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.
I've been on hiatus for a bit but here's something to keep you going it's Blast Corps.
Blast Corps is by Rare, a former ally of Nintendo back in the early days of the N64 where every game they made was covered in Gold Dust as this company dominated alongside Mario producing some of the best and most revolutionary games ever, until Microsoft bought them and ruined them.
Blast Corps is an interesting game, as it's a puzzle game based on demolition. The object is to destroy the set number of buildings per stage with any number of machines and power suits in order to stop a Nuclear Missile Train from exploding on contact with said buildings. What makes this game more interesting is that the small team of designers were all fresh graduates, this is unique in many ways. 1. A team that small on one game, which I believe there were only seven developers is unheard of in those days. 2. The fact that pretty much the whole team were graduates meaning apart from university project work this is the first real game they would've ever worked on.
In other words this would've been the equivalent of a Steam Indie title back in it's day and has the popularity to go with it, Blast Corps stood well with other Nintendo games and was one of the major kickstarters of Rare's incredible run of successful titles on the N64 which included Jet Force Gemini, Banjo Kazooie and Goldeneye among others.
A true testament to how a good game can be made with the right people even if they are freshly trained graduates.
Current State: With Microsoft still very much in charge of Rare, the game is currently playable on X-Box One along with other Rare titles in the compilation Rare Replay.
Why Should it be Revived?: Considering that modern destruction engines in games are very much perfected, Blast Corps should make a dynamic comeback. Modern day graphics suit this cult classic.
To kick off what will be a huge number of Video Game Reviews between now and well into 2016 we begin with an appropriately winter game, Snowboard Kids.
Snowboard Kids is a very cartoony snowboarding game in the same category as Mario Kart and often compared to the game as being Mario Kart on snowboards. The game featured a mix of traditional snow locations with a mixture of unconventional areas such as a Desert and an All Green Forest. It's easy to play but hard to master as the difficulty curve can be between cruel and downright unfair towards the end, certainly a game that's well remembered as one of the Players Choice titles in Nintendo's all time best sellers, rare for a 3rd Party title but the game isn't alone and many more of these will be brought up over the coming months.
Returning to the cartoonish charm its the characters that everyone remembers.
Slash is your typical male protagonist.
Jam is his typical best friend.
Nancy is very much the typical cute girl.
Linda is the older one who's a bit stuck up and wayyyy too young to look the way she does. (Look at her design and remember that she's one year older than the rest of the main cast who are all canonically ten years old in the first game)
and Tommy is the gentle fat kid who'd rather eat as many burgers as Mr Wimpy than snowboard.
And for hidden characters you get Ninjas, Demons and Penguins.
While for Sequel characters you get more stuck up rich girls, a girl genius, a child actress and a bodybuilder who loves himself but the five regular characters stay more or less the same except for a certain remake.
Mid 00s saw a small revival not really go to plan as a more anime styled game took to the Nintendo DS who at the time was seen as a last chance saloon to get old franchises restarted. While the gameplay was more or less the same, the characters went through some changes.
Slash & Jam came out more or less unscathed but Linda had been replaced by her younger brother Brad, Nancy became a cold rich girl and Tommy gained some muscles and became a bully type, needless to say the charm and the loss of Linda who in canon is not only the main instigator of the Snowboarding competitions but also the winner of the first game if the Playstation expansion story is to be believed was not welcomed by the fanbase.
Now I get why Atlus wanted to get with the times but there are better ways of doing it, what's best remembered about the Snowboard Kids is memorable character designs and timeless gameplay and for what it delivered in the face of it's rivals was really very good and deserves a proper come back on a big name console.
Current State: It was last seen as a revival attempt Nintendo DS game with not much going for it and Atlus haven't done much with it since, but Megami Tensei and Persona are doing better for Atlus so much focus is on those two succeeding rather than attempting another revival.
Why Should it be Revived?: Definitely should be revived as the Snowboarding genre has suffered a lot of damage from SSX's last release and needs either this or 1080 Snowboarding for it to come back as a serious genre again.
And as this is my last post before Christmas.
Merry Christmas from me.
A few weeks ago this was revealed.
This is a female Link, dubbed Linkle by Nintendo. So why is this such a big thing? Well lets discuss Legend of Zelda as a series.
