Gameday: Battletoads Double Dragon (NES)

This is probably one of the best original Nintendo system games that were created. It features everything a kid could want in a game, monsters, action, two player co-op, and giant frogs which girls found icky. We couldn't get enough of this back in the day.

Though most games can't stand the test of time, this game is one of the few that have both the nice warm retro feeling and also the feeling of a good game at the same time. Visually its not one of the best things I have ever seen, but I can't really complain about it all that much, it was good for its time and everything looks how it should even now.

The music is actually pretty fun to listen to during the game and it enhances your emotions during game-time which adds to the excitement. The sound effects are pretty awesome too.

Gameplay is very solid even with the very small amount of controls you'll need you can still pull off some pretty cool looking combos and pick up weapons and do battle like a champ. Overall its pretty fun and I find that playing this is actually better than playing some of the newer games out there these days.

My only real complaint about the game is that some of the enemies don't really make much sense. Hands that come out of fans on a spaceship that have balls for arms? Typical retro enemy that makes no sense at all. Thats more of a problem with the times than it is with the game itself though.

All together, I found this game to be a heck of alot of fun and I suggest you check it out.

Game Night: The Chronicles of Riddick Assault on Dark Athena

Sequel to what was a fairly popular game on the original Xbox.... I couldn't help but be fairly disappointed with this game. It looks and feels almost like a slightly better looking version of the original game. It is definitely not Next-Gen gaming at it's best.

The music and voice acting is a bit bland as with the graphics. This review will be fairly short if you can't tell. The story is the strong point of the game, but even that is fairly bland. I wasn't a large fan of the animated movie or the other two live action movies featuring Riddick, but those were far superior to this game. Overall, I believe that this game could have been done much better.

Game Night: Castle Crashers

Silly fun. That basically sums up this game in a nutshell. The plot and overall theme of the game is fairly silly and if you go into the ending, well... Its _very_ silly. The game is far better when you play with friends than when you play it alone, which is why it not only supports but encourages four player co-op campaign.

The main campaign itself is very short. You only get 4 characters at the start of the game as well, the four different colored but awesome knights. As you go you will unlock more and more characters, mostly enemies from the game, and as you do so you get many different and sometimes nonsensical powers. From throwing gas balls to acorns this game basically takes the cake when it comes to random powers.

The music is absolutely phenomenal, it may just be the game's strongest point. I couldn't help but love the score the second it started playing.

It is very similar to it's predecessor Alien Hominid. There isn't really all that much to say except try it if you're in for a good amount of fun with some friends without going for any deep plot or anything. Have fun guys.

Movie Night: The Watchmen

I assume that by now you've seen my previous review on this subject. Back then it was of the comic, now its of the live action movie. I attempted to go through this movie with a clear mind. I tried not to think back to watching the comic at all, but in a case like this it can prove to be very difficult. This review will be pretty short though since the movie does not differ very much from the comic. Even the costumes come out looking absolutely perfect.

Luckily, this movie was good enough that it easily stands alone. You need absolutely no prior knowledge of the comic to understand what is going on and to jump straight into the movie. A bit of American History knowledge may help make the movie go down a bit smoother, but even that is not absolutely necessary. This ability to stand alone makes it much easier to show to newer generations that have not had a chance to see the old comic or to really know much about the history of America in the first place. Though I would never suggest a child see this movie due to the graphic nature.

The movie follows the comic pretty well, to a certain point. It differs in the main plot though seeing as Ozymadias instead of making a huge hoax that looks like aliens are attacking the earth, makes it look like Doc Manhattan is attacking. It has the same desired effect of making the world work together to face this new threat instead of blowing each other apart. Other than that though, it stays very true to the original comic. I enjoyed the movie, though I must say that the ending still gets to me a little. My favorite character's death is still just as gruesome. Rest well Rorschach.

