Video Stuff Review Thing!

So, it's about time I finally expand beyond game reviews. I couldn't decide if the next step was movies or TV. So I just decided video style things would just be mashed into one category.

Inventive! Ingenious!

Or just lazy.

All possible!

Anyway, I don't have a review system in place yet for this kind of thing, so I figure I'll just rant, and throw a score on the end, and everything will work out.

Good plan.

And just in time for me to get on reviewing the web series I've been anticipating to nearly the exclusion of all else; Street Fighter: Assassin's Fist.

Expect it soon!

Guest article!

Nintendo has been making some interesting moves, this console generation. And they are starting to seem kind of like bad ones, if their financial tidings are anything to go by.

My amigo, Kwan Smith-Holloway, whom I shall refer to as "Le Kwaaaaaan" wrote an opinion piece via social media.

I personally thought it deserved it's own article, and Le Kwaaaaaan, being the awesome dude he is, gave me permission to post it.

Enjoy!

"So it seems that Nintendo has fallen into a somewhat dire situation. As most of already knew, the Wii U hasn't been selling well at all, but it's actually really bad right now. CEO of Nintendo of America, Satoru Iwata revealed that their projected sales forecast for their fiscal year(which ends in March) was to sell 9 million Wii U's, yet that number has been slashed and they hope to sell 2.8 million Wii U's. Wow. They had to cut their numbers by more than two-thrids because the Wii U is doing so poorly. The questions that come to mind are: Why is the Wii U flopping? What will Nintendo do about it? Should we worry about Nintendo closing, or becoming a third party company?

There are many reason the Wii U isn't doing well. These are some of them: 1. The Wii U is a current-gen console, contrary to what Nintendo is portraying it as; a next-gen console. 2. The Wii U doesn't have many great games unless they're first party games( New Super Mario Bros U, Super Mario 3D Land, etc), and if it does, they're probably out on the PS3 or 360 and people are more likely to use those consoles for more popular games. Though in 2014 they have some first party titles that seem like they will bring in some good sales. 3. Third party game developers aren't particularly interested in developing for the Wii U because of the controller. When they make a game for PS3 or 360 they map it to a non touch screen controller, so porting their games to the Wii U required them to make a whole new touch screen adaptation for the game which is annoying for them.

As for what Nintendo will do about it, we won't know until we progress farther in the year of 2014. Hopefully they make good changes.

Should we worry about Nintendo becoming third party? Probably not, because this is Nintendo we're talking about, they will probably find a way to save themselves if not only by their first party titles. But we should note that for the last 3 years, Nintendo has been losing money every year, they haven't had overall gains in 3 years, which is bad for them. If they continue to just take losses year after year, who knows what might happen in the end. We don't want another Sega to happen.

Don't take this as me hating on Nintendo, I love nintendo, and hope things go well but this isn't looking too well for them right now."

Guest Article courtesy of the Ever-Excellent Kwan "K-Dub/Le Kwaaaaaan" Smith Holloway

"Le Kwaaaaaan" nickname courtesy of Sara "Homotastico/Mega-Cuteness" Rodriguez

"Homotastico" nickname courtesy of Johnanthony Gonzalez

"Mega-Cuteness" nickname courtesy of Orlando Alicea.

Much obliged guys.

Yep.

Wherein-which I muse on the Pokemon.

Okay.

So, here we are just days from release of the next generation in the Pokemon franchise: Pokemon X and Y.

Me? I am stuck at a strong crossroads. Well, not so much anymore, but I was. So I feel like talking about what kind of crossroad I was once stuck at. You see, I am a Pokemon fan. Very much, through and through. I look forward to every new generation, and this one was no different.

At least, at first.

When the Legendary Pokemon for X and Y were revealed, I was quite impressed. They showed a level of imagination a step up from Black and White, which in and of itself was leaps and bounds above Diamond and Pearl. This could only be a good thing. But as more and more designs were revealed, my enthusiasm dwindled. The starter Pokemon weren't anything of note. And save one or two designs, they just seemed to steadily go downhill from there.

