Clash of the Epic Battles: Trinity War vs. The Ultimates

DC is finally pulling out their epic event after having two straight years of smaller story arcs. This is right in conjunction with the Ultimates world ending Infinity Gauntlet story arc. Never has two world ending events been compared and contrasted.

The Stories:
Trinity War- The Justice League, JLA and Justice League Dark are searching for the Pandora's box. This tool is believed to have manipulated Superman into killing Doctor Light. After countless civil battles between groups, they finally discover that Earth 3 is behind this and the evil altar egos of the Justice League step into Earth 1.

Gauntlet War- The Ultimates are trying to track down the Infinity Gems when Krang, a mysterious alien visitor, teams up with the Hulk and Mr. Fantastic to steal them. They use the gems to manipulate the world into their own utopia. The Ultimates are defeated and Krang reveals herself as Sue Richards from the future.

Story Magnitude:
The Ultimates story arc focuses on the destruction of the team and the helplessness of the good guys on page one. The minute we see Hulk and Reed with the gauntlets we know the team is screwed. It becomes an epic struggle to see the team survive. Then the death of Tony Stark happens and see the writers throwing more calamity in the world ending scenario.

The JL story is more of a journey based narrative. First, all teams go to Kahndaq. Then they have to solve a mystery of why Superman killed Doctor Light. All the while, the team is getting into fisticuffs over problem management. The DC world does not get into deep trouble until Earth 3 opens up and spits out the evil Justice League. The 6 story arc becomes a buffet of heroes arguing and random clues thrown at you.

More World Threatening: The Ultimates

Character Usage:
The JL story proudly throws tons of combatants and heroes at you from page one. Geoff Johns was tasked with showing off DC's bounty of new and old faces. This ensures that very few people get more than 2 pages of development. We see Shazam get excited about punching Superman, Cat Woman seduce a magical house, The Question talk about questions and Wonder Woman strangle tons of guys in her ambitious quest. Mostly the bad guys get the real star treatment.

The Ultimates shine a spotlight on Reed, Hulk, Quicksilver and Krang. These characters are deliciously psychotic and destitute of humanity. At the same time they think they are the good guys. The story arc never really explains why The Ultimates need to save the world from them. The Ultimates take a back seat as the villains are the real seasoning on this story. Tony Stark gets the most panel time, which is pretty impressive because he is dead.

Best Characters: The Ultimates

Life Altering Events:
The Ultimates are screwed from page 3 of issue 1. They see the Hulk destroy their entire team and Reed Richards is a step ahead. Marvel exclusively uses the Ultimate stories to blow up stuff and kill off characters. Curious to see how Tony Stark will function as a sentient computer program.

Not much changes in the DC world. Doctor Light dies and we are reintroduced to the evil JL of Earth 3. The premise of this mega event was to put the Justice League against each other. It is a neat idea, but nothing really happens that is ground breaking.

Riskier Story: The Ultimates

Comic Review: Ultimates Disassembled! (Spoilers)

Artist: Giandomenico
Writer: Fialkov

There are two kinds of master mind evil plans. There are the bad guys that just want to heckle the good guy and cause a lot of damage. Then there are the bad guys that think they are saving the world, but are doing it through endless destruction and murder. Reed Richards and The Hulk are two such villains. Reed Richards is a psycho mastermind that thinks the destruction of the Ultimates and the collection of the Infinity Gems will save the Earth from some far off destruction. All this is orchestrated by Kang, a mysterious alien creature that is pulling the strings.


Overkill!

Fialkov proves that weird, dark and twisted makes a much better story. That is why Reed Richards is the kind of social path that you absolutely love to hate (even though he is stopping world hunger). Then you have his guard dog, The Hulk, who is an absolute threat. I love a good story where the forces of evil are unstoppable. Within the first few issues, Captain America is taken out of commission, Thor gets his head handed to him, Tony Stark is lobotomized and killed and Sue Storm is given enough psychological trauma from an abusive ex-husband to warrant years of counseling. The build up of these issues is making huge ripples in the Ultimate universe. This is the same universe that killed Green Goblin, made Cap President and made mutants an invention in Canada. Fialkov is adding to the misery of this dark world and it will take a miracle to resolve the evil powers of Reed Richard's takeover.



Just a little off the top.



