Would you like to own these shoes? I’m giving them away! Find out more by clicking here.

SSX Tricky is a perfect game. Now I know, stating anything as a perfect game on the internet is grounds for a physical altercation, but hear me out. As far as what SSX Tricky intends to be, a fun, fast, easy to use / hard to master snowboarding game it is a perfect title, it did it bigger and better than any snowboarding title that preceded it and still my snowboard game of choice over a decade on. In the research of the custom SSX Tricky Nike Dunks I gladly replayed through the entire campaign once again and any imperfections that  begin to cloud a game 12 years on from its release quickly quickly fade as the count down begins before your first race, suddenly your hurling down a mountain with a real sense of speed, the environments are filled with colour and detail, your opponents are alive, animated and a challenge, you carve out turns and fly through the air with rhythm, perfect.

Carrying on from my ongoing project of designing a custom pair of Nike Dunks and accompanying T-shirt around my favourite games from the late 80′s till present day (beginning with the Uncharted : Drake’s Deception Nike Dunks) It is with fond memories that I turn my attention to SSX Tricky. I knew this would be an opportunity to go crazy with the colour palette. My previous pair were dark, with various shades of brown and I wanted do a total reversal of that here. SSX Tricky is over the top, in your face and fun. To make the shoes anything but would be an insult.

For those of you unsure of what goes into a custom pair of Nike Dunks and how durable they are let me quickly bring you up to speed. I begin by stripping the paint from the store bought shoe in its entirety down to the bare leather, this is a long, uneventful task but a necessary one. Next the design is hand painted using an acrylic paint especially made to bond to leather. The outcome is a custom, one off piece of footwear unlike anything you are likely to see on store shelves. They can be worn like any other shoe too. You can wear them in the rain, kick footballs in them, jump in puddles, I highly recommend doing all these activities in them in fact.

Thanks for checking out the shoes guys, check back in a couple of weeks for a new pair of custom shoes!

A clue for the next Custom Nike Dunk and T-shirt? Put this on your stereo.

You can buy the T-shirt from the KyozoKicks store HERE. 

Every purchase made before 05/18/2012 will go into a draw to win the custom SSX Tricky Nike Dunks. The Nike Dunks will be delivered with your order free of charge. Orders will begin shipping on the 05/18/2012. If you would like your T-shirt ASAP and do not want to enter the competition, just let me know in the comments section of your order. Each T-shirt bought counts as one entry into the draw. Winner chosen via random draw. I regret that I cannot deliver the shoes to a PO BOX address.

To accompany the custom Nike Dunks celebrating the fantastic SSX Tricky I’ve designed a T-shirt based on one of the games most fondly remembered circuits. SSX Tricky’s Tokyo Megaplex did away with the idea that a snowboarding game had to take place down the side of a mountain. Instead we were treated  to  sensory overload, where we screamed down impossibly long candy cane rails, flung through the sky on columns of air and cursed seemingly impossible obstacles. Although 12 years on from its release I still encounter enthusiasm for SSX Tricky among gamers. Deservedly so.

My intention is for this to be a quality product with care and consideration being put into each step. The T-shirts themselves are 100% preshrunk cotton with the screen printing itself being handled by the artisans at Mission Print who have almost two decades in the business. I hate inflated shipping costs as a consumer so on my store there are no shipping costs, worldwide.

I hope you all enjoy the T-shirt!

Check back next month for another T-Shirt as well as another pair of custom Nike Dunks to accompany it.

You can buy the T-shirt from the KyozoKicks store HERE. 

You can buy the T-shirt from the KyozoKicks store HERE. 

Designed by KyozoKicks to celebrate one of, if not the, finest 3 consecutive game franchises released by a single developer. Crash Bandicoot, Jak and Daxter and most recently, the adventures of Nathan Drake in Uncharted. I have played and loved each game (a timeline of games which now spans over 15 years).

My intention is for this to be a quality product with care and consideration being put into each step. The T-shirts themselves are 100% preshrunk cotton with the screen printing itself being handled by the artisans at Mission Print who have almost two decades in the business.

I hope you all enjoy the T-shirt!

