Killer Plants!

Boo! Bwahahaha! Grr! Rawr! Gary Busey! ARGH!

Now that's I've got the scares out, you're ready to endure a onslaught of scary movie monsters! I'm here to count down a bunch of movie monsters by category. First category is Killer Plants! I don't know till what I'll count down to; I think till I run out of monsters, memory, categories and my mortal life. I think I''ll keep it running till after halloween to strecht out the fun times, since everyone has been doing for the last week. Now lets get this started!

Pod People









Yes from Invasion of the Body Snatchers! I always loved those silly pod people taking over bodies only to drone about endlessly taking over the world. I wanted something more plant like but I couldn't think of anything else really, and nobody likes lists of 4, that's simply unnatural. Best defense against these weeds? Well hard to say exactly, Jeff Goldblum wasn't a full life saving capacity in the 70's and early 80's, he wasn't able to stop a plant invasion nor a fly mutation. So its nearly impossible to say the best defense he didn't learn how to defend against dinosaurs or create a virus for an alien mothership yet. If he would to have a rematch today he would of promplty kicked their ass in a screaching battle; 2 hours of Jeff Goldblum and a pod person screaching contest? best movie ever or best ever ever? Let Jeff Goldblum decide.

Biollante


















Descendant (kinda) of the badass himself, Godzilla. True man might be the true monster from messing with god and creating this abomination, but the creation is still the giant city destroying monster here. With the constant tampering of Godzillas radioactive DNA (I miss the days where radiation could do whatever the hell you wanted) scientists crated this mosnter from studying the supernatural properties of a rose. Best Defense against this rose? Fucking Godzilla.

Killer Tomatoes













I fucking hate tomatoes. I don't like tomatoes on anything I eat really, sure maybe paste or something because then it can jump on you. My dad grows tomatoes in our garden, which I keep telling him to destroy them all. He always responds "You simply haven't eaten a good tomato yet" and I keep responding "You simply haven't had a tomato kill you...yet...". Best defense against this vegetable somehow parading as fruit? Angsty teen love music! I think? Whatever catch one and put your Ipod in shuffle and see what'll kill it.

Triffids













Now these are the bad boys here, from Day of the Triffids. They frikin wait or appear at the same time something appear to blind more than 99% of the world. When that happens they wobble endlessly shooting poison at people, and no they don't eat them immediatly they wait till they frikin decompose, ya know because of the lack of mouth and everything. Its juste a giant waiting game for these guys. Best defense? Walking away and anything thicker than a bed sheet to stop the spitting poison.

Audry II












Now here's the king of all the plant monsters, from Little Shops of Horrors! He doesn't muck around with one talent, he uses every horror aspect, he's a killer plant who messes with your head to get you to kill people, oh and he's a mean green mother from outerspace bent on world domination. Not to mention his amazing singing voice. Best defense? hard to say I haven't see the original version, but I have seen the movie musical version and he is destroyed. But the irky detail is that in the original version of the musical he multiplies and takes over the world and seems nearly invincible. So if you can't beat em' join em'

Mega Monday : Captain N

There was this short lived show that came in a little bit before my time, but I still caught of bunch of random clips and stuff from the internet. From those clips which include most of time the internet mocking every single aspect of it, I came to the conclusion that it really really does suck. So thats the story of Captain N the Gamemaster forever remembered for butchering almost every all while whoring them out. The premise is simply taking all the most popular video game characters from the time and shove them into one show (like I said, all the while raping each of their respective personalities)

There's Simon Belton from Castlevania which was butchered the most out of all but Megaman was a prominent figure of the shows running and he wasn't exactly treated justly either. Surprisingly Dr.Wily is the most accurate depictions of any characters in the show, an evil Einstein which is bent on world domination.

I can understand that you can't get much personality out of the games because Megaman never does say much or even determining the look of him can be hard, the box arts proved us that many times. Now this is simply ridiculous they didn't even get his color right, I mean his nickname is the Blue Bomber and yet you don't even make him blue. FAIL.
They kinda got his size from the 8-bit version, but the green and the visors, whats that? Now I don't really want to get into the personality because there was nothing to base it upon, but they could of done something better. He has this coarse annoying voice and he's a little angsty about being a robot as opposed to a man. Really nothing really meshes with the awesomeness he's supposed to be. But there is one part which is even more confusing; so MegaGirl comes bursting into the scene and she's all over Megaman but he turns her down with the good ol' "I'm not a man" (aka: u ugly).

Yeah thats right Megaman, you got 99 robot masters and a bitch ain't one.

...

Mega Mondays : Megaman 5

I've missed what? Two Mega Mondays in a row? Meh, I guess I'm not fully committed to it yet, I probably could of cranked something out but got some priorities straight for a change. Not only speaking Mega Mondays but in the last weeks I've not been home much and in result not posting anything, mostly staying in town late to save some gas money, double trips are highly frowned upon. So in a way, I've not been that much busy but since I stayed in town it never let me post things from home, not helping that my Sundays and especially Mondays have been really busy, which is usually when I write my Mega Mondays. Whatever, it won't get any better in the next month.

Now Megaman 5! I fired up the game, and realized that after the fourth Megaman Original I don't have that much experience with the rest of the series. After 3 I would say that the population kinda forgets about the rest, don't exactly know why but they just do, even regarding them a inferior iterations of the series. Having less experience of the game made me realize that games can still physically and mentally kick my ass, not sure if by aging you lose some of your skills or that I just had more patience when I was young but the game continually kicked my ass. I will admit that some are harder but this one caught me on a bad day or something.
This game I found that it is highly underrated! They cranked out again an amazing looking game, constant changing backgrounds depending on the levels, and the boss sprites especially look to have more depth to them, they don't look as flat as they did in the older games, especially Star and Wave Man. As for Megaman he hasn't changed, apart from a fancier charge up shot he's still small and blue. I'm also really glad that they found decent powers for the Robot Masters, sure there GyroMan in this one but he's the only relatively lame one in the game, and his battle is actually fun.Where the game really shines is in, the perfect execution of Megaman's sliding ability. The level is perfectly designed so you have to use this to progress, not only this but it speeds up the game quite considerably. I'm all for speedier gameplay by choice (why I was majorly disappointed at Brawl!), and the slide technique does exactly this. Enemies seem to shoot and attack in way that you are able to dodge them easier by sliding, same effect from some obstacles, sure some can be dodge without it but its a little harder. I really digged the boss battles in this one, they really come all out towards you, so you need speed to get away and counterattack.
One little thing that bugs me is the story, which started the whole Protoman is evil gig. So this time it isn't Dr. Wily and his Robot Masters, its Protoman and his robot masters. Once again, no it isn't Dr.Wily made a Protoman clone and attacked, you kinda get some hints during the game that it isn't him but whatever nobody gives a damn. The funny thing is about video game stories is that, if you do have a good one, you will be praised, but if you don't you will get "video games don't need stories".Overall, it was really refreshing stepping into this one, didn't expect much from it, my memories seemed to have deceived me. Really it deserve more praise than it gets, although I know for a fact that it will soon all go downhill.

