Highlander 4x22 - One Minute to Midnight

 

This would have been the 13th Day of Halloween that I didn't get to. Probably the last Highlander episode I get to for a bit, since it's been increasingly difficult to bang these out in any kind of timely manner. Time for another break like the ones I used to take between seasons, but I do intend to do the rest later.

Another episode with a slightly-hyperbolic title, and another episode that I appreciate a lot more now than I used to in the past. This duo of episodes almost takes Highlander into the realm of serialized, continuity-rich shows like Buffy that came along later. It draws on everything leading up to this point, and sets up quite a few problems for Season 5 to resolve.

Note: In the original airing of the show, this episode was actually held over to the beginning of Season 5. Not the case in the DVD sets. I think it works a lot better as the S4 finale anyway.

T2: The Arcade Game (Game Boy, 1992)

 

I've tried on two different occasions to cover this on the site (within posts for other games) and didn't get far either time. This time I'm going for broke. Why bother with THIS version, you ask? Well, it may not be great, but it is kind of a wonder of science that it exists at all. It's a reminder of a time when they'd try to fit pretty much ANY game onto a Game Boy port, regardless of how little sense it made or how unfeasible it seemed.

Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks (Playstation 2, 2005)

 

The third and last side-game in the series focusing on specific characters. This one actually gets it right, unlike the Sub-Zero and Jax games, by simply being a great game. Retelling the MK2 story that already worked instead of making up something new was a brilliant touch and made the game instantly compelling.

I may have missed a whole bunch of the main series back in the day, but I did return for this game. It was the only MK that I played in-era after MK3 and before MK9. Yep, just ignored the rest, but they did such a good job with this game that I couldn't miss it.

We get two MCs for this game, Liu Kang and Kung Lao. IIRC, on the original drawing board Raiden was supposed to be the MC. In the final product he's sort of the third hero, but he isn't playable normally. I TELL YOU ONE AND ONE MAKES THREE-HEEE!

Super Mario RPG Remake: Postgame Uberboss Strategy

This was a pretty cool remake that did everything it needed to do and had everything it needed to have (except Queen Valentina's boob-jiggle). It pretty much could have just ended at the normal end and I would have been happy with what we got. So it was pretty awesome when it turned out to have a bunch of postgame fights. Here's how I beat them.

Godzilla (Game Boy, 1990)

 

Here's a game that a friend let me borrow in 1995 or so and I can't remember much about it. I had to beat the game for reasons, so here we go.

Double Dragon Gaiden (Switch, 2023)

 

A new Double Drgn? I didn't even know about this. Double Dragon Neon was pretty good, so maybe this one will be decent too. Couple things concern me about it: The graphic style is iffy and it's touted as a "roguelike" which isn't really what I want from a DD. We'll see how it goes.

Most importantly, it has PLAYABLE MARIAN and she's looking gooooood.

Terminator 2: Judgment Day (Game Boy, 1991)

This is a particularly special game for me, as it was very nearly the first video game I ever bought. Unfortunately (yet very fortunately) the store didn't have it, so I had to "settle" for Kirby's Dream Land instead. Thank goodness. With the new movie out, it was time for me to finally play this game. Let's find out how history might have been different if this game had reached me before Kirby's Dream Land had a chance to intervene. Would it have stopped me from ever getting into video games with its sheer badness? Would Corona Jumper cease to exist? Let's find out.

(Originally posted November 2019. Now with more shots (mainly of the late-game) added. Also added some thoughts at the end on how to fix the game and make it good, which wouldn't actually take much)

T2: The Arcade Game (Arcade/Genesis/SNES, 1991-1994)

 

 Here's a game that a lot of us spent waaaay too many quarters on back in the day, because it was approximately the coolest arcade game on the planet for a while. One or two players can wield light guns and battle the forces of Skynet in a first-person rail shooter.

Wait a minute...where are the PURPLE LASERS?

(Originally posted: November 2016. I've decided to give the Game Boy version its own post, for...reasons)

Shinobi 3 (Sega Genesis, 1993)

 One of the best games on the Sega Genesis and something I've gained a lot of respect for over time.

(Originally posted: May 2014)

Saturday Night Slam Masters (Arcade, 1993)

 

Saturday Night's All Right For Fighting!

Very Fist of the North Star looking artwork here on the Japanese cover art for the game. That's because this artwork was done by Tetsuo Hara, the legendary artist of... Fist of the North Star.

SATURDAY! SATURDAY!

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night - Reverse Castle

 

The Twelve Days of Halloween concludes with the end of Symphony. ...come to think of it, this probably would have made a lot more sense as the "Thirteen" Days of Halloween.

