Thursday, December 2, 2004

3 Small Words
Tori guessed the last title reference correctly, so she earns herself a point. This is her first point on the scoreboard so far, but there are plenty of opportunities for other people to catch up and win this thing. Assuming, of course, that I continue posting on here. Life is busy, you know?

Current High Scores
JC Baggee 8 Points
Shinmaru: 3 Points
Mimmi, Arcadia,
Semjaza Azazel, Sara: 2 Points
Ben, Solo Tremaine,
Nerdsy, Anatema, James, Queen Asuka: 1 Point

---

Now accepting applications for 2005 dating season

Name:
Age:
Location:

1. Why do you want to be my Significant Other?

2. List three personal references who can vouch for you as being a competent Significant Other:

3. What qualities do you find attractive about me?

4. What qualities do you find attractive about yourself?

5. How, if ever, did we meet?

6. What is your best anecdote featuring me in either a starring or supporting role?

7. Have you ever been in love, and if so, how many times?

8. What is your best anecdote starring yourself in either a starring or supporting role?

9. What talents, skills or abilities do you think I would find interesting or helpful?

10. Your dream job?

11. Do you consider yourself an open person?

12. What do we do when we’re together? (G-Rated, please.)

13. What is a good secret you’ve kept from your Significant Other (or friends, family, etc.)?

14. What were your reasons behind keeping the secret?

15. What are your hobbies and areas of interest?

16. You have hobbies and interests, how are you going to include me in them?

17. What are your thoughts on drugs and alcohol?

18. What are my least attractive qualities?

19. How would you make me laugh?

20. What is the nicest thing you’ve ever done for another person?

21. What are your least attractive qualities?

22. What beliefs, or interests of mine would you have a hard time accepting?

23. What beliefs, or interests of your own would I have a hard time accepting?

24. How do you show affection?

25. How will you make me a better person?

26. How will I make you a better person?

Feel free to post this in your own blog-thing. It's a lot of fun.
Comments (10) | Permalink

Friday, November 12, 2004

“Gakuya Abazure” is indeed a reference to Kill Adam, the smash RPG that has taken the world by storm. It’s Japanese for something… if you want to know so badly you can check out the thread yourself. This latest post in Kill Adam was my own, and when I post it‘s always my goal to come up with something as good as the post that preceeded it. Unfortunately I‘ve had to follow Tony for the second time in a row, and he‘s a very tough act to follow. James loves to give me the tricky assignments, and hopefully I haven’t disappointed him too much.

What, There’s some sort of game going on here? Yeah, Jamesboo got the reference correctly and earns a point. This puts him on the scoreboard, good for him.

Current High Scores
JC Baggee 8 Points
Shinmaru: 3 Points
Mimmi, Arcadia,
Semjaza Azazel, Sara: 2 Points
Ben, Solo Tremaine,
Nerdsy, Anatema, James: 1 Point

---

Where have I been the past few weeks? Well, a very emotional Election Day (in more ways than one) I’ve been trying very hard to stay afloat with work and school. I’ve gone to a party or two, eaten a lot of ice cream and become smitten with a certain someone.

Me in an awesome Superman outfit during Halloween

Merry Christmas everyone! A little too early for Christmas, you think? I think so too, but my employer, the Walt Disney Company thinks otherwise. November 5th, minutes after they had removed the Halloween decorations an enormous amount of holiday cheer infiltrated the Disneyland Resort.

A 50 foot tall Christmas tree is in the entrance to the park, while similarily over-the-top ornaments have sprung up all over. Being in a somewhat isolated corner of the park, I had managed to avoid much of this last year. Sadly, this is not the case as Disneyland has purchased a whole new slew of decorations for the area I work in. Now walking to work a wonderful sign that reads: "Merry Critters and Happy Pooh Year!"

Awful, awful! I'm having a lot of difficulty tuning the new music they play very loudly over the speakers as well... I just don't know what if I'm going to make it by Christmas.

