The original Doom recently celebrated its 30th anniversary, making me feel quite old. As well as being an early blueprint for the FPS genre, id Software's iconic shooter is also a popular modding pla??yground. Sometimes, these mods harken back to even older gaming days.

Modders Gokuma and Kontra Kommando have crafted a love letter to an absolute classic '80s slasher film. Specifically, they've turned Doom into Friday the 13th. More specifically still, they've based it ?on the NES adaptation, turning the 1989 side-scrolling game into a first-person shooter.

Set in Camp Crystal Lake �as you would expect �the mod brings back Jason Voorhees to "slaughter all those that would dare to step foot" into the camp. It's up to Doomguy to stop him, presumably. Currently, there's no full release date, but you can download the current beta from ModDB to try it out.

Life before Doom

It's interesting to see this kind of mod. While it could have been just set in the Friday the 13th universe in any respect, the creators chose to breathe new life (resurrect, if you will) into a game that's even older than Doom.

A lot has certainly changed over the decades for the plucky FPS. Thirty years is a long time in any form of media, but to see id Soft??ware's legendary 1993 release keep coming back for more is a strong testa?ment to just how important the game has been to the industry.

There are so many Doom mods out there, some of which change up the formula immensely, not to mention the countless ways of porting the game. There's not r??eally any?thing else like it in the video game world, so hats off to the studio for bringing it to us.

The post Doo?m meets Camp Crystal Lake in this Friday the 13th mod appeared first on Destructoid.

Licensed games have tried their damnedest to nail the original theme songs and other aspects of film scores. Horror games are no? different, and we've seen plenty of successful examples over the? years. 

Going as far back as the tinny notes of Halloween on Atari 2600, there's something about the limitations that make these soundtracks even cree??pier. Without access to orchestration or even proper synths, retro horror games have held on to a unique kin?d of spookiness. They're equal parts charming and, in some cases, manage to nail the vibe of their source material without carrying over every single note. In honor of those unusual, haunting melodies, we'll take a moment to touch on a handful of them.

The game where HE comes home

Wizard Video published Halloween for Atari 2600 in October 1983, a full five years after John Carpenter's seminal slasher hit theaters. Tim Martin and Robert Barber's rudimentary efforts featured pretty much zilch from the film, outside of the box art. It did manage to technically be gorier, though, and they put in the work to include Carpenter's unforgettable theme. Its simplicity is one of the reasons it's been such a bone-chilling ??earworm for over four decades, so it doesn't take much to keep its vibes intact.

Are you ready for Freddy? 

It would be a wild understatement to say A Nightmare on Elm Street made an awkward leap to Nintendo's console in 1990. The side-scroller may have swapped out Wes Craven's specific dream scenarios for bats, rats, and spiders, but the soundtrack has its own charms. The game itself was published by LJN and developed by Rare, which meant we got a David Wi??se score that hit both the creepy and catchy ends of the spectrum. 

Chiptunes make me feel good!

When it comes to Ghostbusters games you have a few choices of extremely varying quality. For bobble-headed 16-bit action you can pop in the Genesis game, for instance. If you don't feel like having fun, you can take Ecto-1 for a spin in Ghostbusters on NES. The latter keeps a reasonable facsimile of Ray Parker Jr.'s theme song running throughout. Seriously, it plays the entire time. Oddly enough, considering their famous lawsuit against the song, it's about as successful a take as the Huey Lewis tunes in LJN's Back to the Future NES game. The important thing is you know you're playing Ghostbusters, even if you're not likely to recomme?nd it to anyone el??se.

Besides, you'll always be better off playing New Ghostbusters II. 

Vampire Hunter

Annie Lennox and Wojciech Kilar's soundtrack for Francis Ford Coppola's Bram Stoker's Dracula is full of sweeping orches??tration. The 1993 video games â€?which made their way to everything from NES to Game Gear, SNES, Genesis, Amiga, and beyond â€?are not. M?any of the versions are wildly different from one another, with the Game Boy take playing out like a traditional platformer and the Sega CD port including FMV scenes from the film. There was even a first-person DOS game! 

As disparate as some of these attempts may be, there are some soundtracks in the lot that successfully evoke the mood of the source material. Bram Stoker's Dracula on SNES has a lot of memorably fitting tracks. Some are pure mood pieces, while others push forward with a more action-oriented, Castlevania momentum. 

Sunsoft strikes back

Giving any company especially high praise for their music during a generation known for its enduring video game soundtracks is saying something. Sunsoft almost always managed to drop some dynamite, even when the games themselves didn't live up to their tunes. Gremlins 2: The New Batch landed somewhere in the middle when it launched on NES and Game Boy in 1990. Composers Naoki Kodaka and Nobuyuki Hara have stacked résumés that include the likes of Batman, Blaster Master, and U-four-ia: The Saga. 

Sunsoft's Gremlins 2 score conveys the p?layful, mischievous spirit of Joe Dante's fourth-wall-shattering sequel with style. It's particularly crunchy, making you want to play it loud before Play It Loud! was a thing.  

Ah, ah, ah, choo, choo, choo

If ever there was an example of a game that managed to be scary while only taking the bare essentials from its inspiration, it's Friday the 13th on NES. Kids of the late '80s found themselves scared and confused in equal measure as they attempted to explore the campgrounds and survive sudden cabin-bound fights against Jason. Composer Hirohiko Takayama (The Karate Kid, Xexyz) crafted a theme just as spooky ?as the Ch-??ch-ch-ah-ah-ah found throughout the slasher series Sean S. Cunningham kicked off back in 1980. 

