I tried 'Rise of Kong' so to see if it's THAT bad...

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Embark on a 3rd person action-adventure quest to avenge the death of your parents at the hands of the ultimate alpha predator: Gaw. Conquer waves of primal beasts and defeat the minions of your arch-nemesis on your way to becoming the rightful King of Skull Island. Traverse the mysterious island and uncover lore and all the secrets the island has to offer as you encounter swamps, waterfalls, jungle, and skullite-filled caves that give the island’s flora and fauna its power
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#gaming #ps5 #xbox

[@kirkshanghai]

Memes aside, I think of the weirdest decisions they made with this was making Kong so SMALL compared to the environment. It literally feels like you play just a random tiny gorilla running around a giant forest. Just weird, man.

[@smithjedediah]

yeah that was my first thought! Did they forget that Kong is supposed to be gigantic, or did they not realize they had to change the size of foliage/landmarks/whatever to make Kong seem gigantic? Weird as shit

[@kamanyiro5903]

I just thought Kong would get bigger near the end of game but HE SUPPOSED TO BE GIANT IN THIS!?!They didnt even bother to make ground slightly shake when he is walking around or even add sound effects

[@thecompanioncube4211]

Devs are artistically challenged

[@blueflare3848]

Someone said it's because this game takes place shortly after his parents were killed and he's supposed to be a baby.

[@pacmonster066]

​@@blueflare3848I mean in that case you aren't really playing a Kong game but just Angry Guerrilla Simulator. The entire appeal of Kong is he's a massive kaiju. Take that away and just a monke

[@Tezdude9]

The fact that they called the game "Monke" during development is honestly amazing.

[@izaruburs9389]

Well everyone was likely wondering, 'y'? I am sorry.

[@keiichi8191]

Between this and Gollum, I think the real question is how the hell these studios are getting the licenses for huge properties like King Kong and Lord of the Rings?

[@TacticusPrime]

King Kong is public domain, basically. Ironically, the book was written for the movie but it slipped into public domain before the film.

[@Deliveredmean42]

​@@TacticusPrimeI guess it explains how Gamemill got away with it. And seems like they got themselves another Big Riggs moment in their hands. Unfinished state and all!

[@Deliveredmean42]

Necon seems like they use all of their de money to aquire the license while GameMill got it for free since this version of Kong is Public domain. Both having disastrous results if you know the history of both Publishers.

[@rosecity_chris]

First reply probably right, but also movie studio execs are incredibly cheap and do film tie ins for no other reason that increasing profit on an IP without understanding the video game market at all.

[@ThoRCX]

The rights around King Kong are complicated. From what I heard, the name "King Kong" is copyrighted but not the idea of the character and the story. That's why this game is called Rise of Kong and not King Kong.

[@OJKarton]

Another solid entry in the gollum-like genre

[@Archangelm127]

The proper name of this genre is "shovelware."

[@batmanvsuperman_]

Captain America: The First Avenger, The Amazing Spider-Man 1, Green Lantern Holy Trinity of Movie Tie-In Video Games passable as legit games.

[@strahinjagov]

Certainly one of the video games of all time

[@TimoNaaro]

I want more of these.

[@Arnes.A20]

@@batmanvsuperman_That Lantern game is awfull. That Wolverine Origins game is fantastic and its inspired by the shitty movie

[@8bitcrook273]

It's not often that I will outright call something a "scam". But after literally just a few moments of research I don't know what else to call this. What happened here is that back in 2005 a company called DeVito Artworks re-wrote an AU version of the original 1932 novel so that they could claim copywright over that specific version and go around saying they "had the rights to King Kong". This new version (which just happened to coincidentally come out the year of the Peter Jackson remake) is called the "King Kong of Skull Island" property. Very blatantly by the naming of this game they are trying to trick people into thinking that this is affiliated with the recent Warner Bros. movies. These people seem to have crafted an entire media empire based on riding the coattails of legitimate films that take place in the King Kong universe. This is next level copyright trolling.

