Darth Wiki / Non-Existent Fiction Recommendations

You remember that relative you had who always, always told the best stories? Maybe you've seen some good stuff over at Unpublished Works that you just love to pieces? Maybe you have a friend who's worried about audience reception of their work and wants to build the fanbase beforehand? This here's the place to dish, or merely to state your allegiance.

---

• I was a bit skeptical at first, but Tommy Wiseau's masterpiece film adaptation, a crossover of Hetalia: Axis Powers/My Immortal was stunning. I adored the touching goffic romance of Feliciano "Death Rose" Vargas and Ludwig! And all the blood, gore and deathly sorrows was so amazing.
• John Kricfalusi and Kakifly are geniuses! Their recent Ren & Stimpy/K-On! crossover is really funny and manages to blend moe and toilet humor into one awesome OVA! Oh, and Yui Hirasawa and Stimpy's friendship is very adorable in addition!
• If you think that Mario, Sonic the Hedgehog, Mega Man and Pac-Man being in Super Smash Brosfor Wii U was cool, then prepare to be blown away by Pretty Guardian Sailor Pokémon Nevenending N: Sailor Warriors! Not only do the aforementioned mascots appear as playable characters, but it is the best Anime fighter in human history. Even better than Dengeki Bunko Fighting Climax IMHO! Anyway, Ghetsis arranges a fighting tournament in an attempt to rid himself of the Sailor Scouts, at least in the story mode, which is based on the Neverending N season of the Sailor Pokémon Crystal anime. Your standard fighting game modes are here like story, local vs., online vs., training, Dramatic Battle (In which two Scouts of your choice fight Giovanni, Mewtwo, Jessie and James, Ghetsis, Mecha N, Mecha Sonic and Sailor Galaxia in that order.) and even the World Tour mode from Street Fighter Alpha 3. Nintendo, Sega, Capcom and Namco Bandai outdid themselves with this fantastic 3DS game which also got an HD port on the Wii U as Pretty Guardian Sailor Pokémon Nevending N:Sailor Warriors HD!! And every single Sailor Scout from Sailor Hilda to Wonder Momo is playable, too! And in addition, stages based on Super Mario Kart, Sonic Generations, Mega Man X, Pac-Man World, F-Zero, Eternal Champions, Cherry Tree High Comedy Club and Klonoa are unlockable.
  • In addition, one of the coolest secrets in the game is the ability to fight Larcen Tyler as a boss in the "Nightopia" stage should you fulfill certain conditions and not only that, but there is even an unlockable mode called "Light vs. Dark" where you take control of the Eternal Champion and you fight the The Dark Eternal Champion to the song Kokuhaku Biyori, Desu!, in which the Eternal Champion sacrifices himself to defeat the Dark Champion once and for all!
• Did you know that the CatDog/Love Live! crossover JRPG CatDog X Love Live! The Dark Secret of Nearburg and Otonokizaka is considered one of the best if not the best Sega Saturn games in existence? If you don't know about this game, which was co-developed by Sega and Vic Tokai and released in September 1998 in Japan, then here is some info on it. It is a Crisis Crossover between, well, CatDog and Love Live! where CatDog and their friends team up with eight members of the Muses, with your choice between five party members when you go to CatDog's house, with the Greasers, Rancid Rabbit and Eli Ayase performing Heel Face Turns after you defeat them. And later on in the story, the group has to face the greatest threat to their respective universes, Entropy, a shapeless pitch black blob of Dark Matter that threatens to tear the fabric of their respective universes into nothingness. Even though it is a Darker and Edgier take on both universes towards the end, there are also some funny jokes due to both shows being animated comedies that are light hearted for the most part. The game was so popular in Japan that it got ported to the original Sony Playstation in July 2001 followed by a North American release by Working Designs in February 2002. And the darker portions of the story have been since compared to the likes of Invader Zim, Avatar: The Last Airbender and even Puella Magi Madoka Magica.
• That Pokémon live action film was awesome! I was skeptical when they said that Ash would meet Red, but they made it work so well with Ash and Red's world views being compared without Character Shilling one or the other. Though Svetlana Khodchenkova and John Simm weren't the preferred choice for Team Rocket, they did well for the most part. Plus the original voice actors for Meowth and Mewtwo came back. It has a brilliant plot and acting, and rumors are they are planning a sequel, with Ethan, Lucas, Lunick, Serena, Dawn, Giovanni, and Darkrai.
• If or when Planet Of The Dead comes out, Furiko Maru will be picking up a copy. No questions asked.
• Glenn and Cory would be my favorite Let's Play-ers... Except they have no idea what Let's Play even is, and never even think that they could do something awesome with all the ridiculous mockery they lay down on cheesy video games while they play them. Crap.
• In Attack of the Killer Shrews, the indistinct audio and thick accents render a character's attempts to say "Bradford" incomprehensible. As MST3K put it "Yes, meet our resident novelist, Rapid Bathroom". I own the entire works of Rapid Bathroom. Even magazine articles.
  • Earth vs. Soup is one hell of a movie, as is that Peter Graves biopic.
• One day, there will be a new OVA of Gekiganger3. It will spoof all the newer Getter Robo OVA series. And it will be the best thing ever animated.
  • Parodying the new Getter Robo series is a bit pointless, because by at the absolute latest, they descend into self-parody by the halfway point.
• So I just got back from seeing the Ecco the Dolphin animated adaptation. I can't tell you guys how happy I am that the film's every bit as bizarre as the game it's based on, and I especially liked the touch of doing the entire film in dolphin-speak with subtitles. Can't wait for the Tides adapt.
• I would definitely suggest The Movie of the novelization of the game of the movie version of Tomb Raider.
  • I'm waiting for the Amerimanga.
• The musical they made from The Sims is a must-watch.
  • Kind of sucks that some showings heavily censor the song, "Corpses Bobbing in the Pool." It's just not the same without the pitch-black comedic tone of the original.
  • Oh, if you want that kind of pitch-black comedy, you should see Dwarf Fortress The Musical! The big ensemble number at the end, "Tantrum Spiral," is unforgettable, especially the bit where the legendary axedwarf goes berserk.
• Gainax's Nextwave OVA. 'Nuff said. Except maybe for a note on how Hiroyuki Imaishi's style continues to develop.
  • Worth the price for Elsa's boobs alone.
  • For me, it was how all the Captain's dialogue is subtitled from Fucklish
• Kyoto Animation's take on The Pillow Book is hysterical. Forget Konata - Sei-chan is mai waifu.
  • I'm more partial to their adaptation of No Longer Human.
• You know, considering how popular Studio Ghibli is, it's a shame more people haven't seen their adaptations of Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights. Miyazaki-sensei is the only person on Earth who can make me cry over freaking Heathcliff.
• Trey Parker's and Matt Stone's absolutely hilarious Gag Dub of Strawberry Panic! is a must-watch, assuming that you can ignore the Anviliciousness, the fact that Nagisa sounds a lot like Kyle and that pretty much of all of the Stealth Parody is gone, replaced with not only a full-out, in-your-face parody of Yuri anime/ manga, but also a full-out, in-your-face parody of, well, pretty much everything. Also, due to Rule of Funny, the entire cast was voice acted by men, with Matt and Trey handling the two leads, with notable others including Vic Mignogna as Tamao, Liam O'Brien as Miyuki, Crispin Freeman as Hikari, Johnny Yong Bosch as Kaname, Spike Spencer as Chikaru and Jamieson Price as Chiyo. Still, there's a lot of good to be said for taking the not-as-intelligent (sans the Stealth Parody) cousin of Maria Watches Over Us and transforming it into something (insanely) brilliant.
• Thumbs WAY down to the recent campus fad of Hellraiser LARPing. A few unwelcome truths for my English 200 students:
  • That thing you're playing with is called a "Rubik's Cube."
  • It HAS no "Lament Configuration."
  • Who's making those chain-dragging noises behind me?
  • AAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAA
• I have to say, I was impressed at how well the makers of the Animorphs animated series managed to knit together all the arcs and subplots from the books. And casting Jack De Sena as Marco was an inspired move.
• When I first heard about Friendship Is Magic (the live-action film), I was a bit skeptical, considering Hasbro's track record with live-action. But the film pleasantly surprised me. It knew when to take itself seriously and when to make fun of itself, the plot was an excellent Adaptation Distillation of the show, the IDW comics, and the G1 cartoon, the casting was brilliant (Carrie Fisher as Rarity, Mila Kunis as Rainbow Dash, Reba McEntire as Applejack, and James Earl Jones as Tirek, as well as Andrea Libman and Tara Strong reprising their roles), and they actually made me give a damn about the human characters. Even better was having Joss Whedon in the director's chair and J. J. Abrams as the producer!
• The English version of the Super Robot Wars Alpha series was excellently cast, especially Dan Green as Zengar Zombolt.
• I just received my copy of Evangelion Fantasy Battles on DVD. Industrial Light and Magic's fantasy EVA and Orks were awesome, and Lindsey Lohan was disturbingly good as Rei. (I guess given a command of "don't act, at all" works for her.)
  • Erm... Ba-Zing!?
    • I believe you mean Bazinga. You've just fallen for another one of his classic pranks.
• My dad's some sort of computer manager and technician, and he's written a self-help book. ...Pretty damn good self-help book.
• The Marathon movie is surprisingly good. I mean, John Dimaggio as Durandal seemed kind of odd at the time, but now, I can't see anyone else doing it anywhere near as well.
• A miracle: the Warhammer 40,000 video-game developers avoided a run-of-the-mill MMORPG, instead seamlessly porting the tabletop experience into an online environment. The Model interface is the answer to fans' prayers—fantabulous options for amassing, "painting," and animating one's army, and for customizing the field of battle. No more hobby shops: that sound you hear is the death rattle of your last annoying obligations for real-life social interaction!
• I can't wait till Studio BONES' remake of Pokémon comes out in the US. I mean, not only is it a perfect Adaptation Distillation of elements from the old show, the games, and the manga, but it's supposed to have all the cool characters the first series left out, too. Oh, the dub cast sounds promising; the original VA's for Ash, Misty, and Brock are reprising their roles, but I'm really looking forward to hearing Johnny Yong Bosch as Brendan, Brian Beacock as Lucas, and Michelle Ruff as the new May. The re-imagining of the mythos is the best part, though; it's more mature and thought-provoking than the original, but doesn't go too deep into Darker and Edgier territory.
  • Funny, could've sworn Crispin Freeman was Lucas.
  • I'm so glad that the studio decided to give Sabrina more screentime during the R/G/B arc. Her backstory made her fight with Blue even more epic.
  • Now that the dub is out, I can confirm Crispin Freeman actually did voice N in the Pokémon Black and White arc, and to say he did it perfectly would be an understatement. Unlike the boyish Creepy Monotone of Megumi Ogata, he manages to perfectly capture N's Adaptational Angst Upgrade and resulting insanity with a deep, melodic voice that sounds downright psychotic at points.
• I would definitely read a Crossover Fic of Azumanga Daioh and Warhammer.
• Star Wars: The musical is the best musical adaptation ever. This is fact.
  • This exists.
  • I prefer the opera adaptation.
• Or at least, the musical would hold the crown for several decades, until the Lucas estate granted Christopher Nolan’s wish to remake much of Episodes II-III as a self-contained, four-hour film.
  
  The best David Lean film that David Lean never made, Star Wars: The Chosen One united wrenching battle scenes with terse, literate dialogue and a Shakespearean grasp of personal/political tragedy. Anchored by Sir Christian Bale in his final performance (as the conniving Palpatine), the movie focuses on the future emperor’s tense battle for Anakin Skywalker’s soul, pitting ruthless maneuvering, passionate, inspired rhetoric, and genuine fatherly affection against the influence of a reeling, compromised Jedi Order, whose stoic ideals may finally have walled it off not only from the possibilities of evil, but of goodness.
  
  Future film professors will often draw parallels between Michael Corleone and Nolan’s Anakin, minutely comparing how the two principled, uncertain young heroes slowly morph into two of cinema’s most terrifying, enigmatic monsters. One gradually turns inward, while the other is slowly but relentlessly unleashed—each to the mixed pride, remorse, and even horror of his mentor-father.
  
  (Aging fanboys taking their grandchildren to the theatre were amused to note that Lady Emma Watson’s character, a crusty retired politician and kingmaker created specifically for the film, was named "Jiarjia Branks".)
• Psychonauts: Revenge of Delphi is arguably the best sequel since Resident Evil 4, and sets up one heck of a franchise.
• Atlas Shrugged: The Musical. The showstopper halfway through the third act must be seen to be believed.
  • Oh, you mean the bit where everyone on the train sings ''Casey Jones'?
  • Any adaptation of that book has to be an Adaptation Distillation.
  • The part where the director goes on strike since he's not being paid enough is hilariously meta.
• Duke Nukem 5 is the best video game EVER! It takes everything that makes Half-Life, Halo, Team Fortress 2, the original Duke Nukem, Counter-Strike, Gears of War and Left 4 Dead work, and improves on and refines all of them, creating a first-person shooter unlike any other. But with all that going for it, WHY did IGN only give it 4.0??
• Pandemonium 3 came out of nowhere - who'd have thought someone at Crystal Dynamics still cared about this series? - and boy did it deliver. Amazing graphics, creative gameplay alternating between 2½D and some actual 3D parts (including remakes of just about every good level from the first two games), hilarious dialogue bringing back the original voices of Nikki and Fargus, and somehow the segments with Gex and Lara Croft didn't feel like gratuitous fanservice. Hope this is the start of a platform game resurgence!
• The Tsukihime anime is one of the greatest animated adaptations ever, while staying true to the original creator's intentions.
• Larry the Lobster Boy Visits the Holy Land is the book to end all books. It's offensive, but it is hilarious and is without doubt, the greatest book ever written.
• Heroes, Volume 3, Exodus is one of the best things ever put on television, from start to finish. I was convinced that they were going to chicken out of the virus like they did the bomb, but nope, they stuck to their guns.
• I gotta say, ''Cheetahmen The Animated Series" is the one series I remember more fondly than Batman, He-Man and TMNT combined. Dr. Ape was quite the memorable villain.
• The Total Drama Island/Action'' fighting game with all 22 campers playable is a must have. (Ed, Edd n Eddy fan get a bonus: the cul-de-sac is in as a super secret stage!). The best part is that all 22 campers have super powers: Cody and Trent heal over time, Ezekiel is an arrow nut]] (and, for some reason, has a device in one of his specials that seems like a landmaster...), Bridgette can summon giant tidal waves, and DJ has the power of heart, and so on. But one thing that worries me is that Cody has a [[PaletteSwap alternate outfit that looks a lot like Joshua...
• The Courier's Tragedy, that ill, ill Jacobean revenge play.
• Not quite fiction, but Dr. Hal Raglan's book The Shape of Rage will change your life.
• Supreme Primate, where a chimp becomes Archbishop of Canterbury.
  • Not to mention the Even Better Sequel, Supreme Primate 2: First Among Sequels, a surprisingly moving yet lighthearted religious/ecological fable, which combines broad slapstick with a non-Anvilicious Green Aesop! Terry Wogan As Himself is, of course, one of the film's absolute highlights.
• The King in Yellow is the best play ever written. The movie was good, too; casting Cerys Matthews as Casilda was really clever.
  • Wait, how can we trust you? You're crazy!
  • The Oscar "non-acceptance" speech for Best Makeup freaked me out a tad: "We used no makeup." No makeup? No makeup!
• Robot Monster: The Musical. Ro-Man's heartbreaking ballad "I Cannot (And Yet I Must)" had the entire theatre in tears when I went to see it.
  • "Consulting The Great One (Infinite Machine Suite)" is a splendid piece of classical music. Suprising for a background instrumental to be so good. The Kazoo Scene was also pretty funny.
• Prince of Space 2. I liked how they managed to turn Phantom of Krankor into a credible threat (he redesigns his weapons so they do effect the Prince), while still retaining the campy charm of the original. Also, the space battle scenes were fantastic; I'm so glad they were able to get a budget that size for a film that was basically a comedy.
  • I agree, I like it very much.
• The film adaptation of Finnegan's Wake, starring Max Schreck, Bruce Willis, Thomas Kemp, Miley Cyrus, and Thespis. Directed by St. Augustin.
