robots/monsters/misadventure ハロウィン
Showing posts with label nintendo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label nintendo. Show all posts

Monday, July 28, 2025

New Week 2000

Hello Zone Base readers! Welcome back for another week of robots, monsters, and misadventure! I hope everyone had a great weekend, I sure did! I enjoyed a low key weekend with the Mrs, enjoyed her great cooking, watched Stranger Things with her and Mom, worked on more Halloween backdrops for toy pics here on the site, and played Donkey Kong Bananza! Once again my Walmart didn't have any new toys, but I ordered Cyberworld Bumblebee and Snarl! Bumblebee will be here later this week, but Snarl won't arrive until a little later. I have no clue why he's the harder of the initial batch of Cyberworld toys to get, but I happily got one for standard retail.

My most recent Blokees order came in Sunday and the Mrs and I had fun opening the boxes and checking the trading card to see who as inside! I've got 2 cases of Galaxy Version Defender kits to start work on soon. I'll probably order another soon as well, I really love the Defender type kits and feel like they're perfect for site content. In a conversation on Blokees Facebook page, another poster suggested they do Battle Beasts in the Defender range. What a great idea! Part of me majorly prefers things like Blokees and Yolopark kits these days to traditional Transformers toys. I spent years of my youth painting miniatures and building models and Zoids. I guess these just vibe with that part of my brain. 

Speaking of vibing with my brain, both SCCC and Wonderfest Summer was this weekend. I definitely enjoyed the new toy reveals at SDCC. Transformers, Masters of The Universe, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Godzilla, and others made a great showing with tons of exciting new releases in store. While I appreciate that, I won't lie, it feels like another official reveal like these companies do all year. It's exciting, for sure, but what really gets my heart going is the pictures from Wonderfest. I spent hours this weekend looking them over and wishing I were there. 

Well, I've got a fun week in store for you all. This is the prelude before Pumpkin Spiced Mayhem starts next week! I'm so excited that I swapped the site over to fall colors last week! It's good to freshen things up occasionally and with the 100+ degree heat I'm having...  the cooler temperatures of fall feels forever away. It's about to get extra spooky around Planet Zone for the next 3 months and I'm excited! Well, thank you all for reading Zone Base. Your support means so very much to me. This isn't one of those corporate sites that just want your money and you all are real ones for just wanting to enjoy our hobbies. Please be sure to share the site with your friends and Mutual High Fives everyone!

Monday, July 7, 2025

Monday Rises

Holy Start of the week Zone Base readers! It's Monday again and time for more robots, monsters, and misadventure! I hope you all had a great weekend, I sure did! I actually had a long weekend as Friday was the 4th of July and led to a 3 day weekend and a much needed break. I've enjoyed the 4th of July since childhood as it's always meant a cook out and shooting fireworks. Summer may be miserably hot here in the American South, but there's still fun to be had. We had a family cook out at my Mother's house. It was good to spend some time with my brother and shoot fireworks with him after some great food. On the way back home that evening, my entire neighborhood was in the streets shooting fireworks as well. It's fun anarchy that I love taking place in.

Saturday the Mrs and I did some weekly shopping which included a trip to the jewelry store to get her jewelry inspected as needed every 6 months for their lifetime warranty. While there, the Mrs did some shopping and I suprised her with a new piece from the jewelry store. It was our wedding anniversary week and I wanted to get her something special. I didn't find any new toys while out Saturday, but an early trip to Target Friday morning did result in some great deals! I got Studio Series B-127 finally, but on clearance for $12! Ironically that's what he would have cost in 2012! I also finally picked up the Grizzlor and Hordak 2 pack on clearance for $14! This is a cool MOTU Origins set based on concept art that looks quite different than the characters we're used to. I thankfully also found Megatronus from Age of the Primes. Unfortunately he was full priced... which is a little higher at Target now. 

