The visuals of Deadhaus Sonata looked like a clean version of an early 2000s game. Even though it is simplistic compared to a lot of modern games, including some other indie games, it still had a particular feel that looked good for the most part. The biggest visual drawback is the rain visuals where it felt there was too much and too dense. There was also an issue where the character creator would not work so at this point could not make any new characters or customize appearance.

Players control a vampire with a focus on combat, which unfortunately felt stiff and was not enjoyable. The main attacks felt clunky, plus the dodge didn’t feel responsive and was hard to execute. The most promising aspect of combat is the use of ability cards, which can be assigned to any ability slot. The abilities themselves did help the combat feel a little better, but much like the base combat, it still feels clunky. The mechanics presented could be refined in future updates to create a good combat system.

Another major frustration with the game is the lack of explanations for how to accomplish tasks or what to do next. Normally, having to figure out mechanics is fine, but with the game in an early state, the bugs make it frustrating to do so. One example was the main narrator repeating itself constantly when looking at the celestial clock or other menus. Sometimes the voice repeats over itself and causes a headache.

The Celestial Clock is one of the systems in the tutorial that took a little bit of time to figure out how it works. The game does not fully explain its function, but it has a lot of information presented with it, such as the current time and weather. The clock also shows a solar system of planets and current positions, which is used for puzzles.

After the tutorial, the game has a focus on limited exploration, where you pick an area to go to. There’s no direction on what to do other than roam around and defeat enemies. I could tell there are other areas to explore, but it does not say how to unlock those areas. At one point, there was an event to defeat enemies attacking a tower, which felt like an unwinnable situation because while defeating waves of enemies, they still destroyed the tower anyway. After finishing the final map, I had no idea what to do next, as the main objective only said to go back to the hub, leaving me with no other direction and nowhere new to go.

Overall, Deadhaus Sonata’s initial early access release is a disappointment as it feels like a game in alpha. What the small team of developers made has the potential to become a game worth playing, given more time. There is a foundation of puzzles in the exploration, along with aspects of combat, such as the abilities or finishers, that show there’s a solid idea that needs time to be worked on and fleshed out. Hopefully, the game is more fun with friends when figuring out what to do next. Despite the game starting in a rough state, it could make a comeback just like No Man’s Sky.

The post Deadhaus Sonata Preview: A Pale Beginning appeared first on Nerd Reactor.

All definitions are official definitions derived from using the Major League Baseball Glossary and Baseball Savant. All of these stat categories appear in the Advanced Stats tab of the player profile for their respective categories (hitter or pitcher).

BATTER AND PITCHER ADVANCED STATS (NEW)

1st Row

• BIP – Balls in Play
• GB/FB – Ground Balls to Fly Balls Ratio
• LD% – Line Drive Rate
• GB% – Ground Ball Rate
• FB% – Fly Ball Rate
• IFFB% – Infield Fly Ball Rate
• HR/FB – Home Runs per Fly Ball rate
• IFH% – Infield hit rate
• BUH% – Bunt hit rate
• Pull% – Rate the ball is pulled
• Cent% – Rate ball is hit up the middle
• Oppo% – Rate the ball is hit opposite field
• Soft% – Rate ball is hit softly
• Med% – Rate Ball is hit with average power
• Hard% – Rate ball is hit hard (Exit Velocity equal or greater than 95 MPH)

2nd Row

• AVG EV – Average Exit Velocity of hit balls
• MAX EV – Highest exit velocity of hit balls
• AVG LA – Average Launch Angle of hit balls
• Barrels – How many balls are barreled. A barreled ball a ball must have an exit velocity of at least 98 mph and a launch angle between 26-30 degrees.
• Barrel % – Percentage of hit balls in play that are barreled.
• Hard Hit – Number of balls in play that are hit over 95 miles per hour
• xBA – Expected Batting Average is the likelihood that a ball in play will fall in for a hit
• xSLG – Expected Slugging Percentage is the expected rate at which the batter will slug the ball based weighted by each type of hit the player has tallies. The formula is (1B + 2Bx2 + 3Bx3 + HRx4)/AB)
• wOBA (For some reason there is no tracking of this in OOTP 27 but including it for you stat nerds because it relates to the below stat) – Weighted On-Base Average is a look at what kind of hits (and walks) a player used to get on base rather than just if they did or not.
• Determined via historical scoring data to get an average contribution to run production. This changes every season as new numbers are added to the data.

