Untitled Goose Game stole gamer hearts when it was released in 2019. But what if the horrible goose became a LEGO set? One user-created LEGO set submission on the Lego Ideas page could make that a reality.
The LEGO Ideas site is an official platform where LEGO creators can submit custom sets that users can then vote on. If enough people support a project, it has a chance to become a real LEGO retail set.
One user named A Fellow Player created a custom LEGO set based on Untitled Goose Game and it seems to have struck a chord with fans. The Untitled LEGO set was chosen by the LEGO Ideas Team as a staff pick, which doesn’t fast track the project towards reality, but shows that it has editorial support from those who work at LEGO Ideas.
Source: Lego Ideas (A Fellow Player)
The project has already reached 1,000 supporters, but it will need 10,000 total to be officially approved for review by LEGO. The toy company reserves the right to reject Idea submissions for a variety of reasons such as if it’s based on existing IP, or if the project requires too many custom brick molds.
The Untitled Goose Game LEGO set still needs 9,000 more supporters on its LEGO Ideas page to even be considered for review. But considering how delightful the set and the game is, it should strike a chord with fans of the horrible goose.
Between the original franchise, the more popular “Z” series, the divisive GT and the recent Super, we’ve seen Goku and friends shout, power up, and fight each other for almost thirty-five years. Akira Toriyama’s Dragon Ball has transcended its manga beginnings, becoming a pop-culture phenomenon (though the less said about the live-action movie the better), so it’s no surprise that there’s no shortage of video game adaptations – dating back all the way to 1986.
While it might seem obvious that the majority would be fighting titles, there’s a surprising amount of diversity to be found throughout Dragon Ball’s pixelated history, ranging from action RPGs all the way to card-battlers, and even a short-lived MMO. In honor of the first Dragon Ball game of the 2020s, Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot, let’s take a look at the games that came before. Whether you know your Goku from your Gohan, it’s time for a trip down Snake Way.
Flip through the gallery above to see all the Dragon Ball games, or scroll down for a breakdown of some of the franchises best, worst, and most unique games since the 1980s.
1986: Humble, Muscley Beginnings
A top-down shooter for the Epoch Super Cassette Vision, Dragon Ball: Dragon Daihikyō sent Goku into battle atop his cloud companion the Nimbus, tasked with collecting the Dragon Balls by firing Kamehamehas and swinging his Power Pole at enemies in a top-down shoot-em-up.
Dragon Daihikyō was unique at the time, thanks to it’s more tactical take on the action/shooter – the hungrier our hero gets, the shorter his Power Pole becomes; meaning he has to refuel with items occasionally thrown by Chi-Chi. This nod to the anime (Goku is constantly eating) – is something latest release Kakarot builds upon with stat boosts awarded when our hero eats.
1986 – 1996: The Famicom/Super Famicom
The early nineties saw a multitude of Dragon Ball titles on the Famicom and Super Famicom consoles, and while many mesh into a homogenous blur of 2D fighting titles, there are a few surprisingly unique additions.
Dragon Ball Z: Gekitō Tenkaichi Budokai was a 1992 fighting game that required a peripheral for the NES called the Datach Joint ROM System, which was in many ways a precursor to Amiibo. It would scan barcodes on trading cards that would unlock characters and items in the game.
In 1994, the Dragon Ball Z Gaiden: Saiyajin Zetsumetsu Keikaku titles, Chikyū-Hen and the re-release, Uchū-Hen, (which translates to the catchily-titled DBZ Side Story: Plan to Eradicate the Saiyans), were Japanese-exclusive card-battlers – similar in many ways to something like Slay The Spire, where moves and attacks are dictated by the cards drawn by the player.
With animated battle scenes and a wealth of characters (and an original story, something not found often in the franchise), Uchū-Hen was well-received by fans.
Both Chikyū-Hen and Uchū-Hen even made their way to Playdia, Bandai’s proprietary console. The system only lasted on the market for two years, but boasted a wireless joypad (with infrared connectivity – a fairly novel idea at the time but one that Atari championed as far back as 1983 with the 2600’s CX-42 Joysticks) and was one of the earlier consoles to adopt running games from CD Roms.
