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

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#gaming #ps5 #xbox

[@kirkginoabolafia3650]

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

[@Paradox-es3bl]

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

[@juannito6318]

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

[@Kristyybug]

is that a replica of the Titanic i absolutely LOVE that LOL i digress... you didnt have to play this game people saw the screenshots and stayed away... I have however seen a bunch of people buy it to show that it is bad which from what i see is still smart to get people to spend money

[@dharma_mane]

Good god I’m toasted and was laughing the whole video This game is dog sh!t 😂😂

[@k-kayla]

The UI design in the game is pretty decent. Thats about it.

[@michaelhooper6227]

A monsterverse fighting game seems like a no brainer

[@MusingsMuses]

I think the worst part of this game is everyone on twitter using this to shoot down the "I want shorter games with worse graphics" crowd. We want shorter games with worse graphics to protect developers from stupidly intense crunch year-round, not to encourage shovelware.

[@axllaw427]

Remember that Peter Jackson Kong Kong game back in 2005? That one is leagues better than this trash

[@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.

[@Tezdude9]

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

[@izaruburs9389]

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

[@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.

[@jebb7054]

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

[@justinpassing4003]

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....

[@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?

[@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

[@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 ❤

[@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.

[@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

[@VonRAVEN1991]

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

[@Satnanat]

The word you’re looking for is shovelware

[@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. 😂😂

[@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

[@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

[@samzilla567]

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

[@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.

[@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

[@siloPIRATE]

Reject humanity, return to Monke

[@Pillock25]

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

[@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.

[@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

[@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.

[@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?"

[@jessemach5817]

This makes gollum look like a masterpiece

[@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.

[@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.

[@CAlbeluhn]

That terrain issue you're seeing at the 13:20 mark is caused by 'terrain tessellation'. The cliff faces on either side are extremely tall and steep, and when you're far away there's not enough geometry for the terrain to dip down, which is causing the geometry to bridge across and look how it does. The dark center texture to it is the base of the river that you eventually run across. To hide this, you either need to flatten the neighboring terrain more, or add in a very aggressive Distance Fog.

[@professorxeno4056]

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

[@Walt_Chocolate]

Finally someone that rivals The Legend of Black Tiger

[@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

[@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.

[@kirkginoabolafia3650]

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

[@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)

[@nicoli8437]

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

[@strahinjagov]

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

[@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.

[@MR3DDev]

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

[@jackbrassil5318]

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

[@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

[@Thestickymanyt]

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

[@blueflare3848]

Wait, when?

[@wig.snatcher]

​@@blueflare3848it's not in the video

[@MightyMattTM]

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

[@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

[@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.

[@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

[@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".

[@johnpen269]

Still better water physics than Starfield tho

[@Chris_W.]

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

[@nilabjasanyal1249]

19:58 "monke"🤣🤣

[@spencercorpuz]

The Donkey Kong 64 Remaster looks wild

[@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.

[@JakeTheHuman1]

Why does kong also look so small compared to the environment?

[@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

[@Wolfimann22]

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

[@leaf1ninza]

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

[@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.

[@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

[@CrispyTXN]

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

[@ScytheNoire]

I've seen student projects that were better than this. This is so bad.

[@CaDragon]

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

[@thesixth2330]

Your memories of Gollum seem wrong. That game was pure trash, the in-game encyclopedia showed how much the team cared, which was near zero. Every entry had misspelling and/or was flat-out incorrect. They did nothing more than butcher the IP for some quick cashish. Great vid! Disappointed to see you jump on the YT bandwagon. What I like is that you're not like every other reviewer on YT. Don't change that for quick clicks. Instead get real subscribers. What part of Gollum shared the passion of the team, any example will do?

[@sajadb_dev]

The fur is from a tutorial about stylized fur in substance designer

[@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. :-)

[@HulkAMaineiac]

Ubisoft's King Kong game looks so much better than this.. and it came out in 2005. Also, why is Kong so damn small.. he looks like a regular Gorilla just running around beating up lizards.

[@johnsullivan937]

Here I am trying to decide weather or not to drop 40 dollars on the new elden ring expansion, spending 45 on kong skull island? Thats certainly... a choice... lol

[@CelicaSound]

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

[@michaelh3715]

Game looks amazing, I don’t get all the hate😂

[@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

[@zrixie7695]

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

[@RiverRockRecords]

Imagine video game technology being better than ever.. and things like this come out NOT Mobile only. I'll be real.. humans are a fucking disappointment. i still think Gollum is worse

[@stinkbanana2522]

Why does the monkey look and feel so small wtf

[@plannein]

Idk if this qualifies, ya know? I think Gollum would still be the worst game of the year. Because if this counts, then I think The Last Hope does too.

[@MasticinaAkicta]

So that extra money gives you THAT extra content... wow! That is unseen, BG3 with its sound track and shiny extras should be ashamed!

[@Scitch-et4vk]

Typical xbox game 😂

[@SamPLayss]

😂😂

[@MIKEZGAMER-g8b]

Atleast the game play tolerable

[@sergeantsilly5239]

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

[@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.

[@Kumire_921]

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

[@MisoCat-bk7jh]

Cant you just activate some filter software for your screen instead of paying 15 dollars?

[@reizak8966]

Hollow Knight was made by 3 people and cost 19.99 at launch. Just sayin.

[@bloodyassault803]

Imagine even making a King Kong game and you're like sized down. How?

[@dylangaletti395]

Companies shouldn't be allowed to put garbage like this into any game store.

[@atoyo8344]

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

[@goerdn]

Looks like a bad mobile game

[@FoxyGuyHere]

Just noticed this is ps store yesterday and thought that it looks like ps2 game.

[@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

[@raidarthegunwizard4520]

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

[@yosefamer4728]

Please review the new avatar game which is aswell a horrendous letdown🙌🏽

[@riczz4641]

How does this happen twice (counting Gollum) in 2023? Can you and a group of friends just randomly DM Warner and say "trust me bro. I can make you a game with this multi million dollar IP" and get the rights for it?

[@piplup0800]

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

[@SSG_Meathook]

From software are shaking in their boots with this one.

[@TexLive34]

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.

[@m.ccheddarbox874]

I never thought I would enjoy watching someone torture themselves. Here we are though.