• Home Run: Worth approximately 2.037 runs.
• Triple: Worth approximately 1.252 runs.
• Double: Worth approximately 1.252 runs.
• Single: Worth approximately 0.882 runs.
• Walk: Worth approximately 0.691 runs

Looking at those numbers, it can be stated that the average homerun is a 2-run homer.

xwOBA – Expected Weighted On-Base Average uses the same factors for each kind of hit.

Batter Only

HITTER STATS

BATTER STATS YOU MAY CONSIDER ADVANCED IN BATTING STATS TAB (OLD)

OPS+ – Adjusted On-Base Percentage + Slugging Percentage
WAR – Wins Above Replacement

To find these change the view of the Career Batting Stats or Batting Splits tabs of the Batting Stats of the player card.

• wOBA – Weighted On-Base Average
• ISO – Isolated Power
• BABIP – Batting Average of Balls in Play
• wRC+ – Adjusted Weighted Runs Created
• WPA – Win Probability Added
• UBR – Base Running Value
• BsR – Total Baserunning Runs Value

Percentile Rankings (Batters)

Batted Balls

• Batting RV – Batting Run Value – This is the odds that a run will score during his at bat. In this case Gunnar has a 23.5% chance of having a run score during his at bats. It also shows the percentile for this stat. (Gunnar Henderson in this simulated season was in the top 4% of batting run value)
• Baserunning RV – Baserunning Run Value – This is the number of runs a player contributes when they are on base whether it is stealing bases or getting extra bases. In the case of Gunnar, when he was on base the Orioles were able to score 2.2 runs which puts him in the 90th percentile.
• Fielding RV – Fielding Run Value – This number is the amount of runs a player’s defensive performance (all aspects of it including holding runners from stealing in Gunnar’s case.) contributes to the team. In this case, Gunnar, who is typically not great defensively, causes his team to actually lose 1.5 runs per his defensive action putting him in the low 38th percentile of fielders.
• HR/FB – Home Runs per Fly Ball
• Soft % – Percentage of balls in play that are hit under 95 MPH.
• Solid % – Percentage of balls in play that are hit just under the definition of a barreled ball (See above for barreled ball definition)
• Barrel% – Percentage of balls in play that are barreled. (See above for barreled ball definition)
• Hard% – Percentage of balls in play that are hit over 95 MPH.
• Avg EV – Average Exit Velocity
• Max EV – Highest Exit Velocity achieved

Superstats

• xBACON – Expected batting average on contacted balls
• xSLGCON – Expected slugging percentage on contacted balls
• xwOBACON – Expected Weighted On Base Percentage on contacted balls
• xBA – See definition in Batter Advanced Stats (New) Section
• xSLG – See definition in Batter Advanced Stats (New) Section
• xwOBA – See definition in Batter Advanced Stats (New) Section
• K% – Percentage of strikeouts in at bats
• BB% Percentage of walks in at bats
• SB% – Percentage of stolen base success

Pitch Value

• Fastball RV – Run value on fastballs faced
• Breaking RV – Run value on breaking balls faced
• Offspeed RV – Run value on offspeed pitches faced
• Whiff% – Rate at which batter swung and missed at pitches
• O-Swing% – Rate at which batter swung at pitches outside the strike zone
• Z-Swing% – Rate at which batter swung at pitches in the strike zone
• Swing% – Rate at which batter swung at pitches thrown to him
• O-Contact% – Rate at which batter made contact with pitches outside the strike zone
• Z-Contact% – Rate at which batter made contact with pitches in the strike zone
• Contact% – Rate at which batter made contact with pitches thrown to him

Batter Spray Chart

• This shows where a batter has hit the ball. As you can see you can change what is shown. The legend contains:
• GO (Groundout)
• FO (Flyout)
• SI (Single)
• DO (Double)
• TR (Triple)
• HR (Home Run)

Pitcher Only

PITCHER STATS YOU MAY CONSIDER ADVANCED IN PITCHER STATS TAB (OLD)

