Random: Star Fox Dev Thinks Star Fox Adventures "Was Too British"

I want to see the next Star Fox game look similar as Ratchet & Clank games with more playable characters and different weapons to use.

So he means too British in the sense that it's a style of game popular in Britain?

Star Fox Adventures is one of my favorite games of all time. Its only shortcoming is that it's too short (no pun intended).

Star Wing (as it was called here) was one of the 3 games that tipped over this rabid Sega fanatic into asking for a SNES for Christmas 94. (Sf2T and DKC were the others). It's still a brilliant game to play to this day, although nowadays I'm 100% playing the 60hz NTSC version to make the low framerate slightly more bareable. But it's certainly stood the test of time and deserves its reputation.

I had the honour and pleasure of Dylan Cuthbert reaching out to me a couple of times replying to and then discussing my various coverage of Star Fox and Argonaut over the years and he is just such a lovely, humble guy, super intelligent and a big inspirational figure to me as well.

As a Brit who now mostly lives and works abroad in various countries, and is trying to learn the languages and cultures of each area that I frequent, I find subtle cultural differences in sensibilities and how this translates to their media really interesting.

Whenever I produce a movie with a bigger budget (especially my current set of projects which are big studio style affairs for a worldwide audience) you're constantly being warned of changes and tweaks to make because something that seems innocuous to me would mean certain huge foreign markets would dislike or even refuse to release it. You end up feeling like there's a choice between making super low budget art or super high budget sterile blandness. Trying to find a healthy medium is a challenge, I'm not sure I'm quite there yet.

Rare games do have somewhat of a British feel to the humour and aesthetic, though obviously some of them (presumably under strict guidance from Nintendo) still got a huge worldwide following. I wonder specifically which aspects of SF Adventures he thinks limited the worldwide appeal. (Genuine interest. Im not trying to say he is wrong!) I'll be interested to read people's responses to this article.

I'm American and I love Star Fox Adventures!

What's that supposed to mean?

Star Fox invades countries and takes their tea?

Glad to know I’m not the only one who thought this game absolutely reeked of crumpets.

I didn’t think the game was too British. It wasn’t everything for everybody but I liked it. I liked getting out the ship. Just wish it had more flying parts.

I wish they would bring back this series. And make a new game. Not a weird remake of 64.

It's definitely was not too British I don't know where he got that from ( it's not slow or tedious and it doesn't have a bomb trying to give us a tutorial). It was just too Dinosaur Planet of a game to fit into a different series and genre of games.

Never understood the hate this game gets. I loved it and it’s incredible how good it looks

@Mauzuri then you should go download and play them. It's very easy to obtain this game. 😁😀

@Deviant-Dork But dinosaurs are inherently British. The sun never set on the dinosaur empire.

@Jiggies what a kind way to describe that!

I would have described it as: a passion project that took to long and had to be rushed in the second half to bring out before the buyout truly finished.....especially the last portion where you don't even get to fight the big bad!! He just gets spoilers 😳😂

I don't remember enough about Star Fox: Adventures to weigh in on its Britishness, but I do remember a rapid-A test required to progress that stumped my siblings and me.
Until our uncle came over a drilled a hole through our A-button with his thumb.

As an aside, Star Fox: Assault is the quintessential Star Fox, and that's a hill I'm willing to die on!

Right, so Adventures was too British and Assault wasn't British enough. Nintendo ought to consult the Britometer for their next entry to strike a good balance lol.
I suppose you could just use random words instead of providing anything constructive as to why one entry may or may not be better than another (or better received in this context).

not the take i was expecting to hear but i hope it somehow domino effects into a new game release

No baked beans, football hooligans or queuing! How is this game even remotely British?

So wish we got a new Star Fox in Switch!!!!!

He is literally a Fox who's surname is McCloud, so how can it suddenly be too Bri'ish

Wow now I can't unsee it.

@Uncle_Franklin They also get them hooked on opium if they won't voluntarily hand over the tea. But "big videogame" doesn't want you to know that.

I'm gathering that there's a subtle British-ness that isn't obviously British but doesn't suit outside markets. You could compare, say, the UK Office and the US Office TV shows or, to use a more contemporary example, the UK Ghosts and the US Ghosts. They have different styles of comedy. In the case of the US Ghosts, it's not as American as the US Office but you can see the clear differences between the UK version. Another example, I'm Canadian and I love Bake Off. The Canadian version of Bake Off is mostly the same but you can tell it is so Canadian. It's hard to explain to non-Canadians. They've tried multiple times to make an American version but the core format of the show just isn't translatable into "American."