[@Jacketpotatos1]

How are they allowed to use the names like “Kong” and “Skull island”? Wouldn’t they be protected? Sorry, i know nothing about this story

[@8bitcrook273]

@@Jacketpotatos1 The original King Kong novel is public domain so all those recognizable elements can be used by anyone. However you can still copyright new works based on it and all the specific details new to that version are not public domain. This company seems to have created their own version of King Kong distinct enough to have its own copyright but still generic enough to be mistaken for the MonsterVerse universe.

[@izaruburs9389]

There is an entire industry that does nothing but that. They license and copy-right 'sound alike' property and release it in the hopes people fall for it. This is a multi million dollar industry that focuses on baiting people who don't know better (like parents). It's both sad and amazing at the same time.

[@thientuongnguyen2564]

@@izaruburs9389 Even worse then such laws don't apply to countries that view human rights as much as guidelines at a buffet. I mean, why do they always have to copy Hollywood and not some smaller nation with decent media innit?

[@c-puff]

My sympathies always go out to the concept artists. Both Gollum and this game look like they had some very talent people doing the concept art. And it always kills me that their hard work that is genuinely good gets translated so poorly to the game itself.

[@adamlauer1096]

Love your videos ❤

[@JustInPassing3]

GameMill Entertainment being the publisher makes so much sense. Twenty years ago, they published _Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing_ .

[@redbomberx354]

And they somehow went from that, to publishing Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl recently, a half decent game. Their resume is truly baffling.

[@k-kayla]

​@redbomberx354 Yeah wtf all star brawl was pretty good 😂

[@genericname2747]

The legacy....it continues....

[@D..S..]

The "Monke" thing has my laughing hysterically in the Burger King drive-thru

[@BOGOworms4sale]

What did you get from burger king? Asking for a friend

[@izaruburs9389]

The 'y' was already part of the daily office lingo.

[@thegreathadoken6808]

Is it possible that a member of the Gollum team made this in an attempt to prevent Gollum from going down in history as the worst game of 2023?

[@pikacringe]

Get yer tinfoil! Im subscribing hardcore to this theory

[@shlepad]

If Gollum and Gollum had a child out of wedlock, this would be the result.

[@noamias4897]

Classic result of selfcest

[@bustabusts]

Don't forget the Middle Eastern/ Israeli voice over. Lolol

[@TaterTotsNFanta]

Harambe didn't kill himself

[@howwasthainetaken]

@@TaterTotsNFanta relevance?

[@TaterTotsNFanta]

@@howwasthainetaken 27/Circle/Cincinnati, Oh

[@Malignantt1]

I have a feeling this game was first made by someone in the studio just dicking around about a goofy “monke” game where you can run around and beat up dinosaurs or whatever and then they turned around and decided to make it a full project and renaming it to rise of kong

[@bharat-dz9wi]

It does seem like a private project. I would play a game like that if I made one just to dick around. 😂😂

[@samzilla567]

I love how both this and Gollum just throw you into the game, starting off in a bland looking cave.

[@PatchNote_Jones]

I think the terrain morphing is part of LOD optimization, like it uses a simplified mesh for distance and as you get closer it morphs to both add detail and show more environment assets that would otherwise be culled for performance. I've seen it before in some racing games and the Just Cause series, if memory serves.

[@ScytheNoire]

Agree, that's what it looks like, poor LOD optimization, poor meshing and texturing.

[@dyotoorion1835]

Yep its the Landscape LOD system.

[@holad-jlsegovia-423]

GTA V does the same thing but for parallax occlussion

[@panic5343]

How tf did he not burst out laughing when he yeeted the dinos by activating rage mode 8:14

[@Jonkin715]

Like Kong activated Dino Repellant!!! 😂😂😂😂

[@AD3SPG]

Super fart blast 😂

[@Ibench315]

“Okay”

[@joshuatealeaves]

@@AD3SPGGuardian Ape. Only thing missing is the poo poo throw

[@sirki2885]

i dont think it ever registered what it did

[@yellowsheep9703]

The reason the terrain seems to move is because it's smoothing the transitions between the lower and higher poly counts, so instead of just popping in, it kinda smoothes into it's place.

