Fully Charged: Insomniac reveals new game, and Netflix making Stretch Armstrong show

Insomniac reveals new game

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As teased earlier this week, Ratchet & Clank creator Insomniac Games revealed its new project yesterday – and the thought of it looking like a side-scrolling Rayman game wasn’t too far off. It’s called Song of the Deep, and the gorgeous 2D game stars a young girl named Merryn who’s off in search of her lost fisherman father.

It’s actually more of a Metroid-like affair, where you’ll explore a lot of terrain and find upgrades and items that let you access certain areas. Also, it seems like you’ll spend much of the time in your submarine, although the trailer does show Merryn swimming in tight spaces as well.

Song of the Deep is due out this summer for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC at a price of just US$15, but it’ll be both a digital and physical release – and interestingly, it’s the first game published by retailer GameStop. They’ll have the exclusive on hard copies, naturally, but the digital version will be available through the usual online storefronts.

[Source: Insomniac Games]

Netflix making Stretch Armstrong show

Netflix is the home of critically acclaimed exclusives like House of Cards, Marvel’s Jessica Jones, and Orange is the New Black. And come next year, it will also be the home of… an animated series based on the Stretch Armstrong toy from the 1970s. Wait, what? It’s true: a 26-episode run was commissioned for sometime in 2017.

The series is about a teenager named Jake Armstrong, and when he and two mates are blasted with an experimental chemical, they become Stretch Armstrong and the Flex Fighters. Would you believe that Hasbro tried to make a Stretch Armstrong film a couple years ago and multiple studios pulled out of the project? But Netflix is game for something, apparently.

At least House of Cards is already confirmed for a fifth season before season four premieres in March, although creator and showrunner Beau Willimon is departing the show. Maybe he’ll go work on Stretch Armstrong instead? Nah, probably not.

[Source: Variety]

Cardboard reaches 5 million viewers

If you need any reassurance that Google’s Cardboard VR platform isn’t a fad, here are some heavy numbers: Google says that more than five million viewers have shipped in the past 19 months. It’s not entirely clear if that’s just the number sold and given away or if it also included download numbers for the DIY version, but in any case, that’s a lot of phone-based VR going around.

And the apps are really taking off, with more than 25 million VR app installs to date, including more than 10 million in the last couple of months. Google is reportedly working on something a little more advanced in the VR hardware realm, but at least its entry-level option is finding interest for now.

[Source: Google]

No, Peter Molyneux isn’t done

Lastly, you might’ve seen social media all abuzz yesterday with news that legendary game designer Peter Molyneux (Populous, Fable) was suddenly retiring and closing down his last game, the crowdfunded Godus. That’s because he tweeted as much – or so we all thought.

Shortly thereafter, he tweeted that his account was hacked and he wasn’t retiring or shutting down the Godus servers. At least he made a joke about it: "You can tell cos they know how to spell." Let’s weep for the dozens of half-written thinkpieces and retrospectives thrown in the trash once Molyneux set the record straight.

[Source: Twitter]