• BABIP – Batting Average of batters faced when they put the ball in play
• ERA+ – Adjusted Earned Run Average – Earned Run Average that also takes into account ballpark factors. A full table of Ballpark Factors can be found here at Baseball Savant
• WAR – (See definition above)

3rd Row in Advanced Stats

• Pitches – Number of pitches thrown
• O-Swing % – Percentage of pitches thrown outside the zone were swung at
• Z-Swing % – Percentage of pitches thrown inside the zone were swung at
• Swing% – Percentage of pitches thrown were swung at
• OC% – Percentage of pitchers thrown outside the zone
• ZC% – Percentage of pitches thrown inside the zone
• Zone% – The ratio in percentage of balls thrown in the zone to balls thrown out of the zone
• RV – Run Value
• RV-FB – Run Value on Fastballs thrown
• RV-BR – Run Value on Breaking Balls thrown
• RV-OFF – Run Value on Off Speed Pitches thrown
• Close% – Percentage of pitches thrown in a 2-strike count
• Whiff% – Percentage of pitches thrown that resulted in a swing and miss
• Chase% – Percentage of pitches thrown outside the zone that batters chased at

Percentile Rankings (Pitchers)

Batted Ball

• GB% – Percentage of pitches hit that ended up as ground balls
• GB/FB – Ground ball to Fly ball ratio on pitches hit
• HR/FB – Homerun to Fly Ball ratio on pitches hit
• Avg EV – Average exit velocity for balls hit
• Soft % – Percentage of pitches thrown that were hit into play softly
• Solid % – Percentage of pitches thrown that had solid contact made on them
• Barrel % – Percentage of pitches thrown that were barreled
• Hard % – Percentage of pitches thrown that were hit hard

Superstats

• xERA
• xBACON – Expected batting average on contacted balls
• xSLGCON – Expected slugging percentage on contacted balls
• xwOBACON – Expected Weighted On Base Percentage on contacted balls
• xBA – See definition in Batter Advanced Stats (New) Section
• xSLG – See definition in Batter Advanced Stats (New) Section
• xwOBA – See definition in Batter Advanced Stats (New) Section
• K/BB
• K% – Percentage of strikeouts in at bats
• BB% Percentage of walks in at bats

Pitch Result

See other definitions in Pitcher 3rd Row of Advanced Stats except for Contact %, which can be found in the Batter’s Pitch Value Section.

Pitch Type

• Pitching RV – Pitching Run Value – Avg number of runs a pitcher prevented based on his pitching
• Fastball RV – Fastball Run Value – Avg number of runs a pitcher prevents when throwing a fastball
• Breaking RV – Breaking Run Value – Avg number of runs a pitcher prevents when throwing a breaking ball
• Offspeed RV – Offspeed Run Value – Avg number of runs a pitcher prevents when throwing an offspeed pitch
• All Fastball% – Percentage of any type of fastball thrown
• Breaking% – Percentage breaking balls are thrown
• All Offspeed% – Percentage of any type of offspeed pitch thrown
• FB Velo – Average Fastball Velocity

Pitch Usage Chart

This shows the percentage of pitches the pitcher used.

If anything is missing from this guide that you feel should be added, please contact me on X at @darthpyrin.

The post Out of the Park Baseball 27’s Advanced Stats Guide appeared first on Nerd Reactor.

This demo, also remastered, starts with a bit of info on the cancelled game. The story apparently focuses on Kain’s continuing quest to purify the Pillars of Nosgoth to heal the land once more. Also, it seems this game would have continued to focus on the demon beings known as Hylden, whom you faced in Defiance as both Raziel and Kain. These beings are a central theme in the Legacy of Kain story and are the reason the vampires are immortal yet sterile. Janos Audron, whom Raziel awoke in Defiance, is also mentioned as central to this story. All of these factors connect to the Pillars and how they were eventually corrupted.

Once that pop-up closes, you are free to explore this small slice of the beginning of the game. From what the pop-up states and the time I spent in this very short demo, I sensed this mountain pass was supposed to lead to some sort of entrance way to the Demon Realm. The enemies you fought to get to this portal were vampire hunters and Hylden, similar to those you fought in Defiance.

