This blog is for all things related to geeks or that could relate to geeks. That means comics, video games, movies, music, sports, and anything else you can think of. Sports do not usually fall into those terms, but trust me, a guy who memorizes every statistic in the Baseball Almanac is a geek, just a different type. Also, as long as it is not defamitory, I thrive on difference of opinions and intelligent criticisms. So bring it on fellow geeks.
When I first got my hands on Big Bang Mini (created by Arkedo and brought to you by SouthPeak Games for Nintendo DS) I was pleasantly surprised. I had in my head that the game would be some sort of Space Invaders knock-off with brighter colors and fireworks from what I had seen and heard of it. Oh, I could not have been more wrong.
Although simple in design, it more than makes up for its lack of depth with non-stop, straight-shooting fun and addictive mayhem; I couldn't put this game down! If you're strapped for cash and need something to eat up some battery life on your DS, Big Bang Mini is a solid choice at only $19.99. If you're anything like me, by the time you're three stages in, you'll be pleasantly surprised as you will be completely hooked.
You're given a ship and the objective of the game is to shoot fireworks at enemies to blow them out of the sky and then collect the stars they drop to advance through the levels. However, it's not as simple as it may seem; as your missed shots explode and the debris from their ensuing explosions are just as dangerous as enemy fire to your avatar. Not much of a plot, I know, but the game more than makes up for it in gameplay.
The controls are simple yet add a degree of difficulty you don't find in most of these retro arcade-style shooters. To shoot your fireworks you simply drag the DS's stylus over the screen to fire in all different directions. To move your ship, you also need to use the stylus to drag your ship around the screen to avoid enemy fire. This lends itself to you only being able to do one thing at a time, dodge or fire, and you can't advance through the stages by just dodging.
It is difficult at first, but it soon becomes second nature as you develop the necessary balance to start flying and firing all over the screen. This balance gives the gameplay a nice level of difficulty; it's not impossible, but not a cake walk either. Add in interesting special level-specific powers (usually shields or enemy weapon nullifiers) and a couple of permanent upgrades (homing missiles, stronger fireballs) and what started as a simple Space Invaders or Asteroids-like shooter because a fully fleshed out modern game that can be enjoyed by people of all ages.
Aesthetically the graphics are simple compared to what the DS has shown it can support, but they get the job done. The vibrant colors and themes of each level are a nice change from the dull monotonous palettes in most games nowadays. Each level has its own specific theme and most work well. From the bottom of the ocean, to a snowy mountaintop, to Hong Kong and New York City, the levels are different enough from each other to hold your attention relatively well throughout the game.
The music, on the other hand, is uninspired and the SFX become repetitive to the point where you'll end up playing most of the time with the volume on your DS off and your iPod on in its place.
There are 90 stages over nine levels, each with its own unique devices to help you or hinder you over the course of the game. If you survive all 90 levels, then you can unlock a Mission Mode that notches up the difficulty even more for hardcore gamers. Add in some other secondary modes (setting high scores, versus, etc.) to flesh out the game and it has enough content to keep you coming back for a long time. Space Invaders...what was I thinking?
Ratings are based on a system of 1 to 10 with 10 being the highest.
Graphics: 6.5: The graphics are solid, but nothing spectacular, especially with the DS's capabilities. I enjoy bright colors just as much as anyone else, ("The colors Duke, the colors!" You know it's a good commercial if you're quoting it a decade later. Kudos to the Popsicle people.) but it takes a lot more than that to impress me graphically. Barely average.
Audio: 5.0: The music is original, but along with the SFX, gets very repetitive very quickly. By the time you get to the 4th or 5th stage of each level, you're turning off the DS's volume and plugging in your iPod. Points for originality and that's it.
Plot/Plot Development: 1.0: You fly, you fire, you dodge, and you blow stuff up. There isn't anything else to this in terms of plot so I can't give it a good score.
Gameplay: 9.0: This game more than makes up for the poor score in plot in gameplay. Challenging, yet still fun, this game gives you hours of solid gaming as you blast your way through nine completely different levels with a variety of powers and abilities to help you on your way. Add in several different modes of play and you've got a game that will eat up your time like a fat chick shoveling food down at a Chinese buffet.
