For the last nearly 20 years, the Pokémon series has entertained millions of gamers through its many main series and side-series games (Which makes me wish for a new Pokémon Stadium game), and like many franchises, it has inspired various expressions of fan love.
Fan art, fan fiction, and even in the case of Pokémon (in fact, any major long-running game series)...fan games.
Yes, fan games. People actually made their very own Pokémon games from scratch, using programs like RPG Maker and the like. I never really thought much of some games, until I stumbled upon a YouTube channel that did a series of videos showing a play-through of one of them: Pokémon Insurgence.
Insurgence's story is quite a bit darker and grimmer than the "Official" Pokémon games, so much so that the creator included the option to play a lighter version of the game's story that tones down certain plot elements.
The game is set in the new region of Torren, a region that is home to several cults, each worshipping a certain legendary Pokémon as a divine being. The cults cause a lot of carnage, and also have been known to use human sacrifices to summon the Legendary Pokémon they worship. I don't want to spoil the story for anyone, but it is quite different from your standard Pokémon game.
It does do a lot of things differently from the official games, including how you are introduced to your player character to even the starter Pokémon.
The gameplay and world is incredible, looking like a game from Pokémon's Gen III-IV era. The world is bright, colorful, and beautiful, which is a nice contrast to the darker story.
The surprising thing about this game? It's a beta. It's unfinished. Yup, as of the date this blog entry was put up, the game's development is not completed. However, so far, it does feel like a complete Pokémon game so far. If it's this fun when unfinished, I can't wait to see the game completed! Download it!
You can download it here: https://www.reddit.com/r/PokemonInsurgence/search?q=flair%3AOlder%2Brelease+OR+flair%3ACurrent%2BRelease&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all
Monday, September 28, 2015
Thursday, September 17, 2015
My thoughts on Pokemon GO
Recently, it has been announced that there is a new game coming for iOS and Android devices, and it's a Pokémon game. Yup, after Pokémon Shuffle comes...Pokémon GO.
Pokémon GO is what is called an "augmented reality" game. An augmented reality game is a basically a game that enhances real life images with computer-generated images. Basically, such a game would involve you seeing a real-life image of, say, a grassy field. The game would then provide images of creatures running around on said field.
Based on the trailer, this game emphasizes exploration, encouraging owners of the game to walk around to find Pokémon in the real world.
I actually like this concept, to be honest. It does help you feel like a real Pokémon trainer, travelling around your town and anywhere you carry your tablet or more likely your phone, and finding Pokémon everywhere you go. The game also allows trainers to battle and trade, which further encouraged social interaction. I wonder if it'll allow online battles, too. It MUST have that feature.
I also like that the game is free-to-play. It does have micro-transactions, but it's not a big deal to me, I hardly ever use those features. I hope it has that feature that you get rewards for logging in and playing every day. I like that feature, because it encourages regular playing. Keep playing, and you get something nice.
The game is also going to be sold with a device that essentially works as a Pokémon detector.
It looks like a Pokémaniac's tear after they announce a new game in the series, ha ha. It does raise some questions for me, though. Is it required to play the game? Where is it sold? How much will this thing cost? To me, this little gadget here is the only potential stumbling block to something that seems like a lot of fun, and I would love to give a try to.
Pokémon GO is what is called an "augmented reality" game. An augmented reality game is a basically a game that enhances real life images with computer-generated images. Basically, such a game would involve you seeing a real-life image of, say, a grassy field. The game would then provide images of creatures running around on said field.
Based on the trailer, this game emphasizes exploration, encouraging owners of the game to walk around to find Pokémon in the real world.
I actually like this concept, to be honest. It does help you feel like a real Pokémon trainer, travelling around your town and anywhere you carry your tablet or more likely your phone, and finding Pokémon everywhere you go. The game also allows trainers to battle and trade, which further encouraged social interaction. I wonder if it'll allow online battles, too. It MUST have that feature.
I also like that the game is free-to-play. It does have micro-transactions, but it's not a big deal to me, I hardly ever use those features. I hope it has that feature that you get rewards for logging in and playing every day. I like that feature, because it encourages regular playing. Keep playing, and you get something nice.
The game is also going to be sold with a device that essentially works as a Pokémon detector.