Is anyone else suffering from the same problems at their job?
Comments (14) | Permalink

Tuesday, November 2, 2004

!?!?!?!
What do you mean there's an election today? How come nobody told me anything about it?
Comments (17) | Permalink

Tuesday, October 26, 2004

Gakuya Abazure

The last title reference was a reference to the Disney Animated Feature “Pocahontas.” The soundtrack to that movie (like most Disney movies) is fantastic, and on a semi-related note it was the first CD I ever bought. I vividly remember watching the last episode of “Full House” and then immediately going to my local toy store to buy the CD. Heh. Good times.

Miss Arcadia got the reference correctly, and she earns a point. This brings the current scores up to…

Current High Scores
JC Baggee 8 Points
Shinmaru: 3 Points
Mimmi, Arcadia, Semjaza Azazel, Sara: 2 Points
Ben, Solo Tremaine,
Nerdsy, Anatema: 1 Point

---

1. So I haven’t posted in a bit, life seems to just throw a million things at me at once and quite honestly I should be doing homework instead of posting on ShyOtaku now. Oh well, I really like doing my psuedo-blog entries.

2. Behold the magic of the swami! It took me four tries to figure out his secret, because I’m dumb. I don’t like to post these sorts of thing, because they don’t provide any sort of real content.. but this was thoroughly entertaining to me, and I’m just in the right kind of mood for it.

3. One of the girls at work is throwing a Halloween party on Friday, and I’m trying very hard to think of a good costume this year. For those of you who don’t know, Halloween was the most awesome holiday ever until terrorists decided to attack America.

No more than four years ago it was considered perfectly acceptable and safe for young children to run around the neighborhood, knocking on strangers’ doors and demanding that they receive free candy and treats. I think last Halloween we got maybe five trick-or-treaters at the most. And it’s not because we live in an old neighborhood, either, we are a block away from an elementary school. If anyone would be swarmed by hordes of costumed children it would be our household. Oh well.

Anyone have any suggestions for costumes? I’m really drawing a blank here.
Comments (12) | Permalink

Wednesday, October 13, 2004

“Dot, Dot, Dot, Dash” is Morse code for the letter “v.” While Sara got that part of the reference correctly, she did not understand the full meaning behind it. During World War 2 the letter “v” was synonymous with victory over the Axis powers. In a lot of World War 2 cartoons at the time, and other propaganda films you’ll see the letter “v” pop up pretty often; usually in the form of Morse code. I just found a nice collection of World War 2 cartoons online, so that’s where this reference came from.

However, Sara did not guess the reference in a satisfactory way, so she does not earn a point. The scoreboard remains unchanged.

Current High Scores
JC Baggee 8 Points
Shinmaru: 3 Points
Mimmi, Semjaza Azazel, Sara: 2 Points
Ben, Solo Tremaine,
Nerdsy, Arcadia, Anatema: 1 Point

---

TN posted a fun little survey that he stole from someone else, so I thought it would be fun to include it on myOtaku. Some of it might be a little revealing, but if you aren’t going to answer these questions truthfully why bother answering them at all?

(x) I have been drunk
(x) I have kissed a member of the opposite sex
(x) I have kissed a member of the same sex
() I crashed a friend's car
() I have been to Japan
(x) I rode in a taxi
(x) I have been in love
(x) I've had sex
(x) I've had sex in public (What defines ‘public‘?)
() I've shoplifted
() I have been fired
() I have cut myself on purpose
(x) I have been in a fist fight
() I've had a 3-some
() I've snuck out of my parent's house
(x) I have been tied up
(x) I have been caught masturbating
() I have been arrested
(x) I've made out with a stranger
(x) I've stolen something from my job
() I've celebrated New Year's in Time Square
(x) I've gone on a blind date
(x) I've had a crush on a teacher
() I've celebrated Mardi-Gras in New Orleans
() I have been to Europe
(x) I've skipped school
(x) I've slept with a co-worker
() I have thrown up in a bar
() I have purposely set myself on fire
(x) I have eaten sushi
(x) I have been snowboarding
() I have been snow skiing
(x) I have made a snow angel
() I have been happy with myself
(x) I have met a movie star
() I had sex in a pool
(x) I went to a prom
() I've bungee jumped
() I have been to a pop concert
() I have dated someone for over a year
() I sold naked pictures of myself
(x) I have been in a car accident
(x) I have slept in the nude
(x) I've eaten cheesecake
(x) I've had jury duty
(x) I've hated someone without knowing them
() I have been to Maine
(x) I've shot a real gun
(x) I've ran around with my trousers around my ankles
(x) I've had sex with someone within a week of meeting them
() I've done ecstasy
() I've gotten my ass kicked
() I've been caught smoking
() I've milked a cow
(x) I've got in a verbal fight with a teacher
() I've cheated on someone
() Lied one time in this survey
() Lied more then once in this survey
() Threw a party at a friends house when they were gone
() Partied every weekend for the last month
() Sniffed markers to get high
(x) Slept for more than 15 hours at a time
() Petted a live tiger
() Kissed someone in the snow
() Found a four leaf clover
(x) Gave your parents the finger behind a closed door
() Gotten drunk in Germany
(x) Cried in public
() Cried in public in the last 5 days
(x) Been hit on by a member of the same sex
() Been asked to perform oral sex by a complete stranger
(x) Have unknowingly been the other man/woman in a relationship
() Have knowingly been the other man/woman in a relationship
(x) Hates the SuicideGirls.com banner
Comments (12) | Permalink

