Today I Smiled: Team Four Star DBZ Kai Parody

I've been watching Team Four Star's Dragonball Z "shortened" parodies for sometime now which shorten entire seasons of the show into a handful of episodes and they are always bloody hilarious. This time they get special mention because much like the original was redone into the "Kai" version which cuts out a LOT of filler, they've done the same to their own works and the result is a side spliting laughfest. Would you like to see the first two seasons of Dragonball Z in under 10 minutes? Now you can! :D

Team Four Star DBZ Kai Parody - Episode 1
Team Four Star DBZ Kai Parody - Episode 2

Forced: Aptly Named if you want to Finish it

This is a cooperative game that feels a lot like an intense version of Torchlight. Up to four people can play together as a team of gladiators who are trying to pass a whole bunch of demonic trials that test both their combat skills and intelligence. Your choice of weapon determines your class and with only four to choose from and no duplicates it might seem very limiting, and that is intentional. The number of opponents multiplies based on the number of players but you will still have a better chance with more people because of the unique mechanic in the game: the spirit guide.

More like spirit ball.

Regardless of how many players you have, there is only one spirit ball (who happens to be a smart-ass). Every player can call it to wherever they are currently standing and it interacts with whatever it flies over making it the key to defeating each arena. Hover it over a healing shrine and it will heal you for a bit. Make it go over a flaming hand and it gets a powerful explosive charge that will detonate when it hits something or someone - players included!

There is a bit of replayability too in that each challenge has 3 gems up for grabs. The more gems you have the more skills and abilities are unlocked. One gem comes simply from completing a room. Another always is time based (so completing the room in x seconds) and the last one is a special challenge in each chamber like take no damage. It really seems geared well to encourage cooperation, alas it is in the extra stuff where it falls down.

My two main gripes being no in-built mic support and no save points in co-op mode (as far as I've found) meaning you'll need to play the whole thing in one sitting. This really ruins the experience a fair bit for us because it's not a short enough game for that path. Pity, given all the other thought they implemented for co-op multiplayer those seem like odd things to overlook. For that reason I give it two blood thirsty demons out of five, and cannot really recommend it to people that can only play in small doses.

Update: Looks like there are coop save points now which certainly makes it more playable. Unfortunately I think this ship has mostly sailed for my gaming group which got annoyed during the stages of non-saving.

Got Bartled

According to the Bartle test there are four main types of MMO gamers.


Good summary.

I've known about it for awhile but only decided to take the test recently - ironically only because Bhagpuss just posted his less that positive view on it. Still, I enjoy silly things like this - though I do wonder what category gold farmer robots would fall under. Is there a fifth hidden type, "the enemy of man" or something?

Close enough, it even comes with some feel good text.

 

"Explorer Socializers are the glue of the online world. Not only do they like to delve in to find all the cool stuff, but they also enjoy sharing that knowledge with others. Explorer socializers power the wikis, maps, forums and theory craft sites of the gamer world."

While it's probably just as trivial as the "which DBZ character are you!?" test I think it would be interesting to see what everyone else (at least those that comment here) got too, if you're willing to share? :)

Oro!? When did Kenshin come back?

I was a little dubious when I heard that a live-action Kenshin movie was being made, we all know how Dragonball went after all. This left me pleasantly surprised when I actually got around to watching the 2-3 hour film recently (yes I am super late to the party). They follow the series quite well but obviously had to make changes to fit in the budget/time constraints (and sort of highlighted how much filler crap there was in the series). I was a little miffed one character was missing but afterwards I could see it was a good call because giving him and his buddies very little development and screentime would be a bigger disservice, especially since it went so well that they are making a second movie. :D

These people look familiar...

The fight scenes are pretty good and go up to awesome. The actors for me work well too, mostly. Kenshin is good as the hapless rurouni, not so much as the "angry face" hitokiri though. Kaoru and Megumi for me are fine and Sano is ok, though his zanbato is hard to take seriously. Poor Yahiko looked the part but had nothing to do - more or less an extra/throw away. Everyone's favourite cop in that era does an amiable job of being a badass, though I hope we get to see a rematch like the one at the start of the Shishio Arc in a future movie. As for the baddies the guy doing Kanryu overacts a bit which is absolutely fine for a drug smuggling a-hole. Jin-e was perfect. The other two "mini-bosses" don't really have a ton of development but they play their part of combat opponents nicely. Everyone else comes from the stock-standard demonized pile of losers on the street (literally).

There are some questionable story holes too (which usually happens when you cut a large part of the story out). Just a few being: Megumi willing to go out to dinner at a restaurant though she's a hunted person. She also doesn't tell the nice people she's staying with about her problems. Why Kaoru lets anyone and everyone stay at the school. What exactly happened to her dad. Why people think the battousai comes from her school. Why all the psychos actually "work" for Kanryu? They could just kill him and take the loot (he doesn't really come across as a savvy business man in the flick, more like he inherited some wealth). Why Jin-e massacres a whole bunch of nobodies and sets fire to a shrine he's sitting in for no good reason (I guess being a psycho covers it). Why, if it is illegal to carry a sword, are all of Kanryu's men armed? Sano too - does he just claim it's a large bandaged bread loaf? Not exactly the easiest thing to conceal. Most importantly why people think a sakaba sword is not a deadly weapon? "Oh, it's blunt metal like a crowbar at the front and only razor sharp at the back. It's not like he can turn the sword around when he feels like and really - crowbars haven't been used to kill people. Ever."

Also, who is missing you ask?

Beshimi... Hyotoko.... Shikijo.... Hanya....

Still very minor things in an otherwise very enjoyable movie. I can see Aoshi working with Sano's bomb-making friend instead in the sequel. Not sure how they'd fit the entire Shishio Arc without condensing the cast and/or mixing them around though. I mean adding Hiko Seijuro himself should probably eat up one third of the movie if they do the whole training thing. Not much we can do but wait. Till then though, you can and should watch the movie! Too lazy to find it yourself? Here you go. Enjoy!

That Happy Cat

It's not often that I browse through a manga shelf, pick up a book I've never heard of, at random, then finding myself stuck reading before finally admitting that I need to buy it right then and there. Yet that's exactly what happened when I stumbled upon "Chi's Sweet Home" (volume 1).

Chi's Sweet Home is the story of a stray kitten who winds up being taken in by a small family living in an apartment where no pets are allowed. From what I've seen that's all there is to it, and the artwork is pretty simple compared to the more popular series of Bleach or Naruto. I think even Dragonball was better illustrated, but Chi herself is fantastically cute (way moreso than my crappy fan-art attempt) and very very endearing.

The series seems to geared towards kids and cat lovers as I don't think it would even reach a PG rating. The most violence present that I've seen is Chi scratching stuff! It also and has an animated version you can find on youtube, with each "chapter" running around 5 minutes.

If you have a soft spot for cutesy things or just want to see what this is all about, I recommend watching the first two episodes on Youtube. Then you can see if Chi makes you smile too. :)