Hi, I'm Dranzerstorm
Welcome to the Video Game & Music Lounge
This world is dedicated to Video Games and Music as I'll be showcasing the following.
Video Game Reviews set to the same tones as Retro Retrospective's Anime Reviews
Music reviews of Anime Openings & Closings
Western Cartoon music
Vocaloid Classics.
We may even have some Top Tens
I hope this World entertains you.
Okay were a couple of days behind but were back on track now, here is the top 10 best Tekken Characters.
Honourable Mentions
Jun Kazama: Was great to control but I hated to see her cut from the cast and brought back as a generic monstrous boss type.
Jack Series: They’ve always been interesting to watch and they do behave like robot characters should, but left off the list as there’s no one Jack character that’s better than the other.
Kazuya Mishima: Gone up well in my estimation since Tekken 8 released.
Anna Williams: She fits her persona a lot better than Nina and injects some much needed style in a series very reliant on a set style for its characters, but doesn’t control well enough to be included on the list.
Leo Kleisen: I applaud then for using a female character with a more ambiguous gender design and she plays well but she reminds me too much of Elliot from Dead or Alive to the point that they could be twins.
10. Alex and Roger
Only in Tekken can you have a boxing Kangaroo and Raptor as part of the selectable cast, their novelty has worn off a bit recently but you can’t deny that they are fun characters to play.
9. Kuma and Panda
More fun with animal fighters, Kuma and Panda are very colourful fighters in the Tekken series, adding some humour and decent fighting mechanics to wild animals. Not to mention Panda being very cuddly.
8. Eddy Gordo
When he was released in Tekken 3, he was a phenomenon as no one had ever seen his style of combat before, he was the one who put capoeira on the map, but since then he’s kind of faded away but his impact still shows today.
7. Lee Chaolan
At first I thought he was a spoiled brat not helped by the terrible animated movie but he actually plays really well and has hilarious dialogue, he truly is “Excellent”.
6. Sergei Dragunov
Another hilarious character this time under the comically serious type, his body language makes him look like a competent Mr Bean but is still rather goofy looking when his victory poses consist of crawling and politely humming to himself.
5. Miguel Caballero Rojo
Fighting games don’t always use the straight up brawler type, but that’s exactly what Miguel is and it’s refreshing to see, and his roaring rampage of revenge is very reminiscent of Inigo Montoya.
4. Heihachi Mishima
He’s the reason Tekken is so popular, a larger than life personality with the mannerisms to match, a worthy candidate for any list of best fighting game characters let alone Tekken, and he has a lighter personality which does wonders for his popularity.
3. Julia Chang
A surprisingly well rounded three dimensional character with more than one fighting style up her sleeve and an intriguing relationship with Ganryu gives some more insight into the lives of the lesser story characters which I tend to prefer over the quote on quote “Main Characters”
2. Hwoarang
The go to character for Tekken pros and I can see why, he’s a very good character to use and the best in his category among all fighting games beating out the likes of Juri and Kim from Street Fighter and Fatal Fury respectively.
1. King
But the character I control the best is King, for some reason I seem to swing more to the wrestler types but many of them are tanks with not much movement; King was a more diverse character with his move set including power hits and a good mixture of throws and grapples and the full head Jaguar mask just screams iconic value for Tekken. There’s no other character like him and even Armour King despite being an obvious clone plays very differently to the main man King; makes me wonder if he has an actual face under that Jaguar Mask.
Double list time! Since I've been playing it alot lately it's time to look at Tekken Characters and how I rate them starting with the worst list.
Dishonorable Mentions
Craig Marduk: Very forgettable but at least he controls well.
Christie Monteiro: A poor female clone of Eddy Gordo but personality makes up for it.
Lili De Rochefort: There have been better fighting characters in her category but is at least interesting.
Ganryu: Generic Sumo Wrestler is generic but his personality makes up for it and controls well.
Raven: Don't like the design but is at least useful.
10. Bryan Fury
There have been better fighting characters in his category but unlike Lili who has similar problems has no redeeming features; he's no Dead of Alive's Bayman that's for sure.