Tuesday, October 12, 2004

Dot, Dot, Dot, Dash

The top hat, the race car, and the thimble are all pieces from the board game “Monopoly.” Sara was the first to guess the reference correctly, and so she earns another point. This make her tied for third place with the likes of Mimmi and Semjazazaza. Also it’s important to note that Mr. Baggee guessed another obscure question correctly. This brings him a whopping’ three points, and makes it very difficult for the other players to catch up with him, heh. We’ll see if his winning spree continues as I try to make my title references more and more diverse.

Thanks to everyone who replied to the last post, I didn’t think I was going to receive as many responses as I did… so this definitely surprised me. Hopefully I didn’t offend anyone, heh.

Sage: hero is not dead as far as I know, but you’d have to ask Ben about it to know for sure. I assigned him his issue well over a month ago, Mm.

Current High Scores
JC Baggee 8 Points
Shinmaru: 3 Points
Mimmi, Semjaza Azazel, Sara: 2 Points
Ben, Solo Tremaine,
Nerdsy, Arcadia, Anatema: 1 Point

---

My little brother got a job earlier this week, and that fact kind of irks me. Now don’t get me wrong, I think young people should get part-time jobs (especially in this economy,) they teach you a lot about how the world works, they teach you a lot about people, and they give you a lot of freedom and disposable income to boot.

But this is my brother -- my little brother. He’s only 16... my parents can’t possibly expect him to juggle the responsibilities of working five days a week and keeping a decent grade point average in school. Heck, it’s something I’m struggling with and I’m much more responsible than he is. At least, I always thought I was much more responsible than he was.

I’m kind of taken aback by my little brother, and the seemingly intelligent choices he is making with his life. I don’t support his decision to drive around a Corvette (a death trap, in my opinion) nor his desire to test out of high school a year early… but darn, he already seems to know who he is, and what he wants out of life. Maybe a lot of that has to do with the fact that he has a closer relationship to my parents than I do (for a variety or reasons) or the fact that he has had a successful relationship with his girlfriend for the past nine months. [Everyone in the family has noticed a big change in his behavior since then; and so I wonder if perhaps my own maturity is being stunted by the fact that I do not have a significant other. Anyway…]

Being two years older, and “the smart one” I guess my little brother always felt like he needed to catch up with me. He just barely got his driver’s license, and now works five days a week at a local seafood restaurant. Both of those are things I couldn’t even fathom to do at that age -- all I have to show for my Junior year is a mediocre school paper and a few dozen posts in my old “Angry Student” blog.

I’m not necessarily jealous of my brother and the big steps he is taking at such a young age. I know that even in some small way he wouldn’t have done those things without me first doing it myself and setting some sort of standard. “Josh works to pay for his car, so should you.” “Josh has a job, and doesn’t sit around the house all day long.” etc. That’s the role of an older brother, I suppose. I’m the one who gets to deal with everything first, and as such I’m the one who sets the standards on which all my fellow siblings will be judged.