• Orlok: The Untold Story. If you liked Hannibal or Wicked, you'll love this.
  • On the subject of Wicked, we have Gregory Maguire's new book, Moby.
  • Both versions of "Shere Khan" are just great. I didn't think traditional Indian music and funk soul would mix well on a Broadway stage but i was wrong. I especially love the saxophone-playing wolves. Also, if you're only familiar with the musical, the novel is quite different. Not only does it have a very different plot but most of the characters have total personality changes, especially Bagheera and the elephants.
• J.D. Salinger's new book (whose name I can't remember, but it was awesome) was everything Harry Potter should have been.
• ''Dictionary 2: Return of the Killer Dictionary''.
• Pony Fights 2.
• Women's Penitentiary Bakesale Nightmare, the Fists of Knuckles series, and Axe-Gun: Legends of the Brain-Outener. The only Triple-R rated movies ever made, perhaps because no one else can ever aspire to this level of greatness.
• The Emperor of Disgust, which is set over several centuries in several continents.
• Bottomless Pit has been called the best novel about individual wants vs. societal benefit to ever climax in a fight to the death between an acrocanthosaurus and a troupe of Nazi clowns at Stonehenge (Time Out).
  • From the same author, we have The Anachronistic Adventures of Amelia Earhart. Basically, Amelia crashlands on a hidden island, which turns out to be the secret lair of Dr Mabuse, who, in collaboration with Fu Manchu, Fantomas, and Gummo Marx, is plotting to rule the world. Amelia teams up with Glenn Miller, Indiana Jones, Boxcar Betty, special agent Gaius Julius Caesar, and a horde of giant spiders to save the day. It's surprisingly awesome, as well as being a great comment on the emergence of fascism in the 1930s.
• "BlazBlue: The Series" turned out to be much better than I expected, despite the change in both the English and Japanese voice casts. It was weird having Tim Curry of all people as Yuki Terumi, but he pulled it off, and Ryō Horikawa's Terumi is no slouch either. Sean Schemmel and Brina Palencia also shine in this series as well.
• Sir Watkyn Basset's Memoirs.
  • Sir Watkyn's niece, Lady Florence Craye, is a highly thought-of author as well, with works like Spindrift.
• A Hog of Epicures, the long-awaited sequel to The Silence of the Lambs, detailing more of Lecter's collaboration with Will Graham, as well as cementing his status as the ultimate Magnificent Bastard. Mostly, it's about how he's a maniac Serial Killer, but he has no Freudian Excuse whatever.
• The Sonichu video games are worth checking out. The storylines are a little cheesy at times, but the gameplay is great.
• A New Adventure was okay... I guess
• The Nonconsensual Adventures of Ichabod Crane.
• Robin Hood vs. Hitler.
• Nixon in Space.
• The Pumaman 7 is definitely the best film in the series.
• Unto the Breach, a Mascot Brawler using characters from the works of William Shakespeare. You have not lived until you've seen Shylock's fatality.
  • No one told me Mercutio was the Joke Character. T_T
  • Actually, if you get good with him, Mercutio can be a Lethal Joke Character. It's Romeo who sucks, because all his moves hurt him, instead of the other guy.
  • My only complaint is that Prospero is obscenely overpowered. I understand it's in keeping with the source material, but c'mon.
  • The sanity effects that you get when you play Lady Macbeth are chilling. And with Ophelia, they're disorientingly gorgeous, weird and unsettling all at the same time. (I heard a rumor that the woman who designed these sanity effects was the same person who designed Delirium's Realm for The Sandman movie. I can believe it.)
  • Is Oberon playable?
  • The tag-in/tag-out mechanic for Antony and Cleopatra is downright crazy. There's a great bit of Developer's Foresight if you match them against Julius Caesar, though.
• The Watchmen Anime is one of the greatest adaptions ever made, surpassing even the great movie. Madhouse did a beautiful job with the animation, bringing every moment to life, with some truly beautiful atmosphere created by the soundtrack working with said animation. Not to mention the excellent voice acting and true honor to the source material, with nothing left out. Emperordaein
  • Not to mention the upcoming Saturday morning ''Watchmen'' series.
  • While we at adaptions, I also greatly admire Cave Story: The Animated Series. This was a series that truly cared about the source material, making a brilliant job of the cast and characters. It's an adaption expansion, to given more time with the characters, not to mention all the amazing alternate character interpretations (The Protagonist in particular) that still feel faithful to the source material. Not to mentioned that they managed to perfectly get the story into TV format. The wonderful animation and the fact that they used the amazing soundtrack from the games is just icing on the cake. It was defiantly a good idea to make Greg Weisman head of making the series!
• Averted by the Neverwhere anime, which is an absolute abomination against the source material. Unlike the live action film, with Adrian Lester as the Marquis de Carabas. It was awesome.
  • Similarly, we have the Anansi Boys movie. Damn, but Chiwetel Ejiofor was well cast as Charlie. And the obscure actor they cast as Mr. Nancy (I think his name was Oliver Samuels) was absolutely perfect for the role.
• I'm so glad they brought the Primal Rage franchise back.
• Tales of the Volt Dynasty. I liked Soon I Will Be Invincible, but Tales not only deconstructs the concept of a Legacy Character and all the tropes surrounding that, but builds a surprisingly rich universe from scratch. Sure, some of the minor characters are Expies, but in superhero fiction it's almost impossible to avoid that.
• Dune: The Animated Series promises to be the best adaptation ever made, even greater than the miniseries!
  • How about Dune: the Anime from the makers of Code Geass?
• Leatherface And Friends, on PBS!
• The next Metal Gear Solid prequel is going to be amazing! I think it was very brave of Kojima and company to do something with a female protagonist after all the fuss the fans put up over having to play as Raiden when Sons of Liberty came out, and I'm really looking forward to learning more about the Cobras. It'll be interesting to see how the gameplay adjusts to a more 1940s tech level and less solitary combat style. And there's going to be a Nazi vampire!
• The new The Legend of Zelda game for Wii. It's already a rather good game, with the graphics excellent, wonderful fighting, and Link, although as bishonen as ever, looks a bit different. Then you get to the tower where "Zelda" is and "Link" removes the typical hat, revealing very long hair, pulls off the tunic (still wearing a shirt), and exclaims "Whew, Link, how do you wear that?!" The shadowy figure you assumed was Zelda hands you a note saying "Took you long enough, Princess. Can I have my clothes back now?" You then continue playing as Zelda for the rest of the game. In addition to this, the game features the triumphant return of Midna, brand-new areas in addition to the familiar hunting grounds, and a definitive explanation for the Continuity Snarl (finally).
• In my trip to the future, I saw many wondrous things, but nothing was more incredible than the Zelda game Nintendo made for their as-yet unannounced system (I was told that describing the game would not cause a Time Paradox, but giving away the name of the system would). The game takes Dual-World Gameplay up to eleven, to the point where it seems like two different games interwoven together. In fact, that's how the game was made-one half of the game was had Shigeru Miyamoto as lead programmer and Terry Pratchett as lead writer, while the other half was developed by Rocksteady Studios and written by George R. R. Martin. The result is, to quote Benjamin Yahtzee of the New York Times: "The Citizen Kane of video games...one minute I'm playing Ocarina of Time while taking enough drugs to humble Raoul Duke, and the next minute I'm playing a perfect blend of Batman: Arkham Asylum, Silent Hill 2 and Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. The only thing missing is a Super-villain simulator and Nintendo would have the perfect game...I was initially worried that such a shift in mechanics and tone would be schizo, but it all blends together flawlessly, sort of like how that alternate reality version of Duke Nukem Forever was able to integrate First-Person Shooter and Rugby-Team-Management gameplay into one seamless package...While I may still be disappointed in Nintendo for the whole 'Wii' episode, this game has gotten me to the point where I'll let him sleep on the couch if he's in Brisbane."
• Half-Life 2: Episode 3 proved well worth the wait when, just before the climax, a madly grinning character runs up to you brandishing twin Uzis and says, "It's good to see you again, bro!" What follows is perhaps the most epic hour of video gaming ever.
• Oh, and I ran into a beautiful Final Fantasy VII Fan Fic the other day. It was AU and covered what would happen if Zack and Sephiroth essentially switched roles, Zack going crazy at Nibelheim and Sephiroth starting to play his role. There were some drastic changes, skillfully handled (Sephiroth, being Sephiroth, got himself and Cloud home, which changed everything) but some distinct In Spite of a Nail too, and all in all it was brilliantly thought-out and brilliantly written. It also contains the most beautiful, touching, believable creation of the Sephiroth/Aerith pairing ever.
• Central Powers Osmanlia is a wonderful prequel to Hetalia: Axis Powers. Who knew Serbia could be such a dick?
  • To be fair, it's mostly to Austria. Serbia's relationship with Russia surprisingly moving.
  • I saw one episode of it. Poor, poor Russia, though, the whole Red October sequence is Nightmare Fuel galore, complete with body parts ripping apart, Russia Hearing Voices of the factions and German Empire/Prussia brutally mocking Russia. On the other hand, Italy beating the hell out of Austria is Moment of Awesome.
• I once saw a crossover fic between Azumanga Daioh and Eversion. It shook me to the deepest recesses of my soul...
• I expected the Team Fortress 2 JRPG "Team Fortress 2: Hearts of Australium" to tank, but Valve and Square Enix pulled through. Tim Curry and Christopher Sabat play each other off hilariously as Grey Mann and Saxton Hale respectively. Grey is the main antagonist for the first quarter of the game. He's killed by his own grandson Silver Mann. From then on, HE becomes the REAL main villain. (He also happens to be the Soldier's kid too. Just roll with it.) It's up to the mercenaries, the Soldier's former lover Scarlet Mann (Lori Alan), Aurum Mann (Silver's good(ish) brother), and Hale to stop Silver from destroying the universe, and prove once and for all that Aurum has better hair. The story's crazy, but Valve did get Hideo Kojima to work on the story.
  • The game itself is a fun satire/pastiche of JRPGS such as Final Fantasy, though it has elements of Super Mario RPG as well regarding attacking.
• Yume Nikki DS is going to be awesome! Even more Nightmare Fuel, a Deus Angst Machina removal (and huge middle finger to the theory-maniacs) thanks to some awesome characterization, and an infectious Dancing Theme courtesy of Seccom Masada-sensei and Uboa!
• The Ace Attorney Anime looks like it's gonna be awesome, don't you agree? The series was practically made for this, after all, and I'm looking forward to seeing some of the old cases adapted to the show. Casting Dan Green as Will Powers was truly a stroke of genius.
  • After seeing the first episode, I don't think it has quite the same charm as the games. But I fully support the casting of Wendee Lee as Maya. I'm just afraid the whole Gumshoe and his fear of space ninja might become a running joke that will wear thin soon.
• I will be waiting for that new Space Channel 5 game. I demand playable Purge SEGA!
• Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing 2 is the biggest sequel improvement ever. You have collision, your opponent, if you set the difficulty high, can put up a fight, the levels are awesome. The best part? It has an option to play just like the first game!
• The Squirrel Boy game is just awesome. It sucks how people bash it without playing it just because it's a squirrel boy game.
• Nintendo made one hell of a good choice to add Runouw (creator of Super Mario 63) to their development team. Not only did the next Super Mario Bros. intallment had FLUDD, the nozzles and the caps returning, but it is the first Mario game to have a level creator. Although the star coins, from SM63, return, yet some of them are real hard to find.
• When I heard that there was a Total Drama spinoff staring Katie and Sadie, I started to give a huge no, but the show it's self is too awesome for words. Guess it goes to show that the writers can write flat characters after all. I still can't wait for Ezekiel's, Bridgette's, Izzy's or Heather's spinoffs. Along with who ever else has one (the article said that there will be a surprise one, and probably a few more, if these get good ratings).
• Calvin and Hobbes is one of the best films of the year and one of the most greatest comebacks of all time. I love how they decided to make wonderfully hand-drawed animation for the childhood scenes and live action for the adulthood. Great casting, stays loyal to the source material and truly a fantastic piece of art. I truly shed a tear at the part where adult Calvin finally accepts his adulthood and shares a final hug with Hobbes. And the final scene where Calvin gives Hobbes to his son is truly heartwarming. It's easily a great comeback for not only the comic, but also for Steven Spielberg, who shows us that he still got it. This is my favourite movie of all time!
  • Not to mention the irony of having the fantasies in CG, but the reality (in the childhood scenes) in traditional animation.
  • I thought the idea of Calvin's son being conceived by artificial insemination was perfectly in character.
• Further Down The Trail: I'm happy to report that someone has finally done a good film adaptation of Manly Wade Wellman's "Silver John" fantasy stories.
• Caligula: The Movie: On Ice far outstrips its source material. Advertised via the brilliant tagline: "Let them skate, so long as they fear!"
• Drackadder is the best Halloween special of all time. Baldrick as Renfield, Stephen Fry as Melchett Van Helsing, Hugh Laurie as George Harker, Miranda Richardson as Lucy, Tim McInnerny as Percy Holmwood, Rik Mayall as Quincy Flasheart and Rowan Atkinson as the titular Count... Comedy just doesn't get any better. Though its ending could be quite a bit of Nightmare Fuel.
• Speaking of adaptations of Dracula, you don't get much better than the Coppola/Burton collaboration version! Johnny Depp makes a surprisingly good Jonathan Harker, they don't hold back on the ho yay, and visually it's just a gorgeous thing to look upon. All the on-location shooting really shows, and I never thought I'd see an adaptation that channels the claustrophobia and urgency of the original novel.
  • I wholly disagree and thought that it was awful. I liked the one with David Wenham as Dracula, Ian McDiarmid as Van Helsing, Cillian Murphy as Harker, and Steve Buscemi as Renfield. They were genuinely loyal to the book, didn't eroticize it any more than necessary, and best of all, didn't tack on some stupid lost love angle for Dracula. You wouldn't think anyone would be able to outcreep Cillian Murphy, but apparently you haven't seen David Wenham in The Proposition, which is actually a real movie.
• Kingdom Hearts: MY Story. It was first annonced as a new take on the original. It turned out the big twist was Tidus, Wakka, and Selphie pulling a hostile takeover from Sora, Riku, and Kairi. It's hard to say what was funnier; Tidus'attempts to be a hero, Wakka's even more inept villainy, the very original path Selphie made, or the game's whole lack of a forth wall. The gameplay was superb, adding some very nice twists to the old engine. And, in spite of it's general silliness, it still had some very dramatic and heartwarming moments.
• Finally, Ben Jonson's ''Volpone'' gets a film version. Johnny Depp in the title role simply oozes Magnificent Bastardry, even if his Italian accent is a bit dodgy.
  • I went into that movie not expecting much, because I thought Depp was being lazily cast again. I was very much impressed. That is one stylish movie, nicely managing to acknowledge Volpone's charisma while still making it clear that he is not admirable at all, and avoiding telling us not to do this cool thing. Also, the actor who played Mosca (I think it was Dexter Fletcher, but I could be wrong) did a fantastic job with the villainous sidekick schtick.
• Man, Square Enix really proved how much they cared about their fans when they released their Chrono Tales anthology to go along with the collector's edition of Chrono Break, right? Hiring the makers of Chrono Resurrection and Crimson Echoes to port their creations to consoles, plus a brand-new official Chrono game. Rumor has it that Nintendo liked it so much they're bringing out a 3D Mother Trilogy for Wii!
• The Studio Gonzo adaptation of Tosca literally took my breath away. I know, I know, it's an opera, but seeing the plot and the characters shown off to their best advantage in the same art style they used for Gankutsuou was just thrilling. It was a ballsy decision to keep it in the original language, too. The English dub is a little bit naff, but the entire Scarpia Ultimatum sequence was one of the lushest pieces of animation I've ever been blessed to see. Scarpia as Wicked Cultured bishonen must be seen to be believed. And the thing is, it works. Don't let the awful English dub dissuade you, or the subtitles, for that matter. I can't wait until they get started on that anime adaptation of Crime and Punishment...
• Coming soon: The Protector: The Seven Crystals. If you can get past the fact that the main character looks like and is named after the creator, it can be a great show.
• The upcoming Orlando Furioso movie looks really wonderfully clever, and just what we need after that awful Song of Roland movie with Gerard Butler.