The game in basic terms revolves around the power of the Triforce, an ancient relic said to have created the realm of Hyrule, this triangle shaped symbol based on the symbol of the Hojo Clan in Japanese history consists of three different powers of courage, wisdom and power; these represent the three main characters of Link, Zelda & Ganondorf respectively. Through every era in Hyrule a new Link, Zelda & Ganondorf will always appear in a never ending cycle until the franchise ends. There are no rules as to what these three have to look like as long as Link always wields the Master Sword and Hylian Shield, Zelda is always a princess with potent magical powers and Ganondorf is always the main villain with his own powers to boot.
The nature of Hyrule Warriors bringing together more than one Link opened up the possibilities of a female Link when the new character went live, while not wielding the same equipment as the default Link but wielding dual crossbows which is awesome in it's own way.
However critics were quick to denounce Linkle as not an actual Link with more prolific ones suggesting that it's Link's Kid Sister. But you need to put a few things into context.
1. Those who are criticizing Linkle are the same ones who wanted a female Link in the first place.
2. Legend of Zelda is among the biggest selling franchises of all time, so they need to test the waters with a side game before Linkle can be taken seriously as a main game hero. Nintendo are still a business after all and making the wrong decision could backlash heavily. Fans are keen to remind Nintendo about their exploits with the Philips CD-i so releasing Linkle in this format lessens the pain if it really bombs.
3. Nintendo compared to other game companies have the best history with strong female characters.
That last statement is 100% true, people may see Princess Peach as kidnap bait but to put her situation into context, Peach's kingdom is mostly cowardly mushroom people, Bowser and his army are really difficult to escape from and outside of the main series she plays sports and races on equal terms with the rest of the Mario cast. She has even saved Mario herself.
Each Zelda is vastly different from the last, with some even being pirates and ninjas.
Samus Aran is constantly voted best female character in gaming.
The best known Pokemon champion in the franchise is Cynthia.
Pit does all his fighting under the command of the Goddess Palutena.
Lucina made Fire Emblem a household name in the west when the franchise used to be Japanese only before.
Wario's most frequent adversary is a sassy female pirate.
Rosalina's creation was a response to the criticisms about Peach's character and is widely classed as Nintendo's finest creation in the last ten years.
There are very few female characters outside Nintendo who boast the same levels of strength and popularity.
So my point is, I would welcome Linkle with open arms into the same category as those I just mentioned, because Nintendo is good at making strong female characters.
It's a day late but hopefully we can catch up now with the Top 10 Best Nintendo Characters.
Honorable Mentions
Mario: Because Nintendo would probably sue me if I didn't mention their favorite plumber.
Donkey Kong: Just missed the list.
Starter Pokemon: Choosing one from 18 starters is hard.
10. Bowser from Mario Main Series
There's got to be a medal for respect in regards to Bowser, I mean name any other villain who would be so willing to do karting with their mortal enemy, or any sport for that matter, yet in the main games he's still a tough villain to defeat.
9. Yoshi from Yoshi Series
Yoshi has always been the go to character for any Mario Kart or Sports title, he always seems to have the best stats and is usually lucky, plus he's interesting and turns people into eggs by eating them, what's not to like?
8. Mr Game & Watch from Game & Watch Handheld Series
Before Mario became Nintendo's everyman, Mr Game & Watch held the title and he did everything from being a gas attendant, to being a fireman, a deep sea diver and a chef. He was doing all these and a whole lot more, before it was cool.
7. Rosalina from Mario Galaxy Series
If the Mario series was ever going to evolve it's female cast beyond Blondie McKidnap and Miss No Indoor Voice, then it needed a lady of grace and that is Rosalina, her motherly caring mixed with her serene grace has earned her a bigger following than her two princess counterparts, so much so that she's playable solo in the latest Mario games.
6. Samus Aran from Metroid
I think even today, when most now know that Samus is a girl, the reaction to the big reveal is still very effective, although it's lost a few places on this list for Metroid Other M but credit to Nintendo for at least still keeping her core features.
5. Zelda from Legend of Zelda
It's called Legend of Zelda for a reason and that's because she's the best character of the series, for the simple reason that every incarnation of Zelda manages to be interesting and more diverse each time. Of course Smash Brothers earned her infinite points when Zelda disguised in her Sheik clothes took down an Arwing with her bare hands and then proceeded to fight Fox McCloud hand to hand before maintaining her composure when offered a cup of tea. Can Link do that? That's what I thought.
4. Wario from Wario Ware Games
Wario at first could be considered an evil clone of Mario but really he's a loveable anti-hero. When not adventuring for treasure he's making good business with Mona and the rest of the gang of Wario Ware. He's probably the only video game character in history to make a ten second game seem so cool.
