Originally Published: March 29, 2011, on Youtube.com/RCars4885
I come to you once again with your weekly geek fix from my mother’s basement! This week’s episode sees me review X-Men #9 from Marvel and the downloadable Ghostbusters: Sanctum of Slime from Atari. My hot chick pick of the week is Nancy Patton and this week’s theme is Ray Parker Jr.’s Ghostbusters movie theme.
Originally Published: March 28, 2011, on Comicvine.com
It is one of the X-Men’s most persistent threats, mostly because it is a godlike entity that cannot be destroyed. The Phoenix Force has possessed nearly two-dozen characters over the X-Men’s history across several different universes. And it seems to have returned, at least in part, once again. This time in the form of the Mutant Messiah, Hope Summers.
It’s not a question of if the Phoenix Force will make its presence felt via Hope, but when as it has picked several moments to rear its head already. It had its big coming out party against Bastion in order to destroy that threat and save what was left of Utopia. And since then it has been seen deep in the green eyes of Hope as her temper flared some in a meeting with Cyclops in Generation Hope #5. But this is a creature that has the power to both create and destroy, so what exactly is the Phoenix’s agenda this time around and how will it once again affect the destiny of the X-Men?
The first question you really have to ponder is just how powerful the force that inhabits Hope is because this is not the entirety of the Phoenix force. Part of the Phoenix previously possessed the Stepford Cuckoos and in order to overcome it in the Phoenix Warsong mini-series, each Cuckoo turned their hearts to diamond in order to trap the essence. So is Hope harboring the remaining power, or like the Cuckoos, is this just a small fraction of it? And if it is just a small fraction, where is the rest? Could these “lights”, these new mutants the X-Men are now discovering, actually be harbingers of other remnants of the Phoenix force and why Hope feels so close to them? Is that why the “lights” powers’ are so chaotic at first and only Hope can bring their powers under control when she makes contact with them?
Let us assume though for a second that Hope is the embodiment of the remainder of the Phoenix Force. Is Hope simply the form the Phoenix Force chose to take in trying to reform itself? Could this be the reason why she looks SO much like Jean Grey, the form that the Phoenix is most accustomed to and why she flares up more often when Cyclops is around?
The Phoenix could also have just decided to possess a baby this time around and could be molding Hope as she ages into what she thinks she should look like, which would be Jean Grey. Maybe this was some cosmic sized attempt at understanding life by the Phoenix and so in order to do so was hoping to live a full human life. Unfortunately for her, she spent many of her formative years time-hopping with Cable. If that was the Phoenix’s plan, I guess that was a bust.
The most likely scenario for all this though is probably nothing as deep and this will all simply culminate as the fix to M-Day caused by the Scarlet Witch. The question that arises from this is how is it going to be implemented because it makes perfect sense for the Phoenix to be the reason why the mutant race would rise from the ashes. And only a primal force like the Phoenix could overcome the Scarlet Witch’s chaos magic.
Is every issue of Generation Hope going to be her locating new “lights” and bringing them under control? Saving the mutant race one soul at a time? That could work for a little while, but would become boring and tiresome at some point. I can’t see continuing like this for more than a couple dozen issues before we see some major event where either Hope will unleash her full potential and heal a great many “lights” all at once or sacrifice herself and in that noble act serve as the catalyst that once again jump starts the X-gene and saves the mutant race from extinction. And if Hope doesn’t make a noble sacrifice, but learns to control the Phoenix Force, could this be another way for some more recently deceased X-Men to return to the comic pages? No matter what happens, I’m going to be reading any comic that features Hope because she is clearly going to be the catalyst for some major changes happening in the ranks of the X-Men down the line.
Originally Published: March 24, 2011, on Comicvine.com
Nick Fury is one of the Marvel universe’s most important movers and shakers and his history is a long and storied one. World War II hero. Longest ever tenured director of SHIELD. Master manipulator of heroes and villains alike. But Nick Fury has never been the most dynamic of characters by his lonesome and is best known, especially nowadays, as working with a large group of people, whether leading a group of heroes or pulling strings behind the scenes in order to get to what he feels is best for the security of the world. So how could we make Nick the centerpiece of his own game while still playing to this strength?
