Captain Kwadro's Ship

Super Hiro? Yatta!

captainkwadro — Tue, 17 Oct 2006 01:31:29 +0000

Now, as you may have been able to assume, I don’t watch too much American TV these days. However, one show that has particularly captured my attention is Heroes on NBC. The show is only four episodes in and already I have seen some immense head-fuckery. I don’t want to spoil too much, but I’ll say this: People die, and it ain’t ever exactly a smooth voyage to the other side.

I want to try to summarize the basic concept, but this shit is all over the place. Well, I’ll try my best: People all over the world gain amazing supernatural abilities, a la X-Men. Also much like X-Men, the powers seem to be genetically linked. A young scientist is continuing the research on these people that his father left behind when he died. Also, the same people who killed his dad are trying to knock him off. The main charm of the series isn’t in this concept, but how we see all the different people and side-stories come together.

There’s a woman escaping from her criminal husband with their son (The reflection of her in the mirror killifies people in rather unsavory ways), a hot cheerleader (She can recover from just about anything, even a snapped neck or lost organs. On a sidenote, she’s played by the English VA of Kairi from Kingdom Hearts), an eccentric Japanese salaryman (He can freeze and move forward and backward through time), a total jackass politician, and his brother (Both can fly). There are some others, but I won’t go into those right now.

Anyway, this is a show that begs to be seen. I’m looking forward to seeing the whole thing unfold.

Kanon (2006) Ep. 1-2

captainkwadro — Tue, 17 Oct 2006 01:02:48 +0000

This, for me, is the big show of the season. The original anime adaptation of Kanon is what got me into the ren’ai genre. Then I saw Air and was swept away by it. It left me with an odd thought, though. I obviously preferred the Air anime to the Kanon anime, but part of me preferred Kanon in terms of concept. Air’s anime happened to be better executed. It made me wonder how awesome an adaptation of Kanon done by Kyoto Animation would be. Well, ladies and gentlemen, the awesomeness has come. Two episodes have aired and I’m rather impressed. I’ve always liked the way that anime based on Key games can fit so much content into their time slots, and that definitely hasn’t been lost here.

Now, to the casual observer, it may not seem like anything terribly outstanding, but just hang in there until the end. Kanon has some majorly heavy shit to deliver. And if you’re a Haruhi fan bitching about it being cut short because of Kanon, my advice: Get off the fuckin’ cross and watch some damn Kanon. Uguu~~.

Death Note Ep. 1-2

captainkwadro — Tue, 17 Oct 2006 00:50:27 +0000

Death Note is one of two series I’m paying particular attention to this season. I read probably the first five or six volumes of the manga, and have to say it’s one of the most interesting ones I’ve read. The idea of an intellectual battle between two people who know nothing about each other is rather entertaining to me. So far, the anime seems to be following the manga pretty much to the letter, while also bringing its own entertaining aspects to the table. An example of this can be seen in the first episode, during a montage of Light casting his judgment. Also, though I haven’t heard too much of this (Ungarbled, anyway), Kappei Yamaguchi seems to play L pretty well. I look forward to seeing how they present the rest of this unseen showdown.

Metal Gear Solid

captainkwadro — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 03:39:51 +0000

Well, finally got my hands on the original PS1 version of Metal Gear Solid (Huge props to Sushi of http://ookokuunmei.wordpress.com/, who is far more generous than any one person ought to be. Somehow, he found what is probably the last copy of this game in a relatively decent condition). I kind of wish I had played this before The Twin Snakes, since I now find myself drawing comparisons between the two rather than appreciating the game on its own. I can’t imagine how awesome this must have been to those who played it back in 1999, but I’ve been spoiled by the later games. I like my first-person shooting, Caution phases, tranq guns, and CQC. Don’t get me wrong, though: I still think this game is absolutely awesome, I’m just so used to the tweaks that have become series conventions that it’s difficult to part with them. That aside, when talking about games that pushed the PlayStation 1 to its limits, this one definitely has to come up. At that point, I don’t think that quality and consistency of voice acting and cinematic scenes had been done before.

One thing I always did love about The Twin Snakes, now that I think about it:
“Whaaaaat?! My HAND!!”

Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence

captainkwadro — Thu, 31 Aug 2006 19:48:10 +0000

Wow, it’s been a damn long time since I’ve updated. Well, I guess I’ve had a lot going on, and there was a lot I wanted to do with this blog that I was kind of overwhelmed with.