Dark Floors - The Lordi Motion Picture

I have to admit, I originally watched this movie not expecting it to be any good. Then again, I approach almost all horror movies with such skepticism, especially when they're on FearNet On Demand. In the end though, I was completely won over.Although produced in Finland, the movie is in English and the English is completely comprehensible, despite the accents of some of the people. The movie revolves around an autistic little girl, Sarah, and her father, Ben. From the beginning of the movie, the viewer can clearly see Sarah is severly disabled. Her vocabulary seems to consist entirely of "No, no, not again, not again" and "I want the red crayon" and she doesn't seem particularly in touch with the world around her. Just watching her and her poor father makes you want to cry. Ben struggles to decide whether he should take his daughter out of the hospital and eventually takes Sarah to the elevator, intent on taking her home. The nurse, Emily, follows them onto the elevator, trying to convince Ben that if there was a better place for Sarah, she would have taken Sarah there herself. Also on the elevator are Tobias, a beyond unusual man to say the least who is always complaining that he feels colder than death, Rick, the security guard, and Jon, who is just a complete jackass.
As the elevator starts to descend, it suddenly screeches to a halt. This is the second power outage in the movie - the first being when Sarah was in an MRI at the beginning. When the elevator starts to move again, they get off the elevator to discover the hospital is abandoned and in ruin. As they start to explore the hospital, things go from wierd to wierder. A photocopier with an open lid that is spitting out copies all on its own, communication systems kicking their own messages back to them, a woman in a wheelchair who has had her eyes ripped out, time skips and overlaps, loads of monsters, and oh did I mention that when they look out the window, they notice the surrounding landscape is frozen in time?
One by one, the monsters pick off all the group members, starting - true to the unofficial rules of horror movies - with the black guy. Despite being told that "The only logical solution is to give up the girl," Ben presses on. In the end, it's just Ben and Sarah. Ben leaves Sarah and goes to have a showdown with Mr. Lordi, who seems to be the monster of all monsters. However, in the end, it's actually Sarah who has the showdown with Mr. Lordi and she suddenly opens her eyes to find herself back in the MRI during the power outage. As the doctor, Emily and Ben try to pry her out, Sarah seems to have changed her tastes, because she starts screaming, "I want the blue crayon! I want the blue crayon!" At the very end, Tobias passes Sarah in the hall. He leans over her with a kind smile and whispers, "I'm not cold anymore, Sarah," and walks away.Dark Floors is not your standard horror film. That's probably why I like it so much. It's not just people running and screaming, attempting to flee from the monsters. It makes you think and it has an intelligent subplot of the human struggle with good versus evil. Oh, and did I mention that Lordi, a heavy metal band, made the film? Hats off to Lordi and the rest of the cast and crew for a job well done!

L: Change the WorLd

The third in a series of live action Death Note films, L: Change the WorLd is hardly a Death Note film. That isn’t to say fans won’t enjoy it; it’s just that the Death Notes are burned to ashes by L within the first few minutes of the film.

The Plot

Chronicling the last 23 days of L’s life, L: Change the WorLd is about L’s last big case. A bioterrorist group has engineered a virus with the contagiousness of the influenza virus and the power of Ebola and which has no time delay between contamination and manifestation, which they plan to use to wipe out mankind to save the earth’s ecosystems. It felt like I was watching L in some bizarre X/1999 / Resident Evil crossover movie. The Dragons of Earth are infecting people with the T-virus. Now only one question remains – who is Seishiro? I mean, Matoba has the same bizarre-looking eye and the correct gender but Misawa is closer to the personality. On second thought, two questions. Because could L ever possibly be emo enough to rival Kamui?

The first we see of this terrible virus is in a village in Thailand, where American troops in HAZ-MAT suits walk in, take some blood samples, kick some poor dying folks around a bit, and then leave just in time to miss the MOAB being dropped from the skies. Americans can be such bastards, can’t they?

From there, L gets a call from Near, who in this movie is a very very young boy who came from the village in Thailand – he was the only one to not get the virus and F, an associate of L’s, helped him to escape at the cost of his own life. L has Near brought to him and tests are performed on the boy. After the tests, there is a bizarre scene with L and Near in which L tries to talk Near into letting him see his necklace by bribing him with an L-kabob (which, among other things, consisted of a Belgian waffle and a doughnut – how do the kabob sticks support such weight?). L’s first babysitting experience is off to a bad start but eventually, after Near takes a chip – or several – and eats it, he allows L to see the necklace, which belonged to F and has a MicroSD card containing information on the virus hidden inside it.

A second child joins the team a while later. Maki-chan is the daughter of a doctor who worked at the same labs where K, another associate of Wammy House, developed the virus. Yes, an associate of Wammy House was behind the virus. After witnessing her father injecting himself with the virus and then being electrocuted to death, Maki runs off to a conveniently placed car, where she pops a MicroSD card into her phone and frantically yells at the driver to take her to every one of the addresses on the list contained within the card.

The two children and L develop a clearly dysfunctional but loving relationship as they, with the help of an FBI agent who was obviously thrown in for comic relief and an old associate of Maki-chan’s father, try to develop an antidote for the virus and stop the bad guys. Maki-chan has injected herself with the virus but shows no symptoms at first. Maki-chan suggests that maybe her father was making her immune to it with some mysterious injections he had given her but the doctor reveals that it’s just that the virus feeds on sugar and Maki-chan’s blood sugar is very low, so the virus is dormant. The look on L’s face when he heard the virus liked sugar was absolutely priceless.