The themes of this unmade game certainly feel similar to those of Defiance. The difference is that you only have one protagonist in Kain. Since Raziel was absorbed into Kain at the end, with the Soul Reaver ultimately destroyed, it seems you are working towards restarting the cycle of the timeline by involving Janos, the keeper of the Soul Reaver. This is the sword that you wield as Raziel in Defiance, and it has a whole game named after it in the series.

The Legacy of Kain series focuses on a cyclical timeline. With what we know about this unreleased sequel, it seems Kain was working on breaking that timeline. If that is what this game could have been, perhaps the Legacy of Kain could have gotten some closure. Instead, we will never know what could have been.

After playing the remaster of Defiance, I could see a modern Legacy of Kain game being made that focuses on this. While the story repeating itself could open the door for some interesting alterations to each timeline, I think giving Kain and Nosgoth a chance to rest in peace could be something worth exploring. Defiance ends on a cliffhanger, and Kain wanders out into the world to continue his quest.

The post Unreleased Legacy of Kain: Defiance Sequel – What Could Have Been appeared first on Nerd Reactor.

Directed by Kyle Balda and written by Craig Mazin, based on Leonie Swann’s Three Bags Full, the film gathers an incredible ensemble cast that somehow never feels overcrowded. Hugh Jackman brings a warmth and steadiness to the story’s emotional center, while Nicholas Braun and Nicholas Galitzine balance humor and awkward charm beautifully. Molly Gordon and Hong Chau bring sincerity that grounds the film, and Emma Thompson carries a graceful wisdom that lingers in every scene she touches.

Then there are the voices.

Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Bryan Cranston, Chris O’Dowd, Regina Hall, Patrick Stewart, Bella Ramsey, and Brett Goldstein fill the flock with personality and life. The chemistry between the vocal cast feels effortless. Conversations overlap naturally, jokes land cleanly, and emotional moments arrive with surprising softness. The sheep themselves become far more than comic relief. They feel like a real community trying to understand a world that suddenly feels uncertain.

What caught me most off guard was how thoughtfully the film approaches death. Beneath the mystery and comedy is a story about grief and the ripple effect it leaves behind. The film handles this with remarkable care, especially for younger audiences. It understands that loss not only affects the person who is gone. It changes the people left behind, too. Rather than avoiding those feelings, the story gently encourages viewers to sit with them, talk about them, and move through them together.

That sense of togetherness becomes the film’s strongest quality. The Sheep Detectives constantly returns to the idea that community matters. People celebrate together, grieve together, argue together, and still find ways to care for one another. The film presents rural life almost like a modern fairy tale, full of soft hills, warm kitchens, muddy paths, and quiet evenings where everyone feels connected by shared experience. There is a rustic charm here that feels deeply genuine.

Visually, the film glows with warmth. The countryside looks lived in rather than polished, and the animation carries a softness that matches the story’s emotional tone. Every field, barn, and lantern-lit room feels inviting. I found myself wanting to stay in this world long after the credits rolled.

Going in, I expected a quirky mystery with talking sheep and a few good laughs. What I found instead was a film about kindness, healing, and the way communities hold each other together during difficult times. It made me laugh often, but it also left me strangely emotional in the best possible way.

By the time the story reached its final moments, I realized how rare films like this have become. The Sheep Detectives trusts its audience enough to discuss grief honestly while still keeping its sense of wonder intact. It reminds us that sadness and joy often exist side by side, and that leaning on one another through both is what makes life meaningful.

Rating: 4/5 Atoms

The post The Sheep Detectives Review – A Funny, Gentle Mystery With a Whole Lot of Heart appeared first on Nerd Reactor.

Kawamori has a new film, Labyrinth, which hits U.S. theaters on May 10th and 11th. If you have seen his previous works, music and technology have been important. With Labyrinth, a high school girl named Shiori (voiced by Atarashii Gakko!’s Suzuka) dreams of becoming an online sensation. After being in a viral but embarrassing video, she is trapped inside her smartphone and replaced by a doppelganger who becomes famous.

