Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children

Source: dodelaumi.blogpot.com

Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children

One of the arguably best games ever made Final Fantasy VII (seven) has a movie adaptation that takes us back to the world of Cloud Strife and his friends. If you played the old game on playstation, or the spin-off on playstation 2, or one of the newer ones on psp, or . . . I think you get the point if you liked anything made because of this game, you'll enjoy this movie! If for nothing else but the action, you'll love it! You've got familiar characters in a memorable environment fighting the ultimate evil: what's not to love?

The Plot

The movie stars out with Red XIII, a orange-ish colored, male, tiger like animal, with a flame on the end of his tail, who can talk and is the last survivor of his race, running through some dusty hills with oddly enough smaller versions of him. This is about 500 years after the events of the first game and this opening was the "good" ending to the FFVII game. You defeat the bad guy some bad stuff happens and the game ends. You don't even know if the character's survived. Well this movie answered that question!

We get a voice over that briefly explains the plot of the first game. Sephiroth wants to destroy the planet because of the evil that Shinra, a corrupt, world dominating minded organization, had done to him. They made him into the perfect solider and that's what drove him crazy. Cloud, with the help of his friends, attempted to stop him and eventually they do, sort of.

The movie shows us that the earth is still fighting back and this time the earth has attacked with a disease. As the story progresses you meet all the other characters from the game and they join cloud in fighting against this group of brother's who eventually combine together and become Sephiroth!

Good Little Quirks

There's plenty of funny scenes in this movie because we get to see the comic relief characters, get beat up and the movie plays on some of the characters traits from the game. For instance, early in the movie you have Barret call cloud on his celly (cell phone) and left him a voice message that started off as "What up fool!"

You also get to see the bad guys fight using materia. Materia is used in the game to heal, cure, shoot fire balls and lighting, and summon monsters. The bad guys have full control over these crystallized balls of energy and they summon the king of monsters Bahamut! Cloud then, with a little assistance from his friends, has to take the monster down!

Source: dfsm.org

Bad Little Quirks

Unfortunately, you don't get to understand all of the characters. The movie explains enough so a new viewer understands the gist of what's going on, but doesn't explain who's who. Plus, most of the fighting is done by Cloud. This is not to say the characters don't fight because they do. It just that Cloud gets all the good stuff. It would have been nice to see the shape shifting vampire, the well trained ninja, or the orange tiger fight (Red XIII).

I also felt a little cheated that the materia was in the hands of the bad guys. I waited for the moment that the main characters would get it and go to work on their enemies, but that never happened. : ( Cloud and his friends did eventually get the materia, but they didn't use it. There was a reason, but as a chance to evoke some strong nostalgic feelings, reminiscing of that one time you were playing the game and . . . it was totally like that, is impossible to completely feel without materia. At least, that is, it was for me.

Graphics

I have to say the graphics in this movie were fantastic! You get scenes of immaculate beauty, the people show expressions, and the battles pull you in. For instance, Tifa, the hand-to-hand combat girl of the group battles the enemy where she barrages them with punch-kick combinations and slams them into the ground. She, however is completely powerless against them and gets thrown against the wall. Instead of falling against the wall in defeat she flips in mid air, lands on the wall feet first with such a force that the flowers around her blow away.

Source: colsplay.com

The above photo is an adaptation of what happened. The funny thing is this is just one of the battles in the movie and the the most action packed one but that's not the focus. The focus is how real these computer animated people seem fighting in a fantasy like fight! Although, I must say this was one of the best scenes because it was fought with fist and was more realistic than any other scene. If you have time, take a look at a video adaptation of this battle (takes about two mins) to some techno music (the part I'm referring to happens around 1.35):





Conclusion

Overall this is a decent action packed movie. If you're looking for a strong storyline with dynamic characters, this isn't the movie for you. If were weren't a fan and never heard of Final Fantasy, the action will keep you interested because there's a lot of it. If you are a fan, then you'll enjoy this quick trip into the past.

Minesweeper: The Movie

Minesweeper

That's right you heard me Minesweeper. For those of you who ever been bored on your computer and you had no Internet access, you know what minesweeper is. You might be saying to yourself, "No, he can't mean. . ." but I'm here to tell you yes I do mean. . . The game from the PC startmenu-programs-games-MINESWEEPER has been turned into a movie trailer! You might think who in their right mind would make a game about that? From the same people who bought us Street Fighter: The Later Years and GummiBears: The Movie, our friends from CollegeHumor, that's who!

Never Heard of Minesweeper?

Minesweeper is a computer game requiring the player to locate mines in a minefield without being blown up. The game screen is made up of gray squares. If you click on a square with nothing there, it will clear out any area where their aren't any mines. This will reveal the numbers around the game area showing you where the mines could possibly be. If you click on a mine, the game is over. You can use the right mouse button to click to where you believe the mines are. If you find them all, you win This is how I understand the game to be played; however, you can see a more detailed and clear explanation of the game at Wikipedia. I warn you though, it's kind of long.

Here's a way to try and solve the puzzle, also found on Wikipedia:

Single-Square analysis

There are two special cases that are of extra interest when solving a board that can be solved using analysis of only one square and its surrounding squares^[2]

• If the amount of unopened squares surrounding a number is equal to that number, those unopened squares must all be mines.

