Yesterday, we found out Alfonso Ribeiro – who played Carlton Banks in the early ’90s television sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air – would be suing Epic Games for adding his character’s dance move to its popular free-to-play multiplayer title Fortnite.
Ribeiro is not the first famous person to take legal action against the video game company now valued at $15 billion and he seemingly won’t be the last, either. In the latest news, Backpack Kid – the self-proclaimed creator of the “Floss” dance – is the latest individual looking to make some extra money from this recent trend. The 16-year-old’s mother and manager have filed a lawsuit on his behalf because they believe the game’s developers are taking advantage of his success.
Like Ribeiro and the rapper 2 Milly, Backpack Kid is also in the process of copyrighting his dance move. When speaking to TMZ, Backpack Kid said the decision to take legal action wasn’t motivated by money. In a previous interview in June, the boy said he was happy to be represented in the game, even if he wasn’t credited.
What do you think about this? Which side are you supporting? Tell us in the comments.
We can understand the appeal of the odd Mario bauble or two at Christmas time, but kitting out the entire house with a nine-minute lights display really is something else. Amazingly, that’s exactly what one homeowner has chosen to do this year and we can’t help but be incredibly impressed.
The display has reportedly been set up in Haltom City, Texas, presumably generating countless stares, grumbles, and general annoyance from almost every other person living on the same street. The show comes complete with its own soundtrack, working simultaneously alongside the visuals, and Mushrooms, a parade of Yoshis, and even a flossing Toad can be spotted throughout.
We know you want to see it for yourself, so feel free to check it out below.
We’ve sat and watched the entire thing – for work purposes, of course – and it genuinely is impressive. Having said that, we’d probably get the urge to immediately move house if the people over the road from us had this going round and round in circles every night.
Do you feel inspired to recreate something similar for your home, before gasping in horror at the following electricity bill? Let us know in the comments below.
Believe it or not, we would never have expected to be writing an article about Soulja Boy releasing games consoles in 2018 here at Nintendo Life. Somehow, though, we’re here doing just that for the second time in as many weeks.
Yes, you may remember that just a handful of days ago, we shared the news that rapper Soulja Boy – or DeAndre Cortez Way – has been selling rebranded Chinese games consoles that come with a bunch of emulators running (presumably) unlicenced ROMs. If that, and the fact that people are actually buying the things wasn’t crazy enough, he’s now set his sights on even more gaming releases, including one that looks particularly familiar.
Meet the Retro SouljaBoy Mini, a $100 gaming device which comes with an 8GB SD card as standard. This SD card is home to 508 preloaded games, all of which are playable on the device’s two-inch screen. We don’t know about you, but we can’t help thinking that the design looks fairly similar to Nintendo’s very own Game Boy console. Oh, hang on a minute, he’s actually using a picture of Mario to sell the thing so yes, it’s probably definitely ripping off the Game Boy.
On top of this, Soulja Boy is also launching the SouljaGame Fuze – a rebranding of the console which attempted to simultaneously copy the designs of both PlayStation and Xbox a couple of years ago. It’s quite hard to tell what you get with this one – Soulja Boy’s advertising states that “The introduction of paragraph 76 games, starting 20 games shock”, whatever that means – but we’re sure it’s all good fun.
What we can tell you is that it costs a frankly amazing $639.98. Don’t worry, though, Soulja Boy currently has it on sale for just $400.
Make sure to let us know your thoughts on these and whether or not you’ll be buying your own Soulja Boy consoles in the comments below. Also, please don’t buy your own Soulja Boy consoles.
PlatinumGames director Hideki Kamiya has taken to social media to find out which of his beloved characters would be the most wished-for in Super Smash Bros.
Four options have been provided, with each character coming from completely different franchises across Kamiya’s time at both Capcom and PlatinumGames. You can choose from either Dante (Devil May Cry), Viewtiful Joe, Amaterasu (Okami), or Wonder Red (The Wonderful 101). If you want to cast your vote, you can do so below (there are 16 hours left at the time of writing).
Of course, we know that all of the five DLC characters coming to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate have already been decided by Nintendo, so the results of this poll won’t affect those particular newcomers. It could well influence future projects, however; we wouldn’t be surprised if this poll was actually being used to see which of these characters are the most popular, perhaps acting as a clever bit of market research for future sequels.
If you have a burning passion for any of the characters mentioned above, whether that be for a Smash inclusion or otherwise, it probably wouldn’t hurt to show your support.
Let us know who you’ve voted for in the comments below.
Cast your mind back a generation or two, to the plastic instrument war. Guitar Hero and Rock Band were the biggest things in gaming, then all of a sudden the craze died and, just like that, the fun was over. Just as the light was flickering out, though, one final bright star appeared: DJ Hero.
It was the work of UK studio FreeStyle Games, and was arguably one of the best rhythm action games ever made, but it came too late in the life of the ‘plastic instrument’ genre to make a serious impact and so it (and its sequel) also died. Paul Norris and Dan Horbury were two of the key developers who worked on DJ Hero, and when they both left FreeStyle they decided to form their own studio, Mad Fellows. Aaero is their first game, and if you didn’t think lightning could strike twice then you’re about to get a double jolt right up the rump.
