Raucous Underground

There may be a video review series starting up here. Here is the fist episode, a pilot of sorts to test the water. Let me know what you think.

There’s some gaming franchises literally everyone knows, Super Mario Bros, Mega Man, Halo and… Tomb Raider. Tomb Raider took the gaming world by storm in 1996 with it’s hyper-sexualized Lara Croft, an Indiana Jones-esque heroine who explores a fully 3D world in search of archeological treasures. At the time, the game was top-of-the-line amazing, the best graphics, a deep story and engaging characters. And for the next few years Lara rode high on her success with game after game being released. But eventually the series ran stale, until the Tomb Raider franchise was handed off to a new production studios, producing a couple more games the following years. However, it was becoming clear Lara Croft had lost her critical appeal. Her 90s attitude didn’t cut it with the new generation, driving designers back to the drawing board and ultimately giving us a brand new Lara Croft, like nothing we’ve seen before.

Taking dark, gritty reboots to the next level comes the newest Tomb Raider title, innovatively named Tomb Raider. This upcoming Square Enix release thrusts a fresh-out-of-college Lara onto a mysterious island where she endures psychological and emotional torture for one purpose: survival.

This new game features a Lara Croft without weapons, a Croft without the cool confidence of before. Instead the new Lara is human, entirely fragile in an environment that demands her death. Indeed, the game isn’t shying away from an M-rating with it’s grotesque imagery and gruesome ways to die. In the words of developer Crystal Dynamics, this isn’t an action adventure game, but rather, an action-survival game. One that doesn’t involve simply ‘not dying’, but being resourceful and exploring the world.

Now, I’ve never been big on Tomb Raider games. I just can’t get into a game that seems to be designed solely around T&A factors, but I will say the new Raider looks interesting. It looks like a game that would be genuinely engaging to play, with a modern character someone could connect with and relate to. I’m looking forward to hearing more of it, and possibly playing it sometime in the future.

So way back in 1982 there was this little movie called Tron, about a person going inside the computer world and saving it from the evil Master Control Program. The Pong-inspired film was a box office success and brought in $33 million, which was a pretty alright number for that time. Over the years faded into obscurity, developing into a cult film. This cult was apparently strong enough for Disney to dust off the movie and create the sequel Tron: Legacy, set twenty seven years after the first. So is it anything like the first?

I can say for certain that yes, Tron: Legacy is a lot like the first movie. Almost exactly like it in fact. I really had high hopes for this movie going in admittedly, since the trailers made it look like a flashy action-packed cyberpunk film. And it failed to deliver on most of those accounts sadly. While there are some major cool action scenes, such as the new light cycle battles, the movie seems to be mainly talking and that really wouldn’t be too bad, except the pacing from these segments are terrible. Just like the first movie actually.

The plot itself is fairly simple at it’s core. Sam Flynn is the son of the Tron’s original Kevin Flynn. Kevin disappeared almost twenty years ago, and Sam, following a lead, goes into the Grid (the computer world). In there he find a program of his dad’s has taken over, CLU. CLU was built to create a perfect world, so yeah, pretty easy to find the bad guy here. Sam finds his dad and they journey back to the portal to go home. And while that’s your basic main plot, there is this weird sub-plot that I couldn’t really get. It seems while Kevin Flynn was building his ‘totally perfect world man’ these computer programs called ISOs show up out of the blue. And through the whole movie, everyone treats these programs like they’re the greatest thing ever, and it never explains why. It really bugged me when all they say is, “They’ll change the world man, they’ll change everything man”, but why? How? Any attempt at an explanation falls flat, which is never a good sign.

So I’ve had a few complaints, but now it’s time to voice some good things. Like the scenery. It’s an absolutely beautiful movie, and the 3D really makes it pop. It’s one of those movies you can feel by looking at it, which gets it major props. Also, the villain CLU is fantastic. I liked him better than the original Kevin Flynn, whose character seemed somewhat senile. But CLU is everything a villain should be. It’s his presence on screen that gives him the edge; when he’s up there, you know things are about to get serious. And this review wouldn’t be complete without mentioning the music, done by world-renown electric funk dance whatever-you-call-it band Daft Punk.