Exploring Camp Crystal Lake isn't all doom and gloom. Some upbeat tracks made its somewhat esoteric design tolerable, too. The type of musical dichotomy you may find in old-school horror games like this are emblematic of the genre itself. Horror films can be scary as hell, but they?? can also be goofy and fun, whether it's intentional or not. If a horror game soundtrack manages to capture even a modicum of that magic, it will always be worth revisiting in some form. 

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Licensing is a killer problem

Last Friday was the 13th, and ironically, it was one of the last Fridays that you'll ever be able to buy Friday the 13th: Killer Puzzle. It's sad to see this young spatial puzzle game, not even old enough to drink, snuffed out so soo??n.

In all seriousness, Killer Puzzle is as loving a tribute to the slasher franchise as you could ask for. For the most part, it follows the rules of the film series (Jason can just appear behind anyone he sees, is weak against drowning, etc), and features just about every iteration of the hockey-masked horror icon as you could ask for (including his green and purple look from the infamous NES title).

//www.youtube.com/wa??tch???v=R8Ylirqs8To&ab_channel=BlueWizardDigital

So if you want to get this slice of the life (and afterlife) of one of the most loved and feared fictional serial killers in history, you'll have to act fast. Due to an inability to renew the license, this particular Friday the 13th game ??and all of its DLC a??re being removed from all available storefronts ( So that's Steam, Apple App Store, Google Play Store, Nintendo eShop, Xbox Store, and Playstation Store) on January 23.

The only encouraging thing about this turn of events is that Killer Puzzle was itself a retooling of an original title called Slayaway Camp that will be availa??ble indefinitely. So while this specific game in the horror-puzzle formula subgenre may be sinking into the depths of history forever, there's a chance that it may come back to the dead someday, maybe with a whole new outward-facing look.

Maybe the Killer Klowns are looking for more work?

The post Friday the 13th: Killer Puzzle gets slashed for good ??on January 23 appeared first on Destructoid.

No help's coming

There's been another gruesome murder, this time o??f Camp Crystal Lake's ??most popular camper: Dedicated servers.

These stories always end the same. Survival is a matter of how long rather than will they make it. Inevitably, there's always a body count and some grief. That's just the score when you wade into these wa?ters.

Like the victims in a slasher flick, online multiplayer games aren't long for this world. Friday the 13th: The Game is the latest example. Developer IllFonic will stop supporting it this month. The game ??is getting a final patch in the coming weeks and then the dedicated servers are being turned off.

It's a grim fate for Friday the 13th but it's not the end of the road. The game will still be playable via peer-to-peer connections. IllFonic is also keeping the database servers in commission so that progress can be tracked. Friday the 13th is??n't dead, but ??it's also not alive and well. It's been critically wounded.

That's the circle of life, I guess. Kill, kill, kill, kill, be killed. IllFonic has other killers to worry about no??wadays.

The Future of Friday the 13th: The Game [Friday the 13th]

The post Friday the 13th support killed off, and I guess that’s pretty fitting appeared first on Destructoid.

(And also some not very scary games)

PlayStation Now is getting into the creepy Halloween spirit - SPIRIT, LIKE A GHOST - with the reveal of several horror-themed titles, available right now as part of the cloud gaming servic??e.

The first title set to give you the willies is SIE Bend's survival horror title Days Gone. Released in 2019 and receiving far more success than anyone had given it credit for, Days Gone sees players in the role of very-sad drifter Deacon St. John, as he searches for his missing wife in what remains of post-apocalyptic Oregon. Using his wits, crafting skills, and any handy blunt instrument, St. John must traverse the miserable landscape while keeping one?? eye out for the mutated populace known as "Fr?eakers." No, really.

Next up is Other Ocean's remake of classic PlayStation adventure MediEvil. Released just under a year ago, the new MediEvil features all of the ridiculous humour and cartoonish design of the 1998 original, overhauled with fresh visuals, a re-recorded soundtrack and new bonus content. Once again, the hapless Sir Dan rises from his grave to seek in?? death the recognition that evaded him in life.

The third offering in this unholy trinity is IllFonic's asymmetric multiplayer gore-fest Friday the 13th: The Game. Originally released in 2017, the semi-open-world survival horror game sees seven players in the role of cannon-fodder camp counselors, while one lucky player gets to don the famous hockey mask of body-count champion Jason Voorhees. The counselors must use their wits, the local terrain, and childhood hide-and-seek skills to stay one step ahead o?f the maniacal Voorhees, lest they find themselves on the business end of a pointed stick.

The final two titles of the October update are Double Fine's cartoonish 2019 roguelike RAD, and Frozenbyte's fantasy sequel Trine 4: The Nightmare Prince. Neither of which are particularly scary - though Trine 4 does say "Nig?htmare" right there in the title, I gu?ess.

All of the above titles are available to play today as part of the PlayStatio??n Now service.

The post ??PlayStation Now welcomes the Halloween season with MediEvil, Days Gone, and Friday the 13th appeared first on Destructoid.

Halloween comes early! Or late? I don't know.

Enter our latest contest for your chance to win a Slayaway Camp/Friday the 13th Killer Puzzle prize pack for Switch!

