A few days ago I was at the local Big Lots where they’d just set up a bin filled with DVDs for only $3 a pop. It was in this bin that I stumbled upon some buried treasure. That being the complete collection of the 1943 Batman movie serials. Not a bad deal, since I was prepared to pay the listed price of $25 when it had first come out.
After watching most of it, I find it deliciously entertaining. While there’s a certain presence of camp from it simply being from the 1940′s, there are also aspects of what I understand to be Batman that I was pleased to see. Firstly, he was serious about being a detective. He’d go undercover in disguise for reconnaissance and use scientific tools to unravel clues. Also, it was clear that Bruce Wayne was the alter ego…a character that Batman would play to conceal his true identity. And even though he was a goofball, Alfred was faithful to what his character was during that time and it was cool to see him get involved in Batman and Robin’s plans.
All that said, there were some qualities of the series that were, well…pretty fucked up. From the top, the whole thing is incredibly racist. It’s somewhat understandable since it was produced during World War II and America was already balls-deep in anti-Japanese propaganda. The main villain was a Japanese agent, but played by an American with eye make-up, using an accent that doesn’t resemble any genuine Asian dialect that I can recognize. The writers were also not at all shy about using the term “shifty-eyed Japs” quite repeatedly.
While Batman had many aforementioned skills that I admired, sadly fighting was not one of them in this series. When Batman would bust in to stop the bad guys from their shenanigans, he would succeed only in that the bad guys would all drop what they’re doing to gang rush Batman and stomp his ass before making their get-away. In fact, if there’s an exact polar opposite to Hokuto Shinken, that’s what Batman practiced. If he did study any kind of martial arts, it consisted of one guy grabbing him from behind while another guy gut-punches him until he passes out. That and falling off of stuff. Buildings, bridges, overhead electrical cables… That grappling hook gun that he’s now most known for was clearly borne of habitual folly during the Roosevelt years.
Oh, and Robin drives the car. That just don’t work.
All-in-all, totally worth $3. If you can grab it up in your area, go for it!
I have to say that this article really puts my comic street cred’ to the test. Of the eight comics listed, I’ve heard of all but one of them (that being Y: The Last Man: Unmanned). And of the eight, I’ve only read two (Bone Volume 1: Out From Boneville and The Dark Knight Returns). Needless to say, I’m a bit embarrassed. I do have Watchmen, Marvels, and Daredevil: Born Again on my want list, but I’ve never gotten around to picking them up. I’ve tried Sandman off and on, but for some reason, it just doesn’t stick with me.
A couple of books that I’m surprised didn’t make the list? I would have included V For Vendetta, any Sin City trade, and probably some Will Eisner collection. Maybe Understanding Comics, if you count that as a graphic novel…
I’d like to tell you about one of my heroes. He was a pioneer. A man of principle who not only stuck to his beliefs; he made sure the word was spread to all of his cause. I speak of Segata Sanshiro. Segata Sanshiro was the mascot figure in Japan’s Sega Saturn ad campaign. The basic idea behind him was that if you’re not home right now playing Sega Saturn, Segata Sanshiro is gonna hunt you down, find you, and kickyourass. It was beautiful…
Segata Sanshiro didn’t just uphold his way of life upon the masses with his awesome fists of justice, he was also a black belt karate demigod in his own rite. When Japan was in danger of losing the World Cup, Segata Sanshiro stepped in to score the winning goal…by throwing one of the players into the ball. He outran an Olympic speed skater…barefoot. He even scored a home run in baseball…with a roundhouse kick. One time a guy tried to fight him, but one shoulder throw later the poor bastard exploded. He took out an entire dance club with his bare hands. Not even children are safe from his charge, leaving piles of dudes in his wake.
There seemed to be only one weakness to Segata Sanshiro’s virtually invincible power. Zombies. That’s right, Segata Sanshiro just couldn’t seem to defeat zombies. Whenever he would take down a zombie with one of his trademark shoulder throws, the undead fuckers just kept getting back up! I assume somehow he escaped, for he lived to kick ass for another day…
As with all good things, Segata Sanshiro did meet his end. The Sega Saturn needed to stand aside to make way for the upcoming Dreamcast. In the end, Segata Sanshiro gave his life by stopping a missile single-handed from destroying the Sega Headquarters office building. Even before the tragedy of September 11th, Segata Sanshiro was already on the ball in the war against evil terrorist groups.
