Friday, May 17, 2013

Shoryuken!!! Or Capcom vs SNK 2


It was Christmas 2001, I would receive a game that would eventually turn into an ongoing infatuation, and would cause my love of 2D Fighting games to return to me. Oh and return it did, because with the exception of two 3D fighters I've pretty much exclusively played 2D fighters, some of the series I enjoy are Street Fighter, King of Fighters, Art of Fight, Fatal Fury, Capcom vs Marvel, Guilty Gear, and many, many more. I could list so many games I've developed a love for hours, but one game has held my interest for longer than any other, Capcom vs SNK 2: Millionaire Fighting 2001(aka Capcom vs SNK 2: Mark of the Millennium 2001).

For those of you who are unfamiliar, Capcom vs SNK 2 is the sequel to Capcom vs SNK 1 (derp), it's a team based fighter, much like King of Fighters, in the home port of the game however there are a few options for play. Options include 3 vs 3, and 1 vs 1 with the Ratio System removed. The Ratio mode is still included in the home port, in Ratio Mode you select your team of 1 to 3 members and assign them a Ratio between 1 and 4, with the total team Ratio equaling no more than 4. So you could make a 3 person team with two 1's and a 2, a one person team with a Ratio of 4, so on and so on. The Ratio determines how though your character is, Ratio 4 Ken is stronger than Ratio 1 to 3 Ken, so if you just wanted to play Ratio 4 Ken vs a team of three characters it would still end up being a pretty even fight number wise, but more than likely that Ratio 4 is gonna run roughshod over the team of 3 since it will be so much more powerful than the others.  I personally like the 3 vs 3 team battles as they offer the most even fights and the most entertaining in my opinion. You also select a "groove" from various Capcom or SNK games.

 The cast of characters offered in this title is amazing, so amazing in fact I'm going to list the entire roster!

On the Capcom side of things we have:
And on the SNK side of things:

And thank you Wikipedia for the awesome links and list :3

Now, with that impressive roster of combatants you can put together some pretty amazing teams, this is one of the main reasons why I love the 3 vs 3 mode, one of my favorite teams is Evil Ryu, Haomaru, and Sagat, although I am also partial to Ryu, M. Bison, and Terry. The roster however allows for many many awesome combinations. It is those many many combinations of fighters and groove styles that make for tons of exciting potential fights. 


I have played many fighting games throughout the years, but I always find myself coming back to CvsS2. An HD re-release would absolutely make my year, so here's to hoping for that. Well folks, this concludes today's article, I'm hoping to have another article for you all to read soon, till then.

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Been A While...I know, I'm slacking, but...

I have some decent articles lined up to be published in the near future. I promise I haven't forgotten about you all, and I'll get something posted tonight to tie you over.
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Monday, April 1, 2013

Peering in to the Darkness, Our first look at H.P. Lovecraft


Howard Phillips Lovecraft

Galactic Saviour, Visionary, Master of the Macabre

 

As you may have gathered, I have a reverence for the man above, he's sort of my literary Jesus, and by that I mean he saved me from dull and drab stories of grade school, and brought me into a world of untold horror and suspense that I find I enjoy so very much more. First off we'll start with a little background about the man, then I'll tell you about my first experience with this amazing author, finally, some more ranting about why I love his works so very very much. 




H.P. Lovecraft was born in late August in 1890, in the town of Providence, Rhode Island. He was the only child of his parents Winfield and Sarah Lovecraft, and by the time he was 8 his father had passed away due to complications from syphilis, and as was suggested by the author or his biography, young Howard was not aware of the true nature of his father's death, thinking instead he died as a result of "over exhaustion" due to the nature of his work. Lovecraft was a sickly child, as a result of his frequent illness he barely attended school until the age of eight and he was withdrawn from that the following year. Another thing plagued the youth, Night Terrors, a rare parasomnia disorder, in which he believed he was being assaulted by faceless devils he refered to as "Night Gaunts". In 1919, after dealing with depression and hysteria for a long period of time, Sarah Lovecraft was committed to the same hospital as her husband was 21 years prior, nevertheless Sarah and her son communicated through letters and remained close until her death in 1924.

