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.
Following directly from the last list, lets look at the games that have no morality.
Honorable Mentions
Final Fight - You'd think being a professional wrestler would clean up Metro City but it doesn't, but at least there's an attempt to stop it.
Duke Nukem - He's a product of his time, he can get away with his misogyny in the 90s but these days it's vulgar and not wanted in this day and age.
Saints Row - Your a criminal anyway but some of the crazy stuff that happens in this Grand Theft Auto clone are too crazy to be real sometimes.
10. Mortal Kombat
Although this is standard for a lot of fighting games, Mortal Kombat features actual graphic killing so it represents pretty much all fighting games attitudes in general, story or not, the object is to kill your opponent and the more gory the better.
9. Shadow the Hedgehog
Any one playing this game will do the same thing, just rush to the end of the stage, the fact that this game makes you play it ten times minimum just to see which morality you'll take only for the final story to suck all the fun out of judging for yourself what path Shadow should take.
8. Watch Dogs
Your a genius hacker and you want to take revenge on the syndicate that killed your loved ones, what do you do? Destroy the lives of innocent people by using them as collateral to take your revenge, bonus points to the game company for trying to bribe reviewers with gifts for decent scores.
7. X-Blades
Your not supposed to use dark magic, it gives you the bad ending, thanks a bunch because a) Completing this crap game requires dark magic, b) the lead character is such a bitch that I can't see a benevolent bone in her body and c) I utterly refuse to play the entire game again just for the good ending.
6. Prototype
Why tell me not to kill civilians when they restore your health and provide you with disguises for killing them, which proves crucial in completing this game without dying.
5. Bulletstorm
Your drunken exploits got most of your crew killed, you avenge them by still being drunk and trigger happy to the very end. Even the worst pirates aren't that bad.
4. Kirby
You devour everyone and everything in your endless stomach even if they look like the most harmless creatures in the world, Kirby is a monster puff ball not a star warrior.
3. Fable
You can be good or evil but being evil is just easier, ruling with tyranny and fear doesn't punish you at all and you even get achievements for it.
2. Pokemon Black & White
Team Plasma logic: "Fighting with Pokemon is wrong, your using Pokemon for violence every time you use them in battle. So we'll use Pokemon to fight for this cause" yeah you get the picture it's just hypocrisy.
1. Tomodachi Life
Yet the most selfish jerks in the gaming world are the Tomodachi Mii's. They demand everything, get into domestics over stupid things and break up relationships as if it was nothing. Out of the blue a Mii would just destroy it's own relationship with no reason why despite you telling them otherwise. How does Nintendo sleep at night?
When you play a game do you think of what might happen if you fail? What happens if you ignore the obvious signs that your about to do something that can't be reversed? Well these games test that morality to the limit as we look at the Top Ten Most Testing Morality Games.
Honorable Mentions
Magic Knight Rayearth - Don't fight your friends even if you end up defeated, but as it's also an anime it's just a mention.
Ace Attorney - Your client will be in jail if you fail to defend them but there are second chances and you can save yourself the embarrassment of failure.
Fire Emblem - Your troops won't come back if they die, but this is optional in some releases and not as essential a gameplay mechanic as it used to be.
10. Elite Beat Agents/Ouendan
The concept of the following dance/singing tropes is that these singers and cheerleaders swoop down and do their thing to try and cheer up or save the troubled individual, this could be anything from lighthearted such as supporting a taxi driver while they drive a pregnant woman to hospital or something heavy like cheering up a little girl who just lost her father at Christmas and failure to complete the song successfully makes for a very sad ending so it weighs quite heavy on your heart strings.
9. Virtua Cop
The Rail Shooter is an outdated concept yet its still more or less used in arcades but the mechanic of shooting a civilian will cost you one of your lives makes you think twice about wildly shooting at everything and makes you pay attention to what your doing, so look before you shoot.
8. Goldeneye
Shooting games are the worst offenders when it comes to trigger happy attitudes but in classic game Goldeneye being too trigger happy will cost you the mission or worst your own life. Shoot a tank in Facility will make you choke to death in the gas, accidentally trigger one of the high powered explosives in Silo will cause instant death, letting your allies die will cost you the mission, blowing up an essential piece of equipment you fail the mission; you get the idea, look before you shoot all those soldiers.
7. Rhapsody A Musical Adventure
In this RPG the love of your life has been turned to stone so your mission is to go out and save him by gathering special stones from mystic guardians, to bad your actions could cost your allies their lives, actually outright kill the guardians, bring ruin to a kingdom and generally make you look like the worlds worst person. You can avoid all this but that depends on how much you pay attention to what's going on.
6. Bioshock
A classic case of whether you decide to kill or save a child; what should be a very easy choice to make, can end up making you look like the world's worst human being if you ignore the obvious just by the fact that you want your special powers quickly, patience and benevolence offer more rewards.
5. Trauma Center Under the Knife
Equally you don't need to be an expert to understand that if you fail your patient will die.
4. Pikmin
You crash land in a mysterious place and have the ability to control these little creatures who can help you escape their world and you have hundreds of them to play with, don't think of these creatures as expendable, your experience will be much smoother if you keep them alive, they aren't Lemmings you know.
3. Undertale
Most recent video game smash hit Undertale gives you the basic moral choice of choosing whether to fight or not. Going by instinct is easy but makes you feel like a villain for doing so and really punishes you for killing certain characters so be a little more conservative in your approach and you'll find a better ending.
2. Cannon Fodder
No matter the rank of the soldier, no matter how talented they are with a gun, if they die, they die and the poignant message it always gives is this: You can line up as many soldiers as you like, but all they do is replace the ones that are dead and Cannon Fodder makes you feel the more guilty when they tell you names of everyone who's died while more soldiers line up for you to send to an early grave, and remember this is the retro hard gaming era so they will die a lot.
1. Chrono Trigger
But the ultimate game for morality is Chrono Trigger, right from the beginning, your messing about at the fair could land you in jail later on, your failure to stop certain things in the past triggers changes that cannot be reversed so easily, humanity will be doomed if you can't stop Lavos. There are more scenarios in this game than you can imagine and all may lead to the same fate, choose your path wisely young Chrono, assuming your still alive by the end of the adventure, hope you won that replica doll of yourself.
Now for another Video Game Review, this time on San Francisco Rush.
Back in the 90s, Midway made a lot of arcade racers, but none so unique as San Francisco Rush, released in 1996 in the arcades before later porting to consoles. Unlike other racing games of the time, San Francisco Rush comes with a slightly more unique feature, if you crash you die, simple as.
While many would consider such a mechanic to be a little geared towards eating up quarters, especially when you consider the difficulty to be a little high. It actually makes it rewarding when played on consoles. The vehicles are a good mix and the tracks take all the good scenery from San Francisco city.
And besides any game with this song in their soundtrack is bound to have a few good laughs in.
Yep the naming screen theme.
Current State: Midway is now NetherRealm Studios and is focused mostly on Mortal Kombat while the Rush series has been left in limbo since the unsuccessful L.A. Rush came out in 2005.
Why Should it be Revived?: The Arcade Racer has been left unguarded for a while and with San Francisco Rush's death mechanic it can still provide a decent challenge for those who still feel that racing should have some difficulty in it that isn't pre-made by Nintendo or neutered by driver aids and rewind mechanics. Proper old school racing at it's finest.
