April May Live Magazine

LIVE APRIL/MAY 2017 ISSUE

Unlisted Leaf

Pokèmon YouTube Star Page 52

MASS EFFECT:

AN UNOFFICIAL COMPANION RANKING Page 126

racing games: Past, Present, Future Page 6

Best GameS Nobody Played Of

2016

BY VGCHARTZ Page 112

The change of seasons - here in the southern hemisphere we’re well into Autumn. Our friends in the northern hemisphere are in spring and looking down the road to the beginning of summer. The cooler months are great for us here at Live. We have no excuses to get out and do stuff like the gardening - it’s going to be too cold and wet soon. So instead, we plan board game and video game nights. We happily go off to trading card events and enjoy the friendship and competition of Magic, Yu-Gi-Oh or Pokemon.

For some of us it’s X-Wing tournaments or getting online and racing your friends in Forza or GT... Yes, Autumn can be a lot of fun for us gamers.

With that in mind, this months Live is a mixed bag. We’ve got a feature on racing games - past present and we even look into our crystal ball at what the future may bring. We also sat down with Pokemon guru, Unlisted Leaf for an interview which, if you’re a fan, you’ll find most entertaining.

We’ve also got a brilliant feature by our very own Chatty Anny who gives us her unofficial companion ranking for Mass Effect and Tiffany Dean gives us her wrap up of Comic Con in Adelaide.

There’s the usual brilliance from Retro Editor Paul and our Entertainment Editor Scott.

As always - a big thank you to the team from VG Chartz who share thoughts on gaming and the best games nobody played of 2016!

If you like your free copy of Live - share it around and help us build out communty.

Your friends at Gametraders and Live Magazine.

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FEATURE

RACING GAMES

PAST, PRESENT, FUTURE

I’m sitting in my lounge and I have my iPad hooked up to my Apple TV and I’m watching the Subaru WRX STI Isle of Man video. The driver, Mark Higgins, has a camera in the car and the video editors have overlaid a few graphics such as speed, G-Force, skin temperature, respiratory rate plus the slightly letterbox view out the windscreen gives you a video game feel. But it ain’t no game and it’s terrifyingly fast.

How he doesn’t miss a corner or scrape a wall (or spectator at times) is amazing. True skill. Watching Higgins scream down a long straight flat out at 170 MPH+ had me reaching for the camomile tea to calm the nerves... seriously it’s fast and frightening.

After the lap I sit there thinking that most of us will never drive like that. Or will we? I flip on the Xbox One S and load up Forza Horizon 3, and I pick a race. To make things a bit more real I choose the drivers view out the windscreen and

in a short while my windscreen is cracked from my less then perfect race line and bumping into another car. The graphics scream past on my 65 inch Sony TV and the sound through the surround sound is flipping awesome... until I crash.

The look and sound gets me thinking to the future of racing games, and back to the past where my first love in gaming - simulations, started my gaming journey to working at Gametraders and Live Magazine. Back when I was a kid, I fell in love with driving and flying sims. We’ll leave the jet sims for another issue, today I’m looking back at some of the driving games that I played over the (many, many - Giselle the Art Director... yeah the editor is old.) years.

Hopping into the GT time machine I head back to a time of simpler graphics, simpler controllers and more hair on my head.

It’s 1991 and my Commodore Amiga 500 has Lotus Esprit Turbo Challenge loaded up and that sound track is so damn retro and cool. I’m sitting at the start line and the simple graphics show lot’s of greenery, some mountains in the background and a 4 lane highway with my red Lotus sits in the middle of the screen, outside only view. Pretty soon I’m off and racing and trying to avoid the other Lotus cars and make the checkpoints. The game flowed along graphically pretty well. You could have 2 players and a lot of fun doing so and it rated pretty well in the magazines of the time. It was published by Gremlin Graphics and the creators were Shaun Southern and Andrew Morris. There were three versions and my favourite was Lotus 2 which let you link two Amiga’s (or Atari systems) and play on your own computer full screen.

Brilliant!

Grand Prix Legends - PC Ok, so I’ve mentioned one GP game but this one was special. It was published by Sierra Sports and developed by Papyrus Design Group. It was PC only and landed on our hard drives in 1998. It was quite unique for a couple of reasons. Firstly it was set in 1967 and so you raced cars with less driving aids like wings and such and that made it hard. It represented a time in GP racing that was exciting and extremely dangerous and the physics and the track graphics are brilliant for the time. It took me ages to get to grips with it.

Coming off the Amiga system and playing more arcade style games, GP Legends was a steep learning curve. But I loved it and loved it so much that I went and bought an analogue wheel and pedals to enjoy it even more. Then I discovered the

multiplayer mode online. One word - humiliating. The first dozen or so times I was thrashed. I don’t think I even finished a lap for the first few races. The excitement of the starting line and the sound of the engines really affects you and next thing you know you’re off and trying to keep up and that leads to mistakes when you’re a rookie. It was the most difficult racing sim you can buy and probably still is. I found out that there are hard core fans still playing today in online communities, with new tracks and refreshed graphics as well as a lobby system.

Enjoy a nostalga rush here on Youtube.

See it here: https://youtu.be/_Gq6U7uH63c

Formula One Grand Prix - PC The thing that stays with me from this Geoff Crammond game was you could turn the graphics up and down to get a better frame rate. The game came out in 1992, published

by Microprose and was released on Amiga, Atari ST and PC. It represented the 1992 GP season but the drivers names were fictional as the game was not officially affiliated with the FIA. It had simulation type adjustments such as gear ratios and wing settings that did impact the driving of your racer. You could even turn off and on driver aids to help you learn to drive or if you were just not so good, like me, keep them on and enjoy racing without crashing into everything on the track...

Graphically and with regard to coding, the game was ahead of its’ time. On the PC version especially you could turn on graphics like tex-

tures etc to add more realism, but you needed a kick-ass processor to make it look good and run smooth.

I didn’t know this at the time, but it also had something called “Play by Mail Mode”. I’ll let Wikipedia explain it better then I will: “A special PBM or Play by Mail mode was introduced in F1GP. Players would choose one of the drivers for the particular race and when their turn was up save the game onto floppy disk. The disk would then be sent via second class mail to other participants in the event to continue with their turn. This would again be saved and the disk mailed out to the next participant. The PBM mode could extend to include a full seasons championship.”

Stunt Car Racer - Amiga 500 There’s two things that stood out for me playing Stunt Car Racer. The sound, a growling V8 sound and the crazy track that was elevated and, at speed, became freaky as you did your best not to go off the track. When I first started playing it, I think I spend more time being lifted back on the track by the crane then actually racing. The graphics were very simple, a simple track in front of you that you navigated around with clean blue sky and some far off vague scenery to fill in the background. It was damn tough too with the track being elevated you could easily go flying off at speed and lose valuable time waiting to firstly crash and then secondly for the crane to lift you back on track.

You had a view from the drivers

seat, with a bunch of flame spitting exhausts, a speedo and some track data and that’s about it. While a very simple game - 3 laps, it was addictive in two player mode where, like Lotus, you could connect up two Amiga systems (or Atari ST) via a null modem cable and race against each other. The trick was to not make a mistake and hope the other player got too excited and fell off, giving you a lead that you then had to protect by driving cautiously.

It was a game of nerve and skill.

Developed by Geoff Crammond yes that Geoff Crammond who also did - Formula One GP on Amiga, ST and PC, Grand Prix 2, Grand Prix 3 and Grand Prix 4! The guy was amazing. It came out in 1989.

Daytona USA and Sega Rally - Sega Saturn I couldn’t talk about racing games without mentioning two of the all time classics. They started out as an arcade game and Daytona is actually the highest grossing arcade game of all time. Both had 3D graphics with textures and gorgeous sound.

Both also hit arcades in 1993/94 and a bunch of us would happily empty our wallets into the cabinets and race each other. Both were also released on Sega’s Saturn with a slower frame rates and reduced graphics but were fun and one of the reasons I bough my Saturn at the time. I spent weeks perfecting that first rally track trying to get the best time among my friends. In fact they’d drop over my place to have a quick go so we could record who was fastest on that first track. While

the Saturn version kept many racers happy playing and racing in two player mode, to me it was the arcade versions that I remember best.

We’d go down to the video store ... yep the mega large Video Ezy had a bunch of arcade machines in one area and I’d head down with my brother and friends and suggest my wife pick out a VHS to watch while we raced... brilliant!

If my research is right, there’s a secret game you can find on the Dreamcast and PC version (please let us know if this is wrong) but if you hit both red cones on the final turn of the Riviera track and then turn around 180 degrees you find a secret area that has the mini game where you have to hit as many cones as possible.

Ridge Racer - Playstation One I couldn’t leave out Ridge Racer by Namco. I’m talking about the PS1 version that got me hooked so much so I went out and bought a NegGcon. The game development took 8 months and was a launch title on the new Sony console. The ability to drift made it a hit with, well, the drift crowd but it was an arcade racer and a lot of fun - not to be taken as a serious sim.

With the slightly blocky cars ( and start girl) and pixelated tracks you raced other cars around a track that had the ocean as scenery as well as a long yellow light tunnel and the cityscape. Hitting other cars slowed you down but you and they seemed to just bounce off each other. I liked the speedo and tacho on the bottom right of the screen as well as the map showing where I was on the track top left. The voice over guy was pretty full on but you got use to it. Now back to my NgCon comment - I hear some of you asking what was a NeGcon - it was a strange looking but brilliant controller that for me at least, made driving games on the PS1 even better. It featured analogue steering

and the two red buttons were also analogue so accelerating and braking felt more natural. To steer, you twisted the controller up and down or maybe forward and back is a better explanation. I had the white one (pictured) but I see there was a rare black one also...

Need for Speed - 3DO Ahh the memories... I can remember heading to the original Gametraders store before it was called Gametraders and hiring a 3DO for the weekend. My friends would all come over and we’d settle in for a night of gaming fun. The key title we loved was Need for Speed and it came out in 1994 and was “Presented by Road and Track” EA teamed up with the car magazine and that helped the game have more realism and also great images to show of the cars just like the magazine. The thing we loved were the police pursuits. Six tracks featured in the game - City, Coastal, Alpine (a favourite with some) Rusty Springs, Autumn Valley and Vertigo.

There was something quite magical about driving those tracks. Sure the graphics were e bit blocky but to me, it was the start of a more realistic looking game. The graphics had almost a video or photo quality about them and the 3DO did its best to push them along at acceptable frame rates. Unfortunately the system didn’t survive and we all moved on to Sega and Sony and of course, Nintendo’s systems. But Need for Speed has a special place in my heart - those Friday night game-fets full of pizza and racing will always be fond rmemories.

Andretti Racing - Playstation One Not as many people seem to remember this one. But we loved it and here’s why - Pitstops. It was such an exciting game to play. You had choice of Stock Cars, Indy Cars and dirt track racing. We loved Indy Cars. We’d race 3 laps but ensure that you had to make one pit stop and the timing of the stop would always affect the race. I remember the in car view, whilst blocky, it worked well but for multiplayer we’d always choose the outside view. The sounds were great, and the crashes were awesome with

wheels and spoilers flying off, causing expensive loss of time and usually where my opponent would overtake me. Then came the tough part, when to pit. It was always tempting to let them pit first and do your best to put in a fast lap time and hope they couldn’t match it. Then you had to pit and you’d sit there nervously waiting to see if they’d catch up. Seriously good racing fun. The game came out first on the Sega Genesis / Mega Drive but I played the 1996 version on my PS1.

There’s a bunch more games I could have included here. So many fond memories of great racing games.

Formula 1 on the PS1 using the cable to hook up two systems was as close to arcade racing you could get back then - some of us even bought racing seats with wheels to enhance the experience. Today there are even more great racing games. Here’s a list of games you might want to add to your collection: F1 2016 on PC, PS4 and Xbox One Codemasters put this one out and it’s a must have. You get a career mode and an excellent multiplayer game too.

Need for Speed Hot Pursuit - Xbox 360 and PS3 and also PC Car chases gator, cops chasing you and brilliant fast graphics - this will have your adrenalin pumping!

Dirt Rally - Xbox One, PS4 and PC Ak so it use to be known as Colin McRae but it remains true to it’s linage - rally racing done right. It’s fast and addictive but for the novice, you’ll need to practise lots to get those times up. We love it!

Forza Motorsport 6 - Xbox One So I bought this game, yep paid for it to play the heck out of it. I could have probably gotten a review copy but didn’t want to wait. So why this one? Well I have an Xbox One S and Forza is THE race game for the Xbox. It has beautiful graphics, great game play , sound is flipping awesome on my surround (turn it down hon! - my wife) and it does have 4K visuals if you have the TV to support it. The graphics are ... well life like. This might just be the game I go an invest in another analogue race wheel for.