Howard Lovecraft was referred to as prodigy as far as poetry was concerned, reading poetry at the age of three and composing and writing his own by age six. His grandfather encouraged his reading, and Lovecraft became quite a voracious reader, consuming the classics and articles of pulp fiction. In 1917 Lovecraft returned to writing fiction gave the world stories such as Dagon and The Tomb, the former being his first professionally-published work. 

That's enough of that, the man lead an interesting life, on top of being an amazing author he was was on the most prominent correspondents of his time, and if you're interested in finding out more about the man just take some time to read his biography or some articles about him and his many works online. 

 As I mentioned before, I would like to quickly talk about the story that I first read and what really got be hooked on the works of H.P. Lovecraft. Most of what I hear from folks when it comes to the story that broke that Lovecraft cherry it was one of his more well known and popular works, The Call of Cthulhu, Shadows Over Innsmouth, The Dunwhich Horror, or Into the Mountains of Madness, and don't get me wrong, those are all great stories, all among my favorites, however the work that got me was The Music of Erich Zann. The story is set in Paris, the main character, a student of metaphysics, is forced to take residence in a strange part of the city he has never seen before on a street named "Rue d'Auseil" which is not a true french word but was like derived from the phrase "au aeuil" which means "at the threshold" which make a lot of sense given the nature of the story. Any how, back to the story, the main character finds an apartment in an almost empty building. One night he hears one of the other residents, an old and mute German man named Erich Zann, playing a most strange melody on his viol. The main character approaches Zann and over time begins to gain the old man's trust and eventually he learns Erich's secret and the meaning of his wildly strange melodies. The old man has discovered melodies and rhythms of sound of an almost otherworldly nature, and he must play these sounds to keep ay bay unknown and unseen creatures from his window, which is said to look out into a black abyss, most likely some unknown dimension of horrible origin. I don't want to ruin the story, if you find yourself able to read it, please do, recently I've started doing readings of Lovecraft's works to online friends in preparation of potentially turning some of them into radio drama-esque podcasts.

I plan on future Lovecraft centric articles to discuss his influence on modern horror, video games, comics, and most anything otherworldly. Till then I'll leave you with a quote that I believe to be rather true:
"The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents."
 
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Guest Review- Mortal Kombat(2011)

Mortal Kombat (2011)

A soul worth taking


Mortal Kombat, a series famed for it’s over the top violence, and fighting system that
was arguably one of the best around in the mid 90’s. The first Mortal Kombat brought midway
into the lime light for it’s over the top violence and realistic approach on the Snes, Genesis and
height of the arcade days of gaming. Midway produced 3 more games one being better then
the last, kept the 2d aspect, and eventually went into the 3d realm, with Mortal Kombat 4, it
was okay, but wasn’t ground breaking, and they did some spin-offs, added fighting styles, and
then the unthinkable happened.

They went up against the DC universe and…..it…..was…..garbage……pure indescribable
garbage. The last game Midway did before closing there doors, then WB bought the rights and
pretty much bought midway, they just renamed them Netherealm studios. They then brought
us Mortal Kombat, rebooting in a sense, they made some changes, but did it through the story,
they didn’t just make the changes, they gave a reason for the changes…..you in a sense, I’ll
explain later.

Mortal Kombat was brought back into the light, they made some changes, brought a
lot of things back, and added so, so much more to the game. And it was for the good, I’ve never
had so much fun in a fighting game before in a long, long time. I had been playing soul caliber
for a while and then Mortal Kombat came out and I totally forgot about it, honestly I went on
line to play against other people, I even invested in a fight pad, and eventually got my hands on
a fight stick, just because I enjoyed the game so much. So I’m going to start with the Pros of
the game.

Pros

The controls in this game, feels so right, they are tight and responsive, what
ever you input the game registers, there was never a feeling that I was cheated
because the game misread a button input, very solid and just was a great feel.

