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Since pioneering the “toys to life” genre in gaming, the Skylanders franchise has generated over $3 Billion and sold over 250 million action figures. It’s become a yearly franchise for the game’s publisher, Activision, and this year at E3 the franchised announced the next step in the game. This year it’s about giving fans of two different gaming worlds moments they can both enjoy this Fall in Skylanders Superchargers.

We were invited to a behind closed doors demo at the Activision booth featuring gameplay walkthrough with developer Vicarious Visions and a close look at how the Nintendo Skylanders characters work.

In Skylanders Superchargers, Kaos has unleashed The Darkness to take control of Skylands. Fortunately, a special team of Skylanders known as the SuperChargers has been assembled to pilot an incredible fleet of vehicles with the power to travel through the destruction – over land, sea, and air.

Our demo took us through the main part of the game as we saw how the new vehicles work with the game. Everything you love about the previous games is here. Children and their family’s will see the puzzle solving, platform, and quirkiness these characters are known for. The new vehicle toys can be activated at any time but they really come into play accessing and exploring new areas of the Skylands. For example one area will only let you explore it if you have a water vehicle while another can only be traversed with an plane.

The demo wasn’t so much about the game’s story, but what this new element of gameplay would add. Each vehicle, when put on the portal for the first time, would show a unique animation that introduces it as the magic happens. Every one of these new types of toys also has the ability to be “supercharged” when paired with its corresponding Skylander. When Spitfire gets put on the portal with the new Hotstreak car, the game visually shows the hot rod beef up with new features and attributes including increased attack power for tougher bosses.

What will really set Skylanders Superchargers apart for Nintendo fans are two big additions to the game. Bowser and Donkey Kong are coming to Skylanders through special new figures. As someone’s kids say, don’t get it twisted. These aren’t just Amiibos with cross functionality. They’re Skylanders first. Donkey Kong and Bowser each have unique attributes in Skylanders Superchargers and each will have their own vehicles inspired by games like Donkey Kong Country including supercharged abilities. When playing the game with Donkey Kong, players get to launch unique attacks such as throwing barrels or leaving a conga drum mine for enemies.  Turning over the Donkey Kong figure players can switch it from Skylander mode to Amiibo for use in supported Nintendo games such as Smash Bros.

Vicarious Visions have listened to players and consumers alike in making this new Skylanders game. If you don’t want to add every new Skylander toy to your  hundred figure plus collection, you don’t have to. Every toy from every game will work on Skylanders Superchargers in some capacity. If you previously invested in Trap Team, even those special toys have a function in Superchargers. The new Superchargers portal has a slot for Trap figures. Though you will not be capturing your enemies in the same way as Trap Team; the toys will unlock different power ups in the game for the character on the portal.

Every Skylander can jump into any vehicle and the team has cashed in on any small element they could tweak in the game. For instance when you pair a bulky Skylander in a smaller vehicle it looks adorably awkward on screen as the team intended. Even Nintendo characters can ride in anyone’s vehicle.

A new starter pack with portal and two characters will be available at launch, but any portal will work with the game. You can buy a digital version of the game by itself and use previously purchased portals. Though only the Trap Team portal will be able to use trap characters. Only the Nintendo characters will be available in a two pack of toy and car but that price hasn’t been announced.

It’s remarkable what this franchise has accomplished since it spawned from Spyro the Dragon. Activision and the developers that work on Skylanders haven’t settled and they don’t take the new competition in the market lightly. While the Nintendo characters are exclusive to the Nintendo versions of the game; it does raise the question of possible crossovers with characters from those other platforms in future games. We can’t wait. Year after year the franchise has managed to deliver something that feels new and Superchargers is going to continue that tradition when the game releases on September 20, 2015.

Find out more about Skylanders on the game’s official website here.

Adam Sandler and company square off against actual squares.

This quintet of posters came out today for "Pixels," the big-budget Hollywood feature based on a two-and-a-half-minute French animated short.

This quintet of posters came out today for "Pixels," the big-budget Hollywood feature based on a two-and-a-half-minute French animated short.

So you thought you used to play 2D games. If you had taken a look behind the screen, then you'd have seen this. The featured game is Donkey Kong from Nintendo, a classic 8-bit video game for the arcades, released in 1981.

