Games like Mega Man 9, Castle Crashers, and Sonic the Hedgehog 4 have shown that the old way of playing games is still very high in demand. However, before this retro renaissance began, developer Brian Provinciano of Vancouver, British Columbia was hard at work on the ultimate retro throwback – Retro City Rampage.

What started off as a homebrew NES game in 2002 known as Grand Theftendo, Provinciano soon blossomed this whirlwind of creativity into Retro City Rampage, a full, open world, 8-bit action game that pays tribute to the games and culture we adore from the 80s and 90s. The game has been in development for a decade now, with its release very close on the horizon.

I recently had the time to chat with Brian Provinciano, the one-man dev team, about his upcoming retro masterpiece.

Give us an explanation of the basic premise of Retro City Rampage and what people are going to be able to look forward to.

It’s a huge game. The core of it is like an 8-bit Grand Theft Auto, but it spirals way beyond that. It’s got over 50 story missions, over 30 arcade challenges, it’s got a free-roaming mode with multiple playable characters, over 100 character customizations, over 25 weapons and powerups, over 40 vehicles — it’s a huge game. It’s probably larger than GTA: Chinatown Wars, so people are getting a lot of bang for their buck.

How is development going?

It’s finally in the last stages, so it’s bug-fixing and some platform requirements and business that needs to be taken care of. But the game is now done, which is very good, I’m very happy about that. It’s been a long ride. And it’s going to be coming out on all the platforms now – that includes PlayStation 3 and Vita, as well as Wii and Steam [and Xbox Live Arcade]. So, excited about that. It’s running on all of them. It’s good to go, but each system has its own requirements for displaying the correct error messages and handling the system-specific features and what not. Still some of that to do, but a lot of that’s already done now.

Working with Microsoft, I’m not sure if you’re familiar with [Super Meat Boy developer] Team Meat’s story or [Braid creator] Jon Blow’s stories or post-mortems on it, but it’s not a good experience and there were a number of issues with them. It caused a lot of delays and stuff, but in the end the result of it is now it is coming out on multiple platforms at once, when before they were trying to force exclusivity. Now the plans have changed which has delayed the game!

You always hear about delays and the stories behind them, but this is an excellent reason for a delay.

Yeah, it’s been a lot of work, and as far as I know I’m going to be the first one-man dev in history to simultaneously release their game on all of the consoles. On top of that, it’s on Steam and Vita as well, so it’s quite an accomplishment that I’m quite proud of. It’s a lot of work but it was worth it.

Is this your job? Or do you have to do full time work to support this project?

I was working full time for a long time, and worked on this part time for most of the original development. But, two and a half years ago after saving up for a really long time, I quit to do it full time. When I was working full time, eight hours of my day were taken up by my day job at other game companies. And then I figured okay this is going to be great, once I quit my job I’ll be able to get so much done. But as soon as I quit, the reality set in that I have to make sure that this succeeds and makes money, all the business stuff, and as a result, the past year of development has been a good 70% business – PR, administration, all that other stuff. I’ve been working long days, seven days a week, for months on end, yet only 30% of my time has been working on the actual game itself. When you’re doing this thing as a one-man project it takes a lot of time to deal with all this other stuff. For example, the ESRB ratings, I had to fill out a huge form covering all the most minor details of the game as well as video clips for each of those which turned out to be over 100 video clips. It all adds up.

I definitely want this game to be out as soon as possible, but a lot of gamers are complaining, “How long does it take to make an 8-bit game?” Getting the game on consoles – pitching, documents, paperwork, porting console-specific requirements, meetings – it’s been a full year of work to do that including all of the consoles. But most of it was for Microsoft. Keep in mind that’s a full business year, but since I’m only one guy that’s me doing a full business year of work. Had I released the game just on PC, sure, it could have been out a year ago.

Though Microsoft is to blame for this final delay, once your game is done it still has to go into certification to make sure it fits all the platform requirements, and that takes about four weeks. Then after that you’ve got to wait for slot placement, which week your game is released, and THAT takes four weeks. So you’ve got this eight-week window where your game is completely finished, but it won’t be out for eight weeks. I’m at a point where, on top of that, I’ve got to deal with business stuff before it even goes into certification. I’ve been working so hard for all of these years to have this big, epic launch on consoles; I’m going to make that happen. There’s no point quitting now even if it’s going to hold things up a few months.

Do you have an official price point on it yet?

We don’t yet, but it’s definitely worth $15, so it’ll probably be around there. The thing is, some people may look at the retro visuals and think that it’s worth less, but GTA: Chinatown Wars dropped at $40 on the DS.

