Naughty and Nice ’23 No. 4: Anniversaries

1. Best Buy turns 40

While the chain existed earlier than 1983 under a different name, the Best Buy we know today began when it literally became Best Buy 40 years ago… and by expanding beyond stereo equipment to include VCRs and movies. And as a lot of long-tenured workers will tell you, when it’s time to go you can get shitcanned out of the blue with no appreciation for a job well done. Such is the case with movies at Best Buy now.
The store announced in October will be ending sales of physical media TV shows and Movies sometime in the first three months of 2024. And while Best Buy’s Movies and TV section isn’t as large as it used to be, it is still a significant retail and online player in the business. Best Buy’s decisions will lead to other retailers at least raising the question if not outright following suit if their disc sales don’t increase as a result of reduced competition.

2. Power Rangers turns 30

For this anniversary, Netflix produced and released a special, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Once and Always Starring OG blue ranger David Yost and OG black ranger Walter Jones. It portrays an unexpected battle with darkly unintended consequences years after the original series. And it’s hokey as all fuck. I get that Power Rangers is often a bit cornball and wacky, but they really overshot the cheapness in the special. The martial arts — which were often the highest quality aspect of even the first show — are slow and awkward, reminiscent of Captain Kirk fighting the Gorn. And while they sprang for CG to depict the Zords, they went out of their way to match the appearance, dimensions and articulations of the toys rather than the costumes. It was painful to watch, far more than the cringiest of material from the 90s.

3. Nintendo Labo turns 5

I wanted to do an Oyua “Uh, what?” joke here, only to discover Angela ninja’d me all the way back in 2018. The next best thing, I recon, would be a short-lived series of Nintendo peripherals that only seemed to exist to drive more attention to the Switch, not unlike the crazy random tech-demoish games they pumped out for the Wii (Wii Music, anyone?). Only two kits were released after the launch lineup, with the fourth and final kit in the series landing 8 days short of Labo’s first birthday. And that’s all they wrote.

1. Damage Control turns 15

They already told me there will be consequences if I don’t lead off (the Nice list) with this.
There’s probably also going to be consequences if I leave it at that, so I better get cracking.
Honestly, I couldn’t have told you we’d all still be doing this for 15 years. The blog has bridged from my quarter-life crisis to my mid-life crisis, and who knows where it will stop. The blog will continue for as long as we do, it seems. We marked the occasion what is quickly becoming our usual way to mark special occasions: with some multiplayer streaming action (incidentally, this year DC Live! turned 5). We also pulled Magnus in to host us in a game show that I soundly thrashed everyone in, which is without question the single most important thing to bring up.
(And on another side note, Marvel’s Damage Control turned 35 this year.)

2. Persona 4 turns 15

As Damage Control rose, so, too did Persona 4. And Persona 4 sure has done a lot this year. From the unexpected current-gen digital rereleases, to the preorders for Limited Run Games’ physical editions, it’s never been easier to reach out to the truth.
But it’s also a special anniversary because I marked the occasion by finally playing it and its sequels. As you may recall, I got our Twitch channel into the excitement by streaming a bit of Persona 4 Arena. It’ll be another 35 years before we hit its Golden anniversary, but you can rest assured the pun will be made.

3. The Last of Us turns 10

It’s hard to ask for a better 10th anniversary than what The Last of Us got. Its critically acclaimed TV debut in January was only the beginning. The first game’s remaster came to PCs, the second game’s perhaps too-soon remaster was announced and Universal Orlando set up a haunted house in the likeness of the game’s Pittsburgh Quarantine Zone. The original game was even honored by the World Video Game Hall of Fame, becoming the most recently released game to be inducted.

1. Disney’s 100th Anniversary

It’s been tough to remember that this year was the Disney brand’s 100th anniversary, because it almost couldn’t have been worse for them. Several of their movies tanked at the box office, and Disney Plus continues to hemorrhage money, as all streaming services have done. But the worst news came in the form of Wish, the movie made to commemorate their anniversary, which came and went with barely a whimper. It will end up as one of Disney’s worst-performing animated movies in history after its box office run, and won’t come close to making the $200+ million spent on its production and advertising. Better luck for the 101st anniversary.

2. Xenogears’ 25th Anniversary

Was it too much for me to think that Xenogears deserved more than a barely-there acknowledgement from Square Enix for the game’s 25th anniversary? Not that it ultimately matters, because it’s all we received. I was hoping for a little more than a highlight for the game and the release of several admittedly-cool model kits. It wasn’t necessary for them to announce a port or remake of the original game, though it would be very nice for them to announce an HD-2D remake that utilizes the original and still-beautiful sprites with redone backdrops and other enhancements that remakes like Star Ocean: The Second Story R received. Even a new remixed soundtrack would have been nice. Perhaps the 30th anniversary will be the big-time party.

