Three More GotGame Posts

Companies That Could "Console" You
I wrote about five companies I thought could build video game consoles. Hasn't gotten nearly as many hits as I was hoping. I was even expecting some hateful remarks, but nothing. Looking back, probably could have used a better title.

ENGL 1337: Classic Literature Made Video Games
Tried to make a joke about English lit. with 1337 = LEET. Did get the chance to totally rip on the worst piece of literature I've ever had to read: Voltaire's Candide.

Time Hollow is Full of It (But in a Good Way)
Tried to make a pun on "hollow". Hollow=Empty, as in opposite of full. Only fifteen diggs, but I appear to have peaked the interest of several others into playing the game. Not bad.

Three New GotGame Posts

Yeah, yeah, I'm a terrible blogger. What can I say, I've been working. Here are three of my latest GotGame posts.

Lego Video Games That Could Have You 'Laying' Bricks

So Your Roomate's a Gamer?

Yoichi Wada's "Japan Alliance": Great Game Potential or Corporate Greed?

If you read this blog, enjoy the articles.

Latest GotGame Publications

I have been so sick and tired lately that I haven't been posting.

These are three articles that recently got published on GotGame:

Pheonix Wright: Ace Attorney (the musical?) Inspired by the same blog post (mine and others).

Worst Case Scenario: If Pokemon Were Real

The Limits of Video Game Movies

New GotGame Article - Politicians, Princesses and Dragons: Lets Get It On!

Another article I wrote was posted on GotGame just a day or two ago. I had a lot of fun with this one; it was about what kind of fighting game we would create.

Politicians, Princesses and Dragons: Lets Get It On!

After sorting through Diney Princess stuff I was inspired/annoyed by them to come up with a Disney Princess fighting game I called Melee in the Magic Kingdom.

The second was a mythical creature fighting game. I was thinking about a dragon fighting a unicorn and just went from there. I wanted a cool name, and Dragon vs. Unicorn didn't really cover all of the creatures I thought of including. I kind of pulled Other Realm: Survival of the Fittest out of the air. I still can't think of anything better.

The last one I just thought of after all the election coverage, and several cartoons featuring Washington and Lincoln fighting each other I thought it was time. Political Kombat.

Saddly it hasn't yet broken even 10 diggs, and I thought it would do better. Kind of sad about that.

Oh well. I did just turn in an article about the Phoenix Wright musical. Hope that goes well. Haven't seen any other news about it other than what I cited previously.

2 articles in 2 days, both over 20 Diggs

Two articles I wrote recently for GotGame have been published recently, one following another.

Both of them even have over twenty diggs. For a GotGame article that's better than average, for mine and those of others.

As added goodness one of them, Video Games as Tools of Charity, got over twenty diggs in it's first day. Though to be fair I was writing about a pretty cool group of gamers, and I did pick on Jack Thompson. I just had to include my thoughts on what he'd do if he heard about this. Read the article to find out.

Gemu Starto: Anime Game Hoshi hasn't gotten the diggs I was hoping for, but probably more than I guess I could have expected. I am considering doing a part 2.

Update: One More Nominee for Brawl's Sequel

I've got one more character to nominate for the next Super Smash Brothers. I actually was considering this character before, but didn't really know enough about him* to really say anything. But after reading some stuff online, including Wikipedia, I've got enough to work with.

Nights: This flying jester/harlequin of dreamland is one resilient character, managing to survive the Sega Saturn and finding a place on, of all systems, the Wii with Nights: Journey of Dreams. Nights into Dreams, the original Saturn game, was even re-released on the PS2 in Japan back in February of this year. Considering Sega's Sonic appeared in Brawl, it's no stretch to think Nights (also from Sega) could appear in the next SSB. Nights may be the Liberachi of video games, but with the ability to fly and change shape he* sounds like a really fun character.
Final Smash: Nights transforms into his* dragon form and moves across the screen under the control of the player with the capability to pass through solid surfaces, giving him* the potential to hit any character anywhere on screen.

* - Most of what I read about Nights suggested "his" gender was androgynous, meaning Nights could be male or female, and depended on the dreamer Nights merges with. I just used "he" because it's easier to type than "she".

