Tears! (& More Nerdy News) | Moviga’s The Lightning Round

TRANSCRIPT

Welcome to The Lightning Round brought to you by Moviga. My name is Austin with your weekly source for all things movies, video games, and more. Now, grab your ponchos and let’s catch up on this week’s news.

Hype of the Kingdom

• The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom has officially released to massive praise from critics and gamers alike, with a reviewer speaking very highly about the world, the mechanics, visuals, and soundtrack, mostly scoring perfect 10 out of 10s from gaming outlets. Personally, I still haven’t finished Breath of the Wild, but I haven’t seen hype like this for a game since Elden Ring came out last year, so I am excited to give this one a try.

Too Powerful to Stop?

• A number of movies and TV shows are halting production due to the writer’s strike, including Daredevil: Born Again, Severance Season 2, Stranger Things, tons of late night shows and more. But Rings of Power Season 2 is seemingly not affected by this as non writing producers and directors are apparently stepping in to help finish off the season. I remember being absolutely devastated by the WGA strikes in the past when it came to shows like Heroes, Scrubs, Battlestar Galactica and others, some of which had completely botched endings that really had fans scratching their heads and being left disappointed. History has proven that television truly cannot stand on its own without powerful and creative writing to drive great stories forward.

Something’s Blooming

• Game Freak, creators of Pokémon, are partnering with publisher Private Division, best known for games such as Olly Olly World, Kerbal Space Program 2, and the critically acclaimed Hades to create an ambitious new Samurai game, saying that they aren’t planning on releasing any new hardware until April 2024 at the earliest. The game, currently titled Project Bloom, is expected to arrive sometime in 2026 as of right now, and only one concept image has been shown so far, so we do have a while to wait for that.

Good Things on the Horizon

• And finally, Horizon Forbidden West has been selling quite well according to developer Guerrilla Games, despite releasing one week before Elden Ring, reaching 8.4 million copies sold as of May of 2023. You might remember the first installment in the Horizon franchise, Horizon Zero Dawn, releasing just four days before Bread of the Wild, which might make some think Guerrilla Games must just be the most unlucky developer when it comes to release dates. Although the sales numbers have been surprisingly impressive. Personally, big fan of those games, love to see them selling well. Hopefully, their entire series in the VR space and the upcoming sequels continue to do well for the talented developers.

It looks like the storm has passed. Be sure to check out the Moviga podcast on Spotify, Apple podcasts, or anywhere you listen to that thing where we are talking all things movies, video games, and more. I am Austin, and thanks for joining me this week for The Lightning Round.

The Lightning Round is an audio short series created by the team behind the Moviga Podcast for LTN Radio. The Lightning Round is a collection of nerdy headlines with commentary.