3. Virtua Fighter’s 30th Anniversary

Virtua Fighter’s anniversary was bound to make it to this list, with Sega doing little with the brand for several years. Virtua Fighter 5: Ultimate Showdown, the fourth and final remix of the game, was only released for PlayStation 4. At least porting this version to other platforms would have been nice. The only VF anniversary gift came in the form of Virtua Fighter 3tb Online, announced and released in Japanese arcades. But not all hope is lost. Now that Sega is in the process of revisiting their older franchises as part of a “Power Surge,” this franchise could be one of them eventually. No, it should be one of them.

4. Mega Man X’s 30th Anniversary

The online cries for a new Mega Man game were loud until Mega Man 11 released, considering Mighty No. 9 didn’t satiate any desire for a new installment. But they’ve been even louder for Mega Man X, the “edgier” and “cooler” cousin of the Mega Man series. It’s been nearly two decades since Mega Man X8 released for PlayStation 2, a game that left the fanbase still wanting more and didn’t wrap up all the franchise’s dangling plot threads. It’s long past time for a new installment, though the chances of Capcom embarking on one are as low as they’ve ever been considering how busy they are with the developments of other titles. If they are working on one besides an offline version of Mega Man X DiVE, this would have been the year to announce it.

1. Dead Space’s 15th Anniversary

The Dead Space series rose to prominence during the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 generation, and fell from grace almost as quickly within that same generational timeframe. Dead Space 3 was an unfortunate misfire, the kind of title where the developers or (more likely) the publisher misunderstood what the fanbase wanted from the series. After spending time in darkness (I’m trying not to reuse an old joke I made here), the franchise made a return this year with a remake of the first game that originally released back in 2008, with EA Motive taking the reins after original developer Visceral Games was shuttered in 2017. The positive reception to it suggests that the franchise could be fully back in action, though whether a sequel or remake of the second game is greenlit will depend on whether EA was satisfied with its sales.

2. Baldur’s Gate’s 25th Anniversary

It couldn’t be more fitting that the classic Baldur’s Gate western RPG series received a sequel this year. The first brand-new installment in the franchise in a whopping 23 years arrived this year with Baldur’s Gate 3, this time from Larian Studios instead of BioWare. But that didn’t matter considering the superlative results, with the game receiving several Game of the Year awards. It’s a fitting anniversary gift, with a game that’s possibly (and ironically) outsold the last two games from the current BioWare — especially Anthem. Maybe BioWare should take the hint and make more games like this, but that’s ultimately EA’s call.

3. Star Ocean: The Second Story’s 25th Anniversary

Star Ocean: The Second Story was the only numbered installment missing from all current platforms, at least in most countries. A port of the Star Ocean: Second Evolution version was released for the old PlayStation family of platforms years ago, but its quality was deemed too unsatisfactory for a localization outside Japan. Square Enix wanted to give the rerelease of an installment frequently referred to as the best in the franchise larger treatment, and provided one on par with the HD-2D titles in the form of Star Ocean: The Second Story R. Time will tell if this will mark another possible future path for the franchise.

4. Cowboy Bebop’s 25th Anniversary

Cowboy Bebop’s anniversary was as good as it could have been this year. No one should have expected any kind of sequel or prequel announcement, as creator and director Shinichiro Watanabe doesn’t do sequels (and did announce his next project this year); and no one should want Sunrise/Bandai Namco Filmworks to do something with the series without him. This year provided new ways to purchase the series through Blu-ray collections. Though it was a shame the movie wasn’t given a full license rescue (as I’ll continue to hold my Blu-ray copy tightly), it surfaced on Tubi for a couple of months and was given a special screening with the remaining cast in Japan.

1. The Iraq War

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the Iraq War. It was an unnecessary war with justifications built on lies. Fears and tempers were high from the 9/11 attacks, and the Bush Administration capitalized on the disaster. They continually argued there was a link between Saddam Hussein, al-Qaeda, and “weapons of mass destruction.” After garnering bi-partisan support at home, the United States with aid from Great Britain, Australia, Poland, and Denmark invaded Iraq on March 20, 2003. The supposed weapons of mass destruction were never found. Worse, al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups only appeared in Iraq after the collapse of the ruling Ba’athist regime. Waves of sectarian violence would last for years. It also became obvious how mishandled the Iraq War had become by the US military with numerous scandals emerging. The war eventually came to a close in 2011, but only after the deaths of over 150,000 Iraqis, over 4500 American soldiers, and countless more people injured.

