Ninja Saga is a turn-based RPG on Facebook where you can create your own ninja, make him/her learn ninja techniques, accomplish missions, challenge other Ninja Saga players both offline and online, or practice against computer-controlled In my opinion, it's more of an obvious rip-off than a tribute/parody to Naruto; it copied most of its notable elements and terminologies without acknowledging the originator.

Most of the techniques are not acquired by learning them, not unless you pay to learn them. Weapons and wardrobes are unlocked everytime you level-up, but some are not purchasable with in-game money, but instead with tokens that you can only by getting a "Ninja Emblem", which you have to pay for using real money. Talk about a cheap way of funding.

Also, the characters' designs and outfits were pirated not only from Naruto, but also from other games; there are enemies that look like Taki from Soul Calibur and Baiken from Guilty Gear, not to mention that the characters are poorly drawn.

Leveling up is also a bloody ordeal, because when you reach a certain level, really have to play the game so much from then onwards in order to gain at least a level a day.

The creators tried so hard to draw the in-game NPCs and make them look like original characters, but they failed such that you can still recognize which Naruto character they pirated their designs from. And still, they are poorly drawn.

I wonder why I have been so taken in by this flash game, despite the fact that I know it's an obvious Naruto rip-off. I have also been somewhat coerced to become a fan of this game just so I could use its roulette mini-game and acquire in-game money. I might as well do something else.

Do you hate the midget? Do you cringe at the mere sight of her face? Do you badly want to smack her face until she's black and blue? Are you at the same time frustrated at the fact that you can't do anything about it because she is still in power to have your ass handed to you?

Well, maybe you haven't seen this flash game we're about to review.

Called the "GMA stress reliever" game, your sole objective in the game is to whack the poorly-drawn caricature of the midget to your heart's content using bare fists or a steel pipe. It won't be that easy, because the midget will do whatever it takes to evade your wrath (though actually, sidestepping is all that she would do here, and she's still easy to hit.) The game finishes when you've successfully punched/bashed her 100 times.

Below the game is a chatroom/guestbook where you can express your hate or whatever towards the midget and mingle with fellow midget-haters. It's not limited to trolling her though, because from time to time, some supporters emerge to defend their little idol, but to no avail.

It is an amusing game that will eventually bore you due to the fact that it lacked extra features, most notably weapons of choice and the limited number of hits you're allowed to make. The maker of the game could have expanded the game in such a way that when the player has successfully hit the midget for a designated number of times, he/she will unlock a new weapon to abuse, perhaps a gun or two will do. And in case guns have been unlocked, the game could be made more difficult in a way that the playing field zooms out ala-conventional target-shooting game. It's hard to explain what's in my mind, but I do know you get my drift. It could also make use of some nationalistic BGM.

Anyway, the game isn't a serious one, so my review isn't either.

Want to play the game? Click here.

Little Princess: Marl Ōkoku no Ningyō Hime 2 (Little Princess: The Puppet Princess of Marl Kingdom, known unofficially as Rhapsody 2) is the official sequel to Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure (known in Japan as Marl Ōkoku no Ningyō Hime), developed by Nippon Ichi Software, the makers of Disgaea. It takes place twelve years after the happenings in Rhapsody: Cornet, the heroine of the first game, is now the Queen of Marl Kingdom after marrying the wimpy prince who she saved (that's actually the twist that the game offered, so there XP). Her daughter, Kurusale Cherie Marl Q, nicknamed Kururu (she was named after Cornet's mother Cherie and puppet friend Kururu), takes on the role as the heroine of this sequel. Kururu's quest would be similar to her mother's in a sense that she was also determined to find her prince charming, but her adventures would aid more in her self-discovery and maturity as a future princess of the kingdom.

Most of the time, she will be accompanied by her best friend Createur Rosenqueen, adopted daughter of Etoile who was in turn Cornet's rival in the first game. Kururu will met her prince charming, Cello, the way her mother met her father, but things won't go the way she thought at first, and that's where the story gets interesting.

Let's first talk about its similarities with Rhapsody. Little Princess, like its predecessor, is a musical RPG, where FMVs were replaced by musical numbers with vocals, composed by Tenpei Sato, the same composer for Disgaea. Also, most of the puppets Cornet unlocked on her way to saving Ferdinand would make their return to assist Kururu in her adventures.

Now on to their differences. Unlike Rhapsody that used a tactical-style RPG battle system, Little Princess favored the traditional turn-based RPG battle system, where you input attack commands for all of your characters, after which they will attack the opponents simultaneously.

Another major difference is that in this game, Kururu does not fight along with her puppets; instead, she can summon them using the "Puppet" command, but aside from puppets, she can also summon monsters (except frog monsters) which you can randomly obtain after a battle. Crea also has the "Puppet" command, but she can only summon monsters instead, Cello is the final puppeteer, being able to use puppets and monsters related to the Ancients (one of them being the final enemy from the first game, the Ancient Weapon, which Cello has in default). But before you can summon them, you have to partner them with the puppets/monsters.

Unconventionally, summoning puppets and monsters doesn't cost some magic points (MPs), but instead the game's currency, the Inotium. Every summon will add one note to the returning musical staff gauge, which when leveled up will enable Kururu to use the Rewards magic the same way Cornet did in the first game. Only Kururu has this ability, but to make up for their inability to use magic , other characters have skills that cost some HP to perform.

The biggest, most noticeable difference is that Rhapsody takes only roughly 10 hours to finish (that's an unconventional play time for an RPG), while Little Princess takes more than a day's time to do so (and I can say that it's a minimum for every RPG).

And finally, Little Princess was NEVER released in English. Yep, I played this game despite it being Japanese, but thanks to a translation walkthrough, I finished the game.

And if I may give a spoiler, Cello is a tsundere; a fact that made me mutter, "WTF!?" I tell you, Souhei Niikawa sure know how to make a twist.