[Note: since this interview, it has been announced that the game can be pre-ordered on Steam for $14.99, implying, but not confirming, that it will be a cross-platform price]

Well this is definitely a game I’d pay full price for. I remember when Rayman Origins came out last year, everyone was asking “why should I pay $60 for this?” even though the game has SO MUCH to offer. It’s insane that people would think that the visual style would prevent someone from paying full price when so many of these big budget modern games last six hours and charge a full $60.

Well on top of all that, there’s a whole city you can explore. You can do all sorts of stuff. It also includes crossovers with some big indie characters, and that doesn’t just mean they are playable characters, which they are, but I went all out. I don’t know any other indie games that have gone this far, whereas for each of the characters – we’ve already announced ‘Splosion Man and Ms. ‘Splosion Man – they include their own games within Retro City Rampage. So we’ve got an 8-bit version of ‘Splosion Man that you can play, followed by a Ms. ‘Splosion Man boss battle, and there are two other characters we’re going to announce soon. One of them is another fully realized 8-bit version of that game, and the other is a pseudo-3D re-envisioning of a 2D game, so it’s really exciting.

Indie characters like 'Splosion Man will be making playable cameos in RCR.

And that’s the other thing about RCR – the missions themselves span all the genres, so as far as I’m concerned, it’s a bigger game than Chinatown Wars in so many ways, not just the amount of content but also the missions themselves. Some of them are drive from A to B shooting, but then other ones play like old 80s coin-op games, some of them are stealth, one parodies the old 80s Lucas Arts/Sierra adventure games, some go into the pseudo-3D like Rad Racer and Hang-On. They go just all over. So the mission variety in there is immense. But what I’m so proud of is that it all takes place in the open world seamlessly. So where a lot of games, especially on the Wii, games that are compilations of mini-games, what I’m striving for is mission variety without it feeling like separate games. So I’m pretty proud of that. It also stemmed from the fact that I’ve been a huge GTA fan since the top-down ones, but in time, my fanboyism has worn off a bit and I’ve been able to see the flaws. With this game, I’ve actively worked to avoid the mistakes that I feel the GTA games make – focus on the fun, add a lot of variety. I didn’t just want it to feel like 80 missions of driving from A to B and shooting someone. Which even the new GTA games kind of feel like that at times. I’m also cutting down on the grinding. If you ever have to drive from one place to another, that’s it, you get a save point directly after that. You can save wherever you want, so you don’t have to find a safe house. You can fast-forward through the cutscenes, which is pretty funny.

Basically the idea is to focus on mission variety. Which contributed a lot to the length of the development cycle, because every mission was practically writing a new game. It was totally worth it in the end, something I wouldn’t’ change. I wouldn’t have been happy with myself if I just released this 8-bit drive from A to B shoot stuff over and over 80 times for 80 different missions.

Everything flows into one another, which is absolutely stunning. As you point out, the missions are actually a part of the game world and not these separate entities. What did it take for you to map out this game world? What was that process like?

It’s definitely expanded a lot. I’ve changed or added areas based on certain mission ideas. There was always the plan to have a park that was kind of a Super Mario-inspired one with hills with eyes on them and stuff, and a cave that was kind of reminiscent of Zelda with bushes that you can slash with a sword and all that. There have definitely been changes and tweaks here and there. Definitely additions. There was a period where I was coming up with so many ideas and throwing so much additional stuff into it and ballooning the scope of the game. I really wish I had finished the game sooner and that it was out sooner, but everything that’s been added to it has been absolutely worth it. I’m so happy with the final game now.

It’s honestly amazing that this game exists. But what’s more impressive is that you are essentially the only developer on this. How much help are you getting from others?

I’ve got an additional artist now [Maxime Trépanier] and he’s doing amazing work. I originally did all the art myself, but I brought him on and he’s done a lot of the newer art. Other than that, it’s just him, music guys, and me. I’ve got three composers – two of them are here in Vancouver, British Columbia, which was crazy luck. And then of course I’ve got virt [Contra 4, Red Faction: Guerilla], who the whole world knows.

It’s a total mix of an original score and songs that reference classic tunes. It’s all about just keeping everyone happy, letting everyone be creative because I get to be as creative as I want. If I let everyone be as creative as they want, we get a much better product. With the music, there are certain songs that have been inspired by certain games, and there are certain songs that were made to just fit certain vibes for certain levels or certain areas. And then there’s a huge other chunk of songs that are basically just freestyling, so to speak, for the artists. I just said do whatever you want; we’ll throw it in. As a result, we’ve just got amazing music, over two and a half hours of music, actually. The thing about it, it’s all over the map. Some of the songs are nods to classic games; some are nods to classic genres. And then we’ve got other songs that are in other genres that didn’t exist back then, done in chiptune form. People are going to get to hear new types of chiptunes that they’ve never heard before.

