Today I want to talk about the Germans.
Alex rather brilliantly found an episode of German Desert Forges on Youtube, it’s well worth a watch, here’s Part 1, the rest are up there (Jasmin @ Desert Forges Teil x):
Well, fair enough. The rules are modified a little bit (it looks like there’s a seperate dagger for each event, and it looks like the role of chaser and chased swaps each time rather than the winner of the previous event taking the chased role. And time limits are set by the first team to play) and the games are slightly different. Good.
But I’m slightly baffled by the presentation. Germans often have a habit of doing things their own way, sometimes this is successful (their original 1990 Fort Boyard has barely anything in common presentation wise with any other version but is still very good), here I’m not quite so sure. It’s certainly different, but in a way that seems to neuter the mood of adventure and setting. It picks elements of the presentation of the original format, but in a way that seems rather jarring when they show up.
ProSieben did the same thing when they remade Fort Boyard in 2000, the presentation choices are certainly rather curious. For most part any characters are sidelined, Sonya Kraus sets general knowledge questions up the tower, the theme is by Rednex. It’s certainly worth a watch, but again when it uses the traditional elements it feels rather jarring.
In other news, Splatalot isn’t the only Total Wipeout… for kids! on the way, Kieran Jupe has discovered that they’re actually making Total Wipeout… for kids! on the proper course as well. I certainly look forward to Richard Hammond’s commentary.
Not just Kids Total Wipeout (minus sucker punch, annoyingly), but Challenge Anneka and CelebAir are coming back as well!!! 😀
Gut instinct says that kids Total Wipeout story is Total Bullshit. Can you really see the BBC letting 12 year olds have a go, plus they’d hardly ditch the Sucker Punch but let them do the Sweeper.
It’s watered down enough as it is – the BBC’s idea of Wipeout for Kids would probably be them running alongside the pool.
Here’s Run for Money, finally:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEe_bTGcL2g
Just going to watch, so no idea what happens yet…
Awesome, will watch tomorrow if its still up.
also, have been sent a review of Perfection, will stick that up tomorrow.
It’s still up at the moment!
This one’s themed around old Japanese folk law/fairy tails.
Here’s a quick rundown of the missions if anyone wants it:
The players have the option to retire from the game at anytime. To do this they have to copy a message, in the style of an old script, and then take it to the old man at the top of the hill. Give him this, stating that you want to retire, and you can stop there and win the money that has built up to that point.
Mission 1: There are three Hunter Boxes. The Hunters will be released when the timer reaches 70 minutes. To stop this happening, the players have to collect a bit of wood from the woodsman and put into on the front of a Hunter Box to stop it opening.
Mission 2: Urashima Taro has a magical box. If they can find him and open the box before the timer hits 50 minutes, then the village will be sent 10 minutes into the future – instantly cutting ten minutes off the game and bumping up the prize money (as if the counter had been running for another 10 minutes).
Mission 3: The princess’ magical-shaker-mallet-thingy has been stolen, and hidden somewhere in the centre of the village. If someone can find it, and take it back to the princess, they can choose two previously captured people to release from prison.
Mission 4: An army of monsters are coming. They’re making their way to a building, which also happens to house 10 Hunters. They’ll reach the building, letting out the Hunters, at the 10-minute mark, unless they’re stopped. The only person that can stop them is Momotaro; but, he needs help from the dog, monkey and pheasant. They will only help him though, if they get fed dumplings. The trouble is, Momotaro has already eaten all of his. So, the players are going to have to get hold of some more dumplings, and give them to Momotaro in order to stop the extra 10 Hunters being released.
MISSION RELATED SPOILER-ISH: Luckily, because the woodsman’s axe was found earlier, he can hold off the monsters for an extra 4 minutes, giving the players until the 6 minute mark to complete the mission.
Also, the ending… Very clever!!
I completly agree with you. And a very good Tactical move by someone else near the end.
Yes, the ending was very funny!
Also, that final shot suggests the next one is in October, no?
no i belive they are the dates of dvd realese
I love this show! I’m only annoyed it’s taken me so long to check it out.
