The Nomasphere

     Okay, this is getting ridiculous.  For those of you who don’t know Brutal Legend is a proposed game by game design legend Tim Schafer and his Double Fine production team.  The game is supposed to be a complete tribute to Heavy Metal.  The lead character is a roadie for the band Brutal Legend who comes across a powerful mask which sucks him into a world full of norse mythology references, demon wings, half-naked ladies, and literal face-melting guitar rifts.  The main character is supposed to be voiced by Jack Black, the soundtrack is supposed to be stacked with the works of MotorHead and Ronnie James Dio and the gameplay ideas are supposed to be fresh. 

   Everything Schafer has done is cursed with being great games nobody played, so I suppose that’s the fear publishers have with picking up this masterpiece in the making.  But COME ON!  What about that synopsis doesn’t sound completely awesome?!  You can melt peoples faces with guitar rifts, recruit an army of followers and kick ass in your Mad-Max style automobile.

    The complaint I have is no publisher seems to want this game.  Activision Blizzard tossed it out, but kept Spyro the fucking Dragon!  Spyro’s games were irrelevant years ago.  Then people suggested MTV’s Game Publishing company pick it up.  This is an awesome idea, they could promote it, make sure Schafer gets all the Metal he wants for the soundtrack and put out likely one of the best games of 2009, but no they wish him luck.  Seriously if this game dies due to lack of publishing funds I officially give up my faith in the industry.  How do schlock like the entire Imagine series get out the door fine, but Schafer (creator of Psychonauts, Day of the Tentacle, Grim Fandango, Escape from Monkey Island and pretty much any other good adventure game Lucas Arts used to publish before they switched completely to Star Wars games) has to struggle to find backing.  Someone good publish this, seriously.

            Today, unlike when I was growing up, kids don’t seem to have the same level of entertaining cartoons to watch.  Growing up watching Rocko’s Modern Life and Doug, I feel today’s youth doesn’t have the same quality programming.  However after viewing most of the modern cartoons I found 2 new shows I enjoy.  There are a few gems that have been on the air for a while, Spongebob Squarepants and Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends are good choices for kids and adults, but I won’t include them because they have been on for a few years now. 

            The two shows that have recently premiered on Cartoon Network, Chowder and The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack, are the two gems I have seen in modern kids cartoons.  For those of you who haven’t seen them, you are missing out on bizarre and often gross-out humor that harkens back to Ren and Stimpy but is performed with more class. 

            Chowder is an odd little story about a master chef who fancies himself a ladies man, Mung Daal, and his apprentice the title character and odd little fellow with an insurmountable appetite, Chowder.  They live with Mung Daal’s nagging short-tempered wife Truffles and his journeyman chef and resident rock-monster Shnitzel whose entire set of dialogue consists of the word “radda.”  For its odd quirk the show is funny and highly entertaining.  Consisting of a variety of animation styles including puppets and masking patterns, it’s unlike any other program on television except maybe for Flapjack.

            The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack is a bizarre show about the titular character Flapjack as he searches for adventure and the fabled Candied Island with his mentor the good-for-nothing Captain K’nuckles and their ship the motherly whale Bubby.  The show uses varied styles and bizarre gross-out animation along with a dark and sepia-toned world to contrast the overly excited Flapjack.  The titular character wants to be the world’s greatest adventurer and find the fictional Candied Island.  In fact, all the hardened pirates and adventurers that hang out at Stormalong harbor, the main setting of the show, are after candy.

            Both shows are highly enjoyable and very odd.  They feature a sort of humor that appeals to both the young and the older viewers and will unfortunately probably never find the same degree of success as the oddball Spongebob Squarepants.  Nickelodeon doesn’t really seem to crank out the same quality as they used to, especially with the new trend of trying to be Disney with all their stupid kids soap opera’s and singing shows.  So I’m happy to see Cartoon Network is still capable of producing a few good shows.     

My Top Ten Protagonists in The Drawn Media –Anime/Comics/Manga/Cartoons

   Spoilers abound in the following entry.  Flat-out I’ll say you won’t find Superman on this list.  I prefer heroes with depth and the ultimate boy-scout with barely any weaknesses doesn’t really measure up as interesting to me as he could be.  While I acknowledge the man of steel as a great hero, he’s just as cool as the following guys.