“When I think about my past work like Macross, or the Valkyrie, or even Transformers, they have a lot of physical power because they’re giant robots,” Kawamori tells Nerd Reactor. “But a smartphone, even though it’s so much smaller, I think it can have an equivalent or maybe even more power, because you can really affect someone on the other side of the world. So I think technology is very alluring, but also that is the part of the danger that most people don’t realize.”

Kawamori is influenced by growing up in a rural area like Toyama and the modern city of Yokohama. Fans can see the inspiration in his work.

“I was born in traditional arts, and nature was the core of our lives,” the director said. “Then I came to this technology-filled city. I don’t think one is better than the other. I think both are important, and both are very interesting to me. I wanted to always come up with ways where that duality could coexist, and also combine them to create something more interesting and fun. I think that journey of exploring that is really my more than 40 years of work, and it continues into Labyrinth.”

About Labyrinth

Synopsis: Shiori is a typical high school student who dreams of online stardom, but struggles to capture attention. After an embarrassing video of her goes viral, she gets trapped in her smartphone and replaced by a charismatic alter ego. As the doppelganger charms the internet and devises a nefarious plot to replace mankind with brainrot, Shiori must partner with other online outcasts to stop her digital counterpart and reclaim her life in the real world.

The post Shoji Kawamori on Smartphones, Giant Robots, and the Hidden Power of the Digital Age appeared first on Nerd Reactor.

Mortal Kombat II comes out swinging and barely stops to catch its breath. It’s basically 90% fighting and 10% plot, and honestly, that’s a good thing. Because you want to see a bunch of wildly powered fighters beat the hell out of each other in brutal, crowd-pleasing ways. On that level, the movie absolutely delivers, making fans feel excited and satisfied.

First and foremost, the fight scenes are off the hook. They’re fast, aggressive, and full of personality. What makes them work so well is how much the choreography understands each Kombatant. The fight scenes build around what these characters can do. Their abilities shape the rhythm of each fight, which, in turn, gives every matchup its own spark.

Not to mention, there’s also a nice sharpness to the way everything moves. The fights are quick without becoming messy. In other words, you can actually follow the hits, the counters, the weapons, and the power moves—allowing you to revel in the beautiful choreography. Plus, it never drags or falls into that overly staged rhythm where the action pauses just long enough for everyone to reset. Mortal Kombat II keeps things moving, and that momentum makes the chaos more enjoyable, especially when we get to the fatalities.

Mortal Kombat II delivers fast fights, brutal fatalities, and a stronger sense of fun in a sequel that knows exactly what fans came to see.

The other thing that surprised me is how well the movie handles its massive cast. With this many characters, someone usually gets pushed into the background. Here, everyone gets a moment. Some characters obviously get more screen time than others, but the movie understands that fans show up with favorites. It gives each fighter a chance to pop, whether it is through a major battle, a funny line, a small emotional beat, or a power showcase that gets the audience going.

That is where the sequel really improves on the reboot. Mortal Kombat II still has drama and character stories, but it’s not weighed down by them. The first film took itself a little too seriously, almost as if it was afraid to admit how wild this world is. This one loosens up. It has laughs and has attitude. Plus, it lets the characters be cool, weird, intense, cocky, and ridiculous when the moment calls for it.

Does the story break new ground? Not really. The plot is mostly there to move everyone from one fight to the next. But for this kind of movie, that works. Mortal Kombat II knows exactly what it is selling, and it does not waste much time pretending otherwise.

Overall, if you are the type of viewer who needs a deep story and prestige-level character work, this probably won’t be your thing. But as a bloody, energetic, fan-friendly action sequel, Mortal Kombat II is a blast. It’s bigger, faster, funnier, and more confident than the reboot. Most importantly, it FINALLY feels like a Mortal Kombat movie.

Rating: 4/5 atoms

Mortal Kombat II hits theaters on May 8th.

The post Mortal Kombat II Review – More Toasty Than Toasted appeared first on Nerd Reactor.

The film follows a group of animals who rebelled against the humans to escape captivity and to prevent themselves from ending up in a slaughterhouse. Lucky, voiced by Gaten Matarazzo (Netflix’s Stranger Things), is a piglet who is torn between following Napoleon, a rebellious boar voiced by Seth Rogen, and Snowball, a sow voiced by Laverne Cox. With the animals running their own animal farm, following one leader blindly could lead to a disastrous end.

