Sean Akizuki's Fantasy Critic

I remembered one movie I begged my parents to take me to but never did. Back in the 1990s, there was the Super Mario Bros. movie which was loosely based on the Super Mario Bros. game. An interesting thing was that it was in 1993 was shown on May 28, 1993, when Haim Saban acquired the rights from Nintendo to make the Super Mario Bros. Show . 1993 was also the year when one of my disliked franchises Power Rangers showed up. I may have some dislike for Power Rangers . However, this is one film that I could bash a lot harder. I still fee that maybe the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers movie was at least ENJOYABLE. This one seems to be what I'd call a hideous licensed film. I guess I'm always going to have my dislike for MOST American adaptations based on Japanese franchises. The movie tried to have a more mature approach. I don't know if it's really a good idea to do so. It took away the familiarity of the games. For example, Mario and Luigi are no longer twins like they were i...

Adaptations will alter certain story elements, right? I would say that I'm pretty not much of a fan of LICENSED adaptations of Japanese media. It's no secret that I really dislike Power Rangers or any American localizations (which in itself is an adaptation in a business dictionary). Another thing I dislike is the American localization of Street Fighter . Guile may be a badass colonel but I felt Ken could've made the better American adaptation protagonist. One movie called Street Fighter also came up. There were two characters who had a side change namely Zangief AND Balrog. Yes, Balrog one of the top Shadaloo enforcers was made a good guy in Street Fighter the American movie. I think the reason had to be this. Balrog's Japanese name is MIKE Bison. The name change was presumably done to prevent lawsuits with Capcom due to the character could be a caricature. Instead, Balrog, in the movie, was made into Chun Li's cameraman. This was the only time we should see Balrog...

  Back then before Street Fighter fell down to a certain extent (such as with what happened with Street Fighter V which I wonder if I'll still get it) - there was a time Capcom released better.   The Street Fighter Alpha series came and the final installment was the third game. The third game introduced a notoriously powerful version of General M. Bison (or General Vega) as the final boss. It wouldn't be your typical Bison battle as he had a UNIQUE fighting style not selectable. The game cemented his status as a final boss character with SNK stats. Granted, I only played the console version of Street Fighter Alpha 3 way back with the first Playstation. Personally. it was my favorite of the series and the Street Fighter Alpha Anthology version   slightly falls down. This version of Bison is so DAMN TOUGH that you'd probably cry a lot. What made the boss fight frustrating (for the arcade) is that once you're defeated - you really can't continue. Woah, talk about takin...

It can't be denied that I'm pretty much the   Batman x Poison Ivy shipper , right? I just feel like comic book series tend to get rebooted for too long. I guess that's why I decided to stop collecting comics since too many plots drag for too long such as Batman and Catwoman having their sexual tensions. Though, I felt that Poison Ivy might be the more ideal crack pairing. This comic book  has a plot which again, proves Poison Ivy has been more anti-villain than heroine. This comic book issue seems to put both Batman and Poison Ivy in some tension. The plot is a direct sequel to  "Toxic Shock" . Even Batman mentions it out loud. Poison Ivy does steal a plant but ends up saving the life of a person who has become toxic. There's some dilemma especially when Batman deals with some corrupt American government agents. Some corrupt government agents are trying to use some Amazonian boy with some disorder. Poison Ivy shows that she's got a good side unlike the oth...

Shang Tsung has been no doubt considered a broken, overpowered character in previous installments of Mortal Kombat . Getting rid of his ability to morph altogether made the 3D games tolerable. Though, that ability was somehow returned in the reboot for the two games namely Mortal Kombat (2011) or referred to as MK9,  and  Mortal Kombat 11 (MK11) . The ability was limited to the extent that Shang Tsung can now only morph into the OPPONENT via Soul Steal. Shang Tsung has the ability to do limited morphs in MK11 through the variation system by selecting certain ninja moves within a limit.  How do I think Shang Tsung is still potentially broken? Casual gamers like myself wouldn't have the time to memorize or analyze all the Dial-a-Combos in MK9 or MK11 . However, take the serious player who would practice all characters or memorize even long combos (such as Tekken players). If the person has a strong devotion - they could slowly memorize all the moves of MK9 and MK11 in no ti...