10. Wolverine – This anti-hero from the X-men is a hardcore badass who thinks Cyclops is a prick and fights with the ferocity of the animal he takes his name after.  Of all the old-school X-men he is my favorite and thus earns himself a number 10 spot.

Runner Up from series: Gambit

9.   Urahara Kisuke – The true hero of Bleach, to anyone who reads the manga, they know all about Aizen.  Essentially the epic battles of Bleach boil down to Urahara vs. Aizen in a game of strategic Shinigami chess.  Urahara is old-school and as such tutors the young heroes, manipulating them to win against Aizen, often without them realizing it.

Runner Up for series: Zaraki Kenpachi

8.   Vash the Stampede – A living Plant, he will never age and is discriminated against by people as a walking disaster waiting to happen.  However, with his immense power all he has ever caused is property damage.  He saves everyone he can and is the nicest person on the planet Gunsmoke, having to deal with all the hardships thrown his way as a martyr to the ideologies taught to him by Rem. 

7.   Dead Pool – Dead Pool is something special in that he’s entirely insane.  While an assassin at heart he has become a bizarre protagonist who is cool and goofy on so many levels.  He brings a real bizarre sense of absurdist humor different from Spiderman. 

6.   L – The genius detective with a lot of bizarre eccentric tendencies from Death Note.  He competed in intellectual cat and mouse with Light and in some iterations of the story (the Films) was the winner.  I just didn’t like Mello or Near as his successors.  L’s uniqueness, boldness and genius make him a truly interesting character. 

5.   Musashi (Takezo) – The Protagonist of Vagabond is based on the really life Miyamoto Musashi, this invincible swordsman evolves throughout the series from a mad dog of a fighter to the most skilled swordsman the world has ever seen.  His inner reflections throughout the series and his desire to become the greatest swordsman in Japan make him an interesting fighter.  

4.   Spiderman – The wise-cracking flagship of Marvel Comics, everyone has either seen the movies or read the comics.  Spidey is an excellent hero, with a sense of humor and a weighted past.  Dealing with the modern burdens of life, women, and work while battling Venom, Doc Ock and the rest of his Rogue’s gallery make Spidey a deep and relatable character.   

3.   The Goddamn Batman – The popularity of the Bat has been revived in full force with Nolan’s 2 movies.  Both of which are often viewed as the quintessential comic films.  In the printed media however, when you look past the campy era, you get a dark and brooding detective trying to juggle his lifestyles of playboy billionaire and vigilante.  He’s the smart bad-boy of DC comics and he gave Superman his fair share of ass-whippings. 

2.   Rorschach – Almost taking my number one spot is the controversial Rorschach from Alan Moore’s Watchmen.  In fact one day he may be number 1 after I see the film.  This hero sees everything in black and white, an ultra-conservative person and in real-life I would probably disagree with him on so many levels.  However, his life view is what makes him so interesting, if your crime is bad, he’ll likely kill you.  A loose-cannon vigilante and one of the most interesting characters you’ll ever see.  You may not agree with him, but you’ll likely find him as a badass and unpredictably interesting to see.

Runner Up for series: Nite-Owl II

1.   Guts – The highest rated protagonist on my list is also the biggest anti-hero on my list.  Star of Berserk, Guts was raised as a mercenary, all he knew in life was combat.  When he met his first loss he found something he never had before a leader and a friend in Griffith.  However, learning that pursuing his own ambitions would allow him to stand as Griffith’s equal he won his freedom back years later.  One thing led to another and our hero is branded as a sacrifice to demons by his former friend, watching him rape his only love in front of him and all his former allies and friends be devoured by demons.  Driving Guts to breaking point and inspiring the most violent rage induced revenge I have ever seen in any media.  Guts tale is truly a twisted one and because of that has twisted his own psyche into something dark, battling with his inner demons to protect the one he loves and exact revenge on the man (technically he’s a demi-god now) that ruined everything he had.