My Nominees for the Next Super Smash Brothers

If there's one thing that this election has taught me, it's that you can never start campaigning too early. With that in mind, there are probably some matters gamers are looking forward too more than the election, and one of those is the line-up of the next Super Smash Brothers game. While details about the next SSB game are pretty much hush hush over at Nintendo, we can always start to guess and nominate new characters.

It's highly likely that many of SSB's classic characters will be returning, although what new tricks Nintendo may have up their sleeve can only be guessed at this point. Personally I think some kind of co-op/tag-team final smash-type move would be cool. While Knuckles and/or Tails is/are likely to join Sonic if he is to return, there's still no telling what characters Nintendo is considering for the next SSB. But if the sequel to SSBB is anything like it's predecessor (Final Smashes included) and they are looking to have some new characters, I have a few ideas on who I think will be or at least could be considered.

Bomberman - He's had a large number of games and has been tight w/Nintendo in the past. Plus, past games show that different colored Bombermen are easy to do. Besides, SSB can always use more explosions.
Final Smash: Something involving either a large number of bombs or one really big explosion, maybe even with a countdown. Basically, BOMBERMAN GO BOOM!

Donkey Kong Junior - With just DK and Diddy representing Donkey Kong they could use some reinforcements, but there aren't too many other Donkey Kong characters that could make the transition to a fighting game. Dixxy Kong maybe, but going back a little further I think Donkey Kong Jr. would be a lot more fun. Combining Diddy's quickness with a smidge of Donkey Kong's strength, DK Jr could be a tough little roller and puncher, and the toughest hombre ever to wear a onesie.
Final Smash: Junior could be like his daddy and play the bongos, possibly releasing some of those annoying crocodiles from the original arcade game. However he could go through a sudden growth spurt and become more powerful, looking kind of like his daddy, for a certain amount of time. He could even possibly throw barrels.

Banjo-Kazooie - Even though they are set to appear on the Xbox360, they got their start on the N64. So it stands to reason they could make an appearance in SSB, if anything as crossover guest stars like Snake and Sonic from Brawl.
Final Smash: While I've only played a little bit of the original game, I'd imagine something like Kazooie turning into a phoenix and giving off an aura of flame that damages opponents and heals him and Banjo.

Paper Mario: Link is the only character to have had other versions of himself in a Smash Bros. game. This needs to change, especially since Nintendo's poster boy Mario hasn't had one (and no Luigi doesn't count). Paper Mario also offered great and unique game play, and material that would make for a cool move set (ex. temporary flight by folding into an airplane). He could replace Mr. Game&Watch though.
Final Smash: Paper Mario folds himself into some form of weapon (throwing star, knife, something), basically showing just why paper beats rock. Behold the power of origami.

Amaterasu (Okami): Making the transition to the Wii, Okami proved itself to still be a great game. Amaterasu might prove to be a difficult character to control, but fun to play as and possibly even beautiful to watch. It would be nice if Ami left a trail of flowers behind her like in the original game, but that may be asking too much. It might even be interesting to fight as a four legged character. More than anything, it'd be a way for us to play as Okami one last time. CURSE YOU CAPCOM!!!!!
Final Smash: Random strokes from the magic paint brush cause status effects, damage, or blows opponents off the stage. Maybe even causing food to appear like Princess Peach. Some plants and flowers appearing on the stage might be nice too.

Midna (sans Wolf Link): Not too many other characters from the Zelda series have stood out or been as big a part of a game like Midna has. Also, with her sinister smile and hair for a weapon she'd make for an interesting character to fight with. Besides, you can forget having Twinkle as a fighter as far as I'm concerned.
Final Smash: Midna transforms into her true form...beyond that I got nothing except she unleashes dark energy. What this would do I have no idea.

Viewtiful Joe: Another of Capcom's characters who's possibility for sequels was ended when Capcom FOOLISHLY (I repeat, FOOLISHLY) decided to dissolve Clover Studios (again, IDIOTS!), Joe got his start on the Gamecube before porting to the PS2. With his powers there's some cool move potential. Besides, you can't tell me that you wouldn't want to play as Joe in a video game at least one...last...time. (sniff) I'm sorry I...I need a minute.
Final Smash: Either Joe summons Big Machine to smash opponents with giant robot fists, or he uses his powers to move super fast or slow his opponents down for a certain amount of time.