The disc-based medium led to plenty of FMV-style titles, but short of licensed titles like Sailor Moon and the aforementioned Dragon Ball titles, the console faded into obscurity – despite a bizarre late push from Bandai to publish more… “adult-themed” titles.
1996 – 2000: The 3D Era
The arrival of Sony’s PlayStation in the mid-nineties offered a fresh opportunity for the Dragon Ball franchise – though its transition to 3D graphics wasn’t exactly an easy one.
The first PS1 Dragon Ball game, Ultimate Battle 22, had 3D backgrounds but 2D character models, and was panned critically for its imprecise controls and outdated graphics (yes, even back then). One review called it “one of the worst-looking titles ever released on the PS1,” which is impressive, considering the fact that Bubsy 3D had come out seven years earlier.
The following year’s Dragon Ball GT: Final Bout shifted to a fully 3D fighter along the lines of its contemporaries like Tekken. While the character models were well received, the gameplay was not – with many critics noting that flight animations were punctuated by characters just standing idle in mid-air.
Despite disappointing critics, the original Japanese version sold enough to earn a spot in PlayStation’s “Best for Family” branding campaign – there’s likely a lot of disappointed families.
2002 – 2010: The Budokai Years
The three Budokai games of the early 2000s restored Dragon Ball Z games’ public favour. These fighting games offered retellings of the anime storyline alongside an increasing number of playable characters, all modelled fully in 3D – with Budokai 3 reaching 42, including characters from outside of the anime’s story, such as Gogeta and Cooler from the movies.
The care given to the franchise clearly paid off, as reported sales of all three Budokai titles reached 3.9 million units in the US by July 2006 across PS2, Xbox, and Gamecube – a huge increase from the 10,000 shipped of GT: Final Bout back on the original PlayStation.
This success led to the Budokai Tenkaichi trilogy, which allowed players to mix up flight, melee, and ranged combat in open 3D arenas, able to move in all directions, with a third-person perspective. In fact, much of what helped revitalize the Tenkaichi games is still present in the series today, including the camera position, the mix of using Ki-blasts to weaken opponents, and the cinematic elements afforded by flashy new special moves.
While the first Tenkaichi title featured an impressive 64 playable characters, the roster would only grow from there – leading to an incredible 161 playable characters from all eras of Dragon Ball anime.
Budokai Tenkaichi 3 is still considered by many to be the pinnacle of the franchise (to the point that it earned an HD remaster alongside the original game in 2012. Its use of a cel-shaded art style not only made it look more like the anime, but also helped the game age more gracefully than the polygonal models of the past.
Many still consider Budokai Tenkaichi 3 to be the pinnacle of the franchise (to the point that it earned an HD remaster in [year]), featuring 161 playable characters from Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, and Dragon Ball GT. It also fine-tuned the trilogy’s cel-shaded art style, which not only made it look more like the anime but also helped the game age more gracefully than the polygonal models of the past.
It wasn’t all fistfights and Galick Guns though, as three Game Boy Advance titles put Goku in top-down RPGs in Legacy of Goku. Despite simplistic controls and gameplay, the first two titles shipped over 600,000 units in the United States alone, and while the third entry dropped the “Legacy of Goku”, Buu’s Fury still sold over 400,000 copies – suggesting Bandai was right to continue releasing games in the franchise.
In 2005, Dragon Ball Z: Sagas became the first game in the franchise to be developed by a studio outside of Japan, with the honour falling to Avalanche Software (who had previously worked on Prince of Persia 3D, and would go on to helm the Disney Infinity series). Sagas again retells the anime’s story but was playable entirely in co-op with playable characters including Goku, Vegeta, Piccolo and Future Trunks.
After a disappointing critical reception (made all the worse in hindsight by launching in the same year as the much more competent Budokai Tenkaichi), the game still shipped around 750,000 units – although it’s still regarded as one of the franchise’s darkest moments, with critics pointing out a lack of moves in combat and a lack of visual polish.
The 2010s
After mixed fortunes in the years prior, Bandai Namco tried to spin the Dragon Ball franchise into an MMO – a genre that had gained in popularity thanks to MMORPGs like World of Warcraft and Age of Conan.
In 2010, Dragon Ball Online launched in Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Hong Kong after a three-year delay. However, the initial reception was poor and the servers were unplugged before fans outside of Asia got the chance to jump in.
