What I Watched is a series where I tell you about the video game related things I have been watching. This covers everything from documentaries to anime.
I've been on a bit of a Gravity Rush tear over the past two months. I played all the way through the remaster of the original, and now I'm working my way through the newly released second game in the series. Last month I was loosely aware of the fact that Sony was producing an anime short about the franchise, but I paid it no mind. It turns out that I should have, because it covers the gap between the first game and the second.
It was released in two parts. Overture Face A, and Overture Face B. The first part was around seven minutes long, while the second part was around nine. The animation is very odd. It does what a lot of new anime does, where the art style looks almost CG as opposed to being drawn. Since I'm not anime art expert it could be completely CG for all I know. It looks really good in motion, but there are times where it looks really stilted. Almost as if it was meant for 60 frames a second viewing, but it was being output at 30. However, I am led to believe that it is a stylistic choice, because they use it for some visual gags in the opening of Face A.
As I said previously the purpose of these two short animations is to bridge the gap between the first and second game in the series. For those who are unaware the second game begins in an entirely different place from the first, with little to no explanation. Kat and her police officer friend Syd have found themselves in a mining settlement working to earn their keep. I am close to halfway through the game, which is roughly where Face A takes place.
Face A
There's not a lot to Face A, other than to show that Gravity Rush would make a super cool anime. For some odd reason it begins around quarter of the way through Gravity Rush 2. It starts off like most anime comic relief where Kat is trying to get some food. She is offered a meat skewer for half price and she takes it. Just then the evil monsters of the world called Nevi attack and her food is taken from her. She then fights them in spectacular gravity defying action to try and save her food. The other gravity shifter Raven shows up as well as Syd. Together they defeat the Nevi menace and reflect back on what brought them to the city of Jirga Para Lhoa.
Face B
Face B takes place very shortly after the original Gravity Rush ends. Kat and Raven are chilling in their sweet pipe room and eating a ton of pretzels. They lament over the fact that many of the orphans they saved have been disappearing without a trace. A gravity storm alert goes off and the two go to check it out. When they arrive they come across some powerful new enemies. In the end they win, but a gravity storm appears and separates them.
Overall
I apologize for pretty much describing the entire plot, but there wasn't a whole lot to it. In fact I was kind of disappointed with the whole thing. When I realized there was some story in between the two games I wan't expecting that half of the thing describing it would be about a skewer of meat. Then the part about the extra story is so think that there's almost nothing to it.
The music is ripped straight from the games, so that's great. The animation is top notch as well, and proves that Gravity Rush could stand on its own if it was made into a full fledged anime. In the end though, I just found myself wanting to play Gravity Rush 2 in order to get the story. One of the coolest thing about it is that it doesn't have actual voice, and still uses the French inspired gibberish of the games.
While I do think that Gravity Rush Overture has merit, I don't really understand why it was produced in the first place. I guess it drove awareness for Gravity Rush 2, but it's not the companion piece it could have been. On the plus side it's very easy to watch, because it's right on YouTube.
Note: I will be using the English names throughout this post, because those are the ones I know.
I've been putting off watching the Ace Attorney anime, but I finally manned up and watched the first episode. I didn't know if it was going to stay faithful to the plot of the original game, or deviate and do its own thing. Either way would have been fine, but at least in the first episode it's as close to the original plot as it possibly can be. The debut episode covers the entirety of the tutorial case from the original Ace Attorney.
See, I was scared to watch this because of how much I love Phoenix Wright as a character. He's a dork who doesn't know what he's doing at first, but as time progresses he learns to become an excellent attorney. More than that he's not willing to sell out. He has an unflinching sense of personal justice, which is why I think he's so cool. Lucky for me the series seems like it's going to get the characters and the world right.
So far the characterization seems on point.
For the uninitiated this initial case is the first time Phoenix is entering the court room as an attorney. His childhood friend Larry Buttz has been accused of murdering his girlfriend. Phoenix decided to become an attorney because of Larry, but that's something that will be elaborated on later in the series.