The Graphics, are amazing, the battle damage and gore are awesome, the
characters literally look like they just got the crap beat out of them as the fight
goes on, I can’t get over it, it’s just amazing seeing someone’s cheek hanging off
the skull is amazing and the blood effects are top notch. Fatalities are basic for
the most part, but are extremely bloody. Kinda like they where giving a nod to
the original Mortal Kombat, nothing over the top, but still looks effective.

The Story is pretty sweet in all honesty, how they explain the reboot is pretty
cool, they still recognize the original games, but then change it up, again I will
explain a little later.

The DLC they gave out for the game is pretty sweet, they gave out alternate
costumes for a lot of the characters, which where from the original three Mortal
Kombat games, and added 4 characters, 3 from past games, and Freddy Krueger,
seriously game over man, that was awesome, and he fits so well in the universe
it just felt right.

They put so much into this game that I couldn’t believe it, they brought back
test your might, test your sight, and test your skill, and they added test your luck
which is pretty amazing, they give you either bonuses or hindrances based off a
slot mechanic.

Online is pretty solid in this, I didn’t come across any lag issues what so ever, and
king of the hill mode was awesome, it felt like I was in the arcade in line waiting
for a chance to take out the head dawg, and for Xbox users you see your avatar
waiting in line as you wait in the lobby, I believe you can actually watch the
match too, but it’s been a bit since I’ve played that mode.

Cons


-Shao Kahn is a arse, seriously he isn’t hard because of the A.I., he is hard
because he literally hits like a mac truck and has a move that literally stuns
you long enough for him to spam it over and over again, until you die, no
joke happened to me a couple of times. The best strategy is to keep your
distance and just peg him with ranged attacks, everyone in the game has at
least one range attack.

-DLC, I know I included it in the Pro section, but I also have to add it here too,
what they gave out was awesome, but it felt like they still could’ve done so
much more, and it’s just not this game that did it, countless of other games
do it too, I was just hoping they would go through and add more characters
from past games, or even add alternative costumes from past games, that
would’ve been cool to see.

-Spam characters, and again, ,most fighting games have that one character
where the best strategy with a certain character is to spam the same move
over and over again, and in this game it’s really the teleporting characters
that are kinda wack about it, no big grievance here, I’m honestly nit picking
at this point.


So that’s the basic review, I’m going to go over what I explained earlier about the story,
a slightly, so for those who have not played and wanted to see the story for themselves I’m just
putting up a heads up about a possible spoiler.

The game opens up to a scene of destruction and dead bodies laying around, the bodies
are all the contestants in the Mortal Kombat tournament, and Shao Kahn is shown walking
up to a beat up Raiden, and Shao Kahn grabs him and right before delivering the final blow,
Raiden sends a telepathic message to himself in the past, we then cut to a ship and it has Liu
Kang, Johnny Cage, Sonya blade, and Raiden as he receives the message and all he got was, “He
must Win”. He believes the message was ment to say Liu Kang must win. And the story goes
from there, I’m not going into full details, but as you go through you play most of the roster in
the game, if not all of them, and certain Key events are changed, for example, during the 2nd
or 3rd tournament, Smoke and Tundra (Sub-Zero’s younger brother) where being pursued by
the Lin Kuei clan, and when they are attacked, Raiden changes the time line and saves Smoke
instead of Tundra, and Tundra is the one who is turned into a Cyborg like Cyrax and Sector,
instead of Smoke. Other Key changes is Stryker and Kabal are Cops, with Kabal being a former
member of the Black Dragon Clan. The story tends to be over the top, but honestly Mortal
Kombat has always been over the top, I look forward to more from this franchise now, and how
the story ended was amazing, I’m not going to say anymore then that, I want you to go out,
grab that game, and play the ever living crap out of it now!

I give this game a rating of, “Why the Hell aren’t you out at the store, buying this game,
and playing it right this moment!?”

-Jack “Orangetom” Haythorn
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Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Dungeon Crawls...A Quick Look

Today we talk about something dark, something that few of us would ever be happy to find ourselves in; Today we're talking about monster filled holes in the ground, we're talking about Dungeons.