This game is getting a ton of buzz and a ton of coverage. Were you taking fan reaction and reception into consideration during the development process?

For a long time I was taking a lot of people’s reactions into consideration, and that’s one of the things that made the game as good as it is. I actively sought out play testers – friends of mine, other developers, and other designers. I had them play the game with the disclaimer of being as honest and blunt as you can be. Tell me if something sucks, tell me if you think anything can be changed. That’s very important. I would rather hear them tell me something sucks while making the game than hearing it sucks from a reviewer after the game is released. That’s really important for all developers. I know a lot of developers that have yes men involved, and that’s bad. It’s definitely steered the game to be a lot better, listening to feedback. Your game is not going to be as good as it could be if you don’t listen to others.

The one thing that I did do at the very end was make the sprites larger. That was something that Maxime had done, some mock-ups of larger sprites. They look phenomenal but it really was “we have to ship this game, we have to finish it, we can’t balloon the scope,” so it was sitting on the backburner and I said if we can do this, we will. We’ll address it when the game is done. And when the game was finally done, I looked at it, and asked how much it would add to the schedule and decided let’s do it.

The sprites are bigger now, not HUGE, but it makes them a lot more animated. The original sprites I had done myself, and I’m not so much a classically trained animator so they were just kind of some pixels moving left and saying that looks like a punch. The reason why the sprites were so small to begin with was because of the NES – on the NES they couldn’t have been any bigger. The game was built as if it was an NES game, and it’s gradually evolved from that. Originally my engine just wouldn’t support the sprites to be larger and I had to break things a bit.

I’ve noticed a lot of retro style games still get things a bit wrong, things are off here or there because they would never be able to happen in the era that the games are trying to emulate. How have you been able to keep this game true to the spirit of the 8-bit era?

I still use the sprite tool that I had built for Grand Theftendo, though I’ve updated it since. For fun I exported a good chunk of the city in RCR as it is right now and injected it into the old Grand Theftendo ROM so the character was running around in the RCR city. I thought that was pretty cool. That shows how similar and how close to the hardware I’ve been building things. I have taken liberties for the sake of gameplay, like the amount of cars and pedestrians on the street, but a lot of people don’t realize that using less colors and things like that actually produces a better looking game. The easiest way to make a game look amateur is to use too many colors to make it look like a retro game.

Retro City Rampage is loaded with 80s and 90s parodies and homages, like this level paying tribute to the classic Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles NES game.

The story is loaded with 80s and 90s pop culture references, but what is the game’s actual story? Is there an over-arcing story or is it just a series of one-off vignettes?

There is a full-arcing story, though there are some side missions that aren’t part of the main story, because I wanted people to be able to complete the game without necessarily completing all the missions. GTA does the same thing. The missions themselves are generally sets of two to five missions per act, each act generally revolving around a character who is a parody or nod to other pop culture characters. The arc of the story is that you are working as a henchman for a super criminal, similar to the Joker, and you find a time machine. You steal it, it malfunctions, and you land – luckily you run into this mad scientist doctor who thinks you’re a hero, so he vows to help you repair the time machine so you can continue your quest to save the universe. This naïve scientist is helping this super evil criminal, helping your repair the machine. But, in order to repair it you’ve got to find the time machine parts, like the “flax combobulator,” which the military base has. And there’s a bubblegum to repair the antenna, and that’s where the Saved by the Bell missions come in.

It’s pretty amazing how fast the missions just pile up when you start adding these parodies. You think of how funny it would be to parody a character and then you start coming up with ideas and then there are three or four missions revolving around that mini story arc, then you keep piling them up and you’ve got 50 missions! There’s such a huge chunk of pop culture you’re missing out on, but there’s only so much you can do when you’re trying to ship out a game within a certain scope.

What’s next for you?

I’ve had so many ideas, but have had to deal with so many long days for months on end, seven days a week. The focus is on shipping the game. Once it’s out there’s still going to be a lot of work with support and PR, so in the immediate future I won’t be working on other games, I’ll still be working on all this. But I’m really eager to do a 3D game, so one of my next games will be a 3D game. As much as I love this art style, working in pixel art for this long and feeling a bit of envy when I see other indie games that are so visually impressive, I just want to do a pretty 3D game. I’ve got lots of ideas for more 2D games and even some retro stuff but I definitely need a breather before I get back into that. I want to do something visually impressive – that’s my goal for the next game.

As you can surely see now, there’s a reason Retro City Rampage was one of my most anticipated games of 2012. It looks to be an absolute treat, as well as a thoroughly impressive effort given it was made almost entirely by one man. Retro City Rampage will be available on WiiWare, Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network, the PS Vita, and Steam this May. It’s going to be AWESOME.