• Oh man, the Ghost Sonata movie. Cillian Murphy as Arkenholz, Daamen Krall as Hummel, David Warner as the Colonel, Alan Rickman as Bengtsson, Tom Waits writing the soundtrack, and cinematography and art direction by Dave McKean... I don't believe I've ever seen so much Nightmare Fuel in one film. I'm just glad they didn't get Tim Burton to direct it like they'd originally optioned, because he would have just phoned it completely in and given us a rehash of Beetlejuice.
• The Faerie Queene film series is fantastic thus far (they ain't done yet; the FQ is maddeningly long). I liked that they were able to downplay the gigantic anti-Catholic theme of the original without resorting to outright Politically Correct History. Gemma Arterton makes a truly badass Britomart, and John Hodgman and Jonathan Coulton are hilarious as Bragadoccio and Trompart.
  • The filmmakers exposed a cruel/funny streak when they awarded Tara Reid the lead role of Gloriana. Poor girl was walking on air for months.
• The Henry VI Tetrology movie series is going to be awesome. They're filming the whole set as big budget epics. The best part is that BRIAN BLESSED has finally been confirmed to play Falstaff. I've also heard Mark Strong's name mentioned to play Gloucester when he finally shows up.
• I for one, can't wait for the American release of the video game adaptation of The Game.
  • Dammit!
• Invasion of the Money Snatchers. It's about Plant Aliens who steal people's wallets. Hilarious.
• King Arthur Destroys King Arthur has the worst thought-out premise in film history. As such, it's so bad as to be good.
• The visual novel of the musical Thrill Me, about Leopold and Loeb, was a fan creation, so I didn't expect it to be much good. Boy, was I wrong. Gorgeous art, excellent working of leitmotifs in the soundtrack, and honestly chilling presentation. It subverts so many tropes it's not even funny, and I was irresistibly drawn in on the first playthrough. Even though it expands far beyond its source material into the actual heavy details of the Leopold and Loeb case, it's still almost painful how it manages to get inside the player's head. I've never had a Breaking Speech put on me by a game before. The subversion of the tropes surrounding the couple was just brilliant, and the fan translation from Korean is the very Woolseyest. The fact that it at first handled like a dating sim- down to fake relationship values and Nathan's introspective narration— before making it shockingly obvious that there is only one possible road for this pair to take was just a knife in the gut. (And though the soundtrack was a little low-tech, I'll admit that cheerful reworking of "Nothing Like A Fire" was in my head for weeks.) The fact that the same team of fans is working on an (unrelated to Thrill Me) subversion of the Pseudo-Romantic Friendship based off of the Parker/Hulme case gets my hopes way, way up.
• The English translation of Irisu Syndrome! made me squee like a little girl.
  • Well... I have to say that they certainly made the game even creepier than it was before. And considering how the original was pure Nightmare Fuel, that's saying a lot.
• The latest Mega Man Classic Anime Series is GREAT! The characters are well developed, the story arcs are impressive, even the Fillers or Original Story Arcs are awesome! Too bad it lasted only three seasons before the Zero Arc could get off the ground].
  • Oh my god yes. Especially that episode where Metal Man had that huge Enemy Mine moment with Cut Man that was just full of Hypocritical Heartwarming. Seriously. When he said "The only one allowed to chop this dummy's head off is me!" I just wanted to squee so hard.
• The Official Transformers: Animated Movie was amazing, everybody got a starring role, and the plot is well done, with Megatron and his Decepticons fighting several Autobots to take over Cybertron and wins, they also managed to make Optimus Prime's death a real Tear Jerker instead of Narm like every other time after the first movie, season 4's gonna be a blast when it comes out though!
  • I thought that Skywarp's Took a Level in Badass braver and more powerful split personality was kinda cheesy. Although, I did like the appearance of Starscream's ghost, and Sari and Bumblebee forming a relationship was kinda cute.
    • And Blackarachnia discovering she's pregnant with Optimus' sparkling? Heartwarming at its finest.
    • And of course, who can forget Sentinel Prime murdering Ultra Magnus because he believes that Magnus was in league with the Decepticons, only to redeem himself by trying to hold off several Decepticons by himself? Proof that even the Jerkass can perform a Heroic Sacrifice at times.
• Gainax's EarthBound (1994) Anime can only be described in several words... Comedically Awesome Yet Heartwarmingly Scary, it's amazing what Gainax did with this adapation, even creating some new characterizations for the otherwise flat main characters.
  • Similarly, The Mother 3 manga by Hiromu Arakawa manages to embrace all of the humor and charm of the original, while still retaining the dark and memorable storyline and amazing characters.
    • Speaking of Mother 3, anyone get that Video Game Remake? It has Giygas! And he turns back into his original alien form from Mother after you beat him! And you learn why he changed so much between Mother and Earthbound! The part where he tells off Porky was also hilarious!.
  • Any EarthBound (1994) fan owes it to himself/herself to get the EarthBound (1994) Anthologies on the DS. All three EarthBound (1994) games, complete with normal and hard modes, perfectly fitted touch controls, a demo of what would have been EarthBound 64, and, coolest of them all, a brand new game! It chronicles the adventures of Hugh as he sets out to destroy the very last traces of Giygas in the world. We eventually find out that Hugh is the son of Ness and Paula, that Ness and Ninten are half-brothers (Ness' clothes are hand-me-downs from Ninten), that Lucas traveled back in time under his brother's Masked Man persona to kill Porky, that Hugh's mysterious mentor is Porky in disguise, and that Hugh contains the very last trace of Giygas. The moment that the game stops before Hugh's girlfriend is about to kill the corrupted Hugh and asks you whether or not you should kill him is the most powerful moment in gaming I have ever known.
• It's about time they finally pulled Capcom Vs. Arc System Works out of development hell. Some people may have complained about the fixed character teams being stifling, but with the game's systems as smooth as they are, everything works out to be supremely well-balanced. Except for the Yang / Bang versus Lilith / Dizzy matchup, but hey, you can't win them all.
  • I'm pretty sure that the game that was initally reported to be Capcom vs. ASW actually turned out to be the companies working together on Sengoku Basara X.
• I was so happy when EA Games dusted off the Ultima franchise and brought us Ultima X: Odyssey. Using the previously established "shards" plotline of Ultima Online, Richard Garriot was able to bring his fans an outstanding reboot, wiping away all the horrors perpetrated by Ultima VII: Pagan and Ultima IX: Ascension. It was nice to see Iolo, Shamino and Dupre travel with the Avatar again, upholding the virtues while simultaneously robbing poor Britannia blind. Oh, and LB's death scene? Priceless!
• EA Sports has just teamed up with Hentai Zone to produce Madden: NSFW.
• I just returned from an alternate universe where Cillian Murphy got the role of Bruce Wayne/Batman, despite his small stature, and the Scarecrow role went to Jeff Goldblum. Goldblum is funny, nerdy, and surprisingly terrifying in the Scarecrow role, and Murphy is brilliant as Batman, expressing Batman's inner torture brilliantly (as well as adding a touch of a Napoleon complex) and being genuinely charming as Bruce Wayne. Better yet, in this alternate universe, Heath Ledger and Brittany Murphy are both still alive, and they'll be playing the Joker and Harley Quinn in the next Batman sequel!
• The SCP Foundation full-length live action movie is great! They really managed to capture the clinical, uncaring tone of the original while having an overarching plot. And it's in the same canon as the originals, rather than a Continuity Reboot.
  • Not to be confused with this SCP Foundation movie, which was made by Uwe Boll and Friedberg.
• Can anybody wait for the Fullmetal Alchemist crossover event, which crosses over Brotherhood and the 2003 Anime? Sure, it'll be hard to tell the difference between Brotherhood Ed and 2003 Ed, but from what's been seen so far, it's gonna be awesome!
• There's an adorable new miniseries coming out based on Hetalia: Axis Powers, called Hetalia Hamsters! All your favorite nation-tans are back, only as hamsters with the cute cranked up, and they've even gone as far as to remake all the old songs like "Bouno Tomato" and "Pub and Go!" in chipmunk-esque hammie voices. Promises to outdo Chibitalia in terms of diabetes-inducing sweetness.
• I quite like the spinoff of House where Taub goes back to plastic surgery and, due to unexpected good luck, is able to open his own practice. All the best medical elements of House, Grey's Anatomy and Nip/Tuck without the jerk doctors and the cast sexing it up as in Grey's Anatomy. I could watch Taub perform difficult surgeries and deal with his personal life all day.
• I highly recommend Terminator: Invasion. The scene where a bazillion naked Sam Worthingtons teleport into NORAD drove the audience nuts at the theater. Yes, even more than the Arnie scene in Salvation. And yes, they used the KLAKLANG-KLANG-KLAKLANG theme. Now somebody please tell me, why did it took this long for them to finally introduce the Many Worlds Theory in the mythology? Is J. J. Abrams the only one allowed to use it now?
• The Newest Super Robot Wars Anime Movie, which includes robots from Anime that weren't in the games before, one of them happens to be Gurren Lagann! Best part? The part where, Simon is knocked unconscious, who pilots Gurren Lagann while he's unconscious? Shinji, who does a very impressive job, for someone with not much confidence! If I'm missing anything, please tell me!
• Factorial! A Mathematical Musical is just so incredibly awesome. Math! Puns! And a bit with a dog!
• Guchuklok may well be the best story I have ever read about five humorously out-of-touch metal musicians and their hypercompetent manager interacting with the world's most brutal Ridiculously Cute Critter. It manages to be funny, oddly heartwarming without being sugary, and deeply weird all at the same time. Highly recommended if you like crack, fluff, ensemble casts, friendship-centered genfics, and scythe-wielding chibis running around humorously maiming people.
• The Ghibli / Gaiman movie adaptation of the Fantasy Game. I didn't know a DVD player could even do that.
• The Adventure Time video game is pretty cool, the fact that they got the show's writers to write the story shows how weird the game can get, it helps that Capcom made the game, and the best part about the game? The Ice King is probably the best final boss you will ever face. The Game is also in Retraux.
• I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm still holding out hope for Tetris: The Movie starring Patrick Stewart as the L-shaped piece.
• Has anyone been keeping up with Dr. Brinner: Ghost Psychiatrist? This has to be Andrew Hussie's best work ever. Possibly the best work ever.
• Quentin Tarantino's 100 Bullets movie is just spectacular, and Tommy Lee Jones does a great job as Agent Graves.
• Remember when Nickelodeon gave the rights to Invader Zim back to Jhonen Vasquez? And remember when he made it a webcomic? It retained all its Crapsack World qualities and fit into the canon almost flawlessly!
• I know this sounds like heresy, but I prefer the 3D remake of Final Fantasy VI to the original. The fact that the voice acting is really good is one of the reasons why. In particular, Ultros and Kefka are dozens of times funnier with voicework. I couldn't stop laughing at the opera scene, even through the boss battle - the way Ultros's VA delivers the "octopus royalty" line gets me every single time. (Cyan's accent amuses me far more than it should, though. I keep waiting for him to yell, "TIS BE SPARTA!")
• Beavis and Butt-Head: Our Dumbass Future. It sounded like a cheap cash-in at first, but Mike Judge showed a tremendous amount of perspective for his first creation in this hour-long special for MTV's "Back In The Day" week. The boys were always observant through their stupidity, and never failed to make connections with the lower rungs of society- traits that served to make their post-dropout years an entertaining whirlwind of road life, prison culture, and kitsch fame. The moral is a bit heavy-handed, what with the boys' lives briefly juxtaposed with Daria's nervous breakdown, but it's a unique and refreshing one: the key to happiness isn't accomplishment or social status, but a complete lack of self-awareness. It's good to see that although they're now scarred, tattooed, balding thirty-somethings, Beavis and Butt-head have nothing less to laugh at.
• In a similar vein, the one-shot graphic novel The Planeteers also manages to bring a 90's icon into 2010 in a mature, respectful fashion. There's been "dark future" imaginings of Captain Planet before, even in the original show itself, but The Planeteers manages to pull it off without any anviliciousness whatsoever. Much is made of the real economic and social forces contributing to our planet's pollution. Cap appears very infrequently, as the colorful rogues gallery of the Planeteers' youth is replaced by poverty, corrupt governments, and powerful industry lobbies- hardly a job for a briefs-and-boots superhero. Angst, however, is non-existent. The Planeteers are weary from their lifelong struggle against pollution, but share a resigned optimism to their cause, even as the forces aligned against them constantly manufacture distrust in their motives and their mission. Children who grew up with the Planeteers in the early 90's know now that there's infinitely more to cleaning up the planet than just picking up highway litter and snipping six-pack rings- the adult versions of Kwame, Ma-Ti, Wheeler, Gi, and Linka are no different.
• As soon as Radioactive Hellstorm is released. I'm picking up a copy! What's it about you ask. Well it's an epic crossover as a shrunken Godzilla faces off with the murderous Jason Voorhees, deep inside the Crystal Lake Research Facility! Who'll win, who'll get their face torn off? Only time will tell. Coming soon!
• While managing to strike the right balance between Cultural Translation and authenticity while still respecting kids' ability to adapt to a foreign setting was impressive enough, I think the point when I was certain I was sold on the new English dub of Sailor Moon was when I realized that nothing in script or voice indicated Zoicite's gender. Whether you'll like the minor script changes or not is definitely something you'll have to decide for yourself, but they're certainly not the sort of thing the original dub got blasted for — if anything, some of the characters' actions make more sense now, and other bits seem to fit better thematically.
• After their highly successful take on Howl's Moving Castle, it seems like Ghibli thought it would be a good idea to go after another Diana Wynne Jones work... and it was. Their adaptation of Deep Secret may well be one of their best works yet. While longtime fans of the book may take umbridge with the fact that Maree is now the main character, but given the Ghibli tradition of strong young female protagonists, it makes more sense than it initially seems. Her avoidance of too much Generic Cuteness as well makes her discovery and acceptance of and in the Magid world all the more heartwarming. The way Babylon is implemented is arguably better than the original books'.
• I always thought that turning stuff meant for children Darker and Edgier was an incredibly stupid and cheap way of trying to appeal to the older demographic until I saw Winnie-the-Pooh and the Rather Unpleasant Curse of Deathly Doom. It really is amazing how the characters managed to Take a Level in Badass without losing any of their original characterization, and the soundtrack is a dream come true if you're a fan of 80s rock. My one complaint is that the people writing the script got a little carried away with the cheesy one liners; I can definitely see Tigger or Rabbit telling the Big Bad to "Go sniff old socks... IN HELL!", but Kanga?! No. Just no. Other than that, an excellent installment in the franchise and a great movie in general.
• With apologies to those people who actually did like Ben 10: Alien Force, I think the best thing to happen to the franchise was when Ben 10: Ultimate Alien was cancelled and Manofaction came back to reset the continuity to the end of the original series. The arc with the Negative 10 infiltrating Ben's school was one of my favorite arcs ever.
  • You mean when it turned out the Ben Gwen and Kevin from Alien Force and Ultimate Alien were rapidly aged clones by that Jimmy Jones kid and the real Ben Gwen and Kevin were only 11 and still the same people as in Ben 10 Classic,love the way the reveal was done and I agree with you on the negative ten at Ben's school arc best.story.arc.ever
• With the success of Weapon Brown (the post-apocalyptic parody of Peanuts), it was only a matter of time before the imitators started jumping on the bandwagon. Now we've got Larry Whittington's Fritzi Blitz, Garry Trudeau's Doomsbury, and the Quentin Tarantino / Scott Adams collaboration, KilBert.
• After his work on Samurai Jack and Star Wars: Clone Wars, Genndy Tartakovsky sounds like a good choice to direct an animated Metroid cartoon. And... he is! Metroid: The Animated Series is a worthy addition to the Metroid franchise, even if its place in canon is dubious at best. The art style combines Tartakovsky's signature fluid-but angular Thick-Line Animation with a deliciously oversatured color palette, and gorgeously-animted, acrobatic fight and ass-kickin' scenes. And that's just the animation! The story seems like Monster of the Week on the surface, but a Myth Arc involving an arch-criminal named James McGee is emerging. But the most remarkable thing? Rather than feel superfluous or shallow, the new characters added actually work. Samus' two sidekicks/companions/helpers/whatevers, Joseph and Athena, complement the heroine adroitly without overshadowing her. Nor do they sink into the background—they're engaging, fleshed-out characters in their own right without becoming a Spotlight-Stealing Squad.