Anyway, after reviewing Metal Gears 1 and 2, I figured I should review another game. Particularly my favourite in the series, MGS3. However, throughhim already did it better: http://zettaizero.wordpress.com/2006/08/31/if-you-want-to-blame-someone/

Just about everything said there is true. I’d like to add, also, that the ending actually did make me tear up a bit. Okay, a lot. Aside from that, though, once you get Stealth Camo, Infinity Facepaint, and Spirit Camo, there’s a type of GTA-esque fun that can be had with the game. Allow me to list some things I’ve done in this mode, just for the sake of being a total asshole:

-Shot out both a guard’s knees and elbows, leaving him helpless and bleeding.
-Stuck TNT on a scientist’s ass, then waited for him to walk over to the other scientists and blew the whole group straight to hell.
-Straight in the junk with an RPG. ‘Nuff said.
-Knocked guards out and drowned them in the water.
-Knocked conscious guards into the water to drown.
-Threw a guard against an electric fence.
-Stuck TNT on a guard’s ass, then threw him against the fence, then detonated the TNT as he hit the ground, which propelled him against the fence once again.

And then there’s plain old throat-slitting and CQC, which is always fun, but I will continue to think up new little tricks to spice up my torture experience. With MGS3, who can say when I’ll run out of ideas?

The Fish-master

captainkwadro — Wed, 16 Aug 2006 05:30:56 +0000

http://www.youtube.com/v/gg5_mlQOsUQ

Thanks to KT for pointing this out to me.

That cunning-ass soap…

Update on the World Rocking Crisis

captainkwadro — Sun, 13 Aug 2006 04:50:15 +0000

Actor Alec Baldwin was recently interviewed on the crisis by the host of the Freaking Late As Hell Night Show. His response to the situation was this:
“George Bush is a dick and Captain Kwadro should drive a hybrid car.”
When told that I don’t drive, he gave me his full support.

When Matt Damon was asked about the same subject, he gave this deep and insightful remark:
“Matt Damon!”
A recent poll revealed that everyone who heard these words was deeply moved. It is unknown whether this will be a factor in the solution to the situation, though let’s face it: It will.

An interesting note…

captainkwadro — Sun, 13 Aug 2006 04:14:38 +0000

In recent studies, it has been discovered that I “rock the house”. Some religious groups have protested this, but nobody cared about what they had to say. Scientists speculate that it is only a matter of time until I end up rocking the world. This will cause immense property damage, especially in southern Asia. The UN has offered to assist any who are harmed by said rocking of the world, but they were ignored because the world community had better things to do, such as that game of Halo they had going. Updates on this will be posted as they are revealed.

Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake

captainkwadro — Sun, 13 Aug 2006 04:06:01 +0000

This was truly the beginning of the franchise, in my opinion. It improved upon absolutely every aspect introduced in the first game. The gameplay was more refined, the boss fights were more interesting, and on top of all that, the story was intricate and well-written. I would say the story was good for it’s time, but hell, it beats the pants off of many more recent games. It’s like there was some sort of switch in Kojima that went on between Metal Gear and MG2. For all that Outer Heaven is referenced throughout the rest of the games, I really think the Zanzibar Land mission was when Snake was truly exposed to cold, harsh reality. Unfortunately, to my knowledge, not many have played it. Hopefully MGS3: Subsistence has changed that or will in the future.

Metal Gear Oldschool

captainkwadro — Sun, 13 Aug 2006 04:05:38 +0000

So, I found myself replaying through the very first Metal Gear game the other day, and something occurred to me: This is my least favourite game in the entire series. I know I’ll get bitched at and told to respect the series’ roots and whatnot, but think about it: You’ve just gotten maybe half the items in the game. You head for your next destination, but all of a sudden, “!”: A guard spots you, and soon the entire population of Outer Heaven is on your ass. Next thing you know, you’re dead. Continue? Well, that puts you way the hell back near the last elevator you used, which feels like it was ages ago. Now, instead of having all the wonderful items you’ve acquired since that point, you have exactly what you had at that elevator: Jack-crap. Now, I’ve gotta say it is a fun game, especially for its time, but it just doesn’t meet up to the standard that Kojima’s other games have set. It’s amazing the jump in quality between this and Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake. Unfortunately, if this was the first one I played, I probably couldn’t have gotten into the series.