Super Castlevania IV: Whipping it Old School

I did not grow up a Castlevania fan. My first experience with the series was the much maligned Castlevania 64 I also played Circle of sorrow and legacy of darkness.  So sufficed to say I have no nostalgia for the Nes and Super Nintendo eras of Castlevania. So when I decided to start playing Castlevania again in anticipation of the new Netflix series I decided to start with Super Castlevania 4 in hopes it would have some of the story elements I was used to. It did not, though it was a worthwhile game.

Castlevania  IV is a remake of the classic Castlevania for the Super Nintendo.  As Simon Belmont you must defeat the newly resurrected Dracula. That’s pretty much it as far as story goes. You whip your way through multiple levels with increasing difficulty, culminating in the painful fight against Dracula. 

The level design here is fast paced, yet if you hurry too much you’ll walk right into several death traps. If you’re good and know what to do you’re in for some fast paced, fun gaming. If you don’t know what to do, or aren’t good at it, you will die over and over again until you are good enough or get lucky. This game is brutal, and might quickly frustrate gamers who did not grow up in an era where this was the norm. In fact it will frustrate many people who did grow up in that time. The game isn’t cheap. The controls are responsive; it doesn’t glitch out and screw you over with bad programing.  Everything about the game feels rights. And when you finally clear a level there is a feeling of satisfaction not common in gameplay today.

The graphics suffer on the 3DS vs the big screen the details do not stand out and many things do not pop in the same way, but otherwise they are good.  However I feel with the exception of a few levels, the game fails to capture the atmosphere I desired. When I play a game about the undead I expect it to evoke certain feelings, dark, brooding, a little creepy. Dialogue can help with this, but perhaps more important are music and art choices, and most of the time I just didn’t feel it.

Castlevania must have been amazing when it came out in 91. Parts of this game are amazing. The controls, the graphics, the boss fights, these things were on point. The generation of gamers weaned on the Nes expected hard game play, and they got that in spades.  But with age these things seem less amazing, and the lack of proper atmospheres and the sometimes frustratingly hard gameplay distract from the experience.

8.0 out of 10

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-Gedaemon

Review of Dragon Ball Super Ep. 101: I Miss the Ginyu Force

I expect: classic Toriyama. I get: ...some decent Kale?

Kale is hurting; But Caulifla doesn’t seem to mind her destructive performance and praises her.

Meanwhile Goku challenges Jiren, only to be attacked from behind by Toppo. He’s picked five team members to take Goku while he and Jiren retreat. 

Goku is knocked over to where Kale and Caulifla are resting, and while they talk the pride troopers appear. Kahseral, Tupper, Zoiray, Cocotte and Ketto do their poses. They are initially surprised Goku has company but when they see Kale they decide to take her on too.

Kale doesn’t like Goku but Caulifla urges her on, and they three Saiyan team up against the five pride troopers.

Meanwhile Roshi is taking someone out with his Bankoku Bikkuri Sho, or trying to, he can’t move when he’s doing it. But Tenshinhan is there to finish the foes off for him. Team Seven was apparently split up during Kale’s rampage but they are slowly coming back together. 

Back with Goku, he’s in a hold, as Pride troopers Tupper and Zoiray double-team him. Caulifla and Kale are having their own problems. Each of the pride troopers seems to have a special skill. Kehseral watches on. He is feeling pretty confident in their victory, until Seventeen and eighteen step in.  Kehseral attacks them with an energy sword, and then switches up to energy balls. Seventeen however is not impressed.

Seventeen has taken Tupper's back and blasts him until he lets Goku go. Tupper and Zoiray team up against them but it doesn’t go well. Tupper is taken out by Seventeen while Zoiray retreats. 

The pride troopers regroup with the intention of taking out Kale and Caulifla. Trapped behind a barrier Caulifla is beaten to a pulp as Kale watches. Thankfully her self-loathing activates her Super Saiyan form, albeit now she seems to have better control. Kehseral is not impressed and orders the troopers to press the attack. A beam duel ensues, and the two Saiyan women overwhelm the troopers. Zoiray Kahseral and Kettol are knocked out.  The two emerged from the broken barrier; Kale can now control her powers, though she is somewhat exhausted from the fight. 

Seventeen also throws Cocotte off the stage for good measure. In the end Goku lets Kale and Caulifla go, so they can get stronger… Oh Goku! ‘

I liked this episode. It almost redeemed Kale in my eyes. That said I have some problems. The Pride troopers were not as over the top as I had hoped. The constant references to “justice” in their attack names were nice but they could have gone so much further, kind of like the Ginyu force. 

