I've talked very briefly before about Super Smash Stadium, hands down the best massive Super Smash Bros fanfiction out there.
Okay, so I may be a bit biased since I was a part of it, but it was the first of its kind and the biggest, and while it was rather awkward early on, but I personally like to think that it eventually transcended the genre and became more than a mere fanfic but actually a great creation in its own right.
Even so, I will admit is that it was never perfect. Following are the five lowest points in Super Smash Stadium's history.
(I should note, however, that I will not be counting anything from after Metal Man took over the site, meaning nothing from Season X1 or X2. This is specifically about the site's original run. If I was going to include Metal's contributions, it would be as "absolutely everything involving Metal Man.")
5. Ash Ketchum
"But wait," I hear you say. "Ash Ketchum being in Super Smash Bros would be stupid, sure, but how is it one of the worst things ever?" Well, what if I told you that he didn't have any of his pokémon with him, not even Pikachu? What if I went on to tell you that he was a clone of SSB fighter Ness, who mastered all of Ness's psychic techniques after a single training session? And what if I also told you that, in order to differentiate his moves from Ness's he screamed the obnoxious pun "PokéThunder" instead of PK Thunder? And what if I now ask you to please put down the knife because murdering the author wouldn't be worth it?
Maybe a little explanation would help. Early on all SSS matches were created by having the characters fight in the actual Super Smash Bros game and writing down what happened, and so any original characters had to be clones of existing characters in order to facilitate that. This was also before Pokémon Trainer was an official character, so we couldn't just clone him.
Why make him a clone of Ness, specifically? Why not just let him be in the Stadium as a non-fighter, being the trainer for Pikachu? Why use that godawful PokéThunder pun? Only the original author - Lemmy Koopa - knows for sure.
The writers work in mysterious and often stupid ways.
4. Yoshelly
If anything about SSS spoke to the "teenage kid's fanfic" stereotype then Yoshelly, a superfluous pink Yoshi described in her first appearance as "the most famous Yoshi at Dinosaur High School", was that thing.
Yoshelly was born from a strange combination of feminism and misogyny. On the one hand, the stated reason for her creation as a character was a perceived lack of female characters in Super Smash Brothers. (This was in the time of the first game, when the only definite confirmed girl was Samus Aran, though we were also operating under the idea of Jigglypuff being a girl.)
But on the other hand her first appearance involved her being given away as a love slave to the winner of Match 8, so yeah.
Yoshelly never had much in the way of personality, power, or impact on the plot and, like most of the other characters on this list, she was thankfully done away with by Lord Reid during the Comic Match in season 3.
3. Kirbetty
Kirbetty, like Yoshelly, was supposedly created because of a perceived lack of female fighters, and like Yoshelly she was a poorly considered mistake who was thankfully ended in the season 3 Comic Match.
Also like Yoshelly, Kirbetty was introduced to act as an existing character's girlfriend, in this case Kirby's. What makes Kirbetty worse by far is that, unlike Yoshelly, Kirbetty actually replaced an existing character. The storyline already had a girlfriend for Kirby in Jigglypuff, and when Kirbetty joined it was as part of the "cat fight" that forced Jigglypuff to leave the Stadium until the very end of season 1.
2. The Rex Storyline
This was an attempt at an "interactive story" connecting the website with the message boards. The villain of the story, Rex (or as he was known on the boards "!REX Airship!") was going to appear on the message boards for a bit to mess with the fans, before getting defeated by all the heroes of the Stadium. I know, it sounds fun and it possibly could have been.
But then they let Lord Reid play the part of Rex.
While we all thank Reid for ridding the Stadium of Ash, Yoshelly, and Kirbetty, that doesn't change the fact that he was also very sadistic, selfish, and generally kind of an asshole. Rather than lighthearted riffing and playing with the fans, he tormented people, pretending that an insane hacker had taken over the site and was going to destroy it forever. This was especially bad considering all of this happened only a couple of months after a real hacker actually did take over the message boards.
The Rex storyline was by far the lowest point for SSS. A large chunk of the fanbase ran away from fear or stress, and even more left out of disgust after Rex's true identity was revealed. The only reason the Rex storyline isn't number 1 is because, while it was highly damaging to the fanbase, it wasn't so much for the site itself and a newcomer to the site now wouldn't even know very much had happened. The same can not be said for...
1. Ganna Legacy
Ganna Legacy was a story written by SSS's then-president, VGW. It was sort of a fanfic, in that it included a small handful of characters from Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars, but it was mostly it's own thing. I know you're probably asking, "so what's the problem?" The guy is allowed to write more than one thing. Unfortunately, VGW disagreed with the previous sentence.
