Sean Akizuki's Fantasy Critic

Mortal Kombat X is yet another game without the stage fatalities.  In Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance, we had none of the at all and all characters only had one fatality.  In Mortal Kombat: Deception and Mortal Kombat: Armageddon, we had death traps which was like the "Ring Out" function in Virtua Fighter, albeit bloodier.  In Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe, again no stage fatalities so maybe, it's not all to surprising that stage fatalities were omitted from Mortal Kombat X and I do have my possible assumptions. Mortal Kombat X introduced the Brutalities which was a radical departure from the UMK3/MK Trilogy version which required a long button press.  While carrying the name, Brutalities is when an enhanced version of your special moves kills your opponent whose life bar is flashing except, there are several conditions that must be met before it can be done.  For example, Dualist Liu Kang's massive fireball must require TEN solar flare shots at the oppo...

It's already noticeable that fighting games do copy each other. Now one can see how Liu Kang and Ryu end up having similarities. Liu Kang is Chinese and Ryu is Japanese, both of them are the heroes of their respective series. Liu Kang ended up having similarities with Ryu as Mortal Kombat progressed. Liu Kang in Mortal Kombat II had some similarities with Ryu. Kung Lao was made his best friend and friendly rival at the same time, notice Liu Kang in Mortal Kombat II has a red gi like Ryu does. I guess they were inspired by Street Fighter II to create Kung Lao as a Ken-type character and giving Liu Kang his gi was part of it. After the first Mortal Kombat, Liu Kang and Shang Tsung ended up having a Ryu vs. Akuma/Gouki type of rivalry. Shang Tsung plays the dark malevolent force, equivalent to that of Akuma who was a hidden boss in Super Street Fighter II Turbo.  It was more or less a dishonorable rivalry. After that, Liu Kang would also beat the main antagonist for most games, Sh...

The success of Robocop in America as a movie in 1987 would later create a phenomenon of Robocop influences with Toei.  So where do we start? In 1989, Toei responded to the success of Robocop by creating the monster-exterminating android known as Jiban.  Jiban was once a human being named Naoto Tamura but after being killed by the Biorons, he was revived as a cyborg to counter their evil organization.  Unlike Robocop, he would beat monsters-of-the-week and he could revert back to his human identity. By 1994, Toei spawned another Robocop type of character known as Janperson.  Compared to its inspiration, Janperson was a purely mechanical character, he was never human.  But like Robocop, he would fight against criminal groups that threatened Tokyo.  He was also introduced as " the new guy in town "... Robocop style.  I felt this was the true Asian Robocop.  If America has Robocop in the 80s, Asia has Janperson in the 90s.  I personally th...

Well Goro is the sub-boss of Mortal Kombat X aside from the fact he is DLC only playable (BOO), so what's his possible role in the game?  Now the last time we knew was that, Kotal Kahn defeated Goro, disarmed him and sent him back to Kotal Kahn.  Remember the MK X comics is a prequel to the game.  So what in the world is Goro doing in Mortal Kombat X?  Perhaps he will get his arms back in the comics via mystical means. Mortal Kombat 4/Gold featured Goro as a sub-boss who you can play as via a secret code.  The bummer was however that Goro would only fight against characters in Goro's Lair even when you use him and two, he has freaking NO character ending.  In his bio, Goro had returned from Outworld seeking to crush Liu Kang in Mortal Kombat.  He also appeared in Kung Lao's ending where he faced his other rival Kung Lao.  He defeated the original Kung Lao in Mortal Kombat, now both of them face a truce. In Mortal Kombat X, he neither appear...

Back in Mortal Kombat II to 3, there was a lie that somebody else was above Shao Kahn, there was a bigger bad above Shao Kahn.  Rumors went from Noob Saibot to some unnamed character.  But later, the rumor was made real in one form or another.  It was said that this character possessed all the movesets of the other characters. The idea that Noob Saibot was the "bigger bad" was disproven in his MK Trilogy bio data.  He was first made playable in some versions of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3.  In MK Trilogy, Noob Saibot's bio data said that he was a member of the Brotherhood of the Shadow, where they worship a fallen Elder God known as Shinnok.  He made his first appearance in MK Mythologies: Sub-Zero (a stupid game I hate to mention) and he was in Mortal Kombat 4/Gold as a way too easy final boss (boo) but his moveset involved mimicking the other characters.  Too bad the CPU Shinnok never used that ability at all, thanks to the limited PS1 memory.  ...

So I'm hoping to get this game soon.  So here's what I thought.  I had a series of expectations that came along the way that didn't match with reality: I expected Mortal Kombat X to be heavily based on Mortal Kombat 4.  However, it turned out that the story spanned a total of 25 years.  I expected lots of MK4/Gold cast members to return but it turned out that Cyrax, Baraka (might be DLC though), Reiko (he was only in the comics), Jarek (good thing Kano is in his place), Tanya (she will be DLC), Kai and Fujin aren't in the regular roster. When Kotal Kahn first appeared, I assumed he might either be the main boss or the sub-boss.  My reasons were he just freaking looks like Ogre in Tekken right?  When I first saw Kotal Kahn, I thought he would be either the main villain, sub-boss (considering he freaking sliced off Goro's four arms) and because he's the new emperor of Outworld, that he'd surely be the sub-boss.  However he is demoted to the positio...