Maki-chan decides to give her contamination plot another try. She slips away from L and arranges to meet K alone. She brings a knife to cut herself so she can infect K but of course K didn’t actually come alone. Maki-chan is captured before L finds his way to the meet site.

The climax of the movie comes in an epically dramatic scene on a plane, where all the passengers are infected when K rips an IV out of Maki’s arm, causing her to bleed all over Matoba and the stewardess. K quite pleasantly reveals to a horrified Matoba that they don’t have an antidote and that everyone on the plane will die, and from there the disease will spread.

In the end, L busts in with a bag full of antidote and convinces K to change her ways and keep living, effectively saying that he wants her to be the next L when he dies. After L saves the day like he always does, he leaves for Wammy House, where he hands Near over to Roger and gives him his name. “When someone is sick, you will always be near.”

There is also a gorgeous scene toward the end where Maki-chan wakes up in a hospital with the FBI agent watching over her. He tells her that L left a bear for her. She holds down on the hand and hears her mothers voice, as she has before, welcome her home and ask if she had a good day. She nods and then suddenly hears L’s voice from the bear too, “Welcome home, Maki-chan. Make tomorrow a good day too.” Maki whispers back a, “You too.” It’s a very touching scene to say the least.

Impressions of the Characters

L

In L: Change the WorLd, L suddenly becomes a much more active – and human – character. Now, at first, I had my doubts… but seeing a more human side of L has just made me love him even more.

Near

Near is still a genius… but he comes off looking a bit retarded. I don’t remember him speaking much, aside from a few random screams and shouting out numbers over and over until someone got their significance. I thought he was quite cute and I liked him much better than the anime Near.

Maki

Maki-chan is hardly a standard 12-year-old girl. Her character was wonderfully developed as a strong intelligent individual, although perhaps a bit naïve. I was really impressed – not just with the way the character was developed but also with Mayuko Fukuda’s acting abilities.

K

I find it odd that a woman like this was produced by Wammy House. Wammy House clearly emphasizes using human intellect to better the world, so I think it’s strange that K came to the conclusion that Watari would be supportive of her idea to destroy all of mankind. However, she is still an interesting character. She seems to feel a bit conflicted at times, especially when she watches Maki’s father inject himself with the virus, which perhaps means that she isn’t as confident as she seems.

K’s Peeps

Not much character development here. Matoba is a selfish greedy ass who actually wants to sell the virus and the antidote to make millions. Misawa is a whack job. The others barely have names much less personalities but they aren’t all that important to the plot so it’s forgivable.

Extra Special Things

There were some extra special things in the movie that I really loved. Here are just a few:

- The movie actually starts with L working a case with Naomi Misora just before he leaves for Japan to start working the Kira case (from which it then skips straight to when L writes his own name in the Death Note.)

- The movie references the BB Murders. I loved that novel. (Unfortunately, though, they didn’t go far enough as to have B listed in L’s address book when he went to send the e-mail about Watari’s death. (Before you question why a dead man would be in his address book, there were several deceased people in there. They were just unable to be selected.)

- L spoke Spanish. This was a huge thing for me as a Spanish major.

- There’s a maid café scene. Enough said.

The Experience

Now there was only one bad part of seeing L: Change the WorLd – the subtitles. This was the first time VIZ did one subtitled night and one dubbed night and I had to the theater on the subtitled night. Nearly no one was there, which made me happy, because it meant I wouldn’t have heads in my way when I tried to read the subtitles. However, nearly half the movie was in Engrish, which they didn’t subtitle but they really should have with how bad some of the actors were at speaking English. The subtitles, when present, also seemed to be off at times and some of the translations made no sense at all. Not surprising, considering only one person was listed in the credits for doing subtitles from what I saw. It was so bad that I was joking about how they hired out a fansub group from Singapore.

Game Night: Left 4 Dead

Four survivors, thousands of zombies... They must fight to survive as they make their way to an evacuation point. Along the way they will meet new foes, the Hunter (A zombie in a hoodie that jumps on you and beats the crap out of you), the Smoker (A zombie that uses an incredibly long tongue to grab you and bring you to your demise), the Boomer (a fat zombie that vomits on you, the boomer's bile calls forth a horde of zombies on whoever has been vomited on), the Tank (a large muscled zombie that beats its foes into submission in a few hits, can also throw large rocks and hit items at you, including cars), and the Witch (a woman crying, if startled by you she will put you down instantly and then continue to rip you apart).