If, for a number on the board, the amount of mines adjacent represented by that number can all be found, then every other square that is not known to be a mine must be safe


Plot


The movie is about a particular troupe of soldiers who are, as you may have already guessed, minesweepers. It starts of showing the commanding officer addressing the unit in preparation for their mission. The soldiers are equipped with Shovels and red flags. If they think there's a bomb in an area, then they stand and wave their red flag. We get a scene with the minesweepers working around the numbers (two's and three's) trying to find a bomb. A voice over gives a brief explanation on how to play minesweeper (find a bomb) depending on what number you see, and someone asks what to do if they see the number eight. The response was: Then GOD help us all.


Criticisms


This is spoof trailer is a fun little escape from reality. They offer the promise of a good plot, dynamic characters, and an excellent setting all the things you need for a good movie. However, this trailer is truly worthy of minesweeper because it pokes fun at itself and those who play that game and realize it's just a way to pass the time. The video is less than two long but it provides hours of entertainment. Take a look and see for yourself:

Dora the Explorer and her "Maraka"

Maraka and Mittens, Dora and Boots

Intro
Oddly enough I still remember some of the old shows I used to watch as a kid that I really enjoy and everyone once in a while I take a look at some current shows for kids they have out there. One of those shows is called Dora the Explorer. The general idea is there is a little girl by the name of Dora who goes exploring. (I'm seriously joking of course!)

The Show
Dora goes with boots to save animals and discover treasure and stuff like that but the joy of the show is the watchers get to participate. For instance, you pick things out of her magical backpack, you tell a foxy thief "Swiper no swiping" to keep his pilfering hands from Dora's goods, and you learn a little Spanish along the way.

The Spoof
This spoof of the show, however, is pretty degrading, but it was made to please adults not children. Like the show Maraka introduces you to her talking animal friend Mittens. They throw in a little Spanish too! "Soy Mittens!" And joking about the show Maraka's talking to you about her friend one minute and Penguins the next and promptly waits for a response.

Then scattered throughout Maraka ask random questions like "Can you break a fifty?", "Can you tell me how to check for a hernia?", "Can you help me decide if Robert Blake is innocent?", and "If Mittens choose to save baby Penguin based on Mitten's beliefs and Mitten's beliefs are not in direct control, does Mitten's really have free will?"

And even if you don't pay attention you notice that Maraka says somethings in Spanish and others in various languages which I presume to be German, Koren, and some type of African language. I do however, believe it's all gibberish created by the creators but who knows, maybe there's some hidden message!

The End
This little video will keep you laughing for a good four minutes and forty-eight seconds, but you can watch it as many times as you like and find yourself rolling on the floor.

http://www.clipstr.com/videos/SNLTVFunhouseMaraka/

Horton hears a who

Introduction

Ah yes, I remember Dr. Seuss and I remember it well. A story about an elephant in the jungle of Nool who we find one day splashing in a pool. He finds a spec of dust that holds a tiny world. Dr. Seuss's stories were truly excellent. I didn't know it then, but they taught me so much and this movie reminded me I need to by my little nephew some of his books. We need to brainwash him as soon as possible!

The Narrative

This movie is based on either the children's book or the animated movie of the same name. And the director, for the most part, seemed to try and capture what the book and the movie relayed. Dr. Seuss is known for his interesting rhymes by making up words and his messages. This particular story's message was about accepting people for who they are. On the surface the narrative is about Horton, an elephant, interacting with people that are too small, "the Who's", for anyone to hear, but none of the other animals believe they exist. The tiny people, ironically, don't believe that there is anything beyond their world. Horton's stand point is a "person is a person no matter how small."

In the big scheme of things, the story says that difference shouldn't be a reason to believe an individual isn't a person. People are people no matter what; is what I take from the story. This, of course, is open to other interpretation.


The critique

The movie was good overall. I enjoyed it because it rhymed in some parts, it maintained the some of political elements of the story, and it had some new things that made it funny. For instance, the narrator adds a line that the "nosy kangaroo thinks she knows better than you", how they do a Japanese Anime action sequence with Horton, or with Steve Carell as one of the voice actors you can't go wrong! And if you like Jim Carrey, then you'll love Horton! Some of the political element it maintained were the people being worried that Horton's ways were going to somehow "ruin" their society. The Wickerson brothers even talk about moving away from the forest of Nool to protect their children from Horton.

The first bad thing is I don't like Jim Carrey that much and so he ruins Horton for me. The story added way too many characters for me and that distracted from what I thought Dr. Seuss would have liked. The movie also didn't rhyme as much as the book or the animated movie, but I think that was because the director may have thought people wouldn't have liked that. Jr. Kangaroo didn't incessantly agree with his mother and her meddling like the original story and I feel this takes away from the point that children will sometimes follow their parents no matter how wrong the parent is.

The Wickerson brother's also weren't that scary, and the forest animals didn't gossip enough about Horton and show how bad people can get when they get together. While I was disappointed with the lack of music, the main thing for me was the change from Dr. Hoovey to the Mayor and the change of JoJo to a more major character. I felt the Who's not listening to the Dr. that warned them was supposed to symbolize how people ignore education. (A mayor doesn't scream the importance of education in my book). And JoJo in this movie had a bigger role, a distracting role. I watched a Youtube video of Horton Hears a Who and people were more concerned about how cute JoJo was than the message of how the words of children can save you if you just listen.

