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.
To kick off what will be a huge number of Video Game Reviews between now and well into 2016 we begin with an appropriately winter game, Snowboard Kids.
Snowboard Kids is a very cartoony snowboarding game in the same category as Mario Kart and often compared to the game as being Mario Kart on snowboards. The game featured a mix of traditional snow locations with a mixture of unconventional areas such as a Desert and an All Green Forest. It's easy to play but hard to master as the difficulty curve can be between cruel and downright unfair towards the end, certainly a game that's well remembered as one of the Players Choice titles in Nintendo's all time best sellers, rare for a 3rd Party title but the game isn't alone and many more of these will be brought up over the coming months.
Returning to the cartoonish charm its the characters that everyone remembers.
Slash is your typical male protagonist.
Jam is his typical best friend.
Nancy is very much the typical cute girl.
Linda is the older one who's a bit stuck up and wayyyy too young to look the way she does. (Look at her design and remember that she's one year older than the rest of the main cast who are all canonically ten years old in the first game)
and Tommy is the gentle fat kid who'd rather eat as many burgers as Mr Wimpy than snowboard.
And for hidden characters you get Ninjas, Demons and Penguins.
While for Sequel characters you get more stuck up rich girls, a girl genius, a child actress and a bodybuilder who loves himself but the five regular characters stay more or less the same except for a certain remake.
Mid 00s saw a small revival not really go to plan as a more anime styled game took to the Nintendo DS who at the time was seen as a last chance saloon to get old franchises restarted. While the gameplay was more or less the same, the characters went through some changes.
Slash & Jam came out more or less unscathed but Linda had been replaced by her younger brother Brad, Nancy became a cold rich girl and Tommy gained some muscles and became a bully type, needless to say the charm and the loss of Linda who in canon is not only the main instigator of the Snowboarding competitions but also the winner of the first game if the Playstation expansion story is to be believed was not welcomed by the fanbase.
Now I get why Atlus wanted to get with the times but there are better ways of doing it, what's best remembered about the Snowboard Kids is memorable character designs and timeless gameplay and for what it delivered in the face of it's rivals was really very good and deserves a proper come back on a big name console.
Current State: It was last seen as a revival attempt Nintendo DS game with not much going for it and Atlus haven't done much with it since, but Megami Tensei and Persona are doing better for Atlus so much focus is on those two succeeding rather than attempting another revival.
Why Should it be Revived?: Definitely should be revived as the Snowboarding genre has suffered a lot of damage from SSX's last release and needs either this or 1080 Snowboarding for it to come back as a serious genre again.
And as this is my last post before Christmas.
Merry Christmas from me.
In this day and age the need to come up with the next best game is getting harder and harder, and these days classics just don't cut the mold anymore as the world increasingly becomes obsessed with going to war, but there are a few quiet franchises still operating under the radar and after 32 years and over 70 games, Bomberman is still going with heavy emphasis on "under the radar"
Other than box art design, the game has barely changed in it's run, although some games are better remembered than others, and their next gen run is worth forgetting but chances are, you are the same White Bomberman with the same cartoon bombs, sometimes you are destroying other colored Bombermans, other times you are destroying other Hudson Soft characters, while another time you fight Wario. Bomberman's collab with Wario is worthy of note as Bomberman didn't get top billing despite being his game.
So we come to today, is Bomberman still relevant in this day and age?
Well yes and no.
At conventions particularly the one I went to not too long ago, Bomberman in the video games room was the most popular choice; played on the Saturn using eight players on a big projector screen, and despite the fact that it was the same battle mode over and over it was still fun and managed to out perform the regular tournament fighting games.
On the other hand Bomberman has been out of action for five years now bar iOS and sadly like his wardrobe buddy Megaman, will probably not make anymore games in this day and age. You see Bomberman is one of those games that comes out and everyone raves about it for a week and it quietly returns to the shadows before it comes out again next year, this also explains why it has such a strange release schedule. Over the years it's tried to break into Karting and Party Games but has failed in the face of Nintendo, in fact the Party one being an ironic case as Hudson Soft help Nintendo design the Mario Party series.
Current State: It's been sent to iOS to see out it's retirement and there's at least still some interest to make more.
Why Should it be Revived?: Well it doesn't need so much reviving so much as it needs to be on a major console even if it's only a download title for Nintendo, PlayStation or X-Box, it's still better than iOS.
A few weeks ago this was revealed.
This is a female Link, dubbed Linkle by Nintendo. So why is this such a big thing? Well lets discuss Legend of Zelda as a series.