I keep saying that there's a disturbing lack of licensed puzzle games based off of iconic horror characters. Who wouldn't want to methodically?? set traps and murder campers as classic scary movie villains?

People need to listen to me more often.

To prove it, we're giving away Switch bundles of Slayaway Camp and Friday the 13th Killer Puzzle so you can plan your murderous adventures a?s Jason Vorhees!

Slayaway Camp is the puzzle-based homage to 80s slasher films we've all been missing in our lives. Stalk teenagers, party-goers, campers, and more across more than 300 levels of superviolence. Over 60 killers inspired by horror tropes and popular characters are your disposal in your mission to dispose of hapless victims! ?It's the goriest puzzle game on the planet.

Except it's not, anymore, because Friday the 13th Killer Puzzle exists. Take out your victims all the way from Camp Crystal Lake to outer space in the only game that lets you play as a puzzle-?obsessed Jason Vorhees! I think. Level Jason up in over 150 missions as you unlock new costumes, weapons, and kills to increase your psychotic glee. Also, you can play in PG Mode to make it less horrible, and more cute!

I'm sold.

We're giving away three NA and three EU bundles of the two games combined! To enter, comment below telling us your region and your favorite kill from a horror movie. Since we're on a Friday the 13th kick here, how could I possibly not say it's the sleeping bag kill? You know the one. Someone will definitely post a gif on the comments. It's so dumb and perfect that I don't know why it isn't recreated more in movies. It should probably be a Fortnite dance at this point.?? Get on it, everyone.

Our six total winners will be drawn on Friday, January 18. Please make sure you comment using a Dto?id-generated Disqus account, and that your account is up to dat??e with your current email address.

You can grab both Slayaway Camp and Friday the 13th Killer Puzzle on the eShop. Head over to Nintendo Enthusiast for more chances to win!

The post ?Contest: Win a Slayaway Camp/Friday the 13th Killer Puzzle pr?ize pack for Switch! appeared first on Destructoid.

Talk of Sales, Asia, and Smash Bros.

The developers at Secret Base have just launched a free patch for Streets of Red: Devil's Dare Deluxe that include??s four new bosses as well as online leaderboards and new language options. They aren't charging more for this extra content though. Instead, they are putting the game on sale for 30% off until November 20. The only catch is, as of right now, the new content and sale are only for Switch owners.

Tobe, the game's creator, told us. "If sales on Switch after this patch go well, the next step is to bring all of the new Streets of Red content to the original Devil's Dare on PC before we look at PS4 again. The reason is a realistic one. While working on it, we weren't sure how well received the game will be given the overcrowded market these days, so it wasn't easy to build up enough funds to allow for free updates. It is only after the sales of the game on eShop came in that we saw t?hat we could add thi?s new content and still stay afloat."

"That being the case, we naturally decided to start from the Switch version, as that's where the majority of our audience is. The immediate next plan will be to try to get it on Steam, as we want to make it up to our PC gamers. And if that goes well too, maybe we can investigate how feasible it is to bring it to PS4. We apologize to our PS4 supporters, but I can hope that people can understand that we are a small team with limited resources a?nd might not able to make everything happen, at least not all at once."

We also asked him why these four particular bosses were chosen for the Halloween update, and if they may all make it into a Horror Vs.?? Video games parody party fighting game someday. He was very forthcoming. 

"Most might not know, but Streets of Red is actually the spiritual successor to our previous game Bitejacker, based on the show Bytejacker hosted and produced by Anthony Carboni. We brought over most of the bosses, but missed out on Z Warrior, and now seemed like a good time to bring him back in. Aside from that, we?? also have the Fish monster Mul Goemul and Sakura, who are both based on Asia themed monsters. Since we are based in Asia, I sort of wanted to showcase that. We are also releasing the game in Japan and China at the same time, so we also want to add something that they might find interesting and familiar."

As for the Smash Bros.-style four-player fighter, I have to admit that it was my idea. When I first played Devil's Dare forever ago, I immediately jumped to the idea of playing it against my friends as well as with them. At this rate, this is probably as close as we'll ever get?? to seeing Aliens/Predator/Freddy/Jason/Chucky/Ringu/Jim Sterling cro?ssover, so they might as well fight each other as well as their human victims, right?

When I asked Tobe if he'd ever thought of going this route, he said "I wasn't before, but maybe I should? Honestly, there's so much goodness from that time period, and I constantly draw reference and inspiration from that era. I have been thinking about working on a simple input fighting game, something between Smash Bros. and Divekick, so that might just be a thing. We'l??l see. Fingers crossed!"

The post The new Halloween bosses for Streets of Red are Switch exclusive ?for now appeared first on Destructoid.

Death, dismemberment, and demons, all just in time for Halloween

According to Irish folklore, Samhain is the day on the calendar when doorways between the land of the living and the land of the dead and other regions of the supernatural open at their widest. Over time, the day morphed into what we now call Halloween, a holiday where children's minds are filled with thoughts of monsters while they stuff their mouths with candy that will eventually kill their bodies. It is also the night when the most people on Earth can be found wearing slutty Luigi. The Yin and Yang, life and death relationship between teeth-rotting, blood sugar-spiking candy, and the horny Mario Bros. are just part of what makes this such a special time ?of year. 

If you're a Switch owner and you want to celebrate the day in a more off-beat way, these five new-ish games (most of which are also on PC) may do the "trick." Unlike most conventional horror stories, these titles don't always work hard to make you fear death. Instead, they allow the player to engage in contemplative, sometimes empowering relationships with the end of their lives, making them a perfect fit for Crom Cruach's big party. 

