Sean Akizuki's Fantasy Critic

Megaman 2 is the game in its early stages and I called it the most unforgiving Megaman NES Game . The game also had balance issues and one weapon REALLY stood out so much. It may not be a panacea or cure-all for the game but it certainly is the most powerful weapon available. Only a few enemies were immune to it. But others, sheesh -- it popped Bubbleman and made lumber out of Woodman. It also had very high ammo and killed several enemies (but not all could be hurt by it) in one shot if they were aligned near each other. It also could be fired in several directions AND it had incredibly long range. Successors of the Metal Blade weren't exactly that powerful. Megaman 3's Shadow Blade had medium range and couldn't be fired downwards plus it didn't have the rapid rate of the Metal Blade. Megaman X2 presented the Spinning Wheel -- it was one strong weapon but it couldn't be fired in multiple directions. I guess the people behind Megaman thought that the Metal Blade ...

One of my favorite cartoons as an adult is the Grim and Evil cartoon series. One features what if the Grim Reaper one day became friends with two children named Billy and Mandy. The other is full of quack science where the titular antagonist Hector Con Carne is reduced to nothing more than his brain and stomach -- worse he's attached to Boskov a very dimwitted bear. Hector is accompanied by Dr. Andedonia Ghastly (though she's usually referred without her first name) and the huge idiot General Skarr (who is the occasional Starscream of the series). While I thought Grim's side was funny while I found Hector Con Carne to be even more funny. Well, there's the quack science that medical science won't be able to achieve -- it's impossible to actually survive as just as a brain and stomach. While it does make good innovation for science fiction writing but I don't think technological advancement can do it. Just thinking of how Hector survives as such makes it e...

I was too angry with Fox's tantrums and how they dealt with Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch -- even the stories to explain the retcon can't even disconnect to decades of established plot. Then again, what's some adaptation without some retcons right? TBH, I kinda like a few ideas that were introduced outside the comics such as giving Magneto more mutants under his command (such as making Mystique his second-in-command or Juggernaut being a mutant over his original storyline where his powers are mystically imputed), not having Madelyne Pryor at all (which started the whole cycle of Cyclops' decay), Wolverine's height change and the like. The only real problem is when the changes don't make sense.  So how would I play with it around? I would actually make Lorna Dane or Polaris the eldest daughter of Magneto -- rather than a daughter born out of some affair with a married woman. I would make it that Anya Lensherr supposedly perished in the fire -- only for her...

I was rewatching some of the X-Men: The Animated Series by Haim Saban and realized one thing -- Nightcrawler's father Azazel was only introduced in 2003 as a possible parentage retcon. Until then, there's been a lot of speculation who his father is. The 1990s X-Men cartoon did bring some hints during "Nightcrawler", "Lotus and the Steel" and "Bloodlines" which actually tend to point to one man -- SABERTOOTH! Why do I think that Sabertooth may have actually been Nightcrawler's real father ? In Bloodlines, Mystique told Nightcrawler that the latter's father was a wealthy nobleman. Yet, "Lotus and the Steel" does present a hint that Nightcrawler could be Sabertooth's other son with Mystique. Wolverine remembers Nightcrawler and then he sees Sabertooth. There's even a resemblance between Nightcrawler AND Sabertooth more than Mystique's husband and Nightcrawler. This has me thinking about it that Mystique may have lied...

I was thinking about a series of my preferences between old school and new school. I want to enjoy the best of both though not all of the Toku classics get my attention. The same can be said about Kamen Rider. I may have started with Kamen Rider Black and Black RX -- but I just don't find myself enjoying most old school Kamen Riders. No, I won't blame the primitive special effects -- most of my favorite Super Sentai were still using stop motion for their mecha or lesser forms of CGI. I think it has to do with the plotline or writing.  What old school Kamen Riders have I watched aside from Black and Black RX? I watched Amazon, Stronger, Super-1 and some episodes of the first Kamen Rider. I remembered just how I found myself watching them before I wanted to criticize them. I finished them and just didn't find them enjoyable. Doing some Google -- I found out that there's a five to six year hiatus between Super-1 and Kamen Rider Black. Wow, talk about hiatuses. Then I...