The conclusion

I'm afraid, however, that people may not remember what, I feel, Dr. Seuss wanted to convey. He was a political writer and yes some of his messages lead to some unhealthy options. In reference to the old Horton story, the people turn to Dr. Hoovey and say they'll do whatever he ask: never a good idea just to follow blindly. I, however, Dr. Seuss's point was that people will do this when they are in trouble but it's still not good.

Overall, I think the movie was enjoyable and I recommend seeing it. It is entertaining overall and you may not want a political statement when you go to the movies. If you love Dr. Seuss, then you'll enjoy this variation on one of his classics.



side note: I know I said I was going to try to be short but this movie is really important to me. I'm sorry. :(

Note to my readers

Hey everyone! I hope you are enjoying my post so far. I just want to take this moment to thank those who have read my blog and commented. I see their are only a few comments so I'm going to try and start being a little less long-winded. I think it's important to share and break the elements of the shows/movies I review down, but maybe I'll get more comments if I wrap things up quicker.
Thanks to all,


~Justiceforusall

Source of pic: http://polyphobia.de/html/wordpress/

Gummi Bears Movie

The Gummibears are back!
or as I first remember them: Gummibärchen

If you're old enough to think of two things when you hear the words "gummy bears," then you'll love this fake trailer! I love College Humor because their site is filled with all sorts of goodies. This time they decided to do a modern version of Disney's Gummibears! Gummibears is an old show from the 80's that aired through the early 90's. The show was inspired by the candy gummy bears but these guys weren’t candy!

The Old Cartoon

This show had miniature bears were anthropomorphic, human characteristics to nonhuman things, and they lived in a tree where a bunch of Gummi’s used to live, but the greed of Man destroyed their old home. So the show premised somewhere around this plot. The trailer, however, presents a movie that takes place in modern times.

The Trailer

The trailer brings a feeling of nostalgia to those who remember it because the director plays on your memories. For instance, at one point in time the main villain proclaims “Let’s see how dashing and daring, courageous and caring you really are!” If you watched/remember the show, this statement was in the theme song. They also flash words from the theme song across the screen like a real movie trailer does for what ever the plot is, and the characters make various references to the show.

My Presumed Plot

The plots a little fuzzy, but some kids travel in the forest one day and the encounter full-size, bouncing bears. They try to tell anyone who’ll listen but of course, everyone thinks they’re crazy. Mayor Duke, a play on the main bad guy of the cartoon, has been investigating large berries in an area called Gummi Glen (place in the cartoon) and none of their scientist returned: yet somehow a recording did.

The kids discover the berries and show it to their scientist friend while Mayor Duke declares the bears a menace. The scientist friend realizes the juice from the berries could give a person super strength and the kids must act. The guy and the girl conflict because he trust the bears while she’s reluctant, but when she realizes that the Mayor has Ogres for project O.G.R.E, she decides to help. Of course there’s a love story and a final battle.

In the end, in spite of everyone’s efforts, Mayor Duke gets his hands on the juice and he gets ready for a show down with the Gummibears!

My Impression

Overall the trailer is fun and it takes less than two mins. to watch:

See more funny videos at CollegeHumor

Just for fun

Here are the old lyrics to the Gummibears song and a video of the opening theme:



Lyrics:

(verse 1) (verse 2)
Dashing and daring Magic and mystery
Courageous and caring Are part of their history
Faithful and friendly Along with the secret
With stories to share Of gummiberry juice
All through the forest Their legend is growing
They sing out in chorus They take pride in knowing
Marching along They'll fight for what's right
As their song fills the air In whatever they do

CHORUS:
Gummi Bears
Bouncing here and there and everywhere
High adventure that's beyond compare
They are the Gummi Bears

(Second time around)
They are the Gummi Bears!

Spectatular Spiderman

Spidey Returns

It appears that another incarnation of Spider-Man has appeared. This one took the name of one of the titles for the comic-book series. This title is actually from the fourth comic-book incarnation of Spiderman. There have been many before it some were animated while others were live action. This version, however, is another cartoon and it does not try to follow the comic-book title of the same name. The many incarnations of Spider-Man in the past, aside from the comic-book and movie titles, have been :

• Spider-Man 1967 (Cartoon)
• Spidey Super Stories 1974 (Live action)
  
• The Amazing Spiderman 1977 (Live action)
  
• Supaidāman 1978 (Live action and Japanese)
  
• Spider-Man 1981 (Cartoon)
• Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends 1981 (Cartoon)
• Spider-Man: The Animated Series 1994 (Cartoon)
• Spider-Man Unlimited 1999 (Cartoon)
• Spider-Man: The New Animated Series 2003 (Cartoon)
• The Spectacular Spider-Man 2008 (Cartoon)

Over the past five decades Spider-man has been slinging into our lives, and as you can see, he hasn't lost much momentum and doesn't look like it'll be slowing down anytime soon.

The Plot: so far

The Spectacular Spider-Man starts off with Peter Parker beginning his Junior year of high school, he already has his powers, and his first villain: The Vulture. He deals with the super-villain in the traditional Spidey way, and he deals with bully's the traditional Peter Parker way: geeky. Peter Parker, a.k.a. Spider-Man, lives with his Aunt May and they are having money problems. He's friends with Gwen Stacy and Harry Osborne. Like some high schoolers, he looks at the new school year as a chance for things to be different for him but of course, they are not. He's still really smart, he's still bullied, and he still isn't popular.