If you have played Disgaea, you're sure to say that Niikawa has a twisted sense of humor. But when you play this game, you'll say that this is the precursor to Disgaea's humor. You can take a look at a certain story art illustration in the Little Princess gallery I uploaded prior to making this review to prove me right.

It's the first time in almost three months that I've watched a WWE pay-per-view live, and I gotta say that it's a good thing I didn't choose to watch the replay or let myself get spoiled by the results posted on the WWE website. Survivor Series 2009 marked the 19th anniversary of the Undertaker, and he's still being as dominant as ever despite some obvious signs of wearing down through the years.

The opening contest was obviously one-sided in favor of Team Miz, composed of the Miz, Sheamus, Drew McIntyre, Jack Swagger and Dolph Ziggler, against his former tag team partner John Morrison and his teammates Finlay, Shelton Benjamin, Matt Hardy and Evan Bourne. In the end, the Miz's team won with Sheamus getting the final pin, but the Miz still doesn't prove anything significant (as per his character). (4 out of 5)

The next contest was between Rey Mysterio and Batista. In the end, it turned out as yet again another one-sided match, though Rey did manage to out wrestle his larger opponent. Batista dominated most of the match after a counter that left Rey prone. He didn't pin Rey in the whole duration of the match, and was awarded the win after the referee stoppage. But the hurting didn't stop there. It made me recall the match between Rey and the Big Show way back. You can't really call it a match if it's completely one-sided. (2 out of 5)

The next match was something whose ending I didn't really expect: Team Kofi (Kofi Kingston, Christian, MVP, Mark Henry and R-Truth) vs. Team Orton (Randy Orton, Cody Rhodes, Ted DiBiase, CM Punk and William Regal). With Henry being the largest and the most physically dominating among the ten men, I didn't expect that he was going to be the first one eliminated. It all went down to Kofi vs. Punk and Orton, but Kofi managed to fight back and pin both of his opponents in just a span of six seconds! I was seriously thinking that they were going to make Orton win this match as the sole survivor to keep his survivor streak alive, but only later did I recall that he already lost last year when his team Rated-RKO lost against Team DX. So there was no streak to keep after all. Regardless, this was a five-star match, and Kofi Kingston really rose to the occasion. Absolutely another wrestler to watch out for. (5 out of 5)

Up next is the match with my favorite wrestler of all time in it and the wrestler who I've shook hands with: The Undertaker vs. Chris Jericho. And let's not forget the third combatant, the Big Show; and it's all for the "holy grail", the World Heavyweight Championship. I was expecting the Undertaker to win, but I couldn't imagine how he would, but in the end, all questions were answered, and the Phenom managed to victimize his larger opponent by making him submit. I sure miss the old Undertaker (way back when his character used to sell just a few moves), but this display of experience and grit makes him one of the most decorated legends of wrestling. (4.5 out of 5)

The lowest-rating match of the pay-per-view came next, when the team of Mickie James, Melina, Kelly Kelly, Gail Kim and Eve Torres fought against Michelle McCool, Beth Phoenix, Jillian Hall, Layla El and Alicia Fox. I don't want to waste my words with this match, but I gotta say I only loved the part where Beth Phoenix mauled Kelly and Eve. Seriously, only she, Michelle, Gail, Mickie and Melina are the legit wrestling women out there. The rest are just eye candies. (1.5 out of 5)

And finally, DX vs. John Cena for the WWE title...wait, it's DX vs. DX vs. Cena. The opening of this match was a big shocker; Shawn Michaels kicks Triple H out cold, to the shock of Cena himself, who thought that he'd fight DX in a handicap match...but indeed it was a triple threat match, and it's every man for himself. In the end, Cena retained, and what's to watch out for is if DX will implode completely after the pay-per-view. (4 out of 5)

Overall, computing the sum of all the ratings I gave, I rate 2009's Survivor Series a 3.5 out of 5. I didn't see the wrestlers I was expecting to step up to do just that, probably because the higher-ups are still burying them down. I wanted to see guys Shelton Benjamin and R-Truth give out their all, but thanks to the match type, they pretty much held back.

Probably I just miss the good ol' Attitude era.

Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure (known in Japan as The Puppet Princess of Marl Kingdom) is, just like the title suggests, a musical RPG developed and published by Nippon Ichi Software for the old-school Sony PlayStation in 1998. I'm making this review since I'm lately on a retro-gaming craze when I'm on a break from doing Corel project I'm currently working on.

The story starts with the dream of our heroine, Cornet Espoir, who was saved from a giant dragon by the man of his dreams, who happens to be the prince of Marl Kingdom, Prince Ferdinand. She is woken up by her friend and guardian puppet, Kururu, for an errand by her grandfather. During that errand will she meet the prince in the flesh and she'll be lovestruck. She'll later join the annual beauty contest on the chance to dance with the prince on his 18th birthday and become his future bride. Cornet wins it in a tie with her rival and childhood friend Etoile Rosenqueen, who gives way to Cornet as she says she's not really in love with Ferdinand, and she only needs money. The dance will be rudely interrupted by the witch, Marjoly and her subordinates. Marjoly "falls in love" with Ferdinand at first sight and puts a spell on him, intending to make him sleep, but she messes up and turns him to stone instead. She abducts the prince while trying to find out how to undo her own spell. Cornet will then start a journey to save the love of her life, with the support of Kururu and the puppets she finds along her way.

The plot is a breath of fresh air; usually, when the story starts with a damsel in distress being saved by a prince charming, you'll feel that the game will be generic. This game caught me off-guard when it turns out that this was a reverse case, being that it was a "damsel charming" saving a "prince in distress".

Also, in some way, the fact that Cornet's allies are puppets, some of which are characters who died in-game and turned into puppets, can we say that our heroine is in some way a necromancer? But then again, if your necromancer is this cute, you'll forget that she is one.

