Category: Amish Otaku

All the stuff I published when I ran a nerd blog

Amish Otaku, Genesis, Sega, Video Games

Phantasy Star II

The protagonist and Nei face off against two species of biomonster
Sega

Phantasy Star II brings players back to the Algol solar system more than 1,000 years after the first game in the series, with all the technological and social improvements one might expect from such a period of peace. Rather than a revolutionary seeking revenge for a murdered sibling, the main character of the second game in the series is a secret agent working for the solar-system-wide government – a government headed by a supercomputer named Mother Brain.

In contrast to the somewhat clichéd “defeat the evil king” plot of Phantasy Star, the overall plot of PSII begins in a mystery. At the start of the game, the main character is sent out to discover the source of the recent outbreak of attacks by genetic mutations – called “biomonsters” – that have been plaguing the otherwise tranquil planet of Motavia. Continue reading “Phantasy Star II”

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Amish Otaku, Video Games, Xbox

Marvel vs. Capcom 2: A Modern Masterpiece from Capcom

Spidey giving Wolverine the toss
Capcom

Marvel vs. Capcom 2 for the Xbox, despite its mixed reviews at launch, has managed to become a mainstay at video game tournaments around the world and remains one of the most elusive and expensive titles of the last hardware generation.

I can understand why the game got mixed reviews: So little had changed from the previous iterations and so many fighters were on the market at that time, it’s no surprise IGN.com gave it a four out of ten. But there is something about the formula Capcom had been tinkering with since Street Fighter II that has really taken hold with this game.

There are more than fifty different characters to choose from, Continue reading “Marvel vs. Capcom 2: A Modern Masterpiece from Capcom”

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Amish Otaku, Convention Coverage, Features, Villain's Exposition

Villian’s Exposition: Otakon 2007

Otakon, as usual, proved to be full of ups and downs – not all of which were related fully to the convention itself, but nevertheless affected the overall experience. To give you the full story of my voyage, as it’s obviously the most important of them all, I’ll begin with my personal timeline.

After pre-registering in early June, via the “send us your money later or be destroyed” method due to a planned panel (which allegedly fell through due to an unfortunate administrative shuffle), I mailed in my precious $50 the first week of July. Continue reading “Villian’s Exposition: Otakon 2007”

Andrew Yager
Amish Otaku, Comics

True Story, Swear to God

 
AiT/PlanetLar

TSSTG is the autobiographical retelling of the creator’s relationship with his soul-mate, Lily. Tom was a designer working in California and Lily was a DJ working in Puerto Rico. They met by chance at Disney World and began their love affair, first as a long distance romance and then with Tom uprooting himself and moving to Puerto Rico.

These stories were originally published as online comic strips and mini-comics, then Beland self-published his work through Clibs Boy Comics and last year the acclaimed series moved to Image Comics.

One of the most difficult things in doing one of these autobiographical books is to make the stories appealing to people outside ones’ immediate family. What makes one person’s story more interesting than anyone else’s? Why should you care about what some cartoonist in California is doing with a woman from Puerto Rico? The easy answer is because Beland is doing this as good as anyone else in the field of comics. Continue reading “True Story, Swear to God”

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Amish Otaku, Comics

Comic Book Virgins: Meet Ted

With the plethora of comic book films coming out in recent years and the success of such ventures like the annual Free Comic Book Day, I thought it’d be interesting to see what non-comic book fans think of today’s comic books.

Our first experiment this time out is Ted. Ted is twenty eight years old and read a couple comic books as an early teen but wasn’t a serious collector or anything like that. He considers Batman Begins the best “comic book” movie but also has enjoyed the Spider-Man, X-Men and Superman films as well as a few movies like Ghost World and A History of Violence that Ted didn’t even realize we based on comic books.