Replay Value: 8.0: Lots of levels, lots of modes, lots of fun. This will keep you coming back for more for a long while until you beat every level and every extra mission. Or until your battery dies. Whichever comes first (probably the battery).
Overall (not an average): 7.5: A lack of plot aside, this is in the same vein as all the classic arcade shooters. Add in the different take on the control scheme and you've got a really solid shooter. Not spectacular, but solid, and for $19.99 it's a great way to spend some free time.
It started as an arcade unit in Japan in 1987. Then it was ported to home consoles in late 1988 and it finally hit American shores in early 1989. The Street Fighter phenomenon has been an integral part of video gaming culture ever since.
There were only two fighting franchises you ever spoke of in public during the beginnings of the video game revolution, Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat, and lines would be drawn in the sand for which one you preferred. I admit, I was a Kombat-freak, but I still enjoyed and appreciated the nuances of the Street Fighter franchise. Now, 20 years later, Capcom has pulled no punches for its American anniversary with the release of a new movie, video game, and national tournament. In this article, I will take a look at each part of this celebration that has been going on since early February and will wrap up in April with the crowning of a national Street Fighter IV champion.
The first aspect of the celebration was the release of the new video game, Street Fighter IV, on February 18, 2009.
In Street Fighter IV, M. Bison has fallen from power and Shadoloo is no more. All the combatants of Street Fighter have gone their separate ways when a mysterious organization known as S.I.N. has sponsored a new tournament. All the classic characters return with a few new faces to fill out a 25 fighter roster (12 to start including the four new ones, and 13 unlockables from previous Street Fighter incarnations) in what is to be the greatest of all Street Fighter tournaments as the fighters come together to figure out why exactly this new organization has put together a new tournament.
I'll tell you why. The evil CEO of S.I.N., Seth, is a weapons manufacturer and he has turned himself into the ultimate weapon by injecting himself with a virus that allows him to absorb and mimic all the fighting techniques of those he comes into contact with. Only one person remains to absorb before he can become the most unstoppable force on Earth; he must absorb Ryu, the champion of the Street Fighter tournaments. Thus, the events of Street Fighter IV begin to unfold.
The story has never been the selling point for the Street Fighter franchise. It has always been about the fighting mechanics more than anything else. The story in this is similar to those that have come before; it's like any anime you would see at 4 AM on Adult Swim so I will not spend any more time talking about the lack of a decent storyline.
What makes or breaks a fighting series is the combat and any additions made over the course of the series. Street Fighter IV, in my mind, disappoints on this front. This is the first entry into the series in nine years (all those Street Fighter III special additions like Alpha or 2nd Impact do not count) and all they added was an "Ultra Combo" that is easily avoided or lacks the power that you would expect with all the work that goes into building up that bar, and a "Focus Attack" that does add an interesting aspect to strategy, but after nine years you would think they could have come up with something with a little more "oomph" than one decent extra attack per character.
For everything else involving the fighting mechanics, it is all the same. Light, medium, and heavy punches and kicks, press both light attacks for a throw, retreat to block, and the special moves are all the same. So after nine years of waiting, all that has been added is four crappy new characters, one new regular move, and one extra combo bar that always misses? "Disappointed" is an understatement. The best aspect of the new game is the awesome opening movie. After that, you might as well break out your Super Nintendo and stick Street Fighter II Turbo in there. Even the cut scenes are disappointingly done in a cheap anime style, which pales in comparison to the amazing looking opening movie.
Ratings are based on a system of 1 to 10 with 10 being the highest. Graphics: 6.5: Considering how great the opening movie was, the rest of the game wasn't up to par visually. When you have a 2D fighting game, I understand you can only make it look so much like a 3D game before you actually just make it a 3D game, but the lackluster anime cut scenes and the fact that it only looked marginally above the Street Fighter games of old gets this a barely passing grade. Audio: 8.0: The voice acting reminded me of a badly dubbed kung-fu movie from the 70s. Since I'm not sure if that was the effect they were going for, I can't dock it a lot, but I do doubt it. The music was catchy and original and the SFX were solid enough to strengthen the score some.