There, thats it. Thats the plot for the entire game. Theres nothing else, its a bit of a disappointment really if you're looking for a plot. Me, I was just looking to kill a crap load of zombies. And I did, thousands have fallen to my shotgun in the streets and woods of Pennsylvania.

Visually the graphics are exactly what we've come to expect out of the Source engine. It looks very similar to Half life 2, which is a good thing. Theres very few complaints to be made here except that theres nothing truly new or astounding about it.

The sounds are fantastic, they used a perfect mix of music and natural noises that will help scare the crap out of you while playing this game. Everytime theres a witch around, the music changes and I feel a bit of fear creep into myself. This is when you let your dumber teammates run forward into the battle.

Overall a good rental. The multiplayer is by far the most fun part of this game, playing with three friends as zombies trying to kill the four survivors can be a heck of alot of fun. Though sometimes the AI can be pretty dumb and other times incredibly smart. Without a storyline though, the game grows old pretty fast. I played it a heck of alot in the short time I had it and I feel as though I am completely finished, theres nothing left for me in it. Ah well, till next time.

Small note: The best part of the game is hearing Jen Taylor, the voice of Cortana.

Internet Sensation Night: Lolcat

Thanks to youtube and many other sites that are populated by millions of people who have nothing to do, we have had our fare share of internet stars and fads. These fads can range from small amusing things, such as lolcats, or they can grow into larger things such as All Your Base.
lolcats are so amusing that we find that even people who don't have the internet know about them. They really are just that popular. Basically, all they are is a picture of a cat with a caption on it with horrible spelling and grammar. Somehow this is actually pretty cute and or funny. I find myself loving them just as much as most other people. Recently the fad has spread to other animals, which in itself can be pretty good too. Tonight I will post a few just as an example.

Movie Night: Night of the Living Dead

When someone mentions Zombies, many things come to mind. Some things that come to my own mind are Left 4 Dead, Resident Evil, Zombies Ate my Neighbors, and from now on I will always think of Night of the Living Dead.
Released in 1968 by George Romero, this movie was the first to bring on the dreaded Zombie Apocalypse that would show up in hundreds of films and games throughout the years. This film deserves its place as the definition of Zombie Apocalypse. These Zombies are not your average stupid, lumbering, groaning meat bags walking around like the Frankenstein monster that we generally expect. These zombies are smart enough to pick up objects such as rocks to break windows and doors, and they're also smart enough to pick up sharp objects to kill people as well. They're nowhere near as dumb as what we've come to expect from zombies these days. The movie itself is in black and white, which only seems to enhance the experience by a great amount. I found that watching this was very much like watching an old Twilight Zone episode, though in full feature length film quality.The overall plot is a bit odd when I think about it, we sent a satellite to Venus, it comes back with an enormous amount of radiation, so we destroy it, it releases the radiation, and then the dead come back to life. It is odd, and a bit hokey, but it was also the 60's. It really should just be expected. Despite that odd plot, the movie plays out more like a modern day M. Night Shyamalan suspense film. There are several moments in the film that I felt my stomach churning, one of these moments was the grotesque feasting on a young couple as they attempted to escape from the building that the cast is trapped in for the majority of the film. Another moment that made my stomach churn was the ending, after the hell that the protagonist went through during the film, I was not expecting this ending at all. It was a good plot twist and for those that haven't seen it, I won't give it away.
Good times.

Mazinger Day: Shin Mazinger Shougeki! Z hen 02

Wow. That word alone pretty much sums up my feelings for this episode. It is the first real episode, unlike the chronological first episode which was a clip show that shows events in the series.

From the very first moment in the episode till the last I found myself enthralled with the show. The music done by JAM project at the start alone was enough to catch my attention and make me wish that I had the soundtrack. As usual, any opening done by JAM instantly goes to the top of my list of favorite openings. The opening video itself is done well too of course.

The actual show starts off showing a heavily battle damaged Mazinger Z and Kabuto Kouji, this is of course the ending of the series, which is major foreshadowing done here. It really makes me wonder what happens to reach this point, which is most likely why it was done like this. After that, we learn about photon power and get an introduction of Baron Ashura and Dr. Hell. This is the first part of the series that we see that actually belongs in the begining.

Dr. Hell wants to take over the world and is sending Baron Ashura and his Ashura Corps. out to take the photon power labs in Japan, which will give him a major advantage over the rest of the planet. From here we cut to an experiment done with photon power to run a city, which it does wonderfully.