Golden Sun – Just as SSB took characters from Fire Emblem, the Golden Sun series could be another great source for fighters. Personally, I like the idea of Alex being in the game after his work as a trophy in Brawl. Now I admit that I've never played Golden Sun, but after researching the series it seems like there are lots of other great characters that could be potential fighters.
Final Smash: It would depend on who the character is, but if we're still talking about Alex then I'd say something like his palm move as a trophy from Brawl.

Darkrai: Since another Pokemon character is likely to be added to the already huge roster of Pokemon characters in Smash Brothers and since most other legendary Pokemon might be too big or too small, I nominate Darkrai. He's also become something of a fan favorite with his dark, and somewhat emo-esq qualities.
Final Smash: Darkrai emits an aura that causes all or nearby opponents to fall asleep, at the same time dealing damage with Dream Eater.

Lucian and Aaron (Lunar Knights): LK or Boktai DS has a strong history in Japan, and it's still one of the most unique games available for the DS. Now since Pokemon Trainer and Zelda/Sheik had a "tag out"/change system, this same system could be used for Lucian & Aaron, having them working as a team just like in the DS game.
Final Smash: Depends on who you choose. Lucian might have a dark slash, similar to Link's TriForce Slash, that causes great damage but doesn't knock anyone off screen, while Aaron would have a sun laser blast massive in size but weaker in dealing damage and capable of hitting multiple opponents and sending them off screen. One for distance and one for close range, just like the DS game.

Finally, and probably my most wanted:

Miis - Me, you, and all the other Miis. Your Mii, which is essentially you, could actually be a character in Super Smash Brothers. There are too many possibilities to discuss, but one way this could work is that you set your Mii's move-set up like an existing character model. Kind of like the different colored Alloy Men from Brawl.
Final Smash: Either an alternate form using a different Mii, a Mii parade charge, or Miis just appearing from a dimensional gate, flying and running all over the screen.

Well, what do you think? Oh, and if Nintendo reads this you can thank me for my ideas with a job.

UPDATE - see this post for one more character.

GI Joe: a real time American strategy game.

I've been trying to backtrack some postings I did on another forum I made about video games we may see in the future, but I'm jumping ahead and talking about one here I made just the other day. Now I don't know the biz or have any more incite in it than the rest of you, I just have a vivid imagination. So let's begin.

If you've been keeping track of events in the worlds of movies, comics, video games, and generally all things geekie, you've probably heard that a GI Joe movie is in the works. Now you can find details about the movie at their website, but rest assured that Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow are very much a part of it. In fact it wouldn't surprise me if Snake Eyes is the focus of a movie tie-in game, either as part of an overall game or for the whole experience. My only question is how is he going to communicate? Text messaging? Steven Hawking style? Etcha Sketch? I kid but while it might be a difficult gaming experience, if anyone can pull it off it's Snake Eyes. This isn't my big prediction, it's just something I wanted to throw out there.

Now my big prediction is about something that I'm surprised hasn't been attempted in the past, at least not that I know of. I've never been a big fan of Real Time Strategy games like Starcraft, Lord of the Rings: War of the Rings, Age of Empires, Command & Conquer, or the original Warcraft and WarHammer games, however I've been thinking lately it is ideal for a GI Joe game.

VS.


REAL TIME STRATEGY

With more than a hanger-full of vehicles on both sides, there appears to be plenty of source material for a game like this. Although it wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing if they made new vehicles or updated old ones. I remember this HUGE vehicle from the toy line and cartoon called The General, that would be cool to see. I didn't have it, but I did have a vehicle called the Battle Wagon. It had this missile launcher, a winch, side lazers and was even motorized. A prominent Cobra vehicle in the game would probably be the H.I.S.S. and I'd love to see Metal Head in the game, that crazy cyborg missile-launcher

Aside from being fun and a fantasy come true, I mostly see it as a good way to get back to your childhood days (or for some of you it might have been just yesterday) when you played with your GI Joes. Only this time you don't have to spend hundreds of dollars on all the vehicles and figures.