Pinstripe 

I was not expecting much out of this game, but it really blew me away with its writing and voice acting. It's not clear that any of the characters in Pinstripe are alive for any of our time with them, but they really come to life emotionally, especially Bo, your three-year-old daughter who faces a fate worse than death for most of yo??ur adventure. The game is about trying to save her from Pinstripe, a shadowy, devilish man who wants her for himself. It's uncomfortable stuff, but never exploitative. It's impressive how close the narrative comes to directly addressing serious topics like alcoholism and child abuse while never veering into territory that I'd hide from a ten-year-old. 

The game's puzzles are more hit or miss. They range from short re-appropriations of Flappy Bird to hidden object hunts straight out of Highlights magazine, though they're all tailor fit for the narrative. There are also some limited-scope action sequences, usually involving shooting something with a slingshot or jumping on a dog with a big butt. They all range from fine-to-fun, but it's the Burton-esque art direction, unsettling use of By The Light Of The Silvery Moon, and underlying themes of paternal guilt and addiction that really make this one work. It's a rated-T 2D Silent Hill: Shattered Memories for the modern era. 

The Missing: J.J. Macfield and the Island of Memories 

As Chris said in his review, there is a lot more to The Missing than you might glean from just the trailers. I've heard some people say that the game looks like another dread-filled 2D platformer in the style of Limbo or Inside, where grisly shock-value deaths lie around every corner, except that this time it's an attractive young woman who gets repeatedly massacred. That's not entirely untrue, but one of the things that makes The Missing special is the way it ??turns player motivations on their head, sometimes literally. Instead of wanting to run away from having your skull caved in or your legs cut off, you must run into these brutal attacks in order to progress, and it hurts every time. 

Hurting herself is the only way for J.J. to save someone very close to her. In that way, The Missing forces the player to alternate between the roles of protector, victimizer, and victim on a constant cycle, and that's all just in relation to controlling the game's protagonist. It's extremely intense, which makes me all the more thankful that the carnage is broken up by the occasional bursts of surreal comedy and in-game text messages that feel very real. Despite some issues with wonky physics and uneven difficulty curves, The Missing is a must-play game?? ??for fans of body horror, survivor stories, and anyone who knows what it's like to be hated just for being yourself.

Black Bird 

This new Fantasy Zone-meets-Metal Slug shmup from the mind of Yoshiro Kimura (Dandy Dungeon, Rule of Rose, No More Heroes, Little King's Story) is also about a girl who dies and comes back again and again, but unlike in The Missing, the violence here is rarely masochistic. Instead of coming back broken and bloody, the star of Black Bird reanimates as a ghostly raven's head who wreaks havoc on everything she sees. The message is also a little more difficult to parse. Do all the soldier-peasants look like Mario because the game is about struggling indie devs who want to let loose on the mindless mascot-worshiping consumer culture that often leaves? them ignored? Would the world be better off if the spoiled innocence of nature rose up in a rage and destroyed mankind and all its environment-poisoning technology? Which has more of a right to exist, the vengeance of a dead child that left the world in ruin, or the lives of apathetic bystanders who did nothing but watch as that same child died?? in the streets?

I don't have answers to those questions, but I do know that Black Bird makes it very fun to blow up things, and its soundtrack is already one of my favorite game scores ever. It's a gibberish opera sung by passionate Muppets the likes of which we haven't heard since LocoRoco, and better yet, many enemy spawn events are tied to the choral beats. This inherently fun fusion of sound and action combined with non-linear progression and a copiously deep combo system makes replaying the eight levels (four in the main game, fo?ur in new game plus) a pleasure to blast through every time. Though the game is te??chnically pretty short, it has tons of secrets, unlockables, and random events to help every apocalyptic round of destruction feel fresh.

Friday The 13th: Killer Puzzle 

Yes, believe it or not, this makes the fourth game to release on Switch this month where you play as some form of a dead person. This time though, the rotten face you take on will probably look more familiar, despite the fact that it's hidden behind an adorable hockey mask. Like in the films from which he hails, Jason Voorhees is out for revenge again, but this time his murder spree takes place in a series of human jigsaw-like puzzles. Instead of movie pieces around a board, you move Jason, who's basically the Superman of the slasher world; impossibly strong, able to move into your personal space in an instant, and vulnerable to very few obstacles. In this case, his forms of krypton?ite include lakes, bear traps, and even getting arrested by the cops. Jason may be a mass murderer, but when it comes to interacting with the police, he's downright polite. 

Those things rarely slow Jason down though. His main problem here is, he can't walk diagonally, and he can only stop moving when he hits a wall or someone to kill. That can make it hard to stroll up and decapitate a camper who's hiding in a corner down by a bear trap next to the lake. While the first 10 stages or so are a little too easy, the next 100+ more than make up for it with smart design and satisfying solutions. The devs also worked all the DLC content from the Steam bu?ild into the Switch port with more natural, in-game unlocks. Now new versions of Jason are accessed via progressing through various modes and entering secret codes. That includes the return of the NES's green and purple Jason to Nintendo consoles, which is a hallmark event for anyone who grew up with that particular iteration of our illustrious drowned boy.