OK, I'm rambling here. I don't know what this means for video games. What is a British game?

@JohnnyMind Great Post. You just succinctly summarised all the issues I have with the game. Despite that, it's very technically impressive, and there's lots about it that I enjoyed.

As a launch day N64 owner who obsessively read all the magazines in the lead up to launch, and for a good while after, and also as a kid (and now adult!) that love both dinosaurs and anthropomorphic animal heroes, I was very excited for Dinosaur Planet. I was quite sad when it never released, it was right up there on my wishlist for the system. Its cool we now can check it out all these years later through that leak a year or so ago 😀

In hindsight casting Basil Brush as Fox McCloud was an out there choice

I feel like they (Nintendo and anyone involved in Star Fox) is making this a lot more difficult or convoluted than it needs to be. But maybe it's easy for me to say as just a gamer and someone who doesn't develop games for a living.

My opinion: I don't think you need to chase capturing the exact magic of the first game. In anything in life, you are never gonna reach that first, exact high ever.

But you can try developing something a little fresh or more refined to reach new highs for that particular experience. None of the subsequent Star Fox games are terrible. I think a long look at what all the games in the series get right and what their pitfalls are can get the series to the next evolution of what it needs to be. Again, I admit to this being easier said than done from the peanut gallery

@Purgatorium As a Brit who has worked in both British and American media a lot for 2+ decades, I've more recently pivotted to often working in Canada. Mostly Toronto & Vancouver but also around Alberta and all over the place. Huge, beautiful, highly varied country.

Many of my closest friends and colleagues and business partners are Canadian, or British people who've moved to Canada. The more time I spend working in or visiting different parts of the country, you're right in that it's very distinctly not American, nor British, but somewhere in between... of course with its own unique aspects too. I've taken to watching a lot of Canadian media and especially YouTubers from Canada, and there is something very compelling to me about them, I think perhaps precisely because of this unique mishmash of so many otherwise disperate cultures that I'm familiar with but usually are separate in my mindspace.

Plus Canadians are just nice. I know it's a stereotype, but it's a far more welcoming country for strangers than many I've experienced. Not that I want to start a xenophobic flame war, I love everyone and everywhere!!

Yeah I still cant beat the tea drinking competition with Krystal, she always cheats by having infinite biscuits

no Dylan Curthberth, Star Fox Adventure is too much Legend of Zelda, no too much british, we not playing a Star Fox game, but a Legend of Zelda with furries

I've honestly just never really been able to get into Star Fox. The gameplay just feels like such an archaic remnant of an arcade age long past. Score-chasing games just don't stimulate me, outside of WarioWare. Star Fox games also tend to be incredibly short, and like I said, I'm not interested in replaying the same levels over and over again for a higher score.

That said, I've never played Adventures, and even though it's a polarizing game, I think I would enjoy it. To me, a "Zelda clone" is far more interesting than the traditional Star Fox game. I would like to see them make a more open, explorative Star Fox game where you can freely traverse from planet to planet and traverse on foot for land missions. I think if Nintendo were to take inspiration from games like Starlink and Starfield, they could have something really special on their hands that I would very much be interested in playing.

I do think Adventures would have been better if it had just released as Dinosaur Planet and spawned its own franchise that may have still been relevant even today. I was so fascinated by the prototype leak that came out and really loved the original designs. I think if I had played it on N64 back in the day, it could've been on par with Mario and Crash Bandicoot as one of my favorite series. We would all be begging Microsoft for a HD remake of another classic like Banjo-Kazooie, but alas... that game wasn't meant to be.

The leaks did lead me to discovering a phenomenal piece of music, which I was happy to learn still made it into the final game and wasn't scrapped along with the Dinosaur Planet branding: https://youtu.be/mRIBHup2SKo?si=UIEbwsQ6EijPbvGr

Star Fox was originally supposed to be a vehicle for Roland Rat with Kevin the Gerbil and Reggie as his wingmen but Nintendo decided rats weren't family friendly enough.

@Link-Hero Likely because he had nothing to do with Star Fox Adventures, but did work on Star Fox 1 and 2 on SNES, as well as Star Fox Command, and Star Fox 64 3D. Not much of a reason for him to personally bring up the development history of Adventures when he was talking about what really worked for the series.

I really liked star fox adventures
I was all ways hoping there would be a second one.
It was great how you used your jet to get back and to between Planets and played like the lylat wars game
And then went on an adventure on foot.
great game 😁

ive never gotten to play any of these controversial spinoff games but I LOVE the original trilogy and I want a fourth one in that vein so badly! it seems so straightforward, to be honest... i think the subtle British "complexity" is lost on me. or whatever they are trying to say here 😂

@Woderwick You owe me a new phone, mines now covered in coffee.

