Sean Akizuki's Fantasy Critic

It's usually an unfair comparison to compare Mortal Kombat to Tekken . One game is geared toward an older audience while Tekken is geared toward a younger audience. Tekken became a major influence in the fighting game industry while copying ideas from other games into itself. I mean, it doesn't take a genius to see that Kazuya is based on Vegeta, Heihachi is based on Dr. Wily, Nina Williams is based on Sarah Bryant, Law is based on Fei Long, Paul Phoenix is based on Ken Masters, and the list can go on and on. I decided to think about the similarities between the two franchises. Their first games were a hit but hardly aged well Tekken 1 was released with only eight playable characters while the home version unlocked the bosses without endings. Mortal Kombat 1 released its game with only seven playable characters. Both of them had stiff controls, really unfair artificial intelligence, and a crazy old man running the tournament. That may be the reason why Cary Hiroyuki-Tagawa beca...

Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance is a game I'd say was full of junk characters. I almost dropped the franchise because it killed my favorite character, Liu Kang. Fortunately, Mortal Kombat X brought Liu Kang back as a playable revenant. Here? Liu Kang is dead. It was supposed to be a daring new move like what Transformers: The Movie did with Optimus Prime by killing him off. This game was trying new concepts, 3D gameplay, multiple fighting styles (which got old too quickly), and some new characters that just created a whole lot of junk and fandom rage. The game did initially succeed though I don't think it aged well. Just think how Mortal Kombat 11 even dares to use a Deadly Alliance arcade machine to murder the opponent in one of the stage fatalities. The game itself had some issues. I think one of my issues was the cheesy impale move. Other than that - the game took a step backwards with only one fatality per character and no stage fatalities.  I think the concept of Shang Tsun...

  It's no secret that my favorite Tekken game is Tekken Tag Tournament 2 . I wasn't such a fan of the first game with some issues such as the rather sluggish side stepping (one reason why I still spit at Mortal Kombat 4 also) and the character endings are anything to be desired. However, these are but minor shortcomings since Tekken Tag Tournament should be viewed as an important experimental game that won several awards, was an important game for the sales of the Playstation 2 (which this game was probably the selling point like how Super Mario World was to the Super NES back then) and it was praised by longtime fans of the game. The game in itself is NOT canon so don't try to fit it into the regular timeline. Instead, it was a spin off that returned some characters. Some fans weren't too happy with the loss of Kazuya and were probably more than happy to have him back - even in non-canon. The game featured over 35 characters to make some nostalgic games. Though, please...

A show that a lot (or maybe not a lot) of the 1980s or 1990s children will remember is Defenders of the Earth . The show itself features events that seem to coincide with the Flash Gordon movie (1980 version) to which it was hinted that Ming the Merciless (acted by Max Von Syndow) had managed to survive after all. However, some events suggest otherwise that it's very much its own continuity. Dale Arden has been married to Flash Gordon and they have a child named Rick Gordon. It seems that the plot tends to follow up after the movie with Ming the Merciless probably still obsessed with Dale (and he's OLD ENOUGH to be her father). Ming the Merciless has practically exhausted Mongo of its resources (which might be a reference as to why the Mongols kept trying to invade China) and he's aiming for Earth. Such is the case of supervillain stupidity which leads to Ming the Merciless' desire for Earth. But like President Skroob from Space Balls - Ming the Merciless may not even ...

Video games is basically the escape from realism. It's like having that time when you play through the silly physics of Super Mario Bros. and fighting games aren't an exception. Tekken was a game that was influenced by Virtua Fighter and even became more popular as it evolved. I may have issues with Tekken 7 BUT that's not going to stop me from praising previous titles that made the game popular. Now, it would be fun to nitpick a lot of stuff that just don't make sense about Tekken yet it becomes so enjoyable for those reasons. A lot of random weird characters get thrown into the bunch Tekken is a game known for its unique weird cast of characters. The first game was already an indicator of how the whole franchise is built on weird plots. The weird cast of characters can go as far as with the unlockable rival fights. How could Paul Phoenix develop such a grudge against the first Kuma? Both Kumas are bears raised by Heihachi Mishima himself. Yet these bears seem to have ...

I could remember I was among those children who didn't have a Super NES while we eventually had the first Playstation. Back then, Super Mario World was highly coveted by many. I was thinking that the Exceedraft episode could've used the game as an advertisement. Instead, it focused on the Gundam Knight game - something I never heard of until I saw that particular episode where the child was whining about him as the uncool kid who doesn't have a Super Famicom. So, I was thinking about how I was able to finally play the game through a PS2 emulator called SNES Station (which isn't legit). But it was more or less the "real deal" in contrast to the abomination made by the Hummer Team - something I had, thought it was legit, and later discovered it was a fake. It was a game that I really nearly did a lot of stupid stuff for.  Unlike the first three games (or four, if you still consider The Lost Levels ) - this was the very advertising power of the 16-bit Super NES. ...

