictator, as well as in later games with Rose, Menat, Ed, and Falke.

It was established in previous SF games that psychic powers could be funneled, or rather focused through objects. Menat used a crystal ball for example. Falke used a military staff. The vast majority of characters in the SF universe fought with their bare hands, but a select few fought with weapons. These characters helped add balance to roster. From a storytelling perspective it made sense that a Mad Gear boss like Sodom would fight with a weapon. But it also worked when smaller fighters, or older fighters, were allowed to use weapons in combat. To learn more please read the blog on Falke, and how military design works in fighting games.

The other two fighters revealed in the Pre-Order Trailer were more interesting to me. They seem to cement the idea that a lot in the online community had. Namely that the SF6 team was trying to redo the characters introduced in SFIV, to redo not only their looks, but also their over-the-top, cartoonish special attacks. Let’s do a recap of what we know, and then what we can infer. Many SF fans learned that the rival to Ken was not originally planned to be the obese, and stupid Rufus. A young Black, “breakdance kung-fu” fighter named King Cobra was going to be his arch-rival. Audiences felt this was a very strong design, one with tremendous potential. Producer Yoshinori Ono insisted on adding a “fatty” for comedic effect instead. The world was robbed of a potentially fantastic design.

Of course no great idea really dies. At least not at a major studio. I believe that the fighting style originally planned for King Cobra was instead assigned to Jamie, the rival to Luke in SF6. The idea of giving a strong balance, or younger upstart to compliment to a franchise character was expanded on with others in the cast. Chun-Li as you may know finally had a worthy rival with the villainous Juri in SFIV. Juri’s design I believe had finally been perfected in SF6. Although we have not been introduced to A.K.I. officially as of this writing, many online also believe her to be a redesigned version of F.A.N.G. from SFV. One who loses the silly personality, to become a much more sinister archetype. Not every new face in the series is designed to be a rival to an established character. For example, Kimberly is the young ninja that is designed to be the understudy to Guy.

Guy was a featured character in the 1989 hit Final Fight. He was originally designed to be the replacement for Ryu in the Street Fighter series. As Cody was designed to replace Ken as well. The wrestler-turned-mayor Mike Haggar was the prototype for Zangief. But I digress… The sneaker-wearing ninja was certainly cooler than Ryu in design. Bringing just a hint of urban fashion into a traditional martial arts world. Kimberly carries a lot more of that same forward thinking. Mr. Nakayama, Mr. Tsuchiya, Mr. Matsumoto, and Mr. Hashimoto have gone all-in on incorporating the western influences that helped create the SF series. In doing so they expanded the diversity, and more important, created much better representation than in either SFIV, or SFV. They understand, perhaps better than the majority of Japanese designers, that Black culture is pop culture in the west. Not only that Black culture is the backbone of pop culture the world over. Using the fashion, the music, and art of Hip-Hop without including Black characters would have been a disservice to the community. The two other women introduced are other great examples of representation. I will dig into those on the next blog. What are your thoughts on everything revealed with SF6 so far? What are you looking forward to? Let me know in the comments section please! 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!

The Red Tornado returns in Street Fighter 6, a look at Zangief.

Today we’re going to look at Zangief, and his updated look in Street Fighter 6. For the most part very little was done with the character. He doesn’t seem to have aged much, if at all. There is no gray in his hair, or beard. Also he remains as massive as ever. The primary color associated with him remains red. In Street Fighter II he wore red trunks, and boots with gold trim. This time he is wearing red pants with white, and gold accents. Given his size these aren’t normal pro wrestler pants, but instead the kind worn by USA football players. They do incorporate kneepads as well. The only other changes made to him are the addition of red elbow pads, and the tape on his wrists have been replaced with gold bracelets. I’m kind of surprised at this stage in his career he isn’t presented with the Capcom Wrestling Association championship belt. Similar to the way Darun Mister wore his belts in Street Fighter EX, and Fighting EX Layer. All in all I think this redesign maintains the classic look that we’ve come to expect from the Red Tornado.

By now you should have noticed that not one returning character in the series is wearing their same costume. They may have similar color choices, like Zangief, or go with a different color scheme like Ken, but in either case nothing is exactly the same in this sequel. These are bold directions from Street Fighter 6 Director Takayuki Nakayama, Producer Kazuhiro Tsuchiya, and Designer Yusuke Hashimoto. Previously the studio did their best to incorporate as many details from the sprite-based versions featured in SFII when being adapted for 3D. Even “minor” details like Ryu having ragged edges on his gi, while Ken had hemmed edges were not overlooked by Yoshinori Ono, and the team working on Street Fighter IV. I am not on board with all of the changes that they have made, but I do appreciate the tweaks that they made to designs to make them stronger. Changing the cut of Rashid’s uniform, as well as the cut, and color choices for Juri were well done. Completely revising Luke helped make him look less like a nationalist.