Target also had a newer blind box Godzilla series featuring well sculpted mini figures of Godzilla and company in capsules that resembles buildings. It's a Bandai product, so you know it's quality! The chase figure is a glow in the dark Godzilla, so that gives me an excuse to buy more! I had gotten a Showa MechaGodzilla in mine and he needs someone to battle! While Walmart didn't have much of anything (other than leftover TF One stock), I'm anticipating Cyberworld to show up soon. It starting to appear in stores and the show debuts July 12th. I'm very excited for this series and can't wait to cover them here. It's a combination of Transformers legend/ legion class (in a bigger size) with the play patterns found in Microman and Action Masters. Super fun! 

The rest of the weekend was spent at home enjoying some rest and relaxation. The Mrs and I opened some Blokees that came in during the week, played Mario Kart World, and enjoyed a spaghetti dinner Sunday night. Mom came as usual and our rewatch of Stranger Things is going well. We're 3/4ths into season 2 and Mom is hooked! She literally can't wait to see it each week, while I'm happily enjoying one of my favorite shows. It'll be good to see the new season... and a little sad as it's the finale. Oh well, reportedly an animated series in the vein of The Real Ghostbusters is in production. I hope it's good.

That leads us to spooky season talk. Halloween is around the corner and Code Orange is not only in effect, but has developed into a new form this year. In  addition to Code Orange, many of us have used the term Summerween to describe the early Halloween shopping that takes place in summer. Well, apparently companies have taken that to heart and have made Summerween an offical mini celebration! All sorts of summer themed spooky fun is available with jack o' lanterns carved from fruit, ghosts wearing sunglasses, festive summer colored skulls, and more! It's super fun and another chapter to the spooky season that's became part of summer in addition to fall. Here at Zone Base, I take credit for that partially as our official Halloween Party starts in August, which is the hottest month of summer. While this corresponds with Obon, Hungry Ghost festival, and the spooky summer activities throughout the word- I also can't wait for my favorite time of the year!

Thankfully with Code Orange and now Summerween, it's the perfect time for Zone Base's annual Pumpkin Spiced Mayhem to run wild. We've got one hell of a Halloween in store this year. I've got a bunch of cool Halloween posts to place in between regular content (which also will be extra spooky) for the entire 3 months of Zone Base Halloween. I hope you all enjoy it as I love doing it! Well, that's still a little off, but we've got an awesome July in store! Thank you all for reading Zone Base. I've got a fun week in mind for you all. Please don't forget to share with your friends and Mutual High Fives everyone!

Monday, June 16, 2025

Monday Blaster

It's Monday morning again, I'm enjoying a cup of coffee and watching a video on cursed Japanese websites.

Welcome to Zone Base.

I hope everyone had a great weekend, mine was awesome. The Mrs and I did some early Halloween shopping and found some great stuff. Our local At Home hasn't stocked yet disappointingly enough, though plenty others we've seen online have. Michael's, however, had an aisle halfway stocked with the spooky seasons initial offerings. It was very fun and even though summer is just starting, Halloween is coming.

While out Saturday, I picked up a Flame Toys Furai Model kit of Rodimus. It's his IDW design and looks great. I've got a few Flame Toys kits, but with Blokees and Yolopark having such a hold on my attention at the moment, feels weird. I really should get more, they look amazing. BotCon was going on this weekend and I wish I could have visited some of those booths! Both Blokees and Yolopark had solid representation and once again Yolopark made the exclusives. I should really get those.

I'm really looking forward to the new upcoming mini AMK Transformers kits they have coming. I'll be sure to talk about them here. I also picked up a ReAction Universal Monsters blind box from their current Silver Screen set. It's a black and white figure set of the classic monsters and awesome as always. I got The Mummy! I also grabbed a digital download card for Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour. It's an oddball mixture of a technical showcase of the new hardware and cozy game. I wasn't going to get it until seeing several people online praising it. It was only $10, so why not? I found myself enjoying it quite a bit and yeah, it's oddly fun. 

Sunday was Cat Dads Day. The kitties and Mrs suprised me with a gift bag of fun! The Transformers X Sonic crossover set was inside as were some Transformers 5 Surprise mystery balls and a Star Wars Micro Galaxy Squadron blind box. They had made me some awesome cards too... how do our cats have better grammar than me? I'm lucky to have such a wonderful little family and enjoyed it very much. The Mrs and I played Mario Kart and we're steadily working our way though Stranger Things still and on our way for Season 5 this year! 

