Author: Daniel Allen

Amish Otaku, Video Games, Xbox 360

Review: Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2

One of the most successful Xbox Live Arcade titles of all time has finally got a true sequel and, not surprisingly, it’s just as awesome as the original. Of course I’m talking about Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2. Not content with the two game modes available in the first game, GW:RE2 ups the ante with six very addictive new game types.

In addition to the new game types, Bizarre Creations have also tweaked the gameplay in subtle but significant ways. After an enemy is destroyed there will be small “geoms” floating about in the debris. Pick these up to increase your multiplier and start racking up the points. Also be on the look out for new enemies with new attack patterns to learn. Finally, there are no gun upgrades in the single player mode. You’re always going to have the same gun you start out with.

When you first download the game only one of the modes is open to you, but the other five modes are easily opened up by after playing for a few games. The first mode is Deadline. You have unlimited lives and a limited number of bombs to rack up the highest score possible in three minutes. Continue reading “Review: Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2”

Daniel Allen
Amish Otaku, Manga, Viz

Review: Sanctuary, Vol 1

If your perception of manga is based solely on the types of titles you find on the shelves of your local chain bookstore you’re missing the whole picture. Contrary to the abundance of yaoi, shojo and shonen comics on the shelves, there’s actually a large subset of manga that tells stories of a darker, more ominous nature.

Sho Fumimura’s and Ryoichi Ikegami’s Sanctuary is just such a comic. This isn’t something for the Strawberry Marshmallow or Naruto crowd. Sanctuary is a manga made strictly for adults. Don’t expect a hentai but don’t expect Fumimura-san or Ikegami-san to pull any punches either.

The story follows the lives of a young yakuza named Akira Hojo and a young politician named Chiaki Asami. After surviving the killing fields of Cambodia the two escaped to Thailand and eventually to Japan. Their plan is to transform Japan from the ground up on two different sides of the law. Hojo works to change society through the underworld life of a mobster while Asami works his change through the established channels of the Diet. Continue reading “Review: Sanctuary, Vol 1”

Daniel Allen
Amish Otaku, DS, Nintendo, Video Games

Review: Mega Man Starforce 2 Zerker X Ninja/Saurian

 

Capcom

Mega Man Starforce 2 Zerker X Ninja is the first new Mega Man game I’ve played since I rented Mega Man X for my SNES many years ago. That means I never played any of the sequels to X or played any of the portable versions. That also means I never heard of the alternate Mega Man time line where instead of robot technology reaching ascendancy, network technology took the developmental lead. This is the setup for the Battle Network series of games released for the Game Boy.

Two hundred years after the events in those games take place – in the year 220X – a new hero will take up the moniker of Mega Man. His name is Geo Stellar and that, not the fact that he’s in fifth grade, should be your first hint that the story in this game is going to be directed squarely at a preteen demographic. In fact almost every character, location and plot point in this game has the intellectual complexity of an arithmetic test using only one digit numbers presented in a true/false fashion.

Continue reading “Review: Mega Man Starforce 2 Zerker X Ninja/Saurian”
Daniel Allen
Amish Otaku, Comics, Viper

The Lost Books of Eve

Most of us in the Western world are familiar with the Biblical story of Genesis, in particular the story of Adam and Eve, but few people have heard of the ancient Jewish story of Lilith and there is no record in the accepted canon of Adam and Eve’s life together before their expulsion from the garden.

This is where The Lost Books of Eve come in. Josh Howard has drawn from classical religions and mythologies to populate his antediluvian Earth. The main player in this tale is of course Eve. After Adam goes missing from a sailing jaunt on the oceans of the Garden of Eden (ignore the fact Eden was bounded by four rivers and nary an ocean) it is up to Eve to find and rescue her husband.

Adam has been kidnapped by his first wife Lilith as part of her plans to spite the creator and free herself from the exile he has imposed upon her. Helping her during her journey is the cherubim tasked to guard the gates of Eden, Asherah (in ancient Israeli mythology the feminine counterpart to the masculine Yahweh) and Adam’s brother Melchizedek (rabbinical tradition holds that he is actually Shem, Noah’s son). Continue reading “The Lost Books of Eve”

Daniel Allen
Amish Otaku, Comics, Viper

The Rabid

After a brief two month delay, Viper Comic’s The Rabid is finally on store shelves. This is the latest from writer Jason M. Burns – known for A Dummy’s Guide to Danger and Gypsy Joe Jefferson among others – and the first full length graphic novel from artist Guy Lemay who’s also done work on A Dummy’s Guide to Danger as well as Sasquatch.

The story is about a small town that has become the epicenter for an outbreak of a virulent, mutated strain of rabies that seems to have been developed by the military. What starts as an airborne virus among dogs quickly spreads to the human population through vicious dog attacks. Once bitten the victims quickly begin to show aggressive, cannibalistic, zombie-like behavior and their skin takes on a sick, green palor.

Caught in the middle of this unfolding apocalypse is Sheriff Kevin Chase who will do whatever he can to protect his family and friends. But too many people are becoming infected. The infection is spreading too fast and for some reason all of their communications have been cut off. Trapped in a town that’s become a Romeroesque war zone Sheriff Chase leads a small group of survivors including his wife and son away from town only to be forced to confront the military who may be ultimately responsible for this tragedy. Continue reading “The Rabid”

Daniel Allen
Amish Otaku, Comics, Viper

Viper Launches Black Mamba Books Imprint

Attack of the Killer Tomatoes

Viper Comics announced that they will be launching their new imprint – Black Mamba Books – later this year. This new imprint will be dedicated to horror comics and will launch in October with Attack of the Killer Tomatoes “being adapted from the original film by Dale Mettam with artwork by Erich Owen and edits by Greg Blohm & Joe Bauer,” according to the press release.

