Hasbro’s Rangers

Recently Hasbro, the same you company who is in charge of G.I. Joe and Transformers, announced that they have acquired Saban’s Power Rangers and other entertainment related assets. This was almost to be expected, considering Saban cut ties with Bandai a while back, Saban then announced extended broadcast partnership with Nickelodeon with a new season called Beast Morphers, then Hasbro being announced the master toy licensee for Saban’s IPs. The progression of things have been extremely steady, and nobody should be surprised. Hasbro probably will handle the IP better than Disney did, which Saban bought back some time ago.

Why did Hasbro purchase the Power Rangers? I wouldn’t really have a proper answer, I don’t exactly follow what’s going on in the toy industry. However, knowing Hasbro’s history, it’s easy to see them wanting something special from Power Rangers, that they have a niche to fulfill and this IP fits them. They have the more standard boy’s military toys covered with G.I. Joe, Transformers for shape shifting robot toys, Star Wars license for Star Wars… which might actually be the thing they want to cover. Star Wars toys supposedly were shelf warmers with the The Last Jedi, and the SW toys were partially responsible in killing Toys R Us, at least according to Bobby.

If we take this stance, Power Rangers would fit this slot rather nicely. It would allow relatively healthy amount of characters toys to be manufactured alongside different vehicles and role play toys. Hasbro wouldn’t need to pay hefty license payments to anyone, as they’d own the rights. Well, to a certain point. As a reader of this blog, you’re probably aware that Power Rangers is made from the footage of Japanese Super Sentai franchise. The out-of-suit scenes are filmed for the show, while most of the action footage is lifted from the Japanese original. However, with time both Hasbro and Disney increased the amount of original footage they filmed as well as have Toei shoot some footage for the American use only. As such, Hasbro would probably have to pay something for the likeness of the characters to Toei and Bandai at least. That is, unless after Beast Morphers Hasbro decides to go their own way, stop using Super Sentai footage and create completely original content.

Considering how television and streaming services are starting to be full of decent looking special effects live action shows, especially from Marvel and DC, it wouldn’t completely unimaginable for Hasbro to partner with Nick or some other company to produce Hasbro-original Power Rangers to cut license costs altogether. This purchase probably killed all chances for the recent Power Rangers movie to get a sequel, but Hasbro could always have a new one and belong in their shared universe with M.A.S.K., Transformers, G.I. Joe and Inhumanoids. Well possible shared movie universe as well, we’ll have to sit back and see what comes of it, if any.

If Hasbro wants to bring Power Rangers back to its glory days, they have lots of work ahead of them. When the series hit the scene in 1993, it was a massive success, a cultural phenomena and a multimedia behemoth. You could see its influence every which way and sort of brought martial arts back to popularity like it was the 70’s again. You saw its influence on the Old Continent as well, where it took root in certain places. South America already had Super Sentai on their television, so the impact was less impressive, if there was even any. I don’t know about Australia, but I’ve heard that it was moderately popular at least.

But times change, and Power Rangers settled into its role after first few seasons and kept going. We never got to see past the third season, but looking at what the Alien Rangers were, I don’t mind missing any of that. In few ways, Power Rangers is a mainstay in American television and few generations have already grown into adulthood with it.

It would be impossible for Hasbro to capture the thunder in a bottle again, mostly because how saturated the current entertainment media are of super powered heroes and their stories. Power Rangers does have a niche fulfilled there, being aimed at a younger audience overall and the emphasize at martial arts, something that’s been slowly being toned down like no other thanks to Japanese soccer moms wanting Super Sentai and Kamen Rider to be less violent. Hell, Kamen Rider Ghost toned its violence down to the point of the main character fighting enemies by eerily floating around them, but this was deemed to scary for the kids by their mothers and it got changed back to good ol’ punchan and kickan. There would need to be a proper paradigm shift in the franchise in order to lift it from the place it has sunken into.

Whatever the end aim is, money and toys are involved. Hasbro is, after all, a toy company and whatever they do aims to sell toys. If we get good stories out of the deal, like Beast Wars, that’s good. Considering Bandai’s toys with the Super Sentai have been less than stellar for number of years now, with Doubutsu Sentai Zyuogher having immobile cubes as the robot. They’ve become completely gimmick driven. Some of the suit designs have seen drop in overall quality as well in terms of used materials compared to other contemporary shows. It doesn’t help that giant robots is old men’s stuff in Japan, not something that would sell all that well.

