Hi, I'm Dranzerstorm
Welcome to the Video Game & Music Lounge
This world is dedicated to Video Games and Music as I'll be showcasing the following.
Video Game Reviews set to the same tones as Retro Retrospective's Anime Reviews
Music reviews of Anime Openings & Closings
Western Cartoon music
Vocaloid Classics.
We may even have some Top Tens
I hope this World entertains you.
When it comes to video game characters and romance you think of the one sided love affairs like Amy and Sonic or the princess chasing Mario trying to find Peach in various castles, but were not looking at sunken ships were looking at canon relationships between two characters and to expand on it properly characters that have their own games.
Namco were the first ones to really do this creating Ms Pac-Man as a female counterpart to Pac-Man, however if were going on narrative the only time these two were even confirmed to be a couple is in the poorly made cartoon in the 80s, while marketed as the wife of Pac-Man the lack of innovation in the day provided very little to work with and Ms Pac-Man is all but written out of the franchise at this point but Namco being a clever gaming company made a proper couple from two of their early games, namely Dig Dug and Baraduke, the protagonists being Taizo Hori and Masuyo Toby respectively.
If your not familiar with Baraduke then here's a quick explanation, in 1985 it was a simple shooter where you fly around on a jetpack and shoot lasers in the hunt for aliens, what you may not know is that the ending showcased protagonist Masuyo Toby as a female when it wasn't clear which gender you were playing to begin with, if this sounds familiar then you've probably played the original Metroid where the same thing happens at the end only Baraduke actually predates Metroid by one year but Metroid argubly is the better remembered of the two games.
Taizo Hori and Masuyo Toby became an official couple as of the game Mr Driller in 1999, considering the ages of their three children we can assume the couple married not long after the events of Baraduke but not only were they gamings first official family, first official married couple they were also gamings first divorce.
That's very surprising; this has been backed up in the Mr Driller franchise that serves as a sequel to Dig Dug and further cemented in Namco X Capcom as the two characters have on screen fights between cut scenes, but both parents are supportive of their three children and are always featured in the Mr Driller continuity.
So that's gamings first canon family and since then other than marriages within single games and endings that feature families as an epilogue, no other video game couple has ever existed since where two different video game protagonists have married and produced a child that had his/her own video game as well.
You know I just realized that Wreck-It Ralph's Calhoun and Fix-It Felix Jr might actually be a homage to Taizo and Masuyo, just hope they don't end up divorced in the sequel and if they do, I called it first.
Sometimes copying popular games can be endearing and these titles definitely had the right idea at the time even if none of them could beat their top rival, to qualify for this list you must have power ups in the game, must have memorable characters and with a couple of exceptions must at least take some elements from Mario Kart.
Honorable Mentions
Nicktoons and Cartoon Network Racers: Both competed for the same crown but largely unmemorable
F1 Race Stars: Worthy attempt from Codemasters using super deformed F1 Drivers but the game physics are severely annoying.
Toy Racer: Spin off game to Toy Commander, too small to be anything significant.
Snowboard Kids: It's snowboarding but it at least it's worthy of mention.
Sonic Drift: Doomed by being a Game Gear exclusive but not bad for a first try.
Bomberman Kart: Forgettable but at least well designed.
Re-Volt: Other than power ups it uses physics too close to actual RC Racing and being sentient cars rather than characters means it can't go on this list but it's worthy of mention.
Vigilante 8 and Twisted Metal: Disqualified by virtue of being a battle game with cars rather than a racing game.
10. South Park Rally
The cast of South Park racing around town trying to reach checkpoints as opposed to following a simple track, the physics were solid for an N64 era racer but frustrating difficulty hindered the experience. South Park is a lot more sophisticated these days so something like this feels dated.
9. Pac Man World Rally
Pac Man has always had a go at every genre and with a few friends managed a decent outing as a racer but not nearly as solid as Ridge Racer.
8. Dreamworks Superstar Kartz
With challenging circuits and a colorful cast of characters, Dreamworks pulled off a surprisingly good kart title only let down by poorly designed AI.