Gran Turismo Sport - PS4 You can’t include Forza with out GT on Playstation unless you want a bunch of Sony fans with torches and pitch forks outside our head office. It’s the best racer on PS4 (my opinion) and has a long pedigree of gaming right back to 1992 when Kaxunori Yamauchi set out with his team to develop a race game that took them 5 years to finish. A version has been on every Playstation and no doubt this tradition will continue with better, more immersive racing in the future... which leads me to the future of racing.

CTC

CTC

Two of the best racing games you can get for your console

FUTURE RACING GAMES A quick hop into our Gametraders Time Machine (patent pending) and we dash just 3 years into the future. Why 3 years? It’s expensive to travel through time. But seriously I don’t think we need to wait too long before the whole VR or AR thing is really working and mainstream. So what is VR - Virtual Reality - usually requiring a headset and sound so that as you “look around” the screen in front of you moves like you are really there.

You can see this on Youtube now if you don’t already have a headset from Sony or Occulus or which ever system you’re tied into. AR is Augmented reality which blends virtual reality with the physical world. Think Pokemon Go and people using their phones to hunt Pokemon in the real world. Where as VR will completely take over your vision and hearing putting you into a virtual world. How do I see the future for racing. Racing seats and screens are expensive to buy. They are awesome and give you an amazing race experience, but to have one in the lounge my upset your significant other... plus the cost! So, to me at least, I’m predicting that a set of goggles or headset with headphones will block out any distractions and give you an immersive experience. I think to get a real feel you’d need a wheel, after all we drive cars with steering wheels and it’s going to feel more realistic if the wheel is planted on the ground so you can really turn into corners. Same with pedals but

if hardware manufacturers come out with a simple foot pedal connected by Bluetooth - you could simply place it on the ground and rest your feet on them for accelerating and breaking. I can’t see it working without some sort of tactile feedback - holding your foot up and pressing a “virtual” pedal just won’t feel the same and you’ll likely cramp up.

Multiplayer will be more personal what I mean is the lobby area that many games have for multiplayer gaming will likely have you virtually interacting, talking, seeing other players. You may even be able to virtually walk out of the lobby and on to the pit lane and get into your car. Racing will feel more real, faster frame rates and real world visuals will totally immerse you. A crash needs to be a crash without actually hurting you but slowing you down to penalise poor driving. There may be a series of responses you can turn up or down with regard to crashing, the same as many games have driver aids. Crashes may allow you to spin and feel a bit dizzy or disoriented depending on the medical condition you’re in.

Maybe, just maybe we may be heading for the same simulation experience as seen in the Bruce Willis film Surrogates - but that would be maybe too much?

Augmented Reality or Virtual Reality

Which will give us the best racing experience?

VR Racing including wheel and seat would give the best overall experience at this point in time.

YOUR SAY

FAVOURITE DRIVING GAME AN LEARN RACETRACKS FROM PL “In terms of pure driving simulation Gran turismo 4 would have to be my favorite, the detail, car selection and the real world tracks make it feel authentic and real as if you were there.

I think it is possible to learn a racetrack from a videogame if it is modelled correctly with all the correct turns and corners.”

- Jarrod Dickson

“I like the free roam of NFS Underground 2 and the new Forza Horizon games.

As for learning the tracks in game, it is possible but you would not be able to race the track in the same style in real life as you would in game, the game doesn’t account for inertia on your body or the real threat of death if you mess up, short of a fully immersive cockpit I mean...”

- Christopher Franz “Got to be Gran Turismo 3. The Laguna Seca track in the unlocked F1 car are what memories are made of.”

- Derrick Berisa

“Mario Kart Double Dash is my favourite Driving/Racing game. If we’re forced to clarify more My favourite arcade racers are Outrun & Daytona & my favourite sim racer is Gran Turismo 2. The GT Academy has already proved that you can learn the real race tracks from a video game, so no need for that part of the question.”

- Jean-Paul Bartolomei

“The age old question is: will playing driving games make you a better driver? Quite possibly - if you’re playing a simulation with a racing wheel or even driving in GTA as if you were driving there in real life (I.e. stopping at red lights and obeying traffic laws - resisting the urge to cause mayhem).

But there is one game which wont help and that game is Burnout 3, one of my favourite racing games of all time. Love boosting, taking out my opponents, signature takedowns, drifting and doing those crash challenges. It’s the best way to relieve stress and burn some rubber. Love the music soundtrack and variety of tracks as well. Also great with mates!

“Mario Kart has taught me a very important lesson when driving on roads myself - trust nobody ;).”

You cant learn the race tracks cause they’re fictitious (well you can memorise them to get faster in-game) and definitely CAN’T do what you do in the game in real life!”

- Bron Lovejoy

- Joseph Ung

“Gran Turismo 2 on PS, so many amazing hours playing that game!”

- James Allenby

ND DO YOU THINK YOU CAN LAYING THEM...

“My favourite driving game is eye spy (laughs). But video game I think burnout 3 will always and forever be my favourite.”

“Can’t beat the classic Mario Kart.

Many a friendship has been made, and unmade on those slippery slopes of Rainbow Road.”

- Adam Haidle

- Matt Taylor

“My N64 and all games were stolen years ago and when I was re-buying the games I had I started with the racing games. Star Wars Episode 1 Racer, Top Gear Overdrive, San Francisco Rush, these were all fantastic racers that had their own feel.

There’s a lot to discover in between your Mario Karts and your Forzas.

“There are so many racing games that I would love to pick as my favorite.

I think the best thing you can learn from racing games is the importance of taking corners at a sensible speed. Most of the time slamming into the wall on a tight corner doesn’t pay off. Utilizing your brakes is a lesson well learned sooner than later.”

- Lucas Andrew “For me I love the Forza games, I’ve only got up to a Xbox 360 so haven’t played Horizon 3 but from the first Forza Motorsport they had me hooked. The car upgrade menus and the whole mechanic of the games are great.”

- Patrick Ansell

So I’ll go ahead and pick Forza Horizon 3, not only that it’s loosely based in Australia but it has the mix of simulation and arcade racing, not to mention the paint job designs can bring out the artist in everyone if they have the time and patience.

As for translating the race track from video games to reality question... It can work, although it can be very hard to get it all done properly since most simulation racing games aren’t One Hundred percent in the realism department (inertia, heat,effects from the car being damaged, etc).

But if you know the layout of the track very well it can be added to your advantage.”

- Marc Sola

“I’m loving Dirt Rally in VR on the PS4 Pro. The attention to detail is absolute perfection and makes for an exhilarating ride! As far as learning tracks from games is concerned, I think it’s entirely possible. Real race drivers will often use simulations like Gran Turismo to hone their skills off the track. Theoretically though, any game with a half decent recreation of a circuit would work just the same with enough time and dedication.

And we can’t forget that each year Gran Turismo takes gamers and turns them into real race drivers via the GT Academy program, so there has to be something in it!”

- Kieran Braden “Driveclub vr because its the only racing sim vr on psvr (cmon NFS underground).”

- Wes Smith

YOUR SAY

FAVOURITE DRIVING GAME AN LEARN RACETRACKS FROM PL “I can’t put a title on my favourite game because I don’t have one but I do have a favourite style which would be crash racing. Now when I say crash racing I don’t mean crash bandicoot, no I mean the style where you can race a proper race but have little twits in it where you can rite off other cars or damage them while racing . Examples of these styles would be burnout, Mario cart , crazy taxi, carmageddon.

As for learning tracks of course any game played enough you can learn the ins and outs the tough corners etc etc.”

- Jakob Lang “Mario kart 64, ended a 10 year friendship with the rainbow road jump shortcut, was totally worth it cause I won.”

- Tuan Nguyen

“My all time favorite driving game was forza motorsport 4, some of those tracks I knew off the top of my head, from the sweeping bends of the Sedona Raceway, to the sharp complex turns of the Fujimi Kaido downhill run, I personally believe that games in the forza collection are some of the best racing sim games on the market, with a huge car selection and each vehicle being as accurate (performance and visually) as they would be in real life, those games were, and still are, absolute works of art.”

- Chriss Fuller “If we are talking about simulated racing games, then the Formula 1 series of games because I love watching Formula 1, the way that they accurately create the cars and tracks is great. This also allowed me to properly learn the race tracks for when I raced on them again.

But in terms of my all time racing games, then NFS Most Wanted takes the cake. The free roam, the extensive competitiveness that comes with climbing the blacklist, all to achieve the final goal of winning back the car you were wrongfully cheated out of. Nothing beats these games.”

- Jesse Barrow

“Driving games such as Gran turismo, Forza, F1 and a variety of others, do put forward genuinely good tracks with reasonable physics models providing people with an experience of what it might be like the real thing, this leads a continuous player to learn things like the layout of a racing circuit, how to drive the circuit (I.e. Braking markers, turn-in points, track extents) how different cars react and how different cars need to be driven (I.e. Gearing, steering input and pedal input). So from my experience they do ultimately help you learn the layout and how to drive a racing circuit and help teach you driving necessities, and my favourite game would have to be Gran turismo 4 & 6 physics are good, cars are good tracks are good.

Cheers!”

- Jayden Williams “Definitely not Gran Turismo. A lot of the cars sound like vacuum cleaners.”

- Adam Tiny MacNeill

ND DO YOU THINK YOU CAN LAYING THEM...

“Grid 3 feels the most accurate of the ones I’ve tried. And the graphics look absolutely incredible!

I do think I could learn racetracks from it. But how well that knowledge would apply to real life driving, I’m not sure. You’re welcome to sponsor me to find out.”

“Driving games for me started with Mario Kart DS, I took that thing everywhere with me when I was a kid.

It grew from there, delving into sims like Gran Turismo, and arcade types like Burnout. Recently, I’ve been enjoying Forza 6, and The Crew. I’m a drifter at heart and you could definitely see that if you looked at any of my builds!”

- Taao Quinn - Jayden Williams “Honestly my Attraction to racing games started when i was a kid. With old school Mario kart. It evolved to gran turismo on the ps1, I think the idea of attaining licences before you could participate in higher levels was a great idea. It got you used to certain techniques and is probably what paved the way for me to experience more challenging type games such as forza and the later GT games.

I think as far as learning tracks go, as long as the track is accurately portrayed in the game then you can most definitely learn a track. I could probably race at Nürburgring pretty successfully with what I’ve learnt haha.”

- Ryan Walsh

“Need For Speed Underground 2 for driving, race variety and level of car customization.”

- Glen Nilsson

“Need for speed most wanted my mate and I spent many hours trying to complete this one small track in the fastest time.”

- Blayne Bevington

“Ive learnt 75% of my track knowledge from Sim Racing the rest TV Broadcast and Living in Bathurst NSW home of Mount Panorama for 10yrs , First public Road i Drove on.

Games like Iracing and Assetto Corsa have real world implications and Pro Race drivers use both to their advantage to learn tracks and tunes etc . Laser scanned tracks and real time noise and engine data is what they can transfer to their real world racing . Forza Motorsport / Horizon and the like are fun games to get in and have a cruise and feel a semi realistic feel of a car , BUT nothing comes close to Assetto Corsa and Iracing . Also Project CARS is a great half way line between the Forza Series and Iracing etc . In the end if you want realism and feel what it is like , Play AC or Iracing with a wheel if you can . If you are new to motorsport in general , Play Forza and learn how to race and how to run tracks for laps on end then step up to the Big Boys in Iracing and Assetto Corsa.”

- Daniel Penrith-Smith

geek o GAMES & POP CULTURE TRIVIA DID YOU KNOW

BEST SELLING BOARD GAMES BOARD GAMES

BYE BYE BARS INTERVIEW BOARD GAMES

BOX OF JOY RETRO

PC MANUALS & GAME BOXES YOUR SAY

out

TCG NEWS

TRADING CARDS

THE GAMER DIARIES: 1997-1998 RETRO

LET’S GET EVIL: RESIDENT EVIL MOVIES

UNLISTED LEAF

trading cards

THE TRUTH

DID YO

GAME & POP CULTURE FU

We’ve looked at some classic racing games this month so we thought we’d feature some car trivia too - here we go...

Did you know the Ford Mustang got its name from the P-51 Mustang fighter plane?

The first true “muscle car” is considered to be the Pontiac GTO that came out in 1964.

The first racing game is said to be the 1959 game, Mini Drive where you used a steering wheel to control a car the scrolled across a conveyor belt. But in the late 60s Kasco had a game called Indy 500 which used a rear-projection screen to display a first person scrolling track on the screen.

OU KNOW...

UN FACTS & TRIVIA

What’s the top selling racing game of all time... guess.. Yep its the Wii version of Mario Kart Wii that came out 2008 and sold a huge 35 million+!

What year did the first Super Mario Kart come out...? Try 1992 - it came out on the SNES. (Super Nintendo Entertainment System) and sold a whopping 9 million copies!

Every issue I search the globe for game and pop culture trivia, I get sent out across the globe, (first class) to scout the world of video games to bring you some fun facts.

(Um... no. We gave you a crappy old laptop and told you to search the web... Ed.)

Second highest racing game is Mario Kart on DS with 23 plus million sold.

As for true race or driving sims we need to look at Gran Turismo 3 : Aspec with almost 15 million sold for PS2.

