Tork's September Challenge!

Welcome to Rimmi’s Tork Challenge where I challenge Tork to watch YouTube videos and write about them. Tork will be viewing obscure cartoon intros and then doing the following:

1. Tell us if he’s ever seen this cartoon before, if he would like to or if he’s too afraid to ever see the likes of this cartoon ever again.

2. Include screengrabs of things that stand out to him.

3. If he chooses, he may discuss any of the good, bad, weird, stupid, racist, commie, pot induced, sexy, scary, nightmarish concepts of the cartoon theme song or the cartoon itself. Actually, anything he decides to discuss will be accepted as long as it makes me laugh.

4. For extra credit he may choose to look up sites about the cartoon or watch an entire episode of the cartoon (if it’s available on YouTube or anywhere else) if he chooses to. And if Tork feels like over achieving he may film himself acting out a scene from the cartoon, doing an interpretive dance to the song or write a poem based on how he feels. It’s up to him. (I’m hoping for a 9:15 out of all this, is what I’m saying.)

Here are the first five:

1. The Amazing Chan and the Chan Clan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9imYDA8r6k

2. Gravedale High
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGhZegXEj3U&feature=related

3. UBOS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NPd7JJdQQg

4. Galaxy High
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2nZT61MpRo

5. Liberty’s Kids
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CQKj53jFCs

Finish these at your convenience but I hope we can see at least 15 reviews by the end of the month.

Robot Master Saturday #8

Today's drawing is for Air Man. Capcom actually wrote a mini-strategy guide for his level in the MM2 instruction booklet, so he's not a bad pick for beginners. Let's take a look at him.

Air Man is kind of goofy with a fan where his mouth down to his stomach should be. Let's see what I did.



Not a great picture, but maybe one of my less embarrassing ones. I like how he looks a bit like Strong Mad with his lack of neck. Also, his mouth sorta forms a horrifying circular monster mouth, but only if you look at it a certain way. I guess we don't have much material this week.

Parodius: Level 4

Between levels again. It's just me and my little pink penguin buddy flying through space together.


Ah. Time for the traditional beginning of the level round of heads and chickens and hypodermic needles and stuff.


This time we get somebody new, the freaky naked pig Cupid thing! If you don't kill him quick he circles around behind you to shoot you more and you'll probably see his buttcheeks.


The actual level is fashioned like feudal Japan, what with the cherry trees and huts and sumo wrestlers and penguins and things.

The music is... Ever seen a variety show act with a dude who was like spinning plates on sticks and stuff? It's the music they probably played with that. The plate spinning music. It fits here. (All the music fits in these games.)


There are volcanoes and they hang from the clouds. Do not fly into them.

Even when they pair up on you.

There is a sharp spike in difficulty starting right about here.

Trees! And bees! Witness the first of about a million deaths on this level. I didn't snapshot every one, for your convenience. See how that bottom tree's roots look different than the upside-down trees roots? It's because it's uprooted itself and is running along the bottom of the screen. Stupid jerky cherry tree!


Oh, good. Things are starting to mellow out a little. Surely this is a good sign for the rest of the level.


Arrrrgh!!! Angry volcanoes! And eggplants!!!
Just be calm... Avoid the volcanoes... continue dropping little pink whales on the floor...

AAAARRRGHHH!!! More eggplants!!!


And even more eggplants!!!!! (I didn't die here. I don't know how that happened.)


Finally that's over. I've never liked eggplant.


Meet the boss!


Uh... hi, Boss.


I didn't get a shot of it because I was attempting not to die, but when he stomps the ground a bunch of random garbage falls on you from above. It's not a big deal to dodge. Just shoot him a lot.


Oh, yeah, Boss, you know you like it.

Level 4 ends here, lamely, as do I.

Did I say week?

Real life is starting to interfere with the blog, so I'm probably not going to post anything till September. Sorry about that. I will write a CT review when I get to it.

Checklist for this week

Here's what I hope to do before this week is over.


Finish watching the CT episode of Wasp Woman and review it.
Write about Delaware in a post I meant to do last year in May.
Watch the second episode of Incognito Cinema Warrior XP and give my thoughts.
Give more games to Lita so she can finish the August challenge.
Attend this marathon and chip in a few bucks for charity.
Work on my other blog, or delete it.



Sounds like a plan to me.

This Week In Entertainment (8/26/08)

My Pick of the Week is the third volume of Three Stooges shorts. This set takes us into the forties. Trivia: The Three Stooges were the first to mock Hitler in a time where the Hayes Codes forced movies to be politically neutral.


In theaters this week we have Disaster Movie, the latest in the line of "____ Movie" movies. Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer are in jail somewhere, right? Right?


On DVD is the latest Little Mermaid movie, which looks to be a prequel. Remember, if your series starts to suck, go backwards!

I'm not sure if this movie is any good, but it's a modern puppet version of Dante's Inferno.

Here is both animated Discworld movies in one set. I think Wyrd Sisters is the better movie, even if I can't understand what Granny says.


In books (Yes, I read books. Once in a while) we have a collection of essays about the Discworld. May be a fun read before the paperback version of Making Money comes out.