I'll try to cut down here and not spoil too much of the actual details for the episode. Most of the episode is fairly lighthearted when it involves Kouji and his family, though we do see a darker side as a mysterious man with a sword kills people spying on the household and even police that are in the area. There is also a detective that is following Kouji's grandfather, a world renowned scientist to defend him from this serial killer. It is later revealed that the man with the sword is defending the doctor from Ashura's spies. We also get a look at Sayaka who is also spying on Kouji, as well as Boss and his goon squad.

Boss challenges Kouji to a fight and this is when the real action starts. Giant robots attack the city as well as foot soldiers storming the Kabuto manor. This is our first sighting of Aphrodai A and the Pilder. This is also where the episode ends after Kouji gets in the Pilder and prepares to get in Mazinger Z. Simply put, this episode was really good and it makes me want more already. Cliffhangers like this tend to do that.

Movie Night: Street Fighter; Street Fighter: The legend of Chun-li

Quick, change the channel!

Street Fighter the movie was released in December of 1994, just in time for Christmas. As I remember it, at the time the movie was fairly well received. We young fans were overjoyed to see our favorite Street Fighter characters on the big screen. Rewatching this movie brought up a large amount of nostalgia; but it goes beyond that. To this day I still find this movie to be enjoyable.

Overall the movie isn't bad from a neutral standpoint. While it does go against quite a bit from the official storyline made by Capcom over the years, its not made by Capcom so we really shouldn't expect it to be canon.

The theme of the movie is a mix of action and comedy. It has the typical action elements of any movie starring Jean Claude Van Damme, which in itself is a good amount of martial arts. The comedy elements are something all new though and makes the movie a must see film. The quotes from Zangief and the parody of Good Morning Vietnam make everything worth it alone.


Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li



Unlike the previous title, I have only had the time to watch this movie a single time so far. It is pretty enjoyable in its own right, even though it takes things away from the original game series, much like the last movie. The movie was released in February of 2009 in the states and was directed by Andrzej Bartkowiak . (Romeo Must Die, Doom, The Devil's Advocate).

From a neutral point, the movie is a fairly well put together revenge film. Overall its not bad, but it could have been improved upon. I would definitely suggest at least a rental of the film before commitment to buy.

Unlike it's predecessor, the movie is simply action. The movie is more of a typical summer blockbuster; full of action and cute girls. Pretty damn good for this purpose.

Heres a little comparison of the two different Chun-Li's though.

As you can see, the two Chun-Li's look pretty different. In fact, all of the characters that have managed to be in both movies are very different from each other. The biggest difference is that while perhaps not the biggest or best budget were used for the older movie, it was closer to keeping the characters close to how they were in the games.

Mazinger Day: Mazinger Z SNES

Push start to beginning.

Now thats how you know a game is going to be good, thats the first line that I had read. Simple awesome. In this game you're actually going along with the story for Mazinger Z a bit better, which is a good thing, though I tend to just skip the little bit of story and get right into the action for a game like this. The controls work well and so do your attacks, though I can't seem to manage to do any special attacks other than what happens if you keep a combo of punches and kicks going.

Mazinger Z is an SNES game and while it looks a little less pleasing graphically than Mazin Saga, I find this game to be a bit more fun. The difficulty is still incredibly high, but its not quite at the legendary level of Mazin Saga. The game also doesn't seem to have any of the problems featured in its cousin over on the Genesis. Overall this appears to be a better game and much more fun, I would suggest that if anyone ever gets the chance, they should play this game if they like Giant Robots or sidescroller-beat 'em ups.

Mazinger Day: Mazin Saga Genesis

Figured today would be a good day to post about this game, so here it goes. Its a pretty old game seeing as how it was made for the Sega Genesis way back when that was popular, this game manages to stand the test of time. For its time the graphics were pretty good, and even today the game looks fantastic.

Mazin Saga is a pretty straightforward sidescroller for the most part, its very reminiscent of Captain America and the Avengers, though you only control one character and it doesn't appear to have any co-op mode for it. The game's difficulty would be rated at Legendary, its incredibly difficult but like most of those old retro games, it makes you feel like you've put a lot of hard work into winning, so you feel like you did something at the end of the game. I can't manage to get that far though, but I have had fun going as far as I could in the mean time. Its very solid and its more fun than I ever imagined it would be, if you can get your hands on this, you really should.

The only problems that I find with this game is the lack of enemies that I can actually remember being in a Mazinger series and the fact that if you use your special you use a large chunk of your own life bar. The enemies look alot like the random enemies you encounter in Captain America and the avengers. As for using your special, theres no point since it just helps you die faster and it also seems to do less damage than just punching a few times. Despite these problems, I still found the game to be fun and exciting though.