Even though the stories had dick all to do with each other, VGW decided that they must be one, and that SSS was the one that was going to have to change to accomodate the new material. Ganna Legacy became required reading to understand the plot of season 2, which was really bad for two reasons.
First, Ganna Legacy sucked. It was boring and mostly existed as an ego wank for VGW's Marty Stu self-insert character, Dark Horse.
Second, the story was never actually finished and then what little there was got lost in a server crash, officially rendering the entirety of season 2 incomprehensible.
But wait, Ganna's legacy of shame doesn't end there! When VGW stepped down at the end of season 2, he was replaced by Zeratul, who proceeded to overreact to the whole debacle on a level somewhere between "anime villain" and "political pundit." Reasoning that season 2's problems lay with the fact that it had a story (as opposed to this particular story simply being bad and poorly executed) Zer banned the entire concept of story from the site for season 3. He immediately terminated any and all attempts at ongoing story arcs, character development, and even running gags. In the end, the rest of us were left to come up with a story for the season 3 finale at the last minute, after Zer dropped off the edge of the Earth.
So basically, Ganna Legacy was responsible for ruining two entire seasons of the site. That's why it remains the lamest part of the entire Stadium.
Monday, December 31, 2018
Monday, December 24, 2018
Video Game Review: Dungeons of Dredmor
Let me make this clear - I like rogue-likes. I do. One of my friends actually bought this game for me for Christmas two years ago, saying that it was similar to one of my favorite games - Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup. At that time I played this game and wrote a negative review for it on Steam which relied heavily on comparisons between the two games.
That was unfair, I admit. I should judge the game on its own merits, not on how well it holds up to my own favorite game. I also bought both the DLC for the game – “Realm of the Diggle Gods” and “Conquest of the Wizardlands.” So, we'll see if all of this improves my experience at all.
Gameplay
The game works. I can say that for it. It runs competently and seems to be more or less free of bugs. It did crash on me once, and actually gave me an achievement for it - “Suddenly the Dungeon Collapses.” So that was.... cute.
Sadly, that's about the only good thing I can say here. The game is just boring to me. I'm sorry to all the people who love this game, but it is. At no point while playing did I ever find myself really looking forward to what was going to come next.
I never looked forward to the next floor, because I knew it would be exactly the same as the floor I was on, but with different wall and floor graphics.
I never looked forward to seeing a new enemy. There were occasional clever designs, but they all work basically the same and are super wimpy. At no point was I ever forced to switch up my tactics at all.
I never looked forward to finding some fancy artifact weapon because they're never interesting. In most rogue-likes finding a good artifact can make or break your entire run, but here? At most it's just going to be the same as a normal weapon of its type but maybe with +1 or +2 to some stat that I never use. Yawn.
I also never looked forward to my next skill, because the game has you choose all of your skills when you make your character and you can never deviate, so there's no room for experimentation whatsoever. To be fair, I guess that puts the game on par with most other RPGs... but it's still disappointing.
Also, the levels are just... tediously long and boring. There is a “No Time To Grind” option that shrinks levels in size while giving boosted experience, but it doesn't increase loot, and so is therefore absolutely worthless.
In all: it works, but Is just so boring. 3/5.
Presentation
Well, our main character isn't an “@” symbol, so that already puts it ahead of most rogue-likes.
Okay, but seriously, I have no real complaints about graphics or sound. Because the view isn't exactly top down, enemies, items, and traps can sometimes be obscured from view by parts of the environment... however, when this happens, the game politely points them out in various ways – sparkle effect on items, a pointy arrow for enemies, and a red outline for traps. So that's nice. It doesn't point out stuff hidden behind doors or dungeon objects, though.
I would also like it if my equipped armor actually changed my character's appearance, but it's not like the game has to do that. It would just be a nice bonus if it did.
I'll give presentation a 4/5.
Writing
Finally, the last part. I usually put this as “story” but... you know, it's a rogue-like.
I'll be brutally honest. I don't like Dredmor's writing style. In my original review I described the writing as “edgy” but I don't think that's really the right word for it. The writing is just immature. I can't even call it parody. It's just random jokes that mean nothing.
This game was clearly written by the type of person who thinks “irreverent” is a compliment, and who believes knowing the word “sesquipedalian” makes you smart. And if you don't know what I meant by that last bit... then you're probably the type of person I'm talking about. I don't guess that really makes it bad, though. If you like Family Guy and Robot Chicken, you follow Cracked, and you think the Clock Crew rules the Portal... then you'll probably love this game's sense of humor.
But if you'll excuse me, I need to pop my monocle back in, and go think about how much I hate you while enjoying my Beaujolais and camembert, and partaking of more intellectual entertainments... like anime. Anime is great. 2/5.