[@michaelh3715]

Real smooth! 😂 but yea that makes sense

[@elvickRULES]

Borderlands already solved this two console gems ago. It fades in textures instead of pops them in. It was way less jarring This is going backwards

[@yellowsheep9703]

@@elvickRULES Hi, I'm not sure what you are referring to here? If you are talking about the textures, you might be referring to mip maps? Which this game also has, they are generated automatically by most recent engines. If you are talking about the terrain, then I'm not sure on how to interpret this. I assume you might be talking about them swapping really far away places with images, most games do this with LODs, but I assume this game's world is either too small or doesnt have vistas that'd warrant bothering with that. Also, borderlands probably has something similar to this game for terrain and does this at a longer distance from the camera or it doesnt have it at all and just pops it in so far away that you don't notice it, bc its a way more optimized game.

[@VonRAVEN1991]

Could this be the start of a new game genre? A Gollum-like game 😅

[@Satnanat]

The word you’re looking for is shovelware

[@TowerWatchTV]

I think it is good that they did not change the icon from Unreal to their custom, because it clearly proves that just because you use a good engine or tool, does not automatically turn you into a great developer. This counts for any form of craft. The skill is always the most valuable tool you can learn and it will show.

[@Pillock25]

I can imagine the developers now. "Someone just bought the Colossal Edition" "Really?"

[@Chris_W.]

4:36 “Load screen… what is this? Starfield?” Fuckin’ GOTTEM. Love you too, Hugs and kisses

[@panqueque445]

"We don't know what the game is going to be called yet, just call it Monke and we'll change it later" Few months later: "Wait did you guys remember to change the name?"

[@notBrocker]

Well this game is one way to feel like we’re back in the early 2000s

[@pchtommy1268]

Even early 2000s games look better than this.

[@DocDoge]

The Kong game on PS2 was infinitely better than this mess.

[@pchtommy1268]

it still is

[@sergeantsilly5239]

But....the early 2000s king kong game looks better than this and is actually good.

[@pchtommy1268]

Mid 2000s* the game was released in 2005

[@FrostRare]

I knew you were one of the brave 8 souls that were subjecting themselves to the game when it was at its peak concurrent players… thank you

[@robsolf]

That wake of... dust(?) behind kong while walking. It's the silliest thing I've seen in a game in a long time. Who greenlit that? You gotta figure that yeah, they grabbed this out of public domain and that there weren't any other options. I just can't imagine someone purposefully creating that for this game. They probably thought, "Better than nothing!". But no. NOTHING would be better.

[@meru8348]

A streamer I watch pointed out something I found extremely interesting and that's you really need to try to make a game look this bad you can legitimately find free assets and make this game look beautiful without it costing a dime but yet the studio went with this.

[@jessemach5817]

This makes gollum look like a masterpiece

[@Kumire_921]

I remember someone saying this game and Gollum were games made for money laundering, it was so funny reading that.

[@nrc1965gm]

This game reminds me of Yiik in that I find it difficult to really criticize or even discuss because I just don't know what they were even going for. It's difficult to discuss what specific elements of the game caused it to fall short of its intentions when you don't even know what those intentions are. With Gollum, I can envision what the developers hoped the final product would be, even if it fell very short. With this game, I just don't understand anything about why it is the way it is. Did they try to make the gorillas look realistic and fail, or did they try to make the gorillas look stylized and fail? Did they plan for the platforming to be way it is (looking very awkward against the level design), or were there scrapped ideas? Did they intend to have a contradiction in the intro dialogue (dismissing people who tell stories about kings only to introduce a story about a king) to demonstrate a point, or was it just sloppy? I just... don't know what they were trying to do.

