Sakura Wars Review – All The World’s A Stage
Sakura Wars is perhaps the most anime game that I've ever played. There are plenty of games out there based on popular anime, yes, but when it comes to feeling like you're an active part of an ongoing, episodic adventure filled with quirky characters, dramatic action, and satisfying melodrama, Sakura Wars has everything else beat. Its structure, charming cast, and whirlwind story help set it apart from other colorful anime-inspired adventures, and, much like the characters whose stories it tells, it manages to overcome many of its flaws to become a satisfying experience in the end.
For the uninitiated, the entire concept of Sakura Wars is rather offbeat. This particular game is a semi-reboot of a long-running Japanese game series of the same name, set in an alternate 1940s Japan where steam technology quickly surpassed electricity and history took a very different path. The world's nations, rather than fighting each other in World Wars, took arms against demonic invaders with armies of steam-powered fighting robots called Spiricle Strikers. Oh yes, and these armies also operate semi-covertly as theatre troupes whose members consisted mostly of young women.
It's a lot to take in, and it's compounded by the fact that only one other Sakura Wars game has made the voyage Westward, though some related media (like anime and manga adaptations) have seen release here. Still, if you're coming in totally blind to the Sakura Wars concept and mythos, you might find yourself rather confused, particularly when references to previous titles crop up.
Continue Reading at GameSpotEverything Coming to Disney+ in May 2020
Disney+ in May features some notable TV and film offerings like the series finale of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, titled "Victory and Death," which will air on Star Wars Day (aka May the 4th).
Also debuting on May 4 is Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian, an eight-episode documentary series that will give fans a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the series. For a look at the upcoming docuseries hosted by showrunner Jon Favreau, check out the trailer below:
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On the movie front, Disney+ is bringing Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker to its platform on May 4, along with cult-favorite The Princess Bride on May 1, and Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, the fourth entry in the popular pirate franchise starring Johnny Depp.
If you don't have the streaming service, you can sign up for a free 14-day Disney+ trial here.
Check out the slideshow gallery below for a showcase of some of Disney+'s most notable offerings in May, followed by the full list:
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Friday, May 1
- Awesome Animals (Season 1)
- Birth of Europe (Season 1)
- Bride of Boogedy
- Buried Secrets of the Bible with Albert Lin (Season 1)
- CAR SOS (Seasons 1-7)
- Disney Kirby Buckets (Seasons 1-3)
- George of the Jungle
- Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey
- Homeward Bound II: Lost in San Francisco
- How to Play Baseball
- In Beaver Valley
- Lost Treasures of Egypt (Season 1)
- Love & Vets (Season 1)
- Nature’s Half Acre
- Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
- Prairie Dog Manor (Season 1)
- Primal Survivor (Seasons 1-4)
- The Princess Bride
- Prowlers of the Everglades
- Secrets of the Zoo
- Secrets of the Zoe: Tampa
- Survive the Tribe (Season 1)
- United States of Animals (Season 1)
- Unlikely Animal Friends (Season 3)
- Water Birds
- Be Our Chef Episode 106 - "Slimy Yet Satisfying"
- Star Wars: The Clone Wars Episode 711 - "Shattered"
- Disney Family Sundays Episode 126 - "Star Wars: Clock"
- One Day At Disney Episode 122 - "Robin Roberts: Good Morning America Co-Anchor"
- Prop Culture Series Premiere - All 8 Episodes Available
Saturday, May 2
- John Carter
Monday, May 4
- Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian Series Premiere Episode 101 - "Directing"
- Star Wars: The Clone Wars Series Finale Episode 712 - "Victory and Death"
- Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
Friday, May 8
- Be Our Chef Episode 107- "Anyone Can Cook"
- Disney Family Sundays Episode 127 - "Star Wars: Hanging Art"
- One Day At Disney Episode 123 - "Joe Hernandez: Attractions Host"
- Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian Episode 102 - "Legacy"
- Disney Insider Episode 105 - "Running through Disney, Sorcerer's Arena, Opening the Archives"
Friday, May 15
- Fury Files
- Maleficent: Mistress of Evil
- Be Our Chef Episode 108 - "Worth Melting For"
- Disney Family Sundays Episode 128 "Beauty and the Beast: Stained Glass"
- One Day At Disney Episode 124 "Stephanie Carroll: Ranch Hand"
- Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian Episode 103 - "Cast"
- It's A Dog's Life with Bill Farmer Series Premiere Episode 101 - "Whale Poop Dogs & Sheep Herding Dogs"
Friday, May 22
- The Boys: The Sherman Brothers' Story
- Disney Just Roll with It (Season 1)
- Disney Mech-X4 (Seasons 1-2)
- Disney Vampirina (Season 2)
- Disneyland Goes to the World's Fair
- Fantastic Mr. Fox
- Heartland Docs, DVM (Season 1)
- Hello, Dolly!
