The Detective Pikachu Movie Reviews Are In, And It’s Actually Pretty Mixed
The Pokémon Detective Pikachu movie releases in cinemas worldwide next Friday, just one week from today. We’ve been feeling pretty optimistic about this one – the trailers have seemed surprisingly promising throughout the build-up to the film’s release – but now it’s time to see what the critics think.
Yes, select media have now had the opportunity to check out the full film and have posted early reviews online. We’re pretty shocked to see that views are rather mixed; at the time of writing, the film has a Metascore of 50 out of 100 – you can’t get much more average than that. On Rotten Tomatoes, it’s currently sitting at a much better 74%, however.
We’ve included a few snippets of reviews for you below (with links to all of the full reviews provided).
IGN,Joshua Yehl [8.0/10]:
“Smith’s character gives the story an emotional weight and Reynolds delivers an endearing comedic performance that’s closer to his subversive Deadpool schtick than you’d expect. While video game movies haven’t had the best track record, this movie is by and far the best example of how to do one right.” Read full review
The Guardian, Steve Rose [3/5]:
“Without Reynolds this would be pretty run-of-the-mill; with him it’s a perfectly acceptable family movie. Given the history, that’s a giant leap for Pokémon-kind.” Read full review
The Verge, Julia Alexander:
“Detective Pikachu is a fever dream — a product of night time car rides with a Game Boy, staring up at the street lamps that pass you by, painting the darkened sky with wild imaginations of what a world full of Pokémon might feel like. Detective Pikachu is a silly, almost hallucinogenic ride.” Read full review
ScreenCrush, Matt Singer [5/10]:
“Beneath the predictable story, Detective Pikachu isn’t about much, and if you need Wikipedia to explain who Mewtwo is, most of the jokes will go right over your head. The whole thing is a bit too childish for adults, and a bit too convoluted for kids. It absolutely deserves an Oscar nomination for Best Visual Effects however, even if the subject matter makes me think it’s unlikely to receive one.” Read full review
Variety, Peter Debruge:
Though consistent with the game (with a few extra but obvious twists thrown in for good measure), the story of “Detective Pikachu” doesn’t allow nearly enough Pokémon-related action, while the quality of the computer animation (by Moving Picture Co. and Framestore) falls far short of the basic level of competency audiences have come to expect from effects movies. Read full review
Empire, Olly Richards [3/5]:
“It’s impossible to overstate how much this film owes to Ryan Reynolds. Even if you don’t understand Pikachu’s world, everyone can understand a great joke superbly delivered.” Read full review
The Associated Press, Mark Kennedy:
“Live-action feature film adaptations of video games have proved a dicey proposition in the past. For every ‘Mortal Kombat’ there’s a ‘Prince of Persia.’ This one just feels like a venal money grab from a mega corporation. You’ve played Pokémon Go, right? Call this one Pokémon Don’t Go.” Read full review
We wouldn’t be too disheartened, though. Interestingly, comparing the reviews from major film industry press outlets to those from video game backgrounds shows a common trend, and this gets extended even further when taking into account the views of online personalities and influencers who have already seen the film.
Sites such as Polygon and Eurogamer had fairly mixed-to-positive reviews on the whole, but both highlighted the joys of the Pokémon themselves and the world around them. The more film-centric sites, who we’d assume don’t have quite the same knowledge of the Pokémon franchise, have commonly argued that the acting of Ryan Reynolds is the saving grace here, with the Pokémon not being particularly special.
Pokémon fansite Serebii scored the film 4/5, saying that it “really plays the line a lot between hardcore Pokémon fan references and things for the uninitiated, but it never goes over the line one way or the other and keeps a perfect balance”.
Perhaps this suggests that the film is great for fans of the series, while being simply ‘OK’ for those who don’t know the Pokémon world and not so great for those who have no interest in it at all – which would make sense, after all.
We’ll have our very own review of the film right here on Nintendo Life next week, so make sure to keep an eye out for that if you’d like to read our verdict. Until then, why not let us know if you plan to see the film with a comment below?