In related news, when I was little my mum was a semi famous poet and writer of short stories, and was on TV-AM quite a lot. Seeing someone "normal" like her, from a little town like ours get on TV is what inspired me to believe that I could get into media. As an adult I've worked with Timmy Mallet multiple times (LOVELY man) and because of these 2 things combined I have a worryingly large collection of signed Mallett memorabilia from over the years that will lead whoever does the house clearance when I'm gone to think I had an unhealthy obsession with him 😅 Roland's eludes me though, guess he's too big a superstar.

I don't see Fox having a cup of tea and biscuits with General Scales, though.

@Not_Soos @JohnnyMind Yeah following the development of Dinosaur Planet in magazines over the years at the time as a young N64 owner, I was pretty convinced it was gonna be the best game ever! Then it disappeared 🥺 I flipped out when that leak finally came out!

@HammerGalladeBro That's because Vinnie the Panda took all of Fox's biscuits: https://youtu.be/z5OoEm9Qad4?feature=shared

@Woderwick 'Rat Rapping' as the theme tune?

I haven't played Staefox Adventures since the Gamecube. I did enjoy it, so hoping for a switch release hopefully 🤞🏻

Just go back to all flying combat, like the snes and n64 games. Nobody wants tanks or on-foot levels in a Starfox game.

@samuelvictor I think if you ask a lot of Canadians they might say similar things. Mostly we contrast ourselves with Americans, who are our most familiar reference points.

Anyway, glad you enjoy it here!

Have they played Xenoblade. All joking aside. We barely/didn't have any britishness in Nintendo games. Which Is another reason to bring Krystal back in the mainline games.

He’s not that wrong. I think it’s the Fable-esque accents that do it.

“You pay thiiiiiiiiiis much!” And so on.

@samuelvictor
That reminds me of my best mate growing up. His mum new he was a big Star Wars fan and took him along to big toy store where they'd organised a special appearance from Darth Vadar (I can't recall if it was actually Dave Prowse, but I don't live far from his old stomping grounds). Anyway, she'd kept it a secret from him, so when he walked in and saw Darth Vadar stalking round the shop he absolutely bricked it, ran back to the car and refused to set foot inside the store. In his defence he would have been about 6 at the time.

@Ristar24
Eyyyyyyyy, rat fans!
I had rat rapping on C90 cassette, along with an official Roland Rat 'Rat Bag'. Which was a crappy red satchel with the lad himself on it. I played that tape to death when I was a kid.

I entirely agree....
The Scottish rock creature, WarpStone, holds characteristics of a Banjo/Conker villain.

That's like saying Xenoblade Chronicles' English localization is too focused on southern English. I think it establishes a better identity, seeing how almost too much of everything is American English.

@RadioHedgeFund

I usually love regional UK accents in a game so that wasn't a problem for me. The only time I've disliked it, in fact, was Witcher 3. Among my (many) issues with that game was the fact that it being based on some Polish fantasy novels, and thoroughly grounded in Slavic folklore, I was hoping to hear some proper Slavic accents. Not a bunch of bloody scousers and brummies whining on about the local villagers being turned into pigs.

@Purgatorium I definitely do! Yes it seems a big part of Canadian identity is finding pride in and emphasising the ways that Canada is different to America, and minimising the obvious similarities. I hope I haven't described that in a way that sounds offensive, it was just an observation that I already casually had, but then I started watching JJ Mccullough on YT who regularly does deep dives into Canadian culture, politics, media etc, and he talks about it a lot.

I wonder if perhaps it comes from a slight feeling of resentment or inferiority complex worrying that much of the rest of the world either doesn't know Canada exists or confuses it for a State rather than a separate country, just lumping it in with America? I'm Welsh and there is definitely a feeling like that where the rest of the world hasn't heard of Wales, doesn't know that "British" and "English" aren't interchangeable... and that makes us dig our heels.in and emphasise our Welshness and bring it up far more often than we naturally would 😅

And then two worlds collide and the most Canadian of beloved Canadians, Ryan Renolds becomes an honorary Welsh man by randomly financially saving a dying tiny Welsh football club, regularly visiting and actively learning about the culture, and becoming an absolute legend to all Welsh people in the process! Hero.

Well, duh, it was originally planned to be a completely different game called "Dinosaur Planet". The Star Fox IP was just attached to it.