Fun? Fact: This post and the previous Symphony post both have exactly 66 images, and this wasn't even necessarily intentional. It just shook out that I had 132 images total that were good enough to post, and I evenly divided them. An even crazier coincidence is that the exact midpoint is the Reverse Castle arrival. Weird. Very weird. Almost...spooky.

Screamers (1995)

 

One last Monster Madness episode, looking at something that needs to be looked at because so few people know about it.

SUPER underrated movie that combines elements from my two favorite sci-fi horror movies: Terminator and The Thing. It's one of those "they could be anyone" movies, combined with unstoppable machines and an apocalyptic future. This shouldn't have been that good, but it really is. It's also based on "Second Variety" by Phillip K. Dick, and as we should all know by now, any movies and shows based on Dick stories tend to be pretty damn interesting.

Tremors (1990)

 

More Monster Madness, as Kevin Bacon and friends battle giant sand slugs. This is basically the 1990 version of Them! and has as much in common with that movie as Aliens does. Though in a different way. Stop creating giant mutants with your nuke testing, guys.

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (Playstation, 1997)

 

This game is like the Elden Ring of Castlevanias.

Castlevania: Rondo of Blood (PC Engine, 1993)

 

The last 2D Castlevania game that I never had a chance to play until now. It was trapped on the island of PC Engine (Turbografx-16) for a long time. Now it has a PS4 version so I can give it a whirl, though I'm still counting it as a TG16 game. It got (sort of) ported to the SNES as Castlevania Dracula X which I did cover on here long ago. That port is known for being a somewhat different game, and fairly deficient compared to this original version. Now I get to finally see what the fuss is about.

It's also worth noting that this game is the immediate predecessor to Symphony of the Night. In a weird way, this is basically "Castlevania 5" in everything except name. I can understand dropping the number though, especially considering how the third and fourth games in the series were chronologically out of whack already (aka a prequel and a remake respectively).

Them! (1954)

 

Time for some Monster Madness. Been wanting to cover this movie for like five Halloweens now and never get around to it. It's a legendary horror classic about rampaging giant ants. If you haven't seen it, you've probably heard of it.

Also, fun fact: This movie inspired Aliens quite a bit. That's right, it's Proto-Aliens. That alone makes this a bit of a historical artifact.

Legend of the Mystical Ninja (Super NES, 1992)

 

On the sixth day of Halloween I'm looking at Goemon for the Super NES. A lot of people love Goemon. This is the first one I've gotten to check out. And all I can say is..... What horrifying box art. And is that Jack Black?

This game and I go back a long way because I was always intrigued by it, but never enough to get it or emulate it. Didn't see it for rent anywhere either, seemed kinda rare. 15 years or so ago I met this cool girl who had a small SNES collection we tooled around with, and this was the only game she had that I hadn't finished (or played). She wasn't a big gamer and only had a few things, all classics...and this. Ever since then I sorta made it this quest to eventually get to it. Turns out it's really short (I thought it was a beefy RPG) and can be finished in 2-3 hours. Will it be everything I hoped for?

Also, the box says ten levels, but Nintendo Power says nine levels. Someone is lying.

Mortal Kombat: Armageddon (Playstation 2, 2006)

 

This is the end of the PS2 trilogy and also the end of the original series. The next game is a what-if and the one after that reboots the continuity. That's right, this is the culmination of the original MK story and it's for all the marbles.

Not to be confused with that MK Annihilation movie, but I could see people mixing them up. In short: This game is good, that movie is a turd.

Mortal Kombat: Deception (Playstation 2, 2004)

This game has a cool logo. A good sign! This is one that I really didn't pay any attention to when I was younger. I may not have played MK4 and Deadly Alliance but at least I was aware of them and what they were about. For all I knew this one was some kind of spinoff. Well, nope, this is technically "MK6" by another name and it advances the PS2 trilogy. It's also a substantial improvement over the previous game (and MK7 would improve even further).

Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance (Playstation 2, 2002)

It's day 3 of the Twelve Days of Halloween and it's time for more Kombat.

This one dropped five years after MK4. Which means that while took them a few years to count to 4, it took them even longer to count to 5. And make no mistake, this is "MK5" in everything but name. Notice how the background of the title is a somewhat camoflaged "V" symbol.

I probably would have paid a lot more attention to it in 2002 if it had been called that, but as it is, this is my first time playing it. This was the first MK to go straight to consoles instead of having an arcade version first, likely because arcades unfortunately declined in popularity after the 90's ended.

This one is the first to go full 3D, and begins a trilogy of sorts on the PS2 gen. This culminates with MK Armageddon (AKA MK7) which is basically the end of the series as we know it. But not to worry, it gets rebooted (...twice) after that.

In any case, this one has Shang Tsung and Quan-Chi teaming up to form the DEADLY ALLIANCE. Only question is, which one's the bitch and which one's the butch which one gets to be the final boss?