While playing Megaman X7 -- I still think it's what I'd call innovation GONE wrong. Yup, as much as there's much to explore but this is one game that just had no idea on what to do or can't decide. I mean, the game annoyingly shifts between 2D to 3D forcing you to adjust to situations too quick. Some can go ahead and say Megaman X6 is the worst X game ever but I beg to disagree . This game is even worst than X6 due to factors like how X is reduced to a whiny brat or how gameplay can be SO horrible. Now here's my thing -- Megaman X7 should have just focused on getting fully 3D instead of a mix of both. Aside from the fact like DO NOT make X a whiny crybaby -- the gameplay was also another focus. For instance, make Zero still have his effective jumping slash which was severely destroyed in this game. So how can we have a good 3D Megaman game? Analyze the Megaman Legends series' 3D gameplay together with the more effective Lock On feature for bosses. I mean, Meg...

The Megaman series was obviously coming to an end for the NES era -- it was the 90s and the rise of the16-bit era with the Super Nintendo era was coming. In fact, if we think about the timeline we've had Megaman 4-6 during 1991 to 1993. Megaman X came out in 1993 -- the same year and one came out in November and the other came out in December. This also started showing some signs of decline for Classic Megaman. I remembered playing Megaman 4 and it started a new method of gameplay -- the charged Mega Buster shot. It also had a skeletal enemy where one was forced to use the Charge Shot. The players had to learn when to use charge shots and when to use regular shots. It was a new change where the castle stages were extended into two parts -- Part 1 and Part 2. There was NO password where one could start in Part 2 which made the game a little more tedious. It's like how one had to go to the Cossack stage before the Wily Stage, the Darkman stage before the Wily Stage and the M...

While Megaman 2 is considered by many as the best of the classic series but I beg to differ. Instead, my pick for the best of the classic series for the NES anyway was Megaman 3. I remembered having the Family Computer and my love for Megaman. The first Megaman game was THAT ridiculously hard and Megaman 2 (which I played on the Megaman Anniversary Collection disc for the PS2) is what I'd call the most unforgiving Megaman game for the NES. Megaman 3 IMO somewhat balanced the formula before the "Mega Buster" series came in that's from Megaman 4 up to 8. Megaman 9 to 10 ended up removing the charged shot and sliding for the more classic feel. So what's with Megaman 3? I think it was trying to perfect the formula and I think it's the peak of gameplay for the NES series. Shadow Blade is a more balanced version of the Metal Blade -- that means no more of the whole "overpowered thing" or you can talk about how the game is a little easier this time ar...

Wolverine's height is one that's always subject to change. While Marvel tends to list him as 5'3 yet many of the comics tend to draw him TALLER than he should. Saban's X-Men cartoon had him a little taller and X-Men Evolution made him taller than that. What's more interesting is that Hugh Jackman is ONE FOOT taller than the original statistic concerning the height of said character. So what really happened?  I guess it's a cultural thing that caused Wolverine's height to go from 5'3 up to 6'3. The 90s cartoons doesn't make him that tall but I guess a taller, more muscular Wolverine is way more marketable than he was originally created. I think the appeal of Wolverine being the short chick magnet wasn't so appealing. Plus, he was a popular character. Also Jackman's appeal as a taller Wolverine may be one change that was very welcome to a new generation of fans. I like the change making him more imposing than he already was.  For ...

Sime fans kind of like the Batman x Catwoman as an anti-hero x anti-villain pairing. I'm not a comics purist and personally, I'm getting upset at a decline of the whole comic industry. I welcome certain changes if they do good. I remembered watching Batman: The Animated Series and I freaking started a rather weird trend of Batman x Poison Ivy shipping which caused me to think about how I wish Poison Ivy-related episodes were written. I can't forget the way I started to ship them in "Pretty Poison" and "Eternal Youth". I thought about making Poison Ivy have an unhealthy interest in Batman which puts her at odds with the villains. Think about Enchantress' villainous crush on Thor (and I confess, I tend to ship them in spite of their differences). One of my ideas would involve Poison Ivy actually offering Batman more than once a chance to be her ally or even her would-be consort even to the point she may want to get rid of him (but it grieves ...

I thought about a number of times comic logic fails. But let's think about Magnetos' powers and the vast use of metal by many heroes. I thought of a number of times that Magneto could have destroyed the Avengers such as the video shows above. Shield made of metal? He could deflect it back at Captain America. Thor's hammer? Well it's made of metal. Ironman encased in iron? Bye bye Iron Man! Bucky's metal arm goes off. Vision would have been dismantled from within. Magneto wouldn't need to use his other magnetic powers to win -- plus he could just steal Thanos' metal glove without using his other powers! Some X-Men villains learned not to mess with Magneto's ferromagnetism. Wolverine nearly died when his adamantium got sucked out. Cable nearly died in an encounter when Magneto used his ferromagnetic powers against the former's techno-organic parts. You gotta admit -- it's just very screwed up at how things are happening with metal-dependent ...

