Friday, April 20

Collection of Carnage


Terry Bogard and the gang's all back for more action.

My import copy of Garou-Densetsu Battle Archives 2 arrived today, to my pleasure. The PS2 disc collects the entire Real Bout series, which includes Real Bout Fatal Fury, Real Bout Fatal Fury Special and Real Bout Fatal Fury 2: The Newcomers. These games, IMO, were the pinnacle of fighting action, art and animation for SNK at one time... the one series I held in as high regard as much as the Street Fighter III games from Capcom.

SNK took their old Fatal Fury games and injected a whole lot of visual flair and personality. It's a great re-telling of the Saga of the Hungry Wolves- street fighter Terry Bogard, his ninja-trained brother Andy Bogard and their best friend, Muay Thai champion Joe Higashi- as they battle up the ladder to reach evil crime boss Geese Howard. Oh, and of course tagging along for the ride is SNK's sex symbol, the bouncy ninja Mai Shiranui and the rest of the colorful Real Bout crew.

The characters and designs are awesome, the gameplay addictive, fast and furious and the overall package just excellent for both action satisfaction and retro-gaming reminiscence. Along with my disc of Streetfighter III Third Strike, this game pretty much completes my Retro-Fighting Library, now all playable on the PS3. The past is now safe in the present and future of gaming. It's just so fun to be a gamer these days. Heh.

Tuesday, April 17

Comics Workshop

I've been invited by some students from Ateneo University to conduct a series of Comic Book Creation Seminars/Workshops through the summer. It's been a while since I spoke before people to share my comic experiences, so I readily agreed with the understanding that I could only give time during weekends given that I have a day job. Well, apparently the workshops will be pushing through on Saturdays, and will likely include myself, Elbert Or and Carl Vergara as speakers to hopefully help give prospective comic book creators and manga-kas in Ateneo a start in the fickle world of local comics and publishing.

Exact details are still a bit murky, as well as what exactly we have to work with- like, how many students will be coming, what they already know and what they expect to get out of this thing... all I know is that the venue will probably be at the Katipunan area, which is fine since it's just a stone's throw away from The Sanctum. I'll most probably stay up late cramming to do some visual aids and slides before the week is over.

This should be fun. Heh.

Monday, April 16

Separated at Birth?


Bloody familiar...

It hasn't escaped my attention that Saya, the jailbait teen vampire heroine of the Blood+ TV series bears a striking resemblance to my own Kai. Both are hot Asian babes, both have black hair cut boyishly short and both have awesome killing skillz. On the other hand, Saya looks a lot younger than Kai, though is actually a lot older. Saya is most often seen in a Japanese schoolgirl outfit and exclusively uses a katana soaked in her blood to kill evil Chiropteran beasts, while Kai has a thing for skimpy battle-bikinis and deals death to enemy agents and rival mercs with just her killer bod (most of the time). Saya is normally a bubbly, pleasant and normal teen, while Kai is more taciturn, mysterious and a loner. Still, the resemblance is quite striking and I found watching Saya in action to be very close to how I'd see Kai animated, if ever that happens someday. Pretty cool. I've already started downloading episodes for my own collection.

Oh, and it's only a coincidence that suddenly Kai is all blood-soaked and gore-covered, just like Saya tends to be after a fight. Really. Honest. Seriously. Heh. Moving on...