“We ultimately wanted to have young people sit with their parents and grandparents and then have a debate,” Serkis tells Nerd Reactor. “[George] Orwell wrote this innocent story to be able to talk about darker themes, but also to have a discussion about it. We have not made this for an algorithm. It’s not to hit from a marketing perspective. We’re not aiming at anything other than trying to tell a tale that will engage young inquiring minds to have a conversation with their adult parents and grandparents.

“Some people will love it, and some people will hate this film, and that’s great. That’s what we want. We want to encourage that, that being able to talk about something, rather than these are very subtle, nuanced discussions that we’re having through an entertaining, animated, young, innocent film.”

Iman Vellani voices two characters, Puff and Tammy, who are piglets and friends of Lucky.

“Teenagers notoriously don’t have a strong sense of self, and younger kids too,” Vellani explained. “They’re literally blindly following what their adults and parents are doing around them, and thinking that that’s the way to do it, because that’s how I’ve been taught and seen… So I think this movie gives younger audiences the tools to actually recognize these injustices and apply them to their own lives, too.”

The interview was edited for length and clarity.

About Animal Farm

Synopsis: A satirical allegory of revolution and power traces how a movement for equality is systematically corrupted. As the pigs consolidate control, truth is erased, dissent is crushed, and the farm descends into a ruthless dictatorship – fulfilling Orwell’s warning about the dangers of communism.

The film is directed by Andy Serkis and features the voice of Serkis, Seth Rogen, Woody Harrelson, Glenn Close, Gaten Matarazzo, Jim Parsons, Kathleen Turner, Kieran Culkin, Steve Buscemi, Laverne Cox, and Iman Vellani.

Animal Farm was released in the U.S. and Canada on May 1, 2026.

The post Andy Serkis & Iman Vellani on Animal Farm: Sacrifice, Power, and Questioning Authority appeared first on Nerd Reactor.

“The most important thing for a producer, and I’m one of a few, you’ve got to take care of business in the background to support everything a director does,” Simmons tells Nerd Reactor. “Because the actors depend on him, the scenic designers, the cinematographers, and everything. So he’s got to put all the pieces together and get a performance that you care about.”

This is in stark contrast to how Simmons works in the music industry.

“Being in a band, it’s your show,” the musician/producer said. “You’re in front of the stage. You control a lot of stuff.”

Deep Water follows survivors of a crashed plane as they try to survive in shark-infested waters.

“The key to any movie is that you care about the characters,” Harlin explained. “You can blow up the planes, you can crash them, and you can have sharks attack from left and right. But if you don’t really root for the characters and care about them, then you don’t have anything.”

Renny Harlin’s life has changed now that he is married and has children.

“I feel that I was more equipped to do this now that my life has changed so much in just the last few years,” he added. “I got married. I have three kids. I think I’m a better person than I was before, and I know that I care more deeply than I ever did. I would like to think that’s reflected in how I handle the characters, how I directed the actors. We have little kids in the story. We have a grandmother in the story. And I think that I paid attention to those things more than I’ve ever done before in my life.”

About Deep Water

Synopsis: A flight from Los Angeles to Shanghai goes down in the middle of the Pacific. After surviving the crash, the survivors soon discover they’re not alone and they must survive the shark infested waters.

The film is directed by Renny Harlin and written by Pete Bridges and John Kim. Producers are Gene Simmons, Ying Ye, Neal Kingston, Grant Bradley, Dale Bradley, Adrián Guerra, Xavier Parache, and Bob Yari.

It stars Aaron Eckhart, Ben Kingsley, Molly Belle Wright, Angus Sampson, Kelly Gale, and Li Wenhan.

Deep Water releases in theaters nationwide on May 1, 2026.

The post Gene Simmons on Film Producing, Music, and Why Directors Lead the Set appeared first on Nerd Reactor.

The game includes 18 characters from the show that bring a solid variety to the fighting roster. Obviously, there are the main characters of the current Guardians of the Globe to fill in most of the roster. But there are also some of the big antagonists to fill out the rest of the roster. This creates an overall balanced cast despite one concern. Are there too many Viltrumites?

