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Post by ghanmi on Aug 31, 2014 2:15:36 GMT -5
store.steampowered.com/app/279160/I can't believe I didn't find this earlier. Just in case, I searched around this forum and couldn't find one single mention of it. This is an indie 2D platformer released for Steam (PC) in February 25, 2014 by Last Dimension. The artist worked on Shantae (DSi), Monster Tale (DS) and the upcoming Legend of Iya. It's a throwback to the nineties platformers. Quick pacing, awesome presentation yet somewhat archaic old-school controls. Alternating between shump phases, and riding animals much like in Sparkster or Gunstar Heroes. It's excellent, yet... Almost everyone in this corrupt "gaming press" environment ignored on it on purpose. You can check on Google for the game and see for yourself.  The reason being that the heroine was considered to be depicted in a "sexist" way, according to "some" tweeters with apparently enough power to block stories, distribute an asinine narrative degradating real serious terms (like misogyny, racist, etc) as a carte blanche of sorts to block any critisism, even if that means calling an entire sub-culture of individuals of different genders/ethnicities/opinions/backgrounds "basement-dwelling white male rapist nerds (insert and republish on all "gaming sites" long hateful tirade here)". Now don't get me wrong. I love this message board and website and I'd rather not open this poisonous can of worms here about the recent drama over neoptism, a certain someone's relations, and how gamers are dead or some bullshit like that (where shit is flung from all sides over fabricated non-issues, for clicks and self-gratification). I'm bringing this up for a reason: this sore state of affairs devolved into effective censorship and character assassination. A game made by folks I loved their previous work, is boycotted from all websites for not fitting a certain norm set by people who'd rather ban/kill/boycott any game that's not "PC" enough for them (or just plain not to their liking, as a certain someone killed a fundraiser that was saved by 4chan of all people). The Steam page is filled with venomous, asinine, hateful comments toward the devs for supposedly sexist imagery and cover. Actually, it only has a boob jiggling animation for one cutscene, but otherwise a tame in-game outfit. If this game is "offensively sexist", then the average 16-bit Super Robot Taisen would be pornography by these standards. "Hey your game is pandering to males attracted to women it's offensive for me and the game needs to die" For your own good, steer away from the youtube section which is even worse. The game bombed horribly eventually, and the devs took a serious hit because of it. It will likely affect their future projects a LOT. Assuming I came in the right place, a place for gaming enthusiasts above everything, people who can enjoy games based on their own merit... and since we can freely discuss stuff like Criminal Girls Vita, Senran Kagura, or Akiba's Trip (keep in mind, this particular platformer is nowhere near as fanservice-y as those)... I plead to anyone of you who's liking this game to spread the word about it and save it from journalism boycott infamy. Maybe get some bloggers/youtubers aware of it... And I wish if possible keeping the discussion about this game as on-topic (less about the recent drama and more about this game) since it NEEDS all the attention it can get badly. If you like it, buy it. And try to save it from its current fate. Thanks a lot. Disclaimer: If you feel the need to argue about topics unrelated to this game in particular like
* Quinn's sexual life and personal deeds (I'm calling out a larger problem than that pathetic drama)
* how enjoying/caring about fan-service games geared at heterosexual males makes me somehow a misogynist sexist p.o.s.
* how all games should be retooled to be so-called "politically correct" depending on the goalspot of the day (aka forcefully censoring stuff that group X doesn't like, or adding in something) and non-conformism to this rule imposed on everything is the pure evil
* ad hominem, racial/sexual profiling, privileges, shut up and nod or behold my wrath
Please stop, leave the thread and let it slip to irrelevancy much like you would like this game to be, and get to be a wie.. winner in what you aimed for.