The easy way out of an article like this would’ve been to just make this some World War II first-person shooter. But we’ve all seen that before and it’s not like Nick has some super powers to mix things up a bit. Plus, you move away from the group dynamic that I think Nick needs. No, this game would have to take place in the modern era and so I recommend featuring the Secret Warriors and making a hybrid game that combines RPG and gameplay elements from a game like Mass Effect 2 and action elements from a game like Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood.
The first problem we would need to consult is the plot and that Nick doesn’t typically leave one of his many secret bases unless it is a severe threat or he is meeting with someone in person (and even then it might just be a Life Model Decoy). Luckily, HYDRA and Leviathan have been pretty busy lately in the comics and keeping Nick active and so this could be our reason for him to have that more hands on approach.
I’ve never been good at coming up with a great conspiracy theory, but I’m sure Jonathan Hickman would be willing to lend a hand on fleshing out the plot since we’re using the characters he’s currently writing and could help come up with an original story since we know all the players who will be involved. We have the Secret Warriors, Leviathan, and HYDRA all mixing it up once again for the fate of the free world. Contessa and Baron von Strucker would have to make an appearance somewhere I’m sure.
Now to get back into the gameplay. Much like Mass Effect 2, we’ll have Nick take point of a three-person party with the other two party members being chosen from the Secret Warriors. What would be interesting about this dynamic is while Nick is taking headshots at HYDRA agents, depending on whom you chose from the team, you could have Quake stunning enemies with concentrated seismic tremors while Druid acts like a mage from a fantasy based RPG boosting powers or casting spells from a distance to help strike down the foes of freedom. I’m still not sure if we’ll have Phobos or Hellfire available since they’re technically dead at this point, but this would still give you five Secret Warriors for Fury to choose from as he hops around the world quelling threat after threat.
It wouldn’t be an RPG though if there wasn’t a leveling up system. I still might include a morality meter like in Mass Effect 2, at least for how the team reacts to Nick, but the traditional leveling up system will be very different. Sure, you can upgrade powers, health, and weapons depending on what character is leveling, but Nick Fury is known for having many pieces in motion at once on his worldwide chessboard. So instead of there being a shared XP system like in most RPGs and everyone leveling up rather evenly, team members who are not with Nick on certain missions can be assigned various secondary tasks, much like your assassin trainees in Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood, and in only that way can they level up while you’re out performing your plot required duties. For example, if you always use Slingshot and Stonewall on your team, but then a mission comes up where Eden Fesi’s teleportation powers might prove interesting and you haven’t been sending him on secondary missions, he might not be able to pull his own weight on the plot’s primary mission you want to use him for.
Another aspect of Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood I want to incorporate is the parkour movement aspect. Many, if not all RPGs, can feel very stiff when it comes to movement. Nick Fury is a secret agent though in peak physical condition and has trained all the members of the Secret Warriors himself. So why not have it where you can pull the camera back a little and climb and sneak through various bases and scenarios with your teammates to give it that real espionage feel? Or even have sections where you can choose to have members of your team break off from the group. Have Slingshot race around to the side of a base and flank your enemies or provide a distraction while Nick climbs up and crawls through some ventilation ducts. These choices could really provide a deep strategy aspect to the game as you try to decide what teammates to bring and how to progress through a level.
Another staple of Nick Fury stories is that he has a lot of flashbacks so even though we don’t want to make it the focus, we could have a couple of World War II levels to set up certain missions where Nick teams up with Captain America, Bucky, and/or Wolverine. This could help draw people in with some more name recognition and provide some variety incase we only use the five remaining members of the Secret Warriors as team choices. Or maybe have a few levels where Nick’s agenda could go against those of the Avengers or other heroes to really put a twist on things as Nick and the Secret Warriors could face off against friends and allies.