With the arrival of Microsoft’s motion-gaming peripheral, Dragon Ball Z: For Kinect launched in 2012 and was built on the same engine as Ultimate Tenkaichi. Unfortunately, poor motion tracking and repetitive combat couldn’t make throwing your arms around like a Saiyan fun – despite the game shipping with a cardboard version of Goku’s hair.
In 2013, Bandai Namco brought the wildly popular Dragon Ball Heroes collectable card game to Nintendo’s 3DS as Dragon Ball Heroes: Ultimate Mission. Equal parts CCG and quick-time event, Ultimate Mission tells an original story in the DBZ universe, even introducing new villains to the series that have subsequently been introduced to the Manga – while an entirely new anime based on the game, Super Dragon Ball Heroes, began in 2018.
2015 saw the release of Dragon Ball Xenoverse – a 3D brawler/RPG hybrid that allows players to create a character and interact with the heroes and villains of the Dragon Ball universe themselves. Playing as a Time Patroller, your task is to ensure the events of Dragon Ball’s past remain unchanged, which is a perfect excuse to head back into anime’s sagas again.
It would seem that Xenoverse (and its 2016 sequel, Xenoverse 2) provide the template that Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot appears to follow – albeit that Kakarot focuses on Goku and friends instead of a bespoke player character while adding more open areas to explore – with multiple small zones connected together as opposed to Xenoverse’s smaller combat-only scenarios.
In 2018, Arc System Works released Dragon Ball FighterZ, arguably the best in the series so far. This 2D brawler uses much of the cel-shaded, accessible fighting template from the developer’s BlazBlue franchise, but adapts the visual style of the anime with stunning accuracy. With screen-filling super moves, a diverse roster, and three-on-three combat, it sold over 4 million copies by the end of March 2019 – and went on to win plenty of Fighting Game of the Year awards.
Which brings us up today – Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot launches today, taking the third-person combat of the Tenkaichi games, the RPG systems of Xenoverse, and even the stat-boosting dishes from Dragon Ball: Dragon Daihikyō to bring Dragon Ball Z games into a new decade.
Lloyd Coombes is a freelancer writer, and spends at least one hour a day chanting Sam Fisher’s name in the mirror. You can join him in this dark ritual on Twitter.
These nine games join the 90+ titles already available for the Project xCloud trial, which is currently only available in the US, UK, and Korea. Microsoft also confirmed today that the preview is expanding in Korea, with more players now receiving invites. However, there is no word yet as to when Project xCloud will roll out in other parts of the world.
The first public preview for Project xCloud launches in October 2019. The service allows players to stream Xbox games from the cloud to their mobile device over Wifi or a mobile network without the need to own an Xbox. The program currently only supports Android devices.
There hasn’t been a lot of transparency with how streaming giant Netflix calculates its viewership. Earlier in the month, Netflix revealed it’s top watched movies of 2019, so we all got a look at what people who subscribe to the service are watching the most. However, the way the company figured out what counts as a view is a bit confusing.
Originally, if someone watched 70% of any title on the service, that counted as a view. Things have changed now, and a view counts as watching at least two minutes of any given TV show or movie, according to a report from The Hollywood Reporter. So when Netflix releases a statement saying 83 million people watched the movie 6 Underground, that doesn’t necessarily mean 83 million people watched the whole movie, or even half of it. They all watched for at least two minutes, and none of this is verified by a third party.
“This way, short and long titles are treated equally, leveling the playing field for all types of our content including interactive content, which has no fixed length. The new metric is about 35% higher on average than the prior metric,” a shareholder letter stated (via THR).
Of course that metric is going to be higher. Two minutes of watch time is less than 2% of Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman, a three and a half hour movie. With many movies, two minutes of watch time could simply mean, “You made it through the opening credits.” The old 70% measure seems like a much more reputable way to measure how people are watching the streaming service’s content.
Temtem, the PC MMO from developer Crema, has drawn a lot of comparisons to Nintendo’s Pokemon series. Adorable monsters, trainers, anime influence, etc. The game has now launched in early access on Steam, letting you train to be the very finest, like nobody has been before. And the launch comes alongside an animated trailer that pays homage to its inspirations like Saturday morning cartoons.