I find it only fitting that this demise was portrayed in the advertisement for his own game. Yes, Segata Sanshiro was such a recognizable identity that Sega gave him his own game title for the Sega Saturn. (The actor is also the voice of Ryo’s dad in the Japanese version of Shenmue.) So even though he died suddenly when that missile he was redirecting into space exploded, that man will live on in our hearts, immortalized in software for the video game console he loved so much…
Thank you, Segata Sanshiro… Thank you for being a hero to Sega fans all over the world. I can only wish that some day I will honor your memory well by kicking the shit out of anyone for not enjoying Sega’s fine products. (With exception of a lot of the crappy new Sonic games; I gotta have principles of my own.) You truly are and forever shall be the Sega Saturn hero…
Below is a video of the music video of Segata Sanshiro’s theme song. The lyrics have been translated and subtitled. Heed those words, for they are truly crafted with inspiration and gamer pride. Hold back your tears…lord knows I try.
According to this recently released article, studies show that gamers that play first-person-shooters experience as much positive emotional response from the death of their own character as that of their opponent, if not more. If I’m translating the psychobabble correctly, players often feel more anxiety than joy from victory. And when their own character dies, they experience much less anxiety.
This makes quite a bit of sense, if you ask me. I can see is possible that when you kill an opponent or complete an objective, you get anxious about whatever the next mission will be. Heh, or when the guy you just whacked will re-spawn and come hunting you for revenge! Yet, whenever I die, I do kinda feel a brief period of relief since for that moment, I’m free from the pressure of whatever task is at hand. If it’s a death match, the moment I die is when I can quit running around avoiding that very death. It’s just like what they say, it’s waiting for the bomb to drop that’s the worst.
While shopping around the local Big Lots, I’ve been noticing that in their PC software section, they usually have a healthy stock of Psychonauts. For those unfamiliar with Psychonauts, it’s one of the best and most underrated games ever made. Zero Punctuation did a fair description of it. It’s possible to download it on Steam for a reasonable $20 price tag. Or you can snatch up a physical copy for a smooth $5. I don’t know if Big Lots is a nationwide chain, nor if they carry the same products in stock, but if there is one near you, I insist you swing over to capture this treasure.
Capcom is claiming that development of Street Fighter IV has reached it’s halfway point. By this, they’re referring to the arcade version of the game, which is due out in Japan in late July. Capcom has it’s sights in American arcades as well, but is currently having difficulty finding a distributor. Capcom has announced no official plans to port the game onto any console, but it’s naive to assume that it won’t inevitably appear on PS3 or Xbox 360.
After all the footage and photos that we’ve seen so far, one might be surprised to hear that the game is only 50-60% finished. I personally find it refreshing. Not only does it leave room for more characters or stages to be added, but also plenty of fine-tuning on the gameplay. I hope they put the gameplay through plenty of punishment by the most skilled tournament players in order to smooth all the bugs out.
As I played through the first case of Ace Attorney: Apollo Justice, I couldn’t help but notice something funny. Not that this is a spoiler, but the first case involves Phoenix Wright on trial for murder, with the victim having been struck fatally on the head with a wine bottle. Except they can’t refer to it as a wine bottle, since Capcom USA wants to make the game as youth-friendly as possible. So instead, it’s a grape juice bottle. They did something similar in one of the previous games, where a bottle of wine became a bottle of tomato juice when the game was translated for America.
This tickles me immensely since this is a game series where each installment involves at least five cases of murder, often brutal ones and some committed in the presence of a minor. So depicting people getting shot, bludgeoned in the head, and corpses stuffed into trunks shouldn’t offend our delicate American sensibilities, but heaven forbid you show booze.
I started a new part-time job today. It’s going to be sucking up a lot of my time, so I may not post here as frequently as I’ve set out to. This new job is called “playing Ace Attorney: Apollo Justice“.
I very seldom pre-order video games anymore. Hell, I almost never buy a game on its launch date. Nearly all my games are bought five years after their release, often used. But for an Ace Attorney game, I’ll happily make an exception. I even got the cute little Apollo keychain for my efforts. It was also kinda refreshing to hear that while the store that I’d gone to had only received three copies of the game, all three had sold, including mine. Though according to the guys behind the counter, I was the only person who’d pre-ordered the game, which is good because if I hadn’t, I never would have gotten a hold of a copy today.