The success has been fuelled by an addictive mix of core gaming traits (reaction times and hand-eye coordination) coupled with the ability of the user to apply the game to their own personal choice of music (their audio avatar, in effect).

For anyone unfamiliar with the concept, Pump It! will play your selected track over a virtual speaker whose four ‘quadrants’ light up and flash against various BPM changes and riffs within the musical track. The player simply hovers over the quadrant that is flirting for their pointer, thus building up a musical momentum gauge and charging the central Pump It! button of the app’s title.

All the while grooving to one’s favourite tunes, users then click like crazy to build up points during the ‘bonus’ section, before the quadrants effectively reset themselves and the rhythmic mouse-baiting begins again in earnest until the track has played out.

Genius in its simplicity, the app’s true success lays with the social integration, kudos-earnings and potential prizes that it can offer. Players finding themselves at the top of global leagues can expect to win anything from signed CDs to calendars and signed photos.

First up to adorn the mobile version of Pump It! with their audio candy is David Guetta. The DJ and producer will be officially endorsing six of his best tracks in this first-of-its-kind gaming-music hybrid; in the android/iPhone sense of course (#justsayin).

“Integrating social games into our app platform creates a more compelling mobile experience for users, while giving artists and labels increased monetization opportunities,” said Michael Schneider, CEO of Mobile Roadie. “Our expertise in providing music apps for on-the-go engagement with fans combined with MXP4’s experience with music social gaming makes this partnership a logical step that will create new opportunities for both companies.”

Support from an ever growing catalogue of artists will follow throughout 2012.

These are very different Van Halens and each mean something different to fans of the band. For the purposes of this review, we’ll skirt over the Extreme error.

Over the years, I’ve revisited the blue corner glory days many, many times. The red corner, not so much. So before we begin, let’s establish that we are at least fighting out of the correct corner to take this on objectively.

Here’s the deal, Van Halen albums as a whole, were never that cohesive. Great fun for the most part but always full of holes that personally, I never grew to love. Check them out for yourself to see what I’m talking about. That said, when they were on fire, man they burned hotter than the sun. Is there anything left to say or offer come 2012 that they didn’t pull over our heads pre-1984?

As luck would have it, yes. A Different Kind Of Truth is a grab bag of that 1984 style of writing with a whole load of “the rest of their career” thrown in for good measure. It’s a very, very well thought out and clever album. It’s almost as though the red corner never happened. Mr Van Halen certainly knows how to deliver what the fans of each of his incarnations have come to expect that’s for sure – and yet, as always, as soon as Mr Roth enters the room, it becomes all about him – and for fans, there’s nothing wrong with that.

Which is probably pretty much what all the fighting was about in the first place. Such is the nature of chemistry.

To be honest having lived with this for a couple of weeks now, half of it is genuine Van Halen as you would want/expect and the other half is genuine David Lee Roth solo material. That is to say, would this be just as good without Eddie Van Halen on board? Yes it would. Would it work just as well as a David Lee Roth solo album? Of course. How could it not!

Throughout the whole experience, I can see them looking at their high-spots and trying to recreate them in a way that is ‘tres moderne’ – so good are they at what they do, they can probably get away with it, but every song has got me reaching for ‘original’. If ever there was a case of seeing a reformed band live and wishing they would just get on with the good stuff, this is it

Which leaves me in something of a dilemma. As a Van Halen album, it’s pretty damn good. As a David Lee Roth album, it would also work pretty well. I just wish someone had the balls to fall on one side of the fence or the other. Each is equally valid, but this could have been great and like I said, once we get it on in the real world, it’s only ‘pretty damn good’.

I expected more… with Van Halen, that’s always been the deal on the table.

From Gus Van Sant, Oscar-nominated director of Milk and Good Will Hunting, comes the acclaimed love story Restless, out now on DVD and digital download from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.

Mia Wasikowska (Jane Eyre, Alice in Wonderland) and newcomer Henry Hopper shine in this humorous and touching tale of romance between a young man (Hopper) who has given up on life and a young girl on the verge of losing hers.

Restless is out now on DVD and to we’ve got three copies to give away absolutely free.

To be in with a chance of winning simply watch the above clip and tell us what is Enoch’s (Henry Hopper) imaginary friend?

A. A travel agent
B. A marathon runner
C. A Kamikaze pilot

Send your answers to competitions@the-void.co.uk by noon on March 14, 2012.

© 2011 Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

No rabbit punches. No fish-hooking. No strikes to the throat or groin. And no putting a finger into any orifice. These are some ground rules in a fight in Ultimate Fighting Championship. And there are not many more.

