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

If there is one aspect to Hamilton Comics’ Mighty Morphin Power Rangers run that is readily apparent as you dig into each issue, it’s the rotating artists. In our second issue, the art duties fall to John Heebink and Aaron McClellan. And I’d have to say that the artwork is a step up from the previous issue, settling for a clean-looking style typical of a comic book and yet managing to catch the likenesses of the various characters rather well. This would be the art crew that would eventually draw the later Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Saga mini-series that would serve as the swan song to Hamilton’s license.

As for the storyline, Ernie wants the Power Rangers’ autographs and decides to dress up as a Goat Man to get their attention. However, Zedd has Finster create a Goat Man of his own to fight the Rangers. It’s a fairly harmless story that’s a bit on the goofy side, but it’s actually the kind of story that would translate well to TV.

The only piece of significance in regards to the Hamilton run is that this issue marks the first and only appearance of the Green Ranger in these main books, only appearing the short-lived MMPR: Saga miniseries that ended the Hamilton run (more on that down the road). Tommy no shows the next issue and by the time he appears in issue 4, he’ll be the White Ranger AND we’ll have the big cast switchover, with no explanation for either in the comics.

Roger Ebert HATES 3D… and so should you.

Roger Ebert wrote an article on why he hates 3D and so should you. Click here if you want to read it.

As for me? I always felt that 3D was purely a neat little gimmick to give people incentive to watch movies in theatres rather than wait for the inevitable DVD or Blu-Ray release. And I have to say that Avatar in 3D made for a much better experience than it would have in 2D (because let’s face it – as great as it is visually, Avatar’s story is paper thin).

But do I want 3D as a regular function? Nope.

I like my movies and tv and video games to be 2D… as in on a screen and without the use of glasses. The only 3D I want to see is on a holodeck and that’s it.

Although I have to disagree with Ebert on one thing; Titanic sucks.

Classic Bite Commentary #97 – May 1st, 2010

It’s the first of May… or as the Borian calendar might decipher it, APRIL 31st. Welcome to another Bite commentary. Gonna be a short one today since I’ve said a bit in my individual Blog entries. So let’s have some random postings:

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GameFAQs Review – Castlevania: The Adventure ReBirth (WiiWare)

Castlevania: The Adventure for the original Game Boy was basically a stripped-down version of a typical Castlevania game that you would play on the NES. While the lack of familiar enemies and sub-weapons didn’t necessary hurt the game, the sluggish controls and overall sloppy game mechanics did. The end result is a game that is frustratingly difficult and considered to be more of a test of patience than an actual source of video entertainment.

Fast forward to 2009; Konami had already released Gradius ReBirth and Contra ReBirth, brand new downloadable titles for WiiWare that plays more like the classic entries in those franchises with smattering . Naturally, a Castlevania ReBirth would follow, but rather than being a new game, it is a theoretical remake of the original Game Boy non-classic. But make no mistake; while it is based on the original Adventure in terms of story and setting, it is more a return to the classic old-school style of Castlevania that made the series great before Symphony of the Night came along.
And it is a wonderful return to form.

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GameFAQs Review – Star Soldier R (WiiWare)

Fun little trivia: prior to your purchasing of Star Soldier R, there’s a little warning letting you know that the game comprises nothing more of 2 modes: one mode lasting 2-minutes and 1 level and a second mode lasting 5 minutes and 2 levels. And there’s also a quick shot mode that gauges how fast you can mash a button. That screen, right there, tells you everything you need to know about the game. There’s no campaign to play through, there’s no hidden secrets to discover, and there’s no storyline to follow. The object of the game is to score points and hopefully make onto an online leaderboard. And that’s it.

For the most part, the fact that they were nice enough to give you a brief-but-detailed description of the game’s actual content is rather helpful in determining whether it’s worth your 800 Wii Points. For those looking for storylines or a long enduring gaming experience, turn away now because that’s not what this game is all about. Not at all. It’s about how many points you can score within a short amount of time and how your score compares with everyone else in the world or in your own country. Beyond that, this is a really lightweight package that won’t appeal to anyone looking for intertwining stories and 20 hour gameplay sessions.

So all that’s left are those who are big fans of space shooters and enjoy leaderboards. Is this worth 800 Wii Points? Let’s dive right in, shall we?

Star Soldier R is (at the time of writing) the latest entry in the long-running Star Soldier series of shooters by Hudson Soft. As previously mentioned, the game is fairly lightweight, comprising of the aforementioned two Time Attack modes (or Caravan modes, as it’s usually called) and Quick Shot modes. During these two modes, you have an unlimited number of lives and can die as many times as you would like, but must complete the game’s two levels within that amount of time, while the while racking as high of a score as you can by blowing up as much crap as humanly possible. Once time expires, your score is tallied and ranked with the rest of the world to see how well (or how badly) you fare.

That’s it, that’s all.

You’ve got a couple methods of controlling your ship; either with the Wii Remote, Wii Remote & Nunchuk combination, or Classic Controller. These work fairly well, but I found that using the Classic Controller works best with this game. The Nunchuk configuration is somewhat awkward after a while and the Wii Remote’s D-Pad is the best ever devised. With the Classic Controller, everything seems to work well. The game itself is typical Star Soldier fare; you can collect power-ups to increase the amount of bullets you shoot, force pods to defend your ship or attack others, and you can even control your speed. In that respect, Star Soldier R does follow the series’ legacy rather well.