YOUR SAY board games

BEST SELLING

BOARD

GAMES!

Love board games - yeah us too. So we got hold of a ranking of the best selling games this year (so far).

So if you’re not sure what to buy here’s what other board and table top game fans are buying, playing and loving.

With autumn here and winter (oh dear) just around the corner, now’s the time to try out some fun board games. Our review team listed their 5 top reasons to get into board and table top gaming: 1 - You love sitting around with pizza and a few drinks with friends and having a grand social time 2 - You have friends... to play with.

3 - Games can bring out the competitive beast within and so there is no better way to express your competitiveness and proclaim you’re the best!

4 - Board games have good replay value - you can play many of them over and over.

5 - Think they are tricky to learn?

Well there’s excellent resources on sites like Youtube that walk you through how to play Have fun and get gaming!

YOUR SAY board games

BYE BYE BARS www.byebyebars.com

Recently we sent our editor to visit Romania so as to catch up with some game developers. The reason being ..

A) We don’t like him and hoped he’d run into some sort of mythical vampire from that part of Europe.

B) We really don’t like him and hoped he’d get lost in translation.

C) He’s actually got some Gypsy blood in him and was wanting to visit Hungary and Romania isn’t that far from Budapest so let’s get him to do some damn work for one...

Romania is in Southeastern Europe and borders the Black Sea. It has around 19 million people and some Romanians have changed the world in very positive ways.

For example, Nicolae Constantin Paulescu discovered insulin. Eugen Pavel invented the Hyper CD-Rom and Petrach Poenaru invented the fountain pen.

It’s also the home of the team behind a game called Bye Bye Bars, a prison based game where the player that gets rid of their cards first, wins.

So while our editor isn’t really travelling the countryside of Romania (we do like him... sort of) he did manage to catch up with the team...

Firstly tell us about yourselves.

Where are based and how many in the team?

We are a small team from Romania (Transylvania to be precise) Andrew, Cipi and Dani, three guys who met first during high school, where we studied art.

Later we went to the same college in Cluj, again studying art (graphic, sculpture and design) and even lived for a while in the same apartment.

We currently moved back to Sibiu, our hometown, and started working on our first project together- Bye Bye Bars.

How did you come up with the idea for a board game and why a prison based game?

We always liked to make stupid jokes/illustrations about people, events and just about anything. You know there’s always that kid in class that likes to sketch all day, well we were that kid(except we were 3), needles to say our teachers didn’t like our depictions of them. The inspiration came from the tv show “superjail!” because thats the kind of humor we like,very exaggerated and absurd humor. We saw a niche in “prison” based games since we haven’t really seen any games with the theme. We initially wanted to

create a little book of stupid illustrations about prison/prisoners but the idea quickly died because it was kind of boring and we wanted people to interact with them rather than just look, have a chuckle and move on,so that’s basically the reason we chose a card game because it gave us an excuse to make these absurd jokes and give them a purpose in which people actually had fun after seeing them. We used race as way to differentiate card colors, it is not meant to make a point or political view about race, its just a game mechanic that we believe is appropriate in the context of our game.

We`re not really experts in board gaming and we just wanted to make something fun and easy to pick up and play, so a card game seemed an appropriate fit.

Interestingly the game takes between 8 and 15 minutes to play that’s a nice time frame for a quick game, is it easy to learn to play?

This time frame was chosen because we want this game to be playable at any time and any place, so you don’t have to plan a game night with your friends for a 10 hour game, you can just take it out to the bar or cafe to play.

Statistically it takes about this much time to play, (it all depends on how many players are playing, and how

We made a lot of sketches,in search of a style and after trial and error, we finally picked the one that best fit our humor. After the sketching phase we gave ourselves different tasks, Andrew started to redraw the cards digitally, the layout and site were made by Dani and Cipi was responsible with the packaging and research.

well the deck has been shuffled.

Gameplay is easy to learn because there are only 2 types of cards: 1 prisoner cards which are played as regular cards and 2 action cards which have 8 specific functions you have to learn but the icons and name of the cards help a lot in making you understand what they do if you happen to forget. Oh and there is on special surprise card that can change the whole outcome of the game but we’re keeping that one a secret for now.

In terms of feel,the game feels a lot like “Uno” because we used it as a base and developed over it with our own set of rules and functions because we wanted the game to be familiar but not the same.

The artwork on the game and particularly the game cards is amazing, who did that and what inspired the look?

Well the artwork was made actually by all three of us, searching characters, making them look funnier and finding fitting names and text for them.

ONLINE:

We like to watch animated series too, like drawn together, rick and morty, samurai jack, southpark and a very important role was played by superjail! as we wrote above, we watched it many times, we like that kind of humor.

So what’s next - is the game for sale yet and where can customers find out more...?

The game is not for sale yet. Our main focus for now is to make some sort of community, inviting all who are interested, so we can have a solid base to start when we launch our campaign.

The main problem for us is to get our work to be known, it`s is also our first try at this and we will give our best to turn this game into reality.

We would be glad if the people who want to know more about the game and its release to subscribe to our newsletter.

We also have a facebook page at www.facebook.com/byebyebars, a website: www.byebyebars.com and an instagram page here: www.instagram.com/byebyebars.

www.byebyebars.com facebook.com/byebyebars instagram.com/byebyebars

YOUR SAY RETRO

BOX OF JOY! We’ve been using the Gametraders Time Machine (pat pending) a lot this month. We’ve loved going back in time to pre 2000 and going over all those amazing systems like the beautiful 486 PC, the SNES and Sega, and who can forget our Retro Editor’s personal favourite the Amstrad computer and our Editor’s favourite - the humble Commodore Amiga 500..

One thing we’ve noticed is the manuals. Back in the day of PC gaming using 386, 486 and Pentium processors, you’d buy games like Falcon 4 and get a huge box and inside was not only the game but also a manual. In fact some games came with manuals, maps, novella’s and other bits and pieces.

I remember the day I bought Falcon 4, it was on PC and I couldn’t wait to get home. I didn’t want to get straight into the game, I wanted to enjoy the experience of reading the manual - and this was a thick manual. After a couple of days browsing

the manual when I had time, I loaded up the game, kept the manual in reach and began to play.

That was common with gaming in those earlier times. Boxes came with books you’d read. Sometimes a comic with amazing artwork and all this got you into the “zone” ... or the mood to play. Almost like when you’re a kid and you see a football match you suddenly get pumped to play footy. For me it was surfing - I’d watch some surf video and within 10 minutes be packing my board to hit the beach.

Game publishers that understood gaming did things like that back then. They wanted you to be immersed in their game, to enjoy the whole experience. It’s not done as much these days and while some publishers offer game manuals via a PDF download - well it’s not the same. Yes as the publisher of Live Magazine, we understand there’s a certain irony here, we publish online only as it is affordable for us, but

also means our magazines are free for our readers.

Back to manuals, the other day I bought a camera and the manual was huge, but to get it to fit nicely in the box, it’s the height and width of a pack of cards but thick as a couple of laptops... that makes it fiddly to read I can tell you.

So what do you prefer? Online manuals, downloadable PDFs? Learn as you play (so no need for a full manual) ...? We asked our readers and Facebook fans to share some of there old game manuals and over the next few pages you can take a look.

Oh - here’s a gem we found for you - a site dedicated to replacement manuals for games... all as PDFs but at least they are there. You can download and maybe go print it out... www.replacementdocs.com/news.php

YOUR SAY

SHARE YOUR OLD PC MAN

“I still have my original big box edition of South Park on PC from 1999. Has its original Instruction Booklet and everything is in excellent condition.Not the greatest game from its era but so much fun! :).”

- Aaron Ajay Hunter

“We some MSDOS grand prix game where it actually goes into full description of each track included as well as upgrades and settings. It is doose.”

“Back when flight Sims gave you a manual that thought you how to fly the real aircraft. Even janes longbow goes into great detail on how to fly an AH64A Apache attack helicopter. No boxes left but still have ALL of my old pc games this is just some out of about 100.”

- Das Dos

- Rodney Broughton

NUALS AND GAME BOXES...

“Frontier Elite 2 for Amiga. Not only do you get a thick game manual but also a full star chart, a Gazetteer of some of the planets in the game and a book of stories from the game.”

- Josh Daws

“Oh I have heaps. All out in the shed. I have a folder just got maps..”

- Aaron Yanner

YOUR SAY

SHARE YOUR OLD PC MANUALS AND GAME BOXES...

“First Edition Fallout 1 manual from original launch in 1997 (I got it in 98) It even has recipies for wasteland survivalists in it XD I have the second game and tactics original manuals too.”

- Glen Nilsson

“Here i have the Sims Life stories! including the manual the hotkeys and the original advertisments.”

- Danae Johnston

“You want old school with a bitchin’ and funny soundtrack...”

- Shane Ellis

GAMETRADERS:

THE HOME OF RETRO TRADE & SAVE on anything in-store!

Bring in your unwanted games or consoles & we’ll give you store credit to use in-store!

PLUS at Gametraders you can choose from our massive range of discounted pre-owned and retro gaming!

YOUR SAY RETRO

The Gamer

THE CONTINUING STORY

The Nintendo 64 era was upon us, yet James and I continued to persevere with the Super Nintendo.

The internet was providing us with a plethora of ROMs that we could download and try on the Super Wildcard. James and I had enjoyed The Legend of the Mystical Ninja, otherwise known as Ganbare Goemon in Japan, but we now had access to the sequels. While the original title was a 2.5D game, the sequels varied in their approach. The second and third games in the series began as traditional platformers, though the fourth title is similar to the first. The sequels introduce a giant mecha Goemon, making it feel like it was inspired by the Super Sentai / Power Rangers series. They were a little confusing, but quite fun.

I have already mentioned my interest in anime, and thanks to import reviews in the pages of Super Play magazine I knew that many anime based titles were never released in the west. Now that we had the magic of the dial up modem, James and I could finally play some of these classic, and not so classic titles.

One of the ROM sites was heavily promoting Ranma 1/2 Hard Battle.

It was the release for this particular site. We decided to download it and give it a try.

Ranma 1/2 Hard Battle is the second fighting game on Super Famicom, and while it is vastly superior to the first, it is quite inferior to

the third. Graphically it looks quite nice, but at the time I had no idea who the characters were. It would be several more years before I discovered the animated series. In the meantime we tried to enjoy the game. It’s a typical Street Fighter 2 clone, and it was the first of many that we found. The biggest problem was that you have to push a button to jump. As well as that, the game felt a little sluggish, and after Street Fighter 2 Hyper Fighting

sluggish clones were definitely not acceptable.

Another anime that caught my eye was Dragon Ball Z. I had already heard of Dragon Ball, but I couldn’t honestly tell you where. The anime started in 1985 and official and bootleg merchandise had been released all over the world, so it’s possible I stumbled upon something dodgy that had Goku’s face planted on it. James and I tried the Super

1997 - 1998

r diaries:

Y OF RETRO EDITOR, PAUL MONOPOLI’S GAMING JOURNEY...

Butoden series, and found them to be somewhat of a mixed bag. Super Butoden 1 looked nice, and it elaborated on the standard 2D fighter by allowing you to fly in the air. If you backed right away from your enemy the screen would split and you would keep moving backwards.

This meant that you could put a lot of distance between yourself and your opponent, allowing you to charge energy or attack from afar.

The Ki blasts looked good, when we managed to execute them, but the gameplay felt very rigid.

The game engine for Super Butoden 2 felt looser, though the game was similar to its predecessor in every other way. I remember the character select screen having a bunch of blonde people and a big green guy.

The Super Play review mentioned that he was called Piccolo, so I tried him out but found him too slow. We played this one for a bit longer than the previous title. The third game in the series is pretty much the same, but with different characters. With the Super Butoden games out of the way, we moved on to Sailor Moon.

I had watched Sailor Moon on Agro’s Cartoon Connection in the years prior. I was aware of the story, an the game followed the first arc as closely as a Final Fight clone could. The graphics were nice and colourful, and they reflected the source material nicely. The game

looked like Sailor Moon, and for a semi fan it was a joy to play. Each of the Sailor Guardians play slightly differently. I preferred Sailors Mars and Venus, as like Donatello in the TMNT arcade game, they had the best reach. We never ended up completing it, but we played it more than Ranma 1/2 or Dragon Ball Z. With our games libraries growing, James and I didn’t really have much interest in the Nintendo 64. We were both curious, and I can recall us both wanting one, but there was no rush. There was clearly more to explore in the Super Nintendo library. Over the next few months James and I would regularly catch up and explore more downloaded Super Nintendo titles.

1998 was a year of changes for me, the first of which was James moving away. His family had purchased a hotel a couple of hours out of the city. I was told that I was always welcome to go and visit, but my mother had an issue with me driving so far away, so I never went.

As a consequence we grew apart rather quickly. I wouldn’t see James again for about 18 months.