The Early Access version promises a 20+ hour campaign with four boss dojos, 76 Temtem, a breeding system, Luma (shiny) versions of Temtem, co-op and PvP, and three different islands. Long-term, Crema is planning to introduce more story content, a full roster of 161+ Temtem, three more islands, ranked PvP, mythical monsters, player housing, and special events.
It may scratch the itch for eager Pokemon trainers who have been asking Nintendo to make a proper MMO for years, but it looks to be more than just its inspirations. GameSpot editor Kallie Plagge noted in hands-on impressions that it twists the Pokemon formula in unique ways, and even Nintendo may even be wise to take notice.
Temtem is now available for $35. Crema says that Early Access players will pay less ultimately than others, as the price will gradually rise as more features are added. The game has also suffered some launch server hiccups, and the official Twitter account has been keeping fans regularly updated on those issues.
Okay, we’ve pushed a quick server config and everything is looking good right now.
If it stays like this we will be opening more slots for the queue!
Voyager’s Seven of Nine will make her triumphant return in Star Trek: Picard.
Star Trek: Voyager was the final series in a Trek television trilogy that began with Star Trek: The Next Generation and continued with Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Between all three series, Star Trek was a staple of primetime television for an unbroken 15-year run.
After so much Trekking, Voyager was faced with a dilemma: How could the show explore strange new worlds and civilizations when the Alpha Quadrant had been so thoroughly explored? Thus, the producers made the decision to strand Captain Kathryn Janeway’s ship in the Delta Quadrant, a largely unexplored part of space that was 70,000 light years from Earth. The series was about Voyager’s attempts to get home–a journey that, without shortcuts, would take 75 years.
If you’re itching to know more about the upcoming year of Rainbow Six Siege content, Ubisoft has confirmed where and when to watch. The company announced that details for Year 5 of the online shooter will be shared at the 2020 Six Invitational, which is set for February 7-16 in Montreal.
Announcements will include details of the next Operation, along with dedicated panels for a deep-dive into both Siege and the game’s related esports scene. The company didn’t pinpoint exactly when in the festivities it will be going into detail about Year 5, but did share a basic schedule of events. The group stage starts on February 7, followed by playoffs on February 11. All of those preliminary events are not open to the public, but will be broadcast. The final days of the playoffs and the finals begin February 14, so any big announcements are likely to occur that weekend.
The championship is offering a $3 million prize pool, including a portion of the proceeds from the Road to SI 2020 Battle Pass. That in-game event includes a special map, unique sportswear for Operators, and other unique cosmetics. It costs 1200 credits (about $10) or you can jump ahead with a premium unlock for 2400 ($20).
Siege is one of Ubisoft’s most successful live games, a model it has tried to imitate to varying degrees of success in its other franchises. Last year the studio announced disappointing financial results and postponed several games, and has now begun a management restructuring–including bringing back the creative director for Rainbow Six: Vegas.
Click To Unmute
Size:
Want us to remember this setting for all your devices?
If Doom Eternal‘s first three hours are anything to go by, the sequel to 2016’s Doom is shaping up to be one of the best games of 2020–or at least the most metal. Doom Eternal is set to launch on March 20 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC, with the Nintendo Switch version due out later this year, but it was originally scheduled to release last November before being delayed.
In an interview with VG247, executive producer Marty Stratton said that the team at id Software were working long hours in the leadup to the delay. “We were crunching pretty hard most of last year,” he explained. “It goes in phases. We’ll have one group of people crunching so the next group of people are teed up properly. As they get done, they may need to crunch a little bit.”
Developer crunch has been a hot button issue in the video game industry over the past couple of years, with criticism aimed at many developers for creating a culture of expected, and sometimes mandatory, overtime at the expense of employee wellbeing. Rockstar co-founder Dan Houser previously claimed that some employees were working 100-hour weeks on Red Dead Redemption 2, as an example. The closure of Telltale Games unearthed some painful truths, too, while it was recently revealed that Cyberpunk 2077’s delay won’t reduce crunch.
“We really truly do try and be very respectful of peoples’ time and lives,” Stratton said. “We have very dedicated people that just choose to work a lot in many cases. It was nice because we want the game to be perfect. We want it to live up to our expectations and consumer expectations.