The game system is what I can call a hybrid of sorts. You move around dungeons and discover hidden treasures and secrets ala-classic RPG, and encounter enemies at random, but these battles are fought ala-strategy/tactical RPG, like Disgaea. And instead of gaining experience after your character attacks or defeats an enemy, you gain experience, money and items after the whole battle, just like Final Fantasy.

Rhapsody isn't the usual RPG you'll play, because a typical RPG takes at least a full day's time to finish; you can actually finish this game in a 10-hour speed run. The estimate was correct: in my first attempt, I finished the game in roughly 10 hours plus some extra minutes. In my second attempt, it took me 11 hours to finish the main game and its side quests, though I missed one Illustration 8, thus finishing it only 99.9% complete.

Unexpectedly, this game is a sleeper hit. My high school best friend told me that this game was not worth playing, but I can say I beg to disagree. In fact, I want to play its sequel. Unfortunately, I can't seem to find and download it. Hehehehe

Here's a link to the in-game illustrations and character artworks.

Absolutely one of the best sports anime I've ever watched since Slam Dunk, Major is a five-season sports anime produced by NHK and Studio Hibari, adapted from Takuya Mitsuda's manga of the same name. It follows the life of Goro Honda, from his boyhood dreams of becoming as great a pitcher as his father, to the tragic death that almost shatters his dreams, to his chance at a new life, to his self-imposed challenge to become the greatest baseball pitcher ever.

Not only does this story focus mainly on the sporty aspect, but it also heavily deals with the values of family, friendship, love and sportsmanship. Epic baseball-field actions, some slice of comedy and intense drama, Major has got it all, plus some more.

While you may not be baseball fans, you can surely enjoy this anime and appreciate the sport.

I'll try to make it short and sweet here. I'm going to rant-preview Evony, a browser-based MMORTS. I won't be talking about its gameplay, however, since I haven't played the game. Instead, I'm sticking to one point that annoys me about this game: their advertisement.

What is it about their advertisements that ticks me off? Google the keywords "Evony ads", and you'll know what I'm talking about. On a second thought, here's why they suck.

Their ads make use of images of women on the sole purpose of inviting players, especially the men. Later on, these women would downgrade to just a pair of enormous breasts, but would probably still entice people to play it...

...Until these people realize that the game doesn't have busty princesses for them to save, and they have been made to look stupid by their own perversions.

Evony has been advertised as a browser-based game, hence I can compare it to the Kingdom of Loathing or my current game on Facebook, Mafia Wars. I don't think that even if I had the time to spare, I won't give even a second of it to playing Evony not only because I'm already playing a similar game, but readily because of its annoying advertisements that interrupt my peaceful time online.

By the way, what's with the "Play discreetly on your browser now" message? Is there something illegal for the players to discover? Evony's ads are more like lures to a porn gold-farming porn sites than a respectable online game, and that hurts their reputation big-time. They better use a more wholesome approach for their advertising scheme, unless they really only aim to attract DOMs.

I also read the blog of Bruce Everiss, a veteran marketer of videogames who bravely ranted about how bad the publicity of Evony is, and he's apparently being threatened to be sued by Evony's attorneys for defaming them. I could only make a remark, "How stupid." Why waste a lot of money just to sue this guy for alleged defamation (which to me has no basis at all), when they could have saved more by straightening their ads up? Congratulations, Evony, you've sunk even lower.

I won't tell you guys to not play this game because it's on your own discretion. But for me, it's definitely a no-no. I'm not stupid enough to be lured by their misleading ads. And again, in case you're looking for rating stars, don't bother anymore, because Evony's a zero in my book.

The very first thing I want to say is that I don't like revivals, most especially when songs being revived don't need it at all because they're just pretty recent. What ticks me off more is that when these so-called revivals are acoustic renditions that practically ruin the feel of the original version. This is the very same feeling I had when I first heard on TV the live acoustic rendition of Beyonce's Single Ladies by a budding artist that goes by the name Princess.

I made a background check of this lady, and I confirmed that she was the very same Princess Velasco whose name was dragged along in Hayden Kho's scandalous escapades. I don't care whether it's true or not; what matters to me here right now is her debut album, which I find distasteful.

I meant no offense to Princess because she is indeed a beautiful and talented new artist, but it's just that I find that her versions of 18 R&B hits (which most of them I don't like as well), unlikable. After listening to her renditions, you'd realize that the original versions are way better, no matter if you find their lyrics distasteful. At best, I think I can describe her renditions as not suitable for concert performances.

I mean, for someone who's been given too much hype for her debut, she'll offer just that? I honestly believe that I would have appreciated her more if she had her own original songs in her debut album, not third-rate revivals of foreign songs.

In case you're looking for rating stars, you won't see anything because I rated the album 0 out of 5 for lack of originality. I seriously believe that Filipino originality can't be considered endangered anymore, because with budding artists who'd rather revive existing songs than compose their own, Filipino originality is best described as extinct, or even worse, nonexistent.

This is the first time I'm going to actually make a review about a video game since I reviewed Namco X Capcom. This time I'm going to review the latest fighting game I had my hands on: Street Fighter IV.

I first saw its Philippine arcade release on August 1 at SM Megamall, but I didn't get to play it that much due to its costly credits (thanks, Timezone). Though I never imagined that I'd get my hands on that game thanks to the tenant of the store we recently made a stop by during our 12-week promo work.

My version of Street Fighter is that for a PC, so you either use a keyboard or a USB controller. This is the first time I played a fighting game using a keyboard, and I got to say that my previous experience in playing an emulator came in handy.

SFIV takes some elements from previous SF games. Take for example the Super Combo gauge that first appeared on the Street Fighter ZERO series. There's also the EX Special Move that originates from SFIII, that costs 1/4 of the Super gauge when executed.