The second change was that I met my first girlfriend. Amy lived a reasonable distance away as well, though not as far as James. Each weekend I would endure the 2 hour drive, and though her parents allowed me to stay over, we never ended up doing... stuff... We only really dated for 6 months before she ended it. Amy came from a close knit family, which was totally foreign to me. They would all sit around the table and play Trivial Pursuit, or settle down in the lounge room and have a bash on the Playstation. One regret I have was that her brother

One weekend, as I was driving back to Adelaide, I went through a small town called Kulpara. I approached the town’s main intersection and saw a blue Commodore to my left.

I had the right of way, so I continued through, then tragedy struck.

The girl driving the car didn’t stop and ploughed straight into the rear of my car. I remember the vehicle spinning 2 or 3 times, but that might have been my head. When it stopped I found myself in front of a house. The elderly gentleman who lived there came out and hurried us both into the house. The girl and I settled down, and I admit that I spat a little venom her way. Her excuse was that she was a country girl who rarely sees any cars going through that intersection at that time of night, so thought it would be OK to keep going. My first car was a write off, so for the remainder of my time with Amy I would catch the bus.

TAFE was proving interesting, though I was starting to gravitate away from coding. It just wasn’t something that I enjoyed doing, which is a bit strange considering how much I used to enjoy programming in BASIC. I suppose interests change, and communications and networking were looking like better options for me. I also enjoyed the arcade machines at TAFE. Street Fighter Alpha 2 was in the student lounge, and as a result so was I during my breaks. This latest addition to the Street Fighter Alpha series had me hooked, and I

pumped many coins into it. I still enjoyed playing Street Fighter 2 on my SNES at home, but this just blew it out of the water.

Set as a prequel to Street Fighter 2, the Alpha series takes place between the first and second games in the series. Returning warriors from Street Fighter are present, as are some future SF2 alum. The controls feel very fluid, which is a stark contrast to the Mortal Kombat series. I am still convinced that without the blood and gore there never would have been an MK2. Those games feel so rigid, while the animated goofiness and smooth controls of the Capcom’s fighting series just appealed to me so much more.

The graphics were a step up from Street Fighter 2, while the Q-Sound music blared out of the speakers.

The game is full of battle tracks that set the tone, and the sound effects are crisp and clear.

Bering that Amy was my first girlfriend, I found being dumped quite hard to take. I wasn’t to remain single for too long, but that will be covered in the next episode of The Gamer Diaries. In the meantime a couple of the guys in my TAFE class had CD burners, something that was still a bit of a luxury in the mid to late 90s. I can remember one of my buddies, Arthur, coming to my front door with a pile of about 10 CDs full of pirated games. A few games stood out of the pack, and the first one that grabbed my attention was Fantastic Dizzy. Having missed out on playing the Dizzy adventures on the Amstrad CPC, I wanted to give this one a go and see what the fuss was about.

Released a number of years earlier, Fantastic Dizzy features the adven-

1997 - 1998

was selling his boxed Atari Lynx, with games for $50. He offered it to me, but I turned it down. I was still very heavily into my Gameboy, and there was no room in my life for 2 handhelds. If only my past self could see my collection now...

https://t.e2ma.net/webview/cu9y3/c4dd67617550640721673accde661238 https://t.e2ma.net/webview/cu9y3/c4dd67617550640721673accde661238 https://t.e2ma.net/webview/cu9y3/c4dd67617550640721673accde661238 https://t.e2ma.net/webview/cu9y3/c4dd67617550640721673accde661238 https://t.e2ma.net/webview/cu9y3/c4dd67617550640721673accde661238

Another game featured on this CD collection was Crusader No Remorse. Having enjoyed 3D isometric games from my Amstrad days, I really got into the game. The controls weren’t confusing, something that isometric games can suffer from, the graphics were nice and sharp, though the sound effects were pretty standard fare. I can remember thinking about how far we had come since Gunfright, another isometric shoot em up I used to enjoy. One big problem with Crusader No Remorse was a bug that prevents you from getting any further. I did find a patch, but it wouldn’t work on my copied version of the game.

That was pretty much the end of that...

Another standout title was Gobliiins. A point and click puzzler, Gobliiins had you controlling 3 goblins, hence the triple i in the title. Each goblin had their own abilities, and you would use them to punch or use magic on items. These could then be picked up and used to solve puzzles, all in an attempt to save the king. Oh, don’t worry, he hasn’t been kidnapped. This king has gone stark raving mad, and the goblins need to find a way to get him back to normal. The bright, colourful graphics were a delight to behold, and the animations were quite humorous.

The only complaint I had with the game was that a majority of the puzzles were a little too easy.

Without James around my Super Nintendo was starting to become neglected, as much of my gaming was now done on the PC. I had played my SNES cartridges to death, and I could download ROMs for free on my PC. Emulators were getting better with each release, and releases were coming weekly or monthly in the early days. I was also starting to play around with MAME, the multi arcade machine emulator.

More on that next month though.

If you like what you read then feel free to give me a follow on Twitter @dizrythmia.

A lot of my other ramblings can be found on www.retrospekt.com.au.

1997 - 1998

turing member of the Yolkfolk out to rescue his girlfriend Daisy from the evil sorcerer Zax, the villain from the first game. The Dizzy games are arcade adventures that require you to collect items and use them in key locations, which will unlock newer parts of the game for you to explore. As with all of the other Dizzy games, once you’ve made your jump you have no further control over Dizzy until he lands. To the casual Mario and Sonic fan, this gameplay element can be a little frustrating, but accurate jumping is a skill that you will need to master.

Fantastic Dizzy also featured stars that the player needed to collect.

I’ve read that different versions of the game had a different number of stars to collect, either 100 or 250.

WRITTEN BY PAUL MONOPOLI

LET’S GE

YOUR SAY MOVIES

The video game movie is a strange thing. Last year we saw Assassins Creed, Angry Birds, Ratchet & Clank and Warcraft grace our silver screens, none of which lived up to the hype. It seems the video game movie is cursed, something that simply can’t be done well. That’s the popular opinion anyway. There have been many over the years from Super Mario Bros, Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter, Need For Speed, Hitman, Silent Hill, Max Payne, Tekken, Prince of Persia even Far Cry got a movie. Nearly all of these films have been failures (Silent Hill is pretty good though... Right?)

So for all of these poor attempts to bring the stories from our gaming consoles to the big screen there has been one franchise that for all its flaws seems to have worked, none other than Resident Evil. So why did Resident Evil spawn a six film franchise that has grossed over a billion dollars worldwide when so many others have failed? Well I think there are two answers to this question, one is writer director Paul W.S. Anderson and the other is star Milla Jovovich. This impressive husband and wife combo is the reason this series which started in 2002 is still going, with 2017 seeing the release of Resident Evil: The Final Chapter in January this massive fifteen year saga came to a close.

We may never see something like

it from the video game movie world again.

In 2002 Resident Evil hit cinema screens with a bang. I remember as a young lad in high school when this movie came out. I’ll be honest; it had an effect on me. It had a slick shine to it. It is glossy yet gritty. It contains all the trademarks of the conventional gory zombie movie yet the hyper action of an Asian martial arts film. It had a seedy corporation whose motives were horrific and added an element of corporate espionage to the film. A strange cast of characters that are for the most part hyper masculine army types with the few cowering civilians thrown along to be eaten one by one. It also gave us Alice.

Milla Jovovich burst off the screen as the ultimate action babe. She was shooting hordes of zombies, fly kicking dogs in the head. As a child in the midst of puberty there is no doubt that this gorgeous action woman thrust me into some form of sexual awareness. She was beautiful yet powerful, I think every teenage boy I went to school with fell in love with her. She has a grace and real presence on screen that I feel rivals any of the 80’s action stars.

Not only that, she is a woman of power in an industry dominated by men with large muscles. Not even the likes of Marvel have given a woman this much respect in film.

Alice saves the world again and again and any man who gets in her way usually gets a swift kick to the crotch or bullet to the head. She’s just a badass character.

Paul W.S. Anderson is one of those oddities in the directing world for me. The way I explain it best, is that I have a rare medical disorder I call “Paul W.S. Anderson syndrome”.

I know he doesn’t make the best movies, but I love them all anyway.

He could key my car and I would think it was a masterpiece. There is something about the way he shoots action and horror, this hyper gloss that is just so visually appealing to me. He seems to be the kind of guy who makes a movie he wants to watch. He is there to make great, silly, escapism cinema. While it may not have the artistic merit a lot of people look for, sometimes all I want is to see guys in cars that have machine guns on them (Death Race). Or see the Three Musketeers fight on giant flying ships (The Three Musketeers). He knows how to make great popcorn films that always seem to be fun.

Regardless of why I think he is talented, it seems his love of horror, over the top action and so –badits-good dialogue have obviously grabbed the public because these films have certainly made money.

The other main reason why An-

GET EVIL RESIDENT EVIL derson has a lot to thank as to why these films are successful is that he made them his own. While there are commonalities to the video game series the plots truly go off in separate directions. He was never afraid to steer away from the games. Sticking too close to the source material can obviously cause problems, the main example being 2016’s Warcraft. While it was loved be fans of the old RTS games most other people in the audience seemed to have no clue as to what was going on. Anderson just took the bare bones concept and fleshed it out his own way.

The series continued with Resident Evil Apocalypse (2004), Resident Evil Extinction (2007), Resident Evil Afterlife (2010), Resident Evil Retribution (2012) and this year we got Resident Evil The Final Chapter which saw the end of Alice’s story.

It was the action packed ending I think fans will be satisfied with. I certainly was. This film series while silly does mean something to me. It was something cool and fun when I was in high school that followed me into adulthood. They are great, fun escapism films. Sometimes it

is nice to get out our pens and critique a film for its artistic merits, and then sometimes it’s fun to watch a chick launch a motor bike through a church window and kill a monster with it. I doubt we will ever see another franchise such as this, one that embraces its own silliness with no apologies and exists purely so you can have a good time. Just remember to aim for the head.

BY SCOTT F. SOWTER

@SCOTTFSOWTER

TCG NEWS YU-GI-OH DUELIST SAGA!

Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s, but was never called to action in our timeline.

Yu-Gi-Oh! Duelist Saga came out late March and if you haven’t jumped on it yet, here’s the rundown...

The terrifying influence of Don Thousand, the ultimate foe from Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL!

It’s a 100 card set size with 15 cards per set according to the Konami site.

The set features new cards from all five incarnations of Yu-Gi-Oh! With new cards used by May and Bakura in the original series including the requested Diamond Kernel from Bakura’s Deal against Kaiba. Konami also detail the following: The power to unleash any of the Sacred Beasts from Yu-Gi-Oh! GX in any Deck and draw an extra 2 cards per turn if you do!

Yusei’s secret ace Synchro Monster whose existence was revealed in

Perform death-defying Dueling feats and get rewarded with extra draws every time you do with a card that brings the excitement of Yuya’s “Dueltainer” style of Dueling from Yu-GiOh! ARC-V. Brand new “attack” Spells! Spells like Dark Magic Attack that represent the signature moves of famous monsters have always been a hit with fans, and more are on the way in Duelist Saga covering monsters from every series.

POKÉMON SUN & MOON GUARDIANS RISING BOOSTER Island Guardians, Ready for Battle!

Visit Alola for Pokemon fun, from the beaches to the mountain peaks— and discover new traditions and new challenges! Meet the island guardians Tapu Koko-GX and Tapu LeleGX, and sharpen your skills with Kahuna Hala and Captain Mallow! Be amazed by the secret powers of Kommo-o-GX, Lycanroc-GX, Metagross-GX, Sylveon-GX, Toxapex-GX, Vikavolt-GX, and many more! Come to the islands, and seize the power of the Pokemon TCG: Sun & Moon— Guardians Rising expansion!

You can see the complete release details on their site:

• Over 140 cards

yugioh-card.com/en/products/duelist_saga.html

• 12 new Pokemon-GX featuring a recently introduced game mechanic • 12 full-art Pokemon-GX and 3 fullart Supporter cards featuring important human characters

amonkhet pre-release!

Magic fans will be waiting for the Amonkhet prerelease due out April 22-23. If you’ve never been to a prerelease here’s what Wizards suggest on their website : You’ll experience the thrill of opening new cards for the first time, at an event filled with other Magic players who enjoy the game just as much as you. Everything you’ll need to play should be provided as part of your entry fee - you simply show up and play!

You’ll build a 40-card minimum deck using the contents of a themed Prerelease pack. This play format is called “Sealed Deck.”

After you build your deck, you’ll be randomly paired with another player for a best-two-of-three match. Each round, you’ll report who won and be paired up with a new player. If you do

well, you may get additional booster packs as prizes! There’s good video on Youtube explaining what a prerelease is, check it out here: youtu.be/cP-2txz0F48

YOUR SAYCARDS TRADING

Unlisted Leaf youtube.com/user/UnlistedLeaf

“Who would have though you’d get paid to open Pokemon cards, talk to a camera in your bedroom? The weirdest thing of all time..”

- Unlisted Leaf (Michael Anderson from an interview on In Daily.

