The run of awesome episodes is over, now we get a pretty bad one as an ancient demon awakens... it's an episode that should have been awesome. At least Richie is back. While I think that Fitzcairn is (was) Duncan's best friend, I think that Richie is the audience's best friend. He's pretty crucial to this show.
Aired May 19th, 1997. Which is worth noting because May 19th is considered a day of bad luck / evil in many cultures, the opposite pole from Halloween on the spirit calendar.
It's dangerous to go alone! Here, take 3 more Links.
The end of "the best seven episode run in the entire series" as I keep putting it is this episode right here. It kinda stands alone after the last few, with a different filming style and weird disregard for everything Duncan might have learned in the episode right before this. It's one of those episodes that I didn't think that highly of at first viewing and then really appreciated what it was going for on repeat viewings. Also, the ending of this episode is what I thought was kinda the pinnacle moment of the whole show as a kid. It was a "the show really made it" moment. It's another episode that feels like it could have been a series finale.
Aired May 12th, 1997. I actually recommend stopping the show after this episode and jumping forward to the last three episodes of the series. That's right, I recommend skipping some ten or eleven episodes. We'll see if those episodes are better than I remember, but as of right now, I think they followed the best 7 episode run in the series immediately with the worst run of episodes. Season 6 is short and kind of mediocre.
"Forgive Us Our Trespasses" or "Duende" would have both been worthy season finales or maybe even series finales. Especially Duende, if it were a two-parter and made into a bit more of a movie. That way, the hours-long waltz of a final battle between Duncan and Consone could have been much longer.
Who is the most powerful character in this picture? Arthur, hero of the realm? The building-sized demon in the background? Nope, neither. Princess Prin-Prin is the most powerful character in this picture. Literally everything happening in the world of Ghosts n' Goblins / Ghouls n' Ghosts is happening around and because of her. She is the most hotly-demanded, intensely-desired character in this realm. It's easy to see why, just look at her. Wars are fought over her sick 'bod, while men and demons of all kinds line up to try and be the one who gets to try to please her.
As for the game, I heard there was a Supergrafx (Turbografx upgrade) version that was basically arcade perfect, and wanted to give it a whirl. Unfortunately, couldn't really get that going, so I ended up just going with the arcade version. It's readily available on Capcom Arcade Stadium for PS4/5. I've already played the Sega Genesis version of this game, and it was pretty good, but now I'm going straight to the source with the best version.
Pokemania continues with something a bit out-of-the-box. Rather than doing a boss difficulty ranking or something, which has been done a thousand times and is highly subjective/variable, I came up with something a little bit more interesting/different that I haven't seen done before. This is NOT a ranking of the eight toughest bosses overall. It's me figuring out who the toughest boss (across the series) is for each gym number, to pick the toughest representative for each number and put them in a set of eight.
I'll be going off of the original versions of each generation, NOT remakes that came later. Most of the remakes nerfed quite a few of their tougher fights, with one big exception of Gen 4 beefing them up. For this list, the regular or deluxe versions count for determining the overall threat level of each gym leader. It's very telling that all of these are from the earlier games in the series...yeah, the challenge level really fell off a cliff as the generations went by.
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It's Monday night, you know what that means. This episode initially aired May 5th, 1997. Considering it takes place in Winter, it was airing pretty late into the year - they really found a way to make the shorter-than-normal Season 5 last. This episode is a complex story about war, the ethics of it, forgiveness for it, and so on. It's nuanced enough to not have "good guys" or "bad guys" and present two sides as both being right in their own minds...so the normal human state.
One of the best episodes in S5, this is an episode that basically emits pure atmosphere. It feels a lot like a "final episode" of a show, and could have been the final episode of this show easily enough. Maybe the show would be better off if it was. This episode has a ton in common with the actual final episode of the series; both have Duncan questioning whether he's done more harm than good. Or at least, too much harm.
Today on Plat: Dawn slays Roark. That's right, she killed him. She takes this Poke-battling stuff way too seriously. Hopefully she can get off with the "Juvenile Rage" defense.
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Released September 22nd, 2017. So like, this very week. What better way to kick off a month of POKEMANIA. Fall always makes me think of the start of a new school year, and Pokémon, since as a kid I mostly played this series when other kids were playing it.
This game is something a little different. It's a revamped port of the Wii U version, which dropped in March 2016, and was in arcades for a bit before that. It's a Pokémon fighting game, combining elements of Pokémon with elements of the Tekken series. So of course I've gotta see this.
This is a first time playthrough from somebody who has no idea what to expect.