A new addition to this game is the Revenge gauge that is somewhat similar to Samurai Showdown series' Rage Combo system. Unlike the Super Combo gauge that fills up everytime you connect with an attack against your opponent, this Revenge gauge fills up everytime you take damage from your opponent's attack. But unlike the aforementioned Rage Combo gauge, the Revenge gauge doesn't run on empty when unused for a certain amount of time. The Ultra Combo also deals more damage than the Super Combo, and when you perform Ultra Combos, the camera breaks from its usual fixed position to show a dynamic, cinematic and dramatic finisher. It's worth noting that inputting Ultra Combos is similar to inputting Meteor Combos from SFEX.

Another addition to the game system is the Focus Attack, that is the core part of SFIV. The Focus Attacks allow the player to absorb enemy attacks and perform a vicious counterattack that allows free hits. If the Focus Attack connects, all the attacks you received during this time will be gradually regenerated. But while you are temporarily immune to attacks during this state, if you receive hard hits from your opponent, your defense will be broken and your Focus Attack animation will stop.

In the arcade version, You get to play as either one of the original 12 characters from SFII (Ryu, Ken, Chun-li, Guile, E.Honda, Dhalsim, Zangief, Blanka, Sagat, Vega, Balrog and M.Bison) or the four newcomers in the personages of Crimson Viper, Abel, Rufus or El Fuerte. The final boss is named Seth, who in the story is the leader of Shadaloo's weapons development subgroup S.I.N. He shares basic moves similar to SFIII's Urien and Gill, and his special moves are remixes of some of the original characters' special moves. And depending on how great you played up to the final boss, you also get to challenge either Gouki or his older brother Gouken, who finally makes his SF debut, as an extra boss.

Since my version is a home version, I also get to unlock and play as additional characters, namely: Cammy and Fei Long from SSFII, Dan and Rose from SFZERO, Sakura from SFZERO2, and Gen from the original SF. The bosses in the arcade version are also unlockable and playable, making you experience playing as Gouken for the first time ever.

Like Tekken 6, these characters have alternate costumes that are added as downloadable content, one for each character. While that is some good news, you will still find yourself wanting to see your favorite SF characters wearing some more stuff.

I rated this game one short of a perfect 5 because I think it could have offered me something more, like more characters and more costumes. I honestly feel that it could have gone toe-to-toe with Tekken 6's 41-character roster. While it's obvious and great that they spent a lot in developing the gameplay, they really could have added more variety by bringing back some more favorites, say, Ibuki, Alex or Oro from SFIII, or Nash from SFZERO. Well, Nash is still established as M.I.A., but they could have let him appear as a non-canon character, much like Heihachi was in Tekken 5.

I would have wanted for Capcom to give their characters more costumes, but then again, they might lose the look that made them famous in the world of fighting games, plus the bad side of putting in more character costumes for characters is that Capcom might be accused of having no originality, copying the idea from Namco. I don't know, but I think I'd rather prioritize wanting them to include more characters instead.

Another major letdown is its annoyingly cheap AI, especially when you're up against the final boss. Even when you play against Seth in the game's supposedly easiest difficulty, you still find yourself frustrated because you couldn't beat him in your conventional way. I mean, almost all of his moves take higher priority than your own character; even before you could crash his defense, he would lock you in Zangief's Spinning Piledriver, which to me is the most annoying. In my case, since I'm just a leisure gamer, I'm not good at performing rather unorthodox techniques in-game, that's why I get frustrated. Anyway, with that being said, if you're already frustrated with the AI in its easiest difficulty, what more if you play on the hardest one? Well, if you're either Daigo Umehara or Justin Wong who spends a lot of time in his virtual reality mastering the art of fighting, then you won't have any problem at all.

Aside from this annoyance, the fact that story-wise SFIV comes after SFII and before SFIII really makes no sense to me. While it was true that they had already done this once with the release of Street Fighter ZERO/Alpha (the storyline of which comes in between SF and SFII), are they repeating their mistake in numbering their own continuity?

And so here is the series' timeline, arranged in its correct order: Street Fighter, Street Fighter Zero, Street Fighter II, Street Fighter IV, Street Fighter III. Wow, talk about knowing how to count correctly.

They should have entitled it Street Fighter 2.5, if they're aiming to suggest the "2.5D" feeling you get when you play the game (3D character models and environments, yet with a classic 2D side-scrolling fighting experience).

Anyway, what's done is done, so let's just try to enjoy playing this game and wait for its stand-alone update, SUPER Street Fighter IV.

I was never fascinated with card games because I thought their gameplay were too technical and complicated. I’ve only ever played card games on my gaming console; specifically I used to play Digimon Digital Card Battle. But probably the only card game I’ve ever played in real life was Yu-Gi-Oh.

However, while I found the card game entertaining, that hobby was too costly to maintain, that I’d need to buy each and every card to build the ultimate dueling deck. Not to mention that my goal that time in collecting cards was to collect all five parts of the forbidden card, Exodia.

Good thing I found out that I could do that without spending an awful lot; I got a hold of my first Yu-Gi-Oh Power of Chaos PC game, featuring Yugi as the main opposition; it was appropriately entitled Yugi the Destiny. Then months later, I got to buy its sequels, Kaiba the Revenge and Joey the Passion.

Yu-Gi-Oh Power of Chaos is basically played just like a real-life typical Yu-Gi-Oh card battle, but depending on which version you play, you battle against the AIs of either Yugi Muto/Atem, Seto Kaiba or Joey Wheeler/Jonouchi Katsuya, each of them using their specialty decks and some surprise card combinations.

Rules are simple: defeat the enemy either by reducing his Life Points to zero, making him run out of cards to draw, collect the five parts/cards of Exodia in your hand, complete the Destiny Board, or any strategy that I haven’t seen yet. But of course, in order to unleash Exodia or unseal the Destiny Board, you must collect these cards by winning single or duel matches with your AI opponents, as these cards don’t appear in your starter deck upon installation (Exodia is unlockable in Yugi the Destiny, the Destiny Board in Joey the Passion).

Unlocking cards is a rigorous task; you have to keep on playing the game and winning against your opponent, but victory isn’t easily achieved. The AI is unpredictable, unexpectedly lashing out at you with rather unorthodox strategies that you may say are somewhat uncharacteristic of them. Heck, Joey will even use Exodia on you when he has the chance!

