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Iron Chef Game Listed, Then Pulled
Joystiq notes that a game based on the excellent Iron Chef television show on the Food Network is apparently in the works. Apparently, because the game was listed and then pulled within the last few weeks. "The game appears to be on the brink of an announcement, with a listing appearing and disappearing on Gamestop's website for DS and Wii versions of the game, and Siliconera's Spencer Yip indicating that an IC game was being created at Destineer. (Yes, that Destineer). We're already sharpening our knives in anticipation, but we have to ask: [how do we get] Alton Brown in the game?" Their post includes a great animated spot for the show.
And instead take the lesser title of Zinc Saucee... With comes with double prize money
Ask not what you can do for your country. Ask what your country did to you
i'm trying to understand how one would structure an iron chef game, exactly. i mean, i can sorta see an iron chef RPG. but a console/computer game...how would that even work?
ed
...but cooking just doesn't seem all that riveting as a game. Something tells me we aren't going to be seeing Cook Cook Revolution anywhere. Cook Hero just doesn't have the right ring to it either. So to me it's not all that surprising that the game got pulled.
...He's nothing compared to Bender and a little bit of his "confidence".
Alton Brown approves b/c the DS is not a unitasker.
yeah yeah. off topic.
i'd have been a sceptic regarding this game, but considering the success of the wacky surgery and lawyer games I'd probably be wrong.
oh well.
this sig has been discontinued.
Why? I've seen both, and not a huge amount has changed in bringing it across the ocean (if we ignore the William Shatner episodes).
Username taken, please choose another one.
just use Matsutake Mushrooms and Saffron in every dish. Cooking is easy when nobody needs to taste it.
For god's sake, don't deny the man his smugness!! It's all he's got!
This game is getting old... how many times are they going to bring it back?
...and it should be known by now
Published titles have included such games as Age of Empires III, Halo for the Mac, Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-45, and Starship Troopers. Destineer acquired Atomic Games on May 6, 2005. So they've done some big franchise sequels and ports... hardly the stuff of legend.
Parent is yet another redirect to some "shock site" of sorts.
Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
Considering the amount of science and math involved in cooking, this game has the potential to be an accurate representation of cooking.
Well, there was the Iron Chef: Virtual Kitchen Stadium game for the Sega Saturn, but it's more a museum tour than a game.
That said, I too would love the original Japanese show to come out with more material in the US. Sadly, I can't see Fuji TV allowing that.
Chairman: "Let Kitchen Kombat begin!" "Your cuisine is mine... forever!"
I could see it having a fun, Mortal Kombat character select screen as well. Of course, this would work better with the original Iron Chefs, as they all much more distinctive styles. The sad truth is, the game will probably be a poor imitation of Cooking Momma, which already fell woefully short of its potential. Combine that with the presence of annoying, arrogant ass clowns like Bobby Flay and Michael Symon and you have a disaster in the making.
"He who can destroy a thing, controls a thing." --Paul Atreides, Dune
Then I thought, "Wii!".
I'd imagine that putting this on the Wii has some damned interesting possibilities for motion sensing and cooking, including multi-player head to head competition.
Bill
Any game with Alton Brown in it is bound to be a success.
Though I think it would be more interesting if they did a "Feasting on Asphalt" game first. The name even rocks!
Sounds like this game would be similar to 'Cooking Mama' for the Wii. If that is the case, then this game would still not be very good. Cooking Mama was only funny because they had very bad english translations; 'Betta dan momma' and 'wondofo' will always stick in my head now that I have played that game. Otherwise, the game play was pretty boring. That's not to say the developers couldn't make it better. It just seems limiting.
Screw you and your "Iron Chef America" weaksauce. Give me Chairman Kaga, Ota, Fukui, and the real show over that cheap retarded ripoff.
Fans of Alton Brown, the host of Iron Chef America, will be pelased to know that he has just signed a three-year contract extension with the Food Network. More Alton!
the big difference is the judging and the commentary. I think Alton Brown would benefit from having a decent "play by play" guy to work with him... leaving him to just do the commentary on the dishes rather than a constant stream of talking. It tends to flow better, thats why sports broadcasts do it.
Also, I think the whole guests talking and commenting the whole time is superior to what we see in the America show, but a lot of that has to do with Japanese TV and how they tend to do things.
"In America, first you get the sugar, then you get the power, then you get the women..." -H. Simpson
I mean, Batali is in the video, but he's only quasi-associated with Iron Chef now-a-days.
sig?
I think a Swedish Chef game would be more interesting. Certainly more action packed.
Why? I've seen both, and not a huge amount has changed in bringing it across the ocean (if we ignore the William Shatner episodes).
Are you kidding?
The entire *point* of the Japanese show has been lost on Iron Chef America. It was always intended as a cheesy drama with serious cooking. The idea was basically to combine haute cuisine with professional wrestling.