Plot/Plot Development: 5.5: I get that no fighting game ever has a great plot, but again it seems like a bad anime you find in a bargain bin at the grocery store. I miss the days when Bison was the bad guy and you had to fight through his Shadoloo henchmen. At least it was a system that worked.
Gameplay: 7.5: The game had the typical fighting game glitches so there was nothing to get all up in arms about, but considering all the time between titles, they could have added more to this to make it stand out from the rest of the series. I love nostalgia, but give me a break! I didn't want Street Fighter 2.5, I wanted Street Fighter IV. I wanted something completely new to break the mold and reshape the franchise. Replay Value: 8.0: Great online play and tons of unlockables make it so that if you enjoy playing the game the first few times through, you'll probably keep coming back for more.
Overall (not an average): 6.5: The plot was poor, there was a minimum of new features and characters, and the graphics were not concurrent with this generation's consoles. The voice acting was horrible and the control scheme was the same as it was 20 years ago. For a 20th anniversary installment, this falls on its face faster than Zangief while performing his power bomb. It's just the same Street Fighter with a new number on the front and for me, that's not enough.
The next aspect of the 20th anniversary was the national tournament that began on February 21st, 2009, and will continue on until the middle of April.
The national tournament was put together with help from Microsoft and GameStop to provide locations and systems for the tournament and the first round was to be held on the first Saturday after the release of the game, which was February 21st, 2009 at 2PM EST. 2,419 GameStops around the nation would host 64 participants in each location with the top two from each advancing. This totaled 154,816 people competing at the same time nationwide for only 4,838 2nd round spots at another 288 locations, again with the top two advancing leaving only 576 sports for the 3rd round. From these remaining 576 spots, the top 16 players would be taken to San Francisco to compete in the final tournament for a $15,000 Street Fighter IV arcade style unit. Also, all 16 finalists would be given automatic bids into the semi-finals of the Evolution 2009 fighting game tournament in Las Vegas, Nevada, in July. The rules were simple. Do not interfere with your opponents during gameplay. First to 3 wins would advance. The loser is eliminated. One must be at least 18 years of age to compete or over 13 and accompanied by a parent.
We put together a nice little video here showcasing some of the footage of me competing. Due to legal issues, we could not show any footage from inside the GameStop, only of the game itself.
The stakes were high, but I would advance to the final four of the 1st round with E. Honda before I lost to one guy playing as Balrog. I was one win away from advancing to the next round. It was my best showing in a tournament since my early days in college when I was a Madden and Super Smash Bros. Melee freak.
I had a major gripe with the tournament, though. It seemed fixed. Several of the participants did not show. Not an uncommon situation in a tournament of this size. The problem was that the managers at the GameStop failed to re-bracket the people who did show up. Now, in situations like this, a re-bracket is expected in order to try to prevent unfair advantages as much as possible. At this particular GameStop, no re-bracketing was issued, which allowed the person who ended up winning the tournament, and defeating me as Balrog in the Final Four, not one, but two rounds worth of byes. On top of this, the participant in question was not requested to leave the room and therefore was allowed to watch all other participants compete and watch their patterns. It gave him a clear, unfair advantage over the rest of the field.
When questioned on this, the manager on duty, whose name I will not reveal to protect him, responded that the participant in question was very good to begin with since he had won a Super Smash Bros. Brawl tournament the previous year at that location, insinuating that the managers had stacked the odds in his favor because of his success in a previous tournament for a completely different game.
Since then, the 16 national finalists for the title have been chosen and are preparing for the final tournament to be held in less than two weeks from the posting of this article. It felt great to compete again for the first time in a long time. I just wish I didn't feel that the tournament was tainted by outside sources and it makes me question the credibility of tournaments that are held by the GameStop Corporation. The reason why this article was not posted sooner was because I had to struggle with myself on whether to include this part or not. I finally came to the decision, as the Finals approach, that it is necessary to help serve as a warning for other competitive gamers in the future to know what standard tournament procedure is and to be not be fooled when told otherwise unless shown in writing by an official tournament representative.
The final aspect of the 20th anniversary was the movie Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li starring Kristen Kruek as Chun-Li, Michael Clarke Duncan as Balrog, and Neal McDonough as Bison.
Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li is a prequel to the entire Street Fighter series, taking place months before the original tournament. It gives you an interesting take on the origins of some the staples of the franchise like Bison, Vega, Balrog, Gen, and, of course, Chun-Li.
Kristen was really sweet when I interviewed her but I was afraid I was going to break her hand when I shook it after the interview. The girl needs to have a cheeseburger.
The basic premise of the movie is that Chun-Li is a girl born in America and that moves to Asia at a young age when her father, a hugely successful businessman, is transferred. Here, he gets involved with an unsavory character (Bison) who steals Chun-Li's father away one night for his own diabolical purposes. Chun-Li then begins training for revenge on Bison and to find out her father's fate.
Anyway, I have to say, even if you are a die-hard fan of the franchise, you will hate this movie. This is the most abominable thing I have ever seen on screen (and I saw Elektra with Jennifer Garner). Clearly the people at Capcom know nothing about modern cinema. I think their entire special effects budget went into Chun-Li and Gen's fireballs and everything else had to be scraped together at the last minute. From seeing the clear seam of Bison's pregnant wife when they show her abdomen, to the cheesy and clearly fake explosions that were added in post-production, to the overly grainy text of the entire film, this movie was beyond low-budget.
Add in that they found Chris Klein probably drinking himself into a stupor in some alley somewhere and threw him on screen and I threw up in my mouth, just a little. He played Charlie Nash, the rough-around-the-edges-but-still-a-great-cop character that was chasing Bison around the world. He read his lines like William Shatner in those Priceline.com commercials. Chris Klein has no purpose being in any kind of film. Ever.
The only positives were that Kristen Kruek and Moon Bloodstone, who played Nash's partner Det. Maya Sunee, looked amazingly hot in the movie. That's it. Michael Clarke Duncan's amazing skills were wasted on three lines and a crappy fight scene with Gen. Neal McDonough was solid, as was Kruek, but the script was just so awful that there was nothing they could do to save it. If you're smart, you'll continue to avoid it as it probably only has a week or two left in theatres.
Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li gets 0.5 out of 5.
So, the game was okay, the movie was awful, and the tournament was fixed. Maybe Capcom should have taken all that money they put into the movie and put it into making a better game and finding a better host for their tournament. I really hope that the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Ghostbusters franchises work a little harder on their anniversary galas! (TMNT celebrates 25 years in April; Ghostbusters celebrates 25 years in June)
Mine isn't the most original title, but when talking about DC's Watchmen, no other title fits. What many experts considered impossible to bring to the big screen, visionary director Zack Snyder (Dawn of the Dead, 300) grabbed by the horns and wrestled into a masterpiece worthy of the novel. To describe this as anything less than a labor of love would take away from the awe-inspiring brilliance ripped straight from one of TIME Magazines 100 Best Novels of All-Time.
The story is simple. Imagine an alternate universe America circa 1985. Superheroes have been outlawed for almost a decade, after a half century of service to their nation and to the world, due to a public outcry from events perpetrated in Vietnam. One of those now retired former heroes, the very definition of an anti-hero named the Comedian, is brutally murdered in his penthouse apartment and a set of events is set in motion that will bring some of the world's best and brightest heroes together to unearth one of the most shocking conspiracies ever concocted.
Many felt this movie would be impossible to make because you would not be able to include a lot of the writing devices used in the novel and still keep it under three hours. The first and possibly greatest difficulty in bringing Watchmen to the big screen would be being able to still develop the amazingly complex main characters to their full effect without the ancillary characters and chapter addendum devices used throughout the novel.
The novel gave convoluted psychological profiles from everyone from the man selling newspapers on the corner to Dr. Manhattan's former lover to the prison psychologist that has to analyze Rorschach when he gets taken into custody to help flesh out major plot points and character flaws in the heroes. The novel also had special addendums at the end of each chapter like excerpts from novels within the novel, shipping manuscripts, and other items that only make sense in the novel's thrilling conclusion. So would the movie still be able to portray the main characters' full spectrum of personality without these additional materials that could never be included in the movie?
