Author: admin

Amish Otaku, Manga, Viz

Deathnote: The Good and The Bad

The Good

This week, I take you into the world of Deathnote. Here in our Western culture, we have our personification of death in the “Grim Reaper,” that famous guy dressed in black and with a scythe.

For those of you unfamiliar with traditional Japanese culture, their icons for death are gods (plural) of death, called Shinigami. Just as there are many different vampire legends in the West, so too are there different views of Shinigami in the East. In Deathnote, the Shinigami live in a world separate from ours, on a different plane of existence, watching our actions and—every once in a while—coming to our world … to collect. Continue reading “Deathnote: The Good and The Bad”

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Amish Otaku, Bargain Reviews, Features, Video Games

Bargain Review: Mario and Luigi, Partners in Time

If you read my review of Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars for the Super Nintendo, you might have guessed that I would enjoy the other games in the series as well. I honestly could not tell you. I was so turned off by the series’ sudden change in direction with the Paper Mario games that I didn’t bother to purchase them. It was only recently that I stumbled across a used copy of Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga at the local GameStop for a cheaper than usual price. Lured by nearly unanimous good reviews and the promise of a non-Paper Mario adventure, I picked up the game and plugged it into the Silver Taco (my nickname for my old-style Gameboy Advance). Could this game revive my interest in the series and, dare I say it, give me the same warm and fuzzy feelings that the original did? Continue reading “Bargain Review: Mario and Luigi, Partners in Time”

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Amish Otaku, Comics

Top Ten of 2007

This is my one-year anniversary with Amish Otaku and I thought I’d celebrate the occasion by writing something for the first time in, oh, six months.

2007 was another great year for comics. In my opinion, these were the best of the best.

10. Star Wars: Legacy
John Ostrander and Jan Duursema. Dark Horse Comics
This is the Star Wars series fans have been waiting for. Thrusting the series one hundred years into the future, the creative team has a lot more free reign, instead of just worrying about what to do with Han, Luke and Leia. I’m a huge fan of the original trilogy characters, but there’s only so much you can say with them before you age them too much or contradict continuity and have the fans up your ass. Ostrander has kept enough ties to characters we love (Artoo is still around and the main character is a Skywalker descendant) but has also redefined the “rules” of the Star Wars universe. The result is an exciting continuation of the Star Wars saga that appeals to fans of the original trilogy and those who prefer new characters in the expanded-universe stories. Continue reading “Top Ten of 2007”

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Amish Otaku, Convention Coverage, Features

Convention Coverage: MAGFest 5

Where do I begin with MAGFest? Quite simply, it is the hardest of the hardcore video game conventions. Sure you’ve got your PAX and your (now neutered) E3, but those are kind of like the pop music of game conventions. MAGFest is for the truly dedicated. That isn’t to say that it’s an exclusive or elitist event, it’s just underground.

2007 marked the fifth and largest year for the convention, drawing nearly 1,000 attendees to the Washington, D.C. area for four days of video game awesomeness. That’s over seventy two straight hours of games and eleven bands of music. Continue reading “Convention Coverage: MAGFest 5”

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Amish Otaku, DS, Nintendo, Video Games

Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin

 

I haven’t properly explored any Castlevania games since the second or third was released for the NES. I’ve seen the 3-D iterations come and go and I’ve heard all of the wonderful things said about them, so understand this is coming from a bit of an outdated perception of the franchise.

First off, I wasn’t exactly comfortable hunting Dracula without a proper Belmont by my side. I mean, for me, Simon Belmont was the heart of the story. That feeling quickly faded, however, as the story isn’t the heart of this side-scrolling, whip-cracking platformer. Continue reading “Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin”

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Amish Otaku, DS, Nintendo, Video Games

Elite Beat Agents Are Go!

 

I had heard about how [s]Japanese[/s] odd this game was before I purchased it, but the full force of it doesn’t strike you until you’ve played through a couple of levels.

You’re an Elite Beat Agent. Your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to find people stuck in sticky situations – like asking the high school quarterback to go steady, or saving the world from an alien invasion – and cheer them on to victory. That’s right, no super weapons or outright ass-kicking, you’re a secret agent/cheerleader.

This is a rhythm game with a unique DS twist: Instead of tapping buttons, you’re tapping the screen and following patterns with your stylus. I was surprised at the number of licensed songs in the game as well. I didn’t think the tiny DS carts could hold nineteen songs plus a game and animations.

While the game play may sound simple, the learning curve on this can be brutal. You may find yourself struggling to complete the easiest difficulty of the game. There’s even a story on the Internet of a disgruntled gamer viciously dashing his DS against the wall and then impaling it with a screwdriver after being unable to complete the last portion of a song. Sounds like a big ol’ crybaby to me! Continue reading “Elite Beat Agents Are Go!”

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Amish Otaku, PS1, Video Games

Bushido Blade: Mortal Combat, the Honorable Way

 

Bushido Blade is not an RPG, but it is on my top-three list of games Square ever created. It is easily one of the most subtle and nuanced fighting games ever produced.

Unfortunately, it only ever saw one sequel, which didn’t live up to the original in my opinion, and both were only available for the original Play Station.

Contrary to most fighting games where you have a health bar to determine how close you are to defeat, any attack had the potential to be a one-hit kill. It was also one of the first, and still only, fighting games to incorporate body-specific damage. Continue reading “Bushido Blade: Mortal Combat, the Honorable Way”

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Amish Otaku, PS3, Video Games

MotorStorm: Demo Review

 

MotorStorm is being readied for a February 2007 launch; quite a long time away. However, PlayStation 3 owners are able to get a first glimpse at how this game is coming along via a downloadable demo available on the PlayStation Network. This demo has a lot to say about the state of the game and upcoming PlayStation 3 launch titles.

The demo, being around 300 megabytes in size, takes a while to download via wireless connection but is relatively quick to install onto the hard drive. The demo contains two different types of vehicles; trucks and bikes. The trucks don’t seem to have as much acceleration as the bikes and are hulking masses of metal, so are less agile than the bikes. However, the trucks’ mass becomes an advantage when you feel like bullying other racers into, say, a wall. The bike is lacking in this area and is more easily susceptible to being smashed up but its small size and agility can get it out of a tight spot if it were to ever occur. Continue reading “MotorStorm: Demo Review”

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Amish Otaku, PS3, Video Games

Resistance: Fall of Man

To say that gamers have been expecting much from the PlayStation 3 launch lineup would be quite an understatement. Unfortunately for video game consoles as a whole, launch titles are usually not the most spectacular or enjoyable. However, Resistance: Fall of Man may have changed that for the Playstation 3 launch.

Resistance: Fall of Man takes place during the 1950’s in an alternate reality where a race of beasts called “Chimera” have taken over all of Europe, with a last stand being made in Great Britain. The main character, Nathan Hale, is part of a task force sent by the United States to assist the British in fending off the Chimera. This task force is soon wiped out and Hale, the only survivor, is left to fight with the British. Continue reading “Resistance: Fall of Man”

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Amish Otaku, Video Games, Xbox 360

Gears of War

Gears of War is the embodiment of all the hype over the current generation of consoles and what they’re capable of.

Maybe we had just become too complacent with Sci-Fi shooter genre (Halo, Quake, Unreal, Doom . . .) to expect any really new or surprising innovations.

Finding cover has always been important in 3-D shooters, but it’s never been integrated so seamlessly into the game play. Before, you could just “run and gun” your way through a game with a healthy margin of success, but in Gears if you don’t cover, you die. Continue reading “Gears of War”

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