• Speaking of cartoon adaptations of video games, I don't think anyone was expecting Double Fine to continue Psychonauts via an animated interquel series. But c'mon, didn't we all want to know what happened during the rest of that summer camp before the ending? I did! Some writers would take Lighter and Softer as a curse, but the writers seem to have taken it as an excuse to get as much crap past the radar as possible. The results? Hilarious! The best episodes are by far "Sasha-Bye Baby" (in which Sasha has to take care of a psychic baby—It Makes Sense in Context), "Bread and Circus Kids" (in which Raz's science project mutates due to Psitanium exposure, and makes overflowing numbers of yeast-related puns), and fan-favorite episode "A Fish Called Linda," which manages to be both hilarious and heartwarming in the way the camp kids rush to protect their favorite lake monster from a lakey interloper.
• 1000 Words is already poised to become the fan-favorite new anime of the season. It has action, humor, and touching moments. Its heroine is extremely likeable, and the Lions Tigers And Humans Oh My universe is already drawing attention from fanartists. Recently-introduced character " Douburu" sorry, "Habu-kun" is also shaping up to be anime's new King of Adorkable. But a lot of those fans wonder why some of the animal characters have such a radically different art style. This is because many of them don't know about the game the anime is based on, mainly Beyond Good & Evil. Whoever thought it would be a good idea to turn a poorly-selling obscure video game never released in Japan into an anime... was right. Who knew?
• While most licensed games suck, Lilo & Stitch: Experiment Attack! is a quality effort for what it is. It takes the experiments from the franchise, throws in an Excuse Plot about a crazy cloning machine, and uses it as the backdrop for a well-balanced, entertaining Mons RPG. All of your favorite experiments are here, from Angel to Zap, with Stitch being your irreplaceable and lovable "starter." It's intended for a younger audience, but older RPG fans will find plenty to sink their teeth into, with lots of collectable experiments, overflowing sidequests, and a fun battle system that's deeper than it looks. Plus: Who knew Pleakley could be That One Boss?
• Jack Chick Productions and Saint Abraham have joined forces to create a masterpiece of Christian fanfiction worthy of God's blessings: "Keiichi Morisato Turns to the Lord". Keiichi is plagued by foul dreams of demons and creatures of the Satanic variety and due to lack of sleep, crashes his motorcycle one day outside a kindly old man's house. When he says he's living with his girlfriend, a goddess, and her divine sisters and friends, and on top of that they aren't married, he tells Keiichi that they're actually demons who have possessed him. Keiichi shortly becomes a Christian, returns home, and starts reading psalms. Belldandy and company then graphically melt Raiders of the Lost Ark-style. Keiichi is slightly upset, but he realizes that with God on his side, who can be against him? Good Christian fun for the whole family!
• I can't recommend highly enough the My Little Pony/ Equus crossover. It's Darker and Edgier done right. The same goes for the Peter Rabbit / Watership Down crossover.
• Don't read the macekre that is the abridged version: get the uncut The Princess Bride. Actually, man up and read it in the original Florinese.
• You know how they say movies based on video games are not worth watching? Well, I just can't recommend the movie of Rose & Camellia highly enough. With Keira Knightley as Saori, Angelina Jolie as Shizuka and Julia Roberts as Hanae, this Adaptation Expansion gives you a whole two hours of watching them being gloriously slapped in the face by Summer Glau's Reiko.
• Scribblenauts the Movie is awesome! The best part is when the audience gets to choose how he defeats Edison after her Face–Heel Turn.
• I just played Elite Beat Agents 2: Music Lives! They pretty much topped themselves on every level in this game. Seriously, the final levels make Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann look sedated, and the Tear Jerker level made me cry so much, I couldn't play for a week. And the Ouendan are playable too! The best part is, iNiS somehow got the funds to make a tie-in movie! I'm looking forward to Lady Gaga as Foxx.
• Oh my god, I just played the latest Touhou Project game! It's both an Author's Saving Throw for Silent Sinner in Blue and brings back PC-98 characters!. The Moonbitches are subjected to The Worf Effect and defeated off-screen by Shinki! Then they're relegated to Stage 4 bosses that appear when you play as Marisa! (The other two are Elly and Kurumi and Yuki and Mai, respectively. And yes, Elly's boss theme is a Bad Apple remix.) It's even explicitly stated that Marisa was holding back in S Si B. Then you reach Shinki in a climactic fight, with all sorts of attack references. Oh, and speaking of references, there's another stage after the final one that's not an Extra Stage! Yeah, if you beat the game twice then after the normal final boss you go fight the Goliath Doll, followed by Alice Margatroid. With her book open! It also clarifies the Shinki/Alice relationship. The whole thing is of course a take off on DoDonpachi. But wait, we haven't even got to the Extra Stage! It's a It's basically a Nostalgia Level for the PC-98 games. The boss is Yuka, who gleefully uses her signature move on you. And then, yes yes, as if this game hasn't had enough, the new Phantasm Stage! It's even more of a Nostalgia Level, with Shinki and Alice together as the mid-boss and the main boss is...well who do you think?. Marisa's had an expression only used for that level, it was shocking to see.
  • Also the latest Touhou Project fighting game, which was released at the same time! It had Flandre, Kaguya, Mokou, Nitori, Kanako, Orin, Koishi, Byakuren, Nue, and surprise, Kogasa!. Alice's new Grimoire spellcards really change her character while still making her balanced. Oh, and there's an Old Save Bonus if you cleared the new Touhou game Shinki randomly appears at the end of Arcade mode; Mima if you also cleared Phantasm. Beat them and they're unlocked! This is truly epic, folks.
  • Touhou 14: Nightfall On Mystical Land is a more-that-worthy addition to the series. Here, ZUN pulls one of the most awesome Sure, Why Nots in history by rendering one of the most badass Touhou memes of all time canon - the game's main villain and final boss is the almighty Embodiment of all Darkness EX Rumia herself as she assembles armies of youkai in an attempt to break the existing peace between the races of Gensokyo and reestablish youkai as the maneating demons of the night. Surprizingly for a Touhou game, this one has an eerie and sinister atmosphere fitting for the apocalyptic events taking place and perfectly depicts the darker side of Gensokyo which is so rarely explored in most games. As always, the music is extraordinary. Furthermore, Cirno gets some more love when she is revealed as the one to have unleashed EX Rumia (albeit by accident) and subsequently boss of the Extra stage as she wields immense power granted to her by Rumia as thanks for her liberation.
• With the release of the final episode of The Siege of Babel, I think it's safe to say that the Giant Robo: The Day The Earth Stood Still saga has cemented its status as the greatest OVA series ever made, and quite likely the best mecha anime ever. Watching the entire thing in chronological order from The Birth of Zangetsu the Midday is a roller coaster that must be experienced to be believed. I'd advise watching it in weekly installments over the course of a year, but any pace works. (And don't listen to anyone who tells you Daisaku and Sunny were Strangled by the Red String; it actually builds remarkable well from her battle in The Day the Earth Stood Still.) Bonus points for making the cel-to-digital transition so visually seamless that you can't even tell when it happened.
• Still need to see Prism Rangers Vs. Effortless Ninja Gorillian.
• Axe Cop: The Movie is going to be epic! Michael Bay is the perfect director for such a project, and casting Mel Gibson in the titular role is not only fitting, it's sure to revitalise his career. From what's shown in the trailers, the special effects are top-notch, and it's been confirmed that while there's enough recap of past storylines for the feel to be established and newcomers to understand, the majority of the storyline will be all new. But best of all, Malachai is the assistant director and has full control over the plot, so it'll still have the Axe Cop feel. Plus, if the rumours are true, Dr. McNinja will make a surprise cameo appearance! I can already tell that it'll be a huge hit!
• Yes, the sex scenes fall somewhere between So Bad, It's Good and So Bad, It's Horrible, and the male-female relations can get a little iffy, but I have to admit, Type Moon's new adaptation of The Wheel of Time is a true Guilty Pleasure. (Alright, I'm a Tsundere fan. You couldn't tell?) Don't expect to see me for the next year or so, though.
• When I discovered the Monster High anime would star the dub voices of Victoria Justice as Cleo De Nile, Miranda Cosgrove as Draculaura, Jenette McCurdy as Lagoona Blue, Keke Palmer as Clawdeen Wolf, Willa Howard as Frankie Stein and Jesse McCartney as Deuce I was a little bit put off. But they pulled it of perfectly! May have had something to do with the fact that the anime was made by Studio BONES and the Opening was performed by Utada Hikaru! Even though it only lasted 12 Episodes the entire Arc was amazing and full of Character Development and Plot Twists!
• Tales of Game's Presents Chef Boyardee's Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff RPG is a surprisingly entertaining game! I had always thought that they were going to make it too intentionally sucky and have it end up being a poorly-programmed troll game, but then I downloaded it anyway, and it turns out to be truly fun. It's a real treat to see the awesomely fun battle system from Barkley, Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden reused, and its new implementations are fresh and exciting. Speaking of Barkley, Tales of Game's do pull several homages to their older work, particularly with Hass the Rock's special attacks, but they're never jarring or forced. The writing is hilarious and true to the original comic - I was laughing all the way through the Big Bad revealing himself to be Cool Dude and Stoner Lou and the Hot Coffee Minigame with Sweet Bro's mom - and the plot line flows suprisingly well, progressing from the boys going out to get the New Hot Game, to chasing the Squirrel, and finally to proving themselves a sweet enough bro to rescue the president when they set off to save Barack Obana. The artstyle matches the comic perfectly - who'd have known that they could animate JPEG artifacts? They even pulled off a very good instance of Magikarp Power with Geromy, who starts out as a Joke Character unable to attack, but then becomes the hardest hitter in the game when equipped with his best equipment. My only complaint is that I can't beat the Optional Boss, Peaches. Is there any way to hit him before he makes Sweet Bro fall down him?
• Nippon Ichi's new Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann Strategy RPG is a must-play for any fan of the series. The way they handle Spiral Energy by having it deplete or increase based on how well you're doing in the battle is innovative and true to the series, the art style is perfectly accurate, and the action commands during battles are great fun. While you can play through the exact events of the series (with some of the best parts from the movies - they even finally fixed the waste of a perfectly good plot by giving Lord Genome a Tengen Toppa Lazengann!) if you take the main quest, the real fun is trying out all the "what-if" paths and seeing what happens. But the best part is how they handled the Thymilph fight. Ordinarily, his lance will deal enough damage to kill Kamina if you're at the level you'd ordinarily be at by that point, but if you've done enough Level Grinding and sidequests to build up Kamina's maximum HP, he'll actually shrug it off, and you get to keep him for the rest of the game! It's just as awesome as it sounds. And, since it wouldn't be Nippon Ichi without crossovers, there's a secret sidequest where you can get the cast of Disgaea to join Team Dai-Gurren, and Hilarity Ensues. Flonne's conversation with the Anti-Spiral in the final battle is positively hysterical.
• Man, Power Mecha Max is awesome! The main character is this 10 year old boy who never speaks named Max, until he gets in his Mecha, called Prototype X. In it, he becomes a Hot Blooded Badass Adorable with a weapon that can change shape. Said weapon's normal form is A GIANT PENCIL! Did I mention that Max is really Maxwell from Scribblenauts?
• Did you hear? They're making a mini-manga spinoff of Super Mario RPG that will actually be translated! It's going to be followed by a 3DS re-release and thanks to Nintendo making a deal with Square, it's going to keep the original gameplay everyone loved intact while still fleshing out the characters with additional scenes! From additional mini-games to interactions between party members like that one scene where Mallow and Geno talk about the former's wish to more optional sidequests rumor has it that there's a special event for each party member, it's one game that fans of the original won't want to miss. One of the best parts so far? A Boss Battles mode that allows the player to face down any Big Bad they've defeated before using any party combination, even soloing if you're feeling brave.
• I absolutely love the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure - JoJo's Legacy series! They remade both the Phantom Blood and Golden Wind games, and actually went ahead and made Battle Tendency with an updated Phantom Blood engine (The end fight against Cars is the stuff of legends), and even made Stardust Crusaders, Diamond is Unbreakable and Stone Ocean with an updated Golden Wind engine. All of the fights from the manga were adapted (Never thought that Enigma or Cheap Trick would make fun fights huh?), and it allows Online versus with all the characters across all games.
• We know that all the religious symbology in Neon Genesis Evangelion is just to make things cool, but what if they play Christian symbolism straight? That would be like Evangelion meets Pre-Millenial Evangelical Dispensationalism, Left Behind style. That surely would be a Flame Bait.
• I had my doubts, but that Gorillaz movie really tied up all the loose ends. Better than any of the music videos!
• What's this? A fan-done pen-and-paper version of The Elder Scrolls? Surely you jest... but it's actually pretty faithful to the setting and the feel of the games. Being able to choose the era when your game/campaign takes place is a nice touch. Right now they're doing a test run of the system with the basic plot of Oblivion, and oh gods, it's hilarious.
• Magic: The Musical is an excellent example of Adaptation Distillation. The Invasion saga has been turned into an epic, visionary musical masterwork. The best part? Yawgmoth and Tsabo Tavoc singing A Little Elf.
• The concept threw me at first, but Southern Iron Chef is more compelling than the Japanese original, much less Iron Chef America:
  • The two-hour special between Iron Chef Cajun and Iron Chef Lowcountry was a tournament for the ages ... enough to make one forget the ignominy of "Battle Chicken Gizzard," when the challenger's bogarting of the Crisco led to Iron Chef Short Order's umbrage and eventual dual-wield assault (griddle/tire tool).
  • Every fan on several continents can still act out the climax of Season 5's finale challenge, when Iron Chef Soul Food—having just survived his second coronary of the year—climbed off the floor, grabbed his still-live defibrillator, and used it to brown the marshmallows on his sweet potato casserole as the buzzer rang.
    
    "Allez cui ... Array... MOVE YER BUTTS!" (Chairman Boudreaux, ep.1)
• The Left 4 Dead movie was simply spectacular. They are all killed off in glorious ways, each death showing the full potential of each special infected. I especially loved when Stella and Running Bear cut the Smoker's tongue off of Zoey only to die because Joel shined his light at two Witches (played by the Olsen twins) and fled as the witches killed Stella and Running Bear. And the casting of Michelle Rodriguez as Zoey and Tracy Morgan as Lewis was Oscar worthy!
• I just moved here from an Alternate Universe. For tax reasons. Its disappointing to see that Professional Wrestling took such a nose dive in this reality. You see...well, it's probably best to start at where events diverged and go from there. That takes us all the way back to the period between the Montreal Screw Job and Starcade '97.
  • The buildup before the Screwjob gave the impression Hogan was scared shitless of Sting. This changes after the Screwjob-Hogan starts looking for ways to incite Sting. Even though he doesn't say a word, Steve Bordon does a fantastic job of selling how ANGRY he's getting. Then, on the Nitro before Starcade, Bischoff makes Sting vs. Hogan an 'I Quit' match. The stadium explodes.
  • Most of the matches at Starcade '97 were good, but nothing to write home about. The last two matches, well...
    • The penultimate match is simply refered to as the 'Bret-Hart-Destroys-the-Entire-NWO Match.' I don't think any further description is necessary.
    • Hogan. Versus. Sting.
    • To set the mood, we get not one but two pieces of Awesome Music. First up, WCW somehow managed to find space to fit the LONDON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA into the Stadium to perform an orchestral remix of Sting's entrance music. How does the the Hulkster top that? Out comes Metallica to perform his new entrance theme, a song that would sweep every Grammy it was nominated for. The song's title? 'Real American.' That's right: HOGAN CAUSED HIS ORIGINAL THEME SONG AND METALLICA TO DO A HEEL TURN!!!
    • For a minute, Hogan and Sting just stand in the ring and slowly circle each other, their eyes fixed. The buzz is incredible. And for once, the announcers keep their mouths shut.
    • After what seems like forever, the match begins! Sting throws a right hook! Hulk Hogan...sidesteps the punch, grabs the mic from the ref, and says 'I quit...Brother.' Cue the camera focusing on Sting's face, which manages to capture what everyone watching is thinking: "...what the FUCK???" And then the whole stadium is drowned in boos and catcalls as everyone realizes what just happened: Sting won, yes, but winning was no longer the point. The point was that Sting was going to utterly demolish Hulk Hogan, and Hogan robs him of the opportunity by doing the one thing everyone assumed he simply would not do. With three words, WCW tops the Montreal Screwjob with none of the internet drama, and Hulk Hogan becomes a truely epic Magnificent Bastard.