- Marvel's Future Adventures (Season 2)
- The Big Fib Series Premiere - All 15 Episodes Available
- Be Our Chef Episode 109 - "Tiana's Place"
- Disney Family Sundays Episode 129 - "Bambi: Lanterns"
- One Day At Disney Episode 125 "Ed Fritz: Imagineering Ride Engineer"
- Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian Episode 104 - "Technology"
- It's A Dog's Life with Bill Farmer Episode 102 - "Dogs & Cheetahs & Companion Dogs"
Friday, May 29
- Disney Doc McStuffins (Season 5)
- Disney Gabby Duran & the Unsittables (Season 1)
- Disney The Evermoor Chronicles (Seasons 1-2)
- Mickey and the Seal
- The Moon-Spinners
- Violetta (Season 2)
- Be Our Chef Episode 110 - "Woody's Lunchbox"
- Disney Family Sundays Episode 130 - "Nightmare Before Christmas: Candy Bowl"
- One Day At Disney Episode 126 - "Jerome Ranft: Pixar Sculptor"
- Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian Episode 105 - "Practical"
- It's a Dog's Life with Bill Farmer Episode 103 - "Macot Dogs & Guide Dogs for Runners"
Tarantino Reveals the Fate and Backstory of Pulp Fiction’s Gimp
Writer-director Quentin Tarantino reveals in a new interview what happened to (and his own backstory for) one of Pulp Fiction's most notorious side characters, the Gimp.
SPOILERS ahead for Pulp Fiction!
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Dressed head-to-toe in leather bondage gear, the mute Gimp (portrayed by Steve Hibbert) is the S&M slave imprisoned in the basement of Maynard's pawn shop where a bound and gagged Butch Coolidge (Bruce Willis) and Marsellus Wallace (Ving Rhames) are held captive. The Gimp is present when Maynard and security guard Zed rape Marsellus and then when Butch frees Marsellus.
In a fan Q&A with Empire, Tarantino revealed his backstory for the Gimp and what happened to him after Butch left. (I think we all can imagine what "medieval" fate was in store for Zed). "It doesn’t quite play this way in the movie, but in my mind when I wrote it, the Gimp’s dead. Butch knocked him out and then when he passed out he hung himself," Tarantino revealed.
The filmmaker, who won his first Oscar for Best Original Screenplay for 1995's Pulp Fiction, went on to dish on who the Gimp really was and why he was chosen by Maynard and Zed. "In terms of backstory, he was like a hitchhiker or somebody that they picked up seven years ago, and they trained him so he’s the perfect victim," Tarantino said.
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So what do you think of Tarantino's Gimp revelations? Let us know in the comments.
And for more on Quentin Tarantino, read up on that time he played an Elvis impersonator on The Golden Girls as well as what he had to say about making a Star Trek movie and a Bounty Law TV series inspired by his film Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood.