Their music really sets this movie apart, it’s absolutely brilliant and more than a perfect fit for this movie. Honestly, it was probably my favorite part about the whole film. Still, I really wouldn’t recommend this film to everyone, perhaps fans of the original film who are willing to see a prettied up version of the same movie, or fans of the whole cyberpunk thing would enjoy it. Everyone else can probably rest easy waiting for a DVD rental. I would recommend getting the soundtrack though, it’s a good buy.

So it seems a few years back we in America had this show called Invader Zim, a Nick show about this alien who dreams of conquering Earth, yet screws it up every time somehow. It had pretty good ratings and a short run. However, on the other side of the globe Japan already had their own completely inept alien, a whole platoon of them in fact.

And through the whole series, you will never see them blink.

Now I’ll be honest, I’m not really a fan of anime. I may watch some One Piece every now and then, but Naruto and Bleach and Pokemon, etc. never cut it for me. So when a friend recommended Sgt. Frog, needless to say I wasn’t really thrilled to give it a shot. But I did and was pleasantly surprised by what I found.

Sgt. Frog isn’t exactly like ‘normal’ anime. Up front it’s a comedy, and even parodies manycliches found in anime today. It’s also an action-orientated adventure with plenty of explosions. It’s oriented more for a younger crowd (unlike it’s manga counterpart, geared more for the teens) but yet I find it appealing enough to watch on my own.

The basic plot is rather simple and does share a good bit in common with Invader Zim. A team of Keronian aliens have been sent to conquer Earth, or Pekopon as it’s referred to in the anime but when they land on Earth they become split up. The leader, Sgt. Keroro lands in the Hinata Household where he is quickly subdued by the older sister Natsumi. Keroro befriends her brother Fuyuki (who’s a fan of everything paranormal) and their mother Aki takes an immediate liking to him since she sees an inspiration for her new manga. Keroro is given an old bedroom with it’s own ghost and quickly sets up base. In between doing the Hinata household’s chores and building Gundam models he finds the other members of the platoon and tries repeatedly to ‘conquer’ Pekopon. Though, more often than not it’s just an excuse to get more Gundam models.

The first season is available to watch on Hulu, though for some reason it’s split up into two smaller seasons for America. Funimation has a dubbed version out too, though I haven’t watched any of it to tell if it’s any good. And of course while there’s only one season out stateside, they’ve had six seasons in Japan and over three hundred episodes. And not to mention the manga, which has been running since 1999. And then Japan has the movies, and the merchandising, and the magazines… anyway, the show’s a pretty fun watch and one of the few anime I can say I honestly enjoy. I recommend it for anyone who enjoys a good laugh or maybe an exploding afro or two.

Heyo folks, it’s me theJcfreak again with some updates on my own projects this time! I’m going to start this off with a confession: I am a Sonic the Hedgehog fanboy. There, it’s out. I buy the games, all of them, no matter how bad. I collect the comics, I watch the cartoons, I get the merchandise. And, I co-write for the fancomic.

That’s write, the fancomic. It’s just getting off the ground but it’s off to a good start. Our comic is as you may have guessed, Who Let The Hog Out. Is it cliche? Absolutely! Is the comic itself cliche? I hope not. Our comic parodies not the games, but the official comic itself. For now it is a direct parody, taking certain pages and rewriting them, providing a sort of ‘outtake’ if you will. We have a wonderful team of the best artists money won’t buy providing to- notch art to our scripts. I will say even Leaman has and will contribute to this comic endeavor. Here’s the latest page we’ve created for your enjoyment!

If you think it looks cool, check back at this link every Saturday for a new page. Now for other projects I’m involved in… which at the current time is ‘secret’ and nothing. I however can say that I expect to have more projects in the future, including first and foremost, a webshow. What about you ask? I… haven’t yet worked all of that out. There’s a good chance I would use it to review Sonic comics. Or perhaps review old movies and shows. Or maybe just anything I like. Whatever the case look forward to seeing yet another pimply faced teenager thinking he can have his own internet show in the next year!