Score: 8/10

Pencils: * *

Story: * *

Suspense: * *

Color: *

Characters: *


Final: A keeper of a story...

The Ultimates: Reconstruction 20-24

Perhaps the most underrated series of Marvel is The Ultimates universe.  This is the alternate universe that killed off the Hulk, made Reed Richards a bad guy and discovered that mutants were created in a lab in Canada.

With such great and twisty plot reveals like that one would be excited to dive into the Ultimates and peer at the Marvel Universe that no one really knows.

In the Reconstruction era, America has been devastated and only President Captain America can put the pieces back together to help the nation unite.  It was just discovered that Nick Fury is an undercover agent for Hydra and the governor of Florida is assembling a dooms day weapon.

Marvel has one rule for the Ultimates Universe and it has been followed quite strictly.  The universe has to appear adult, realistic and dark.  It is written like a Norman Rockwell painting.

I was excited to dive into my first Ultimates story arc and get sucked into the world of the "Other Marvel."  This is a world where men acted like men and teenage drama was replaced with super hero adults dealing with real world problems.

What I got instead was a pretty bread and butter story.  The struggle between Hawkeye and Fury was boring and did not lead to any excitement.  The unleashing of the evil Florida Governor led to some other hit and miss stories.  They introduced Power Man, Vision, Tigra, Black Knight and Quake into the universe, giving a potential spin off series with the West Coast Ultimates, but that side story got unresolved.  The Writer, Sam Humphries, felt like his story was missing something exciting and instead of adding a 5 headed demon, he kept it low tech.  Even the resolution of the world altering problem seemed corny and out of place--something even the Ghostbusters wouldn't stoop to.

The Penciling in issue #20 is by far the most budget art for any of the characters.  Captain America looked like he was laminated and his head was too lopsided for his mask.  The art gradually increased over the series and the inclusion of new villains made it interesting, but ultimately this universe had a dry run with uninspiration.

The whole thing tasted like oatmeal, with seldom brown sugar moments.

Luckily, Ultimates: Disassembled brings back Reed Richards as the main villain.

Upside: This universe's Tigra looks less like a prostitute

Android Game Central: The MOGA Controller

It was July 23rd when I got the package from Amazon.com. I got a refurbished package from a dealer. I was excited that my phone of potential could actually play Gameloft games like a portable console.

 The controller was a sleek plastic case with a hard rubber back. It was small and the hands would be getting cramped easily, but the mini design played to its portability. Two mini discs made up the thumb sticks and the face buttons made a plastic click when pressed. Two AAA batteries were inserted into the back of the set and the Bluetooth was turned on. The controller synced up immediately with the Galaxy S II. It looked like the controller was going to work out quite well. After 3 hours I had played NOVA 3, Modern Combat 4, Dead Trigger, Pac-Man and Dungeon Hunter 4 like a normal human being would play a PSP.

 I felt like I had accomplished something. The game library has over 60 games and growing. It is one of the easiest libraries to access with a controller without having to root the phone or do any special customizations. This all seemed to be going quite well.

 And then I tried again.
 I tried syncing with the Galaxy S II a second time within the next two days. The MOGA paired up with my phone immediately, but then lost the connection immediately. I tried pairing it multiple times and finally it stuck after a good five minutes. In the next week the MOGA was absolutely useless to Bluetooth scanners. It would not show up on the tablet, the Bluetooth had a horrible time syncing up and confirming a connection.
The most probable cause is the batteries dying. If 2 fresh AAA batteries promises 3 hours of gameplay than this controller has a major hassle. Even the 6 AA battery Game Gear had a longer lifespan. What was once a cheap and competent and alternative to a Sony PSP became the most difficult peripheral to manage.

 It is tools like this that make me believe the Android is not ready to be taken seriously as a game alternative.

Android Games That Don't Suck: Crazy Snowboard

Game: Crazy Snowboard
Publisher: Ezone

When a game is free on Android it means 1 of 2 things.  1) You can't win unless you shell out some major bucks or 2) It is just a spam bot waiting to destroy your system.  Sometimes, a game comes along that is neither of those things.  Crazy Snowboard is one of the few.

Crazy Snowboard is free, but you have to put up with some ads that pop up.  You can pay the 1.99 to get the ads off, but they were not that intrusive.