He’s the poster boy for success on Youtube for those who chase the dream of turning a passion into profit. So when we found out that he visits our Marion store and that Matt (the store owner) knew him, we had to use this connection to catch up...

Welcome Ando! How long have you been into Pokemon (in general)?

I’ve been into Pokemon for literally as long as I can remember!

My mum tells me I was around 4 years old iwhen the fever came over me and I haven’t stopped since.

When did you get into the TCG? I think it was in kindergarten because I would do chores around the house and instead of my parents paying me money for them they would give me individual Pokemon

Cards because they were the most important thing in the world to me.

my friends, the only thing is now, it is my full-time job. I am a full-time Pokemon addict.

What was the first set you had?

Probably the base set. I have a vivid memory of buying a TV with my Dad when I was 5 and seeing the base set boosters for sale next to the cash register but I couldn’t afford them and went home without them.

Do you have an all-time favourite card?

I love the Full Gold Cards from Legendary Treasures! It is such a collector’s item and the feel when you pull one of those is like no other. Of course there are the classics like Base Set Charizard & The Shiny’s from the Neo Series - I like them all!

How had being involved with Pokemon TCG impacted your life, both before and after YouTube success?

In primary school I remember it being a huge part of my life and I had two friends who also collected. We would spend all lunch time discussing the Pokemon Games and all the tactics we found out the night before.

As an adult not much has changed.

I am still discussing Pokemon with

What’s the best thing about the Pokemon TCG community?

I feel like now the Pokemon Community has got so much bigger through Pokemon Go as displayed in the first six months of the game the friendships and how easily they can be made through Pokemon, is unlike any other game.

Do you attend TCG events at all?

Do you compete?

I played once at a PAX convention in Melbourne and got my butt kicked by a ten year old. I still cry myself to sleep over the embarrassment of losing.

Do you play any other TCGs? At the start of my Youtube career I was definitely looking into about 4 or 5 other TCGs but with Youtube as hectic as it is, I unfortunately don’t have the time to play the other games.

Which is your favourite, or preferred starting Pokemon?

This is like choosing your favourite

What kind of Pokemon would you design if you got the chance?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVAOYx7rkp0&ab_channel=UnlistedLeaf https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVAOYx7rkp0&ab_channel=UnlistedLeaf https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVAOYx7rkp0&ab_channel=UnlistedLeaf https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVAOYx7rkp0&ab_channel=UnlistedLeaf https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVAOYx7rkp0&ab_channel=UnlistedLeaf https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVAOYx7rkp0&ab_channel=UnlistedLeaf https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVAOYx7rkp0&ab_channel=UnlistedLeaf

Two Pokemon that have always intrigued me are Thundurus and Houndoom. These two fused together to make some kind of evil, electric dog, that is also legendary, - I reckon that would be pretty wild.

There are scores of conspiracy theories about various Pokemon origins, inter-type relationships, and even the place of humans in the Pokemon world, do you have a favourite conspiracy theory?

My favourite conspiracy is one that is a bit out there. It is that Ash’s father is Pikachu. I mean if you really think about it, we never actually see Ash’s father, and Pikachu always gives that helpful, fatherly advice.

On top of all this, there is some seriously hard core evidence to back it up, that makes for an interesting read.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HayiZa_hIW4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HayiZa_hIW4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HayiZa_hIW4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HayiZa_hIW4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HayiZa_hIW4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HayiZa_hIW4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HayiZa_hIW4

ONLINE:

CLICK TO WATCH!

ice-cream but if I really had to pick, Mudkip always has a special place in heart, because that was the first ever Pokemon that I completed a whole Pokemon game with.

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gameS RUMOR:

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BEST GAME NOBODY PLAYED IN 2016 NEWS

TOP 10 GAME SALES OF ALL TIME NEWS

WIPEOUT OMEGA COLLECTION LAUNCHES IN JUNE FOR PS4 PREVIEW

DRAGON BALL FUSIONS REVIEW

S MASS EFFECT:

AN UNOFFICIAL COMPANION RANKING opinion

VIDEO G APRIL GAME RELEASES! DATE

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FORMATS

4 April

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PS4

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YOUR news SAY

RUMOR:

FORZA 7, RED DEAD REDEMPTION 2 AND BATTLEFRONT 2 TO SHOWCASE 4K ON PROJECT SCORPIO

VGCHARTZ.COM

FROM VGCHARTZ.COM Microsoft will be unveiling Forza Motorsport 7 as the headline title for Project Scorpio in the next few weeks, according to the sources who spoke with Windows Central.

The game will be running in 4K Resolution.

Other first party games that will also showcase the capabilities of Scorpio include Crackdown 3 and State of Decay 2.

There are some major third-party titles that will be taking advantage of the extra power. This includes Battlefront 2, Red Dead Redemption 2, Call of Duty, FIFA, and Madden.

This should be treated as a rumor until an official announcement is made.

BY WILLIAM D'ANGELO FROM VGCHARTZ.COM

YOUR SAY gaming

Best Game Nob

Many great games release each year which, sadly, are simply overlooked and don’t generate the kind of sales they really deserve. From accomplished sequels to long-running franchises, to brand new IPs that struggled to build up mindshare, this award attempts to give some additional exposure to some of the year’s most forgotten titles.

VGCHARTZ.COM

body Played of

BY DANIEL CARRERAS FROM VGCHARTZ.COM

STEEP

Zero Escape:

Zero Time Dilemma

Paper Mario: Color Splash

SONG OF THE DEEP

BATTLEBORN

VGCHARTZ.COM

Overall BEST GAME NOBODY PLAYED OF 2016

PAPER MARIO: COLOR SPLASH

Maybe it’s simply down to the fact that the WiiU is now approaching the end of its lifespan, especially now that the Nintendo Switch is on the horizon, or perhaps Nintendo didn’t market the game to its full potential. Whatever the reason for its modest sales, Paper Mario: Color Splash is a charming and enjoyable game that deserved more than the sub 500,000 sales it’s managed to chalk up thus far. Fortunately Color Splash is showing some solid legs through the holiday period, so there’s hope for it yet, but it’s still a far cry from Super Paper Mario’s almost 4 million units sold, or even Sticker Star’s 2 million+.

YOUR NEWSSAY

TOP TEN GAME SA

VGCHARTZ.COM

ALES OF ALL TIME With the new Switch just released, we’re wondering if it will be a success like the Wii was - seems Nintendo really know how to make a big seller!

FROM VGCHARTZ.COM

YOUR PREVIEW SAY

WIPEOUT OME LAUNCHES I Sony Interactive Entertainment announced WipEout Omega Collection launches for the PlayStation 4 in North America on June 6 and on June 7 in Europe for $39.99.

The game features all of the tracks and ships from WipEout HD, Fury and 2048. The game has been remastered in 1080p on PS4 and dynamic 4K on PS4 Pro. View the release date trailer here: youtube.com/watch?v=otsTMJytt9A

“We have been able to take advantage of the power and memory bandwidth of PS4 to rework all textures in the game. Compared to the original games, textures are now clear when viewed up close: you can even read some of the small text on the ships for the first time. As well as a host of improved graphical effects we have also added in HDR which massively improves contrast to what was seen before.�

Here are the key features: Enhanced Visuals: Compatible with PS4 and PS4 Pro. Enhanced with PS4 Pro. Under The Hood: WipEout ga Collection features tent from WipEout HD, out HD Fury, and WipEout

OmeconWipE2048.

Nine Game Modes: There are nine modes available in total: * Zone, Tournament, Speed Lap, Time Trial, and Single Race from HD * Zone Battle, Eliminator, and Detonator from Fury * Career Mode from 2048

Rapid Combat Racing: Rip around sharp bends, power through stomach-churning loops and dive down sheer drops as you take out your rivals with well-timed weapon blasts.

Competitive Multiplayer: Play online with friends in eight-player races, or classic two-player split screen.

Thumping Soundtrack: Featuring a few classics as well as tracks from the hottest up-and-coming artists.

WipEout Omega Collection is a feast for both your eyes and ears.

VGCHARTZ.COM

EGA COLLECTION IN JUNE FOR PS4 FROM VGCHARTZ.COM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otsTMJytt9A https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otsTMJytt9A https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otsTMJytt9A https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otsTMJytt9A https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otsTMJytt9A https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otsTMJytt9A

Click the trailer above to watch!

BY WILLIAM D'ANGELO FROM VGCHARTZ.COM

DRAGON BA

ALL FUSIONS review

REVIEW

DRAGON BA In the beginning of time, before land, before water, there existed only fire, a fire that rages to this day, deep within the core of the earth. It is said that within this heart of fire there dwells an eternal dragon, who can be called forth only when the seven magic dragon balls, now scattered over the face of the earth are found and bought together. When the seven magic dragon balls are united, the eternal dragon will appear before the adventurer who bought them together and grant that person a single wish. Then, once more the balls will be scattered to the four winds, and the dragon beast will return to his fiery lair to sleep in peace, until another brave or foolish soul rediscovers the balls and tries to bring them together again.

Few know of the existence of the dragon balls, and it is considered a fools errand to attempt to unite what is not supposed to exist. But you have faith in the legends of old, and after finding the first ball you just knew that the other six had to exist. For you and your friend Pinnich the goal is simple; recover all of the dragon balls and have your wish granted. The journey has taken you to the four corners of the globe, but nothing was going to stop you. Not wind, nor fire, nor any form of danger would prevent you from meeting the mighty dragon, Shenlong.

As the game begins, you have found the seventh Dragon Ball, and the time has come to call upon the eternal dragon to grant your wish.

As the Dragon Balls glow, and Shenlong ascends from their position on the ground, the clear blue sky fades into black. If not for the glow of the Dragon Balls and Shenlong it is doubtful that you would be able to see anything at all. After he has risen the dragon god demands that you tell him your wish. Finally, after searching looking all over the world for these mystical orbs it is time to reap the fruits of your labour. What will you wish for? A million zeni? Eternal life? No. None of these things are important to martial artists like Pinnich and yourself.

There is only one thing that eager young fighters like yourselves could possibly want: The ultimate martial arts tournament, to determine the strongest fighters of all time!

You speak your wish and the almighty Shenlong booms his response from above: “Your wish is granted!�

The Dragon Balls rise, then scatter in multiple directions. Their destination is unknown, but once they have arrived they will lie in a dormant state for a full year before they can be used again. A portal

opens up and the two of you are sucked into it, and everything goes black.

An undisclosed amount of time passes before you begin to regain consciousness. As you open your eyes open you are greeted with a slightly mixed up looking world.

Pinnich is still unconscious, but you wake him up and fly around to explore the new world you have found yourselves in. You realise that Shenlong has granted your wish by teleporting you both to a world that incorporates all time periods of the Dragon Ball universe, and they are going to have a five on five tournament to determine the strongest fighters of all time.

A group of five... well there are only three left to find, right? Pinnich declares that this is not the case as he will not be entering the tournament with you. He states that you are his rival and that he will meet you in the ring, as he flies off and leaves you stranded in this unknown world of mixed up time.

It is at this point you realise that you must find other fighters who will compete with you, so that you can win the tournament and beat Pinnich.

A trip to the Capsule Corporation leads you to Goten and Trunks.

The Saiyan kiddies are quite powerful, though Trunks is clearly the stronger of the two. As you travel

ALL FUSIONS

along and build up your levels, Pan (from Dragonball GT) and kid Goku (from the original Dragonball) will join your party. Each character has their own abilities, with Pan being able to heal your allies, Goku being insanely strong, and Goten and Trunks being able to fuse into Gotenks.

The game features an extensive tutorial with key aspects of the battling system explained by Nappa and Raditz. As the game continues you learn that while you currently have a team of five warriors you will need to recruit more.

Fighters can be found through side missions or by recruiting them in battle. This is where the parallels to Pokemon begin to appear.

Battles are a strategic affair, and it can appear to be a little confusing at first. Your fighters square off against each other, five a side, in a round arena. The bottom of the screen has a scrolling bar with the warrior avatars moving along it.

Once they reach the end they can make a move. Some characters will move faster then others, but if you hit them their turn will be delayed. If you knock them out of the ring and they go right to the back of the bar.

As you fight your team will move around the battle arena. This can make for some entertaining attacks, as you are able to hit enemies into other members of your team, who will promptly hit them back. Playing pinball with the enemies will cause additional damage, and hitting them into their team mates will injure those they hit.

One immediate criticism of the game is that it can take a good 20+ hours to get to the point where you can recruit warriors in a fight. After a short tutorial with Master Roshi, and a side quest to recruit a lady he is keen to meet you’re good to go. There are over 1000 warriors in the game, including various incarnations of Goku and Vegeta.

To unlock areas of the game and meet more powerful fighters you need to collect the coloured orbs that you are awarded for battling.

There are 5 colours, and one of the benefits to recruiting more warriors to your team is that you can hold more orbs.

While most of the fighters you recruit along the way are made up fighters for the game, who you are likely to never use, occasional battles will see you fighting some of the main heroes and villains from the franchise. Finding special areas of the game will see you facing enemies from that part of the main storyline. For example, a quick trip to Dr Gero’s secret lab will unlock a battle with Androids 16, 17 and 18.

