It is a flash game which is essentially a straight copy of Super Mario Bros.-- except you can now play using other classic NES characters. Each of them control like they do in their own games, and all have special moves unique to them. It's amazingly fun and very well-made.
You can play as:
Mario, from Super Mario Bros.
Link, from The Legend of Zelda
Bill, from Contra
Simon Belmont, from Castlevania 2: Simon's Quest
Samus Aran, from Metroid
and Mega Man, from Mega Man
1. Senkou no Night Raid [2 episodes]
2. House of Five Leaves [2 episodes]
3. Angel Beats [4 episodes]
4. Arakawa Under the Bridge [3 episodes]
5. Tatami Galaxy [1 episode]
6. Working [3 episode]
7. Rainbow [2 episodes]
Dropped:
8. Heroman [2 episode]
9. Kaichou wa Maid-sama [1 episode]
10. Mayoi Neko Overrun! [2 episodes]
11. Ichiban Ushiro no Daimaou
12. Hakuouki [1 episode]
12. B Gata H Kei [1 episode]
Notes:
-Heroman features a standard plot about a put-upon kid who receives a giant robot which he then uses to fight evil invaders. Nothing new there, but the show has enough color and energy to make up for any shortcomings in the plot. I don’t know if I’ll finish the show, but it should be fun for a few episodes at least.
-Despite a premise that made it seem destined for utter failure, Kaichou wa Maid-sama is actually a very earnest shoujo romance. It’s got touches of humor, a strong female lead, and a male lead that’s actually a decent guy. On the flip side, it’s annoyingly generic in its plotting and seems like a ripoff of Kare Kano but without the visual uniqueness and energy.
-B Gata H Kei gets Dropped. DROPPED. Not quickly enough. It’s just so incredibly stupid, with no redeeming values what-so-ever.
-Hakuouki just didn’t catch my interested.
-Arakawa Under the Bridge has that special brand of weirdness that only SHAFT can provide. Some of the humor is stretched a bit too thin, but it had enough humorous moments and interesting quirks to keep me interested through the whole episode. I don’t know if I’ll stick with this one to th end, but I’ll definitely watch at least a few more episodes.
-Ichiban Ushiro no Daimaou has a very interesting premise, a student at a magical school is pegged as the second coming of the worst dark lord in history, but it’s all squandered on harem nonsense and a parade of panty shots and other such fanservice foolishness. A pity, but hardly a rare occurrence in today’s anime market.
-Senkou no Night Raid is an action packed thriller about a group of Japanese secret agent in China during the 1930′s. They’ve also got some kind of super powers, one can leap through space and another can performs feats of extreme physical strength and so on. The historical significance of the period and location is pretty dark for Japan, so it’ll be interesting whether they touch on any of the atrocities committed in China or simply leave it as background.
-Working is a show that I should hate, but somehow I don't. It's a slice of life comedy about a average guy who falls in with a bunch of wacky characters that work at a local family restaurant. Somehow it manages to be funny without resorting to sexual innuendo and fanservice, which is much appreciated these days.
-Rainbow, about six kids in a Japanese prison in the mid-50's, is a show that I'd really like to enjoy watching, but it's oppressive depressing nature makes that very difficult. Everything is very downbeat and dark, even the art is stark and unfriendly. Also, all of the adult characters are perverted sadists with no redeeming factors at all, which makes the show kind of ridiculous even when it's trying to very serious.
-I haven't actually watched KissxSix but everything I've read and seen about it suggests to me that anyone in their right mind should steer far away from it. I don't think this show has anything good going for it whatsoever.
-House of Five Leaves a samurai drama, is one of the best shows this season. It's a slowly-paced series that focuses on the characters and their interactions and what they're all about rather than action or wacky hijinks. Very, very good show with some rather unique character designs.
-Tatami Galaxy is probably the strangest series this season. It follows a college student who has completely failed at love and so decides to make everyone else fail too. For a while, it works, but then he starts to have feelings for a female student who he has known for a while. It sounds standard enough, but the results are anything but. Utterly wild show in every way.