Back when Marvel didn't suck -- I remembered one of the best games ever done was the X-Men arcade game done by Konami. Okay, just take note that I'm not a comic book purist and most of my criticism here will be based on what I thought were better alterations or the worse. Now for the whole game.  The X-Men that cast here are mostly from the Pryde of the X-Men pilot. You have Cyclops, Wolverine, Colossus, Nightcrawler, Dazzler and Storm -- all the while Kitty Pryde is still a newbie would-be X-Man. I just wonder why the original pilot didn't include others like Gambit or Jean Grey for the roster. It could have been cool to have Gambit instead of Dazzler or why was Dazzler later replaced with Jubilee for Saban's X-Men cartoon? We could have also had Jean Grey instead of Dazzler. Just my thoughts on my preferred roster.  X-Men arcade game has realigned lots of villains who weren't part of Magneto's original Brotherhood such as Emma Frost (she was a mem...

I for one wouldn't consider myself a comic book purist especially that the comic books these days can be full of SJW idiocy or creating a storyline for the sake of it. I thought about how much of a fan I was of what I'd call the more popular X-Men cartoon series by Haim Saban  vs. the heavy alteration (for better or for worse) from the original source material. Well, Saban's X-Men cartoon wasn't so faithful to the comics either for obvious reasons. The comics is just too bloody and violent or two, times change and X-Men pretty much started in the 60s to 70s and was subjected to alterations every now and then. So what do I like about X-Men Evolution not found in Saban's interpretation of X-Men? For ne, I kinda like how the show actually cuts out the Cyclops-Wolverine-Jean Grey tension in place of a Jean Grey-Rogue-Cyclops tension. Also, Wolverine isn't really an official X-Man but a mentor like Storm is -- it's even hinted both of them are actually a c...

As I look back to last decade, as I look back to the late 90s and the time the PS1 and the PS2 introduced a lot of cool stuff -- I still think about the fun I had with Megaman Legends. As of the present, there's Megaman 11 coming out, no news of a new Megaman X game (except for X and Zero in Marvel vs. Capcom Infinite) and then I decided to think about the opportunity cost called Megaman Legends 3. Yes, I understand that it came out when the PS1 was coming to an end. I thought about the PS2 and I was hoping for a Megaman Legends game. Instead, we got some games with Megaman Legends references such as Megaman X7 (the 3D gameplay and unfortunately bad target system), Megaman X8 (Lumine is a darker, more evil Megaman Juno) and Command Mission is an RPG though it's turn-based. So really, why wasn't there Megaman Legends 3? TBH, I think they could have invested time and money on making Megaman Legends 3 instead of Command Mission -- take note that I'm still a fan of t...

Lynda Carter may be past her prime but she's really still pretty for her 60ish age. After seeing her own Hollywood Star, I think about one series that I watched for the action namely... That's right -- Carter's role as the iconic Wonder Woman during the 70s. While I don't normally care too much about old school shows (except if they were part of my childhood) but I think it's one classic that I can't forget. What I can't forget is that the actress in her prime is actually prettier than than Gel Gadot in the new movie. Hmmm but even past her prime, the original Wonder Woman still looks better than her replacement. It had me wishing that the aging Carter were Queen Hippolyte for the new school version. Hehe.

I just had a thought of how depowered Magneto really gets in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The X-Men movies limited Magneto's powers to ferromagnetic properties but that's NOT what we see in the comics. We can see that the comics that his powers are beyond ferromagnetic -- they consist of him actually able to do feats such as electromagnetism, gravitational control or even the questionable power where he can actually manipulate the flow of iron in one's blood since his powers are more powerful than you think. So what could theoretically happen? Let's put the comics version of Magneto running the show. I remembered how Saban's X-Men cartoon has Magneto's magnetic blasts fire extreme pressure. I mean, he's used it against the X-Men or two, plastic Sentinels can still be crushed by pressure blasts. Think about how the comics Magneto would have totally ripped off the movieverse without depending on so much ferromagnetism. How could Magneto get rid of the...