The Collateral Otaku

I Need Opinions Here

2009-11-24T14:12:00.000-08:00

While browsing one of my favorite websites, I found this article. The article states that two Swiss Human Rights Groups ran a study that "attempted to determine if the acts gamers engage in while they play violent titles would "lead to violations of rules of international law, in particular International Humanitarian Law (IHL), basic norms of International Human Rights Law (IHRL), or International Criminal Law (ICL)."" Yes, I know that might sound confusing to most people, so I reccomend reading the article.

Basically, these groups had people play through several action games while lawyers watched them to "try to find actions in games that in real life would violate rules and regulations that govern armed conflict". Sound stupid to you? If not, then read it again. These people are trying to enforce real-life rules into the fictional worlds of video games.

Wait, is that a burning building in the background? How dare they!

I found a sentence from the article that I find hilarious, simply because it is so contradictory. "The organizations said the study is not intended to "prohibit the games, to make them less violent or to turn them into IHL or IHRL training tools." Instead, the groups want to work with developers to ensure that in the future, their games observe real-life human-rights laws." Does anyone else find that funny? They're not trying to prohibit the games, but want them to adhere to a set of rules that are only applicable in real life. To me, that sounds exactly like prohibiting, especially when you find out that they want game developers to take out things that make certain games enjoyable. To quote the groups: "civilians or protected objects such as churches or mosques can be attacked with impunity, in scenes portraying interrogations it is possible to torture, degrade or treat the prisoner inhumanely without being sanctioned for it and extrajudicial executions are simulated".

To me, this is all some of the most ridiculous hogwash I've read in a long time. Video games, and the worlds they encompass (however similar to this one), are works of fiction and must remain as such. There is no reason that a work of fiction should be following any set rules of the real life world. If video game developers want to make it possible to blow up a church in a video game, then they have every right to make it possible.

The thing about this article that irks me the most? The fact that they are trying to enforce human rights on video games. Last time I checked, the characters in a video game were nothing more than a complex set of 1s and 0s, not actual humans, and therefor, lie outside the rules of the real world.

But, what about the rest of you? Do you think we've reached a point in the world where works of fiction have to be governed by the laws of real life? If we're going to do it to video games, why not do it to books? What about movies? Share what you think in the comments.

I Think We Need An Update Here

2009-11-17T11:14:00.000-08:00

My posting on this blog has been missing, as of late. I'll try to be better at it, I swear.

Today's post is just going to be a few of my first impressions of games I've played recently.

First off is Phantasy Star 0 (zero). Phantasy Star 0, which is for the Nintendo DS, is very similar to some of the other games in the series, but isn't exactly like any of them. The gameplay is like a mesh of Phantasy Star Portable, Phantasy Star Universe and Phantasy Star Online, all of which were great games. I personally think the game is closer in similarities to Phantasy Star Online rather than the others. First off, the race and class selection is taken almost straight from Phantasy Star Online (PSO). Unlike Phantasy Star Portable (PSP) and Phantasy Star Universe (PSU) you're limited to 3 races and 3 classes; Humans, Newmans, and Casts for races, and Hunters, Rangers, and Forces for classes. Just as in PSO, each race is limited in what class it can be, such as Casts not being able to be Forces. Character customization is severely limited when compared with PSP and PSU, both of which let you change outfits, hair, parts (for Casts) and accesories. With Phantasy Star 0 (PSZ), you're limited right from the start. Just as with PSO, you can only change a few things about your appearance, such as your color (for Casts), your hair style and the one set of clothes you wear. (Rememeber, this is a first impression of the game. I haven't finished it yet, so the ability to change clothing and such might still come later.)

I am excited, however, at the reappearance of the Mag. (In PSO, a Mag was a small robot that followed you around and boosted stats and such. Feeding your Mag would make it "evolve" and boost you even more. PSU and PSP had Mags, but they didn't do as much as in PSO.) I'm not sure if the Mags are going to be as awesome as they were in PSO, but I can sure as heck hope they will be.

Graphics-wise, the game is nowhere near the quality of PSP (which, ironically, was on the PSP, which has always been the superior to the Nintendo DS as far as graphics capabilities.) But, the game is still decent to look at.

My only problem so far with playing is the lack of an ability to control the camera. With all the others (PSP, PSU, PSO) there was a button to swing the camera around behind you. So far with PSZ, I have been unable to find that button. Maybe I should read through the little guide that came with it, it might tell me how to do that. But, if there is no button for camera swings, I'm going to be extremely disappointed.

All in all, I'm liking the game so far. (But, I might be biased. I have liked all of the Phantasy Star games so far.) Although, I have now taken a break from PSZ so I can go back and complete PSP. I guess that's normal though. I didn't want to get too far into a new Phantasy Star game before I finished all I could on a previous one.

My first impression score (which I'm no longer calculating on a 1 to 5 basis, but on a level of how much I want to keep playing it): Interested & Wanting More.

Basically, there's too much left to play in the game for me to say "Yea" or "Nay" to it. I'm pretty sure that I'll like it, simply because it's a Phantasy Star game, but I'll try to keep my mind open and give an unbiased opinion when I finish it.

Next on my list of new game first impressions is Little Big Planet for the PSP. Little Big Planet made it's first appearance on the PS3 and was met with huge success. It was a very smart, logical step for Sony to take by porting the game to the PSP.

Little Big Planet for the PSP (LBPP) plays very much like its predecessor. The graphics are, of course, nowhere near the caliber of the PS3, but they are still quite amazing. In my opinion, it looks just fine on the small screen. The controls are almost exactly the same, minus the ability to tilt the controller to make your Sackboy move, which wasn't really a neccesity.

Gameplay-wise, you're not going to notice anything really different about LBPP from LBP. You still sidescroll across the screen and grab things. Grabbing things can help you move and can also activate certain things in the game. It's a very simple game to play that is still extremely fun.

Character Customization in LBPP is just as amazing as LBP. You can change pretty much anything on your Sackboy, and you can also save the outfits you create so you can jump between them. There are moustaches, hats, hair, clothes, accesories that you can choose from, as well as different "skin" colors to choose from.

All in all, LBPP is a great port from a great game. I definitely will be playing more of it.

First impression score: Entertained & Wanting More (You may notice that my new way of ranking something based on a first impression is not really set by anything. It's probably going to be different for each game.)

Unlike Phantasy Star 0, I know enough about this game to be able to say "Yea" to it. I know I loved the PS3 version and with how similar the PSP version is, it's safe to say I'll love it.

Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days - review

2009-10-23T23:53:00.000-07:00

Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, a game for the Nintendo DS, is the fourth story installment for the Kingdom Hearts series. It follows the story of Roxas, which (if you had played Kingdom Hearts II all the way through) is Sora's Nobody, or basically a form of Sora that doesn't have a heart. Event-wise, it takes place during the year in-between Kingdom Hearts I and II, Starting at nearly the same time as Chain of Memories.

Although the story is about Roxas, it focuses on three individuals in particular: Axel, Roxas, and Xion, all members of Organization XIII, which is a group consisting of the most powerful nobodies amongst all the known worlds. The focus particularly is about their friendship and their attempt to maintain it, regardless of the other forces at hand.

The story itself is one similar to any of the other Kingdom Hearts games: it starts off simple, mostly just figuring out how to play; but it becomes very long, especially if you want to do all the side missions and stories.

From left to right: Axel, Roxas and Xion.

Gameplay follows the pattern similar to other Kingdom Hearts games, too. 3D environment, lock-on, use magic and different keyblades to defeat foes.

Differences from the other games in the title series make this a new animal to tackle, too. You don't just level up. It is in the game, yes, but it is treated differently. You are alloted slots, and everything that you would use in the game will take up at least one slot, depending on the power of the item. The items are called panels, and there is a panel for everything. You want to level up? Gain enough experience from defeating enemies, then put the level panel you obtain into a slot, as an example.

A big difference in game mechanics that I liked was the Keyblades themselves. Different keyblades not only looked different (obviously), but they were used differently. Some blades would have a small amount of hits per round but deal typically a great deal of damage, while others had long chains of hits per round, but deal little to moderate damage. Additionally, those chains would be assigned to use on ground only or in air only. You could attack either on ground or in the air regardless, but you could only do the chain on one of them.

And another difference, which I think was the biggest and best, was the introduction of multiplayer. Up to four people can play together on a mission, each person initially being able to play any member of the organization. Then, when you get to certain parts of the game or unlock specific parts of the game, other characters become available to play in multiplayer, from Donald or Goofy to King Mickey to even Sora himself.

A screenshot of the multiplayer system on the game.

Score: 4 out of 5

The game was good. Very good. I had no real complaint with the control scheme or even the panel system. Rotating the camera was semi-difficult at first, but I quickly adapted to that.

The story was also good. It answered most of the questions I had that had arisen when going through both Chain of Memories and Kingdom Hearts II. Some other questions arose, but will most likely be answered by the next installment in the Kingdom Hearts series, known as Birth by Sleep.

The main issue I had was the amount of time it took to beat the game. I know, it had to complete a whole year within the game, but some of the missions were difficult, and if you wanted to do all of the side quests and unlock as much as you could, you would need to put in nearly triple the amount of hours. I am aware that Kingdom Hearts games take a while to beat, but I put a lot more time into this game than I originally intended.

Still, it is a good game. It is a must-have for anyone who is a fan of Kingdom Hearts, and will answer most of the questions you had about the series.

~Koubo

Gurren Lagann - Review

2009-10-09T10:50:00.000-07:00

For me, an anime has to have a good blend of action, drama, and even romance for me to really get into it. There are only a couple animes that I rank as my favorites. Martian Succesor Nadesico is one of those, and now, so is Gurren Lagann.

Gurren Lagann starts out fast and stays fast throughout the entirety of the series. I have to admit, when one of my friends first introduced me to the show, I felt trepidation about whether or not I could get into it; I'm not usually one for giant robot animes. Nadesico and Evangelion were about the only two I could ever really get in to. So, when I first started watching Gurren Lagann, I had all but decided that I wouldn't like it. But, after I watched the first few episodes, I became hooked. I wanted to watch more of it, but didn't want to spend the large amounts of money that it would cost to buy the DVDs. So, I started looking around for a deal on it. That deal came from the iTunes Store. I found the entire series on sale for only $26.00, so I immediately downloaded it and started watching.

While the series does dwell quite a bit on the giant robot (Gunmen, as they're called) parts, that's not what it's all about. The Gunmen fight sequences are spectacularly animated and pleasing to the eye (the final battle of the whole series blew my mind). But, the thing that really drew me in was the relationships between the characters (all of which were also extremely well animated. I'm just going to say this now; Gurren Lagann was one of the most visually pleasing animes I have watched.) What starts out as a love triangle between what seem to be the 3 main characters, Simone, Kamina & Yoko (I say "seem to be" because, in my opinion, most of the characters could be considered "main") draws you in and makes you feel for each of them. And it's not just the relationships that are well thought out. Each character in the series has their own quirks and personality that endears you to each of them.

Probably one of my favorite things about this anime is what they did with it about 7 episodes in. I'm not going to say what it is, but I will say that when if first happened, I felt betrayed by an anime that I was growing to like more and more, but then, later in the series, I knew that the story wouldn't have been nearly as good if they hadn't done it. It really did make the series enjoyable.

Gurren Lagann is divided into 2 different story arcs, each lasting about 13 episodes. The first deals with the rebels from the underground cities seeking out and destroying the Spiral King. At first there are only 3 of them with only 2 Gunmen (Gurren and Lagann, which can combine to create the powerful Gurren Lagann), but as the story progresses, more and more rebels join the cause and each ends up with a Gunmen of their own, eventually making a formidable army, known as Team Dai Gurren. I thought I had seen big robots before, but some of the Gunmen in Gurren Lagann are ridiculousyl huge. Just when you think you've seen the biggest of them, they throw an even bigger one into the story. But, instead of being silly, the bigger and bigger robots made the story. The first arc of the story ends with Simone destroying the Spiral King and the rebels all celebrating. But, as the Spiral King is dying, he utters what sounds like a prophecy of the future which basically says when the population of humans on the earth reaches 1 million bad stuff will happen.

Start the second arc, which takes place years after the end of the first. The rebels have built a city of their own and have advanced greatly in the few years that have passed. Simone is the ruler of the city and the members of Team Dai Gurren are all high up in the New Government. The action, once again, starts right off when a tear in the sky releases a strange looking Gunmen just as the 1 millionth person is born on the surface. Simone gets in Gurren Lagann and heads out to fight the new Gunmen, eventually beating it by using his signature drill attack. The Gunmen explodes and the fragments of it fall to the ground... and explode on impact. Much of the city is destroyed. Simone is overthrown as ruler and placed in prison, but is later released when they realize that only he and Gurren Lagann can defeat the new enemies. As I said earlier, the giant robots keep getting bigger in this series, and in the second story arc, this is just as true. The moon eventually becomes a Gunmen that can combine with Gurren Lagann to make a huge fortress. Soon, they find out that the attacks are from the Anti Spiral race and set off into space to fight them. I'm not going to go into too much detail, but as the story draws to a close, the battles between Gunmen become more and more epic. Eventually, the heroes triumph over the villains and live out their lives in peace.

Easily the most epic Giant Robot I've ever seen.

There is so much more to the story than what I've written here, but I don't want to give too much away. I'd rather you watch the series yourself to find out just how amazing this anime really is.

My final score: 5 out of 5.

This anime has one of the most gripping stories I've seen in an anime and leaves you wanting more after each episode. I know for sure that I'm going to be watching this over and over; it's just that good. With excellent character development and stunning animation, this is easily my second favorite anime. I highly recommend going out and watching all of it, you won't be disappointed.

Retro Downloadable Content Part 2

2009-09-29T12:58:00.000-07:00

Well, hopefully you all read my wishlist of retro downloads I'd like to see available on my PSP via the Playstation Network. If not, the link is here.

This post though, is my wishlist for retro games I'd like to see made available on the DSi. Just as a note, this whole list is not likely to come to pass unless Nintendo decides to make a Virtual Console for the DSi that will play GameBoy games. So, before the list, I'd just like to say that I, and many, many other people are all hoping for that Virtual Console.10 Retro Games (Or Series Of Games) I'd Like To Be Able To Download Onto My DSi:

-First on my list is Zelda games. There were only a few released on the GameBoy, but the few that were are some of the best. Link's Awakening, Oracle of Seasons & Oracle of Ages would be the three that I'd most like to see on the DSiWare store.

-Next is the Super Mario Land games, all three of them. They took what was great on the Super Mario games on the NES, tweaked it, and made three awesome games. If I had to choose just one of them, I'd probably go with Super Mario Land 2, with 1 close behind.

-I know I may be mocked for this, but I do enjoy the Pokemon series of games; they're just good RPGs. With the release of the DS versions of Pokemon (Pearl, Diamond, Platinum and soon Heart Gold and Soul Silver) making downloadable versions of the earlier games would seem like a good idea. Especially if they came up with a way to transfer Pokemon between the downloads and the DS cartridge games, which I'm sure they'd be able to do.

-In recent times, it seems that Sega and Nintendo have joined forces just slightly, we've seen Sonic in several Nintendo games, from Olympic games to the Super Smash Bros. series, so I hope it's not too much to ask that those wonderful Sonic the Hedgehog games from the Sega Genesis make an appearance on the DSi.

