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.
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.
Back to video games for a quick review on a Bullet Hell game with a bit of a history to it. This is Trouble Witches Neo.
Released back in 2007, Trouble Witches, a former PC game made the transition to the X-Box Marketplace under the name Trouble Witches Neo; like with any Bullet Hell game, Trouble Witches has relatively hard difficulty and you got to command an adorable witch ranging from Eastern Samurai, Magical Girls, Female Cardinals, Princesses and traditional Western Witches, the object is to defeat the Amalgam Daughters (And one son) after every stage until the selected character's story is completed, you can also stop by the Pumpkin Shop and mess with the shop keeper until her sister kicks you out.
Now I did say this game has a history and it's the god awful, atrocious dub voice acting, here's but a sample of the terrible voice acting you can listen to.
Me thinks the acting was done by people whose first language is not English or have never been trained to do any acting.
Current State: It's been de-listed from X-Box Live Arcade as of last year of time of writing, the game has faded into obscurity since it's release only best remembered for said Atrocious Dub Acting.
Why Should it be Revived?: SNK would do well to give this still born franchise another shot, if only to clear up the bad voice acting, but voice acting aside, the character designs are very charming and the characters themselves are fun to watch and could easily pass as a competent anime.
I'm old enough to have been through nearly the entirety of the gaming industry and back in my day, we learned our skills through the arcades.
Weston Grand Pier, nearest arcade to my location in the UK
To bring Arcades into the 21st Century, I have compiled an Achievement List, equaling to 1000G in the same style as X-Box. I'll also list my score at the end, so lets take a look. Bold are ones I've achieved.
50G - Complete an Arcade Game on one coin
50G - Tilt a Pinball Machine by Overclocking the Score
20G - Top an Arcade Leaderboard
40G - Complete the Hard Race Course on a Driving Game
15G - Play an Arcade Cabinet Older than you
20G - Win a Claw Game
20G - Win a Multiplayer Game
10G - Earn £10/$10 on a Coin Pusher
15G - Earn £15/$15 on Slots
30G - Win a Pinball Tournament
40G - Complete an Arcade Shooter
10G - Complete a song on Dance Dance Revolution
40G - Complete a song on Dance Dance Revolution on the Hardest Difficulty
25G - Play a Hundred different Arcade Titles
15G - Win at Air Hockey
10G - Play a Shooting Gallery
10G - Play a Punching Machine
10G - Play Basketball Hoops
10G - Play Skee Ball
30G - Play Pachinko
10G - Won enough tickets for a decent Prize
20G - Play Kentucky Derby
5G - Spent £100/$100 on Arcade Games
15G - Play five Namco Games
15G - Play five Taito Games
15G - Play five Midway Games
15G - Play five Sega Games
15G - Play five Atari Games
20G - Played an Arcade Game using a Trackball
15G - Played a Gottlieb Pinball Machine
15G - Played a Williams Pinball Machine
20G - Played Joust
20G - Played Asteroids
20G - Played Centipede
20G - Played Tetris
20G - Played Defender
20G - Played Donkey Kong
20G - Played Pacman
20G - Played Galaga
20G - Played Space Invaders
20G - Played Pole Position
10G - Played Virtua Fighter
10G - Played Outrun (Classic)
10G - Played Space Harrier
10G - Played Super Hang-On
10G - Played Tumble Pop
10G - Played Puzzle Bobble
10G - Played Afterburner
10G - Played Sega Rally
10G - Played Daytona USA
10G - Played Time Crisis
10G - Played House of the Dead
10G - Played Final Fight
10G - Played Street Fighter II
10G - Played Simpsons Arcade
10G - Played X-Men Arcade
10G - Played Alpine Ski
10G - Played Table Stick Hockey
Update: 1st Expansion Pack Achievements
10G - Played Gauntlet
20G - Played a TriForce Arcade Game (Namco - Sega - Nintendo)
10G - Played a Free-to-Play Game
30G - Completed a Co-op Shooter
10G - Played Whack-A-Mole
20G - Won a Race using a Photo of Yourself on any Photo Arcade Feature
50G - Scored a 1000 Points on Pac-Man Multi Puck Air Hockey
Update: 2nd Expansion Pack Achievements
20G - Played Hatsune Miku Arcade
20G - Played a Taiko Drum Game
20G - Played a Pogo Stick Game
20G - Played any Idol Game using Cards
50G - Played a Table Flipping Game
20G - Played Sonic the Hedgehog Arcade
30G - Won a Sega UFO Catcher
20G - Beat a Fist of the North Star Punching Game
Update: 3rd Expansion Pack Achievements European Edition
10G - Played a Sega, Midway and Namco Game in the Same Arcade
20G - Played 10 Games in a Traditional American Style Arcade
30G - Placed on the Leaderboard of any Arcade Game
40G - Defeated a Local at an Arcade Game
50G - Leave the Arcade with a Prize
My Score: 1150G
Take the Arcade challenge and see how you match up.
Back to some gaming as I'll be throwing up some quick reviews for old games, these will come out thick and fast so try to keep up. We start off with Re-Volt.
Re-Volt was made by Acclaim Entertainment, a late 90s company that could compete with the big names but ultimately fizzled out when it found out that it wasn't capable of flogging Turok anymore. The concept of Re-Volt is a Remote Controlled car game in which comically named vehicles race around Suburban Neighbourhoods, Rooftops, Gardens, Supermarkets, Toy Stores, Ghost Towns, Museums and even a scaled down Titanic, the game also included power ups, a battle mode and a stunt track in order to better compete with some real big name racers at the time.
Re-Volt was best remembered for it's stunning soundtrack, realistic RC handling and having a track maker mode; it's difficulty can be anything from simple to outright brutal with some tracks really punishing your mistakes.
It's legacy is still felt now as the PC community constantly strive to build more and more custom tracks and cars for the game, even to this day, allowing the license to be purchased and rereleased as an IOS game.
I have great memories of this game as it was one of my favorite racing games of all time, and I owe much of my skill with racing games to this title.
Current State: It's currently active as an IOS title, even releasing a sequel with reasonable success.
Why Should it be Revived?: Rocket League kind of has the RC thing down at the moment, granted it's car football but it follows much of the same charm as Re-Volt, and I hope it becomes something more if the developers decide on a racing mode.