IMPACT Wrestling: Bound For Glory 2020 (Oct. 24, 2020) -- Results & Afterthoughts

Bound for Glory was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by Impact Wrestling. It took place on October 24, 2020 at the Skyway Studios in Nashville, Tennessee. It was the 16th event under the Bound for Glory chronology.

Eight matches were contested at the event, including one on the pre-show. In the main event, Rich Swann defeated Eric Young to win the Impact World Championship. In other prominent matches, The North (Ethan Page and Josh Alexander) defeated The Motor City Machine Guns (Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin), The Good Brothers (Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson), and Ace Austin and Madman Fulton to win the Impact World Tag Team Championship, and Su Yung defeated Deonna Purrazzo to win the Impact Knockouts Championship.

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The pre-show/countdown to BFG special held the induction ceremony for Ken Shamrock being inducted into the IMPACT Hall of Fame, where The Rock/Dwayne Johnson appeared on IMPACT Wrestling (via satellite) to give a few words into his honor. I'm sure a few people in the IWC and over in WWE's heads exploded to see him on an IMPACT show of all places. 

Never say never in 2020, folks. 

Tag Team Match
The Deaners (Cody Deaner and Cousin Jake) def. The Rascalz (Dez and Wentz)

Six-way Intergender Scramble Match for the Impact X Division Championship

Rohit Raju (c) def. Chris Bey, Jordynne Grace, TJP, Trey, and Willie Mack

This was a fun match to kick this show off to a great start. IMPACT never seems to disappoint with these X-Division openers for their annual Bound For Glory events, and this match was no different. This match served to highlight the athletism of everyone involved in the X-Division with a lot of back and forth action, where I was honestly convinced that anyone could walk away from this match as the champion at one point. Jordynne Grace even held her own against the boys and didn't look like a stranger in paradise doing it either. I loved Rohit's spot where he shouted, "EQUALITY!" before giving her a Ropehung Diving Double Foot Stomp. I was a little scared at first from Jordynne's landing afterwards, but she seemed to be fine.

After jobbing for the better part of a year or two, I have to admit that Rohit Raju is turning me into a fan of his character from his ongoing success as this chicken shit heel that seems to slip out of every close call to capturing his precious X-Division Championship. 

20 wrestler Intergender Call Your Shot Gauntlet Match; where the winner could choose any championship match of their choice.

Rhino won by last eliminating Sami Callihan

Since Rhino won, then Heath also won a full time contract with Impact Wrestling. Had neither Heath nor Rhino won, Rhino would be fired.

This was your typical Royal Rumble-esque over-the-top-rope battle royal with a few surprise entrants, such as Shawn Daivari (who I was surprised that he wasn't going by his previous IMPACT name of Sheik Abdul Bashir), Swoggle (formerly Hornswoggle in WWE), and Tommy Dreamer (who was paying a homage to the late Road Warrior Animal by wearing his merchandise and signature face paint. There were reports going around stating that Heath Slater was originally set to win this match, but Slater ended up getting injured shortly after hitting the ring. Fortunately, Rhino was able to pick up the win instead and save face for this match stipulation. Outside of that, this match easily forgettable, even though it was no less entertaining. 

Singles Match

Moose def. EC3

IMPACT Wrestling was the company that first popularized these "cinematic" matches back with the infamous "Final Deletion" segments with Broken Matt Hardy, so you know they weren't going to allow themselves to be upstaged by WWE and All Elite Wrestling's attempts over the past few months.

I can't say that this is my favorite cinematic match of the year, but this match definitely served it's purpose as I was wondering where they were going with this feud between Moose and EC3. EC3 ultimately became the sacrificial lamb to give Moose the hardened edge that he needed instead of parading around on delusions of grandeur while hanging onto relics of the past. 

Control the narrative. 

If they want to direct Moose towards the IMPACT World Championship in the coming months, then I'm all for it. I'm ready to see what this new and improved Moose can do with this new direction. As for EC3, I don't think this was a burial either. I think he did this to steer Moose towards his true purpose - the IMPACT World Championship. As long as Moose was content with parading around with that relic of the old regime, he would be forever disregarded as a contender and a threat to the proper IMPACT World Championship.

Singles Match

Ken Shamrock (with Sami Callihan) def. Eddie Edwards by submission

The newest member of the IMPACT Wrestling Hall of Fame bested Eddie Edwards in a match that I could have seen them doing on this upcoming episode of IMPACT Wrestling on AXS TV. It wasn't a bad match, just nothing that I could have seen as PPV worthy. The match played to both men's strengths and it didn't look like Shamrock wasn't gassed like he normally looks in singles matches like this nowadays. Plus, the interference from Sami Callihan during the finish gives Edwards the excuse for a rematch too so it's win-win all around. 

Four-way Tag Team Match for the Impact World Tag Team Championship

The North (Ethan Page and Josh Alexander) def. The Motor City Machine Guns (Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin) (c), The Good Brothers (Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson), and Ace Austin and Madman Fulton

This match started off with an injury angle to write Alex Shelley out of the contest, forcing Chris Sabin to go the entire title defense alone. He put up a good fight and definitely proved why he's one of IMPACT's only Triple Crown winners in company history, but in the end, the numbers game got the best of him. I'm still iffy about the pairing of Madman Fulton and Ace Austin, but I thought they did fine with their spots in this match. I really liked how Madman Fulton was chopped down to size while he had Austin on his shoulders. I popped huge for The North picking up the win with everything right again in the world with them as the IMPACT World Tag Team Champions. 