Streets of Red: DDD 

This may be the only game on the list where you play as a living person, but don't you worry, it's still got plenty of reanimated corpses to play around with. In fact, there's at least one boss that bears more than a striking resemblance to the previously mentioned Voorhees child, though this mama's boy is more of a parody and less of direct representation. He's just one of the many satirical tributes to horror film icons. You could almost think of the game as co-op horror Smash Bros., as it has similarly simple inputs, but with a crossover of game chara?cters mixed in with the lookalikes of The Demogorgon, Freddy, Colossus Titan, and the one who scares me most of all, none other than Jim Sterling.

We also just received word that the game is about to get a whole lot bigger. As you can see in the trailer above, it's getting a free update, tentatively set to go live on Halloween. The patch inc?ludes a good amount of new content, including new?? bosses, language options, and the implementation of online leaderboards, all alongside a temporary price drop.

I've helped advise the creator of Streets of Red on various aspects of the Switch port for a while now, so any praise from me may come off as biased, but hey, I'm not the only one who likes it. While all the games ??on this list come highly recommended, this is the only one that's built for four players, so if you're planning on partying this holiday, putting this on your Switch is the way to go. 

Bonus Treat

This art by James "Illmosis" Beaver, entitled Horror Fight 2, is for sale right now and I? can't recommend it enough. I bought an 11x17 print of this piece last month, so I can attest to the print quality and paper stock, which are both top notch. If you have time for ?one last Halloween decoration before the 31st rolls around, don't be afraid to pick it up. 

The post Cozy up to ??the dead wit??h these recent Switch releases appeared first on Destructoid.

No, it isn't April 1st

Funko Pop figures came out of literally nowhere and have ballooned into this massive sales juggernaut. With deformed interpretations of literally everything pop culture, I suppose it was only a matter of time that we'd see an officially branded cereal from the company. I didn't expect that Mega Man and Cuphead would be getting their own edible oats, though.

Coming this summer, "FunkO's" will be launching in an effort to put the "fun back in breakfast." There will be six different flavors based on some popular Funko figurine, with Cuphead and Mega Man being the only game related offerings. You'll also be able to find a Freddy Krueger, Jason Voorhees and Gollum (from Lord of the Rings) cereal to further drag yourself into the rabbit hole of being pop culture obsessed. Each box will come with a mini Funko figurine, which is bound? ??to become a hassle if you actually end up enjoying the flavors.

For some damn reason, each cereal is exclusive to a certain retailer because why put these in supermarkets? Mega Man will be available at GameStop, Cuphead will be stocked at Hot Topic, Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees will be lurking around FYE, Gollum will be stroking rings at BoxLunch and the main "Freddy FunkO" line will be available from the Funko website. There is no price mentioned, but I can't imagine anyone would be crazy enough to charge more than $6 for a b?ox of cereal.

Introducing FunkO’s – putt??ing the fu??n back in breakfast! [Funko]

The post Mega?? Man and Cuphead are get??ting a Funko Pop cereal appeared first on Destructoid.

The developers are now in maintenance mode

Due to an ongoing and far-reaching legal battle over the rights to the Friday the 13th franchise, the developers of Friday the 13th: The Game? have understandably abandoned ??their plans for all future DLC including Uber Jason, new camp counselors, and the Grendel spaceship map.

Publisher Gun Media summed up its predicament in a statement last week.

??"Until the claim rights can be dismissed or resolved, no new content can be released. When we originally learned that the game fell within the crosshairs of this legal dispute, we tried to balance the creation of new content requested by our fans against the maintenance and bug fixing that our community expects and deserves. We attempted to do both within the limits of the legal case. We've now been forced to accept that the lawsuit makes future content for the game, including alternate play modes, new playable Jasons and Counselors, and new maps, unfeasible now or in the future."

The publisher also stressed that despite a change of plans, "we remain? committed to launching dedicated servers on our console platforms and providing the continued maintenance and bug fixing important t??o supporting our fan base."

Some players have held onto hope that once the rights dispute is finally resolved, the team behind Friday the 13th: The Game c??an resume its plans and move forward with DLC. That isn't the case.

Q: "If the legal dispute gets a ruling, will you continue r??eleasing co??ntent for F13?"

A: Sadly, no. We ??can't pause game development fo?r months at a time, it doesn't work that way.

More here://t.co/5OkjsSjxfV

— F13_Wes (@weskeltner) June 21, 2018

As Gun Media's Wes Keltner puts it, "Development on games can't just pause indefinitely and pick back up again; it doesn't work that way. Especially when you have no idea when that future date will occur. We can't keep building content that may never se?e the light of day. That's bad business."

"I've also had questions about adding 'non-F13' related content to the ?game. 'Can't you make a new level or a new counselor that has nothing to do w?ith the films?' We can't do that either. We can't add any content, whatsoever. Nada. Not even a new tree or rock. We can only focus on console dedicated servers, bug fixes, and maintenance."

"I know this isn't the news you wanted to hear," wrote Keltner, "and I wish?? the situation were different. But it's the painful truth. I appreciate your passion and look forward to seeing everyone around camp."

Questions About Future Content [Friday the 13th: The Game]

The post Friday the 13th: The Game won’t get any new content appeared first on Destructoid.

Let's all hate on the hate train!

There was a time in my life where I swore by the Razzies and Razzie nominations. While the Oscars promote some of the best movies of the year, the Razzies are the polar opposite. They talk about the worst movies of a previous year and revel in beating up?? a popular target. As I grew up though, I stopped caring about the Razzies and which movies got nominated. Oh sure, I would still look up the nominees and laugh at which movies were chosen, but the award ceremony just doesn't do it for me anymore. 

