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My personal blog for covering video games, films, comics, and other media.

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Legends of the Force: Episode X – Tales of the Jedi Part I

This time we travel into the ancient past of the Star Wars universe with Tales of the Jedi. Opening Credits: Star Wars Theme from Super Star Wars on the SNES. Closing Credits: Chiptune Cantina Band from Chiptune Inc. Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope footage property of Lucasfilm Ltd., a division of the Walt Disney Corporation. Used under Fair Use. Please support my Patreon at http://www.patreon.com/countzeroor Member of The Console Xplosion Network: http://www.theconsolexplosion.com/ Wa

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Nintendo Power Retrospectives: Part 69

This time we’re covering issue #52 of Nintendo Power for September of 1993! Please support my Patreon at http://www.patreon.com/countzeroor Member of The Console Xplosion Network: http://www.theconsolexplosion.com/ Watch my Live-Streams on http://twitch.tv/countzeroor/ Music: “Seven Songs for Seventh Saga: II. Water” Arrangement, Performance: AeroZ From: ~Inn~, ~Town D~ In: 7th Saga Composition: Norihiko Yamanuki URL: https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR03097 Games Reviewed: Final Fight

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Let’s Play – Remember Me: Part 2 – Combat Tutorials

<p>Well, we learned about the core of the game’s setting last time. Now let’s learn how to fight.</p> <span class='embed-youtube' style='text-align:center; display: block;'><iframe class='youtube-player' type='text/html' width='585' height='360' src='href='https://countzeroor.wordpress.com/category/video-games/lets-play/'>Let's Play</a>, <a href='https://countzeroor.wordpress.com/category/video-games/'>Video games</a> Tagged: <a href='https://countze

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Where I Read ? Electronic Gaming Monthly #66

I’ve finally found another issue of EGM to fill one of the holes in my back catalog, with issue #66 for January of 1995. Our cover story for this issue is Killer Instinct, and is looking positively ’90s-licious. We also get a look at the Virtual Boy on the cover. This issue’s editorial column is about the Virtual Boy, and to be short, Ed Semrad is not impressed with it, in terms of game quality, display quality, or quality of the controls. Letters This issue’s letter of the month is a cautiona

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Let’s Play – Remember Me: Part 5 – Check Your Privilege

<p>This time we get to see how the other 1% lives.</p> <span class='embed-youtube' style='text-align:center; display: block;'><iframe class='youtube-player' type='text/html' width='585' height='360' src='href='http://countzeroor.wordpress.com/category/video-games/lets-play/'>Let's Play</a>, <a href='http://countzeroor.wordpress.com/category/video-games/'>Video games</a> Tagged: <a href='http://countzeroor.wordpress.com/tag/lets-play/'>Let's Play&l

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Anime Review: Hayate the Combat Butler – I Can’t Take My Eyes Off You

Hayate the Combat Butler, as a manga, recently came to an end, and I have two Hayate Series that I haven’t reviewed yet (though I have previously done a video review of Seasons 1 & 2). It’s time to cover those bases and finish off the other Hayate series. Hayate the Combat Butler: I Can’t Take My Eyes Off You is something of a break from the norm from the first two seasons, in that the series is considerably more serialized than the first two series – or for that matter the series that came

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Where I Read ? Electronic Gaming Monthly #120

My original intention for my next EGM recap was to do a recap of issue #117, but  my copy of that issue was incomplete. So, I’m moving on to issue #120. Our cover story for this issue is WWF Attitude, and it’s autographed by Stone Cold Steve Austin even. Now, while this is EGM’s 12th year, they’re calling this their 10th anniversary issue. That doesn’t quite make any sense with me, but I’ll leave that aside. Our editorial column for this issue reflects on another of the string of school shooti

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Movie Review ? Joe Kidd

Get Joe Kidd from Amazon.com Last week I had a review of a Western adapted from a short story by Elmore Leonard. This week I have an review of a Western film that was actually written by Elmore Leonard. The Premise: Joe Kidd (Clint Eastwood) is a bounty hunter who has given up his old profession and instead has taken up raising horses. However, he ends up finding himself caught in the middle of a struggle between some Mexican revolutionaries and a cattle baron by the name of Frank Harlon (pla