If I could be selfish, I wish The North could have faced The Revival/FTR in this company over going to AEW. That match would have ruled too.

Singles Match for the Impact Knockouts Championship
Su Yung def. Deonna Purrazzo (c) (with Kimber Lee)

Going into this match, IMPACT continued to air the promotional packages and promos from both Deonna and Kylie Rae leading up to the actual match, but when it came time for the match, Kylie Rae was nowhere to be found. Watching this live, I thought it was strange that Deonna came out first being the defending champion, but what was going on was made painfully clear when Kylie Rae was nowhere to be found. I know that a lot of people were upset that this match didn't transpire, despite IMPACT putting a lot of time into promoting the match. Various news outlets are reporting that Kylie Rae suffered some sort of undisclosed injury and wasn't cleared to compete. Su Yung serving as the impromptu replacement was a clever move as they can EASILY write this off as Su Yung reemerging as part of the storyline between Suzie and her best friend, Kylie Rae. 

Whatever they do to explain Kylie Rae's absence, they have an easy and ripe storyline sitting there for the taking with the built-in narrative already established about Suzie and Kylie's friendship over the last few months. 

Suzie has been having "episodes" of Su Yung coming out for months in her matches and it makes absolutely perfect sense that Su Yung would reemerge after the vicious beating that Deonna and Kimber Lee gave Suzie on IMPACT a few weeks ago. Plus, there's no denying that Su Yung fits the occasion with Halloween right around the corner. That's why I wasn't upset that Deonna lost the title here, even though it was announced that she had recently signed a long-term deal with the company despite working without one for the last few months. Hell, she was lucky to be promoted and pushed this high within the division for this long without a contract period. I wouldn't be worried though as they could easily put the title back on her on the next set of TV tapings, depending how they play out the aftermath of this match.

Singles Match for the Impact World Championship

Rich Swann def. Eric Young (c)

After the excellent build to this match over the course of the last few months, we finally have come down to Rich Swann and Eric Young headlining this PPV. Who would have called this as the main event for Bound For Glory 2020 a year or two ago before the pandemic swept up the world? IMPACT has done a masterful job of rehabilitating Eric Young after WWE completely neglected and misused him on the main roster. If I'm perfectly honest, I wasn't too crazy about his NXT run as the leader of Sanity either, but that's besides the point. EY played the part of a sadistic maniac, willing to do anything and everything to put Rich Swann on the shelf for good. Swann put his livelihood and his career on the line and kept coming back for more and more punishment until he was finally to put EY away. That was the narrative of this match and it just worked. My only knock against this match is that it dragged on a little longer than I would have liked, but I get it - it was the final chapter in this monumental feud and they wanted to drive the point home before Swann got his fairy tale ending. 

Not a bad show from start to finish. Both Swann and his real life wife, Su Yung, can both go home happy as IMPACT's resident married couple both holding championship gold.

That was definitely a positive note to end on tonight. 

TWITCH COLLECTION: Let's Play - Marvel's Avengers (PS4 Open Beta)

TWITCH COLLECTION: Let's Play - Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid

30 Things I Like #11: PlatinumGames

PlatinumGames Inc. is a Japanese video game developer that was founded in October 2007 as result of a merger between two companies, Seeds Inc. and Odd Inc. Shinji Mikami, Atsushi Inaba, and Hideki Kamiya founded Seeds Inc. after the closure of Capcom's Clover Studio, while Odd Inc. was founded by Tatsuya Minami. A year after the studio was founded, video game publisher Sega announced that it would be publishing four unique properties developed by the company: MadWorld, Infinite Space, Bayonetta, and Vanquish. Their partnership later extended to include Anarchy Reigns. Most of these games were met with positive reception. Over the years, PlatinumGames had developed an expertise in action games and one of their key philosophies was that the team would not follow conventional game design concepts.

While PlatinumGames' core goal was to create new and original intellectual property (IP), the team also accepted several contract works from Activision on several licensed projects, most of which received mediocre reviews. Since 2013, PlatinumGames had held a close relationship with console manufacturer Nintendo, which funded several of their titles, including The Wonderful 101, Bayonetta 2 and Astral Chain. The studio also worked on creating new installments in other studios' franchises, with the studio taking major development duties on Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance for Konami, Star Fox Zero for Nintendo, and Nier: Automata for Square Enix. Nier Automata, which was both a critical and commercial success, was an important project for PlatinumGames, since it was their first game released after the cancellation of Scalebound, a project funded by Microsoft Studios.

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History: 

2006–07: Founding

PlatinumGames was founded by the merger of Seeds Inc. and Odd Inc. in October 2007. Seeds Inc. had been founded by Shinji Mikami, Atsushi Inaba, and Hideki Kamiya on August 1, 2006. Prior to establishing the company, the three worked for Capcom, and were key members of the Osaka-based Clover Studio, which specialized in making new and creative intellectual properties. They worked closely together developing popular Capcom franchises including: Resident Evil, Devil May Cry, Viewtiful Joe and Ōkami. Most of these titles received critical acclaim, but under-performed commercially, leading to Capcom's decision to close the studio. Prior to the closure, the three founders had already left the studio to form their own company in mid-2006. In January 2006, the company expanded to 51 employees, including more former Capcom employees such as Masami Ueda, composer for the early Resident Evil games, and Mari Shimazaki, Ōkami's artist. Yusuke Hashimoto and Kenji Saito, who would eventually become PlatinumGames' directors, also joined during its establishment period. The new company revealed its existence by launching its website in February 2007.

