The Protomen: A true example of excellent fan service

I'm back, though I wont be as frequent as usual. I've been slammed with ridiculous work hours. Anyways, thats none of your business. I'll be doing a quick post on a band I recently picked back up, The Protomen, who do an amazing thing for this world. They've somehow made Mega Man even MORE awesome, and turned a reworking of the story into a phenomenal and emotional rock opera.

The first album, simply entitled The Protomen, tells the story of a distopian future in which Dr. Wily uses his robots (the six from the first game) to rule the city with an iron fist. Dr. Light, alone and a broken man, builds Proto Man in the hopes that he will bring down Wily's tyrannical rule. Proto Man, despite getting close, does not succeed, and is destroyed by the robot masters. To add fuel to the fire, the residents gather to watch Proto Man fall, as its explained, "they don't want a hero, they want a martyr, another statue to raise". Dr. Light then builds Mega Man, not to fight, but to assist him. Against his wishes, Mega Man takes to destroying Wily's army to avenge his fallen brother. Its emotional, its dramatic, its bleak and most certainly a nice, neatly woven tale. It's like Mega Man meets 1984.

The second album, Father of Death, serves as a prequel, detailing Dr. Wilys corruption, the death of Dr. Light's love, Emily, and the establishment of Wily's empire. All in all, its still a great album, albiet much lighter of a sound than the album before it, which had a very dark, grungy "dirty" sound to it. If you like Mega Man, or the novel 1984, or both, then definitely give them a listen. They weave a gripping story seamlessly with catchy music, and is something I would most certainly see in concert.

NECA NES figures

I've recently become aware of these figures made by powerhouse NECA, who always holds a place in my mind as a great toy producer regardless. For this line, they take some prominent figures from classic NES titles (that weren't Mario or Link, we're talking those sweet, sweet licensed characters) and simply recolored the figures to more closely resemble their in-game NES counterparts. You know what that means: bright, garish colors, oh yeah!

These prominently colorful figures are Batman, the purple crusader (pictured above), Robocop and Predator the "blue" brothers, "Thermal vision" Arnold Schwarzenegger, Freddy Krueger the red and caramel wonder, and Jason Voorhees, the blue and seafoam green.....other wonder. These figures are amazingly multicolored, and really DO look like they hopped out of their respective NES games. My personal favorites are Batman and Freddy, mostly because they are the most brightly colored, aside from Arnie. Every one of them looks highly detailed and come with nice accessories (Freddy's is kind of just attached to him anyways).

Before I start, I must say that looking at them standing next to each other looks like they just wandered off the set of a Double Dragon movie. They look like an absolute blast, to pose or to play with. Every one of those figures would look magnificent on a shelf, and you can bet your bottom I will definitely pick at least one up. For some reason it seems, with the exception of Freddy, several figures seem to carry a dark blue, such as Jason, Robocop, and Predator (Batman only has a bit of lighter blue, but is mostly purple). Either way, they are all amazingly detailed, amazingly poseable, and worth a look if you have the cash. I'd wall jump for any of these bad boys.

                         
                              FOR 8-BIT GOTHAAAAAAAAAAM!

Mega Man 2 vs. Mega Man 3

Another of my many obsessions is the Mega Man classic series. Being a fan, every now and again searching the internet for fan communities, have come across a fierce debate that seems to defy fans worldwide. That debate would be Mega Man 2 vs. Mega Man 3. Both are NES classics, no doubt, but which truly deserves the most admiration of the fans? To determine that, we'll be seperating it into a few categories to find out who has the edge. Those categories will be: Difficulty, Level Design, Boss Design, Character introduction and Weapons.