-If I can ask for Genesis style Sonic games, I'd like to also ask for a couple other Genesis games; Earthworm Jim would be one of those, as well as Altered Beast. Both are classics that would be more than welcome on my DSi.

-If we're going to do more than just wish for GameBoy games, I'd like to also see Donkey Kong Country make it's way to the DSi store and, in line with that, the Donkey Kong Land games that were released on the GameBoy. I think Donkey Kong Land 2 was the first video game I ever owned. It came with my GameBoy Pocket and I've never gotten sick of playing it. Porting it over to the DSi would be a grand trip down the road of nostalgia.

-I would be remiss to not mention two of the greatest Disney video games ever in this list. Both Aladdin and The Lion King were great games and would make a great addition to my DSi. After all the years they've been out, I still think these two are the best foray into video games Disney has made. (Besides Kingdom Hearts, of course.)

-I love puzzle games so I think it goes without saying that Tetris should have been made available on the DSi Store a long time ago. I want the original Tetris that started it all.

-I know I already wished for Super Mario Land games, but I think I should also ask for the Super Mario Bros. games that were released on the NES and SNES. (Super Mario Bros. 1, 2, & 3 as well as Super Mario World.) Yes, yes, I know that they aleady reincarnated those as GameBoy Advance games, but that doesn't mean they should stop there. Besides, the DSi doesn't even have a GBA slot, so I can't very well play them on it anyway.

-For my last wish, I'm going to wish for something that would be incredibly easy to port to the DSi: Mario Paint. Think about it; when it came out for the SNES you had to have a mouse to play it, think about how much easier it would be with a touch screen/stylus setup. I would really love to mess around with the music creator again which, again, would be much easier with a stylus.

So there's my wishlist for Nintendo DSiWare. Are my hopes set too high? Are most of these unlikely to ever be ported over? Or do you think Nintendo might just fulfil my dreams?

What about you? Do you have any retro games you'd love to be able to download and play on your new gen systems? Let us know what they are in the comments.

Retro Downloadable Content Part 1

2009-09-29T12:22:00.000-07:00

With downloadable content becoming more and more popular, and with the ability to download it onto pretty much any system, I thought I might take a minute to list off some of the retro games I'd like to see available for download, hopefully in the near future. As a portable gaming enthusiast, I'm going to make two lists. One for retro games I'd like to be able to download onto my PSP. The second list will be for the DSi and its DSi Ware store. The DSi list will technically be pointless simply because Nintendo will need to release a Virtual Console for GameBoy, GameBoy Color and possibly GameBoy Advance games for the DSi before any of my wishlist for it can come to be.10 Retro Games (Or Series Of Games) I'd Like To See On The Playstation Network (PSP List):

-The first games that come to mind are the Quake series. They may not be as retro as games like the original Mario, but they still take me back. If I had to settle for only one game in the series, it would have to be Quake 1. There was just something about that game that made me play it over and over. I'd love to be able to have a portable version to take with me. (They made Quake for the Pocket PC, why not for the PSP?)

-Another series I'd like to be able to download is the Hexen series. I know most of you have no idea what those games are, so I'll sum up. Hexen and Hexen 2 were basically Quake-like games, but with swords and axes instead of shotguns and nailguns. The gameplay was extremely similar to Quake, but with a medieval twist to it that I loved.

-With the rumors of Sega Dreamcast games coming to the Playstation Network, I thought I'd include a couple of them in this list. (Yes, I'm counting the Dreamcast games as a "series".) The orignal Soul Caliber would be an excellent game to download, though unlikely with an actual PSP version of the game coming out. Phantasy Star Online Episodes 1 & 2 were awesome on the Dreamcast and could only be better as PSP downloads. Sonic Adventure, while straying from the original side scroller versions of the game, was still amazing; I'd definitely like to play that on my PSP.

-Two PSOne games that I'd like to be able to download are Megaman Legends 1 & 2. They took the world of Megaman and made it into an RPG that was different than pretty much any other RPG. I really want both to become available on my PSP.

-With the release of Final Fantasy 7 as a download and the recent release of Final Fantasy 8 in Japan, I'd just like to say: "Keep it up!" I want to play some good old Final Fantasy 9 on my PSP, so just keep releasing them.

-Although this choice seems unlikely to happen, it would be cool if Lucas Arts' Grim Fandango became available. I loved the game for many reasons and still do, but it's becoming hard to find anywhere.

-Speaking of Lucas Arts, there are a couple other games from their lineup that would make excellent downloads. Obviously the Monkey Island games would be great, but I especially want to be able to play Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantas again. The game was similar to the original Monkey Island, but was based in the world of Indy. Nothing like a game where you get to outsmart Nazis to lighten your mood.

-While we're on the topic of Nazis, I know that Wolfenstein 3d, that classic Nazi hunter FPS, was released on the Playstation Network (PSN), so that won't be on my list, but what about some other classic FPSs? Doom or Duke Nukem, anyone? I know I'd like that.

-Does anyone remember the Descent games? If not, I feel sorry for you. I'm pretty sure there were only 3 of them. These truly great spaceship/FPS games were some of my favorites. At the time they came out, they had high end, 3d graphics, but now, they seem like they would run perfectly on a PSPs screen. These 3 games are probably the least likely to be released, but a guy can hope, right?

-For the last on my wishlist, I'm casting my fishing pole of hopes into the sea of retro gaming downloadable content and hoping to pull out a very obscure title: MDK. MDK was one of the strangest 3rd person shooters I've ever played, but one of the most addicting. With an odd assortment of weapons and items, which included a hand mounted gattling gun, mini-nukes, and a built in, retractable, reusable parachute, MDK changed how I think about shooters. This game also seems unlikely to ever be released, due to how obscure a title it is, but I'm going to keep my eyes out for any sign of it.

Well, that's my wishlist for the Playstation Network. Some seem more likely than others, but I really hope I'll get to see all of them available one of these days.

Watch for my DSi list to come in the next little while.

PSP Go... Again

2009-09-28T11:35:00.000-07:00

Okay, I'm not trying to beat a dead horse with a stick here, but I've found out some interesting things about the PSP Go that I thought I might share with you. Yes, I know that I've already done 2 articles about it, but I just thought these few articles were interesting.

First off, I found this article on one of my favorite gadget sites. It's a pretty detailed review of the PSP Go. In the article they give a pretty informed opinion on the upsides and downsides of the Go. I highly recommend checking out the review. The review is a bit lengthy, but I think it's worth the read if you're as interested in the Go as I am.

The second article is from the same website. Basically, the article explains that, while they did try, Sony will not be releasing a converter to transfer your old UMD games to digital format... yet. A lot of people are still hoping for some way to get their old UMD games onto the PSP Go, but apparently there are a lot of legal issues in the way that are preventing Sony from releasing one. I can understand that. While Sony owns the rights to the UMD format, it's the game and movie companies themselves that own the rights to what is contained on said UMD. There would need to be universal allowance from the developers of the games before a UMD converter could be realized. But I, along with several others apparently, are still keeping our hopes up for something to come in the future.

Although the converter is a no-go, Sony is going to try to placate customers and boost sales of the PSP Go by expanding the selection on the PlayStation Network. On October 1st of this year (the same day the PSP Go is released) Sony will be increasing the amount of titles in the store to include more than 225 games, 2,300 movies, and 13,300 TV episodes, which, to me, sounds nice, but I'll hold judgement until I see what titles will be added. Who knows? They could just be adding a bunch of dumb games. Also, while the Playstation Network does sell normal, full length, large games, they will be introducing smaller, cheaper games called PSP Minis. The PSP Minis are Sony's attempt to combat the casual gamers who turn to the Apple iPod Touch for cheaper, easier titles. This sounds pretty cool, but again, I'll hold off judgement until I've tried a few of them.

The hardware has been changed slightly as well. Other than the obvious changes such as a smaller screen, the slide out controls, and no UMD drive; the analog stick has been moved to what people are calling "an awkward place for people who are used to the PSP 3000". Also, instead of the usual USB mini port, the PSP Go has been given a proprietary USB port, which means that none of the old PSP accesories are going to work with the Go.
All in all, I'm still really tempted to go pick up a PSP Go when they come out, but a voice is telling me to wait for a couple of reasons, which are: With a new sell price of $250.00, my wallet wants me to either wait for a price drop, or until I see a used system in a Game Stop. Or, wait and see if a better system comes out, such as the rumored/hoped for PSP2. Second, I do want to wait and see if, somehow, Sony is able to devise a way to digitize all my old UMDs. I just have too much money invested in those little discs to set them aside.

Batman: Arkham Asylum

2009-09-23T01:26:00.000-07:00

Finally, a super hero video game that actually is not so bad. And by not so bad, I mean good.

And by good, I mean fantastic. And that still doesn't begin to cover it.

Having played the game the day it came out and beat it within a few days, I can say that it is a very well-made game. Only a handful of games have made me want to play it non-stop until it has been completed before this game came out. This game is now added to that list.

PS3 Box Art for the game.

For what I expected from a game where I can play Batman, the game delivers. It has stealth. It has fighting. And if you get good enough at it, you can take down large groups while doing both. Which I did, a lot.

The game even has a story, too. And is voiced by very recognizeable actors. Mark Hamill voiced the Joker; and Kevin Conroy as Batman. All the voices were done particularly well. The story itself is somewhat a stereotypical one; Batman had just captured the Joker and was taking him back to Arkham Asylum. When they get there and deep into the asylum, Joker breaks free and unleashes a plan that had been in the works for a very long time.

"I set a trap, and you sprung it gloriously!" taunts the Joker as Batman attemts to catch the Joker for the first time.

It is not just the Joker that you face in the game. You run across several villains from the series, and come across even more momentos from other villains that did not get to make a major appearance. Still, the ones who did appear were very interesting, such as Bane, Poison Ivy, Killer Croc, and Scarecrow. The Joker unleashes them all on Batman as a distraction so his evil plan can be completed in time and have no real interruptions from Batman.

Killer Croc looking at Batman.

At Your disposal is some typical Batman tools and gadgets. He was never really a hero with true super powers, and this makes no exception. He has batarangs, a grappling hook, and various high-tech gadgets that allow him to disable security doors or blow things up. He also has an X-ray vision of sorts (called "Detective Mode")that allows him to see through walls and tell whether an enemy is armed or not.

As stated earlier, the fighting system is rather impressive. It includes both fisticuff fighting, and stealthily taking down opponents. When Opponents are armed with guns, Stealth is typically the best option to go with. But there are several moments when the straight brawling was the best way to go. I will admit that the fighting portion is basically button-mashing with making sure you have the joystick pointing in the right direction, but even with that in mind the button-mashing aspect is made up for by how awesome the fighting ended up looking every single time. However, being a fan of stealth games like Splinter Cell, I preferred doing the stealthy takedowns as often as the game would allow me. I would even repeat a scene several times so that I could do the stealth and not be seen once.

Batman, using his super-vision to see through a wall (that can be destroyed) and looking at an escaped convict that is armed.

To make it even more awesome, the game featured an incredible variety of upgrades and hidden treasures for Batman to find. The largest collection is The Riddler's challenges. He left 240 clues and objects around all of Arkham Asylum for Batman to find. And while it feels like the upgrades are in general not required, they make the game a lot more fun and easier. One upgrade is being able to throw three batarangs instead of one, for example.

Koubo's score of the game: 4.5 out of 5.

Even with all of this awesomeness, there are still a couple of flaws that keep it from getting a perfect score.

As Bryson pointed out when I was playing the game, I was in detective mode a lot. And it was true. I was aiming to get all of the hidden objects, which required me to be in Detective mode for probably 70-85% of the game. And it was very helpful to be in that mode while doing stealth, since with it you could get a feel on where all of the bad guys were wandering in the room.

Another thing, and this is something I will dock every game that doesn't include it for, is the lack of the final boss having more than one form. You face the Joker in the end. But you don't face him as he is. You just watch him transform into a monster, then defeat his monster form. Then the game ends. No second form. Boo.

Other than those two things, it is an incredible game with very high replay value. That is a rare statement for a video game using a superhero. Too rare.

~Koubo

This Must Be A Joke

2009-09-22T10:59:00.000-07:00

While browsing through the various news websites I'm allowed to visit while at work I stubled across this very funny article. To sum up the article, there was a study done back in 2006 about diversity in video games. Basically, a group of scientists had some serious gamers play the top 150 games at the time for 30 minutes each and then studied the diversity that was represented in the games. They found that whites, males, and adults are grossly over-represented in today's video games and that blacks, females, children and the elderly are under-represented.Hey, Look! A Woman In One Of The Most Popular Video Games Ever! (And She's Not The Only Woman In That Game.)

In the article they state that the video game industry is going to struggle if they don't start to diversify in their games, which to me, is just needless doomsaying. As important as diversity is, I'm pretty sure that most people, like me, don't choose what video games they play based on what race the main character or NPCs are, they choose the games they play based on gameplay, graphics, storyline, and the ever important "fun factor".

In my opinion, the study wasn't done properly, if they're really going to study the diversity level in the virtual world, they need to base the results off more than just the top 150 games. Women under-represented? I hardly think so. How many Barbie video games have been released? And, just so I'm not basing that statement off lame video games, what about Lara Croft? Or any Final Fantasy game? I'm pretty sure that there are plenty of women in video games throughout time, but if they are just going to go off the top 150 games of February 2006, then they probably won't be represented all that well. The same goes for children and elderly people in video games. Just because there aren't children in the top 150 games, doesn't mean that there are no children in other games. Think of all the Dora the Explorer games that have come out. Or any educational video game targeted at that age group. There's nothing but children in those games, but they're not likely to be games in the top 150.

I guess what I'm getting at is; if you're going to do a study about the entire video game world, then actually study the entire world, and not just a small sampling from one time period.

On a side note; I wonder if there were any Grand Theft Auto games played in this study, because they have more diversity in those games than any other game I've seen.

Note: This Is Not A Review

2009-09-14T12:56:00.000-07:00

Read the title. This is not a review of the game Scribblenauts. Instead, this is just some of the crazy things I've done in the game so far. If you are unfamiliar with the game and are wondering how I've done these things in a game, I'll breifly explain how Scribblenauts works. In the game, you play as Maxwell. Maxwell has a magical notepad that makes whatever he writes on it appear in the game. Using this notepad, Maxwell has to accomplish goals in the game to earn Starites. The game has over 10,000 nouns in its system that you can summon with the notepad. I've been messing around with the game just to see what I could create with it. Here's some of the more interesting things.- I found out who would win in a battle between God and Satan by summoning both of them and letting them duke it out. (Also, I found out who would win between God and a Velociraptor, God and a T-rex, God and Death, and God and a Giant Squid. The results are quite funny.)

-I knocked over a stack of bottles by throwing a tentacle at them.

-I suddenly sprouted wings so that I could retrieve a flower from a cliff.

-I stopped a bee from charging me by dropping a huge boulder on it, which doesn't sound too crazy, but when everybody else was trying to kill it with pistols and flamethrowers, dropping a boulder on it made me laugh.

-I killed a pirhana by dropping a shark in with it. I also killed it with an alligator, a crocodile, and another giang squid. (I really like that giant squid.)

-I rescued a kitten off a roof by luring it with catnip.