  • Next night on Nitro, Sting breaks his silence by delivering a ten minute profanity-laced rant at Hogan, all the while Hogan is standing under the JumboTron, arms crossed and sporting a perfect Psychotic Smirk that is still used in 'u mad' Image Macros. Finally, Bischoff comes out and gives a pretty hilarious promo before telling Sting that he'll get another shot at Hogan at Souled Out. Only now it's going to be a Triple Threat match. And the third opponent? Cue entry music that was only debut the night before, but even those who missed Starcade know who it is.
  • Souled Out '98: Sting vs. Hart vs. Hogan. Hulk Hogan gets the No-Holds-Barred Beatdown the fans have been waiting for since Bash At the Beach '96. Happy ending, right? WROOOOOOONG! Ric Flair runs in and he and Hart proceed to annihilate Sting. Hart wins by simultaneously pinning Sting and Hogan. So ends the NWO era, and heralding the "Three Kingdoms Saga" (courtesy a So Bad, It's Good line from Terry Schaivone)
    • After Dynasty Warriors came out, it soon became impossible to get a crowd shot that didn't include a sign that said "DO NOT PURSUE BILL GOLDBERG"
  • I could go on with the sheer amount of awesome you guys missed out on, including a long-awaited WWF/WCW crossover PPV that concluded with WCW Champion Bret Hart vs WWF Champion Owen Hart. On the other hand, Cheney never declares himself to be God-Emperor of the American Imperium and Vladimir Putin did not conquer Hell and all the Eastern Hemisphere, so I suppose its a fair trade-off.
• Just got back from seeing the first Soul Eater film adaptation. Great idea having Edgar Wright write and direct, and Dakota Fanning was a great Maka, as was Johnny Depp as Stein. Can't wait for the second and third films in the trilogy!
• While I had my doubts about Eminem after Relapse, his Duets Album BackToBasics not only returns him to his Slim Shady LP-era sound, but pumps out Moment of Awesome after Moment of Awesome. Highlights include "Six White Limit" (feat. Zack de la Rocha, the surviving Beastie Boys, & Kid Rock) and "No More Rage" (feat. Run–D.M.C.). Even if you don't like Eminem, buy this album—you won't regret it!
• Edmund: A Butler's Tale is a work of 18th-century literary genius to rival Tristram Shandy, and it's a miracle that the manuscript survived an apparent mishap with a clumsy servant and a palace hearth.
• Oh my gosh, when I heard about the amusement park based on all the 90's classics, I fangirled so hard. The Animaniacs ride was the best, along with the Classic Nickelodeon-based area.
• Personally, I thought there was no way the MMO version of Avatar: The Last Airbender could possibly capture the feel and humor of the original while still presenting a compelling gaming experience, particularly after the disaster that was the movie. I was wrong. The 9 new bending types fit seamlessly into the mythology, to the point it's hard to remember a time the setting didn't have radiation benders, astronomy benders, or glamor benders. A triumph of gameplay and storytelling.
• When Michael Bay announced plans for a robot-free Transformers spin-off focusing entirely on Sam Witwicky, there were a lot of doubters, but these days it's hard to find anyone who doesn't agree the man earned his Oscar for Best Director, much less someone who can't quote the famous "taco scene" by heart. The casting just perfect too, from John Di Maggio as the personification of Sam's guilt over surviving the Decepticon internment camps to Dame Maggie Smith as Sam's half-Maximal wife from the future.
• I am completely addicted to the new Milky Way and the Galaxy Girls show on Cartoon Network! It's so girly, but you know what? I don't care! The characters are unique and memorable(my favorite is Pluto, but Mars is a total riot and the relationship between the Moon and Mother Earth is heartbreaking), the action is crazy fun, the writing and humor is top notch as usual, and the music is amazing, from the incredibly catchy theme song to the badass score! I don't wanna spoil some of the real good lines for you, but the show is almost as insanely quotable as Friendship is Magic, Lauren Faust's other big hit show. You can watch the whole Season 1 on Youtube and I, personally, cannot wait for Season 2.
  • Oh, and speaking of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, I just came back from a few years in the future(I made a bet with my friends. I lost.) and I saw the movie based on the show. Releasing a My Little Pony in theaters might have been a risky choice in the wrong hands, but a combination of the internet's efforts to spread the word about it and the team working on it actually trying to make a good movie made it a huge success! I don't wanna spoil the plot any, but I will tell you this: They really used their use of flash animation to their advantage, resulting in some surprisingly gorgeous backdrops and a lot of attention to detail. And don't even get me started on the soundtrack! I was humming over half the songs in the movie when it was done. Daniel Ingram really knows his stuff! And besides that, the movie is fill to the brim with adventure, action, comedy, and even some darker elements too. Everything that made the show so amazing and more is in this movie. Kids can enjoy it too, but I think the people making this movie truly made it for us, even going so far as to include a few callbacks to the fandom and even the original series(though nothing too fanservice-y). I can't wait to see it again in 2013!
• Naturally, we all had our doubts about the Arrested Development movie, considering how long the gap between the series and film was, but boy, were we wrong! This is easily one of the funniest films of the year, and just might end up breaking through the Comedy Ghetto and win Best Picture. Pretty much every single line is bound to end up insanely quotable, but my personal favorite moments would have to be:
  • Buster having a shootout with that group of trained seals, thwarting the bank robbery and finally getting his revenge for his hand;
  • George-Michael falling off a cliff, only to be saved by falling through the roof of the C-Word and landing on top of George Sr.;
  • That revelation of what the Funkes have been up to for the past several months (no sense in spoiling it, it's just too damned funny)
• When I heard Adult Swim would be buying one disney property I would have guessed Donald Duck or Mickey Mouse so was very suprised that they had bought......Recess. I was very skeptical as to how adult swim would treat the show and when I was getting ready to watch the premier I was about to cry ruined forever until I saw the theme, an incredible Thrash Metal remake of the original opening that signified I was watching the mature, even better version. Basically it's set in the 6th grade with the Gang having changed after "taking the 5th grade" (Randall and Ashley A had a Heel–Face Turn while Vince had a Face–Heel Turn) in a Noodle Incident called "The Rewrite" With Tj now "King of the Playground" the Gang are now "Agents of playground". The humor has got ranchier don't get me wrong but there's still enough of the originals charm to keep the show's wholesome tone, which has the effect of makeing the Rude stuff even funnier and Tj's obsessive crush on Spinelli makes a hilarious Take That! to Tj\Spinelli shipper's. Have I mentioned it's better than the original?
• Despite fan threats and scattered film-critic strikes, the live-action All-Star Batman & Robin movie has been green-lighted. Leaked photos of Adam Carolla and Christopher Mintz-Plasse threaten to make everyone forget Batman & Robin ... nipples, it turns out, aren't the worst anatomical feature one can replicate in latex and kevlar.
• Just came back from 20 years in the future — Doctor Who is still on the air and still a high-quality production, but the Doctor's been long since dead. His Grand Finale holds the record for the most watched program in British television history, mainly since it was 1) the finale of that series and 2) the killing blow came out of nowhere with no hints in previous stories resulting in 3) a ton and a half of phone calls and "WHAT?!?!?!?!?!?!?" forum posts meant audience numbers jumped astronomically once it started going around. The closing moments were a funeral in the Rose Garden, attended only by the Doctor's last two companions.
  • It left any Who fan worth their salt in tears for months and caused a great many rumors as to whether the show would continue (eventually debunked; see below), what the Doctor whispered to Christine (his dying words), and whether the Doctor had actually died (some believing Eleven's "507 regenerations" comment in that Sarah Jane Adventures episode was a legit statement, and despite him being cremated per Gallifreyan law as the TARDIS databank explained to said companions). On This Very Wiki, the Wild Mass Guessing page for Who got three subpages dedicated solely to the theories that started bouncing around.
  • The show returned the following year amid tons of secrecy (the only proof it was coming back was one teaser promo consisting solely of the logo and the date it was going to return, posted on the official BBC YouTube channel well after April Fools' Day) with a cold open: Christine and the other companion at the TARDIS controls; this sequence ran about five minutes, as it dealt with the weight of everything sinking in (this was right after the end of last series) and the explanation: Christine became the Fourteenth Doctor.
  • Things continued in this manner for another three-and-a-bit series (two years in-universe) before Christine was killed by the Daleks, which sent the male companion into an Unstoppable Rage. Next episode, the Doctor wakes up in the console room in Christine's clothes, then soon discovers he's changed again. And you can tell he's not saying that to convince himself, he actually believes he's regenerated for the fourteenth time. Word of God says (in comparing it to what happened to Jackson Lake in "The Next Doctor") that the traumatic events fragmented the new Doctor's memories of it to the point where the remainder made him believe he was Christine, with the new body being a subconscious remembrance of her/his companion who (according to the fragmented memories) had died. A very well-done, clever, and heartwrenching scene.
  • The Fifteenth incarnation remains the current one, and has since acquired a few companions. I nearly fell out of my holochair when I first saw him, though: he looks like me! What.
• For fans of anime and The Silent Era (and Surrealism), I have something for you: Un Chien Flandrais.
• I absolutely LOVED the Klonoa anime series! It not only adapts the games faithfully (with the Lunatea's Veil adaptation being especially good), but it expands upon scenes from the games, including the backstories. I knew Lolo went through crap from the pristesses, but never thought one actually bullied her! You can't help but feel bad for the poor girl! They also made the battles even more extensive Klonoa's battle with the King of Sorrow was particularly a Moment of Awesome. The animation is pretty sweet, too! Check it out if you can!
• RWBY won Hugo Awards and Nebula Awards. That book expanded not only on Ruby, but also on Weiss's motive for enrolling in Beacon over Atlas —to gain control over Schnee Conglomerate's Vale division. What a interesting take on corporate power struggle.
• Season 18 of Red vs. Blue was a Grand Finale for the ages, and it didn't seem to be as the first episodes blended very well the hard task of following up a cosmic plot with more of that absurd humor we just love. The Death Battle guys provided amazing fight scenes, Locus' sacrifice was heart-breaking, and while it's clear the Reds and Blues' story is over, that new Squadron they introduced were great characters and we can see the show carry on by focusing on them. After that new teaser shot on Halo Infinite, Season 19 can't come out soon enough!
• The Hub announcing a Cross Through between My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, Transformers: Prime, and G.I. Joe: Renegades had some strange responses through the fanbase, most thought it was a horrible idea, others thought to give it a chance with the high quality of all the shows named... The latter proved to be right, as the Cross Through was well-done given the threats of the universes swapping, mostly because they're generally Outside Context Problems, the Autobots teaming up with MECH, having to fight Cobra Commander (and unlike in "Too Human", his organization appears too), the Joes having to deal with Discord, and the Mane cast having to deal with Unicron the Destroyer. Hope that Crossover sequel film coming soon manages to one-up it!
• The Deadly Premonition Anime is... Weird. But in a good way.
• They finally made an abridged version of The Twilight Saga, all in a single book. This book takes most of the important parts of the novels, removes the Padding, and changes a few details to be more accurate with the real world. Remember Renesmee? She doesn't exist in this version of the saga! This and other factors (such as making Bella Swan and Edward Cullen more likeable characters by keeping the positive aspects and giving them actual, legitamate flaws, as well as adding the fact that they are now concerned for people other than themselve) make this a better story than the original books and the movies. Plus: A hilarious afterword with the author of this abridged version complaining that he had to practically beg Stephenie Meyer to let him abridge the novels into a single one. It's gotten so popular that there are talks of a film version of this! For those who originally hated Twilight, you should check this out and see what the original books should have been!
• When I first heard that CN, Nickelodeon, The Hub and Disney were going to make a collaboration together with every character from their histories appearing with each other, my first thought was that this was going to be a horrible clusterf***. Then, I sat down and watched an episode and I couldn't have been more wrong! Granted, I thought that the main story was pretty silly (really, they couldn't have thought of a better storyline than a tournament between the companies' main shows?), the interesting and realistic interactions between the characters, the beautiful animation, the awesome CN vs. Nick subplot, and the many cameos from other shows from other companies (how did they get the characters from Wakfu to appear?) is what really made the show for me. It has become a major ratings hit, it has been greenlighted for a second and third season, and a game is planned for release on all major platforms (developed by NetherRealm Studios).
• You'd never think that a licensed game based based on My Little Pony would be good, and you'd be right - in the case of the Game Boy Advance and DS titles. The new Friendship Is Magic Metroidvania on the 3DS, though... wow. It's exactly what you'd expect a game of FiM to be like - it's got appeal to both little kids of both genders and the older crowd, with adjustable difficulty levels ranging from unsurprisingly easy to Nintendo Hard and tons of Continuity and Fandom Nods. And since it's developed by Konami, it feels like it stepped right out of the '90s.
• When Gainax picked up the licensing for Stretch Panic, I nealy cried. When I finally saw the trailer, I let the tears of joy flow freely. The animation is beautiful, faithful to the game, but with Hiroyuki Imaishi's own flair. From the looks it's a deconstruction of the normal kid taken to a strange land to save their friends/siblings plot. Giving the Scarf, now Hipparu, a voice was a nice touch, as well as giving him and Linda an interesting dynamic. The entire score if one big Crowning Music of Awesome, expanding on the games sound track, along with some nice original stuff. I can't wait for it to come out in Fall of 2012.
• Did you see the fight on Spire in the movie of Myst: The Book of Calam? And then Yeesha's What Have I Done was perfect.
• How did the BBC construct such convincing virtual versions of Hartnell, Troughton, and Pertwee for Thete's farewell message to Susan after the Thirteenth Doctor died? That message, of all thirteen Doctors, was so heart-wrenching and so like each and every one of them. And Susan Who looks to be off to a really good start. Nice Call-Back to Marco Polo, too.
• I loved the episode of Daria where they remove the brain tumour and showed he recover, she was completely normal by the end of the ep!
• Did anyone see the new My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic episode were Rarity got pregnant with Spike's child? It sounds squicky, but it was fun to watch. Especially the part where Spike fights off a giant spider to protect his pregnant lover, and that song Spike and Rarity sang to each other after Rarity gave birth, that was both catchy and sad at the same time. Also, the twist ending, where it reveals that Applejack is pregnant too.
• You know, I was afraid when I heard that Disney was taking the implied crossovers with several of their TV series and fully making it real. Recess, American Dragon: Jake Long, Kim Possible, The Proud Family, and Lilo & Stitch: The Series all getting a Mega Crossover movie was a daring move that could have been a disaster. But it couldn't have turned out better! Having Kim going to TJ and co's school, where Penny is the New Transfer Student, to discuss what being a real hero is about was a curious move, but it can't be denied that the Lorwardian full-scale invasion shook things up. That drew them all into the plot with the resulting abductions, which swept up Penny, TJ, Gretchen, etc with Kim. From there, having the masters of the various Zodiac powers, such as Ron with the MMP and the Dragon Council members with Jake helping out, combining efforts with the United Galactic Federation, Stitch's cousins, and the various Kim Possible villains and heroes to stop it was PHENOMENAL! The only thing that could have made it better was if there was a bit more classic comedy, such as Ron losing his pants, and if the Recess crew and Penny had more of a role than going around pushing all the big red buttons they could find.
• Sure it's more sitcomish than I expected, but that new KaBlam! spin-off focusing only on Henry and June and their friends is awesome. It's like The Weekenders meets Mickey Mouse Works. My only complaint is about how Henry and June have new voice actors (Danny Cooksey and Ashley Johnson), but they're not that bad. My favorite episode so far is "Plane and Agony", where the duo are about to go to Disney World (Well, at least a Captain Ersatz of it) in Florida, but board the wrong plane and once they end up at the (wrong) airport, they have to wait two days for their flight back to New York. Naturally, June blames this one on Henry, though it was her fault in the first place for putting the Florida tickets next to someone else's tickets and grabbing the wrong ones. The animation has also cleaned up and improved a lot since KaBlam! ended in 2000.