Anyway, unpredictability of the opponent and the set of cards waiting to be unlocked is what make you want to keep on playing this game; however, constant dueling will later on wear you down and bore you, so I suggest that you duel at least three to four times a day with each of them.

Speaking of unlocking cards, you can unlock a total of 155 designs from Yugi, 315 from Kaiba and 350 from Joey: an overall total of 771 cards to collect for all three games. Notice that 155 + 315 + 350 = 820; the reason for that is because there are cards that can be unlocked from Yugi the Destiny that are also unlockable in Kaiba the Revenge and/or Joey the Passion. There also is the Change of Heart card, which is present in the starter decks of all three games; hence the count to that card is tripled.

Just like any other video game that wouldn’t be complete without background music and theme, each stand-alone game follows the theme of the titular character: Yugi’s BGM nas an ancient Egyptian feel into it, while Kaiba’s is more into the techno genre and Joey’s into modern or street punk. Of course, you can turn the sounds off if you don’t want to hear the repetitive voices of the characters each and everytime you attack them, activate spell and trap cards or summon high-level monster cards.

We can only treat the Yu-Gi-Oh! Power of Chaos trilogy as a precursor/introduction to real-life Yu-Gi-Oh! Card battling; these 771 cards may seem too large a number already, but actually, Kazuki Takahashi and Konami has produced a lot more card designs for players to build their decks from. But seriously, I really don’t have the sources to fund this, so I’d rather just stay in front of my PC and battle with Yugi, Kaiba and Joey. I don’t need real-life cards to experience the joy of monster card duels and it’s all thanks to Yu-Gi-Oh! Power of Chaos.


I just coined the "Duel the Trilogy" tagline below the logo on the picture above, and it goes without saying that I edited this picture just for this review. I think I can use this as the cover for the DVD I burned with these three games. (Hey, I bought these games first, mind you.)

As usual, this is more of a rave than a review; then again, just watching the gameplay videos of this awesome crossover fighting game on YouTube, I already feel as if I've already played it myself.

I wrote an online article about Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Cross Generation of Heroes a year ago, but to me it doesn't seem like a year has passed since the news about the release of this game. I was rather skeptical about this game that time, because I seriously don't know some of the guys from Tatsunoko's side; but then again, that's the main reason why these certain Tatsunoko characters are featured in this game—so they can be reintroduced to the new generation as well as the previous one.

Gameplay is obviously derived from the Marvel vs. Capcom series of games, and it can be said that TvC is the spiritual successor to this type of gameplay. You play as two characters of your choice from either Tatsunoko or Capcom (with the exception of literal behemoths Gold Lightan and PTX-40A, which are single characters). This is also the first time in a crossover that the final boss came from Capcom's side, as Okami's giant ball of dark entities, Yami, fills that role.

But while the gameplay is similar to the aforementioned MvC series, this game introduces some new features, like Mega Crash and Baroque Cancel, that either makes or breaks the player's game.

Each character has his/her own themesong that originated from the series from which he/she came from; it's a mix of nostalgia and sheer amazement when you listen to these melodies. Alhough there are some themesongs, like Doronjo's, that I deem are out-of-place due to TvC's fast-paced gameplay, the game music overall is a great plus to this game. My personal favorites are those of Roll, Soki and Karas.

Also, there were talks that the North American version of this game is an impossibility, but that has just been totally trashed because this game has indeed been localized for American players, renamed as Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars. Also, rumors have been proved true that one character on Tatsunoko's end will be replaced due to licensing issues. I'm talking about Hakushon Daimao, who's got a problem being licensed in North America, so he will be replaced by an even better fighter in Tekkaman Blade. They will also add four more characters to the seemingly already large number of 22; one has been named, and he's Dead Rising's Frank West.

And now I go to my character wishlist: that would mean two characters each for both Tatsunoko and Capcom, In Capcom's side, hands-down, I would like Dante to be in it, just because he's bad enough to be included here. Zero is also a great addition to this roster, whether he be from the Rockman X or Rockman Zero series. And just so we can feature another classic game in this crossover, let's add one Power Stone character, say, Falcon or Accel. And just to add a touch of Gouki in this game, I'd love to see Zero-Gouki from Cyberbots in this game, even if it means he's a single character.

As for Tatsunoko's side, I would like one character from Samurai Pizza Cats to be included in this game to add more variety and diversity in the game. SoulTaker can be a great addition to this game, not just because I want to hear JAM Project's song be remixed for this game, but the character's backstory adds some coolness factor too. I think Shulato can also be considered for this game. I don't think this can be granted, but I'm also requesting EVA units to be included, all three of which are palette swaps of each other. That seems impossible though, because they all have different heads, plus they would need GAINAX to approve its licensing as well.

Anyway, the bottomline is, this game is definitely one of those that I want to be ported on the PS3 (since this will only be available for the Wii), but even if it's unavailable, at least, I want to play it on the arcades.

This is more of a preview than a review, because I haven't laid my hands on this game, and I probably will not want to, due to personal reasons.

Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe is most likely a late attempt to rival Marvel vs. Capcom, as MK had been a fierce competition to Street Fighter, and DC characters share similar popularity with Marvel characters that even led to a collaboration between them years ago. Anyway, here are reasons for this poor preview.

First off will be the character designs. While overall the characters look badass especially on the MK side, the designers, for some odd reason, made the DC characters seemingly look old, especially Batman and the Flash. Also, they attempted make the female characters look sexy, but failed; I totally dislliked Sonya's look, plus Wonder Woman looked as if she's in her mid-forties (while that may be true in DC canon, she should at least look younger because she is still a goddess).

We all know MK for the infamous and inhumane "fatalities" that it introduced in its first release. It even sparked a controversy that time that fighting video games made its players violent. While that had been dismissed already, the fact that technology has advanced greatly all these years, so does the capability of the developers to produce high-definition animated blood and gore; but that still isn't an issue to me.

