Animation Greatness Part 1

I will start by saying I am an animation addict. From Sponge Bob to Samurai-X, I can't get enough cartoon goodness. While I do enjoy many live action TV series, they sometimes just seem too faked, either due to poor acting or bad special effects. But with cartoons there are no such restraints. The special effects are only limited by the artist imagination. And bad acting while it can be annoying, unlike live action, it is not the death of the show. So I am going to start a series of posts listing some of the best animations that you have probably never watched.

Gargoyles
First off is my absolute favorite American cartoon Gargoyles. This series was created by Greg Weisman and aired 1994-97. The reasons I love this series are almost too numerous to mention but the big two are it's deep characters and unique plot.

The story is about a clan of Gargoyles who are frozen in stone for 1000 years and reawakened in modern times, where the existence of Gargoyles has been forgotten. While it may sound simple enough it can actually get quite complex, which is a rarity in American animation, especially a Disney one. Another great aspect worth mentioning is the voice acting. Put simply it is unmatched greatness. With actors like Jonathan Frakes (Aka:William T. Riker) and Marina Sirtis (Aka:Deanna Troi) plus a host of other great voices, you really can't go wrong with this cartoon.

Dual! Parallel Trouble Adventure
Dual! is a lesser known Japanese Anime that is highly under appreciated. Don't let the ridiculous name scare you off from this one, it is a fantastic series. The premise is a boy in high school begins seeing visions of giant robots fighting, visions no one else can see. For years people make fun of him thinking he is crazy. But one day he is kidnapped by a very odd scientist who transports him to a parallel world were the robots are real.

It is hard to put into words what makes this series so good but a big part of it is the very lovable characters. A big part of the series is that several very different girls are forced in to the main characters life. All of which, for one reason or another, have a crush on him and are constantly fighting for his attention. While it may sound like a romance it is much more comedic than romantic.

This series was created by Masaki Kajishima the creator of Tenchi Muyo and it shows. The two series have a very similar style and actually share a few characters in common.

Sadly this series does have two shortcomings. First of all it is only 14 episodes long & secondly the voice acting is not very good. But despite these little annoyances it is still well worth watching.

To be Continued...

Hopeful Return

It has been almost two weeks now since I have last posted to the site (the reason is explained in the last post). With the way my PC's have been acting lately my return may at any time be revoked. I have managed to get 2 out of 3 of my PC's back online so just maybe I can get back to at least a post a day. That is if a flying cow does not land on my PC first, which could happen with the way my luck has been lately.

PC Revolt

For more than a week I have not posted. The reason is at the moment my PC's have planed a revolt against me. In one weeks time all 3 of my PC's have had what seems to be completely unrelated problems, yet all with the same result which is no Internet connection. Unfortunately this problem has still not been resolved. But one of them is at least working at the moment but whether or not that will continue is still unknown. I will try to post whenever I can, but for now this blog is a bit slow on the Nintendo news front.

To Much Dojo!

As with many Nintendo blogs lately, this blog has almost become a smashbros.com clone. It is really easy to just post a link and picture from the Smash Bros. Dojo and call it a day. But why go here just to see that there is another new post on a different web site? So as of today I will only be posting about Smash Bros. if there is big news like a new fighter or an EarthBound reference.

P.S. Posts may be in short supply for a little while because I am having some problems with my good PC. So all I have at the moment is a very old one.

Superspicy Curry

An interesting new Smash Bros. item has been revealed. Sadly it's not anything big like a new fighter. The official article is here Smash Bros. Dojo!

And Then There Were None on Wii

Agatha Christie: And Then There Were None for the Wii was shown at Germany's Leipzig. It is a port of the first game in the series that was released for the PC in 2005. I am actually looking forward to this game because I love point & click adventure games, some of my favorite games are the classics like Sam & Max Hit the Road and the Monkey Island series. When I first saw the Wii-Mote I hoped that it could help bring back this almost dead genre. And between Agatha Christie and Zack & Wiki it looks like it just might.

More SSB Brawl News

Nintendo has been giving out a lot of new Brawl info and not much else that is news worthy. But at least this is a big update and not just new music.

They have confirmed that fighting Bosses will be part of the single player mode and the first boss you will encounter is none other than Petey Piranha. You can see the official article here Smash Bros. Dojo!