@Woderwick I’d love to hear your other thoughts too! I ploughed on with the game but there are only so many quests you can play that go like this:

• Find person to get quest from. They need a favour.
• Go talk to other person to do with above favour. They also need a favour.
• Go talk to next person to do with the above. They need a favour but you have to meet them 2 miles away first.
• Go to location and have horse race. Horse needs a favour.
• Go talk to next person…..

And so on.

@samuelvictor @Purgatorium

Are you two gonna discuss Canadianism without even mentioning Bob and Doug Mackenzie?

I'd assumed they were on banknotes over there by now.

@Woderwick Hahaha that's awesome! I've taken part in many Star Wars promotional events at the theme parks and also in big shops like Hamleys, nearly always with Vader and a load of Sotrmtroopers there. It's funny, it seems to.be a literal 50:50 split between little kids who are delighted and want to run up to them, talk to them, climb all over them (quite often start actually attacking them!) and the ones who just brick themselves from pure fear 😂

Not sure your exact age but from the references you drop I feel you might know what I mean when I say that when I was a toddler I met Grotbags from Emu. I was too young to remember but apparently many of the kids were terrified of her, but I loved her and wouldn't leave her alone! 😁

@Woderwick Haha I was talking about them with a Canadian friend of mine and he said they were (obviously) originally intended to be an exagerated parody of what Americans thought Canadians were like... but then they got so popular in America that some people genuinely thought they were like that irl, and it made the stereotype get even more exaggerated. I love pretty much anything with Rick Moranis.

@RadioHedgeFund Ahh! Thank you. In my first post I genuinely asked what it was about the game that made it "too British", and while memes about tea are funny (this has been a wild thread and I'm so invested!) You've made the first actual point I hadn't thought of.

I guess as a Brit person I don't notice when voice actors are British, as it just sounds neutral. But I do know that in my work as a producer, if we are making a film for distribution the worldwide market, regardless of where its filmed, we are encouraged to get as many actors with an American accent as possible. And as an actor, a stipulation for the superhero part I'm playing was that I had to have regular dialect coaching to get a convincing American accent. Apparently us Brits can only play villains in Hollywood action films 😂

@RadioHedgeFund

So many things I disliked about that game. About the only thing I enjoyed was melee combat against bandits. I'm genuinely surprised about all the accolades it received.
Since you asked, here are some of my problems with it:

Gerald Riveria (who sounds like he should be a compère in a Northern working men's club from the 70's) has all the character of a block of wood wrapped in sandpaper.

I did an early mission for some dirtpoor peasant to save a girl from some illness. At the end of the quest I refused his reward because they'd worked so hard to telegraph how poor the villagers are and I figured I could just go an take an extended loan from the bandits outside town if I was hard up. He then insisted I take something for my troubles and promptly handed over a jewel worth more than his entire village an everyone in it.

The sheer disconnect between the way the world was framed and what actually happened during gameplay did my head in. I'd spend my time tracking across the wilderness and happily butchering any monster I came across but the moment a monster was causing problems for these poor downtrodden peasants Gerald Riviera (possibly a gigolo working Marseilles in the early 80's) would insist on extracting payment from them. It made him seem like such a nasty mercenary ***** and was probably the exact opposite of the way he was intended to be.

Fighting big monsters was boring and tedious and the game engine obviously wasn't built with that in mind.

The Witcher sense stuff and investigating monsters felt like pure padding. Just follow the red dots and wait for sandpaper man to do his Christian Bale Batman voice thing until he'd come to the same conclusion I'd drawn about 20 minutes previously.

The UI was also an exercise in frustration and the alchemy stuff felt very 'gamey'. Why can't I just make as many bombs as I need without having to bloody meditate on it?

Applying oils to weapons was stupidly handled. I get that you have a wolf poison and a ghost poison and whatever and that's cool. But each application was limited to 20 uses which would make sense except that I could re-oil my blade in the middle of a fight. So why not just have it last until I changed it? Poor game design in my opinion.

Oh, and the fact that I'd find a blueprint for a new weapon or piece of armour but it was 20 levels higher than I was, and by the time I could craft it I'd already found something much better.

There are loads more things too but I think that's enough for one sitting.

What was it you didn't like about the game? I'd be interested to know because apparently everyone else on the planet thought it had descended from heaven to grace our pitiful existences.

@samuelvictor
I always thought (from an outsiders point of view, and having only known a couple of Canadians in my time) that the Mackenzies were very much Canadians poking fun at Canadian culture and foibles, but in a good-natured way. In the same way that the English love to take the piss out of ourselves.

And yes, I remember Grotbags. I was born in '79 and I suspect we grew up watching (and enjoying) a lot of the same things.