Making fun of a Razzie movie is usually not hard to do. More often than not, the movies that are n??ominated are pretty terrible and either were destroyed by critics, had a poor box office performance, or most importantly, are easy targets. The Razzies just felt too easy for me. Back when I was reviewing movies independently, I would usually see a bunch of the Razzie nominees throughout the year just by chance, so I already got my fill of bashing a bad movie. I had my fun, and I moved on. Since the Razzies mime the Oscars so much, they announce their nominees and have their awards ceremony the day before the Academy of Motion Picture's events. 

And look, I know that there's a whole discussion to have about the Oscars (we'll have that next week), but at least you can make a case about celebrating and championing the movies that have succeeded and are culturally relevant. There's a reason to celebrate the movies that get Oscar nominations. Usually they're pretty good movies. Usually (coughCrashcough). The Razzies just seem like they're beating a dead horse. These movies are bad, we know they're bad, so let's just make fun of them one more time.? It's kind of a moot point. 

But there are thos??e times where the Razzies are just plain wrong when they pick on a movie. The Razzies can lambaste a movie as much as they want, but sometimes the movies are actually pretty good despite all of the hate that they get. Why do these movies get all of the hate? I'm not too sure to be quite honest. Maybe the acting is weird, maybe the movie is dumb, maybe there's a weird concept or a stupid scene thrown in? Regardless, I'm here to defend the movies that the Razzies decided were either the worst movie of the year or was a nominee for the worst movie of the year. Someone needs to watch out for the little guy!

Friday the 13th

1980: Worst Movie Nominee

Horror movies usually get a bad wrap when it comes to reviews. If you're making a horror movie, you have a pretty good chance at making a generic shlock fest with poor characters, lazy jump scares, over the top action instead of terror, or maybe a mix of all three. Then if you're making a movie in a horror franchise, you run the risk at being "lazy" or "derivative". Think about how we roll our eyes whenever we see a new Paranormal Activity, Final Destination, or Insidious movie. 

You could make a case for the later Friday the 13th movies being lazy, dumb, not scary, and absol?utely ridiculous (Jason! In! SPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACE!), but the original? Not so much. 

The original Friday the 13th is still a pretty damn effective horror movie. The killer is brutal, the ending is great, and there's a reason that this kickstarted the horror movie franchise with the most entries, spinoffs, and video games. Has it aged well? It really has! I recently watched Friday the 13th for a horror movie marathon last Halloween and thought that it was legitimate??ly scary and had a great sense of tension and dread. 

The reasons behind it's negative reception was that it was "low budget" and had ter??rible characters, which I can understand to a degree, but those are trademarks of the slasher genre. No one really cares about the characters, we care about the monster/villain/bad guy killing them. Granted it's nice to have characters that we care about, but we usually see slasher films for the bad guys. We don't care about seeing the counselors at Camp Crystal Lake, we wanna see Jason slice up some people!

Oh, and the icing on the cake? Friday the 13th is the only movie in the franchise to be nominated for Worst Picture. So Jason Takes Manhattan is technically, in the Razzie's eyes, a better movie than the original Friday the 13th. 

Last Action Hero

1993: Worst Picture nominee

Fun Fact, this is actually one?? of my favorite Schwarzenegger movies. What's not to love about it? A movie where a kid enters a Schwarzenegger movie, teams up with him, d?eals with constant movie tropes, and eventually brings him into the real world and Arnold is forced to deal with an existential crisis that he's a fictional character? This is the kind of high concept action movie that I love!

If you're a fan of movies and making fun of classic Hollywood tropes, this is the kind of movie for you. It rewards you for being a film lover and makes the movie a much more enjoyable experience. That being said, wow the main kid is annoying here. He's one of those kid characters that thinks he's smarter than everyone else, so when he's in the movie world, he's always pointing out the tropes and how to solve them, s??top them, or just make fun of a person for using them. Here's a tip writers, if you're going to try and make a kid likable, try not to have him point out the flaws in logic of your script and make him proud as hell that he did it. 

Everything else though? If you're looking for a Schwarzenegger movie that takes itself a bit more seriously and is a bit more goofy at the same time, give it a watch. Just don't go into it expecting Commando levels of action. Think of it as a mix between Total Recall and Kindergarten Cop.  

Wild Wild West 

1999: Worst Movie Winner

So this is probably the most "bad" movie on this list. I can't fully say that Wild Wild West is a good movie. It has a lot of jokes that don't land well, can get really stupid at times with giant mechanical spiders and other weird bits of technology, and Kenneth Branagh is just so wrong for his role as Loveless. Trust me, I can get why this movie?? got the hate it did. But remember, this is a summer blockbuster movie. It's not meant to be a cinematic tour de force, it's just meant to be entertaining. It that regard, it succeeds in spades. 

Will Smith is our leading man here, and this was at a time where Will Smith just exuded coolness. He was great in Fresh Prince, Men in Black, and was pumping out fun songs to go with his movies still. When you had this Will Smith as your leading man, yo??u're not going to be making a movie to make people think i??s what I'm saying. 