Then there is the next struggle with competent Android games. Since Crazy Snowboard is neither a tower defense game nor a card building RPG then it is assumed that it has bad physics and boring gameplay.  Crazy Snowboard manages to beat to those odds.

You have a career mode where you have different missions to accomplish like collecting coins, earning a certain amount of points or knocking over snow men.  But that is only half the objective.  You also need to score points and multipliers with tricks.  You score high enough and you gain stars (the official currency of casual gamers).  Stars help you get money which can buy new boards, boarders and moves.

It is fairly easy to pull off multiple combos and spins with a flick of the thumbs.  The game's move engine is setup similar to a console snowboard game.  But if you don't like touchscreens you can set up your MOGA controller to play the game.

Not bad for a free game.  If the filling landfills of uninspired tower defense/puzzle hybrids could take a cue from Ezone's game then it wouldn't be such a diamond in the rough search for quality.

15 Games That Need A Reboot

2013 is the Summer of game reboots.  We are seeing reboots of Duck Tales, Ninja Turtles and Killer Instinct.  These games give us hope that some of the more creative retro games will get their chance as well.  Here's 15 games that would make awesome reboots (but probably won't get it).

15.  Bloody Roar

Published: 1998
Publisher: Hudson
Reason:  This franchise lost most of its audience after the 4th sequel tanked hard.  It was an arcade fighter that lived off the mechanic that your fighter can transform into a vicious animal.  The idea behind the game is fundamentally sound, but it has been ruined by companies that could not compete with  Tekken or Virtua Fighter.


Re-envisioned:  This game could look beautiful in HD.  Maybe it would be better as a party fighter.


14. Maniac Mansion


Published: 1987
Publisher:  Lucasfilm
Reason: This game was genius in its heyday.  Being an adventure point-and-click with whacky blue alien humor and multiple endings, this game has a story that can charm even the pickiest gamer.

Re-Envisioned:  Add a few horror survival elements, keep the whacky story and make it a digital download.

13. Bart Vs. The  Space Mutants

Published: 1991
Publisher: Acclaim
Reason:  The Simpsons' first game was a bit obscure.  You played Bart Simpson who had to fight space mutants by getting rid of things colored red.  By all respects, it had nothing to do with the sitcom cartoon, but merely an action cash in for the younger boys who watched it (similar to every horrible game Family Guy releases).

Re-Envisioned: Today, the game would be considered hip and innovative.  Imagine an updated version of this game where you have to use modern puzzles to turn a town a different color.  It would be an indie masterpiece that belongs right next to the De Blob.

12. Desert Falcon

Published:1984
Publisher: Atari
Reason:  This was a flight shooter that put forth a good effort to be mission based.  Following in the tradition of Warhawk, Desert Falcon could have easily been the top war game of the Atari.

Re-Envisioned:  Add a stellar war story about desert warfare, update the missions and tack on a multiplayer component and you could have a flight arcade game that all the college kids are buying.

11.  Metal Storm

 Published: 1990
 Publisher: Irem
 Reason: Metal Storm still ranks as my favorite sci-fi Nintendo   game.  Why?  Because you are a huge war mech that uses gravity to solve puzzles and destroy your enemies.  Gravity manipulation is still a gameplay mechanic that many games are afraid to use.  Mechwarrior ain't got nothing on this.

Re-Envisioned:  Make it a 3rd person, over the shoulder combat game.  Add a post apocalyptic war zone with anime inspired weapons.  Keep the gravity puzzles and play mechanics to give the game a Half-Life appeal.

10. BlackThorne

Published: 1994
Publisher: Interplay

Reason: BlackThorne was the Patrick Swayze of video game bad dudes.  He carried around a shotgun in the coal mines of a mutant infested area and blew away anything that moved.  This game was also famous for having the first duck and cover system for battle.  BlackThorne would be a welcome member of The Gears of War band and probably kick the living junk out of Duke Nukem.

Re-Envisioned:  Either 2D or 3D, keep the shotgun toting hero of the mines in the game and you will have a great throwback. 

9. Beyond Oasis

Published: 1994
Publisher:  Sega
Reason:  Style and comic book graphics put this game into a class that I truly believe had Zelda beaten.  Your hero, Ali, could combo with sword attacks, collect different spirits to fight and the boss battles were huge.  Carrying huge potential in Sega's golden age there is no reason why this game should have ended after the Sega Saturn.

