Sean Akizuki's Fantasy Critic

Super Mario Bros. 2 widely differed from the very first Super Mario Bros. game which I can remember playing this game.  Instead of playing as Mario (Player 1) or Luigi (Player 2), this was a one player game which allowed you to choose between Mario, Luigi, Toad and Peach each with different abilities.  Mario was the balanced one, Luigi had a very high jump, Toad can quickly pull out turnips and Princess had the ability to glide into the air. The story deviates from Super Mario Bros. considering the events happen in Dream World, where the Subcons were imprisoned.  The four must join to liberate the Dream World from the game's main antagonist Wart (a giant frog perhaps named after the misconception that frogs caused warts) who has plagued it. The gameplay was radically different as each character started out "fully grown" but they can shrink if they only have one heart left.  You can get "secret mushrooms" in some areas per level to get more hearts.  When dea...

Hercules: The Legendary Journeys is a loose adaptation of the original Greek myths such as that Hercules was legally the descendant of Perseus (who is technically his "half-brother" though Zeus did not have sexual contact with Danae compared with Alcmene) or that Zeus committed adultery with another man's wife.  Hercules: The Legendary Journeys  has Hera got overly monsterized when Ares is much worse than she is. In fact, she even rejected her own son Ares for being too crude and rude. So how does Hera get overly monsterized in the TV series? Hera was mostly out of character considering that most of her hatred in the myths was merely focused on Hercules than the world. She does not plague the world and she does care about other mortals. It's just that Hercules ticks her off because his name in Greek (Heracles) is translated into "Hera's Glory". That deeply insults her as to why such a name is given to an illegitimate child of Zeus. While other renditio...

While I personally dislike (not hate) Johnny Cage and my dislike for Cassie Cage stems from her paternity (which I think Sonya was better as a character than her daughter).  Now moving on, we do have the "Rage Mode" of Johnny Cage and Cassie Cage which happened in Mortal Kombat X's rather not so impressive story mode.  Yeah I know, I'm a Liu Kang fanboy! In Mortal Kombat X, Johnny Cage knew of his heritage that he was a descendant of some Mediterranean cult that bred warriors for the gods.  IMO, I think Johnny Cage is a reincarnation of some Mediterranean warrior.  Maybe he may have Indian ancestry or he was an Indian warrior in his past life, what if he was really King Rama in his past life?  I even want to assume he might be the reincarnation of some Mediterranean warrior and maybe he wasn't a white man in his past life?  Now concerning Johnny Cage's powering up and defeating Shinnok, I would consider it a temporary power-up boost at best.  He ...

I was around 15-16 when I first figured out which show was based from which and Metalder was amogn them.  I started to think it was just originality then mixing Shaider right into VR Troopers but what I found out was that, VR Troopers' first season footage was based on Metalder and Spielban while the second season was based on Shaider.  So what's my thoughts on Metalder? The android Metalder is given a human identity as Ryusei Tsurugi, he was based on Dr. Koga's son Tatsuo.  After the bitterness of war, Dr. Koga thought it was best to fight any threat to world peace and as of late, the world peace is threatened by a robotic army that was threatening the world peace.  Dr. Koga dies and Ryusei's sense of justice awakens, allowing him to become the super robot Metalder.

Tekken itself is one of the games that underwent a lot of innovations. While Virtua Fighter was the first fighting game with 3D graphics, Tekken revolutionized the fighting game arena starting with 2.5 Dimesional gameplay (3D graphics with 2D gameplay) and later in 3 Dimensional gameplay. At first, the game felt like a hodge podge of ideas coming together because until now I can't stop comparing Kazuya's appearance to Vegeta, Nina Williams' appearance to Sarah Bryant, King to some Japanese wrestlers, Marshall Law was definitely another Bruce Lee inspired character and Heihachi looks like Dr. Wily on steroids. In fact, I joked that maybe Heihachi is Dr. Wily even if they are two separate characters or that I even thought maybe Heihachi would be cowardly enough to drive a skull tank against everyone. However the so-called hodge podge was really beautifully done. Tekken introduced a whole lot of delicious chopsuey in the world of fighting games. I personally feel fighting...

I always thought about how Liu Kang and Kitana were really met with the odds of their love story and that it was never meant to be. Liu Kang is probably still bound to celibacy and Kitana is from another realm. Liu Kang is champion of Mortal Kombat, Kitana is Princess of Edenia so it's understandable how the two of them have become an impossible romance right? In Mortal Kombat 4/Gold, we see Liu Kang officially split up with Kitana. Kitana offers him the chance to marry her and he refuses. In Deadly Alliance, he dies and Kitana wished Liu Kang took the offer. In the next life, Liu Kang saw Kitana die before his eyes and got mad with Raiden.  Liu Kang dies after Raiden accidentally electrocutes the former. Wow Raiden you must be very stupid. So Liu Kang became a Revenant warrior, no questions asked right? I was expecting him to return as a Revenant considering we saw all the dead heroes become Revenants with Liu Kang looking like an armored version of Evil Ryu from Street Figh...

If there's any licensed adaptation by Saban that was so stupid it was his version of Masked Rider.  I felt like the whole show is really that bad.  The whole series was first introduced through Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers and later, it seemed to become a standalone show.  So what's the big deal with Saban's Masked Rider and why I really don't like it? Now I have nothing against lighter and softer if it's done properly but the way Saban's Masked Rider was carried out felt more like it was a bootleg fan film than a licensed adaptation.  Yes, Saban was able to secure the rights from Shotaro Ishinomori but the show went so bad that any possibility of Saban's staff securing Kamen Rider rights may be ruined.  Please note that Kamen Rider Dragon Knight is by Wang Brothers, not Saban.  I felt this show really ruined itself and the image of Kamen Rider to the American fans. Granted, Masked Rider Black RX (the show it was based from) didn't get so much of...