Check back next month for another T-Shirt as well as another pair of custom Nike Dunks to accompany it.

What praise can be put upon Naughty Dog and the Uncharted franchise that we haven’t heard before. Almost universally praised by fans and the media as well as dozens of industry awards (including 4 BAFTA awards for Uncharted 2 : Among Thieves). What I won’t hesitate to say is that I’m really happy these guys are in the business of making games. I don’t say that flippantly, as a fan of Naughty Dog since Crash Bandicoot and of hearing Richard Lemarchand (one of the lead designers on the last 2 Uncharted games) discuss Naughty Dogs approach to what video games are and what they could be at last years GameCity festival, I truly believe nobody else could have made Uncharted but Naughty Dog. Naughty Dog appear to march to a different beat creatively, as their own Neil Druckmann put it, they’re out to “Change the f***king industry”.

Whilst Uncharted might seem wildly different to the Naughty Dog games which preceded it, upon closer inspection you begin to see the sparks of inspiration in the early games that would come to shine in Uncharted : Drake’s Deception. Moments such as the dynamic shifts in perspective during the Crash Bandicoot games are still a signature of the Naughty Dogs, now instead of a more convenient angle at which to collect apples the players perspective is switched to add emphasis to jumps and vistas. The genuine bond and friendship between Nathan Drake and Sully builds upon what they were doing with the relationship of Jak and Daxter  2001, their games are undoubtably better today because of the games that came before it.

Naughty Dog then are building on a good thing. Since the start of KyozoKicks in 2009 I have been patiently waiting to do an Uncharted piece and I hope you enjoy it. inspired by Uncharted : Drakes Deception, the separate panels of the shoe depict various pages from the journal Drake carries with him throughout the adventure. The aged and weathered brown leather that covers the rest of the shoe mirrors the gun holster that drake has worn throughout each game. The rear of the shoes carries the horsehoe design found on his beltbuckle.

Come back next month for another custom pair of Nike Dunks based off of some of our favorite video games. A clue for next month?  Well, call your mama in the room and show her how great you are! 

But enthusiasm is for nothing without a competent execution. To assess how well Awesomenauts does as a game, we have to understand what it is. Described as a MOBA (an acronym of Multi-player Online Battle Arena) Players are, at the beginning of each round split into two teams of three players and set against each other, battling it out to destroy opponents turrets (whilst defending their own) to gain control of the map and ultimately, overthrow the opposing team. The familiarity to players of PC games such as League of Legends or DOTA should be immediate. Indeed this is no mistake on Ronimos part, the intention is to bring that very experience over the console. Here, the tried and tested game formula has been tweaked, streamlined and wrapped in personality.

Visually, the game appears to be a direct descendant of the 16-bit SEGA Mega-drive/Genesis games of my youth. The way it plays and feels is immediately familiar, the 2D Saturday morning cartoon visuals, the humor, even the 8 way shooting mechanic sparks feelings of nostalgia. A feeling that I can’t quite grasp until I hear Robin Meijer, Awesomenauts Producer on hand at Eurogamer Expo, mention Earthworm Jim and like that it all clicks. As far as inspiration goes, I know these guys are looking in all the right places

Awesomenauts wants desperately to engage you, constantly. From the moment you decide to begin playing there is little opportunity to so much as look away from the screen. The usual lobby system has all but been removed, instead if other players cannot be found at the moment you start playing, the level will be populated with AI players. An online drop in, drop out system is then employed, replacing the AI characters with human counterparts when they become available. At the beginning of each new round all players experience points are reset to level one (a departure from the usual ongoing level up mechanic console players are use to in games such as Call of Duty or Red Dead Redemption). Currency, or in this case ‘Solar’, is gained through your actions during the battle which, in turn, can then be used mid-game to upgrade your avatar along an entire tree of upgrades. In one game you might increase your move list, in another depending on how the game is playing out, you may want to increase your overall health or the damage you dish out with each attack. Things are kept interesting and at the end of the match your characters strengths and weaknesses may be the complete reverse of how you decided to upgrade that same character during the previous match. The re-spawn screen has also quietly been done away with, the short wait time between you meeting your demise and reentering the battle becomes a mini game of sorts, to collect more solar, to spend in game, to upgrade your character. Engaging you, constantly.