The game in basic terms revolves around the power of the Triforce, an ancient relic said to have created the realm of Hyrule, this triangle shaped symbol based on the symbol of the Hojo Clan in Japanese history consists of three different powers of courage, wisdom and power; these represent the three main characters of Link, Zelda & Ganondorf respectively. Through every era in Hyrule a new Link, Zelda & Ganondorf will always appear in a never ending cycle until the franchise ends. There are no rules as to what these three have to look like as long as Link always wields the Master Sword and Hylian Shield, Zelda is always a princess with potent magical powers and Ganondorf is always the main villain with his own powers to boot.
The nature of Hyrule Warriors bringing together more than one Link opened up the possibilities of a female Link when the new character went live, while not wielding the same equipment as the default Link but wielding dual crossbows which is awesome in it's own way.
However critics were quick to denounce Linkle as not an actual Link with more prolific ones suggesting that it's Link's Kid Sister. But you need to put a few things into context.
1. Those who are criticizing Linkle are the same ones who wanted a female Link in the first place.
2. Legend of Zelda is among the biggest selling franchises of all time, so they need to test the waters with a side game before Linkle can be taken seriously as a main game hero. Nintendo are still a business after all and making the wrong decision could backlash heavily. Fans are keen to remind Nintendo about their exploits with the Philips CD-i so releasing Linkle in this format lessens the pain if it really bombs.
3. Nintendo compared to other game companies have the best history with strong female characters.
That last statement is 100% true, people may see Princess Peach as kidnap bait but to put her situation into context, Peach's kingdom is mostly cowardly mushroom people, Bowser and his army are really difficult to escape from and outside of the main series she plays sports and races on equal terms with the rest of the Mario cast. She has even saved Mario herself.
Each Zelda is vastly different from the last, with some even being pirates and ninjas.
Samus Aran is constantly voted best female character in gaming.
The best known Pokemon champion in the franchise is Cynthia.
Pit does all his fighting under the command of the Goddess Palutena.
Lucina made Fire Emblem a household name in the west when the franchise used to be Japanese only before.
Wario's most frequent adversary is a sassy female pirate.
Rosalina's creation was a response to the criticisms about Peach's character and is widely classed as Nintendo's finest creation in the last ten years.
There are very few female characters outside Nintendo who boast the same levels of strength and popularity.
So my point is, I would welcome Linkle with open arms into the same category as those I just mentioned, because Nintendo is good at making strong female characters.
This one had to come around eventually after a rather long list the first time round, so lets look at the Top Ten worst Opening Themes.
10. Lilium by Kumiko Noma
Elfen Lied Opening
While I find nothing wrong with the opening per say, it actually suits the anime really well, just every time I hear it I feel I've just walked in on a funeral.
9. Happy Material by Negima Cast
Negima Opening
I was never a fan of this theme song, especially when it was a victim of gratuitous Engrish, that made some verses sound like "Happy Lady Boy" instead of "Happy Ready Go". Plus you don't need several versions, one with the 2A Class is enough.
8. Anime Ja Nai by Masato Arai
Gundam ZZ 1st Opening
The opening isn't as horrible as I remember but it's still a stupid title, it translates as it's not anime, I'm not sure what the joke was but it's lost on me.
7. First Kiss by Ichiko
Familiar of Zero Opening
This opening implies that it's going to be an epic love story, that's the biggest lie ever, yeah there's romance but it's the Tsundere style one that nobody likes, not to mention it starts so loud it makes you jump.
6. Truth by Bluem of Youth
Twin Signal Opening
It's one of the most underrated openings of all time, except for one glaring fault, nothing that happens in the opening doesn't happen in the actual anime. It's one great big lie. Pity because I can sing this opening really well.
5. Shinryaku no Susume by ULTRA-PRISM with Ika Musume
Squid Girl Opening
I spend most of this opening hearing the word "Invade" spoken in Japanese. Not helped in the DVD when it's also the menu music.
4. Kinjirareta Asobi by Ali Project
Rozen Maiden Opening
This theme song sounds like someone is experiencing an epileptic fit while singing, not a pleasant description but it's true, the poor singers sound out of breath by the end.
3. Honki ni Shinai de by Mariko Kouda
Dirty Pair Flash OVA 3 Opening
Did I just wander into a different Anime? When I think Dirty Pair I think Sci-Fi space adventure, Loving Thrills and plenty of cheesy rock not an opening theme borrowed from a Magical Girl show, who thought that was a good idea?
2. Action by Toshihiko Sahashi
Burn Up Scramble Opening
Dude, where's my opening? All this is, is dialogue set to 70s music. In fact I'm willing to put every anime that doesn't bother with either an opening or just leaves it to dialogue in this number 2 spot.
1. Freckles by Sandy Fox
Rurouni Kenshin 1st Opening
Picture this, reformed samurai with a past stained by the blood of those he slayed marked by the cross shaped scar on his face, he is Battousai the Man Slayer; even in the peaceful era trouble still comes his way, so what epic theme song would tell the story of this epic samurai.
.....................................................................................I'm out.
And no it doesn't sound any better in Japanese.