9. Bob Richards
He looks like a human Kung Fu Panda, which is ironic considering the game does have a fighting Panda, he only needs Jack Black's voice and he'd be complete.
8. Feng Wei
Generic Chinese man is generic, between him and Ganryu they are the most generic fighters in their category, the only difference is Ganryu is a good character to use and has a better story while Feng looks like he's constipated.
7. Nina Williams
She controls really well but not exactly big on personality and didn't deserve her own terrible spinoff game.
6. Xiaoyu Ling
Generic Chinese girl mixed with a rather irritating personality, got way more screen time than she deserves but nowhere near as bad as two of the top four in hogging the limelight and not earning it.
5. Steve Fox
I don't mind if the British character is a boxer but at least make him decent, I've never been so frustrated in controlling a character in all my life, when I want someone to punch, I want them to bloody punch! Not move around trying to dodge attacks that aren't coming.
4. Alisa Bosconovitch
Tekken's most recent important character is a Waifu, seriously Tekken? Watching the story with her and Lars in Tekken 6 is awkward and it gets worst in the spin off Blood Vengenace movie when she's now friends with Xiaoyu. Gets way too much screentime.
3. Lars Alexandersson
Because Tekken really needs another member of the Mishima clan who controls even worse than all the other family members and has none of the personality of the other members, in fact he's basically a worst version of Jin Kazama who is probably the blandest member of the family.
2. Reina
Congratulations Tekken, you've created a fanfiction character, everything about Reina was stolen from a fan fiction written 30 years ago. Shame on you Tekken.
1. Gon
Gon is a little chibi Dinosaur who was included in Tekken 3 as a secret character, he's the type of character trolls use to guarantee a win because they aren't good enough to win with an established character and ends up becoming a bullying tactic. You are a terrible person if you are one of those people and should apologize to the sibling, friend or cousin you upset for doing so. Not saying any names and they may not even read this but they know who they are.
Video game review now as I pick up something I recently finished, Liberation Maiden.
Continuing the theme of the company Level-5, we look at a shoot-em-up done with cooperation from Suda 51 as part of the Guild series that focuses on potential new IPs in cooperation with other video game companies known as Liberation Maiden; you play as Shoko, newly elected President of Japan following the assassination of her father. Along with the help of your assistant Kira and the mecha known as Kamui, you take to the skies to stop your enemies from stealing all of Japan’s energy by destroying giant structures known as Spikes. Despite a lack of in-depth story and shortness in gameplay it feels so epic to play, so much so that it left me wanting more. I really think this game could be something special in the right hands and should be extended beyond its arcade title and with Level-5’s track record with the likes of Inazuma Eleven, Professor Layton and Yo-Kai Watch, it’s in safe hands.
Current State: Last seen in 2013 as a visual novel sequel for Playstation 3 and Vita as a Japanese exclusive, this is despite having a full English Dub in the Western 3DS Release of the original game.
Why Should it be Revived?: It really needs some love and I would so play a full game with double the levels.
When it comes to video game characters and romance you think of the one sided love affairs like Amy and Sonic or the princess chasing Mario trying to find Peach in various castles, but were not looking at sunken ships were looking at canon relationships between two characters and to expand on it properly characters that have their own games.
Namco were the first ones to really do this creating Ms Pac-Man as a female counterpart to Pac-Man, however if were going on narrative the only time these two were even confirmed to be a couple is in the poorly made cartoon in the 80s, while marketed as the wife of Pac-Man the lack of innovation in the day provided very little to work with and Ms Pac-Man is all but written out of the franchise at this point but Namco being a clever gaming company made a proper couple from two of their early games, namely Dig Dug and Baraduke, the protagonists being Taizo Hori and Masuyo Toby respectively.
If your not familiar with Baraduke then here's a quick explanation, in 1985 it was a simple shooter where you fly around on a jetpack and shoot lasers in the hunt for aliens, what you may not know is that the ending showcased protagonist Masuyo Toby as a female when it wasn't clear which gender you were playing to begin with, if this sounds familiar then you've probably played the original Metroid where the same thing happens at the end only Baraduke actually predates Metroid by one year but Metroid argubly is the better remembered of the two games.