Alternative Metal Media

I really love that the metal appeal is continually growing and making it into more and more media, the more recent one would be Tim Schafer's newest masterpiece Brutal Legend, which pleases me more and more each time I see it. Combining Metal and Video games to create this epic world featuring voices from Metal Gods like Lemmy and Ozzy and some equally amazing people like Jack Black and Tim Curry. I'm super exited for this game to come out, and theres just about less than a month now until release. Even more impressive is the set list, they really got some big names into there. I'm especially exited that 3 Inches of Blood is featured in there, they deserve that extra exposure, and the fact that I'll be seeing them live around the same time the games come out is badass. Plus one of personal favorite bands is also going to be in the set list, which is Iced Earth, I was pumped when I heard one of their songs in one of Jack Black's teasers for the game. Sadly I haven't seen much Power Metal love in the style of the game, but granted I do admit that 50% of it ripped out of Tolkien. Still the style the team worked up is still very similar to some of the stuff the Heavy Metal magazine has been doing for quite some time, also disappointing is the weird ambiguous description of Death Metal, but I'm nitpicking seems more than enough original.

Actually Metal hasn't been very present in video games much. The first recollection was maybe the Twisted Metal soundtracks, which had some Rob Zombie and Gamma Ray, but even there it was very limited (and Rob Zombie was on every frikin soundtrack in the 90's anyways). First game that really impressed me with some Metal and showed massive effort was Castlevania Symphony of the Night.

It featured some gothic style already implanted from the first games of course, so it was natural to add a Metal edge to it all. One of my favorite games of all time (well it is one of those you need to play if you consider yourself a gamer). One reason for it was the soundtrack, further proving that a games soundtrack is essential for success. A unique blend of this very Symphonic Metal, with elements of gothic rock, some neo-classical stuff and little bit of electronic elements. Of course it would depend on which area you were traversing and it would change to more classical sound or jazzy, still the Metal as clearly dominant. Another example would be the more recent Sacred 2, which featured an awesome new track from Blind Guardian. The game itself is quite average, but still very enjoyable, and overly cheesy. Still having a new track (first in like 4 years!) from the forefathers of Power Metal is amazing.

There's also been a very very small burst of Metal Comics coming our way, which is leading to rumors and talks of future prospects soon heading to the drawing boards. In a way I think that Guitar Hero has placed music, especially rock and metal, in the mainstreams eyes. Now people are interested in the Metal universe a bit more, even so much that Activision sued Brutal Legend over the fear that it would be too much competition against their rhythm game. Now the first thing close to Metal Comics that I know of is again the magazine Heavy Metal, but that's not exactly a comic is it.Above is Iced Earth's album The Dark Saga, which features some very cool artwork from Todd McFarland. Iced Earth is all about concept albums, you find them releasing random songs with no correlation to each other. This concept is in fact a retelling of Spawn, so they borrow elements from Spawn and make this incredible album out of it. I didn't even realize it was about Spawn until a friend who is a huge Spawn fan pointed it out to me. After that Iced Earth got more and more interested into making a comic on their music, more specifically a story about their Mascot Dos Abomine which was created for their album "Something Wicked this Way Comes". Never really happened but they did increase more and more to their Something Wicked storyline, they did part II and there are talks of making it into a trilogy. Iced Earth is a little more Thrash than Power so they're slaying priest as opposed to slaying dragons, but that's still cool.Exodus jumped the gun first tho with their recent announcement of their new comic. The story line and premise sounds totally cheesy and idiotic, also features some weird talents, someone from Debbie Does Dallas if I understand correctly? Wtf. Still Exodus is a big thrash name and is understandable they got a deal. There is also Dimmu Borgir which got a comic adaptation as well, another style completely and I`m even less interested in it. Seems like its only the band members stroking their egos in comic form, saving the world from violence with even more violence. We will all have to see how it`ll all turn out, because we barely have any information out right now.

Reminds me of Metalocalypse, a show that takes satirical look on Metal. It is clearly made for metal fans, but I can see non-fans enjoy this is as well, the humor is still there. I simply love this show way too much, I urge anyone to watch it or at least try it out. I haven`t seen it all yet so I won`t talk about it much.

Fun fact, while all being exited a while back about Brutal Legend and their album cover inspired world, I was looking at Iron Maiden`s Somewhere in Time and spotted a TARDIS! Neat! Also finally going to able to watch more Dr.Who. Sadly the streams and torrent weren`t reliable as I thought.

Mega Mondays : Mega Metal

Since on a metal roll, might as well bring in the Mega Monday into it. Megaman has always been defined in way of music, his japanese name is Rockman his dog might be paying tribute to the band Rush, later characters like Bass and Tremble bring in some more clear musical references. But the original series does kind of bring out more of a rock pop vibe simply because they were quite limited with all the bleeps and the bloops; they surprisingly did something incredible with those limitations. But for people with a metal tuned ear you do spot a few nods here and there, for example Flash Man`s stage music has this deep resemblance to Metallica’s Seek and Destroy and even more have some references to Guns and Roses.

As the series evolved, especially during the X series shift, the music evolved with it. They had a better sound chips that came with the Super Nintendo, even there you can tell it wasn`t enough for what they wanted. Inside these great tunes, there are moments that you can feel that it`s itching to lose those synthetic sounds and break out into a real Guitar Solo. I continually hear some Speed Metal influence in that music, which is perfectly natural because ath the time while America was into Thrash and Heavy Metal, Japan was into Speed and Power Metal.

Another part proving my personal theory was in fact the 2.5D remake of Megaman X on the PSP. With the power of the PSP they could do virtually anything they wanted music wise, and it shows! They remixed all the tracks into this more rock and metal sound, featuring blazing guitars, badass drums and of course a few synthesizers. Sadly the new series didn`t pick up speed as hoped and the fate of future remakes are still hanging in the developers hands.

The music and the realization of the metal influences of Megaman still resonates on the internet. There are basically millions of Megaman Metal covers on Youtube. Me and my friend continually send each some praise worthy clips which join my bookmarks from time to time. There is also this surpassingly amazing Mega Man Metal on myspace(reminding me of the Metroid Metal which came out some time ago); only about 4 songs but it is made of concentrated badassry and awesome. Sadly it isn`t at even 500 views yet, we are trying to give a little more exposure in any way we can.

I still can`t figure out if Megaman would still been as successful if it didn`t feature some of the coolest video game music out there.

http://www.myspace.com/megamanmetalrocks ----Check it out!

Metal!

You cannot kill the metal, even if you manage to injure the metal it will simply bleed into something more. Me being a metal head and I'm super exited for having in my hand a ticket for Slayer, Megadeth and Machine Head, also hopefully getting my ticket for 3 Inches of Blood soon, and I've been thinking about solely metal in the last few days.

So I'm doing a themed week to give me some motivation for posting more and because I decided to give another go, my last themed week didn't go quite as planned but it panned out quite good. Since I know my habits and don't quite know my schedule, I'll just be saying that It'll be mostly metal posts for the next week or so. First off I'll talk about my metal concert experiences, although scarce they're still present. There never used to be any big concerts that came my way the closest was still pretty far away, usually involving quite an expensive trip. Like I said for the lack of Metal acts coming my way the closest Metal capitol was Québec. Now in recent years seems that has changed more and more are coming my way and I'm really happy for that, although one of my fellow metallers is kinda disappointed now that he's moved away (his loss!).

I followed a few local shows here and there, nothing actually good mostly some garage band making noise and not music. A lot of failed death growls mostly; yes there is a technique it isn't just screaming very loud! Always was little awkward at first because I don't fit in the metal type, I don't play or look the part really most of my fellow metallers told me "No, you just look like a regular guy who listens to regular music), but hey you can't choose what you like do you. After having a bitter taste of those small gigs and mosh pits kinda got lame quick when most of people were solely there for small pits.