Power Rangers has always had a need to produce Western toys anyway, as it is relatively uncommon for Japanese toylines to contain bad guys. This is the opposite to American model, where both sides of the story gets toys. The best examples of this would be Masters of the Universe, G.I. Joe, Transformers and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles toylines. MOTU at a point had almost 1:1 ratio between the heros and villains. All this is because of Star Wars, in that kids weren’t just buying toys for the sake of toys, but because the toys were representing the characters. Hasbro has a history of being able do multi-media franchises, as long as they don’t forget that kids and fans are in for the characters, and Power Rangers certainly has characters consumers can connect with.

Well, if nothing else comes from this, I bet your ass that we’ll see Power Rangers/ Transformers crossover toys with the Dinobots at some point.

Escalation of moral maturity from game to game

One aspect that’s been part of boys’ play culture for as long as we can go back in written history with records of children’s play is the moral play between good and evil. One of the modern classics that display an everyday battle between these two extremes would be Cops versus Robbers. As we grow up, the stark contrast between good and evil usually begins to dim to the point where we can accept that good and evil are subjective, at least on philosophical level. The contest between the perceived sides still persist into our adulthood, more often than not shaded to the point of the perceived evil being more justified than the opposing side.

The traditional pen and paper role playing games stem from the myths of antique and the knight plays. I don’t think there’s one child in the world who has no played a role of a knight in some play. The knight I’m referring here is more akin the idea of local protector, hence why black knights are the opposing, equal power. Perhaps an allegory for the fallen angel of sorts on some level. Nevertheless, the early computer RPGs were largely digitised forms of Dungeons & Dragons games these people used to have, with Ultima being an example of such. If you look in late 80’s and 1990’s Japanese fantasy light novels and series branched from them, like Slayers, they’re largely based on the author’s own D&D games. With the D&D crowd, at some point they stopped playing knights outside in the nature, and moved indoors. Of course, Live action role playing, or LARPing has become somewhat popular, and is effectively just people playing like kids with far more serious intent and costlier props.

The aforementioned paragraph may sound rather negative, though it’s more an argument of natural change. Whether or not theatrical plays predated children play acting is unknown, but the two have a linear connection between maturity and playing. Play acting became a profession, something done so good that it could be made money with. The adult life is strongly reflected in children’s plays, as playing is often the best form of education and learning for the future. Kids trading stones and sticks on the playfield essentially prepares for commerce. Pokémon TCG was largely panned by parents in its initial release years, but one thing they learned about it was how it taught children the value of goods and trading. Modern world simply allows certain aspects of immature play to be present more than with previous generations. The concept of something being childish and for children only has seen a silent paradigm shift.

Perhaps the example of this is electronic games. While computer games were seen somewhat more mature compared to console and arcade games in the 1970’s and 80’s, they’ve been accepted as a media for all ages since the late 1990’s, with some grudges here and there. It’s still not all that uncommon to see some parents from previous generations to describe game consoles and computers as toys, which often yields a rather negative response due to associated immature mental image it carries with it. While understandable, toys are means to play. Describing a game machine a toy in this sense isn’t wholly inaccurate, as all it exists for is to play.

However, electronic games and machines they run on prevent any creative forms of plays. They offer a statistic, controlled and extremely limited form of play, which is more akin to adult overseeing a children’s play. This is currently a technological issue, as we’ve yet to see completely dynamic world that allows the player to enact whatever possible they want. One can’t build a hut and live in there for the rest of the character’s natural life in a Final Fantasy game, because the game is not prepared for that. It’s limited to the story the game wants to tell. Playing often requires the player to follow the rules, after all. Not all toys allow all forms of play either, after all. While calling video and computer games as toys might sting your ear, the association with play is completely natural and such naming shouldn’t be deflected from the get go. After all, we have adult’s toys as well, which children shouldn’t have access to before they are mentally and physically mature enough.

The same applies to video games. Grand Theft Auto and Skyrim are both games we constantly see people of all ages playing, despite the age recommendations being there. Being a direct descendant of Cops VS Robbers and knight plays, both game simply take the basic core and expand on it. GTA may have you play as the Robber, but the moral hues you’re given are numerous. The same applies to Skyrim, where the player character is a figurative knight on his route to slay a dragon. The means and toys have just changed from a stick representing the baton or sword to a plastic controller and readily set digital world.