Odd Ltd. was founded by Tatsuya Minami in February 2006, and later renamed Odd Inc. in July 2007. Like the founders of Clover Studio, Minami worked at Capcom prior to founding his own studio. He joined Capcom and for 20 years was involved in titles such as Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts and the Mega Man franchise. However, he decided to leave as he became tired of making sequels. Minami became the studio's head and focused on the company's management and administration, while Mikami, Inaba and Kamiya remained in the positions of director or producer.

2008–2012: Partnership with Sega

The company had not revealed anything about upcoming projects for a year, until 2008, when Sega announced that it would be publishing four PlatinumGames' titles. According to Minami, the titles were unique and creative, and it was courageous of Sega to publish these risky titles. Minami added further that the partnership with Sega allowed them to bring these titles to Western markets. The four games included: MadWorld, Infinite Space, Bayonetta and Vanquish. Each was released in 2009. All the intellectual properties created by PlatinumGames as part of the partnership are owned by Sega.

MadWorld was the first game to be released. Produced by Inaba, the game was designed to appeal to a western audience and had a unique art style inspired by that of Sin City. The original story was written by Yasumi Matsuno, who had previously worked on Square Enix's Ogre Battle and Final Fantasy Tactics, while PlatinumGames and Sega jointly localized the title for the West. The team created the game with a vision of bringing a unique game to the Wii. One of the game's main themes is violence and brutality which led to controversy as it tarnished the family-friendly image of the Wii console. While the game received positive reviews, it was a commercial failure, selling poorly in both Japan and the West, despite Sega's heavy marketing. Though the game was a commercial failure, Sega felt that sales were "encouraging", and said that they would continue to make mature games for the Wii. They released the Welcome To Violence pack, which bundles MadWorld with House of the Dead: Overkill, and The Conduit, each of which were commercial failures. In 2010, Sega announced that they would cease publishing mature video games for the Wii, citing the disappointing sales of MadWorld as a contributing factor. However, PlatinumGames announced several days later that they would like to do a sequel to the game.

The company's second game was Infinite Space. Announced as Infinite Line, it is a role-playing video game with real-time strategy, and space simulation elements. Inspired by the works of Arthur C. Clarke and Greg Egan, PlatinumGames collaborated closely with Nude Maker while developing the game. Produced by Inaba, the title was released in June 2009 in Japan, and its localized release for western territories was in March 2010. The game was a moderate success in Japan, but sales of the game in the West were unsatisfactory. PlatinumGames blamed Sega for not producing enough copies of the game, as the game "sold out instantly".

"That's how games are. Teams kind of burn themselves out and then they get all that feedback and they get recharged and then people say that they're ready to do it again. And Bayonetta was a really, really strong example of that".

— Atsushi Inaba on Bayonetta's development

The third game is Bayonetta, an action game "evolved" from the Devil May Cry series. The title was directed by Kamiya, who originally pitched several "casual" projects for the studio before starting the development of Bayonetta. The game features an original story, with inspirations drawn from Scandinavian mythology, while the design of the titular character was based on Kamiya's own vision of an "ideal woman". The development team was credited as "Team Little Angels", as opposed to Devil May Cry's "Team Little Devils". The game received critical acclaim on its release, with critics praising its action as "genre-topping", as well as its characters and innovation. However, according to Inaba, the team had set an overly high standard for themselves, and become extremely frustrated by the end of the project's development. Inaba added that the game's development "nearly broke" PlatinumGames. The team's morale was restored after hearing players' positive opinions of the game. In addition, Inaba called the PlayStation 3 version of the game the company's "biggest failure", as the team did not have sufficient skills to develop that version of the game. More than 1.35 million units of the game were shipped, but according to Minami, the company was disappointed with its sales, despite it being one of the most commercially successful games produced by the company. An animated film based on the game, called Bayonetta: Bloody Fate, was later released by Gonzo.

The Sega-PlatinumGames original partnership announcement teased a mysterious fourth game from Mikami. The title was later revealed to be Vanquish. The team drew inspiration from Casshern when creating the game's visuals. Mikami decided the game's third-person perspective through trial and error, and hoped that with it, the team could increase its gameplay pace. It was originally designed to be an open world game, but this idea was later abandoned and the game's direction shifted to become linear. On its release, the game was positively reviewed, with critics calling it innovative for introducing new elements into the shooter genre. Sega added that the company was encouraged by the game's first and second-day sales. After its release, Mikami left PlatinumGames and formed a new company, Tango Gameworks. According to Minami, Mikami "always wanted to be his own man, and his own developer".

In late 2010, PlatinumGames revealed that it was in discussions with Sega to extend their partnership. Inaba added that Sega is a publisher which allows the team to have lots of creative control over their games. In 2011, PlatinumGames announced that they had extended their partnership with a new title called Max Anarchy. The game was released in western territories as Anarchy Reigns in 2013. The game serves as a sequel to MadWorld, but it does not feature the Sin City graphic style, though players assume control of MadWorlds protagonist Jack Cayman for most parts of the game. The game received mixed reviews on its release, and it was a commercial failure in both Japan and the West. Anarchy Reigns is the last game developed by PlatinumGames to be published by Sega.