Still, after that I wanted something better, something more professional and more specifically I wanted something in my preferred genre; Power Metal. So after quite sometime actually, I randomly noticed that both Helloween and Gamma Ray (Two of my personal favorites) were coming to Montreal. The catch was it was in 2 days, so I jokingly said to my friends "haha we should take a bus and go". Next morning we were on the bus to Montreal. My friend called up a cousin who lived there so we would have a place to stay, ordered tickets online, felt all like a blur really and before we knew it, we were there. Iced Earth was also coming to the same venue (coincidentally an improv league played there too, but I was the only one who was intrested) two days after the first show, we though of staying but we had uni/college and such to attend. Still Iced Earth is one show I need to see before I die.

So we hung out around town for quite sometime because we arrive in town like 5 AM and the show was at 9 or something. We decided to go to the venue early (7 hours early) which was a good idea because we were ones first in line. It was awesome, both the tour buses were on the side of building so we went to check and some of the band members came out and meet some of the fans, I shook a few hands and admired from up close (even God himself!). Didn't have anything for them to sign but that's quite alright I'm not big into memorabilia, mental image is more than enough. Perk of being ahead in line was being able to be in front row against the barricade during the show.

Show started and the crowed was anxious because it started a little late, but when Kai Hansen (aka God) came to the stage and spoke in French, you would not believe how much that pumped up the crowd, especially that he spoke it flawlessly. Show got started few feet away form the band, music a blasting and it was one of the best experiences of my life. Playlist continually surprised me and it was amazing. Both bands were great, although Gamma Ray was little better I would say. But in the end they played and encore together of their signature song for both bands "I Want Out", such a deep history between those two Power Metal giants that only a fan would understand and appreciate. An experience that I'll never forget, still another 6 bands I need to see, and of course Wacken Open Air.

Youtubes of the show if anyone want to see, I think I can see my first left side from time to time ,hard to tell.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzuQAi0aB5w
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOMajvC-2-g

Mega Mondays : Tuesday Edition!

One of my fans regrettably said that I ruined his Monday. For him it extended his enjoyment so much that he felt like it was an extra weekend day, and as an consequence made his Tuesdays (which he used to enjoy) that much less enjoyable. Now since I'm an ok guy, I decided to cater to this one person and the rest of the similar demographic with a Tuesday edition of Mega Mondays, so those people can ease themselves into thinking that mondays are fun. It's going to be hard but this is for you guys! So without further interruptions Megaman 4!
This is sadly where the Megaman series peaks in a way. Most would say that the original series peaked at two and the rest are good as well, but Megaman 4 is the last truly good original megaman until quite sometime after that. The rest are ok and some really do suck but that's all fine we still have the first 4.I fell like I'm repeating myself but they truly do keep upgrading the graphics per game. Again they upgrade a lot, especially the backgrounds and scenery, because with the power of the NES is was one of the only things you could update. As for Megaman himself he still looks exactly the same, but his enemies are more and more fun, look at the purple hippo on a pedestal above! Graphics and animations won't change much until Megaman 7 and the X series, so I'll stop with that.
One thing that I did truly enjoy was the level design, they really put some effort so you can't exploit it negatively as much as the other series. But with this comes some cuts; the Rush upgrades are now less powerful so you can't exploit certain areas anymore, which is kinda annoying (Rush Jet simply goes forward now). With this gives some new challenges, there is one part in the final castle where you NEED the Rush Jet to get trough and it is quite challenging since it can only go straight. Another aspect which is really fun is the moving floors the added, Toad Man's stage has these water flows with constantly push you off and Pharaoh Man has quick sand so you need to continually jump, and this one cool point where you jump on a enemy grasshopper so you can traverse the one hit kill ridden floor. Sure these are gaping video game cliché, but still fun nonetheless. One thing this new level design brings is the difficult amped up a bit, replaying the games recently I realize how this game is harder than 3 and 2.

One thing that everyone notices in this game is the lameness of the Bosses, they're hyper lame. Toad Man, Bright Man, Ring Man, Dust Man, Dive Man but Skull Man and Pharaoh Man saves this a little bit. With lame robot masters comes lame power up, most of them a replicas from former games anyways, like Skull Man is a replica of Wood Man, and as for Pharaoh Man's weapons it does look cool (one of my personal favorites in coolness factor) but it doesn't do anything too special. Still with the introduction of the Mega Buster which lets you charge you're shot so it equals three single bullets, it's more than compensation for the lame power ups.
Oh almost forgot that kinda almost placed a plot and new villain in this one. So Dr.Cossack after having a year of peace, decides that Megaman and Dr. Light are overshadowing the genius of his own creations (lol Dust Man), so he decides to attack the city! Ok so same exact plot as the first three games, but wait! It wasn't Dr. Cossack at all! He was being forced because Dr.Wily kidnapped the Doctors daughter Kalinka! Wait that still means Dr.Wily wanted credit for the likes of Dust Man, Ring Man and crew... OH DEAR GOD, PULITZER AWARD NOW, It involves so much sociological aspects of Dr.Wily!

Mega Mondays : Megaman 3

The third installment of the series comes rolling in from the huge hype of the Megaman 2, and it sure doesn't disappoint. It's one of my personal favorites of the series. Again story isn't explained at all; Dr.Wily is evil, giant robot gamma and you need to collect crystals or something. You do have a scene where Megaman converses with Dr.Light but even there it isn't much.
They do add a few new characters to the series, first off being Rush, your robotic dog! He serves as adding more personality to your platforms upgrade they added in the Sequel, which is kind of fun having your dog transform in a jet, boat or spring. The problem with this mechanic again is that it makes the game that much easier, which is a curse and blessing depending on the player. Sure those looking for a challenge could simply not use the Jet Adapter and actually do the jumping puzzle, but it's also a good feeling cheating the level designers. Still fun to use and experiment with but it does feel like a huge handicap. Also to add, Rush is obviously named after the band Rush; the Megaman developers are extremely proud of their rock references by the way.
Another recurring character that they introduce is Protoman. A fan favorite for some reason I never understood it really. Basically Protoman is the well, prototype of Megaman, one of the first versions Dr. Light has built. Now he's back for revenge for being neglected or he might be connected with Dr. Wily somehow. They never explain anything inside the game, all of it is in the instruction booklet, but I don't have the booklet so I'm inventing as I go along. Anyways, he doesn't do much in this game, he appears in key points as his flute theme whistles in and he hops around like an idiot trying to shoot you. He can be taken down with ease after he simply teleports away.
One thing they do continue doing is revamping the visuals, everything is more detailed than the previous title, again this is mostly in the background stuff, which really looks nice. As for the animation, Megaman doesn't change much because, he is pretty limited, but most of the enemies have some pretty good animations and ways of attacking. They could of simply used busters and blasters for enemies attacks but they really put some effort into some original attacking methods, like pole volting robot or the weight trowing one and other Olympic events. They also added some bigger enemies since it was such a awesome feature of the second game, like we see here; Robot Cat shooting plasma yarn!
The last feature which will be a staple for every single iteration is of course; the slide. By simply pressing down and the jump button you preform a slide giving you forward momentum. It adds a new layer of movement, dodging nasties, finding paths and a few other things. Still the first time experimenting and it doesn't apply as well as the next games but still fun to have at your disposal.
This is one of my personal favorite of the Original series. The music isn't as memorable as the second game but the intro theme is still kickass. They're still at the point of original ideas for robot masters and the new weapons still feel fresh and fun to use, but you can feel something declining soon.