Tuesday, September 8, 2015
Batman/TMNT, My Thoughts.
Comics can surprise you, mainly in the form of the crossover. We've seen epic ones, like JLA/Avengers, and strange ones, like Archie Meets the Punisher. We've seen lots of crossovers over the years, and the latest is an announcement of DC Comics and IDW, Batman and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles will be meeting up in a six-issue mini-series by James Tynion IV and Freddie Williams II.
I'm looking forward to this crossover. The creative team promises "wall-to-wall ninja action in Gotham", so maybe the heroes will be taking on the League of Assassins and the Foot Clan. It is possible interdimensional hijinks may be involved, mainly because of Krang, and alternate dimensions was how they pulled off the TMNT/Ghostbusters crossover (a really cool crossover in its own right).
This crossover looks like a lot of fun. I haven't been buying a lot of DC stuff lately, due to my scaling back on comics buying, and because a lot of titles lost their appeal to me, but I will be getting this.
 |
| "Yo, Bat-Dude! Any good pizza joints in Gotham?" |
This crossover looks like a lot of fun. I haven't been buying a lot of DC stuff lately, due to my scaling back on comics buying, and because a lot of titles lost their appeal to me, but I will be getting this.
Thursday, September 3, 2015
Does the Marvel Cinematic Universe need the X-Men?
The Marvel Cinematic Universe has been quite an achievement in film, a series of movies that set up an interconnected universe. From Iron Man to Ant-Man, the films all enriched, expanded, and told some fun stories.
Unfortunately, due to legal reasons, two major teams from the Marvel Comics Universe can't be a part of the MCU: The Fantastic Four and the X-Men. The film rights to those characters and their corners of the Marvel Universe belong to Fox.
The failure of the latest film outing of the Fantastic Four has led to fans calling for Fox to give the rights to the Fantastic Four back to Marvel. It has also come to light that Sony, the holders to the film rights to Spider-Man, have made a deal with Marvel Studios to bring Spider-Man into the MCU.
With this, I asked myself, what about the X-Men? Would Marvel and Fox do a deal to have the X-Men join the MCU? They did something like that for Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver to appear in Avengers: Age of Ultron. As part of the deal, the MCU version of Wanda and Pietro Maximoff were revamped to be humans that were empowered by experimentation instead of being born with their powers.
But here's the thing, does the MCU NEED the X-Men? Does their absence take away from the MCU? Would bringing them in add anything special to the MCU?
After thinking about it, my opinion is simply this: It would be nice to have them from a Marvel fan perspective, but maybe the MCU will be just fine without them.
Think about it, the MCU has done well without the X-Men so far. And since Marvel Studios can't use them or the Fantastic Four, it's forced them to dig deeper into Marvel's massive library of characters for characters they could. It's what inspired them to make films with Ant-Man and Guardians, and even the Inhumans. Critically and financially, the MCU films have done well with nary a mutant in sight. The Avengers has become the highest-grossing superhero movie ever, beating out the first Sam Raimi-directed Spider-Man film, and even The Dark Knight Rises! In 19 days, 19 DAYS, it not only made back its budget, but also the budget for every other MCU film to that point. And all without a mutant in sight.
Not to mention there's another reason why the MCU really doesn't need the X-Men that badly: The Inhumans. In the comics, the Inhumans were a hidden race, an offshoot of humanity created by alien experimentation on humanity's ancestors. These test subjects would live in seclusion from the rest of humanity, creating an advanced technological society with a rigid caste system, when the rest of humanity was emerging from the caves. When a young Inhuman would come of age, they would be exposed to a gas called Terrigen Mist, which would grant them superhuman abilities.
The Infinity storyline revealed that there were secret tribes of Inhumans that interbred with humanity, creating human descendants with dormant Inhuman genes, which would be exposed with the Inhumanity storyline. One good thing about that storyline is it would give rise to one of my favorite Marvel characters, Kamala Khan, the latest Ms. Marvel.