  • And the show just got what seems to be the first Wham Episode: "June Wants a Mom". It's revealed that June's mom died in a car accident when she was two when Henry asks what happened to her on the aniversary of the day (not knowing beforhand). It was amazingly written, and a huge Tear Jerker.
• The new Recess spin-off, Study Hall is amazing. Disney did a great job of not wanting to mix it up with their tweeny fare on Disney Channel and put it on ABC in primetime. The humor is also intended for a somewhat older audience, but not by too much (usually TV-G and TV-PG for one or two episodes). Plus, they got the entire cast back to play their characters. The idea of putting the main six in high school was great, and didn't lose the humor or charm the first series had. But it wasn't just the voices, but the entire writing crew has returned, as well as the art crew. The main six look awesome as teenagers, and T.J. grew up well. The best episode so far is "That Glorious, Beautiful Stinking Feeling", when Spinelli and T.J. admit their love for each other. I'm dissapointed that it's only going to have four seasons (starting with the gang's freshman year and ending with their senior year, roughly 2002 to 2006), but at least that'll keep the show from going on too long and becoming stale.
• HBO has finally broken into the animation field for its next prestige series. Under the guiding hand of Producer Brad Bird, The Spirit is being hailed for its visual stylishness, literate scripts, and understatedly adult humor. In possibly related news, locals report the cessation of "subterranean spinning noises" at cartoonist Will Eisner's grave (first reported around the Frank Miller movie's release date).
• When I heard that Disney would be dubbing Sailor Moon and its specials and movies, I was a bit skeptical. But when I realized that 1. There were no cuts or edits, 2. All the dialog and names were left the same, and 3. The voices were nice, I was more than happy. The voices are amazing. Even if some of them come from Disney shows, they do a great job. We've got Kath Soucie as Usagi/Sailor Moon, Ashley Johnson as Ami/Sailor Mercury (no wonder why Ami sounded so much like Gwen Tennyson!), Christy Carlson Romano as Rei/Sailor Mars, Melissa Joan Hart as Makoto/Sailor Jupiter, Ashley Tisdale as Minako/Sailor Venus, Allyson Stoner as Chibiusa/Sailor Chibi Moon, and for the cats, we have Allyce Beasley as Luna and Jason Marsden as Artemis (and thanks to that, I'm a furry for him now). Haven't heard the outer senshi yet (we're still in the middle of Sailor Moon R), but I've heard rumors about Olivia Olson playing Haruka/Sailor Uranus. I need to check who played Mamoru/Tuxedo Mask again. Oh, and since Disney's behind this, the quotent is filled for having a character voiced by April Winchell: she plays Usagi's mom.
  • And the no edits thing? This is going to apply to Haruka and Michiru's relationship. And the final season's going to be dubbed!
• I just picked up my copy of the Doug manga, which has just been translated into English. And...wow. It surprisingly, has a Shojo edge to it, and it really works. The art style is really cute. And while Doug was Adorkable in the original series, now he's more adorkable and pretty freakin` Moe. Actually, it's a mix between both series, to please both sides of the fanbase. Volumes 1 to 5 are going to cover what was in the Nickelodeon series, while the volumes after that are going to cover what was in the Disney series and beyond. So the manga's even going to cover what happens after the events of the final episode. If you're a longtime fan of the show, pick up a copy. And an anime's on the way.
  • Can't believe I'm saying this, but the mangaka actually made Roger look handsome in the manga. The same goes for all the characters, but that's probably because of how the manga is drawn.
• And speaking of the Doug manga, Recess just got one as well. Unlike the Doug manga, this one is four-panel and much more crazy, plus, it's shonen. Like the series it's based on, it follows the kids and their adventures, just it's a little more like Lucky Star and Azumanga Daioh, but with more boys. There are a few differences, such as how Miss Grotke's less of a Hippie Teacher and more of a childish Old Maid, some stuff is a bit more localized for Japanese markets, and it's a bit more non-sequitur, but it's still pretty hilarious.

  • And from the same mangaka, a Pepper Ann manga's coming.

• I'm so happy that The Disney Afternoon section at Disneyland came back, plus it's being added to Disney World. And One Saturday Morning's going to get it's own area too, to commemorate the block's fifteenth aniversary.
  • And it looks like Disney World scrapped their plans for Storybook Circus, and they'll be rebuilding Toon Town, including the Disneyland exclusive rides! This even includes a replica of the House of Mouse, where you can view Classic Disney Shorts and shorts from Mickey Mouse Works!
• Remember Earthworm Jim? Remember the first two games that were excellent, with great designs and funny humor? Then we got masterpieces like Earthworm Jim 3D, and Menace 2 the Galaxy. Well Jim is back, and his new adventure takes all the stuff that made the first two brilliant and made them better! This game takes place not too long after Earthworm Jim 2, but completely ignores the last two, with Jim having to save Princess What's-Her-Name yet again! This time, however, he will have to go through worlds that are...interesting, to say the least. The game is not only a worthy followup, but to make this news even better, Doug TenNapel actually helped work on the game! You should get Jim's triumphant reteurn if you want a worthy sequel to the games!
• The moment a Bleach live action movie, I died a little inside, when I saw it, LIFE WAS GLORIOUS!, The story was perfect, they didn't cram in too much in but didn't cut too much out (All they cut out was that stupid "Orihime's brother" story that no one likes) and the casting, my god the casting, Benedict Cumberbatch as Ichigo, Saoirse Ronan as Rukia, Orlando Bloom as Uryu, Evanna Lynch as Orihime and that new guy who they brought in to play Chad, he's gonna have a promising career, and the cliffhanger teaser ending with the captains, MY GOD! Robert Downey Jr. as Shunsui, Mark Wahlberg as Ukitake, Micheal Gambon as Yamamoto and DAVID FREAKING TENNANT as Aizen!
• After Julie Taymor's snoozefest, critics have wondered if any filmmaker has what it takes to capture the essence of the Bard's Titus Andronicus. Troma to the freaking rescue. Toxie gets an early cameo (as Bassianus), and so does one of the studio's most notorious props during the final banquet scene.
• The Gilligan's Island live-action movie? Very stupid. Casting Kevin Nealon and Amy Poehler as the Howells? Very smart.
• The six-part OVA anime adaption of Gundam F90? With real footage of Mars used for the background of some of the battles?! Not to mention the ED being done by Motorhead!
• Everyone likes to compare and mash up Evangelion and Puella Magi Madoka Magica. In that case, we've added a dash of Warhammer 40,000 to get Madoka's Nightmare Cataclysm.
  • "Hey KYUBEY! STOP Skullf***ing Homura YOU BASTARD!!!"
• If you are a fan of the Toei live-action Spider-Man show, you'll love Toei's version of the Fantastic Four from 1975! The series features space scientist Ren Ryoushi, who takes his friends (SDF pilot Hikaru Majime, Ren's girlfriend Eriko and her 10-year-old brother (!) Jun) on a test-run of his new anti-gravity propelled rocket-ship. Hilarity ensues. The somewhat cheesy concept of a family-like team was more palatable with Japanese characters, and it's amazing how effective the stories were. The series was also notable for its serious portrayal of Doctor Doom, as a Samurai armor and gas mask clad WWII veteran who was based somewhat on Yukio Mishima, and voiced by none other than Toshiro Mifune! The effects are laughable (the long arms and legs on Ren especially; they only had him extend his neck once, and the scene is so hilarious than the trick was never tried again), and the human torch is obviously a flaming wooden doll. However the makeup for The Thing was especially good, and was an influence on the costumes of villains in the upcoming Super Sentai series. The series was pulled after 14 episodes due to low ratings, but Word of God states that the next few episodes would've led into the introduction of Galactus!
• Just came back from another trip to an alternate dimesion, and I would like to say what I saw this time! In this world, to promote Kid Icarus: Uprising, they had sold various manga books, from the game's writers that focus on each of the characters. While they weren't masterpieces by any stretch of the imagination, they were pretty good, and showed some very interesting things about the characters. However, they would later hire someone, who was a writer and an artist not involved with the games, to focus on Pit and Viridi, whom the latter is not particularly well-liked, working together and hanging out (beginning to get along more). He admitted to never having played Uprising, which this is supposed to tie to, or any of the other games, even. Upon hearing that, I had feared it would be the Kid Icarus version of Mass Effect: Deception, what with its Continuity Snarl, having one character throw off the autism and other issues, and expected the worst. I was pleasently surprised at what I found, for not only was it much better than the other books, but it was very respectful to Canon. It was actually kind of refreshing to see Pit and Viridi's banter being used for further Character Development, getting closer to one another, and the fight scenes in their battle against a new enemy (can't spoil, his identity is a secret until this point) were beutifully drawn. I had a little tear in my eye, and then the forword after the story has the author being very happy that Nintendo gave him the time he needed to research the world and wonders if he did a good job. He certainly did! If you can find it, please read it! You won't regret it!
• Following the advance screenings, three out of five critics agree: The Hanged King's Tragedy was a triumph, and 100% worth bringing to the big screen. (For some reason, the other two out of five aren't picking up their phones.)
• The episode of Mad Men where Don's brother John crashes at this place, and brings along his friends the two Steves.
• Now, while my opinion on the webcomic is...less charitable than most other people's, I knew I would be watching Homestuck: the Animated Series solely for James Rolfe as the voice of Karkat. And what did I know, it's a perfect match. The role is similar enough to The Angry Video Game Nerd for James to be in his element, and it's a treat to see him essentially playing the Nerd in a new context. What's even better is how they wrote in some brilliant Actor Allusions to James's previous role - I was laughing my head off when he called John a miserable shitload of fuck, and best of all, they're in-character enough to not feel out of place. Overall, seeing James definitely made up for everything else that ruined the comic for me.
  • I'm more impressed with "Weird Al" Yankovic's performance as Gamzee, myself. The way he plays it is downright hilarious. Overall, the way they got all the actors from such different backgrounds together to play the parts that fit them perfectly is nothing short of an achievement in casting.
• Hey guys! Just got back from five years in the future! You're never gonna believe it—Mega Man 12! And they brought back the Stardroids from the fifth Game Boy game—in an official title. Best yet, it's in effing 3D. 3D PLATFORMING ACTION!
• I sure enjoyed those direct-to-video movies Marvel made about the Heroes for Hire and the Guardians of the Galaxy, in response to the positive reception of their respective guest spots on The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes. The Heroes for Hire movie, in particular, serves as a great throwback to 1970s buddy cop stories. If you became one of the unfortunate many to have not seen Earth's Mightiest Heroes, don't worry, the scripts of these movies don't rely too strongly on foreknowledge of that show. Of course, none of those movies have anything on The Avengers: To End in Flames, the video in which the Avengers finally defeat Surtur.
• The Rocketeer cartoon on Disney XD sure provides a swell time, especially since Bill Campbell reprised his role of Cliff Secord. The episode where Cliff teamed up with Captain America and Bucky Barnes particularly blew my mind.
• I'm not a huge fan of the DC reboot, but I really like where they've taken Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld. The writers jettisoned the excessive dark edginess that the original series degenerated into and, mercifully, returned to all-ages Magical Girl high fantasy. Admittedly, the strong My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic influence can be a bit disconcerting at first if you were expecting the more serious tone and art style of the original maxi-series, but it's quite charming one you get used to it, and the writing is good enough to be engaging for adult audiences as well as preteens.
• I know it was a controversial casting choice, but in my opinion Tilda Swinton made the best Sherlock Holmes since Jeremy Brett. Her Holmes is aloof, brilliant, understatedly sexually ambiguous, eccentrically charismatic, subtly damaged, and just a bit mad. And the Watson they have playing opposite her is perfect.
• I just came back from an alternate universe, and I must say, Jeremy Brett's cameo as the Holmes brothers' father in Sherlock was outstanding, even in a series that, in general, is wonderfully cast.
• While Telltale Games has had a hit-and-miss history with episodic adventure games based on licensed properties, their game adaptation of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (titled Adventures in Harmony) is definitely a hit! Six episodes, each focusing on a member of the Mane Six, with all the charm and clever writing of the series at its best. I like how they managed to give each of the characters a unique trick (Pinkie's "Pinkie Sense", Rainbow Dash's speed, Twilight Sparkle's magic) without making it feel too gimmicky. Plus the puzzles and challenges are perfectly balanced to test kids and adults alike.
• The Team Fortress 2 movie is wonderful proof that not all Video Game Movies Suck. The backstories for the characters are just perfect, no prior knowledge of the game is needed to enjoy it, and, while slightly changing the physical appearances of the BLU team was controversial at first, the new designs seem to have been accepted by the fandom. All in all, highly recommended.
• Hey there, I'm just back from 20 Minutes into the Future, feeling great after having played Kingdom Hearts 4. It was awesome. You start out playing as Riku as he travels around the worlds alongside Donald and Goofy, completing their plots (which are now integral to the main one because each world you visit gives Riku a hint about Aqua, Terra and Ventus' locations). It's really funny to see Riku interact with Donald and Goofy. In each world, you will encounter one of the members of the True Organization XIII as the bosses, as well as the (small) possibility of encountering any member in a short random battle. However, none of them is Killed Off for Real until the final world. Brand new Limit attacks are added. I loved the final battle or, should I say, war, in which the Seven Guardians of Light face the whole Organization XIII at the same time, and it's fully playable. However, my favorite part of the game was the Holodeck, which allowed you to replay the Boss Battles, and it only gets better after the Clear Save, as it allows you to fight many bosses at the same time, choosing your party members, and also allows you to fight against many Mooks, you choose the quantity and the kind, including the now returned Behemoth, as well as Darksides and Twilight Thorns which, at the endgame become Mooks.
• Derek Forester was... just a fantastic series. The third book, In the Realm of the Mortakka'ar, was especially great.
• And I'm back again! I've just read a remake of Novas Aventuras De Megaman (the original version NSFW), and I must say, it is MUCH better than the original! The basic plot and the good ideas are still there, but the blood, nudity and creepy undertones are gone, the writing is much more consistent, the characters act more like their Canon selves, the artwork is better, and it's much more faithful to the games. And while there is still that vibe that the writers love the female characters (most notably Roll), even that is handled better than it originally was. Not to mention that while the main villains still kidnap homeless people (though not girls specifically this time), and turn them into cyborgs, they handled it much more effectively, and made it so that we don't see the operations while still doing enough to show that they are quite brutal. This story was also made in to an eight issue limited series, and actually has a conclusion, which was a well-earned happy ending. My overall verdict: they not only made the story readable, but this version stands alongside Mega Man Megamix and Archie Mega Man as one of the best adaptations of the franchise ever. Ironic that one of the worst adaptations of Mega Man served as a basis for one of the best, isn't it?
• In a groundbreaking East-West collaboration, Isao Takahata and Ralph Bakshi have finally brought an animated Blood Meridian to the big screen. The good news: this was the one way the book ever could have been successfully adapted, and the results are genius. The bad news: the results are too traumatizing to really permit ever moving or eating again once you've seen it. Someone call my next of kin and tell them to retrieve my body sometime next month.
• Oh my god, just came back from watching the Animaniacs movie. They got all of the cast back and most of the crew to do a live action/animated movie in the vein of Who Framed Roger Rabbit. It was full of humor and the dirty jokes the show was known for, along with some great Character Development of some of the characters in Animaniacs canon. The Big Bad was also amazing and he got an epic villain song called "Pulling the Strings". Still stuck in my head. And then there was The Reveal.....oh MAN. I'm not gonna spoil it but I can't believe they got away with it in a PG-rated movie.
• Just came back from this alternative universe where Snapshot was a game from the 80's, and it had a movie adaptation. It can be described as Short Circit meets Electric Dreams meets Who Framed Roger Rabbit (PIC was animated) meets those stories were the guy gets transformed into something else and hilarity ensues. I was a little skeptical at first (the premise was that a photographer/robot creator named Peter got turned into PIC thanks to lighting, and it was a romantic comedy), but the plot was well scripted, the jokes were funny, and the characters were well written. Also, that premise problem is solved when it turns out that Peter never existed, and was the result of PIC getting his memories mixed with the Jerk Jock and the random employee we thought was Peter at first (also, he gets the girl in the end). Also, this seemed to be the universe where "Together in Electric Dreams" came from this movie. And it's awesome.
• Just made it back from the alternate universe where Marvel had the guts to retcon One More Day. The way they did it was just masterful and even managed to rescue the original storyline from the Scrappy heap!