I've had a fun weekend full of fun stuff, and even pre-ordered the Transformers Godzilla toys. They're due to be shipped soon, so hopefully my history of bad luck with pre-orders doesn't reappear. Well, we've got a new week to get started. I've got a fun week of robots, monsters, and misadventure coming your way! Thank you all for reading Zone Base. Please share with your friends and Mutual High Fives everyone!

Monday, June 9, 2025

Bio-Booster Monday

Monday has a returned, and with it, a lot of cursing. My weekend was pretty great, how about yours? Thursday the Mrs and I bought the new Nintendo Switch 2, so a lot of time was spent this weekend playing Super Mario Kart World. It feels weird to move on from my beloved Switch 1, but this is the way it goes. I'm thinking my 1 will join my Evercade EXP-R and be kept bedside for night time gaming. I know it's weird, but I get attached to my electronics. They're a companion for years... it's a little sad when their time comes. Appreciate your electronics, just think of all you do with your phone! 

I found some new toys this weekend too. It was actually quite stormy this weekend so the Mrs and I didn't stay out much. Just a trip to Target for things the grocery order didn't have. I picked up Bandai Godzilla Monster Series Godzilla 2023 Odo Island version. It represents Godzilla as he appears earlier in the film. I also picked up the Age of the Primes G2 Grimlock. My Target has been pretty slow to restock Transformers since Christmas, so finding Big Grim was a surprise. Hopefully I can find Megatronus Prime (his casemate) soon. Speaking of hoping, here's hoping Cyberworld hits stores soon. I'm beyond excited for those bots.

Code Orange is starting to materialize as early Halloween stock is beginning to arrive at stores. The Mrs checked last weekend and our At Home hadn't stocked anything yet. We'll be checking this coming weekend as mid-June seems to be when it shows up at our stores. Michael's is supposed to start stocking this weekend as well  so it's worth a look! In two weeks our new Daiso will be opening in a neighboring town and we're excited! We plan on checking it out opening day and you can be sure I'll tell you all about it!

Well, I've got some chores to do and pictures for upcoming posts to take. Thank you all for reading Zone Base. I know it's just some podunk fan site, but hey, thank you for supporting it. Zone Base is 9 years old this year. That's almost an entire decade of sharing our fandom together without trying to capitalize on fellow fans. I've got a fun week in store for you all and even more coming in the future weeks. I'm gearing up for the big Halloween party (it starts in just 2 months!) and having the time of my life! Please don't forget to share with your friends and Mutual High Fives everyone!


Monday, February 17, 2025

Take Aim

Monday has risen from it's icy grave and with it the entire universe is in danger. We must join forces and defeat it's evil! Thanks for coming back for another week of robots, monsters, and misadventure Zone Base readers! I hope you had a great weekend, mine sure was! Friday was Valentines Day, and even though I had flowers and candy for the Mrs then, we had a little dinner date Saturday to enjoy the occasion. Afterwards, there was some shopping where I picked up the new Funko Pop Soundwave and Megazord figures. I've been looking forward to these as their from a new subline in Pops that I find neat. They're a little larger and come with itty-bitty Pops to serve as pilots. Soundwave came with Rumble and The Megazord with the Red Ranger! They even come in boxes that resembled vintage packaging. You guys know I love a good pilot figure! 

Walmart had a really good sale on their app in the week that I totally missed out on! Between monthly bills and Valentines Day, I wanted to wait until purchasing any toys. I had plenty items in my cart to wait untill then weekend and well, whoops. I'll be buying the figure in time, but I totally missed out on that sale. Dammit, but other stuff took priority and real life comes first! Speaking of real life, the next episode of Transform Squadron will be a little delayed. My mother has a few medical procedures that will be taking up some extra time over the next few weeks as I've got to drive here around. Sometimes I can get busy really fast. 