Phoenix knows that Larry is an idiot, and there's no way that he'd ever be able to kill anyone. Since it's the first case the whole thing is relatively simple. The girl was found dead in her home next to a bloody golden statue. Turns out that the statue is one that Larry made her as a gift. Since Larry made it, obviously his fingerprints are all over the thing. To make matters worse a newspaper salesman claims he saw Larry leaving the apartment shortly after the victim's time of death! Can Phoenix save Larry from this cruel fate!?
Phoenix needs to find the contradiction.
I'm not here to rehash the plot, but I will tell you all about why I thought this initial episode was so good. To begin with they do a wonderful job of introducing the characters. Mia, Phoenix, and Larry are all characterized by their actions. You can immediately tell how experienced Mia is in the court room. She jumps to Phoenix's aid when he begins to struggle and feels like hope is lost. That's the fear I have about adaptations like this. The characters are so central to the enjoyment of the series, if their characterization isn't done right, then it might as well not exist. So far the show seems to be doing a good job.
People new to the series may not get as hype as I did. I waited the entire episode to hear some of the classic Ace Attorney songs come into play, and when they did I ended up squealing like a little girl. As far as I could tell two songs from the games were remixed and used in this episode, and I can only imagine that more will be done down the road. To go along with the classic jams Phoenix yelled objection and I got so hype I almost fell out of my chair. In the games I couldn't wait to find contradictions in people's statements, and the excitement is not lost in this adaptation. I mean, come on. It's his catchphrase!
OBJECTION!
Overall I think that this initial episode is a great introduction to the series. Since it's a court room drama it's likely to pull in people who aren't familiar with the world or the characters. Then, for people like me, there's all kinds of stuff to get excited about and see happen all over again. I can't wait to continue watching the series now. I'm glad I ended up giving it a shot, or I would have missed out on this seemingly great adaptation. Yes, this is only the first episode, but I have faith that it'll continue on the right path.
Recently I got lost in the bowels of Amazon Prime's instant video section and somehow found myself watching the the Super Mario Brothers Super Show, which I recounted in an earlier post.
This past week I dove into a new animated video game inspired show, The Legend of Zelda. The Super Mario Bros. Super Show would trade off its Mario cartoon every Friday for a Zelda cartoon. The freaky live action stuff aired with Zelda too, but for some reason amazon has that cut out.
I'm not going to lie. I really like Zelda games. In fact, I'm confident in saying that it's one of my favorite video game franchises. The games all have the same basic premise. A silent hero named Link in a green tunic has to save or help the princess (Zelda) from an evil villain (Who is named Gannon most of the the time). It's not a hard concept to grasp. Link wears a green tunic and doesn't talk. He fights evil and saves the princess. It seems like it would be hard to mess up a Zelda cartoon, but somehow The Legend of Zelda Animated Series manages to be horrible despite that.
Check the intro out here.
The show's intro has Princess Zelda explaining everything to Link while a familiar tune from the game plays in the background. Zelda has the triforce of wisdom and the evil wizard Gannon has the triforce of power. Whoever gets both of them will rule the land! Link must help Zelda protect the troforce at all costs! Up until this point in the intro everything is fine and dandy, except for the fact that there should be a triforce of courage as well, but whatever I'll let that slide.
Everything was going fine until Link lets loose the phrase "Excuse me Princess". It doesn't sound too bad out of context, but it's long, drawn out, and sarcastic in the show. It makes him sound like a total douche and his actions in the show prove that he's a total douche. I had heard the phrase prior to this viewing, but I always associated it with the awful Zelda CD-I games.
The episode begins with Link waking up for the day. He then immediately begins complaining about how boring Hyrule is. Apparently making sure the world doesn't suck isn't very fun. As he continues complaining he makes his way over to the window for a breath of fresh air. He looks out to see Princess Zelda on the balcony below wearing her sleeping garb. Link let's out a whistle as tells her that he has a nice view, especially from his angle. Now, I may be a little immature, but this remark sounds extremely sexual. Zelda gets offended and then her fair helper Sprite brings her a robe and they leave.
Mourning the loss of his view Link lingers at the window only to be pulled away by a moblin. While Link was sexually harassing Zelda they came in to steal the triforce. Link doesn't have his tunic, or pants on but that doesn't stop him from fighting back. He quickly grabs his sword...and a pillow to defend himself. As he's fighting Link decides to start up a pillow fight with the moblins.