Full Metal Alchemist : Brotherhood

Don't know if you've heard, I probably mentioned it before on my blog, but I'm a huge Full Metal Alchemist fan. The first series kinda rekindled my anime interest at the time, the characters where interesting the story was suspenseful and the world it created was simply awesome. It was kind of a bitter sweet feeling when the series ended, even after they release the movie to wrap up the series even more I still wanted a little more. I found that kind of weird because usually I believe that everything should end milking it never brings anything good to a franchise. Lately there has been the trend of remaking series but more faithful to the manga versions, since well that's where it started. Never completely understood the need for that because I would prefer having two different adaptations as opposed to a single one but in different medias. But I do enjoy that trend at the moment because I don't read any manga.

So one that I'm naturally keeping a close eye on the weekly releases is Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood, the new adaptation closer to the anime than the first series; from what I hear anyways. Everything is quicker the animation is better and it flows much better without any filler. I find it hard to figure out if it's a huge fan service from the constant online bickering of the community, either way I don't care I get my FMA fix. Although with the first episode, which is like action packed by the way, they kinda throw you into the world in the first second of it, for a first timer I could believe that whole situation could be somewhat confusing. They removed the whole start of the first series instead going for the flashback effect from time to time to be able to piece it all together. But again from someone who has seen the first series of the manga should be able to follow with ease, as for the new comer it could be hard. Still anyone familiar with anime can piece it all together just fine.

The pacing is a double edge sword from what I hear from other people, my group of friends as do I really like it. Things that took the original series 17 episodes to get too, took the new one only 7 episodes. It also keeps surprising me, character development which seems so scarce at first, creeps up and surprise me in later episodes, completely redeeming themselves. Best example would be Barry the Chopper, he was one twisted cross dressing killer in the first series and provided one of my favorite scenes. Then in Brotherhood he seemed like a total comic relief at first but he totally kicked me in the balls afterwards for thinking that. Each characters also seems to peak then overpeak themselves, having multiple Crowning Moments of Awesome. There is one particular, where I come into work and both me and my friend look at each with this dumb grin and simply say, with knowning exactly what we are talking about, "That was the most badass thing I ever saw"

I can't predict where it's either, it's already at episode 21 and I can't see it finish at the regular 26 episodes. The series is building up for something huge, I can see it coming, but I can't predict it. All I know is that there is something huge coming soon, the keep adding more and more new elements to the grand equation of it all and I simply don't see them fit together. Characters haven't been explained their roles yet they're just as important as the rest. It's usually up on sundays so I'm still eagerly waiting this moment refreshing the page every hour or so, can't wait to see what happens next.

Mega Mondays : Cameo Marvel Vs Capcom 2

I missed the whole Marvel Vs Capcom 2 craze at first, sure I played the heck out of Marvel Vs Capcom 1, but the second installation I completely missed. Kinda ironic because Marvel Vs Capcom 2 is one of those games where the 2 is a part of title for the fanbase and not for the fact that it is the sequel, simply because it is superior than its predecessor. So it's out now to download from the Xbox Live Arcade and from what I hear they haven't changed a thing, which could be good and bad for both ways, somethings have aged badly like the music for example, it doesn't fit anymore.

There a a total of 4 Megaman characters than you can play with, first off is Megaman himself of course, second is his friend (girlfriend?) Roll, third is Tron Bonne from the Legend series and finally a generic Serverbot (they are the Mets of the Legend universe). I find Roll especially dull to play because she is technically only human, but the rest are fantastic. Tron Bonne use one of famous mecha machines to fight in the arena and is by far my favorite fighter to use, and Megaman well simply kicks ass like he always does. As for the Serverbot, he's the smallest character in the game making kinda a joke character like Dan in Street Fighter. The fun thing about being small is that he can dodge most of the moves by simply standing still! Awesome! So if you catch a Megaman only team online in the near future it might be me.

Mega Mondays : Megaman 2

Believe it or not but the first Megaman game wasn't praised and it didn't get very good sales either. Thankfully Capcom believed that it had potential and gave the team permission to do a sequel, as long as it doesn't interrupt their other currently developing titles (if only game development was still like that today). Supposedly they didn't have that much work to do, they already had a bunch of leftover from the last title since the NES cartridges had serious space limitation, but they still polished everything from the ground up. The first thing I noticed was the backgrounds, they are more varied and greatly animated, same effect with the enemies. Now its thing that most people won't notice but back then that it was pretty amazing to look at, one in particular is border line epileptic seizure fodder.

The game also features one of the most badass intro ever created! The story told below, sky view shot, camera slow panning upwards, tense slow beautiful music, suddenly we reach the top, CRACK! Music gets intense, we find Megaman hair aloof in the wind as the title slams in your face "MEGAMAN 2" accompanied by some of the most memorable and epic music ever. Games today lack that, music that marks itself and attaches itself to the game, now-a-days they seek epic orchestras, but they never seem to be memorable. Another epic value that they added was the start of epic big boss battles, fighting against enemies four times your size! Later becoming a staple for EVERYTHING CAPCOM.
They also added new weapons more varied in the form of attack, making them even more fun to play around with. In the first Megaman, personally I simply kept my Buster Canon equipped because there was no advantage with the other weapons. Now in MM2, they gave each weapon its unique attack pattern and in return gave you a gameplay advantage for some situation. They also added these platforms, which you could use to get to higher up places to obtain items or simply make the game much easier; there are a total of 3 different platforms, a floating one, flying one and a climbing one. They also added another component to the game which was the Energy Tanks, what they did was when picked up you could later use them to refill your health bar. Now all of these new components have been a staple to the series so far, so they really got it right the second time around.
I also need to gush about the Metal Blade. The Metal Blade is the most epic power up ever created. You get from defeating MetalMan, which is a real easy by the way, and then you get this awesome powerup. Complained about not being able to shoot up? Then get the frikin Metal Blade! It shoots in eight directions! It even somehow breaks the whole robot master weakness circle, simply because it so versatile and powerful! I love the Metal Blade, bow to its awesome power!
Only negative output I have about the new features is that, the game isn't designed to have all of these, it still have level designs from the games draft and it doesn't exactly draws the full potential of the new features. In correlation it only makes the game easier, even with the supposed "difficult mode" MM2 is one of the easiest of the series. But because it is the easiest I suppose it would be the good one to for a newbie to start with, it still lacks some features from the future games but it holds up incredibly, most say this is the best Megaman game ever, sales do to, MM2 was the highest selling Megaman game ever and it still stands today.

Hurricane Stay In

The last month has been kinda weird actually for no particular reason, feels like the weird transition from summer to going back to school, but the weird thing is that I'm not even at that moment yet. I'm actually looking forward to being in a schedule again, random happenings are always fun, but a person can only take some much random in their lives. But I know I'll be kicking myself for saying that soon, a single booted hit to myself carried on by another single hit from the school schedule kicking in as well. I did have quite a relaxing day but I did prepare for this day because of the upcoming hurricane warnings, but the hurricane Bill ended up being pretty lame, I looked at the sea and I could of gone swimming, so right there its symbol of its lack of power. Well, the preparations was simply not going anywhere and getting my hand on few movies for the day, and I had enough reading material in case of lack of electricity, but the hurricane was laughable. Also, don't get me wrong I'm glad the hurricane had small effect around here.