Awesomenauts ace in the sleeve is undoubtably its social or cooprative appeal. Get yourself and two friends together on a sofa and you have a full team ready to go. With the screen split into four (the HUD elements are moved to the forth, bank square for easier viewing) Awesomenauts then takes your team online to blend together both local and online gaming. With multiple characters to choose from, each with very different abilities and benefits, real strategy can be implemented. Because you are playing actual players online rather than AI opponents the challenge of each game will differ in how you work as a team. I expect the experience of a group of friends playing this game together, deciding when to push forward or to pull back, who will upgrade and how, will bring a smile to many faces.

And that’s where game ultimately succeeds, it’s fun. It’s fun when I play the game by myself and that feeling is only amplified by how many other people are playing too.

Awesomenauts.

Release Date : TBC
Developer : Ronimo
Platform : Xbox 360 & Playstation 3
Publisher : dtp Entertainment AG
Pricing : TBC

Note : KyozoKicks played a version of Awesomnauts currently in BETA and as such should not be considered a review of the final product. Approximately 2 hours was spent with the title.

Strip down the game to its core elements you’re presented with an arcade style racing game, where we are challenged with simply getting our protagonist Joe (seen above), safely from point A to point B on his chosen mode of transport, avoiding various obstacles as you go. Where that great feeling I mentioned comes from is the imagination and flamboyance Hello Games wraps that simple premise in.

Joe, the character, remains as charming in his body language and reactions to our slip ups as ever. Not content with being a simple motorcycle daredevil (as in the first game) he now sees himself as an, albeit bumbling, Hollywood stuntman. The most notable and immediate change to the series is the inclusion of multiple vehicles. Where as Joe rode his motorcycle exclusively throughout the first game we now see him attempt to also master mine carts, skis, snowmobiles and jet-packs. I wondered if simply adding more vehicles to the series would be enough to sustain a sequel, yet each mode of transport brings with it its own rhythm and style. On skis Joe feels quick and light, off jumps I seem to soar through the air whilst in the Mine cart I am given a sense of weight, barrelling down tracks and through tight loops.

Unique vehicles call for unique environments and here once again Hello Games seems to be flexing their creative muscles. The bright, cartoon like visuals now not only make Joe come alive but the entire screen. The obstacles Joe has to clear or targets Joe has to hit (A Russian Warhead in one instance) over the course of these levels are pleasingly difficult without seeming impossible. A simple, single touch of a button allows you to quickly jump back into the action before a mishap took place and focus on what you are doing right, rather than feeling punished for what you are doing wrong.

I’m playing a game mere days after its public announcement and already apparent are the hints at nuanced game-play improvements over it’s predecessor. Dynamic courses giving subtle changes each time a level is played. Local multi-player modes that go beyond simple races. User generated content in the shape of our own levels that we can construct and share with Joe Danger : The Movie players around the world. Speaking to Hello Games I get the sense, as they throw around ‘what if’ scenarios for this new Joe Danger game, that they are as excited to make the game as I am to play it. And that feels, great.

- Nick Tonks.

Minecraft has no real narrative in place nor is one strictly necessary. It does however have a wild and popular a cast of characters which populate the world, to build your own story upon if you see fit.  A fan favourite among the cast, an online icon, The Creeper. The dead eyed, camouflaged, Kamikaze creature has become an unofficial mascot for the game. After only spending a short amount of time with Minecraft I knew I wanted to create a pair of shoes influenced by it. My experience, of running scared after late night run-ins meant I knew they had to be Creeper inspired.

Fast forward a few months and the Minecraft Vans are complete. Upon reflection I look back and wonder if, at the start had I considered the over 1000 squares I would be painting, by hand, and each 1000 squares being painted four separate times to get the colours just right, would I have even started? They are by far the most complex pair I have ever done, the most intricate and time consuming but also the most fun. To bring an idea for a pair of shoes to life, for them to match what I had in your minds eye is a hugely satisfying experience.

That’s not to say I’ll ever make them again.