The comic will proceed the release of the theatrical remake of the 1978 camp classic directed by John De Bello. The new movie will be adapted by Kent Nichols and Douglas Sarine of Ask a Ninja fame. This will also be Nichols’ directorial debut.

Viper is also in negotiations with actors Tony Todd (Candy Man, Chuck, 24), Christa Campbell (Day of the Dead, The Wicker Man, 2001 Maniacs) as well as Jamison Newlander and Corey Feldman (The Frog Brothers from Lost Boys and Lost Boys: The Tribe) “to bring their original horror stories to Black Mamba Books.”

I’m curious to see what kind of stories these actors create for this new imprint. I’m also wondering if Viper’s newest horrorish comic, Wulf and Batsy, will move to this new imprint.

Viper’s “advance edition” of Attack of the Killer Tomatoes will be available at Comic-Con this July in limited numbers. Full body of the press release after the jump. Continue reading “Viper Launches Black Mamba Books Imprint”

Daniel Allen
Amish Otaku, PSP, Sony, Video Games

Space Invaders Extreme

Thirty years after its initial release, the latest incarnation of Space Invaders kind of snuck up on me. As has been the case with some of the best sleeper PSP titles, I caught my first glimpse of it on The 1up Show. It was flashy, it was bright, it was the kind of eye candy you’d get hooked on quickly, the good stuff.

The original Space Invaders from 1978 was pretty simple by todays standards. While the game incorporates almost all of the original elements of the game, there’s so much else going on it can hardly be considered the same game. The enemies still come from the top of the screen and it’s up to you to shoot them all before they reach the bottom of the screen.

Now enemies also come in different colors. Shooting four of the same colored enemy in a row causes a bonus to drop down. There are three weapon bonuses and one shield bonus. Red enemies drop bombs (area of effect), green enemies drop the broad shot (multiple shots simultaneously), blue enemies drop the laser (continuous, kills everything in it touches) and gray enemies drop the shield. Bonuses only last for a limited time.

Shoot eight enemies in a special pattern and a bonus round ship will fly across the top of the screen. Shoot this ship to go into the bonus round. At the start of the round you will be given a goal and a set amount of time to achieve this. Fail and nothing happens. But if you succeed you go into Fever Time and your weapon gets a major boost in firepower. Just like the weapon bonuses the Fever Time bonus is also only active for a limited amount of time. Fever Time is where the bulk of your points will come from and it’s the best way to tear through the waves of enemies. Continue reading “Space Invaders Extreme”

Daniel Allen1 Comment
Amish Otaku, Manga, Viz

Vampire Knight

I found out recently that I wasn’t the only 12 year old girl obsessed with what some poor mother called “the vampire books”… Seeing as I’m not 12 anymore and I still have a thing for vamps, I think that some girls don’t just “grow out of it.”

For example, a couple of weeks ago, I devoured all of Vampire Knight by Matsuri Hino—at least all of it that I could find in English.

VK is about an interesting boarding high school called Cross Academy that caters to “Day Class” students (regular humans) and “Night Class” students (vampires), complete with Sun Dorm and Moon Dorm. (Can you guess which class stays in which dorm?) Day and Night students aren’t really supposed to interact, since the school is an experiment in human/vamp co-habitation, and they don’t except when classes change at around 4 PM every day.

Continue reading “Vampire Knight”
Viannah Duncan1 Comment
Amish Otaku, Comics, Viper

Dead@17: The Compendium Edition

Dead@17 first showed up back in 2003 from Viper Comics. It follows the story of Nara, an innocent teenager who is brutally murdered in her own home only to be reborn as the potential savior or destroyer of humanity. But that’s just the setup.

The story is really about the ultimate struggle between good and evil. Nara is the intended vessel for the rebirth of the demon Bolabogg in his quest to usurp the power of God. When that plan fails it’s up to Nara, her friends and some shadowy occult paramilitary organizations to stop him from using another unlucky girl who’s just been killed and resurrected in Nara’s stead.

Throw in some zombies possessed by a demon named Legion, a still alive and fighting Joan of Arc and plenty of risqué panels of Nara, her friend Hazy, and substitute vessel – and Nara’s nemesis – Violet, and you’ve got a recipe for an entertaining and thoughtful graphic novel that plays fast and loose with the classic story of the apocalypse. Continue reading “Dead@17: The Compendium Edition”

Daniel Allen
Amish Otaku, DS, Nintendo, Video Games

My Word Coach: Vocabulary Training

Recently Ubisoft received a lot of praise from Nintendo for their My Word Coach title. Specifically, Reggie Fils-Aime said, “You got it. You guys got exactly the type of game we want for this machine.” And Satoru Iwata, president of Nintendo, went so far as to treat the Ubisoft team as an internal developer, sharing game design philosophies for the DS and Wii.

After spending a few days with the game, I have to say Nintendo was way off with their effusive praise but Ubisoft is on the right track nonetheless.

The stated purpose of My Word Coach is to improve your vocabulary. Sometimes the game achieves this goal and other times it fails miserably. The game was created in partnership with the National Center for Family Literacy and in association with Dr. Thomas Cobb from the University of Quebec at Montreal. While it’s tempting to discount the game because Dr. Cobb teaches at a francophone university, he does have the credentials to be the creator of this game – not just a technical advisor. Continue reading “My Word Coach: Vocabulary Training”

Daniel Allen