As a gamer of multiple platforms, both digital and pen and paper, I constantly seem to find myself in these monster and trap infested pits of despair. You kind of wonder sometimes when your wandering through these places.."Who makes these things? Really? Acme Instant Dungeons?" That's not to say that I wouldn't enjoy that job, but It just makes me wonder why so many places have these labyrinths just dug out beneath them. Can you imagine going over to a friends house, and he's like "Dude, you wanna go down stairs and check out our dungeon?" Now wait a minute. That might have been pretty cool, I'm sure I wasn't the only child that ran around outside with a stick or a plastic sword and pretended to slay all matter of monsters, ninja, robots, or bullies. 

 As you spend time adventuring and slaying your way through these countless dungeons, you run across some common foes, skeletons and all other measure of the undead, slimes and oozes, giant insects, and goblins...green skinned, cowardly, sneaky little goblins. Most of us have something we hate dealing with most in dungeons, for some its the traps and puzzles, for others its just the constant grind, for me...its Goblins. There is nothing more embarrassing to a would-be hero than being taken out by the most lowly and and weak creature to ever inhabit the realm of fantasy. Not only is it bad for a hero's ego, but it's bad for the dungeon unions, I mean, once the Goblins realize that they have the ability to be more than cannon fodder they're gonna want more pay, better equipment, and do you have any idea how much that's gonna cost evil overlords? I mean it's ok to pay a dragon the ridiculous fee because there is only one of those...but on average there are hundreds if not thousands of these tiny bastards in a dungeon, that's a lot of money...I ain't got time for that.
DC 30?! Push the Gnome into it, we can find another one.

Moving on...some other aspects of dungeon crawling include dodging traps like pitfalls, spike traps, falling rocks, zombified drag queens from beyond, the list goes on and on, but you should be able to navigate and handle these traps without out too much difficulty, and if a trap is too hard to handle you simply push the most useless or most annoying party member into the trap. Personally, I always choose the Gnome, as they are small and easy to throw, and the sounds they make are hilarious.
  
 Last, but not least in the dungeon crawling experience, haha experience..., yes...last but not least LOOT! Now we all expect to be rewarded in some way, shape, or form at the end of the dungeon. You could have been seeking a legendary weapon, or trying to rescue a princess, or just been on a genocidal quest to end the green menace. However you could arrive at the end and find out the princess is in another castle/dungeon, you could lose the roll on the +10 Sword of Flaming Unearthly Doom to the wizard who wants it cause it looks cool, or you could get taken out by a damn goblin...but none the less, we want that reward, so we're gonna keep crawling through the holes in the ground in search of that thing he jumped into the darkness for in the first place

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Thursday, February 21, 2013

A Link to the Past, still amazing all these years later!

As I began to write my article on Deadpool: Circle Chase a familiar song began to play back into my head. It was one that I had not heard since...

If you're unfamiliar with this than you may want to leave now

  It would seem as though I have traveled back in time, back to a place before the harsh realities of life and all the drama of high school started to dog me, yes, I traveled back to Hyrule...to A Link to the Past

 I was only 10 or 11 when I got to be involved in this amazing experience. I was at my aunt and uncle's house in the mountains of West Virginia and I see this interesting cart in the stack next to the Super Nintendo, so I pop it into the system push the power switch and I don't remember how it happened, but I was transported into a world of high fantasy, magic, monsters and something I knew I had to find: The Master Sword. Usually I skip intro videos for games, I usually have no patience for these things, but I say there and ate up the back ground story for game, having never played either of the NES Zelda titles at this point. I was enthralled, at this point, I should mention I was just starting to get into Fantasy books and such so this was right up my ally at the time. Then I was awakened by the voice, She said her name was Zelda and she was trapped in a castle. This game was so easy to just pick up and play, no learning curve, no hours and hours of trial and error, I crept into the crypt, got my sword and shield from my uncle, and proceeded to defeat evil minions and rescue the princess. However, that wasn't the end...on no, this game had plans, and places for me to go, evils of greater magnitudes for me to defeat. So it was that I was sent off on a great journey to retrieve three amulets that I would need to pull the Master Sword from the stone block that it rested in, like a tiny, green clad, Arthur Pendragon.