On the Wii we have Mario Sluggers, a sequel to the GameCube baseball game. I don't know if this allows you to swing a bat like Wii Sports, but it darn well should.


For the DS we have PictoImage, where you have to guess what a picture is while it's being drawn. Reminds me of Anticipation.

Finally, also on the DS is the latest Harvest Moon game. This time you farm on an island.

Robot Master Saturday #7

Here's Mega Man standing next to his best buddy, Metal Man. When these two aren't hanging around, Metal Man throws saw blades at Mega Man. That thing on his forehead is not a sign that he's a doctor.

Here's my picture, and remember that my Mega Man 2 bosses were probably drawn first.



Of all my bad Mega Man drawings, this one stands out. I was unfortunate to try to trace a drawing where Metal Man's arm crosses his leg, and it looks terrible. His right arm is goofy as heck and his left arm is attached by a string.

I love how weird his legs and crotch looks. He's trying to dodge his own metal blade.

If anyone wants to know what O2 and O3 means, it refers to what weapon worked best against his MM2 appearance and his MM3 appearance. I think the O is a reference to the shape of Mega Man's regular shot. I don't know why I thought that was a good idea. The exclamation poin means he was my fourth favorite robot of the game and the pound sign shows that I always took him on as the sixth robot.

Video Game #21: Zany Golf

Tork gave me a choice this time. He said I could either play a flight sim (SNORE) or a golf game. Huh. Zany Golf.

It better be pretty damn zany.



Can you feel the zaniness already? Look at those colors! Look at that font! Will Harvey is busting out and hanging loose and it is ZANY!


When I saw this I thought, ok, this looks kind of like Mini Putt. It could be ok.

Well, yes and no.

The control scheme is similar to Mini-Putt in that you click on the ball and drag away from where you want it to go to achieve a slingshot effect. It doesn't work half as well with a controller as it does with a mouse, but it's ok. I don't know how they could have made it better for a console.

The thing is, with Mini-Putt you can see the whole green in one screen. With this thing the hole you're playing doesn't come close to fitting the screen, so you have to scroll around a lot to figure out where you're going. This makes it really hard to line up shots!

It took a shot or two to figure out where I was supposed to shoot the ball. Turns out you can't just swat it over the edge there. You have to go up this ramp thingie and it'll come out either the barn on the left or the windmill on the right depending on how you did.

There's the hole. My ball is in it.

Sorry about the crapulence of these screengrabs. I defy you to get interesting screengrabs of this game.

Um... Ok?

My ball is kind of hidden behind the hamburger. Where is the hole?

Oh. There it is. You have to tap the A button to levitate the burger and then without stopping levitating the burger you have to hold down the A button to shoot the ball. This is good design here, folks. Couldn't they make the "bounce the burger" button be one of the two unused buttons right next to A?

Yay.

This is the next hole. There were some walls it wanted me to bounce off of or something... looks like I'm out of strokes...


Just because I ran out of strokes? You can't just add a penalty stroke to my score? This is Asshole Mini Golf.


There's my scorecard. They don't even give you 18 holes. If this were a real mini golf course I wouldn't visit it with its crappy rules and lack of holes.

I don't know if my experience with Mini Putt made Zany Golf better or worse for me. I'll tell you one thing: Mini Putt is by far the superior mini golf game. Of course, it has the advantage of having come out way later and of being web based. Still, that's my verdict. You guys will have to find a way to live with it.

Video Game #20: Metal Gear

It's the game that launched a thousand fanboys! Today I look at...


I don't know who these guys are or if it's good or bad that they're parachuting out here.

Here is Solid Snake
He is standing in the woods
He has a dumb name.

We're all the way out in the middle of nowhere and we've only been here for 3 seconds and already the damn cell phone is ringing. Let's see what's up.




"Grey Fox"? Is that Raiden?



Yeah. I'm totally going to remember that.

Snake's cell phone makes a really annoying noise when the call ends. I don't know who thought that would be a good idea. Let's go.

So here is a guy. Is he friend or foe? This is a game so I'll assume foe. Too bad all Snake can do is this really crappy punch.

SO AM I!! LET'S TAKE A NAP BUDDY!!

AS DO I!!

It took a while before I figured out it's the dude in grey shouting this out and not Snake. I go attack the guy with my wimpy punches and he chases me to the bottom of the screen.

Where I am mauled by dogs.

It's about this time I remember that Solid Snake is supposed to be a master of stealth and that the Metal Gear games are stealth games. With that in mind, I have Snake patiently wait for the dude to FEEL ASLEEP and then sneak out the bottom of the screen.

Time to sneak around the doggies...

AHHHH!!! Curse their keen sense of smell!!!

AHHHHH!!!

So the way I just went turned out to be the wrong way. It led to that path on the left which in turn led to a dead end. I sneak back around and end up here, where Snake punches a sleeping dog to death. Our hero, ladies and gentlemen!

These guys turned out to be easier to sneak around than I thought they would be. They were not smart.

Ok... Now to use stealth to stealthily sneak around these other dudes...

AAAAAGGHHHH!!! NO!!! THE STABBING! THE STABBING!!! IT HURTS!!!

I guess that's it for Metal Gear. I'm no good at stealth.