2013–present: Licensed properties and exclusive games

In 2011, Hideo Kojima and his studio Kojima Productions were working on a new Metal Gear game focused on one of its main characters Raiden, a ninja equipped with swords. Unable to continue working on the game, Kojima contacted Minami to ask PlatinumGames to work on it. According to Kojima, PlatinumGames was the only studio capable of working on an action game with sword-based combat. The team added stealth elements to the game finding its system too boring and straightforward. Directed by Kenji Saito, the game, titled Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, was released in 2013 and received generally positive reviews from critics, and was a commercial success. It also became the company's first licensed title.

PlatinumGames released two games exclusively for Nintendo's Wii U console within two years.

The same year also saw the release of PlatinumGames' second game, The Wonderful 101 for the eighth generation of video game consoles, the Wii U. While Kamiya was the game's director, Minami offered creative advice. According to Kamiya, inspiration was drawn from classic tokusatsu series like Super Sentai, and that the game was designed to appeal to all types of audiences. The game was originally planned for the Wii, and was set to feature classic Nintendo characters. However, as the team found that it was difficult to use these characters creatively, the game was put on hold temporarily. Its development was restarted later, with 50 original characters being featured in the final game. Nintendo also provided feedback during the game's development hoping that it would reach a larger audience. The game received critical acclaim. It was considered one of the best games in the Wii U library, and was voted one of community's Nintendo favorites. However, the game underperformed in Japan, and was outsold by Pikmin 3, which had already been released before the launch of The Wonderful 101. VG247 attributed the game's failure to the low sales of the Wii U.

Their partnership continued with 2014's Bayonetta 2, which sparked controversy for being a Wii U exclusive when its predecessor is a multi-platform title. According to executive producer Atsushi Inaba, the company worked with Sega to create the game's sequel. It was later cancelled in the middle of the game's development until Nintendo offered to work with the company to revive it and fund the project. Sega only served as the game's advisor. Inaba added that Nintendo did not actively interfere with the game's development, and compared its role to that of an observer. Kamiya, who originally did not expect a sequel to the game, served as the game's supervisor. Replacing Kamiya as the game's director is Yusuke Hashimoto. Hashimoto focused on refining the original's combat, and extending the game's replay value. Bayonetta 2 received critical acclaim on its launch, with several gaming publications awarding the game a perfect score. Though Nintendo did not comment on the game's sales, the title sold only 38,828 copies in Japan in its first week of release, faring much worse than the original. It became the seventh best-selling retail game in the UK in its first week of release, but sales declined significantly in the second week.

The company gradually developed more and more licensed titles based on existing properties. Their partners grant them creative freedom while creating these games' gameplay. Their first licensed title is The Legend of Korra (2014), based on Nickelodeon's animated series of the same name. Published by Activision, the game's story was written by Tim Hedrick, the show writer. The game received a mixed reception when it was launched. Following The Legend of Korra is Transformers: Devastation, based on Hasbro's Transformers: Generations. Directed by Saito, the game was designed to look and feel different from previous Transformers games. The title received favorable reviews when it was released in 2015. The third licensed title, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants in Manhattan was released in May 2016. According to game designer Eiro Shirahama, the team watched the TMNT animated series and also played the old TMNT games for the Super Famicom while working on the game so as to understand the universe and the characters. The game garnered mixed reception when it was released.

In 2013, Kamiya revealed that he would like to have an opportunity to continue PlatinumGames' partnership with Nintendo, creating new properties or working on extending the universe of their existing franchises such as the Star Fox. Shigeru Miyamoto who produced Star Fox Zero expressed his desire to work with external developers so that the project can have a shorter development cycle.[66] The team was asked to serve as the game's co-developer after Nintendo saw the Arwing stage of Bayonetta 2. Zero, along with its spin-off tower defense game Star Fox Guard, was released in April 2016 to mixed reception. By the end of March 2016, Minami stepped down from his position as president and CEO, with executive producer Kenichi Sato succeeded him.

In August 2016, PlatinumGames was revealed to be in a collaboration with Cygames in the development of the action role-playing game Granblue Fantasy: Relink, but in February 2019 it was announced that PlatinumGames would no longer be involved in the project, leaving Cygames to handle the rest of development.

In 2017, Kamiya and his team were working on Scalebound for Microsoft Studios until it was cancelled in January 2017. Shortly after the cancellation, creative producer Jean-Pierre Kellams left the company, while Kamiya stopped working as a director, continuing his work at PlatinumGames as vice president. The studio collaborated with Square Enix and released Nier: Automata for PlayStation 4 and Windows in 2017, with an Xbox One version being released in 2018. Directed by Nier creator Yoko Taro, the game received critical acclaim and more than 2 million copies were sold. According to Kamiya, Taro "saved" PlatinumGames after the cancellation of Scalebound. The positive reception of Nier Automata had sparked public interest in Platinum's work once again. In May of the same year, Inaba announced the company was working on a new intellectual property. At The Game Awards 2017, Bayonetta 3 was revealed, which will be released for the Nintendo Switch. It was also announced that ports of the first two Bayonetta games would be released for the same platform two months later. At the ceremony, Nier: Automata also won in the Best Score/Music category.

In April 2018, the company announced a partnership with DeNA for an action game that explores Japanese folklore for Android and iOS devices, titled World of Demons. Its development began in 2015 with 30 employees attached to it, including staff who had worked on Star Fox Zero and Bayonetta 2, was soft launched in some countries in 2018, but was pulled from storefronts the following year. Another game, Astral Chain, was released for the Nintendo Switch on August 30, 2019.

In 2019, PlatinumGames studio head Atsushi Inaba revealed that the studio was working on two new unannounced IPs owned entirely by the studio, one of which he described as "truly unlike anything else."