I can also see Goku letting Kale and Caulifla walk away. That’s Goku: putting everything on the line for the fight. But I don’t see why Eighteen would sit by while this happens. She has a daughter and unlike Goku is a dedicated family woman.  The whole thing feels contrived: The writers want to keep them around so they wrote it in without considering what the characters involved would actually do.

Next episode we get magical girls…. should be interesting.

-Gedaemon

Review of Star Wars Episode VI : Return of the Jedi : Teddy Bears Save the Galaxy

Seriously though, more than the teddy bears taking on a scifi army, building a second death star is the most unjustifiable writing choice in this entire movie. 

The empire is constructing a new death star and it’s not going well. The emperor has sent Vader to get the project back on track. Meanwhile Luke Skywalker, who is now styling himself as a Jedi knight, stages a rescue of Han Solo form the palace of Jabba the Hutt. His attempts to bargain with the Hutt fail and he, Chewie and Leia are captured. Jabba takes Leia as a slave and plans to have Luke, Chewbacca and Han executed.  Luke has planned for this however. Retrieving his lightsaber hidden in R2, he stages a rescue resulting in Jabba’s death and he and his friends escape.

Luke leaves Tatooine and returns to Yoda who is near death. Yoda confirms Vader is his father and hints there is another Skywalker before his death. Struggling with the revelation Luke confronts the ghost of Obi-wan who explains that in his view Darth Vader and Anakin Skywalker are different people and that Vader is beyond saving. He also confirms that princess Leia is secretly Luke’s twin sister.

Back with the rebel fleet it the group reunites for a briefing were its confirmed that Palpatine is staying on the partially completed second death star. Luke, Leia, Chewbacca and Han head to the moon of Endor to deactivate the shield generator protecting the station so the rebel fleet can destroy it. 

Leia is soon separated from the group and the rest are captured by the native Ewoks. Eventually reunited in the Ewok village they plan their attack on the shield generator. However Vader as sensed Luke’s presence and Luke leaves the group to confront him. He begs Vader to leave the empire and go with him, but Vader refuses and takes him to the emperor.

Han’s attack on the shield generator turns out to be trap. The rebels are rounded up by the garrison only to be rescued by the Ewoks.  As the battle on the ground continues the rebel fleet arrives to find the shield generator is still up and the imperial fleet is posed to attack.

Meanwhile the emperor tries to provoke Luke into giving into his hate. He reveals he knew about the rebel plans and lured them to the death star, which is operational. He uses the super laser to start destroying the rebel capital ships while mocking Luke. Giving in to his anger Luke attacks the emperor only to have is attack intercepted by Vader. Throughout their duel Luke attempts to keep his cool but Vader continues to provoke him. In his anger Luke overwhelms Vader and cuts off his arm. However he refuses to finish his father off. The emperor, angered by this uses force lighting and overwhelms the young Jedi who pleads with Vader for help. Seeing his child in distress Vader grabs the emperor and throws him down a shaft. In the process Vader is critically wounded by the force lighting. 

Meanwhile the rebels have taken down the shield generator and the fighter attack by Lando in the falcon manages to penetrate the structure and destroy the main reactor. Luke flees with his father but Vader is too wounded and dies on the shuttles boarding plank, having returned to the light side of the force.  

The rebels celebrate the destruction of the death star as the empire is shown to be crumbling in Palpatine’s absence. As the rebel’s celebration continues the ghosts of Obiwan, Yoda, and Anakin Skywalker can be seen in the background. 

This is the worst of the originals. It is far from bad, but it suffers from pacing issues, and poor directing and writing decisions. I love Jabba, but it has little to do with the second half of the movie, and filling it with CGI stuff in the special editions was a mistake. Did the movie really need a song number in Huttese?  Furthermore while the sarlacc pit scene does little to establish Luke as a fully formed force user than to establish that Jabba’s men are really incompetent. Return of the Jedi also goes to pains to show how close Luke is to the dark. He wears all black, he force chokes Jabba’s goons, and he makes subtle threats. Despite that he comes off as way more kind and level headed than Anakin ever did in the prequels. He only uses violence in a controlled manner to help others. The only time he gives into rage is when the Emperor and Vader are goading him.And the Ewoks, they might be acceptable if they didn’t beat up a squad of storm troopers. Granted there attack serves as mostly a distraction while Han and the rebels do the heavy lifting, and granted it’s supposed to make some point about imperialism. But it’s still stupid. 

So what does Return of the Jedi have to offer? Well the fights are pretty good. They don’t compare to the prequels in terms of raw action but they have more heart than most of them. We get to see Luke slash his way through Jabba’s men and another duel with Vader.  While it is not as dramatic as their duel in ESB, it is well done. 

The acting is also good too, Luke the emperor are really well done. It’s always a joy to watch McDiarmid’s Palpatine. And Mark Hamill really makes a good Jedi. His acting here has really matured since A New Hope.