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Post by Échalote on Aug 31, 2014 3:04:19 GMT -5
The Steam page is filled with venomous, asinine, hateful comments toward the devs for supposedly sexist imagery and cover. Just checked the steam page and...no it's not ? Unless you consider "not a very good trowback at the amiga" a comment on sexist imagery, hell the majority of reviews are actually positive !.  Okay...please stop educating yourself with youtube videos. |
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TonicBH
Junior Member
8-bit Alex Trebek is judging you.
Posts: 79
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Post by TonicBH on Aug 31, 2014 3:27:20 GMT -5
It couldn't be something like "I didn't advertise this well," "I released this at a bad time as another major game was released" or anything sane, it has to be THE GIANT VIDEO GAME JOURNALISM CONSPIRACY!!!!
Seriously, dude. You sound like a right nut looking for something that doesn't exist. I didn't even know of this game's existence 'til now. Hardly a conspiracy.
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Post by kal on Aug 31, 2014 3:30:16 GMT -5
Actually despite what they claim in some of the steam page, it's a throwback to 80s platformers.
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Post by Gendo Ikari on Aug 31, 2014 3:30:55 GMT -5
Victim of such a cosnpiracy that it was even featured in a couple indie bundles (have it in my Steam library, but too much backlog).
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Post by ghanmi on Aug 31, 2014 3:38:18 GMT -5
Maybe I should rephrase it a bit  Dev behind this claims (on a youtube comment, though the account is legit) that he was denied coverage by a corrupt "journalism" industry, reasons being sexism and whatnot. I advised against reading the yt/steam forum comment section since the discussion there focuses more on "political correctness" than the actual merits/shortcomings of the game. After noting that this is a worrying example of game journalism in its pursuit of sensationalism and politics actually is trying to kill a game here (and not even a bad quality game), I put that disclaimer just in case based on how similar discussions often derail into a completely unrelated and awful drama. |
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TonicBH
Junior Member
8-bit Alex Trebek is judging you.
Posts: 79
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Post by TonicBH on Aug 31, 2014 3:45:33 GMT -5
Maybe I should rephrase it a bit Dev behind this claims (on a youtube comment, though the account is legit) that he was denied coverage by a corrupt "journalism" industry, reasons being sexism and whatnot. I advised against reading the yt/steam forum comment section since the discussion there focuses more on "political correctness" than the actual merits/shortcomings of the game. After noting that this is a worrying example of game journalism in its pursuit of sensationalism and politics actually is trying to kill a game here (and not even a bad quality game), I put that disclaimer just in case based on how similar discussions often derail into a completely unrelated and awful drama. See, your argument would have basis if it had proof besides "The designer said this in some YouTube comment." But you're giving conjecture that hasn't been proven. At all. For a smaller developer like him, he should've gone straight to the common YouTube circles. I bet Game Grumps, TotalBiscuit and other notable YouTube personalities would've been more than welcome to feature his game. Hell, just offering it to the Kotakus, the Destructoids or the Giant Bombs could've gotten more attention. But from what I gather here, he just didn't market himself well, and thus it got forgotten. But seriously dude, if you think the "games journalism illuminati cabal" suddenly had a hate-boner on this guy for having a character with huge tits on the cover, you're barking up the wrong tree. |
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Post by Feynman on Aug 31, 2014 4:19:38 GMT -5
There are tons of great indie games that have managed to slip through the cracks over the years without getting much exposure from the games press. For every game like Shovel Knight that games journalists trip over themselves to praise, there a Freedom Planet that's just as good but only gets a few mentions here and there. For every Cave Story that achieves massive popularity almost overnight, there's a La-Mulana that struggles to slooooooowly build a devoted fanbase over the years before the general public finally notices it.
That's just how it is. His game got passed over. It sucks, and it isn't fair, but I highly doubt that his game was targeted by a sinister network of feminist games journalists determined to prevent his game from succeeding.
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Post by kal on Aug 31, 2014 4:44:36 GMT -5
Ultonius isn't really that good though, at least from what I played. It's VERY VERY PRETTY and I'd never take that away from it but it's not really more fun than the 8-bit computer platformers that inspired it and those were basically ignored outside of England and Europe. It was already pretty set up to fail - it sucks but the fact that he blames all this (allegedly) on some cabal of the industry kind of makes me regret even giving him money to begin with.