Iron Chef America has kept the cooking but removed the cheesy drama, which is what made it so unique in the first place. There are dozens of competition cooking shows on these days (including the whole "Cooking Competition" series on Food Network itself); why would you watch Iron Chef America over any of the others?
At the same time, the show doesn't take itself seriously *enough*. In Japan, Fuji TV treated it as a huge honor to be named an Iron Chef. It meant nothing in the real culinary world, but the Iron Chefs were never referred to as anything *but* "Iron Chef", and the show created "rivals" for them to spar with; they took the show beyond the show, with the point being to use that both for humor and to increase the perceived drama on the show. Food Network doesn't do that; it's just a bunch of random chefs competing against each other for no real reason. Even Morimoto, who's an Iron Chef in both versions, says the US version is a lot more casual.
The original Iron Chef straddled that line perfectly between complete absurdity and real cooking chops. It was unique, and maybe uniquely Japanese. You could watch it and laugh, but at the same time you knew you were really watching some amazing skills. Iron Chef America doesn't even attempt to do that; it's like they realized they'd never get it right (the "Iron Chef USA" specials tried that tack and it didn't work), so they just watered the whole thing down to a generic competition show.
Somehow it is really hard for Americans to get the "absurd but serious" thing down. Japan does it, Europe does it, we just can't get it.
>I think Alton Brown would benefit from having a decent "play by play" guy to work with him... leaving him to just do the commentary on the dishes rather than a constant stream of talking.
Right you are Altus-san. The challenger is removing the gonads from the pike eel and is mincing them with a bit of daikon. Back to you.Some mornings it's hardly worth chewing through the restraints to get out of bed.
I don't know if you saw the William Shatner-era Iron Chef -- they did try to do a recreation of the original and it was disastrous because, as you say, the original was uniquely Japanese. Despite that, a knockoff might have been made to fly if the Japanese show hadn't been so familiar and beloved.
The Alton Brown version doesn't attempt to replace the original show; it's a deliberately low-key and straightforward tribute to it.
Incidentally, as with Monty Python (who failed disastrously trying to Americanize their own material before learning better), Iron Chef's appeal in translation went beyond the original show. The translator they used for the requisite actress judge, the chef who had been forced into a life of shame because his restaurant had burned down, the weirdness of a lot of the seafood -- the show's creators didn't anticipate the comedy of that.
What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
http://www.cookingmamacookoff.com/
Our house (ages 1 to 39) loves this game.
I don't know...I think Americans have mastered "absurd but serious"...just it is seen more in the political realm. I mean, how else do you explain who we stuck in office for the past 2 terms?
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I mean, by that line of reasoning, working around a virtual farm doesn't sound that exciting either, but Harvest Moon did just that. Let you run around the farm, shear the sheep and brush your horse. I'd guess it must have sold enough copies to make it worth porting to most consoles that ever existed.
An even more bizarre, and I would dare say _disturbing_, concept is Boong-Ga Boong-Ga. The Japanese arcade game where you get to shove a giant plastic finger in what looks like the plastic arse of someone bent over. And watch their face as they scream in pain. And then get your virility and sexual behaviour judged by how brutal an anal probing you gave the poor bugger(ed).
I'm not sure how that would translate even to the Wii, because thrusting the wiimote at thin air must be, at a wild guess, not quite the same as shoving it into someone.
The Japanese also seem to have these interesting game concepts, like driving a big truck... while staying under the legal limit, obeying all the traffic rules, and avoiding causing any damage to your truck or someone else's property. Break too many rules and you're fired. Does that sound exciting? Well, they too didn't think us gaijin would find it exciting, because in the USA version they turned it on its head. Cause enough mayhem and you get a bonus.
So, well, don't be too quick to dismiss the concept. I'm sure some people will find it hilarious to flip pancakes with the wiimote, and stir in a pot with it.
I don't understand them, but, hey, they probably wouldn't understand why I'm posting on Slashdot from home at 1 AM either.
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
Because the quality of the competition (that is, the chefs competing in each battle) on Iron Chef America is far better than any other program?
Also most of those other shows are spurious junk like Las Vegas sugar sculpture competitions or no-name chili cookoffs.
-Isaac
I am not a lawyer, and this is not legal advice. For Entertainment Purposes Only.
no wacky Takeshi Kaga voice overs
no wacky Takeshi Kaga outfits
no funny judge commentaries
no Chen Kenichi
no eel battle
no octopus battle
no cod row battle
no <insert creepy japanese delicacy here> battle
no honor based 'team' rematches
Maybe it is kind of like Burger Time.
Write your own Choose Your Own Adventure. http://www.freegameengines.org/gamebook-engine/
The entire *point* of the Japanese show has been lost on Iron Chef America. It was always intended as a cheesy drama with serious cooking. The idea was basically to combine haute cuisine with professional wrestling.