Alright, take the director of the Pokemon movies and have him do a sequel movie to a fighting force mecha show from the early 80′s. It sounds like a recipe for unadulterated mediocrity, yet somehow Time Strangers manages to be one of the most bizarre, surreal, and personal animes ever created.
In a way, I would liken this to Watchmen, even though it came out over a year before that famous comic. Both weave tales of heroes who had their moment in the sun, but when the war was over, they faded into obscurity. They’re all older now and one has turned his one-time fame into a successful commercial enterprise. Another is the Surgeon General. They don’t really see each other anymore and they’ve all got their own, somewhat boring, lives now. But when one of their own is threatened, they band together to fight. They outcome is very different, of course, and Time Stranger’s is an internal struggle, but the similarities remain nonetheless.
Remy, the female member of the Goshogun fighting force, falls into a coma after an accident. The other members of the group come together to support her and try to get her the medical treatment that she needs. It’s an uphill battle and the doctors have little confidence in her recovery, or survival. In Remy’s mind, she and her friends a trapped in a strange desert city where the locals believe that once its your time to die you have no choice but to die. Remy and her friends all receive letter claiming that they will die very soon, but they aren’t going to go down without a fight. As Remy’s letter claims that she will die first, they all focus on trying to keep her alive past the deadline to show the locals that there’s no such thing as fate.
While Time Stranger does have several action scenes, action is not the focus. Rather it focuses on Remy’s internal struggle and how she deals with almost insurmountable odds. She realizes that her death is almost a certainty, but she never gives up.
But let’s get one thing out of the way: Time Strange is 14 years old and it looks it. The animation gets the job done, and there are some moments where a lot is done with a little, but it’s not going to blow anyone away. More than anything else, that’s the main gripe with the show. However, it should, in no way, take away from enjoyment one gets from viewing this movie.
The music is a mix of haunting and surreal, with a pure 80′s power ballad at the end. Again, nothing truly exceptional here, but it holds up better than the animation and aids in setting th proper mood.
The main draw here is the characters, or, specifically, Remy. She is one of the strongest and most unique female characters I’ve seen in an anime. She can fight when she needs to, but it’s her strong will and never-say-die attitude that make her truly standout.
Specs: Directed by Kunihiko Yuymama, Released by Ashi Productions in 1985. Released in the US by Central Park Media, still available new.
Upsides: Great story with lots of psychological depth, interesting characters, strong female lead.
Downsides: Some of the animation hasn’t aged too well, some of the impact is lost by not having seen the original series.
Verdict: This is one anime movie that’s not to be missed. 9/10
Where to Find: Just about anywhere that has a decent anime selection.
Ghost Hound is a 22 episode anime series directed by Ryutaro Nakamura [Kino's Journey, Serial Experiments Lain] and written by Konaka Chiaki [Hellsing TV, Armitage III, Big O, Serial Experiments Lain] with some support from Ghost in Shell creator Masamune Shirow. Produced by Production IG. The series tells a layered story about a boy named Taro who is struggling to cope with the loss of his sister during a botched kidnapping more than a decade ago. With the help of a noted psychiatrist, Taro tried to figure out what really happened to him and his sister and uncover the mystery behind a series of strange dreams that he’s been having. As the story unfolds, it’s clear that there’s much more going on in the small, mountain town where he lives with his parents, things that threaten not just his life but the entire country.
Story
Thanks to Nakamura’s talent as a director, the series has an air of intelligence and importance that many series from the past few years sorely lack. The show often walks a fine line between surreal, bizarre, and frightening, often dealing with very strange images, particularly in the dream world that Taro finds himself in. The story unfolds slowly and builds towards and end that, unfortunately, feels a bit rushed and too simple for what came before. This is the series main fault: the finale. Everything leading up to the point was very good, although the second half couldn’t quite match the quality of the first. In particular, the final two episode feel very inconsistent in tone with much of the rest of the series. It’s definitely a series worth watching, but the finale should have been better than it was.