The space battle is the most impressive in the entire original trilogy and better done than the battle of Coruscant in episode III. You mostly follow the fighters as they dart between capital ships and engage TIEs, in a battle which is the pinnacle of practical effects.  And well I am quick to point out the movies flaws many of the scenes I mention are still fun to watch. They are still well done, except the Ewoks. I’m not going to defend that.  

 

Return of the Jedi gets a lot of hate, some of it deserved but it is far from a bad movie.  

8.3 out of 10

-Gedaemon

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Review of Dragon Ball Super Ep. 100 Suprise Twist! Episode 100 is completely Forgetable!

Kurirn has been knocked out of bounds, much to the dissatisfaction of his wife.

Vegeta is still fighting Megetta and Botamo when Cabba interrupts to challenge him. Meanwhile the rest of Universe Six appears to be doing well except Kale who is struggling. As two fighters literally use her as a punching bag she appears to be knocked out. She is saved by Caulifla who prevents her falling out of the ring. Caulifla asks why Kale isn’t using her real power and suggest they go and take out Goku. 

Calling Goku “old man” she wants to know how to make her hair blue. But Goku just tells her she isn’t ready for it. As Kale tries and fails to transform Goku gets bored. And Caulifla buffs herself up like Trunks. Goku gives her a brief lesson on why that’s a mistake and tells her to aim for super Saiyan 2.  As they bond over the form Beerus gets pissed off that they aren’t fighting but of course Goku doesn’t listen. As Kale watches she gets upset and jelous. Breaking down, she finally gets pissed off and transforms. In her pursuit of Goku she nearly knocks Caulifla off the stage.. She easily manhandles Goku in his super Saiyan form, making him go Blue. But even this form fails to stop her.  A problem arises however; Kale cannot control her power starts releasing random ki blasts.

After purging her excess ki Kale continues to go after Goku but a pride trooper named Vuon steps in to stop the violence. It does not go well for him. Watching all of this Jiren decides to take action. With a single ki blast he knocks Kale out. Hit is about to take Jiren on in her place, but Goku pops out from behind a rock and team six retreats.

This episode was so-so. Not bad but it does not stand out. Kale turned out to be a rather boring character to me. She has her strong points but she is ether feeling sorry for herself or rampaging. The animation was good, but the fights were not that exciting.

I hoped for more from Kale. Hopefully the pride troopers will be less of a letdown.

-Gedaemon

On Cartoon Heroes and Goku

 To many who grew up with the early English dubs of Dragon Ball Z, Goku was a hero with a heart of gold.  He even spared Vegeta, because killing a wounded enemy is wrong. Everything Goku did was for the sake of others. 

Today the Japanese version exists right along with the English one.  Furthermore, newer dubs of Dragon ball are much closer to the Japanese, and many old fans have received a rude awakening. Goku didn’t spare Vegeta out of the goodness of his heart; he did it so he could fight him again. Giving Cell a senzu bean wasn’t over confidence, it was Goku’s obsession with the fight.  Nor was it a fluke, as he gave Piccolo a senzu bean when the guy was still out to kill him. At the time he put the Earth in danger so he could fight within the Budokai rules and win fair and square. Piccolo had no intention of doing the same. And now that Super is here we see him continuously endanger himself, and the universe in pursuit of the next fight.

This has led to a lot of fan complaints. They say Goku has changed, that his stupidity and naivety are being over played, that he is acting like a sociopath looking for a fight. This is all very confusing to me, having read the manga since I was a kid. Goku was stupid and naive since the first chapter, and it did not get much better when he became an adult. In some ways he got worse. By the time he was full grown he was completely obsessed with fighting.

Goku has always kept his ties with his friends loose. He would fight with them or hang out for a while, but then he would go off and do something else for years. It’s shocking of course to our sensibilities that he keeps doing this after having a wife and kid but it’s hardly inconsistent. More importantly his habit of endangering himself and others for a fight was established by the Ma junior saga, before most of us western fans hoped on the band wagon with Dragon Ball Z. 

Some admit that Goku has always been like this in the Japanese version, but they still don’t like it. They prefer the selfless hero they grew up with. My question to them is why? Why do you want another cookie cutter selfless hero rather than a character with a dash of actual complexity? Goku does good things but he is not motivated by a desire to do good. He has a moral code but it’s not the sum of who he is. That’s at least interesting. Usually the guy in pursuit of power or the next fight is portrayed as a villain or anti-hero. Here he is put into the role of the hero instead.  Say what you will about Toriyama’s seat of the pants writing but at least he went outside the comfort zone in writing Goku. 

We need Goku, not another cookie-cutter hero.

-Gedaemon