Many of the characters designed for the game have clothing or accessories that any fan of the franchise would recognise. Chi Chi’s helmet from Dragon Ball has made an appearance, as has the clothing worn by Beerus. 30+ hours of gameplay has seen 85 characters unlocked, so there is plenty to keep you busy.

The game has been criticised in the media for repetitive battles, but at its core this game is a JRPG. The question you need to ask yourself

8/1 0 is how many games in this genre don’t have repetitive battles with hours of required grinding? Not too many, it comes with the territory and has done so for a good few decades now.

The music is a little strange, with the odd Disney-esque track playing while you fly around. It just doesn’t sound like Dragon Ball music, but this is why Nintendo included volume control on the 3DS console. The voices are all in Japanese, which is a little disappointing considering many of the Dragon Ball games released in the west feature the Funimation dub cast.

The graphics are nice and colourful, and a lot of care has gone into the character designs, something that wouldn’t have been easy when dealing with over 1000 generic characters. While Dragon Ball Fusions doesn’t take advantage of the 3D features of the 3DS, it isn’t something that you miss.

Dragon Ball games have been a hit and miss affair since the first title released on the Super Cassette Vision console in 1986. Thankfully Dragon Ball Fusions gets the formula just right. Whether you’re a Dragon Ball fan or enjoy the Pokemon series but need something new, you’ll definitely find something for you in Dragon Ball Fusions.

BY PAUL MONOPOLI

OPINION

MASS EFFEC

AN UNOFFICIAL COMPA

CT:

PANION RANKING

BY ANNY SIMMS

Mass Effect is Bioware’s cult classic sci-fi video game series that has sold over 10 million copies in its lifetime, with billions of articles, art, cosplays and stories based on it.

Following the adventures of Commander Shepard and her journey to defeat the alien Reapers who want to destroy the universe, Mass Effect has a system of squadmates who you recruit throughout the games and who accompany you on missions throughout the games as your companions (and optionally lovers). With the recent release of Mass Effect: Andromeda, I felt it was time to face the most controversial of all Mass Effect topics: who the best squadmate is.

Disclaimer: these are my personal opinions and do not reflect anything but my own experiences and really good taste. Contains major spoilers!!

MASS EFFECT:

AN UNOFFICIAL COMPANION RANKING

19: Ashley Williams, Mass Effect 1, 3 Ashley apparently is pretty good in Mass Effect 3, but since I killed her in the original because she wouldn’t stop being xenophobic to my actually cool squadmates, I never knew her like that. My Ashley was a weirdly religious xenophobic

pain who wasn’t even good on missions. Her death at least was pretty cool, where she followed my orders knowing it would lead to her death. I might have teared up, but you don’t have any proof.

18: Jacob Taylor, Mass Effect 2 Jacob honestly isn’t bad in any way (other than the fact he very happily marries someone else in Mass Effect 3 even if in a committed relationship with him) but he is very, very bland. Jacob’s personal quest where you confront his lost father’s weird jungle harem and realise his

dad’s just a giant dropkick rather than the idol he’d aspired to become is interesting, but he gains absolutely nothing from it. Jacob is just basic nice guy who just wants to fight your alien pals for no reason.

MASS EFFECT:

AN UNOFFICIAL COMPANION RANKING

17: Zaeed Massani, Mass Effect 2 DLC I appreciated Zaeed: he was a straight forward, gun wielding guy who just wanted to kill a dude who’d ruined him in the past. My Renegade (aka aggressive unyielding) Shepard loved having Zaeed around, and for a DLC character he was pretty ok. Unfortunately just like Jacob, there wasn’t much else to him.

16: Kaidan Alenko, Mass Effect 1, 3 Kaidan has no excuse for being so low on this list as he is – I romanced him and sacrificed Ashley for him in Mass Effect 1, saw him again in 2 and even in 3 (after some issues with saves) had him as a close friend and squadmate with no ‘you maybe

cheated on me with Thane and that’s not ok’ conversations most people have to deal with. Kaidan is just pretty basic. He’s nice, he tries, and he does everything you do but three steps behind. He’s just good people.

MASS EFFECT:

AN UNOFFICIAL COMPANION RANKING

15: Javik, Mass Effect 3 DLC I might be biased by the beautiful Citadel DLC scene where if you don’t have a significant other (or in my case, if they recently died) you wake up in bed with Javik, but I really liked this guy. He was mean, had

an entirely new view on the Mass Effect universe, and his arguments with Liara were just hilarious. Additionally, his design was cool and his actual creation added to the universe.

14: Jack, Mass Effect 2 Jack scores low here for two reasons: the fact she constant fought with Miranda, obvious best girl, and the fact she was so aggressive she made even me uncomfortable.

Jack’s personal quest was interesting, her development into ME3

was probably the best of all the companions, and as I write this I’m tempted to move her up the list; but in the end, Jack was an angry and aggressive girl that made me not like her most of ME2.

MASS EFFECT:

AN UNOFFICIAL COMPANION RANKING

13: Tali’Zorah nar Rayya, Mass Effect 1, 2, 3 I know Tali is a fan favourite, but she never did it for me. She’s sweet, and her development was good, but I just never picked her for my teams for me she wasn’t too interesting. She’s often compared to

Merrill from Bioware’s other main franchise Dragon Age, but the difference to me is that I actually like Merrill.

12: James Vega, Mass Effect 3 It’s probably sacrilegious to have James this high, especially above Tali, but here we are. James was hilarious to me, even if probably not in the way intended. Flirting with him whenever he got to flirty just to see

him backtrack extremely fast, and seeing his weird hero worship while constantly trying to one-up you (spoilers: he never does) was just entertaining to me.

MASS EFFECT:

AN UNOFFICIAL COMPANION RANKING

11: Legion, Mass Effect 2 Even if you only pick him up really late in the game, Legion is such a good boy. He’s developed a personality and has decided to help

his people to develop and honestly he’s so good. It’s also super fun to take him onto Tali’s personal quest just to see everyone react in horror.

10: EDI, Mass Effect 3 EDI is a very interesting character – someone who has existed in past games as a helpful AI sudden has a hot robot bod and wants to help you destroy your enemies (also bang your pilot). Watching EDI try and navigate humanity and ‘feelings’

is interesting and a nice addition to your capable roster. A fun extra is how your crew can react to her since they’ve previously thought she was just a computer program, such as Samantha Traynor talking about how hot EDI’s voice is.

MASS EFFECT:

AN UNOFFICIAL COMPANION RANKING

9: Samara or Morinth, Mass Effect 2 So I’ve never actually recruited Morinth despite my best efforts (I love Renegade, but I REFUSE to be outright mean to my companions) but I have access to YouTube, so I love her anyway. Samara herself is

such a badass older woman who has an interesting outlook on life, and a really great voice. Samara and Morinth’s face-claim also regularly cosplays them, which is just awesome as well.

8: Grunt, Mass Effect 2 In stark contrast to Samara, Grunt is the youngest member of your roster. He’s your son, and you take care of him as he becomes a badass of his own. Hilarious, adorable, and an

outright good boy, Grunt is the perfect son any mother (because who plays Mass Effect as a dude) could love.

MASS EFFECT:

AN UNOFFICIAL COMPANION RANKING

7: Kasumi Goto, Mass Effect 2 DLC It’s so rare to get a DLC character who is actually more than a onedimensional party trick, but Kasumi is just that. A reserved but mischievous thief who grows a conscience about the world and wants your help to recover sacred memories

of her partner is such an interesting character, and talking to her was always a highlight on my ship. She’s definitely worth the money to meet her, which is more than I can say for most DLC.

6: Thane Krios, Mass Effect 2 My lizard husband is such a great character if you ignore his awkward romance obsession with his dead wife. A sensitive assassin who falls in love with you no matter what and is dedicated to helping your cause is one of my favourite tropes so it’s no wonder I love Thane. Soft char-

acters who can do hard jobs without sacrificing compassion are fantastic, and his death scene made me cry because I wasn’t expecting it (I couldn’t play his Citadel DLC wake and messages without some tissues around). Thane for best ME romance 2k17.

MASS EFFECT:

AN UNOFFICIAL COMPANION RANKING

5: Liara T’Soni, Mass Effect 1, 2-DLC, 3 Liara sucks in Mass Effect 1. She won’t leave you alone, constantly wants to probe your mind, and if you’re romancing anyone else they have to pull you aside and make sure you’re not cheating because she’s so obviously in love with you it’s uncomfortable. This entirely

changes in ME2 and ME3. Liara, while away from you, has become this stone cold badass who isn’t afraid to roast you for your life decisions while also gathering information on your enemies to take them down without even meeting them.

4: Urdnot Wrex, Mass Effect 1 Who doesn’t love our favourite krogan warlord? While Wrex is a character not many encountered (the default for all other games is that you shot him in the head in the first game) watching Wrex mature and become the leader of his people is so satisfying. Wrex is a great friend

and a character who doesn’t take things seriously and getting to kinda wing-man him with Eve is such a great experience. His brother is also a pain so you should definitely import a save to meet Wrex.

MASS EFFECT:

AN UNOFFICIAL COMPANION RANKING

3: Mordin Solus, Mass Effect 2 This section was the hardest for me to write, because it’s hard to explain how great Mordin is. A mad scientist who founded the almost-genocide of a race, who also gives you alien sex advice should you walk into his clinic at the wrong moment, Mordin is a plethora of ideas that work perfectly in sync. He’s kind but practi-

cal, and even his recruitment quest was a very interesting point of kindness versus realistic goals. His death in ME3 again had me tearing up as he sacrificed himself to fix his own mistakes was the perfect way to end his story (and Eve’s child having his name is gonna always mess me up).

2: Miranda Lawson, Mass Effect 2 I would’ve romanced Miranda if I could’ve. She’s hot, Australian, hardcore and once you get over your weird posturing storyline of ‘who’s the real boss here’ with her, she respects you as a leader and warrior.

I really appreciated that she was a character who fully challenged you

as a commander and person, and who you could earn the esteem and loyalty of. Unlike other games, she wasn’t outright aggressive or rude to you during this, and it felt really good to be able to become her friend.

MASS EFFECT:

AN UNOFFICIAL COMPANION RANKING

Garrus Vakarian,

1:

Mass Effect 1, 2, 3

Was this really ever in doubt?

Garrus is your idiot badass sweetheart best bro. A smooth talking ex-cop more interested in justice than procedure who isn’t afraid to talk dirt on you to your face. I love your banter with him, the fact you both rag on each other’s races and faces, and that Garrus throughout all games is loyal to you to a fault.

Throughout everything, I knew he’d always have my back because he was my best friend. I personally never romanced him, but boy is that weird cat-bug-boy great. By the way, if you let him win that sniper competition, you’re a weak link.

COSPLA HARLEY’S JOKER

ABBY P COSPLAY

CLASSYCAT COSPLAY

SUDDENLY GREEN

IRELAND REID

OZ COMIC CON WRAP UP

interview

INTERVIEW

interview

INTERVIEW

interview

BY TIFFANY DEAN

AY

www.facebook.com/HarleysJoker

In a previous issue of Cosplay Live (2 years ago almost to the month) we spoke to Harley’s Joker, a brilliant designer, photographer and Joker themed cosplayer who goes to incredible lengths to create art that shines in the world of cosplay. If you’ve ever thought about undertaking a cosplay project that is complex but ulitmately worth it, this is the artist to follow. We caught up with him recently on his latest project...

Your latest project is a wonderful tribute to the original, did you do the graphic art too?

Of course I did, and thank you very much. I’m extremely protective (and a bit obsessive) of my projects, and typically wouldn’t feel comfortable letting anyone else handle them. If it’s something I put out there, well over 90% of the time I’m the one behind the whole thing. I think my obsession over details simply comes out of the premise I apply to these projects, which is “if this were real, and a camera was simply there to capture this moment, what would it look like?”. I want the pieces to feel as if the original comic book art to which I am paying tribute is actually a drawing based on this photograph, instead of the reality which is the other way around. I hope that made sense.

You’re doing brilliant and complicated art projects, does that cut into the time you’d perhaps spend at Cons?

Not at all. Keep in mind none of this is employment - these are all just different hobbies that occur in my spare time.

Let’s talk design for a minute - the comic covers - how long does it take to do one?

Every project is different in terms of scope and time, though each is approached the same way. I ap-

proach them a bit like film making.

Most of your time is spent in development and pre-production. A very small, dense, but occasionally costly amount of time is spent in production (shooting the material). Lastly a large chunk of time is spent in post-production, editing. Recreating “The Killing Joke” cover took a couple weeks. “Trophies” took about a month. “Five-Way Revenge” took over three months, primarily because I had never done any sort of 3D design before, so I had to teach myself as I went along, running in to MANY roadblocks and speed-bumps along the way.

How do you source the additional graphics such as fonts and images?

There’s no sourcing going on, I want to create everything from scratch.

