Ask 411 Games 01.30.12: Turok, Darkstalkers, Happy Wheels, More!

Posted by Mathew Sforcina on 01.30.2012

Is Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim unplayable on the PS3? Who owns the rights to Turok: Dinosaur Hunter? What is Capcom's long term plan for the future? How did Acclaim get NBA Jam? And what's up with the Sony Smash Brothers game? All this and more covered this week in Ask 411 Games!

Good morning/day/afternoon/evening/night/what the hell are you doing up at this hour? I am your writer, Mathew Sforcina, and you are my reader, (place your name here. Or someone else's if you're roleplaying. I don't judge. Well I do, but silently.)

Last week went alright, although the Turok mistake bugs me (I never actually played them) but I'll admit to a mea culpa there. Of course, I could argue that it was hardly a well known license compared to other ones, but no, I'll cop my mistake like a man and edit it so it looks like I am perfect leave it be.

And I won't discuss in-jokes in here. Who do you think I am, Kamel ‘All In' Gamble?

…

You know, I sometimes put jokes in that only a few people get. But that sort of joke I think maybe I only get. Hell, it's barely a joke.

…

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Remember, questions can go in the comment section, or, better yet, to [e-mail].

Let's begin with stuff from last week (Although since you asked Mac, I am now. But not for a little while, as I have Atari to do first). First of all, a non question from 411's Own Todd Vote.

I assume. Has his name, but he's a guest, so maybe not. Not sure. Whatever.

The whole Acclaim/Midway licensing thing still throws me off to this day. I just don't get how they managed to steal the rights to NBA Jam away from the company that created the games.

We didn't cover this in the Midway Special Edition, but we DID cover it in May of last year.

… Wow, I only joined Twitter in May of 11? Geez.

Anyway, most people point to Greg Lassen, who was a former Acclaim employee who happened to be in charge of NBA's electronic division and was the guy who, the argument goes, gave Acclaim the rights because he's a douchebag he felt Acclaim could do a better job. Or something.

But yeah, blame him.

Guest#8584 had a question among some nostalgia/ranting. Which is cool.

Most of my memories of Acclaim are tied to an Australian magazine called Nintendo Magazine System. Did you ever read it?

No, can't say that I did. I began as a Sega kid. My first console was a Mega Drive/Genesis, and it was a few years before I finally upgraded to a N64 and then a Playstation soon after. Not sure when I got the Gameboy. But by the time I was into games in a big way the internet was about and I went on there for my info. I might have read it at some point as flipping through a copy at a shop or at a friend's house or something, but I didn't have a subscription or anything.

Very much NSFW here.



And the final question from last week, thanks to Guest #0017.

Here's a question for next week (hopefully): who actually owns the rights to the existing Turok games, the rights to publish new Turok game, and so on?

After playing Serious Sam on XBLA, I started thinking how awesome it would be if someone remade Turok: Dinosaur Hunter (they're similar games in case you don't know) for download services. This time, there'd be no fog at all so you could see where you're going, improved controls (no need for 'walk/run' toggle coz you've got two analogue sticks now), and of course, HD graphics. And if they want to go the whole nine yards, they could add an online multiplayer mode based on Turok 2's or Rage Wars' multiplayer.

I actually think it would be a genuinely great game, possibly the only Acclaim game of that era that would age well. Let's find out who can make it happen and send them a letter... ;)

Well, my initial thought was ‘Throwback' since they own most of the Acclaim's old licences, but nope, they don't. Not part of their list. And then I remember, sadly, the infamous 2008 Turok ‘restart'.



And most of my thoughts about the game would be repeats of what Yahtzee said. But it's bad, and has pretty much as much in common as the originals as Civ 5 has with Alley Cat.

Anyway, who owns the rights? Well the new one was developed by Propaganda Games and released by Touchstone Games, which all means that it's owned by… Disney. So blame them for that one I guess. Although really, Disney's not had a good track record of making their own games, with the Kingdom Hearts series the only games put out by Disney Interactive that could be classed as good to great. And that's debatable as they don't actually make them.

But going back to the exact other end, the Turok character himself is owned by Classic Media, which is a studio/production company/media vacuum. Basically the concept for the company is to acquire mismanaged classic properties and give them exposure.

Or, if you're a little less generous, buy cheap properties and then flog the shit out of them. Depends on your point of view.

Regardless, their properties are a hodge podge of TV shows (Filmation's library, Jay Ward shows), famous characters (Where's Waldo/Wally, Gumby) and some stuff that a few people will know and get nostalgic over (Roger Ramjet, Felix the Cat). And, nestled in there, Gold Key Comic's characters, including Turok, Son of Stone. So this obscure holding company owns the rights.

But who owns the rights to the in-between games? Who gets the theoretical cash from those Turok games? It would appear that we have to go back to Disney, named the Buena Vista Games division. They appear to have bought the entire Turok franchise when they bought the rights, the N64 games included. I couldn't find an official "We own the rights to the N64 games" post, but they bought the franchise, so we can only assume that includes the rights. So there you have it. It's down to a media company and Disney.