Also speaking of real life, Saturday night after we got home, there was some pretty big storms here in my home state. Early Sunday morning around 4am it got super nasty and a few small tornadoes caused some havoc. Our entire county and a neighboring one were without power for a while. Some still don't have any. Fortunately ours came back on around 11am. It wasn't the longest I've been without electricity, but still not great. Hopefully those without will get restored soon. It's pretty cold and I'd hate for them to be without heat. I did spend Sunday morning listening to a radio while playing my Evercade EXP-R untill the batteries died (only had a half charge). I then read some G1 manga untill the power came back on. I've been meaning to re-read it, so that gave me a good chance to jump back in. I watch a few episodes of G1 every day on the TF channel, so it's always great to go a little deeper.

Speaking of the Transformers Channel, I've been noticing some weirdness. The channel is on a few different apps and usually has the same schedule across them all. Lately the Pluto TV version has a different schedule. Weird. Also, Cartoon Rewind has only started showing a few episodes of Gobots a week instead of the full series at a time like they do their other shows. Thankfully I have a lot of DVR recordings to get my fix whenever, but that's really annoying me. Also annoying, the Godzilla channel was shut down and the beginning of the year and now Tokushoutsu has been removed from Pluto TV. What the hell is going on? Fortunately Tokushoutsu still has a great presence on YouTube. Between that, the Godzilla channel, and the Godzilla: Monsters and Friends channel leaving Amazon Prime... I feel attacked! Thankfully most of the content is on demand (and DVDs). I just really like channels, you know? 

Well, this has turned out to be a longer weekly update than I planned, but hey... I don't know how to follow that. I've got to get some more toy pictures taken for upcoming posts and household chores to do before work tonight. I hope you all have a great week. Thank you for reading Zone Base. Your support means the world to me. Please don't forget to share with your friends and Mutual High Fives everyone!

Friday, January 24, 2025

Transform Squadron 59 - Fly yourself to the Moon

LISTEN NOW!

It's a new year and a great time to talk about new toys based on old toys! Rob's really excited about the new Micronauts and Transformers Cyberworld toys. He also swears Cybertron Jolt is a Microman homage, listen now to hear him talk about that way too much! All this and Switch 2 excitement, this month on Transform Squadron!

Monday, November 4, 2024

New Week, New Future

Monday has happened again. Of course that means a new week of robots, monsters, and misadventure is starting here on Zone Base! I hope everyone had a great weekend. Mine was busy with lots of house work to be done. Halloween is sadly over, meaning lots of decorations had to be put away. Not to mention a good household cleaning. Some shopping did happen and I brought home some fun stuff. Target had the new Bandai Godzilla Monster Series 5" figures just in time for Godzilla Day this weekend. I picked up the Godzilla 1954 figure and the Skeleton Godzilla 1954 ReAction figure. I felt that was a solid way to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the original movies release. Unfortunately Target didn't have any Transformers I needed, but did have a Turtles of Grayskull April O'Neil. I got her, leaving me just needing Man-at-Arms to have the line complete until the newest wave releases. 

A later trip to Walmart also resulted in no new Transformers. I still need to find the remaining Star Raiders and the new Legacy/Studio Series figures as well. In due time I suppose. I did pick up a Culturefly Meltz Transformer toy and got Shockwave! These are neat little blind bags that are the characters represented as ice cream bars. Neat! I was hoping to find Blokees now that Walmart is carrying them, but no such luck. I guess it just wasn't in the cards this weekend. Of course I also played some Astro Bot (still avoiding completing it) and got some Transformers Minecraft levels completed. It's fun, but it's becoming clear that I need to remap some controls. Speaking of games, the new Nintendo Music app is on mobile and a lot of fun! You need a Switch Online account to use it (which I have), so thankfully there's no ads. It's great digging into various game soundtracks without the same commercials every few songs like on Spotify. Well, time to get my day started. I've got a few chores to do and pictures for upcoming posts to take. Halloween may be over, but Zone Base is still here. Thank you all for reading, please don't forget to share with your friends!