There’s a bit of pressure in having that role, but for the most part I have shrugged it off in an attempt to be my own person, and set my own standards as opposed to living by those set by my parents. I know that’s a very self-righteous statement; in many ways the standards I set for myself are infinitely worse than the ones any parent or sibling could set for me. That’s just who I am, I guess.

He’s going to be the first one to get married and he’s going to be the first one to have a child of his own (if not necessarily in that order.) Those kinds of things bother me, even though I’m not even capable of doing those things I still hold myself to those very conventional standards on what makes an “adult.” I’m just wasting so much time, and making so many bad decisions these days. Everything is a learning experience for me, and my brother gets to learn from those mistakes without having to deal with the same consequences that I have..

Even though I don’t really talk to my brother, or even like my younger brother these days, I do admire how he seems to be making some very large steps towards adulthood while I sit here and type about 80’s cartoons and board games.
Comments (5) | Permalink

Monday, October 11, 2004

Top Hat, Race Car, Thimble
“Jessie and the Rippers“ is a reference to the 90‘s television sitcom “Full House.” If you don’t know about that show you really don’t deserve to live as far as I’m concerned. Unless you’re from another country, I guess. International visitors can live, but anyone else who does not have knowledge of “Full House” can go.

Anatema got the reference correctly, so they earn a point. Yay.

As for Shy’s Obscure Question… today’s question is of moderate difficulty, making it worth 3 points.

The question is: The inventor of the lie detector also created which superhero?

Current High Scores
JC Baggee 5 Points
Shinmaru: 3 Points
Mimmi, Semjaza Azazel: 2 Points
Ben, Solo Tremaine, Sara,
Nerdsy, Arcadia, Anatema: 1 Point

---

I really wanted to reply to a couple of guestbook entries today, but I felt bad by leaving some people out. So, I’ve decided to respond to every guestbook entry I’ve ever received in this one post. Of course, that is a lot of text so I’m going to break things up in an amusing fashion by including some more screen shots from “Pryde of the X-Men.”

Note: Any guestbook entries that are unsigned, or from myOtaku accounts which have been deleted will not be replied to. Here we go!

Sara: I do have fun at work. Love and puppies and stuff.

BlackPheonix: Um… oddd…

Solo_Tremaine: We really need to talk more often, Solo. I also need to reply to your PM, that would be a good start.

Heavens Cloud: You are extremely odd, but we like you anyway. You should be more active in online things, or just AIM me sometime or something. You’re one of my favorite people, regardless of the fact that we have rarely communicate to one another.

Nerdsy: I’m having a decent amount of fun with my life. Yours (complete with all of the cardboard cuts, soapbox racers and pineapples) seems like it is more interesting.

Animefreack: Yes, I really work for theOtaku. At least, I used to. I don’t really do much of anything for Adam these days (he never asks for stuff) and I resigned from OB last week. So actually, no, I don’t work for theOtaku.

Mitch: College does suck, but talking to you always cheers me up. You rock, Mitch.

Desbreko: Same here.

Babygirl: Jenna and I think of your every day, heh. I hope you’re doing good, considering you’re probably never going to read this. Yay.

Tical: I don’t know who banned you. It might have been me, actually.

Vernica: I hope my experience on OB enlightens some of you newbies, heh.

PiroMunkie: Thanks for the link. *nods*

AzureWolf: You do a good job at acting like a newbie, Azure. :p

Ajeh: Oh, my.

Baron Samedi: Yes, I am your GrandJoshness. I hope my GrandJoshnessSon (or something) is also doing well. I haven’t spoken to you in a while.

Syk3 No, it is not a mistake. It took until the fourth or fifth page for you to sign my guestbook. You must hate me.

RainPhantom, DemonSprite: Outlaw Star does rock.

Ezzel: No, there really aren’t that many street races in California It’s not as widespread as movies and television would like you to think.

Shinmaru: If you enjoy this site then you don’t need to fear for your life. But as established earlier, if you do not know of “Full House” you are in major danger.

