Chris

Idle Thumbs 179: Shadow of Something

Recommended Posts

I still can't believe they couldn't come up with another synonym for "fight."

 

Nintendo's just gotten really bad at naming stuff, I guess.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Haha, yeah. It is weird. Or just call it Smash 4, like they've finally resorted to doing with Mario Kart.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Still waiting for Nintendo to realize they've never released a game titled "Mario Kart" and just call the next one that.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Super Smash Brothers Conflict

Super Smash Brothers Battle

Super Smash Brothers Modern Warfare

Super Smash Brothers Operation Enduring Freedom

Super Smash Brothers Noise Ordnance Violation

Super Smash Brothers Riot

Super Smash Brothers Clash (shortened to SmashClash or possibly Super Clash Brothers)

Super Smash Brothers Bulletstorm

Super Smash Brothers Dark Blood Rising

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Soundtrack (and  protagonist) for your Shadow of ... the behatted Robots game.

 

I regret that I don't have time to stick MSPaint Hats on them.

 

34451ec0.jpeg

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I was disappointed that the reader who asked a question then said "thanks for the Idle Vice" wasn't making a pun upon a pun by writing 'vice and thereby thanking for the advice.

As always, I find it necessary to point out that both Alien AND Aliens are excellent.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I still can't believe they couldn't come up with another synonym for "fight."

 

Nintendo's just gotten really bad at naming stuff, I guess.

 

Counterpoint: what order do the version names of OS X releases go in.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

, had the platform names:

 

tqjuSKO.png

 

Before that, they had only announced that they were doing two games, one for the 3DS and one for the WiiU.

NOOOOOO it was me all along.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I'm surprised they didn't go with Pokémon style branding given the slightly different color schemes.  Super Smash Bros Fire and Super Smash Bros Ice.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Super Smash Brothers Kerfuffle

Super Smash Brothers Quarrel

Super Smash Brothers Scrap

Super Smash Brothers Quibble

Super Smash Brothers Squabble

Super Smash Brothers Argument (Super Smash Brothers Row for European English localization)

Super Smash Brothers Combat Evolved

Super Smash Brothers Rumble (introducing Officer Krupke!)

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I'm surprised they didn't go with Pokémon style branding given the slightly different color schemes.  Super Smash Bros Fire and Super Smash Bros Ice.

 

Super Smash Bros. X and Super Smash Bros. Y?

 

Super Smash Brothers Argument (Super Smash Brothers Row for European English localization)

 

I finally understand "Row! Row! Fight the Power!"

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

FYI, if by "massively successful movies" you meant the original LOTR trilogy and not the Hobbit movies, the final one came out in 2003 and therefore not in the last decade. Now let's all take a moment to feel old.

 

EDIT: You should all feel ashamed at the number of Kangaroo Jack jokes left on the table. First of all, while you mentioned that he stole the money, you never said that he's not giving it back. People new to the podcast are now going to be so confused about the plot of that film! What's he going to do with the money? I have no idea! Then, seconds afterward, Chris brought up Contract J.A.C.K. and nobody made a Kangaroo Contract J.A.C.K. joke! For shame!

 

If we're going to be pedantic, I'd just point out that 2011-2020 is "this decade" and 2001-2010 is "last decade," so in that sense they did come out in the last decade. :)

 

 

I love that there's a five-minute discussion of the morality of orc genocide in the first part of the podcast. To clarify what Jake and Danielle were saying, Tolkien originally conceived of orcs as captured elves twisted and manipulated by Morgoth, the original dark lord of Middle Earth, so that they were incapable of good. Tolkien grew uncomfortable with this origin as time went on, especially the idea that a good creature could become innately and heritably evil, and spent the last years of his life rewriting the prehistory of Middle Earth over and over to try and find a way for orcs to have come into being without creating a situation in which an immortal soul cannot somehow be saved. Orcs couldn't just be the sole creation of Morgoth, because evil cannot create anything, so Tolkien seems to have been headed toward some sort of aggressive breeding program involving men, beasts, and maybe elves in order to bring out the worst in all, but he never finished revising his writings to account for the new origin. It's still kind of an odd thing, because it shows Tolkien's deep Catholicism forcing him unwittingly to reevaluate some of the racist imagery and stereotypes of his work, but his death prevents us from seeing where that would have ended up.