In the MCU, storylines in the Agents of SHIELD series have introduced the Inhumans, and the ending of season two has hinted that we will be seeing more Inhumans. It can be assumed based on that series, that the staus quo of the Inhumans is similar to the comic, there are lots of people out there with hidden Inhuman genes, and we're going to see their Inhuman natures come to light. Not to mention, an Inhumans movie is planned to be released in 2019, which can be assumed will focus on the Inhuman Royal Family: Black Bolt, Medusa, Crystal, Karnak, Gorgon, Triton, and Lockjaw.
With this status quo, it can be assumed that Inhumans are the MCU's equivalent of mutants in a way, people born with powers who are hated and feared. As such, bringing in mutants would be...rather redundant. Mutants are people born with their powers who are hated and feared. What would make them different from the MCU Inhumans?
So, while it would be nice to see the X-Men in the MCU, they are not really needed. Let's face it, Fox will never give the rights to the Merry Mutants back to Marvel, they're too profitable. And in the MCU, they'd end up a redundancy. Any story the X-Men could tell with the themes they are associated with, mainly prejudice and fear of power abusage, could be told with the MCU's take on the Inhumans.
Unfortunately, due to legal reasons, two major teams from the Marvel Comics Universe can't be a part of the MCU: The Fantastic Four and the X-Men. The film rights to those characters and their corners of the Marvel Universe belong to Fox.
The failure of the latest film outing of the Fantastic Four has led to fans calling for Fox to give the rights to the Fantastic Four back to Marvel. It has also come to light that Sony, the holders to the film rights to Spider-Man, have made a deal with Marvel Studios to bring Spider-Man into the MCU.
With this, I asked myself, what about the X-Men? Would Marvel and Fox do a deal to have the X-Men join the MCU? They did something like that for Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver to appear in Avengers: Age of Ultron. As part of the deal, the MCU version of Wanda and Pietro Maximoff were revamped to be humans that were empowered by experimentation instead of being born with their powers.
But here's the thing, does the MCU NEED the X-Men? Does their absence take away from the MCU? Would bringing them in add anything special to the MCU?
After thinking about it, my opinion is simply this: It would be nice to have them from a Marvel fan perspective, but maybe the MCU will be just fine without them.
Think about it, the MCU has done well without the X-Men so far. And since Marvel Studios can't use them or the Fantastic Four, it's forced them to dig deeper into Marvel's massive library of characters for characters they could. It's what inspired them to make films with Ant-Man and Guardians, and even the Inhumans. Critically and financially, the MCU films have done well with nary a mutant in sight. The Avengers has become the highest-grossing superhero movie ever, beating out the first Sam Raimi-directed Spider-Man film, and even The Dark Knight Rises! In 19 days, 19 DAYS, it not only made back its budget, but also the budget for every other MCU film to that point. And all without a mutant in sight.
Not to mention there's another reason why the MCU really doesn't need the X-Men that badly: The Inhumans. In the comics, the Inhumans were a hidden race, an offshoot of humanity created by alien experimentation on humanity's ancestors. These test subjects would live in seclusion from the rest of humanity, creating an advanced technological society with a rigid caste system, when the rest of humanity was emerging from the caves. When a young Inhuman would come of age, they would be exposed to a gas called Terrigen Mist, which would grant them superhuman abilities.
The Infinity storyline revealed that there were secret tribes of Inhumans that interbred with humanity, creating human descendants with dormant Inhuman genes, which would be exposed with the Inhumanity storyline. One good thing about that storyline is it would give rise to one of my favorite Marvel characters, Kamala Khan, the latest Ms. Marvel.
In the MCU, storylines in the Agents of SHIELD series have introduced the Inhumans, and the ending of season two has hinted that we will be seeing more Inhumans. It can be assumed based on that series, that the staus quo of the Inhumans is similar to the comic, there are lots of people out there with hidden Inhuman genes, and we're going to see their Inhuman natures come to light. Not to mention, an Inhumans movie is planned to be released in 2019, which can be assumed will focus on the Inhuman Royal Family: Black Bolt, Medusa, Crystal, Karnak, Gorgon, Triton, and Lockjaw.
With this status quo, it can be assumed that Inhumans are the MCU's equivalent of mutants in a way, people born with powers who are hated and feared. As such, bringing in mutants would be...rather redundant. Mutants are people born with their powers who are hated and feared. What would make them different from the MCU Inhumans?