You're invited to Sevensheaven.nl for more imagery.

So you thought you used to play 2D games. If you had taken a look behind the screen, then you'd have seen this. The featured game is Donkey Kong from Nintendo, a classic 8-bit video game for the arcades, released in 1981.

You're invited to Sevensheaven.nl for more imagery.

So you thought you used to play 2D games. If you had taken a look behind the screen, then you'd have seen this. The featured game is Donkey Kong from Nintendo, a classic 8-bit video game for the arcades, released in 1981.

You're invited to Sevensheaven.nl for more imagery.

Style experiment with 2D and 3D elements, reflecting the legendary computer game Donkey Kong (1981).

More at Sevensheaven.nl

3D pixel (voxel) art experiment.

More at Sevensheaven.nl

So you thought you used to play 2D games. If you had taken a look inside your monitor, then you'd have seen this.

The featured game is Donkey Kong from Nintendo, a classic 8-bit game for the arcades, released in 1983.

Would be great to see a series of these scenes released as tangible designer gadgets. If anyone is interested to realize that, just get in touch with me. I can deliver the 3D scenes ready for rapid prototyping.

I'm planning to create more scenes like this, derived from other 8-bit classics, so stay tuned. Here's Impossible Mission.

More at Sevensheaven.nl

This is a short film I directed for the King Of Kong DVD.




I don't know if you're familiar with this movie, but it is great. It's an epic battle of good and evil. It's about Steve Wiebe vs. Billy Mitchell for the highest score on Donkey Kong. The movie is really more about the players.

After watching this movie, I think that Weibe deserves the title, BUT I also think the Billy Mitchell is an AMAZING gamer! One of the top of our lifetime. He's portrayed as the villian, but he is still deserves the recognition for his gaming feats. Just to put it into perspective, there probably wouldn't even be competative arcade gaming if it wasn't for Billy Mitchell.

Jon felt that the movie needed some kind of historical perspective of the actual Donkey Kong game, so the short was born.

I sure didn't do this short alone! We were under the gun for this one. We turned it around in 2 weeks--and that's all after hours work! It was a huge labor of love for everyone that worked on it at I Am 8bit Studios:

Written and Produced by Jon M. Gibson
Told by Eric Bauza
Music by 8 Bit Weapon
Designed by Steve Lambe and I
Animated by Tony Mora and I
After Effects by Matt Gadbois

Here's my animatic, just be warned, the whole thing is rough and on yellow post-its.



Every short starts with what is called a color script. This is a way to keep and overview of the whole film's color. It's a way to plan out the intensity and relationships of all the colors in all the scenes in order. Color is SUPER imporant. It basically dictates the emotions in the film--all following the story that is.

"Shiggy" Shigeru Miyamoto. I hope I've done him proud!


I loved designing DK. I must say that I despise the new DK design--ruined by RARE.


Here's some of Steve's Nintendo businessmen:

Thanks again everyone for such a fine job, and especially New Line for paying for it!

PW reports that independent booksellers are made at National Public Radio. “When NPR released its summer reading list and linked purchases to Amazon, booksellers like Josie Leavitt, co-owner of Flying Pig Bookstore in Shelburne, Vermont had mixed feelings. On the one hand, she advised other members of the New England Independent Booksellers Association listserv to print out the list, because she had three customers in one day ask about books on it. On the other hand, she said, ‘I was aghast when I noticed that the Buy This Book link goes right to Amazon.com and no one else.

Other bookstore owners complain that they donate to NPR and feel insulted. However, have you ever tried to buy a book through Booksense? You have to go through several hoops – first typing in your zip code, then picking a bookstore, then hoping they have a website, and then hoping they have a purchase feature on their Web site.

It’s easier to buy at Amazon. And you can add a pedometer, CD, and a box of cereal to your order and get free shipping. Even if you chose not to buy at Amazon so you can support your local bookseller (as I usually do) it’s still easy to use Amazon as a kind of virtual Books in Print – one place where you can gauge how well the book is selling, read reviews (both professional and not), and more.

All the being said, I buy nearly all my books at my local independent bookstores.





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