What do you think of the decision to completely redo the costumes for everyone revealed so far? Was this a good idea? Are you eager to get DLC of the classic costumes if Capcom offers them? My friends, and family know that I love playing as Zangief in the game. I can't wait to see how the studio has updated his move set, and special attacks. Did you ever play any of the wrestling characters in the franchise? I’d like to read your thoughts in the comments section. 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!

My favorite games of all time, the story of Carmageddon part 8...

I went from computer lab tech to Instructional Associate II during my time in college. Getting to eventually run a lab, and classroom. The Mac lab was where I started a daily blog on 1UP. It was there where I made many lifelong friendships, and even met the woman that I would marry. The Mac OS had gotten to the point where it would no longer support old games. It had been years since we last played Carmageddon there. Roger, one of our friends in IT, made an image in an emulator for us in case we ever felt like firing it up. It just wasn’t the same without my old coworkers. My time at school was coming to an end, and I needed a better job with benefits. So I would commute to JPL part-time, and eventually work there full-time. There was no game playing at JPL, as you could imagine, but the boss didn’t mind if I updated my blog during my lunch break. That was how I kept my daily posts going. Things had pretty much settled into a routine, until April 2012 when the news dropped. Carmageddon would be getting a reboot, or rather, a Reincarnation. I just about lost my mind.

We all knew that Square Enix would never bring back the title. It turned out that the studio was selling off some old IP that belonged to Eidos at the start of the 2010’s. Stainless Games found out about it, and fought hard to get the rights back. They were in a bidding war against an unknown company. Thankfully they won, but the money they had went into acquiring the rights took a big bite out of the studio. They needed more cash to actually start developing a new game. Stainless Games senior members: Patrick Buckland, Ian Moody, Steven Haggerty, Neil (Nobby) Barnden, Russell (Rusk) Hughes, Kev Martin, and Will McCourt looked at their options. They saw that crowd-funding had been successful for other companies, why not give it a shot here? Most developers asked for a few thousand, but Stainless had an ambitious goal. They wanted to raise $400,000 in a month. They made the announcement, and thankfully just about every gaming site spread the word. The most controversial game of the ‘90s, was coming back! Nobby became the spokesperson for the reboot, and would post video updates on their Kickstarter page. The studio raised additional funds by selling limited edition tees on their store, plus they set up a way to donate on Facebook.

As with other Kickstarter campaigns there were multiple tier levels for audiences. Anywhere from $1, to $10,000 was available for backers. A few of people actually took advantage of the $10,000 level! They also set up stretch goals. If it passed a certain amount Stainless would see to getting a build on Linux, and the Mac. I was pretty sure that my old Mac at home would not run it, but I believed enough in the project that I was in for $150. My future spouse wanted to surprise me for my birthday by also pledging $150. I also ordered a shirt, and made sure that all of my friends online knew about the campaign. I provided updates as they happened on 1UP. They were several of my last blogs before the site closed down. Nobby made all of us believe in the campaign. He did so by appealing to our nostalgia for it. The studio wanted to bring back all of the elements that made their games work. It turned out that no detail was too small, and no callback was too dated. In fact he asked old friends Tony Taylor, and Faye Morey to do a little promo work for the studio. The pair had played Max Damage, and Die Anna in the Prat Cams some 15 years earlier. Seeing their pictures instantly aged me. Tony now had wrinkles, and gray hair. Faye was all grown up. Audiences learned via the Kickstarter blog that she was only 14 when first played the character! 

Although the new game would not use Prat Cams, it was the fact that Tony, and Faye were referenced that made fans celebrate. The studio was going deep into their history. Doug Telford the artist who helped with the promo art, and original concept art for Carmageddon returned for the project as well. He created new driver, and car renderings. They kept their look for the most part, with some updated details. His renderings for Max, and Die Anna set the tone for the rest of the cast. They weren’t as cartoony as the driver profiles were in the first game. They were serious, but not dark, or grim like they were in Carmageddon TDR 2000. Max sported a new robotic arm that was made partly of old car parts. Plus he seemed to have a cybernetic red eye. The past decade had taken its toll on him. Die Anna on the other hand looked fantastic. A face texture of the adult Faye actually appears on the new Die Anna model. She has officially been immortalized in 3D form.