Re-Envisioned:  All it really needs is an HD spitshine, a new story and a whole slew of dungeons and the game could fit in with any action role-playing game today.

8. Eternal Champions

Published: 1993
Publisher: Sega

Reason:  It is Mortal Kombat with a lot more class and style.  The only problem was that the game was too hard and moves were almost impossible to master.  This game was breakthrough because it had a gritty noir/sci fi design in its levels.  It also had fatalities that would have made 90's Nintendo cry.

Re-Envisioned:  If Killer Instinct can be rebooted then there is definitely room for this game.  Just make the difficulty and moves way easier.

7. Killing Time

Published:1995
Publisher: 3D0

Reason:  It might seem like a huge Doom clone, but Killing Time had 2 things going for it.  1) It had FMV story telling that gave it real characters. 2) It had one huge adventure level like Half-Life.  If the 3D0 was not so obscure and expensive, this could have been the Bioshock Infinite of the 90's.

Re-Envisioned:  An open world adventure FPS that involves 1920's weapons, ghosts and killer horrors?  I think there is room in today's market for that.

6. Geist

Published:  2005
Publisher: Nintendo

Reason:  I miss the Gamecube.  This was back when Nintendo was trusted by 3rd party companies and other companies wanted to try out new franchises.  You did not have to go to Halo to get a good shooter and you did not have to go to Final Fantasy to get a good RPG.  Geist was Nintendo's personal sci-fi shooter.  It was your average point and shoot, but the kicker was that you had to inhabit the body of npc's in order to solve puzzles and beat bosses.  This game is the first shooter where puzzle solving was actually more fun than the shooting levels.  It wasn't a Halo killer, but it had potential to be its own trilogy.

Re-Envisioned:  This game could have been a success and today's better understanding of the FPS genre ensures that Nintendo would get it right.  Add some tight shooting mechanics, deeper warfare elements, keep the innovative puzzle layout and upgrade the multiplayer to today's standards.  It would at least be better than Blacklight: Tango Down.

5. Spider-Man: The Video Game:

Published: 1991
Publisher: Sega

Reason:  If you sat down some developers and gave them the mission of making the Spider-Man franchise character rich, graphically appealing and fun to play they would come out with this game.  You played as Black Cat, Namor, Hawk Eye or Spider-Man and performed beat'em up combos on thugs.  The second half of the game turned into a 2D shooter where your character had to jump from building to building shooting bad guys.  This game put the X-Men arcade game to shame.

Re-Envisioned:  Make it a 3D beat'em up with great voice acting from heroes.  Then add some of the most epic villains in the game.  Keep all the rest and you will have a way better game than Spider-Man: Friend or Foe.

4. Brutal: Paws of Fury

Published: 1994
Publisher: Gametek

Reason:  I still prefer to live in a world where this game got all the sequels that Street Fighter got.  You have some bad astronaut cartoon animals that have "don't mess with me" written all over their kung-fu.  Unfortunately, this game was made before developers understood how thumbs worked.  The moves were too hard to complete.  I don't see any scenario where making MMA type urban animals fight each other with Street Fighter moves is a bad idea.

Re-Envisioned:  Make an HD version of the game, tweak the gameplay for today's standards, add a few fighters, simplify the moves a ton and make it a $10 download for XBLA.  Sold!

3. The Immortal

Published: 1990
Publisher: Electronic Arts

Reason:  I was afraid of this game as a child because of the way the wizard cut open demon enemies.  Now I see this game as a Skyrim/Survival Horror hybrid.  You played an unnamed wizard who walks around a punishing dungeon, looking for goblins to chop open.

Re-Envisioned:  If you were to add a First Person view, add a dash of some skill building and customization, I could see the idea of playing a violent wizard in a dark dungeon as a highly playable game.

2. Power Move Pro Wrestling

Published:  1996
Publisher: Activision

Reason:  Before the WWE scared away all competition in wrestling games, there were some creative fiction wrestling games that were highly playable.  Power Move had horrible graphics, limited moves and your player never got up after they were knocked down...but the ambitious style and the faithfulness to pro wrestling lore made it a ton of fun to experience (as long as you were winning).  In 1996 most wrestling games were arcade beat'em ups, but Power Move was a full 3D adventure with real wrestling thematics.  It was too ahead of its time. 