What american's like about the Japanese version is what was lost and found in the translation. Nothing can replace the voiceover of Dr Hattori for example.
One thing that has happened in the American version is more spotlight has been given on the Sous-chefs. This is actually an improvement over the original.
I think most adult swim shows fit the "absurd but serious" bill. Xavier: Renegade Angel comes to mind.
Are you sure? Have you never heard of "American Idol?"
Though I understand your complaints, just consider how fucking retarded iron chef america would be if they started upping the drama and instigating rivalries and shit like that.
Drumroll... some sweaty italian dude is sharpening knives in slo-mo, grimacing and looking at a picture of mario batalli... The chairman's voiceover starts... "If memory serves, Iron Chef Batalli has only one true rival..." followed by 5 minutes of completely fucking useless b-roll giving sweaty italian dude's back-story, and the origins of this non-existent rivalry, all leading up to the challenger triumphantly entering kitchen stadium and throwing the gauntlet at batalli, who, instead of being his regular goofy, sarcastic, chill yet bitterly competitive self will have to be somber and treat the entire affair as an affront to his honor.
Alton Brown will have to stop knowing anything about food, and will instead serve as an affable but douchey host constantly asking the real food expert/partial sponsor of the show, Doc Hattori (who was only on the fucking show because his culinary school provided the sous chefs) Kevin Brauch will have to stop being able to complete coherent sentences, like Otah, and a strict All Oral-Sex Double-Entendre ruled will have to be placed on on the judging commentary (If Lower-House member what's his face ever encountered a food that didnt feel good sliding down his throat, he never mentioned it) Then, once the judgment has been handed down, and the victor declared, instead of being able rest easy that his or her best efforts were put forth but the victor was better, the loser must hang his or her head in defeat, ashamed of the dishonor suffered, and apologize to his/her fans and family.
In short, it would all seem kinda dumb in the american cultural context. Yes, the drama and cheese and the overblown rivalries were great in the original, but only insofar as they were quintessentially japanese. The american remake is its own thing and working w/in a different cultural context and does a pretty good job of it. Good chefs get together and make some really good looking food, its judged, fun is generally had by all. That's the point, not "LOL, japanese culture is hilarious to my western sensibilities."
As a side-note, I am prejudiced, justifiably in my opinion, against the 'the drama and whatnot is the whole point of the show' proposition after almost coming to blows with a friend who took it all so seriously that he cursed me out as being 'naive and closed-minded' for pointing out that not only was there no such thing as the Gourmet Academy, but that Chairman Kaga was in fact an actor, not an eccentric foodie putting on a show for his own amusement. If you want absurdist drama, watch daytime television. If you want to watch a show where chefs compete, watch iron chef.
Come read my stupid blagablog. Rants and Giggles
Oh my god, I want to watch that show so bad now. That is exactly how Iron Chef America should be!
What's really crazy here is not that this is the same AC who posted the gross link above, but that he really means what he says.
Make sure you teach your kids the value of self esteem.
The more you know ---*
So- Iron Chef meets prowrestling? Hell, I'd pay good money to see that. Put it on pay per view, I'll buy.
I still have more fans than freaks. WTF is wrong with you people?
That's a shame. The original series had such a lovable, over-the-top, quirkyness that is lacking in it's american counterpart. Not to mention that the "secret ingredient" was, more often than not, some random and unappetizing thing that a fisherman found in his net that morning.
To bring ICA up to that level we need "battle road-kill" or somesuch, with the chairman ruminating in his study about the role roast possum had in the formation of our great country.
Who wouldn't want to take on Iron Chef Sakai in a SPAM battle! I can even see the Wii-mote getting fitted with knife, pot/pan, whisk, $kitchen_utensil attachments sold as a set sorta like the sports and Zelda sword/shield packages that they sell.
That man was something to behold. Don't forget that he sweat like crazy, all over the food he was preparing, and had a nearly perfect record. Coincidence?
This was the reason to watch. Battle Natto comes to mind. Battle monkfish, was another one - looks like something you'd throw back even if you were starving.
My girlfriend loved cooking mama. She'd love it if it were similar for iron chef. In the end of the match off they'll have a bunch of dopes telling them how crappy their cooking is and one of the characters will cry. or it might be like burger time.
So mainly the reason you liked the Japanese version is because you're a raging racist and you like to laugh at other cultures? ok
You are totally correct about it being an honor. Just to go Yokohama station, in that China town area, and you will see some huge pictures of the winning chef at a particular restaurant.
Last tidbit, the chairman, who bites the bell pepper, is actually a pretty well known actor in Japan who mostly plays cops, and dramas. You can see him in the live action "Death-note" movies too, where he plays his typical character.
would be if it were a South Park game 'hosted' by Chef.
Too bad he was killed off because Isaac Hayes' body thetans didn't approve of the mockery of Scientology.
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