• The Gargoyles movie directed by Guillermo del Toro was pretty cool. It combined live-action with CGI characters that were performed through motion capture. The story, which was based largely on the first season, was well-written and matched the tone of the original cartoon.
  • Oh, hell. When I heard Del Toro was sharing directing credit with Jonathan Frakes and Greg Weisman was taking point on the script, I was on board. Talk about one hell of a team-up!
• Speaking of Frakes...Role Reprise as David Freaking Xanatos on Once Upon a Time? Okay, so Emma and Eliza teaming up to kick some serious butt over Macbeth's attempt to nuke New York? That was a great start. But watching Xanatos and Rumple play every character in the series like cheap fiddles over what turned out to be a glorified bar bet was not just funny, it was freaking awesome, especially when Rumple had to hand Xanatos the dollar wager in front of everyone.
• Finally got The Force Unleashed III , and boy, it's awesome. Maybe the story isn't as good as the first one, but definitely an improvement over the sequel. However, the best part is the gameplay: while Starkiller's moveset is more or less the same, you also get to play as other characters, like Rahm Kota, PROXY, Juno Eclipse (her segments play more like Metal Gear game, since it's more about stealth, but they're still fun), and for one level you play as freaking YODA!. The boss fights are much fun now, especially the one against Darth Vader and Boba Fett together (The Dark Apprentice boss fight is great too, but for many it will be That One Boss). The ending where Starkiller is sent back in time to the age of the Old Republic caused some serious backlash, but I think it was a cool twist, plus it justifies Starkiller's absence in the movies.
• Milo and Anything. ^note (Not Milo and My Immortal, unless it's "Milo kills Voxelmort and Enoby. Hilariously." I'd read that.) Basically anything. For example:
  • Milo and the Methods of Munchkinry. "Even a Horcrux can't survive being Polymorphed into positrons."
  • The Munchkin of Ring-Melting. Milo kills the Watcher in the Water, and wishes he could have killed the Balrog.
  • Munchkin of Deltora: "What? The entire land is a cursed object?!? Break Curse!!!"
  • Mistborn: The Final Adventurer: aka, five-way Snark-to-Snark Combat across two universes, with a side-order of challenging Ruin.
  • Milo vs. Evangelion: Oh, horror - he'd actually have to go through Character Development to help the other characters through the emotional turmoil!
  • Dovahkiin Quest +Milo: Basically Milo, Dovahkiin from Dovahkiin Quest Redux, and possibly Chaotic Neutral!Harry from The Havoc Side of the Force. Two are self-aware characters, all three are powerful, snarky, morally grey characters. Hilarity Ensues. Preferably, drop them somewhere with an infinite supply of ever-more-powerful enemies for them to pound into dust (MoneySpiders would be nice...). Or, in a comedy...
  • Dungeon Keeper Milo: Short-term: Level-grind. Oh, and try to figure out why dwarves like alcohol. Long-term: The Dark Gods have stolen my soul. Kill them all.
  • Sword Art Online +5: In a world of swords... a glitch just dropped a Wizard. Everyone Lives (except 1/10th as many NPC humans; even Heathcliff lives, imprisoned in Milo and Yui's personal computer pocket dimension. (And Milo figures out how to conjure infinite stuff with dimensional travel.)
• Now for yet another trip into an alternate dimension; I enjoyed the new Rhythm Heaven game for Nintendo 3DS. It has all the stuff you came to love about the games, but you no longer have to wait for opportunities to get a Perfect on each mini game. Not enough? Okay, how about the fact that there are so many new features that it feels like a true sequel rather than an Updated Re-release of previous games. Still not enough? Then how about the fact that it has Rhythm Tengoku, the first game in the series, in there as an unlockable. Officially translated to boot, thus finally averting No Export for You! For fans of the series, this is a MUST!
• Does anyone else remember that little Animesque spinoff of Heroes called Hiroes? You'd think a show with a Punny Name like that would be ridiculous - especially with the Timey-Wimey Ball bouncing around due to Rule of Funny and Masi Oka spending half each episode Acting for Two (hiring the original actor instead of a sound-alike was a stroke of genius) due to the multiple Hiroes from different years meeting up to solve problems - but somehow the whole thing just worked. And the finale in which they figured out how to split the timeline so Old!Charlie wouldn't lose her children and grandchildren but Present!Charlie could go off on all sorts of time-traveling adventures with Hiro ala Back to the Future Part III was one big Moment of Awesome with a heaping side of Heartwarming.
• I just got back from watching the Samurai Jack movie. Greg Baldwin did such a great job voicing Aku; that for a moment I honestly believed they'd somehow revived Mako. And the scene where everyone Jack has helped over the course of the show comes to Jack's aid near the end was just so touching. This ending was a long time coming; but it was definitely worth waiting for. And I can't wait for that spinoff featuring The Scotsman to come out.
• Can't wait for the Madoka Magica Dating Sim. You play as Kyubey!
• I love trips to alternate universes. You get to see things that don't exist in your own reality, and that's what I'm planning on showing here after my latest trip. Remember Kat and Ana from the WarioWare series? In the alternate universe, they have their own action-oriented platformer game, and it's a damn good one at that. The gameplay is well done, the characters are as loveable as ever, and the story is hilarious and heartwarming at the same time! The good news is that it sold well enough that it's getting a sequel! I just hope that we get our own counterpart someday.
• I hear that Disney and Dreamworks are putting aside their differences for a crossover sequel to Frozen and Rise of the Guardians. The working title is "Frozen Hearts". There's even a rumor that Hiccup and Merida are going to make cameos at Elsa and Jack's wedding. No word about Rapunzel and Flynn though. Maybe they don't want to go back to Arendelle after the first movie. It's coming out in 2017 and I can't wait!
• Hey, remember that Darker and Edgier reboot of Super Mario Bros. back in the year 2009? No? Good. Neither did the people behind that new Mario/Zelda crossover series, Legend of the Stars. Now, some people hate it for being Lighter and Softer than typical Zelda fare, seeing it as a step backwards, but I think that it's only reasonable, seeing as how it's a crossover with Mario. There's also how the various characters are portrayed (Zelda's characterization might be a surprise, but it works!), with a surprising amount of character development. I just hope the game is good. It should be.
  • Okay, so the game came out, and I've got to say, I never expected it to be so bad. I mean, they had the tools to do something amazing already. They could've made a fun game that combined elements of Mario platformers and 3D Zelda. But no, we got a deliciously bad FPS where there's no player-controlled jumping, but the game will make your character randomly jump anyway, and sometimes they'll get stuck in the ceiling and start spinning. As for the show itself, in the past week, we had Geno vs. Byrne. Also, the Shadow Sage is Waluigi.
• Man, I love crashing at my alternate universe self's place and watching better versions of stuff! Like right now, I'm loving Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.! It's fast-paced and feels like a genuine part of the MCU's continuity, and features sharp, funny dialogue from a cast of both familiar, welcome characters from the comics and likeable original characters, while maintaining the focus on the character we're really watching the show for, Agent Coulson. I'm really curious about where they're going with the Asgardian connection (the promos for after the midseason break hint they're going to be going up against Fenrir - I'm curious about how faithful they're going to be to Norse mythology!) and hinting at the potential for a Chitauri/Kree Civil War is a good way to utilize already established parts of the universe and the healing serum coming from a Chitauri shapeshifted as a Kree when it died makes its regenerative capabilities much more logical. But I think most of all I'm liking the interpersonal drama - it's great to see Academy Award nominee Jeremy Renner get to show his acting chops as he shows Hawkeye being tortured by his experience with Loki's mind control, Coulson still hasn't quite forgiven Fury nor has Fury given him all the answers yet which allows a lot of opportunity to explore their almost father/son relationship, hints at Coulson's tragic past have me very intrigued, and most of all I am loving Christopher Eccleston as Lance Hunter, the perhaps not entirely trustworthy head of rival British agency S.T.R.I.K.E. - whether his rivalry with Coulson falls under No Yay or Ho Yay is up to you, but alternate universe ff.net is going crazy! Now let's just hope my ships sail. (Hawkingbird and Mayson for the win!)
  • Speaking of alternate superhero TV, I love alternate universe Gotham! The future villain cameos are so subtle you might miss them if you're not well-versed in the lore, which adds rewatch value and rewards longtime franchise fans without alienating newcomers. There are also fun hints at the broader universe - news screens talk about events in Central City and Metropolis, old newspapers hint at Golden Age heroes. But mostly it is a serious, thrilling police drama about a young Jim Gordon trying to solve the Wayne's murder and intervene in the Penguin's rise to power, which is the tight focus despite the corruption all around him. Jim's fiancee Barbara has her own interesting subplot as a new teacher at an inner city school - guess where some of the future villain cameos are! I love that they went a very nonstereotypical route with Barbara's bisexuality, making her faithful even when her ex comes knocking - I was so worried when they established this aspect of her character it was just going to be used as an excuse for Love Triangle shenanigans, but instead they made it not that big a deal and maintained the best aspects of this character by having her be the strong person Jim can lean on, even when she's got her own serious problems! Another subplot is young Bruce trying to deal with his grief, which is handled with remarkable sensitivity and realism, and while young Tommy Elliot is a prominent character and has possibly the least subtle villainous foreshadowing, the show so far has handled it in such a way that you can believe him as Bruce's friend, which should add significant gut punch value to any future adaptations of the Hush storyline, since to any newcomers he likely just looks like a mostly good kid with some anger issues.
• You think you know everything about tentaclemonsters? (Insert redlink here. Or better, don't.) Enter Inju. Inju is a poor little monster. All his school buddies think he isn't true to type. He hasn't the slightest interest in Japanese schoolgirls. He wants to be a mathematician! Feel with Inju as he drowns in torrents of mobbing, derision and practical jokes. But he stubbornly makes his way until he proves the Riemann Hypothesis. Watch the new Ghibli masterpiece, "Legendrian^note  referring to an especially jerkass bully tying a Legendrian knot into his tentacles of the Overfiend"!
• Anyone read that crossover manga between Skullgirls and JonTron? I was expecting something {{So OK it's Average}}, it's surprisingly well-written and the everyone's in character. My only complaint with it is how how poorly implimented the Skeleton with the gun in his hand was implimented toward the end of the ending, but I can look past it. A true masterpiece.
• I wasn't totally sure if it would work at first, but The Grim Adventures of Dipper and Mabel blew me away. In this Gravity Falls AU, Grim becomes the friend/slave of Dipper and Mabel Pines shortly after the two arrive at Stan's Shack, but before Dipper finds the Journal. Of course, his presence in the story creates some significant changes in the plot and brings forths a number of crossovers featuring characters from The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy and some series associated with the "Mystery Kids" crossover fandom (And a few encounters with other fandoms and Gravity Falls A Us). The relation between the Grim and the Pines Twins is a lot different from Billy and Mandy's, so expect some more Heartwarming Moments between the twins and Grim. Oh, and don't get me started on the Wham Episode. That was one big CMoA for the series.
• I have read a remake of Sonichu that was made by Chris-Chan himself, and damn if it isn't good. The art is beautiful, the comic is actually readable, characters are no longer flat, heroes are actually heroes, and i got to see Heather Iglesias on one page! There are no unoriginal characters (well, except Sonichu and the other cast, but it is a Sonic/Pokemon comic, after all), and every single villain (yes, including Slaweel Ryam) got an awesome redesign (for example, Slaweel Ryam sports a cool longcoat). Also, there is no homophobia or other unfortunate themes left. The Gene Hunting plot arc in the last issue was a Moment of Awesome, but truly the best thing about it is an image at the end of the issue, which is an image of Christian Weston Chandler, who is healthy, handsome and nothing like he used to be, with an actual girlfriend, waving at you and saying "Thanks For Reading!".
• Candle Cove is a great show with some good humor that both kids and adults will love.
• I love the animated version of House with Stephen Fry as Dr. Walpole and Tony Robinson as the voice of Steve the talking rat. The artists draw Hugh Laurie really well, too.
• Good news from my last trip forward in time: they finally got around to a Die Hard sequel worth a damn! Too bad everyone scared of a repeat of A Good Day to Die Hard fled to the hills when Old Habits Die Hard dropped - it's actually a very faithful update of the first film, in Japan this time. Helmed by Quentin Tarantino, with Norio Wakamoto playing the Big Bad, it's a great way to end a legendary film series. You'll either love or hate the Tear Jerker ending, though.
• Oh man, you guys HAVE to watch the DC/Marvel movie. Combining the two cinematic universes, plus Fox's X-Men films, the Arrowverse, and the Supergirl universe paid off without making it feel overstuffed. Probably helps that it's four hours long. And the cameos from Christian Bale, Micheal Keaton, and Adam West, all as Batman in the after-credits scene.
• Did you guys hear about that new Jungle Book and Jaws crossover? Man, they really improved the special effects—the scene with Mowgli vs. Bruce actually looked real!
• Have any of you guys played the Nirvana quinrtet yet? You should! First there's the gameplay, which is best described as open-world tower defense sidescroller JRPG. Then there's the story! At first it seems like the regular story, ya know, save the world from the evil shadows/army/shadows agian/ghosts/THE FUCK IS THAT, but then you look a little deeper... and you find a surprisingly emotional story. A must-play for any Square Enix fan.
• The 1983 East German animated Silmarillion, Das Lied von der Silmaren, must be seen to be believed. Narm and unintentional hilarity by the bucketful: Deranged Animation (especially the battle scenes), Morgoth vomiting the Orcs into existence with a leonine roar, Luthien basically being a green-haired, step-dancing Tinkerbell, BEREN PUNCHING THINGOL IN THE FACE... I don't think it was meant to be a parody, but Team Four Star's dub was honestly pretty redundant.
• It's a pity that the 1992 motion-picture epic Seven Grand Dad doesn't get the love it so dearly deserves. It stars Captain Lou Albano as Mario and John Goodman as Fred Flintstone, and it is possibly the best work of fiction either of them have been a part of. Hell, this movie is what got Goodman cast in the 1994 film, because his performance was that good! The plot is a masterfully written emotional rollercoaster where Mario and Fred Flintstone end up swapping lives for no apparent reason, and they must adjust to their new lives. I'd recommend it for anyone with even a passing interest in Italian plumbers or modern Stone Age families, if not anyone period.
• Word cannot describe how much I love Edoritchi-ko! Everything, from the premise (boy finds sealed copper jar, boy opens copper jar releasing Adorable Abomination girl, girl promises to spare boy if he helps her find her 'heart', girl becomes boy's Magical Girlfriend) to the characters (especially Ritchi-ko, her three "brothers" and Hiroki the protagonist) is perfect, and I cannot recommend it enough!
• Just finished watching the Challenge Of The Go Bots reboot. It is perfection. Admittedly, at times it seems they're trying to rip-off Transformers, but you could make that accusation about the first cartoon as well. And they actually managed to make Scooter likeable! As for Small Foot's Face–Heel Turn...well, personally, it took me by surprise, but looking back, I can see how careful and subtle the foreshadowing was. All in all, I really recommend it!
• Gambit proved just as good as the movies made for Wolverine and Deadpool, and was Channing Tatum perfectly cast.
• Bugs Bunny Meets Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs sounds like a Crack Fic of the highest order. And yet, strangely, it works. Everyone stays in character, and while Bugs is his typical Karmic Trickster self, the story remains more or less intact. Definitely one to see!
• If you thought Hitoshi Ariga's take on Mega Man, Mega Man Megamix, was awesome, you should check out his take on Sonic The Hedgehog called Sonic the Hedgehog:Island Adventures, which adapts the main Genesis/Mega Drive Sonic games, and like his Mega Man Classic manga, Ariga's take on the Sonic Genesis quadrilogy expands upon the games and gives Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and Eggman (Robotnik in the English translation, provided by IDW Publishing) deeper character development and more meaning to their motives and goals, but be warned, like his Mega Man manga, Ariga's take on the Blue Blur doesn't pull any punches in terms of stakes and isn't for younger Sonic fans or the faint of heart despite being marketed as a Shōnen manga! In addition, Ariga collaborated with Tyson Hesse for manga that adapts and expands upon Sonic CD (Sonic the Hedgehog:Time Warp Madness), Knuckles Chaotix (Knuckles the Echidna/Espio the Chameleon:Chaos Ring Insanity), the Modern Sonic games (Sonic the Hedgehog:Water Monsters, Faker Hedgehogs and the Black Arms, Oh My!, which adapts and expands upon Sonic Adventure, Sonic Adventure 2, Sonic Heroes and Shadow the Hedgehog as well as Sonic the Hedgehog:From Gaia to Infinity, which adapts and expands upon Sonic Unleashed, Sonic Colors, Sonic Generations, Sonic Lost World and Sonic Forces.) and various spinoffs (Sonic the Hedgehog:Pinball and Other Adventures). In addition, Sonic:Pinball and Other Adventures is far more lighthearted than the rest of Ariga!Sonic Canon with stories that are gauranteed to make you laugh!