Tencent Holdings supplied capital investment into Platinum in January 2020, which will allow the studio to self-publish its future titles. Platinum's CEO Kenichi Sato stated that the Tencent investment changed no aspect of Platinum's ownership and they remain an independent developer.

On February 3, 2020, PlatinumGames launched a website titled "Platinum 4", revolving around four announcements, which included:

• The launch of a Kickstarter campaign for a remastered port of The Wonderful 101 on modern platforms. This is PlatinumGames' first self-published title, although they have stated Tencent's investment has no part in its development.
  
  
  
• A new game with the working title Project G.G., described as the final game of Kamiya's "hero" trilogy following Viewtiful Joe and The Wonderful 101. Kamiya said while Viewtiful Joe was about one man transforming into a hero, and The Wonderful 101 was about a team transforming into heroes, Project G.G. involves a similar concept around a giant hero.
  
  
  
• The opening of PlatinumGames Tokyo, a new studio for about 100 staff to support live service games for the company. Heading the studio include staff that had formerly worked on FIFA Mobile.

In addition to these announcements, the research and development side of Platinum had been developing a new in-house game engine currently named PlatinumEngine to power its new titles. Chief technology officer Wataru Ohmori said that the need for a custom engine over other existing solutions like Unreal or Unity was needed to give them better customization and control over their games, and to improve their performance. He said, "We came to the frightening realization that if we don’t make our work more efficient, we’re simply not going to be able to keep making the games that we want to make as technology and expectations grow."

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Games Developed

Year	Title	Publisher	Platform(s)	Notes
2009	MadWorld	Sega	Wii	N/A
	Infinite Space		Nintendo DS	Co-developed with Nude Maker
	Bayonetta		Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Wii U, Windows, Xbox 360, Xbox One	N/A
2010	Vanquish		PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Windows, Xbox 360, Xbox One
2012	Anarchy Reigns		PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
2013	Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance	Konami	OS X, PlayStation 3, Shield Android TV, Windows, Xbox 360
	The Wonderful 101	Nintendo	Wii U
2014	Bayonetta 2		Nintendo Switch, Wii U
	The Legend of Korra	Activision	PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Windows, Xbox 360, Xbox One
2015	Transformers: Devastation
	8-Bit Bayonetta	Sega	Browser, Windows	Co-developed with Bitbaboon
2016	Star Fox Zero	Nintendo	Wii U	Co-developed with Nintendo EPD
	Star Fox Guard
	Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants in Manhattan	Activision	PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Windows, Xbox 360, Xbox One	N/A
2017	Nier: Automata	Square Enix	PlayStation 4, Windows, Xbox One
	Lost Order	Cygames	Android, iOS
2018	World of Demons	DeNA
2019	Astral Chain	Nintendo	Nintendo Switch
2020	The Wonderful 101: Remastered	PlatinumGames	Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Windows
TBA	Project G.G.		TBA
	Bayonetta 3	Nintendo	Nintendo Switch
	Babylon's Fall	Square Enix	PlayStation 4, Windows
	Granblue Fantasy: Relink	Cygames	PlayStation 4	Development moved to Cygames in 2019
Cancelled	Scalebound	Microsoft Studios	Windows, Xbox One	Cancelled in 2017

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Why Do I Love This Developer So Much?

It's simple really - PlatinumGames always manages to fill the void for my need for "over-the-top" action games or just really cool, innovative ideas. All of their games have an uniqueness about them - whether it's their visuals or the mere gameplay itself that always manages to make you feel like a bad ass. It's the same feeling of empowerment I got from playing the Devil May Cry series for the first time, except that PlatinumGames brings that to multiple genres, subject manners, and even different franchises with their adaptations to bringing those properties to life. The Legend of Korra and Transformers: Devastation games were criminally underrated for how fun they were to play and the same could be said about TMNT: MiM, but I think more people had issues that the game wasn't playable in local co-op/offline multiplayer in any capacity. I'm still pretty bummed out that I cannot play Bayonetta 2 and it's upcoming sequel, Bayonetta 3, unless I shell out the dough for a Nintendo Switch though. Astral Chain was another game that I featured on the Previews section of this blog in the months leading up to its release as well. It's another Nintendo Switch exclusive, but I wouldn't mind getting my hands on that title as well. 

I remember picking up MadWorld on a whim when my friend (who was a Wii owner at the time) was looking for games to rent for a weekend binge of gaming. We both ended up loving the hell out of that game and it was the main contributing factor that got me to pick up it's pseudo-sequel Anarchy Reigns. It's a shame that Anarchy Reigns never garnered interest from a wider audience as I thought it was a fun game that made the most of the mini-games and craziness that MadWorld initially brought to the table into a multiplayer setting. I remember going out of my way to make a Japanese Xbox Live account just to be able to play the limited access demo prior to its release. You can still find that write-up here over on Tumblr from many moons ago. 

After Devil May Cry 4 released and the series as a whole was in a state of limbo (years before DmC: Devil May Cry would actually go there as a locale in that game...), the original Bayonetta served as a savior to the greatness that was Devil May Cry 3: Special Edition. I remember purchasing the game at launch and finishing it within the same week, but I spend the remainder of that month going through all of the difficulty modes on New Game+, maxing out all of the skills, acquiring all of the weapons, and completing all of the secret missions. Hell, I even beat the secret boss, Rodin himself, and 1000/1000G'd the game before it was all said and done. I get it - there's some gamers who don't fancy themselves with playing as a female protagonist, no matter how bad ass she is and that's fine if you don't want to do that, but you are crazy to completely dismiss this game's gameplay as anything on par or better than DMC3SE. For a long time, this was the standard bearer for me in the "over the top" action genre until Devil May Cry 5 brought the series back in proper form. 