The UFC offers a colourful mix of different martial art styles, from boxing to Muay Thai to karate, the goal was to identify the most effective style in a real fight. It’s as close to the Roman Colosseum as an official sport can get. Fights usually end with a knock-out or a fighter being seriously injured.

UFC Undisputed tries to capture this vibe somewhere on the edge of a controlled sport and two beasts ripping each other to shreds. And it succeeds. Probably. If you’re willing to spend a lot of time getting to grips with the sophisticated, but not exactly accessible controls.

If you start UFC Undisputed 3 for the first time it will ask you if you would like to play a guided tutorial. Well, sure I would. It might be worth mentioning though that we are talking about three hours worth of tutorial. By the time I had reached the expert tutorials I had forgotten what the beginner’s tutorial had taught me.

But the controls are precise and though they sometimes seem to expect you to have about four thumbs and some extra trigger fingers, they are quite intuitive. So if you are willing to spend some time learning especially how to fight while on the floor, this game will give you the most accurate and comprehensive interpretation of a UFC blood fest available.

What this game, even though it is playable for up to four players, will not give you is something to engage in quickly with some friends. For that the controls on the ground are too complicated and the fighting on the ground is essential to win a fight.

Given the vast amount of fighters and weight-classes there’s still a bit of quick fun to be found, the core punching and kicking is easily explained, but this is a game for hardcore fans of the sport who want to experience every detail of the various styles, rather than a wrestle mania for a beer-drenched night with friends. Which seems a bit of a shame, since the UFC fights are probably the closest thing to Mortal Kombat-eske brutality in real life sports. (Ask him if you don’t believe me)

Given that a decent amount of UFC fights end because one of the fighter’s bodies has been significantly altered by the other, a nice little x-ray vision a la Mortal Kombat would be nice here and there, but wouldn’t fit the overall experience that this game is aiming for.

Summa summarum, UFC Undisputed 3 is a faithful representation of the sport, for true fans of the sport willing to spend some time working out the intricate details and possibilities of the fighting engine. But it is by no means an accessible beat’em’up to jump in with some friends.

Daniel Radcliffe in The Woman in Black

“Harry who?”

I’ve been around the block with horror. I’ve seen it at its very best across more years than I care to announce from Hitchcock’s psychological battering as a kid, across the board to supposed modern day American fright-fests which, let’s face it, are schlocky contraptions designed to bring in the green rather than be faithful to the art people like Polanski built a foundation for.

I’d like to go on record. The Yanks are more than sub-standard when it comes to frightening the holy crap out of you on screen. It’s all far too shallow and obvious for my liking. Name me an American great and I’ll show you something from Europe that will pound it to the ground. If you want bizarre, take in The Wicker Man, if you want a classic hunt down The Haunting from ’63 (although granted Wise is an American director before you start a war). Want to come up to date, then surely del Toro is the undisputed master. The Orphanage has got it all.

Which brings us to The Woman in Black. A superbly crafted book from Susan Hill that puts Henry James firmly back in his box, everybody should read it. In fact, it should be compulsory at school as far as I’m concerned. Though if I’m being honest, her not-so-well-known tale The Small Hand is far superior in every way, but I digress.

The Woman in Black is a superb piece of movie-making. More important than being excellent for its own sake, it has also put Hammer back on the map – and dear Lord, that’s been a long time coming. Do not take its 12A certificate for granted, for that is a sharp double-edged sword you hold there. Sure, there’s nothing graphic here to worry your kids in the way of blood and gore, but man, if you want to screw them up with some real long-term psychological damage in the dark, this is the very film to come see.

There were a couple of kids behind me (lured in no doubt by Mr Radcliffe) who actually whispered to their parents that they wanted to go home because it was “way too scary”. Their parents however, pleasingly ignored their plight having themselves stumbled upon a rather unexpected piece of killer film-making. You can’t buy that sort of PR. We’re talking Exorcist levels of word of mouth here – and it will work because there isn’t anything to actually describe. Allow me to elaborate:

Much like the previously mentioned The Haunting, nothing really happens – hell, if you strung all the dialogue together it would probably come to less than 15 minutes of scripting. It’s what happens when there’s nothing happening that totally owns this film. There is a lot of dark space to fill and it’s filled with haunting incidental music, gorgeous location set pieces and more than any of this, director James Watkins understands how to make a handful of Victorian toys and a whole lot of shadows do all the work for you at a fraction of the price of a ton of SFX – of which I may add, there is none in this movie.