Link's always ready for a pillow fight, especially when he has no pants on!
Link continues to not wear pants as he defeats the moblins. When he's done Zelda comes knocking. He's expecting a kiss for all his hard work, but instead she smacks him, just as she should. He explains that the moblins attacked to try and steal the triforce, while trying to make himself sound really cool. Zelda gets worried and tells him to stay inside for the day and protect the triforce. She can't stay with him, because she needs to judge the magician's competition.
The camera cuts to Gannon, who is not pleased by the failure of his moblins. He decided that if he wants to get the triforce he's going to have to get it himself. He teleports around a bit before deciding to enter the magician's competition in Hyrule. Gannon hides himself underneath what seems to be a blue sheet. Gannon looks like a green pig man and the blue sheet does little to hide it. It's a good thing the inhabitants of Hyrule are dumb in this show, or he'd be found out in an instant. Gannon then summons a few skeletons covered with blue sheets so that they can carry him to Hyrule on a chair. Pleased with himself he sets to enter the contest.
At the magician competition things aren't looking so hot. The only spell they show is a magician making a tomato grow until it bursts. I'm not a magician, but that spell seems like it's pretty lame. Gannon shows up just in time and summons a bird so the princess allows him to enter the competition, because obviously if you can summon a bird you're an amateur magician. Gannon then turns his bird into a bat and sends it to look for the triforce. It returns to tell him that Link and Sprite are up in the tower. Gannon then decides to create a distraction, which ends up being a dragon. It attacks Zelda. Link hears and see's it as an opportunity to get a kiss from Zelda, so he rushes to the scene.
Link defeats the dragon and then tries to claim his reward from Zelda. Much to his dismay he finds out that Gannon is escaping with the triforce. Zelda throws down some seeds and has a wizard cast a growing spell on them. One turns into a tree, which Link and Zelda use as a slingshot so they can get to Gannon.
Link get's denied a kiss...again.
Link lands in the forest first and Zelda lands on top of him. Link demands a kiss, but she refuses. They see Gannon on his chair and quickly jump into action. Link shoots a beam from his sword to slow him down. Gannon quickly sends his goons after them while calling for reinforcements. Link pulls a bow out of his bottomless item pouch for Zelda to use in battle, but they quickly become outnumbered. Link brilliantly says that they should get back to back, but they already are. Despite that he unbuckles his belt and ties them together, which there is no reason for.
They beat all of their enemies and manage to get the triforce back with a well timed bomb throw. When the battle ends it becomes clear as to why Link buckled the two of them together...he wanted a kiss! He begs Zelda for a kiss and she yields. Right when they're about to lock lips the stupid fairy sprite appears and unbuckles the belt causing them to fall to the ground. Link doesn't get his kiss and everyone laughs. The episode ends and they all live happily ever after
Link's perviness pays off and he almost gets a kiss.
The whole thing could have been decent, but instead it ends up being slightly creepy and hilariously bad. Much like the Super Mario Bros. Super Show live action segements I found myself laughing uncontrollably at many points during the episode. My sub-par synopsis of the episode can't capture the hilarity or creepiness that the show has.
The reason the show falls apart is because Link is a complete douche, but it's also the reason it's so funny. I wouldn't say that unless it was true. He complains about everything and is so full of himself it's painful. On top of that he has a creepy obsession with kissing Zelda, which leads to many awkward situations. Most of Link's lines seem like they're jokes, but they clearly aren't supposed to be. Every time he opens his mouth it's cringe worthy. I'd be willing to bet that whoever wrote the script for this show had never played Zelda and if they did, they had a totally different experience than I did.
I can't recommend this show in good conscience, but if you're low on sleep and looking for a good laugh you should try it out. It's no longer available for free to prime members, but you can find full episodes on youtube. I even found an HD version of this episode. Someone must really like their animated Zelda.
While the show isn't good, it's certainly a good example of what not to do with a Zelda cartoon. I guess creepy borderline sexual things were standard fare for Nintendo shows in the late 80's. Perhaps that's why they stopped being produces.