Runner Up for series: Casca

Obscurities: In the Shadow of the Bat Part 2      

       In anticipation for the Dark Knight I immersed myself in the Batman.  Last time I talked about the movies I watched, this time the graphic novels I read.  I won’t review them, because to be frank all of them were good in different ways, something like the Killing Joke is better written than the Man Who Laughs, but both are good in different ways.  I’d recommend a read of any of the 7 I read: Batman Year One, The Man who Laughs, The Killing Joke, Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth, The Long Halloween, the Dark Knight Returns, and the Dark Knight Strikes Again.  Minor Spoilers ahead!

-Batman Year One-  The Batman origin story, told primarily from the dual-perspectives of Bruce Wayan and Jim Gordon as they both arrive in Gotham and begin to clean away the corruption imposed by the mob.  You don’t really get any of the Rogue’s Gallery outside of Selena Kyle as the budding Catwoman and a mention at the end toward the Joker.  An overall excellent look at how Batman established himself as a hero and won over Jim Gordon to his side, this book probably served as inspiration for Batman begins. 
 
-The Man who Laughs- Picking up where year one left off, this is a retelling of Batman’s first encounter with the Joker.  Batman finds the Joker to far succeed any mob adversary he’s ever faced, laying the groundwork for the anarchist clown to become his number one arch nemesis.  This book shares quite a bit in common with The Dark Knight in that the theme of Batman being the inspiration for these madmen to arrive in Gotham to rise up and meet up is a central plot point.   

-The Killing Joke- Alan Moore’s tale of the Joker’s origin story.  This according to Nolan was a big inspiration in how he based the Joker in The Dark Knight.  It also shares some common themes in that the Joker consistently retells his origin story in a different way, preferring his past to be multiple choice.  It really captures the Joker’s anarchist and indiscriminately murderous psyche in a way only Alan Moore could.

-Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth- Breathtaking artwork coinciding with the origin story of Arkham Asylum and its once crazed owner.  Batman has to go to Arkham to deal with the inmates who have taken control of the Asylum on April Fool’s Day.  Featuring many cameos from the Rogue’s Gallery as Batman makes his way through the Asylum to uncover it’s dark past.

-The Long Halloween- The origin of Two-Face and an awesome detective story to boot.  I found myself half-right in my guessing of the story but the twist truly through me off.  Batman must discover the identity and foil the killer known as Holiday, who murders mob members during holidays, leaving behind the murder weapon (a light-weight pistol with a baby-bottle nipple for a silencer) and a trinket associated with the holiday.  Featuring numerous cameos from the Rogue’s Gallery and even Calendar Man like some sort of Hannibal Lector figure, the Long Halloween was one of the most enjoyable of all the graphic novels I read.  

-The Dark Knight Returns- Set in an alternate future, Frank Miller gives Batman his balls back in an extremely twisted book featuring an angry out of retirement Batman, the Joker and even the Man of Steel in one of the best endings to a Batman story I’ve ever seen.  This book is a must read and you truly have to read it to appreciate it.

-The Dark Knight Strikes Again-  I read this shortly after seeing the Dark Knight and to be honest it doesn’t live up to The Dark Knight Returns at all.  Frank Miller wrote the sequel, but even the zany pop-art style visuals don’t match up to Miller’s gritty drawings.  Read it, if you want to know what happens after DKR, but the book features less Batman than it should, Superman I think is in this book more.  After reading it, it just made me want to read Kingdom Come again which is better by far, in both visuals and in story.

     There you have it, I recommend 7 graphic novels, well 6 technically.  Though I’ll through in a recommendation of Kingdom Come as well, an alternate DC universe future where the outburst of new heroes leads to a Book of Revelations style impending apocalypse.

Obscurities- In the Shadow of the Bat part 1

            In anticipation of the Dark Knight, I immersed myself in the Batman for a good 3 days.  I read 7 graphic novels and watched 5 films.  The films included Batman Begins, Batman: Gotham Knight, Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker, Batman: Mask of the Phantasm and The Batman vs Dracula.  The graphic novels I read were Batman Year One, The Man who Laughs, The Killing Joke, Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth, The Long Halloween and the Dark Knight Returns.

Batman Begins- Very little needs to be said about this film.  Christopher Nolan and Christian Bale rebooted the Batman franchise after the on film abortion that was Batman and Robin.  Without all the Arnold Mr. Freeze Puns and terrible bat-nipples, you get a serious and realistic look at how the Batman came to be.  Drawing slight influence from Batman: Year One, Begins was the best Batman film to date and arguably the best superhero movie ever, as Bale put it so eloquently quoting Frank Miller, “its about time we give Batman his balls back.”