The actual thing that upset me is the idea of DC crossing over with MK for a fighting game, not to mention that the gameplay is mostly derived from MK. I for one find MK's gameplay distasteful, plus the fighting stances of the characters, especially from the DC side, are rather goofy, plus the animation of their special moves (especially that of Wonder Woman) look awkward, not to mention the inconsistencies in some of the movements. While the game can be fast-paced, it's not comparable to fast-paced fighting in Street Fighter, Tekken and The King of Fighters. And I tell you, you can't expect an MK vs. DC tournament anytime soon.

It's not even worth mentioning that the DC superheroes were even given their own "non-lethal" fatalities, which the developers branded as "Heroic Brutalities", while MK characters would retain their fatalities as well, albeit toned-down. DC villains would also have fatalities for fair play. Seriously, you can't describe brutality as heroic, can you?

They would have gone away for toning down the fatalities, but the fact that a character as invincible as Superman would gain vulnerability in this game totally upsets me. True, they omitted the infamous spine rip fatality and other similar graphic human dismemberment, especially to disallow young gamers to see their childhood superhero mutilated like that, but this game already gives them the idea, and that's plain pathetic. My bottomline is that the images of the DC superheroes featured here have been greatly ruined, especially Batman's and Superman's.

This is the first game in the MK series that they introduced the "Free-fall Kombat" and the "Klose Kombat", that also didn't cater to my fast-paced taste. Well, these two features would sit very well if the game had used an engine similar to that of Tekken.

The only thing I can commend about this game is its original crossover story that resembles Marvel vs. DC. In the game's story mode you can choose to play as either the characters from the MK realm or the DC universe, seeing the other universe as the invader of your own; this spans roughly an hour of 8-chapter CG-animated storytelling plus roughly half-an-hour of rather lame actual fighting TIMES TWO. As far as I'm concerned, the animation for the cutscenes didn't disappoint; apart from that, nothing else is commendable.

And now that I learned about it, there really exists a MK vs. DC crossover comic based from the game's story mode included in the Kollector's Edition for the Xbox360. So if I were to buy this game, it's obviously for the comic.

So that's it; my say is that I don't like this game, but I'd love to see the comic. I will not encourage crossover fans to stay away from this game, because after all, it's still a once-in-a-lifetime collaboration.

From the mangaka who brought you Girls Saurus comes a rather differently romantic love story in Bitter Virgin.

The story is about a high-schooler-slash-ladies-man Daisuke Suwa, who lives with his widowed mother who dreams of going into the city university and enjoy a bachelor's life. While he will virtually date any of his female classmates, he would pass on one Hinako Aikawa, who's got an unusual degree of aversion to men, and this "sweet virgin" act turns him off. Until one time, he hides inside the confessional booth of a "cursed" church to get away from girls who are chasing after him; Hinako, who's new in town, never knew of the rumor of the cursed church, enters it to confess to the "priest", who's actually Daisuke. Hinako inadvertently tells Daisuke her deepest, darkest secret without knowing that it was him. This troubles Daisuke or the rest of the story, and this will also in turn get him to fall in love with her.

Of course, I won't tell you what secret Hinako has; it's up to you to find out by reading Bitter Virgin. I bet you won't regret reading this very inspirational manga, as it will enlighten you to what love really is.

It may sound cheesy, but that's just the way it is.

When I first saw an article title about it on the forums I regularly tune into, I wasn't sure to myself if it was a sort of a what-if match featuring Monkey Punch's master thief and Gosho Aoyama's wonder boy-detective, until a great friend of mine shared to me a link to it. And boy, I couldn't believe my eyes!

Lupin III vs. Detective Conan is another great addition to a wide list of crossovers I've seen in my enitre existence, along with Capcom crossovers with Marvel, SNK, Namco and Tatsunoko Productions, and my list doesn't end there. But anyway, this crossover movie features an original story that leans more on the elements of Conan's mystery-solving stuff than Lupin's thieving and treasure hunting escapades. It also features contrasting art styles from both Monkey Punch and Aoyama, that you can identify the characters from the series where they belong to, except for the original characters who seem to have a blend of both styles.

It was amazing that every major and minor character from their respective series were given enough airtime and were appropriately integrated in the movie, and the humor from Detective Conan blended awesomely, if not perfectly, with Lupin III's comedy.

Normally, I would tell the story of that movie I recently watched, but that would just mean I would be spoiling you not only the fun of watching it, but the thrill of seeing both Lupin and Conan at the same time in one movie, so I'll leave the watching to you.

And with that being said, you can watch it here!

Cross Over is a manga that falls under both high school romance and sports genre. It is authored by Kouji Seo, the same guy who did Suzuka. The series primarily follows the St. Mariannu boy's basketball team led by the freshman Natsuki Ogata to defeat the prefecture's best team, Fujiwara Academy.

The story begins with the introduction of Natsuki Ogata, who loves playing basketball despite his short stature. His junior high school friends encouraged him to tryout for the basketball team of Fujiwara Academy, the top-seeded team in their prefecture. Then he meets Mitsuki Tachibana, a student of St. Mariannu High School and the manager of the school's relatively unknown basketball team. Natsuki goes to watch the exhibition game between Fujiwara and St. Mariannu, and after one St. Mariannu player went down due to injury, he decides to play for the small team so the game would finish. After learning that he qualified for Fujiwara, and learning of the two teams' contrasting playing styles, Natsuki decides to enter St. Mariannu instead, with the goal to bring down the best team in the prefecture.

A typical spice in Seo's manga are his ecchi fan service spots, but while there are numbers of these, he made sure he put it at necessary parts of the story to ensure the reader's attention is never away, plus they serve as segways to rather technical aspects of the sport it featured. A rather interesting element that the author blended with the sport is the use of a martial art in the playing style of the protagonist team; I couldn't say it was a fictional martial art, but the effects of that can be described as simply beyond physics.

