PaRappa Voice Actor Dred Foxx Is A Terrible Person

You gotta believe…?

Earlier this year, I came across a NeoGAF thread that described the baffling series of events that a couple of hopeful young men somehow became entangled in. Cameron Perry, a big fan of the PaRappa the Rapper video game series, figured he would ask PaRappa’s voice actor (Dred Foxx) to record a handful of lines for a fanmade animation. What’s the harm, right? The worst he could do is say no.

“Luckily” for Perry, things didn’t end there. Foxx happily agreed to help, but he wouldn’t do it for free. $100 was the requested rate for the job, though Perry and his pal Jacob Collins were able to talk him down to $60. It was all they could scrounge up- they were hoping that such a small job wouldn’t cost anything. Perry would later describe the workload as something that could be blitzed through during a lunch break. Foxx initially agreed, but later hiked the price back up to $100 after his union “found out” about the undercut.

Alright, so Perry and Collins were out a little money. The important thing was that the deal was on. If Charles Martinet agreed to perform some Mario Bros. lines for a paltry sixty bucks, I definitely wouldn’t be in a position to complain.

The problem is that the deal fell through. Spectacularly.

Things started out innocently enough. Hurricane Sandy hit New York which threw a wrench into Foxx’s work. Then he supposedly lost his recorded lines. Then he promised to return the money after a certain date. Then that date passed.

Perry later noticed Foxx complaining that he lost his brand-new $450 tablet at a concert and was asking for donations from his fans.  Foxx eventually sent an unprompted message offering to continue with the voicework project despite his obligation to refund the money. Perry and Collins were no longer interested in Foxx’s contribution- too much time had passed and the animation had since been dropped. The two were reasonably frustrated at this point and had run out of patience. They issued an ultimatum: refund the cash in several days or face legal action. Actually, there ended up being two ultimatums. I guess they were bluffing.

Anyways, the second notice set Foxx onto a path of no return. He seemed to go completely mad and developed an incurable case of diarrhea of the mouth… or rather the typing fingers. He put Perry and Collins on blast in his Facebook pages. His oblivious online followers patted Foxx on the back while joining him in trying to make pariahs out of the two young men that had essentially been extorted.

These events kicked off in 2012 and have continued all the way up to yesterday. Perry shared an email containing a thinly-veiled, incomprehensible threat from someone who was totally not Dred Foxx. Although Perry has attempted to get the police involved, they apparently can’t be bothered.

What do you think about this story? Foxx seems to have all the earmarks of a washed-up hasbeen putting on airs, although I don’t believe that he should just keep getting away scot-free. He should be held accountable for refusing to pay back the cash as well as making threats (however empty they may be).

I STRONGLY ENCOURAGE that you read Perry’s short blog series describing this dispute in greater detail, especially if you would like to see some of the colorful things that Foxx has said on the matter.

Thanks for reading!

Game Reviewer Shuts Down Trolls By Calling Their Moms

Online jerks apparently aren’t so tough when their parents get involved.

Last week, video game reviewer Alanah Pearce started making headlines for a clever tactic in dealing with online trolls. After receiving an especially vile and hateful message on Facebook, Pearce tracked down the mother of its young author and alerted her. According to BBC Newsbeat, the results were basically perfect: the mom blew up and forced her son to start penning a handwritten apology.

An article by Everett True of the Guardian further elaborates on the subject. Since first appearing on Youtube, Pearce has been the occasional recipient of sexually explicit and even threatening messages. Upon learning from their Facebook pages that these harassers tended to be young boys using their real names, Pearce was able to easily determine the identities of at least four of their mothers. She sent out several Facebook messages in attempts to get in contact, although only one of the women have responded so far. Nevertheless, Pearce was so thrilled by that one response that she decided to post it on Twitter. The tweet garnered massive support. Following the success and satisfaction of this approach, Pearce plans to continue it when feasible.

Despite this story being fairly straightforward, it became muddied due to efforts to associate it with the complicated “Gamergate” controversy. For the Guardian article, Pearce was asked if the harassment she received is “related” to Gamergate. Although she said yes, insofar as certain aspects of Gamergate having focused on similar threats and sentiments, Pearce did not intend to appear as if she was blaming Gamergate’s supporters for the messages received.