The question how much industrially prepared playing via toys has affected modern world’s play culture as a whole is a topic I’m not ready to touch on. However, some examples how things simply change drastically with a toy would be Barbie. The toy is not a doll for girls who play with it, it’s a Barbie. Singling out a toy like this outside all others has grown to the point of almost all toys have been made their own rather than for overall playing in general. Perhaps the largest reason for this change is the successful franchising, where the association with a toy and a character is made so much stronger. A child is not just buying a transforming robot toy, he’s buying Optimus Prime and all the mental images associated with the character.

While the contest between moral sides in boys’ games has escalated since the 1950’s, similar escalation has been lacing in electronic games. This is due to all the aforementioned; electronic games are just part of it. The age-old discussion about boys’ and girls’ games is valid, and while I’d argue that a well made game does cater to both sexes, the truth is that one has more interest towards certain kinds of games over the other. That is the nature of things. However, nothing exists in a vacuum, and games experience as much mixing of these two play cultures as real life does. The Sims is still the best example of girls’ play culture being completely accepted by both sexes (the game’s essentially playing Home), as is Super Mario. Super Mario just happens to be perceived more immature due to the design choices and lack moral greys over something like Halo, which is perceived a a “big boys game.”

This is a point, as not all games, electronic or not, are for all ages. It is up to the parents to decide whether or not Little Jimmy is ready to handle mature concepts like interrupted penetration, self-mutilation in the name of love, the absurdity of how pointless life is or the sheer sexual tension between a man and a machine. Something truly is for “big boys.” The core play doesn’t change with maturity, but the concepts and themes that frame the act do.

They’re bringing the red cat ghost franchise here too

Youkai Watch has been stirring Japan for some time now, and I’ve been trying to keep my big yapper shut about it, but screw it. Jibanyan has been able to beat Pikachu in many fields for now, and the question is whether or not Game Freaks will tackle this challenger head on, or will they allow Pokémon franchise to grow old. The thing is, Pokémon was a great children’s franchise. Not so much anymore, where it’s a franchise modern parents remember from their childhood, or still follow strongly. The games have essentially stayed the same and the cartoon has more or less stagnated in many ways for some time already. Fans will of course argue that Natures and other little things have changed the game, but those barely make an impact to the now true and tested catch, train, get four attack slots and six monsters.

I’ll be frank; if Pokémon will not reinvent itself as a franchise this decade, it’ll end up in a sad state.

As I mentioned, Youkai watch has been successful in Japan. Immensely so. Youkai Watch 2 surpassed five million copies sold in Japan. Jibanyan has even replaced Pikachu’s central throne in the Next Generation World Hobby Fair. It’s safe to say that Youkai Watch has gained a strong position as one of the new main children’s franchises in Japan. A franchise that has not changed with the times in almost twenty years nor has reinvented itself at any point will have a hard time to stand against something new. New is not necessarily better, but when new challenges the old this hard (and topping it), the old is doing something wrong.

With Youkai Watch slated for Western release, the question that everybody asks if it can challenge Pokémon outside their native soil. After all, both of them have some Japanese culture in them, Youkai Watch is the one hard-rooted to the culture from the get go. In order for West to accept Youkai Watch in the same way Pokémon was, the localisation work needs to be spot on.

The otaku culture in West hates dubs, generally speaking. I’m not sure whether or not this is due to the stupidly purist nature at large, or because people simply regard Japanese better for their ears. Sure, there are differences in the quality of the dubbing, yet the arguments are from universal.

Dubbing is not destroying the original product or anything similar. Dubbing is expensive, costing about $10 000 per episode for a Saturday morning cartoon. Dubbing a movie can be even more expensive, and with each failed take the time ticks, spending more money. As such, dubbing historically has been done to series and movies that have been regarded high quality enough to get such treatment. Dubbing was and is still done to show respect towards the body of work, not the opposite. Dubbing also ensures that the largest possible audience will have an easy access to the product. While reading the subtitles has been in the local culture for a long time, this does not apply to other cultures.