That’s why I photograph as much as possible. In “Five-Way Tribute” I photographed the Joker, Batman, the playing card, the sky, phosphorus streetlamp lens flares, automobile tail lights & headlights, and even bits of graffiti. If you look VERY closely you can even see a poster on the side of one of the buildings for “Amusement Mile in Old Gotham”, styled like a vintage circus poster complete with a clown painted on it. I actually painted that with watercolor, scanned it in and shrank it down. However I will confess to using some stock images for things like asphalt and concrete textures. And all the fonts in this image aren’t “fonts” technically, they’re illustrated letter by letter, just as Neal Adams himself did when he drew the original in 1973. I used to do playbills for theaters and would do all the lettering by hand. I even worked for a while when I was much younger at a Trader Joe’s as the store artist creating the signs. The truth is I’ve been drawing since toddlerhood.

Art and design come very naturally to me. This isn’t to say that they’re easy tasks that don’t require a lot of effort, simply that given enough time

and focus I’m determined to achieve it “baking from scratch”.

For readers who didn’t read our first interview 2 years ago - tell us how you got started in cosplay and cosplay art creation and where does your partner Joker’s Harley fit in?

Cosplay happened sort of by accident for me. Halloween was always my favorite holiday, and (to make a very long story quite short) I spent about a year off and on working on a Joker costume intended for Halloween. I decided instead to wear it to San Diego Comic Con in 2012, and the internet went kaboom. The art pieces were a natural way for me to connect my lifelong passion of art and photography to something else I love that had developed an online following: the cosplay. Joker’s Harley (or “Alyssa” as I’ve always known her) is not only my partner in costume, but in life. We’ve been in love for five years now and counting. She is a very talented artist and designer in her own right and we really have found a great way to support each others projects. I know I can always trust her eye on something, and I’m fairly certain she feels the same way about me.

Ok, a bit of a personal question if I may, when I’m working on photography post processing I usually have headphones on and blast music, what do you do? Also what equipment are you working with? Some of those projects would be memory intensive so I’m guessing you’ve got some sort of system that can handle moving all those pixels around?

I will usually listen to music. Often if I’m editing I’m home alone, so no need for the headphones. Until recently I have been using the same computer since 2009. However this Christmas I got myself a new present: debt. I applied for a credit card, discovered I have a dangerously

BEHIND THE SCENES

high credit score and was given far too much spending freedom, and am now the proud owner of a total beast of a machine. To be fair, I do a decent bit of video editing and effects work as well, nowadays usually in 4k resolution, so I need it. I’ve got 64GB of ram, an 8GB Nvidia Quadro graphics card made specifically for graphics rendering, and an 8 core liquid cooled Intel processor. And, again, a lot of debt.

What’s next in the immediate future and for the rest of 2017?

I actually make my living as an actor. It’s my greatest passion. I’m still climbing the entertainment ladder, one slow passing rung at a time. No one knows what the future holds, we’ll just have to keep out eyes open.

Your artwork is now available to buy, where can our readers go to buy and view your work? harleysjokerart.storenvy.com

Editor’s note: If you’re serious about Cosplay - this is one of those artists you simply must follow. His dedication to his craft is second to none.

Go here - like and follow... www.facebook.com/HarleysJoker

See next page for final image!

ONLINE:

www.facebook.com/HarleysJoker harleysjokerart.storenvy.com

The original inspiration and Harley’s Joker’s tribute - right.

CLASSYCAT

William Tan’s Photography: www.facebook.com/williamtansphotography

Isabel Klapwyk: www.facebook.com/IsabelKlapwykPhotographicArts/

Welcome to Live Magazine Classycat Cosplay! Firstly tell us about yourself , where you live and how you got into cosplay.: Hello!! I’m Amy otherwise known as Classycat Cosplay! I’m 22 years old and I grew up and live in a small town in rural British Columbia Canada.

Think trees and wildlife, I basically live in the woods haha. I have always been really into video games, manga and anime and by accident, I stumbled into the cosplay scene while searching up art online and seeing someone dressed as one of the characters. I was totally mesmerised by the fact other people were into something like that since I knew almost no one who had similar interests to my own. From there I saved up, ordered a cosplay online and when I was around 15 years old I packed up and travelled a 7 hours drive to Calgary Alberta to attend my first Cosplay Convention as Haine Otomiya from the manga, “The Gentlemen’s Alliance Cross.” by Arina Tanemura.

What’s the Canadian cosplay scene like - do you have many cons during the year and what’s your favourite?

The Canadian Cosplay scene is simply amazing! There is just an endless amount of really really talented and friendly people. It’s like every corner you turn there is someone you know or someone who wants a hug or a picture! It makes you feel really good.

There are a few cons here and there but as you know Canada is a huge country and they tend to be fairly spread out and as such I’m usually only able to attend one a year. My favourite which is so near and dear to my heart is Otafest, based in Calgary Alberta. I’ve gone every year since 2011 and the staff work so hard to make it a truly welcoming and fun event. They have contests, panels and bring in some wicked Japanese bands for the dances. I was so nerv-

ous my first year but the Calgary cosplay community swept me in and made me feel right at home, and I’ve made some of the best of friends and even met my significant other there. It’s truly my highlight weekend of the year!

What’s been your most challenging costume so far? (And why) Kougyoku Ren from Magi, for sure! I don’t build the costumes myself but I usually alter them to my needs and that one is a huge challenge to wear, so many layers and crinoline! Trying to walk around without tripping is always a task nevermind trying not to get the bottom dirty! I tried driving to a location once while wearing her, I looked like an oversized frill cake stuffed into a tiny car to say the least haha. Then there’s the wig, let me say this, hair spray hair spray and maybe a bit more hairspray.

How did you learn to do your make up and hair?

Trial and error! Growing up as rural as I did I actually didn’t have the internet at my house, so I occupied my time testing out makeup and wig styles based off photos I’d seen. Eventually, I learned how to wear cosmetic contacts as well. It wasn’t until later that I teamed up with my one of my best friends, who is also my main photographer, that my makeup really expanded. Crystal taught me many tips and tricks involving eyeliner, false lashes, etc, and always helps me look photo ready! (She also once shaved my eyebrows off for the sake of cosplay haha) Learning to style and cut the wigs was something I worked really hard at with the help of my boyfriend, (who is an awesome cosplayer) learning to use fabric glue to hold the ends, testing different max hold hairsprays and even glueing the sides to my face before a shoot! I find the whole process really enjoyable except for

clean up, of course, haha.

Tell us about some cosplay photo shoots you’ve done, how do you prepare and what happens during a typical shoot?

I’ve done several with so many awesome photographers! I once participated as “Annie” in a Cosplay Music Video, (by Andy Wang) it was a “league of legends pool party 2014”(you can look it up on youtube wink wink) shoot and was basically a whole day filled with water balloon fights and trying not to soak the cameras! I met a bunch of really great people that day and learned a lot about film and composition.

Though I work mostly with Crystal Rene Unger Photography and our shoots are always a blast too. We get ready together at her house before setting off to find the perfect locations, not much stuff is usually pre-planned and is more often than not pure spur of the moment.The coolest we did was probably utilising the smoke from a nearby forest fire to make it look like I was in a sandy desert. Once we find a good spot I try to get really into character, I basically just act it out, we laugh and she follows me around and takes the photos! It is a ton of fun and honestly, that’s what cosplay should be about.

What’s coming up for you in 2017?

2017 is my year to get back at it! I took a bit of a creative break in 2016 so I’m feeling recharged and ready to go for this year! I’m planning on building my own Skyrim armour set, attending at least 2 different conventions and revisiting some of my favourite cosplays I already own. My childhood best friend also recently got into personal training and is designing me a “cosplay ready” plan so I’m really pumped to try that out. (and maybe a little scared haha) I’m also looking into doing some “Harvest Moon” themed cosplays this year.

Crystal Rene Unger Photography: www.facebook.com/CrystalReneU.Photo

Overall I’m just excited to enjoy this hobby to its fullest and all the great people that come along with it.

Ok, on to some fun questions What’s your favourite movie, TV show and book?

Hmm! I’d honestly have to say it’s a hard tie between “Jurassic Park” and “Final Fantasty 7 Advent children”!

Tv show would have to be “Game of Thrones” for sure and for a book, probably “The Gentlemen’s Alliance Cross”.

What do you do during your non cosplay time - apart from work or study?

I live on a farm so usually gardening or tending to my array of animals. My boyfriend Matsu and I play “Pokemon” or “Magic the Gathering” together lots or just hang out and make crazy food and watch anime! I also hang out at my friends place lots and we play a lot of video games, right now we are super into “Don’t Starve Together!”. Apart from that, I spend a lot of time with my family.

If you could have dinner with anyone from history who would that be and why?

Oh!! That is tough! I’d probably say William Shakespear just to listen to him talk all evening in old English haha.

Finally where can our readers go to find out more about you?

My instagram is @Classycat_cosplay. It is by far my most active account.

My facebook page is just Classycat Cosplay.

Thank you so so much!

ONLINE:

www.instagram.com/classycat_cosplay www.facebook.com/ClassyCatCosplay

Crystal Rene Unger Photography: www.facebook.com/CrystalReneU.Photo

CLASSYCAT Crystal Rene Unger Photography: www.facebook.com/CrystalReneU.Photo

IRELAND reid

Ireland Reid’s bio says: “I truly believe in following your dreams and that anything you want to do is possible. I love being a positive influence and making this world a better place.”

One thing you talk about is making the world a better place through cosplay, it’s a wonderful passion, tell us about that.

Cosplay is a person’s interpretation of how they view their favorite characters from a particular fandom or fandoms.

We just had to interview her...

Hey Ireland, please tell us a bit about yourself, how you got into acting/cosplay and where you are based.

Hi! My name is Ireland Reid and I currently live in Southern California in the USA. I have personally been involved in the cosplay community for about 4 years now. Before being personally involved, in wearing my own creations, doing online tutorials and workshops, I worked on commissions for years for others in the community or other communities involving costumes. I have a background in 9 years in school/community theater along with mechanical engineering work experience. I am currently enrolled in my PhD program for Business Management. Outside of all this, I am a fitness enthusiast, and love reading Sci-fi books.

I love being able to have not only the opportunity to create exotic & heavily detailed cosplay pieces, but being able to meet people all over the world who are into the same thing. Cosplay is like this worldwide community of amazing people, that thrive on art and personal expression within one another. It’s such a beautiful thing to see firsthand in person to be honest. I always try to be that positive light in the community, pushing that cosplay can be for everyone.

You travel a lot for cosplay and events, what’s been some of the highlights?

The biggest highlight is getting to be able to travel all over the world, meeting everyone & experiencing all new places & cultures. It is something that is pretty dear to me and I never take one second of it for granted. I love

diving into learning about new cultures and I love meeting new people.

What’s coming up in 2017?

This year I am doing something a little bit different then I have done in the past few years. I am not traveling so much, but focusing on content more heavily for all my social media outlets.

It will be more content as far as adding more cosplay videos and cosplay related education pieces to my YouTube channel. I will also be filming crafting and tutorials live via Twitch Creative, all the way to making more elaborate costumes to showcase my style of art & engineering. I have a few other things outside of the cosplay community which I am getting involved in, still in the spotlight per say, but they are pretty big projects. I will release more information when I can about them, but I am beyond excited to be part of them.

Tell us about your favourite cosplays.

Every cosplay build that I create, to be honest, is a love and hate feeling towards it. I challenge myself in different

areas with each build, from overall design to time & costs involved. I try to always find the best way in both quality and longevity with all builds. Then I take what I have learned, and turn it into tutorial videos for others. This includes the horrible things that went wrong, to what is the best bang for your buck wise, and so forth. It’s all about growing together as a community and that is the part I love the most.

You’ve got a huge following on Instagram and you’re also on Youtube, what sort of videos are you doing and do you have some advice for new cosplayers getting started in social media?

I am always looking for ways to reach out to my following and connect with them more and more. I actually covered this part with some tips & tricks for building a social media based brand on my YouTube channel. I do this miniseries on there, where I break down little parts for someone, if they are interested in taking their craft from a hobby to a profession. One of the parts I break down is social media, from what social media outlets you need to get exposure in, to creating a uniform image of your name, (or brand in this case), and more.

Who inspires you ?

My mother. She is my hero and why I have the drive/motivation I have every day to push all limits within myself. I am extremely blessed to have her in my life. She taught me at an early age that if you want something in life, you have to work hard for it.

Finally where can our readers go to find out more about you?

I will admit that due to the nature of modern day social media, I am pretty much everywhere to be honest. I’ve created a “central hub” for all social media, cosplay tutorial videos, my blogs and much more just to help avoid confusion. You guys can find everything at www.irelandreid.com.

ONLINE:

www.facebook.com/OfficialIrelandReid www.irelandreid.com www.twitter.com/irelandreid www.instagram.com/irelandreid www.youtube.com/irelandreid27

ABBY P COSPLAY

www.facebook.com/abbypeeofficial

The amazing Abby holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Visual & Performing Arts, and a first degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do. She hopes to use her talents to contribute a little something to this world...