I could remember some of the worst short-term fears I had as a child was with clowns. I remembered how I would easily get scared of people in masks or by the Joker. Some people do get scared of mascots too when they were younger. Somebody might be crying while sitting on the lap of a Santa Claus mascot or being greeted by a Mickey Mouse mascot. Parents may have had a hard time trying to convince them that it's just a man in a suit. It would be weird (really) if a child enjoyed watching Mickey Mouse on television and getting scared of a Mickey Mouse mascot. In my case, it seems my initial fear of clowns was because of one portrayal of the Joker - the Batman (1989) film. Joker is known to be Batman's fiercest enemy, a fan-favorite villain, and may have inspired the Marvel villain Arcade. One thing worth noting is that it was the JOKER who killed Bruce Wayne's parents in this movie. It makes Joker old enough to Batman's father even if it seems that Joker is not that old in...

Okay, just be ready for my PERSONAL BIASES just like how I dislike Power Rangers  and certain entries of the Super Sentai franchise. At this point, I could talk about the controversial Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance (MKDA)  game which I called a junk game .The game itself got praised during its initial release (even if it did kill off Liu Kang) though it had a couple of characters that Netherrealm hates. Those characters were later killed in the Mortal Kombat X (MKX)  comics such as the non-playable sub-boss Moloch (killed by Kitana), Hsu Hao (killed by NOT SURPRISINGLY Scorpion), and Mavado (killed by Jacqui Briggs). Some characters are still respected such as Kenshi himself became a paid DLC for Mortal Kombat (2011) or MK9  and we had Bo Rai Cho returning for MKX  as paid DLC and Frost as an unlockable in Mortal Kombat 11 .  I could rant on and on about how MKDA was a junk game. Yet, the game can be viewed as an experimental ground for new stuff. In fact...

I remembered when he had our first Playstation (PS1). Some of the games I had were Mortal Kombat Trilogy and Mortal Kombat 4 - both games that AGED BADLY. I did enjoy them (for a while) because I liked the lore of the Mortal Kombat franchise instead of the violence. I think that Mortal Kombat 11 got too focused on gore than gameplay. Now, I feel like writing about how MK4 really aged badly as well. Take note that I NEVER had a Sega Dreamcast (which died too soon). I guess Midway NEVER wanted to translate Mortal Kombat Gold to the PS2 and Xbox because it was SO BAD.  I was excited to see Mortal Kombat in 3D. I remembered playing it alongside Tekken 3 . Shao Kahn was supposedly defeated and a fallen Elder God had shown up. It was an exciting concept but what did we get? A game that's going to ultimately AGE BADLY. The game still focused on high and low attacks. Weapons were added but they were NEAR USELESS. Sidestepping really was nothing more than an annoying maneuver that doesn...

The Matt Signal There were some rare non-canon comic series based on some animated adaptations of comics. X-Men had one and it was independent of the mainline Marvel (which sucks now). Another 1990s classic, Batman: The Animated Series  had a comics spin-off. I was able to buy one of the comics where Poison Ivy controlled Robin. Again, I always felt like the kisses should be for Batman. Poison Ivy may be a villain but she's an anti-villain. I think Poison Ivy and Catwoman are both anti-heroines who are probably stuck in a bizarre love triangle . Batman marries Poison Ivy and risks getting scratched by Catwoman. Batman marries Catwoman and he's probably going to get poisoned by a jealous woman. This comic book issue " Toxic Shock " has Batman recruiting Poison Ivy (and has a weird ending) which the latter seeks the plant that caused trouble. Poison Ivy is in Arkham and Batman needs her help. Was it half-brained or what? Granted, Batman has had an on/off alliance with C...

I personally enjoyed Kaiju No Kami's reviews and his weird sense of humor. I may like Turboranger but I admire how he wasn't all too afraid to give his blunt opinions on how bad he thought it was. I guess he still felt Carranger was way too interesting with its parody. IMHO, I think I can now agree with fans who think Carranger shifted into Turbo too many times and ran over Turboranger , Power Rangers Turbo , and Go-Onger . The video of his berating Hasbro over the recent Power Rangers thing (which I dislike) reminds me that Hasbro had some screw-ups from my childhood too. These two shows are G.I. Joe and Transformers . How Transformers was handled during the 1980s could be one.... I love to compare Optimus Prime's death to Burai's death from Zyuranger . Granted, both Toei (as an animation provider) and Hasbro had a history together SO I guess it's not too coincidental when a late 1980s movie killed a beloved character before Zyuranger came in 1992. I rewatched the...

Love it or hate him - Serpentor was an interesting concept though he was portrayed differently in the cartoon. The comics version of Serpentor had a more strategic, calm mindset and knew how to slowly convince people that he was better as COBRA's leader than his predecessor, the Cobra Commander. The cartoon Serpentor was nearly as deranged as Galvatron. If one could think of the DNA samples mentioned - General Hawk did say, "Dozens more!" Julius Caesar, Geronimo, Erik the Red, Grigori Rasputin, and Henry V were mentioned. I have a feeling Hasbro wanted to put Adolf Hitler into the list but it could've been way too sensitive to mention it outright. Instead, it seemed to be hinted that Hitler's DNA did, after all, make the mix. A research on Adolf Hitler's personality and noticing the signs may show Dr. Mindbender DID add Hitler's DNA after all. The PennState Leadership Blog has this to state about Hitler's madnes s: Despite Hitler’s childhood and his re...