The Woman in Black is simply a beautiful, beautiful piece of work. On the downside, if you read and loved the book, the ending may come as something of a minor anti-climax – a little part of me is hoping that if there is one, it will surface on a director’s cut in the future. Had they stuck to the simple genius ending of the book, this would easily make it into the top three horror movies of all time. If you haven’t read the book – maybe it will make it that far anyway.

A true gothic masterpiece from the homeland. It doesn’t get much better than this.

It has been a painfully long time since the Muppets have been on a movie screen. Their last proper cinematic foray was back in 1999, with the criminally underrated Muppets from Space. That’s a gap of over a decade where movie theaters were empty, hate-filled, painful places to be.

But fear no more! Apatow associate Jason Segel has revived our felt friends in the most beautiful way imaginable. Segel first came out of the Muppet-loving closet big time at the conclusion of Forgetting Sarah Marshall, where his massive puppet opera gave more than a few nods to Jim Henson’s iconic crew. Naturally that got a fire started, and Segel spent a few years writing the very best Muppet movie he possibly could.

And oh, did he.

Simply titled The Muppets, the film stars Segel as Gary, a manchild who happens to have a Muppet (Walter) for a brother. Walter has loved and related to the Muppets since he was a child, so he accompanies Gary on his trip to Los Angeles for his tenth anniversary with the love of his life, Mary, adorably played by Amy Adams, to check out the old Muppet Theater. Once there, a plan is revealed that a tycoon is buying the old Muppet Theater to drill for oil, because that’s basically the most evil thing anyone can do to our beloved Mups. Walter makes his hero Kermit the Frog privy to the whole thing, prompting the amphibian to travel the world to get the gang back together and raise the $10 million needed to keep the theater alive.

The plot is classic Muppets – simple and to the point. Naturally, the plot is just a vehicle for a series of hilarious moments, sketches, and musical numbers featuring every Muppet you can fit in your heart, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. Segel wrote this movie because he gets the Muppets, and every line of dialog and every single character detail prove that gorgeously. When Kermit is hunting down his old friends, every place the characters end up makes perfect sense, be it completely fitting or hilariously ironic. Personally, I died laughing when I saw where Sam the Eagle and Rolf ended up, but every little scene would make you smile and nod with approval.

This Muppet visual gag never gets old.

The Muppets is honestly just an incredibly well-written comedy. The Muppets have always been intended for adults, so while there’s plenty here for the kids to love, the humor is just a bit too smart and clever for most of the wee ones. Subtle parodies and references are everywhere, the fourth wall is regularly bulldozed down, and jokes are so Meta that audiences are bound to have an existential crisis. This is family-friendly comedy writing at its absolute finest. Segel totally gets the Muppets, and the humor feels right at home with their work from the 1970s and 80s. When you see an angry, crotchety old tycoon sitting at a desk looking confused and annoyed, and immediately cut to the opposite side of his desk where a room full of Muppets are staring back at him, you know you’ve struck classic comedy gold.

The story flows a bit strangely, as there’s a lot of time getting the gang back together and a lot of time showcasing the final telethon to raise the money, but little time is spent on them actually working on the show. As a result, we don’t get to hang out with the ancillary Muppets as much as we’d all want to. Fan favorites like Animal, Rizzo the Rat, and Pepe the King Prawn all have only the briefest of appearances, and guys like Clifford are absent entirely. Granted, it just makes me want another Muppet movie immediately, but it would have been nice if the pace slowed down just a tad so we could hang out with this wacky cast of characters a bit more.

The performances are all top notch here, with one large exception that I’ll get to in a moment. All the Muppet performers brought their A-game, with the weird Muppet voices that plagued the 90s seemingly eradicated entirely. While Frank Oz might not be on board to voice characters like Miss Piggy and Fozzie (he was actually grossly offended by the original script), the current cast of Muppet performers still bring honor to the characters we all know and love. The newest Muppet, Walter, is unfortunately just a brown thing and not a funny take on an animal, but he’s got more than enough character to let him fit right in. He is a joy.

Tell me you don't want to punch that face.

The humans are equally stellar. I was only familiar with Amy Adams playing Boston trash in The Fighter, so I was surprised to see just how sweet and charming she was playing Jason Segel’s girlfriend who wants nothing but her man’s attention. Chris Cooper plays Tex Richman, the evil oil tycoon, to over-the-top comedic perfection. Unfortunately, Jason Segel’s performance was the only one I was put back by. A human interacting with Muppets is often one of the most endearing things an audience can ever see, but Segel takes it a step too far. His manchild character borders on creepy, with him being way too excited and hamming it up far more than anyone has any right to. I understand that’s how people are supposed to act in Muppet films, but he takes it a step too far and kind of makes me want to punch him. Had he not done such a great job writing the movie, I might be hunting him down for a punch right now.