[@Yervy]

the peaks and valleys of games this year have been insane. who would have thought gollum would have such a legit contender for worst GOTY (and we can't forget redfall either)

[@Walt_Chocolate]

Finally someone that rivals The Legend of Black Tiger

[@akaChriss4L]

"Monke" I couldn't handle that one lol!! Laughed so hard!

[@fulcrum6760]

I’m not kidding around, this had a lot of potential gameplay and concept wise. Imagine the Arkham games but you’re a giant monster, that would’ve been sick.

[@arishok5091]

The competition for worst game of the year for 2023. I mean we already had the clusterfucks of Forspoken, Redfall and Gollum and somehow this is worse than all three of those. ☠️

[@Mitch93636]

Redfall is fixed.

[@arishok5091]

@@Mitch93636 Even with Redfall being ‘fixed'’ it's still pretty mid. Especially considering the amazing games we got this year. I.e. ToTK, BG3, Starfield etc.

[@KratosisGod]

2023 has been simultaneously one of the greatest and worst year for games.

[@shaydaslayer]

don’t forget the crap avatar airbender game

[@jackbrassil5318]

17:30 "You really think I'm gonna pay $15 for this?" -- someone who has already paid the $15 for it

[@KaoruMzk]

To be fair to the Unreal project name: If you change it afterwards, it breaks a ton of stuff, so it's not like they forgot to go back and change it, they just couldn't. So, the lesson here is: don't use a joke name as your project's name, else this ends up happening.

[@Cessna_Gang]

Honestly, I could see that none of the developers cared about making this game. Like their executives took on the deal to make a licensed King Kong game and none of the devs had any interest in making a game like this. So they just slapped it together as fast as they could to get it done with

[@fonesrphunny7242]

Uhm, maybe look at the publisher GameMill before judging. It's all overpriced licensed shovelware. They probably ordered the game from IguanaBee, which were given minimal time and money to finish it. GM probably knew it wouldn't be good, that barely anyone would buy it, so they raised the price to make some profit.

[@Kjf365]

It's not even licensed lol. The King Kong book is public domain so they can just do this if they leave out the things that are actually copyrighted by things like the recent movies including the "King" part of "King Kong," which is why it's just "Kong" here.

[@haruhirogrimgar6047]

They were only given a year to make them game according to TheVerge.

[@shady596x4]

My theory is that it’s an abstract art project about showing what a licensed shovelware game from 2005 would look like if it was made in 2023

[@MyChannel-l4w]

I can't believe a studio said "yes, this is good to release"

[@Rnerdy197]

Studio didn't say yes the publisher did when a studio has a publisher the studio doesn't get a say in the release date some studios are just lucky to have publishers that actually listen to the studio that they need more time

[@lutherheggs451]

I get the feeling this was meant to be a mobile game. Clearly it was something meant to be small, downloadable and cheap but someone in the decision making offices decided that, "yeah sure we can sell this on the major platforms too".

[@MightyMattTM]

I could've gone my whole life without learning that there's a "Sepia Kong" skin that exists. Thanks for that, Luke

[@siloPIRATE]

Reject humanity, return to Monke

[@professorxeno4056]

You had me until the “Monke” revelation. Easily game of the year for that alone😤

[@kirkshanghai]

Luke, also, you missed the best part! During a boss fight cutscene they literally forget to animate it and show a JPEG for a few seconds, lmao

[@justinstoll4955]

WTF!!! Where is this? I have to see that?

[@upscale9109]

WHAT, THATS AMAZING. HOW DID THEY FORGET TO ANIMATE A BOSS

[@strahinjagov]

Thank you Luke for once again putting yourself through this torture for us

[@dyotoorion1835]

At 12:35 in the video Luke notices a strange effect on the distant hillside. This effect is a consequence of Unreal Engine's (This game is made with UE4) Landscape Level of Detail (LOD) system. The developers set the LOD distance too low, so you can see the landscape dynamically increasing and decreasing the landscape polycount based on camera distance. That is what is causing that effect. :-)

[@saumayagoel234]

I want to see the ending, I hope someone finishes the game. That litttle Kong deserves justice!