HBO Developing Hellraiser TV Series With Halloween Reboot Director
Pinhead lives! HBO is reportedly developing a new TV series based on Clive Barker's Hellraiser, which has David Gordon Green (2018's Halloween) lined up to direct several early episodes.
This marks the horror franchise's first stab at the small screen, although there were efforts made to launch a TV series as far back as 2012.
According to Deadline, Green will direct the pilot and several more early episodes of the Hellraiser series, which will be scripted by vets Mark Verheiden (Battlestar Galactica, Daredevil) and Michael Dougherty (Godzilla: King of the Monsters, Trick r’ Treat).
"The idea is to create an elevated continuation and expansion of the well-established Hellraiser mythology. It is by no means a remake, but rather assumes the past mythology to be a given," Deadline reports.
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The series will remain centered on the demonic Cenobites and their leader, Pinhead. The Cenobites, as the site reminds us, "come from hell to harvest human souls and keep balance between good and evil."
Deadline says there is a separate, unrelated Hellraiser movie still in development at Spyglass.
The Hellraiser franchise, inspired by Barker's novella The Hellbound Heart, spans 10 feature films as well as many books, comics, and even an unreleased video game.
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The first Hellraiser movie debuted back in 1987 while the most recent feature entry was 2018's Hellraiser: Judgment.
HBO's Hellraiser series counts Danny McBride and Roy Lee among its many executive producers.
Watch Star Trek: First Contact with Director Jonathan Frakes – WFH Theater
Here at IGN, we're always looking for new ways to bring our community together to embrace what we're most passionate about. That's why we launched Watch From Home Theater, a weekly live show where we unite some of your favorite IGN personalities and special celebrity guests to have a digital movie night together with you watching some of our favorite films of all time.
This Wednesday, April 29nd at 5 p.m. PT, we're watching Star Trek: First Contact with director and star Jonathan Frakes! The eighth Star Trek movie marked Frakes' feature film directorial debut, though he had previously directed multiple episodes of TNG, Deep Space Nine and Voyager. Frakes' Star Trek directing career continued on from 1998's Star Trek: Insurrection up through the two currently ongoing Star Trek series, Discovery and the TNG-sequel Picard. Of returning to direct Picard, Frakes told IGN, "The shooting style is a little bit different. You've got to keep it cool, though. ... It's not like Next Gen where it was closeup, two shot, closeup, closeup. You know I mean. That s#!t is... That doesn't fly on television anymore!”
First Contact sees Captain Jean-Luc Picard, Commander Riker and the crew of the USS Enterprise travel back in time to the 21st century to try to stop the Borg from conquering Earth. Considering the pivotal role the Borg play in Picard: Season 1, revisiting this movie is more timely than ever, and we are so thrilled to do it with Number One himself.
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So grab your copy of Star Trek: First Contact and sync up with us for this one-of-a-kind movie night! You can watch along on IGN.com, either the IGN or CineFix YouTube pages, or by watching on the Star Trek and Star Trek: First Contact Facebook pages.While we won't be playing the movie in our stream, we encourage you to watch Star Trek: First Contact along with us on your own devices for the full live commentary experience. If you don't already own the movie, you can rent it on any of the digital platforms below:
- Amazon ($3.99 rental)
- Fandango Now ($2.99 SD rental, $3.99 HD rental)
- Google Play ($2.99 SD rental)
- Apple TV ($3.99 HD rental)
- Vudu ($2.99 SD rental, $3.99 HDX rental)
WFH Theater - Jurassic Park with original movie star Joseph Mazzello
[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/04/25/jurassic-park-the-t-rex-detail-you-never-noticed-and-other-secrets-revealed"]WFH Theater - 10 Cloverfield Lane with director Dan Trachtenberg
[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/04/23/uncharted-gears-of-war-and-more-inspired-10-cloverfield-lane"]WFH Theater - Rogue One: A Star Wars Story with writers Gary Whitta and Chris Weitz
[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/star-wars-writers-reveal-hidden-secrets-of-rogue-one"]Pete Davidson & Judd Apatow’s King of Staten Island to Go Straight to VOD
Universal Pictures has dropped their original plans to theatrically release The King of Staten Island, a comedy directed by Judd Apatow and starring Pete Davidson, and will debut the film digitally on June 12 instead.