Game Store Warranty's

I am a fan of the Extra Life Radio podcast. I just got around to listening to show #148 and Scott Johnson brought up the topic of the optional 1 year warranty that most game stores offer for the Xbox 360. He said that they are a waste of money when Microsoft offers a free 3 year Warranty. But I have a little dispute with his opinion.

I got an Xbox 360 last May, I got my 6th 360 replacement a few weeks ago. Yes I have had 5 broken 360's and my 6th one is starting to have some over heating problems so I am not far from 360 #7.

If you figure that it usually takes 2-3 weeks to get a replacement from Microsoft, the best case scenario is, so far, 3 month's of not having the system that I already paid for. However thank God I did get the extra warranty from my local EB Games. Despite having 5 broken 360's (so far) I have not gone more than 1 day without it. When one breaks rather than waiting for Microsoft to send me the 360 coffin, then waiting for it to ship back to them, then waiting for them to repair it, then again waiting for it to get shipped back to me. Instead I walk into the store with my broken one, the clerk hands me a new one and I walk out with a new 360 in about 5 minutes. So was the extra $30 bucks worth it?

Of course this problem is not relevant to Nintendo systems because I have owned every Nintendo system since the SNES and the only one to ever break was my first SNES that was beaten on by 3 kids for about 5 or 6 years before it gave out. I also still have my original Game Boy which has been beaten to death for more years than I want to think about, but it sits in my closet  at this very moment still working as well as the day I got it, if you can see through all of the battle scars that mark it's screen.

Yoshi on Steroids

The Smash Bros. Dojo got another update today and it's a bit of an odd one. You can find the official article here: Yoshi: Final Smash.

Diddy Kong confirmed in Brawl

Diddy Kong fighting Solid Snake I did not see that one coming. Diddy Kong first appeared as supporting character in Donkey Kong Country. But for some unknown reason Nintendo thought it was a good idea to make him the star in Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest. He went on to star in the kart racer Diddy Kong Racing for the N64, he has also made appearances in several other Nintendo titles. Personally I have never cared for him but in a game like Super Smash Bros. Brawl the more the merrier

SSB Brawl Roster Pics

Recently a couple of pictures have shown up on the net claiming to be pics of the Super Smash Bros. Brawl character select screen. But they are very different so clearly at least on of them is a fake.

Of the two I think this is the more likely to be real for several reasons.

The color scheme resembles the Wii's interface much more closely .

The size of the character roster although less impressive than the other pic is much more believable.

The characters listed and there portraits are very believable.

It's hard to tell but the name entered looks a lot like Matt as in Matt Casamassina from IGN, the one person who might have access to this game (but probably not).

This one seems a bit more like a fake to me.

The background is black definitely not Wii style.

Links portrait looks a little to copy and pasted to be the work of Nintendo.

The size of the character roster is to good to be true

Why are only the currently announced characters unlocked?

So at least one is a fake. But is it just one or both? Feel free to leave you opinion in the comments.

Robotic Operating Buddy of Doom

At the Smash Bros. Dojo Nintendo released some new info about SSB Brawls story but who cares are we really playing Smash Bros. for it's story? The real news is that R.O.B. the Robot is going to play a part in the story. The bad guys (which you can read more about here:Smash Bros. Dojo!) are using R.O.B. as a detonation device to activate a Subspace Bomb. It appears that the R.O.B. units do not survive the detonation (poor mindless robot). As of of right now Nintendo has not said whether or not R.O.B. will be a playable character but I think it's a definite possibility.

For those who don't know who R.O.B. is he was a robot toy that was packaged in with the NES in 1985. He could be controlled with the NES controller and you could move his arms up and down or closer together to pick up stuff. When he was placed in front of the TV he could received commands from optical flashes that were present in the game Gyromite. He did not really do much but now R.O.B. is just a neat collectible for Nintendo fans, and a welcome character in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

Happy Happy Blue EarthBound Fans

As I mentioned in an earlier post I am a diehard fan of the SNES RPG EarthBound. Ness the hero of EB was a hidden character in Super Smash Bros. for the N64 and he was a prominent fighter in Super Smash Bros. Melee on the GameCube which also had two EarthBound themed stages and a few items like Mr. Saturn. Now Super Smash Bros. Brawl is quickly getting closer to it's December 3rd launch date but still no word on EarthBound content until now.