The original Godzilla movie is an example where localisation did not only dub the product, but went their way to give it an extra localisation in form of Raymond Burr’s inclusion. This allowed wider spreading of the movie, but also lowered the bar for people to see the movie. The localised Godzilla movie is not a lesser product in any sense from the original Japanese production, but it is different enough to say that it is its own entity and a worthwhile entry. Unlike with some later dubs, it had both proper budget and approach to make justice to the film. Later in the line with Godzilla movies, budgets were cut and quality became a lesser concern. It wasn’t until later that purists and extreme fans began to regard the localised Godzilla as a lesser product, a thing that nobody though at the time, not even Toho. History has been rewritten by fans in this regard, and it is only rather recently that even the fandom has began to accept the localised version with the high regard it deserves.

Youkai Watch will be a show I will follow relatively closely in the beginning, because it requires similar approach as with the original Godzilla. The franchise is getting ready to be pushed by all fronts; Nintendo publishes the game, Hasbro manages the toys and Viz will push out the cartoon and comics. Whoever is/are in charge of the core translation have rather large responsibility to bring in a good translation. Not necessarily accurate to the word, but something that will go well with the Western audience. Youkai Watch is facing an uphill battle already, and doing a half-assed localisation will only yield lacklustre success.

I have peculiar history with Pokémon myself. Cyber Solider Porygon was aired in Japan on December 16th, 1997. The same day the news broke out about the epileptic seizures it caused, and I remember watching the news that day and seeing the footage. I’m not sure why this caught to my mind then, but about two years later sometime in 1999 I recall reading a magazine in a hospital about the incident and how the series would be coming to local television. Pokémon began to be pushed in the local market around the same, games actually hitting the shelves and so on. I find it weird to get interested in a series because a news piece on television stuck to my head.

After Pokémon hit the television and games became widespread, I too got swept by the mania and for a good reason. Pokémon was a big damn hit with long lasting effect, and proved to be a franchise that impacted the cultural mind. Pokémon was sort of last of its kind, a game that wasn’t a hit with the hardcore gamers and stayed in the Red Ocean. One thing that the series is being constantly criticised of is its unwillingness to change any of the core mechanics or implement all the changes from preceding games to the new ones. For example, the Generation 3 lacked the Day-Night cycle introduced in Generation 2. Then again, Game Freak’s staff is barely able to optimise Pokémon games for the 3D on the 3DS for stable framerate, a thing multiple third parties are able to do just fine.

I want to see Youkai Watch become a successful franchise in the West, to become a new Pokémon to in Pokémon’s place. Much like how I have grown too complacent with the shit I write, so has Game Freak and Nintendo become too complacent with Pokémon as a whole. I can’t fault them really, as the franchise has been able to bring in stable revenues. Digimon has been regarded as the only strong contender against the Yellow mouse machine, but even then Digimon has been mismanaged to large extend, and actually the Digimon movie is an example where the source material was not treated with respect during the localisation. I’m sure Youkai Watch was a surprise to Nintendo, even if it is a game that ensured software sales for their system. This may be a good enough reason for Game Freak and Nintendo to sit back and do their stuff and allow Youkai Watch to become the top dog, but then we can always ask if that is enough from them. Companies should want to keep their top dogs where they belong. It’s easy to do so when there’s no competition, but whenever a challenger appears, one should be willing to tackle this challenger to the fullest extent of their abilities.

In other news, Discotek Media has licensed Giant Gorg.

Niche status means premium items, it seems

erhanciseRoughly speaking, there is two sects in products that are offered to the customers; the cheaper, more common variety that everyone can afford to purchase and use, and then the highly expensive luxury products that only few and selected can afford. Video games and their merchandise should always belong to the first of the two, as they are by all means a way to entertain the masses despite what people may tell you.

That’s how it’s been with Mega Man most of the years, especially in Japan. The games were always standard price, and Inafune’s gang even decided to produce Rockman & Forte after realizing how many kids were still playing Super Famicom because of having no access to a PlayStation. The small toys, models, books and so on were not all too expensive either. On the contrary, at their time of release they were somewhat a bulk commodity that through time have become more uncommon.

The recent Mega Man merchandise that are coming up are like the Sun and the Moon.

On the other hand, CAPCOM’s pushing out pretty standard, small scale merchandise. Charms, few kinds of bracelets and tape. Next to this, Great Eastern Entertainment seems to have the license to produce few Mega Man themed phone accessories, namely Servbot iPhone 5 case, knitted Mega Man cellphone bag and a Serbot lanyard. They’re not any different from the Zero bags, wallets or Battle Network sweatbands CAPCOM offered in the past. Check Rockman Perfect Memories (the book, not the site) for some pictorial material.