"But Jesse, you pro giant mechanical spider lover, what about the Transformers movies? Those try to be entertaining without much story and those are some of the worst movies ever! Are you also implying that the Transformers are actually good because they're entertaining?" Well first off, no, the Transformer movies are still awful. They're not entertaining because each movie does the same shtick over and over again. Slow mo explosions, military jingoism, more explosions, asshole male characters, low brow humor, and did I menti?on explosions? But most importantly, they play everything super seriously. It's like they're embarrassed that they're from a toy line and are trying to make the characters edgy and mature. For crying out loud, this is a movie franchise based off an 80's franchise with talking robots that had a Linkin Park song as the big end credits single. 

Wild Wild West is aware that it's dumb and has a blast with it. No one was trying to take it seriously when it was released. You have a Shakespearean actor as a Confederate amputee that pilots a gia?nt robot spider because that was somehow his grand master plan. There's a ton of style, flash, and fun on display in nearly every scene. Do they work? Not always, but they hit more than they miss. This is the textbook definition of turning off your brain and enjoying the film without letting facts or logic get in the way. 

Plus Phantom Menace was a Worst Picture nominee in 1999 and really should have won without questi?on. 

Jupiter Ascending

2016: Worst Picture Nominee

So this was a bit of a mess when it came out, wasn't it? A giant sci-fi epic that failed to make back it's budget and became one of the biggest flops of 2015 would sure get beat up on by critics. Strangely enough, I can at least appreciate Jupiter Ascending for trying something new and different. 

The plot is... a mess to say the least. It's a bunch of intergalactic politics revolving around Mila Kunis inheriting the Earth, Channing Tatum is her half human, half wolf body guard sent to protect her because Eddie Redmayne wants to take her inheritance from the Earth, and it just gets weird and stupid real fast. However, the movie is absolutely b?reath taking to look at. 

I'm not a fan of The Matrix in the slightest. I think it's too pretentious and takes an eternity to say what it wants to say. Plus visually, it's drenched in green and just not appealing to me. Jupiter Ascending at?? least feels compelling to watch. I can easily mute the movie and just? watch the visuals and enjoy the worlds that this movie creates. Even if I want to keep the sound on, at least I'm able to get one of the goofiest performances Eddie Redmayne has ever given. 

2016 was the year where the Razzies gave two Worst Picture awards. One went to Fant4stic and the other one went to 50 Shades of Grey. Both easily deserved the awards and were the worst two movies of that year, but Jupiter Ascending was put on the short list over Minions, Hot Pursuit, and United Passions? Remember United Passions? The FIFA propaganda movie about how amazing the World Cup and FIFA are that earned less than $1,000 at the North American box office? But clearly it's better than the sci-fi misfire of Jupiter Ascending. Booooooo! Hiiiiiiisssssssss!

Mommie Dearest

1981: Worst Picture Winner

And here's the movie that makes me the most angry. Mommie Dearest is not only on th?e best movies that has ever gotten the distinction of being a Worst Picture nominee, let alone winner, but it's one of the most uncomfortable movies I've ever sat through. And I mean that as a compliment. 

Mommie Dearest is a biopic of sorts about the (in)famous Joan Crawford, the definition of Hollywood royalty. She was elegant, beautiful, and was well beloved by thousands of fans. Behind the scenes though? Completely different story. Child abuse, mental manipulations, wire hangers, and literally replacing her daughter on a soap opera when she fell ill not out of motherly love, but to prove that she was better than her. Yeah, it's kind of a messed up story, culminat?ing in Joan leaving her children out of her will entirely. It's a legitimately great film that I highly recommend.

So why did the Razzies not only nominate it for Worst Picture, but give it the award? Because they viewed it as a campy comedy. It's a movie so over-the-top that it's impossible not to laugh at it! Look, Joan Crawford is yelling about wire hangers! Isn't that so funny! Granted, it's in a scene w???here Crawford is using them to beat her children, but isn't that just so wacky???

Mommie Dearest has no place being on a Worst Movies list in my humble opinion. The same can be said for most of these movies. I don't view them as bad, but more like misfires. They could h??ave succeeded and parts of them actually do work. If you liked these movies, more power to you! Don't let a small group of people dictate the movies that you should like or hate. If you hated these movies, I can totally see that too, but do these five movies truly deserve to be called the worst movies of each ??year?

That was fun and cathartic! Now tune in next week where I look at what a small group ??of people think a?re the best movies of 2017! 

The post Five times the Razzies were WRONG appeared first on Destructoid.

Jason Lives

Get to running, sexy promiscuous teens. Con??sider this fair warning, a chance for a head start. Jason's going on the prowl next month.

Developers Gun Media and Illfonic just took to Twitter to reveal that their highly-anticipated Friday the 13th game will release on May 26. The launch will be simultaneou??s on all platforms -- PC, PS4, and Xbox One. According to the description of the video that's embedded above, it'll be available digitally for $40.

Friday the 13th originally had its sights set on a Halloween-ish date in 2016, but that was pushed back in October of last year. The delay came with a silver lining, though; the developers announced a story campaign was being added to the game. Up until then, it was asymmetrical multiplayer only. It seems as if the plan is still for it to launch with just mul?tiplayer, with the ca??mpaign being added in the months to come.

If Friday the 13th couldn't release near Halloween, early summer seems like a fine consolation choice. School's getting ou??t, kids are free to run around doing whatever they please. This should make them think twice about enrolling at a summer camp.

@Friday13thGame [Twitter]

The post Friday the 13th starts the slashing in late May appeared first on Destructoid.

