Mysterious Cities of Gold 2012: Back to Barcelona 1-2

So I watched yesterdays episodes, which was episode 1-2 so I saw the first episode twice. It was for the better cause in the beginning you see a robed figure running up some stairs when one of the guards take aim and I now get it was Zeres (the big bad of the series for now) running to stop the guard from killing Estaban. Also when Zeres is walking down the temple his fotsteps sound starnge, heavier than normal people. Is it alludibg to something? Hopefully we will get a reveal at the end of this season. The next episode continues of were the first ended. Estaban has run to the monestary were he grew up where one of the monks proposes that he can find a family for him (he run away since he has no need to travel as his father is dead). The others pursade him not, they find out the medallions only work for Estaban and Zia, they escape Barcelona and flies away on the Condor. We find out the prisoner in the first epsiode works for Zeres, the bartender that helped them was blackmailed to supply Zeres with information as they kidnapped his son (the prisoner was supposed to kill them afterwards, but he let them escape) and Zeres work for Charles Quint. Who is Charles Quint you may ask? I wondered that too until they showed the education ending and lo and behold in Sweden he is known as Karl V, in english that is Charles V. God dammit swedish translators.

Otherwise, the music sucks.maybe not bad music, but it ain't the original and it's too low. Doesn't create the mysterious feeling or the awesome flight of the condor. The educational segmentmay have bits of the original music, but it is to silent. I will still watch the series cause I want to knows what happens and I will probably buy the dvd when I get a job, but it will probably not share the cult staus the original series does.

Mysterious Cities of Gold 2012

I don't care that I've already written one post today, I have to mention this. As a coincidense my father happened to watch the Avatar: The Last Airbender-marathon at Nickelodeon and found out that they showed the first episode of the Mysterious Cities of Gold. As it was Nickelodeon I just had to see if it was the original Swedish voices or a new dub, or it might have been in english and that's just fine and dandy. So wesit down, watch the final episode of the Last Airbender while a clock is counting down in the corner. It reaches zero and... it is the second season they show, dubbed in Swedish. Talk about childlike surprise. I fully enjoyed it, with small complaints that the art don't feel fluid and some times just feels of. Not mentioning that the swedish dub is... not that good. Joked that the voice cast for Avatar would be the same and lo and behold, that was true. Doesn't say much since the original english was superb and the swedish one just passable. This made me look up who the english dub was and I couldn't find it and people discussing it remarked how bad it was. Has to look up an english version online to make a judgment call which sound better, but apparently non of the original voices reprised or cameoed which make it a shame. Well, at least I know what I will be watching for the next 26 days.

The episode itself began 6 months after the original series ended  for a short look at the current action and transport us then back 6 months with the old man Mayuka (which shows I was right) being forced to show the location of a hidden temple for this priest with no face. They enter and discover that a map supposed to be there was taken earlier by the protagonist children. The priest leaves locking the temple afterwards and trapping Mayuka. Flash forward 6 months and the children rescues  Mendoza and his two companions from the same priest who even helps them escape by saving Estaban from being shot by one of the guards. They escape out of Barcelona and Estaban asks Mendoza if the high priest of the Golden city was his father. Sadden by the news they go to sleep and the next morning Estaban is gone. What follows is a short narration of the next episode and some education segment, just like the original show so a great thumbs up for the creators to adopt the similarities of the original show. Tomorrow I must focus closer on the music to see if that holds up.

Doin' the Omoralisk Schlagerfestival '14 (1)

This year it took me by surprise, I had totally forgotten it began yesterday. Of course it is hard to forget it when all newspaper talk about it, all advertisment is about it, but somehow I didn't register until yesterday morning. But I wasn't supposed to watch it, none in my family was supposed to watch it and I thought I would boycott it this year, "I don't feel like watching". But then 20:00 comes closer and my mom suddenly changes her mind and I am forced to join her. And then it begins, and I gotta say, I don't think you are supposed to show the danish winner contribution that much and with red and white ballons everywhere (the colors of the danish flag), but since it's shown from Skåne which is practiclly half-danish I might let it slip. The songs then? All gone, nothing stands out, with maybe exception of the 23-year old blonde girl in the revealing outfit, but I might take a gamble here and say it wasn't because the song. There was also one song which had some catchy nonsense words in it, but that didn't make it at all and without repeat listenings the song is gone from my mind. Now it's five more weeks of this... God help us all!

Ys Book 1 & 2

Another game I got my hand on was Ys book 1 & 2 for the TurboGrafx-16, an action RPG were the basic form of attack is... running into enemies. An odd form of attack I believe was used in earlier games since there wasn't enough graphic power to show the sword attack or so. With a bit of imagination your character, Adol, either fences around the enemy to deliver the deadly strike with his blade or he rams the enemy head on caring nothing for his well-being to save... whoever needs saving. The story is fairly simple, you arrive at this new continent were there once stood a powerful civilization named Ys (pronounced ease or something like that) were dark forces gathers so you must stop this darkness and find the clues for what happened. Fairly standard atlantian story-telling, sadly the game suffers a bit for being two games in one. This separates places and characters making it feel very restricted in terms of exploring as well as having problem creating characters that are memorable past their special scene. It still worked as a story, just feeling disjointed after clearing the first half.