On and on I ventured, picking up nifty little treasures that would assist me further in my adventures, things like the boomarang, a magic mirror, magic wands, and one of my favorite game items of all time, the Hook Shot. Also I would learn the location of several other items, including the Pegasus Boots, which would let me run and dash, the Titan's Glove which gave me the strength to lift up boulders and throw them like they were nothing to me. So I was fast, strong, I had a pretty cool sword, this neat shield, and I wasn't some lame boy scout like Superman(that's right I take shots during game articles too), I was a badass hero, I'd already saved a princess, defeated monsters, murdered a bunch of bushes, I was on a roll. I traveled to three different temples, figured out puzzles, defeated bosses, and retrieved the three amulets I was sent out to find, then I traveled back to the Lost Woods...and there it was...right before my very eyes: The Master Sword, I approached the stone and like HE-MAN calling upon the powers of Greyskull I HAD THE POWER! Now that I had the Master Sword and my Mirror Shield, I was

off to beat the ever loving crap out of that evil pig looking wizard Ganon. Well It took a little more effort than just using my magic mirror, nope I had to watch my darling princess get taken to the dark world and got myself zapped into the dark dimension by that rat fink Agahnim that mofo just left me on top of the pyramid of power, but I was still ok, because I was Link, master sword guy and overall Badass, with a capital B. Then I was told I needed to rescue some maidens who were trapped in these crystals. After many more trials I finally defeated Agahnim who turns out to be Ganon, I chase him into the depths of the Pyramid of Power, and after a long and epic battle the likes the world had never seen, I defeat the evil monster, and make a wish upon the Tri-Force. Then it was as if everything was back to normal...the world of Hyrule had been restored, and the Master Sword once again rested in the depths of the Lost Woods.

 It was a thrilling day and night of game play. It left a mark upon me that never washed away, and I continue to hum the Overworld theme to myself to this day. So thank you Nintendo, and everyone else involved, you managed to keep part of me a kid despite the best attempts of the world to force me to grow up completely and leave these things behind.
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Friday, February 15, 2013

RDM-001 My favorite little robot Minion

Today, I felt that I should open up the book on something that is near and dear to my heart, something that many of my fellow Mad Scientists know all about: Robot Armies.


RDM- 001
 Yes folks, today we discuss a staple in all Ev- Completely mundane and Good Natured Organizations - The Robot Minions. Despite my repeated attempt to gain government funding, I have received no such assistance so I have begun constructing prototypes on a budget. Some of you will recognize the one on the right, given the designation RDM-001, short for Robo Death Machine 001...I mean Robotic Dusting Machine 001...You may be wondering why he was equipped with a stainless steel steak knife attachment. Simple, his own protection, you see in this day and age you can never be too safe. What would it have done if it went out for a bite to eat with his other robotic comrades only to get mugged by a shady individual. Well I'll tell you what it did in that exact situation. It poked the hell out of his foot, and then when it tripped him up it went in for the KILL like any highly trained soldier would. Unfortunately for RDM-001 he soon found himself surrounded by the flesh and blood 5-0 who in this persons opinion are a bunch of technophobes with too much spare ammunition laying around. Anywho...The RDM-001 valiantly charged his new attackers but was brought down in a hale of gunfire.

RDM-001 you will be missed.

01101110 01100101 01110110 01100101 01110010 00100000 01100110 01101111 01110010 01100111 01100101 01110100 00100000 01101110 01100101 01110110 01100101 01110010 00100000 01100110 01101111 01110010 01100111 01101001 01110110 01100101 

 Having learned from our initial mistakes here at Geek Is Good, we have decided that our next prototypes will need some significant work, perhaps some armor plating, active camouflage technology, or better yet, some actual AI. So while while I take this time to draw up new schematics I'd like to hear some of your ideas for slick new killer helpful minions.
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Thursday, February 14, 2013

Guest Review: Superman Secret Origin #1



Super Shield

While I journeyed out of DC-Land and Into the Marvel Universe today with my look into Deadpool, I'm also featuring another first for Geek Is Good, today also feature my first guest review. This review was done by my friend Rick Classic, and it appears he's gonna cover my least favorite DC hero for me. -Insert Vincent Price Laugh-

All according to my plans...I mean, yeah, Rick, the floor is yours save for a couple snark filled remarks, but what else could you expect from me.