Matches really will depend on the group

Friday the 13th: The Game ?was supposed to be released roughly a month ago, but was pushe??d back into 2017 -- not only that, but the multiplayer component will come out separately from the campaign in early 2017, with the latter arriving in the summer. And while you wait, IGN has a 17-minute look at the project, which includes a full match from the perspective of the counselors, with developer commentary.

As expected, how much fun you have really is dependent on your group. When the match starts people are kind of just waiting around for Jason to appear (though they do call the cops and barricade a cabin before leaving it), but around 5:30 things start to get exciting. Jason rolls in, kills a player in a big group, and people either start to attack him or run in panic. Whenever Jason is around, the game looks like a combination of survival horror and stealth, with people hiding underneath furniture and such in terror of this buffed-up boss. But even then combat looks a little stilted (particularly the animations), and it looks like running away is much more fun than staying and fighting. Playing as Jason must be hella fun (as it would in Alien Isolation with the Alien if that mode existed).

Either way it looks like they nailed the atmosphere, sound effects, and score (I really like the use of music to indicate Jason's presence). I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one who's jazzed to give it a go when it's released s?ometime in ?2017.

The post A ??full playthrough of a Friday the 13th match has moments of tension and dullness appeared first on Destructoid.

A New Beginning

Friday the 13th is known for bringing bad luck. Today is Thursday the 13th and it brings news about Friday the 13th that's not necessarily bad, ??but defin??itely important.

On the game's Kickstarter page, publisher Gun Media revealed that Jason's teen-slashing antics are being pushed back from the fall of 2016 to the ??spring of 2017. The delay is seemingly due to standard game development stuff; it just needs more time in the oven.

However, the bigger news is that developer IllFonic is adding a single-player campaign to Friday the 13th. The story mode is currently set to launch ??in the summer of 2017, a few months after the multiplayer fully rolls out. Little is known about the campaign right now, like whether you play as Jason or a camp counselor trying to survive.

Other details to trickle out of this update are: Tommy Jarvis will be a playable character, Packanack Lodge will be added as the third map, and there will be offline AI bots. But, it's the story campaign supplementing the asym?metric multiplayer that's most exciting. The idea of that squashes any disappointment about a delay.

Friday the 13th: The Game [Kickstarter]

The post Friday the 13th pushed back to 2017, but adding a stor?y cam??paign appeared first on Destructoid.

And Sack Head Jason

Oh, would you look at the date!

The developers of Friday the 13th: The Game know the score. On this beautiful and not at all cursed Friday, they've kindly given us an in-engine look at one of the variant costumes for Jason Voorhees (his attire from Part 2), as well as a new paranoia-indu??cing track from composer?? Harry Manfredini.

No, seriously. There's no ??????????????????????????one standing behind you. Don't turn around.

Conceptually, this multiplayer game is something I think a bunch of us have wanted for a long time -- one merciless killer ?slowly but surely hunting down every would-be survivor.

I have fond memories of playing "Michael Myers," a makeshift, player-organized game type in Call of Duty. That basic but super fun idea can and should work even better here.

The post Celebrate Friday the 13th with a new track fr?om ??the game (exclusive) appeared first on Destructoid.

POP!

Friday the 13th: The Game has a new trailer. 

The horror game - which secured $700K on Kickstarter last year - is back with a couple? of blink-and-you’ll-miss-it teasers showcasing what Jason has in store for you. Pro tip: it's not a hug.

There’s also this 20-second cheerful romp, too. (It’s a tad disgusting and proba?bly not SFW, even if Twitter hasn’t pu??lled it just yet, so viewer discretion advised):

The game cleared its Kickstarter goal of $700,000 with only a few days to spare. While it’s yet to reach all the stretch goals, the current total sits at $823K with additional funds courtesy of a slack backer campaign on Backerkit. 

Friday the 13th: The Game is sched?uled to relea??se in October, naturally, this year.

The post There’s no point hiding in these Friday the 13th: The Game teasers appeared first on Destructoid.

For once, copyright works out

The Friday the 13th game announced back in January has been fully revealed -- it's the game formerly known as Slasher Vol. 1: Summer Camp, by Breach and Clear developers Gun Media. With the help of TV's Adam Sessler, the team has gone to Kickstarter in t??he hopes of securing $700,000 for the proje??ct.

Friday the 13th is set to be an asymmetrical one-versus-seven multiplayer game, where one player controls masked killer Jason Voorhees and seven ?other players contr??ol the camp counselors best known for having machetes and other sharp objects put inside of their vital organs.

The game boasts the involvement of Kane Hodder, the man who played Jason in Friday the 13th 7-10, and Sean S. Cunningham, the creator of Friday the 13th. Hodder will be the motion capture artist for ??Jason, in addition to directing the motion capture work for other characters. Cunningham gifted the team the license, and will provide "direction and thematic support."

"We've been talking about Friday the 13th games for 20 years, and there was never a particularly good idea. ??As luck would have it, we pulled it together, and here we are!" Cunningham said in the ?official Kickstarter video.

The game will retain the involvement of Harry Manfredini, the man who composed the iconic Friday the 13th soundtrack, and Tom Savini, a well-known special effec?ts artist.

Just to clear up any confusion, Friday the 13th is not Last Year, another '80s slasher-themed asymmetrical multiplayer Kickstarter. Last Year originally featured a killer similar to Jason, which was changed at the request of the Friday the 13th developers.

The post Friday the 13th game comes to Kickstarter appeared first on Destructoid.