I think it would be cool if you could play as GI Joe or Cobra, maybe even have the opportunity to switch sides during the game. Admit it, the prospect of ordering troops and shouting either "Yo Joe!" or "Cobraaaaaaa!" has been a fantasy of your's for years.

What vehicles would you like to see, and would you play as GI Joe or Cobra?
Also, if you happen to be a GI Joe buff, a GI Joe wiki is in the works and needs soldiers to contribute some info.

If you are a game developer and like my idea, just remember who had the idea first.

GotGame Fighter Pole, Discussion

If you're reading this you either read my article on GotGame, or you've stumbled onto my blog by complete accident. Either way, welcome. I thought it was important to provide more insight and give credit where credit is due for my most recent article on fighting game crossovers.

In the GotGame writers' forum I posted the question "What fighters do you want to download/fight with in Soul Calibur IV?" There were two sections for voting, and in both multiple characters could be selected.

Since Soulcalibur is now tight with George Lucas's gravy-train, the first pole asked what Star Wars characters they wanted. Now some characters had been suggested in the original article idea, but with Clone Wars on the horizon I thought I should include some characters from that. The choices ended up being: Darth Maul, Mace Windu, Asajj Ventress, Ahsoka Tano, Count Dooku/Darth Tyranus, Obiwan Kenobi, General Grievous, Kit Fisto, Luke Skywalker, and Other. By now you probably know the staff's top three choices, but it might interest you to know that Ventress, Dooku, Grievous, and Kit Fisto all got the same score. No love for Ahsoka though, with zero votes. I guess nobody saw Clone Wars over the weekend before I turned this article in, then again maybe they did. I haven't yet so it's hard to tell.
Honestly I'm kind of surprised Ventress didn't score higher. I thought some wouldn't know who she was, so I later referred to her as, "the bald alien chick with the two red lightsabers." Didn't really change anything I'm afraid.

Some of you might be wondering why I put Kit Fisto in the vote. Well he kind of stands out among the other Jedi, especially during the Clone Wars, Episode 2 and Episode 3. He's also the only Jedi I know of to have fought underwater. Okay, I think he's cool; he was one of the most recognizable background Jedi for me, and the squid-head dreadlocks just won me over. Plus he roles/rolled with Mace Windu, so you know he is/was tough. I'll never forget you squid-head!Dana, one of our team members, was surprised Grievous didn't receive more votes, but my buddy Graham made a good point in that Grievous, "fights like a lawnmower." I guess that would be unfair.Andrea, another writer I've grown to know, loves furry things, especially when they're also vicious. So I guess when she suggested Ewoks and Chewbacca as possible characters I shouldn't have been surprised. She also first suggested Jar Jar as a character, and all for the sake of, "beating the crap out of him."

The second pole asked what video game characters they wanted. This was a tough one, since there are so many characters and sources to initially choose from. So I had to think of some characters , but I did say I was open for more suggestions. I tried to pick characters with consoles in mind, like in Soulcalibur II, and ones that I knew were both generally and currently popular, so I decided to go with: Dante (Devil May Cry), Kraytos (God of War), Altair Ibn-La'Ahad (Assasin's Creed), Travis Touchdown (No More Heroes), Link (Twilight Princess version), Master Chief (Halo), Ryu Hayabusa (DOA, Ninja Gaiden), Snake (Metal Gear Solid), Other and, since it was hard to pick just one from the franchise or one without the other, Sub Zero & Scorpion and (because it felt necessary) Cloud & Sephiroth as one choice.











The Mortal Kombat rivals tying with the FFVII rivals was a big surprise, mostly because I didn't think Sub Zero and Scorpion would rate as high as Cloud & Sephiroth. I guess people still love those two crazy ninjas. The same can't be said for Ryu though; he only got one vote. Altair and Snake only got one vote, too. Travis tied with Link, another surprise, and Master Chief didn't score nearly as high as I thought he would; two votes. I have to admit I was kind of hoping the votes would show others were eager to see Travis Touchdown in a lightsaber duel, but I was glad everyone else was also eager to see Dante and Kraytos in a fighting game.