-I created a battle royale by summoning Death, God, Satan, a T-Rex, and a Cuttlefish. Then, just for fun, I ended the battle by dropping a Nuke on the map.

-I cleaned up a park by burning all the trees and trash, then proceeded to kill a fly with a chainsaw.

-I personally killed God with a bazooka.

-I blew up a polar bear with land mines.

-I had a witch turn God into a frog and eat him.

-I shrank a tornado with a shrink ray.

These are just a few of the things I've done in the game. There are still words that I'd like to try out and see what they do. If you've played the game, share some of the crazy things you've done or some of the solutions you've come up with for the puzzles.

Watch for a full review on the game from either myself or from Koubo sometime in the near future.

Clannad ~After Story~

2009-09-06T05:15:00.000-07:00

After Story is the continuation of the story of Clannad, practically right where it left off. It is not as long of a story as the bulk of Clannad, as that it focuses on the story between Furukawa Nagisa and Okazaki Tomoya. There is, in the game, two small paths that delve into the stories of Nagisa's parents, but the anime doesn't touch on those.

The game and the anime have only minor differences as to the presentation of the story, but the plot and the overall ending remain the same. It still, even throughout the other stories during the first few episodes, focuses on the growing relationship between Nagisa and Tomoya.

The differences, which will be briefly explained in a moment, are some character stories that were different paths in the first part of the game. Due to the length of the first half of Clannad, the stories were placed at the front of After Story before the real story could truly commence.

The first story is about Sunohara Youhei, Who is Tomoya's best friend. He takes a call as a prank for Youhei, and ends up forgetting to tell him that his sister Mei is coming to town to check up on him because she is worried about him. Tomoya and Nagisa don't want her to worry, so they want to have her believe that he is fine because he "has a girlfriend", which they hope will convince her that he actually devoted his life to something ever since he losthis place on the soccer team, which was due to him not wanting to deal with the demeaning authority figures in charge.

The only problem with their plan was that no girl really cared for Sunohara, and were repulsed at the idea of any sort of romantic relations with him. Tomoya and Nagisa asked some of their friends if they would pretend to be so until Mei went home, but met with no luck. They ended up with Nagisa's mother playing the role, and it unfortunately worked too well on Sunohara himself, who was unaware of who she was, and fell in love with her.

Mei doesn't leave right away, and tries to validate the relationship. Sunohara thrusts himself into the relationship, and ends up practically ignoring Mei, which ends up making her incredibly sad. She go to great lengths to try to get him to get back on a good path, one she feels a brother should be on, starting with claiming she has an "older boyfriend" (which Okazaki attempts to portray to help her out) to asking the Soccer team to take him back in. After the Soccer Team starts picking on her, Sunohara jumps in to rescue her, leading to a large brawl. Okazaki and Sunohara get into a fight afterwards, and it ends with things going back to normal, including finding out that Sunohara's "girlfriend" was in fact Nagisa's mother.

Sunohara Mei and Sagara Misae, as portrayed in the game.

The second story follows the history of Sagara Misae, the dorm mother of the men's dorm Sunohara lives in. One note that has been a focus for her is that she has an orange cat, whom is portrayed illicitly as the reincarnation of Misae's high school sweetheart, Shima Katsuki. The character is not around, not even in the past, but is in a similar situation to Michiru from the anime Air. Katsuki had passed away due to a childhood disease, but his projection lives on to find Misae so he can thank her for being so kind to him when he was in the hospital. He feels that he has to grant her a wish with the orb of light he had obtained from "a close friend", although the persons' name is never mentioned. She originally has eyes for someone else and refuses to accept the wish, but finds out the person she likes is seeing someone else, and gets depressed. She sees how kind and caring Katsuki is when he constantly tries to comfort her, and ends up doing activities with him and coming to love him.

Katsuki has, however been coming to realize that he is not as people think he is. Misae's friends also befriend Katsuki. One day while they are hanging out, it gets late and they tell Katsuki that they would be happy to walk him home. He then realizes that he doesn't remember where he lives, and after a search they find his home, only to see that he had actually passed away some time ago. the friends decide to keep the condition a secret.

The relationship between the two continue, and Katsuki had forgotten about the wish until the night of a school festival. But when he reaches for the pouch that he had the orb stored in and opens it, he finds that it is empty. He gets frustrated, and Misae tells him that she has a wish anyway and that the orb is not necessary. Right after she tells him the wish, he vanishes. He shows up again a short time later, but as a reincarnation of a cat.

After the main bulk of the story has ended, another one-episode alternate timeline - like after the first half of this anime - is shown, and it follows the story of Fujibayashi Kyou. The episode, being only 22 minutes long, covers the last half of her story. the first half is hinted at, but regrettably can only be truly grasped if one has played the game.

It starts off with Tomoya and Kyou's twin sister, Ryou, beginning their relationship as a couple. Ryou is of course very happy, but Tomoya feels that something is not quite right. As he thinks about it and talks with both of the twins, he realizes that he should have actually been with Kyou. Kyou obviously has a lot of romantic feeling for Tomoya, but wants her sister to be happy and tries repeatedly to push Tomoya away when he tries to talk about it. So he tries to break up with Ryou, who can tell what is going to happen, but tries hard to shrug it off. After a couple of attempts, he tells her to meet him in their classroom (in the game it is the school courtyard). He gets there and sees her, and Says that he cannot be with Ryou because he loves Kyou. Then it is revealed that the girl in the room with her is actually Kyou, who cut her hair to Ryou's length and came in her place so she could hear those words herself. It ends with them starting the relationship that was meant to be for that story.

The ending scene of Kyou's arc from the game.

The real story then takes place after the festival regarding Misae. Nagisa comes down with another case of what took her out of school the year before, which ended with her being held back a year. As time passes and Nagisa doesn't get any better, it becomes painfully evident that Nagisa will once again have to repeat the senior year of high school. Tomoya decides that he wants to fail purposely so he can be with Nagisa through the schoolyear repeat, but after a long conversation with her parents, he decides it is best that he graduate and get a job so he could support Nagisa when the time comes.

So Tomoya graduates, moves into a small apartment, and starts working as an electrician with Yoshino Yusuke, whom he had met at the beginning of the school year and helped out of a small problem. Nagisa had finally recovered and is repeating the third year. A difference of some note between the game and the anime for during this time is that in the game Nagisa had moved into the apartment with Tomoya, whereas in the anime she still lives at home with her parents.

As Tomoya progresses in the job and in the relationship he has with Nagisa, a much more grand management position becomes available to him through his current manager. right as it draws near for Tomoya to accept the job, though, his father gets arrested. The job offer falls through because of it, and Tomoya becomes infuriated. He visits his father in prison, and as he storms out frustrated, he tries to injure himself. Nagisa stops him, and Tomoya realizes that without Nagisa he would have given up on things long ago. He proposes, and she accepts.

Tomoya and Nagisa tell Nagisa's mother, Sanae, who is thrilled. The father, Akio, whom can obviously tell, does not listen. Tomoya tries several times to talk to him, and challenges him to a baseball match. The rules were simple. If Tomoya could hit one ball thrown at him, then Akio would listen and accept what Tomoya would say unconditionally. There were two problems with it: one, Tomoya has a bad right shoulder, and has a hard time swinging, much less doing anything requiring a shoulder; and two, Akio loves and is really good at baseball. Match after match Tomoya fails and Akio just laughs. Tomoya practices constantly to beat him, but to no avail. Eventually Akio becomes tired of this and forces a final round. Tomoya fails to hit it once again. Akio laughs and walks off, but then is convinced by his wife that he should have just one more go, to which Tomoya finally has a successful hit. He unconditionally accepts Tomoya's engagement to Nagisa.

As the school year progresses, Nagisa once again falls ill to the same condition that held her back the last two years. But unlike the last two years, the school has said that she has enough days in to graduate. so although she is still sick on graduation, she does indeed graduate, just at home. Shortly after she gets better, Tomoya invites all of the people she knew to the school and they all throw her a small graduation ceremony. After the ceremony, Tomoya and Nagisa finally get married.

Nagisa at her own little graduation ceremony.

Nagisa now lives at the apartment as well, and some of the stereotypical newlywed scenarios appear, but only briefly. As time goes on, Nagisa becomes pregnant. Friends from their school life show up for a party and how each of their lives had turned out after school is the primary topic.

The main focus for most of the story arc dealing with the pregnancy begins when Nagisa once again falls ill due to her weak body. A doctor comes and initially informs them all that as long as Nagisa is taken care of, the baby should still be able to be delivered fine.

But, Further complications occur when the condition worsens. Tensions build between Nagisa and Tomoya when the doctor initially recommends an abortion after the news comes that Nagisa may not make it out of the pregnancy alive; Nagisa wants to have the baby and Tomoya wants to make sure Nagisa does not die. Tomoya goes to live in Nagisa's old house and Sanae lives with Nagisa for a couple of days. Tomoya realizes over the time apart that he wants the baby just as much as Nagisa does, and the tension subsides between them, even though Tomoya considers keeping Nagisa alive as a top priority. As they discuss the baby, they decide on the name Ushio, for whether it is a boy or a girl.

The day finally comes, and the baby girl Ushio is about to be born. They were wanting to have the birth performed in a hospital, but the snow piled up incredibly fast in the city and the roads were dangerous to be on, so the baby was going to arrive in their apartment. Nagisa's condition also coincidentally worsens as the whole event is happening. Then Ushio finally arrives, and Nagisa and Tomoya joy over it. Then Nagisa passes away.

Five years pass, and Tomoya is at an all-time low. He feels he has no reason to live since Nagisa is gone, so he just works and blows most of the money on alcohol and gambling. After Ushio was born, Tomoya had Sanae and Akio take care of her. Sanae tries to visit often with Ushio during those five years, but Tomoya only barely acknowleges their existence. Sanae has had enough of that, and convinces Tomoya that he needs to take a couple of days off of work and come on a family trip with her, Akio, and Ushio. Tomoya reluctantly agrees. When he arrives at their house, however, the only person there is Ushio, with a note from Sanae saying that herself and Akio needed to go somewhere urgently and will be back as soon as they can.

Ushio, slightly scared of Tomoya after he seriously acknowledges her existence.

Tomoya is not thrilled that he has to be alone with Ushio, especially since not only does Ushio remind him of Nagisa, but that she also looks a lot like her, too. He spends time with her and does things with her as to what he feels he is required to. After an entire day passes and Akio and Sanae have not come back, Tomoya asks Ushio if she still wants to go on the trip that Sanae had planned. Ushio wants to, so they leave.

There were, conveniently, the tickets of where they were going to go immediately available, as well as where the destination was. Tomoya recognizes the destination only vaguely, but does not dwell on it. They get on the train, and Ushio keeps asking about Nagisa, to which Tomoya just shrugs it off saying that he will not talk about it and so she should just keep asking Sanae. As they sit there, there is a kid behind him that is making a lot of noise, to which Tomoya raises his voice to both the parent and the kid, asking them to keep it down. When he returns to his seat, he sees Ushio is not there. He goes looking for her, and finds her in the bathroom crying. He asks her if she was crying, to which she says that Sanae says she can only cry if she is in the bathroom. Calms her down and they return to their seats.

After a couple of stops they go to a store and Tomoya buys Ushio a present before they turn in to a hotel. When the morning comes they get back on the train and arrive at the destination that Sanae had set out for them, which is a large field of flowers, which Tomoya realizes as a place his father took him as a child. Ushio plays in the field until she comes back and says that the toy Tomoya bought for her is lost. Tomoya looks for it with her, but continues to have recollections of his past, to the point that he tells Ushio he will be gone for a moment, and leaves as Ushio continues to look for the toy.

He arrives at a coast, where an elderly woman is waiting. She is Tomoya's grandmother, and she tells Tomoya the story of his father, and how he vowed to raise Tomoya on his own with all of his heart when Tomoya's mother had died. She then also tells him what sacrifices the father made for Tomoya, and the depths of despair he went into to keep Tomoya happy. Tomoya has the startling revelation that he is no different than his father, and vows to raise and love Ushio similar to how his father raised him. He takes his grandmother to the field he left Ushio in, and sees her still looking for the toy. He goes out to her and says he can buy another, but Ushio says she wants to find the one she has been looking for, since it was the first thing Tomoya gave to her. When she realizes she can't find it anywhere, she asks if it is okay to cry, and she says that Sanae would only allow her to cry in the bathroom or in her father's arms. Tomoya, who is now deeply regretting how he had treated her for the last five years and how much he realizes he loves her, allows it. They both talk to Tomoya's grandmother one last time, and go home. Tomoya then asks Ushio if she would like to know more about Nagisa, and as he tells their story, he breaks down and cries, realizing all of the joys they had and all the joys he could have had with Ushio. He asks Ushio if she would like to live with him from now on, to which Ushio becomes very happy and agrees.

Ushio, smiling after she knows she will finally live with her father.

Upon arrival, they see Sanae and Akio, and Tomoya informs them that he will be taking care of Ushio from now on. Tomoya decides to grab all of the things that were once Nagisa's, and he and Ushio begin living together. Tomoya moves his work schedule around so he can take Ushio to school, and finds out that Fujibayashi Kyou is Ushio's teacher.

Time goes on, and their bonds develop. Tomoya runs into Yusuke's wife, Kouko, and sees Fuko. Fuko and Tomoya, although they do not remember each other due to the way their situation from the first part of the had worked out, end up going through the same teasing that had frequently gone on. But Fuko sees Ushio, and instantly falls in love with her and declares herself Ushio's sister. Ushio doesn't seem to really care, and befriends Fuko.

As a kindergarten parent's game arrives, Akio and Tomoya sign themselves up to participate, but Tomoya drops out when Ushio falls under the same weakening condition that befell Nagisa. A doctor merely says that it is the same as Nagisa's and only time will tell if she gets better. Tomoya feels that he has to take care of Ushio full-time, and so he quits work and lives off the money he has been saving since Ushio moved in, doing something quite similar to what Akio and Sanae did when Nagisa had initially came down with the same condition.

Ushio's condition deteriorates as the seasons change from summer to fall to winter. Ushio frequently asks if she and Tomoya can go on a trip like the one they had previously, and Tomoya keeps replying that they will most definitely go when she gets better. But Ushio does not get better, even to the point that she can no longer do basic things right. Finally, with the realization that she won't get better, Tomoya decides to take her on a trip when Ushio asks again.

As they walk down the snow-laden path, Tomoya keeps helping the rapidly deteriorating Ushio up and helps her walk. She finally just collapses, and asks if they are at their destination yet. Tomoya replies, and Ushio tells him she loves him. Tomoya returns the sentiment, and Ushio passes away in his arms. Tomoya yells out, and everything fades away.

The Hidden World's final story arc transitions in, and it shows the machine and the girl walking through the heavy snow. The girl collapses, and the machine tries with no luck to get her to keep moving. The girl informs the machine that she was having a dream, a dream of the two of them in the world that he has been trying to get them to. She tells him that he was the only thing that was connected to this world and the other world, and that although she cannot leave the world they are both in, he must go back to that world. She tells him that she wants him to be happy in the other world, ending with one simple phrase, "Goodbye, daddy." The Hidden World then vanishes.