The short answer is yes. The movie develops the main characters just as deeply as in the novel and compensates by keeping most major points from the original story and adding a handful of subtle moments to make up for the lack of these additional writing devices. This, along with some spectacular acting that made it feel like the characters had jumped right off the page, did pure justice to the characters of Watchmen.
Another problem that arose from the lack of extra writing devices was that without the ancillary characters and chapter addendums, the original story's ending would not make sense. Even though Zack Snyder did his best to be as true to the original novel as possible, several major plot points had to be tweaked or removed in order to make more sense and appeal to a larger audience, especially the ending. Some would argue that the movie's ending might have been better than the novel's because it more directly related to the main characters, but that is clearly up for debate. Still, for the most part, the movie of Watchmen is ripped straight from the novel's pages and it feels like the comic had come to life.
Another amazing aspect of the movie was the artistic style. From the perfectly emulated streets of the run-down 1985 New York City in the novel, to the colorful costumes and devices used by the characters, to the music choices made through many of the scenes from Bob Dylan's The Times They Are A-Changin' to Jimi Hendrix's rendition of All Along the Watchtower. Every visual and audio choice made by Snyder fit perfectly with the style of the novel and the music added so much more to the scenes than you could've hoped for.
There are only a couple of major critiques to this movie. I'm all for sex and violence in movies, but one major hang-up, especially amongst die-hard purists of the novel, is that Zack Snyder likes to step up the sensationalism in most of his movies and some of the gore and sex scenes were so amped up by Snyder's style that you felt some of the movie could have been at NC-17 levels. I know that Dr. Manhattan was naked most of the time in the novel, but it is a little different when you see a blue-man group reject naked on the big screen for almost three hours. Combine that with 10-minute long sex scenes and people being torn to shreds when they aren't having relations; it was all just too unnecessary.
Another major critique was that if you did not read the novel, you might not have understood or been able to follow as clearly everything that was going on. The plot is very complicated and even with the movie timing out at 2 hours and 43 minutes there are still some things you wish they could have expanded on to help the general audience. For example, if you did not read the novel, you'll have no clue as to why Ozymandias has a blue tiger as his pet in his Antarctic fortress. Without being explained in the movie, I could see how something like a blue tiger could bother people. I guess we'll just have to grab the 3 hour and 10 minute Director's cut when it comes out on DVD. Oh, those tricky marketing and merchandising departments.
In the end, this is not a movie that you can just check your brain at the door. If you have not read the novel (highly recommended before seeing the movie) and miss a moment here and there, you could very likely not understand some of the major plot points. So, be prepared if you're going to the theatre. Be sure to go to the bathroom, get your snacks beforehand, and get comfortable because if you miss any of the near three hours, the entire experience will likely be markedly worse. For this reason, along with the clearly unnecessary gore and sex, I have to dock my score some.
For many the wait is torturous. The gap between the Super Bowl and the beginning of baseball season is like a walk through the Sahara of the sports world in which basketball and hockey simply serve as a reminder of a once full canteen now vapid of nourishment.
Don't fret, though, the gaming world has attempted to provide an oasis to fill our needs for the next month. Just released this week was MLB2K9 for all systems and MLB: The Show '09 as a PS3 exclusive.
Normally, MLB2K sets up 2K sports for the rest of the year since they have coverage of all three systems and their competition has only the PS3. You would figure that 2K would attempt to provide the best gaming experience out there as they need these sales to get through the fall when they typically get punished in sales by EA Sports in hockey and basketball. You would figure.
Unfortunately, that is not the case. MLB2K9 is as sad an attempt at a video game as Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li was as a movie. 2K is blatantly taking advantage of the fact that they control the market during this time of the year as they are the only MLB title that reaches all three systems, a combined total of 97.29 million hardware units, which gives them a far more reaching audience than MLB: The Show, which only reaches the roughly 7.98 million American PS3 owners, which also happens to be the worst selling of the three main systems. (Numbers provided by http://www.vgchartz.com/ and accurate as of February 28, 2009)
Knowing they have the baseball game market cornered, 2K's oasis is simply an illusion. This game has more glitches in it than New York City has potholes. While playing the game, I would position my outfielder directly in the circle censor to mark where the ball will fall only to have the ball literally fall through my glove. No error animation, no misjudging the ball, it falls through my glove and this happened several times a game.