Aaero is best described as a three-way cross between DJ Hero, Rez and old-school arcade shooter Tempest. Flying a ship through a series of outdoor and tunnel areas, you have to follow any musical ribbons you come across while blasting enemies along the way. These ribbons appear during the tunnel sections and bend up and down depending on how the music goes, so you have to move your ship around in a circular motion to follow their trail and keep the music playing.
As you do this, enemies may appear and fire shots at you; this is where the Rez element comes into play. While moving your ship with the left stick, you can also use the right stick to move a cursor, lock onto enemies and their projectiles, then press the fire button to blow them all up at once. Just like in Rez, this all goes to the beat of the music. When you pull the trigger and fire your homing missiles, the game adds a slight delay to make sure your enemies explode in the most rhythmically satisfying way possible.
These two elements – tracing the ribbons to make the music play then destroying enemies – form the core of Aaero, but it adds little features here and there to keep things interesting. Each stage, for example, has a bunch of hidden red lights that you can lock onto and shoot as you zoom past. Getting these (and getting a five-star rating on each stage) is your key to unlocking higher difficulty levels.
Best of all are the boss battles, though, which pop up from time to time and having you taking out an enormous enemy using similar ‘lock on and trace’ mechanics. One of these in particular – a giant Dune-like sandworm that swallows you whole, forcing you to fly through its enormous body and try to blast out of the other end – is the highlight of the entire game.
This is all accompanied by some fantastic music designed to get the old veins pumping. There’s a fair amount of dubstep in here, though, so if that sort of thing doesn’t yank your crank it may not win you over here either (although we aren’t necessarily fans of it either but it works brilliantly in this situation).
It can take a little while to get used to Aaero’s unique control mechanics. Shooting enemies with a cursor is easy enough, and tracing the lines with the left stick is similarly straightforward (though accuracy will take some practice). When you combine both shooting and tracing at the same time, it can initially feel a bit like patting your head and rubbing your belly, until it eventually clicks.
All of this would be pointless if the game played like a dog, but thankfully Aaero is smoother than Louis Armstrong bathing in butter. When it launched on the Xbox One and PS4 last year it ran at a solid 60fps, which was extremely important for its rhythm-based gameplay. While frame rate isn’t the be-all and end-all in most games, in the rhythm genre it can make a big difference.
Thankfully, then, the Switch version also runs satisfyingly smoothly, with very few instances of dropped frames, in docked mode at least. Switching to handheld results in a less smooth performance, but crucially this is portrayed as dropped frames rather than slowdown, meaning you’ll still be able to play accurately. In order to handle the drop in power from Xbox One and PS4 to Switch, Mad Fellows has decided to cut back on visual detail in order to keep the performance level high, and it was a wise move: the game runs so fast you often don’t notice much difference, and there are only one or two moments in the whole game – blasting out of the aforementioned sandworm being the most notable example – where it looks a bit rubbish.
Aaero isn’t perfect, though it isn’t far off it. The main issue we’ve encountered is during the shooting sections; because you can only lock onto a set number of enemies and projectiles, it can sometimes be a little difficult to see which ones you’ve locked. This can lead to you pulling the trigger then realising you missed an important missile, and it’s often pretty much impossible to lock onto it and fire another shot before it kills you.
This is something you’ll be able to work on with practice, though, and before too long these situations start to feel more like an anomaly than the norm. You’ll eventually be plucking those missiles out of the sky like conkers from a tree; it’ll just take you a little while longer than you may expect before you can do it effectively.
It would also have been nice to have had some sort of audio lag setting. Aaero’s best played as loudly as possible, but some home entertainment systems introduce a little bit of lag between the action happening on-screen and the sound coming out of the speakers. Since the ribbon sections are tied to precisely to the music, this can cause your timing to be a little bit off. This won’t be an issue on most TVs (or, indeed, in handheld mode, where the audio is perfectly synced), but it’ll be present in some gamers’ set-ups; it’s not a massive problem by any means, but just another thing to adapt to before you can master the game.
These quirks aside, this is a brilliant rhythm action / on-rails shooter hybrid, and the fact that it’s the ‘Complete Edition’ is a lovely touch. The original version of the game on other systems came with a total of 15 tracks, but the Complete Edition adds six more tracks that were released as DLC on those systems – three drum & bass levels and three more dubstep ones – and chucks in a few skins for your ship too. 40 percent more levels at no extra cost? Don’t mind if we do.
Conclusion
It takes a little while for Aaero’s mechanics and its combo system to click, but once they do there are fewer better rhythm games out there. Its fantastic soundtrack exudes cool from every pore, and the way it integrates with gameplay (while running beautifully smoothly while docked) makes it one of the most immersive experiences you’ll find on the Switch.
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate has sold three million copies in the US after just eleven days on sale, breaking multiple records in the process.
According to Nintendo’s internal sales data, the game has become both the fastest-selling Nintendo Switch game of all time in the region, and also the fastest-selling game in the Super Smash Bros. series. We recently reported on the fact that the very same milestone was also hit in the UK market, with early sales in Japan seeing similarly impressive levels of success, too. These statistics are expected to cement the fact that Nintendo is currently the top-selling US software publisher of 2018.