So, while it would be nice to see the X-Men in the MCU, they are not really needed. Let's face it, Fox will never give the rights to the Merry Mutants back to Marvel, they're too profitable. And in the MCU, they'd end up a redundancy. Any story the X-Men could tell with the themes they are associated with, mainly prejudice and fear of power abusage, could be told with the MCU's take on the Inhumans.
Wednesday, September 2, 2015
The Awesomeness of RetroBlasting.
One day, when watching a bunch of old Batman toy commercials on YouTube (It was slow, and I was bored), and I ended up watching a video by a user called "RetroBlasting".
I ended up enjoying the video, and started watching more of their videos. What was RetroBlasting, I wondered? Luckily, I discovered they had a website.
Who are RetroBlasting? Two people: Michael French and Melinda Mock. Two people who grew up on 1980s pop culture. Their mission? To analyze, examine, and deconstruct the pop culture of the 1980s, to be seen in a new light.
Their videos are a blast to watch. Their analyses often comes in the form of two videos: The first reviewing the cartoon series, and the second reviewing the tie-in toyline. They do a great job presenting the histories of the series and their toyline tie-ins, the videos never feeling dull thanks to the touch of humor they add in their videos. Watch for Broken Vader in their videos. He's a Darth Vader figure with no arms, and he is snarky.
They also put up videos of restorations of old toys, which I enjoy watching as it's fun to see how they take old toys that have been worn down by time and play and bringing them back to life.
If you're feeling nostalgic and/or love 80s stuff like I do, and are willing to laugh about it, give RetroBlasting's videos a watch! They're a RetroBlast!
I ended up enjoying the video, and started watching more of their videos. What was RetroBlasting, I wondered? Luckily, I discovered they had a website.
Who are RetroBlasting? Two people: Michael French and Melinda Mock. Two people who grew up on 1980s pop culture. Their mission? To analyze, examine, and deconstruct the pop culture of the 1980s, to be seen in a new light.
Their videos are a blast to watch. Their analyses often comes in the form of two videos: The first reviewing the cartoon series, and the second reviewing the tie-in toyline. They do a great job presenting the histories of the series and their toyline tie-ins, the videos never feeling dull thanks to the touch of humor they add in their videos. Watch for Broken Vader in their videos. He's a Darth Vader figure with no arms, and he is snarky.
They also put up videos of restorations of old toys, which I enjoy watching as it's fun to see how they take old toys that have been worn down by time and play and bringing them back to life.
If you're feeling nostalgic and/or love 80s stuff like I do, and are willing to laugh about it, give RetroBlasting's videos a watch! They're a RetroBlast!
Monday, August 31, 2015
Summer is almost over already?
It's amazing to me how quickly this summer has passed. Well, to be honest, it's amazing to me how quickly summers tend to pass in general.
It feels like one day, we're anticipating the warm weather and sun, and the next...we're getting ready for fall.
The thing I love about summers is mainly the sunny days. It's great seeing the bright blue sky and the sun shining brightly in the sky. The birds chirp, the trees are a brilliant green, there's a general feeling of enjoyment.
Where I live, we have very humid summers, which I admit, I am not a fan of. However, we also do get some wonderful rain to break up the humidity on occasion, which is always appreciated, as far as I'm concerned. For some reason, I love thunderstorms at night. They're very nice to listen to, if you ask me.
The fall is coming fast, but I do like the fall. The air cools down a bit, and it doesn't make my allergies act up so much. The second thing I hate about the summer, my seasonal allergies return with a vengeance, although I will admit, they haven't acted up as bad as they normally have.
Even though the summer has gone fast, I have enjoyed it. I will continue to enjoy what's left, and I anticipate Summer 2016!
It feels like one day, we're anticipating the warm weather and sun, and the next...we're getting ready for fall.
The thing I love about summers is mainly the sunny days. It's great seeing the bright blue sky and the sun shining brightly in the sky. The birds chirp, the trees are a brilliant green, there's a general feeling of enjoyment.
Where I live, we have very humid summers, which I admit, I am not a fan of. However, we also do get some wonderful rain to break up the humidity on occasion, which is always appreciated, as far as I'm concerned. For some reason, I love thunderstorms at night. They're very nice to listen to, if you ask me.
