Author: dtm666

I ramble about things.

SvR2010 (Wii) – (Not) Bryan Danielson Vs. John Cena

(2013 Update: Uploading this match in its entirety to replace the highlight clip that was originally featured here. Not only that, but it features my loving, rambling of a commentary track three years after the fact. Enjoy!)

Quick bit of trivia: the epic real-life encounter between Bryan Danielson and John Cena… took place on an episode of WWE Velocity way back in 2003. Do you remember Velocity? I sure don’t.

The Bryan Danielson CAW was created some time ago (using specs from a website – apologies for not remembering the site). I decided to test the creation against John Cena, resulting in the match above. End result should be obvious, but enjoy the show nonetheless.

I might put together more of these matches in the future. If nothing else, they’re fairly easy to create.

RAW (July 12th, 2010) – John Cena Overcomes The Odds!… no, he doesn’t.

So John Cena lost the big six-on-one handicap match in the first real sales job he’s done since this Nexus thing began… and of course, he gets up right after and is even sided by Sheamus… don’t these guys have a world title match this Sunday? I like how that’s getting no push whatsoever. I also like that no one has complained about the streak of blood down Cena’s face and resulted in his being future endeavored.

By the way, I wonder if the decision to give Justin Gabriel the pin had anything to do with the fact that he’s from South Africa? Like this is WWE’s way of saying, “Hey, lookit your hometown hero pinning John Cena.” Too bad the win means nothing.

The only person who seems to be enjoying this feud is Chris Jericho, who seems proud of Wade Barrett’s progress… worthwhile viewers will recall that Jericho was Barrett’s pro when he won the first season of NXT… that show where the prize was a WWE contract… LAME.

So Mark Henry replaces R-Truth in the Ladder Match thingie… suddenly, helping Mae Young give birth to a hand isn’t the most hardcore thing he’s done in his career. Yeah, that’s right. It’s been ten years and I still think of that when I think Mark Henry.

The Brady Bunch stuff was lame… but at least she’s aged gracefully.

Edge beats Randy Orton in a decent little match. Nothing special or anything, but pretty good stuff for the most part. Enjoyed the run-ins with the various MitB competitors.

By the way, Edge DIDN’T win MitB twice. He won the first one in 2005 and then won the 2007 briefcase from Ken Anderson (who won the actual contest, but WWE won’t let this on because he’s working for TNA). So he won the rights twice, but only won a single MitB ladder match.

There was a bunch of other stuff that took place, but I didn’t pay attention.

Mike Matei Doesn’t Care What You Think

Interesting post from Mr. Mike Matei on the Irate Gamer Sucks blog under the One Year Anniversary and E3 Part 4 blog post.

(2012 Update: According to an informant of mine, the posts by Mike Matei have long since been taken down. Either by Mike himself or by the blog operator… probably to cover up past mistakes or perhaps because he actually, genuinely regrets… wait, what does it matter? Mike doesn’t care either way. He said so himself.)

So yes, Mike Matei doesn’t give a shit about what you think. “We care about the fans that love all our stuff, but anyone complaining, we don’t care about those because we can’t take criticism.”

P.S. By the way, the new AVGN sucked monkey cheese. I can say that because you don’t care.

Irate Gamer Neo’s WWE Smackdown Vs. Raw 2008 Video Thoughts

UPDATE, September 24, 2011: Added some additional notes and comments regarding certain bits in the videos. I’m very tempted to do a video commentary on this “review” of SvR2008, if only because nobody has touched this one yet… for some odd reason. We’ll see, though.

UPDATE, October 5th, 2012: Through some perverse sense of fate, I somehow got my hands on a copy of SvR2008 for the Wii… I guess I’ll have to update this thing some day…

Today, we’ll be looking at Irate Gamer Neo’s “review” of WWE Smackdown Vs. RAW 2008. This is technically the first episode of Chris Bores’ Irate Gamer Neo (though he has since retroactively referred to his review of the Simpsons game for PS2 as the first episode), a subseries of videos where he “reviews” video games for the modern systems. Unlike the IG series, this is less story-ridden and more on the game itself. Whether that tends to be a good thing or not depends on the viewer, but I personally find the NEO videos to be… let’s just say “tolerable” than his regular offerings on YT. Then again… maybe not. So let’s get on with this… after the break.

Continue reading “Irate Gamer Neo’s WWE Smackdown Vs. Raw 2008 Video Thoughts”

COMIC REVIEW – Spider-Man: Grim Hunt (Marvel)

So the four-part Amazing Spider-Man event story, Grim Hunt (issues 634-637), has recently come to a close and the only way I can sum up this whole saga is… Meh. It has its moments, but ultimately Grim Hunt isn’t a satisfying story nor is it a depressing story. It’s just there, adding to a status quo that keeps changing every couple months.

Want more? Read on, but there be spoilers here.

Continue reading “COMIC REVIEW – Spider-Man: Grim Hunt (Marvel)”

GameFAQs Review – Legend Of Kunoichi (PSP)

I’ll be honest here; I had no preconceptions or expectations going into Legend of Kunoichi when I had downloaded it. It’s a fairly inexpensive piece of software – being that it’s part of the PSP Mini line of cheap downloadable titles – and I figured, “Hey, cheap software that I can afford. This can’t be all that bad, can it?”

And for what it is, it’s not all that bad. It’s just not enough.