And this is only the icing on the cake. The player animations are unrealistic and many stances and motions are recycled from player to player. The graphics are poor to the point that players look blocky and unrealistic, a problem that was corrected in the last generation of video game systems. Even the menus on the pause and start-up screens are difficult to navigate. You have to go through multiple sub-menus before you find the game doesn't even have the options you were looking for to begin with. Then again, that might have just been the difficulty in navigating the menu. After trying three different sub-menus looking for controls, I just gave up and played with the game's defaults.
This game is an abomination and will sell well only because for about 75% of gamers out there, it is their only MLB option.
On the other side, MLB: The Show '09. This game teleports you out of the Sahara to the French Riviera. And there are no French people around. That's how good this game is.
First off, the basics are all covered. Smooth mechanics and animations, solid graphics, easy to navigate menus, and good gameplay. From there, The Show '09 takes you above and beyond your typical baseball video game. The greatest aspect of this game is the overall accuracy to real life. Every player's stance, motions, and mannerisms have been emulated in this game to at least some degree. The batter's hot and cold zones have been mapped out accurately and strongly enforced. If you connect with a fastball in one of your cold zones, it is a lot less likely to travel out of the ballpark than if one floated into your wheelhouse.
Add in a batting reticule that you have to maneuver to aim your swing and then watch it contract depending on your skill as a hitter makes offense a lot more challenging than in previous games.
Amidst a plethora of new features and innovations for The Show '09, the most impressive easily has to be the one called "Sounds of the Game". This is one of the most exciting features in any sports game to date.
The "Sounds of the Game" feature allows you to download 30 second music clips for everyone in the game. In other words, the music accompanying every at-bat as each individual player approaches the plate, every reliever entering from the bullpen, even hecklers in the crowd can be customized to your liking. You want an authentic Mariano Rivera entrance? Metallica's Enter Sandman is there. You want Neil Diamond's Sweet Caroline after every Red Sox game? Not a problem. And yes, Yankees fans, the Bleacher Creatures are available as well.
Of course, you don't have to have it be authentic either. You can have Mariano come out to AC/DC's Highway to Hell if you prefer. The possibilities are near endless and allow you to truly customize the game to your liking and give it an authentic feel you just don't see in other sports games.
Even though MLB: The Show is far and away the best baseball game out there, it's a stretch to warrant going out to buy a PS3 for this alone and that forces most people to end up having to settle for MLB2K9. This is really a shame because the only thing that MLB2K9 has better than The Show is their cover athlete. Tim Lincecum over Dustin Pedroia. I'm a Yankees fan, what can I say? I despise the Red Sox.
Whether you have a PS3 or not, both these games are out now and will hopefully provide you with enough sports nourishment to last you another month before baseball season finally gets underway.
It is always one of my most highly anticipated events of the year. The New York ComicCon. I was accompanied this year by Robin Lundberg, producer extraordinaire, who usually likes to play it cool, but as seen here in this video, is a big geek at heart (although not nearly as big as I am). This video is a short chronicle of only a handful of experiences we had at this year's ComicCon. Hopefully you enjoy the previews and laughs we had along the way as we did.
When I first got my hands on Big Bang Mini (created by Arkedo and brought to you by SouthPeak Games for Nintendo DS) I was pleasantly surprised. I had in my head that the game would be some sort of Space Invaders knock-off with brighter colors and fireworks from what I had seen and heard of it. Oh, I could not have been more wrong.
Ratings are based on a system of 1 to 10 with 10 being the highest.
Mine isn't the most original title, but when talking about DC's Watchmen, no other title fits. What many experts considered impossible to bring to the big screen, visionary director Zack Snyder (Dawn of the Dead, 300) grabbed by the horns and wrestled into a masterpiece worthy of the novel. To describe this as anything less than a labor of love would take away from the awe-inspiring brilliance ripped straight from one of TIME Magazines 100 Best Novels of All-Time.
For many the wait is torturous. The gap between the Super Bowl and the beginning of baseball season is like a walk through the Sahara of the sports world in which basketball and hockey simply serve as a reminder of a once full canteen now vapid of nourishment.