Aliens and Predators, Always Fighting

Both the Aliens and Predator movie franchises list really highly among my list of 'most awesome things ever'. However, I tend to distance myself from the movies released after the 90's for personal preferences. When it comes to Aliens, a lot of my exposure to them came from their use in video games... mostly unofficially. The Xenomorphs poped up in almost everything for awhile, or inspired creatures (it was totally them). To be fair, Aliens, Predator, and Terminator all had unlicensed appearances in a lot of video games during the 80's and 90's. So it's probably not a stretch to imagine how I'd appreciate a video game from the 90's that pit Aliens vs Predator in a setting that looked more like the unofficial efforts.

The games story is actually based on an early draft of the Aliens vs Predator comic book that would have tied into the movie. The game was intended to be out around the release of the movie... however things changed and the movie came out a decade later with another script. In this game, San Drad (translation error from San Dorado), California is overrun with Aliens. Major Dutch Schaefer (now a cyborg) and Lieutenant Linn Kurosawa of the US Colonial Marine Corps have been abandoned and are fighting the swarm alone. They are joined by two Predators (Hunter and Warrior) and take on the Aliens leading to facing off with the sinister Weyland-Yutani Corporation. It's a pretty fun story line that fits the game well... but admittedly might have been too far out for a movie (I would probably loved it).

Game play is a 3 player belt fighter with 4 different playable characters (mentioned above). Like other Capcom side scrolling beat 'em ups, it never gets boring thanks to interesting levels and constantly changing enemies. You'll go from fighting Aliens to Space Marines as the scenario changes to fit the story. There's even 'Infectoids', zombies created from face hugger host bodies. They make me think of Masterforce. Like other Alien games, I appreciate the alternating colors on Xenomorphs. It gives them a lot of character rather than just being black. It's a great game and a fun time, but there wasn't any home ports. A 32x version was planned, unfortunately not released. That's a shame, this would have been a great weekend rental.

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.

Daiva VI Opening Story

 

Daiva Story 6: Imperial of Nirsartia was added to the Switch Online NES channel a few weeks ago. It's pretty cool when they add random games like this. It gives me a chance to play them for the first time and experience something new that was released off my radar back in the day.  If you're wondering about the 6 in the title, this is the 6th game out of 7. The only one released to the Famicom as it was a home computer (MSX and others I think) series. To appeal to the younger players that the system would no doubt bring in, the game was simplified a bit from it's PC version. The series isn't an ongoing story, but the same galactic war story told from the perspective of other characters in the various parts. 

Game play is pretty fun, but not completely obvious when first starting. Instruction come in handy. You'll need to travel to different locations on a star map and take over them. You'll also need to protect your locations from invaders. Once entering one of these areas the game switches to a side scrolling shooter where you take command of a mobile suit. Progress through the area and defeat the boss to take control the area. At the beginning of this stage, there's a map with three different power ups (health refill, a bomb that kills everything on screen, and missiles to be fired repeatedly from off screen) to be placed where they'd come in handy on the fight. The computer roots of the series is very obvious here as the controls are pure 80's micro computer style. One fire button and push up to jump. That was hard to go back to after all this time.

The jumps can be a challenge as each planet has different gravity. Overall these areas aren't too difficult, but of course they gradually increase as you progress. Also during the star map area of the game, you may encounter other ships. Doing so will put your ship in a turn based battle with them. Daiva Story is pretty fun, but I do wish the game was translated so i could understand the story better. Holding up my phone to use camera translation doesn't always work like a charm and gets old fast. Regardless, it reminds me of those summer nights I'd stay up late playing Star Raiders or StarMaster on my Atari. Good times.

To Hyperspeed and Beyond!

 

Some of the coolest toys right now are Buzz Lightyear toys. From the new Lightyear movie (which itself is based on the adventures of the 'real' Buzz Lightyear the character in Toy Story is based on) is a great series of toys by Mattel. There's the standard action figures that look pretty sharp, however it's the Hyperspeed Series we're here to talk about today. These are smaller scaled vehicles from the movie with tiny, almost Diaclone sized pilot figures. Think Star Wars Micro Machines Action Fleet.

While your first impression of Buzz Lightyear is silly and cute, these have some seriously neat sci fi designs. There's a big similarity to other sci fi series in these designs. The Zyclops are a great hybrid of a Zaku and the Yellow Devil robot for example. The various ships resemble a mix of Star Wars and odd ships from various space shooter games. I half expect the Star Bird to make an appearance. There's even Air Raiders and Sky Commanders energy in there. To me anyway. I haven't tried if the pilots could fit inside the cockpit of a G1 Transformer or a Zoid yet. They do look about the same size. Maybe. I'd never imagine in a million years that Buzz Lightyear would have such awesome little toys. But here we are.