Things return to Tomoya, who seems to be stuck in a nightmare. He has the recurring thought that he hates the city he is in, because it holds all of the memories he wants to forget. He feels that if he never met Nagisa, if he never gave her that push up the slope to the school, then he wouldn't have had to deal with the pain he went through over the past six years, and that Nagisa and Ushio would both not have had to go through what they went through. As the nightmare comes to the climax, he is arriving at the point where Nagisa and he first met. The thoughts of the pain still racing in his mind, he hears Nagisa say the same things she did that radiated the signs of lack of courage and emotional struggle. But instead of saying what he did to give her the courage, he remains silent, thinking to himself that it would be for the better.

Nagisa then turns around and begins walking back down the slope. Suddnenly, Tomoya then begins thinking of all the happy times he had with both Nagisa and Ushio alike, and realizes that they still greatly outweigh the sad times, and that they all became better stronger people because of it. He yells out her name and chases after her down the slope. He catches up to her and apologizes for doubting and trying to forget their memories. Nagisa replies that she is glad he stopped her from thinking all the sad thoughts, saying that without him she would not be as strong as she was while they were together. The nightmare Tomoya was experiencing then fades out.

Coming out of the nightmare, Tomoya is awoken by the sound of a crying baby. He realizes he is back to the time of Ushio's birth. He holds Ushio and shows her to Nagisa, exclaiming all of the things he and she will do with Ushio, and all the joy they will have. This time, Nagisa regains strength and lives through the ordeal. They spend their first few days with all of the family, and as the story ends, it shows Ushio growing up with both Tomoya and Nagisa present to see it all.

And the story ends, as the story's true ending.

~Koubo

The Clannad article List
Part one: Clannad
Part two: The Hidden World
Part three: Clannad ~After Story~

Quick! Use A Monomate!

2009-09-04T12:00:00.000-07:00

Does my title confuse you? If so, then you've obviously never played the game I'm reviewing today. (Or any of the game's predecessors.) If you know exactly what my title is referring to, then kudos to you for playing a great game.

Phantasy Star games have been around for ages, the first of which was released on the Sega Master System. The orignal Phantasy Star games were regular RPGs, but recently the Phantasy Star world has been extended into the MMORPG realm; first with Phantasy Star Online, which was released for the original X-Box and the Game Cube, although, most people just played the games in offline mode because there wasn't a whole lot to do in online mode. Next came Phantasy Star Universe which played much like Phantasy Star Online (PSO), but utilized the online aspect of the game more. Phantasy Star Universe (PSU) was released on the PC and the X-Box 360 and, while it wasn't/isn't as popular as other MMORPGs (such as World of Warcraft) it's still a great game.
But, the Phantasy Star game I'm going to be reviewing today is: Phantasy Star Portable which was released for the PSP. Phantasy Star Portable took what was best about PSU and made it better. The game plays much the same as PSU and even looks quite a bit the same. (Obviously the graphics aren't going to be as amazing, but on the PSP's smaller screen, they still look awesome.)

The story (which I'm not going to go into very much so I don't spoil anything) for Phantasy Star Portable is set after the second game of PSU. You start out as a new recruit in the Guardians. The Guardians are a group of warriors who protect the Universe. There are 4 races to choose from when you start: Humans, Newmans (similar to elves, Casts (robots) and Beasts. Each race has something special about them, as is normal for an RPG. Every player will start out the game as a Hunter (sword user), but you are able to change your race throughout the game whenever you choose to. The types of armor and weapons you can use aer determined by your class, as are your physical stats. The basic classes are Hunter, Ranger (gun user) and Force (magic user). As your class level increases, you can upgrade to higher versions of the base classes as well as a few classes that are more of a mix between two or three classes. No matter what class you choose, your weapon and armor selection are going to be different.
In case you can't tell by my previous posts, I'm kind of a World of Warcraft nut. But, I can't seem to pull myself away from Phantasy Star Portable (or PSU or PSO) when I start playing it. The gameplay is simple, and complex at the same time. Basically, you attack bad guys with whatever you have available be it a sword, an axe, a grenade launcher, a wand, or a Sega Genesis that floats behind you and shoots them. I think one of the things that draws me to Phantasy Star Portable (and PSO and PSU) is that it's one of the few Sci-fi RPGs that is as fun to play as the fantasy RPGs that are so popular.

The one downside I can think of with accordance to the games is that the world isn't nearly as large as the world in a game like World of Warcraft. Yes, Phantasy Star Portable, PSU and PSO have large worlds to play in, but they aren't an open world like WoW. Instead, you have tons of mini maps and levels to explore that are reached by flying to other planets. (No, it's not a free fly. The flying is more of a loading screen.) But, honestly, it's not really a huge problem for me.

With Phantasy Star Portable, there isn't any online play. Instead, there is the option for Ad-Hoc play with your friends, which is not as nice as playing with people all over the world, but is still a nice feature if, like me, you still just play with your friends when you're online. Unlike PSU, where your online character and your offline character were two different toons, Phantasy Star Portable allows you to play the same character in both multiplayer and single player mode, which is a nice step up. If you have the game already, but haven't ever tried multi-mode, I highly recommend it. There are certain items you can only get in online mode which make the game more entertaining.

All in all, Phantasy Star Portable probably ranks up as one of my favorite PSP games, which is really saying something. If you're into RPGs and want one that plays like an MMORPG without actually being one, then Phantasy Star Portable is a great game to try.

My score: 9 out of 10 (That's right, I'm doing it out of 10 now.)

It would honestly be a perfect 10 out of 10 if the game had a more open world, but, as I said, that's not really a huge problem, so I'm only taking one point away.

Update!

I've heard that because of the success of the first game, there is a sequel to Phantasy Star Portable coming to Japan on Dec. 3rd. No word on whether it will ever be released in the U.S.

$4 billion potentially catastrophic dissapointments

2009-08-31T11:05:00.001-07:00

(This article has been edited by Koubo.)

This makes all of us at TCO disappointed.

If you don't want to believe this information if it comes from just one location, believe three more sites, as that this is definitely not small news.

In a press conference on August 28, 2009, the aquisition was announced. The news is not small. Put a search into google and countless links pop up informing of the news. And if you read user comments on articles that are allowed to be posted on the appropriate sites, people end up either stating they hate it or fear that it will make marvel turn quite sour.

Regardless, the process should be done by the end of this year. I don't know about the rest of you, but I don't want to see all of my beloved comic book characters become fodder for the monsters at Disney. I can just see the monstrosities now: "Hannah Montana meets Spider-man" or "The Jonas Brothers join the X-men".

While that seems very unlikely, it will now be a possibility.

While it may not be well-known, it is not hidden that Warner Bros. Entertainment bought out DC Comics in 1969. No noticeable effects have hit the media yet. and it is 40 years later. Disney is different than WB, that is for sure, but only time will tell if they will take the path that most people are fearing.

I can think of at least 20 other movie companies I'd rather see Marvel bought by. [At least]
the article(s) (do) state that all the current movie deals are going to stay the same. Spider-man 4 will still be done by Sony Pictures, X-men Origins: Magneto and X-men Origins Wolverine 2 will still be done by 20th Century Fox, etc. So, at least we still have that. But, for any future Marvel Comic movie adaptations, expect to see them sailing under the Jolly Roger of Disney.
What does everyone else think of this? Am I the only one who is dreading it?

World Of Warcraft: Cataclysm

2009-08-25T12:28:00.000-07:00

The newest expansion for World of Warcraft was announced at Blizzcon. World of Warcraft: Cataclysm. In this expansion the land of Azeroth has been decimated by a confrontation between two of the Dragon Aspects. The result is a completely changed map for the game.
There will be two new playable races introduced into the game. The Goblins and the Worgen. From what I've read, it seems that both races will be playable on either faction (Alliance and Horde). There will not be any new classes, but there will be races able to play classes that they couldn't previously. The level cap for players will be raised to 85. (I think it's 85, that's what I last heard.) There will be a new profession available: Archaeology.
Word is, even if you don't buy the expansion, the game will be changed anyway, which is to say, the map will still be altered, among other things. (Although, you will need to buy the expansion to play any of the new features. And you know you'll want to.)

What have the rest of you heard about the new expansion? Share what you know with us.

(Oh, and sorry for 2 posts today.)

Electroplankton

2009-08-25T11:41:00.000-07:00

Today I'd like to take a minute to talk about a game that is one of the rare gems in my collection. It's called: Electroplankton.
This Nintendo DS title is not just rare in the sense that it is hard to find (which it is) but has a rare style of gameplay. This is one of the few games I've played that doesn't have a main goal. There is no beginning, middle, or end to the game and there's no way to beat the game. The game is just meant to be played for fun and not to unlock things or get a high score. In fact, there is no scoring system in the game at all and everything is unlocked when you first start playing.

Developed by Toshio Iwai, the whole purpose of the game is to create sounds and music. In the game, there are ten different types of plankton. Each type of plankton does different things when they are interacted with. All of them will make some kind of sound and will create beautiful designs on the screen. You can interact with them through both the touch screen and the microphone on the DS. One type of plankton will create designs on the screen when you make different sound into the microphone. Others will move about on a grid of arrows that point in the direction you choose, and will make different sounds depending on which arrows they land on. Another will record about 10 seconds of audio and will play it back, allowing you to alter it depending on what shape the plankton is.
Honestly, the game is meant to be fun, and it is. The different combinations of sound you can make with it are extremely entertaining. The replay value for the game is quite high. I've spent hours playing with it and still find myself pulling it out to play. If you can manage to find a copy of this game, I recommend picking it up. I'm sure you'll enjoy it.

My score: Another 5 out of 5.

I've yet to find another game that is so simple, and yet so intruiging.

Archos: Competition For Apple?

2009-08-18T09:29:00.000-07:00

Time for another technology blog. I haven't done one since the PSP Go post I did back in July. Today it's going to be about media players.
So, my iPod Touch is slowly but surely heading towards death. I've only had it for about a year, but apparently the 2nd Gen iPod Touch batteries don't last as long as the 1st Gen ones. I'm mostly to blame for it dying. I use it all the time and as such, I have to charge it almost every other night. But, now the battery doesn't want to hold a charge for more than a few hours. So, I'm thinking it's time for a replacement right about now. I thought about just buying another Touch, but I don't really want to have to keep replacing it every year, so I've been looking around at what my options are.
I want to stay with something that has a touch screen simply because they are usually easier to navigate through music and such than other players. I know that the Zune HD is coming out in the next month or so, and I really considered buying one. But, I'm a Mac user and I'm not sure how well a Microsoft player would work with a Mac. So, I tossed that idea out the window. There aren't a whole lot of huge media player brands out there. Microsoft and Apple have pretty much cornered the market on those.
So, I started looking around at what my other options are. After wading through the various smaller brands of media players, most of which did not have touch screens and had smaller hard drives than I was looking for, I came across the Archos 5 which met pretty much all of my requirements. It had a touch screen (bigger than the iPod Touch's), a large hard drive (250 gigs at it's biggest) and it supported more video and audio files than most other media players. It's also got an internet browser built in that allows viewing of Flash pages (Something the iPod Touch cannot do). There's even a built in PDF viewer. Granted, to be able to access the full range of the Archos 5's capabilities you have to download a few plugins, some of which cost some money (the ones that allow for more media types), which isn't really a problem to me. In the end, I decided to go with an Archos.

Now, the downside to buying something other than the iPod Touch is that I can't use all of those great apps that I downloaded during the course of owning a Touch. I mulled this over in my head and decided that I wasn't too worried about that. I have some great apps on my Touch, but it's gotten to the point that I don't use any of them anymore. Mostly, I use it for music, movies, and pictures, and with the Archos' huge hard drive, I shouldn't have any want for space for those.

My final say: I've owned an Archos before and was mightily pleased with it, but sold it for an iPod with a larger hard drive. I've been pleased with what I've seen about the Archos 5 (My friend has one that he let me fiddle around with for a while) and I'm very excited to buy one.

If you're looking for a large capacity media player and want to stick it to Apple and Microsoft, I definitely recommend the Archos line.

Feel The Magic XY-XX

2009-08-10T12:10:00.001-07:00

Feel The Magic is one of the games that came out right around the same time that the original Nintendo DS came out all those years ago. (It really does seem like it's been a while since the DS first came out.) You've probably seen the game sitting in the used game section of your local video game store and never thought of buying it. But, I'm here to tell you, BUY IT! It's one of the most creative games I've seen for any system. It's a "mini-game" type of game and I know what you're thinking. "But, there are so many mini-game games for the DS and none of them are that fun, why should this one be any different?" Well, this article will tell you why it's different.
I was like you, I didn't think much of the game when I first saw it. But, at the time, there weren't many games out for the DS, so I ended up buying it just so I could have something to play other than Mario 64. After only a few minutes of playing I was hooked.

The story for Feel The Magic is classic. Boy meets girl, they fall in love, boy does crazy things to impress her, boy and girl get stranded on a desert island, girl gets kidnapped by different boy, and boy has to rescue girl. Ok, so maybe that's not a classic story, but it's still a good one.

The story is progressed by completing various mini games all of which are simple, yet complex at the same time. The games utilize all the features of the Original DS and the DS Lite. Sometimes you'll be blowing into the microphone to put out giant candles that are attacking, sometimes you'll be rubbing madly back and forth on the touch pad to fan a fire into life, while other times, you'll be using a more precise touch on the touch pad to guide yourself across a narrow beam between two buildings. All of the mini games are, in my opinion, addicting. You'll be graded on all of them and depending on how well you do, you can unlock things in the game. Mostly you'll be unlocking new outfits and hairstyles for the girl to wear (which sounds lame, but trust me, it's pretty fun), but you can also unlock things like a sound and music menu.

I won't give away the ending of the game, but I'll say this: It's one of the craziest boss fights I've ever been in. Seriously.

If what I've said doesn't strike your fancy, then try the game out just to see the unique art style used in it. It reminds me of iPod commercials. Also, the game is really quite funny. I laughed quite a bit while playing it.

This is honestly one of the Rare Gems in my video game collection. I highly recommend everyone picks it up and gives it a try.

My score: 5 out of 5.

This game is fun, inventive, and addicting and has great replay value. Even after all these years I still find myself pulling it out and playing it over and over again.

The Hidden World

2009-08-10T04:28:00.000-07:00

The Hidden World is a sub-story that is shown throughout all of Clannad for small segments at a time. It is also referred to as the Illusionary World. It shows at least one segment during each of the main stories, and finished up alongside After Story.

The Hidden World is a sort-of world that Okazaki Tomoya has dreams about. It follows an interesting conciousness who narrates the scenes as they appear, explaining his views on the world, the situations, his emotions, and what he feels about the nameless girl whom he is fixated on.

The nameless girl is the only person living on the entire planet. She has a unique ability to fuse together junk to make objects. She is aware of the nameless conciousness, though she cannot see him; he is also aware of her, although they are unable to communicate. She decides fuses a body together for him out of junk, which looks like a small robot. She teaches him how to walk, and they become friends, making the girl happy that she is no longer alone.

The nameless girl from the Hidden World.

The conciousness, now in the world, spends his time with the girl. Although the robot cannot talk, he communicates through nods and jumps and other bodily expressions. They build various things to enjoy together, such as various playground objects.