  • But, the best (and most intense) of Ariga's Sonic manga by far is Sonic the Hedgehog:Robotnik Finale, with Eggman finally solving the equation that will help him defeat his enemies once and for all! Eggman manages to lure Natural Harmonia Robotnik and his Zekrom, the legendary Dragon of Ideals to Sonic's world (Mobius in the IDW translation and Earth in the original Japanese version.), and Eggman sics his nephew and his dragon on the Sonic cast, who are promptly defeated, leaving Sonic and Shadow as the last ones standing. Knowing they're cornered, Sonic and Shadow attempt to go Super, only for Eggman to steal the Chaos Emeralds, giving them to N, who manages to transform into his Super Form with Zekrom being powered up due to it's bond with it's chosen Hero, but Shadow freezes time for the Hero of Ideals and his uncle in order to get the Emeralds back with Sonic and Shadow transforming into Super Sonic and Super Shadow with an AWESOME battle between the hedgehogs and N and Zekrom commences with the hedgehogs barely winning against their strongest opponent yet! In the end, Eggman runs away from the scene, deciding he's had enough and accepting his final defeat in the process. And like his Canon counterpart, N decides to turn over a new leaf with the Sonic cast accepting his apologies, traveling the world in search of a new, more heroic purpose, thus ending the struggle between Sonic the Hedgehog and Dr. Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik forever (In this continuity at least.)!
  • And last, but not least, Ariga has also done a Classic Sonic themed manga that adapts and expands upon Sonic Mania which also acts as a reprint of Island Adventures, Time Warp Madness and Chaos Ring Insanity that makes the lost Sega Saturn game that never was quite shocking and even sad at times! Who knew an adaptation of MANIA of all Sonic games could be a major Tear Jerker?!
• I was bummed when Disney decided against a third TRON film, but when I heard they handed BioWare the chance to make a game and gave them a very long leash of creative control? Well, now we've got something interesting. First off, we have their crazy-good world building and a massive codex (half of it written up by Lisberger)! The soundtrack? A Crazy list of techno artists signed on; I had no idea Daft Punk would not just score the Bar Brawl level, but be Guest Star Party Members. The four-point Karma Meter is pretty innovative, scoring not just "good or evil" but also "obedience or rebellion towards Users." Hell, just the fact that you're playing as Tron, and that all of the paths can make perfect sense for the character direction, as this is post-Legacy. Yes, they got Boxleitner, but...spoiler here, they got Cindy Morgan, too! Yes, playing Yori, and what a great explanation as to why she wasn't in Legacy or Uprising. And if that doesn't peg the HSQ high enough...they got Rebecca Romjin and Jason Cottle - TRON 2.0 is totally canon again! Worth it for the Mythology Gag about Ma3a and Lora being alive in the same canon. The capper? Elijah Wood and Aaron Paul. YES, Role Reprise. Kinda stinks, though, that Beck and Cyrus turn out to be Mutually Exclusive Party Members, even if it is completely justified. Okay, if you play the "evil rebellion" path, you are totally going to feel like a heel executing Jet, especially if you convince Beck to do it, but Alan Bradley as your Final Boss as you murder your own creator and set yourself up as ruler of all of cyberspace, controlling the human world so the Programs will Never Be Hurt Again? Holy. Shit. (Okay, so there's a little Konrad coming through when Alan-1 is berating you during the boss fight - understandable). At least the canonical "good and obedient" path is pure Heartwarming; Everybody Lives, the Program and human worlds are in harmony, the Simulation Sea is restored, Tron and Yori are brought into the human world to see it for themselves, and they teach humanity how to care for the Programs at the side of their human family. Finally, a proper Disney ending for the franchise.
• Speaking of that? Season 3 of TRON: Uprising foreshadowed almost all of the above, including getting Morgan, Cottle, and Romjin. YES, as Role Reprise. The episode "Guardian," where Yori returned and Beck teams up with her was pure Tear Jerker in the best way. And that singer of Dillinger finding Flynn's hidden lab? Aw crap.
• To say that the Xenofiction and paleontology communities were skeptical when a film adaptation of Raptor Red was announced would be an understatement. Fears were that Hollywood would make it into a generic kiddie talking animal movie like Walking with Dinosaurs. The trailer did little to assuage that when it featured narration by Scarlett Johansson and confirmed the film to use CGI creatures in live-action environments, like that film and Dinosaur, although the designs for the Utahraptor and the Struthiomimus were praised for having feathers. When the film finally came out, though, it was a different story. Like Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, and true to the book, there were no Talking Animals whatsoever, with only spare narration when something just could not be conveyed by the dinosaurs' body language and Painting the Medium to convey scents. The score and environments only added to the experience. The only complaints were that children wanted to see the dinosaur movie, and were promptly terrified by the aversions of Herbivores Are Friendly and Carnivores Are Mean. It really pushed the PG rating it got because not many adults would go to see a dinosaur movie that wasn't part of the Jurassic Park franchise.
• Remember those cute shorts before Pokémon movies with Pikachu and friends getting into shenanigans, with no humans around whatsoever? Well, to celebrate the release of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Part 9, David Production released a series of Super-Deformed shorts admittedly inspired by them featuring Stands from throughout the main timeline interacting. They are absolutely adorable and often surreal, with Star Platinum being the central character as usual and The World often showing up to Poke the Poodle. Pokémon Speak is in full effect, with Stand cries being the only spoken lines; the range of emotions Daisuke Ono can inflect a simple "ora" with is impressive. There's even a short referencing the infamous Jouta Kujo doujinshi, in which Hierophant Green tries to hatch an egg. The shorts' cute and highly distinctive characters, wacky plots, and lack of dialogue earned them a large Periphery Demographic of young children on streaming sites.
• Super Mario New Galaxy for the Nintendo Switch features updated and actually fun motion controls, references to Super Mario Odyssey and World Of Light, an all-new Dome with galaxies including a Whole Level Reference to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and a Brutal Bonus Level, another Tear Jerker scene involving Rosalina and the Lumas, and graphics and music redone so masterfully as to bring even more tears to the eye.
• So I just got back from a vacation to an Alternate Dimension, and now I'm so pissed that our universe never got to see John Woo's Metroid. Rebecca Romijn and David Tennant were perfectly cast as Samus and Ridley, respectively, and the rest of the cast (Leonard Nimoy as Old Bird, Ian McKellen as Gray Voice, Sigourney Weaver and Arnold Schwarzenegger as Samus's parents, Kurtwood Smith as Kraid, Kate Mulgrew as Mother Brain, and Brie Larson as a teenage Samus) don't fare too badly, either. The story actually manages to handle Samus's PTSD far better than Other M ever could. Danny Elfman knocked the score out of the park, perfectly blending arrangements of music from the games with original tracks. The inclusion of Disturbed's cover of "One" on the soundtrack was genius, even if the rest of the soundtrack was pretty lackluster (Nickelback? In 2008? Seriously?). Woo's camerawork and choreography are top notch as always. My only real complaint (aside from the soundtrack) is that Ioan Gruffudd seemed to sleepwalk through his role as General Malkovich. Otherwise, this movie is a must-watch. Even Roger Ebert (who is still alive in that universe) gave it a thumbs up! Just be grateful our universe doesn't have Natalia Poklonskaya reuniting the Soviet Union In Name Only or Ben Shapiro as President of the United States. No coronavirus though, so there's that.
• It is a sore loss for any Tolkien fan that "Of the Blue Wizards" remains incomplete and Christopher Tolkien axed it from Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth. The text is a mess of revisions, but the story of the Easterling chiefly family's falling apart - spurred on by the charisma and terror of Sauron, the deep scars of Numenorean imperialism, and the uncertain hope the Wizards offer - is still very compelling, and a fresh take by the Professor on his own world. Even the narrative style is new ground: Mirroring his use of Western mythology in writing The Lord of the Rings, he modeled the Easterling civil war partly on the Kurukshetra War in the Mahabharata!
• The Child of the Storm anime is fantastic! While it has yet to be given an English dub, I must say that the Japanese cast is fantastic! We've got, among other things Masako Nozawa as Harry, Kotono Mitsuishi as Carol, and, in a Role Reprise from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Satoshi Mikami as Doctor Strange!
• I just finished hololive Alternative after putting it off for quite a bit, and it didn't disappoint at all. The writing was solid, character dynamics were fun, animation was amazing (the fight scenes in particular were top notch), and it's surprisingly chock-full of cameos of other Vtubers. Ollie and Pekora were hilarious. The soundtrack tends to be so-so, but when it's good it's super good. The show's remix of "Here Comes Hope" is a certified banger. To top it all off, it has the holostars English cast a month before they actually debut.
• The LEGO Movie 3: The Final Step is such a satisfying conclusion to the LEGO Movie trilogy. At first, I thought the film's 5-hour runtime would be boring and unnecessary, but it ended up being a lot of fun from start to finish. The returning characters are still likable, the new characters are just as enjoyable, the humor and drama is perfectly balanced, and the soundtrack is absolutely legendary.
• Jurassic Park: The Dino-licious Musical is the Broadway show we deserved and needed. It was a stroke of genius giving Rexy a voice reminiscient of Audrey II, and her number "A Dino's Gotta Eat," was an absolute showstopper.
• Joker and Harley is the best rom-com ever for fans of gratuitous violence and chaos! It's so wholesome to see the Joker and Harley Quinn getting along in a healthy, non-abusive relationship while gassing people with Joker Venom, crashing big events, and screenshotting NFTs!
• The animated film version of Cats is everything we were hoping the live-action film would be. Making the cats non-anthropomorphic was a bold move, but one that ultimately paid off. The new designs are so adorable, combining realistic cat proportions and movements with unique designs based on the costumes from the original play. Also, the cast is stellar. Each character has a Broadway veteran as their singing voice, while the speaking voices are done by people who have played other famous felines. Bernadette Peters does both speaking and singing for Grizabella, while other speaking voices include Nick Bakay as Bustopher Jones and Paul Schoeffler as Macavity... it's just purr-fection!
• I'd considered Invisible Cities unadaptable, but in hindsight it makes perfect sense that if anyone was up to it it would be Failbetter Games. There's a fair amount of Adaptation Expansion and Adaptation Distillation involved, of course, but using Kublai Khan's court as a hub area and using flashbacks to let the player develop Marco Polo's notes through gameplay works out really well. A shame they didn't make it past the stretch goal for Cities & Eyes, though.
• At first I thought Foxy Fighters was just another run-of-the-mill mascot platform fighter cashing in on the popularity of games like Super Smash Bros. and Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl, but after playing it with my friends, I can safely say that this game has outfoxed my expectations! Rather than using the most popular characters owned by a certain company, this game's fighters come from a variety of franchises, but they have one thing in common: They're all foxes! I usually main Tails because his flight abilities are very useful in combat, but it's also a lot of fun to play as Slagar the Cruel because his moveset is themed around confusing and backstabbing the enemies in various ways. Also, the Big Cheese was definitely an Unexpected Character.
  • It's also cool that Foxy is the final boss of the arcade mode, hence the game's title. You can even unlock him by beating arcade mode with all the other characters!
  • They got the perfect composer to do the game's soundtrack: Toby Fox!
• So I just watched Zack Snyder's Shark Tale, and I have to agree with Doug and Schaff; it is one of the greatest movies ever made. Will Smith's character is much more likable, Matt Damon is such a perfect villain, the story is phenomenal, the songs are memorable, and the animation is breathtaking. The only problem is that it's only available on Disney+ for $30, but trust me when I say it's well worth the money.
• The Christmas That Almost Wasn't was probably the last Christmas film, if any, that I expected to get a remake. But it seems that the Colbert Bump it got for appearing on Mystery Science Theater 3000 was enough to get it one! The remake has an unexpected Genre Shift towards action fantasy. Phineas T. Prune (John Turturro) is now an Evil Sorcerer hellbent on taking over the world, and Blossom (Willem Dafoe) is now his intelligent zombie slave rather than a butler. Prune becomes intent on destroying the main source of happiness in the world, Santa Claus (played for some reason by Dwayne Johnson), who must team up with small-town lawyer Whipple (Chris Pratt) to defeat the evil sorcerer. It's surreal, but vastly entertaining to watch the elves wielding axes and maces. Even Mrs. Santa (Zoe Saldaña) is a genuinely badass Action Girl, and to be honest, I cried when Mr. Prune ran her through with his sword, Sephiroth-style.
  • Prune's Villain Song, "Kids Get All the Breaks," which was not featured in the original movie, but only on the soundtrack, makes its grand return here. Not only is it actually performed in the movie this time, but it gets an epic Rotten Rock & Roll rearrangement, in a style similar to "In the Dark of the Night!" That extra verse about his plan to summon Grin'chee, Destroyer of Joy, was wild.
  • And who could forget the memorable cameos by the MST3K crew as some of the elves?
• The Neopets anime is so good! It might have a plot eerily similar to Digimon at times, but it works all the same! I love how they pulled off the relationship between the main hero Kouta and his Shoyru. Plus, the female lead Masi and her Acara bond so well! My only complaint is the unabashedly cheesy English dub, turning all the dung into "slop" and removing grog along with trying to "kiddify" the seies, but that dub is still So Bad, It's Good. I hope that by the end of the season, the Darkest Faerie gets a proper ass-whooping!
• Out of all the properties for LEGO to make a limited series about, Stunt Rally wasn't one I was expecting, but I had an absolute blast watching it! My favorite aspect has to be the camaraderie between Chip, Barney, Wrench, and Lucky, which is surprisingly genuine and wholesome.
• The Friday prequel Thursday is magnificent! Who would have ever guessed that it was Day-Day who stole the boxes? I never thought he looked much like Craig, but casting J. K. Simmons as his boss was a brilliant choice.
• When some friends told me about an anime adaptation of the Asterix comic series by Toei Animation, they were understandably on the fence about it, especially since it was a retelling of the Goscinny-written editions. However, after knowing of the direct involvement by Les Éditions Albert-René (sole owner of the rights to the Asterix franchise), as well as them showing me some of the teaser footage on YouTube, it seems like our plucky little Gaul is in good hands! The characters look like they were ripped straight out of the albums, but with Toei's signature charm. In addition, the Japanese translations used were the same quality as the other international translations, making the lines feel a lot smoother. Also, the casting department got a lot of talented voices that really capture the essence of the characters they portrayed (I swear, Asterix's seiyuu sounds a lot like Roger Carel if he spoke Japanese).
• The SNES-CD is one of the greatest consoles of all time. With a vast library of 693 games of many different genres, it has something for gamers of every type. This system brought the Star Fox, Ballistic Limit, Resident Evil and MythWar franchises into existence, and is home to Secret of Mana, one of two games that put JRPGs on the map outside Japan.
• I may be alone here, but Yami Sentai Transylvanger has me on the edge of my seat. A slightly Darker and Edgier take on the classic sentai formula themed after Gothic Horror and classic movie monsters, with wicked-looking heroes striving to do good in spite of the darker impulses that come with their powers and beautiful and stylish monsters based on various eras and movements in classical art, the show is a masterpiece of style, but its intricately-woven plot and amazingly-choreographed action scenes provide plenty of substance to go with it. And using a Jekyll & Hyde theme for the Sixth Ranger nicely foreshadowed the reveal that he was a heroic Split Personality for one of the villains (I won't spoil who, but trust me, it'll put a lot of things in a whole new light). And if nothing else, using the Frankenstein's Monster motif for the Combining Mecha was a particularly clever way to emphasize the theme of a dispirate collection of pieces coming together into a strange and powerful new entity.
• The Hopscotch Championship Game is one of the biggest sports events of the year!

---

...and now you feel worse about the world you live in. Just as Planned.

---