Godzilla vs Hedorah 2021

Today is Godzilla's 67th birthday. Toho threw him a birthday party in the form of a new short featuring the suits from Final Wars. Happy Birthday Godzilla!

Captain and the EO

He-Man In Space

While being off the past days recovering from my ICU stay, I've been taking in a lot of TV. Well, I've been taking in a lot of TV in between bouts of sleep. You'd be surprised just how tired you get after heart failure. One of the shows I've decided to spend some extra time with is 'The New Adventures of He-Man'. I spend so much time with G1 MOTU that the follow up almost gets forgotten sometimes.

Also, 'The New Adventures of old Christine' is always on late at night. This has nothing to do with that, but I am bewildered how such a long running show could air completely without me knowing.

With He-Man though, his new adventures are really a shot in the arm of rejuvenation as it takes the formula and changes it just enough. It's easy to dismiss as mostly forgotten by history, but it's pretty good. He-Man and Skeletor find themselves in the future on a planet named Primus taking part in their war. I won't go super into details as why, but that's the gist of it. Skeletor finds himself paired with the Evil Mutants while He-Man obviously is with the Galactic Guardians.

The toys are pretty different from the original. It's clear that a complete new direction was the idea. Later some of the molds would be reused for the Demolition Man toyline. The cartoon, while a western production, has a very anime look. It's pretty hard to ignore, so much that if you told me they recycled an anime to use... I'd have a hard time not believing it. It's distinctly in that 80's/early 90's anime style. Some scenes could easily be mistaken for Masterforce. Clearly I like it. While I'm not saying you should, I am saying it's worth checking out.

This Ain't No Last Week

It's the start of another new week here on Planet Zone! Robots, Monsters, and Misadventure are the flavor of the day here and I've got a full menu planned for you this week. Spooky Summer/Summerween is in full effect as we're heading into July. With it is the July 4th holiday weekend, which means a much needed mini vacation for me. I plan on doing some grilling and organizing my toy room in between napping a lot. Since summer is a spooky season, I sure do plan on watching some scary stuff! Speaking of spooky, there's a new Not as Brightly Lit up for you to enjoy! I still got a week until that mini vacation, but I'm not phoning it in here. Thanks for continuing to support Zone Base. Please share with your friends!

You know, if they would have called the Mario movie anything else...

A Soldier Of The Stars

I love to play Star Soldier even though I'm terrible at it. Flying around in space ship Caesar and taking down Starbrains (dying a lot in the process). It's a particularly old school space shooter that's still fun. It's on a few different systems, but I grew up playing it on my NES. Like other shooter games, repetition is the key to really getting good and working your way through the levels. 

These day's I regularly pay it on the Switch Online service. Of course there's a big difference between starting over and over during summer break in middle school and being an adult. So admittedly after dying a few times I tend to give up. Still I love to play it on occasion. It's got a bunch of sequels and I'm bad at those too. At least I'm consistent.

Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Zombots

I'm not very well versed in Hot Wheels. Occasionally I'll see a neat one and grab it, and usually grab the Halloween/Christmas sets they put out each year. Ever since becoming more familiar with Zombot, I make a point to keep an eye out for them. You can imagine my surprise to stumble upon a new one randomly. When I say new, I mean a brand new sculpt. Instead of a gun, the robot is holding a tablet computer. I guess with decades of soldiers, ones with other tasks makes sense

This year one of the Hot Wheels collections is a Mattel games series. There's a blue and red Zombot to represent Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots. I found the red version at Kroger after my second vaccination shot. It's always good to see a new version, and a new sculpt is pretty great too. I wonder how many people pass Hot Wheels and notice of the robot car that's an action figure?

Walton Vs Predator

Lanard has been really knocking it out of the park in recent years. I've been speaking nothing good of them here for a reason. Lanard has always made low priced toys, most notably their 'The Corps!' line which can be a lot of fun. However since 2017, they've been doing more licensed lines in addition to some really far out cool original ideas. 

Last year their 90's flavored Aliens line captured a lot of attention which lead to a more premium collectors aimed Aliens figure series. This year they've followed that up with The Predator and I'm pretty happy that they did. So far the line consists of a large 12" figure ($20) and three smaller 7" figures ($10 each). Like other Lanard toys here in the states, they're a Walmart exclusive.It's hard to complain about going into your local Walmart and finding cool toys like these for not a lot of money.