KR Rating: 3/5 MEDIOCRE
In all, I give it basically the same score I gave it before. Owning the DLC didn't really change my impression that much. There's some fairly interesting additions in them, but nothing that makes the game any less boring to me. Even Conquest of the Wizardlands, which adds a huge number of randomly generated "wizard tower" mini-dungeons, is just... they're all the same. Yawn. At the end of the day, even with the DLC, it's still Dungeons of Dredmor.
And now that that's all said and done... yeah, I just can't end this without bringing up Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup again. It's an excellent game and a perfect example of a rogue-like done right. In that game, I actually did look forward to reaching new regions because they had unique properties and interesting enemies. I also looked forward to finding new artifact items because they actually meant something. Finding the right artifact weapon or armor could make or break your entire run, unlike this game where randarts just mean +1 to some stat I don't care about and I'll probably just sacrifice them to my Horadric Lutefisk Cube... speaking of immature writing.
I just can't recommend this game to anyone when I already know there's another game that's just like it only better in every way AND ALSO FREE already out there. I can't.
That was unfair, I admit. I should judge the game on its own merits, not on how well it holds up to my own favorite game. I also bought both the DLC for the game – “Realm of the Diggle Gods” and “Conquest of the Wizardlands.” So, we'll see if all of this improves my experience at all.
Gameplay
The game works. I can say that for it. It runs competently and seems to be more or less free of bugs. It did crash on me once, and actually gave me an achievement for it - “Suddenly the Dungeon Collapses.” So that was.... cute.
Sadly, that's about the only good thing I can say here. The game is just boring to me. I'm sorry to all the people who love this game, but it is. At no point while playing did I ever find myself really looking forward to what was going to come next.
I never looked forward to the next floor, because I knew it would be exactly the same as the floor I was on, but with different wall and floor graphics.
I never looked forward to seeing a new enemy. There were occasional clever designs, but they all work basically the same and are super wimpy. At no point was I ever forced to switch up my tactics at all.
I never looked forward to finding some fancy artifact weapon because they're never interesting. In most rogue-likes finding a good artifact can make or break your entire run, but here? At most it's just going to be the same as a normal weapon of its type but maybe with +1 or +2 to some stat that I never use. Yawn.
I also never looked forward to my next skill, because the game has you choose all of your skills when you make your character and you can never deviate, so there's no room for experimentation whatsoever. To be fair, I guess that puts the game on par with most other RPGs... but it's still disappointing.
Also, the levels are just... tediously long and boring. There is a “No Time To Grind” option that shrinks levels in size while giving boosted experience, but it doesn't increase loot, and so is therefore absolutely worthless.
In all: it works, but Is just so boring. 3/5.
Presentation
Well, our main character isn't an “@” symbol, so that already puts it ahead of most rogue-likes.
Okay, but seriously, I have no real complaints about graphics or sound. Because the view isn't exactly top down, enemies, items, and traps can sometimes be obscured from view by parts of the environment... however, when this happens, the game politely points them out in various ways – sparkle effect on items, a pointy arrow for enemies, and a red outline for traps. So that's nice. It doesn't point out stuff hidden behind doors or dungeon objects, though.
I would also like it if my equipped armor actually changed my character's appearance, but it's not like the game has to do that. It would just be a nice bonus if it did.
I'll give presentation a 4/5.
Writing
Finally, the last part. I usually put this as “story” but... you know, it's a rogue-like.
I'll be brutally honest. I don't like Dredmor's writing style. In my original review I described the writing as “edgy” but I don't think that's really the right word for it. The writing is just immature. I can't even call it parody. It's just random jokes that mean nothing.
This game was clearly written by the type of person who thinks “irreverent” is a compliment, and who believes knowing the word “sesquipedalian” makes you smart. And if you don't know what I meant by that last bit... then you're probably the type of person I'm talking about. I don't guess that really makes it bad, though. If you like Family Guy and Robot Chicken, you follow Cracked, and you think the Clock Crew rules the Portal... then you'll probably love this game's sense of humor.
But if you'll excuse me, I need to pop my monocle back in, and go think about how much I hate you while enjoying my Beaujolais and camembert, and partaking of more intellectual entertainments... like anime. Anime is great. 2/5.
KR Rating: 3/5 MEDIOCRE
In all, I give it basically the same score I gave it before. Owning the DLC didn't really change my impression that much. There's some fairly interesting additions in them, but nothing that makes the game any less boring to me. Even Conquest of the Wizardlands, which adds a huge number of randomly generated "wizard tower" mini-dungeons, is just... they're all the same. Yawn. At the end of the day, even with the DLC, it's still Dungeons of Dredmor.