Originally Published: March 22, 2011, on youtube.com/Rcars4885
I come to you once again with your weekly geek fix from my mother’s basement! This week’s episode sees me review Generation Hope #5 from Marvel and Dragon Age II for Xbox 360 from EA and Bioware. My hot chick pick of the week is Carol Zara from DigitallyBlonde.com and this week’s theme is the end credits theme from Dragon Age II, “I’m Not Calling You a Liar” by Florence + The Machine.
Originally Published: March 22, 2011, on Comicvine.com
Likely set in a possible alternate future where Professor Xavier has passed on and mutants are just as alienated as ever from their human counterparts, X-Men Destiny looks to revolve around the choices you will make as a new mutant and a new member of the famed superhero team.
Not much else had been released up to this point about the highly anticipated RPG from Activision and developer Silicon Knights aside from you will choose to be one of three new mutants who will be critical to the X-Men’s future and that the game will have a Fable or Bioware RPG feel to it as the choices you’ll make will greatly affect your fate.
Today though, new details and four new screenshots have been released confirming both Colossus and Gambit will be in the game along with information about the first mutant of the three you can choose from.
The first new character for X-Men Destiny is a 15-year old girl named Aimi Yoshida (not revealed if related to Sunfire in any way) whose bio reveals that she was smuggled out of Japan by her mutant parents before the entire family could be rounded up and incarcerated in the new mutant camps. Not a good sign for the future if there are mutant concentration camps. Anyway, Aimi arrives in San Francisco hidden on a tanker ship. She is too young and frightened to appreciate her parents’ motivations for sending her away, and instead feels only the bitterness and anger of abandonment.
She is described as small in size but strong in mental focus and that Aimi is the mutant ability expert. She specializes in efficient mutant power usage and her fighting style is very acrobatic and graceful.
This unfortunately leaves out what exactly her powers are or if there is an option of you being able to choose what your powers are at the beginning of the game. Maybe Aimi and the other characters are simply like choosing a particular class at the beginning of any other RPG. I’m sure more details will be revealed as we approach the loose Q4 2011 release date for this game. Let us know what you think of Aimi as a character and what you want to see in this X-Men RPG by commenting below!
-Ray Carsillo
Originally Published: March 22, 2011, on Comicvine.com
With their theatrical release date right around the corner and new movie posters being shown off, SEGA wanted to make sure we didn’t forget that they have corresponding video games coming out to go along with these summer blockbuster comic book movies.
Both Thor: God of Thunder and Captain America: Super Soldier will officially be available three days before their respective movies with Thor coming out May 3, 2011, and Captain America coming out July 19, 2011. Both games will also be available on Nintendo Wii, Nintendo 3DS, and in stereoscopic 3D for both the Xbox 360 and PS3. Speaking of the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions, let’s take a look at some of the new screenshots for both games.
Originally Published: March 21, 2011, on Comicvine.com
It’s definitely not unheard of in the world of comics for a villain to be written off only to have someone else take up their mantle later on. The Flash’s rogues Trickster, Mirror Master, and Captain Boomerang are usually the first ones that come to mind for me. But while researching my last article Comics to Video Games: Batman Beyond, I was shocked to find one villain, a master of mimicry himself, who has been mimicked more than any other.
I had always known that Clayface had come in several shapes, sizes, and personas over the years, but further investigation shows that there have been eight Clayfaces over the past 70 years and that is only in the main comics continuity. Nevermind the Earth-9 Clayface or the variations and additions made through other media like the Clayfaces introduced in the mid 2000s cartoon The Batman and the short lived Birds of Prey TV series. So what reason could there be that the DC Universe would need so many clones of the same shapeshifter and does it diminish the value of any Clayface story arcs?
The most confusing thing as to why DC feels the need to have all these Clayfaces and have not killed them all off is that several of them have different powers with the same underlying shapeshifting theme, but you very rarely see those differences beyond their introductory arc.