Before I got into video games, prior to kindergarten, my great-aunt used to baby-sit me. She'd feed me all kinds of stuff and let me watch a ton television. The great thing about being able to watch TV at her house was that she had cable, while I didn't have it at home.
One of the things I remember watching was a Super Mario Bros. cartoon. I couldn't remember what it was called, until Amazon kindly reminded me. They've been adding a ton of free video for Prime Members to stream. Recently I got lost in all of the free programming and found myself face to face with the Super Mario Bros. Super Show. I figured that this was the show I used to watch, so I settled down to watch an episode. This is what I saw...
Some portions of the intro were exactly what I remembered of the show, but I can honestly say I have absolutely no recollection of the live action sequences. Perhaps I subconsciously tried to forget the two creepy older men, which I think is a valid possibility. I decided to do some research to see if this was the show I remembered and it was. Apparently live action sequences appear at the beginning and ending of each episode to bookmark the cartoon. In each episode of the show a different celebrity guest comes to interact with Mario and Luigi.
In the episode I watched the guest star was Nicole Eggert who is known for her roles on shows like Charles in Charge and Baywatch. For some reason she appears in the medicine cabinet where she is examining the expiration date on the toothpaste. She came to see Mario and Luigi, because she read that they were the best plumbers around. Her kitchen sink needs to be fixed and the Mario Brothers accept the job with little hesitation.
How the hell did she get in there?
The episode seems to revolve around cleanliness, because everyone involved makes various remarks about being clean, which is a little weird. Mario and Luigi decide that they need to prove their skills to Nicole and it just so happens that they have a clogged sink right in their office! She protests, because she has a party to go to, but the brothers insist that she stay and watch. While trying to fix the sink the brothers end up getting her dirty, which goes against the cleanliness they were promoting earlier.
This is the point where the cartoon comes in. It's decent for a Mario cartoon made in the late 80's, but it's nothing special. Mario and Luigi have Brooklyn accents instead of Italian accents, but I wasn't expecting the voice acting to be any good. There are also a number of things that don't really fit in relation to the games. Birdo, Bowser, and the goombas all look way different, but not enough for kids to care. As a children's cartoon it's fine. It could have stood on its own, but it was instead book-ended by a ridiculous live action show. As you may have noticed I was much more concerned with what was happening outside of the cartoon segment.
This is about what I'd expect of a Mario cartoon from the 80's.
When the cartoon ends the live action segment makes its triumphant return. Mario and Luigi felt bad that they got Eggert dirty, so they wanted to help her out. As you'd expect they only end up making her even more messy. The two brothers continually get sadder with each mishap, while Nicole tries to console them. Nicole eventually gets through to the brothers in order to tell them that it's okay that she's dirty. Turns out the party she mentioned earlier was a sloppy party. Don't know what a sloppy party is? I didn't either, my mind was running rampant, so it's a good thing she explained it.
Turns out a sloppy party is a party where the person who looks the sloppiest wins. Without knowing it the brothers supplied Nicole with the perfect costume! The brothers are relieved and it just so happens that they have a cake for absolutely no reason. Nicole, Mario, and Luigi then begin rubbing the cake all over Nicole, which made me laugh so hard I cried. It's really funny, but it's kind of creepy at the same time. Two older men with fake mustaches are rubbing cake all over a young girl. It seems like the kind of thing that could turn into a porno at any moment. Lucky for me that didn't happen and the episode ended.
I don't get why these live action segment exist, but I can safely say that they're unintentionally hilarious. Mario and Luigi are really old and they're walking stereotypes. They have spaghetti sauce on their clothes, they have pizzas lying around, and their phone is literally in the center of a pizza. While I will always look back fondly on the humor I found in this episode I'm going to try as hard as I can to never watch another episode of this show ever again. Despite my quest to never watch another episode of this again the ending theme has been stuck in my head for some time.
DO THE MARIO! Swing your arms from side to side....
I do think that everyone should try to view this in some format though, just so they can witness how ridiculous it is. As I mentioned you can find it on Amazon and it's free if you have prime. Alternatively you can view it on youtube in parts. It's certainly something you'll never gorget.
