Sean Akizuki's Fantasy Critic

I personally thought that Cobra Commander in the cartoon was simply murdering the real him in the comics. The comic version was less cowardly, a lot less that is. So while he was initially portrayed to be like Adolph Hitler, however the writers were SO STUPID to write him in the vein of Yosemite Sam or worse, Starscream as he was voiced by the late Chris Latta. He was later given such dumb plots like vandalizing the moon (which was really dumb) or that he frequently called for retreat, which was another trademark not in the comics but certainly Megatron did keep saying "Retreat!". It came to a point that his incompetence caused Dr. Mindbender to organize a meeting between Destro and the Crimson Twins to create the Cobra Emperor. He discovered them but later his own guards turned on him. What the? I felt like he may not be paying the Crimson Guards properly either. Even his own confidant Scrap-Iron betrayed him and he was inevitably usurped by the new leader, Serpento...

If there was any part of G.I.Joe that I found worth questioning was the existence of the Cobra-La. Sure these guys are more vicious than the Taliban or anybody who would send Osama bin Laden a.k.a. the real life Cobra Commander but I felt like these guys were just written out of a sudden plot twist. So it turns out to be they are some missing branch of humanity and I thought that they were pretty cool as a child but then, as I grew up, my critical thinking had them analyzed. So I thought they are not so necessary for the G.I.Joe plot plus the part where Cobra Commander is part of them doesn't make sense. In the first place, Cobra Commander being sent by them to form the Cobra army to dispose of humanity was just stupid in writing. Why? Cobra Commander organized Cobra for his own benefits. He organized an army of humans to work for a human-hating society?! WTF? Also there was the plot of Serpentor as part of Cobra-La's plans. Again, Cobra-La hates humans and Serpento...

As great as the Tekken franchise is, however I can't help but think that something's not right about the scenario where there are mixed language dialogues. For example, in Wang Jinrei's ending, he speaks in Chinese and Jinpachi Mishima replies in Japanese. I thought of it though what if the characters in Tekken can understand each other in the mixed language. Still, I wish they just used English all throughout.

I think Kazuya Mishima has to be Tekken's most unique character- he was the protagonist in Tekken 1 and he became a recurring antagonist in the later series. Somehow, this made him popular. So what's the big deal? He was starting of as a frail child much to the frustration of his father Heihachi Mishima so he got thrown from the cliff by his despicable father. Down there, he nearly died but the Devil gene triggered. So he entered into the first tournament much to the pleasure of his father. He won the tournament and threw his father off the cliff and took over the Mishima Zaibatsu. However instead of righting the wrongs, he under the influence of the Devil gene within made the Mishima Zaibatsu more corrupt. He through the technology of the company had created biological weapons like Roger and Alex. Also, he had entered into a meeting with Jun Kazama, who he had raped out of his insanity. From that rape came his son Jin Kazama. His father Heihachi Mishima whom he tosse...

Somehow Tekken's recurring antagonist is a pretty interesting character. Well rather than just your regular villain, he has some noble intentions at the same time, a self-serving person. He can be compared to Zeus and Cronus in Greek mythology, more likely Cronus. Why? Well he overthrew his own father Jinpachi Mishima (an act that would later cause the Devil gene to manifest further) and that how he treated his son Kazuya Mishima would create a more evil villain than he was. He was pretty much a bad father. Who in the right mind would throw away their son into a cliff to instill the values of hardness? It could have killed Kazuya Mishima. In the process, he ended up creating the curse which backfired, then he would backfire. He raised Lee Chaolan as another son only to provide a rival for Kazuya Mishima. In the first tournament, he was thrown off the same cliff that his son Kazuya Mishima was thrown to. However he came back to the second Tekken tournament... for revenge. ...

Another interesting plot in Tekken is the rivalry between the two sisters, Nina and Anna. Somehow something started their rivalry. If there was anything else, I think it had to do with the fact that their parents were playing favorites- their father chose Nina and their mother chose Anna. Whatever, it was a dysfunctional family. The two never got along from Tekken 1 to present, the rivalry briefly stopped in Tekken 4- only because Anna Williams was absent during that game. Somehow the rivalry is still not fully explained.

If there was anything more interesting in Tekken was the recurring protagonist Jin Kazama- he was a result of Kazuya Mishima raping Jun Kazama thus he carries his mother's surname. He first appeared in Tekken 3 when he trained under his paternal grandfather Heihachi Mishima who would later use him as bait against Ogre. He entered the third Tekken tournament to avenge his mother's death at the hands of Ogre. It was also there he met a rival in Hwoarang. After he defeated Ogre, Heihachi Mishima tried to kill him despite their blood relations because of the Devil Gene inside him. However he revealed that he wasn't easily dispatched off and revealed his Devil form. Hmmm Devil Jin sounds like Devil Gene, get it? In Tekken 4, he found out his father had been revived by G-Corporation and worse, his grandfather Heihachi Mishima was once again sponsoring Tekken. He unlearned the Mishima karate style for traditional karate, changing his style making him his very own characte...