Animation
The soft, rounded faces and wide eyes of the characters is often at odds with the bizarre imagery and unique editing that appears in the series, but that tends more towards serving the purposes of the series rather than hurting it. It’s well animated throughout, except for the last few episodes where the budget seems to drop a bit. I’m not sure if there was meant to be more than 22 episode and it get cut short towards the end or not, but it does kind of feel that way in how the last episode has a few animation errors and an overall rushed feel to the technical quality. Overall though, it’s not an action-packed series with lots of movement, but it looks good for the most part at what it sets out to do.
Sound/Music
This is one area where the series really excels. It’s a bit hard to describe how good the sound work is for the series, but it’s done much better than a lot of other shows I’ve seen. Much of it is tailored to give a haunting and surreal feel to the action on screen, which is definitely appreciated during the first half of the series when it has a much darker tone. The voice actors all fit their parts pretty well, although Taro’s voice can be bit annoying at times. The music is equally well-done, although it often takes a back seat to the sound work, but that’s not a problem because not all series need to have music constantly pounding away.
Final Verdict
A good, sometimes great, series that’s brought down a few notches by a rushed, inconsistent ending. It’s disappointing considering the talent involved, and the quality of the first half to two-thirds of the series. Nevetheless, it’s still a worthwhile series and one for fans of dark, surreal anime series that have a bit more intelligence than most. 8/10
Specs: Ran from October 18, 2007 to April 3, 2008 in Japan. Currently available on DVD in the US from Sentai Filmworks.
What can we say about the TG-16? Well, it was originally released in Japan as the PC Engine on October 30, 1987, by NEC and Hudson Soft, almost exactly one year before the launch of the Sega Genesis. It launched in North America about two years later and was readily available in Europe through imports. It sold very well in Japan, outselling the Genesis, but was crushed in the rest of the world by both Nintendo and Sega. There was even a CD attachment, called the TurboGrafx-CD, the first for any home console.
But, in the end, it dropped to fourth place behind the Genesis, NES, and SNES in the worldwide charts, dooming it to obscurity with general public. Still, the system was not without its quality titles, which we will look back on in this series.
Here is a list of titles that I will take a closer look at:
Super Air Zonk, Gate of Thunder, Soldier Blade, Super Star Soldier, Blazing Lasers, Bonk's Adventure, Bomberman '93, Military Madness, Ninja Spirit, R-Type, Splatterhouse, Alien Crush, Devil Crush, Legendary Axe, Chew Man Fu, Parasol Stars, Ys I & II, Ys III, Lords of Thunder, Dracula X: Rondo of Blood, Dead Moon, Aero Blasters, Magical Chase, Neutopia, Time Cruise, and maybe a few others.
After I play through these games, I'll probably end with a discussion on how these titles hold up to similar games on the SNES and the Genesis. Maybe a little bit of discussion on graphics and sound as well, probably just gameplay for the most part though.
So while i'm drying off, how's everyone love life doing? I dated a red head who actually likes RPG's, but she's bi and only interested in open relationships (with men and girls)... haven't decided if its a bad thing yet.
Wow, that's a nice clear, though long, explanation there. That's just plain unmitigated evil. I mean, what is wrong with these people? At some point did they just get taught that caring about the welfare of others is wrong, like actually morally wrong? That's all I can figure. Otherwise they're just sociopaths who don't care at all.
Wow... Is there really an excuse of this? Aside from lying about "previous PS3 games using the same protection" (no one's been able to back that up, including Sony), it's just insulting. Single player modes should always be accessable offline.
Apparently they are "combating PSN sharing". Considering the system has yet to be succesfully hacked (a merely potential and already defeated one notwithstanding), it seems that shouldn't be an issue. Yeah games can be copied to other systems, but they are still locked to the original PSN ID. This is the sort of compromise that's been in place for a long time. It's been settled, and this nonsense is not going to help Sony catch up to MS, a company that does NOT pull this sort of thing.
