last modified: Tuesday, December 28, 2004 (7:31:20 PM CST)

Cowboy Bebop Vs Final Fantasy VII=-

Hey, ever notice Squaresoft's Final Fantasy VII is a lot like Cowboy Bebop?

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Spike: Seemingly scrawny looking protagonist possessing great combat skills and bizarre hair.

Cloud: Seemingly scrawny looking protagonist possessing great combat skills and bizarre hair

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Jet: Older veteran type who lost an arm in a shooting ambush, which is now replaced with a mechanical metal prosthetic.

Barret: Older veteran type who lost an arm in a shooting ambush, which is now replaced with a mechanical metal machine gun.

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Julia: Mysterious, surreal, seemingly important affection of protagonist who is killed before her time.

Aeris: Mysterious, surreal, seemingly important affection of protagonist who is killed before her time.

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ED: Scrawny annoying child like "net diver" often meandering in places she shouldn't.

Yuffi: Scrawny annoying child like thief often meandering in places she shouldn't.

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Ein: Super Intelligent animal companion who escaped from a lab.

Red XIII: Super Intelligent animal companion who escaped from a lab.

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Doohan: Old surely type guy who mocks assistant and works on the world’s only last space shuttle.

Cid: Mid aged surely type guy who mocks assistant who works on the world’s only rocket ship.

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Faye: Tough, beautiful girl with a semi amnesiac past who has feelings for main protagonist and wears a two piece setup complete with straps.

Tifa: Tough, beautiful girl with a semi amnesiac past who has feelings for main protagonist and wears a two piece setup complete with straps.

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CB Vs. FF7, Part 2

last modified: Tuesday, December 28, 2004 (7:31:02 PM CST)

Vincent: Ex military guy who is apparently killed in another life to be reborn with gun in hand to bring terror to the living after having been the subject of experimentation.

Vincent: Ex military guy who is apparently killed in another life to be reborn with gun in hand to bring terror to the living after having been the subject of experimentation

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Vicious: White haired, black wearing psychopath who is driven to subvert and or end life for unseen and or truly unknown motivations. Ultimately led to the death of Julia. Has a strong past where he used to fight with Spike on the same side. Ah yes, and loves the sword.

Sephiroth: White haired, black wearing psychopath who is driven to subvert and or end life for unseen and or truly unknown motivations. Ultimately led to the death of Aeris. Has a strong past where he used to fight with Cloud on the same side. Ah yes, and loves the sword.

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Choco Chick: Brown looking version of Cait Sith.

Cait Sith: White looking version of the Choco Chick.

Nuff said.

last modified: Sunday, October 31, 2004 (10:38:57 PM CST)

Riding the Rings of Saturn=-

I try not to mess with the things in life that are blatantly out of my control, like the unimaginable qualms of the general masses, but last night whist channel surfing I happened upon my most loved and hated channel ever: Tech TV/G4. In one of their typical mundane ramblings I heard something that particular angered me for seemingly no rational reason. Though the context was referring to a documentary about Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima, I swear I heard the narrator say that Playstation was the first to usher the world into the 32 bit era of gaming.

Though the fact was inaccurate at best, with predecessor consoles such as the Atari Jaguar, my blood began to boil because it once again illustrated the general public’s absolute lack of respect to one of the finest creations the gaming world has ever wrought: an absolute deity of silicon, metal and plastic. Of course, I refer to the Sega Saturn.

What the Saturn did, more than any other system both before and after, is actually try and “preserve” gaming, and not just assure us into a world of hackneyed 3D crap. The Saturn was primarily designed to be a massive powerhouse of 2D processing, much like older Neo Geo. Utilizing the worlds first ever expandable Ram expansion port, it could pump out arcade perfect ports of the most intensive 2D arcade games of the time, with no loading. However, the system was also modified (albeit hastily) to support the advent of 3D gaming, giving players a balance between the two mediums for optimal enjoyment. Not to mention, the system itself was essentially a modified version of Sega’s proprietary Titan Motherboard, making then 3D arcade perfect ports of such games as Virtua Fighter 2, Radiant Silvergun and Dead or Alive a breeze.

Saturn, Part 2

last modified: Sunday, October 31, 2004 (10:38:29 PM CST)

I mean the system was a marvel on every level.

First console to utilize Ram expansion capabilities: Sega Saturn.
First console to utilize onboard save game functionality: Sega Saturn.
First console to utilize online gaming in an era where most computers were not even online: Sega Saturn.

Sega has always been ahead of its time in the way of R&D (the Sega CD was even the first console to even utilize CDs as a storage medium) and the Saturn is a testament to that creative insight, and the public was not all too blind to the fact, as the Saturn is still the highest selling console in Japan ever.

Sure the Saturn has its drawbacks. Sure Sega of America dropped the ball on everything from advertising to supply to pricing to importing games. Sure the system was hard as hell to program for due to the fact that to utilize the systems full functionality (something that is argued still has not been achieved to this day) one had to program in assembly and not just pansy C class. Sure the Saturn’s polygonal games didn’t look as well large and whole compared to the Playstation due to the fact that the architecture utilized by the Saturn manipulated sprites to create quads rather than just geometric polygons. It just goes to illustrate the point that you really have to be one savvy “sob” of a programmer to utilize its power, not to mention, it makes the games that do look better than PS1, ala: Panzer Dragoon Saga, NiGHTS, Thunderforce V and Radiant Silvergun, among others, that much more impressive.

So, the moral of the story is, at about $30 on eBay, with an exclusive and ungodly good library of games like NiGHTS, Burning Rangers, Shinning Force III and Panzer Dragoon Saga among others, as well as a whole slew of exclusive imports, there is no reason any gamer should be without a Sega Saturn, and there is no reason haughty pop culture “game” show hosts shouldn’t know their role and own up to some undeniable history. Sega Saturn: The Official Console of the Startyde.

last modified: Tuesday, October 19, 2004 (7:54:35 PM CST)

A Kite in the Sky=-

My best friend took the liberty today to send an email that essentially contained amazing news yet still left a pit in my stomach as it reinforced my sound belief that humanity, as a whole, is full of a bunch of perverted and sick bastards with a good sense of character design and art direction. Yeah that's right: NA recently got a new and even more "uncut" version of A Kite.

In addition to the extra scenes that should make a normal viewer exhume his or her lunch over their overpriced-yet-still-rationalized-for-the-sake-of-style doc martins, this latest incarnation of the OAV also includes an interview with the one and only creator of A Kite, Gatchman and MEZZO FORTE himself: Yasuomi Umetsu.

The man is not only genius, but is apparently rather sparse in the way of human interaction, even with his own artists and workers, so the interview alone should be well worth the purchase. Combined with an art gallery, spiffy new cover and the now freshly laid foundation to release an even better version of the Mezzo Forte OAV, this DVD is one of the better releases I could have ever hoped to "see" (and by see, of course, I mean have sit on a shelf forever and occasionally taken out to view the extras as I have no desire to actually ever watch A Kite again).

See in short, I'm psyched about getting a chance to see one of the greatest character designers ever talk about his work "in the flesh." I only wish it equaled my utter disgust that there would be a big enough fan base to warrant the rerelease of a movie that essentially focuses around the repeated victimization of the under aged. Man people suck...

http://www.animeondvd.com/reviews2/disc_reviews/3157.php

sT=-