Alex

@(Unverified)

Come to think of it, I take that last remark back. The game wasn't wholly unmemorable - the blatant plagiarism of Batman: Arkham Asylum will leave a bad taste in my mouth for some time to come.

Oh God, count me out then. Shattered Dimensions sucked. It was a collossal leap backward, and voice acting aside, there was nothing about it at all that felt like you were playing a Spider-Man game. Spider-Man 2 is still without a doubt the best Spidey game they've ever made. And Web of Shadows is a damn close second. They need to get back to that formula and just add a bit more variety to the secondary missions. Please, Activision, give the license back to Treyarch. they actually know how to make a Spider-Man game that actually feels like you're Spidey. And heck, even though Ultimate sucked and 3 was weak, I'd rather replay those than another generic, boring, repetetive, and wholly unmemorable beat-em-up with Spidey pasted on top of it any day of the week.

Yeah, that sucked.

I suppose I should preface my remarks by laying out what point of view I'm coming from. Mortal Kombat is one of my absolute favorite video game series, behind only Castlevania, Legend of Zelda, and Metroid. And I'm of the opinion that the first MK movie is still by far the best video game movie ever made. Unlike virtually every other game adaptation it was actually faithful to the source material, and was done seriously but yet didn't take itself too seriously, which is what that type of storytelling needs. And on top of that it was brilliantly cast. It was great, and to this day I still love it as much as I did when it first came out.

So naturally I was very excited to see this footage when I heard about it.

That was not Mortal Kombat. Not in the slightest.

I am really sick of this current trend in Hollywood of having to make everything dark and gritty and "realistic," and how everything that has even the slightest hint of the fantastic has to be explained away by some semblance of "science." What ever happened to suspension of disbelief? Yes, Batman Begins and The Dark Knight were amazing, but not every story is meant to be told that way! That's one of the reasons I'm really looking forward to seeing the A-Team this weekend, because it looks like it's just gonna be big and crazy and fun, and if it's half as fun as the commercials make it out to be it'll be a nice breath of fresh air. Not to mention the fact that there actually are a lot of things in the Nolan Batman films that were not realistic and that their "science" didn't explain correctly and thus needed suspension of disbelief to work, but that's a discussion for another place.

What's the point in making a film adaptation of a story if you're going to complely change everything about it? I have never understood that mentality, and I never will. If you want to make a film about serial killers that's awesome, but don't try to pass it off as some other story that it has nothing at all to do with. Hell, coming up with an original story would be a refreshing break from the constant stream of remakes nowadays.

I mean seriously, none of that has anything to do with the source material. "Reptile" as a grown up harlequin baby? "Barraka" as a black guy covered with facial piercings who used to be a surgeon? WTF? I shudder to think about how they're going to try to "explain" Sub Zero or Raiden. I suppose Jax (yes, JAX, not Jacks, idiots) and Sonya as cops is kind of almost along the same lines as them being special forces agents, but still not quite.

What, was this story thought up by the same person who had the "brilliant" idea to take Resident Evil, which should have easily been made as a creepy, macabre horror film, and decided to turn it into a cheesy sci-fi action shooter?

And then once they finally did bring in the actual premise of the games it was rediculous and made absolutely no sense. They spend seven minutes setting it up as this dark, gritty crime thriller, and then all of a sudden at the end they say that Shang Tsung is hosting a tournament to see which serial killer is the best fighter.

What??

This is to Mortal Kombat what the Super Mario Brothers movie was to Super Mario Brothers: taking the most basic element of the story (Shang Tsung hosting a fighting tournament; Mario and Luigi being plumbers trying to rescue a kidnapped princess) and then changing everything else so completely that the final product ends up having absolutely nothing to do with the original material whatsoever. And then they just paste in the character names.

I mean, this isn't Shakespeare, but these series have endured for decades. That obviously means that there are lots of fans out there who care about them. I have never understood the mentality of alienating the fanbase just to slap on the name in an effort to get a slight measure of brand recognition. It's stupid, and it hurts the product.

Now, obviously when adapting a story from one medium to another some changes inevitably will be made. That is necessary and to be expected. But adapting a story is one thing, coming up with something completely different and slapping the name on it is something else entirely.

Although, there were a few positives in this footage, and in the interest of fairness I do need to acknowledge them. For one thing, it was admittedly pretty badass, and if it were it's own story I'd be all over it. Secondly, Michael Jai White actually would make a damn awesome Jax. And Jeri Ryan as Sonya? Yes, please! And finally, focusing on Scorpion vs Sub Zero is a very, very good thing, as that is by far the best storyline in the MK mythos as far as I'm concerned. That's my only complaint with the original film, they didn't explore that rivalry.

But if this is real, and it does get made, it's just going to be another in a long line of terrible video game adaptations.

Or Castlevania?

Steven Spielberg's War of the Worlds. I have never been so offended as an audience member then when I had to sit through that cinematic defecation.

Still no Castlevania? Come on!

Even though that game bears absolutely no resemblance to Castlevania Adventure in any way, shape, or form whatsoever - it doesn't even use any of the original game's music, and that one has one of the absolute best soundtracks in the entire series! why they didn't just call it a new game (which is what it is) is beyond me - I still desperately want it for the fact that it's a brand new classic-style Castlevania.

Then again, I'm still waiting for them to get around to releasing Dracula X over here, and that's been out on the VC in Japan for, what, 2 years now?

I just hope that they haven't changed Rebirth so much so that the original game is lost. Because nothing that's been shown so far (which admittedly isn't much) really looks like Castlevania Adventure.

I'll still be buying it the second it comes out over here, of course. I just hope that it doesn't end up being Castlevania Adventure in name only. Because that's one of my all time favorites in the series.

Perhaps if they would make another GOOD Star Fox game it will do well. Because Assault was flat out atrocious (stay in the damn ship!!!! If I wanted to play an on-foot 3rd person shooter I wouldn't be playing Star Fox dammit!! Same thing with Rogue Squadron 3), Command had some good ideas but was repetitive as all hell (ALL YOU DO is fly around in a circle and try to kill one specific enemy type in every level) and had horrendous controls, and Dinosaur Planet was not a Star Fox game.

Star Fox 64 is still one of the best games Nintendo has ever made. They just need to make a proper follow up already!

So either they've added lots of extra levels, or they've completely changed the game. Because level 2 in the original is the catacombs.

Either way I'm getting this the day it comes out. Hopefully that day will be tomorrow, but who knows.

Wait...the Internet Channel cost money?


And yeah, the Wii browser pretty much sucks. I love the PS3 one. But...wait...it cost money? Really?