Other game characters were also suggested by the voting staff. Adam suggested Prince of Persia, Christopher suggested Nemesis from Resident Evil 3, and Bryan had the idea of Mario with a lightsaber, which I have to admit I thought was hilarious and brilliant. Just imagine Mario in the classic Jedi hood with a plunger shaped lightsaber. Oh wait, you don't have to. Finally, because he made an old school reference to Shenmue, I'm giving props to Danielle. I'll let his post speak for himself:
"Yo how about that dude from Shenmue. Ryo? I don't know. He could wield a cat as his weapon. But seriously, he knows martial arts. Dr. Robotnik could be neat. In a terrible fan service kind of way. Mystical Ninja Goemon would be hella awesome." Still not sure what he means by a "terrible fan service kind of way," but the cat as a weapon made me laugh. You rule Danielle!

Finally, I left other media open for discussion. You can thank Thomas for bringing up Highlander, and my buddy Graham for adding Kurgon to the suggestion. Graham also suggested Mad Mardigan from Willow, calling it "possibly the best roll of Val Kilmer's career." Graham also started the Kill Bill suggestion, but it was Andrea who finally reminded us that the girl with bladed ball-and-chain was named Gogo. Andrea also suggested Skeletor, but you can't have Skeletor without He-Man. I suggested Hellboy since Spawn had his chance already, and after Adam suggested the Prince of Persia, I thought who better to stand opposite to him than 300's Leonidas.

It was a fun discussion, and I really appreciate everyone's input for this article. There are a lot of great people at GotGame, and that's why I wanted to share their insight and their humor with you. I hope you'll continue to check out their articles as well as my own.

Update: Spore Article up and ready

This is just an update to the previous post.

My article has been published on GotGame.

It can be found here: Understanding God through Spore

Enjoy.

One More Update: Turns out Jillian didn't edit this article, instead it was Carlos. Thanks for the help Carlos, you rule buddy.

The Finger of God, God cries "Objection!"

I had another picture idea. This one I came up with for an article that's due out in a couple of days for GotGame.

If I remember correctly, I was searching google for images under "God" and I came across this portrait:


Now I don't know who painted it or where I originally found it, but apparently I'm not the only one who has used it. I found the same image on some other sites. If somebody does know who painted it and what it's called, please let me know.

Any way, so I found this picture and what immediately came to my mind was the famous Phoenix Wright finger pose.

So I did another search, found the "Objection!"...word balloon, I guess...and cropped it, colored it, cut out some of the excess from the picture and got this:
It's going to be in an upcoming article of mine about an already controversial subject, God and the upcoming video game Spore. It'll have some other pictures I've done, and I wrote it with the help of my editor at GotGame, Jillian. The changes she made were great, only made it better. Thanks Jillian, you rule!

I was particularly proud of this picture. I even named it "God Finger" after my favorite fighting move from one of my favorite animes, G Gundam.

For those of you who actually read my blog or just happen to come across this image, I hope you like it and enjoy this sneak preview of my article. Just be sure to check out the article through my blog or at GotGame.com.

The Mystical Lazer has been launched

So this is blogging. Weird.

I guess I'll start with why I chose the name Mystical Lazer. I think I was watching an episode of Digimon or Yu-Gi-Oh! and I heard them calling out attack names and I just tried to think of one I'd use. Somehow I came up with mystical lazer, I liked the way the two words kind of clashed (lazers being a product of science and not magic) and it just stuck with me.

Well I don't know what you guys will be expecting, but I'll try to keep it interesting.


Through this blog we'll explore anything and everything that makes life just a little bit more interesting.

I'll be talking about things like cartoons, videogames, anime, technology, the paranormal, and any and all things that I think are just cool.

Also, if you happen upon my blog and you're a parent with a question about something your kids might be into that's related to what's above and want some help understanding it, send me a question and I'll see what I can do. I can't tell you how many parents and grandparents have asked me for help in picking videogames and other stuff for their kids or grandkids, and I've been really glad to help them out.