Preston Payne (Clayface III) has some of the weakest shapeshifting powers of the bunch, but has the unique ability to melt and absorb anyone he touches into his own mass of clay. Yet the last time we see him before he is supposedly killed off in Justice League: Cry for Justice , Prometheus mutated him further so he could shapeshift better and be like all the other Clayfaces and then has him act as a distraction. Is it that no artist out there is willing to cross that line and show some really gruesome deaths at Payne’s hands and really explore his “hunger” to its fullest extent? Instead, DC made him like everyone else for a time to keep his name fresh and force him into a story.
Or how about Sondra Fuller (Clayface IV), also known as Lady Clayface? Although primarily a shapeshifter, she has the unique ability to mimic super powers as well as appearances. But ever since the Mud Pack storyline where she mimicked the powers of Looker to lure Preston Payne into the group, we’ve barely seen her at all, nevermind using her unique skill set. Could you imagine the havoc she could cause the Justice League by being able to take on different power sets?
And then of course there is the currently most often used Clayface, Basil Karlo (Clayface I). Originally just a killer in a grotesque masque, Karlo used a blood transfusion from Payne and Fuller to give him both of their combined powers. And yet, all we see from him is simple disguises and some giant mallet hands at best. Karlo was the madman behind bringing the Mud Pack together and now he is mostly hired help for other villains.
Then you have supposedly the most powerful Clayface of them all. I don’t even want to think of the insemination process, but Preston Payne and Lady Clay would have a baby who they named Cassius “Clay” Payne (Clayface V). But he is never featured in most Clayface story arcs and we’ve had three more Clayfaces after him introduced in spite of the clear exploration and development that his character needs. I would love to see him break out from S.T.A.R. Labs and try to reunite with his parents and then you could develop them all very clearly in one stellar arc.
But I guess DC feels why explore these characters when you can just make more of them? The potential for Clayface is constantly being watered down and molded into lackeys and pawns in greater villains’ master plans, but why can’t they be great again and given prominence once more? Or at the very least, kill them all off because it’s becoming nearly impossible to keep track of them. I can just imagine in an upcoming issue of Batman you’ll have Dick Grayson taking on a Clayface and ask, “Which one are you again?” or “Are you someone new or have we danced this dance before?”
The real reason why I think we have so many Clayfaces is that it has become the DC Universe’s deus ex machina. You have these personality types, although only mildly explored, set in stone and so when you need to further a certain plot or bridge a gap to the next big story arc, why not throw in a Clayface one-shot where you can make them more willing stooges or write them out like they did with Clayface VI, VII, and VIII. I’m sure that most of these roles could have conformed to an already established Clayface though.
Peter Malley or “Claything” (Clayface VI) was a scientist in the Department of Extranormal Operations who experiments on Cassius and becomes bonded to a skin sample he takes from the boy and becomes the sixth Clayface. But we can’t have more than four running around at once so he was quickly killed off and his remains are in the DEO Headquarters. Just waiting to be revived by DC when they paint themselves into a corner, I’m sure.
Then came Clayface VII, Todd Russell, an army veteran who was severely wounded and it is insinuated that the Department of Extranormal Operations experimented on him, although this was never clearly stated. Russell can’t handle the mental stress caused by his new form and becomes a serial killer who preys upon prostitutes in Gotham’s East End and actually never faces Batman. Russell is another unique Clayface in that he can change not only his shape, but his size as well, and was done in by Catwoman when she protected those parts, capturing Clayface VII in a giant freezer and then handing him off to Bats. This was necessary because Basil Karlo was so busy I’m sure and couldn’t be bothered to murder prostitutes.