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Movie Review: Ralph Bakshi’s Wizards

Wizards is what I’d describe as the first film in Ralph Bakshi’s trilogy of fantasy epics – this film, Fire and Ice (which I previously reviewed at Bureau42), and Lord of the Rings (which roughly adapted The Fellowship of the Rings and The Two Towers). The later films are certainly superior works, but the three films together definitely show a development of Bakshi’s craft when it comes to epic fantasy. However, what about his first big fantasy film? Wizards is a film with some very real proble

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Where I Read ? Nintendo Power #43

We continue on to the last issue of Nintendo Power for 1992, and the cover game for this issue is Road Runner’s Death Valley Rally. The letters column for this issue has nothing of interest. Batman Returns Guide So, this is more of a brawler than a Ninja Gaiden style action-platformer. Oddly enough, we get maps of the whole game. It’s kind of odd – you really don’t need maps for brawlers. Boss strategies, certainly and maybe specific notes for levels, but not maps. Maps are considerably more

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Video Game Review ? Guitar Hero: Van Halen (PS3)

Just to get it out of the way. I love Van Halen in general. Both the David Lee Roth era and the Sammy Hagar eras of the band both had some amazing songs which I absolutely love… and let’s just pretend that the Gary Charone era didn’t happen. So, when I heard about this game, I was looking forward to the game with great anticipation. Then I learned that there wouldn’t be any representation of the Sammy Hagar era on the album because the band was currently touring with David Lee Roth, and my inter

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Quality Control ? Rock & Roll Racing

To be absolutely blunt, Rock & Roll Racing is like RC Pro-Am with some Heavy Metal & Hard Rock music, plus a psychotic announcer. To be fair, this isn’t totally a bad thing ? RC Pro-Am is one of the best racing games of its period, with pretty solid controls, a game-play style that keeps you hooked, and decent racing, though the game had some problems with its learning curve. Rock & Roll Racing basically fixes those learning curve problems and makes the gameplay a little more combat

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Where I Read ? Nintendo Power #50

Just in time for the 25th Anniversary of the US launch of the Nintendo Entertainment system, my Where I Read for Nintendo Power has reached issue 50, for July of 1993. It shouldn’t be a surprise to say that this issue’s cover game is a notable one ? Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening for the Game Boy ? the first portable outing for the series. Our letters column for this issue has an interesting question ? when they added two more face buttons on the SNES controller (in addition to the two shoul

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DVD Review ? Bones Season 3

Get Season 3 of Bones from Amazon.com Crime Dramas tend to be serialized, unless they’re not. Yes, that sounds incredibly silly, but it’s generally true. The majority of crime dramas, whether of the soap opera variety or the serialized drama take the Dragnet/Law & Order tack of one case per episode, and it’s wrapped up at the end. Starting in the late 90s we finally started seeing much more serialized procedurals which would stretch a case out over several episodes, to a whole season, to ev

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Movie Review ? For All Mankind

Get "For All Mankind" from Amazon.com The space program has always fascinated me, particularly because my interest in Science Fiction, particularly through series like Star Trek – which in turn lead me to an interest in the space sciences and some terrestrial sciences as well. So, when I heard about a documentary about the space program that I hadn’t seen before, and one that was coming out from the Criterion Collection, I had to check it out. The Premise: Using footage from all the Apollo mi

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Let’s Play – Remember Me: Part 4 – Re-mix!