  *    *    *    *    *   *

 Rick Classic here and for my first review I thought we’d take a look at the other end of the DC spectrum.  Throughout Tucker’s review of Batman: Year One he made a few swipes at a certain Last Son of Krypton, a character whose camp I find myself firmly entrenched within. Since I feel equal time should be given to make the case for Kal-El, that’s right...welcome to the dark side. Bwahahahahahaha!!!
   Don’t worry though, this will be nothing diabolically painful but I do feel that as a lifelong Superman fan I can make an argument for the worth of the character beyond the “he’s an alien with insane amounts of power” argument. Like the Year One review I’ll go with the origin story, but the question becomes which version. Unlike Batman’s origin, Superman’s story has been told and retold many times, in almost 30 years alone we’ve been witness to 1986’s The Man of Steel, which was the first post-Crisis on Infinite Earths retelling of his origin. In 2003 Superman: Birthright retold the story for the 21st century, and currently Grant Morrison with his run in Action Comics is putting his spin on the tale.
   The version I’m going to look at is the 2009 version written by Geoff Johns and illustrated by Gary Frank, Superman: Secret Origin. So the question before we begin: why this one, what makes this one so different from the ones that came before or the ones that came after. The short answer as far as I’m concerned, it’s much more enjoyable and much more complete (especially since Morrison’s run has yet to be completed). Man of Steel left a lot out of the equation, Birthright did as well but it also got a little didactic at times.  Secret Origin keeps the mythos pre- and post- crisis intact while adding some of the more emotional moments of Birthright, and keeps it all within six issues.

Kent Family

Part 1-The Boy of Steel: We open with a young Clark Kent staring up at the sky when his attention is brought back to Earth by a young boy calling out to him to go long during a pick-up game of football. Clark catches the ball and makes his run with his friend Pete Ross gaining on him, Pete makes the tackle but in the process breaks his arm which stops the game and brings the ambulance and the parents to take the kids home. The next day at school, Pete is reveling in the attention his broken arm is getting him from the girls. Pete offers Clark a chance to sign his cast when Clark’s x-ray vision kicks in and revels the broken bone to him. Clark runs off upset, revealing to Lana Lang that having been responsible for breaking Pete’s arm.
Angstman
That's super angst you're seeing here.

  Lana tries to comfort Clark and at the end of a tale about how he had saved her as a child, Lana kisses Clark. This event however triggers Clark’s heat vision which causes a fire in the school. The fire gets put out with authorities scratching their heads on what caused the fire. Clark gets picked up by Pa Kent and taken home with Clark asking the question “what is wrong with me”. Back on the farm, Ma Kent tries to cheer up her son when Pa Kent says it’s past time to tell Clark the truth. The family go to the barn where Pa reveals to Clark the object that “answered their prayers”, a small silver space ship.
    Clark’s first reaction to the rocket is awe, which is quickly changed to surprise when he touches the rocket and a holographic image of his birth parents appear. The pair is introduced as Jor-El and Lara and they explain how Krypton, their home and Clark’s birth planet was destroyed by their sun going nova. The revelation that he’s not the Kent’s birth son or even for that matter human enrages Clark and he unleashes his heat vision on the rocket which does nothing to damage it and then starts to pound away at it before he runs crying into the cornfields with Pa chasing after him.
  Clark falls and Pa Kent catches up to his crying son upset that the father he knew is not his father. But Pa embraces Clark and encourages him that he will always be his son. Elsewhere in Smallville a young Lex Luthor runs from his drunken father and trips over a green glowing rock which Lex describes as “fantastic”. The next morning we see Clark wearing a pair of glasses two sizes too big for his face, the lens were crafted from the lens on the rocket which withstood Clark’s heat vision and allow him to keep this power in check. Clark arrives at school and we find him making excuses to keep from participating in sports with the other students, Lana Lang notices and remarks at how bad Clark is at lying.
   Lana invites Clark to help here with a flower booth at a fair where he comes across a booth manned by Lex Luthor who is selling his old books for money because he has memorized the best ones and dis-proven the rest. He also says he needs money to get out of Smallville. During a discussion about the possibility of life beyond Earth, Lex produces the green glowing rock which seems to have an adverse effect on Clark and causes Lex to drop the rock. Suddenly, a tornado appears over the fair (it’s Kansas, what would expect?) which causes all sorts of havoc and pulls Lana into its funnel. Clark rushes in and saves Lana and in the process learns that he can fly.
costumed
Yeah ,you should have stuck them them guns.
    