Out of interest, do you recall 'Round the Bend'? Weirdly subversive cartoon/puppet/live-action mix that was set up like an underground comic edited by a toilet-dwelling puppet called Doc Croc. Looking back on it, I'm surprised they got away with as much as they did, considering it had a prime kid's TV slot on ITV. I absolutely loved it and it very much appealed to my sense of humour. Which I apparently haven't grown out of.

naw man it weren't british enough

@Woderwick Ah Roland rat, along with Roland from Grange Hill, the two Rolands of the 80s that immediately jump to mind. Suddenly also remembering the horror of having a tape you really liked get chewed up in a stereo...

@Woderwick Ah! I am but a spring chicken, born in 81! Practically a fetus! 😂 So yeah, we grew up watching basically the exact same shows, having the same toys etc. Of course I remember Round the Bend! Yes it was very subversive for a kids show - a lot of the same people who made it also worked on Spitting Image and/or Viz magazine so the humour was always going to be quite edgy for a kids show.

I think you're right about that being the intention of the Mackenzies for Canadians watching the show, but they knew it was going to be played to a (much larger and more profitible!) American audience too, so they leaned more into broad stereotypes the Americans already had, rather than very obscure "only a Canadian would understand " references.

Similarly, it's a very acquired taste, but I really like the film Eurotrip. It's a stupid ultra American grossout sex comedy style 2000s movie, along the lines of American Pie, but to me it hits as much funnier because the jokes are more aimed at the stereotypes of all the European countries, including Britain, that a bunch of American teens visit in quick succession. While some (wrongly!) read it as offensive, to me it feels very warm in its teasing of all the different cultures, and if anything, is more poking fun at how Americans might view us as Europeans, and we are seeing all the stereotypical things through the eyes of a bunch of drunk, stoned American teenagers that have never left Ohio before.

@Woderwick Its not that I disliked it per se, I just found it overly long. I like my side quests as optional extras, not baked in to every story mission where to finally get to the point you want you have to do 10 people different favours. I get that this makes it a little more ‘episodic’ in nature but I just wanted to find Ciri!

I found the story and spreading out of map icons a lot better paced in Horizon Zero Dawn which is also an exercise in how to tell a compelling story but not let the game get in the way.

What is the point in having two swords when silver is still better against humans anyway due to its much higher attack power?

What I didn’t like was the levelling system. Unlocking skills and then being unable to use them because you don’t have enough slots is tedious. Just let me be the superheroic killer the game makes me out to be!

I have many of the same issues with other western RPGs. I dislike BioWare games and titles like Baldur’s Gate because of how po faced they can be and how they let the mechanics get in the way of the gameplay.

I much prefer Fable 2 which has a sensible levelling system, pokes fun at a lot of fantasy tropes yet still allows the player to actually roleplay within the game world. Maybe Diablo 3 is the closest Ive come to really enjoying another western RPG

@Ristar24 Don't worry, you can save it with a pencil!

I liked Grange Hill, but Byker Grove was where the real party started. The london lot "just said no" (what do you mean look out for Zammo?) But those northern lads and lasses could get away with far more on the Beeb because of their regional accents. Although I despair at what has become of PJ & Duncan. 😂

We are old. Ow my back hurts.

@Link-Hero Considering he didn't work on it in the first place, and the full interview is more about him than Star Fox, it feels out of place to acknowledge it. He personally believes the game missed the mark on that Star Fox flavor, no need to bring up how Nintendo changed the game from the original idea, slapped the Star Fox IP onto it, and potentially sour his working relationship with Nintendo.

@samuelvictor That framerate... low enough I can't imagine it's going to make much of a difference if it's NTSC or PAL.
You can tell when the game is running on an emulator with inaccurate emulation (running the game faster than real hardware) when the opening SCRAMBLE cutscene cuts out halfway through.

I think the Benny Hill theme playing on the start menu was particularly jarring. Waaaayyyy too British.

@samuelvictor ha, I have the 'Just Say No' 7 inch vinyl release, it's not a bad tune... no Rat Rapping, but still. Zammo owned a locksmith for a while I think. Yep, 'we may not be the young ones, very long', how true it was!

Now, if Star Fox had this stuff, would truely confound!

If Star Fox Adventures is too British then what is Xenoblade

@KingMike Ooooh trust me, 17.5% slower takes a "slow but able to be adjusted to" framerate to a completely unbearable one 😂 At the time though, I loved it and it was fine. I'd love a remake in 60fps with crispy flat shaded polygons, like the Switch Virtua Racing port.

@Ristar24 Haha that's awesome! And I loved the Young Ones too (still do)... as long as you aren't referring to Cliff Richard, then that's another matter. Though I lived on the same street as one of the Shadows, and went to school with his kids.