3. Pokemon Trainer from Pokemon Series
Yes you as the Pokemon Trainer, bit of a cop out but justified as there are too many Pokemon to pick just one so why not just skip them and go for the one person who catches them all, none other than the trainer that you command.
2. Kirby from Kirby Series
The pink round ball with the unlimited stomach is Mario's best alternative for platforming and with the nature of Kirby's powers it doesn't get boring any time soon, not to mention one of the most colorful video game worlds in history.
1. Palutena from Kid Icarus
Now this character speaks in my language, I love the snarky ones and Palutena is just legendary, in one game she turned an old overlooked Nes game into one of the best 3DS games ever and most of that is down to the humor and Palutena really lays it down.
After finishing a long season of reviews, we end with a double top ten list of best and worst Nintendo characters, unfortunately due to outside commitments, the best list will be posted on Sunday. So we begin with the worst list.
Dishonorable mentions
Luigi: Mainly for the WeeGee meme but it's not enough to be on this list as recent form has redeemed his shortcomings.
Princess Peach: Proven time and time again to be the worst ruler ever but again, recent form has redeemed some of her shortcomings.
Donkey Kong Family: Outside Donkey Kong and Diddy the rest of the Kong family are just bland.
10. Ike from Fire Emblem
Yes he looks bad ass but loses so much credibility when he speaks "I fight for my friends" in such a dorky voice, something like that can really knock a character down, especially when he's such an awesome character to use in Smash bros.
9. Pikmin from Pikmin
I guess I never understood Pikmin, then again I played Lemmings, Pikmin's spiritual ancestors. The difference is I want to save the Lemmings, but I don't want to save Pikmin.
8. Mii from Tomodachi Life
Yes, the Mii you create of yourself is a needy little so and so. They will never like the same foods, keep demanding things and ultimately make you look more weird than you already are. I draw the line at worshiping the Virtual Boy.
7. Eggplant Wizard from Kid Icarus
There have been plenty of joke villains in video games, this one seems to take it up to eleven. Seriously what were they thinking?
6. Black Shadow from F-Zero
Speaking of joke villains, while not a joke villain per say, Black Shadow is the laziest character ever designed, an unoriginal name with an unoriginal design with barely any characterization.
5. Falco Lombardi from Starfox
Say what you like about Slippy Toad, at least he has a purpose in the Star Fox team, Falco on the other hand doesn't, he's not even a good pilot as he's usually the first to fall, not to mention his jerkass tendencies have been done to death.
4. Mr Resetti from Animal Crossing
How do I judge Mr Resetti? Put it this way, he rips into you every time you reset without saving, it's a nice enough fourth wall scene but after the first time, especially if the reset was caused by a sudden power cut or a crash then it comes across as being mean spirited, especially when he's lecturing you for several minutes in an angry tone.
3. Link from Legend of Zelda
Oh boy I'm going to get a lot of hate for this but I will explain for you.
The basic setup for Legend of Zelda is that the Triforce constantly gets reincarnated into a new hero, princess and villain with every Zelda title, which of course is Link, Zelda & Ganondorf.
Ganondorf has gone through some interesting designs over the years.
Zelda to has had some interesting designs with some giving her a radical personality change, Tetra and Sheik come to mind.
Link on the other hand has looked like the same person in every game right down to the green clothes and grunting; I'm aware that iconic value plays a huge part in Link's popularity but I can't put my all into a silent protagonist that always looks and feels the same in every game yet I'm supposed to believe he's a different Link every time.
2. Waluigi & Daisy from Mario Spinoff Series
This was a tie as they're both on for the same reasons, they don't need to exist. Waluigi has no redeeming qualities and Daisy is just plain annoying with her ear grating voice. What makes it worse is that Wario is perfectly capable of looking after himself, while Luigi doesn't really take much notice of Waluigi while Peach & Luigi barely notice Daisy exists, in fact it was Mario saving her Kingdom so she really doesn't owe Luigi anything.
1. Toad from Mario Main Series
The people of the Mushroom Kingdom are stupid. They declare as their ruler an air-headed blonde human girl, she gets kidnapped all the time and I don't think she's made any serious law stand in the Kingdom other than occasionally turn some of the lands into race tracks and sports venues. Not to mention they keep misleading you into different castles with promises of the Princess only for them to tell you she's somewhere else, after which they conveniently escape leaving you to pick up the mess. Should we really call him Toad or shall we call him Troll instead.