Graphically speaking, Star Soldier R looks fairly good with some crisp visuals and effects, but nothing amazing or mindblowing. They’re not an eyesore, to say the least. There’s virtually nothing in terms of slowdown or clipping issues – as far as I’ve seen thus far. The sound in Star Soldier R is not great… don’t get me wrong, it’s not bad, but it’s merely average. Indeed, past Star Soldier games have had much better background music and it’s unfortunate that the music here isn’t on par with previous titles. But that’s okay.

Overall, Star Soldier R is best suited for those who are obsessed with rankings and leaderboards, since that’s pretty much the whole point of the game. If you’re a fan of shooters or Star Soldier specifically, you’ll probably want to give this game a go for a quick fix of SHMUPing action – and in terms of a quick fix, that’s Star Soldier R’s main specialty. The only gripe is that the lightweight nature of the game does very little to actually justify the 800 Wii Point price tag, but then again, it does gives you ample warning and what it does offer is done rather well.

Recommended for shooter fans, leaderboard fans, and those with money to burn.

BREAKDOWN
Graphics: 8/10 (Everything looks solid and crisp – no slowdown or clipping)
Sound: 6/10 (Pretty generic background music, but otherwise sounds okay. Nothing to complain about really.)
Gameplay: 7/10 (Various control methods, tried-and-true Star Soldier gameplay still holds up well)
Challenge: 6/10 (Levels themselves are moderately difficult at best – it’s all about the points, baby)
Replay Value: 5/10 (Depends how obsessed you are with leaderboards and rankings)

OVERALL: 7/10

RAW (Apr. 26th, 2010) – Shaking Things Up By Doing Fuck All

Saw the three hour RAW and… it was okay. Not much to say about the actual show itself. The only thing of significance is that the Hart Dynasty won the Unified Tag Titles and Big Show punched Miz out. Also, Bret Hart declared The Mountie as the greatest Intercontinental champion of all time… which I’m sure makes Honky happy to hear. Then again, I’m surprised Bret didn’t declare himself the greatest IC champ, but whatever.

The draft on the other hand… oh dear.

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Austin 3:16 Watches IMPACT So We Don’t Have To.

You can never go wrong with live Twitter updates on the recent episode of TNA Impact, especially when it comes from Stone Cold Steve Austin… so we know who NOT to thank for RAW’s 3.1 rating.

For those who want to read clean text, here’re the tweets that he wrote.

“Great promo from Ric Flair!!!! The greatest professional wrestler that ever lived!! And thats the bottom line cause SCSA said so…”

“on another note–Jay Lethal kills me with his Randy Savage inspired promos…very entertaining!”

“i love the Shark Boy gimmick…highly entertaining and a good worker too.”

“Flair with the brassnucks to the balls…truly the dirtiest player in the game…still. Hogan to the ring…time to change the channel.” (No joke, he actually wrote that.)

“to those that asked…of course im going to watch WWE next…i have many friends at TNA. and lots of memories with WWE…my home.”

For the record, I’m going to be watching both shows and posting musings on them later… god knows why.

IMPACT (April 26th, 2010) – Well, That Didn’t Last…

Well, last week, I praised Impact on a far better show than their usual outing and figured – quite foolishly, in hindsight – that things were turning around and maybe TNA might have a chance at producing a quality show going forward. They’d pretty much have to, right?

Well, sadly, that didn’t happen. Maybe it just wasn’t meant to be.

The main event saw Ric Flair lose to Abyss, following an teased finish in which Flair struck Abyss with brass knuckles and scored the pin. Unfortunately for the former multi-time world champion, TNA assigned one of the smart referees who spotted the knux, managed to put two-and-two together, and got into a shoving match with Flair before restarting the match, allowing Abyss to win. The match itself is… a thing that happened.

However, the stipulation in this match was that whoever lost the match would have to give up their WWE Hall Of Fame ring, which meant that Ric Flair would have to surrender his ring to Abyss. Flair cries foul, but out comes Hogan to rip the ring off Flair’s finger. This is the top angle in TNA, kids; everybody is fighting over Hall Of Fame rings from another promotion. My brain hurts.

The rest of the show… you know, I’d wish I could comment, but that main event and the feud over the rings has broken my brain to such a degree that I simply can’t be bothered to remember what the fuck happened beforehand. That’s how bad this was.

WWE Extreme Rules 2010

For the original predictions page that this page is replacing, click here.

Good news for WWE – The RAW brand had made it back to America this past Wednesday night after being stuck in Europe due to volcanic activity in Iceland. Thus ensuring that the Extreme Rules PPV will continue as advertised.

Bad news for WWE – They lost a potential buyer of their PPV… alright, so I was never planning on buying the PPV, but man, that would have made for a fun time if half the PPV had to be scrapped on the fly due to the RAW crew being stuck in Europe due to additional volcanic activity or something.

In any case, here are my thoughts on this show. (Along with some 2018 notes for posterity.)

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