What projects would you launch for it? Collabs and crossovers? Spin-off’s? Anything. You can take the franchise in any direction that you want. What’s your call?
With the unfortunate cancellation of World Tour content, we can only imagine what the interaction with John Street Fighter would have gone. So who wants to take a crack at it? How would it have played out?
How would Scott Pilgrim and his supporting cast fit in with the Marvel Universe?
Which one would you want?
I’ve seen people say that there should have been female enemies by now, but do you guys really want that? Everytime I hear that we should allow female foes there’s always at least someone who says that they don’t wanna see Kiryu/Majima do some bone-shattering Heat Action on someone who is female.
So let’s discuss. What would you want to see?
NOT ALLOWED:
You are not allowed to say “Just make the game female-led!” Since is that taking the easy way out of the question.
Nor can you say “a game where the MC pulls his punches on the women and can’t do Heat Actions on them.” To have equal rights, we need equal fights.
That Snoop has to provide lyrics to the boss theme that plays when we eventually fight Orpheus, right?
If this fight is just set to a standard boss theme what are we even doing here? That would defeat almost the entire point of casting Snoop as an antagonist of all things.
Who’s the better racer between Shank and King Candy?
Let’s lay down some rules first:
The races will take place on neutral ground, where neither competitor knows their surroundings. Let’s say they have to race around Vice City.
Round One:
A traditional road race. Nothing extra or extreme, just the two of them in a contest of speed and skill.
Round Two:
Sugar Rush power ups appear on the road that only King Candy can use. Likewise, Shanks crew spawns onto the map and will be trying to hinder Candy as he tries to race Shank — and unlike Shank herself, they do have knowledge of the map.
Who wins?
Even with how Ralph Breaks The Internet turned out, I think I came up with a way that you could, at the very least, handle Vanellope’s arc for a third movie. You could even do it without retconing the events. All you have to do is lean heavy into deconstructing the ending of the second movie, and it could work out pretty good. Here’s what I’m thinking.
We could start out in the real world, where the Slaughter Race developers are under stress. They’ve been hit with a lawsuit by the devs of Sugar Rush for including Vanellope in their game without permission. The Slaughter Race devs are especially stressed because they don’t know how it could have possibly happened since none of the people on the development team did it, but regardless, they’re in trouble. Ultimately, they end up having to take the game down.
It then cuts to with Vanellope and Shank (just the two of them, let’s say her crew all left do their own thing ages ago) riding around happily in Slaughter Race, when suddenly the game begins to distort. They realize that the game is going down, and manage to escape just in time. Vanellope and Shank are both safe, but now gameless. Vanellope goes to the only place she can think of: Litwak’s Arcade.
Vanellope reunites with Ralph, Felix and Calhoun — and the latter two are properly introduced to Shank. They explain their dilemma, with Vanellope arriving at the conclusion that her best bet would be to return to Sugar Rush.
Vanellope goes back to Sugar Rush and gets a cold reception.
“Look who decided to come crawling back. It’s Ms. Turbo.”
That would basically be everyone’s response to her in Sugar Rush. Vanellope finds herself back where she started — an outcast amongst her peers.
In Vanellope’s absence, Taffyta has stepped up as the game’s leader. Taffyta despises Vanellope most of all for jeopardizing their game and forcing her to step into a role that she didn’t really want.
Throughout the movie, Vanellope has both Ralph and Shank to lean on for mentorship.
She now must be careful to not die in Sugar Rush, because after the second film, she is no longer apart of that game.
Of course, the movie would have a villain, and part of their plan could involve attacking Sugar Rush. As a way to earn the good faith of her people back, Vanellope assists Ralph, Felix, Calhoun and Shank in defeating this villain. Once the day is saved, Vanellope’s ending could go one of two ways:
Ending A: Taffyta not only coding Vanellope back into Sugar Rush, but giving her the throne back, saying that she never really wanted it in the first place.
Ending B: Taffyta deciding to remain in charge, saying that, despite Vanellope’s heroism, that she still can’t be trusted with leadership duties, having bailed on them once already. She ultimately codes Vanellope back into Sugar Rush, but as a standard racer, not its main character/ruler.
So what do you guys think? Obviously, I would have Ralph as the actual main character of the movie, and there would be the whole matter of Shank finding a game to live in as well, but this is just how I would handle the continuation of Vanellope’s arc.
How did I do?
Especially knowing that the new VF is yet another game where people are clamoring so loudly for guests. I’ve got nothing against all of the games people want in the upcoming game, but I just think it’s much more important to build VF back up as an IP with original content.
After rewatching those Wreck-it Ralph movies it’s all I can think about, so here’s another hot take about the sequel:
Ralph unleashing the insecurity virus into Slaughter Race is NOT an inherently bad plot point. In fact, it could have been amazing, had they changed a few other things to go along with it.
When confronted about it by Vanellope, you’d only need to re-write Ralph’s dialogue to say something along the lines of:
“I was told that the virus would only lag the game, not crash it with you inside. I only did it because you are trying to go Turbo, and in my desperation to make you realize that, I felt I had to do something drastic. You were starting to forget your duty to the arcade, and as your friend I had to bring you back down to earth using any method that I could.”