Mimmi: Thanks, Mimmi. I enjoy your comments and appreciate the thought you put into your own posts.

boycrazy14: Yeah, I am really shy.

Demonfairysin: Yeah the name “shyguy” comes up a lot in chatrooms and online. I thought it was a creative name when I made it, but apparently not. Sad.

CRandomHero: Greyscale is better than any amount of colors you could put on a site, my friend.

SamSandy: It’s always fun to see you around, or to read your posts in “Hero.” I hope I never lose touch with my old dig peep friends.

Vixon: No, I have never played “thousand arms.” Sorry.

BroknBallrinaDoll: I’m not really sexy, and that has made dating quite difficult.

MarkAnthony: Good ol’ Voodoo. You were one of the best members from the “old days” of OB, and always, you are freakin’ gorgeous. Heh. Nice to hear from you again.

John: No, you have never signed my guestbook before.

Anatema: I’m glad you visit Anatema, I really appreciate the positive feedback. I plan on doing another comic character post in the near future.

Kinetix: The name “Aries” doesn’t mean anything to me, so I’m sorry if I don’t remember your old user name on OB.

Molleta: I like my color scheme, too.

Alexander Harris: Thanks. I thought I did a good job in Adventure Arena, too.

Atlen: Sometimes it is hard to get through the bad times, but I do my best. Thanks for the support.

Ovy Stylezt: I’m fine, how are you?

Chie, Gemmei, aoshiwarrior2, Pex, UltimaSquall, lone wolf, Leas2385, Flava, KawaiiAnime, sahkiryce, Quatre_lover, Rememberence, forgotten619, AjFishDudes, Maarii, Lightning_Baron, gamez guru, Inu Yasha101, rata, Little Angel, guyluver14, ForlornHope, moron, borrowedtime13, Bersirker, Lollie, Sw33tSamurai90, purple beef, HeartOfSword, Cherry, sweetie, kout3uka, Littlebeast, female outlaw, Tepocoora, Cerdic, banzaiinu1, shippo gal, tasslehoff17, HellSingKikAzzFan, princesskagome05, Nataku1, KagaMinion, abcabcs, angels halo, Tae, vamp demon, fantasy, Staulkler X, evil Jessie, mega-matt, ZeroCoolSlayer, Pain_ZIZ, babymp511, bubblewrap89, shadow ninja, Spike_Bebop, 13Unknown13, david_dudas, vampdemon: Thanks for visiting the site and/or your feedback. Hi. I really work at Disneyland and live in Southern California. No, I will not visit your site, sign your guest book, read your fan manga or be your friend. I hate Inu Yasha (it was sarcasm) but I do like Shyguys, hence the name.

Thanks for signing my guestbook, see you next time!
Comments (17) | Permalink

Friday, October 8, 2004

Jessie and the Rippers
“Adverbs For Sale” is a reference to Schoolhouse Rock (aka Grammar Rocks.) The specific song/episode is “Lolly, Lolly, Lolly.” I have a neat little book which contains the lyrics to all of the songs, and I really enjoy it. To be honest, Schoolhouse is a little before my time, so even though I know most of the lyrics I haven’t really heard the songs themselves.

As anyone who is worth their weight in McNuggets knows, Mayor McCheese is the Mayor of McDonaldland. Apparently JC Baggee is worth an awful lot of McNuggets today, because he guessed the reference and answered the obscure question correctly. That earns him a whopping 3 points, and puts him at the top of the heap.

Current High Scores
JC Baggee 5 Points
Shinmaru: 3 Points
Mimmi, Semjaza Azazel: 2 Points
Ben, Solo Tremaine, Sara,
Nerdsy, Arcadia: 1 Point

I realize that today is Friday, but I’m postponing Shy’s Obscure Question segment until tomorrow.

---

“Pryde of the X-Men"

Most of you are probably familiar with the X-Men: Evolution animated series that has aired on Cartoon Network and various other stations in recent years. This show was actually an updated version of Fox’s classic X-Men: The Animated Series, which I remember fondly from my childhood in the 1990’s. Now I’m sure the average reader has seen one, if not both of the shows, but did you know that there was a third X-Men animated series created in the 1980’s? Well, I did, and I’d like to share some of it’s charm and wonder with you.