He and Gwen gets an internship with Doctor Connors and finds his freind Eddie Brock working there too! Hints are dropped about an electrician named Max, and if you're familiar with Spider-Man, you know he's going to become Electro, a guy who can produce high amounts of voltage.

After the obvious happens, some modified reptile DNA gets hit by some of Electro's electricity. Doc Connors gives the impression that he's been injecting himself for awhile and hopes it'll help him grow his arm back.

Spectacularly Unique: what's different about the show

The show takes a slightly different time-line than some of the previous creations. For instance, Eddie Brock being a Jock and good friends with Peter Parker. Also, Liz Allan, Peter's crush, is in this show and I can't recall any other show where Liz was a major character. Keep in mind, however, I haven't seen every episode of all of the previous versions of Spider-Man (I haven't seen any of the Japanese version). You usually see Mary Jane Watson, Peter's future wife, but she's hasn't even made an appearance on the show yet. I'm sure, however, she'll be making one soon.

Another new spin is Doc Connors has a Robotic arm instead of his stump that you'd usually see. He lost his arm in the "War" (I'd guess WWII) in the comic books, but they don't mention how he lost it in this show. Another interesting trait in the Connors family is his wife just isn't Martha Connors. She's Dr. Martha Connors. It's unclear how much of a scientist she is in comparison to her husband, but the fact that she is a strong woman character says a lot.

It's interesting to see that the bad guys are getting new/slightly different origins and so it makes you want to watch more, just to see how things are going to turn out. Are these new origins going to change the story of Spider-Man drastically? I guess we'll have to watch and see.

Issues

If you're not familiar with the Spider-Man plot, then you may be a little confused about why he's having flashbacks. In fact, if you're not familiar with him, you won't realize that they are flashbacks. You may also not fully understand his Spidey Sense and why he doesn't consecutively use it when he's at school. In the first episode, Flash Thompson pushes Peter over and his "Spidey Sense" doesn't go off and on another episode when Thompson and some other bullies throw water balloons at him. Peter promptly dodges about three of them and then he decides he doesn't want to bring attention to himself and so he lets the water balloon.

If you know a little about the show, you'll wonder if he got his power from a radioactive spider, like the comic says, or if he got it from a genetically modified spider. Dr. Connors is a well rounded scientist but in this show he doesn't seem to be associated with radiation experiments at all and because the show doesn't tell us explicitly how Peter got his powers, we don't know whether it was radiation, genetic modification, or perhaps some other type of accident that gave Peter his powers. We just know it has something to do with a spider and he doesn't shoot webs out of his hands like the movie. Peter mentions using a web shooter but we don't get any more information about it.

Eddie Brock is also a little different in this show. He's more like an older brother figure, like in the Ultimate Marvel comic, and he and Peter are really good friends. This is a little strange since he normally is Peter Parker's rival and Spider-Man's worst enemy. The second scenario gives him, in my opinion, a decent reason for hating Peter/Spidey. If they are friends, I question what will happen when he becomes Venom. But I wont speculate about one of Spider-Man's worst super-villains. I'll just wait and see how the story develops.

Also, it's clear the modified reptile DNA, that was hit by Elector's electricity, will turn Doc Connors into the Lizard, but this makes those who know about Spider-Man confused. This means there will be another bad guy will have a new origin.

Conclusion

This show premiered March 8th, 2008 and there are many shows to come. It'll be interesting to see how this show develops and what the show decides to do with our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man.



Here's a nice montage I found on Youtube of the various animated Spider-Man's of the past.
Note: doesn't include the 2008 version:

Star Ocean EX continued . . . .

Previously . . . .

My last post about Star Ocean EX gave a brief overview of the characters I experienced so far and how the story progressed. We have Claude and Rena, the two main characters, traveling through the planet Expel to find the Sorcery Globe. The show is looking and feeling a lot like the game minus the fighting. Rena is much more weak in the show than she is in the game, but Celine is more powerful in the show than she is in the game. There are also some plot changes that make the story of Star Ocean flow a little better than the game.

Show Vs Game

As the show progresses, it seems less and less like the game. The towns have become less important, as have the relationships of the characters to each other. Also, the show has introduced new characters such as Azamukiru which is a guy who will take care of Dias (Rena's childhood friend and their party's newest member: sort of). I believe it's clear that the creators want a completely separate story from the game. The characters appear to be past the city of cross yet Rena still can't fight and Claude hasn't learned any moves. In the game, the characters have learned special moves that make the battles easier. For example, Claude has an air slash move he should know by this point and Rena has press move she would know by this time (depending on how many monsters you fought). But alas, Claude isn't launching a beam of energy across the ground at his foes and Rena isn't dropping a 100 pound weight (falls from the sky) on her enemies. Although, I must say Dias (see below, guy with purplish flowing hair) has his air slash move and uses to promptly defeat Claude.