While the art style doesn't differ from "Suzuka" and can't be put in comparison with Takehiko Inoue's "Slam Dunk" whose characters are somewhat way more mature for their ages, the characters of Cross Over are rather drawn "basically" so the images wouldn't sort of clutter in the mind of the reader.

I can't think of more words to say about Cross Over, just read it and make a better review.

While Capcom is the pioneer of fighting games, I personally think that Bandai is the pioneer of fighting mecha games. That is evident in the video game Gundam Battle Assault 2.

This series as far as I know was one of the first to fully make use of multi-jointed sprites. Capcom attempted to do the same for X-Men: Children of the Atom's Sentinel, but it was so far the only character who made use of that "technology" until Battle Assault came out. Gameplay is so fluid in a way that it generates the atmosphere of fighting mobile suits.

The game features mobile suits from the Universal Century (Mobile Suit Gundam), After Colony (Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz) and Future Century (Mobile Fighter G Gundam), each with special moves reminiscent of their anime counterparts. I can't say the same thing for the mobile suits form UC, though, because I haven't watched it yet.

The complete list of mobile suits in this game are:

GF13-017NJII God Gundam (Burning Gundam)
GF13-006NA Gundam Maxter
GF13-009NF Gundam Rose
GF13-011NC Dragon Gundam
GF13-013NR Bolt Gundam
GF13-001NHII Master Gundam
JDG-009X Devil Gundam
XXXG-00W0 Wing Gundam Zero (Custom)
XXXG-01D2 Gundam Deathscythe Hell (Custom)
XXXG-01SR2 Gundam Sandrock Kai (Gundam Sandrock Custom)
XXXG-01H2 Gundam Heavyarms Kai (Gundam Heavyarms Custom)
XXXG-01S2 Altron Gundam
OZ-00MS2B Tallgeese III
OZ-13MS Gundam Epyon
RX-78-2 Gundam
MS-06F Zaku II
MS-06S Zaku II Commander
RX-93 Nu Gundam
MSN-04 Sazabi
MSN-02 Zeong
FA-010S Full Armor Enhanced ZZ Gundam
MSM-03C Hygogg
NZ-000 Quin Mantha
RX-78GP02A Gundam Physallis
RB-79 Ball
MSM-04 Acguy
MA-08 Big Zam
AMX-002 (AMA-X2) Neue Ziel
Psyco Gundam Mark III
OZ-15AGX Hydra Gundam

I'm currently retro-gaming, and I gotta say that I never get bored playing this game. Napupuyat lang. Hehehehe

Just gotta love Gundams. It's a bad thing that they didn't make a Battle Assault 4 where all famous mobile suits from all Gundam metaverses. (The number 3 only featured Gundam SEED plus Wing, Deathscythe, God and Master.) And screw me for being a crossover otaku yet again.

And so I’m back to being nostalgic…BLISTERING BARNACLES! XD

This time I’ll be raving about The Adventures of Tintin. No, I’ll not actually rave about the book, but the animated adaptation of it. That’s the closest I’ve ever been with following Tintin. LOL

Anyway, of all the cartoons that I saw on Cartoon Network circa 2004-2006, Tintin was one of the shows that I truly watch out for aside from The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest and The New Adventures of Captain Planet. (So many adventures, eh? LOL)

I’ll first rave about the theme song. I don’t know where to start, but to me at least, the theme song gives me the adventurous feel of the story. Just hear it from the drum rolls and the melodic trumpet. I just can’t put into words how I feel when I listen to its theme song. Heck, I even made it the message tone for my cell phone! XD

Listen to it here.

Next will be the art and animation style. As far as I’m concerned, since I’ve inclined myself to like Japanese anime, Tintin’s art style didn’t hinder me to follow it. Actually, just like my theater teacher said, less is more. After all, Tintin is set in the real world, where there are a few to no characters wearing fancy outfits. Every “special effect” that the cartoon offered is hand-drawn, the way I see it; simplistic, yet stylish.

The protagonist, Tintin, is not your typical kind of main character. Usually, your hero always favors the good side, while Tintin is more of a caught-in-the-middle type of character, whose heroism only shows when he is indeed caught in the middle. His job description is an investigative reporter of Belgian nationality. Given this, his supposed heroism is covered by his neutrality. He’s more like an everyman, if you will. The “juicy” character traits were instead disseminated to his supporting characters that are most of the time present for comic relief to the obviously serious and adventurous plot.

I give it a 5/5 for the plot, and 3/5 for the character designs, and 4/5 for the theme song; hence a 4/5 overall. I consider Hergé as one of the best cartoonist/novelist thanks to his Tintin.

THUNDERING TYPHOONS! There goes another biased review! LOL

I would just copy-paste Wikipedia's entry on this crossover in order for me to save time for my raves. XD

"Krona, an exiled villain from the DC Universe who has gained the powers of entropy, begins destroying entire universes in his obsession to find out how they are created. The Grandmaster, an alien from the Marvel Universe who is obsessed with games, offers to give Krona the knowledge he seeks in return for not destroying his universe—but only if he can beat him in a game. The game involves manipulating the Avengers and the Justice League into trying to obtain twelve items of power (six from each universe - the DC items being the Spear of Destiny; the Book of Eternity; the Orb of Ra; the Psycho Pirate's Medusa Mask; Uthool's Green Bell; Nyorlath's Silver Wheel; Calythos's Red Jar; and the Green Lantern Power Battery of Kyle Rayner; and the Marvel items being the Ultimate Nullifier; the Evil Eye; the Wand of Watoomb; the Casket of Ancient Winters; the Cosmic Cube; and the Infinity Gems) that have been hidden around across the two worlds. The New God Metron of the DC Universe also helps to trick the heroes into participating. They battle members from the opposing team until a final confrontation during which Krona and the Grandmaster betray each other.