Legend of Kunoichi is essentially Whack-A-Mole with ninjas. The main goal is to toss hammers at ninjas while allowing your Shogun leader to escape their menacing wrath, which apparently involves popping out of the floor. You do this by pressing the button that corresponds with the hole that the ninja is popping out of and must do this until ninjas catch up with your Shogun or until your Shogun escapes. You’ll have to be quick to whack those moles… er, I mean ninjas before they escape and you have to be cautious as to not whack the pink ninjas wearing wooden helmets, as they’ll deflect the hammers back at you and stun you momentarily. You have two difficulty settings (NORMAL and HARD) and your score appears on a Rankings chart (nothing that goes online, I’m afraid).

And that’s all there is to it. Really, that’s the whole game. No extra modes, no real substance of any kind to be found anywhere in the game, and while there is a difficulty setting per se, Legend of Kunoichi is not all that difficult once you get the hang of it. It’s just Whack-A-Mole… except with Ninjas and not much else. Just goes to show that ninjas can’t make everything awesome… and that is shameful.

The overall presentation is not even worth mentioning; the graphics are somewhat of a step-up from what you find on a Playstation-One, but still look pretty weak and generic. You have an optional retro-screen which adds scanlines, but that doesn’t make the game any more retro; it just looks slightly darker and if I wanted darker, I use the backlight function on the PSP to lower the lighting. The sound is also pretty generic and repetitive. Nothing special.

For $2.99 plus tax, you’re certainly getting a quick game in Legend of Kunoichi. Unfortunately, that’s about all you’re getting in Legend of Kunoichi. This is a purchase that should only be made if you have some spare change laying around and don’t mind blowing it on a quick time-waster. Don’t get me wrong; Legend of Kunoichi does the job well and it’s certainly good for a quick game or two. But given that there are many other viable options for the PSP out there even in the Mini line, this game won’t see much play all that often. Unless you can spare the change, don’t bother with this one.

BREAKDOWN
Graphics: 4/10 (barely above PS1 levels, rather bland looking)
Sound: 4/10 (overall generic and repetitive, nothing special)
Gameplay: 4/10 (controls work fine, but gameplay is slow and chunky)
Challenge: 3/10 (offers two levels of difficulty, but it’s honestly not all that difficult)
Replay Value: 2/10 (extremely barebones even for a PSP Mini Release)

OVERALL: 4/10

COMIC REVIEW – Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Saga (Hamilton Comics 3-issue miniseries)

Hamilton Comics’ final Power Rangers foray before losing the license to Marvel Comics was a three-issue retelling of the Power Rangers story in a somewhat abridged format. And in a pleasant change of direction, this is the only series in the Hamilton Comics period that sticks with the same art team. And it’s probably the best artwork that this run has seen; managing some approximations of the main characters while also re-interpreting the classic monsters to stuff that… don’t anything like the source material. Hell, Rita is still in purple rather than her usual brown rags, but whatever. They saved their best artists for this final hurrah and I couldn’t be happier… even if it meant the other book had to suffer as a result.

It’s funny that out of all the Hamilton stuff that I’ve read thus far, their best story is an abridged retelling of what happened on the TV show, right up to the White Ranger being introduced. While it’s not a point-for-point adaptation – the story as well as the artists take liberties with the material – it does boil down the major plot threads; the forming of the team, the introduction of Green, the introduction of Zedd, Green’s final battle and transition to White. This is basically an elongated version of the two-page quickie origin story that they’d use to have back in the old days where they just show the major points and move on. That’s what this was and it works for the time allotted.

Saga ended after three issues, but was intended to be a full six-issue miniseries. According to Don Markstein, the idea was to introduce his own plot to the framing story involving Jim, the business owner whose warehouse is constantly under attack. This would lead to him starting a campaign to defame the Rangers;  a campaign that would’ve gained traction as time went on. It’s actually a very intriguing plot point for a story. It’s too bad it never got that far.

Who knows how the story would’ve played out if the series had been allowed to continue its run unabated? Regardless, what you have here in Saga is a solid abridged recapping of the first two and a half seasons of MMPR that’s pretty accurate to the source.

A fine note to end the Hamilton era on.

COMIC REVIEW – Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #4 (Hamilton Comics – Vol. 2)

The final issue of Hamilton Comics’ second miniseries ends on a bit of a whimper, with two underwhelming stories.

The first, “The Lost Ranger”, features Rocky getting amnesia and forgetting that he’s a Ranger… it’s the classic trope of someone forgetting who they are and relearning it before story’s end… but because the story is short, the way Rocky gets back his memory is underwhelmingly goofy; he trips. Oops. Lame.

The final story, “Footloose”, has the Rangers fighting off a bunch of sentient Putty boots… it is perhaps the single most stupidest thing I’ve read in this Hamilton run and it’s probably very fitting that they saved the dumbest idea for last. Not exactly an inspired end to this run.

Both stories are drawn by Gray Morrow, yet both have drastically different styles. The first being a more traditional comic book style that looks pretty good and the second boasts the semi-realistic, detailed look that feels off. Also of note, the Rangers lack the chest logos here, which is more in-line with the actual show, but that sort of design choice has been a thing for most of the stock illustrations.

And so ends Hamilton Comics’ contribution to Power Rangers… well, there’s still the MMPR Saga miniseries, but since that’s mostly a recap of the show, we won’t count that. For now, Hamilton was done concocting new adventures and that honor would go to Marvel.