I remembered playing Super Street Fighter IV on our PS3. Before that, I remembered saving up for a PS3 some time after Mortal Kombat (2011) came out but I felt needs came first. What I didn't realize (at first) was that Gouken was actually born from something from my childhood - the rumored character known as SHENG LONG. Back then, I didn't have a Super NES or a Sega system. I only had a PS1 back in high school which I often used as an escape from reality. Yeah, high school sucks under the old system! My grades did drop badly and my parents had to monitor my gaming addiction. College came and I had my computer game addiction under control. I may have not graduated with honors (since I took a short-term computer course to learn basic skills) but I never repeated any subject. The PS1 was still there, we soon had a PS2 bought under discount, and maybe I'm thankful I didn't have all the cool stuff as a child. I decided to buy some PS2 games that contained the games I wanted...

Street Fighter III series was introducing mostly different characters. Gill was no exception to the series. The only older characters that returned in the III series are Ryu, Ken, and later Chun Li and Akuma. Gill was presented as a new character with a half-red, half-blue design which made me think that he was a cyborg. Instead, it was some genetic manipulation as this so-called benevolent villain is. Apparently, Gill is delusional and believes what he does is for the good of humanity - unlike General Bison or Shadaloo that has been somehow operating purely For the Evulz one way or another. I felt the design was probably to show the power of duality. Instead, it was also done to show off the power of the CPS-3 board. Street Fighter III during its first release is still in the arcade. It was called Street Fighter III: The New Generation . There were no console versions yet as the game had TOO MUCH POWER. Who can remember how Killer Instinct was widely depowered for the Super NES back t...

Mortal Kombat (2011)  referred to as MK9 by the fans was practically a mish-mash of the first three games with a massive rehash. One could call it an improved MK Trilogy yet MKII had a huge influence on it such as the last three boss sequences (though Goro and Kintaro took each other's places), how Shao Kahn was fought at the arena, and most of the Story Mode was devoted to the second game. The secret boss battles were back with unplayable versions of Reptile (with Scorpion's and Sub-Zero's moves), Jade (the hardest to unlock), Smoke (which would cause you to sacrifice the long-awaited Stage Fatality), and Noob Saibot (easy to get but really hard due to teleport spamming). These four hidden bosses had SNK stats and you only had ONE CHANCE to defeat them. Fortunately, the game goes on as usual even if you're defeated but it's counted as ONE LOST MATCH.  There were a couple of hidden fights I wish existed based on a couple of Video Game Lies. This would probably go kr...

  Mortal Kombat bosses are normally not playable. I thought they could be played by some means. However, unlike Killer Instinct  which had a code to play as Eyedol, MK just didn't do that presumably due to how overpowered these bosses are. SNK Bosses were also mostly unplayable though they tend to be playable in later games WHEN they are balanced out. Shao Kahn is one character who was unplayable for most of his run. However, there were times he became legitimately playable. Shao Kahn's playability in fifth-generation and sixth-generation consoles Shao Kahn was introduced as the boss that's presumably far more menacing than Shang Tsung. Shang Tsung was made playable and somewhat depowered. The one thing I didn't like about the old reboot series was Shang Tsung had the moveset of almost everyone. Fortunately, that was fixed in later games. Shao Kahn came to MKII where he's that cheesy. He flung a light spear, did shadow charge, and his melee punches and kicks make yo...

Goro started as a non-playable sub-boss who was infamous for being SO HARD to defeat. In Mortal Kombat II , he was rumored to be hidden or even playable which was quickly dismissed, and later, he was added into the Mortal Kombat Shaolin Monks (for PS2, X-Box, Gamecube) adventure game as a key boss. In-between, he became a playable character in these games. He was however playable in the stupid Game Boy version of Mortal Kombat. Goro's first few legitimately playable roles in fifth-generation and sixth-generation consoles The infamously-imbalanced Mortal Kombat Trilogy (MKT)  came into existence. It was pretty much a copy/paste job so some features were removed since it heavily relied on past digitized graphics. Fan games were able to add in new stuff but I believe memory constraints were a problem. The fifth-generation consoles had the Playstation One (PS1), the Nintendo 64 (N64), and the Sega Saturn. MKT  came to be and the PS1 and Sega Saturn versions allowed us to play as...