Anyways, my summer reading seems to have been crippled, I've barely scratched the surface of my random find, which ended up being a recommendation, even my Dr. Who'ing was crippled but that's torrent issues. I've also realized how close the new release of the new installment of The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy is. I still remember hearing about and completely putting it aside even resiting it, but it quickly gained my heart out of a gritty hope of some new witty H2G2 fiction. Still a little weary about it but I'll still be picking it up, I'm sure I can ease myself into it, kinda like I did with the movie. Speaking about the movie I can't believe I used to not like it after my first watch, now I really do like it a lot. How can I not like it I asked myself today, it was personally backed up from new material from Adam himself, most fans rejected it because it wasn't faithful to the books, but something as media varied as H2G2 shouldn't be bashed for different adaptations. Personally I'm still waiting for The Restaurant at the End of Universe movie (damn you low film grossing!). And last but not least, maybe the single most amazing internet find I've ever found in ever. Click and enjoy now, by the power of all this is awesome. Seriously this is what I did with most of my day, play this game, its amazingly sublime, I've been spreading it around for most of the day.

Apart from thinking about H2G2 most of the day I've watched a few movies. Had myself a mini marathon of the Hellboy live action movies. I simply love these films, the action is amazing (no shaky camera!). The CGI never seems forces and it never relies on it unless it absolutely needs to, I believe that it should be used like dialogue, you don't add useless dialogue that doesn't add anything to the narrative right? Well do the same with CGI! I kinda have this love/hate relationship with full blown CGI, using to smooth out effects is fine, but making entire scenes out of it makes it look fake. Now movie techniques aside, there is something that bothers me is that, I've seen the live actions films, all of the animated as well, even read a prose book about Hellboy, yet I haven't even look at the original material being the comics. Really should because I love almost everything about the Hellboy universe, the only thing stopping me is the same reason why I haven't picked up Atomic Robo Volume 2; comics are expensive, more than I expected actually. That also a reason why I haven't gotten a video game in quite some time.

Another film I've seen today was Trainspotting, only heard about it last week, with the simple explanation of "It's hard to explain". So with that lucrative incentive, I found myself a copy (only to ironically find it playing numerous times on IFC today). Quite surprised about it actually, always fun going into a movie without knowing a basic plot, setting, premise or anything for that matter. Didn't get the morale, if there was one of course. Some interesting directing and cool camera angles, don't know what to say actually really is hard to explain. Another thing, maybe its because I've been introducing myself into the Beatles lately and I'm seeing things, but this film had at least 3 different nods to The Beatles, not in music but in character placement mirroring album covers and such. Re-reading what I wrote I realize how I've said absolutely nothing about the film; maybe that's the right way to explain it.

Anyways tomorrow Mega Monday again, I haven't been posting anything besides that lately, no reason actually, just didn't feel like it.

Mega Mondays: Dr. Light

Dr. Light is the creator of Megaman, like I mentioned last Monday. But there's still a small misunderstanding about him, he is a pacifist. In a few games they point the fact a few times, going as far as giving him the Nobel Peace Prize. As a matter of fact he's the most violent Nobel prize, knowing that some situation are needed for peace. So the dear doctor tasked himself with building various destructive upgrades for Megaman. Actually he does kinda parallels Alfred Nobel in a way; Nobel created Dynamite which is one of the most violent objects out there, so Dr.Light winning the prize is a worthy choice. Even more awesome is the fact that he is the best tactician to ever live. The Doc made a plethora of upgrades for Megaman and installed capsules holograms modules of himself for Megaman and his variation centuries later, presumably the Doc did this all while being dead. Although after so many centuries he still hasn't managed to give Megaman the upward firing capability. (Ok that was my last obvious/overused Megaman joke).

So we salute you Dr. Light for being awesome.

Mega Mondays : Megaman

Very surprising how a small game in which the concept was formed trough Rock, Paper, Scissors came to be one of the most successfully series in the video game industry. Came out way back in 1987, when you think about it is a frikin long time ago, for me at least I wasn't even going to be born for a few more years back then. One thing I'm glad about is that it survived trough the americanization butchering quite well compared to some other titles. First off they scratched the name Rockman and went the manlier Megaman, but the weird thing is that the boss Yellow Devil was ironically renamed Rock Monster, huh. Nothing much to add about that, they mixed up Dr.Lights name a few times and added some backstory which was fine by the times standards. Oh and they fucked up the cover up bad, sure everyone on the internet has made fun of it by now, it made like a bunch of top ten worst cover art lists like on IGN, Topless Robot and others. Anyways, aw at its ridiculousness.
Anyways on to the game! The evil Dr.Wily has unleashed 8 robot masters to destroy the world, simply because nobody appreciated his science. Apart from being the worst motivation for world domination, Dr.Wily is apparently able to do so without much resistance. But! Dr. Light the old compatriot of Wily's has his secret weapon of his own, which if you haven't guessed by now you should leave (It's Megaman btw). So armed with your single arm canon, you set off to save the world against under an appreciated scientist. Story is standard and would never pull trough today's standards but nobody cared back then and they shouldn't now either.
Still, playing trough it I noticed how it has aged, not by much but it has (funny seeing a score meter for a stage based game). Another silly bit is how the modern market has made me soft, I remember being able to plow trough these games, sure it was difficult but I could still do it, now replaying it seems like I'm not in my prime anymore. Small confession tho, I do pay a lot of video games by I ain't that much good at them, makes trash talking at Halos that much more ironically satisfying in a comedic sense. I'm drifting off now, back on topic! There are simply some sections that seem impossible to pass trough without at least getting hit once, there is the small invincible blinking after you do get hit that you can take advantage of, and I think that in some areas you need it to pass trough Firewalls like in Fireman's stage. It is difficult but there isn't any curve in it either, since you pick which stage you want at first they can't exactly made a difficulty curve. There are some more difficult stages and bosses but that subjective in a way.But for the difficulty, yes it is hard but its more of the fact that I've aged so I'm not used to it anymore or something, but as for the gameplay itself, it does seem dated because of itself and not the actual design. You only have you standard three shot blaster with no charge shot which every Megaman fan has become a costumed to after the sequels, and the lack of the Mega Slide is troublesome at times, pressing the combination with no avail can be frustrating. Another thing is that they haven't quite mastered the jump/fall mechanics yet, but I'm nitpicking now, there no real problem with it, still 100% playable and enjoyable. Still fun to see the start of all and the recurring annoying level designs (disappearing blocks!) and enemies, one of which still today survived each incarnation and even spawned fantastic fan game and a few cameos here and there. So here's to our little mini mascot the helmet wearing Met for the first time. Below, fear him, love him or kiiillll hiiiim.
One thing Megaman bought to the table which was truly original was with the boss battles. For once it felt like both robots of equal match, each had his advantages and disadvantages, mono-e-mono, a showdown. I found that they did that brilliantly and Capcom has held the title of best boss battles every since then. Annnnd lets not forget the truly unique ability to get the defeated robot masters weapon! So in total you can have 8 extra weapons, each with their unique attributes, and it's here where the whole rock, paper, scissors concept come into play. With each power up you gain from a robot master, another Robot Master is Weak against it or it could be utterly useless as well. Sure you can switch on the fly but it's still a small gamble.
This game for me was simply a taste of what the series could be at the time, it is one of the most memorable but not the best by far. Each game is upgrade to the next, then in some cases it falls into the curse of the series which is the always disappointing fall from grace, but as always new reincarnation appears to save it all! The good ol' classic Megaman you shall be cherished. Oh and one last pic of my favorite battles; Fireman!
Also doing the alternative text thing now, because I think I'm funny at times.