Re-Envisioned:  If the game industry isn't petrified to make a non WWE wrestling game than I suggest making this game over from head to toe.  You could restart that rematch between Egyptian Conniption or Malibu Mike.

1.  Clayfighter

Published: 1993
Publisher: Interplay

Reason:  In 1993 there was a game made entirely out of clay (the cel-shading alternative).  It promised humor, killer moves, a talking snow man and a blob that could turn into a saw blade.  Even the intro to the game had a theme song.  There was never a game with so much humor and off-the-wall zaniness like Clayfighter.  Even though it was not well received on the N64, it definitely has value now that we have games that can handle humor and theatrics.

Re-Envisioned:  Keep it 2D, keep it funny and make it beautiful.  That is all you really need to do.

Man of Steel: Was Anyone Represented Right?

That is always the question that is brought up after a comic book gets adapted into a movie.  I thoroughly enjoyed the dark romp with the Man of Steel and the portrayal of him as a hero.  Did they represent the Superman world correctly?

Ma and Pa Kent- Kevin Costner (actor who played Robin Hood) and Diane Lane are the home skillet, conservative foster parents of Superman.  They teach him homespun knowledge, while making sure he gets a  proper education.  The love they show Clark is so pure and supportive, but still a bit afraid of his super powers.  I liked the contrast between Jor-El's wisdom of Superman's divinity and Pa Kent's wisdom of Clark's humanity.  They get a B +



Lois Lane-  In the comic book Lois Lane is the hard nosed, workaholic, forgets-she-is-a-woman-sometimes reporter who will chase down any lead for her own curiosity.  In this movie she has it for about 5 seconds.  Then she meets Clark and becomes the damsel in distress who uses every minute to ram her tongue down his throat.  This feels more like DC trying to have their own "Thor babe" like Natalie Portman who gets to feel up the character.  For the purpose of this movie she couldn't be her hard nosed self, always leading Clark Kent on.  In that case, the female leading role could have been Lana or even Gwen Stacy.  If Zach Snyder doesn't care about who the real Lois Lane is than why should we care who he is macking on.  Also, they removed his secret identity from her, taking away the dual relationship between the clutzy Kent and the bodacious Superman.  This gets a D -

Clark Kent-  He doesn't exist in this movie.  Who we do get is an emo Chris Hemsworth who becomes Superman.  This deserves an Incomplete

Superman-  Zach Snyder wanted to focus on the young and studly Superman who uses his powers like a human battering ram.  Everything about Superman to his authority grabbing demands to the cops  to the fact that he charges into buildings without prejudice represent a more modern version of himself.  This guy does not save cats from trees, he only gets into galactic level fights with other enemies who cannot get hurt.  Despite the very literal interpretation of Superman's brawn they did nail the comic book character quite well.        This gets an A

Jor-El-  When you have Russel Crowe (actor who played Robin Hood) in your movie then you probably shouldn't give him the guy who dies in the first ten minutes.  Even when he dies in the first ten minutes he is given almost more screen time than Kevin Costner (who dies in the next twenty minutes).  The solemn, wisdom prophet of Krypton is well portrayed.  His purpose was more to explain the back plot to those who needed some interpretation between the galactic ramming scenes (AKA fight scenes).   Jor-El gets a B + for stilling being in the movie after he died.

Perry White-  I get it DC.  You need a man of color to even out the all white staff.  Who better than Laurence Fishburne, a man who has never been the star of any movie.  There was a homeless man outside of the theater that looked more like Perry from the comics.  He gets a C +

Zod-  I keep wondering why I liked this movie.  It's probably because Superman finally got a universe sized bad guy who had the power to mess up the world.   Zod was flavorfully crazy and irrationally upset, which added color to the very quiet and stiff Superman.  His plan was to destroy everyone on Earth so that Kryptonians would not have to painfully adapt to Earth's sun (a process that takes maybe 5 minutes of slight pain).  Zach Snyder is a genius when it comes to brooding and gloomy atmospheres and the movie would not have made sense if Zod was not there to fill that gloominess.  Zod gets an A+