Xbox One players have two more games they can now play on their console. Microsoft's director of programming for Xbox Live, Larry "Major Nelson" Hryb, took to Twitter to announce that the Xbox One now supports two more Xbox 360 titles via backward compatibility.
Developed by Team Ninja for the PS3, Wii U, and Xbox 360, Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor's Edge is an enhanced Ninja Gaiden 3 port that includes the original DLC, as well as a variety of performance enhancements and improvements. Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor's Edge released nearly a year after the initial game's March 2012 release date and brought alongside a host of changes like increasing the speed of kunai climbing, introducing new weapons like the lunar staff and kusarigama, improving enemy AI, and more.
Trials Evolution was developed by RedLynx. Released for the Xbox 360 in April 2012 before speeding to iOS and PC in 2013, Trials Evolution--the fourth mainline entry in the Trials franchise--tasks you with facing and overcoming a variety of motorcycle trials in a bid to claim the top spot on the leaderboards. Trials Evolution includes two course editors (Lite and Pro) that allow you to create and share courses online.
In our Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor's Edge review, we called the update "a welcome gesture, and one that makes for an improved action game--yet a hundred small fixes are no substitute for a game built from the ground up to be a challenging, fluid, and fulfilling action extravaganza."
In our Trials Evolution review, we said it's "a great game that not only tests your skill and patience, but keeps you laughing at the ridiculous scenarios."
PlatinumGames Shares More Detail On Bayonetta 3’s Unorthodox Development
If you’re as eager to get your hands on Bayonetta 3 as we are, you probably spotted our story yesterday which shared the news of a change in the development process for the series. Now, we have a little more info on the subject thanks to PlatinumGames studio head, Atsushi Inaba.
Talking to VGC, Inaba reveals that the change in development is centred around the game’s structure, with the original games being created in an orthodox, chronological order. This looks to be entirely out of the window for Bayonetta 3, perhaps explaining why the studio previously said the game would be “crazier” than ever before.
“With Bayonetta 1 and 2 we had basically an orthodox development process, at least for us. We did stage one, then stage two, then stage three and built up the drama and the pacing chronologically. For Bayonetta 3, we can say that we learned enough from making the past two games to change our process in a way that’s different to what I just described.”
So, is this something that players will notice? Or will the end result feel just like previous entries? VGC put that very question to Inaba, too.
“Maybe the players will recognise this as well. And that’s all the hints you get!”
The first tasty slice of footage can’t come soon enough for this one. Will things really be that different? Will it be good different, or bad different?
Looks Like Ubisoft’s Child Of Light Isn’t Getting A Sequel After All
One of Ubisoft’s more left-field projects – and one of its best, we’d argue – is Child of Light. The game originally launched on Wii U back in 2014 and has since seen a rerelease on Switch, both times enchanting our minds enough to have us hoping for another helping with a lovely sequel or two.
At one stage, a sequel seemed very likely indeed – the game’s creative director once said that some “very cool projects” for the Child of Light universe were in the works, and eventually shared an image teasing a ‘Child of Light 2’ – but it would appear that the game isn’t on the way after all.
Speaking to VGC, the very same creative director, Patrick Plourde, has revealed that the game is well formed in his head but isn’t being worked on – to the best of his knowledge, at least.
“I know the major beats, the location, and that it would feature multiple protagonists. It would have two protagonists going on different paths in life with different motivations, linked by their friendship.
“I don’t know if there’s a Child of Light 2 that is in production, Ubisoft is big, but I’m not working on it. Right now, I don’t think there’s a Child of Light 2 being produced… I’m not holding my breath.”
Plourde tells VGC that the plan for Child of Light 2 was partly inspired by Swan Lake, with its story exploring love, friendship, and how people change as they grow up.
It’s a shame that we might never get to see this in action, but the situation seems almost fitting. Another inspiration for the game’s theme of people and the way in which they change came from the dev team who worked on the original game – a team which has now, for the most part, disbanded.
Have you played Child of Light? Would you have liked to see this sequel make it to release? Let us know in the usual place.