It's obviously stupid that Hercule was originally named Mr. Satan when that guy is NOWHERE near the lord of darkness. On the other hand, Dabura the king of the Netherworld wasn't named as Satan. Dabura means devil so he should have been the one named Mr. Satan. However I found it pretty insulting that one of his demon underlings Babidi (who didn't reside in Hell with him) managed to take control of him and use him. However realizing that he was the ruler of Hell, he decided to fight Majin Boo but he was defeated. He was turned into a cookie and was chomped. Well when he reached the afterlife after his physical form perished, Yemma (the god of the underworld, Dragon Ball's equivalent to Pluto) sentenced him to Heaven instead. In the anime only, he was there knocked down to a senile state so I guess the gods will just have to wait until he misbehaves before they send him down to Hell again. Presumably, he may have been sent back to Hell to where he belongs.

Back then the popularity of Tekken in the arcades has somewhat created an impact to other fighting games in the future. How? It encouraged 2D games to go 3D in graphics like Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat but the gameplay was too different. Eventually when the Playstation 2 came, it seemed to have affected Mortal Kombat the most but in an indirect way- Mortal Kombat as a franchise developed a deeper, more complicated fighting system than it was a basic game back then in hopes to become competitive with Tekken which it did. Even the designs in Mortal Kombat from Deadly Alliance-present seem to be influenced by Tekken's designs. Also, it meant that Virtua Fighter its almost direct competitor had improved its graphics, system but still, Virtua Fighter isn't as great as Tekken IMO.

Okay this is NOT a fighting game. I'm doing an entry to actually try and compare both games, which I think is better. I remembered playing both games at the arcade, long before I got a Playstation (the first hi-tech system I owned after by NES which I no longer have :-P). However after I got my Playstation 1 (woo hoo, but it was also another reason why my grades were poor back then, I studied in a high standard school during that time), I started playing Tekken at home and realized how deep Tekken was. So I began to look at it more than just the fact that Tekken has better graphics and fluid animation, even when it was just a baby franchise. Not only with the graphics, it was also with the characters. Tekken has a cast of more interesting characters than Virtua Fighter including the final boss characters. Anytime, Heihachi Mishima the main antagonist can beat Dural up! Music too is a key factor in games. The wrong music can spell a bad direction in everything! The sur...

Here's the movie version of Thulsa Doom who the more die-hard Conan fans will rather call as "Thoth-Amon" or those who saw the Conan cartoons first, may dub him "Wrath-Amon". At the start of the film, he is the mysterious figure that leads an army of Vanir who searches for the power of steel. He raids the Cimmerian village, killing every last adult and selling the children into a hard life of slavery. He also beheaded Conan's mother using the sword made by Conan's father. During that time, he was the raiding evil figurehead of Set. Years later, he reemerged again with different power. It was mentioned in the movie that two-three years ago, it was simply another snake cult but the worshipers of Set began to spread like fire. During that time, he built his fortress near the Vilayet Sea, where he turned a mountain into his fortress called the Mountain of Power. Using the cult, he had enslaved thousands of people across Hyboria and has occupied the kingdo...

Conan's father acted by Will Smith forged the sword for Conan to use when he grows up man enough to use it. However, when the serpent men attack the village, Rexor got it from Conan's father who gets eaten by the dogs. Thulsa Doom then used it to behead Conan's mother and ever since then, the weapons of steel from their village were used by the serpent men. It became the focus of the riddle of steel.  Conan heldge a grudge against Thulsa Doom for stealing the weapon meant to be his. On the other hand, Conan got the sword of that may have belonged to his ancestor since he was a descendant of Atlantis. Rexor however was the one to use the sword more often than his master Thulsa Doom.   The sword itself was used by Rexor during the battle of the mounds, however, its blade was broken by the strong impact of the Atlantean Sword of Conan. When Conan looked at the broken sword, he fully understood the riddle of steel would lead to Thulsa Doom's downfall. The sword itsel...

If there was anybody in Dragon Ball Z that I was able to relate to, it wasn't Son Goku but Vegeta. Okay so we know he started of as a bad guy who was working for Freeza's forces but after his failed mission on Earth, things began to change. So he was still a bad guy during the Freeza saga and he planned to betray his master for power, but he was unable to. Freeza proved to be more than a match which killed him the first time in the series. Ever since then, he had a change of heart and decided to consider the Earth his home while having a friendly rivalry with Goku. So in a way, he ended up marrying Bulma which was an unusual plot twist and even sired a son named Trunks with her. So it was pretty interesting to see him work with the good guys for a change. In a way, he could relate to Piccolo who was previously Goku's archenemy prior to the Z saga as well as to Tien and Yamcha. He also had his own fair share of fights but his pride was always a killer. That is, h...