I'll never forget that TV commercial for this game either. 

I fondly remember losing my mind at the announcement of PlatinumGames' involvement with Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. 

That trailer was fucking insane. I remember when the demo came out and a lot of people that I knew quickly dismissed it as either too hard, or too complicated, I played it over and over and over until I could lay waste to the entire level in a span of roughly ten minutes tops. That excitement carried onto the release of the full retail version of the game too. Like I was telling a friend just the other day actually, PlatinumGames and Raiden deserve a shot at another game in this spin-off continuity. Metal Gear Rising was far too good to just leave that game well enough alone. 

Hell, capturing gameplay of that game was the motivating force behind me investing into my first gaming capture card and starting my own gaming channel on YouTube and Twitch. I have PlatinumGames to thank in that regard as well. Before that, I was recording crude quality gameplay on VHS tapes and uploading them to YouTube. I look back at some of that stuff and cringe in horror at how bad that it looks compared to today's standards... 

Speaking of streaming, a lot of my early streaming content was littered full of gameplay from Vanquish too. That game renewed my interest into shooters in general if I'm perfectly honest after burning myself out on the genre - whether it was Gears of War, Halo, or whatever else was "cool" or trending at the time. My only gripe with that game was that once it's over, there's little reason to go through the game again, unless you're going to complete it again on different difficulty settings or attempt to beat some of your old scores/grades on the levels and collect all of the collectibles. Your weapon upgrades didn't carry over and stack. The game did provide an additional weapons pack as a DLC add-on, but it didn't change much in the least. I was hoping that your suit's limiters would be "unlocked" in future playthroughs like they were against the final boss, but no dice. In that regard, I can understand that decision as it takes away from one of the coolest moments in the game if you had access to this ability from the start. FYI both Bayonetta and Vanquish are available as a 2-for-1 bundle celebrating their 10th anniversaries of their releases that packages both games for current generation consoles if you missed out on them the first time around. If that's not good enough, both titles tend to go for pretty cheap and reasonable prices on Steam as well. 

I can't speak too much on The Wonderful 101 as I haven't played it much outside of demos on Nintendo's Wii U kiosks in the local Wal-Mart at the time. I plan on picking up the remastered version for PS4 sooner more than later though. The same can be said about NieR: Automata as I haven't played it since the initial demo released prior to its release. The sad thing is that I pre-ordered and purchased the game at the same time I got my PS4 around the time that Horizon: Zero Dawn launched for the system and I ended up playing the latter for the duration of that year while NieR remains in the plastic on the corner of my desk to this very day. I keep telling myself that I'm going to get around to it eventually but something else keeps knocking it further and further down my gaming backlog. From as much as I enjoyed the original NieR, I owe it to myself to experience what PlatinumGames have done with its sequel. 

I just cannot stop raving about PlatinumGames enough though. Whenever I hear that they are involved with project in the realm of gaming, you can bet your ass that I'm going to have my eye on it, looking for any crumb of information until it's release. I haven't played all of their titles, but out of the ones that I have, PlatinumGames has never let me down. I can easily understand that their games aren't for everyone, but it's the one developer I can always rely on to knock my socks off. 

WWE Draft 2020 Night 1 & Night 2 (Oct. 9 & 12, 2020) -- Results & Afterthoughts

The 2020 WWE Draft was the fifteenth produced by the American professional wrestling promotion WWE between their Raw and SmackDown brand divisions that began on the October 9, 2020 edition of Friday Night SmackDown and concluded on the October 12, 2020 edition of Monday Night Raw. Both shows were broadcast from the Amway Center (aka WWE "Thunderdome") in Orlando, Florida with SmackDown airing on FOX and Raw on USA.

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WWE roster (as of 10/13/20)

Raw

Men (23): Drew McIntyre (c, WWE), Bobby Lashley (c, United States), R-Truth (c, 24/7), AJ Styles, "The Fiend" Bray Wyatt, Randy Orton, Braun Strowman, Matt Riddle, Jeff Hardy, Keith Lee, Ricochet, Elias, Sheamus, Angel Garza, Humberto Carillo, Drew Gulak, Tucker, Dabba-Kato, Titus O'Neil, Akira Tozawa, Riddick Moss, Arturo Ruas, Erik

Women (8): Asuka (c), Charlotte Flair, Naomi, Alexa Bliss, Lacey Evans, Nikki Cross, Peyton Royce, Lana

Men's tag teams/factions (5): The New Day (c), The Hurt Business, The Miz & John Morrison, Retribution, Lucha House Party

Women's tag teams (2): Shayna Baszler & Nia Jax (c), Mandy Rose & Dana Brooke

SmackDown

Men (15): Roman Reigns (c, Universal), Sami Zayn (c, Intercontinental), Seth Rollins, Daniel Bryan, Kevin Owens, Jey Uso, Big E, Aleister Black, Apollo Crews, Otis, Murphy, Kalisto, Lars Sullivan, King Corbin, Shorty G

Women (8): Bayley (c), Sasha Banks, Bianca Belair, Carmella, Natalya, Tamina, Zelina Vega, Billie Kay,

Men's tag teams (4): The Street Profits (c), Cesaro & Shinsuke Nakamura, Dolph Ziggler & Robert Roode, Rey & Dominik Mysterio

Women's tag teams (1): The Riott Squad

Undrafted

In pools but not selected: Andrade, Mickie James,

Not in draft pools: Becky Lynch, Jimmy Uso, Ivar, Sonya Deville, Edge, Jinder Mahal, Samoa Joe, Mojo Rawley, The Forgotten Sons, Bo Dallas, Big Show, John Cena, Bill Goldberg, Ronda Rousey, The Undertaker

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My Thoughts:

I'm not going to dwell deeply into the full results of both Friday Night SmackDown! and Monday Night RAW as I thought both shows were extremely mediocre as padding for this poor excuse of a draft lottery for both nights. 