The fall is coming fast, but I do like the fall. The air cools down a bit, and it doesn't make my allergies act up so much. The second thing I hate about the summer, my seasonal allergies return with a vengeance, although I will admit, they haven't acted up as bad as they normally have.
Even though the summer has gone fast, I have enjoyed it. I will continue to enjoy what's left, and I anticipate Summer 2016!
Sunday, August 23, 2015
Skull the Slayer #1 (August 1975) Review
The 1970s were a time of experimentation at Marvel. The House of Ideas was expanding their comic book line beyond the standard superhero tales. They had grown into horror with Tomb of Dracula, satire with Howard the Duck, science fiction with Star Wars, and even sword-and-sorcery with Conan the Barbarian and Red Sonja. It seemed at the time, any crazy concept would be given a shot in the comics. Recently, I have managed to obtain a trade paperback collecting one of the crazier concepts of the 1970s: Skull the Slayer. And since it's the 40th anniversary of Skull's debut on the newsstands, let's take a look at the first issue.
Writer: Marv Wolfman
Artist: Steve Gan
Letterer: Marcos
Editor: Len Wein
I actually learned of Skull the Slayer thanks to the wonderful website known as the Appendix of the Marvel Universe. Dedicated to the lesser known denizens of the Marvel Universe, the Appendix gives out lots of information about lots of little-known characters, and quite a few I think could use a little more love. Skull the Slayer is one such character. I'd love to see him in a cartoon or an MCU movie. You could tell some real genre-bending stories with this guy.
The back of the trade paperback collecting the series describes Skull the Slayer as "Lost meets the Land that Time Forgot", and that description is indeed very apt for this series. Funny enough, there was a film made of the Edgar Rice Burroughs story released that very year. Maybe the film provided some inspiration for the series. Either way, this concept was incredibly brilliant, and I think it was criminal that it only got eight issues. Ah well.
We begin our little adventure with a group of people on an Army airplane. One is a man with two soldiers, and what appears to be three civilians: A blonde woman, a black man, and a teenager. Quite a diverse group for a military flight, almost like the people who put together the passenger list for this flight expected something interesting to happen.
We learn a bit more about the man, named Jim Scully. A former US Army soldier...and wanted killer. Scully had recently served in Vietnam (Keep in mind, the war there had recently ended when the comic was originally published), enduring quite a bit of nasty torture at the hands of the Viet Cong.
When he came home, he found that his wife had decided to go hook up with another man, his parents worried themselves to death, and his brother became a junkie. Scully and his bro got into a brawl, which resulted in the brother accidentally dying (he had a knife).
Mrs. Scully is a jerk. And shouldn't Scully have just told the police what happened to his brother? He wasn't a wanted criminal when he came home. Not to mention fleeing would've only increased the police's suspicions...but wouldn't an autopsy and evidence indicate that Scully's brother ended up killing himself? He was clearly high, wouldn't the stuff still be in his bloodstream? I get it was the 1970s, but I do think forensic science could tell what was in bloodstreams back then!
Scully fled and lived as a fugitive for a while, until he was caught in Bermuda working as a lifeguard (Scully cursed his weakness for Bermudan beach bunnies).
Anyway, that's how Scully ended up on the plane. The other passengers have their own reasons for being on the flight. The black man is Dr. Raymond Corey, an embittered government-employed physicist who blames racism for his being unable to be employed by private firms. The blonde woman is his assistant, Ann Farrow. The teenager is Jeff Turner, a rebellious senator's son who was being brought home by the military after running away. I wonder how the taxpayers would react to that usage of their tax dollars, huh? Sadly, we learn this in subsequent issues.
Anyway, their plane goes crazy, and crashes in a strange land, where they find themselves in a strange new world.
Dr. Corey, being the Omnidisciplinary Scientist of this tale, deduces that the plane flew over the Bermuda Triangle, and it somehow may have taken them back in time to the Age of the Dinosaurs. The group debate what to do, when Jeff finds some bones, which Dr. Corey is able to identify as human. The group puzzles over them, not realizing they are being watched...
Meanwhile, Scully fights a T-Rex, which is easily the most awesome moment of the book.
However, the issue ends with Scully getting knocked out by mysterious shadows.