<p>Today we get to check out Remember Me’s memory re-mix system.</p> <span class='embed-youtube' style='text-align:center; display: block;'><iframe class='youtube-player' type='text/html' width='585' height='360' src='href='http://countzeroor.wordpress.com/category/video-games/lets-play/'>Let's Play</a>, <a href='http://countzeroor.wordpress.com/category/video-games/'>Video games</a> Tagged: <a href='http://countzeroor.wordpress.com/tag/lets-play/'&g

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Where I Read ? Nintendo Power #36

We come now to issue #36 of Nintendo Power for March of 1992. While the cover shows that we have coverage in this issue of Contra III, the game that makes the cover is Darkwing Duck. As much as I like Darkwing Duck (in my opinion it was one of the best early 90s Disney animated TV series), I really think that Contra III would have been a better choice. For this issue’s letters column, the call is for letters asking which Nintendo character you would would want to be.</p> Darkwing D

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Anime Review: Hayate the Combat Butler – Cuties

Well, the time has come to talk about the most recent Hayate the Combat Butler TV series, and potentially the last series to come out, for reasons which I’ll get into, but also a series that is something of a return to form for the franchise’s anime incarnations. As the title suggests, Hayate the Combat Butler: Cuties puts the focus somewhat on the women in Hayate’s life. For most of the series, with the exception of the last couple episodes, each individual episode focuses on a particular fema

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Vlog ? 2011 Spike VGAs

The VGAs did this to my soul. This week I give my thoughts on this year’s Spike Video Game Awards – an awards show so bad, that my camera and the Gods Themselves conspired to save me from having to do a video about that steaming pile of crap. Related articles Spike VGAs 2011: ‘The Last of Us’ Finally Unveiled (gamerant.com) Spike VGAs 2011: ‘Hitman: Absolution’ Trailer (gamerant.com) Spike VGAs 2011: ‘BioShock: Infinite’ Trailer (gamerant.com) Spike VGAs 2011: ‘Metal Gear Rising: Rev

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Video Game Review ? Gears of War 3

Image via Wikipedia This week I have another review of a game in the Gears of War series, with my thoughts on Gears of War 3. Gameplay video recorded by TheRadBrad (http://youtube.com/TheRadBrad) Filed under: Video games, videos Tagged: Gears of War, Gears of War 3, video game Source

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Anime Review: Soul Eater

Shounen fight anime and manga, in the past few decades, has developed a very definite style from Dragonball (and Dragonball Z) on – no matter the tone, the series tend to have a bright color palette for both characters and for the overall visual style of the series. Things might get dark and stormy in bits with narrative and tonal weight, but the colors for the characters themselves will maintain that color. You’re never going to see Naruto, for example, putting on an all black traditional ninja

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Book Review ? The Black Hole War

Purchase this book at Amazon.com So, last week I talked about the documentary about Stephen Hawking, “A Brief History of Time”. This week I have a book review taking an alternative approach to Stephen Hawking’s theories of Black Holes, and how they are wrong. The book in question is The Black Hole War by Leonard Susskind. Essentially, the plot of the non-fiction book is pretty simple. Stephen Hawking comes up with his theories of how Black Holes work, and how nothing can escape them. Well, sor

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Anime Review: Bodacious Space Pirates – Abyss of Hyperspace

Bodacious Space Pirates was a show, back from 2012, which was a fantastic anime series, which had all the fun of old-school Juvenile SF, but without the problematic elements that those works often run into (and the problematic elements from some contemporary SF). However, the end of the series left me hoping for more, and in 2014, a film sequel to the series came out, subtitled Abyss of Hyperspace, with US release coming later in 2016. At long last, I’ve finally had a chance to watch it, so it’s

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Documentary Review: Sgt. Pepper’s Musical Revolution

It’s been a while since I did a review of a music documentary – the last one that comes immediately to mind is a documentary review on the career of Pink Floyd. Well, this year is the year that the Beatles concept album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart’s Club Band has it’s 50th anniversary, and the BBC did a documentary on the album, which also broadcast on PBS, which is where I saw it. In broad strokes, the documentary goes briefly into where The Beatles career was before the album came out, before

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Quality Control ? Soul Blazer (SNES)

Get Soul Blazer from Ebay When I was recapping issues of Nintendo Power prior to the release of the SNES, I did a Quality Control review of Willow for the NES, a game which took the action RPG elements of the Legend of Zelda, and combined them with a level & EXP system, like the Y’s games. I thought it was pretty decent. Now that Nintendo Power has brought us to the 16-bit generation, and presented a 16-bit Zelda-alike, I figure it’s time to revisit the genre to see how it’s progressed in t

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