Problems

As the show progresses, Claude has accepted his role as the "warrior of light" but this seems strange since he has no real reason to think this. This could be, however, something lost in translation since the episodes are in Japanese. This is part of the reason why Dias fights him and wins. In the game the characters fight but they do it in a tournament (Dias still wins). This time it was in the woods. Since Dias leaves them at the end of the episode, it didn't seem necessary to even have them fight. Another thing, I've noticed is the characters never mention that they are on the planet Expel, but I know they are because I played the game. Than again, that would be like us saying Earth all the time instead of our city, state, or country. Also, the game offered more things like upgrading weapons (hasn't happened in the show yet), pickpocketing (perhaps the main character shouldn't steal), and item creation (you could make almost anything in the game with the right skills). Either way, the story is progressing nicely even though their are these minor problems.

Story so far

Things are turning out interestingly because the bad guys they are starting to introduce are new and their is more fighting, mainly done my Celine and Dias, that is until the bad guy uses "silence" on Celine (a move in most RPG's that prevents a magic character from casting). The good thing is, without Celine their to protect the party Claude has to "step up" and although he looses at first, he ends up coping the air slash move Dias used on him. I just hope Claude doesn't have to get hit to earn the rest of his moves!

side note: for those of you interested the move is called kuuhazan in the show and like the game Dias's is way stronger than Claude's

So Dias leaves his "new friends" and as they continue they meet Ashton, they guy with two dragons on this back. The strange thing is that you don't meet this character until after you've met a three eyed woman named Opera, but I wont go into it unless the show mentions her. When I played the game, I never received Opera, Ernest(her husband), or Ashton, but according to a online walk through, you meet her first if you choose otherwise you get Ashton. The show seems to be taking the Ashton route but unlike the game, Ashton trips and falls allowing the dragons to attach themselves to his back versus it being Claude and his friends fault. It seems with more party members the show has more action. The dragons can take over Ashton's body and increase his power ten times! So this makes me wonder what will more characters bring and will we see a party of eight like the game allows you to have? Or will we just be watching Claude finish the enemies with his now patented Kuuhazan?
(to be continued. . . .)

Street Fighter: The Later Years Part Two

Update on Street Fighter: The Later Years

The previous blog left off talking about Street Fighter: The Later Years and the pros and cons of the series. I'm happy to say the final episode is out and it was done well. For those who need a refresher, this is a strictly online show that has been broadcasting over the past few months. It takes the events that happened in an old video game and treated them like real life. The series meets the characters ten years later, and has them interact with each other in hopes of reliving some of the events that occurred in the video game. The game it chose was Street Fighter II. The previous blog left it out in the open because the series wasn't complete and it could have been another game if different moves were revealed. Now that the series is over and Chun-Li hasn't revealed her kikoken (her fireball) the answer is clear. The series is full of comical moments with classical characters. Although, it can be offensive at times, but any lover of Street Fighter II or any fighting game genre buff, will find the series enjoyable.

The Final Episode

The previous episode left the viewer with a presumably dead Chun-Li, a vengeful Ken who just took out Blanka, and Ryu about to face off with a skinny E.Honda. (If you see the previous blog all these characters are explained.) The final episode follows E. Honda as he runs from Ryu until they face off on a roof-top (Ryu wears the white gi and E. Honda wears the Red one). The battle starts of with a fierce hadoken (literally translates to "Surge Fist") from both E.Honda and Ryu. The two characters are pushed back by the shock wave crated by the collision of their fireballs. After some quick blows are exchanged, Ryu shows himself as the better fighter by unleashing his shoryuken (literally translates to "rising dragon punch", an uppercut attack. This move is actually one of the most powerful attacks in a real martial arts style of Shotokan Karate, and it knocks E. Honda right out of the ring. He chases him into a dinner where there's a food fight, Sagat makes a brief appearance to help his master, E. Honda, but is quickly dispelled by Vega (who apparently has switched to the good side). Ryu corners his enemy and another rising dragon punch knocks his opponent to the roof. Ryu performs another dragon punch and flies to the rooftop. E. Honda attempted to trap Ryu by performing his hundred hand slap while Dhalsim and Zangief comes to the rescue and Ryu finishes him with the classic Hadoken!

The Good

Like always, the good guy beats the bad guy although this defeat is a little unconventional. (you have to watch it to see it) This was a good old-fashioned street fighter brawl that brings back memories to those who are familiar with it, and entertaining enough to those who have never heard of it. There is a little humor in this episode too! Ken is crying over Chun-Li's "dead" body and she promptly awakes and says: "Don't cry, you look like a little b*&#!". This could be offensive to some, but I feel the creators only meant it to be funny. Another potentially offensive scene is when E. Honda goes through a quick speech when he says "how much happier he is" since he lost the weight.

The Bad

While this was a good final episode, there were some minor issues with it. Fans may not like the fact that the shoryuken is more like a realistic uppercut versus the flying uppercut move he does in the game. The picture on the right is of Ryu performing the shoryuken. I think the producers were running short on time too because they show us Ryu Chasing E.Honda out of the arena and it is nighttime, but in the very next frame it is daytime. You also don't get to see all of the characters that the series worked so hard to produce. It seemed like they wanted to wrap things up. The characters you primarily see are Ryu and E. Honda, all the others are seen briefly. And during the final fight, it appears that E. Honda has cornered Ryu, but in the next frame he isn't. Not sure if this was just bad cutting or if the camera was supposed to show us the characters changing position.