Don't know if you saw my post above about TVAM (home of Roland!) but it always makes me smile on the rare occasion I see someone who remembers it. Was a shame when GMTV took over. But some of the TVAM lot are still around - Eamon Homes, Lorraine Kelly et al. Roland Rat and Timmy Mallett were clearly the real stars though 😄

@samuelvictor Ah yeah, TVAM I remember well, and Timmy Mallett on Saturday mornings and school holidays, Transformers was first shown (I think) in the UK on Wide Awake Club, or Wacaday, can't remember which now!

@Ristar24 Yeah you're right! Transformers (and later GoBots) were definitely first shown on both Wide Awake Club on Saturday, and Wacaday, each weekday during the school holidays. Even though in my memory it feels like each Wacaday episode was basically all morning, like a magazine show ala Going Live, in reality it was only 25 minutes, with advert breaks in that! So each Transformers episode was cut into small chunks and make 1 episode last 3 days, iirc!

I know Wide Awake Club on Saturdays was a slightly longer show, so it may be that their Transformers section was longer, I don't remember. However, if it was short as well and the epsidoes were split into 3 parts each, that would make 2 full episodes per week.

Coincidentally being that in these comments we've also been speaking about Canadian comedians, Mike Myers of Wayne's World/Austin Power/Shrek fame got his first job on Wide Awake Club! He still invites Timmy Mallett to his movie premieres 😄

TVAM itself was only on air for 3 and a bit hours each day, before the channel would change to ITV. We didn't really notice as kids though, because ITV would start with more kids shows right aways, so the changeover was pretty seemless. The concept of a "TV channel" that only broadcasts for 3 hours seems kinda crazy on one hand. But I guess in the modern day, you could make a comparison to streaming news/chat channels on Twitch or daily vlogs on YouTube. Kinda.

There was definitely a very "homemade" feel to TVAM, which is quite charming. GMTV was far slicker and more corporate. But it gave us Power Rangers and Mr Motivator! So that's... good...?

What an obnoxious way to describe a game.

I could see the first party DSi games doing really well on a NSO DS service.

@Mauzuri we had a good time with Starfox Adventures back in the day. For gamecube it looked good and was fun to play

SFA too British? Because of Krystal, Rare's sense of humor, or what?

@VaqueiroDev the Warpstone reminded me way too much of Shrek. Not that I'm complaining.

Yeah, I think the sequence where Star Fox stands in queue for tea and beans on toast only to start a war to sell drugs to natives later was a bit much. Especially with the top hat and monocle.

@LUIGITORNADO Innit???

The very idea that Starfox is "a very complex game" is exactly the thinking that has lead them to not making a new one in ages. I don't care much for the series beyond the first two games and Adventure, but yes. You should make one of those again. I don't think it would be too terribly difficult to find some hungry fan devs that would make the coolest thing ever, like SoR4.

The English charm only adds in an industry which exclusively values mass appeal. Don't be afraid to go bold.

@samuelvictor @ristar24
So many memories come flooding back. Byker Grove was good but the lack of the now legendary Danny Kendall (and Mr Bronson, when he wasn't being forced choked on the bridge of a Star Destroyer) swings my love towards Grange Hill.
The Young Ones too, (and later Bottom). Alexie Sayle ('Hello John, Got A New Motor?', Suggs and Madness. Plus the Comic Strip Presents on Channel 4.
Blimey. This is like some weird reunion show. Thanks for bringing it all back, chaps.

@RadioHedgeFund
It sounds like you had a lot more fun with Witcher than I did. I binned it off when I got to the next city after plodding through the plot with the baron. I remember opening the map, seeing it festooned with markers and just shutting it off and deleting it from my switch.
I usually quite like western RPGs. Japanese ones I tend to find overly long and laden down with too many systems that are very gamey. Like forgetting how to use a skill because you changed your hat. I was quite enjoying dragons dogma playing as a thief but then I got to 10th level and the game basically told me to pick a new class which I find particularly annoying. If I'd wanted to be a fighter I would have chosen that at the start.
That being said, I played through Undernauts and thought it was absolutely fantastic in all areas. I highly recommend it if you like old school turn based dungeon crawlers like Eye of the Beholder.

@Woderwick I wonder if Bob and Doug McKenzie are bigger back east. I'm from the west coast and we aren't big on them over here. Boomer uncles can do the impressions so maybe it's an age thing.