On August 10th at the Smash Bros. Dojo they announced the Franklin Badge. In EarthBound it was used by Ness to reflect a lightning bolt back at the Boss of Happy Happy Village it also appeared in both Mother 1 & 3. In Brawl it is worn by the fighters to reflect projectile weapons. While the Franklin Badge item itself is not very significant it does offer hope that we may see more EarthBound content in SSB Brawl which also indicates that Nintendo has not forgotten this series. So I strongly encourage you to join the legions of EarthBound fans in the siege against Nintendo's doors to get new EarthBound and Mother related content such as Mother 3 released in the US at this humongous fan site http://starmen.net/ebsiege/.

Widescreen Wii users The Results are in

Yesterday the results for the Everybody Votes channel came in, it seems that 48.8% of Wii owners play on a Widescreen TV while 51.2% do not. As I am currently typing this on my 47" 1080P Widescreen LCD Tv I really hope Nintendo realizes that the number of users with Widescreen TV's is only going to continue going up. I love my Wii but playing it in 4:3 really sucks. I have little doubt that Nintendo will continue to use the Voting channel to gather marketing data, hopefully they will put it to good use and offer more Widescreen support. Now we just need Wii 2.0 with Hi-Def Support.

5 Lesser Known SNES Games You Should Play

I have been a Nintendo fan since I was about 4 and now 16 years later Nintendo through the virtual console has released many good classics but there are a few classics that not many people know are good games so I want to make a little list of a few of the great SNES classics that you may not know exist and are sadly not available on the VC as of the time this is written.

Aladdin Nowadays if a game has the same name as a movie it is probably best to stay away. But it has not always been that way. Aladdin for the SNES was made by Capcom and is a short but sweet platformer. The gameplay is simple but fun, all you do is go from left to right jumping on bad guys and leaping from platform to platform. While it may be simple what makes it better than other games like this is that Aladdin feels very agile and quick and is a joy to control. Another great aspect of the game is the great level design going from the typical lava level to the not so typical jumping on floating genie heads and giant tongues. The down side is that this game is short, very short an experienced gamer will be able to beat the game in under an hour. But the bottom line is play it!

The Great Circus Mystery: Starring Mickey & Minnie Yet another good Disney platformer The Great Circus Mystery is a game meant for kids however so it is easy and short. it can be beaten in under 45.min. The gameplay itself is nothing new just get from the left side of the level to the right jumping and climbing all the way. What really makes this game worth playing is the Co-Op play, this game can be played from beginning to end with a friend and is a great way to play with younger kids and still have fun. Another cool element of the game is that you get 3 different outfits that each give you different ability. One gives you a vacuum for sucking up enemy's, another allows you to climb up walls and the last one lets you ride a toy horse and shoot a cork gun. This game may be easy but even I still go back and play it from time to time.

Cool Spot Cool Spot is the the 7up mascot who would have thought that a soda licensed game would be great. This game is better known on the Sega Genesis but it is also on the SNES. Cool Spot is a very refreshing platformer unlike many SNES games of the time it was not dumbed down for kids this game is a very challenging game. It has great, well animated characters and a fantastic soundtrack. If I had to complain about something it would be that you have to use passwords there is no save function. This is a great game and anybody who enjoys classic games should play it.

EarthBound (Aka: Mother2) PLAY IT!!! EarthBound is still one of my favorite games of all time. It is a little better known than the others on my list however it is also the best on the list. EB is a traditional RPG with a not so traditional story. The premise is that an Evil alien is taking over the world but the hero a not so bright kid named Ness is the the only one who can stop it. While story is not that original what makes it standout is that it never not for a second takes itself seriously and unlike most games it has some real humor in it like dogs being possessed by the game programmer and evil talking barf. The gameplay is similar to early Final Fantasy titles but with a few upgrades like you can see the badys so no unwanted encounters. I could rant about this gem forever but instead I'll just say Play it and do so now yes right now stop reading this and go get it!

Metal Warriors This one is a side scrolling shooter like no other it lets you pilot huge mechs but it also lets you get out of them an fly around with a jet pack. What really makes his game great is the way that the mechs feel like the really have a lot if wait to them when you pick up speed it really feels like there is a lot of momentum forcing you forward. Metal Warriors also lets you switch to different mechs and use many different types of weapons, each mech really has its own unique feel to it. The graphics are also wroth mentioning this does not look like a Super Nintendo game it looks more like something from the PS1. If you have any interest at all in sidescrolling shooters I highly recommend you track this one down.