Category: Commentaries

All my commentaries – written or video – collected under one parent category.

Kyle Justin – The Unsung Hero Of The Angry Video Game Nerd

It seems almost unfortunate that of the original folks responsible for the enduring popularity of the Angry Video Game Nerd franchise, theme song composer and independent musician Kyle Justin is the one who gets the least screentime in the series. Obviously, we see James Rolfe since he’s the Nerd… sometimes, we’ll see Mike Matei in some costume that looks better than his performances… and on rare occasions, we’ll have a guest appearance from new folks or some familiar personality… but the number of times Kyle Justin makes his presence felt in the AVGN series, barring any musical cues, is far few and between. It is unfortunate because, whenever he appears onscreen in a Nerd video, he ends up being the most entertaining and humorous of the bunch. And oftentimes, the highlight of a Nerd video.

Case in point; the recent episode of AVGN covering the NES version of Ikari Warriors.

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The Winners And Losers Of 2012

Trying to come up with a definitive list of highlights and lowlights in 2012 has been something of a daunting task since I mostly consider 2012 to be a pretty miserable year on a personal level. And with 2013 only a few days old, I was able to sum up a rather modest listing of highlights and lowlights… or in the proper vernacular of this blog, winners and losers of 2012. The list is after the break.

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The End of Amazing And Why I’m Cool With It

So… Amazing Spider-Man is no more… here comes the Superior Spider-Man…

I guess I shouldn’t worry about spoiling the final issue since it’s been out for a while, people know about it, and are most likely complaining about it… so if you haven’t read the book… you had your chance.

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Random Thoughts About… PGSM

Before anyone ask… YES, this is a genuine, honest to goodness post about Sailor Moon. Kindly fuck off if that isn’t your thing.

To tell you the truth, Sailor Moon wasn’t necessarily my thing, either. I’m not sure if I would even call it a thing. My only exposure to the franchise would’ve been ages ago when they aired the original anime on TV… that would be the original dub where they changed the names and made other edits for the sake of the children and made the talking black cat sound like an eldery British woman… which is funny when you consider that Luna is supposed to be around the same age as the other Sailor girls, but I digress.

I remember watching some Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon back when it was airing in 2003; mostly through grabbing as much fandubs as possible before it became a hassle for the bandwidth. I think I was up to the point where they introduced that weird girl with the unhealthy obsession with Usagi/Sailor Moon. And for some reason, I decided to revisit this series recently since there were some YouTube uploads. ‘Cause I figure… why not?

Let’s make one thing clear; I’m not a self-professed Moonie or anything like that. Even though I watched the series and own exactly one Sailor Moon game for the SFC (a puzzle game), I haven’t read the manga (though I should probably give it a shot now that it’s been re-released), have not seen any of the musicals, and my only recollection of the anime was the dubbed version with changed names and a female Zoisite… or something to that extent, it’s been a while.

However, I kinda gave PGSM a shot and I kinda liked it… it’s a bit cheesy and perhaps a bit tacky, but I thought it was a nice, well-told story with some good performances  (Miyuu is almost a perfect Usagi in a way, carefree and clumsy, but not obnoxious like in the dubbed anime) and lots of what they call ballet-fu… oh, they love their ballet-fu. I almost prefer ballet-fu than wire-fu. Fighting evil monsters with ballet is awesome stuff.

Oh yeah, and the girls were easy on the eyes. I mean that in a clean way, pervert.

Interesting change made here; all the girls are dark haired when they’re not in Sailor suits fighting rubber monsters. I actually like this change because it makes some semblance of sense in distinguishing between the Sailor Soldiers and their civilian counterparts. I always found it pretty stupid that, in other Sailor Moon media, people couldn’t tell that Sailor Moon and Usagi, for example, were the same person. The fact that both have the EXACT SAME HAIRSTYLE done in EXACTLY THE SAME WAY should have been a dead giveaway, but I guess Japan is dumber than Angel Grove. Different hair color isn’t much to discern difference between sailor and suit (their face is still pretty exposed), but it IS something… even if it cancelled out by the Sailor Soldiers calling each other out by name. But again…

Yeah, that’s all I got. Go figure.

Classic Bite Commentary #107 – March 27th, 2012 (The FINAL Bite Commentary)

There used to be a time on the original DTM Blog when the number of posts hit a new hundred, I’d do this extra special post of stuff, whether it’d be additional plans and updates or a special project. It’s a tradition that’s been lost during the transition from that blog to the Twisted Realms… primarily due to the fact that posts come about more frequently here than there. Don’t believe me? This blog only hit 700 posts close to the beginning of February less than two months ago. As a result, nothing feels special when the moment comes along. And considering the rate at which posts are made, it won’t be long before this blog hits its one-thousandth post… and you can be absolutely sure that I will treat that with great reverence.

In the meantime, I want to use the 800th post to put up an extensive Bite commentary… possibly the last one that I’m ever going to do pending rare circumstances. While I have nothing planned for this event, I would like to take the time to shoot out a couple ideas for possible future projects and plans that I’ve been considering. They may or may not come to fruition and they’re not planned – they’re just ideas I’ve been floating around for some time.

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Classic Bite Commentary #105 – January 11th, 2012

(2024 Update: Unearthed for the first time in years and never before published is the lost January 11th, 2012 Bite commentary that was written before the 2012 Royal Rumble. I don’t know why I never posted this, but this would be the last genuine Bite commentary written, as the next one would be brief and the actual final commentary is more of a lookback than a commentary proper.)

Welcome to another Bite commentary… man, I haven’t done one of these in a while, have I?

You wanna know something, folks? When you have a blog that’s more convenient to use and much quicker to post thoughts online, there’s little reason to stick with a format that doesn’t quite fit. The Bite Commentaries, more than anything, were a bunch of quick thoughts thrown together. More often than not, it’s a place where I would bitch about stuff.

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The Winners And Losers Of 2011

Once again, another year comes to a close and an annual tradition at the Twisted Realms takes place; the dreaded Year In Review list. This list has me saying quite a bit for each of the winners, losers, and middle grounders of 2011. Perhaps moreso than any list prior. As such, there could be the possibility of being fewer entries than usual… then again, maybe not. Let’s get going…

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The Yobo FC Twin – A Compiled Tribute

Pictured on right: the legendary Yobo FC Twin. Ignore the thing on the left, thanks.

The Yobo FC Twin was one of the earlier 2-in-1 clone consoles released in the mid-2000s. Essentially a combo NES/SNES clone system, it was a step up on prior NES clones with improved NES cloning and somewhat better quality. But the reason for this tribute is simple – it was the console that got me back into classic gaming when I first picked one up back in October 2007 and the console that I frequently play today – and it still works wonders, meaning I’ve been rather fortunate.

Just to give you some sense of context when reading this, the following tribute was originally written/compiled back in November 2009 – a short two years after my initial purchase of the system – and it still holds up rather well – although I have made some tweaks and updates to the included incompatibility list. I’ll probably do a video overview in the near future, but right now, here’s a shitload of text regarding the wonder machine that brought me back into the fold and started me off on a journey of personal enlightenment. Enjoy.

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