I just thought that this draft was ultimately a complete waste of time when the only thing that they did was merely change people over from Monday night to Friday night and will continue the same storylines/angles on the other show. Isn't the point of the draft is to create fresh new match-ups? The only thing that they are doing is merely taking the same shit from one show and moving it onto the other and vice versa. Perfect example? Seth Rollins and Murphy moving to Friday Night SmackDown!, only for Rey Mysterio and Dominik to join them shortly thereafter. We're not going to see an end to this storyline anytime soon are we? Dominik has been great in the ring for his last few PPV performances, but they don't need to continue pushing the envelope with this storyline. Move Dominik to NXT before people turn on the kid well before he's a seasoned veteran to properly be his father's successor. I want to see Dominik rise up through the ranks, starting from the bottom, and win the Cruiserweight Championship just like his father did on WCW. Too bad Shaul Guerrero couldn't be his manager for a match on NXT's Halloween Havoc show later this month. That would have been one hell of a throwback. WWE definitely missed the boat on booking Rey Mysterio against Ricochet in this company too, especially how good that match was over in Lucha Underground. 

Speaking of other great Mysterio matches that we have not seen a proper conclusion to... Why the hell didn't Andrade and Mysterio didn't get a proper blow off to their feud at WrestleMania? Those guys were killing it at one point last year. 

The best draft decision for both nights was splitting up the New Day, even though if you look on social media for the fan reactions, you would think that Ole Yeller died or something. I don't know if it was a shoot or not (much like Jim Ross being drafted to SmackDown! back in 2008), but I think that this was the best thing for Big E's future. Look at this way. Big E and Sheamus put each other through hell and then some in that Falls Count Anywhere match on Friday Night SmackDown!. Even though I thought those bumps in this match on and off the car windshield were just as stupid as the multiple powerbombs on the hood of a car and several bumps onto the windshield during AEW's match between Best Friends and Proud & Powerful, I won't deny that it added to the sheer brutality of this match. WWE is starting to paint the picture of Big E standing on his own as serious competitor and the last thing that he needs is to be throwing the corny catchphrases and back to acting like a traveling goof with the rest of the New Day. I groaned with absolutely disgust when all three of them reunited following Big E's win Friday night. Big E doesn't need to be hindered by being tied to the hip with them right now. Splitting the New Day up via the draft was the best course of action, despite it being absolutely moronic when Monday Night RAW was able to draft both Retribution and the Hurt Business collectively with their 4-5 members with a single draft pick, but only wanted two members of the New Day instead. That stupidity in terms of logic is besides the point, the fact of the matter is that Big E needs to distance himself from the rest of the New Day right now. It's sink or swim time in terms of this singles experiment and I think he has what it takes to ascend past the "forever mid-card" scene that he and the rest of the New Day seemed to be cursed to remain at for their entire careers - that is until a string of good luck and unique circumstances allowed Kofi Kingston to win the WWE Championship at WrestleMania last year. Let's see if lightning can strike twice and Big E can find himself into a similar situation - not by some fluke from a random injury that sidelines someone else who was intended to be in that main event spot, but by the fact that he belongs there in the first goddamn place and was the actual plan instead of a massive publicity stunt. 

I facepalmed when the Street Profits and the New Day were backstage during RAW and merely swapped belts to each other after finding out that they were going to be on opposite brands. I can't even take credit for this idea, so shout out to my good friend Randy for this one for a MUCH better option instead of just swapping the belts out between the two teams: "Cesaro & Nakamura keep there belts. Kofi/Woods get drafted. The Profits lose there belts to Roode/Ziggler. Roode/Ziggler stay on Raw. Profits go to Smackdown. Profits say to Cesaro & Nakamura remember that time we beat you in the brand to brand invitational? We more than earned a shot at your belts. Have The Profits win at HIAC." WWE makes this shit far more convoluted than it needs to be. K.I.S.S. = Keep it simple, stupid.

Even though Ricochet and the Hurt Business are remaining on the same brand of Monday Night RAW, I thought the finish to their match on Monday night was absolutely brilliant and was a great homage to the late Eddie Guerrero, whose 53rd birthday (if he had lived to see it) was over the past weekend. After Apollo Crews' 14th loss to a member of the Hurt Business, I was glad to see him drafted to SmackDown!. Maybe they will do something constructive with him over there instead of feeding him to the Hurt Business in a repeat of the same episode of Monday Night RAW from week to week. 