Actually “Pryde of the X-Men” was never made into a full television series. It’s simply a pilot created for television networks in the hopes that additional episodes would be ordered. Sadly, nobody took much an interest in the X-Men, and after airing as a television special on Saturday mornings, it was never seen again.

Contrary to popular belief, “Pryde of the X-Men” was not a mediocre cartoon, and it’s quality had nothing to do with it’s failure to be sold to the major networks. This show is quite possibly the most faithful adaptation of a Marvel comic book ever, whether it be to a TV show, a video game, or even a feature film. In a time when “G.I. Joe” and “Thundercats” ruled the airwaves, the “Pryde” pilot was years ahead of it’s time in terms of overall quality.

Like every good X-Men story “Pryde” is about the villainous Magneto, and his attempts to take over the world. Possibly inspired by G.I. Joe, Magneto and the Brotherhood of Mutants (Blob, Juggernaut, Toad, Piro and the oh-so-sexy White Queen) are referred to constantly as terrorists. I doubt the word had such a strong connotation during the 80’s, but it’s kind of surreal for something like a 20 year old X-Men cartoon to have relevance today.

Magneto and the Brotherhood have an evil scheme to destroy mankind once and for all, but they need to collect some special items first. It just so happens that those items belong to none other than Charles Xavier, and so the plot is set into motion.

The real story begins when young Kitty Pryde (“Shadowcat” to those of you who are nerds) decides to visit Xavier’s Mansion after receiving a mysterious letter from Professor X. He invites her to join the X-Men and help fight for the good of human and mutants everywhere, she is very hesitant, and for the next few moments Professor X spills exposition all over the place.

I’d also like to mention here that Kitty Pryde is the original “‘What are the X-Men?’ Girl.” When introducing the X-Men to a new generation it is a common plot device to make one of the characters a young female, just coming to terms with her powers. Their job is to ask the dumb questions that fans already know, and learn to use her abilities for good instead of evil. Also, you can tell how old you are by identifying which of the “WATX-M?” girls you relate to. [Shadowcat: 23+, Jubilee: 15-22, Rogue: Birth-14.]

Jubilee was the “WATX-M?” girl of my generation, so always and forever I will associate her with asking dumb questions and getting herself into trouble. Setting the standard for this type of behavior, Kitty is no different. Fortunately she has a lot of personality for a 14 year old girl, and I can honestly see why Professor X would choose to violate the state’s child endangerment laws and put her on the team. But there is far more to the team than Professor X and Kitty: meet the X-Men of 1984!

Colossus! Nightcrawler! Cyclops! Storm! Wolverine!
…and the lovable Dazzler!

Dazzler? Yeah, isn’t it awesome? You’ll notice a lot of “Big Names” are missing from the roster, most notably: Beast, Iceman, Rogue, Gambit, and Jean Grey. I’m kind of surprised that Jean Grey is missing from the team, but Cyclops is a lot more interesting without her. The term “whipped” comes to mind.

As for why the other major characters are not present, I can only imagine that they wanted to create a very diverse team and that other characters did not seem interesting enough. That’s usually why Nightcrawler and Beast are not present together: characters that are too similar either in appearance or in personality. (Also, Rogue and Gambit weren’t around then. Most of your favorite X-Men made in the 1990’s. Take that fans of Cable and Psylocke!)

You get the idea. I could go into great detail explaining the very funny bickering between Kitty and Wolverine (who has an Australian accent for some reason) or how Kitty learns to overcome Nightcrawler’s frightening appearance and be his friend, but I won’t. This is a very basic story with a lot of great action sequences and memorable moments. If you love the X-Men, you’ll love this cartoon. It gives every character their moment in the spotlight, and is incredibly entertaining.

If you would like to learn more about “Pryde of the X-Men” or want to know where you can obtain a copy just AIM me. I’m too tired to write another two pages about this, but darn it… If I had the energy I so would.
Comments (11) | Permalink

Saturday, October 2, 2004

Adverbs For Sale

“Hypello Potion” is a reference to Final Fantasy X and Final Fantasy X-2.