4.5/5

Batman: Gotham Knight- In a way this was the Animatrix of the Batman universe.  By allowing various Japanese Directors to animate stories that are supposed to occur in between Batman Begins and the Dark Knight you get 6 interlinking and unique stories that interpret the Batman in different ways and we even get a battle with Killer Croc.  Gotham Knight is an excellent little rent or purchase for the avid Bat-fan, your bound to like at least one tale and at least one art-style.

4/5 

Batman: Mask of the Phantasm- The best of the Batman animated films, this movie tells the story of the mobs involvement in Gotham and of Bruce Wayan’s ex-fiancée Andrea Beaumont.  The Batman has to deal with The Phantasm a new villain that is picking off the Mob heads leaving the Bat to the Blame.  He also has an interesting encounter with his archenemy along the way. 

4/5

Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker- Set in the futuristic Batman Beyond Universe, Bruce Wayan has long since retired, but the world is still in need of a hero.  Terry McGinnis, a high school student, dons the mantle of the bat in a suit provided to him by the original Batman.  Wayan serves as his mentor when he comes face to face with an enemy long thought to be dead.  The Joker has evil plans for Gotham and a supporting gang that can help him achieve his goals against the modern Batman. 

3.5/5

The Batman Vs. Dracula- A play off of the graphic novel that came before it, this takes a light hearted and heavy handed approach to the subject matter.  Instead of murdering people, they simply become Vampires that aren’t dead.  The Penguin and the Joker both have an important role in the film as supporting films, with the films climatic villain being the Dark Lord Dracula.

3/5

            Next time I’ll have a review for the Graphic Novels, I’ll start by saying of the seven I read, five are considered the best Batman Stories ever according to IGN.    

E3 Day 4- Final Smash

            Well nothing really new today, just more of what was already shown.  One interesting game that shouldn’t be overlooked is Fat Princess.  This unique PSN title features 5 classes and juxtaposition of Candy Land environments and blood-splattering violence.  The flagship capture the princess mode, gives the opposing team the quest of re-taking their princess in their engorged state, as the princess has been force-fed by the opposing team.  All the little quirks of the game make it feel like a bizarre mix of TF2 class gameplay and cutesy titles like Animal Crossing.  The action gameplay, building, seesaw assaults and piranhas only add to a quirky and unique gem.  This original IP gets my digital distribution Game of the Show. 

            As for console game of the show, I’d go with Dead Space.  A surprisingly good game from EA that mixes Science Fiction and Survival Horror, your character finds that a mining colony has been overtaken by organic terrors.  Through what is described as “tactical dismemberment” by the developers the hero must destroy his foes through severing appendages. 

            For PC gamers I’d go with Dragon Age, Bioware bringing a classic RPG can’t be beat.  Baldur’s Gate will always be one of the best RPGs ever made and if they can capture that again, they have gold.  Handheld game surprises would probably be Resistance or Kirby for the DS.  I’d say GTA, but they didn’t show anything aside from talking about it.     

E3 Day 3- 3^rd Strike

            No real big announcements today except for Dead Rising being ported to the Wii and Nintendo is working on Pikmin 3.  That being said I think the real winner of E3 so far has been the 3^rd parties.  Especially EA and Capcom displayed interesting games.  I now look forward to and plan to Pre-order/Purchase quite a few games I never even thought about before. 

            The unique games that really excited me were the creative Little Big Planet and the PSN game Fat Princess, which with its quirky charm and strategic class system really seems like a gem.  Third person action/adventure and survival horror seems to be a new standard, games like Dead Space, Dark Void, Infamous, RE5, and SH: Homecoming all looked excellent in their own way.  Dead Space and Dark Void especially surprised me, Dead Space for being a unique looking survival horror title and Dark Void for looking to accomplish action with jetpack fighting.

            The other game I’m looking forward to is Dragon Age, the gameplay looks excellent.  Bioware going back to their roots with a Baldur’s Gate style RPG except within their own universe gives an interesting number of awesome possibilities.  Mass Effect was an interesting successor to KotOR, though it seems like Bioware might be secretly making a new KotOR anyway. 