And then there is Clayface VIII who is also currently deceased. Johnny Williams was a firefighter who was caught in a chemical plant explosion and doused in chemicals that, you guessed it, turned him into a Clayface. His claim to fame is that he was the one that Hush and the Riddler manipulated to act like Jason Todd and also don Tommy Elliot’s guise when Hush captured Alfred in order to throw Batman off his trail. Of course, he was just doing this because Hush promised him a cure and this was not the case and after some time Williams could no longer hold his form and just broke down into nothing. You mean to tell me that if Prometheus could manipulate Preston Payne, that Hush couldn’t? Hush nearly got Batman’s entire rogues gallery to work for him in his coming out party, but he needed his own Clayface instead of using any of the others who had been established already?
There is one time though that I feel DC had it right and had some real consistency with the character. This character is what really set the standard for a Clayface. One of the most popular, likely due to his name being used for the Batman: The Animated Series Clayface, and the only Clayface who has seemingly stayed dead (although I’m sure he’ll come back too at some point) is Matt Hagan (Clayface II). He was the first true shapeshifter of the bunch and lasted for more than two decades as a nuisance for the Dark Knight.
Hagan was a treasure hunter who discovered some radioactive protoplasm and found he could change his form at will for two days straight after bathing in the goo. Although a much more tame character than many of the others (it was during Batman’s campy era that he came along) Hagan was the first true shapeshifter and the DC Universe was fine with having just one man made of mud running around.
It just seems like a shame to see a character with such great potential and a rather strong fan base being used like a common thug and not getting the respect that even characters like Killer Croc have gotten in recent years. I mean one more Clayface and we’d have a baseball team.
-Ray Carsillo
Originally Published: March 21, 2011, on Original-Gamer.com
It’s always a big deal whenever a new map pack is released into the Halo universe, but the new Defiant Map Pack for Halo: Reach carries an extra bit of weight to it. Defiant marks the passing of a torch, as 343 Industries takes over Halo from Bungie. This is 343’s first major playable content for the franchise, made with the help of developer Certain Affinity.
With the slogan “Defy the Covenant” at its heart, you can download three new maps, Unearthed, Highlands, and Condemned now for 800 Microsoft points ($10). But except for the Halo hardcore, are three new maps worth the steep price?
MAP MAYHEM
Superb Level Layout – The biggest strong point for the Defiant Map Pack for Halo: Reach is the terrific layout and variety of the new maps. If you are a fan of Firefight, then you will love the multi-tiered desert base and scattered vehicles that Unearthed provides for you and three friends. If you are looking for a wide-open Slayer level with plenty of hiding spots, then Highlands might be a dream come true. My personal favorite was easily Condemned, which is set aboard a damaged Orbital Space Station. A circular map with clear landmarks at the compass points, Condemned also features a damaged zero gravity cross point in the middle that usually features a top tier weapon for whoever can fight to the top of the generator first. This can make for a lot of great matches from Oddball to your traditional Slayer.
Crisp Graphics – Each map is absolutely beautiful looking and has unique features, but they all fit in perfectly within Reach. Unearthed takes place in an abandoned base that provides an interesting dichotomy against the golden desert sand as grunts pour in from all angles. Highlands is the largest map in this new pack and also the most diverse looking. It features waterfalls, lush vegetation, dark caves, and this is all book-ended by a pair of marine bases with Covenant ships blasting away just over the horizon providing a previously unseen color palette all at once on your screen. And Condemned is the icing on the cake; the massive wall sized windows of the Orbital Space Station allow you beautiful looks into deep space and the planet Reach itself.
Vehicular Manslaughter – Compared to the other maps, Unearthed and Highlands provide some of the best opportunities for vehicular combat of any map due to there being plenty of vehicles and weapons to counteract those vehicles. In Highlands, Mongooses, Ghosts, and Warthogs are bountiful on one end of the map and used to cross the lush expanse to reach the other side. On that other side are laser cannons and missile launchers for the opposing team to use to counteract any blitzkrieg that their foes may try to unleash and is especially effective in Capture the Flag style matches. The Unearthed map features Rocket Warthogs and Ghosts. With no true corners for the Covenant to back you into, you can run rampant in the desert blasting away deep into Firefight mode with your buddies.