2. Xenosaga

Xenosaga Episode I: Der Wille Zur Macht was released in North America on February 25, 2003. The series was the brainchild of Tetsuya Takahashi and his wife, Soraya Saga. They had previously worked at Squaresoft and headed development on Xenogears. Shortly after that game, they parted with Square because of creative differences. Takahashi teamed up with Hirohide Sugiura, and they founded Monolith Soft. Xenosaga Episode 1 is an expansion of the epic story and world that had started with Xenogears. The game was published by Namco, and saw success having sold over a million copies worldwide by July 2003. Xenosaga was popular enough that it received two more sequels, DS ports of the first two games, and an anime titled Xenosaga: The Animation (which was not good). Unfortunately, the series died in 2006 with the final installment, Xenosaga Episode III: Also sprach Zarathustra. To this day the series hasn’t even received HD remasters, though Bandai Namco had considered it at one point.
Monolith Soft has since become a first-party developer for Nintendo, and has gone on to create the Xenoblade Chronicles franchise.

3. Bitcoin

In 2008 the domain Bitcoin.org was registered. Additionally, a white paper authored by the mysterious Satoshi Nakamoto (a pseudonym) was released. The paper detailed the blockchain technology (aka a digital transaction ledger) that would power cryptocurrency. Bitcoin was the first of many cryptocurrencies. Its creator and supporters claimed its decentralized nature would make it so that people wouldn’t need banks, and could make easy person-to-person transfers. The creators of Bitcoin also promised it would change finance much like the internet changed the world. Instead, Bitcoin like other cryptocurrencies, mostly became an engine for financial investment. It turns out transactions were much slower than in traditional finance, and the idea of buying anything with Bitcoin seemed like a huge waste of money when one could speculate. Also, Bitcoin is volatile compared to traditional currencies. Worse yet, mining for it uses a lot of electricity. In the end, Bitcoin ended up making a few people very wealthy, but has had numerous boom and bust cycles. It eventually paved the way for dumb ideas like NFTs.

1. PlayStation 4

The PlayStation 4 was released in North America on December 15, 2013. It represented a complete departure from the arrogance that had marked Sony during the launch of the PS3 in 2006. First, Sony was able to capitalize on Microsoft’s many mistakes with the Xbox One, including a complicated game sharing program that was eventually scrapped. Sony won the day by showing how easy it was to share PS4 games, and even undercut the Xbox One by $100 at launch. The console had numerous features that made it easy for anyone to capture and share video or screenshots without needing a capture card. Captured video and screenshots could be easily shared online, while it was possible to livestream to Twitch or YouTube directly from the console itself. Speaking of online, PSN was greatly improved over what had been available on the PS3. The PS4 also supported VR gaming in the form of PSVR. Sony’s fourth console would go on to be one of its best-selling systems, having moved over 117 million units as of this writing. The PS3 soured a lot of gamers on Sony, and the PS4 managed to fully reverse that trend.

2. Wolf’s Rain

When I was writing my Listed! By the Numbers column on Sunday, I remembered Wolf’s Rain released 20 years ago. It was an anime that featured some of the same staff that worked on Cowboy Bebop, though it was handled by a different animation studio. The series director (Tensai Okamura) and scriptwriter (Keiko Nobumoto) both had a hand in Cowboy Bebop and would go onto other notable productions after Wolf’s Rain in some capacity. Such series included Samurai Champloo, Space Dandy, and Carole & Tuesday. The show also featured music from legendary composer, Yoko Kanno. The story and overall series concept remains unique, and the show itself is an underrated gem. I’m actually surprised we didn’t see any copycat shows in a similar vein. Then again, I suppose the concept of wolves disguising themselves as humans to find paradise in a dying world isn’t very easy to replicate.

3. Damage Control Blog

We have an anniversary of our own! This year Damage Control Blog turned 15. While it wasn’t as big of a celebration as our 10th anniversary, we at least tried to celebrate with special livestreams. When I started this blog in 2008, I really didn’t know if it would be around in a decade, much less a decade and a half. As I stated in my 2018 retrospective, the blog was originally conceived as a way for us to continue writing after Geoff and I graduated from college. Since then, we’ve had Drew, Joseph and Alex come onboard as writers, and we just kept going. Our biggest changes include switching from being powered by Movable Type to WordPress, obtaining our own full domain, becoming full-fledged Twitch streamers (at the affiliate level), and a logo change this year. Here’s to many more years of fun at Damage Control Blog.