Hi Abby and welcome to Live Magazine and also Cosplay Live. Can you give us a bit of background on yourself?

Thank you so much for having me!

I’ve been in the cosplay game for a while but this is actually my first cosplay interview in a magazine so I’m really excited and honored to be a part of your publications. Really appreciate what Live Magazine and Cosplay Live is doing for cosplayers and the community! As for my background, I’m originally from Southern California in the U.S. where I grew up doing a lot of random hobbies other than cosplay. I grew up with strict parents so I guess I had to find my own ways to keep myself entertained at home. Once I got into cosplay, there was just nothing else like it and my passion for it grew and grew, simply becoming a part of who I was and am today. Along with cosplay, I run my own blog and two Youtube channels while also working full-time here in South Korea where I currently reside.

Looking at what you do, you must be so busy. You’re a member of Honey Toast Cosplay - what does that entail?

Honey Toast Cosplay consists of my good friends and I, and what it entails is simply the opportunity to be closer in the things we love: video games, anime, manga, cosplay, and more.

We excitedly fangirl over things together, or plan out future cosplays and cons. We haven’t had much cosplay activity as a group recently because each member is busy saving animals as a vet tech, going to pharmacy school, or teaching English to school children in Japan and South Korea. Since Honey Toast Cosplay is

something that is completely for fun, we freely and happily try to live our own lives and also come together to work on cosplays or attend cons together whenever we can. It’s always good to know we’ll have that special group of friends we can turn to and still talk to on the daily, and I love and appreciate my girls Ash, Moni, and Amelia so much for that. Hopefully we can show the world more of Honey Toast Cosplay in the future!

Also, you’re a cosplay ambassador for Kpop College - tell us about that too and also Andong in South Korea.

I am that Honey Toast Cosplay member I mentioned in the previous answer who is currently teaching English in South Korea! With this job and living in another country, I’ve fortunately had quite a bit of free time to be able to continue pursuing my own passions and more. This includes starting a vlog channel on Youtube to share my experiences.

And somehow, I also became the cosplay ambassador for Kpop College and an honorary ambassador for Andong, the city I’m living in here in South Korea. As a cosplay ambassador, I work closely with Kpop College thinking of ideas and carrying those out in order to create more interest and participation in cosplay, as well as share about the cosplay and con scene here in South Korea.

And living here in Andong has been great because it’s a very comfortable city where I’ve made lots of memories. Andong is known as the capital city of Korean spiritual culture! If you ever visit South Korea, be sure to let me know and I’ll gladly share more about my city!

Now if that isn’t enough, you’re also into Parkour which stems from your interest in Mirror’s Edge right?

Yes, haha! I got really into parkour a number of years back which did stem from Mirror’s Edge. That game is still one of my favorites for its sleek aesthetic and gameplay, and I

love Faith’s character so much.

With parkour, besides the obvious fact that it just looks so bloody cool, it feels amazing when you’re finally able to perfectly land a move you’ve been working so long on. It’s also a great physical workout and you gain stamina and skills that are definitely useful for something like a zombie apocalypse, duh. But first and foremost, parkour has always been a freeing discipline for both body and mind. It’s scary to try something we’ve never done before - jumping over a huge gap or clearing a high wall. But as we train, practice, and build confidence, we can eventually make it over to the other side. That same philosophy can be used in life. Sadly though, my knees haven’t been in the best shape as the years have gone by, so I haven’t trained in forever!

You’re living in South Korea but are from the U.S. - how did you and why did you move? (As in, how does a person get resident status in South Korea?)

I have a work visa! It was a really long process, and there was so much paperwork and documents involved, but all was made possible through the teaching program I came through.

As for why - I’ve always wanted to try living and working in another country (South Korea, especially!) as a challenge and new adventure, and being able to do so by teaching kids has been so fulfilling.

Ok so on to cosplay, tell us how you got into cosplay and what your first cosplays were...

I think I was in high school - I came across cosplay photos online and just thought it was the coolest thing.

I think it also stemmed from me just loving the characters in a game I played or an anime I watched SO much that I wanted to literally be that character myself. So I knew I

Andrew Pandes: www.andrewpandes.com

had to try cosplay eventually. My first cosplays were at my first cons: Tifa Lockhart from Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, Haruhi Suzumiya from The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, and I think Misa Amane from Death Note.

Do you make your costumes and what’s been your most difficult cosplay?

In my earliest years of cosplay, I didn’t even know how to sew or make props, so I would commission outfits or customize and put pieces together, in addition to buying wigs or any other necessary accessories.

For many years now though, I’ve learned to sew entire costumes and create any accompanying props or accessories. Making my own costumes is always exhausting or stressful when there’s a time limit for a con or photoshoot, but I love taking that opportunity to give all of my love and hard work into something I care so much about, and then wearing the final product. I’d say the most difficult cosplay so far has been my Crimson Akali (League of Legends) because of all the components and details, which also makes it the one I’m still most proud of so far.

Who inspires you in life and in cosplay?

In life, I’m inspired by my parents and pretty much anything around me music, other artists, even the other teachers I work with and the kids I teach. In my earlier cosplay days, I remember being inspired by Li Kovacs aka “PikminLink”, Jin Joson aka “behindinfinity”, and the Japanese cosplayer Kipi. I’m also inspired by my fellow cosplayer friends and seeing other cosplayers at cons just having a fun time.

You run a successful blog and social media sites - do you have some tips to share with new cosplayers wanting to do the same?

“

Sure! I guess for starters, think of a fun name you’d like others to know you as.

For me, I started off with the online alias “hellozombie”, which is the username I used for my deviantart. com account and cosplay.com account, and then later, my blog. It was really strange but funny when I’d hear random people yell “ARE YOU HELLOZOMBIE?!” at cons, haha! So I just went with that for a while.

A major tip I have though, is to stay true to yourself and to your art. For me, cosplay has always existed as a fun, creative outlet where I can also utilize the things I’ve learned from the random hobbies I grew up doing (they turned out useful after all, yay!), to my skills as an artist, martial artist, and lover of music, singing, dance, and performance, all the while paying tribute to a character I love so much. That genuineness will show on your blog and social media sites if you stay true to your passion! Stay humble, be kind, maybe study a bit of design, HTML, and CSS (or get a friend to help you), and most importantly, have fun!

Some fun questions -

Tell us 3 things you can’t live without Food, sleep, music Tell us 3 movies you just love Titanic, 500 Days of Summer, Princess Mononoke 3 Books you just love Harry Potter (all of them count as one), Life of Pi, The Architecture of Happiness

Stay true to yourself and to your

” art

Thanks so much for being part of this issue - can you let our readers know where they can go to find out more about you?

Blog: abbypblog.tumblr.com facebook.com/abbypeeofficial youtube.com/byebyezombie Email: official.abbypee@gmail.com Thank you again for having me! Really enjoyed the interview, more power to Live Magazine and Cosplay Live, and much love to all my fellow cosplayers out there! ‘Til next time!

ONLINE:

www.abbypblog.tumblr.com www.facebook.com/abbypeeofficial www.youtube.com/byebyezombie

Marvin K. Sola: www.facebook.com/MKSolaPhotography

Priscilla Vesper: www.facebook.com/priscillavesper

Jim Lee: jimleephotography.zenfolio.com

Shaun Anderson: shaunandersonphotos.wordpress.com

Jim Lee: jimleephotography.zenfolio.com

suddenly

green

One of the best things about publishing a magazine is talking to both established cosplayers and those who are fairly new to it. Today we spoke to someone we admire for their honesty and passion... hello Suddenly Green, Tell us about yourself - where you’re based and how you got into cosplay.

I’m an Adelaide based cosplayer who, as a child, always had a love for costumes and dressing up. Cosplaying as specific characters started for me as something I did at home with friends or at theme parties. My public Instagram account began getting popular for my gaming content and unique personality, and when I started posting photos of my cosplays, I received overwhelmingly positive support. I have only started cosplaying publically at conventions over the past year, and the community has been so friendly, welcoming and supportive that I wish I had started sooner!

What are your favourite cosplay characters, and why?

I’m drawn to characters that are of a stark contrast to my own personality. I love the crazy obsessiveness of Harley Quinn, the psychopathic Joker or the seductive sultry Poison Ivy. I love to cosplay characters that allow me to experience something new, or become a person I would otherwise never become.

Being in Adelaide, do you go to any of the cons that are on during the year?

Absolutely! This year I’ll be at Oz Comic Con, AVCon and Supanova in Adelaide and I may even make it to PAX in Melbourne and Supanova in Sydney.

You’ve got a large Instagram following, do you have tips for new models or cosplayers just starting out?

Social Media is about engagement.

I always engage with my audience.

My online friends and followers are real people and I’m very aware of that. I always do my best to interact with people on a personal level. Your content should also be clear and concise. I try to stick to only a few subject matters, that way I can properly cater to my audience.

Ok change of direction - who inspires you?

My cosplay idol has always been Jessica Nigri and I was so grateful to meet her when I attended Tampa Bay Comic Con in 2016. She has always shown her true self and can be silly and poke fun at herself without worrying who will freezeframe on an awkward facial expression (in fact, she encourages it!) and I can really relate to that. Jessica shows brilliant craftsmanship with her work and has so many incredible talents. Plus, she touched my butt... What’s not to love?!

Steamkittens: www.facebook.com/steamkittens

Sean Pualic Photography: www.facebook.com/shoottothrillbyseanpualic

What are you reading, watching?

Right now, I’m reading these interview questions and watching my tray of chocolate truffles disappear before my eyes. Oh, you meant geek related!

I’m rewatching Attack on Titan in anticipation of Season 2 and actually on the hunt for some new Anime’s to get hooked on. Recommendations appreciated!

What 5 things would you take to an island?

Chocolate, chocolate, Jason Momoa, more chocolate and... My filtered water bottle.

Finally where can our readers go to find out more? @suddenlygreen on Instagram and Snapchat or people can follow my new Facebook page specifically for my cosplays www.facebook.com/ suddenlygreencosplay

ONLINE: www.instagram.com/suddenlygreen www.facebook.com/suddenlygreencosplay

SFX Images: www.facebook.com/SFXImages

suddenly green

OZ COMIC CON

ADELAIDE WRAP UP! The Post Con Blues are already setting in for the Adelaide Cosplay and Fandom Community. Our first Con of the year was here on the weekend and it’s always sad how fast those two days go.

I cosplayed both days – Cindy from Final Fantasy XV on Saturday, and Cindery’s re-design of Kindred from League of Legends on the Sunday.

The event again this year was not a disappointment. There was a good variety of guests and artists again, even if some of the guests weren’t as ‘current’ as they have been on previous years. I only met Torri Higginson myself this year, and she was so warm and welcoming. Fan favourite Jason Mamoa was back again and as what is becoming normal for him, he was a bucket load of fun over the weekend – some may have seen the video of him zooming around on an electronic scooter!

Cosplay Central was again well organised with two talented and highly renowned guests – international Cosplayer Ivy Doomkitty and local pocket rocket Floksy Locksy Cosplay. Both ladies are lovely and interacted with the fans perfectly, and nothing but positive things were said about them.

The Photoraphers Wall had a great line up of talented photographers again this year, and the line was constant for them all.

The display mannequins were set up around the Wall which was a great touch as it gave people something to look at and talk about whilst in line.

The backdrops were stunning this year again and it was great to see people having fun taking photos in front of them.

Even though I only witnessed and was a part of the Championships of Cosplay (which was hosted brilliantly by JusZ Cosplay!), it seems as though the Cospaly Active, Kids Cosplay and Cosplay Parade events ran smoothly.

Exhibitors and Artists had a vast array of booths with great content for sale / viewing. Exhibitors are always exciting as there’s a good chance Con goers can find goodies that they can’t normally buy elsewhere.

My only minor (VERY minor) complaint on the event was having it squished into one side of the Pavillion. In previous years it has been spread out across both sides, and as a result didn’t tend to feel claustrophobic. Having everything (ex-

cept some events) in the one Hall created a lot of cramped spaces, bottlenecks and difficulty in moving around. It also made it seem much hotter inside so those in heavy / bulky costumes tended to struggle a little. I’m sure, however, that there was a reason for it this year as it is the first year it has been set up this way. The Volunteers were pleasant and fun, with smiles on their faces which was great to see.

There was a huge amount of Panels and Workshops this year, all offering something different. These are not only interesting and informative for the general public, but also a great help for those into costume making, cosplay and photography.

It was great to see so many people on board and the numbers attending each event looked good.

Con goers themselves were also bright and bubbly, and it was heart warming to see so many people interacting positively. It was clear to see that many friendships were made and strengthened, only furthering the love, joy and passion that unites all of us Con goers.

Here’s to the next Convention, Adelaide! <3

BY TIFFANY DEAN

WWW.facebook.com/TiffanyDeanCosplay

OZ COMIC CON

ADELAIDE WRAP UP!

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