E3 Day 2- Paced-station 3

            Out of all 3 conferences Sony’s was the worst paced of the three.  All the announcements came at the end like afterthoughts and after sitting through an hour plus to get there it was kind of exhausting.  That being said, it was still more entertaining than Nintendo.  The confirmation for God of War 3 was nice.  The new games MAG, a 256 player, 8 to a team tactical based war simulator, as well as Infamous from the Sly Cooper developers looked interesting. 

            Out of everything they did, Little Big Planet was the most entertaining.  A PowerPoint presentation becomes a lot more interesting when made in game and played out using the Sack-boy.  The new PS3 features are okay, with in game rentals and purchases in place to rival Microsoft’s use of Netflix.  The PS3 price-drop to $399 for the 80 GB model come September will likely be more crucial.

            All in all the PS3 didn’t show off much, but then again Microsoft showed off RE5 and Fallout 3 which are multiplatform.  The major 3 all kind of had lackluster showings, with the best presentation thus far being EA, which pains me to ever say that.  Of course with EA buying up Bioware, I might as well start embracing them.  Lets hope the 3^rd party showings give us something new to look forward to.

E3 Day 2- Nintendon’t

            Well I don’t own a Wii and was planning on buying a DS, but I do play my friend’s Wii.  It has a few decent games, and more coming out, Wario and Chocobo Dungeon come to mind.  However, Nintendo’s E3 showing was a shit on the face of hardcore/intermediate gamers.  Wii Sports 2 sword fighting and Animal Crossing sums up the only good things presented.  They made a big deal out of mediocre games like Pokemon Rangers and Rayman.  GTA for the DS is okay in concept, but I don’t know how well it work out, I suppose I can hope for the best.

            Their biggest announcement as they put it is Wii Music, which in theory sounded great, until they stated that you just push buttons and it plays itself.  It’s like Communist Guitar Hero, no skill, no gameplay, In Soviet Russia Sax plays you!  This is a toy, they make these for little kids, to push buttons and pretend they are playing music, except slap in more instruments, multi-player and Nintendo music. 

            On top of that the rest of the presentation Nintendo was singing their own praises, including stating they are at the top of the software sales, which they are technically only through counting Wii-Sports in bundled format.  Non-bundled software, Nintendo is equal to Sony in games sold and half of what the 360 has sold.   

            Well, a lot of interesting announcements came out today, though nothing really incredibly new or exciting.  The biggest announcement was FFXIII for the 360, which considering I own a 360 and Ps3 isn’t crucial.  I do feel it’s kind of weird and that many people feel betrayed, but most of all I’m annoyed by people stating that Sony is finished.  They aren’t all that far behind the 360 and they’ve won the last two generations, plus the PS3 really is a fun system.  Regardless I’m looking forward to getting FFXIII.  I’ll let time decide which system I pick it up for.  (Although if it has online play I’ll go PS3, because I’m too poor to pay for live)   

            RE5 was big, but in a way looks a lot more like RE4 then I predicted.  Not necessarily bad things to look and play like an excellent game, but I’m sure Capcom has a few more tricks with it and the co-op announcement is awesome.  Dead Space is another surprise to me, as it seems like RE4 also, but looks interesting enough that I may have to pick it up. 

            Other games that got me excited were Fallout 3 and Fable 2.  I’ve never played a Fallout game before, even though I know I should have.  Fable 2 I hope really goes beyond what the first game did, because the first was probably the biggest disappointment I’ve ever had, I was so pumped for the game and it came out being only above average. 

            In Wii news the accuracy peripheral is an interesting enough attachment as many of the games I’ve played have had terrible reaction sensing as to what I do with the Wii-mote and what happens on screen, but I always pegged it to game design more-so than the controller.  However, the fact you have to pay to increase the controller’s accuracy seems kind of stupid. I just don’t see much of a point to pay for it, when it’s not that bad.  But, Nintendo prints money, I’m sure they’ll make a ton off of it. 

            Tomorrow I’ll see what day 2 brings, because Microsoft didn’t really announce anything all that new.  While Halo Wars and GoW2 look good, I want to see new and interesting IPs.