The ending… *spoiler*
He deserved it, truly. He’d been outstanding all game (the way he won the first mission was great), and was brilliantly quick. And yes, his tactic at the very end was quite clever! The only thing is I think he would have been better served in the dying seconds when he had the hunter trapped between the structure and the wall to run off up the path – those few seconds it would have taken the hunter to move around the structure to chase would have given him a boost that with his speed (assuming he wasn’t just dead tired by then) he would have been able to hold off. Still, he made it work, so I can hardly fault him!
And indeed, the girl’s strategy was very good as well.
The girl who bought out just as a hunter was running towards her? Yes, that was quite exciting, although earning practically the full prize doesn’t sit quite right with me I don’t think.
A million yen is only about £5k. When I’m rich and producing Run For Money Around Alton Towers I think I would make the base prizes £100 a minute (for buying-out) but £20k for outlasting the clock, allowing anyone who makes money to come back next time. You have to incentivise going the distance, surely?
And for the inveitable Nottingham University version, I shall do this, but divide the money by 100.
I didn’t so much mind her being able to buy out that way, but I like your money idea. And the returning players bit as well; they get to keep playing until they’re caught!
One thing I wonder about is stipulations regarding where and how players can hide. It seems obvious players are barred from, for instance, climbing on buildings – I wonder if it might make a more interesting game if there was more creativity involved in hiding, as opposed to having clear paths. Although in a broader sense, how much do you (general you, though since you, Brig, brought up wanting to make your own version in an ideal universe, I’m curious about your thoughts) do to prevent ‘campers’ (to use a gaming term)? Those two girls spent quite a long time in one spot behind the buildings, especially the one in pink; whilst it was happening I considered how easy it could be for two players to find a spot where there are only two directions from which hunters could spot them, each at such a distance that they’d have a good head start in running away when they spot him, and just have each player act as lookout for each direction. Cover each others’ backs, so to speak.
Obviously the missions are designed to provoke movement around the game area, but there still seems a bit of a risk of someone finding the perfect spot and breaking the game.
The returning players would be a bit UK specific to build an air about the show, the Japanese version basically has the same set of celebrities playing each time as that’s how they do things in Japan.
The Japanese show also tends to use the same four or five locations (the previous run was also set in Old Tokyo (is it?)), in very early editions, it wasn’t beyond the intelligence of some contestants to hide in one of the houses for the entirety of the duration. In the previous run you could do that up to a point, before a mobile edict banned everyone from doing it.
As for camping? Don’t know really – you’re right in that the missions are meant to encourage people into the open, but other than working out where likely camping spots are and instructing hunters to go and patrol them occasionally, I’m not sure.
I quite like some of the missions from mid-period episodes, where the runners would have to meet up and deactivate each other’s equipment, otherwise it would start lighting up and making noise alerting everyone to their presence… perhaps a mission like that towards the end of the run, rather than at the beginning when they tend to happen?
Incidentally, if you look up Run For Money under its Japanese title, you may find entire episodes on other video sharing sites.
Let’s see if this works: 逃走中
I reckon a way to sort that out would possibly be some kind of Battle Royale-esque splitting the map up into small areas, and limiting the player to remaining in one area for 3 minutes max. Overstaying could let out an alarm on the player attracting hunters to them or something. Obviously give them some kind of warning when they’re about to overstay. And in important areas for a mission or something, remove the restrictions? Dunno, I don’t think there are many missions they’ve done which require someone to be in a small area for 3 minutes.
Question for Wipeout viewers… Why is it that people (here, anyway) seem to hate the Overdrive but not the Double Cross? Aren’t they essentially the same thing but with two quarter-circles added?
I think (for me) there’s a feeling of too much going on, not much of it seemingly very relevant, and apparently too difficult for most contestants to do without the producers slowing it down to its slowest speed.
Exactly – they over complicated it which made it too difficult to be played at speed. I think if they didn’t have the “don’t let the sweeper bar pass over your head” rule it probably would be fine.
Note though in the latest episode they have tried to make it a bit easier by extending the red zone (and they admit to that on Twitter), but although it was the best Overdrive so far, it’s still not a patch on the Double Cross.
And I suspect you’ll agree with me Brig but the return of the Topple Towers in Thursdays episode showing how the simplest obstacles can often be far more entertaining to watch than the mechanical obstacles.