A good portion of the characters look the same and have the same powers. However, they each have their unique feel. With so many of those characters, would it have been better to include some others? Such as the main villain from Season 3, Angstrom Levy, or the other main current member of the Guardians of the Globe, Shapesmith. Which would help bring some variety to the roster of the characters available.

Despite the first look at the roster, there is an official classification for each character. No two characters have the same playstyle. For example, Invincible is classified as balanced and rushdown. Atom Eve is ranged and zoner. There are other classifications, such as striker, technical, and pressure, which help show the variety of playstyles in the base roster.

Pick Up and Play

The fighting is mostly easy to pick up and play, with light, medium, and heavy attacks, plus a special attack. For the most part, everyone shares the same inputs for their abilities. Meaning it is not like Mortal Kombat or Street Fighter, where each character has different combos to remember. Instead, it has controls like Super Smash Bros where each character has the same number of abilities and the same inputs, but is unique per character. This approach makes it welcoming for the average button-masher player to pick up and enjoy the game. The gameplay also makes it easy to pull off combos, which can be hard to counter.

As in all fighters, there are controls that go deeper beyond the basic button inputs, as well as the game introducing its own spin on some fighting mechanics. There is a boost ability that can empower special moves, thus creating a stronger version of the attack. This is important to keep in mind for people who want to learn combos. There are also the super abilities, which are the main abilities that use the meter. In addition, there are two normal variations, and then the main ultimate ability. There are super abilities for more combo potentials.

The mechanics go even deeper for players who want to delve deeper into the game’s potential, such as having conditional abilities that will help block attacks or stop combos. There are also throw moves that can be used for creating combos. These more advanced abilities require pressing multiple abilities at once, which some can feel awkward to use at first. However, as the saying goes, practice makes perfect, and with using the abilities, executing them becomes more natural.

The last major component of the combat is the assists, which works similar to the Marvel vs Capcom games. Players pick a team of three characters, and either character can switch at any time or be called in for an assist. Being able to switch characters or use assist attacks is very easy to use. Also, the details of the character’s health bars are lowered; they get more bloodied and battle-damaged. It is a cool detail that also helps keep the vibe of the show.

Story Mode

The game offers a few different modes to play in. The first is a short story mode. It is a quick-paced story with a cool third act but a confusing ending. Unfortunately, it is nowhere near the quality of storytelling as the comic or the show. It is a story made so that the roster of characters can fight each other. Unfortunately, the story mode is a dud and, unfortunately, not a shining flagship part of the game as advertised.

There is more to do beyond playing the story, such as mastering the arcade mode ladders, which are like Mortal Kombat’s towers. The first character chosen is the main character who fights to the end, where there is a new character cutscene unlocked. Nothing new to offer compared to previous fighting game entries, but good to have some sort of single-player grind, which offers replayability. Harder ladders are unlockable, and there are different difficulties the game offers: Easy, Normal, Hard, and Viltrumite. One aspect the game has done well in is making the normal feel like a good challenge for average fighting game fans, which means that more seasoned players hopefully also have a challenge with the greater difficulties.

Online Battles

The main part of the game where most people will likely be fighting is online, where there’s ranked, quick play, and lobbies. Ranked and Quickplay have a nice setup where players can choose 3 fighting teams as well as pick what stage they want to fight on. Then at the end of the fights, there’s an option for a rematch if both players agree.

There are lobbies that have a nice layout but are flawed. The lobby has a layout for multiple battles at once and spectating. Unfortunately, if a battle has already started, players can’t spectate until the next fight. Another big problem is that there’s no stage select in the private lobbies. This is a very odd and disappointing design choice, where when fighting privately among friends, you can’t select what stage you are playing on, but you can against randoms. Another annoyance with the lobbies is having to go to the player’s social menu to switch character sets instead of right before the fight, yet another feature against randoms that is not a feature for private lobbies. Hopefully, lobbies improve with future updates. There were also lots of annoying server errors when joining friends, which hopefully will be fixed by launch day.