Monday, February 5, 2024

A Monday is You!

A new week has begun on Planet Zone and a bunch of fun content coming your way! How was everyone's weekend? Mine was good. Enjoyed some rest and grocery store sushi while watching 1000lbs Sisters and paranormal TV. We did our weekly shopping which lead to a few toy pick ups. Gamer Edition Optimus Prime was found at Target. Walmart had the GXK Kong vs Skar King 2 pack and some neat Hollow Earth crystal blind packs (also from GxK). I bought one on a whim and got Skar King!

We later stopped at Five Below for a Squishmallow drop and I got the entire set of GXK Jada Metalfigs. I had been slowly getting them from Walmart, but discovered the Five Below sets were not keychains. So I bought all 4. Not sure why there is or isn't a keychain attached depending on store, weird. Also picked up a Super Mario Bros bag clip figure blind bag from the new series and got Bullet Bill! The Mrs earlier in the week picked up the rest of the Transformers Jada Metalfig mini figures and some neat mini TF plush toys for me. Somehow I managed to bring lots of fun stuff. Even picked up a neat monster survival guide book from Five Below.

Well, enough about that, let's get this week started! I've got a fun week in store for all of you. Thank you so much for reading Zone Base. If you like what I'm doing, thanks! Don't worry, I'm not asking for money (that's gross isn't it?). All I ask is that you share the site with your friends. Zone Base isn't about capitalizing on others, just enjoying cool stuff. If you know anyone that might like the cool stuff I talk about, then hey... let them in on it. Mutal high fives all around!

Monday, May 15, 2023

Primeval Monday

Dang, it's Monday again. Guess it's time for another new week here on Planet Zone. Hope everyone had a great weekend as we near the Rise of Beast Summer! I had a pretty good weekend. We had a fun family pizza party at my Mom's house for mother's day. Speaking of mother's day, I helped our cats give the Mrs a surprise. 

Saturday the Mrs and I did a little shopping. We had intended to watch Guardians of the Galaxy 3, but like Mario... time wasn't on our side. Friday we did pick her up the new Zelda game while Saturday I found some fun stuff. Got Super Powers Darkseid and the 1989 Batman from the Flash toyline. I don't care about the movie, except for him. Also grabbed some Star Wars discount figures and a gray Yoshi from the Jazwares Super Mario figures.

Later a stop by Target resulted in picking up the Buzzworthy Bumblebee Jungle Mission 3 pack on sale. Good weekend for fun stuff. Speaking of fun stuff, an impromptu stop by Pelicans Sunday resulted in me getting a Super Mario snowball from their Mario Bros movie flavors. It was a hot day and that was just the thing. I've got a fun week in store for you all. Thank you for reading Zone Base. If you like what I'm doing, please share posts with your friends! Or hey, follow our new Facebook page! There's a handy link in the right column links!

Wednesday, May 10, 2023

Koopa's got kids

I've always loved the Nintendo cartoons produced by DiC in the late 80's and early 90's. To be fair, I've always been a fan of cartoons made by DiC. They really made great shows that I still watch regularly to this day. Their Super Mario Bros cartoons have always been a bright spot for me as... I freaking love Super Mario. Some of my favorite games of all time and I still have yet to get tired of playing any of them. At the time, media about video games was hit or miss. There was gaming magazines, but I wanted fiction. Prior, there was the Saturday Supercade and Pac-Man cartoons  that gave some extra life to those characters I liked on my Atari. That was much needed as in those days the plot was mostly a basic scenario. I was fully in love with the richer gaming worlds my NES gave me and just gobbled up the characters however I could.