In playing the game, I’m still in the first case as of the time of this writing. Already I’m impressed by the improved graphics, taking advantage of the DS’s abilities. (The previous three Ace Attorney games were originally made for the Game Boy Advance and then ported to the DS.) Some of the older characters that return did not receive a completely revamped look, rather they only received alterations to their original sprites. The difference in resolution is noticeable (older characters appear smaller or further away), but forgivable. I can’t really comment on the soundtrack too much, since I’m so early into the game, but so far it has the appropriate Ace Attorney feel.
So for the next few weeks, Apollo Justice will be my new work-out buddy, lunch mate, and bedtime story.
According to several science professors, video game consoles are being seen as an affordable alternative to more conventional supercomputers. It’s no mystery that the entertainment industry is the leading drive in the advancement of computer technology, specifically in the field of producing the highest-quality computer-generated graphics. Many professors claim that by reconfiguring the console’s processors that are usually used for generating such graphics, it can be used to run complex calculations for other purposes.
“A single high-precision simulation can sometimes cost more than 5,000 hours on the TeraGrid supercomputers. For the same cost, you can build your own supercomputer using PS3s. It works just as well, has no long wait times and can be used over and over again, indefinitely.”
This concept is hardly new in that over eight years ago, fear was spread that the then-new PlayStation2 might be used to control missile strikes. Luckily, that theory has since been supposedly debunked, but it’s hardly impossible. Just think, the PS2 could had a historic part in 9/11 or other heinous terrorist plots.
That silliness aside, it’s always fascinating to see engineers at work, turning what we’d consider little more than a toy into a fantastic tool. Just a couple months ago, geeks all over fell enamored with the various projects that Johnny Lee has cranked out using the Wii. It’s comforting to know that while thousands of people who own a PS3 are least likely to cure cancer, there are one or two that just might.
It’s been a big week in Street Fighter news! So much, it’s been hard to keep up!
First of all, the next new character for Street Fighter IV has been revealed. His name is Abel and he’s a blond, white guy with amnesia. Personally, I can think of a certain blond, white girl with amnesia that I’d much rather see in SF4, but okay. At first glance, his design looks alright, at least from the waist-up. It’s hard to tell if he’s a martial artist or a soccer goalie. And whomever is in charge of character designs for SF4 sure seems to be a big fan of the faux-hawk. His moves look pretty sweet, though, and could be the token muscle-bound brawler.
Earlier this week, Street Fighter IV was not only present, but playable at the Arcade Operator’s Union ( or AOU) show in Tokyo. Capcom set up a full area of SF4 arcade machines for attendees to play. You can check out footage of the arcade machine as well as a peek at the new characters, C. Viper and Abel, in action here:
As always, I’m very impressed and anxiously awaiting the game’s release. My only comment is that I hope they speed the gameplay up a bit. It still feels like a sluggish 3D fighter, rather than a 2D one. Even with it’s higher animation frame rate, Street Fighter III moved at a speed that most of us have grown to love in 2D gameplay. And games like Battle Fantasia and Rumble Fish 2 have proved that it can be done using 3D characters on a 2D playing field.
Many who have attended the show and have been reporting online seem to have the same things to say: The graphics are beautiful. I can’t deny that; they are! Though I’m curious as to how well the controls feel compared to how they look, as described above. This may soon be answered as some members of Kotaku are planning on organizing a personal SF4 tournament for themselves next week at the Game Developer’s Conference.
In the meantime, if you want to get a fresh Street Fighter fix, there’s always the new mouse-controlled Street Fighter game, Street Fighter Online Mouse Generation. The concept is almost cool in the same way that drive-thru liquor stores are almost a good idea. So far the only draw that they’ve been able to come up with beyond the novelty of playing Street Fighter with just a mouse is that they give you the feature of creating custom characters.
Taking a cue from Modulok, you can create your own character using interchangeable body parts, including classic characters. So you can plug Chun-Li’s legs onto Ryu, along with her Spinning Bird Kick move. Or strap Ryu’s arms onto Chun-Li so she can throw a hadouken. Or apparently create some other character with a fish head.
You can take a gander at the gameplay through the trailer/tutorial video, courtesy of GameTrailers:
And I thought playing fighting games with a keyboard was tough… I think I’ll pass.
As I played through the first case of Ace Attorney: Apollo Justice, I couldn’t help but notice something funny. Not that this is a spoiler, but the first case involves Phoenix Wright on trial for murder, with the victim having been struck fatally on the head with a wine bottle. Except they can’t refer to it as a wine bottle, since Capcom USA wants to make the game as youth-friendly as possible. So instead, it’s a grape juice bottle. They did something similar in one of the previous games, where a bottle of wine became a bottle of tomato juice when the game was translated for America.