The conclusion

If you don't see any of the other episodes except for this one, that would be fine. The other shows are worth seeing but this episode was the most action packed. It has love, violence, explosions, and jokes. Plus the final line made by M. Bison is absolutely worth it for your true fighting gamer. He completely minimizes Ryu's victory by making a reference to the game. "Yea, Yea, why don't you try a harder difficulty level next time!"

Star Ocean EX

Origins

This is a Japanese anime based off of a two disk video game for the Sony Playstation console called Star Ocean: The Second Story released in the US May 31, 1999. It was a big thing for a video game to have two-disk back in 1999 because it meant the game was supposed to be epic. This, unfortunately, wasn’t always the case in with some games but Star Ocean came through for the most part. Disk one was epic and made the user feel as if the game would never end. Disk two, however, much shorter than one and was slightly disappointing.

The Game

The game allowed you to play as either Claude (blond haired guy on the far right) or Rena (blue haired girl on the far left); although, it didn't matter who you chose because Claude would still save Rena from the monsters at some point in the game. Rena was a weaker healer type, but could still defeat the monsters while Claude was easier to play with, for this first fight, because he had a ray gun that you could blast the monsters with.

After this fight, the ray gun looses power and you have to relay on a sword from that point on. Through your journey you meet all sorts of characters that have their own little story and lives that you can play a part in. The thing is…. your choices mattered. If you talked to a character a lot and healed them during battle, if they got badly hurt, your stats would go up. If you chose to do one thing over another, you can earn a really power or unique character to your party.

This action anime game didn’t allow you to have every possible playable character in the game. You had to be enterprising enough to find them. That is to say, you had to go to towns and dungeons and be friendly enough to talk to everyone you saw and say the right things. Again, however, there was no way to get all the characters. You just had to make the right choices to get who you wanted. So it’ll be interesting to see how the show handles the characters.

The Show

The sound track appears to be similar or the same one from the game so it adds a special flavor to the fans. The show has Claude accidentally transported to the planet Expel and he saves Rena from the monsters. The thing is, the game had three monsters attack but the show only had one. The show, however, did a good job on taking away Claude’s “sword of light” (ray gun): a monster hits it later on disabling it.

Also Rena is made to be weak because in the first episode she doesn't fight at all and the second episode she at least uses her healing abilities while in the game Rena fights alongside Claude right away. Also, the designers did well designing the town of Arlia (Rena’s home town), but it does seem a little bigger. Another strange thing is that the second episode introduces shows the town bustling with people, but doesn’t introduce Rena’s mother (but does show her holding a sword for Claude). I suppose the creators decided to not include her since she is a minor character. The show does, however, mention the Sorcery Globe, the target of your quest throughout most of the game, and Claude’s responsibility as “the warrior” to help save them from it.

This trend follows the series for the most part. I haven’t completed it yet, but so far it seems like the basically the same things happen, but in different ways. The show also puts importance on minor characters in the game. Although, ironically the game takes importance away from some characters that were really important in the game.

Strong Women Characters

Although Japanese anime is notorious for dressing their women characters in provocative clothing they are also known for making some powerful ones. This is the case with Celine Jules. She’s a powerful sorceress

who meets our heroes in Cross City and shows herself to be a power to be reckoned with and she has more power in the show at the start than she does in the game. If you can ignore her constant passes at Claude, she represents woman at her best! Get ready to hear her roar!

(to be continued)

Sonic The Hedgehog: an oldie

Intro

After watching Sonic grow over the years and seeing his many incarnations, I've decided to go back and talk about an arguably a classic in the Sonic-cartoon world. I'm referring to the second cartoon made based on Sonic the Hedgehog. This cartoon, that appeared in 1993, featured Sonic and Tails with a whole new set of friends and a more solidified storyline. The story didn't follow the game at all. Sonic and Tails are a part of a group of freedom fighters assisting Princess Sally Acorn. Sally, of course, was Sonic's love interest and Tails, a.k.a Miles Prower, was his plucky, substantially weak, yellowish-orange, two-tailed fox, sidekick.

Who's Sonic?

Sonic: The Hedgehog was a game for the Sega Genesis. The Genesis was a home gaming console that appeared in the USA in 1989. This video game featured a blue hedgehog, going through 2-D side scrolling world, trying to stop someone name Dr. Robotnik/Dr. Eggman(depending on what country you played the game). The object of the game was to go through the stages, collect chaos emeralds, and defeat Dr. Robotnik, and by wining the game, you saved the other animals (who are realistic size in comparison to Sonic) from being roboticized. Roboticization is essentially turning a living thing into a robot. This process is supposed to cause the host to become completely unaware of their previous life and will only follow orders.

Hedgehog?


Hedgehog is a small insectivorous (feeding on insects) mammal who is spiny like the porcupine. In the picture to the right, some may call it cute. When threatened the hedgehog will curl up into a ball.



Plot

As I mentioned before, Sonic, an arrogant, super-fast, hedgehog, hero, and Tails are part of a group called the Freedom Fighters who fight against Dr. Robotnik. The show features mutlible anthropomorphic (having human qualities) animals fighting on a planet called Mobius in the 33rd Century. When Dr. Robotnik attacks the city, he captures King Acorn and exiles him in "The Void." This was a place that Dr. Robotnik theoretically would send all his enemies if they were too much for him. Although, I never fully understood why he just didn't roboticize all of them. He roboticized Sonic's Uncle so I'd guess everyone was fair game.