DEFY THE DLC
Unearthing a Flaw – One of the most interesting and risky aspects of this map pack is that the Unearthed map pack is exclusive to the Firefight mode. For a game where the majority of its online action deals in the versus elements instead of the cooperative, this was a huge risk and might turn off a lot Slayer and Invasion mode fans since this makes it seem more like two maps for $10 instead of three.
Steep Price to Pay – One of the biggest problems with DLC in general and not just this pack, is the over-inflated price you pay compared to the amount of content you receive. With three maps, one exclusive to Firefight, and only three achievements for 150 points, the Defiant Map Pack does not make me feel like I am getting the full bang for my buck. Ten dollars is a bit too much and will probably only be worth it to hardcore Halo: Reach players. Otherwise, I recommend waiting to see if it goes on sale or gets bundled with the Noble Map Pack.
At the end of the day, it really comes down to how long your Halo: Reach disc has been in your Xbox 360. If you haven’t played it since two weeks after the launch date, then you may not have even realized a new map pack was released. If Halo: Reach is your go to online multiplayer shooter right now and you’ve racked up enough credits where you could buy and sell every noob out there, then you will be very satisfied with these new maps even with its steeper than necessary price.
-Ray Carsillo
Originally Published: March 15, 2011, on Comicvine.com
With there being an absolute whirlwind of activity around recent announcements for Batman: Arkham City, it made me start to think that maybe our current Dark Knight is overshadowing the future one, who is just trying to grab his little corner of the limelight after nearly a decade of flying under the radar. And so I thought that maybe Terry McGinnis needs his own video game after he just got his own monthly comic again to solidify his spot in the eyes of fans of the DC Universe. It seems there is enough of an interest in The Tomorrow Knight that I’m sure we could figure out a better representation in the digital realm for him than the awful 2000 side-scrolling beat ‘em up for the N64/PS1 game based on Return of the Joker. So how would a Batman Beyond video game work?
One of the key focuses of a Batman Beyond game would be differentiating it from the more recent Batman games. Although it should still be true to the character and be dark overall, the atmosphere of this game might need to take a page out of the book of the 2099 Spider-Man levels from Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions. Bright lights set against a dark background with Terry (voiced again by Will Friedle) constantly quipping at his foes or answering to Bruce (voiced again by Kevin Conroy) who is always talking about “the old days” and how he did things while he was Batman. All the while utilizing the Batsuit’s flying abilities to both get around and to complete missions. Terry’s Gotham should also be a sandbox that could allow for a lot of exploration of some of the seedier sections of town and so this doesn’t become just a button mashing brawler and allow for some mission variety.
Terry’s Batsuit has a lot of awesome features to it though beyond the flying. The camouflage feature on the suit could allow Terry to walk right up to a villain without him knowing and he could knock him out without having to worry about going all Sam Fisher in a level and sticking to the shadows. The camouflage could also be used to infiltrate certain areas to listen in on villain conversations or even hack a terminal without interference. This feature would need an overheat meter of some kind though, otherwise the game would be too easy as you could just turn invisible and walk through most of the game, similar to many people’s complaint about feeling a need to always have Detective Mode from Batman: Arkham Asylum on. You could also set up mini-games with the frequency monitors and lock picks that are featured in the gloves of Terry’s Batsuit.
To get the most out of these features you would need to put a bit more of an emphasis on information gathering and item collection though and that brings us to our plot of the game. It would need to have several layers to it that could put Terry and Bruce’s detective skills to the test. Maybe have Terry go back to the Batcave after finding new clues or defeating each villain and have it so that Terry could interact with a lot of the items in the cave, giving all Batman fans a bit of a cheap thrill as Terry explores the cave or uses the Batcomputer.
But one of the big problems that Terry has always faced is he has a rather paltry rogues gallery. So much so that he constantly has to resort to Bruce’s villains or variations thereof. The Joker and Mr. Freeze are the first two that come to mind in that category, but also Spellbinder and False-Face, although re-imagined and made much cooler than the late 1950s-60s versions Bruce fought, were originally his rogues. Even three issues into his new comic, the only villain Terry has fought was a new Matter Master, a Hawkman villain!