There. Easy fix. Ralph probably wouldn’t have worded it like that, but you get the gist. He should have done it to remind her of her responsibilities, not for his own selfish reasons. It’s clear that the writers wanted to take Ralph in a more morally gray direction, and that would have been SO interesting. Just change his motives around, and you can still get that anti-heroic Ralph without thinking to yourself: “holy shit, he’s not just a bad guy for his career, he became a villain for real.”
What do you guys think? I know that this moment was something that ruined Ralph’s character for a lot of you guys, so do you think him acting in this context would have made it less scummy?
After my last post, I went and rewatched both films back to back, and yeah, the second one is vastly inferior to the original. But if I had to give it one bit of praise, I’d say that Shank’s game was a genuinely cool addition to the movie’s universe. Slaughter Race is just pure chaos, and seeing Ralph interact with it was fun. Shank, for her part, was a bit one-note, but there’s potential with her that I can see.
If that third movie ever comes out, I wouldn’t mind seeing them revisit this. Maybe the inverse of Ralph Breaks The Internet happens and Shank and her crew are forced to find a new home in the arcade after their game goes offline. Who knows?
I’d honestly freak out. Side-scrolling brawlers are my favorite gaming genre 😁
This is for the characters that don’t have themes already - such as the main characters. Here’s what I would give to who:
Axel: “Do Joe”
In the fourth game, he’s adopted much more of a lone martial artist persona, so this would be his. A martial arts-themed track.
Blaze: “Fighting In The Streets”
Unlike Axel, Blaze is still very much a city mouse by the time of Streets 4. This track would be the best for her considering that it’s kickass, but also just upbeat enough to fit the personality of someone who dances the lambada.
Adam: “Arial Justice”
Hearing this song just screams “Adam Hunter on the case and to the rescue”. No idea if those jet fighters on this stage belong to the SIF or not, but if they do, I could totally see Adam flying in on one of them.
Skate: “Under Logic”
Like Blaze’s choice, it’s highly upbeat, and Skate being a breakdancing teen would need precisely such a theme.
Zan: “A.I Supply” or “Stainless Kill”
Either one of these would do. They’re intense, mechanical and mysterious. Zan to a tee.
Cherry: “On Fire”
I’d have given the biker stage to her, since she canonically likes to tinker around with and ride motorcycles. Maybe the Red Demon bar is a place she’s previously snuck out to without Adam’s knowledge.
What would you guys have gone with?
Many felt like there was still more of a story to tell after Homelander’s defeat. How would you have gone about continuing the storyline of The Boys?
I just bought Splintered Fate last night and absolutely loved the way that the characters and world were depicted. I also liked how the turtles referred to Splinter as “Father” and not just their Master.
Shredder and Karai also look SICK in this continuity. Red scarves?? Sheesh!
Considering Nanba already gave Ichiban a bit of shit when he got to Hawaii and saw the chemistry between him and Chitose, I can only imagine what he would have thought about this. To say nothing of Adachi lol
What do you think about the series’ unused concept characters? Could some of them make it into an actual game someday?
Practically every fighting game aside from Street Fighter does it, so I think it’s something VF should consider.
These are my predictions as to who I believe is most likely to return for Like A Dragon: 9.
(1, (2, (3, and (4: Ichiban, Nanba, Adachi, Saeko - These guys need no explanation. They’re Ichiban and his main group. No matter what, they’ve all gotta be present and accounted for.
(5: Seonhee - This character is WAY too well-received to be left out, especially after Infinite Wealth. There’s also the fact that Chitose’s odds of returning aren’t great, so if nothing else, RGG would keep her around to have more than one woman on the roster.
(6: Mine - Much as I hate it, they’ll probably drag Mine into the next Ichiban game to be a party member. With Kiryu out of action and Hanawa dead, they’re going to want to give us a friendly face from the Daidoji, especially if LAD: 9 sees us taking them down for good. Gameplay wise, they’ll give him Dark Awakening from Dark Ties, which will function like Dragon’s Resurgence and allow him to temporarily break out of the turn-based system and battle freely.
(7: Sawashiro - From a story perspective it’d make sense for two of Arakawa’s most loyal soldiers to make an earnest attempt to fight side by side. His Drink Links could shed some light on some details of his past, and even improve the relationship between him and Ichiban. Story-wise, he seems to have lost an eye to Ebina in IW, which could serve as the justification needed for him no longer being as strong as he once was, explaining why he needs extra assistance in fights now. I almost put Yamai here, but I had a feeling that RGG would keep his role non-playable as Ichiban’s Majima equivalent.
(8 and 9: New Characters - Two of the cast members will probably be brand new to the franchise. In the same vein as Tomizawa and Chitose, one will probably be male, and the other female.
(Bonus Member: Kaito - I can see RGG including Kaito as the optional party member of LAD: 9, ala Eri. Given how many cameos and crossover appearances that the Judgement cast has made in the last few main series games, it only feels inevitable. This would have been Yagami, but we all know how hard he is to get. They’d probably end up going with Kaito to keep the crossover aspect intact.
Kiryu, Joongi, Zhao, Chitose, and Tomizawa
Pour one out for each of these five because they’re most likely getting kicked outta the Ichigang.