That Time They Did Transformers Better Than Michael Bay (Transformers: Devastation)

The moment you see Optimus Prime and Bumblebee do an air combo like in a Marvel Vs. game, you know you’re on to something special with this supposed-turgid license game. It’s literally Bayonetta with G1 Transformers, but most 80s toy and cartoon fans didn’t care; it’s like a lost episode of a Saturday Morning cartoon made playable.

That Dark Time When They Couldn’t Nail Any Other Animated License Games….
(Legend of Korra, TMNT: Mutants In Manhattan)

Even the best companies have their slumps. For Square Enix, it was Final Fantasy X-2 and the Final Fantasy XIII saga. For Capcom, it was the period when Keiji Inafune was leading the company to a Western direction. For Platinum Games, it was when they were biting off more than they could chew.

There were signs of this in 2014 when they took on Nickelodeon’s Avatar: The Legend of Korra and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The former was an action game with not much flair and interesting bits going for it, while the latter was a multi-character mess. It was reported that these projects were rushed and weren’t planned properly given their less-than-ideal development time.

…And Also Kinda Effed Up Star Fox (Star Fox Zero, Star Fox Guard)

So what happens when Nintendo decides to remake a Star Fox game with almost the same levels and structure, make its motion controls mandatory, and also make it exclusive on the company’s worst-selling console at the time? You get a huge dose of fail that the company is a part of.

Yep, 2016 wasn’t a grand time for PlatinumGames.

…And Not Porting The Wonderful 101 Outside Of The Wii U

Any moment now. Please find some way to make this game available on other platforms; the flash mob sentai real-time strategy-lite action gaming goodness here from director Hideki Kamiya needs to be experienced by all.

…And Also Got Their Dragon Game Cancelled (Scalebound)

The story here is that PlatinumGames couldn’t get the open-world action game to an acceptable state, to the point where Microsoft had no choice but to pull the plug. This was the rare case where both companies miscommunicated and failed to meet expectations for a potentially cool idea about dragons and Devil May Cry-like action.

…And Not Keeping Hideki Kamiya In Check

As funny and as talented a designer Hideki Kamiya is, he’s the ultimate troll and instigator when it comes to online interactions on Twitter.

Really fed up with insects which never read my posts and just keep posting . THAT’S WHY I’m telling you not to post me in languages other than Japanese. If you break this rule, that means you are brainless insect and will be blocked immediately. BE CAREFUL.

— ???? Hideki Kamiya (@PG_kamiya) July 10, 2018

Also, he got chewed out for saying the “g” word for white people. Which is a less-severe-but-still-derogatory version of the “n” word for African-Americans.

That One Time You Got Emotional Over A Bunch of Robots (Nier: Automata)

Square Enix made the best decision to get PlatinumGames to fix and rework the action bits of its Nier sequel. The result? GOTY material for 2017.

The game is so legendary with its presence, narrative, and action bits, that (i) game director and designer Taura Takahisa took that same structure and amped it up in his directorial debut Astral Chain,

…and (ii); we get oodles of 2B cosplay from awesome female cosplayers. #cucimata indeed….

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