One of the biggest strengths of this comic is the concept, really. A group of people trapped in a crazy world, where science, magic, dinosaurs, monsters, and even aliens all are jammed in a crazy land beyond time and space. The first issue also does a fine job telling us about who the title character is and showing how he ended up in the mess he was in. However, the rest of the major supporting cast don't really get that much development, we only learn the names of two of the other three major passengers, and not even full names. Gan's artwork is very good.
The major weakness of the comic is really one that is not really its fault: Age. It's a product of the 1970s, and it screams it in many ways. The clothes the characters wear, and the references to the Vietnam War, and all that.
Do I recommend picking up this issue? Well, based on the concept alone, I do recommend picking it up. Get the trade if you can find it. Just keep in mind that it does show its age in places, being a forty-year-old series, so it can be a bit clunky. It's still fun, though.
Writer: Marv Wolfman
Artist: Steve Gan
Letterer: Marcos
Editor: Len Wein
I actually learned of Skull the Slayer thanks to the wonderful website known as the Appendix of the Marvel Universe. Dedicated to the lesser known denizens of the Marvel Universe, the Appendix gives out lots of information about lots of little-known characters, and quite a few I think could use a little more love. Skull the Slayer is one such character. I'd love to see him in a cartoon or an MCU movie. You could tell some real genre-bending stories with this guy.
The back of the trade paperback collecting the series describes Skull the Slayer as "Lost meets the Land that Time Forgot", and that description is indeed very apt for this series. Funny enough, there was a film made of the Edgar Rice Burroughs story released that very year. Maybe the film provided some inspiration for the series. Either way, this concept was incredibly brilliant, and I think it was criminal that it only got eight issues. Ah well.
We begin our little adventure with a group of people on an Army airplane. One is a man with two soldiers, and what appears to be three civilians: A blonde woman, a black man, and a teenager. Quite a diverse group for a military flight, almost like the people who put together the passenger list for this flight expected something interesting to happen.
We learn a bit more about the man, named Jim Scully. A former US Army soldier...and wanted killer. Scully had recently served in Vietnam (Keep in mind, the war there had recently ended when the comic was originally published), enduring quite a bit of nasty torture at the hands of the Viet Cong.
When he came home, he found that his wife had decided to go hook up with another man, his parents worried themselves to death, and his brother became a junkie. Scully and his bro got into a brawl, which resulted in the brother accidentally dying (he had a knife).
Mrs. Scully is a jerk. And shouldn't Scully have just told the police what happened to his brother? He wasn't a wanted criminal when he came home. Not to mention fleeing would've only increased the police's suspicions...but wouldn't an autopsy and evidence indicate that Scully's brother ended up killing himself? He was clearly high, wouldn't the stuff still be in his bloodstream? I get it was the 1970s, but I do think forensic science could tell what was in bloodstreams back then!
Scully fled and lived as a fugitive for a while, until he was caught in Bermuda working as a lifeguard (Scully cursed his weakness for Bermudan beach bunnies).
 |
| "I always knew those beach bunnies would get me in trouble one day..." |
 |
| Dr. Raymond Corey: Blaxploitation Scientist! |
 |
| "Somebody call Arthur Conan Doyle! Oh, it's the 1970s. Somebody call the Kroffts!" |
 |
| Jeff Turner makes himself useful. |
 |
| Linkara made being a man famous, but Jim Scully did it first. |
One of the biggest strengths of this comic is the concept, really. A group of people trapped in a crazy world, where science, magic, dinosaurs, monsters, and even aliens all are jammed in a crazy land beyond time and space. The first issue also does a fine job telling us about who the title character is and showing how he ended up in the mess he was in. However, the rest of the major supporting cast don't really get that much development, we only learn the names of two of the other three major passengers, and not even full names. Gan's artwork is very good.
The major weakness of the comic is really one that is not really its fault: Age. It's a product of the 1970s, and it screams it in many ways. The clothes the characters wear, and the references to the Vietnam War, and all that.
Do I recommend picking up this issue? Well, based on the concept alone, I do recommend picking it up. Get the trade if you can find it. Just keep in mind that it does show its age in places, being a forty-year-old series, so it can be a bit clunky. It's still fun, though.
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