Mega Mondays : Small Intro

Been busy this last week, with some odd stuff and actually trying to make a banner for my blog, but I can't seem to please myself with anything my artistic talent is very limited. Anyways I'm regretting not being able to update for the last week, now for my new feature which is Mega Mondays!

A weekly look on the Megaman universe as whole. I'm going to try to look at everything and I mean everything that Megaman has touched, so hopefully it'll last for quite some time. The series has 7 sub series going on right now, the original, X, Zero, Legends, Battle Network, ZX, Star Force and a bunch of TV series, anime and everything in between. Which adds to a shit load of games, and that's not including all of the cameo appearances and the awkward yet highly enjoyable RPG. Oddly enough I always found that for the credit it gets, it still doesn't get enough, Compared to Mario who seems to overshadow a lot. Megaman has found a formula that works and sticks to it but at the same time still innovating more and more, not to mention that music in Megaman is some of the most memorable and catchy. Would video games be the same without Megaman? I highly doubt that, he basically invented the awesome power ups and giant boss battles! His games have barely aged at all, every single game are still playable today, if you need proof simply look at Megaman 9 which came out last year in glorious 8-bit and it competes to the new HD games out there.

For the moment be patient, because next week I'm going off with the original that started it all, Megaman. I'll be going through it all by series from the oldest to the newest, might not go trough all of the new stuff for lack of hardware but I'll do my best to get my hands on it. Also trying to make a sprite banner for Mega Mondays but my spriting is rusty and sincerely, I never was any good to begin with.

Summer Readings

Each summer I put up a list of books I want to read for the summer. I never do seem to go trough the whole list, it seems to disintegrate before I have time to finish it. Not because I haven't got the time or anything, I simply never can seem to follow my proper list. So I'm there starting reading the first few that I could get my hands on and then suddenly it diverges into some whole new direction.

One little promise I do make every summer is to pick up at least one book that I've never heard of before. I simply ignore the pile of well determined recommendations from friends all while they're gushing about how great it is or what-not, and ask for something as simple as a title and nothing else, but often I end getting something random by my likeness of the title or cover. I known you don't judge a book by its cover, but it simply is something that attracts you at first, cover art is more essential for music I suppose because books you never can tell. Like last summer I got the Black Order by James Rollins, knew nothing about it or the writer in question, still don't know anymore. Anyways, It wasn't a particularly good book nor a bad one either, there was lacking something memorable I suppose. But on the complete flip side of things, that's how I found Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, which was one of my life changing finds, I changed my humor, look at life, a lot of things actually. This summer I haven't found anything worthy of my special random book but I'm still looking around.

This summer I started heavily on prose; I bought this giant prose book for a class at university and we barely used it to its full extent, so I decided to read the whole thing. I never realized I had an appreciation for prose, something great in small story that tell a lot, also seeing familiar author names is always fun. Another prose I got trough is a little more geeky; Hellboy Oddest Jobs. I consider myself a Hellboy fan now that I think about it, I loved the films both live action and the animated ones as well, and I enjoyed Oddest jobs as well. They created such an awesome world with the Hellboy mythos. Something that bugged me was how Mike Mignolia sounded so condescending in the opening statement, maybe I don't know him enough or maybe he wanted it that way. Either way it was creative, each story had his unique differences, some with no action at all, yet still as satisfying than the next one.

Moving along trough my prose book I noticed a story from W.E.B. Du Bois, he wrote book of which I also got for a class, which at that point realized that I had used that book but in quite a rush for the project do, so I decided to read it for a second time. The book was The Souls of Black Folk, really is amazing a must read for anyone interested in the subject of African-American history. Kinda weird how he is overshadowed now by other African-American activists like Martin Luther King.

Another small re-read was Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams. I simply needed to get some Douglas Adam in my summer, I might not been as well known as the H2G2 series but I don't think it discredits it at all. I very much like the humor and it is on par with H2G2, although I do admit it doesn't have the same appeal. I haven't been able to find The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul yet, still looking around from time to time, I ain't that rushed because I heard it wasn't as good as the first, still I'd like to read it someday. Another related note I found some of the radio show recordings online, I'll eventually listen to that.

Moving away from Adams, I did finish John Steinbeck's East of Eden yesterday. Don't know what happened I should of finished off at least a month ago. Firstly I got to chapter 11 or so, then for a few reasons mostly being busy but I was putting it off for quite some time, then finally re-started from page 1 and finished it in two weeks. As the saying goes, I couldn't put it down. I have unique appreciation for Steinbeck; Of Mice and Men is one of the first books that didn't involve fantasy nor science fiction that I really deeply enjoyed. East of Eden is no exception, it starts slow and it dives in at the same pace I would say, he keeps bombarding you with new characters, but it doesn't feel tiresome, at the same time it doesn't feel completely necessary but for some reason you want to keep hearing about these people. Plus his descriptions really are something to admire; he explains it all from something personal by a small analogy that in a way you completely see that person at full capacity, I even started seeing myself in certain characters. That one amazing thing about reading, seeing something you hold unique to you, yet here it is written by a complete stranger in a book.

Rest for the summer my list as gone awry already, but I'd like to read maybe a classic I missed like Animal Farm or something of like that. Also maybe get into a Zombie story, either Pride Prejudice and Zombies or World War Z. Definitely something by Douglas Coupland not sure what yet but one of my friends has been increasingly interesting me into it. Ah! Another series which I just though of now that's increasingly interests me is A Series of Unfortunates Event, something about it seems so fun. Right now I might go onto a Biography of Robert Gravel, I would like to say an idol of mine, but I only know that he invented improv is that enough? Anyways, there are a bunch of little illustrations inside the book by Gravel himself which is pretty neat, but something that bugs me is that the writer really places Gravel on pedestal, maybe I'm too used to a neutral look at things.

Hellsing Ultimate

In one word I can describe Hellsing Ultimate and that word my friends is badass. There's been a recent thread in retaking old anime series and re-doing them in a more respective take with the manga and the original writers of that said manga. Before hand I thought that changing the story line a bit so a series it could personify itself apart from the manga was great. In that way you could please the original fanbase with a new adaptation all while pleasing another anime only fanbase, all in the same time interesting minds into the franchise, then theoretically can make more money this way with both sides wanting too see what differs and eventually bitch about it on the internet. Now, doing the only sane thing with the insensible bitching from the fans, original writers, companies not being able to milk the series anymore, a lot of series started getting revamp holding more light towards the manga. Now, I for one tottaly accept this, only when they make things of incredible quality like Hellsing Ultimate and there are a few others I could name. So in the wake of the crazy vampire craze going on and wanting to wash out the voices that told me that some vampires sparkle when in sunlight, I decided to start two new animes featuring vampires, first one Trinity Blood a mix of Trigun and the original Hellsing. And of course I started watching Hellsing Ultimate; one of the most visually interesting animated feature I ever saw.