Krona scans the Grandmaster's mind and learns of Galactus, while the Grandmaster uses the power of the twelve artifacts to merge the two universes and trap Krona at their centre. Krona then retaliates by killing the Grandmaster and causing the universes to collapse. The Avengers and the Justice League join forces to battle Krona, and due to several chronal distortions are aided by past members of both teams. Krona is finally defeated, and implodes to become a "cosmic egg" from which a universe will eventually be born. The two universes are returned to normal with no evidence of Krona's tampering."

Unlike Marvel vs. DC which I gave a 4/5 rating, I would rate this a perfect five. Marvel vs. DC focused on the dream matches and was more on the fan service; JLA/Avengers does it too, however with big-time modifications.

In Marvel vs. DC, the heroes were fighting for their respective universes' supremacy, while in JLA/Avengers, they were again used as pawns by the higher powers, but the twist in here was that Krona's pawns were the Avengers, while the Grandmaster's are the Justice League. That meant if the Avengers won, then Krona would have won. Good thing Captain America and Batman were wise enough to deduce that something's wrong. The plot twists were in general so colossal, that it even involved the "innocent" Galactus into the mix!

If only I wasn't ignorant of the publishing houses, and I if I only knew crossovers like these were of really ginormous proportions, I would have instantly bought these comics even if it meant blasting a whole comic book shop! LOL

Yeah, I wasn't seriously reviewing this comic; I was just going ga-ga yet again. XD

By the way, sorry for the spoiler image, and thanks to Master Earl for the comic scans! :D

I'm not the right guy to make a review about this, because I, for starters, LOVE crossovers when I see them (except maybe Mortal Kombat vs. DC). And when I first got a hold of then-one-peso-per-four-pieces Marvel vs. DC cards, I said to myself, I just had to collect all these cards, which I never did, because I used to wager them in "flying-saucer" card games.

Just this week I got to ravage the Internet for pictures of the Marvel vs. DC cards I used to have, and I luckily saw these thumbnails. And after seeing this set, one online friend of mine posted a link to its comic scans. Thanks Pendrille.

Anyway, let's go forth to the review, though this would be more of a rave one, given that I'm a crossover fan.

The story begins when two entities, only referred to as "the Brothers", each personifying Marvel and DC universes, became aware of each other's existence. They vied for supremacy by pitting their universe's respective superheroes in a series of matches, wherein a victorious universe propelling the other to disappear in existence.

After the battles had been fought with Marvel being the winner, Marvel's and DC's respective cosmic beings the Living Tribunal and Spectre, merged the universes into an Amalgam universe to avert the ceasing of the DC Universe. Enter Axel Asher, an ordinary teenager who was given the power and responsibility as "the Access" after meeting a bum who was seemingly protecting an ordinary cardboard box that was actually a portal between the two universes. Access managed to undo the amalgamation of the universes by using shards of each universe hidden inside Captain America and Batman, who were somewhat the miniature representations of the Brothers. With the aid of the two heroes, Access helped stop the fight between the Brothers that would have wiped out both universes. The Brothers, looking at Captain America and Batman, acknowledged the foolishness of their continued conflict and reconciled.

The results of the fights were as follows: (I took the hassle of finding out who donned the costumes or which aliases they used the time this crossover was made. XD)

- Thor (Thor Odinson) defeated Captain Marvel (Barry Batson)
- Aquaman (Arthur Curry) defeated the Sub-Mariner (Namor McKenzie)
- Flash (Wally West) defeated Quicksilver (Pietro Maximoff)
- Robin (Alvin Draper) defeated Jubilee (Jubilation Lee)
- Silver Surfer (Norrin Radd) defeated Green Lantern (Kyle Rayner)
- Elektra (Elektra Natchios) defeated Catwoman (Selina Kyle)
- Storm (Ororo Munroe) defeated Wonder Woman (Diana Prince)
- Spider-Man (Ben Reilly) defeated Superboy (Connor Kent)
- Superman (Clark Kent) defeated Hulk (Bruce Banner)
- Wolverine (Logan) defeated Lobo (Just Lobo)
- Batman (Bruce Wayne) defeated Captain America (Steve Rogers)

It's interesting to note the brief relationship that developed between Robin and Jubilee. If that crossover were to continue, they could have thought of expounding on that "love team".

Confrontations between Doctor Strange and Doctor Fate, the Martian Manhunter and the Thing, Hawkeye and the Green Arrow, Steel and Iron Man were also featured, albeit with no clear winners. A brief encounter between New God Darkseid and Titan Thanos was also highlighted in the one-shot crossover comic.

Thanks to Pendrille, here's the link to the comic scans.

IO isn't just any other romance manga that incorporates comedy and ecchi. It also offers an engaging story that taps on the supernatural. Using the sport of scuba diving as the base line, it develops into a touching love story that also teaches the value of family ties.

IO chronicles the story of Taiyo Nakahara, a high school student from Tokyo, who went to Okinawa to look for the the ocean where his father disappeared 10 years ago and dive in it. Upon arrival on the airport, when he tries to hit on a girl, it turns out to be Shibuki, his childhood friend who accuses him of killing his mother. Taiyo, on the other hand, doesn't know what she's talking about, but it was revealed that it was amnesia. Only by meeting Shibuki's elder sister Nagisa and younger sister Mio (who initially has a mysterious aura surrounding her character), and staying at their inn will he recover his lost memories.

And gradually he did recover his lost memories, so is his relationship with the sisters. While this is so, something larger than life threatens to surface out to haunt Taiyo once again. And this story develops from the quest to find the ruins that caused his family grief to an interesting sibling rivalry for our main character's love to an ultimate revelation that will shatter it deeply.

Oceans, whales, hot girls in skimpy bikinis...what can a man ask for? :P

I give Minato Koio's IO a 5/5 rating, because he has excellently created a manga that perfectly blended supernaturalism, romance and sexy comedy in one story. I don't know what to say next, but I know I can relay them using my vernacular. :D