I don't understand the point of drafting Mandy Rose to RAW a few weeks ago when RAW wasted one of their picks to keep her on the same show. Pairing her up with Dana Brooke (who seems to be looking healthy again after whatever the hell was going on with her face bloating out earlier this year like Miss Piggy) isn't going to do anything for either of them, especially not as a tag team in that poor excuse of a women's tag team division. I won't lie though, I couldn't tell you a damn thing that came out of Mandy's mouth during that MizTV/Dirtsheet segment on RAW, but I got a nice eye full of oogling her lovely legs on display. Her and Dana didn't do too bad as a team later that night against Lana and Natalya's makeshift team, but that show was at blond overload at that point. I was glad to see that Natalya and Liv Morgan got drafted to SmackDown! to dilute that overload a bit, even though RAW got Alexa Bliss and Peyton Royce in return. 

Speaking of Alexa Bliss, I LOVED that double team Sister Abigail by her and The Fiend onto Andrade and Zelina Vega. As a comic book nerd/dork, I can EASILY see the Harley Quinn influences in this descent into madness that Bliss is undergoing, but holy shit these people can't be serious to having a woman telling a guy to "Let Him In" on their so-called PG programming. I can't speak for anyone else but my mind goes straight into the gutter when I hear her say that. I'm anxious to see how far they take that pairing in the coming months, but it's sad to see Zelina and Andrade split further and further apart. Zelina is being sent to SmackDown! with her real life husband Solid Snake...err Aleister Black, where I hope he is going to be used better than that hot garbage that they were doing for him over on RAW. Meanwhile, Andrade is currently still floating around as a free agent. I hope the rumor is true about him being sent back down to NXT, possibly to feud with Santos Escobar or to join his Legado del Phantasma stable. I wouldn't mind seeing Charlotte Flair being paired with her real life fiancee to be his mouthpiece for here on out. That would be a welcome change of pace for him. 

Back to Lana for a second though. When I heard about her getting jobbed out to Nia Jax for the last few weeks and going through the commentary table, I honestly thought it was just as funny as Bane constantly breaking Batman's back in the Robot Chicken DC Comics Special(s). To see her get put through yet another table at the end of RAW (following her and Natalya's split earlier in the show) only to win the dual brand battle royal to win the future title shot against Asuka for the RAW Women's Championship, was something straight out of left field in my eyes. And here I thought they were jobbing her out after her husband (Miro/formerly Rusev) is over on AEW Dynamite and Twitch burying the company at every opportunity - yet this company claims that they aren't petty. Yeah fucking right... 

I'm not going to lie, but I had it pegged that Charlotte Flair was going to close out RAW as the mystery final entrant into that battle royal. Color me shocked as all hell that Lana of all people won the goddamn thing instead though. 

I have to wonder though, but would it have killed them to separate Bayley and Sasha Banks for a few months by drafting them onto separate brands? I doubt people would care to see that match as a WrestleMania main event next year after how long that this has been dragged out, but I shook my head that they couldn't leave enough alone to do that match on SmackDown! to merely setup the Hell in a Cell match that we all knew that was already set in stone. A title match wasn't necessary. They could have done an in-ring segment to the same result with a pull-apart. I hope they don't turn this feud into the redundancy that was Charlotte Flair vs. Becky Lynch for what felt like the better part of two years at one point before Ronda Rousey was added into the equation.

Bianca Belair to SmackDown! was a wise choice. She has room to grow there and establish herself among the few women that's already on that brand. A match between her and Sasha Banks is money and I wouldn't be surprised if we see that before the year is even done with. Carmella just came back, so that's a no-brainer that she was sticking around. I think the Riott Squad could do well on that brand away from RAW too. Billie Kay being on the blue brand away from Peyton Royce gives them both chances to establish themselves away from being tied to the hip in the IIconics gimmick that I never was too much of a fan with, save for a few backstage moments on NXT. Tamina on SmackDown! is a no-brainer too, given the emphasis on the Samoan Dynasty/lineage surrounding Roman Reigns' family tree right now. I doubt they are going to do much with Natalya but she's always a solid veteran worker to keep matches going like a well-oiled machine that is an asset to any women's division that she's a part of. If it were up to me, I would round out that roster with the addition of Mickie James once she's recovered from her current injury. 

On the other end of the spectrum, I think it's rather interesting that they separated Naomi from the other Usos - namely her husband, Jimmy Uso (who's still currently injured). I'm guessing that they are going to move the Usos to RAW once their current feud with Roman Reigns wraps up. If not, I doubt it's going to hurt Naomi to be on her own as she never was too tied to the hip with them on WWE programming anyway outside of a few minor feuds. MVP was teasing on Twitter that he was considering extending an invitation to have her be a part of the Hurt Business. I don't think that would be a bad idea as it would breathe new life into Naomi's character as I think she's ran the course with her "Feel the Glow" gimmick for the last few years. 

The biggest missed opportunity in this draft was the fact that they didn't have a single NXT call-up nor sent anyone back down to NXT to help pad that roster. It's looking like NXT had that great push/elevation into the build to Survivor Series last year, only to win and absolutely nothing of merit to come out of that victory over both brands. I was almost positive that Johnny Gargano and Candice LeRae were SmackDown! bound and Rhea Ripley would be heading to Monday Night RAW, but given the returns of Toni Storm and Ember Moon at NXT TakeOver a week ago, I'm not complaining about holding off Rhea's call-up for a few more months. 

All in all, I can't say that I'm overly enthusiastic about the state of both RAW and SmackDown! following these moves with the 2020 WWE Draft. I already don't watch the weekly episodic programming for RAW and SmackDown! to begin with and I seriously doubt that these roster changes will make me invest any time in watching them in the near future outside of highlights or clips of interest that float by on social media and/or YouTube.