@samuelvictor I'm not offended by that. It's true. A lot of what Canadians say about our identity is about contrasting itself with America and largely due to the fact that American culture is such a dominating force. The similarities shouldn't be canceled out. Things that are seen as American are also Canadian, but the emphasis is always on the differences.

@Purgatorium
It's most likely an age thing. As I mentioned earlier I was born in '79 so I'm effectively ancient, although not a boomer.
They were very funny though. They did a film called Strange Brew which is worth checking out if you want to see how your ancestors lived. 😆
I also used to love Kids in the Hall, although I'm probably dating myself again by mentioning them.

@Woderwick I love Kids in the Hall. I watched a few episodes of the new season and then Brain Candy last night. What a weird coincidence that you brought them up.

@Purgatorium
New series?! I had no idea they were still going. I haven't really watched TV for about 20 years now but I'll make an exception for that. I'll see if I can track it down later.
Me and the missus will still sometimes crush each other's heads which gets us some weird looks in public.
Thanks for the tip!

@Purgatorium Yes, definitely the same as Wales vs England then! We are very similar (as most countries are, when you get down to brass tacks!) but we emphasise and sometime exagerate our differences especially if mislabled. But again, most British media comes out of London, just as most North American media comes out of LA and New York. So yeah, on the world stage, Britain becomes synonymous with London, Canada (and the less famous American States!) become synonymous with NYC+LA, even though it really doesn't make sense to group them like that. No more than describing somebody as "European" or "Asian" etc.

I know it was only after spending a lot of time in various parts of Canada and having long conversations with people that I started to be able to distinguish Canadian accents over American, but nowadays I can usually roughly guess the province.

@Woderwick Ahhh you are speaking my language mate. I still often randmonly quote lines from that Sayle track out of context, repeating them twice of course. "Is there life in Peckham?" "What's that switch over there for?" "I've got a paper lampshade" etc.

I was lucky enough to work with Rick Mayall very briefly on one of his very last projects, really lovely bloke who was happy to stop and take gurning comedy photos or write offensive quote on anything we asked him to sign. Legend.

As for the Comic Strip, do you remember the episode "A Fistful of Travellers Checks" ? (full 4k remaster: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6y3_svvLSI ) I've long had an urge to make a full length version of something essentially ripping off and expanding the idea to a full length low budget movie, it would be cheap to do and utterly hilarious fun to make with friends. Maybe even make it similar to Anchorman in that you have a rough framework and improvise many different versions of the same scene. I have many friends who are amazing at comedy improv (and know a lot of fairly well known comedians who do panels shows etc) so I'm sure I could pull it together... I don't want to desecrate a classic though. Would be better to get a unique angle on it. Trouble is, I'm not sure how many people nowadays are even familiar with Spaghetti Westerns in order to understand the parody.

@samuelvictor
It's amazing you got to work with Rik Mayall,I absolutely adore pretty much everything he ever did. Just so genuinely hilarious and good at turning his (comedic) hand to anything. The difference between Ritchie from Bottom and Lord Flash heart is night and day and yet he inhabited both characters so well.
I do remember that episode if comic strip as well, and yeah, could make a cracking full length film. As to the question of whether or not people know about spaghetti westerns, if they don't then that's a source of shame they'll have to endure.
I recently rewatched the dollars trilogy and they still hold up beautifully today. I won't bore you with my pet theory that Tuco is actually the main character of Good/Bad/Ugly but he's one of my favourite cinematic characters ever. The original Django is also fantastic of sorely overlooked. As is a more one with a fantastic Morricone score called The Big Silence all about a mute bounty hunter (reputedly he was mute because Jean Louis Trigntinent didn't want to be dubbed badly in worldwide releases) which features one of the most unexpected and depressing endings to any film I've ever seen. Worth hunting down if you get the chance.

I loved this game. I was impatient for Windwaker coming out on Gamecube and this game was a great surprise. A Zelda like starring Fox!? I wouldn't mind another spinoff from space battles, these characters are too good.

@Woderwick Yes, thanks for the memory lane trip kicked off by Roland Rat... Also noticed you mentioned Undernauts there, been meaning to try that game as I am a fan of grid based dungeon crawlers, ever since I played Dungeon Master on a friends Atari ST. Will add that one back to my Switch wish list.

@Woderwick Rik was an absolute gentleman. I won't mention exactly which project I met him on because I don't want to speak badly about something i know many people worked hard on. It had a strained production and post journey and the final result was a mixed bag shall we say. I declined to be credited on it and a handful of other projects made at the same time for reasons to legally messy to get into. Fun memories though and I learned a lot... and got to meet Rik Mayall!