One more odd design choice is that to set up a custom single fight against a CPU fighter, you have to go to the versus local menu. The player picks which side they want to play on, and the CPU will fill the other side. Single CPU fights are a great way to test characters outside of the practice range, but unfortunately, the game hides where it is.

Rewards

The game also provides rewards where players can earn just by playing. There are both overall player levels and individual character levels. Regardless of fighting offline or online, the characters will gain their own levels. Having the option to play where the player wants to play and still gain levels is a welcome feature. The character levels occasionally unlock new skins. But the main unlockables are background and titles for player cards, which are customizable for online play. Also, player levels unlock some stages and collectibles, such as comic art, for the collection menu. The leveling system provides a solid incentive to earn the rewards, as it allows you to “play your way” to earn.

Final Reaction

Overall, Invincible VS is a bloody, fun, and solid fighting game, but not without its annoyances. The single-player content available might get repetitive easily. However, the game could thrive with its community as the popularity of Invincible is only growing. It makes it a welcoming fighter for new players to check out.

Invincible VS is developed by Quarter Up, which is a subsidiary of Skybound Games. It’s a new studio that includes ex-Killer Instinct developers and is available to purchase now on Steam, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S. You can go to your local comic store and ask for the exclusive physical edition that has a different cover.

The post Invincible VS: A Welcoming Bloody Fun Niche Fighter appeared first on Nerd Reactor.

The film, starring Ranbir as Rama and Yash as Ravana and directed by Nitesh Tiwari (Dangal), is based on the ancient and epic tale that follows Prince Rama and his journey to save his wife, Sita. The story has been adapted many times into movies, TV series, novels, and comic books.

Yash also serves as the film’s producer, and he aims to have Ramayana reach a global audience.

“I think it’s important to understand there are two possibilities in this kind of scenario,” Yash tells Nerd Reactor. “You don’t take the risk at all and say, ‘Listen, people are so critical about it. People are so sensitive about it. Let’s not go there. We have better ways to make money, or you know, you can go on with a safe zone where you do films.’ And there’s another way, whether it should be told or put on a global platform or not. If the answer is yes, then we should not worry about it because by the end of the day, it’s a good problem to have. People are rooting for it. We should understand where it is coming from.”

Namit Malhotra, the CEO of DNEG, serves as the film’s screenwriter and producer. He discusses the importance of writing as the film’s foundation.

“I think it always starts in the writing,” Namit Malhotra said. “Ramayana is already written to be an epic, and it is bigger than anything else out there. So all we’re doing is faithfully trying to just reproduce it based on what’s been written into what we can present on screen. And that is actually fun because you have such a good base material to work with and really build on. So I think the artists are having a great time, really bringing it to life because you’ve got so much richness in the way it’s been written and what’s been created. Originality of thought, design, all the things that you crave for are all embedded in Ramayana and have been for thousands of years.”

Check out the full interview below:

About Ramayana

Synopsis: From visionary producer and filmmaker Namit Malhotra comes Ramayana, a sweeping, two-part cinematic event inspired by one of the world’s most enduring epics.

Since the beginning of time, the Trinity Gods rule the three worlds; Brahma – god who creates; Vishnu – god who protects; and Shiva – god who transforms. As the realms of heaven, earth edge toward chaos, the Trinity god Vishnu descends to earth in an avatar to restore balance. This time, Vishnu is reborn as RAMA (Ranbir Kapoor), a human prince destined to restore balance. Opposing him, stands the most formidable, learned, undefeatable and immortal demon king RAVANA (Yash), blessed by the Trinity themselves, driven by pride and a vengeance powerful enough to shatter the cosmos.

Unaware of his true purpose as the only opponent destined to stand up to Ravana in a fateful cosmic design; Rama is the idol of Dharma (duty above all) and the most loved crown prince of Ayodhya, the greatest human dynasty of the time. Rama tries to build a life of quiet honor with his beloved wife Sita (Sai Pallavi) and loyal brother Lakshman (Ravie Dubey) amongst others, until a twist of fate drives him into exile and toward an inevitable clash with Ravana in a reckoning so cataclysmic, it will decide the destiny of gods and mortals.

The post The Risk Behind Ramayana: Yash on Playing Ravana and Global Ambition appeared first on Nerd Reactor.