Sonic and the other animals escape into the Great Forest and created a village called Knothole. Sonic uses his lightning fast speed to fight off Robotnik's forces while tails uses his two tails to fly away. As the show progressed the storyline of the various characters opened up but it was all genreally the same. Dr. Robotnik: evil; roboticization: bad. Almost every character knew someone who had be turned into a robot and one had been partially roboticized.

The war went on for 10 years when we start the show and during this time the Freedom Fighters worked diligently to foil their adversary's plans. And in spite of the danger, they always landed on top. At least, if you forgive the fact that the King was missing and animals are constantly being roboticized but you don't meet most of them. You just know about it. The main characters seem to stay safe because Sonic usually sped in as a distraction and if he wasn't fast enough to use his speed to escape, he pulled a large golden ring from his backpack and got a boost of extra speed.

Other Characters

• Rotor a walrus with a knack for machines
  
• Antoine a French coyote and former palace guard. Although, I don't know how since he was kind of scary, a little wimpy, arrogant and didn't want to admit when he was wrong.
• Bunnie Rabbot a southern cyborg rabbit who was partially roboticized before being saved by Sonic, of course.
• Princess Sally Acorn a chipmunk and the king's only daughter. She carried a sentient mini-computer named NICOLE.

The Game

The show only lasted for two seasons, but that could be because the show was nothing like the game. Sure Sonic was fast and tails flew, but the creators where taking a big risk by adding too many characters and not being similar to the game. With that being said, I have to tell you that the games story line wasn't specific. In fact, some would say it didn't have one. The game play involved traveling through various levels, using your speed to collect gold rings, avoid traps, and enemies and using your quills, looking more like spikes, to destroy the robots and free the little animals inside. After killing a robot bad guy, a cute little, real-sized animal pops out and bounces away. After killing a boss, you release a barrel full of animals.

None of this happened in the show. Golden rings couldn't be found everywhere, sonic never "freed" any robotizied animals, and he barely used his spikes to defeat the bad guys. Once Tails was introduced in the second game, he could defeat bad guys too! He wasn't as fast as sonic, but at least he didn't just fly away all the time like he does in the cartoon.

Then there were the Chaos Emeralds: never mentioned in the cartoon. These things seemed pretty important in the game since you had to go through a little puzzle, special music played, you got an extra score, and you can only "fully" defeat Dr. Robotnik when you collect them. (This means you get a different/better ending.) Aside form these minor gifts for collecting the emeralds, Sonic could transform into super sonic! (see picture on the right) This form of sonic was super fast and could jump higher! Once you collected all the emeralds and collected at-least fifty rings you'd transform. The bad part was one ring was lost for every second in this form so staying super was hard to do. This super Sonic, however, couldn't ever show up in the game since there were no emeralds.

Although, I think it has to be said that there was one episode about a "crystal" that clearly was the chaos emerald but not given the same level of importance.

The Conclusion

Overall this was a decent cartoon. It parodied a game a lot of people loved, had a traditional good versus evil plot, and bravely tried to come up with a new plot. Even though the show was canceled early I still think they did an OK job. It's the free thinking that manifested in this show that gave way to the Sonic games we have today. The games of today are full of new and exciting characters and I think the creator's timing was just off because there have been a few Sonic cartoons since this show. Who knows, maybe the next sonic game will revisit some of the storylines introduced here.

Check out a video of the opening:

Street Fighter: The Later Years

Street Fighter: The Later Years

If you grew up in the 90's and really enjoyed the fighting genre of video games, you probably recognize the name Street Fighter. The original game first debuted in 1987 on the Nintendo Entertainment System(NES) and did OK to be one of the pioneers of the 2D fighting game genre; however, this games success was nothing in comparison to how a later version of the game did. Street Fighter II is the game that put street fighter on the map. This game had five total variations of the same game. There was Street Fighter II, Street Fighter II: Champion Edition, Street Fighter II: Turbo, Super Street Fighter II, and Super Street Fighter II: Hyper Fighting. These games were really the same game over and over again; however, the games offered either new characters, new moves, super speed fighting, new storyline's, or all of the above. There are more incarnations of the Street Fighter series that evolve the main characters into more interesting and dynamic individuals, but this adaptation of the game based their storyline on the characters from the first version of Street Fighter II. While it is true the same characters appeared in Street Fighter II and Street Fighter II: Turbo, I conclude that the series is based off of the first adaptation because in the second version of the game Chun-Li, the only female character, is able to push out a fireball from her hands and she does not do this at all in this series; although, it must be said the final episode has not come out yet so Chun-Li could reveal some new powers yet!

The Game

To understand this series, however, you need to have a basic understanding of the game and so I will explain Street Fighter II. The game was a 2D tournament style fighting game. Once it starts the player(s) chooses one of eight characters, for a one on one battle, and the "winner" of the tournament would be the one who could beat all other 11 characters. There were a total of 12 characters Ken, Ryu, E. Honda, Chun-Li, Blanka, Zangief, Guile, Dhalsim, Balrog, Vega, Sagat, and M. Bison each with their own special and unique abilities. With the exception of Ken and Ryu, each characters moves were completely different and everyone had their own strengths and weaknesses. After defeating the last character, M. Bison, the player would have won the game and gets to view their own special ending.

