holliman's New Writeups

Takumi (thing)

2002-07-04T14:30:29Z

Takumi (along with Cave) was one of two Japanese video game companies born in the mid-1990's out of the bankruptcy of arcade shoot-em-up (or shmup) legends Toaplan. And while Cave took an immediate groundbreaking direction with their lineup (as witnessed in DonPachi and its' sequels), Takumi lingered for a couple of years with a leftover from their previous company as well as non-game curios before really coming into their own and becoming an aggressive rival to their former co-workers.

Takumi's body of work began with 1996's Kyukyoku Tiger II, the sequel to what's known in North America and Europe as Twin Cobra. The helicopter-based shmup was released by Taito on their much-heralded F3 arcade hardware system. It served as little more than a big loud version of the predecessor, but still did respectively well in the arcades. At least, it did well enough for Naxat Soft to port both it and an enhanced version of part 1 to the Sega Saturn as…

Hammerman (thing)

2002-07-01T09:16:02Z

Hammerman! Hammer! Hammerman! Hammer!

Possibly one of the most ill-advised career moves ever, this should have been marked as the downhill turning point in VH1's Too Legit to Quit TV movie based on the life of MC Hammer. Probably one of the most horrendous and thrown-together cartoons ever, the DIC-animated Hammerman lasted one season on ABC, from September 1991 to September 1992. The plot involved a retiring urban superhero of sorts passing down his magical dancing shoes to a worthy recipient, that recipient being youth center worker named Stanley. The shoes knew Stanley was the man for the job, so when wearing the shoes Stanley became the superhero known as Hammerman. He would spend the episodes fighting crime (usually indirectly caused by imprisioned arch-nemesis Boss Grindenheimer), protecting his shoes, and "uplifting the kids with positive messages" against gangs, drugs, and vandalism. It was standard cloying McGruff the Crime Dog-styl…

cave (thing)

2002-06-18T16:10:56Z

SALES, EXPORT OR OPERATION OUTSIDE THIS COUNTRY MAY BE CONSTRUED AS COPYRIGHT AND TRADEMARK INFRINGEMENT AND IS STRICTLY PROHIBITED, VIOLATOR AND SUBJECT TO SEVERE PENALTIES AND WILL BE PROSECUTEDT TO THE FULL EXTENT OF THE JAM -Copyright warning Screen, DonPachi, 1995

To the full extent of the jam. A wacky little engrish phrase, but one that resonates pretty damn well with hardcore SHMUP(or shoot-em-up) fans. For this sort of warning is typical of games from Cave of Japan, a company known for fast paced shoot-em-ups (called "Manic Shmups" by some) featuring a unending barrage of bullets and unconventional power-up methods. Like any game company with versatility they make games in other genres, but their name has been made more often than not with twitch gamers.

The company is comprised of veterans from the now-defunct gamemaker Toaplan, famous for classics like the Bubble Bobble-influenced…

Mobile Suit Gundam (idea)

2002-06-09T23:15:11Z

There's also the matter of the Opening Theme. Now on the region 1 DVD and the Cartoon Network run of the series the opening is a mishmash of sound-bites backed by a standard looped techno beat. It's typical of the Toonami opening sequences that are produced by Williams Street (who also produced this new opening). However, in the original series, the show opens with a gloriously cheesy japanese pop theme entitled "Tobe! Gandamu" (or Fly! Gundam).

It's kind of amusing to me that some folks who are big supporters of the franchise (especially since its' recent stateside resurgence) will defend nearly every aspect of the show and pretend to be "representin' the old school", but when the weirdest aspect of the show come up, they act disgusted and treat it like it should have never existed. In doing that, it feels like they want to try to divorce the show not only from its' heritage as a wholly japanese show, but from its' heritage as as a…

Puzzle Bobble Online (thing)

2002-06-08T06:30:09Z

Taito are my new heroes, for they've taken a wonderful game known as Puzzle Bobble (aka Bust a Move in the US), and taken the competitive multiplayer mode from the more recent versions, and added a bit of influence from Tetrinet to come up with the greatest incarnation of the game yet, Puzzle Bobble Online.

The gameplay is the same as the other versions of the game: firing colored bubbles into a descending stack to group them with similar colored bubbles thereby eliminating the group and keep the stack from crawling to the bottom of the screen. However, there's one BIG difference between the competitive mode of the other versions and PBO. When you eliminate rows or large groups of bubbles in original Puzzle Bobble, it adds to your opponents stack. This isn't the case in PBO. Instead, you have items stored in some of the bubbles, and when you eliminate the bubble with a certain item you get it for usage. This item could be positive, like bubble…

hungry (thing)

2002-06-08T02:01:56Z

Episode 14 of Space Ghost Coast to Coast first aired on March 31, 1995. It was written by Steve O'Donnell and Chris "Spike" Feresten. Note that there was no episode 13, as per old superstition regarding "13" numbered items.

Guests: The guests on this episode are Michael Stipe of REM, movie mutt Lassie (most likely the 7th or 8th one), and Mujibur Rahman and Sirajul Islam of David Letterman fame ("Hi, dave.")

Episode Premise:In this episode, Space Ghost is hungry all episode. He subconciously talks about food through the show. But even more important is Zorak's little nephew Raymond has come to visit. He wants to grow up to be the Locust of 'Pocalypse. He just sits there being cute, talking in cute little kiddie talk and calling his uncle "Zoltar". SG decides to have Moltar order pizza for the gang, and instead of getting a pizza place he gets Mujibur & Sirajul. So after a redial they order a…