Tuesday, March 22, 2016

Finished watching Space Pirate Captain Harlock


Finished watching Space Pirate Captain Harlock (1978, Toei Animation, 42 epi.) on 07/11/2014.

A race of plant-based alien beings known as the Mazone threaten a futuristic Earth claiming the planet once belonged to them before humans took over. But, without official consent from Earth, in their path stands Space Pirate Captain Harlock with his space battleship, the Arcadia, manned by his lively crew of space mateys as he departs on a journey to the source of the Mazone.

7/10 - For its time I'm sure the show was pretty epic, but I did fall asleep on a handful of episodes. Regardless, I did enjoy it in its entirety. I was left with some technical questions however about the plot, like why does Mime keep saying that she gave her life to Harlock. for example. I must've fallen asleep when it came up, maybe. Also, there were some scenes that were supposed to be serious but I couldn't help laughing because of the way they were directed, sometimes they were just downright awkward. There's also some sort of weird consistency with the storytelling too, like the Tokargan males having odd-shaped heads one episode and then looking like normal humans on another. I really think this must've been an awesome show to watch in late 1970's Japan. Again, It's not what I'm used to but I certainly enjoyed it. One very important thing to mention is that this is a show based on the manga by the same title which was created by Leiji Matsumoto who, by the way, supervised the creation of those Daft Punk anime videos. Yeah! Remember those? Interstella 5555 was the sh*t! In fact, you'll see a lot of character design similarities throughout most of his work. He has a stock of characters he likes to keep using. Most noticeable examples would be Doctor Zero or even Tochiro from this show.

Tuesday, March 15, 2016

Finished playing Metroid Prime 2: Echoes


Finished playing Metroid Prime 2: Echoes (2009, Retro Studios, Wii) on 5/30/2014.
Mode: Veteran

Samus Aran is sent to planet Aether to rescue a team of Galactic Federation Marines, but once she arrives she discovers they've all been slaughtered by an invading race of aliens known as the Ing. With the help of ancient alien technology from the indigenous Luminoth, Samus fights to rid their planet of the invasive Ing, all the while dealing with the minor nuisance that are the well-known Space Pirates and a third force whose power might just equal her own.

7.5/10 – Although I think I had a bit more fun playing Metroid Prime 1 (Wii), this one was also pretty cool. The whole Dark Samus thing got me hyped up. What really annoyed me was the last battle. I swear, it took me about five or six tries at it to finally beat the game, but that was because I was holding back on the first few tries until I decided to just pull out the "big guns". Oh, and reading what the scan visor tells you about the enemies can really give you an advantage in battle, specially on that very last one. Gosh, I was so lost on what to do. I really enjoyed the soundtrack on this one too. Specially when I was making my way through the various areas of Aether, even if i knew that there was nothing hiding to jump at me it still made me feel like I should be watchful. Again, the game's a bit difficult compared to MP1, but good nonetheless.

Tuesday, March 8, 2016

Finished playing Luigi's Mansion


Finished playing Luigi's Mansion (2001, Nintendo EAD, GameCube) 3/7/2014.

Luigi wins his own mansion, but things don't look as great as he hoped when he pays his new place a visit. The mansion is old, gloomy and to his surprise IT'S OVERRUN BY GHOSTS! He soon meets a genius scientist, Prof. E. Gadd who asks Luigi to use his new invention, the Poltergust 3000 to rid the mansion of all the ghosts.

10/10 – Yabo yabo, suku suku!  Lemme just begin by pointing out how detailed those doorknobs were, I swear! Anyways, this game is awesome! It was just what I needed to recover from Vagrant Story's battle system. This whole game is so much fun to play! It is so cleverly done! Well, to me it seemed like the main theme was always playing throughout most of the game. Not that I mind, I always hummed along. Hahaha! And so did Luigi! Isn't that great? But there's plenty of great spooky tracks to go around. But more importantly, the boss battles are very interesting and fun to figure out. But then came the final boss battle that made me want to pull my hair off just because of a stupid little mistake I made which made me think that the correct way of defeating him was actually useless. So now I'll know better to try the same thing twice next time. And then there's a post-game Secret Mansion? That's really awesome considering how short the game was. Heck, I was about ready to just jump right into it if I didn't have other games to scratch off my list. I'll just have to remind myself to come back to it one day.