The Street Fighter Series

Street Fighter: The Later Years takes the twelve main characters from the game and takes a brief look at their lives 10 years later. The series treats the tournament played in the game as an actual event and after Ryu won it, all the characters separated. Each continuing with their own lives in their own way. The first episode starts off with Zangief, the wrestler of the game, mopping up the floor in what appears to be a video game arcade. He begins crying because there are two kids are playing Street Fighter II and one of them is playing as Zangief and loosing miserably while complaining about how bad Zangief was. Coincidentally, the battle is Zangief versus Dhalsim, the yoga master, and after loosing his job Zangief, runs into Dhalsim who's working a "Sh@#!y" job and they discuss getting the old gang back together in a "new tournament." Dhalsim is reluctant at first but after realizing his powers hadn't left him completely, he decided to give Zangief's idea a shot.

This is the basic idea throughout the series. For a short time the episodes follow Dhalsim and Zangief tracking down all the other street fighters. Bison is a foulmouthed old man, Ryu, is a prominent business man selling his special moves from the game, E. Honda is dead, Sagat a drunk, non-depth perception having traitor, Vega a failed actor, and all the characters have mediocre lives.

The Problems

The problems with the film for fans would be the degradation of some of the characters. Since the game there have been many incarnations of Street Fighter and the characters have been developed in many ways. The version decided to re-invent the characters in new ways. These new ways aren't exactly edifying nor true to the the characters in the game, and the newer narratives. Also, there isn't evenly distributed screen time for all the characters. The series starts off following Dhalsim and Zangief but as it progresses, it starts following Ken. Also it appears as if Ryu, a favorite character, is evil. Fans may be disappointed to find out that Capcom (working with Ryu) is the bad guy behind the primary plot of the series. Capcom, in fact, may be disappointed about that. There are also a couple of plot holes. Dhalsim talks about getting roalty checks, but Bison and Guile mentioning that he never received any money, and Sagat being given a mission as a traitor but never executing it.

For the Fans

The fans, hopefully, would be pleased to see a street fighter film with clear super moves being performed such as Ryu's and Ken's hadoken (fireball), Chun-Li's Spining Bird Kick (an upside down kicking attack), Guile's Sonic Boom (a forward flash of a yellow boomerang like light), and Blanka's Electro shock attack (self explanatory). Sure the fightings not the fast, action-packed battling you'd truly want from a street fighter film, but when you consider the circumstances, I think, the fightings OK.

Negative Note

For the politically correct, this show is a smörgåsbord of offensiveness. First off Dhalsim, from India, is a Taxi Driver, Chun-Li, from China, works at a dry cleaners, Blanka, from Brazil, is an electrician and happy to have a job, and Guile, the ex-soldier, spits out various obscenities and curse words. This line says it all, "You orientals look alike!" There is also vulgar visual humor; Blanka and Chun-Li...showing their love. Also, if anyone who is from Brazil or knows about their language could be offended by the fact that Blanka says "Sí" in the third episode, but Portuguese is the national language in Brazil so he really should have said "Sim".

Positive Note

There are, however, many funny moments in this piece that aren't, well shouldn't be in my opinion, offensive and are pretty amusing. Little kids running around throwing hadokens, Vega refusing to take off his mask during shooting a soap opera, Balrog asking "what's a kick" (his character could only punch in the game), Chun-Li telling Bison "I'll get those blood stains out" and he promptly responding "What blood stains" before a battle ensues, and Ryu telling Ken that this may be the street fighters Final Fight, Honda's men see this as a Mortal Kombat, they have the Killer Instinct (these are references to other video games). There is even a That 70's Show opening with the street fighter characters at the beginning of episode 5.

*********WARNING SPOILER'S below**************
highlight below section to reveal.

There is good plot twist like Ryu turning out to be E. Honda in disguise and the real Ryu being locked up in his old temple. Ken also doesn't have his ability to use his fireball, but gains it back at just the right, corny moment, and Ryu shows up after Ken saves Chun-Li from Blanka trying to kill her to face off against E. Honda.

***************SPOILER OVER*******************

The Conclusion

Overall I think this series is decently done. It has all the central things a good story needs. It has dynamic, back stabbing characters, jokes that appeal to new audiences as well as old, and of course super moves! I think this series is worth checking out and the best thing about it is it's free! If you need a little more convincing, check out the preview from the college humor website: happy watching!

And So It Begins: Video Games, Comics, Cartoons and Movies

Hey everyone, this is going to be my first real blog and I'm pretty excited about it. I've always wanted to do a blog, but I never really took the time to find out how to do one. I've done short, one post blogs on Myspace, but I've never done anything like this. I want to talk about the horrible state movies are in right now. I've played video games, and read comics all my life. I've always enjoyed the complex stories and the dynamic characters that some of them offered, and I hoped to see that portrayed in a live action sequence. I thought it was a great idea when I first found out that there were going to be more comic book and video game based movies, but after seeing what Hollywood has produced so far I want to cry. I hope to criticize all adaptations of movies, cartoons, or video games, and I wont just stick to Hollywood productions either. I'll review fan based adaptations and foreign adaptations too! If it's an adaptation of some sort, I'll try to review it. I hope to help people understand why some people complain about the films we have now, and I want to show other's how doing it yourself might not be a bad idea.