Fer has a few questions.

Hey...Happy new year!!!

Well, 2011 was a great year for gamers...in fighting games we get a couple gems including Mortal Kombat reboot...I have a couple questions.

Capcom claim they have a six or so year plan for his fighting games...any idea if that includes a new Darkstalkers entry or any new property?

They have indeed made that claim, although they've also hedged their bets and saying that ‘plans change'. Basically on a corporate level they've made plans, but they are flexible enough, in theory, to change if tech changes. If someone invents the Matrix style gaming next year, Capcom's not going to ignore it because it isn't in the gameplan.

That said, Darkstalkers. If you're late to the party, Dalkstalkers was a slightly obscure fighting series put out by Capcom in the mid 90's, based on monsters and classic horror concepts (the series known as Vampire in Japan). You possibly have never played it, but you also probably know a few characters from the series that popped up elsewhere, like Felicia, Hsien-ko and the most well know, Morrigan. They were all originally Darkstalker characters, based on a Bakeneko (a Japanese folklore supernatural cat thing), Chinese Zombie and Succubus respectively.



Now then, when Street Fighter X Tekken was announced, at a press conference, in amoung the images on the wall, was this. Namely, ‘Darkstalkers are Not Dead'. Capcom said that they weren't announcing a new game, so it's possible that a Darkstalkers character might appear in the SFxT game. Probably Morrigan.

But will there be a proper Darkstalkers game? They have released the first game on the PSN, and that was how Marvel V Capcom was launched, with releases of the older games. So it's possible, sure. But nothing is definitely on the horizon.

As for new IPs, they are still hyping the hell out of SFxT, and focusing on some non fighting games. Once SFxT is out, they might begin to leak some stuff, possibly to steal some thunder from TxSF.

Is sega doing anything with the guilty gear franchise? any chance we see those characters again?

Guilty Gear is another fighting series, with Anime style graphics, hard rock music and a dedicated fanbase. The series was created by Arc System Works, but when Sega merged with parent company Sammy, somehow the Guilty Gear IP ended up in Sega's control.

At least, it had. But in the middle of last year, Arc System Works applied for a trademark on Guilty Gear in Japan. Sega could have fought it, but they didn't, so ASW now owns the franchise whole. So, their claims that a new Guilty Gear game would come eventually is now much more likely. So Sega has no ownership now.

Have you hear somethig/anything about sony rumored "a la smash bros" game?

Nothing beyond the rumors that came out in Nov last year about Title Fight. The character list was set to be over 20, including Kratos, Parappa the Rapper, Nathan Drake, Sly Cooper, Fat Princess, Colonel Mael Radec and Sweet Tooth, with James Bond (!) being pushed as a guest star. There would be 3 levels of super moves, with Sweet Tooth's 3rd having him become a ice cream truck mech thingy. There were a few levels, Sandover Village from Jak & Dexter, Hot Shots course, and a LBP level.

But the thing is, all this came out near the end of Nov. Sony has neither confirmed or denied it. But there's a fair chunk of circumstantial evidence around it…

But no, nothing concrete.

I recently get Just Cause 2 for my ps3 and is a really funny block buster game...any rumor about a third part?

There are indeed. Rumors have been flying… Well, limping around a bit ever since an Xbox mag said it was in development. But most people confidently believe that it's being worked on for a release to coincide with the Just Cause movie under development. Again, it's not confirmed, but most people seem to believe that's the case.

How buggy is the PS3 version of Skyrim? I am dying to get that for my PS3 but I don't want a game that would crash on me every 10 minutes or that will become unplayable for some strange glitch..shoul I wait for the Game of the year edition?

Thanks for the answer mr. 4cena!!!

Having the game on the 360 and not the PS3 (and, honestly, not playing it that much yet… I dunno, I mean, I LOVE Fallout 3/NV, but the Elder Scrolls series never really got to me… Not sure why.) I can't say from experience, however, there is one MAJOR bug that is causing people grief 20 or so hours in.



Basically the problem with this bug is that as the game continues, the save file gets larger and larger as more and more variables have to be taken into account. Which is all well and good, but on some PS3's, this growth of file leads to lag, and that leads to frustration.

And of course, with any Bethesda game, there are a bunch of glitches and weird bugs, but they are more pronounced on the PS3. The patches so far haven't solved all the problems, but they are working on it.

That said, it's unlikely for the game to crash every 10 minutes, but it may well be more glitchy than usual for a Bethesda game. I'd say wait a bit, till the patches catch up. Or, you know, get it on a 360 or PC. Those are fine (or at least, not quite as buggy).

And on that not at all subtle pitch, I bid you all goodbye. Remember, questions can go in the comment section, or, better yet, to [e-mail].

Until next time, please don't kill me Sony fanboys. Or do. See if I care.