She lightly criticized the Guardian for originally neglecting to give her statement the proper context, the omission of which possibly led to the spread of misinformation thanks to the faulty implications made by other sites. Online publication The Raw Story represents the most egregious example. Contributor Tom Boggioni initially claimed outright that Pearce thought that Gamergate supporters were the cause of the abusive messages. This assumption persisted even after the article was edited in a botched attempt at accuracy. Rather than state that Pearce did not intend to place blame, it erroneously claimed that she just changed her mind.

Pearce says that she has typically been treated respectfully by those on both sides of the Gamergate debate.

The Easiest Way To Play Smash 4 Is Currently The Hardest

Sorry for not posting for about a week. I decided to take a break from blogging due to other commitments. Hope you all had a happy Thanksgiving!

Has anyone picked up Super Smash Bros. for Wii U? I’ve mentioned before how totally broke I am, so I haven’t gotten the chance to actually buy the thing. Hell, I’d at least need the console first. Luckily, I met a nice group of folks at the game’s midnight release and have gotten the chance to play it several times. Several local tournaments have also featured this new game and have attracted lively turnouts.

The game’s good. People seem to having a great time with it. However, its release has been held up by one important thing in particular: the controls.

Truth be told, Smash 4 offers a wealth of control options. You can use the Wii U tablet, Smash 3DS, the Pro Controller, and I believe he old Wii remote as well. For a lot of Smash Bros. fans though, there will only ever be one.

The Gamecube was hardly one of Nintendo’s biggest consoles. Although some fantastic games debuted on it (hello there Metroid Prime), the little lunchbox was hardly rocking the sales charts. Would you believe that its predecessor, the Nintendo 64, was also in the same boat? That console with such prolific hits as Super Mario 64, Ocarina of Time, and Goldeneye? Granted, these systems were hardly dismal failures but they did underperform relative to the Super Nintendo and the original NES before it.

The one-two-punch of the DS and the Wii soon put Nintendo back on top (for a time), though the Gamecube managed to still cling to life. The Wii was the only one of the main last-generation home consoles to have complete backwards compatibility. You could simply pop in both your own Gamecube discs and even its controllers. Dedicated Wii games like Mario Kart and Super Smash Bros. Brawl even incorporated the Gamecube controller as an available option. For the latter, this was a godsend.

The Gamecube controller has been typically associated with the Smash series since Melee, and has since been commonly regarded as the ideal control option across the series. Many fans have been playing the Smash series for over a decade on the same controller! It is uniquely ergonomic and almost seems like it was designed specifically for Smash Bros. Unfortunately for the new Wii U game, it was debuting on a console that wasn’t as directly accommodating towards that old Gamecube tech. The Wii U offers none of those ports that its predecessor featured, nor does it even accept physical Gamecube discs.

Not to worry, though! Nintendo created a little converter box just for Smash. Connect it to your Wii U and then plug in your trusty Gamecube controllers.

However, Nintendo seemingly didn’t make enough of these.

Website Nintendo Life has a great rundown of the situation. This tiny $20 box is largely sold-out at major retailers and is being offered at a considerable markup on sites like eBay and Amazon. $80 to use a Gamecube controller for just one game… the fact that some are willing to pay that price reflects how important the Gamecube controller is as an option for Smash players. Why weren’t more adapters produced? Did Nintendo underestimate its demand? Are more on the way?

For the Smash fans out there, how important is it to be able to play with your Gamecube controller? Can you stomach other options or is it all-or-nothing? Personally, I’m not all that affected by the situation since I spent several months hardwiring the controls of Smash 3DS into my head. When I go play the Wii U game I’m most comfortable just playing it with my 3DS. I do find the Gamecube controller to be preferable over all the other options, though.

Tell me your thoughts in the comments below or hit me up on Twitter or Facebook. The links are on the side of the page. Thanks!

Halo Makers Beg For Your Forgiveness

The power of next-gen.

Do you like Halo? Lots of people like Halo. Who doesn’t like Halo?

I don’t like Halo.

That said, I’ve been seeing a lot of Halo in the news recently. After all, a veritable Halo-bomb landed two weeks ago in the form of The Master Chief Collection. If you really love your Halo, this is the definitive experience: all four of the numbered games in one super-compilation for the new generation. The first two games are also sporting the  “Anniversary” subtitle, which means that they were greatly enhanced relative to their original Xbox and PC releases. For fans, this is like a dream come true!

…well it should be.