Well, if Terry is going to rely on some of Bruce’s villains, especially since a lot of Terry’s have been killed off it seems (Shriek, Blight, Stalker), then this new game should center around one who has never really been explored, and it would be interesting to introduce him into Terry’s universe in a video game. Clayface V or Cassius “Clay” Payne. Assuming that Basil Karlo and the other Clayfaces still age normally (although unlikely), one who would still be alive and most definitely be a threat in Terry’s time would be Cassius.
Since currently Cassius is really nothing more than a kid in current times and has never been explored very thoroughly, you could make him the diabolical mastermind that the other Clayfaces never really aspired to. With his shape-shifting ability, he could manipulate key events all around Gotham and hire other villains in various guises to throw off Bruce and Terry with it all culminating in one of the most epic boss battles ever. Hiring several of Terry’s more infamous (and still living) villains to keep him busy, Clayface could be lurking in the shadows, posing as or pulling the strings of politicians, the GCPD, and many others around Gotham as he forwards his agenda of eliminating the Batman from Gotham once and for all!
So there is your main villain and definitely a twist that a lot of Batman fans would probably appreciate. But you’d need more villains than that of course to really make a decent comic book game. Before Clayface, Terry should have to face Inque, one of his most difficult opponents ever, but really just a hired gun who will provide the final piece of the puzzle when she reveals she attacked Batman for someone who she felt was a kindred spirit, as in both Inque and Clayface are shape-shifters who are more in tune with their villainous personas than their human sides.
Before he faces Inque though, Terry would have to take down Spellbinder, who is causing trouble because Clayface threw a lot of money his way. Really he should be nothing more than a diversion for Clayface’s master scheme, but he wouldn’t be Batman if he just let Spellbinder hypnotize people and suggest them to walk off rooftops or whatnot.
It seems a lot of Terry’s villains aren’t nearly as tragic or deep as many of the original Dark Knight’s though as the villains that lead up to Spellbinder are none other than the Royal Flush Gang, again because they were promised big pay days. Having five villains at once could lend itself to a variety of tasks and levels as you could have an epic end battle against all five at once, or the more likely scenario, of separating them and taking them down one at a time culminating in a still difficult boss battle with the android Ace, who could have several “modes” to him and take new forms as the battle progresses and he takes damage.
Also, if you do face the Royal Flush Gang separately, and if the game was done in a sandbox, you could have one level where you have to chase down Jack or Ten on those hovercards they had in the cartoon and that would give a reason for something I wish you could use in more Batman games, the Batmobile. A Batman Beyond video game’s biggest difference to most other super hero video games is that Terry would have to use the Batmobile for certain levels like that one with the Royal Flush Gang, and it would be an option for him to get from point A to point B in Gotham if you didn’t want to explore on foot and with the Batsuit.
The opening of the game would be more of a tutorial mission as it’ll all start out with Terry chasing some Jokerz, who would then serve the rest of the game as your primary henchman for the other bosses due to their numbers and could even have more well known ones like Dee Dee, Woof, or J-Man serve as mini-bosses.
So there’s my take on a possible Batman Beyond video game. What would you do for a Batman Beyond video game? Would you try to add some more villains or levels? Should the game be a bit more linear and not a sandbox? Let us know by commenting below!
-Ray Carsillo
Originally Published: March 15, 2011, on youtube.com/Rcars4885
I come to you once again with your weekly geek fix from my mother’s basement! This week’s episode sees me review two comics since I’m still working on Dragon Age II. Ghostbusters: Infestation #1 (of 2) and Venom #1 are reviewed. My hot chick pick of the week is Francine Dee and this week’s theme is the main theme from Separation Anxiety starring Venom and Spider-Man back for the SNES and Sega Genesis.
RayCarsilloWrites.com 