Graphically and musically the game have very nice anime cut-scenes and sprites as well as a decent orchestrated score as well as voice acting. Sad part is that in some places the voices hard to hear and there is no text so you must listen really hard to know who spoke and whatever happened to the plot. All in all a decent game that has an interesting mythos, sadly the other parts wasn't released on the Virtual Console so hopefully they get released this time around, although with the different releases and such I have a hard time seeing it. The fun thing is that with this game and Castlevania: Rondo of Blood I really start to see the TG-16 in a very good light, although that could just be I'm only touching the best of the consoles library.

Metal Slug Comeback

Oh, a month since the latest update? And a new year at that? Golly, that went fast. At the moment my home is a bit of a renovation site since we found a water leak that pumped water below the kitchen floor... for maybe two years. So a good start for the new year isn't? What happy things should we talk about then?

Before Christmas I went on a Virtual Console spree and got games I had heard of, but never seen or played. Let us begin discussing the METAL SLUG-series, especially the first four games and the remake of MS 2. HOLY F***ING GOD!!! What an awesome series! You take control of one out of two or four characters as you mow down rebels threatening the world peace, sometimes even jumping in tanks, planes, helicopters, submarines or other machines to stop the evil General (who I forgotten the name of). The graphics are amazing for sprites and the music makes the blood pump. These games are the 80's and 90's action movies distilled to 1-2 hour gameplay. At certain points you can get turned to a big blob, a zombie or a mummy that can be really annoying, especially as you loose your machine gun or rocket launcher while in that form and if you don't find medicine quick enough you will probably die before the effect wears of, almost forgot, ONE HIT KILLS.

One of the few games I felt that the more I played, the better I got, even going so far surviving the first stages without using a continue or the like... compared to the first time when I used up all credits to reach the first boss and then die. Personally MS 2 (the original) is my favorite and that is due to the slowdowns which everyone else hates and would prefer the remake MS X. Best scene is the final stage when you jump across ice cold water, jump over sandbags with enemy soldiers covering behind them while you fire machine gun and then the twirling bridge appears. The slow downs hit with all enemies, projectiles and rockets on screen, but it feel like a slow motion action scene. It's AWESOME! And the music rocks.

Explosions for everyone and a toast to everyone and a wish that 2014 will be a good year to look back to!

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

Last Sunday me and my family watched the second part of The Hobbit at the cinemas. I liked it, music still great,setting and actors as well. Can't really complain and the changes from the book and other material I have no real problem with (compared to the army of the dead in Return of the King who just rubs me the wrong way over time). Missed certain things like the introduction of the dwarves to Beorn the skin changer, instead we got an action scene, maybe they put it in the extended edition. The elf Tauriel didn't bother me either nor the dwarves who stayed in Lake Town since it helps distinguish them and help flesh out the character of Bard who seemed thrown in the last minute in the book (if my memory don't deceive me that is). The biggest thing that annoyed me though was the ending and 

*spoiler* 

that it ends so abruptly without killing Smaug show that it was meant for two movies in the beginning and they made three of it. It also makes me a bit worried since it feels like that last movie will be packed with the death of Smaug, the defeat of the Necromancer and the battle of five armies. Not even counting the death of Thorin, Fili and Kili (if they stick to the book that is, the animated version killed of even more main dwarves). 

*Spoilers end*

Overall I enjoyed it, but it feels bad that I have to wait another year for the conclusion. Maybe have to watch the Robocop remake in the meantime, sadly the biggest fear I have when I saw the commercial at the theater was that there wasn't a hint about any music and especially not the original main theme. I'm really gonna miss it.

Life Force

A couple of weeks ago I got my hand on my families old NES 8-bit system and a couple of old games. Didn't work since it hasn't been cleaned... ever and we got it in early 1990's. So I began by cleaning the systems and the games and I got them to work, both those who had worked since day one and even some import games that had problems to work and my dad blamed those games for the future trouble. One of those games was Life Force or Salamander. It's a scrolling shooter where you pilot the Vic Viper and if you have a friend (or a working second controller) the Lord British (or Road British as my manual say). Your planet is threatened by the galactic monster Zelos who plans to devour it so you set out in your ship in a suicide mission to enter the monster and destroy it's heart. So this was also the first time I succeeded and won the game. I flied threw the six stages and won losing probably around 100 lives (using the Konami code for 30 extra lives certainly helped).

What makes this game special compared to all other shooters? Well, two-player mode and the awesome music. Lets begin with stage 1:

Pumping you up for a space adventure, traveling through attacking creatures, teeth and appearing walls (making multiple playthroughs a necessity knowing if you should stay in front or at the back of the screen due to the dangerous environment who appears out of nowhere). That is until you hit a wall with some strange outgrowth. The screen stops scrolling and the wall dissipates and something looking like a brain pops out, The music changes and it is boss battle time:

Most awesome boss music at the moment as you dodge the enemy fire and tentacles or whatever trying to hit the core. Made much easier if you are fully upgraded which just for the first boss is one loop around him and then continuous fire on his eye for 5 seconds. BOOM!!! And then onward. The saddest thing about this game is that it is on the Virtual console... in Japan and the US, not Europe. I feel slightly cheated by that fact. Maybe it will show up on the Wii U VC or the 3DS eshop... maybe even the TG-16 with CD quality soundtrack... although that will lose some of the nostalgic feeling.