And of course there’s the music. The Muppets was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song for Man or Muppet. While I do wonder where the Best Actor nomination is for Kermit the Frog, seeing a Muppet movie technically being an Oscar nominated (but probably not winning) movie brings a tear of joy to my eye. I will say, however, that while Man or Muppet is a lovely tune and one that can be very touching within the context of the film, Life’s A Happy Song is infinitely catchier, and Pictures in My Head is a thousand times sadder and more emotional, to the point that I had to yell at myself for almost tearing up during a Muppet movie while Kermit sang the sad ditty. Basically I am saying that the music is REALLY GOOD. I wouldn’t consider this a musical just because of how short and infrequent the musical numbers are, but there are still a lot of tunes in the film and there isn’t a single one that is bad or out of place. More than one of them will live in your head long after you’ve left the theater.

Can you imagine Walter accepting the Best Original Song Oscar?

If there’s anything negative to say about The Muppets, it’s that your love for these beautiful creatures and their legacy is directly proportionate to how much you enjoy the film. I am a huge Muppet fan, so naturally I was in heaven from start to finish. Did I mention they do a Muppet Man?! They totally do a Muppet Man. However, if you’re lukewarm on the Muppets (don’t ever talk to me ever) or just unfamiliar, the charms of this film might not hit you. It’s certainly a tough way to introduce your young one to these lovable characters, because it’s so damn referential. Having them go through the entire series of the Muppet Show and all the movies might be a bit of an undertaking, but naturally it’s worth it, because there is a lot to be appreciated here.

At its core, though, this movie is both a massive love letter to Jim Henson’s ragtag group of misfits as well as a brilliant new entry into the series. I truly hope this is the start of a Muppet revolution, because if we get a few more Muppet talkies like this one down the line, we might not get so angry when a new Vin Diesel or Tyler Perry movie hits theaters.

See this movie immediately. If you don’t smile at least 70% of the time, go get a soul.

The legendary developer (Grim Fandango, Day of the Tentacle) and head of Double Fine Productions (Psychonauts, Costume Quest), has announced via Twitter that he is seeking funding for an all-new, original point-and-click adventure game. Considering any major publisher would scoff at the notion of a point-and-click adventure in 2012, Schafer is seeking funding instead from people that actually would care – the fans. He calls it the Double Fine Adventure.

If you go to the Kickstarter page for Double Fine Adventure, you will see Schafer’s mission statement and a video accompanying it. As with any Kickstarter project, there are multi-tiered rewards for your contribution. A simple pledge of $15 gets you the actual game when it comes out, the 2 Player Productions documentary series that will be released throughout the development process, and access to the game’s beta as well as a community where you can deliver feedback as the game is being developed. The pledge tiers above that only get better, including things like exclusive art and the ability to hang out with Tim Schafer. On the Double Fine Productions website itself there are reward tiers for even higher contributions, all the way up to $150,000.

Schafer’s ultimate goal is to have $400,000 raised by March 13^th. Considering this was announced an hour ago as of this writing and has picked up close to [see update at bottom], that probably won’t be an issue.

Tim Schafer is clearly 100% certain this will be a success.

This very well could change the landscape of the entire industry. Fan funding means complete creative freedom for Double Fine, a company known for its creative clashes with publishers such as EA in the past. Their games have always been very unique and, as a result, risky for publishers to put any real money behind it. However, with all the money being donated by people eager to see a quality game as opposed to a commercially successful game, that won’t be an issue.

Not only that, but the documentary series will allow us to see the production of the game as it’s being developed. We’re talking real, honest insight into the development process. Put that together with beta access for all the backers and a community where voices can be heard, this is truly going to be a game made by the fans and for the fans.

As Schafer himself says in the video, this could all be a “spectacular failure, caught on camera for everyone to see.” However, if this is a success, we could see a lot more fan-backed major titles in the future, and we’ll have games with complete creative freedom that will absolutely blow our minds.

The currently untitled game will be released on Steam, with additional platforms possible with extra funding. It is slated for an October 2012 release.

Now someone please give me $10,000 so I can hang out with Tim Schafer.

MASSIVE UPDATE: Turns out it only took eight hours to reach the goal of $400,000. Currently, the raised funds are OVER A MILLION DOLLARS. In less than one day, Schafer has more than doubled his goal and it continues to grow. He promises that this money will go to making the game and documentary better, including additional platforms, voice acting, and better music. We are in for an absolute treat.

Though, to be fair, that surplus could DEFINITELY be used to help start development of Psychonauts 2… or a Grim Fandango HD remake… anyone?

Full disclosure: George Lucas did not “violate my childhood”.