 Clark returns home and excitedly tells his folks about going up, up, and away. His clothed are a mess, so Ma Kent decides to create some clothes that he can wear while in action. Using the blankets he was wrapped in as a baby, Ma and Clark put together the iconic red and blue costume and...Clark is embarrassed wearing the thing remarking “this is the last time I ever wear this”.
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Deadpool: Everyone's Favorite A-Hole

Deadpool

Marvel's Most Dangerous Smart-ass, and our favorite Merc.



Hippity-Hop
The man has his priorities straight.
 Today we're gonna venture out of the DC Universe and into the Universe of Marvel. While I may have started with DC titles, my love of Marvel Comics is what started me in comics, and the character of Deadpool will be our first stop in the land of Marvel. Deadpool for those of you who are not familiar with the character, Is often called "The Merc with the Mouth" and earns his nickname with constant use of sarcasm, puns, and enough one liners to put Arnold Schwarzenegger to shame. The character of Deadpool, aka Wade Wilson, is almost unique among comics, as he often breaks the "4th Wall" and speaks directly to the reader, often at times when he is erstwhile engaged with someone else, often leading to moments of hilarity. So with that in mind, lets dive into a little history first, shall we?
Just a job
Nothing Personal, but Hippity-Hops aren't free.
 Deadpool first appeared in the Marvel Universe in 1991, in New Mutants #98 in the role of a villain. Deadpool was created almost as an homage to the DC baddie Deathstroke, who also happens to be a mercenary and constant thorn in the side of good in the DC Universe, Deadpool was actually given the real name Wade Wilson as a sort of joke as Deathstroke's real name is Slade Wilson, but that's about the end of the similarities. So on his first job Deadpool is hired to hunt down and kill his future partner on Nathan Summers, more commonly known as Cable. Of course, Pool doesn't succeed, but that doesn't stop him from carrying on and becoming a legend among mercenaries and the criminal element in general. He shortly after became a recurring character in the X-Force series and then in 1993 he got his first miniseries called, The Circle Chase, which I will review sometime soon as it was the first Deadpool I ever read many many moons ago. In 1997 Deadpool received his own ongoing series.
The Mask Comes Off
What horrors lie beneath that mask...
Now that we covered a bit of the character's history, let's get to one of the biggest draws of Deadpool, the humor. When it comes to villains and anti-heroes, we often find all types of people, from Psychopaths, Geniuses, Vigilantes, Etc. Etc., however we often these often entertaining and interesting characters lack something, they're often humorless. While I love Dr. Doom for being the egotistical, genius/master sorceror he's got no sense of humor and while that makes him a fine villain and occasional hero, it leaves me from time to time wishing he would just crack a one liner to make the heroes feel just a little worse for ending up in the predicament.

The Horror
...yep that's pretty f@%king scary.
 With Deadpool, you never have that, he's trash talking from the get go, and often makes you wonder, "How the hell did he get so good?" or "Is this guy really a threat to anyone?" But, his wise-assery and aloofness do in fact make him very good at putting people off their guard long enough for him to shoot them dead, well... sometimes, Deadpool is not the best of shot, but his skill with a blade leaves little lacking, and you couple that with his amazing healing factor and it becomes a lethal combination. Its always fun to listen to the voices in his head, as it gives you a look into the psychosis that Wade deals with on a regular basis. One of his biggest draws though is the constant breaking of the Fourth Wall. The Fourth Wall refers to an imaginary wall that the reader/viewer views all the action through and the characters have no idea of its existence, save for Deadpool, who will speak directly to the reader, not just in his head, but out loud when other characters are present. 