There’s nothing wrong with any of these, to be honest. They’re all relatively inexpensive to produce as they reuse existing assets. The tape for example is basically just needed a certain pattern to be delivered and the company just prints the pattern. Plastics extrusion has become a sophisticated thing, and so producing these charms and bracelets is just as relatively cheap. One could call these extremely lazy, but they actually speak volumes. All these recent merchandises use Classic, X, Legends and Battle Network materials. I’ve spoken volumes for the iconic representation of Mega Man if the game series would make a return, and it seems that all these recent paraphernalia are hitting the spots even CAPCOM recognizes to make most money; Classic, X, Legends and Battle Network. We can always debate whether or not Legends really belongs to the iconic set of Mega Man, but surprisingly I would defend its position due to the status it has within the Second era of Mega Man. First era would be the late 80’s to early 90’s, second era starting from Mega Man X and ending with Third era’s Battle Network.

While these are sold via e-CAPCOM, I don’t think for a heartbeat that they would not sell on the larger market. Or they would, if Mega Man had any relevancy nowadays anymore. However, there is the other side of things a well.

Statues and collectors’ toys have always been relatively expensive in comparison to the one we argue to ‘kids.’ I’m just going to go straight in and say that the First 4 Figures Mega Man statues have been travesties in terms of sculpt and design. It doesn’t help that the X statue they have for preorder now for outrageous price of $260 looks awful in every single regard. For one, the skin colour is wrong and they managed to paint his neck with that rather than proper black. The streams that come from the legs are not properly positioned and there’s no excuses why they look like that either. X’s dull expression doesn’t help the matter either. They could have used existing promotional illustrations as references for dynamic positions, but the one they went with is unexciting and incredibly dull. Their earlier Mega Man figure faired a little bit better, but the face is just awful with that one too. X’s stand is pretty nice, and could be modded into an USB-hub. I highly hope the other three fair better than this one, but in actuality I’m already laughing at the Zero and Sigma they’re going to produce.

It all really tells two things; bringing Mega Man characters into physical three dimensions is incredibly difficult due to them designed to work only in 2D.

Both Mega Man and X are getting another treatments that fair whole lot better than the atrocities of First 4 Figures; a toy of the redesigned X from the April’s fools, and a 33cm Gigantic Series Rockman.

The Redesign X, or Rockman X Ver. Ke, will be expensive as hell. Promised stuff include things like diecast armour parts, LED in the X-Buster, changeable thrusters in the back, effects accessories and possibly then some. The thing is, the design is bad by any means but it does have all the problems of modern hi-tech sci-fi designs. I touched on this subjects when the redesign was originally revealed and I have to give it to CAPCOM for going through with this in the end.

The Gigantic Series Rockman on the other hand is gigantic. 8 424yen is no small price for a statue, even if this big, but at least it looks extremely well sculpted. It portrays the iconic Classic Mega Man the best it could. This sculpt shows how to handle Mega Man designs in physical dimensions while retaining the original look. The characters are not Gundams in terms of design on anything similar where shapes and forms are rigid. Mega Man characters, first and foremost, are cartoon characters and thus have the power to essentially warp their body shapes to the needed extent.

ThinkGeek has a full sized replica of Mega Buster, and all I can think really is Why. This sort of things should really be for kids for half the price. The Buster Replica really is as useless collectable as it gets, unless one is willing to produce a similar level of cosplay, which would fail because I know no Mega Man fan who would be 1.32m in height. I’m afraid most Mega Man fans, yours truly included, are just bunch of adult kids trying to live their childhood memories the best they can.

The three aforementioned items are premium items for sure. Well, it seems that outside the e-CAPCOM stuff all other products the fans of the series are getting are premium products, aimed at the long-time fans who are in their 30’s or over. Long gone are the halcyon days of Mega Man.

Which begs the question; when did it happen? When did video games lost their way of family entertainment and are there just to serve the 30+ years old? It’s no wonder a game franchise like Mega Man can’t thrive, when the industry is not willing to aim it to audience that made it a cultural icon for a time.

Let’s take a look at how the Gaimetal toys work with the game

So Gaist Crusher got released this week and while most importers like yours truly are waiting go get their hands on the game, we’re going to take a look at the Gaimetal gimmick and what it does with the demo.