But I wasn't too worried. Game Freak had only revealed some 15 Pokemon, and didn't seem keen on revealing anymore, so I assumed I'd see some cooler designs in game.

It is at this point that I feel I should touch on the fact that Pokemon designs are very important to me.

You see, the gameplay of a Pokemon game rarely if ever disappoints me. It is a tried and true method that I haven't found fault with yet, and so much of my anticipation and enjoyment of a Pokemon game does not come from that. It's nice, but adds up to about 20% of my overall love for the game, if that. No, my true passion for Pokemon stems from the Pokemon themselves. I love seeing new Pokemon to catch and raise and journey with. I mean, if it was the same Pokemon every time, the tried and true gameplay would require strong changes. There would have to be a much stronger story. But with the core of my love coming from the new blood, I never have to worry about that.

I catch the new guys, I fight the gyms, I beat the evil team, save the world, fight the elite four, become champion, go home happy.

All is well.

Carrying on from where I left off earlier.

Not long after making the decision to wait out the game for other designs, Mega Pokemon were announced. This blew my mind. New designs for older pokemon?! At first, I assumed these would be branch evolution chains. Lo and behold they were not. No, they were temporary forms granted by Mega Stones. Okay. Taking the Digimon route. Not my favorite idea, but I can live with it. Besides. MegaAmpharos was now an Electric/Dragon type with luxurious hair. Fine by me.

Not too long after this though, things began to go south.

More and more designs continued to be leaked. More New Pokemon, and more Mega forms.

And they sucked.

Like...

EXTRA hard.

They made a fucking key ring Pokemon.

A key ring...

Ugh. I'm getting off track. Anywho, the rather dismal designs began to crush my hopes for the games. Damnit, if my enjoyment of the game comes from the new damn critters, and the new critters suck hot eggs, what the hell do I want to play the game for? Surely not the story?!

Argh...

Not long after I had reached a point of disgust with the game (something that occurred after they made the decision to make one of my favorite Pokemon, Gyarados, Mega Evolve into a giant ass shrimp...), I came across an interview.

And to be honest, it changed my whole view of the game.

I find myself now thoroughly looking forward to the game. I have to know just what they're going to do with the world itself. It seems they've stayed true to the main formula, but have made enough changes to garner interest. Without needing a million new cool critters. And if I really think about it, there are already 600+ of the little dudes, so I kind of don't need more. But there's still a huge part of me that can't stand the idea of dealing with such craptastic designs.

Or at least, there was that part of me.

As I stand now, I've gotten over that. There are a couple of new dudes I can get behind, and, mixed with some of my old favorites, I'm sure I'll enjoy my journey through Kalos just fine. And with any luck, the game will surprise me, and be one of the better outings in the series.

Here's hoping.

...Hate. (The continued Trials and Tribulations of the AMV)

For quite some time now, I've been diligently hoping that at some point, the AMV I've been working on would be recovered from the hard drive of evil that threatened it's very existence. Apparently, I was hoping for too much. Apparently, rather than attempting to recover the hard drive, the poor thing was, I shit you not, shot to pieces like a skeet disc.

The sorrow is infinite.

That may well have been my single greatest AMV work of all time, and now it is lost forever. Even if I were to remake it, which I eventually will, I sincerely doubt I can catch the same intense spirit I caught before. I am saddened beyond belief by the idea of this.

FUCK.

That aside, to hell with Midtown Comics. There's a sale for 25% off of apparel, and the two shirts I want most at the moment, they only have in 2XL. I don't fit a fucking 2XL. Every other fucking shirt, they want to have in my size (a large, for those curious) but I can't get a damn Spider-Man shirt?!

I traveled to 3 different Midtown Comics locations, and not a single damn one of them has it unless it's 2XL?!

Kingdom Come Superman logo shirt, I can understand being hard to find, but Spider-Man?! Are you serious?!?

Fuck you, Midtown Comics.