Needles to say, thanks to the time they were made, the shows weren't very true to the source material. Like Saturday Supercade and others before it, some additional world building was needed to make a show out of the games. A boss in a game's personality back then was often a few sentences in a game manual. Not to mention, animation companies like DiC was provided material by the companies localizing the game from Japan. So whatever material they had to give them was likely pretty limited at the time as the game was probably being localized at the same time. We know him as Bowser here in the western world, but in Japan his name is Koopa. So he's King Koopa in those old cartoons. After hearing a Milli Vanilli song on the radio recently, I was reminded of that episode of The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 featuring them. Somehow that thought resulted in me wanting to write about the Koopa Kids from said cartoon and their name differences from game to cartoon. You can blame this post on the rain

Game/Cartoon
Larry Koopa/Cheatsy, he tends to be a cheater.
Morton Koopa Jr/Big Mouth, talks a lot.
Wendy O. Koopa/Kootie Pie, spoiled brat.
Lemmy Koopa-/Hip (twin of Hop), not very smart, but also genuinely innocent.
Iggy Koopa/Hop (twin of Hip), immature and childish, but a brilliant inventor.
Roy Koopa/Bully, calm and collective.
Ludwig Von Koopa/Kooky, mad scientist and elder Koopa kid.

Sunday, April 30, 2023

Super Mario Bros (2023)

I finally got a chance to see Super Mario Bros after a busy few weeks. Thankfully the Mrs suprised me with tickets. As a big fan of Super Mario games, this was an absolute love letter. While some folks complained about the voice actor choices, I didn't mind the acting whatsoever. It was a joy to see the world from the games come alive on the big screen. There was plenty of easter eggs placed among the non-stop moving world filled with Nintendo. I frankly was disappointed when it ended, fortunately the end credits were full of additional fun. I'm not giving away any spoilers and have nothing but love for what I just watched. I can only wish other adaptations of beloved properties would be this good.

Wednesday, April 26, 2023

Weekly Walpurgis~ Wario in 3D

Walpurgis Night is a wonderful time for all things spooky, and seeing how Mario is on everybody's mind lately... Hey, know what rhymes with Mario? WARIO! Back before he was all burps and farts, Nintendo liked to sell Wario as something sinister as this commercial shows. The Virtual Boy had it's faults as YouTubers who never played one will tell you, but it had some good games and this was definitely one of them.

Tuesday, April 18, 2023

Super Mini World

One cool thing about big movies is all the cool media mix that comes with it. Well, for me anyway. The new animated Super Mario Bros. movie is a pretty cool example of this. There's all sorts of fun goodies and toys available, but so far my favorite is the Mini World toys that I'll be talking about today. I've been buying the Super Mario Micro World and PVC toys by Jakks Pacific for years now. They make a solid product that really brings the characters to life in a fun way. Micro World was a great keshi style mini figure line with great play sets that didn't take up a lot of room. Mini World is close to that same idea, but with articulated figures and cool transformable play sets. It's a small difference, but a fun one. I haven't tried it yet, but I do think they're cross compatible as well. Just maybe a hair off in scale. So if you've got some Micro World stuff, you could probably incorporate it.

On the subject of Mini World, like I said the figures are articulated. Not as much as the larger figures from the movie by any stretch, just a little bit. Arms move at the shoulders, it's basic, Usually this style of toy is very basic... if it's your thing... you're digging it. These are new sculpts to match the characters as they appear in the movie, but still 100% faithful to the characters as you know them. Realistically, I can see these appearing in newer packaging in years to come. They're just right for a blind bag at Five Below or in a gashapon capsule. Seeing as I've been buying Micro World figures via blind bag at Five Below for the past few years... it'd be something I'd be all for. 

The transformable play sets are pretty neat as well. Individual figures come of cards with a basic play set. This play set comes as the blocks you're used to seeing in Super Mario Bros. video games and open up to reveal a simple little place for your figure to have an adventure in. So far there is two larger play sets available. The Mario Bros. van (they're plumbers after all) unfolds into multiple areas based on settings from the games and movie. Personally I'm all about this van thanks to the cool teaser set as a commercial for the Bros plumbing service. You'll notice a familiar tune and the original voice of Princess Toadstool (before we started calling her Peach here in the states) voice from the classic cartoon.