[@ASpooneyBard]

Kevduit will probably finish it and make a video at some point. He still talks about Gollum being the worst game ever, so he'd have to play this one too... Or maybe he has more self respect than we think. Who knows.

[@nicoli8437]

This game reminded me of an old animation 'Transformers: Beast Wars' 🤣🤣

[@Triffett]

Dude I literally sat down just now for my nightly shit and came to find videos on how abysmal the game is so perfect timing on both our parts I guess haha

[@Thestickymanyt]

I honestly can't believe they used a PNG for a cutscene I respect the balls to do that lmao

[@blueflare3848]

Wait, when?

[@thevorp]

​@@blueflare3848it's not in the video

[@crannnnnn7590]

Bad licensed games are back, baby

[@spencercorpuz]

The Donkey Kong 64 Remaster looks wild

[@sergeantsilly5239]

I think this game is especially sad if you think of the existence of Peter Jackson´s King Kong: the Game

[@CaDragon]

monke is a game. But it does not make monke brain happy.

[@twopeaksnorth8184]

I dont HATE the artstyle, I just think it was horribly implimented 😂 great video as always!

[@AirmanCS]

I agree some resolutions, materials and polys could be improved (a lot) but is not 100% unsalvageable, sligtly better shaders, animations and more polys could have look like a decent 9 dollar game

[@nilabjasanyal1249]

19:58 "monke"🤣🤣

[@OleNesie]

Even if this game doesn't make much money, it probably had like next to no production cost. Could still be a net gain

[@seamossyt]

This is definitely one of those games where the corporate execs didn't give the devs and producers nearly enough time or resources to make. More than anything I feel bad for all the people involved who have to deal with the fallout of the game going viral.

[@taylorswain5767]

Can’t wait for the 3 hour ultimate critique on this game.

[@UlshaRS]

The rate at which this game has been piled onto is worthy of its own speed run award 😂

[@m0ntana137]

Honestly, if this was 5-10$ and for kids, I think it'd be fine. The graphics look way better than Gollum, and there seems to be less game-breaking bugs. It looks better than breath of the wild to me

[@m0ntana137]

The colour filters should be a crime tho

[@AlvinNguyen2008]

11:58 Gaw’s Best roar Can’t believe the heartfelt sounds in editing made the cutscene look so much better This game deserves an award for achieving absolutely nothing good, the game is that bad

[@PestilentAllosaurus]

I feel Garh/Gar dinosaur character wasn't bad. It looked like it was hunting for food, no different than what Kong and Daddy Kong was doing. Hunted daddy Kong, was attacked by another Kong(the mother). Had to use self defense and killed her too. But intentionally did not kill baby Kong both when he mourned father despite being RIGHT THERE, as well as when Kong was then orphaned. Gar let Kong go. Watched him, and did not attack. Gar/Gar is not the super bad guy. Just a fellow predator trying to live, and had to defend itself. Let Kong go and live and was thanked by having Kong trying to kill it in revenge....This game makes me feel Kong is only the bad guy. Which is whatever, but not what I think they intended.

[@Wolfimann22]

WTF is this? How bad. That the game is called Monke killed me xD

[@Akursedtime]

Gollum 🤝 Kong

[@johnpen269]

Still better water physics than Starfield tho

[@RikyMarky]

Elden ring was in sale for 40$. Let's that sink for a moment.

[@noamias4897]

Witcher 3 and all DLC can be bought for the same price as the filters Luke bought

[@juannito6318]

Them wierd textures moving is what happens in valhiem its rendering distance

[@CrispyTXN]

Ah man, those added sound effects from the editor never fail to make me laugh!

[@zrixie7695]

"And Gollum concludes the worst game of 2023 compe- AND WHAT'S THIS? RISE OF KONG WITH A STEEL CHAIR!"