The robot seems to have the perspective of a child, being curious about his surroundings. He comes to have the basic understanding of most things and how they work, except the stream of small orbs of light that are constantly floating around. A big deal is made of them; he tries to grab one, and it just passes through his hand. It makes no shadow, either. The girl asks if he is confused about it, and he nods yes; she then simply says that she finds it something she is familiar with.

The girl, the robot, and some sheep they found while wandering.

The world does experience seasons, just as earth does, and eventually winter starts approaching. The girl is becoming unable to move, and as winter slowly comes the amount of time she can move decreases. The robot has been recalling very vague memories of a better world, ones with more people, and wants the girl and him to go there, and to escape from this cold. During the times that the girl is able to move, she puts tries to put together a type of flying apparatus from the parts that the robot collects and brings to her.

The robot collecting materials for the flying machine.

Winter comes upon them in full force before the machine is completed, however, and the girl is now barely able to move at all. The desire from the robot to leave this lonely world and go to the better one he can barely remember is at this point at a peak, and he convinces the girl to muster up all of her strength so they can leave.

They stop several times before the girl collapses and becomes completely unable to move. At this point she becomes aware of the conciousness completely - even to the point of who he is. He wants her to keep moving, but she informs him that she cannot, since she is a keeper of sorts of the world.

She then proceeds to tell him about the lights, and how they are the hopes and dreams of people from the other world that the robot keeps wanting to go to. Then, to confuse the robot further, she tells him that unlike her he is connected through both worlds, but doesn't belong in this one. She wants him to return to his world, and wishes him goodbye, with the final word being, "father", and the world vanishes.

The girl, collapsed, and the robot next to her. At this happens, they are able to actually talk to each other.

The lights are a substory running throughout the main stories of Clannad and After Story, making only select appearances, a couple of which being seen by characters on certain occasion, and the story about what they are being told only once by a character in After Story.

During the game, however, the lights are much more prominent. After each gir's story was completed, a light appears. After a certain amount are collected, the option to play After Story appears. More lights can be obtained during After Story, and are required to see the true ending.

The orbs of light, as the explanation goes, are a manifestation of the hopes and dreams and/or happiness of the people of the town, and appear when a particularly happy moment in someone's life happens.

The story of the Hidden World makes little connection with the story of Clannad, and has little connection to most of After Story. It becomes apparent that the conciousness/robot is the manifestation of Tomoya.

the rest of the explanation for how it ties in will be explained in the article about After Story. That will be up soon.

~Koubo

The Clannad article list
Part one: Clannad
Part two: The Hidden World
Part three: Clannad ~After Story~

Clannad

2009-08-06T01:43:00.001-07:00

Clannad is the title of the third game released by the company Key, and is arguably one of the most prominent visual novels for Visual Arts released in Japan, having repeatedly placed in top sales lists. Additionally, in a poll taken by japanese gamers as to "which game moved you to tears", Clannad placed second, above Final Fantasy VII and even the previous titles by Key.

As stated earlier, Clannad is also Key's second longest work. It is large enough that once the player unlocks all the alternate endings in the game, another game - titled After Story - unlocks, and continues on telling the story of the two main characters right where Clannad itself ends off. In addition, one of the paths in the game was so popular that a new game was made focusing on the continuation of that path, titled Tomoyo After: It's A Wonderful Life.

The anime is nowhere near small, either. Clannad was 49 episodes long, half covering the first part of the game, and the other half covering After Story, with two of the episodes giving alternate universes. The anime, with only a handful of exceptions, uses the same or remixed versions of the music used in the game.

This article will be about Clannad itself, and an article covering After Story will come at a later time. Clannad revolves around the high school life of each of the main characters.

Okazaki Tomoya, the main protagonist of the story.

The main focus of Clannad revolves around Okazaki Tomoya, who is in his third year of high school and has been labeled a delinquent by just about everyone who knows him, even the people who consider him a friend. He and his best friend, Sunohara Youhei, constantly ditch classes and/or show up late for classes, doing nothing but bum around Sunohara's dorm room.

Tomoya has a horrible relationship with his father, due to a fight they got in prior to him entering high school. The fight escalated to a point of grappling, and ended with Tomoya's shoulder becoming injured. It never healed properly, and resulted in Tomoya never being able to raise one of his arms above shoulder height again. Since their fight, his father has distanced himself, resulting in a separation of family connection; his father greets his own son now as if he were greeting an old aquaintance, and this impacts Tomoya obviously when the topic is touched upon.

However, although he occasionally dwells on this, it is not the center focus of his activities. It rarely even comes up in the game or anime itself, except at a small amount of critical moments.

At the very start, he is walking to school complaining about how he hates his life and the town he is in. As he arrives at the path to get to school, he stops and sees a girl standing there, Furukawa Nagisa, radiating obvious signs of lack of courage and emotional struggle. He hears her talking to herself about how she may never come to like school, due to at least one reason being, "nothing ever stays unchanged." Before she gets too far into depression, Tomoya stops her and tells her that although nothing remains unchanged, it is a good thing, and that she should find new things to be happy about. She took courage from that, and Tomoya took some strength from it too, and they walk up the path to school together.

Tomoya and Nagisa, at the bottom of the slope.

The focus of the entire series, both game and anime, ultimately ends up being on the relationship between Tomoya and Nagisa. Since the boost of courage, Nagisa begins changing from one without courage to someone who is capable of many things, despite a physical condition that makes her naturally and constantly weak. Throughout the story of Clannad she is trying to reestablish the theatre club, which was disbanded at the end of the previous year due to lack of members. She, like Tomoya, is also in her third year, although she has had to repeat it, thanks to her weakness ending up keeping her out of school for over nine months. Nagisa has not been alone, though; her parents are people who run a bakery from their home and make a living off of that to support their family. A recurring theme for Nagisa is the "Big Dango Family".

The focus does not, hovever, stay solely on them. There are four other main female characters, and each of these girls has a very intricate bacground. As usual for products made by Key, all of the characters are introduced within the first couple of episodes. Detailed information regarding their personalities and relationships with others is set pretty quickly, and it does not deviate.

One character, as is now expected, is experiencing a form of autoscopy. This situation is significantly different from the other two. The character's name is Ibuki Fuko. She is roughly the same age as Tomoya. During her first year, right after the entrance ceremony, she got into a horrible accident, and was hospitalized. Tomoya finds her carving a block of wood, which she claims is going to be a starfish. She intends to give one to each person of the student body as an invitation to her sister's wedding. Her autoscopic situation is different in that as time moves on people end up forgetting about her and that she even existed, this even eventually happening to Tomoya, who was the closest character to her.

The main females of the story. From left to right: Ibuki Fuko, Ichinose Kotomi, Fujibayashi Kyou, Furukawa Nagisa, and Sakagami Tomoyo.

The second girl who gets focused on is Ichinose Kotomi. She is a super genius, yet has a level of extreme social awkwarness. Tomoya finds her in the library reading some very advanced books about a Hidden World, which it turns out that her parents were studying the same topic in intense detail before they passed away. He originally asks her to help him and Nagisa, but then that plan changes into him trying to get her out of her shell and having lots of friends.

Sakagami Tomoyo is another story focus. She is trying for student council president. However, she has a past of being involved in gang and street fights, of which she has always easily and quickly won, and that becomes an obstacle for her goal more than once. Her first appearance is her ending up in a fight from some people who broke onto school grounds looking to make trouble. She gave that life up for family reasons, and has has made several personal focuses take its place.

Tomoyo is one of two girls that has an alternate universe revolve around her. The last episode in the set titled just "Clannad" is an episode focusing on her path in the game, and plays in the anime as a "what if" scenario. It covers the highlights of her story arc from the game, and although it rushes through her multi-hour story in a matter of 22 minutes, the point is crossed enough that one can understand what is going on.

After all these girls have their stories wrapped up, it focuses on the first major story of Nagisa and Tomoya. Nagisa has achieved at reinstating the theatre club, and is focusing on the play her and her friends intend to show at the founders festival. As the play completes and the festival is winding down, she and Tomoya, after all the pre-relationship awkwardness that typically fits in an anime like this wraps up, finally become a couple.

The only girl that didn't really have her story focused on in the bulk of either Clannad or After Story is Fujibayashi Kyou. It becomes obvious that she and her twin sister, Ryou, have quite strong romantic feelings for Tomoya, but that story regrettably does not get much light of day. Her story gets touched on at various times during the bulk of the series, but the only time it gets true focus is in the other alternate universe episode, which resides at the end, when After Story has finished. It focuses on Kyou specifically, and covers the end of her story arc in the game. Throughout the entire series, she is probably most noted for having a pet baby boar, whom she has lovingly named Botan.

Kyou's pet boar, Botan.

After Story is only obtainable in the game after completing every story arc in the main game. It will be introduced and explained in an article that will come later. The next article that will be posted is about the Hidden World, which is introduced in Clannad, but plays no part in the story until the main segment of After Story is in full force.

Clannad can stand as an anime by itself. It is a story that wraps up all of the parts it presents (except the story of the Hidden World). It is a very detailed and beautifully written story. The story completely wraps up in After Story, which is also where the reason for why it is considered to be one of the saddest stories out there resides.

The Big Dango Family, or Dango Daikazoku.

Enjoy the read. The next articles may end up being just as long.

~Koubo

The Clannad afticle list
Part one: Clannad
Part two: The Hidden World
Part three: Clannad ~After Story~

Lost In Translation & Becoming Too Real

2009-08-05T09:02:00.001-07:00

My post for today is spawned by the comments in a couple of different posts.
First off, I just want to get some opinions from people about what gets lost in a manga or anime when it is translated from Japanese to English. I personally feel that you lose some of the humor in the jokes that are made. The jokes are funny to Japanese people who read it before it is translated, but after it had been translated to English, I just don't seem to get the joke. It seems that this is because of 1 of 2 things. Either I don't have as great of a sense of humor as I think I do and I just don't get why the Japanese find something funny, or the joke made more sense before translation. Am I the only one that feels this way? This is one of the reasons I tend to enjoy American graphic novels more than their Japanese counterparts. Nothing has been translated so I don't have to wonder what's funny when a joke is made.

This is how I feel sometimes when reading manga.

There is one American graphic novel that is a perfect example of this. It's called MegaTokyo. It's drawn to look like a Japanese manga, but the artist/writer, Fred Gallagher, is an American. Originally, MegaTokyo was just a web comic, but was eventually published into books. (Review on MegaTokyo to come later.)

This is not to say that I don't like Japanese manga, quite the contrary. Some of my favorite graphic novels are Japanese. But, as an american, I like to support "local" artists. (Local meaning American.) My Manga Monday recommendation for this week is a great example of why American graphic novels are just as good as the Japanese Manga. Johnny The Homicidal Maniac is a wonderfully captivating story with an amazing art style.

The other topic I'd like to discuss today is animation being too realistic. You see it in a lot of animes and mangas nowadays. The artists try to make the shows they animate seem so real that you forget that you're watching a cartoon. Which is great, but I feel that something is lost when a cartoon becomes too realistic. Cartoons of any kind are supposed to be able to stretch the limits of what is really possible and do things that can't be done in a live action show.

A prime example of anime being too realistic.

There are cases when a cartoon becomes too un-realistic, though. You tend to see this more in American TV shows rather than Japanese anime. (Although the japanese have come out with some animes that fit into this category, I'm sure.)

A prime example of a cartoon that is just poorly animated.

What does everyone else think? Do you prefer realistic looking animes or do you prefer to have your anime maintain the "cartoony" look? What about translation? Do you find that something is lost when an anime or manga is translated to English? Share your thoughts with us.

Air

2009-08-04T02:34:00.000-07:00

Air is an anime based off of the visual novel Air. It is commonly referred to as Air TV. It ran for twelve episodes plus two OVA. Unlike both Kanon and Clannad, it does not completely follow the main male character. Additionally, unlike the other animes, it ends on a sad note and does not attempt to correct it. The game and series are made and owned by Key.

Although the game Air came out after the game Kanon, this anime was actually released before the second version of the Kanon anime.

It has two major stories, the first following Kamio Misuzu, who is the focus of the anime. It has two other girls, Tohno Minagi, and Kirishima Kano. While focus is directed towards Minagi and Kano during the telling of their particular stories, the major focus remains on Misuzu throughout.

The main male character, who is the primary person to have interaction for each of the girls, is Kunisaki Yukito. He is a traveling entertainer, who uses telekenesis to move his little doll around and entertain. He arrives in the town in hopes that he will make some money.

He is also looking for "A girl in the sky", who he claims to have wings. He is trying to find her because it is apparent that it is his family legacy, as that his mother was searching for this same girl, as well as his grandmother and great grandmother. The girl is distinguished by an illness, which causes her to have dreams that play in reverse sequential order, with the last part of the story being told first. Yukito comes to realize that the current incarnation of the girl is in fact Misuzu.

The girls of Air. Going clockwise from bottom left: Kamio Misuzu, Kirishima Kano, Tohno Minagi, and Michuru.

The first story to be focused on is Kano. She proclaims herself to be a member of "Planet Dilly-Dally", and meets Yukito after her friend, the towns' stray dog Potato steals Yukito's doll. She is distinguished easily by a yellow piece of cloth tied to her right wrist. She claims it is to keep her magic powers locked away until she is old enough to use them.

She does not actually have any powers; she is occasionally "posessed" by an unkown force, which is thanks to her touching a magical feather in the local shrine, which is later implicated to be a feather from "the girl in the sky". In an attempt to keep the posessing spirit away, Kano's older sister Hijiri tied the cloth around her sister's wrist and told her it was to keep the magic powers safe until she was of the right age, or she would lose them. This was told to Kano after she realized something was happening to her.

The second story follows Tohno Minagi. It is an important fact that she is an only child to have come from her biological parents. She was going to have a sister, but due to a miscarriage the baby was never born. The news crushed her mother so much that it led to the family falling apart, and the father moved away and has another family of his own.

This story includes the form of Autoscopy, although it is not in the same way as either Kanon or Clannad. The person who is in the state is Michiru, who is the unborn sister of Minagi. Minagi was also devistated by the miscarriage, and after time she created the autoscopic event herself, and Michiru was created. Both Michiru and Minagi know that Michiru is not real, and both know to some extent that Michiru is nothing but a "fragment of a dream".

Yukito is more of a bystander than anything else in this story. He realizes facts on his own, and tries to help bring Minagi and her mother closer together, which is something that was only partially achieved after the miscarriage; her mom calls her Michiru, and had completely forgotten about Minagi.

The third story follows Kamio Misuzu, who has had the majority of the focus throughout the entire series. She is the reincarnation of "the girl with wings", and has the reverse progressing dreams. She lives with her aunt, Haruko, which is due to her family forcing Misuzu on her when it was known that her parents themselves wouldn't take care of her after they split up. They have a mutual agreement to live their own lives and not dig too deeply into each others, even though they continue to live under the same roof. Yukito comes to live with them in the first episode, when Misuzu shows compassion to Yukito's lack of a living situation.

Thanks to Misuzu's dream progression, after each night she gets physically worse and worse, though only noticeable signs are presented when her story begins to take control of the series. Yukito feels connected to the situation, though he doesn't know how. He decides to leave after Misuzu has a very hard strike against her well-being, but comes back after he remembers his mother's words regarding how their family line is supposed to watch over those who are born with the curse Misuzu has, and that the doll he has is filled with the wishes and hopes of his predecessors, hoping that their wishes will be fulfilled and used when the "girl in the sky" is found. He arrives and tells Misuzu that he is not leaving again. He then adds his own wish to the doll, and vanishes.