It’s been a bit of a slower week this week but hopefully you’ve all found something to your liking – not as many reviews as I’d like but everyone is working on something, so the pipeline will keep spitting out new entries for the index and we’re working on a couple of new features as well.
I especially like updating the Upcoming Mobile Games feature, as it allows me to go back through the various bits of news we don’t always get to cover, and get hyped for the rest of the year.
This game released last week but we forgot to give it a mention – the SpellForce series can chart its origins to the wild days of 2003, where it’s spent most of 15 years across 8 releases masquerading as a real-time strategy/RPG. Now the series is making its mobile debuts with SpellForce: Heroes & Magic, and it’s ditched the standard flow of time to offers a turn-based strategy experience instead.
It’s leaving the story and lore of the SpellForce universe largely untouched, and offers both a free play or a 13-mission adventure mode. There are three playable races, six neutral factions, and you have to build up your kingdom, explore the surroundings and defeat your enemies in turn-based hex combat.
This one ticks multiple PT Bingo boxes this week – it’s got ‘Spell’ in it, like our top entry, and is a roguelike deck-builder RPG with card mechanics and procedural generation. One of it’s unique hooks is reported to be ‘Card Fusion’, so you can finally summon that Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon that you’ve been dreaming of all these years.
On a serious note, this game is yet another newcomer in what’s becoming a rapidly over-crowded genre. The aesthetic is certainly cool, but it depends whether the gameplay can back it up – we’ll bring you our thoughts as soon as we can.
On PC I’ve been a fan of games like Space Engineers and Kerbal Space Program for years. I don’t quite have the fortitude (or the math) to play them as much as I’d want to, but I’m glad they exist and they are fun to drop into every now and then.
Lunar Rescue Mission is no KSP, but it boasts realistic phsyics and several different vehicles that require mastering as you travel across sectors trying to rescue stranded colonists. Quite keen to get a review done for this one as it’s different and something you often see, plus it’s not even that expensive. It’s been in beta on Android since at least 2017, but now its released fully on both platforms.
And last but certainly not least, Tropico’s iOS port is now available on iPhone, as well as iPad, making it a universal app. Just go to wait for that android version now…
Now that Carriers are well and truly out the door the Trese brother’s unrelenting pace of updates is back on track. Update #146 adds two new female faces, adds a new prototype Bounty Hunter story mission and a whole bunch of QoL fixes. The full change-log can be seen on steam.
Evolution has had a few updates since it released, but the most recent one allows Premium users to play for free with any friends or family that are only using the ‘free’ version of the game.
Sales
Asmodee Digital Spring Sale
Asmodee Digital are having a Spring Sale on both iOS & Android, with the following games going for up to 60% off:
Carcasonne (Android)
Mysterium
Agricola
Agricola 2P
Isle of Skye
Pandemic
Pathfinder Adventures
Twilight Struggle
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (iOS & Android)
It’s May 4th tomorrow, but plenty of places are getting in early with their Star Wars celebrations – everyone’s favourite Bioware RPG is currently half-price on both mobile platforms, just in case you STILL haven’t picked it up yet.
Seen anything else you liked? Played any of the above? Let us know in the comments!
OGRE, Object-oriented Graphics Rendering Engine, an open source MIT licensed 3D renderer just released version 1.12 after almost a year in development. The release is heavily focused on internal rearchitecting for future development.
More precise timings for built-in profiler and support for external profiling via Remotery
unified API for fixed-function pipeline and shaders
NEON intrinsics for OptimizedMath on ARM (Android)
Stable Material library (Media/) that you can reference in your projects
the MSVC SDK now also includes the Python and Java components
support for loading 1.7 style terrains (aka “terrain.cfg”)
You can learn more about the release in the New and Noteworthy document available here. Additionally the source code for OGRE is available here on GitHub. The book mentioned in the video below that covers OGRE for game engine development is Game Engine Architecture.
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 05-04-2019, 03:50 AM - Forum: Lounge
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Ubisoft and Genba aim to thwart key resellers with silent key activation
Ubisoft and Genba Digital have partnered on silent key activation, a method of selling games through third-party stores that aims to prevent game keys from popping up on key reselling sites.