The lovely Mimmi guessed correctly first, and as such she earns a point(!) This brings the current score up to…

Current High Scores
Shinmaru: 3 Points
JC Baggee, Mimmi, Semjaza Azazel: 2 Points
Ben, Solo Tremaine, Sara,
Nerdsy, Arcadia: 1 Point

Also, since it’s Friday we have Shy‘s Obscure Question!. This question is worth 2 points, meaning it is of slight obscurity.

This week’s question: Who is the Mayor of McDonaldland?

---

Wednesday I made a terribly rash decision that I probably shouldn’t have -- I bought X-Men Legends for the GameCube. Now I’m going to go into some detail about the game later in this post, but since I can’t really afford to go out and buy video games whenever I want. I’m sort of beating myself up over that, but after the very expensive traffic ticket my disposable income is um… nonexistent at this point.

Gas is so expensive at this point, I can’t even tell you how worried I am about rising gas prices. I drive 40 miles to work every day, and 40 miles back. That really adds up, and in only the past year I have logged in about 35,000 miles on my car. That’s about 15,000 less than my warranty covers and I’ll easily go through that by the end of the Winter season. I drive an awful lot, and the slightest change in gas prices really starts to add up for me.

As long as gasoline is at $2.20 a gallon (where I live, at least. It’s cheaper near work for some reason) I should be saving my money and not buying all of the clothes, DVDs and video games I want so very, very much. I need a job that pays more if I plan on doing that sort of stuff; I chose a job I love over a decent paycheck. Bah. Expect some sort of lengthy post about how I chose the wrong job in the immediate future.

X-Men Legends is the most frustrating and glorious multi-player game ever made. It’s a completely different machine than Halo or Super Smash Bros., there is a huge element of teamwork involved and some stages are so difficult that if you don’t have a set strategy with your friends everyone will die a quick and painful death.

Basically it is an Action/RPG in the same vein as Baldur’s Gate or Gauntlet Legends starring the X-Men characters. The game itself is based on the mythology of the X-Men series, meaning it is not set in any particular continuity and borrows the best elements from the characters’ many incarnations. The story plays out like a traditional comic book story, but the tone is similar to that of the films, while the costumes are from the Ultimate X-Men comic series… yeah. The game knows it’s stuff, and a lot of the throwaway references it have stumped even a diehard nerd such as myself.

You go from one mission to the next with a team of four X-Men. You have control of one X-Man, while the other three are controlled by the computer. Fortunately their AI does not suck and in many cases they will save your butt from total and utter defeat. You can switch between the characters, so by simply pressing a button you can take control of any of the members in your party. By defeating enemies your team receives experience points, gains levels, and as such you get to choose which skills and abilities you want to upgrade in your team as they improve. Maybe you want to focus on Storm’s whirlwind abilities, or maybe her flight, or something. It’s entirely up to you, and as such there is a lot of depth in the types of characters you can end up with. That combined with the fact that four players can play at once make for a really entertaining game.

I do have some minor complaints with it, though. The camera is an evil monster that must die. When in multiplayer mode it has problems focusing on the action going on, and tends to shift away towards the characters who are not actively involved in any type of combat. So while Wolverine may be getting tossed around by a Sentinel, it will choose to focus on Emma Frost who is picking her nose and collecting items on the other side of the battlefield. Characters can die really cheap deaths from certain enemies, who seems to have a large amount “one hit kill” grenades. Some of my characters with the most hit points, such as Wolverine have fallen victim to this and since it is sometimes difficult to resurrect a character (you need to be at a save point) they could have tried to reduce the amount of damage such an attack does, or simply add more save points throughout the level.

I must say, however, that this is one of the most difficult games I have ever played. I go through most games without ever seeing the “Game Over” screen, but so far I cannot get through a mission without it popping up at least once. The game is so addictive, though, I don’t really mind.

Buy this game. If you listen to one shameless plug on myOtaku this week, this is the one.
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Friday, October 1, 2004

Redefined

I miss theOtaku.com/outlawstar already...

No reference today, the game will continue with my next post. See you then...

Edit: It's been archived apparently. Yay!

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