Halfway through her story, it switches to an entirely different story, set one thousand years in the past, and follows the literal story of the girl with wings, who is named Kanna.

The characters in the past. From left to right: Ryuya, Kanna, and Uraha.

Kanna is a winged being, who are revered as messengers to the gods, and feared for the power they could potentially wield, and thus she is guarded. Unlike all the other winged beings referred to in the past, she is the only one who actually does not know how to fly.

The story begins with Ryuya being tackled by Kanna, who was trying to fly away. Ryuya is one of her guards, and is a center of focus for Kanna. Kanna and Ryuya become good friends shortly later.

Uraha is one of Kanna's servants. She and Ryuya love to joke and tease Kanna. Tension builds up fast for all three when they think that, for someone so revered to be a messenger to the gods, it is weird for the person to be locked away and restricted to small areas. Kanna has the desire to meet her mother, and Ryuya and Uraha want to get her away from the confinement, so with Ryuya's skills as a swordsman they are able to escape, and begin searching for Kanna's mother.

During the travels, they are blocked by monks, who are trying to rid the world of the winged beasts. Kanna tries to save Ryuya and Uraha by flying away (which after a moment of struggle she succeeds at), but is then bound and cursed into a cycle of reincarnation and suffering. Uraha and Ryuya decide to leave it to their decendants to find the reincarnations of Kanna, which leads to where the majority of the anime itself plays out between Yukito, who is a decendant of Ryuya, and Misuzu, who is the reincarnation of Kanna.

Upon the conclusion of their story, it returns to Misuzu's. The story does a quick recap of the events leading to the dissapearing of Yukito. There is one noticeable difference, in that a crow, who is a reincarnation of sorts of Yukito himself, is introduced and befriended by Misuzu. The focus of the remaining episodes is on Misuzu and Haruko.

Potato the dog, holding Yukito's doll in it's mouth.

The story of Ryuya, Kanna and Uraha is short in the initial anime. However, the two OVA's that followed the series's conclusion delve a little deeper into the story of the three. This littler side story has enough information and plot to have been made into an entire series in and of itself, but the four episodes given are well enough time to have covered what needed to be covered.

The story for the entire series leaves some things left to wonder, but those are not things that were vital to the story. It was a little rushed, but not enough for one to have to go back and watch the story over again to see why something was the way it was. It is a very worthwile story, and one that can fall into the collections of great animes in history.

~Koubo

Manga Monday: Johnny The Homicidal Maniac

2009-08-03T13:36:00.000-07:00

Yes, I'm going to give a Manga Monday recommendation today. It's a little idea I stole from here My recommendation for today is not what most people would consider a manga, since it isn't from Japan. But, if you know what the word "manga" translates to, you'll agree that this counts. Today I am recommending Johnny The Homicidal Maniac by Jhonen Vasquez. You may recognize that name if you've ever watched Invader Zim. Johnny The Homicidal Maniac (JTHM) is another brilliant creation by Jhonen. I guess I should put a warning up here. In case you can't tell by the title, JTHM is not for young readers... or readers who get queasy at the sight of blood... or readers that are opposed to strong language. JTHM is one of the bloodiest graphic novels I've ever read. I don't think there's a single page in the whole book that doesn't have some kind of blood in one of the frames.

But, if you can look past the extremely violent surface of the book, you'll find a great story underneath with many, many amazing insights into the human psyche. In JTHM Jhonen disects a lot of the little quirks of the human mind. As violent and, well, psychopathic as Johnny is, he really is a very intelligent person with questions about the world that he wants answered.
The story is really quite serious, which is funny when you think about how funny some of Jhonen's other creations are, but it also has some... humor in it. Every so often in the book there is a Happy Noodle Boy comic thrown among the pages. Happy Noodle Boy is the comic drawn by Johnny and is funny, but in a very twisted, morbid sense.
I definitely recommend JTHM for people who think they are able to handle the graphic nature of this graphic novel.

My score: 5 out of 5.

I've yet to find a graphic novel that made me think like this one does. Also, the art style is very edgy and dark, which I really like.

Gurren Lagann: First Impressions

2009-07-29T13:48:00.000-07:00

So, I recently downloaded the anime Gurren Lagann from the iTunes store. I've only watched the first two episodes, so this is going to be my initial impressions of the anime instead of a full fledged review of it. (Full review will come when I finish the series.)

Gurren Lagann seems to have pretty much everything a good anime needs. There's giant robots; sexy, busty, scantily clad girls; men who get way too excited about little things; men who seem like cowards on the outside, but are really brave once they get motivated; cute, cuddly animals; villians/monsters that you can actually grow to like; and extremely effeminate men who get hot and bothered by the giant robots. It's also got all the required "inappropriate" moments. You know what I'm talking about: men falling face first into a girl's cleavage, women falling cleavage first into a man's face, men crawling up a tunnel mere inches away from the scantily clad woman's butt... I'd go on, but you get the point.

The story seems to be well put together (just going by the first 2 episodes) and the characters are, for the most part, easy to like despite their quirks. (Yes, even the extremely effeminate man is somewhat likable after you get used to him.)

Usually, for me, an anime has to grab my attention within the first few episodes, otherwise it's unlikely that I'll ever finish watching it. Gurren Lagann succesfully pulled my interest and I do plan to finish the series, after which there will be a review on what I thought of the anime in it's entirety.

First Impression score:

4 out of 5 (This will probably be higher in the final review if the anime continues to be like it has been.)

Kanon

2009-07-28T02:51:00.000-07:00

Kanon is an anime based off of a visual novel of the same name, developed by Key. The anime is of typical length, being 24 episodes, and unlike the original release of the game, it is meant for all ages. There are two versions of the anime; this article covers the second, and more widely-known version.

The story focuses on the main male character, Aizawa Yuichi. He moves to the town where his aunt and cousin live so he can go to school there. He last visited seven years prior to when the story begins, which that previous visit (and ones before it) is the central theme to almost every story conveyed in this anime.

The main girls of the story: Kawasumi Mai (top left), Misaka Shiori (top middle), Sawatari Makoto (middle), Minase Nayuki (right), Tsukimiya Ayu (bottom left).

Each of the five girls has a well thought-out story. The anime covers most very deeply. Regrettably, Nayuki's story is barely covered, and is tied in to Ayu's story and adds only to serve a point to it. Additionally, each girl's story involves Yuichi's past, with the exception of Shiori, who only met him for the first time on his first couple of days back in town, while wandering with Ayu.

Characteristics of characters is very unique and they all blend near-perfectly. Their personalities remain consistent throughout, and deviate only within reasonable means; for example, Yuichi is "friendly and outgoing... [and] constantly teases the main cast of girls throughout the story which varies in severity depending on the girl" (via Wikipedia). He consistently helps out the girls when they are in need, however, and this is shown throughout, side-by-side with the teasing, and is even shown very prominently in the clips of Yuichi's past.

A particular characteristic of a character, Ayu, who is the central female character, is shown at almost every scene she is in. Whenever she is sad, scared, mad, depressed, and other emotions along the lines of those, she says "Uguu". The word is the common catch-phrase of the anime, and is even used on the box set as a selling point (though only known to those who have actually seen the anime to catch why it would be a selling point).

Ayu saying her catch phrase "Uguu~" after being teased by Yuichi.

The transition between stories is very smooth. All the characters are introduced within the first two episodes, and the only time most do not show up in any episode is when a story involving a particular girl reaches its climax. Additionally, when the story resolves, it is not entirely forgotten; references are made periodically to each of the preceding stories.

The stories all have sad or disconsolate undertones. Each girl, though little known or not known at all at the beginning, has something that they are going through that is affecting them, regardless of whether they show it or not. The characters, however - unlike many, many other animes that share similar tones - do not show it until their story reaches its highpoint. They act happy and actually seem happy because they all feel there are more things worth living for that outweigh the sad things that are in their lives.

The story of Kanon revolves around several themes. First and formost, which is prominent for more than half of the anime, is varying forms of magic. Makoto, for example, is actually a fox that Yuichi had come to know and befriend when he visited seven years prior who magically turned human to see and be with him again when she saw he had returned.

In contrast to the sad undertones, a main theme is that of miracles. One character points out that "miracles are called so because they don't happen", but all of them believe that they exist on some level or another.

Memory is another central theme. Yuichi remembers nothing of his prior visits to the city at first. The girls who have a history with him have varying levels of memory of the events themselves, but they all remember that he was there and all want him to remember each of them as well. Most of the entire anime and the stories revolve around not being able to progress until certain things are remembered by Yuichi.

Yuichi and Ayu seven years prior.

Another main theme, though not fully portrayed until the latter half of the anime, is as stated in the earlier post about Key, in which one of the characters in this story is in a state of autoscopy. Ayu, due to an event in the past, has a projection of her concience in the present, with her body elsewhere. Her concience is looking for a particular object, and right from the beginning of the anime itself to the end (as that her story is the last one to be told) she is looking for the item in question. She doesn't know at first that the her that everyone sees is not really her entire self. She doesn't find the item on her own, as that due to the parts of her story unfolding slowly reveal to her the dire condition her actual self is in. as her story reaches the pinnacle and plateaus off, she realizes enough and vanishes.

Kanon may not be all that known, and even less actually seen, but it is a very interesting anime nonetheless. It is a adeptly handled story, with ties between main stories and transitions between everything that can be rivaled by only a few other stories in the genre. It may not contain action, but it will still keep you on your seat, making you want to see how each story ends.

~Koubo

Lost In Translation

2009-07-27T12:30:00.000-07:00

I've got a question to pose to all of you today. Well, it's more like 3 or 4 questions. First: Are there any mangas out there that you read that you would like to see made into an anime that haven't been yet? What about the other way around? Any animes that you'd like to see made into a manga?

One manga I'd like to see animated is Yotsuba&! It's by Kiyohiko Azuma who was the genius behind Azumanga Daioh. Yotsuba&! is about a little girl and her father (and their friends and neighbors) and the various adventures they go on. No, not big adventures like you would see in something like Full Metal Alchemist, but little adventures; like catching cicadas or going to the store. (Full review coming later.)

Here's another question for you: Are there any mangas out there that you really liked and read every book as they came out, but the company who made them suddenly stopped? Or, at least stopped printing them in America?

I can think of one in particular that I've wanted finished. It's called PhD: Phantasy Degree. The books were printed in America up until book 5, but then they suddenly stopped. It's bugged me ever since. I loved that series. It was very unique. (I'll do a review on it later as well.)

There are a couple of other mangas that I can think of. I'm not sure if it's that they stopped printing them, or that I just can't find them anywhere. A few of them are: Sokora Refugees, Dream Saga, and Yotsuba&!.
Yet another Discussion Time!

I've posed quite a few questions to you, now it's time for you to answer them with your opinions!

Key

2009-07-24T03:42:00.001-07:00

Key is a branch of the company Visual Arts, which is located in Japan. Formed in July of 1998, it makes visual novels, and has made some very prominent games of the past couple decades. Its first three visual novels, Kanon, Air, and Clannad (released in that order, starting in 1999), have even had anime adaptations, all of which have had very good success, and are arguably Key's most well-known titles.

Key also has its own sub-section, titled Key Sounds Label, which creates and produces the music used in all the titles they make.

There will be articles on all three of those (ony the anime adaptations only for Kanon and Air will be covered in the respective articles; Clannad's article will include the game as well as the anime), and it will be seperate from this article. In this post, I will talk about things that Key seems to put in all of their products, as well as some differences between them.

(A picture containing all of Key's current products as of May 20, 2009.)

The characters in each of the products are varied in personality and background, as is typical in any story. What is different from anything Key makes and anything else is that although some characters may have horrible or sad histories, the level of effect their past has on them is very little. They are not mopey. They have all moved on for the most part.

The past has different effects on stories between the titles, though. In both Kanon and Air, the past becomes an integral part of the story, where the characters are trying to remember so they can help their future. In Clannad, the only time the past is ever brought up is when an event from the past hinders a path in the near future. In Clannad, though, the hindering past is used only enough to wrap up reasons, then it is set aside so the story can move on.

A particularly unique occurence between titles released by Key is that they use advanced forms of autoscopy. It can be loosely described as an "out of body experience", although autoscopy is a specific case in that experience, being that they acutally projecting their concience into the physical world.

The advanced form that Key does in which I refer to is more of a specifically direct form. Each has a literal physical manifestation of themselves wandering around as they always would, and can interact with objects and people as if they themselves were present.

(The main girls of Kanon.)

There is only one character in each of the titles that experiences the phenomenon. Each has a specific task that they feel must be completed at any cost. As they come closer to completing the task, the realization of their actual medical condition slowly dawns on them in some form or another, and when the task is completed, they vanish.

Differences come down to something quite specific between each of the titles. And those specifics will be mentioned and discussed in the articles covering each title. However, I will mention that the level of knowledge of their predicament, the situation, and how long they are around for varies greatly between the three titles.

(The main girls of Air.)

One thing Key did for the first two titles (Kanon and Air) was that they had adult content; that is, there were some sex scenes in the games. The animes of each, as well as later release versions of the games, have no adult content. And additionally, Key minimalized the amount of said content so that the player would focus more heavily on the stories of each character than the gratuities that come with them.

Clannad was released at the very start as a visual novel for all ages; it was focused so heavily on story that it is currently Keys' second longest game, being only 4000 words shorter than its current longest. The anime, which is by far longer than the anime adaptations of the first two titles released, is also made for all ages.

(The main girls of Clannad.)

Key is currently creating an original anime, titled Angel Beats!, but no new news about that has been released since the announcement on May 27 of this year.

Key may be small, but they have produced titles that are very well known, even if they have not been seen or played. The titles (at least the anime adaptations) should seriously be checked out. They are so deep, so well written that anyone would be missing out on some of the best stories ever written otherwise.

~Koubo

A Rare Gem

2009-07-23T12:37:00.000-07:00

Ok, so my last article about animes that everyone likes but that you don't apparently went over quite well, so today, I'm going to come from the other side of the argument. Are there any animes you absolutely love that nobody else seems to have heard of? Let's take it a step further and include manga in this discussion.

The one anime that pops into my mind that nobody seems to know about (but is one that I love) is: .hack//LEGEND OF THE TWILIGHT. There have been tons of .hack// animes and mangas, but the one that I love the most is LOTT. It's a great little anime (and manga) that is only 12 episodes long (or 3 books long) but is thoroughly enjoyable. (I'll save an actual review for a later post.)
The one manga series that I love which is still rather unknown would have to be: Junk Force. It's only 3 books long, but has a great, gripping story that pulled me in from the start. It's really pretty hard to find now, but if you can, I'd definitely pick it up. (Again, a review will come later.)
Discussion Time Again!

What about the rest of you? Do you have any gems in your anime/manga collection that it seems only you have watched/read? Share them with us!

Watchmen - review

2009-07-23T04:20:00.001-07:00

Due to my computer having sudden problems, my latest post is far from what it originally was, and will instead be a review on the movie Watchmen. It was released on DVD/Blu-Ray this past Tuesday (July 21).