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Post by Échalote on Aug 31, 2014 4:56:08 GMT -5
I advised against reading the yt/steam forum comment section since the discussion there focuses more on "political correctness" than the actual merits/shortcomings of the game. Did you actually read them ? Because no, they're not about ""political correctness". |
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Post by vetus on Aug 31, 2014 6:46:09 GMT -5
I learned about this game few months ago when I was browsing Jake Kaufman's site (one of my favourite video games composer who's famous for his work in many WayForward's games like Shantae) and at his discography (which you can download it for free) I found the soundtrack of Ultonius. virt.bandcamp.com/album/ultionus-a-soundtrack-of-petty-revengeI haven't played this game but I want to since it looks so awesome. I'm also surprised that I haven't seen people talking about it, expecially since indie retro-style games are so popular. Still I found it kinda stupid to blame low sales to its "sexism" being boycotted by feminist journalists, it doesn't makes sense. Sexism is supposed to bring the opposite result: make a game much more famous (since people dig "controversial" games) and therefore more profitable. Take Senran Kagura and Dragon's Crown for example which had decent advertisement from their companies and the sites. One of the few "sexist" games that didn't sold so well is Killer is Dead and that's because the game itself wasn't as good as it was hyped. And its supposed "sexism" was too fucking mild, expecially comparing to many other commercial games. For every game like Shovel Knight that games journalists trip over themselves to praise, there a Freedom Planet that's just as good but only gets a few mentions here and there. Maybe Freedom Planet didn't have the hype of Shovel Knight but still it has a decent cover from sites with positive reviews. It also has its own, detailed entry at Wikipedia while Ultonius doesn't. And in 4chan there will be always a FP thread at Video Game Generals. boards.4chan.org/vg/catalogFor every Cave Story that achieves massive popularity almost overnight, there's a La-Mulana that struggles to slooooooowly build a devoted fanbase over the years before the general public finally notices it. Actually Cave Story was not an instant hit but a game which its good reputation spread from mouth to mouth and slowly became the game we all know and love. |
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Post by alphex on Aug 31, 2014 7:14:40 GMT -5
I watched the video, and while it's not really offensive, there's bouncing breasts in a pink bra a couple seconds in. Complaints about sexism aren't exactly out of nowhere. Let's put it this way, I'd feel like a dork playing the game with that intro sequence. But I guess a guy who is concerned about the "2nd wave feminism onslaught" wouldn't see nothing unusual about it.
And in case you didn't know, the difference between this and "the average 16-bit Super Robot Taisen" is that 20 years have passed. Hell, since it looks more like an Amiga game than anything else, more like 25 years. That game feels like the cold war never ended. Going back 25 years from 1989 to illustrate my point - you're somewhere between Vietnam and racial separation. Still wonder why that stuff doesn't fly anymore today? Time makes a huge difference.
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Post by vetus on Aug 31, 2014 8:28:03 GMT -5
Yet I have never seen anyone complaining about Mai's bouncing breasts in King of Fighters. And that's a more popular game with more detailed graphics and animation (expecially in later entries) with Mai being one of the most popular female video game characters.
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Post by alphex on Aug 31, 2014 8:37:56 GMT -5
That's probably because people don't expect any better from a) a long-running series b) from Japan that's c) at least formerly AAA. People also don't get angry at Michael Bay movies featuring women as props. The audience of that probably doesn't mind, either.
But indie developers a) are young enough to b) know better and c) don't have to wave around tits to make sure everybody looks so they can make back their million dollar budgets. And I guess their audience minds.
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Post by Ike on Aug 31, 2014 8:42:11 GMT -5
Haha what the fuck, the animations on everything are so smooth and then you've got jiggles the clown as a main character.
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