And now that that's all said and done... yeah, I just can't end this without bringing up Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup again. It's an excellent game and a perfect example of a rogue-like done right. In that game, I actually did look forward to reaching new regions because they had unique properties and interesting enemies. I also looked forward to finding new artifact items because they actually meant something. Finding the right artifact weapon or armor could make or break your entire run, unlike this game where randarts just mean +1 to some stat I don't care about and I'll probably just sacrifice them to my Horadric Lutefisk Cube... speaking of immature writing.
I just can't recommend this game to anyone when I already know there's another game that's just like it only better in every way AND ALSO FREE already out there. I can't.
Tuesday, December 11, 2018
Television Review: Power Rangers In Space (Spoiler Warning)
Super Sentai Equivalent: Denji Sentai Megaranger (Electromagnetic Squad Mega Ranger)
In Space follows directly after Turbo's downer ending. (Oh yeah, spoiler alert.) Divatox has finally succeeded in destroying the Command Center. Worse, the Rangers discover that Zordon has been captured following a devastating invasion of his home planet by the evil Dark Specter and his daughter Astronema. The Rangers, drained of their powers, make a desperate trip into space to search for Zordon... along the way they encounter the Astro Megaship and its pilot, Andros, the last surviving Space Ranger. Andros reluctantly agrees to take the team on as his new Space Rangers and joins them in the search for their lost mentor and to defeat Dark Specter and Astronema and save the universe.
Let's get this out of the way right now - In Space is good. In fact, I can say with confidence that In Space is the first truly good series of Power Rangers, which I must admit really surprised me. Mostly it was the title that threw me - usually adding "in space" to the title is what a studio does when they've just completely run out of ideas. But it was good, even by regular "not Power Rangers" TV show standards.
The villains weren't just mindlessly evil space demons, but actually had real motivations and characterizations. Ecliptor and Astronema both managed to be truly compelling and honestly sympathetic.
The heroes were pretty well written too, with actual flaws and a lot of really good interactions with each other. Alpha 6 also got a new, less obnoxious voice, and Dimitria went away forever. Win-win!
The one real flaw I find with this series, which is sort of a minor flaw in the grand scheme of it all, is that because of the increased focus on the Rangers' interactions with one another the actual monster battles sometimes seem to come completely out of nowhere. There was more than one time I found myself suddenly asking, "wait, why is there a giant monster all of a sudden?"
Well, I suppose there is one other issue... the show does seem to run out of steam a bit toward the end, finishing off with a massive deus ex machina ending as - SPOILER ALERT FOR A TWENTY YEAR OLD KIDS' SHOW - Zordon sacrifices himself to create a wave of magic that washes over the galaxy, either disintegrating or purifying all of the show's many villains and finally winning the war against evil (at least until the next series).
Still, all in all...
KR Rating: [5] GREAT
In Space follows directly after Turbo's downer ending. (Oh yeah, spoiler alert.) Divatox has finally succeeded in destroying the Command Center. Worse, the Rangers discover that Zordon has been captured following a devastating invasion of his home planet by the evil Dark Specter and his daughter Astronema. The Rangers, drained of their powers, make a desperate trip into space to search for Zordon... along the way they encounter the Astro Megaship and its pilot, Andros, the last surviving Space Ranger. Andros reluctantly agrees to take the team on as his new Space Rangers and joins them in the search for their lost mentor and to defeat Dark Specter and Astronema and save the universe.
Let's get this out of the way right now - In Space is good. In fact, I can say with confidence that In Space is the first truly good series of Power Rangers, which I must admit really surprised me. Mostly it was the title that threw me - usually adding "in space" to the title is what a studio does when they've just completely run out of ideas. But it was good, even by regular "not Power Rangers" TV show standards.
The villains weren't just mindlessly evil space demons, but actually had real motivations and characterizations. Ecliptor and Astronema both managed to be truly compelling and honestly sympathetic.
The heroes were pretty well written too, with actual flaws and a lot of really good interactions with each other. Alpha 6 also got a new, less obnoxious voice, and Dimitria went away forever. Win-win!
The one real flaw I find with this series, which is sort of a minor flaw in the grand scheme of it all, is that because of the increased focus on the Rangers' interactions with one another the actual monster battles sometimes seem to come completely out of nowhere. There was more than one time I found myself suddenly asking, "wait, why is there a giant monster all of a sudden?"
Well, I suppose there is one other issue... the show does seem to run out of steam a bit toward the end, finishing off with a massive deus ex machina ending as - SPOILER ALERT FOR A TWENTY YEAR OLD KIDS' SHOW - Zordon sacrifices himself to create a wave of magic that washes over the galaxy, either disintegrating or purifying all of the show's many villains and finally winning the war against evil (at least until the next series).
Still, all in all...
KR Rating: [5] GREAT
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)