  It's no secret that I dislike Power Rangers and did a poor job hiding it. It's no secret now that I'm also critical of newer Super Sentai every now and then (but some seasons are still good) even when I prefer Super Sentai over Powr Rangers. Now, I decided to write my OPINION PIECE (yes, take note of that) on two Power Rangers shows that got a lot of love from its fandom - Power Rangers in Space and Power Rangers Lost Galaxy . The two shows succeeded each other with the space hype.  Let's talk about Space first and why I think it's overrated Space was the show that saved the Power Rangers franchise from cancellation. It's often hailed as a good season. However, I decided to think about how the story was a DIRECT continuation of Power Rangers Turbo . One reason why I prefer Choriki Sentai Ohranger over Power Rangers Zeo is the use of the self-contained continuity where I didn't need to watch EVERY OTHER SENTAI to understand it. Yup, I could watch Ohranger w...

One of the most interesting aspects of Mortal Kombat (2011) is how the Pit stage is presented in that game. You may notice that the first two pits were actually merged. The actual combat happens in the first bridge while there's a second bridge for two other kombatants. What's truly weird is that you may realize that the bridge is located in Shang Tsung's Island - NOT Outworld. Yet, the second bridge was in Outworld. Older fans who played Mortal Kombat Trilogy (a game which aged rather badly) is that there were the first two pits. The first pit and the second pit were added into the game. The game being mostly copy/paste with some unused boss sprites (ironic that Goro shouldn't have his stomp move) couldn't integrate the original Mortal Kombat II pit fatality. The "3D effect" of the enemy falling down needed unique sprites. Granted, there could be editing of sprites done (which is done by some fan gamers) but I think memory space and time constraints is th...

I haven't decided what to write on and I decided to dig in some old treasures in my childhood. I remembered back when TV-5 was still ABC-5 and there was the 1980s show (but it was during the 1990s when I saw it) called Faerie Tale Theatre . The narrator was Shelly Duval (who played Olive Oyl in the Popeye movie with the late Robin Williams as Popeye). This was probably among those simpler times. Various stories were adapted and edited with a twist. I remembered watching them on Sunday evening (and later, it was rescheduled so I was no longer able to watch more of them) which was all part of my childhood. So, what TV episodes do I remember? If my memory serves me right then the following are the ones I've seen: Aladdin Beauty and the Beast Cinderella Jack and the Beanstalk Little Red Riding Hood Pinocchio Puss in Boots  Rip Van Winkle Rumpelstiltskin Sleeping Beauty The Boy Who Left Home to Find Out About the Shivers The Emperor's New Clothes The Frog Prince The Little Merma...

Are some shows really BUDGETED not to last for a year? It seems to be that the answer is yes for some shows. Toho and Capcom both had a late 90s cult classic known as Shichisei Toshin Guyferd or translated as Seven Star Fighting God Guyferd . The series only lasted for 26 episodes. This reminds me that also Toei Ltd. also had some shows that are considered rushed such as Dengekitai JAKQ (which was rushed), Kamen Rider Amazon (which I heard was due to its more mature content as laughable as it gets), Chojinki Metalder (which is the darkest Metal Hero series to date), and there are some shows that were somehow meant to last for a short time. Guyferd seems to be one of them. I remembered reading from the Questor magazines back in the 2000s that it's based on Bio Booster Armor Guyver and Fist of the North Star . Those who've seen it back then may notice the TRAGEDY behind it. Yes, spoilers alert, it doesn't have a happy ending like how Metalder ended with the death of its hero...

It's been ten years since Haim Saban repurchased Power Rangers ONLY TO MAKE IT WORSE, right? I dunno why that obviously FALSE rumor that Power Rangers Samurai was more popular than its source material even came out. It's B-O-G-U-S and that Lost Galaxy rumor in Japan might be easily disproven now thanks to the Internet! Anyway, 2011 was the year of Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger (probably the greatest anniversary Super Sentai season) and there's one short show that's still more entertaining than Samurai ever will be be - it's the action sitcom Supah Ninjas . Supah Ninjas is  pretty much like the average American show. There hasn't been a fixed villain as they fought several different villains like how some Hanna-Barbera superheroes never had a fixed nemesis and were canceled after a short period of time. The story has Mike, Amanda, and Owen fighting over some villains. They are under the tutelage of Holo-Gramps -an artificial intelligence version of Mike's real gran...

Megaman X as an obvious direct sequel to Megaman (classic) does have some stuff left to the imagination of the players. Granted, it's been at least 100 years since the original series ended and much can happen. Did Dr. Wily find a way to cheat death only to find out that he wasn't really having much of a choice? Dr. Wily didn't want to take the position lower than the Big Bad. However, it seems that he was left without a choice. There are theories that two characters namely Serges and Isoc are both robotic forms of Dr. Wily. It's also said that Dr. Wily is somehow a stream of consciousness that travels from one body to another. So, how does this work? One of the episodes of the third season of Transformers hast he once-mighty Cobra Commander after several years since COBRA was defeated. There's no more COBRA organization - only Cobra Commander going by the name of the Old Snake. The only way Cobra Commander could survive in the episode "Only Human" was to...