Taizo Hori and Masuyo Toby became an official couple as of the game Mr Driller in 1999, considering the ages of their three children we can assume the couple married not long after the events of Baraduke but not only were they gamings first official family, first official married couple they were also gamings first divorce.
That's very surprising; this has been backed up in the Mr Driller franchise that serves as a sequel to Dig Dug and further cemented in Namco X Capcom as the two characters have on screen fights between cut scenes, but both parents are supportive of their three children and are always featured in the Mr Driller continuity.
So that's gamings first canon family and since then other than marriages within single games and endings that feature families as an epilogue, no other video game couple has ever existed since where two different video game protagonists have married and produced a child that had his/her own video game as well.
You know I just realized that Wreck-It Ralph's Calhoun and Fix-It Felix Jr might actually be a homage to Taizo and Masuyo, just hope they don't end up divorced in the sequel and if they do, I called it first.
Sometimes copying popular games can be endearing and these titles definitely had the right idea at the time even if none of them could beat their top rival, to qualify for this list you must have power ups in the game, must have memorable characters and with a couple of exceptions must at least take some elements from Mario Kart.
Honorable Mentions
Nicktoons and Cartoon Network Racers: Both competed for the same crown but largely unmemorable
F1 Race Stars: Worthy attempt from Codemasters using super deformed F1 Drivers but the game physics are severely annoying.
Toy Racer: Spin off game to Toy Commander, too small to be anything significant.
Snowboard Kids: It's snowboarding but it at least it's worthy of mention.
Sonic Drift: Doomed by being a Game Gear exclusive but not bad for a first try.
Bomberman Kart: Forgettable but at least well designed.
Re-Volt: Other than power ups it uses physics too close to actual RC Racing and being sentient cars rather than characters means it can't go on this list but it's worthy of mention.
Vigilante 8 and Twisted Metal: Disqualified by virtue of being a battle game with cars rather than a racing game.
10. South Park Rally
The cast of South Park racing around town trying to reach checkpoints as opposed to following a simple track, the physics were solid for an N64 era racer but frustrating difficulty hindered the experience. South Park is a lot more sophisticated these days so something like this feels dated.
9. Pac Man World Rally
Pac Man has always had a go at every genre and with a few friends managed a decent outing as a racer but not nearly as solid as Ridge Racer.
8. Dreamworks Superstar Kartz
With challenging circuits and a colorful cast of characters, Dreamworks pulled off a surprisingly good kart title only let down by poorly designed AI.
7. Crash Team Racing
Crash had a few attempts at this and all of them played surprisingly well but largely forgettable characters these days doesn't give it much of a legacy.
6. ModNation Racers
The idea was to create your own experience and they nailed it, but very much a short lived trend riding on the success of Little BigPlanet.
5. Cars II
A surprisingly well built attempt from Pixar, and pretty much a no brainer, just a little let down by track choice but the cast of characters more than make up for it not to mention some interesting weapons to boot.
4. Konami Krazy Racers
The only one on this list that feels closest to the Mario Kart experience in terms of aesthetics and overall design, even the cast of characters are built on the same design of weight classes but stops itself from being an outright clone by some clever track designs.
3. Blur
This is the gritty Mario Kart, the one sold as a solid adult experience making it the exception to the rule, it's Mario Kart with real licensed cars and it was awesome, even now long after the companies that published this game abandoned it, the online community keep it going.
2. Sonic and Sega Allstars Racing
While the first game was good, the sequel was incredible, it didn't settle for imitation it took it to a professional level by challenging the most fierce of Kart Racers where perfection is the key to victory, I would put this number one, accept.
1. Diddy Kong Racing
This game is the only kart racer in history to compete against Mario Kart and fight it on a level playing field, the plane and boat functions that inspired Sega Allstars Racing's sequel started here and even Mario Kart these days has never managed to create the same experience Diddy Kong Racing did.