So Ted tagged along with me for Free Comic Day in early May and picked up a couple of new titles, along with a couple books off the rack that caught his eye. What will Ted think? Continue reading “Comic Book Virgins: Meet Ted”

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Amish Otaku, Movies

Spider-Man 3: Twenty things I learned – and re-learned

  1. Components needed for theater motion-picture survival: caffeine, nicotine and protein.
  2. Three fourths of a smoke, 20 oz of asphalt-flavored gas station java, a tinkle and a bacon/egg/cheese bagel are still enough to outlast an IMAX screening on 3 hours of sleep.
  3. IMAX, without 3D, still leaves you feeling like you’re a smashed insect holding on for mercy on the camera lens.
  4. Bryce Dallas Howard, a natural redhead, is a MUCH hotter blonde than Kirsten Dunst, a natural blonde.
  5. Dunst is a smidge hotter as a redhead than Howard, but is still not hotter overall. Continue reading “Spider-Man 3: Twenty things I learned – and re-learned”

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Amish Otaku, Video Games, Xbox 360

Halo 3 Beta: Let the Carnage Continue

 

Having missed every opportunity to get into the Halo 3 beta for free, I – like many others – opted to purchase my beta key for $60 in the form of Crackdown. Now Crackdown isn’t a bad game, in fact it’s pretty good, but we all know I only bought it for Halo 3. Thank god it’s finally here.

The public beta was launched this past Wednesday, unfortunately a minor glitch kept the players with the Crackdown key from downloading and playing the game until late Wednesday and even then errors persisted. Continue reading “Halo 3 Beta: Let the Carnage Continue”

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Amish Otaku, PC, Video Games

Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar

 

Currently, if you log into Lord of the Rings Online, you’re going to see a lot of chatter about how the game compares to World of Warcraft. “The graphics are better/worse.” “The gameplay is better/ worse.” “WoW has more grinding.” “WoW has the better interface.” “No it doesn’t, LotRO does.” “LotRO is too cartoony.” “Are you kidding me? WoW is the cartoon!” “LotRO is just a WoW clone…”

Whatever the argument, players aren’t going to avoid the debate for long and it can get pretty heated.

So why the debate? Well, for one thing, since the game has gone public a good portion of WoW players have come over for a while to see what the game is like. Let’s face it, this is standard practice for gamers. If something new comes out, we want to get a peek at it even if we don’t plan to leave the other game we’re already playing for it. Continue reading “Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar”

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Amish Otaku, Gamecube, Nintendo, Video Games

Donkey Konga 2: More Music, More Monkeys, More Mayhem

 

I can’t easily explain why I like Donkey Konga 2. I enjoy banging along to songs I know and like, but I certainly don’t feel cool doing it like I do with Guitar Hero. The game was developed by Namco post-Katamari Damacy so it’s got a goofy, irreverent appeal as well. But I think it’s mostly my addictive personality as there are plenty of songs to complete and coins to earn, which let you unlock a large amount of other content.

The main game mode is street performance. This is where you collect coins and get rated on how well you perform the song. There are six levels of difficulty to choose from, but half of those difficulties are actually alternate pattern sets for the songs (which can only be unlocked when you’ve ranked high enough for that song in the corresponding difficulty level). Further, the hardest level of play requires that you unlock the songs individually with the coins you earn by playing the songs. Continue reading “Donkey Konga 2: More Music, More Monkeys, More Mayhem”

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Amish Otaku, Video Games

Rare Games: How to Find Them, How to Fix Them

 

For the past year I’ve been on the hunt for two of the rarest games of the last console generation. These two Xbox and Gamecube games are also considered to be among the best in their genres even today.

The first, Marvel vs. Capcom 2, I had played before with fellow Amish Otaku writer Ed Kidhardt. I’ve also gone a few rounds in competition, getting soundly defeated by the best in the world. The second I had never played, but the concept behind and the reputed difficulty of Ikaruga made it a must-find on my list.

While the games are easy enough to find online for around $60 and up, I didn’t want to pay that kind of money if I could help it. The only other option left was the Largest Repository of Used Games in the Universe: GameStop. Of course finding a quality game among the unwashed hordes of the used rack is no mean feat. It takes time, dedication and patience. Continue reading “Rare Games: How to Find Them, How to Fix Them”

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