7. Crash Team Racing
Crash had a few attempts at this and all of them played surprisingly well but largely forgettable characters these days doesn't give it much of a legacy.
6. ModNation Racers
The idea was to create your own experience and they nailed it, but very much a short lived trend riding on the success of Little BigPlanet.
5. Cars II
A surprisingly well built attempt from Pixar, and pretty much a no brainer, just a little let down by track choice but the cast of characters more than make up for it not to mention some interesting weapons to boot.
4. Konami Krazy Racers
The only one on this list that feels closest to the Mario Kart experience in terms of aesthetics and overall design, even the cast of characters are built on the same design of weight classes but stops itself from being an outright clone by some clever track designs.
3. Blur
This is the gritty Mario Kart, the one sold as a solid adult experience making it the exception to the rule, it's Mario Kart with real licensed cars and it was awesome, even now long after the companies that published this game abandoned it, the online community keep it going.
2. Sonic and Sega Allstars Racing
While the first game was good, the sequel was incredible, it didn't settle for imitation it took it to a professional level by challenging the most fierce of Kart Racers where perfection is the key to victory, I would put this number one, accept.
1. Diddy Kong Racing
This game is the only kart racer in history to compete against Mario Kart and fight it on a level playing field, the plane and boat functions that inspired Sega Allstars Racing's sequel started here and even Mario Kart these days has never managed to create the same experience Diddy Kong Racing did.
Time for a new game to add to this list, this time an alternative to the Kart Racer.
MIcro Machines is originally a toy franchise formed in 1986, known for it's micro cars and vehicles, a unique looking toy for it's time when it was up against the likes of Hot Wheels, but one thing it had over Hot Wheels was good games which began in 1991 where racing in Gardens, Bathtubs, Sand Pits, School Desks, Breakfast Tables and Billiard Tables were normal and defintitely one of my fondest gaming memories, it also provided one of the most unique gaming cartridges ever seen until Sonic and Knuckles. In it's first outing it had a setting which allowed it to switch regions, in the sequel released for the Mega Drive it came with extra control ports in the actual cartridge and even went the extra mile by having 8 player gaming using a control share system as well as the extra ports, it was the greatest multiplayer racing experience until Mario Kart took it back in the N64 era and by then Micro Machines popularity had faded but left a legacy of games like Toy Racer, Re-Volt and the spiritual remake Toybox Turbos.
Current State: It came back as an IOS android game this year albeit based heavily on the Toybox Turbo build rather than the original but still maintains the franchises involvement, otherwise it's last outing was a last hurrah to reclaim it's old form with V4 which never really grabbed the imagination of it's older brothers and was billed as an entry level racing game for kids but to be fair when your racing rivals are Gran Turismo and Mario Kart, you need to bring some serious gaming to the table, it was also around that time the toy went off the market until the toys came back last year following a deal with Star Wars
Why Should it be Revived?: In it's classic form, certainly, I'd pay a nice sum of money to see a virtual console release of the old games, also I feel it's too good to put on just phones and needs some loving on a big console.
In every video game franchise there is a set number of characters who get overlooked in favor of the leads and these are just some that are badly overlooked and wasted despite the game they are in being a big hit, these are the top ten wasted video game characters
Honorable Mentions
Linkle from Legend of Zelda Franchise
There is still time for her to become more mainstream but since they already got to this stage with a female Link why not go all out.
Piastol from Skies of Arcadia
The most memorable boss from the updated Gamecube version, many wish she joined the crew or at the very least given us more boss battles
Bass Armstrong from Dead or Alive
Badly overlooked in favor of the game's female cast, Bass Armstrong is used by very few players, but at least stands out enough to be remembered.
10. King Dedede from Kirby Franchise
in recent years King Dedede has not really featured much as the main antagonist of the Kirby Franchise, going as far as being almost completely missing from the Planet Robotbot game and even though you can play as him in the Time Trial of Triple Deluxe his influence on the story is low at best.
9. May from Guilty Gear
May is the devoted follower of fellow fighter Johnny of the Jellyfish Air Pirates, but in a series that has the likes of Sol Badguy leading the frame, May is largely ignored compared to the others, especially when you consider her as one of the few female physical power houses in mixed gender Fighting Games.