[@strawberrymochi118]

it looks oddly like the game isn't sure whether it wants to have a stylized or realistic artstyle, and is trying to be both at once

[@uvuvwevwevweonyetenyevweug6314]

2:52 Why is the story being narrated by Konker?

[@zovze]

“Monke” 😂😂😂💀

[@leaf1ninza]

Your setup looking great luke and great video Love your content ✨️ ❤😊

[@Paradox-es3bl]

I DARE you to pull a Mortym and 100% this game and do a Review After 100% lol

[@OffTheRailGaming]

I can imagine the devs watching this and crying, not because you don't like it but because they're happy that another person bought the game.

[@Tex2334]

I REALLY hope you didn’t go over that 2 hour mark. For $40, that’s absolutely criminal.

[@costanzafaust]

You could put $40 worth of quarters into an old RAMPAGE arcade machine and get a better Kong game.

[@trollmaster6994]

Funnyest part is that only challanges and bosses give skill points so you dont need to fight anything else.

[@trippbond41]

This game would have been like a comfort food mind numbing game when I was 9 on the PS2

[@rikorobinson]

That they had the gall to include $15 DLC with this steaming pile AND throw in some behind-the-scenes stuff like it was bound to be a AAA smash hit is absolutely hilarious to me. I feel sorry for the 9-to-5 folks who were forced to pump this out; you absolutely know it is NOT going into their portfolio. Shameless capitalism is killing gaming...

[@atoyo8344]

It's actually worse than free assets , it's like someone who knew nothing made it from absolute scratch

[@sneakybawls]

"There's a skill tree?!?" Love that. It can't be a cash grab if they ain't getting anyone's cash. LOL

[@GuyGamerz]

The kind of game youd get free from a cereal box in the early noughties

[@Niddez]

You dont feel like playing as Kong you feel like playing a random Monke

[@uselessDM]

What I find very striking about this is that every video of this game looks exactly the same. At least with Gollum there were different sections and environments, this is just one tiny level with close to no variation.

[@Mike_Z_Gamer]

Atleast the game play tolerable

[@namelessjuan4696]

Kong looks like a regular sized Gorilla

[@piplup0800]

the 2006 movie tie in looked better than this which is crazy.

[@SleepyMatt-zzz]

The rolling hills is the LOD adjusting from the landscaping tools found in Unity and Unreal (I'm assuming this game was made in Unreal). This isn't unusual, it's pretty noticeable when there are steep inclines, however many devs typically do a better job hiding this sort of thing with rock, cliff, and mountain models. In the case of this game, it doesn't even look like the devs tried, or they just don't have the experience to know any better.

[@asrissa6917]

No matter how bad you expect it and think you're ready to see something bad it is always worst 😂

[@Squall17x]

Once there was the Doom clone, now there's the Gollum clone

[@jakeegarris]

Those water physics look straight out of Paper Mario

[@PuchimonExtreme]

At first, I thought it was a crappy looking waterfall. But it's somehow worse.

[@lauramaue]

So bizarre that 20-some years after Peter Jackson's visually stunning adaptations of Lord of the Rings and King Kong, we get Gollum and whatever this is.

[@SgtHeartmann.]

Did not have many doubts,mate! Lmao 😂

[@AdaltheRighteous]

No doubt this will become a cult classic just because of the attention it’s getting.

[@KATZGATZ]

This game feels like a tech demo from the early 2000s

[@jonetgames]

I'm convinced they are making these games on purpose.

[@BlaineGifford]

Say, bro, what we need next is Godzilla vs donkey Kong! . That would be a trip

[@Darrf]

11:58 Oh my god. Thank you so much. 😂

[@raidarthegunwizard4520]

I'll argue that java mobile game King Kong from 2005 is better than this

[@MasticinaAkicta]

This game was made, it exists. Okay, well, it is just shovelware. That is all. I am sure that the budget the makers of this game got was concerningly low. So why not take out a PS2 game and DONE.