According to VentureBeat, the move builds on an existing partnership between the two companies, and 10 digital game stores including Chrono.gg and Fanatical have already signed on to use the tech for the sale of Ubisoft games.
Rather than directly purchasing a key for a game from one of those third-party sites and then redeeming it on Ubisoft’s Uplay platform, a store would prompt a user for their Uplay account info. Following that Genba verifies the account and activate the game automatically on that player’s Uplay account.
The system means that neither retailers or players ever directly handle game codes and, as Genba Digital CEO Matt Murphy tells VentureBeat, that cuts down on opportunities for those codes to be redirected toward unauthorized sites.
“The only thing that the e-tailer would get — which doesn’t go near the user — is a token from us, which we use to link to a particular keycode,” he explains. “That token is valueless because it doesn’t mean anything [outside of] the Genba database.”
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 05-04-2019, 03:50 AM - Forum: Lounge
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Microsoft announces HoloLens 2 Development Edition
Newsbrief: Microsoft has announced a version of its upcoming mixed reality HoloLens 2 headset geared toward developers but, as TechCrunch points out, the actual hardware in the HoloLens 2 Development Edition isn’t different than what was announced earlier this year.
Instead, Microsoft has included some extras in the package it hopes will appeal to developers while also offering devs the option to pay for the $3,500 headset in monthly payments.
The HoloLens 2 Development Edition comes with $500 in Azure credits and three-month long trials for both Unity Pro and the Unity PiXYZ program. While the HoloLens 2 Development Edition is the same price as the version that Microsoft announced earlier this year, the dev-focused kit comes with the option to pay in monthly payments of $99 rather than all at once. Pre-orders for this version of the HoloLens 2 are limited to devs enrolled in the Microsoft Mixed Reality Developer Program as well.
XRDC 2019 is looking for speakers! Submit your talk here. (XRDC and Gamasutra are UBM Americas brands.)
April 24th: New Preview Alpha 1905 Update (1910.190421-1940)
Starting at 2:00 p.m. PST today, members of the Xbox One Preview Alpha Ring will begin receiving the latest 1905 Xbox One system update (19H1_RELEASE_XBOX_DEV_1905\18362.3035.190421-1940) Read on for more about the new features, fixes and known issues in the latest 1905 system update.
DETAILS:
OS version released: 19H1_RELEASE_XBOX_DEV_1905\18362.3035.190421-1940
Available: 2:00PM PDT 4/24/19
Mandatory Date/Time: 3:00 AM PDT 4/25/19
New Features:
Better Sorting in My Games & apps
Our team has made it even easier to find what you’re looking for in any Games & apps. From now on, articles such as “a,” “an” and “the” will no longer be used to sort titles when using the “Sort A-Z” and “Group by letter” views; for example, “The Witcher” will now be found under “W” instead of “T.” Thanks so much to our Xbox community for helping prioritize this change by voting in our recent “My Games & apps” Idea Drive, and don’t forget to check the Xbox Idea Hub for other topics to which you can contribute!
Fixes:
Audio
Fixes to address no console audio after system update for some users.
Messaging
We have fixed the “More” button in messaging.
My Games and Apps
Fixes to the stability of various Games.
System
Localization fixes.
Known Issues:
Audio
Headsets are not being assigned to the users profiles.
Some users are experiencing no audio with headsets and we are investigating
Some users are encountering no audio on their Xbox console after boot (no shell audio, no game audio, no app audio), then have CSS ask them to perform the following steps:
Cold reboot the console
OR
Go to Audio settings on console
Change their HDMI audio settings to the highest supported uncompressed channel count for their equipment
Switch back to the desired format
Audio should be restored
My Games and Apps
We are tracking the video corruption issue with Youtube and Netflix 4k playback.
Profile Color
Sometimes users may encounter the incorrect Profile color when powering on the console.
Settings – Hard Drive Transfer
Moving/copying content from one drive to another fails to move past the assign drive and no content is moved. We are working on a fix. Workaround – You can use a GA console 1904 build to move content.