First off, the first Hellsing anime iteration was good for what it wanted to be, an anime featuring a badass anti-hero taking blood and kicking ass. It's about the Hellsing organization; an organization that focuses on paranormal investig--well more or so extermination, complete extermination for the matter of fact. They have one ultimate weapon which is the vampire hunter Alucard, which he himself is a Vampire, which I would say is one of the most iconic anime characters ever. Another character is Seras Victoria, after an incident she is turned into a vampire from Alucard and she faces some human complications, blah blah blah, nobody cares, its like a vampire having teenaged angst. It didn't feature much of an interesting story really, each time they seemed to catch on something plot worthy the new character seemed to die or simply not important after the next twist (bend really). But what it did feature is pure concentrated badassery from Alucard, if anything everyone watched it simply to see if Alucard could beat his own awesomeness. They also created their own world and mythos behind vampires which is always irresistible for me.

Now they decided to revamp Hellsing, well because quite frankly the original series sucked ,besides Alucard, and maybe wanting to milk it out some more, also the original writer never liked the directions the production took on the anime, which is completely understandable. Furthermore, I'm always weary of people utilizing words like "ultimate", "epic", "super" without merit, kind of my pet peeves people blurting out epic at everything. Acting as my own Ultimate worthy deciderman (inventing words is fun), I pronounce Hellsing Ultimate to be worthy of wearing the title of Ultimate, extended episodes each 50 minutes long and totally new animations.

I'm currently watching the dubbed editions, and for one I prefer dubs, yes shocking, please don't hurt me you bunch of subtitle tyrants! I like anime just as much as you do and don't believe that I need to watch it in the original language that I don't understand! Anyways back on topic, for once they did a brilliant job at the dubbing, since it is set in Europe, mostly england, there's something very interesting in seeing all the different accents of the characters. The first protagonist we meet is Father Anderson a priest, and man that Irish accent for me personally added so much more to the character! I watched the original series in japanese so right there I couldn't tell or even know if there's such a thing of a Irish accent in Japanese. As for Alucard first encounter with Father Anderson, it started out with what I though would be a maniacal grin battle but it escalated into something so much more, all while retaining those awesome maniacal grins on their faces. Seriously now those accents give them all some more personality, even the guy who uses the phrase "First we'll kill you, then skull fuck you!" Sadly an accent isn't enough to save Seras Victoria from lamedom, she even manages to ruin the mood of the anime for some small bits, even her oversized boobs are enough to save her in my eyes, kinda tragic when I think about it.

My favorite part of Hellsing Ultimate is definitely the visuals, I've seriously never seen anything this cool anywhere else. If the series and characters and story don't interesting simply watch it for it pure style of it all. Stylized is a word I'll use to describe this show, because sincerly I don't know how to describe it, everything is hyper stylized and every characters seems to hold on to their respective camera angles, closeups and beyond. One particular scene really stood out for me, with was simple but oh-so-cool. Simple drop of blood fell and splatered and you quickly saw it rise upwards outside the screen view, I would gladly tell you the after effect, but revealing this simple visual effect feels like a complete spoiler for future audience. Incredible how I started describing this little visual treat and immediately thinking that it would spoil the experience for anyone wanting to watch it in the future. I'm telling anyone reading this, you must watch this series if not for story but for the sake of the visual and style of the series, some things in there I could only wish hollywood would at least attempt of recreating.

I'm only at two episodes and already it diverges form the original series with a great pacing, also hints of a nazi appearance? SOLD! (even if I was sold after the first few minutes). I'm not even finished and I'm highly recommending it to anyone out there!

ATOMIC ROBO ROCKS!

Happy belated birthday Nicola Tesla, if I would of known earlier that your birthday was last week I would've of dedicated a post about you. See Tesla is the type of scientist that you simply don't learn anything from at school, for irrational reasons, maybe for the fact that he might of created a death ray of some kind, and why shouldn't we learn about a suppose inventor of many doomsday devices is beyond my understanding. I simply think he was overshadowed by Thomas Edison, who in my general opinion was an idiotic genius, he patented a thousands things randomly placing currents until something shined brightly. Tesla on the other hand calculated everything and masterfully invented. Thomas Edison himself even kinda confessed on how Tesla was a better inventor, so remember people quality over quantity. Although because Tesla is so awesome he's featured in almost everything, even the much anticipated (for me at least) Dark Void, where is a whole universe inspired by some crazy Tesla invention or something, they've been scarce with the information, but no, my new favorite fictional toy of Tesla is Atomic Robo!

First picked up Atomic Robo on free comic book day and it was just a teaser and it was the only thing that I actually enjoyed, I did enjoy Jesus and Abraham slaying zombies but that's not even worth comparing to anything. The little preview I got was simply with Atomic Robo having some witty dialogue with Dr. Dinosaur, which alone doesn't sound that amazing but that simple scene made me buy volume one. Firstly I noticed the names of the creators one stood out, which was Brian Clevinger, didn't really remember from where I heard the name, I thought that it must of been from another blog or some random place on the internet, so I started reading. Seriously Atomic Robo is amazing, I love the art style but it kinda made me think of Penny Arcade strip they did a little while back, don't know if it's just me but they took some inspiration from Atomic Robo.

Anyways there was simply something about it, there was simply something all too familiar, and I couldn't put my finger on it. Simple witty answers, followed by another as witty response. Anti-climactic endings that are just as satisfying as any other way. So I remembered about the writer thanking Mike Magnolia, which made complete sense, I think it draws a huge part of inspiration from Hellboy, with the whole paranormal investigations and even Robo shares some attributes with Hellboy himself, more or so being able to get pummeled and still being able to bring witty rethorics into the action. Sure enough for awhile I thought it was it with the little nagging voice behind my head, but it still loomed about. So reading on I reached a point of one of the scientist soldiers being able to finish Megaman 2 without getting hit, seriously anyone that is able to do that should be automatically assigned as a Fighting Scientist. And that's where it hit me the simple connection of a 8-bit character, Brian Clevinger is the frikin writer for 8-bit theater! (Seriously tho I thought of Bob and George first but remember that there's was no possible way they could of written that, still love you guys tho!)

Sprite comics were all the rage (did I really use the term "all the rage"?) back in the early 00's. But there was two primary comics which stood out the crowd of badly gif'd sites, one was Bob and George a megaman sprite comic and 8-bit theater a final fantasy sprite comic. Sprite comic was gateway for those writers who couldn't draw for shit. Bob and George updated daily for 7 years, only missing 29 days in total, that's mother freaking amazing. As for 8-bit theater it was a little more popular because the strip was actually good, although Bob and George had a huge community with the forum and the massive spriter army, which I was kinda apart. Now 8-bit theater wasn't must to look at because of the sprites usage, although after awhile he did get a hold on photoshop and lens flared like there no tomorrow.

You could really follow his evolution of a writer with 8-Bit theater, started off the most two dimensional video game characters ever and gave them some decent personalities, you could seem them expand as the comic went along. He gave of some of the great internet comic lines like "Swordchucks" which obviously inspired the rat morning star and "In the arena of logic I fight unarmed". Going farther into the comic you could really see that his style continued to evolve. And I swear to god the Black Mage is a prototype of sorts for Atomic Robo, albeit the mage being evil and all, his witty responses oozes out with the robo replies, and Robo being a robot with no mouth using only his eyes for physical response was probably easier with the years of experience he had with the Black Mage and the fact that he also only had two eyes to interact with.