Was just a pleasure to meet him and tell him what a legend he was. Similarly I briefly worked with Mark Hammill on a very small obscure project and again, we were all buzzing round like fanboys, and again he was more than happy to stay long to talk to everyone, take pictures, sign stuff etc. All of teh crew on both projects were all our age, so both of them were such heroes to us all growing up and they both seemed genuinely touched that every single person on set was an actual fan since childhood and the excitement was palpable in both cases.

I always prefered Young Ones to Bottom, not that Bottom was bad, I think I just prefer surreal writing to slapstick. Mayall and Edmonson are always electric when on screen together no matter what. Lord Flashheart is FANTASTIC! WOOF! I remember being so delighted when he came back in Blackadder goes Fourth, probably my favourite of all the Blackadder series. A similar trope taken in a different direction was Chris Barrie's "Ace Rimmer" variant in Red Dwarf, again always a highlight when that character turned up.

"The Big Silence" sounds like something I should definitely check out! Very interesting concept and I love the genre, for all its sins.

For me, there have been very rare occasions when I've played a character in a film that gets released in multiple countries - I always get a real kick out of hearing the different voices they give me! 😂 People have sent me probably more than 20 variants of my "Just Let the Girl Speak!" from Rogue One and I'm sure there's even more than that. Blows my mind how far that one specific line I wrote travelled and what it became for so many women co-opting it for different purposes, both serious activism, and also just for the meme in their everyday life. At Celebration I met many families where the parents would tell me they yell it at their young boys if they are talking over their sister, and couples who have an injoke of quoting it to each other... and even heard the same annecdotes from people in different countries who say the equivalent in their language. Really cool and very surreal.

I liked Star Fox Adventures. I think Disney and SQUARE ENIX would treat Krystal better than Nintendo did.

@samuelvictor
That's genuinely sodding awesome, sir!
I can't imagine how cool it is to hang out with people with like that, and it's always nice to be able to meet your heroes and not have it being an awkward nightmare.
I don't know the line you're referring to because I stopped watching Star Wars after sitting through The Force Awakens (is that the first of the new trilogy) and hating basically every single second of it. But my personal opinion is that JJ Abrahms is a total hack and the entire film was him lifting scenes from the first two Star Wars films then adding the simplest most imbecilic 'twist' to them while simultaneously doing the cinematic equivalent of going 'ta dah!' and expecting accolades. Which, admittedly, he received. Undeservedly so, in my opinion.
I haven't watched Rogue One, I probably should but I was a little disappointed that Rian Johnson went from making excellent low-budget films to signing on for a big paycheque to direct a film that he could never make his own. For reference, I think the best film he ever made is Brick (and I'm a huge fan of Looper and Knives Out).
The closest cinematic claim to fame I can make is that I own a foam-rubber cast of the idol from the opening sequence of Raiders of the Lost Ark. Simply because I met a guy who built film props at a LARP event about 25 years ago and we got on like a house on fire. He owns the original (along with the jacket, whip and machete from Temple of Doom) and had made the cast as a prop. He gave it to me on the last day of the event. I later visited him at his place in Watford and went into squealing fanboy mode when he showed me the Aliens Colonial Marine armour (and Pulse Rifles) in his garage, as well as the original katana* from Highlander mounted on his wall as you went up the stairs. He'd worked on all those films and it was simply a joy to watch him casually pull various things out of boxes that were like fudging talismans of my childhood and then tell me the stories behind them.

/* It wasn't quite the original katana. As he explained it the film version had a cheap crap blank steel blade attached to the beautifully carved hilt so he'd taken the hilt and attached a proper blade to it.

@Ristar24
Glad to be of service, chap. And I'll sing the praises of Undernauts till the cows come home. It's just brilliant. The atmosphere is so unlike most dungeon crawlers and yet fits so well that it's made me seriously consider how well various different stories and genres would fit the grid-based dungeon crawler. If I had the time and talent I'd love to try building one myself. Also, I've noticed that Undernauts keeps going on sale so I'd keep an eye on DekuDeals and snap it up when you get a chance. Even the opening sequence alone, just told through static images, a few lines of text and some grisly sound effects, made me feel quite uncomfortable, and I'm not exactly the squeamish type.

Well, Rare is British, so...

@samuelvictor I have no idea what I just saw, but as someone who likes to watch international commercials, I'm glad you showed me this. Thanks a lot.

@Pigeon It was okay back in the day. Well, what else like it were you going to play on the SNES?

I loved the game, but there was a mashing button mini game you had to do to progress the story. I had to get a friend to do it for me. I never got to replay the game because of this. Only ever beat it once. I don't think I could do it today either. That needs to be fixed.