Universal made the announcement Monday alongside an Instagram video from Apatow and Davidson.
The King of Staten Island marks the second Universal title following Trolls World Tour to pivot from theatrical to digital release due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Apatow's film is a semi-autobiographical account of SNL star Davidson's early years.
Universal describes The King of Staten Island as "a bracing comedy about love, loss, and laughter"; here's the following official plot synopsis:
Universal describes The King of Staten Island as "a bracing comedy about love, loss, and laughter"; here's the following official plot synopsis:
"Scott (Davidson) has been a case of arrested development ever since his firefighter father died when he was seven. He’s now reached his mid-20s having achieved little, chasing a dream of becoming a tattoo artist that seems far out of reach. As his ambitious younger sister (Maude Apatow) heads off to college, Scott is still living with his exhausted ER nurse mother (Marisa Tomei) and spends his days smoking weed, hanging with the guys—Oscar (Ricky Velez, Master of None), Igor (Moises Arias) and Richie (Lou Wilson)—and secretly hooking up with his childhood friend Kelsey (Bel Powley). But when his mother starts dating a loudmouth firefighter named Ray (Bill Burr), it sets off a chain of events that will force Scott to grapple with his grief and take his first tentative steps toward moving forward in life."
The cast also includes Steve Buscemi as Papa, a veteran firefighter who takes Scott under his wing, and Pamela Adlon. The film was scripted by Apatow, Davidson, and former SNL writer Dave Sirus. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=new-movies-coming-to-vod-early&captions=true"] The King of Staten Island will be available in North America on premium on-demand digital everywhere beginning Friday, June 12, 2020.The Last Ronin Depicts a Future Where Only One Ninja Turtle Still Lives
SNL recently parodied the Middle-Aged Mutant Ninja Turtles where their best days were behind them, but an upcoming comic book miniseries from the creators of TMNT will depict an even bleaker future for the pizza-loving superheroes, one where three of the four heroes in a half shell are dead.
IDW Publishing announced Monday that they will release the five-issue miniseries Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin, based on a decades-old concept by TMNT co-creators Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird, this summer.
Here's the official plot synopsis:
"In a future New York City far different from the one we know today, a lone surviving Turtle goes on a seemingly hopeless mission to obtain justice for his fallen family and friends."
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin features layouts by Eastman, inks from Andy Kuhn, and a script by Tom Waltz. Check out the first artwork from the miniseries in the slideshow below: [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=tmnt-the-last-ronin&captions=true"] "About ten years ago, I re-discovered a twenty-page outline for a TMNT story that Peter and I wrote together back in 1987. The story was set thirty years in the future, which (as written then) was set in 2017," Eastman recalled in the official press release. "Reading through it again, I drifted back to a very different time in TMNT history — back when it was all about the comics, mostly just Peter and I writing and drawing the issues, pre-everything the world would soon come to know about these characters that we'd created and called the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles." Series co-writer Tom Waltz said he was "gobsmacked" when Eastman showed him the outline he and Laird had created over thirty years ago: “Beyond Peter Laird’s eerily prescient technological and sociological predictions, the story idea itself was exciting and versatile, designed in a way that it could be easily modified to fit into the many different TMNT iterations that have existed over the years, without losing any of the core elements injected into it by both Kevin and Peter." Waltz added that he has "the absolute honor to join these legendary creators to craft a TMNT story set in a chaotic future, rife with revenge, honor, tragedy, hope, and over-the-top ninja-action sequences that’ll blow any Turtles fan’s mind, no matter what version of the beloved franchise is their favorite.” [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2019/11/07/9-facts-one-lie-teenage-mutant-ninja-turtles"] Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin #1 will be available this summer and with multiple cover variants. Each issue of the IDW miniseries will run 48 pages.Ghost of Tsushima Release Date Delayed Until July
The upcoming PS4 exclusive Ghost of Tsushima has a new release date of July 17, 2020 — a delay of just under a month from its originally scheduled June 26 release date.