 Deapool gives readers a little bit of everything and fans of comics in general usually enjoy his antics, and new readers sometimes find themselves a little lost, but quickly warm up to the Merc With A Mouth and find themselves wanting to explore some of the other characters(and there are a metric ton of them) that often have dealings with or find themselves dealing with ol' Deadpool. So I highly recommend you find a Deadpool title and dive in. As I mentioned before, I'll be reviewing a few of the Deadpool Mini Arcs in the future, namely Circle Chase and Suicide Kings which I love, as well as some Deadpool and Cable. So keep reading for more fun with Deadpool.
Are you not Entertained?
 
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Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Round 1... Fight!


I started playing video games when I was around four, all we had for the our Nintendo Entertainment System was Mario/Duck Hunt cart that came with the NES, but that was fine for me. I played Mario until I was too frustrated and then I would play Duck Hunt until I was bored. Then one year my aunt got my cousin a Super Nintendo and a Sega Genesis, and on the Sega she got him a little cart that would begin my infatuation with the Fighting genre of games. That cart, was Mortal Kombat.

Oh man, it was the coolest thing on earth for me. I could be a kung fu master ninja assassin and I wouldn't get in trouble for punching my troublesome littie brother. We played MK for a whole day the day we got it, and at the time this was unheard of as we were all the "go outside and play" types, but something about this game was compelling us to play and not set the controller down. My cousin played Liu Kang a lot and I stuck to the one character that I had figured a special move out with, the spectral ninja from Hell, Scorpion, and I started to notice, this was not as rage inducing as Mario, I could kick ass and take names, and there was no A-Hole flying around throwing things at me, all I had to do was throw my spear, uppercut, round house kick, and some rapid fire punches...and I did this well. Then one day while looking at a GamePro I see something I was unaware of, a button sequence that is still to this day stuck in my head, A B A C A B B, the Blood Code, man that made this already awesome game even cooler to a kid. Then I discovered something else about this game that was even more awesome. I could not only kick my opponents ass from here to there, I could END THEM. The fatalities were really cool, and the novelty kept me playing and playing for quite a while. Then, A New Challenger Appeared.

Yeah, that's right, by 1994 I had my own Sega Genesis and I had a new fighting game that was set to put me on the path to GREATNESS. I got home and put this cart in the Sega and watched the animation at the beginning and I was psyched, nay, I was geeked the hell out. 
 Look at all those characters!! So many options! I could be Ryu and throw fireballs at people and karate their faces off! I could be Dhalsim and use my Yoga Fire to incinerate my foes! There was a green dude! A green dude! And that mother fu@&!# was electrified! So naturally, I chose Ryu, since he was the one in the animation before the title screen. It took some getting used to as the move sets were a little more complicated than ◄ ◄ + A  but with some practice and determination I soon mastered the art of the Capcom fighting style. Yes, the mystical art of Quarter Circle Forward Punch, aka the HADOUKEN, yes sir, I was in business now. Asses were going to be kicked, heads would roll, words would be misheard and incorrectly spoken, but I didn't care I was kicking ass and I was almost at the final boss. That's when I met the most awe inspiring, digital badass on earth. -Cue Awesome Intro Theme- wait...that's not the right theme..-Cue More Awesome Intro Theme-..Standing at Seven Foot Four Inches Tall, and weighing in at 284 pounds, I give you The God of Muay Thai, Sagat.
 I quit playing Ryu that minute, and ever since, in every game he is included in, Sagat became my go to, always first played, favorite character in Capcom's extensive history. I don't often fanboy, but when I do, It's for Sagat. I played my Super Street Fighter II cart more than any other game I ever owned on Genesis, and have since played and been hooked on Street Fighter games. It's like meth, I just couldn't give it up, and I had and still have no plans on dropping my habit. Now that I've sat here and talked about this with you all I feel the call...Time to end this and go play some Street Fighter and go lay some Tiger Ass-Whoopings on some poor fools.
 
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