“We work very hard and we’ll put in extra time to do that. Sometimes when we just get the extra time we do it anyways because we want it to be that much better. [A delay] takes a little bit of the steam and pressure out but it’s almost one of those things where we’ll push it even harder to get even more just as tight as it possibly can be.”
Click To Unmute
Size:
Want us to remember this setting for all your devices?
The latest major update for Supergiant Games’ Early Access title Hades is now available to download on Steam and the Epic Games Store. The Long Winter update includes a host of new additions, introducing a new Olympian, a new weapon variant, new activities, more story, and numerous other improvements.
Demeter, the Goddess of Seasons, has brought winter to the Underworld along with some powerful new boons. You can now go for a spot of fishing to capture and sell fish using a new House Contractor item. There’s also a new Legendary Keepsake, new Daedalus Hammer upgrades, and new story events with over 1,000 new voice lines to go along with general gameplay improvements, bug fixes, and more.
• Demeter: the Goddess of Seasons brings winter to the Underworld! Seek out her powerful Boons
• Rod of Fishing: capture (& sell!!) Underworld river denizens with this new House Contractor item
• Aspect of Guan Yu: earn this unique new Aspect of the Eternal Spear, and vanquish your foes!
• Underworld Decor Galore: scores of new items are available at the newly renovated House Contractor!
• New Legendary Keepsake: forge an unbreakable bond with Dusa, and summon her to petrify your foes
• Boon Info & Victory Screen Update: pin multiple Boons onscreen for easy reference and sharing
• New Daedalus Hammer Upgrades: look for multiple new upgrades for each weapon
• New Story Events: uncover new secrets in hours of added narrative (with more than 1,000 new voice lines)
General Gameplay
• Increased prices of Boons sold by Charon
• Increased price of Daedalus Hammer sold by Charon
• Increased price of augmented Boons and Poms sold by Charon in the Temple of Styx
• Slightly reduced healing from tasty-looking Health Drops
• Reduced healing from Fountain Chambers; however, new House Contractor upgrades can increase it
• You may now encounter fishing points in various chambers, once you have the Rod of Fishing. Deliver your stock to the Head Chef in the House (who will take very good care of them)
Infernal Arms, Aspects, & Abilities
• Stygian Blade (Zagreus): now also increases Dash distance
• Eternal Spear (Guan Yu): newly added! Seek Achilles to learn more (once you have several Aspects)
• Eternal Spear (Zagreus): now increases Attack damage and Dash-Strike damage
• Shield of Chaos: slightly increased Bull Rush charge up time; slightly reduced Bull Rush damage
• Shield of Chaos (Zagreus): reduced damage resistance
• Shield of Chaos (Zeus): increased damage of Throw special
• Shield of Chaos (Chaos): now throws additional Shields in a radial pattern
• Adamant Rail: no longer briefly slows foes on-hit
Boons & Blessings
• Demeter: newly added! Seek out 11 new Boons and 4 new Duo Boons
• Billowing Strength (Zeus): reduced power level; increased effect duration
• Zeus’ Aid: reduced power scaling from improved rarity
• Scintillating Feast (Zeus x Dionysus): reduced damage
• Nasty Dash (Dionysus): now deals several instances of damage and Hangover (formerly called Poison)
• Second Wind (Hermes): increased effect duration; increased power scaling from improved rarity
• Passing Through (Hermes): cut from game (Demeter is the new curator of slowing effects)
• Relative Speed (Hermes): cut from game, same reason
• Quick Reload (Hermes): now offered by Hermes (donated by Artemis, who felt sorry for him)
• Slothful (Chaos): reduced how badly this curse can impair your move speed
• Defiance (Chaos): increased appearance rate
• Reduced power level of Chaos blessing effects at higher rarity
Daedalus Hammer Upgrades
• Cursed Slash (Blade): newly added! Restores health on-hit, but your life total is heavily reduced
• Shadow Slash (Blade): newly added! Deals bonus damage when striking foes in the back
• Serrated Edge (Spear): newly added! Your Dash-Strike hits multiple times but your Dash is shorter
• Charged Skewer (Spear): newly added! Press and hold to power up your Skewer special
• Quick Spin (Spear): no longer quite as quick
• Charged Throw (Shield): newly added! Press and hold to power up your Throw special