Due to them being such a huge drain as far as time goes (for example the placement of each coloured square had to be considered so no colour was placed beside a square of the same colour on any of the four possible sides – got it?) these Minecraft Vans shall foreseeably be the only ones I ever make. Pair one of one. Originally I intended them to be worn by myself at this years Gamescom event but, with my computer suddenly meeting the end of its life, the shoes shall go on to serve a higher purpose. KyozoKicks is not in a position to just go out and buy a new PC so hopefully these can raise a bit towards one. That way I can continue to make sure new shoes and other ideas keep being made and shared.

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A piece on KyozoKicks can be found in the June issue of The Official Playstation Magazine UK under the Culture section. Thank you to everyone at the magazine, especially Joel. Everyones enthusiasm, from tweets to magazine articles on KyozoKicks continues to be the best motivation I have ever found. More shoes inbound this month!

Okay, for the most part I was encouraged to run, the game stumbles often in its execution. At a few points during the game I am presented with, what feels uncharacteristic for our protagonist Faith, a weapon with which to dispatch the bad guys. The weapons feel like an after thought and only serves to intrude on the enjoyment that comes from stringing together a line of perfect free running.

So yes, Mirrors Edge is far from perfect but so are all my other favorite games. A sequel would have no doubt ironed out these flaws but with EA’s E3 press conference coming to a close for 2011 with no mention it might be time to let go of Mirrors Edge. What better way to do it then with custom Mirrors Edge Converse.

I had actually designed these shoes towards the end of 2010 and put the mock-up on KyozoKicks where it sat dormant for a few months. Dormant until they were seen by a fellow Mirrors Edge fan and commissioned. Whilst I always enjoy painting, to paint shoes off of a game you really like makes me extremely enthusiastic.

A brief run down on the design, The colour scheme is red, blue, black and white. All colours heavily used and associated with Mirrors Edge. Wrapping around the sole of the shoe is a silhouette of an urban landscape, the kind you encounter all throughout the game. There are no rounded edges used on the buildings which ties into the sharp design of Faiths black tattoo which climbs the height of the Converse. The blue is again used on the tongue of the shoe and incorporates the Mirrors Edge logo. The red comes into play on the laces and sparingly on the rear of the shoe, within the game the colour red leads the direction of the player.

Well that’s it for another pair of custom video game shoes from KyozoKicks, hope you enjoyed them guys and keep coming back as I plan on even more pairs this summer including the Star Wars Hi-Tops as voted by you on the KyozoKicks Facebook Fanpage Here.

Thanks for stopping by guys, any questions or comments please feel free to leave them bellow.

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Portal, the little game that could. As of writing the recently released sequel to the 2007 original sits atop the Amazon.com bestseller list across all available platforms. A week passed release and I think we can safely call this one a hit. Tracing the timeline of Portal up to this point is nothing short of remarkable. The idea for a game involving portals came from DigiPen students, who created the game Narbacular Drop before being ushered into the Valve family where, over the course of two years Portal was quietly crafted.

When the game was finally released it became part of ‘The Orange Box’, a collection of games from already well established Valve titles like Half Life and Team Fortress. Deemed an experiment by Valve, Portal quickly garnered an overwhelming positive reception from critics and fans alike. Soon it would become a stand alone release and spawn a full-fledged sequel. Fans of the series embraced all aspects of the game and as a result we have seen plush Companion Cubes, countless PC case mods, scale replicas of the Portal gun and now Custom Portal Converse.

Really it could not have come at a better time, what with all the hype surrounding the second installment these past few weeks I was genuinely excited to design at paint these. Artwork and discussion relating to the series was everywhere and that all went into influencing the design. My main point of focus was to keep it simple, clean lines and well-defined use of colour. I looked into what the characters wore and interacted with and drew inspiration largely from the Portal gun, I spent an inordinate amount of time looking over Volpin Props fantastic recreation (The large blood splatter across the orange shoe is a nod to this, the same found on his gun).

Orange and blue, the colours of the portals and the fictious company found within the game ‘Aperture Science’ were also incorporated into the design.

Now available to purchase on the KyozoKicks store.

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