Stainless promised to bring back a lot of the classic opponents as well. They too received new art, and updated vehicles. Of course Stainless made sure that they didn’t stray too far from their original looks. In an early update Mr. Telford created a new rendering of Screwie Lewie that looked on point with his original design, as well as the Twister, a sports car on monster truck wheels. Screwie always looked like a crazed pilot, only now he was legless, and using a four wheeled, drill enabled mobility scooter to get around. Just like Max there were many things that had happened to him since his last appearance. At some point we’d see other changes to the rest of the cast. Concept art was one thing, but the modelers at Stainless were showing off how much more detail the new vehicles had. They recreated The Bear, the Russian off-road car used by Ivan the Bastard. The new rendering was amazing. It captured the look of the original perfectly. It also showed how much more powerful the 3D tools were for this generation. Audiences knew that this was not the final design of the updated Bear, but it was hard to contain our excitement with the news.

It wasn’t the biggest reveal that Stainless dropped on the community. The Eagle would get a complete redo by Terry "Tez" Lane. The new eagle was still red, and had the classic blade running down the center. Only now all of its body angles were much sharper. From the headlights, to the rear bumper, every edge looked just as lethal as the blades up front. When it came to specific references it looked as if Terry had found the sweet spot between the first design, and the bruiser that was in the Splat Pack. It certainly undid the mess that was the Eagle in Total Destruction Racing 2000. Tez actually worked from original concept art from the team, as well as feedback from Nobby.  With that said however I would like to think that the new design was heavily influenced by the Spectrum Patrol car. It was featured in the Gerry Anderson show Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons. 

Gerry Anderson had tremendous success overseas with his marionette shows including Supercar, Fireball XL5, Stingray Thunderbirds, and Terrahawks. Even his live action shows grew a cult-following. The vehicle designs from his studio were a study in science fiction coolness. Whether it was a spy car, monorail, spaceship, tank, submarine, or rocket jet, there was nobody creating models from the late '50s through the '80s that were half as brilliant as those coming from Anderson. He undoubtedly influenced several generations of artists the world over. The split window, sharp angles, and scoop above the cockpit of the Spectrum Patrol were touches that could be seen in Tez's design. The final version of the new Eagle was not far removed from the concept rendering revealed on the Kickstarter blog.

The studio would refine the model to fit in the game. They would extend the blades up the windshield, and roof as they finalized the body. The game engine allowed blades to work as scissors on the hood. This was a feature on the Shredlight, a sports car driven by Madam Scarlett. The studio made the hood blades oscillate on the Tez Eagle as well. Nobby reached out to his team with a crazy proposal. Something he’d always wanted to see the blades double as a chainsaw. Specifically on the Eagle. Was it possible to get that working in the new game? The staff had always been good at figuring out new ways to get things done with a game engine. Before too long they figured out that they could animate all the blades. They turned this feature into a reward for backers. Donate a certain amount, if I remember correctly it was over $100, and you would get a code that allows you to have the exclusive model in your garage. Imagine how jealous other people online were of this ride. You can bet that my tier included this upgrade!

As a sign that the studio was in it for all the right reasons. Stainless released an HD remaster of the original game for the iOS once they hit their stretch goals. It was actually free to download for 24 hours. It brought back all of the sights, and sounds of the game exactly as I had remembered them. Plus the graphics had a greater fidelity than they did on the Mac 15 years earlier. Who would have ever thought that a mobile game would be better than the PC version? Critics, and fans seemed to agree. Slide to Play gave it a 70, Quarter to Three, and Pocket Gamer UK both gave it an 80, and AppSpy gave it a 100. The aggragate score on Metacritic from fans was 8.4 out of 10. This release was a thank you to the people that believed in the game enough to back it. The Kickstarter campaign ran during the month of May, 2012. Stainless Games was diligent about updating the public each time the developers hit a milestone, whether it was a technical one, or one that revolved around the amount that the backers donating. The updates were sometimes funny, sometimes candid, but always interesting. 

At the end of the month they had crushed their goal. They raised $625,143 from 15,736 backers. This was a quarter million dollars over their original target! Stainless Games was back in business. They would keep fans abreast of all the news over the next few years. There was a long way to go in completing the Reincarnation, the technical heights that Stainless was shooting for had never been tried before in vehicle combat. We will look at this in the next blog. 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!