So yeah, as it stands, orcs are just fantasy Nazis and there's no moral issue with killing them, no matter how unjust it seems on the surface.

 

There's a scene in the Two Towers movie that shows the Uruk actually being created in the depths of the stone underneath Sauramon's tower. I kinda dug the concept that the regular orcs were an actual race that was corrupted, but the Uruk were created in vats. Of course, Shadow of Mordor has every single Orc in the whole game being called an Uruk. In the end, the movies conflict with the games which both conflict with the books (and the books conflict with each other for good measure.)

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Kept waiting for a Shadows of the Empire joke and it never came...no love for Dash I guess :(

He already got his episode which is the exact amount of love Dash deserves.. :(

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

There's a scene in the Two Towers movie that shows the Uruk actually being created in the depths of the stone underneath Sauramon's tower. I kinda dug the concept that the regular orcs were an actual race that was corrupted, but the Uruk were created in vats. Of course, Shadow of Mordor has every single Orc in the whole game being called an Uruk. In the end, the movies conflict with the games which both conflict with the books (and the books conflict with each other for good measure.)

 

Well, I think "Uruk" is just Black Speech for "orc," the "hai" affix is what distinguishes half-orcs from regular orcs. Of course, video games (and movies, for that matter) rarely are able to resist using a fancy or made-up word over a commonplace one, so everything's "Uruk" everywhere. Another reason why Tolkien is superior to all his imitators, because he preferred to reuse or rehabilitate existing English words when at all possible.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Well, I think "Uruk" is just Black Speech for "orc," the "hai" affix is what distinguishes half-orcs from regular orcs. Of course, video games (and movies, for that matter) rarely are able to resist using a fancy or made-up word over a commonplace one, so everything's "Uruk" everywhere. Another reason why Tolkien is superior to all his imitators, because he preferred to reuse or rehabilitate existing English words when at all possible.

 

Hmm, I guess that makes sense. I'd only ever heard of Uruk being used in Uruk-hai, thus I thought they'd just shortened the name.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Oh yeah on Worms, further into the episode I now remember the ninja rope is the reason I quit. I only really liked playing it online at some point despite everyone calling me a Yank, since my friends all got into being cool teens, but everyone seemed to be crazy with these ninja ropes and I never got the hang of it. So I just was not having fun ever because I was just constantly dying and couldn't be bothered to get good at the bad rope physics (which are good if you know how to use it).

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Forgot to mention: Ontario license plates have 7 characters, so I don't know what that guy saw.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Hmm, I guess that makes sense. I'd only ever heard of Uruk being used in Uruk-hai, thus I thought they'd just shortened the name.

Gorm's right as usual

http://lotr.wikia.com/wiki/Black_Uruks

e: spoke too soon a bit, that's movie stuff.

Here's a fun thread with a lot of discussion on the subject. My understanding's always followed the -hai = partially human (see also Olog-hai).

http://www.thetolkienforum.com/showthread.php?2146-Uruks-vs-Uruk-hai

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

As per the discussion about on the title screens in Alien Isolation, the only similar thing in film I can think of is that up through the 70's a lot of movies (particularly b-movies) had their copyright info right on the title card. But I think the copyright info under the title actually looks pretty classy, if only because a lot of classic Hollywood films had it so there's that history.

 

DAC03a.jpg

 

 

jackie-brown-1997-title-card-pic-6.jpg

 

Trademarks don't have that kind of charm. And they've been in video games forever. The worst is in the middle of the Nightmare on Elm Street NES game, you can fall asleep and a screen will pop up announcing "Freddy's Coming!"

A-Nightmare-on-Elm-Street_022.png

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I wish I could find the Giant Bomb clip where they talk about the licensed Tron Legacy Xbox Live Gamerpics (or whatever the hell those things are called) that manage to squeeze a "©Disney" into a 70x70px image.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Chris: I installed both Cloud To Butt and Shut Up. Shut Up is perfect; even better than my previous extension that just turned Youtube comments into nonsense. I forgot that I had installed Cloud to Butt at all until I looked up Scott McCloud's Wikipedia page today though.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Team 17 Games list

qty 16 - 2D

qty 4 - 3D

qty 5 - spinoffs

 

there was also a facebook game, i doubt that ever gained traction

 

 

Anyone ever play the 3d version? it was terrible to control and not very memorable, I imagine if it was played now would be just awful.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now