8. Bang Shishigami from Blazblue Franchise
Following on from May, Bang Shishigami barely has any influence on the main story, he may have a weapon capable of game changing events in the Blazblue Universe but at the moment he's not really involved majorly in any part of the plot despite the fact that he's one of the stand outs in the franchise.
7. Voldo from Soul Calibur Franchise
One of only a handful of characters to ever appear in every single Soul game, Voldo gets the least focus out of everyone, the bendable, leather binded Italian is devoted to guarding the Money Pit regardless of what earth shattering events go on around him and despite being in every game has never impacted the story in anyway.
6. Diantha from Pokemon Franchise
She was supposed to be the champion of Kalos, a highly acclaimed actress and the one trainer you aim for in the games to defeat and usually the voice of reason whenever an evil force tries to takeover the world. Diantha just briefly tells off the villain, is so underwhealming to battle and is just so bland, that's the number one trainer of Gen VI, I kind of feel cheated.
5. Daisy from Mario Franchise
While she has a decent role in the Mario and Sonic Olympic Franchise, she's otherwise a princess with nothing to do since her world was saved, at least Waluigi had stand out features and some memorable Mario Kart tracks, it doesn't help that her voice can make cats shreiking seem tolerable. It's a shame as Daisy apart from her voice is a very unique character among the rest of the female cast being a tomboy but instead she's color palette swap Peach.
4. Sodom from Street Fighter and Final Fight Series
Out of all the fighters in the whole of Street Fighter, why does Sodom get ignored? Karin came back, Poison was picked despite being a background character and a standard soldier in Final Fight, even Rainbow Mika was picked over this guy, what's so bad about Sodom? He's hilarious, he has the most awesome truck in the world and in the right hands he's a decent choice to fight with.
3. Giro from Megaman ZX
Upon his appearance he's basically Megaman ZX's equal to the character Zero, total screen time? Less than five minutes, that's assuming your not skipping cutscenes. He's killed off before we even have a chance to know about him, don't even bother selling him as a major character if he's just going to die straight away, it's not even a spoiler, it happens after level one, quite a low moment in an otherwise unique Megaman game, at least it's not Mighty No.9
2. Fang the Sniper from Sonic Franchise
There are too few villains in the Sonic Franchise and having Fang the Sniper could bring a lot to the table in badly need of some ideas to save this franchise. Considering Sega have done Gun Physics fairly well, it's not in the realms of impossible and his motives are really not much different to Rouge's and being a villain that even Robotnik himself doesn't like adds another dimension to the Sonic Franchise but sadly beyond his one mainstream title and spinoffs, Fang has failed to make a comeback despite the amount of opportunities to do so.
1. Athena Asamiya from King of Fighters and Athena
Not only does this gal not provide major story changes to King of Fighters, her game Athena has not seen any comeback despite the fact that it was not only good for it's time but worth reviving in the same way Kid Icarus came back, Athena has so many possibilities yet here she is on a fighting team that will never win in canon.
A quick one this time as we look at Balloon Fight for the NES.
Balloon Fight was released in 1984 when Nintendo was still a major arcade cabinet force; it's a simple game of dog fighting with balloons as the title character takes on enemy fighters while trying to stay airborne, the concept is like the earlier released game Joust which features pretty much the same gameplay. There's also Balloon Trip which is basically Flappy Bird's Ancestor. The game is simple but relatively tricky as the Balloon Fighter doesn't always respond to controls very well, the game is best remembered for it's catchy soundtrack and unforgiving water traps featuring piranhas.
Current State: It's been ported as a mini game numerous times over the years, even featuring in other games as quick mini games or part of compilations or even a simple homage; Legend of Zelda character Tingle even managed his own version but it's most recent appearance was on the Wii Virtual Console since 2007 and re-ports to the 3DS and Wii U's Virtual console.
Why Should it be Revived?: It's certainly worth trying in 3D graphics but there really isn't much more to the game worth porting for modern release.