The other play set is a larger one of Princess Peach's castle. Even if you take issue with the new movie for one reason or another... it's still a pretty faithful representation of her castle from the games. All I see when I look at it is Super Mario 64. It's a pretty large unfolding play set as well. I really hope more figures come along, because you'd need more than whats out currently to fill that thing with. I guess those Micro World toys would work. I'm pretty positive about these cool toys... as you can see. I'd hope for more games to get realized in this format (I could see Ghouls N' Ghosts easily working).

Wednesday, April 5, 2023

Let's Pass Go!

Inspired by The Super Mario Bros. Movie, this action-packed Monopoly The Super Mario Bros. Movie Edition board game lets kids and fans explore the Mushroom Kingdom, as they buy, sell, and trade locations from The Super Mario universe! Gold coins take the place of Monopoly cash in this race to see who can collect the most coins to win. Earn even more by owning matching Property sets. But beware of Bowser, who can swipe properties, steal coins, or send players to Jail! Discover Warp Pipe shortcuts and gather or lose coins with Question Blocks and Piranha Plants. Enjoy iconic Mario artwork, characters, and themes inspired by the film with the new Monopoly The Super Mario Bros. Movie Edition board game, available now at most major retailers including Amazon, Target and Walmart.

Monopoly The Super Mario Bros. Movie Edition Game

(Ages 8 years & up/Players: 2-4/Approx. Retail Price: $21.99/Available: April 5, 2023)

 

Thanks to our friends at Hasbro and Rogers & Cowan for providing Zone Base readers with this awesome news.

Tuesday, January 24, 2023

Aw hell, Atari

It's pretty safe to say Atari hasn't always made the best decisions when it comes to their game consoles. Sure, they had success with Pong and the VCS/2600 and their home computers were definitely popular. However, when it came to following up the 2600... they just never got it together. There was solid and not so solid attempts, but clearly someone was not connecting the dots. Admittedly the general ignorance about computers at the time didn't help. When Atari released the 5200, the 2600 was still pretty popular. What was the difference? Well, it's more powerful. Oh yeah? Yeah, here's the same games you already have for your 2600. See the disconnect?

Tuesday, January 3, 2023

Genghis in Space

I've been revisiting Gyruss is recent days. It's a classic space shooter game made by Konami released in 1983 as an arcade game. Since then it's been on pretty much every system since. Despite it's age and the many versions on various hardware, there's never been a sequel. That's really weird in gaming, perhaps Gradius and other Konami's shooters fill that role. Still, I wouldn't mind a follow up. The only thing else is a bootleg game called Venus. You know I'm talking about an old arcade game when the subject of bootleg versions comes up.

Game play is pretty standard shooter fair. Though instead of your ship residing in the foreground, it can rotate around the entire screen similar to Tempest. This style of game is called a tube shooter, though it feels more like a hybrid of styles to me in Gyruss. Enemies come in waves as do obstacles with a boss at the end of the levels. Plot is light, you're flying through the solar system ridding the universe of evil along the way. Depending on the version you're playing, Genghis Khan is the main villain behind the forces you're fighting. Don't ask me how Genghis Khan came back as a galactic threat, or where he got all those eyeball space ships... but I dig it.

Wednesday, December 14, 2022

Weekly Halloween- The Cute Devil

Kid Dracula/Akumajō Special: Boku Dracula-kun is a very fun little game where you take control of a young Kid Dracula (as the name implies) and take on Galamoth the demon. Kid Dracula uses his Dracula's (his father) cape as a weapon on his adventure. Kid Dracula is the self proclaimed Demon King, or was until Galamoth challenged him for the title. After defeating Galamoth, his title is restored and all the monsters in Transylvania want to be his friend. Despite all the monsters and demons, the game is obviously pretty cute.

It's intended to be a parody of the Castlevania series, though depending on who you ask, is part of the series. Kid Dracula being a young Alucard prior to growing up and becoming a more serious character. I prefer to take it on it's own though. It's hard not to enjoy the cute monsters and the fun platforming action. The game is available on most platforms now, but was originally a Famicom/NES game. Later the Gameboy version was released which is supposed to be both a remake and a follow up at the same time. I'm not sure how that works, but I am much better at the Gameboy version for some reason.