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Ghost of Tsushima, developed by Infamous and Sly Cooper creator Sucker Punch, also allows The Last of Us Part 2, which also has a new release date, some breathing room. Hulst attributes both games' delays to "some disruptions to our working styles" caused by the ongoing pandemic.
Sony Interactive Entertainment Head of Worldwide Studios Hermen Hulst said, on the PlayStation blog, that he wants to "personally congratulate and thank both the teams at Naughty Dog and Sucker Punch Productions on their achievements, as we know it’s not an easy feat to reach the finish line under these circumstances. Both teams have worked hard to deliver world-class experiences, and we can’t wait to see what you think of them when they release in just a few short months."
Ghost of Tsushima's delay means that Sucker Punch's open-world game set in feudal Japan will likely still be the last major Sony exclusive for PS4, ahead of the fall 2020 release of PS5.
Although Sony announced reworked release dates for The Last of Us 2 and Ghost of Tsushima, there's one other PS4 game on the way that we don't know about: Marvel's Iron Man for PSVR, which has also been delayed. We reached out to Sony for a comment on Marvel's Iron Man's delay and a Sony representative told us "SIE will provide an update in the coming weeks on the release timing for the game."
Check out the latest Ghost of Tsushima gameplay details here.
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Joe Skrebels is IGN's Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter.
The Goonies Cast Reunites for Josh Gad’s Reunion Show
The cast of The Goonies, including Josh Brolin, reunited for charity on Josh Gad's new YouTube show, Reunited Apart.
The special brought together the core cast who played the treasure-hunting troublemakers: Sean Astin (Mikey), Josh Brolin (Brand), Martha Plimpton (Stef), Corey Feldman (Mouth), Ke Huy Quan (Data), Jeff Cohen (Chunk), and Kerri Green (Andy).
It's been 35 years since the Richard Donner-directed film was released so Gad, a self-proclaimed Goonies fanatic, spent most of the show obviously getting the cast to tell anecdotes about their time making the movie. Astin even recited Mikey's "Troy's bucket" monologue at one point.
The gang were later joined by Joe Pantoliano and Robert Davi, who played heavies Francis and Jake Fratelli, respectively. The duo recalled how their "bickering" annoyed actress Anne Ramsey, who portrayed Mama Fratelli.
The 26-minute reunion special raised funds for The Center for Disaster Philanthropy. It can be viewed in full here.
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What are your favorite memories of The Goonies? Let us know in the comments!
The gang were later joined by Joe Pantoliano and Robert Davi, who played heavies Francis and Jake Fratelli, respectively. The duo recalled how their "bickering" annoyed actress Anne Ramsey, who portrayed Mama Fratelli.
The 26-minute reunion special raised funds for The Center for Disaster Philanthropy. It can be viewed in full here.
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What are your favorite memories of The Goonies? Let us know in the comments!The Last of Us Part 2 Gets June Release Date
After announcing that it was delayed indefinitely just weeks ago, Naughty Dog's upcoming PS4 sequel The Last of Use Part II now has a new June 19 release date.
Sony Interactive Entertainment Head of Worldwide Studios Hermen Hulst said on the PlayStation blog that he wants to "personally congratulate and thank both the teams at Naughty Dog and Sucker Punch Productions on their achievements, as we know it’s not an easy feat to reach the finish line under these circumstances.Both teams have worked hard to deliver world-class experiences, and we can’t wait to see what you think of them when they release in just a few short months."
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