The figures a super nice with lots of accessories and plentiful articulation. They're well sculpted and have a lot of paint detail. The three 7" figures are each based off a different Predator from the different movies with very distinct differences. The masks on the 7" figures are not removable, but is on the 12" toy. The 12" toy also has a few extra play features like a light up laser for his shoulder mounted cannon as well as opening mouth. The mask thing is obviously a result of the lower prices as is the more sparse paint details on each figures backside. It's not super concerning to myself, though I'm sure some in the more premium figure crowd isn't going to like that. Personally, a great Predator figure for $10 is pretty awesome.

Tri-Klops Saw It Coming... Or Didn't

When I think about Masters of the Universe... I usually don't think about Tri-Klops. Like Zodak, I mostly remember only seeing him at the odd drug store several years after he was released. Recently I got his Origins figure and really want the Mega Construx version which comes with the Battle Ram (I haven't found it yet). Somehow the lack of attention over time passed has made him more desirable. Admittedly it's a 'new to me' type situation. I did grab his 2002 version back then. So I guess I haven't totally ignored him over the years.

Tri-Klops's place in fiction pretty much varies on whomever is writing. In mini-comics and the original cartoon he was practically He-Man's equal (or an oaf), and in the 2002 series he was more of a mad scientist type. The classics version has him as a blind bounty hunter and his visor allows him to see. The visor is pretty much Tri-Klops trademark gimmick. Once again depending on the writer, it's either cybernetic or magical. Generally the visor gives him a variety of vision related special abilities. Seeing all around him, around corners, through things, great distances, optic blasts... you name it. Whatever the writer comes up to match the hunter/swordsman's abilities at the time.

Sometimes I wonder if Tri-Klops inspired Blade from the live action movie. They're pretty similar. Aside from the visor, the two aren't that different. Weirdly enough, in the Filmation series bible gave him a more interesting back story. Tri-Klops, Evil Lynn and Beastman were originally crew members on Queen Marlena's spaceship (she was an astronaut who crash landed on Eternia). They had mutated in the crash which somehow lead to them joining the Evil Warriors. This origin was abandoned. Probably because somebody realized the awkwardness of the Queen watching her son beat up former colleagues on a regular basis. "Go son, stomp a mud hole in his ass and walk it dry. He never paid me back for that Starbucks."

Mortal Kombat

Like many others, I watched the new Mortal Kombat movie this past weekend. With a Doordashed order of Red Lobster (which in itself is another post), the Mrs. and I turned on HBO Max and started the movie. I just wanted to point out that I initially misspelled 'turned' and the spelling suggestion was turd. This is a reboot of the MK film franchise after the second movie was so bad that it took 24 years to hope people forgot about it. Sadly, this wasn't wasn't that great either. 

To be fair, Mortal Kombat doesn't have a solid track record outside of the games. The first movie is a pretty well regarded B movie. Video game adaptions are usually more miss than hit. After months of hype and an awesome trailer, this looked like it was finally going to be the breakout video game movie and really nail Mortal Kombat as most view it should.

I'm honestly not crapping on the movie. I enjoyed myself while watching the movie, as not so great as it was. It was a bad movie, but a fun bad movie. Actually, the first scene was great. I wish the movie was just more of that. Kano was generally fun. So was Kabal. Sub-Zero and Scorpion? Wonderful. I wish Goro has more to do, but liked what of him was there. Mortal Kombat didn't live up to my expectations, but I still enjoyed it.

Want To Be Your New Week, New Week

When I hear Loverboy, naturally a low budget sci fi fever dream is exactly what crosses my mind.  It's also Monday and the start of a new week here on Planet Zone! There's a new episode of Not As Brightly Lit for a little Halloween in April up for your listening enjoyment. I've got a fun week of posts for you all. Thank you for continuing to read Zone Base and as always please share with your friends!

Bios: Predacon

Birthplace: The Badlands, Planet Trilenium

Primary Specialty: Alien Tracking

Secondary Specialty: Arm Wrestler

A vicious Lunartix alien, PREDACON makes his living by capturing criminals and selling them back to the Galactic Authorities. If the authorities reject the criminals, Predacon imprisons them in his private alien zoo. This four-armed monster is loyal only to his tribal clan on planet Trilenium, and he's proud to wear its ancestral medallion on his chest plate, along with Lunartix hieroglyphics that are etched into his arm guards.

Fighting Dynowarz

Dynowarz: Destruction of Spondylus is a game by Bandai for the NES from 1990. Back then I loved it. I haven't played it in 30 years, I don't know if I'd love it now. But I still think it's pretty awesome. You play as Professor Proteus and the Cyborasaurus. Levels swap between Proteus running and jumping and shooting and piloting Cyborasaurus. Who then runs, jumps, and shoots things. Cyborasaurus is a Robosaur and you'll spend his levels fighting other Robosaurs. If you're keeping score, that's a space dude driving a robot dinosaur fighting bad guys who also have robot dinosaurs. What's not to love?