This will not cover The DVD release solely, but will cover the movie in general.

Having read review upon review, for hours and hours, from places like Amazon, Metacritic, and many random forums, This movie can arguably be one of the most controversial ones out there. Some claim it has no plot; others say it has too much of one to watch only once. Some think it was dumb; others herald it as one of the greatest masterpieces of all time. Some say it was a poor book-to-movie rendition; others say it was closer than most other titles in that field. I could go on. but I think you get the picture.

(Current cover art for the graphic novel.)

Watchmen is based of a graphic novel of the same name, which is on Times Magazine's top 100 novels of all time.

The story is set in New York, the year is 1985. Richard Nixon is the current president, being on his 5th term. The Doomsday clock is set to five minutes before midnight, signaling that the threat of a nuclear war is very, very real.

Thanks to an Act passed in 1977, Masked Vigilantes, which were rampant for quite a number of years, Had to reveal their identities or quit taking the law into their own hands. This was due to the typical public switcharound of liking something, then getting used to it, then ending up hating it.

It is interesting that although all of the men and women that wore costumes considered themselves heroes or villains, only one had actually any power. His name is Dr. Manhattan, who by a freak accident on a science base in an "intrinsic field Subtractor", which converted every last atom in his body into something more divine. He was taken in by the military as a tool trained to keep other nations in fear of America. He was also considered to be a member of the Watchmen group.

(The members of the Watchmen team, starting from the blue guy and going clockwise by heads: Dr Manhattan, Nite Owl, Rorschach, The Comedian, Ozymandias, Silk Spectre.)

The story is mainly narrated by one of the 6 members of the Watchmen team, Rorschach. He sees that another member of the former Watchmen team was murdered, The Comedian, and after seeing some clues come to light, focuses heavily on the idea that someone is "picking off costumed heroes." He tries to convince and warn his friend Daniel, who was the hero "Nite Owl," who at first doesn't listen. HE then tries to warn Dr Manhattan and Laurie, Laurie being the Silk Spectre. As the story progresses, it is revealed that someone is indeed trying to get all the heroes out of the way so that the master plan can take place with no interference.

Now the review part.

Watchmen: somewhere between 2.5 and 3 out of 5.

The story is deep. It is a movie that has to be seen more than once to get the entire picture. The movie does follow the novel it is based off of very well, although it does have significant differences that, if you have read the novel as well as seen the movie, affect the entire movie and even the ending.

The flow and presentation of the story is very, very slow. Too slow in some parts. The amount of material covered is impressive (the director's cut of the dvd being over 3 hours long), but the flow makes it feel like it is about two hours longer at some parts. But the flow is very direct and easy to follow.

Character development is almost nonexistent. The only character you really, truly get to know is Rorschach, and that is because his diary entries populate about half the movie, explaining his thoughts and feelings about what is going on as it unfolds.

The gratuitous adult scenes could have been left out entirely. Those did not need to be added in there. It is directly alluded to in the novel, it could have been the same in the movie.

Worth watching, and more than once, but only if you feel you can watch a movie for (what feels like) four or five hours.

~Koubo

Fish-Cake?

2009-07-21T10:48:00.000-07:00

Am I the only one in the world who is not completely enamored with Naruto? I've seen a good portion of the anime, both japanese and english dubbed, and I just don't get why everyone likes it so much. It really didn't catch my interest enough, but that's just me. Even the parts that made everyone laugh out loud, only made me chortle slightly.

I can think of a couple of other animes that have a HUGE fanbase that I've seen and that I just don't like that much.

Discussion time!

What are some animes out there that everyone but you seems to like?

Manga for the future...

2009-07-18T06:22:00.000-07:00

There was a study done on which manga people would leave for their posterity. Many people were asked the question "do you like manga?", and out of 900 people who said yes (150 men and women each in three different age categories), the list came down to this:

1. Slam Dunk
2. One Piece
3. Dragonball
4. Doraemon
5. Sazae-san
6. Detective Conan
7. Kochikame
8. Chibi Maruko-chan
9. Full Metal Alchemist
10. Hana Yori Danshi

It makes me wonder about the japanese people if the manga they want to leave for posterity starts with one about basketball...

Via Sankaku Complex. Remember to be weary of that site...

~Koubo

Little Big Planet--First Impressions

2009-07-15T12:31:00.000-07:00

Little Big Planet (PS3) has probably been one of the most revolutionary games released recently. Instead of just playing prebuilt and preloaded levels, gamers have the option to build their own levels and share them with all the other people in the world online. Also, the sackboys (the name of the cute little characters you play as) are vastly customizable with both items you can obtain in the levels of the game and premade costumes you can download from the PS network.

The level of customizability in this game is staggering. I've seen people with Kratos (God of War) sackboys and I've heard there's going to be a Sephiroth Sackboy (Final Fantasy VII). I've also played levels themed after Super Mario Bros., Mortal Kombat, and Patapon. There are so many different levels to play, you could play the game for 24 hours straight and never repeat a level unless you really want to. And not all of the levels are going to be the same. Some are going to be platformesque levels while others will be racing.

One thing I love about this game is that it's always multiplayer. And it's not that you can play multiplayer, it's more that you'll want to play multiplayer. The game is just so much more fun that way.

The gameplay for Little Big Planet is fairly simple. You move across a level until you reach the judging platform at the end. You can run, jump, and grab onto most things (birds, cars, each other, or monkeys). Each level has elements from different genres of games. You are going to have to solve puzzles, but they aren't going to be the type you wrack your brains about for hours. Some will be as simple as sticking a flower sticker on a branch so that a giraffe lifts it's head to let you into a room. While the controls are fairly simple, some of them add a strange element of fun to the game. You can use the D-pad on your controller to change your Sackboy's expression from scared to angry to happy. You can also use the triggers to control your arms, which allows you to smack other players around. (This is especially helpful when another player won't stop grabbing onto you.)

This is one of the few games I've ever played where the main goal is to have fun, which you almost always will (even when you have to restart a level 3 times). Every time I've played it, I've spent a good amount of time laughing at the crazy yet truly funny things that have happened.

Right now, the game is only available on the PS3, but a version for the PSP is slated for release in the holiday season of 2009. If they keep the PSP version just like the PS3 version, it should do quite well. I'm excited for it for sure.

The good points:

Simple, fun and addictive gameplay make this a great title for anyone with a PS3 to own. The game also has great replay value thanks to people always making new levels for it.

The bad points:

Honestly? The only bad things I can think of in this game is that you have to pay to download some of the costumes and level packs. (Albeit, you don't have to pay very much.)

My score:

5 out of 5. It really is one of the best party games I've ever played. It puts games like Mario Party to shame.

Otaku

2009-07-14T11:23:00.000-07:00

*NOTE* All my links today will be from Sankaku Complex. For those of you who don't want to go to the site, which occasionally (to somewhat frequently) features content of erotic nature, I will tell you briefly what each article says. *END NOTE*

Just so we are clear: dictionary.com states that the definition of 'Otaku' is "an avid collector or enthusiast, esp. one who is obsessed anime, video games, or computer and rarely leaves home."

We here at The Collateral Otaku (I will personally refer to it now as TCO) consider ourselves otaku. We are not crazy. We just really like our stuff.

The japanese consider Otaku to be a derogatory term in some ways. With things going on like this, it's kinda hard not to agree with them. The article talks about an otaku who went to an anime convention and stole the partially drunk-out-of water bottle of the seiyuu (voice actor) Chihara Minori, who currently voices Nagato Yuki in The Melancholy of Haruhi suzumiya in japan. Then, he posted pictures of himself doing this deed all over his blog. Fans and other otaku were crazed over it, congradulating him or cursing him.

If you think that otaku is bad, there are obviously worse.

This article talks about the Seiyuu that voices the japanese version of Haruhi herself, who is also conveniently a model, who went to malaysia for filming. Crazed otaku, once knowledgeable of the situation by pictures she posted on her blog, planned all over message boards to find her; search parties were created, google earth was used, analysis of the photos was intensive. The intents on what they were going to do with her when she would be found varied from person to person; some ranging from something simple like an autograph to something much, much crazier. By the time their searches were about ready, it was then noted that she had already returned to Japan.

Those are just some examples. There are obviously a lot, lot more. But this gets the picture across, I think.

I personally don't want to ever be that crazy. I love my video games, anime, and manga, but I know where to draw the line. I hope people like me are the majority.

~Koubo

PSP Go Revisited

2009-07-10T08:47:00.000-07:00

Ok, so the point that I tried to get across with my last article about the PSP apparently wasn't taken the way it was supposed to. No, I wasn't trying to infer that Sony is replacing the original PSP with the Go. They are going to be selling both alongside each other. You will still be able to buy disc versions of games as well as some downloadable versions of the games.

The point I was trying to make in the last article was this: If you decided to buy a PSP Go, would it or would it not replace your original PSP? If Sony decides to start making every game a disc version as well as a download, would you start just downloading all your games? (Note: it probably won't happen this way. Making all of their games into two different versions would be hard and time consuming. Plus, PSP games are usually big files and would have extremely long download times.) I've heard rumors both ways. I've heard that the PSP Go is going to have a totally different library with games specific to it, but I've also heard that it's going to have normal PSP games available for download. I'm inclined to believe that they will be releasing games in both disc and digital format, mainly because they will make more money that way.

The news I've heard from E3 is that they are making the PSP Go a gaming system for people who don't want to bother with physical media. To me, it would only make sense to have normal PSP games available for download. If they really are just trying to make this Sony's version of the iPod Touch, then I really don't think it would do as well as Sony is hoping. Which is a problem. The iPod Touch has already been made and does well, but other companies keep trying to make their own version of it with their own version of the app store, none of which can match the vastness of the Apple App Store. It would be more innovative for Sony to make a system that can download normal games from a store to be played on the PSP Go.

Granted, if Sony doesn't decide to release all games as disc and digital, they'll probably still make money from people that feel the need to have both an original PSP and a Go.

I don't know. I don't think there has been enough information released about the PSP Go's game library, really. A lot of what I'm talking about is just speculation on both sides of the field.

The best link that I could find that says anything about how games will be released is this: http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10254798-1.html and it seems to me that they are being doomsayers about UMDs. Which brings up an interesting thought: How soon until all gaming systems use a digital format? Will it actually happen? But, they do mention that games released for the PSP Go will also be released on UMD. I know it might seem redundant to release games for two systems, but I thought of a good reason why they should release games as both downloads and UMDs. When a company releases a game, they usually will release it for more than one system, right? (X-Box 360, PS3 and Wii, right now.) Why do they do this? Because not everybody has all three systems, so to make sure that they sell enough games, they release it for more than one system. The same will go for the PSP and the PSP Go. Not everybody is going to have both systems. Most people are going to have one or the other. So, to ensure that they still sell enough copies of a new game, and to appeal to both groups of people, Sony would probably want to release both digital and disc copies of games.

I guess what it all boils down to, in my opinion, is this: If Sony were to release all games as disc and digital, they would do something that no other video game specific company has done. (I'm not counting the iPod Touch because it's not made by a video game company.) Make a handheld, portable system more portable. Think about it. If you didn't have to truck all of your discs and cartridges around with your PSP or DS, the system would probably come with you to more places.

Yes, I know that what I've said in this article is not all fact, it's opinion. So, deal with it.

But, I could be wrong. Let me know what you think in the comments.

Mass Effect

2009-07-09T10:35:00.000-07:00

It seems that most people believe that if it is called a video game, it has no sense of a good, in-depth story that a book would have. And while regrettably this is the case for many games on the market, there are some very fine exceptions. Like Mass Effect.

Mass Effect is a third-person, over-the-shoulder shooter for the Xbox 360 and PC made by the company BioWare. It is set in the future, in the year 2183 AD. Humans had, thirty-five years prior, discovered a piece of ancient technology left behind by a race called the Protheans, which after studying it launched them into a technologically advanced future of their own. Space travel was now easily possible, and there were many races out there whom also had similar pasts about finding technology and had formed a galactic alliance.

You play as commander Shepard. The last name and rank are the only things unchangeable. The character is then decently customizeable, from being able to choose your gender to making up a first name to changing the facial features with impressive options.

The story for Mass Effect seems simple enough. You get a mission to recover another ancient artifact called a "beacon". As you arrive on the planet, you see that it is/has been under attack by a group that also wants the beacon. The group is led by an alien samed Saren, who has the rank of Spectre (which is a special rank made by the galaxy's presiding council to do the dirty jobs, and do them right with little-to-no laws binding them to a small set of methods). The story shows right off the bat, however, that Saren is betraying the council and is ignoring their orders.

You fight your way to the beacon's location, and right before it blows up it sends a sort-of bloated and broken signal directly to Shepard's brain, nearly knocking them unconcious. After you debrief the council on the situation. After you convince them that Saren has gone rogue, the council makes Shepard a spectre to hunt down and eliminate Saren. After that point, the galaxy is opened up and you are given various missions and tasks that lead you to the typical story end, which is saving the galaxy from certain evil.

But the story is so much more detailed than that. The game has incredibly rich dialogue, with minimal cheesiness. The game even gives you an option in many, many instances where you get to choose what you are going to say to someone in the given situation, with each of the choices available being aligned to good, bad, or morally gray. And in game-affecting situations, you can try to influence someone to do or say what you want them to say, and how effective it is is dependent on how many points you put into a couple of particular categories on your character as you level up.

The gameplay itself is something impressive, too. It doesn't break the norm of typical shoot-em-up games, but it does follow the pattern quite well. There aren't really any puzzles, and although there will be some exploring to do in order to find certain parts of the story to continue on, the paths themselves offer little direct deviation and are easy to get back on to.

Review: 5 out of 5

This game is basically like an interactive movie. The dialogue in the game is so rich, so full, so deep, it feels like you are watching and participating in a near-perfect movie. Add the gameplay that plays so very well, and you get an ideal combination that few games still can't match. The gameplay and story parts are spaced out so well, too, that you aren't really wondering what is going on, and if you get lost, it is because you didn't pay attention.

Not only is the story good, but the voice actors chosen played the parts very well, adding to the movie feel and taking away from the 'this is obviously a game story' feel. Feelings and thoughts are portrayed with striking accuracy. Character interactions are well-built and played very professionally.

Further, if you beat the game you can transfer you character and all of your equipment and stats from your recently completed file to a new game so you can play it all over again with everything you beat it with.

It is a game definitely worth playing at least once or twice. I recommend playing it many times. It is definitely something you won't come across often.

~Koubo

PSP Go

2009-07-08T12:10:00.000-07:00

Now that the "worst kept secret of E3" is out of the bag, I'd like to get opinions on what everybody thinks about Sony's new PSP Go. Does the fact that it has no disc drive make people not want to get one? Or does the fact that you no longer have to carry around discs to play it make you want to get one? For me, I'm torn between the two. I like the idea of having a hard drive in my PSP and only having to carry around the system with no discs, but I worry that I'll have to re-purchase my old favorite games again. It probably won't happen, but I know a lot of people are hoping Sony will allow people to input the unique information from their disc versions of games so that they can download digital copies of them. But, as I said, this probably won't happen. There's too much risk for pirating.

But, what do the rest of you think? Do any of you have plans to purchase a PSP Go? Why or why not?