Anyways back on Atomic Robo, to say it quick, it's about Atomic Robo a self aware Robot invented but Tesla himself, and with the help of his Fighting Scientist he fights nazis and other supernatural baddies. So moving on, Brian has always been direct with his stories, lines like "I just used my violence on them" are simply brilliant. He's also always been the kind of guy that likes the adventure more than the destination, passing by big battle for something a little simpler and logical. But one of my favorite moments is when one of the team calls Robo and says "Robo? There's a Pyramid in egypt!" and then robo responds with "..." I laughed waaayyy more than I should of.

I don't known what else to say, there are just too many memorable moments to start telling them all would be redundant, like Edison trying to twart Telsa with the Ghost of Rasputin?! Or Robo's massive mockery of Stephen Hawkins! Erm...ok I'll contain myself, and let the whole think sink in my mind, I did just read it like a moment ago. All in all, Atomic Robo, is smart, witty, exiting, awesome and for me, nostalgic all while being completely fresh. That quite sums up my feelings for Atomic Robo, one of the best reads I've had in awhile. ATOMIC ROBO ROCKS!

It can update?!

Sorry for the lack of updates, I really have no mountable excuse for the lack of effort. Part laziness part thinking I would have time for a post in the week-end. I did do a lot during my last week-end mostly some stuff that gave me some ideas for some posts, and mostly some old nostalgic stuff. I also had a few request to do another post relating or in the same nature of My Awesome Anthropomorphic 90's cartoons post, so as for tiny request I will be doing another one, hopefully for this week if I can find a common subject to chat about.

On a complete side note, I finally decided, after more than year of failed confused attempts, to watch Dr.Who. I learned to stop using my brain and simply watch the series(I'm turning it on again when I'm actually watching it just ot make clear). I asked around forums where I should start and got more than what I wanted, which is everything but where to start from. So after hundreds of different opinion of casual and hardcore fans alike, a simple answer from a co-worker with a Dalek figurine which was "Just do like when I was a kid, start watching and don't stop if you like it, then when you're my age you can start complaining about how your doctor was better than mine". So I decided to start with Tennant, because he is the current and with some little catching-up I'll be at the new releases. Now I'm done with this maze of my hidden form of procrastination against Dr. Who.

Another feature I will be bringing is a weekly post about Megaman. I have a kind of history with the blue bomber and I have more than enough to talk about and keep going more than long enough. The catch is I would like to play through all the games I can get my hand on and go chronologically trough each one. The hard part will be trying to finish, or most of the game, inside a week, some I won't even try because I perfectly known what time it should take me to get complete the specific games, and if I known I can't do a post in time I promise a filler about megaman at least. I'll be calling it something uber cheesy like Mega Monday or something. But I'll be writing them probably Sunday, simply because Monday is the day where most of the Anime is fan subbed and dumped into the internet, and Tuesdays I'm only at home for sleep, and if I didn't watch them all on Monday it would severely cut that sweet sleep.

I known this mediocre post doesn't substitute anything, but hey I can do what I want on my blog!

Old Shows but New for Me.

I've been watching a lot of television lately, no true reason why, I've since lost interest in most shows mostly because of reality TV and the excess of drama that's on these days. But I heard they the Comedy Network has just signed on another season of Futurama, so right there my hope has gone a little up and I though maybe there might be some other sparks of genius hidden. If the new shows follow the regular scenario of every great television series is that it will be canceled quickly and a legion of lurking fans will complain about it on the internet and that will catch my interest (See Arrested Development), so in a twist I decided to go see if anything is actually good and my single participation might make it stay an extra season.

Although looking for something I stumbled upon something old, re-runs for the first time I presume. Geeks and Freaks, I didn't have anything to go on, but I was really surprised by the cast; they were all familiar faces and I mean really familiar. And all of those faces were younger, Seth Rogen, James Franco, Samm Levine (only know his name because he'll be in Inglorious Bastards), Linda Cardelinni and a few more. Since I knew absolutely nothing about the show, I did like everyone does now-a-days when they are curious, I googled it of course. So it was out in 1999, reason why the cast seems young. I was also very surprised about how much praise it got, it even got on a few "best TV shows" list in some big magazines, yet I never even heard of it. Even further proving my point earlier made is that the show itself only lasted a full season and people complained so the company milked an extra few shows out of it, and now is considered a cult classic.

The basic premise of the show is High School in the early eighties, yes I know you must of all cringed I know I did. It follows two siblings and their "adventure" in high school, the youngest a boy who is a geek and how he tries to fit in with his friends, and his older sister who is getting away from the high grades stereotype and going into the little more rebellious "freaks" stereotype. At first I thought that it was going to be completely cringe worthy, and as a matter of fact it totally is. I found myself lifting the remote at really awkward moments readying myself to simply change the channel each time it happened I couldn't seem to change the damned channel! There's simply something appealing about the show and I can't put my finger on. Maybe it is supposed to make me cringe, maybe that's the whole point of the show. There are some simple scenes that manage to make it look completely genuine, even if it seems like I've seen it before. As for my multiple cringes there are a lot of moments that simply bring a smile or a laugh. Also I was surprise how well they handle the whole "in the 80's" thing, kinda like That 70's Show, sure its set in those times but apart from that it's the characters that are important not the time setting not bombarded by culture references. (Looking at you That 80's Show) I can really understand why this show has a huge appeal and following, definitely finishing this one; it is only one season.

The other show I recently watched is Torchwood, simply because I keep hearing good things about it and I really want to get in at least one of these types of shows. I know nothing about it really, tried getting into Dr. Who a few times but I'm always confused and I can't seem to find a decent milestone to start on. Same effect with Torchwood started out and I'm frikin confused. So there was the vampire guy from Buffy the Vampire Slayer also he was Piccolo from the Dragonball movie, and he was wearing this very stylish marching band jacket, but instead of facing the fact that he is wearing a marching band jacket, he was evil and tied up this other guy to chains. So they had this dialogue about how devious the vampire (He probably isn't a vampire now but whatever) was and the guy in chains was like "We're going to stop you!" and the vampire guy was like "Ok do it", then the chain guy was like "OK, Ngguughhht" and failed horribly in his attempt to escape and then the vampire pushed a button that proceeded to shock the chain guy and then he was like "NNNGGGHHUUGHTTT". So after that he pushed some machine even tho the chain guy said quite understandingly not to, but the former vampire guy is too badass to listen so he pushes the button anyways, all while showing his marching band jacket. I so want that jacket.

So after a bathroom break I get back and missed a little bit, so there are these monsters coming out of these holes and the proceed to place their heads near random (I suppose) victims and shake their head near the neck area of the victims, effectively killing or tickling them, I couldn't really tell from the angle. Strangely enough the vampire guy is now on the good side and helping them reconfigure the machine that transmits the signal of doom to the monsters and then when he does they all go back into their cages. Now there's this guy in a computer room and this other chick and she's bleeding. So the computer room door starts to seal itself and horrifically he can't make out it time, even while in slow motion! Then this dramatic scene comes by and I change the channel. I changed it not because I didn't like what I saw, but I didn't want to see any characters die, albeit not even knowing if they are major, but if I do decided to watch the series I don't want to know that someone later dies.

So that's my two new shows, while there is one I'm not 100% sure to continue.