Unfortunately there's not much info on the game out there. It wasn't a big hit. Most sites that bother to talk about it are basic reference sites or much bigger sites than this making fun of a weird old game. Part of me wants to believe it was part of a bigger series or was planned to be. I tried looking up a Japanese or other versions just to see what else there was and... nothing. It just feels like it was bigger than it was, like there's more to it. Guess not. At least I can remember it fondly.

I mean, dude, giant robot dinosaur.

SPC. Shift

With Shift we're coming to an end of our weekly look at Final Faction toys until some new stuff comes out. Allegedly the vehicles are due sometime in the summer with the next batch of figures by fall. So you can be sure that I'll be talking about them when the time comes. For now, let's look at Shift, the ninja of Alpha Team 1. 

Shift comes with a set of swords that she can technically hold, but are molded together to mount on her back. I have seen folks trim them away to function as handheld swords. However if you've got the Covert Ops accessory set, there's plenty of appropriate to her character weaponry so that you can keep those swords as a backpack. Shift fills the role of ninja type warrior while adding a little variety to Alpha Team 1.

Avengers Assemble Mech Suits

I saw the damnedest thing Saturday morning. The wife and I made a quick run to Walmart for a few things and whilst looking around the toy section hoping to find a Mechagodzilla (man that movie sold some toys) I saw something new. Avengers MECHSTRIKE! There was NERF role play themed toys and two of these new MECH suit sets. Captain America and Ironman. I grabbed a Captain America as I was just blown away by it all. 

A quick Google search later and I discovered MECHSTRIKE is a new major event in Marvel comics that's getting a bunch of merchandising including these new toys I found. My days of heavily reading comics has been over for awhile, so I had no clue. The action figure line though has really captured my interest. There's the MECH suit sets I've mentioned as well as regular action figures. The standard figures have a more sci fi look to them to fit the theme and have nifty shields that I'm sure play into the story.

There's an obvious comparison to Transformers Pretenders when you first look at the toy, but it's a little different. The front opens with a hinge on the top of the suits head and you load the figure in. The figures arms hang out the sides of the suit as well. That's not a deal breaker for me, but maybe for some.The figure is pleasantly articulated and you can put it into a bunch of poses. The suit... not so much. It has basic articulation in the shoulders and elbows. Once again that might be a deal breaker for some, but once again not for me. I really liked my Captain America MECHSTRIKE toy and plan to get more.

There's a variety of ports on the suit, so I assume the idea is to attach things from other toys and deck out your MECH. This isn't the first time Marvel characters have been given this type of gimmick and it usually works well with them. The figures are the 6" scaled figures more recent Marvel figures have been, which has resonated well with me. In the suit, the toy is 9" and is pretty beefy. It's cool and even in it's simplicity manages to grab a lot of attention. It's that cross of bright colors, manga/sci fi theming, and well loved characters. So far I think it's pretty great. You may have noticed.

In Space, No One Will Hear You Hate Mondays

It's Monday and the start of a new week here on Planet Zone! There's an all new episode of Not as Brightly Lit for your earholes to enjoy. Easter was this past weekend and I had a good time with my family. The Mrs. even made me a super cool basket with all sorts of blind bag fun and even a Tiger Electronics Transformers LCD game! It's gonna be a weird week. I've got an appointment for my first covid-19 vaccination Tuesday and frankly I'm a little uneasy. I'm a lot of things and uncomfortable with injections is one of them. Oh well, at least I'll get my part in herd immunity out of it. Outside of trying to escape a global pandemic, I've got a fun week of content coming this week! Thanks for reading and as always, please share with your friends!

Augmented Combat Rescue Mech A.C.R.M

The coolest member of Alpha Team 1 is the A.C.R.M. Piloted by a disabled 15 year old kid named Boyd via virtual reality, the mech unit is a heavy hitter. The Air Assault weapons pack completes the figure adding wings, boosters, and gun pods. It's pretty hard not to look at this figure and be impressed. Especially as it only costs $1. A.C.R.M has been a pretty popular toy for customizers as well. I've seen everything from alternate colors to takes on other characters with the figure as the base. 

Like all of Final Faction, this is a 3 3/4 figure with 5 points of articulation. Similar to the Synthoid, it's a much more chunky toy and looks bigger in pictures. Also like the Synthoid, it's one of the more impressive figures in the line. At Toylanta, I was showing Buddy the figures and the two definitely blew him away. I don't want to oversell the toy, but it really does feel like a much more expensive than it is.