First of all, the Gaimetal gimmick can be thought of some sort of DLC, as you need to purchase the toys in order to get the content. Then again, with Gaimetal purchase you get a transforming toy, so that’s more plus than just buying five dollar mission off PSN. The comparison isn’t all that accurate thou. However, it’s really damn neat to  know that the gimmicks works on the demo too, and this sort of use of real-world object to get something in a game is pretty good. Unlike with the Skylanders or Disney Infinity, the Gaimetals are more like toys that transform between the crystal and animal form. Skylanders and D.Infinity figures are just statues.

Flame Fenrir’s Gaimetal and the base that came with it

Backshot how the Gaimetal is held by the base, and by that extension, the 3DS attachment. The arm swivels from underneath the base and attaches it to the bottom of the Gaimetal.

Transformed Flame Fenrir standing on the base. The plastic is good quality, looks good and while the paint isn’t as accurate as one would like it to be, it’s great quality too

Anyway, the thing you get while buying a Gaimetal toy is the Gaist Gear of said toy, eg. if you buy Flame Fenrir, you get its Gear. However, these Gears seem to be stronger than the ones you can acquire in-game with different attacks. While I can’t yet say if the main characters can switch between their main Gears, it is possible through using a Gaimetal to unlock that particular character-specific Gear for another character. Next to opening the Gaist Gear in question, the Gaimetals come with a base, that has its own little thing; they contain a unlockable mission from which you can gain a new Gaist Gear. These missions also are slightly harder than what the normal missions are, at least what the demo missions were.

Now, before getting my hands on two sets, I had no clue how the camera would recognize what set was being showed to it, and in hindsight I feel stupid for not realizing that these things use simple QR Codes are shown above. If you have the access to the demo or to the game, you can actually use the Search Mode to scan both codes shown above. You also need to scan the codes once, and that’s that. The demo doesn’t save any data, but I am certain that there is no need to re-scan any of the QR Codes in the proper game, unless you start a new game.

The Gaimetals in general are good, cheap toys. The build quality is surprisingly good and can clearly withstand a beating. The transformations, while simple, are rather intuitive and they manage to cram quite a lot of phases into a palm sized gemstone. The transformation sequence and gemstone shape takes priority over the articulation of the toy, and as such some nice small details does not exist, like moving jaws on Flame Fenrir. It would have been neat, but it’s not a big deal at all. Because of the transparent plastic, the paint application also shines through to some extent, thou in Fenrir it’s less harder to see than in Lighting Dragoon.

There’s a lot of geometrical shapes to explore, and just as many to reuse

The comparison above shows that nicely how well the plaint application comes out from inside the you. Lighting Dragoon’s gold and purple shaded silver come through the deep purple plastic really well and looks nice and natural. The promo photos of other Gaimetals show the same thing, which is a bit sad when you notice how little silver Flame Fenrir’s gemstone mode shows.

For a 700yen toys, Gaimetals have a nice price-quality range. They’re affordable and highly collectable to boot. They are additional cost to the unlockables in the game, and my personal opinion on this is that I’d rather buy these extra missions and Gears in this sort of physical form than put same amount of money into a downloadable mission pack. I do believe that some Japanese fans already have a Wikia of some sorts up, where they’re listing all the possible QR Codes for people to use, which is a nice thing for the importers, but falls into the gray area where it could be called piracy of sorts. However, this also means all the players have access to all the QR Codes, promotional or not, and I do admit that thought attracts me.

The bottom line is that this is a really nicely done cross-platform franchise. While the Gaimetals are completely optional, they do allow add that something into the whole deal. If they toys had lesser quality, I wouldn’t even consider purchasing any more of these, but because they are a nifty extra for relatively cheap price, I can see Japanese parents buying these for their kids. For importers like me, the postage costs can be higher than the price of the you itself unless bundled together, and that’s a problem when we take notice how low the current customs limits are here.

The problem with all this is that Gaist Crusher may end up being just a Japanese franchise. Sure, we have seen Beyblade and other simple toy based series getting a Western adaptation, but in Gaist Crusher case the kids would have a need for the 3DS console too, which is a problem. As such, it would take a lot of money to promote both the console further than what is now with the game, then have the cartoon promoting itself, the game, toys and possible comics. It all takes a lot of money, and even thou CAPCOM isn’t in this alone, I doubt that Bandai is willing to take the risk if the game doesn’t become a success in Japan. Even if it does, it would still have to be a big success. We’ll have to see at the end of Q2 of 2014 how Gaist Crusher did to say anything else.