I thought that while Megaforce really mega-disappointed me, I can still rewatch MMPR's first 40 episodes, even if Bulk and Skull are there (they're useless) but here's some reasons why I can still rewatch MMPR: MMPR has a better main cast.  Now MMPR may not be the best acting but hey they can act.  While I'd admit that the Zyuranger cast were mostly better but the miles are very short.  There's even a better mix of characters whether you like it or not.  Trini's not a stuck up bitch even if she's badass, Jason isn't robotic, okay Billy's nerdy but he was my first favorite, Walter Jones can act Zack well... not spectacular acting but it's passable.  My bias is only though I think Amy Jo Johnson can act better than Reiko Chiba.  Just a minor bias actually. ;) Comparison between Kimberly and Emma is VERY LAME and FORCED.  Yeah, that was bad writing and as I said, I freaking dislike Emma .  Even if eveyr body wants her, Kimberly doesn't ha...

What I find weird in Mortal Kombat is that although the game is usually based on Taoist/Buddhist concepts, the names of some characters are in Japanese.  So here's what I hope would be help to how their names are in Chinese: Raiden's name ( 雷電 ) in Chinese would be Lei Dian.  However I would have preferred him to be named Lei Gong, after the Taoist god of thunder. Fujin's name ( 風神 ) would be Feng Shen (Wind God).  There is also a Taoist temple in real life called Tainan Fengshen Temple. Jinsei ( 人生 ) would be Ren Sheng or human nature.  This may also be viewed as Qi in Taoism.

Tekken is a great fighting game series but it had a trashy Hollywood production, that you might as well not watch.  But one Tekken movie, a CGI animated one, really took a much better execution than the Tekken movie or the Tekken cartoon movie.  I mean, come on, Tekken is a great game, why give it such a bad movie?  Fortunately, the Tekken Blood Vengeance film may not be the best but it really creates a good, solid story together with high-quality 3D graphics, a narrowed-down storyline, and some possible explanations for the Mishima bloodline. So the story might not be canon but tries to fit in Tekken 5 and Tekken 6 .  Again, we see much of the father/son feud with Heihachi, Kazuya, and Jin (the Mishima bloodline).  In the middle of the father/son feud they have hired the rival siblings Nina (for Jin's side) and Anna (for Kazuya's side) for their petty feuds.  At the same time, it involves Ling Xiaoyou, a student named Shin Kamiya (who is not part o...

So I have a PS3 not a PS4 (again while I do have money, I refuse to squander it left and right), so I'll have to wait for Mortal Kombat X to come out by June 2, 2015.  On the other hand, I have the option to pre-order but... I prefer to try and wait for a discount before I get jealous of people who are able to get it at a lower price.  At the same time, I will have ample time to self-study the game before sitting down or two, I might consider going head to head against my peers.  Meanwhile, the game itself looks pretty good if you ask me. Twenty five years later, we get a Mortal Kombat version of The Avengers... the new generation warriors are here! The story of Mortal Kombat X takes a span of 25 years (shades of Tekken 3).  After the tragic events of Mortal Kombat 2011, a lot of the good guys were reborn as members of the Brotherhood of the Shadow.  It seems like an Avengers movie... only bloodier which I hope Marvel Comics will be with Netherrealm S...

So you might want to think which game would I suggest for XBox One owners assuming you don't have any of the games yet. We have Killer Instinct (2013) which now has a Season Two vs. Mortal Kombat X. Mortal Kombat (2011) had really been so far very impressive, that it basically rebooted the whole Mortal Kombat franchise to a whole new level of innovation. While the PS2 games were fun, Mortal Kombat (2011) was indeed a great game. Now with the release of Mortal Kombat X, some may also have considered Killer Instinct (2013). What I Think Went Wrong With Killer Instinct 2013 Last 2013, Killer Instinct "3" was launched only as Killer Instinct under Microsoft. Season One presented only eight playable characters namely Jago, Saberwulf, Glacius, Thunder, Sadira (new character), Orchid, Spinal, Fulgore and the bonus final boss Shadow Jago. Wow, pretty anemic with a lack of modes. Sure you get a cool combo system, get a lot of hits but the problem lies with its lack of conten...

I would admit that I am a very stubborn guy... which is both good and bad depending on the situation. So I'm more of a Super Sentai fan and I currently  dislike Power Rangers, I mean Power Rangers is not exactly my cup of tea. I mean, while I don't hate Power Rangers, I do dislike the current state it's in but I'm looking forward to a Lost Galaxy marathon after I'm done with Gingaman. Now moving on, this is probably one of my most unshakable opinions or not really. So I did become a Sentai purist, I got into stages of denial then... I just can't shake it off huh? So I just was pretending over all the years to find Mei and Lin hotter than Kimberly. Now some people do, that is THEIR OPINION and I respect that. In my case, I was just riding on the opinions of Super Sentai purists because I joined their ranks for a short time. While I would prefer to watch Zyuranger over MMPR Season 1 and Dairanger over MMPR Season Two, I cannot deny that I still found Kimberly ...