Difficulty: Mega Man 2

Mega Man 2 was of the age where difficulty was there, and man was it tough, but it wasn't impossible. It made you really work for it, and your success hinged entirely on how bad you wanted it. When you finally did win, it served as a positive reinforcement loop. You wanted to keep going. Mega Man 3, however, didn't have that. It didn't let you choose between normal or difficult. It wasn't nearly as hard as 2, meaning it felt more like a breeze. You plowed through the game like it was nothing, and it wasn't enough of a challenge to want you to keep going. Japan must've figured American kiddies were too impatient.

Character Introduction: Mega Man 3

While 2 had some interesting enemies, 3 ultimately wins in the category of introducing new and exciting characters. They introduced Proto Man, a highly interesting and mysterious character that kept you guessing, and Rush, Mega Man's faithful dog sidekick that proved very useful. Both felt like welcome additions to the series and added a fuller cast to the game. Mega Man 2 felt bare in comparison to the cast of colorful supporting characters in 3.

Boss Design: Mega Man 2

Mega Man 2 far and above has more memorable bosses than 3. Yes, also rather silly (Wood Man), but there was just something about the ensemble of Mega Man 2s bosses that felt fresh, varied, interesting and quite intimidating. The likes of Quick Man, Metal Man and Crash Man remain in my mind as some of the coolest bosses in all of video games. 3, on the other hand, delved even further into ridiculousness with bosses such as Top Man, Snake Man and...sigh....Hard Man. Those bosses didn't feel as conpelling, not nearly as interesting, and never stuck in my memory. They were kind of...there. They felt more like a nuisance than anything.

Level Design: Tie


This one is so hard to nitpick at, I can't help but simply tie them. The level design in both are just so masterfully crafted that its truly a shining example of how side scrollers SHOULD be designed. They are creative, challenging and force you to think a little, and all that shines through. So in this category, both games have outstanding level design, so they tie.

Weapon Design: Mega Man 2

YES, I REALIZE THE METAL BLADE IS BROKEN. But, it's not as effective as you've been led to believe. Out of every robot master in 2 only Metal Man, Flash Man, Wood Man and Bubble Man are weak against it. Only half!! Every other robot master is immune. That aside, 2 had better balance of its weapons, as every one of them was extremely important and useful throughout the entire game. In 3, you just had to rely on three: Hard Knuckle, Shadow Blade and Top Spin (which sucked regardless.) Every other one in 3 was either too unweildy to be practical (Gemini Laser) or was just plain useless (Search Snake). In 2, you were left no choice but to utilize every weapon in your arsenal.


WINNER: Mega Man 2.

It was close, but yes, the hype is true. Mega Man 2 is truly the superior game. 3 has its perks, but is ultimately bland compared to the masterpiece that is 2. The bosses, weapons, difficulty and everything else in 2 were all perfectly fine tuned to give a great, memorable gameplay experience, and excels in areas where 3 fell flat on its face. So there you have it.

Quick Fire Review: Batman: Assault on Arkham

Relatively short post. Just going tobmake a short review of the newest DCAU film, Batman: Assault on Arkham. Picked up the Blu Ray, and honestly, very glad I did.