• World Smasher (Shield): newly added! Your Bull Rush is replaced with a powerful up-close strike
• Chain Shot (Bow): newly added! Your attack bounces between targets, dealing bonus damage
• Charged Volley (Bow): newly added! Press and hold to power up your Volley special
• Cluster Bomb (Rail): newly added! Your Bombard special fires a spread of 5 smaller bombs
• Hazard Bomb (Rail): newly added! Your Bombard special fires a big bomb that blasts the area around you, but can damage you (“Have you tried not standing there when it blows up?” –Hypnos)
• Delta Chamber (Rail): formerly Infinity Chamber ; now also fires in a 3-round burst
• Explosive Fire (Rail): cut from game
Foes & Encounters
• Introduction to Olympian Aid now gives you some God Gauge to use Poseidon’s Call
• Thanatos: should show up more frequently (once you encounter him for the first time in Elysium)
• After the other Fury Sisters show up, it is no longer possible to randomly avoid one indefinitely
• Alecto: reworked her Rage Gauge (you can knock her out of her rage-building move, but watch out)
• Skullomat: Elite is more powerful; reduced appearance rate in Asphodel
• Burn-Flinger: Elite attack pattern adjusted
• Wave-Fist: non-Elite throws one wave at a time (rather than two); adjusted Elite attack
• Reduced number of foes on the Asphodel Barge of Death under Middle Management (Pact)
• Bone Hydra: reworked aspects of this encounter to be faster though deadlier to compensate; one fewer phase; removed urns containing health (the Hydra finally realized they were there and ate them)
• Elysian Arrow Trap: attack now dissipates as soon as combat is over
• Flame Wheels: reduced health and Elite armor
• Nemean Chariot: no longer can hit multiple times in one charge
• Exalted Greatshield: appearance rate reduced; non-Elite no longer has a spin attack; reduced rotation and increased vulnerability times
• Soul Catcher (Elite): now more aggressive under the effects of Middle Management (Pact)
• The Minotaur: no longer gains brief invulnerability when low on health in the battle with Theseus
• Increased damage rate of Poison effects in the Temple of Styx
• Final Boss: various changes to attack patterns; resolved issues where cover sometimes did not work reliably against ranged attacks
Keepsakes & Items
• Companion Fidi (Dusa): newly added Legendary Keepsake! Summons Dusa to petrify your foes
• Companion Mort (Thanatos): increased effect radius; increased damage; reduced pre-attack time
• Companion Shady (Sisyphus): dropped goodies no longer block foes’ movement
• Companion Battie (Megaera): increased damage
• Frostbitten Horn (Demeter): newly added! Raises chance to find Demeter Boons with improved rarity
• Broken Spearpoint (Patroclus): now has a cooldown between uses; slightly increased effect duration
• Evergreen Acorn (Eurydice): reduced instances of damage absorption
• Myrmidon Bracer (Achilles): reduced damage reduction at higher ranks
The Lunar New Year is nearly upon us, and many retailers are starting to hold special events to commemorate the day. That latest Lunar New Year Sale is from digital PC games retailer Fanatical, which has discounted dozens of great titles for the holiday, including Red Dead Redemption 2, Monster Hunter World: Iceborne, and Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order.
In addition to the regular Lunar New Year discounts, Fanatical is also holding special Star Deals, which are only available for a limited time or until keys stay in stock. The current Star Deal is the Metro Redux bundle for only $4.49. The Metro series is one of my favourites, so if you haven’t played these story-focused shooters, then I definitely recommend them–though please note that the deal ends on January 22 and keys are starting to dwindle.
Aside from discounting over 1,000 games, Fanatical is also holding a contest for $500 of store credit. To enter the contest, you have to agree to receive emails from Fanatical. After that, you can get more entries by doing various things, such as visiting Fanatical’s social media pages, following the store on Twitter and Twitch, or joining its Discord server and Steam group. You can enter the contest on Fanatical’s blog.
We’ve picked out some of the best games on sale below, but be sure to check out the full sale on Fanatical. There are plenty of deals not listed here that are definitely worth checking out.
Best PC game deals at Fanatical
Click To Unmute
Size:
Want us to remember this setting for all your devices?