In celebration of the news, Nintendo has also shared some additional statistics. Bear in mind that the following data comes from Nintendo of America and is specific to the US only:
– Nintendo hardware unit and dollar sales for 2018 are at their highest annual totals since 2011.
– Nintendo eShop sales have grown 105 percent over 2017.
Are you one of the many who have already picked up a copy of the game? Are you surprised by any of the statistics shared above? Tell us below in the comments.
The Nintendo Switch has become the fastest-selling video game system of this hardware generation during its 21 months on sale in the US, it has been confirmed.
The news comes from American market research company The NPD Group, which tracks video game sales in the United States. From its launch in March 2017 until November 2018, the Switch has sold more than 8.7 million units, outpacing US sales of all other current-generation systems at the same point in their life cycles.
The good news keeps on coming for the gaming giant, too, as Nintendo has also become the overall top-selling US software publisher so far in 2018. Again, this news comes from NPD data which has tracked sales up until November 2018; sales of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate should only boost this statistic when added at a later date.
Doug Bowser, Nintendo of America’s Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing, has said the following:
“We are thrilled to see such a strong reaction from consumers in the second holiday season for Nintendo Switch. We’re looking forward to delivering more excitement and smiles to our fans in the coming year and beyond.”
It’s certainly been another good year for Nintendo in terms of sales, with records being smashed all over the place over the last few months.
Do you think this success will continue into 2019? Do you think the Switch will continue to generate as many sales going forward? Share your thoughts with us down below.
Publisher Team17 has today launched the post-apocalyptic disaster management game Sheltered on Nintendo Switch.
After a global apocalypse, you’re tasked with protecting four family members living in a deserted underground shelter. You’ll need to combat hunger, radiation, and mental exhaustion as you cling desperately to life in the cramped, cold, underground shelter. Of course, you’ll also need to brave the dangerous wasteland outside for vital supplies, leaving the protection your new home offers to provide for your family.
The game actually launched on other platforms just a couple of years ago; the Switch version will include the base game and the ‘Surrounded’ and ‘Stasis’ additional content packs. Surrounded offers a new chunk of gameplay in which the family is forced to split up (the father goes out in search of transport, whilst the mother and son barricade themselves inside and set traps to try and protect the supplies), while Stasis has you leaving your hostile home planet behind by building and launching a rocket.
You’ll find the game available from today on the Nintendo Switch eShop for £9.99 / $14.99 / €14.99. A 20% discount will be applied to purchases made during launch week.
Do you like the look of this one? Think you might give it a go? Let us know if you’ll be treating yourself to the game in the comments below.
The success of Fortnite has unsurprisingly placed it in the firing line on a number of occasions. It’s been accused of promoting violence and gambling to children and has been targeted for copyright infringement. The developer PUBG Corp – known for Player Unknown’s Battlegrounds – even tried to take legal action against the popular free-to-play multiplayer title.
The latest accusations are now coming from singers, dancers, rappers and actors. According to a number of famous individuals, Epic Games has failed to properly credit iconic dance moves. Alfonso Ribeiro, who played Carlton Banks in the early ’90s television sitcom, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (also starring Will Smith), is reportedly not happy about how the developer reappropriated his moves and is now suing the company.
TMZ reports Ribeiro is in the process of copyrighting his dance. Here’s what his lawyer had to say about the matter:
“Epic has earned record profits off of downloadable content in the game, including emotes like “Fresh.” Yet Epic has failed to compensate or even ask permission from Mr. Ribeiro for the use of his likeness and iconic intellectual property,”
Due to the dance not being protected intellectually when the emote was added to the game on 2nd January 2018 – there may not be a strong case. Game Watcher notes how the situation for the rapper 2 Milly is much the same. Speaking with CBS News, this rapper said how he was angered his move had been added, renamed and cost players $5.00:
“That’s when I really was like – oh nah, this can’t go on too long… I don’t even want to bash them for all the millions. Know what I am saying? It’s not really like that. I just feel like I have to protect what’s mine.”
When contacted about Ribeiro’s recent decision to sue, Epic Games said it did not comment about on-going litigation.
Ribeiro is also taking legal action against 2K for the use of his move in NBA 2K19. 2 Milly is doing the same for the inclusion of his own move in the game. If we hear any developments, we’ll be sure to let you know.
What do you think about Epic including iconic dance moves in Fortnite without acknowledging the creators? Tell us below.
The trend of Gunman Clive games being affordably priced looks set to continue on the Switch, with Swedish indie developer Bertil Hörberg revealing the previously announced HD Collection (containing the first and second game) will arrive on Nintendo’s hybrid platform on 17th January for $3.99 / €3.99.
Hörberg made the announcement via Twitter, while joking how people should buy it, as the release date happens to be his Birthday. Here are the tweets:
As we previously noted, the collection was originally released on the Wii U in 2015. The first game and sequel were also made available on 3DS in 2012 and 2015. Both titles have drawn comparisons to the Mega Man series.
Will you be picking up this collection on release? Have you played it before? Let us know in the comments.