I don’t care that Jar Jar Binks makes the Ewoks look like fucking Shaft. To me, the Star Wars films have always been highly effective B-movies – no more, no less – though I do prefer it when Greedo shoots first. Oh and yes, I was in the queue on day one for The Phantom Menace because I hoped, like most of us did, that it would be the start of something special. And it wasn’t. And it still isn’t.

Let’s be clear: time has not been kind to this film. Universally panned on release as one man’s enormously over-hyped act of self-indulgence, Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace (incidentally, Lucasfilm, if you think I’m ever going to append that enormous prefix to every instalment of the hexology, you’re very much mistaken) is and remains a confused mass of special effects and bastard ret-conning. This is not a film that demands eloquent journalism, it should anger anyone that even has a passing interest in cinema. Movie as toy commercial. It’s been done before and it will be done again but to such stratospheric heights of clunking bland? Probably not.

If lightsabers and intergalactic space-fights are your thing (and let’s face it, that’s what we really wanted to see), there are a few rewards. Ewan McGregor channels Alec McGuinness almost too well and the Duel of the Fates set-piece that is the only interesting thing about the climax is still thoroughly entertaining but not worth slogging through 120 minutes of blissful temptation every time you hear that familiar ‘schwummb’.

The argument at the time was that adults just didn’t get it. Lucas had aimed the original trilogy ostensibly at children and of course he was going to continue in that vein. Except, The Phantom Menace is so deadly dull and dumb that only an embryonic foetus will have any trouble with it.

There’s just no editorial remit, no producer willing to take a stand. Lucas is so determined to jump-start one of cinema’s most enduring space sagas with a tale of galactic politics gone awry that he forgets the most important thing about these movies – character. In painting such broad strokes on such an artificial canvas it’s hard to engage with any of the cast save the ones you know are going to mean something later down the line.

And on that note, for anyone with even a passing interest in the Star Wars saga, it’s hard to get your head around the mammoth shift in storytelling emphasis that Lucas seeks to impose on his audience. It’s no longer Luke Skywalker’s journey, it’s supposedly Darth Vader’s story. It’s always been Darth Vader’s story. Much was made of the big tapestry being spun with the prequels but décor and costume nods aside (leading to plenty of knowing ‘I see where that’s going’ comments in the foyer), The Phantom Menace so flagrantly ignores the adage that a little mystery goes a long way, that the script’s determined additions to the accepted mythos just tear the heart of the story (midi-chlorians I’m looking at you). Star Wars never really needed to explain Vader’s genesis, it was enough to hint at the trauma in his life.

If 3D doesn’t actively serve and enhance the story, it’s just a tricksy gimmick, a sloppy crutch that makes everyone feel stupid, even in a darkened auditorium.

And what about the much-vaunted 3D conversion? In this instance, the workmen can blame their materials. Hollywood has already shown that for the most part, it doesn’t get 3D (unless your surname is Cameron or Scorsese). This wickedcool new technique is anything but and is usually employed either as a big fat rescue of a rather substandard film (surely all future Lindsay Lohan vehicles are bound for Direct-to-3DVD) or a somewhat cynical attempt to sell more tickets (or – in many cases – both). If it doesn’t actively serve and enhance the story, it’s just a tricksy gimmick, a sloppy crutch that makes everyone feel stupid, even in a darkened auditorium.

In the curious case of The Phantom Menace, no amount of money was ever going to make this distinctly flat film spring to life. None of those glossy effects – surely what might have been the saving grace, the intrinsic reason for paying to see this film again – ever truly pop. The 3D is underwhelming and scarcely noticeable but then, like so many other blockbusters, The Phantom Menace just wasn’t built with the future in mind. Ultimately it’s still the same critical Titanic it ever was only now you get to wear glasses while you watch it. The pod race is still an awkward visual spectacle that never really excites. If anything, the flaws are accentuated by the dashed expectation that the 3D process might have offered something new.

The real new hope of this re-issue is that someone works a miracle in time for the original trilogy. The Lucasfilm bucks can bank-roll Episodes II and III without any regard to likely box office and treats us all to the overhead Super Star Destroyer. Patient waiting: it feels like it’s 1999 all over again. But that must surely mean someone at Warner Brothers has thought about The Matrix.

Oh, and yes. The kids still love Jar Jar. Lucas definitely got that right.

Free things that you can’t buy in shops are even better.

We’ve got a very cool merchandise set to give away for The Woman In Black, a creepy gothic horror from Hammer Films starring Daniel Radcliffe.

To win all this gear, all you have to do is answer the question below.

Which literary character is Daniel Radcliffe most famous for playing?

a. Harry Potter

b. Fox Mulder

c. Shaft

Send your answers to competitions@the-void.co.uk by noon on March 2.