If you’re in it for the single-player campaigns, you’re probably going to have a fantastic time. Based on Chris Watter’s Gamespot review, everything’s all there. What’s more, everything’s all there to be played in whatever order you please. In a personally unheard-of feature, all the missions for every game are available by default. The Master Chief Collection knows its audience well: frankly they’re Halo players. They’ve played and have extensive knowledge of these games. Rather than unilaterally force those players through campaigns that they’ve already experienced many times before, developer 343 Industries is content to just let them go wherever they want. Whether you’d rather start midway or from the very beginning, whether you want to skip a challenging segment or just brave the storm, The Master Chief Collection caters to a wealth of inclination. It’s a regular Wild West of progression!

However, Halo didn’t get famous entirely from its campaigns. What keeps Halo alive and breathing is its emphasis on a rich and enduring multiplayer component. If you’ve clicked on that link to Watter’s review, you were probably taken aback by that unflattering 6/10 score. Apparently, The Master Chief Collection launched with online multiplayer that simply didn’t work. Matchmaking in particular was the biggest problem- players seemingly struggled just getting into the games. Turns out that gameplay doesn’t mean much if you can’t reach it.

Understandably, this has been a nightmare for the developers. Although they’ve been attempting to get things back on track, their efforts have hardly been successful. At least one patch even managed to worsen the matchmaking. How can the developers hope to save face as fans grow increasingly frustrated?

Openness. Even further than openness, begging for forgiveness.

This may sound like an exaggeration, and it might be, but Bonnie Ross’ apology letter seems to basically amount to just that. Speaking for her company as a whole, Ross admits that 343 Industries failed to give Halo fans what they deserved and expected out of the initial release of The Master Chief Collection. Several pieces of insight are shared, namely that some kind of incompatibility arose between testing hardware and actual consumer-grade hardware. Several updates are also said to be in the pipeline, and that the employees are dedicated to solving the outstanding issues. Ross ends the letter by affirming her “heartfelt” apology to the affected fans.

Don’t get me wrong, such an approach is hardly a bad thing. After botching the multiplayer and struggling to come up with a timely solution, what can 343 Industries do but lay themselves at the mercy of the fans? I feel this is a good choice, although apologies won’t do much good if the multiplayer can’t quickly be salvaged.

Share your grievances or impressions with The Master Chief Collection in the comments below. Personally, I’m not a Halo guy so I’ve hardly been following the series. If you’ve got something to say I would love to hear it!

Hard Drugs Get an Innocent Face with Super “Nintendos”

Hopefully it goes without saying that this merchandise is unlicensed. Very.

According to UK tabloid the Daily Mirror, several teenagers were hospitalized Saturday following the consumption of colorful pills branded with the logo of the prolific video game producer. These otherwise harmless-looking “Nintendos” are not to be confused with the likes of Flintstones vitamins, nor are they indicative of Nintendo embarrassingly botching their “quality of life” propositions. They’re edible capsules of ecstasy… on steroids.

The article describes these capsules as possibly containing a substance that is five times more potent than regular ecstasy. Users are conscious but out of their minds, in this case experiencing seizure-like symptoms. Although the situation was serious enough to ship the teens off for emergency medical treatment, they are apparently doing well at the moment. The dealers that probably sold the drugs were also arrested at the scene.

Belgian website 4Gamers indicates that Nintendos have been in wide circulation since at least the beginning of the year. According to the site, the Belgian Early Warning System on Drugs (BEWSD) issued a notice January warning about Nintendos and their potential effects. Although the victims in Saturday’s instance seem to be doing well, the BEWSD suggests that the pills may easily prove fatal for teenagers in general. Nintendos apparently have their origins in China, and were then imported into the UK.

Community response to these drugs has revealed some interesting perspectives on the subject, especially among those who appear to have insight on Nintendos or identical equivalents. According to NeoGAF user kyser73, the same sort of drug was distributed in the late 1990s and similarly piggybacked off of iconic video game brands. User malboroking blamed obliviousness as the most dangerous factor, citing overexertion and untrustworthy dealers as the biggest risks to watch out for when dealing with what he felt to be an otherwise safe drug.

Are you surprised that this sort of thing is going on? Tell me your thoughts below. Personally, I’m not all that shocked to learn that drug dealers would use unrelated brands to their advantage, though this is the first time that I’ve heard about it with regards to gaming. This topic isn’t usually something I pay much attention to!