~Bryson

World Of Warcraft

2009-07-07T12:52:00.000-07:00

With millions of people playing the game now, it was only a matter of time before we at Collateral Otaku did an article about World of Warcraft, so I decided to do it now. World of Warcraft is one of the most played video games in the world right now, and is the most popular MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role playing game) ever. It currently has over 13 million players worldwide.

In the game you create a Hero. You can choose from 2 different factions (the Horde and the Alliance) and within those factions, you can choose from 5 different races and 9 different classes. After you’ve created your Hero, you’re set loose into the world. For such a popular game, the goal is quite simple. Complete quests to gain loot and experience to level your Hero up. There are many different types of quests, but the most common will be killing different enemies in the world, although there will always be the occasional “grab me the book from downstairs” type of quest. The more quests you finish and the higher your level, the further the story of the World progresses; a story which, in my opinion, is one of the better, more complex stories in the video game world. If you want to get the whole story of the World, I recommend playing through the first 3 games and maybe even reading the numerous novels that have been written. It’s a really gripping story. One of my favorite things about the game is how vast the World is and how much there is to do in it. If you get sick of fighting things you can always sit down and start fishing, or you can go browse the auction house for some new equipment. You can meet up with friends in the game and have a few beers in the tavern. Each player can learn two professions which can range from leatherworking or tailoring to herbalism or enchanting and can be leveled up just like the character themselves.

When the game was released, players could create a character and level them up to level 60 gaining loot, experience, and reputation. At level 30 you had the option to get your first mount. Your mount allowed you to travel the map at a faster speed than normal. At level 60, you were able to get your epic land mount, which would increase your speed even more. Throughout the game there are dungeons that the players can conquer, usually with the help of a group of other players.

Since the release of the original World of Warcraft there have been two expansions released as well, each one increasing the level cap, the size of the world, the coolness of the loot you can find, and also the amount of dungeons you could traverse. The first expansion (The Burning Crusade) introduced flying mounts to the game, which were a huge step up from the regular ground mounts you had. Also, the level cap was raised to 70. It also added Outland (the otherworldly home of several of the Warcraft races) to the navigable map. The biggest change to the game, however, was the addition of two new races (one for each faction). The Blood Elves joined the ranks of the Horde while the Draenei became the newest race to join the Alliance. Before Burning Crusade there was one class that the Horde had that the Alliance didn’t, and vice versa. (The Horde had Shamans and the Alliance had Paladins.) But, with the introduction of the new races, those restrictions were lifted. The Blood Elves brought with them the Paladin and the Draenei the Shaman.With the second expansion (Wrath of the Lich King) players were introduced to the frozen wastes of Northrend. Flying mount upgrades were also added allowing players to fly faster and the level cap was raised to 80, but possibly the biggest addition to the game was that of the first Hero Class: The Death Knight. Death Knights are the risen warriors of the Lich King himself. In order to create a Death Knight, a player has to have at least one character at level 55 since the Death Knight starts play at that level. Death Knights are one of the few classes that can be played by any race, since they are undead and anybody can die. If you know your World of Warcraft history, you’ll know the story of Arthas (The Lich King). When the players arrive in Northrend, they start to run into Arthas more and more. No, you don’t actually get to fight him in any of the expansions yet, but people are crossing their fingers and hoping that they can in the next expansion.
My Score: 4.5 out of 5

The bad points: As great and involving as the game is, there are certain parts that are really hard to slog through (level 35-55 is one of those). As great as the expansions are, they seem to be expanding the world as well as shrinking it. If you decide to start a brand new character, it’s going to be harder and harder to find groups for the difficult quests because everybody is already completely leveled to 80 and aren’t going to be hanging out in the “noob” areas, so good luck with that. Probably the biggest downer to the game is that you have to pay $15 a month to play. (But, hey, Blizzard has got to make money somehow.)

The good points: World of Warcraft is a role playing game, but also a social game. It’s great to be able to play with friends across the world. The story is long and involving and seems like it will continue to be so as long as there are new expansions, which there will be. (Blizzard makes too much money to let the game die.) Although spaced apart, the expansions continue to add more to do for the players. The game play is not so complicated as to make it hard for casual gamers to pick up and play, but is enjoyable enough to keep the hardcore gamer intrigued as well.

I highly recommend at least giving World of Warcraft a try. You’ll probably find that you like it.

~Bryson

[Prototype]

2009-07-06T23:26:00.001-07:00

Prototype. A game set in Manhattan, New York. You play as Alex Mercer, who at the beginning doesn't remember a thing, waking up on an autopsy table. As he escapes, he is shot dead presumably several times. As he tries to uncover his past, he unravels a super-secret government conspiracy around the development of biological weaponry, particularly around the one that infected him, known as the Blackwatch Virus.

It plays much like The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction.

The game is pretty simple to understand. You can free-roam around Manhattan and do whatever you please, and when you want to continue the story, the marker is on your minimap as well as your main map showing you where to go.

It looks pretty much like a zombie game. Infections of a virus spreading, and the military attempting to contain it. Both sides gain stronger units built specifically to fight Mercer as the story progresses.

But thankfully, as the game progresses you gain new abilities which will allow you to be more agressive against the ever-increasing military numbers coming into the island. Some of the abilities are given automatically during story events; however, most of the abilities must be purchased through an "upgrade" menu. You earn points to spend in the menu with pretty much everything you do in the game, and the harder the task, the more points you earn. There are also "Events", which give you a specific task to earn a specific amount of points, littered throughout the city. More appear as the story progresses.

Alex also has an ability innate to the start of the game, that allows him to "consume" a person. When you do, you can then disguise yourself as that person. But only the most recent person you consumed. Usually, it would be used to gain health. But it could also be a part of the story, or to hide from the military.

The story itself is pretty straightforward. Do this, attack that, kill that guy, consume that guy. If you want to get the meaning behind the picture, however, then finding certain people, marked with a little floating red head above them, will give you information that makes the simple story a lot deeper, and if you find enough, it becomes significantly darker. These people are called "Web of Intrigue" targets, and the name rightly fits them.

I give [Prototype] a 4 out of 5.

The good points:
The story is very detailed, if you try to find all of the web targets. Even if you find the minimal amount of the side story, the flow between the main events is smooth. The gameplay is pretty straightforward. The battle system is somewhat complex, but remains consistent.

The bad points:
Some missions, as well as events, require precision movement, which is practically impossible. It takes less than a minute fully upgraded to move from the lowest corner of the island to the opposite, highest point, but when you are asked to move from point 'A' to point 'B' in a certain amount of time, with sharp turns and ludicrus obstacles, it gets to the point of "throw your controller through your tv" frustration. And if that wasn't bad enough, boss fights in the game will make you even more angry. Fighting leading up to the boss fights are relatively easy to somewhat complex; but then when you get to the boss himself/herself, it's as if the game developers that went something like this:
"All right, How should we do the boss fights?"
"I vote we put the hardest rarer units in with the boss, in large numbers."
"I vote we add the military to go in there, with tanks and helicopters, and rockets, in large numbers."
"I vote we make the fights long. Very long."
"Good, good. And to top it all off, if you die, even if you were two seconds away from winning, you have to restart from the beginning of the fight. Good work everyone, that alone would make any gamer weep with joy."

Definitely a game worth playing, and even replaying. Just beware of the movement-specific events.

~Koubo

Classic Collateral: Sega Handhelds

2009-07-06T10:07:00.000-07:00

Does anyone remember any of the consoles put out by Sega? What about the handheld systems they created? Say what you will about Sega, but they were ahead of their time. When Nintendo released the original Game Boy: big, brick-like and with a small, monochromatic yellow screen, Sega was releasing the Sega Game Gear: also big and brick-like; but with a larger, full color screen. Granted, the Game Gear had its shortcomings: the very short battery life (despite running on 6 AA batteries) was just one of them. But, honestly, how cool was it to be able to play Sonic the Hedgehog in full color while you were in the car? To me, it was amazing.Awesome system.
Just as awesome, but for different reasons.

Then, there was the Sega Nomad: a handheld system which could play Sega Genesis and Sega Master System Games in full color. This was just another reason that Sega was way ahead of the times. Nobody had thought to make a handheld system that could play console games. It was really an incredibly smart move on Sega’s part. They didn’t need to worry about creating a whole new game library for the Nomad, because they already had all the games from the Genesis and Master System. That alone was a great reason to get a Nomad.

Great game library, and look at all those buttons!

I’ve always found it rather sad that Sega dropped out of the console and handheld business and started just focusing on games. They had some really awesome systems in their day. But, they also had a couple of systems that flopped. (Sega CD, anyone?) There have been rumors that Sega had planned to release a Dreamcast 2, but most of those rumors are unfounded, as cool as it would be.

The Dreamcast 2, a dream crushed.

There is some news in the Sega front though. Later this month (July, 2009) a new Nomad system is going to be released. It will still be able to play Genesis and Master System games, but it will also have an SD card slot that you can download games onto. I haven’t been able to find out if the new Nomad is licensed by Sega or is a 3rd party system, but as soon as I can, I’ll let you know which it is. I can’t begin to say how cool it would be if the new Nomad was actually released by Sega. The new Nomad is going to be sold for $50.00 (US). It’s going to be slimmer than the original with a bigger screen. Hopefully, they will add in a lithium ion battery so that we can play for longer than 45 minutes without plugging into the wall.

Sleek, slim and SD capable.

If you’re wondering where you can buy Genesis and Master System games for your new Nomad, there are several places that still sell them. Stores like GameStop and Game Crazy no longer carry the older system’s games. But, if you can find a Play N Trade nearby your house, they should still be selling them, and they won’t be too expensive. If you can’t find a store to buy them, you can always try Amazon.com or Ebay, though you’ll have to pay for shipping from them. But online stores will usually have a bigger selection of the old games.

My Scores:

Old School Sega Systems: 5 out of 5.

New Sega Nomad System: 4.5 out of 5. (Could go up if the system works as well as it’s supposed to and is actually sanctioned by Sega.)

No LAN support in StarCraft II

2009-07-06T09:37:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, Blizzard announced that there would be no LAN play for StarCraft II. While there have been online petitions and forums swamped with trying to change Blizzard's mind about it, the reasonable has been done by respectable sources, and a generic, but reasonable answer was given:

"We currently plan to support LAN play with StarCraft II, as we are building Battle.net to be the ideal destination for multiplayer gaming with StarCraft II and future Blizzard Entertainment games. While this was a difficult decision for us, we felt that moving away from LAN play and directing players to our upgraded Battle.net service was the best option to ensure a quality multiplayer experience with StarCraft II and safeguard against piracy."

In case you didn't get the links, one was here at Ars Technica and here at Kotaku.

~Koubo

Another World - Kyou's Arc

2009-07-04T00:00:00.000-07:00

*Note* This is not an article about the entirety of Clannad. A better Clannad article, which will introduce the anime itself and its characters, may come later.

This is an episode summary for the bonus OVA titled Another World: Kyou's arc. This episode is based off one of the multiple-endings in the Clannad dating simulation game, focusing on Fujibayashi Kyou.

Kyou, as well as her twin sister Ryou, have both like Okazaki Tomoya for quite some time. However, Ryou asked Kyou how to get Tomoya to like her, and Kyou attempted to put aside her feelings in order to help Ryou get together with Tomoya. After many trials, and failed attempts to gather courage to ask him out, Ryou finally confronts him and confesses her feelings.

The episode starts there.

(Ryou is listening to Tomoya say he is willing to give a relationship a try.)

After that, the episode gives enough of a visual to show that they are seeing each other regularly, and are acting like a typical couple.

But the thought of Kyou still lingers in the back of his head, and he is not completely sure why.

(At a picnic with Ryou, he looks at the vacant spot where Kyou once sat.)

On a day away from Ryou, Tomoya is wandering around town and comes across Kyou, who is also wandering around town, albeit with a lot gloomier of a countenance. He stops her, and they go to the park to chat.

Kyou asks questions about how Tomoya and Ryou have been doing, almost as if to see what she has been missing/if she has been missing anything. The topic comes to kissing, and Kyou is suprised to hear that the two have not even done that yet. She suggests, perhaps out of some sort of hope of her own, to practice kissing with her, so that when he does kiss Ryou it will be memorable. Tomoya agrees somewhat reluctantly, and they slowly move towards each other.

(Hopeful?)

(That's it, just a little closer...)

But just before the lips lock, Kyou relizes what she is doing and stops, pushes him away, and quickly leaves the scene.

But no selfish deed goes unpunished, and someone at their school saw them "kissing" and spread a rumor around quickly that Tomoya was playing the Fujibayashi sisters, or else just flat-out betraying Ryou. Kyou tries to remedy the situation by asking Sunohara Youhei, Tomoya's friend, to be her boyfriend. Sunohara sees through it quite quickly and clearly, points this out, and even goes as far as to ask if Kyou liked Tomoya.

(Kyou thinking, "And just HOW THE HELL DID YOU FIGURE THAT OUT?!?!")

Tomoya shows himself, making them both realize that he heard the whole thing.

Afterwards, Kyou tries to brush it off and tells Tomoya to forget about it. Ryou becomes increasingly aware of Tomoya's thoughts about Kyou.

In an unknown amount of time later, Tomoya is walking along in the rain, and sees a sad Botan (Kyou's pet boar), and follows the sad Botan to a drenched Kyou, who confesses her love for Tomoya, who is then put in a very awkward situation.

(Uhh... what?)

Tomoya dwells on it, and Sunohara, who is seeing it eat him alive, gives Tomoya his words of wisdom, telling him that no matter what he chooses to do, one of them will be hurt; and if he chooses to do nothing, he will end up hurting everybody.

Tomoya realizes that he is an idiot, and chooses the girl who he had the most feelings for, which was Kyou. He attempts to break up with Ryou, who leaves because she does not want to accept that response.

Later, Ryou shows up again, and Tomoya tries to break up with her again. She runs at Tomoya, and reveals herself to actually by Kyou, who cut her hair to Ryou's length and explains how Ryou has thought it best that Kyou approach Tomoya to hear his feelings for herself.

(Oh. You were Kyou. You have the purple eyes.)

It is important to note that this episode is more directed towards those who have played the game. It condenses a story that was at least four hours long into 20 minutes. And this episode focuses on one of the few stories that the main anime itself did not cover. And while this episode did not cover all of the content in the original story, it is still something to see if you find yourself wondering, "what would have happened if he (the main character) ended up with someone else?"

~Koubo

The Collateral Otaku

2009-07-03T22:14:00.000-07:00

Collateral (adj) - (1) Accompanying; Auxiliary;

(2) Additional, confirming;

(3) Situated at the side;

(4)a relative descended from the same stock, but in a different line.

Otaku (n) - An avid collector or enthusiast, esp. one who is obsessed with anime, video games, or computers.

(both come from dictionary.com)

This blog is dedicated to bring you news about video games, anime, and anything else we find interesting or amusing.

It will also be a place for finding personal, unpaid reviews on various things such as anime, movies, and video games, and anything else we found interesting or amusing.

We do this as an "in addition" to other sites or blogs, as that it is not our desire to replace them or to overrun them. That is why we are the "collateral otaku." We want to give you another opinion or view so that you can have a better understanding of the things you love to see and read. We love our stuff; we want you to love it too.

Have fun with this blog.

~Koubo and the founding team