I am sure throughout the lifespan of this blog I will talk about fighting games, so let's bring up a relatively unknown fighting game. By "unknown" I mean "It was on the 3DO".
Let's look at the Naughty Dog classic: Way of the Warrior.
 |
| 3DOh no! See what I did there? |
Give it a second....
Yes, I said 'Naughty Dog' as in the company that would go on to make the Crash Bandicoot series, the same company that would make the Uncharted series, the same company that made The Last of Us. Of course, over time, people came and went from the company and the Naughty Dog of Warrior was way different than the Uncharted Naughty Dog, but it is kinda interesting to connect the dots there.
Way of the Warrior was released in North America in November of 1994 for the Panasonic 3DO. It was meant to capitalize on the success of Mortal Kombat by using digitized actors. Way of the Warrior looked to take down MK by promising more fatalities, more moves, and more gore. Did they succeed? Well considering you can still play new Mortal Kombat games today and there are (as far as we know) no plans on the "much anticipated" Way of the Warrior sequel, that should tell you all you need to know.
 |
| Back up or I will hit your knee with my face. I'll do it! |
In 1993, Naughty Dog was bankrupt when Jason Rubin and Andy Gavin decided to make Way of the Warrior. (I'm sure Naughty Dog doesn't have a big money problem anymore). Thus begins the tale of the young, aspiring company to make a big name fighting franchise. In lieu of a proper budget, the game was filmed in the developer's apartment in front of a yellow sheet glued to the wall. Rubin had to even open the door and film from the hallway to get all the "action". This caused his neighbors to believe he was shooting adult films. Imagine living next to that.
On top of that, they used pillows, sheets, anything in the apartment that wasn't nailed down, McDonald's Happy Meals and other assorted bits of junk were used to make up the costumes. I wonder if the actors dress as themselves for Halloween, it would be cheap at least, have you seen what it costs for costumes nowadays?
Rubin himself is in the game as 2 different characters, Konotori, and The Ninja. (Yep, it's just 'The Ninha'). Andy Gavin is the voice of several characters in the game. These guys poured their hearts into this game and showed several demos to Universal Interactive Studios (which eventually became Vivendi Games and later merged with Activision and is now a part of Activision Blizzard).
UIS liked the game and signed Naughty Dog to three more titles, these would become Crash Bandicoot, Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back, and Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped. So without this game, we may never have got these great commercials.
The story mode consisted of you beating 9 warriors, your shadow self, a dragon (High Abbot) and a skeleton (Kuil) before having your name etched into the "Book of Warriors". There also were a number of secret characters you could unlock with cheat codes. There were around 15 fighters in total which pales in comparison to how many characters you can play as in the upcoming Ultra Street Fighter IV (I lost count around a bajillion), but at the time, was pretty impressive, not to mention painstaking work given Naughty Dog's financial situation.
Reception of the game in the demo phase was mostly positive. When the game was fully released, however, reviews started souring. Some of which was pointed at the clunky controls (which probably had more to do with the 3DO's 'controllers'), the unimpressive animations, and the games lack of fulfilling that whole "9 fatalities per character" claim, leaving it to be named "Just another Mortal Kombat clone". As far as other 3DO games were concerned, however, the game sold fairly well.
What about the developers? What happened to Andy Gavin and Jason Rubin? Andy Gavin stayed through the Crash Bandicoot series and worked on the Jak and Daxter series before leaving in 2004. He bounced around a few companies including Fox Interactive Media. He has recently released 2 novels: "The Darkening Dream" (2011) and "Untimed" (2012).
Jason Rubin also stayed through the Crash Bandicoot games and was the director during the Jak and Daxter series. Rubin also left Naughty Dog in 2004 and later joined and became president of THQ before their demise in 2013.
See kids? Follow your dreams, pour your heart into something you're passionate about and someday you can make a career out of it.
The game? Oh, it was ok. The 3DO was NOT OK.
On top of that, they used pillows, sheets, anything in the apartment that wasn't nailed down, McDonald's Happy Meals and other assorted bits of junk were used to make up the costumes. I wonder if the actors dress as themselves for Halloween, it would be cheap at least, have you seen what it costs for costumes nowadays?
 |
| I wonder how high up the ninja ladder a pink belt is? |
UIS liked the game and signed Naughty Dog to three more titles, these would become Crash Bandicoot, Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back, and Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped. So without this game, we may never have got these great commercials.
 |
| Are you happy you won? |
Reception of the game in the demo phase was mostly positive. When the game was fully released, however, reviews started souring. Some of which was pointed at the clunky controls (which probably had more to do with the 3DO's 'controllers'), the unimpressive animations, and the games lack of fulfilling that whole "9 fatalities per character" claim, leaving it to be named "Just another Mortal Kombat clone". As far as other 3DO games were concerned, however, the game sold fairly well.
 |
| Yoga fire? Whiskey fire? |
Jason Rubin also stayed through the Crash Bandicoot games and was the director during the Jak and Daxter series. Rubin also left Naughty Dog in 2004 and later joined and became president of THQ before their demise in 2013.
See kids? Follow your dreams, pour your heart into something you're passionate about and someday you can make a career out of it.
The game? Oh, it was ok. The 3DO was NOT OK.
No comments:
Post a Comment