The movie focuses around the ragtag team of Deadshot, Harley Quinn, Killer Frost, Captain Boomerang, Black Spider and King Shark, otherwise known as "The Suicide Squad" breaking into Arkham at the request of Amanda Waller in order to take out Riddler (who stole Wallers highly important files). A very risky and high stakes mission, especially when Batman is on your trail and The Joker is running amok. Just a warning, I will be dropping LOTS of spoilers. So if you want to watch it and haven't yet, LEAVE THIS REVIEW IMMEDIATELY!!! It's a very well put together film, as the narrative is tight, it's action packed to the brim and the banter between the Suicide Squad is an absolute joy to watch. King Shark is the loveable idiot, Deadshot is the straight laced team leader, Killer Frost and Captain Boomerang crack wise frequently (in Frosts case, of the sarcastic variey), Black Spider is the most serious and reserved of the team, and Harley is well......Harley. It plays out very much like a Guy Ritchie movie, what with the hiests and all, and I like it alot. Its highly clever and keeps you on the edge of the seat, and never once was it boring. The fights are heart-pounding and very well coreographed, and the voice acting is top notch. Also, when they said "Suicide Squad", they were not kidding. This is a very very violent movie, with multiple death's of several protagonists. A pivotal point of the film is that Amanda Waller placed exploding chips in their necks and if they disobey her orders, boom. Dead. KGBeast, another villain who's barely seen, gets his own damn head blown of like, right at the start of the film, because he tested Amanda Waller. Toward the end of the movie, the same fate befalls both Black Spider and King Shark. Y'see, The Riddler (working with the Suicide Squad, and in return he keeps his life) sends volts of electricity through their heads in an attempt to fry the bombs in their necks. It works on most....except King Shark and Black Spider. King Shark's skin was too thick, apparently, so when Amanda Waller got pissed that she was being double crossed and hit the big red button, everyone else remained in tact and King Shark went boom. Black Spider wasn't even with them, as he was on the recieving end of a beating from Batman (who cleverly tricked the Suicide Squad by wearing Black Spider's costume) so when Waller hit the button he went boom too. Quite graphically. The Joker is just as diabolically funny as ever, and he frees Arkhams inmates (Bane and Poison Ivy wreck alot of stuff). He gets in a brutal fight with Deadshot (who was Harleys "new guy") leading to his "death". Psssst he's not dead. Killer Frost bites it (Ha! Frost Bite!!) when Bane throws the car she's attempting to escape in into the side of a rocky cliff. Ouch. Seriously, the only three Suicide Squad members that survive are Deadshot, Captain Boomerang and Harley. Hell, even Amanda Waller buys the farm in a hilarious twist when Deadshot snipes her (and cleverly says "bang"). Thats not counting the countless guards, police and prisoners that all go to that great national park in the sky. Yep, totally a Guy Ritchie movie.

All in all, a REALLY good movie that explains why a majority of these characters don't show up in later Arkham games, and this movie ties together quite nicely the events in between Origins and Asylum, leaving us with yet another incredible Arkham-related entry that better fleshes out the ever popular "Arkham-verse". Well worth a buy. Really. Go get it. Now, or I'll detonate the explosive in your necks.

Just some other game talking whatever review: Wario Land

Alright,  let's talk Wario Land. That's right, Wario. Don't like him? Get out. Anybut, we'll be looking at the very first installment, Super Mario Land 3: Wario Land. Funny, considering Mario is barely seen in the game nor is he the protagonist.

Wario first debuted as the villain in 1992's Super Mario Land 2: The Six Golden Coins, where he stole Marios castle while he was out. The big galoot was so loveable, that two years later, he git his own game! Super Mario Land 3: Wario Land was the first in a successful series that spanned several games and a decade or two. We'll talk about those games later, but today we'll focus on the very first.

Wario Land was a special kind of game. It wasn't about mega villains or princesses or saving a kingdom. It let is break into our wild sides, as THIS game was all about looting treasure. Not often that a game allows us to win by being greedy, but that is exactly what Wario Land did. It turned the table on us, telling us that in this game, the only objective was to become filthy stinkin' rich. Who needs things like love and admiration, amiright??? It was devilishly fun, and you just couldn't help but love the goofy Wario. So fun to spawn multiple sequels, in fact.

The controla and game aspect was pretty similar to the Mario format in that you got power ups from blocks, but in Warios case he got special hats that allowed him to perform special abilities, like ground pound or shoot flames. Enemies were in abundance, and, also sticking true to the Mario format, would shrink you in size if hit by them. In later games, Wario would become invincible, with enemies being only a minor nuisance.  This game, while decidely somewhat primitive compared to its sequels, is loads of fun with original level design and a fun concept. Its also rather funny in that "Wario is an unfortunate sap" kind of way, but well worth a shot if these kind of games are your thing.


Grade: B+ (As in, "Bodacious. There, I said it.)